cult film freak: January 2020

Written by James M. Tate / 1/28/2020 / No comments / adventure , comedy , family , kurt russell , martin short , mary kay place , meadow sisto , nineties , thom eberhardt

KURT RUSSELL, MARTIN SHORT & MEADOW SISTO SAIL 'CAPTAIN RON'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Kurt Russell, Martin Short and the beautiful Meadow Sisto in CAPTAIN RON Year: 1992</u></td></tr>
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Martin Short's greatest role was in THREE AMIGOS as a man who 
looked like a boy who acted like a teenager. But when he 
plays a husband/father, i.e. a typical guy in the VACATION style comedy CAPTAIN RON, it doesn't completely wash; and is one of many movies where a successful, hard-working yet uptight 
businessman learns how to become a flake in order to be liked by
 his family. Which happens all the time, on screen...<br>
<br>
With the reluctant, almost accidental "help" of Kurt Russell, resembling ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK Snake Plissken's goofy identical brother had he had one, he's the title character who passive-aggressively pilots a dilapidated boat Short was left by his dead uncle: And of course, the scraggly yet endearingly hopeless Ron is their only 
hope as he basically tags along on a busman's holiday around Caribbean-like islands...<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Meadow Sisto as Caroline Harvey hotly walks the deck in CAPTAIN RON which Rates: ***</u></td></tr>
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During this uneven adventure/comedy our heroes encounter smugglers, guerillas, bad weather and a bevy of semi-chuckle situations that keep this boat floating, but 
only in shallow waters. What helps is both Mary Kay Place, as the 
wife/mom, and Meadow Sisto, as the daughter/sister, both wearing 
skimpy summer clothes and looking quite lovely. Like mother/daughter Karen Austin and Kerri Green in SUMMER RENTAL, Mary Kay and Meadow compliment each other perfectly. Both are the kind of personal pretty you eventually fall head-over-heels for.  <br>
<br>
Chartered by the 1980's zombie-yarn NIGHT OF THE COMET director Thom Ebersol, 
the rhythm and timing is a tad off, which doesn't matter when it
 comes to a semi-enjoyable, semi-comfortable, glossy-neon 1990's time-filler. Yet the cast seems in on the joke — if this came out six years earlier, it'd make much more sense. And is Russell parodying himself, the genre, or the previous decade in which he finally grew up after all those years at Disney? <br>

adventure, comedy, family, kurt russell, martin short, mary kay place, meadow sisto, nineties, thom eberhardt

KURT RUSSELL, MARTIN SHORT & MEADOW SISTO SAIL 'CAPTAIN RON'

Kurt Russell, Martin Short and the beautiful Meadow Sisto in CAPTAIN RON Year: 1992 Martin Short's greatest role was in THREE AMIGOS...

CATHY PODEWELL IN THE UNDERRATED 'NIGHT OF THE DEMONS'

body count, cathy podwell, eighties, haunted house, horror, teen

CATHY PODEWELL IN THE UNDERRATED 'NIGHT OF THE DEMONS'

Night of the Demons spooky-cool opening credit sequence in the year 1988 “Not tonight,” explains Cathy Podewell’s innocent girl Judy, dr...

ARCHIVE REVIEW OF LARRY COHEN'S 'GOD TOLD ME TO'

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7HElYlSKzuwEpGHeP_DLdt09NHH49yvgNvcTDhZi_e30wiEtxEgzd6J0leikCPYwwHxZz1gJsnxmgpduWwwlMwHHSjZxxm1MQS4e6dpSZwuBBY401kafovdYSf2idjhAY9oEY_Hz71zxQ/s1600/god-told-me-to-french-movie-poster.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="294" data-original-width="461" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7HElYlSKzuwEpGHeP_DLdt09NHH49yvgNvcTDhZi_e30wiEtxEgzd6J0leikCPYwwHxZz1gJsnxmgpduWwwlMwHHSjZxxm1MQS4e6dpSZwuBBY401kafovdYSf2idjhAY9oEY_Hz71zxQ/s400/god-told-me-to-french-movie-poster.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
title: GOD TOLD ME TO<br />
year: 1976<br />
cast: Tony Lo Bianco, Sandy Dennis, Andy Kaufman, Dan Resin, Richard Lynch, Sylvia Sidney<br />
writer/director: Larry Cohen<br />
rating: **<br />
<br />
The first half... as a dedicated Catholic cop played by Tony Lo Bianco (the smooth "kissy devil" patsy in THE FRENCH CONNECTION) investigates random public killings... including Andy Kaufman as a police officer going berserk at the St. Patrick's Day Parade... and each assassin mutters, "God told me to" as their last words... is mysterious and interesting. The last half, as the murders cease and the "God" in question is revealed, is absolutely banal. Larry Cohen's camerawork has its usual artistic grace, with a collection of creative zooms and all that other seventies' stuff, but after the good parts even the cool shots are all dressed up with nothing to show.<br />
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andy kaufman, horror, larry cohen, seventies, suspense, tony lo bianco

ARCHIVE REVIEW OF LARRY COHEN'S 'GOD TOLD ME TO'

title: GOD TOLD ME TO year: 1976 cast: Tony Lo Bianco, Sandy Dennis, Andy Kaufman, Dan Resin, Richard Lynch, Sylvia Sidney writer/direc...

