Author: Dave Franklin
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Blaxploitation #6: The Black Gestapo (1975)
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Read more: Blaxploitation #6: The Black Gestapo (1975)What the hell are these cats up to? Rape and castration, mainly. General Ahmed (Perry) has started an inner-city People’s Army in south LA to improve everyday black life and tackle pressing issues like drug addiction. However, he runs into big trouble with the Mob, leading him to grant permission for his deputy Colonel Kojah…
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Starring debuts #9: John Amplas in Martin (1978)
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Read more: Starring debuts #9: John Amplas in Martin (1978)Martin on the hunt with a syringe clamped between his teeth is one of the great sights of 70s horror. We know he’s a serial killer, but is he a vampire? As played by the superb Amplas, we never get a telling answer. The movie continually toys with conventions and expectations so that facts and…
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Blaxploitation #5: Three the Hard Way (1974)
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Read more: Blaxploitation #5: Three the Hard Way (1974)What the hell are these cats up to? After watching this mess, I only have the vaguest of ideas. I think there are three black dudes (Williamson, Brown and Kelly), who somehow know each other, and they team up to tackle a white supremacist’s genocidal plan to poison the water supply so that only the…
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Pliers, Pussies & the Enduring Class of John Vernon
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Read more: Pliers, Pussies & the Enduring Class of John VernonIn the flat blaxploitation parody I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, baddie John Vernon prickles at the insinuation that playing an exploitation villain is beneath him. “Lots of famous people have done exploitation movies,” he tells the hero before listing the likes of Shelley Winters and Angie Dickinson. OK, mate, fair point, but I doubt you…
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Starring debuts #8: Alan Rickman in Die Hard (1988)
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Read more: Starring debuts #8: Alan Rickman in Die Hard (1988)You know Alan Rickman’s done his job remarkably well in Die Hard when he plunges to his death from a high-rise building and we feel a bit sad. Unlike Kong, it wasn’t beauty that killed the charismatic beast, but a combination of old-fashioned greed and sheer bad luck. Rickman plays Hans Gruber, a debonair German…
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Blaxploitation #4: Boss Nigger (1975)
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Read more: Blaxploitation #4: Boss Nigger (1975)What the hell are these cats up to? Two fearsome bounty hunters Boss (Williamson) and Amos (Martin), who kill up to five outlaws at a time, take a break from their day job to forcibly outwit the piss-weak, double-dealing mayor of San Miguel and become the law. As you can imagine, the vast majority of…
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Cruising For A Few Good Movies
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Read more: Cruising For A Few Good MoviesIn the atrocious Interview with the Vampire the effete Tom Cruise tells his supernatural buddy Brad Pitt: “Life without me would be even more unbearable.” Well, kids, whaddya reckon? Is Our Tom telling the truth? Can you imagine your existence sans Maverick or never having witnessed all those heroic dashes with his choppy hands? No…
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Starring debuts #7: Richard E. Grant in Withnail and I (1987)
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Read more: Starring debuts #7: Richard E. Grant in Withnail and I (1987)Big-budget action maestro Michael Bay could probably learn a thing or two from Withnail. Namely, that if you get the characterization and dialogue right, you don’t need any explosions or mayhem to make a great movie. After all, what does the titular character accomplish during the 107 minutes of this cult classic? He tries to…
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Blaxploitation #3: Black Caesar (1973)
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Read more: Blaxploitation #3: Black Caesar (1973)What the hell are these cats up to? After a stretch in prison, Tommy Gibbs (Williamson) plans to take over his Mafia-run neighborhood and show whitey how it’s done. Do I dig the threads? Given it’s mostly set in 1965, a heartbeat before everything went to sartorial shit, yes. Tommy favors sharp suits and a…
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Blaxploitation #2: Mandingo (1975)
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Read more: Blaxploitation #2: Mandingo (1975)What the hell are these cats up to? Falconhurst is a dilapidated plantation run by the tyrannical aging widower, Warren Maxwell (Mason), and his limping son, Hammond (King). Their slaves try to stay alive under an increasingly unstable regime, often being forced into impossible choices. Into this toxic mix comes Hammond’s new wife, the drunken,…