TV Review: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

I've reviewed quite a few TV shows on this site over the years, but talk shows aren't something I'd ever think to write up. I probably should have after the debut of The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, because I absolutely love the replacement for The Colbert Report. In fact, it's the first late night show I've watched regularly after dropping off from its predecessors. I didn't drift from The Daily Show and Report for any reason other than being busy with other things. With the advent of Netflix and Hulu, appointment television isn't a thing for me anymore. I only remembered that this debut was happening because of a Facebook post. Normally, I'd catch these things a day or two later.

That being said, I was interested to see what Colbert was going to do with Letterman's old spot. The Late Show debuted when I was in high school, and I watched it almost every night for several years. Letterman always did his own thing, and I knew Colbert would carry that torch in a great way. Through a slightly awkward start, he definitely did.

Cinema Head Cheese: Podshort! - Exploitation.tv

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Movie Review: Ex Machina (2015)

Caleb(Domhnall Gleeson) who works for the largest internet search engine in the world wins a trip to hang out with the founder(Oscar Isaac) of the company.  When Caleb meets Nathan, he finds out he is part of something much bigger.  Nathan is in a very secluded and highly secure compound where he is developing Artificial Intelligence.  Nathan wants Caleb to perform interviews/tests to see if his creation, Ava(Alicia Vikander), has a conscience.

Caleb is excited for the opportunity despite the odd behavior of his employer Nathan.  The interactions between Caleb and Ava were shot incredibly well.  Caleb starts to feel things are amiss when he gets into the artificial mind of Ava and his dealings with the heavy drinking Nathan.

Plenty of plot twists keep you wondering what may or may not be real inside this film.  Why was Caleb brought here?  What does Nathan really want?  Can Ava love someone?

On a scale of one to five pile drivers, I'm giving "Ex Machina" four pile drivers.  The film kept me interested from start to finish and really kept me guessing.

Movie Review: Escape from the Bronx (1983)

When I first looked at the CD art on this I thought Jeff sent me Escape from NY. Okay. Maybe John Carpenter re-released it or something, wanted to get it back in front of the general population. I enjoy Kurt Russell. But on closer inspection I realized this is a film that obviously tried to cash in on the popularity of Snake Plisskin and his band of merry thugs (I mean, they had a character with an eye patch for crying out loud. AN EYE PATCH!)

Escape from the Bronx tells us the story of what a shit hole the Bronx is and some douchebag CEO of the GC Corporation wants to raze it to the ground then rebuild all of New York with nicer housing and no crime. Riiiiiight. How can this guy run an entire company and be so fucking stupid at the same time?

The gubmint assures everyone that they will receive alternative accommodations, better than what they have now, in beautiful New Mexico. Why they have to go live all the way across the country is unclear. As you can imagine, some people are pissed and don’t want to leave. Well, too bad for you because if you don’t get out when they ask nicely, you are fried up extra crispy via the flame throwers carried by the DAS - Disinfestation Annihilation Squad.

Wow. They don’t even PRETEND to sugar coat it, do they? Though I can appreciate their honesty.

Meet Trash, one of these stubborn tried and true New Yawkers (played by Marco DiGregorio from Rome, Italy - I wonder if he’s related to Cha Cha?). He and a bunch of other folks live in the tunnels under the city, lead by Dablone. He thinks the death squads are too chicken to come down and run them out so he does nothing to fight back. But after Trash’s parents are murdered, he enlists the help of a plucky journalist, Moon Grey (who has been trying to get the truth out to the rest of the country about all the bat shit craziness) and a former bank robber, Strike, to kidnap the CEO of GC Corp which will in turn force the government to negotiate terms.

Movie Review: When the Wind Blows (1986)

Directed by Jimmy Murakami

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

As author David J Moore states in his authoritative book on Apocalyptic cinema, “World Gone Wild,” “This is no bag of candy for the kiddies, friends.” Indeed.

Jim (voiced by Sir John Mills) and Hilda Bloggs (voiced by Dame Peggy Ashcroft) is an elderly couple who live on their storybook farm outside of London. The talk, bicker and remember the good old days when they learn about the possibility of nuclear war in three days’ time. Jim busies himself by following official government pamphlets by painting all the windows white and constructing a shelter of three doors lying on their side in a hallway. The unspeakable happens, their home and farm is reduced to rubble. The Bloggs continue on talking, bickering, and remembering the good old days … until they eventually crawl into paper bags to await their deaths from radiation poisoning.

