Author: Dave Franklin
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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,…
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Blaxploitation #1: Super Fly (1972)
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Read more: Blaxploitation #1: Super Fly (1972)What the hell are these cats up to? A successful Harlem coke dealer with the extraordinary name YoungBlood Priest (O’Neal) wants one last big deal before going straight. His partner Eddie (Lee), who appears to be doing an impersonation of Sammy Davis Jr. throughout, wants to stay in the game. Stop groaning at the back…
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Starring Debuts #6: Harvey Stephens in The Omen (1976)
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Read more: Starring Debuts #6: Harvey Stephens in The Omen (1976)According to the nursery rhyme, little boys are made of snips, snails and puppy dogs’ tails. However, some parents being driven up the wall by their misbehaving spawn probably believe they’re actually jam-packed with satanic DNA. Take Damien Thorn. There’s just no hope with this kid. Appoint a nice nanny to look after him? She’ll…
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Starring Debuts #5: Eddie Murphy in 48 Hrs. (1982)
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Read more: Starring Debuts #5: Eddie Murphy in 48 Hrs. (1982)The pioneering brilliance of the ancient Greeks laid many of the foundations for Western civilization, producing great leaps forward in fields as diverse as philosophy and science. For hundreds of years progress and innovation flourished until the curtain was violently brought down by the Romans. What a shame. Somehow, though, a cinephile like me finds…
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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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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…