Recently in Schlock/Exploitation/Erotic/Grindhouse/DriveIn Category

Starring: Margo Winchester, Janet Wood, Raven De La Croix, Linda Sue Ragsdale, Robert McLane, Candy Samples,Su Ling, Edward Schaaf, Elaine Collins, Kitten Natividad. Sexploitation/DriveIn/Grindhouse.Directed by Russ Meyer.

Synopsis: A rich man with a lot of secrets, and who bears an uncanny resemblance to one Adolph Hitler, is murdered in his bathtub by use of piranhas and, with plenty of suspects, the race is on to find the murderer.

Anyone who has seen a Russ Meyer film knows that they are hard to describe, which is a good thing if you like this genre and his style of filmmaking.

And Up! is, in my opinion, the quintessential Russ Meyer film, heavily satirirical, frenetically paced, with the story unfolding amid a bevy of buxom beauties.

The thing to understand about Meyer films, for those of you who are uninitiated, is that it's not only scantily clad, large busted women looking for an excuse to get naked. Sure, there is plenty of that, but there is something else going in Meyer movies and Up! is no different. There is a strong undercurrent of female empowerment going on, albeit from the standpoint of our female protagonists using their natural assets and womanly wiles to foil the (unfailingly) dense and or corrupt male characters. 

In Up!, the action begins in frenetic and intense sensual fashion, with one Adolph Schwartz (Edward Schaaf) who has his head between the ample bosom of a nude, hooded woman (Candy Samples) while he is being whipped by a man in a Pilgrim outfit, our male protagonist, Paul (Robert McLane). Soon, there will be a visit from two more nude, busy beauties and Schwartz also doesn't limit his desire solely to the female gender.

Okay.   

And, from there, things really start to pick up. Schwartz, a dead ringer for Aldoph Hitler, is soon murdered by a faceless killer who puts killer piranhas in his hot tub.  Well, the pace only quickens from there and we meet some other interesting characters in town, like Sweet Li'l Alice (Janet Wood Slumber Party '57) , who is Paul's significant other and partner in the diner...and also finds time to have a little lesbian love on the side, Homer Johnson (Monty Bane) the salacious deputy, and also Margo Winchester (Raven De La Croix) a visitor to town who seems more than determined to get to know all of the interesting characters in town. 

The film unfolds mainly in the present tense with continual cutaways to our ensemble cast. I've been somewhat remiss, as they say, by not telling you the most unique aspect of this flick: you have an "on screen narrartor", called The Greek Chorus (Kitten Natividad Sugar Boxx) who, I should mention, gives us her (dubbed in English accent) narration completely in the buff. 

Look, this is schlock and sexploitation, no doubt about it, but that doesn't mean it isn't good. Meyer obviously had a unique view of the world and the latent power of sex, perhaps even more than that, sexual tension. His use of actresses with exceptionally sized breasts and putting prosethic organs on his male actors, to me, is his expression of how important a factor in life the sexual tension usually is and he is satirizing our pretension and denial about the potency of that reality. Just my thought.

This isn't Schindler's List or Traffic  and we know that going in...in fact,let's be honest, we don't want it to be. When you look at this box cover or decide to see a Meyer movie, you pretty much have an idea of what you want-to entertained and titillated-and this delivers.

The uninitiated as to Meyer films also need to understand this is not porn. At the time of it's release, the flick was rated X, but the rating had not been totally coopted by porno movies then. As some of you surely know, flicks like Midnight Cowboy and A Clockwork Orange   carried the X rating, too. Those movies would be R if released today as would Up! 

Being a Meyer fan means joining a niche fraternity, something I happily did years ago. His films are not for everyone, but those who do enjoy will have the type of flicks that literally are not, and could not, be made again. Mr. Meyer was one of a kind, some will argue that Up! was not his best film. 

But it is definitely my favorite of his unique body of work.

Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis,Rosanna Arquette, Tim Roth, Ving Rhames, Christopher Walken, Amanda Plummer,Harvey Keitel. Directed by Quentin Tarantino.Action/Drama/Comedy.

Synopsis: Two philosphical hit men run into a day's worth of unexpected events after starting the morning on a simple assignment from their drug dealer boss.

O.k., I know those of you (everyone?) who have seen flick know that my poor attempt at a synopsis does dot come close to doing this film justice. I know that, I get that. I feel you.

But, how do you describe this ensemble, non-chronological, realistic satire, modern day homage to both film noir and grindhouse schlock?

I'm not sure you do, other than this, it's really, really good. 

Pulp Fiction is quintessential Tarantino, the proverbial "one they will remember him for", no disrespect to some of Mr. Tarantino's  other well regarded films. You have Travolta and Jackson  working together, both at their best and playing off one another beautifully. The dialogue between them is priceless, my guilty pleasure being the 'spiritual debate' between them before the accidental shooting death in the car. It's simply hilarious, which I know sounds really bad...unless you've seen the flick, in which case you'll understand.