Cartoonist Raymond Briggs decided to let the world have it with both barrels after the winsome yuletide fantasy The Snowman in 1982. Taking his all-round circular figures and overly pleasing pastel colors, Briggs took on the Ronald Reagan Cold War era for an altogether bleak and despairing vision. When the Wind Blows runs neck and neck with Grave of the Fireflies as the most despairing animated feature film EVER.

Secondhand Smut #6: Interracial Sex Havoc Leftovers and Other Oddities

Yes, this is another collection of Porn reviews and you ask why. Let me clarify that I believe that porn is the most intimate film genre. It is the only corner in the history of film in which performers allow their fellow performers to penetrate them literally and if this is not performance art I don’t know what is. The performers exchange bodily fluids, and they encourage the viewer to touch himself and even orgasm. If that’s not audience participation or engagement with the subject material, I don’t know what is.

I was originally planning for this sixth installment of Secondhand Smut to review the entire Debbie Does Dallas film series, but I failed to track down the myriad of films associated with it so this plan went down the drain. I then wanted to review the Loose Ends films series, and although I could get my hands to copies of all those films, I did not as I could not find as much information about them as I wanted. You see, I know that they were the first adult feature-length films to include BSDM and I always get charmed by firsts, but in order to write an article I had to find out more background stories than I did. So, finally, what was I left with? I compiled this May 2015 - October 2015 Secondhand Smut issue with reviews that for some reason or another were left out from my more regular column, namely Interracial Sex Havoc. I hope you enjoy as much reading the piece as I did writing it.

9 Lives of a Wet Pussy (1976)

Most of the time the mainstream directors that had a past in porn, had a past which was decent. For example Wes Craven had made The Fireworks Woman (1975) which is highly regarded by both scholars of classic smut, but also the director’s fans who like digging a bit further. Even Lloyd Kaufman’s Sweet & Sour (1974) is a very good effort. Well, in the case of Abel Ferrara this is not the case.

Abel Ferrara went on to make many favorite films of mine, including the early masterpieces The Driller Killer (1979) and Ms .45 (1981), but 9 Lives of a Wet Pussy (1976) which was his first feature-length project is an utter failure. Sure the girl-girl interracial sex scene is interesting (and I should have included it in my Interracial Sex Havoc column back when I was still researching the ‘70s) but this film makes a very boring viewing experience with its lack of a real story (it was written by Nicholas John who went on to pen several screenplays for later mainstream Ferrara fare).

Hot summer in the City (1976)

Movie Review: Cub (2015, Artsploitation)

Review By: James DePaolo

Artsploitation Films has to be one of the best indie labels out there right now. They have put out some horror films (among other genres) that have really changed the perception the average fan would have of horror and the boundaries of what is acceptable and controversial. I am in the majority that thinks French horror should be credited with some of the most vicious and satisfying horror films I have ever seen. Jonas Govaerts debut Cub really keeps my faith in the French strong.

What on the surface sounds like a standard horror films of watching a group of cub scouts head into the unknown wilderness for an adventure, it turns into something all-together different as the film rolls on. The cubs find themselves in the middle of some kind of killing grounds of a psychopath. To add to their dilemma, there is also a young mask wearing psychopath in the woods as well. We meet Sam who is a disturbed and troubled lad who is treated differently by others. Some of the scouts and at times the scout leaders pick on him and one in particular named Baloo is cruel to him. We watch in one instance that Baloo sets his dog on Sam for his kicks. Like all camping films, we get the scary stories and this time it is about a werewolf boy named Kai.

Movie Review: Skin Trade (2015, Blu-ray)

Listen to this cast: Ron Perlman, Peter Weller, Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa, Michael Jai White and Celina Jade. Dolph plays a copy from New York named Nick Cassidy he is on this human trafficking case. During this case he encounters a Serbian gangster named Viktor played by Perlman. During a police raid, Nick kills Viktor’s son. Viktor now has lost his mind and is on a revenge kick. Revenge leads him to killing Nick’s family. Well he chases Viktor back to Southeast Asia where he encounters a Bangkok cop named Tony played by Jaa.

The story as in all these movies, at first hey clash then later they team up to bring down the human trafficking network. This film has a very good flow to it, the pacing is uneven but the acting makes up for it with some standard fun camp. My main issue with this film is that it is just your basic revenge film that does not try to incorporate any new ideas or change the formula up. The film has some very well-choreographed fight scenes that include White and Jaa and Dolph and Jaa that are amazing to watch.