Written by James M. Tate / 1/08/2020 / No comments / action , don red barry , hanna landy , harry lauter , heist , joe patridge , sixties , thriller , western

CONVICT STAGE HAS LEFT THE STATION

<a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/01/hateful.html">CONVICT STAGE HAS MOVED HERE</a><br>
<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Hanna Herfelendy/Hanna Landy</u></td></tr>
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<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Convict Score: ***1/2</u></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br><br>

action, don red barry, hanna landy, harry lauter, heist, joe patridge, sixties, thriller, western

CONVICT STAGE HAS LEFT THE STATION

CONVICT STAGE HAS MOVED HERE Hanna Herfelendy/Hanna Landy Convict Score: ***1/2

KUNG FU ESCAPISM OF 'MASTER OF THE FLYING GUILLOTINE'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Master of the Flying Guillotine Year: 1976 Rating: ****</u></td></tr>
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About the only downside is there's not enough of that radical red beanie taking off heads, but in its place is tons of Kung Fu in a Kung Fu contest: one-on-one bouts much like ENTER THE DRAGON, only here more lethal and mystical, including a scene-stealing villain with elongated arms... <br>
<br>
And the plot centers on a <i>one-armed </i>karate
 teacher being sought out by an old blind bearded assassin —the 
Master of the Flying Guillotine — who wants him dead for killing two of 
his friends, and he twirls his blade-cap at anyone else with a single limb. 
There's an uneven, sporadic mix between English subtitles and the classic
 mismatched dubbing, flickery lighting and other such technical "flaws" that only add to the overall cult appeal. The music is 
pretty fantastic, revving-up the ultra-violent exploitation, and a pretty nifty plot making this one of the coolest martial arts fantasies ever produced, directed, choreographed.  <br>

action, cult, exploitation, fantasy, jimmy yang wu, karate, kung fu, seventies

KUNG FU ESCAPISM OF 'MASTER OF THE FLYING GUILLOTINE'

Master of the Flying Guillotine Year: 1976 Rating: **** About the only downside is there's not enough of that radical red beanie tak...

DAVID CARRADINE DIRECTS 'AMERICANA' AKA 'AROUND'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>David Carradine's AMERICANA Filmed: 1973 Released: 1983</u></td></tr>
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Started in 1973 and released a decade later, AMERICANA is a nice-looking low-budget film about an ex military drifter played by famous KUNG FU
 drifter David Carradine who happens upon a small town with an abandoned
 merry-go-round (originally with a more aptly title AROUND) in an empty 
field, and how he goes about fixing it up and, most importantly, and quite symbolically, getting it working again. But it's no easy feat as he has to overcome more than manual labor, like the town sheriff and local bullies.<br />
<br />
Along with his then-girlfriend (in the seventies, during the BOXCAR BERTHA era) Barbara Hershey, the 
movie flows in a spontaneous nature. And while some of the intentionally realistic-for-realism
non-actor side-characters can be distracting 
at first, it's eventually overcome by the purposefully laidback aura: 
everything fitting into an non-contrived organic template about real life 
and real people... back then. Or in this case, back, back then.

barbara hershey, counter-culture, cult, david carradine, drama, eighties, indie, seventies

DAVID CARRADINE DIRECTS 'AMERICANA' AKA 'AROUND'

David Carradine's AMERICANA Filmed: 1973 Released: 1983 Started in 1973 and released a decade later, AMERICANA is a nice-looking low...

Written by James M. Tate / 1/04/2020 / No comments / actopm. don stroud , george kennedy , neo noir , perry king , seventies , vigilante

PERRY KING FIGHTS IN 'SEARCH AND DESTORY' WITH DON STROUD

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year: 1979 Rates: ***1/2</u></td></tr>
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In Vietnam a company of American soldiers try saving a South Vietnamese 
man from "Charlie" and fail. He is captured by the enemy and now we cut 
five years later and the Vietnamese man is back in the States for 
revenge...<br>
<br>
He kills one of the vets and this peaks the attention of Perry 
King, an auto shop worker, as he is next in line...<br>
<br>
Along with fellow vet 
Don Stroud, a happy-go-unlucky drunkard boat captain in Niagara Falls inspired by Hemingway Noir tales, 
they try first finding who the killer is, and then stopping him. But 
he's trained in killing and is almost unstoppable. Great action scenes 
all set in the gorgeous Niagara Falls area, and lots of violence makes 
this a real treat: a fun ride that never derails. George Kennedy adds a 
little something as a small town cop who winds up allowing Perry King to
 take care of matters his own way.<br>

actopm. don stroud, george kennedy, neo noir, perry king, seventies, vigilante