Bruce Willis (16 Blocks) is wondeful as Butch, the aging fighter who is looking for one last grab at the brass ring and, like Jules (Jackson) and Vincent (Travolta) is connected to drug king pin Marsellus Wallace. (Ving Rhames The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard   Shooting Gallery )

Arguably the most memorable scene in a movie that is, basically, a collection of memorable scenes, is the overdose scene of Marsellus Wallace's wife, Mia (Uma Thurman My Super Ex-Girlfriend), after she has been out for the night with Vincent (with her husband's blessing). Vincent's friends who help him out of this awkward situation, married couple Eric Roberts (Break A Leg) and Rosanna Arquette are memorable, to say the least.

Christopher Walken's (King Of New York) one scene might be the funniest monologue in movie history. The "fix up the accidental killing" scene with Harvey Keitel (Wrong Turn At Tahoe) is my personal favorite, but no discussion of this flick would be complete without reference to the scene that most people who see this movie will remember vividly until they lay down for their eternal rest: the Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames "one gets saved and one doesn't from homosexual rape" scene. Trust me, any scene that can spawn this line(s) in context "...you hear me, buddy boy? I ain't through with you by a damn sight. I'm about to get medieval on your ass!!!" ...is part of a movie that is one for the ages. 

I loved the non-chronological flow as well as the sense that there wasn't so much of a standard 'plot', per se, but that I was just being introduced to these interesting characters and I very much wanted to see what happened next. 

This is a truly unique film that has a fresh and cynical take not only on our society and culture, but also on our culture of movies and what we like in them.

A timeless classic, in my humble opinion.

Directed by Wes Craven. Starring: David Hess, Sandra Cassel, Lucy Grantham, Fred J. Lincoln, Jeramie Rain, March Sheffler, Martin  Kove, Cynthia Carr, Gaylord St. James.

 Synopsis: Early seventies cult classic featuring the story of two young girls who run into and are kidnapped by four wanted criminals. The girls endure a day of hellish torture and humiliation before the kidnappers leave and befriend the parents of one of the girls. The previously middle class parents enact their own revenge after they learn the true identies of the four and what they've done to their child.

I first saw this on pay TV (as we called it then) back in the early eighties as a teen ager and thought it was the most sexually charged, awesome thing I'd ever seen, which it was to that point. I recently picked up a copy on DVD and just had to see it, to determine if the passage of time and increasing sophistication of movies lessened its impact on me in any way. I expected to be a little disappointed, and also figured I would look at it now as pure camp.

I was wrong. Wes Craven, who directed and wrote this, showed his brilliance for the macabre even then. The story is the (sub)urban nightmare of otherwise good young girls being taken and brutalized by a group of urban lunatics. The girls (played by Sandra Cassel and Lucy Grantham) are fresh faced, pretty, and innocent to the point of falling into this night mare soley because they were in search of a little marijuana. (Hardly a major transgression today, certainly not in 1972) They run into a disheveled young man (Marc Sheffler) who obviously knows a thing or two about weed. He lures them back to his room with the promise of primo grass and they are immediately snared by his three on-the-run criminal friends (David Hess, Fred J. Liincoln, Jeramie Rain)

What follow is psychological, physical, and sexual torture, largely inflicted by Krug (David Hess) and girl loving Sadie (Jeramine Rain).Hess' Krug is the epitome of the brooding, sullen, maniac with the ever present threat of simmering violence just beneath the surface. Rain's Sadie is arguably the most memorable character in the film, a stogie puffing looker who can more than hold her own in a physical confrontation and might just be as evil as Hess and Weasel (Fred J. Lincoln), if not quite as crazy.

Last House is not scary, as one might think, but it is shocking and its easy to see why it was so controversial at the time. The violence is not gratuitous and it is easy in some cases to emphathize with the perpetrators in the end when the parents exact their revenge.

There are seens you simply won't forget, the infamous "piss your pants" forced urination scene, the forcing of the girls to make out as a spectacle, and the genital mutilation revenge by the vitim's mother (Cynthia Carr) on Weasel.

The acting is good, especially considering that only one of the main characters (David Hess) continued acting as a primary career, in fact, I could not find any other acting credits for any of the four main female characters. The story is outrageous and, yes, a little unrealistic, but the acting out of the unspoken fear that many of us feel is well set forth and timeless. So, the long sideburns and huge, gas guzzling cars will give you a smile, but the story itself and the movie won't seem dated.The special effects are well done when you consider the time period and limited budget. If you are old enough to remember the 70's or know about clutural history from that time, the clear allegories to Vietnam, and the gradual loss of feeling safe that the country felt during those years is very obvious.

The most recognizable face in the cast is minor character for comic relief Deputy, played by Martin Kove (Karate Kid, Cagney & Lacey). Kove bumbles through his scenes and you will be thinking that no cops could be this dumb, which is the point and also allegorical to the general anti-law enforcement aura of the early 70's.

The DVD contains some excellent special features, including the standrard but interesting "Making Of" featurette, but also some interesting deleted scenes and never seen footage. Also, there are extened commentaries/interviews with several of the main characters (Lucy Grantham, Marc Sheffler, Fred J. Lincoln, David Hess) and Wes Craven himself. The special features are worth the price alone.

A cult classic that is a must for any Craven fan as well as those who like revenge flicks and fans of small budget, independent stories that are character and story driven.