Movie Review: Vendetta (2015, Blu-ray)

Review By: James DePaolo

The Soska Sisters have had an interesting career so far, one that contradicts itself on every turn but interesting nonetheless. They debuted 5 years ago with a “Grindhouse” like film called Dead Hooker in a Trunk. Some fans loved it, and others loathed it, but the one thing that was for sure, everyone was talking. The follow up American Mary again split the community. The interesting thing during their director’s commentary Jen and Sylvia made an interesting revelation. “We will never do any remakes, sequels or non-horror films, we would never sell out. We respect our fans”. Their follow-up to American Mary was See No Evil 2 and then a segment in ABC’s of Death 2. And now, they are giving us a prison revenge film.

Vince McMahon has always had this hard on for Hollywood. WWE studios were born out of him wanting to create films using faces that he feels could attract a crowd. He failed trying to do with Hogan, which is not a fault of Vince it is all Hogan who has the personality and believability of a yard gnome. Then came The Rock, and all the money he made on films that he carried made Vince think that maybe he should try it again and create a studio and write and produce films and hire directors for zero to nothing to just fill a role that his people have no time for.

Movie Review: Sometimes Aunt Martha Does Dreadful Things

Review By: James DePaolo

1971 was a weird time in film, you had so many studios just putting out films at a rapid rate that if you blinked you missed at least four new films. For better or worst this film sort of hid under the cracks until just recently when they re-released it. This film centers around two criminals who decide to hang low in a small town in Florida. Which if you know Florida, there are a million places to hang low in. Paul and Stanley, (Maybe that is where we got the name for the Kiss vocalist) hatch this idiotic plan for Paul to pretend to be Stanley’s Aunt Martha. The whole while it seems that a local woman takes a liking to Stanley and invites him to go out with her and the friends. Paul on the other hand seems to be the brains and in his disillusionment decides that the only way they can maintain their cover is by murdering people that the paranoia would have them believe are catching on to them.

This film covers sexual confusion, dysfunction and sleaze fairly well in its oddness. Paul as we learn is a homosexual and Stanley is a teenage lover of his that really comes across as a generation clash of sorts. You have the restless youth who does what all teens do, and the older man who is possessive to the point of over controlling. We watch as one starts to blossom on the world outside of them and the other becomes desperate. This film has some scenes that are set up for shock value and at times works decently.

Movie Review: Tig (2015)

Tig Notaro is a comedian I have enjoyed for longer than I can remember. In 2012, after battling a horrible health scare and losing a close member of her family, she found out that she had cancer and broke the news on stage during a show. The result was a set that broke her career wide open. Just as she thought life was at its worst, some of the best things she could hope for started to happen.

Tig was on the set of the movie In a World when she started to feel ill. She was rushed to the hospital, and she was soon diagnosed with C-Diff. This is an often deadly disease that destroys your digestive system. Though the battle was difficult, Tig survived, but thuis was only the very beginning of her struggle.

During her recovery, she got a message from her stepdad. Her mom had fallen and hit her head, and it looked like she wouldn't make it. Tig went home to deal with this new tragedy, and it didn't stop there.

Movie Review: Flesh and Bullets

Review By: James DePaolo

On March 1989 the film industry lost the man who could be singled out for my blindness, Carlos Tobalina. To me, he was one of the king of the adult film world with his love of romancing the camera and getting those shots that other directors seem to stray from. When I heard he did a film that was not a porn my first reaction was that it was a porn in hiding, but needless to say this film is nowhere near porn which still should be said, it is a good enough film to recommend nonetheless.

The humor for me comes from the fact that the original print of the film he changed his name to hide the fact of who he was. In a somewhat odd retelling of sorts from Alfred Hitchcock’s Stranger on a Train, we meet two unhappy married men both of whom have shady pasts meet in Vegas and hatch a scheme to murder one another’s ex-wives. Well as you can guess there will be a catch to this plan and each of them fall in love with the other’s ex.

Movie Review: Insurgent (2015)

The sequel to Divergent picks up where its predecessor left off.  The film follows Tris(Shailene Woodley) and Four(Theo James) who are known as Divergents in a world that has separated all people into factions.  If you haven’t seen “Divergent,” this film will make no sense to you.

