Month: November 2021
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Starring Debuts #4: Kathleen Turner in Body Heat (1981)
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Read more: Starring Debuts #4: Kathleen Turner in Body Heat (1981)Now this is my idea of a Strong Female Role. Kathleen Turner’s performance in Body Heat hasn’t quite carved itself into pop culture as unmistakably as Louise Fletcher in Cuckoo’s Nest, Judy Garland in Wizard of Oz or Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, but it’s hard to think of any woman who’s made a better…
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Starring Debuts #3: Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween (1978)
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Read more: Starring Debuts #3: Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween (1978)The most surprising thing about Jamie Lee Curtis’ career-launching turn as Laurie Strode in this late seventies slasher is how dull she is for nearly all of it. And I don’t mean dull in an interesting way. I mean, dull. Perennially clutching books, agreeing to yet another babysitting job, addressing her elders as ‘sir’, listening…
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Starring Debuts #2: John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever
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Read more: Starring Debuts #2: John Travolta in Saturday Night FeverYou’d think the sight of a bloke walking down a street carrying a tin of paint isn’t much of an opening for a movie. But we’re talking John Travolta in his pomp here, and he’s not just walking, he’s strutting like an electrified peacock to those falsetto disco gods, The Bee Gees. “Well, you can…
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The Enforcer (1976)
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Read more: The Enforcer (1976)Tagline: The “dirtiest” Harry of them all! Entire Story In Fewer Words Than Are In This Sentence: Harry endures militants, radicals and, worst of all, women. Homoeroticism: The lead baddie, Bobby Maxwell (DeVeren Bookwalter) shares Harry’s love of the kill, a look of erotic rapture overtaking his face as he shoves his huge knife into…
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Chato’s Land (1972)
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Read more: Chato’s Land (1972)Chato’s Land is not a happy movie or your usual Western. It is not a funny film, or one for viewers who cannot tolerate vile bigotry and brutal and explicit rape. However, it is a movie that showcases the laconic Charles Bronson at his most ripped and bad-assed best. If you thought the villains in…
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Starring Debuts- #1: Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee (1986)
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Read more: Starring Debuts- #1: Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee (1986)Here in Oz there’s a cringe factor around Crocodile Dundee, despite it being a worldwide phenomenon that took well over three hundred mil at the box office. Perhaps it’s disliked in hipster circles because it was such a runaway success. After all, the titular character is a rough hewn, leg-pulling pub-dweller, the sort of guy…
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Monsters
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Read more: MonstersIt’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurking in the dark… Like most boys, I quickly developed a love for monsters and supernatural creatures, a morbid fascination only deepened by devouring the novels of Guy N. Smith (giant, man-eating crabs!) and James Herbert (dog-sized, man-eating black rats!) Blood-dripping fangs, wickedly sharp claws, terrified humans on…
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Witchfinder General (1968)
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Read more: Witchfinder General (1968)“Men sometimes have strange motives for the things they do.” So says Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General, and one of this brutal flick’s coarse joys is trying to work out his. Does he really believe he’s doing God’s work? Or is he merely an opportunist, a man happy to take advantage of the breakdown in law…
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The Muppet Movie (1979)
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Read more: The Muppet Movie (1979)The Electric Mayhem shows us that drugs make better musicians. Kermit shows us that failure is a part of success. Piggy shows us that women…
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Magnum Force (1973)
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Read more: Magnum Force (1973)Tagline: This time the bullets are hitting pretty close to home! Entire Story In Fewer Words Than Are In This Sentence: Harry could just kill his Stupid Chief this time. Homoeroticism: Once again limited almost exclusively to the fetishization of guns, beginning with the opening credits sequence, which consists of a very long shot of…