Alliances are tested as are the wills of the characters in “Insurgent.”  Tris is having difficulty dealing with the guilt of the people she lost.  Four is right there by Tris’ side, as he was in the first film.  Miles Teller reprises his role brilliantly as Peter, a character that keeps you guessing as to which side he is on.

Kate Winslet is still the baddie for this film as she plays Jeanine, the person keeping order and hunting down the Divergent people.  In this installment, you find that Jeanine is not just interested in the Divergent folk to eradicate them, but for another reason altogether.

The sweeping landscape scenes look incredible in “Insurgent.”  The green of the forest and the shots of the city ruins gives this film a distinct and beautiful look.  There’s also a ton of violence and characters that were killed in ways I did not expect.

“Insurgent” receives three out of five pile drivers.  I don’t think it was quite as good as the “Divergent,” but the film ends in a way to make you look forward to the next.

Cinema Head Cheese: Podshort! - The Fantastic Four (1994)

In honor of the failure of Josh Trank's Fantastic Four, Kevin Moyers finally watches the unreleased Roger Corman version.

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Movie Review: The Young Lions (1958; 20th Century Fox/Twilight Time)

...one really has to give prolific director Edward Dmytryk a respectably just comeuppance of appreciation, as far as his ability in not pigeon-holing himself into one particular film genre. When one considers his spectrum of film productions, we're talking about seeing him dip into just about every film genre under the sun, and then some...and prove himself respectably exceptional in each and every one. An under-appreciated filmmaker by name (...an infamous 'socialist blacklist' stigma took care of that, which in itself...encompassing a rather vast number of participants...is yet another provocative Hollywood story, altogether...a tale to be later told, to be sure), his films, nonetheless spark great acclamation and appreciation by sheer mention of their eclectically varied titles, alone. A little steamy intrigue, set in a New Orleans bordello, in 1962's "Walk on the Wild Side"...the classic horror of 'ape, into woman, into ape-woman', with 1943's "Captive Wild Woman"...corruption and crime in the boxing ring, as revealed in 1940's "Golden Gloves"...cleaning up a dusty, one-horse town, plagued by gun-toting cowboy thugs, in 1959's "Warlock"...the entwining, film noir-ish mystery and intrigue, found in 1944's "Murder, My Sweet"...blackmail and terrorism, on the cusp of a fledgling computer age, in 1975's "The Human Factor"...and the ever genre-shifting list goes on, and on, and on...

Movie Review: 1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982; Deaf Internacional Film/Blue Underground)

...funny thing, about the passing of time; it has a way of affecting, re-affecting and de-affecting certain things. 'Certain things', as far as how the general masses see them. How one looks at a certain thing, one day, and then years later, see that very same thing in a different light. The old story of how time is kind to some things, and not so forgiving on others...the old adage of some things aging like fine wine, and for other things...well, they turn to vinegar. And so, considering the particular subject matter at hand, as the classic pop song lyric so succinctly goes, "...if you think you know where all this is heading..."...yeah, we're talking Italian trash cinema, with the moniker of 'trash' not only being poignantly applicable to this specific film review, but also, as an endearing token of affection, with regards to this rather eclectic brand of cinema...

...in as much as this reviewer has very much embraced and appreciated Italian cult film cinema, regardless of all of it's ever-shifting, ever-changing, even ever-mimicking incarnations, stemming back to the early '60's, and reaching up through the years, to...say, about the late '80's. The gothic-flavored horrors of the '60's...the tense, visceral giallos of the '70's...the gore-soaked zombie & cannibal buffets of the '80's. And all of the war-sploitation, shark-sploitation, prison-sploitation, Rambo-sploitation, Star Wars-sploitation and post-apocalyptic future-sploitation flicks, prolifically sprinkled amidst it all. And it's one of those latter categories, and a specific film therein, that we're gleefully jumping all over, in this focus...

Cub Scouts Encounter Evil in the Woods in this Film Festival Favorite

It was only a weekend camping trip for a troop of innocent cub scouts and their older teen chaparones. What could go wrong? Well, start with a evil psychopathic killer, add his ferel young protoge, have them place some ingenious traps in the woods and the results are kind of violent and bloody. This imaginative fairy tale draws on such influences as Lord of the Rings, Friday the 13th and The Devil’s Backbone as it tells the story of 12-year-old outcast Sam who, along with his fellow cub scouts, are forced to confront unspeakable evil!. A wildly entertaining “killer in the woods” actioner that has been a hit in it festival run.

“Kinetic and brutal, gory and graphic with comedic beats in-between.” – Bloody-Disgusting.com

“A brutal new spin on standard camp horror fare.” – Dread Central

“CUB is a rock solid piece of genre entertainment presented bluntly and without irony.” – Fangoria

Movie Review: Police Story: Lockdown (2013)

The incomparable Jackie Chan stars as Zhong Wen, a cop who has had a rough go of life.  He’s lost his wife and he is growing distant from his daughter Miao Miao(Tian Jing).  Chan’s character agrees to meet Miao Miao at the beginning of the film in the hot new destination, Club Wu.  The walk from the cab to the club is a pre-cursor to the struggle that Zhong has in his life.  Should he stop and uphold the law when things go slightly awry, or should he continue on to the night club to repair his relationship with his daughter?  This is the theme of his character throughout. 

Zhong and Miao Miao clearly need to patch things up but things go a little crazy and Chan’s character ends up being knocked out and kidnapped.  His captor, the club owner Wu Jiang(Liu Ye) who also happens to be Miao Miao’s new beau.  Miao Miao has no idea she was with such a cruel individual.  The movie from here is set around finding out Wu Jiang’s motives.  Why did he capture Zhong?  Why does he have so many hostages?  What are his true demands?  It’s all part of the ride.

Movie Review: The Dead Lands (2015)

We have a film that starts with a chase and a kill using primitive Maori weapons.  What a cool way to get a movie going!  "The Dead Lands" takes place around the 16^th century in New Zealand, prior to any European exploration.  Two tribes have a long running truce until someone defecates on an ancestor’s skull(literally).  Without their chief present, Wirepa(Te Kohe Tuhaka) is representing  his tribe and he is ready for war.  Wirepa frames the film’s hero Hongi(James Rolleston), who is the son of the rival tribe’s chief(George Henare).  The chief does everything he can to get out of going to war but Wirepa is insistent.

Wirepa and his tribe attack Hongi’s people at night killing off all men except Hongi who, during the attack, ends up at the bottom of a cliff.  The next day, Hongi sees the aftermath and decides he needs revenge.  Hongi has a vision in his sleep of his grandmother(Rena Owen) and she offers advice within the dream.  He tells her he will go where no one dares go, to the Dead Lands where it is said there is a man, possibly a monster, does not welcome outsiders and eats people.   It is then that Hongi decides he will recruit the warrior from the Dead Lands to assist him in his quest to find Wirepa.

Movie Review: Some Call It Loving (1973; James B. Harris Productions/Etiquette Pictures)

...one really has to hand it to the experimental filmmaker...the determination...the creativity...the tenacity...sometimes, the outright gall and daring, to somehow manage to get the approving salute, in producing a vision wrought from a most unexpected and unconventional ilk, whether it be from a first-time filmmaker...or a protege of a more high-profile filmmakers, who want to throw his hand into the arena...or a filmmaker who has garnished and nurtured a reputation for a certain style, and out of the blue, wants to do something outrageously different, not unlike an inch that one just has to scratch. And then, there's the experimental filmmaker, who's a seasoned pro at always dipping one's big toe into the fray...always coming out with something totally off-the-wall...something that's wholly expected from that particular filmmaker, but nonetheless, something we as anticipating viewers remain unprepared for, each and every time...

...without a doubt, y'all know some, if not all of these provocative filmmakers; heck, a mere four reviews ago, on this reviewer's docker, we examined the humble, albeit eclectic beginnings of one such fledgling director...E. Elias Merhige, who's higher-profile "Suspect Zero" and "Shadow of the Vampire" was preceded by the wholly experimental, unflinchingly visceral, religiously allegoric horror film, "Begotten". Of course, there's the renowned filmmaker Christopher Nolan, of "Memento", "The Prestige" and "The Dark Knight" fame, who hit the scene early on, with a daring vision of human study, called "The Following". Director Darren Aronofsky went on to bigger things, but still remained within the 'let's try this on for size' experimental venue, with films like "Requiem for a Dream", "Black Swan" and "The Wrestler"...but before all that, he just had to get 1998's "Pi" out of his system. And leave us not forget filmmaking auteur David Lynch, who quite literally has made a career out of outrageously unconventional and provocative filmmaking...his production repertoire is as widely spectrumed as it is immense, starting with a classic amongst classic experimental film productions...that being 1977's understatedly bizarre and surreal "Eraserhead"...