Wednesday

 

Alpha Dog

I've covered this before. It is now available on HD-DVD, so here's the Olivia Wilde scene

Olivia Wilde

 

Personal Best

Personal Best is a different take on the sports movie genre, first of all because it focuses on women's amateur sports, second because it is also a coming-of-age tale centered around its star, Mariel Hemingway, and third because it cast athletes rather than actors. Mariel plays a talented athlete who just doesn't know what she can do. She doesn't know if she has enough talent or the necessary killer instinct to be a champion. Her naiveté stretches to her personal life as well, where she's confused about her sexuality. She ends up getting a college track scholarship because her lesbian lover badgers the coach into giving her a try against his better judgment. Eventually she develops into a top pentathlete, but that presents a problem because it pits her directly against her lover for a spot on the Olympic team. The strain between the two athletes worsens when Mariel starts to get interested in boys.

While the film's storyline is  similar to any number of other sports movies, virtually everyone in the film is a genuine athlete. The woman who plays Mariel's female lover, Patrice Donnelly, really was a top-rated pentathlete and participated in the 1976 Olympics as a hurdler. The guy who played Mariel's male lover, Kenny Moore, ran the marathon in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics, finishing fourth in the latter. Many other cast members made their one and only film appearance in this movie, nearly all of them athletes chosen for their ability to perform realistically on the field rather than their ability to deliver a line. Given the fact that even Mariel Hemingway seems to have been chosen for her athleticism rather than her Shakespearean line readings, Scott Glenn was the only real actor in the film. Despite that, the performances are generally credible. They have a sort of authenticity that makes up for their lack of smoothness.

This was the first directorial effort from Robert Towne, who had previously established a successful career as a screenwriter, having received Oscar nominations for Shampoo and The Last Detail, and having won the statuette for Chinatown. Nearly two decades after Personal Best, Towne went on to direct another sports film,  Without Limits, a biographical story about the controversial runner Steve Prefontaine. That may have been Towne's best effort as a director, and his co-author on that script was none other than Kenny Moore, the same two-time Olympic marathoner who played Mariel Hemingway's boyfriend in Personal Best. Moore also had a small role in Tequila Sunrise, which means he was involved in 100% of Towne's directorial efforts in the latter's first 45 years in Hollywood. The string was broken with Ask the Dust in 2006.

Amazingly, although DVD has now been around for a decade and this is a fairly good film with a lot of nudity, it is just now coming to Region 1 DVD. 

Here are the film clips. (The sound track is the director's commentary.) Collages below.

Mariel Hemingway

Patrice Donnelly

 

 

 

 

  • * Yellow asterisk: funny (maybe).

  • * White asterisk: expanded format.

  • * Blue asterisk: not mine.

  • No asterisk: it probably sucks.

OTHER CRAP:

Catch the deluxe version of Other Crap in real time, with all the bells and whistles, here.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Crossing

1990

The Crossing (1990) is an teenage love triangle from down under. It begins on Anzac Day, with Danielle Spencer losing her virginity to Russell Crowe, who wants to marry her. Neither is counting on her ex-boyfriend (Robert Mammone) returning from the big city to find her. He had left to attend art school and to escape the small town where he felt strangled. Although he never told her he was leaving in the first place, the ex- has come back for her, only to find that his best mate (Crowe) consoled her when he left, and the two fell in love. Crowe doesn't take Mammone's return well, Danielle Spencer isn't sending clear messages, and it is clear that there won't be a happy ending.

Danielle Spencer shows breasts when her father catches her losing her virginity by her father.

The story is familiar, but the depiction of 1965 Australia is said to be spot-on, the cinematography and editing are outstanding, and the performances are excellent. It is interesting to see Russell Crowe at the start of his career, and Danielle Spencer is wonderful as a ripe young woman. (Crowe and Spencer became real-life husband and wife.)

 

Danielle Spencer

 

This rarity is only available in the States from RLDVDs.com on a Region 4 PAL.

The Crossing

  

 

 

 

 

 

Panic Beats

1983

Today the Time Machine travels back for another Paul Naschy vehicle which he wrote, directed and starred in. With Naschy's name on it you know you will have naked ladies and this flick is no exception. We feature film clips from this one today. There are three sample caps shown here, but you can see the whole set back in the archives on August 12 of last year. BTW, the film clips have Spanish audio.

Two film clips of Carol Kirkham in the movie's opening scene, stark naked and (be warned) a very bloody ending.

One clip of Silvia Miro with full frontal nudity in bed.

 

Five clips of a delicious Paquita Ondiviela which includes some very nice full frontal.

 

 

 

 

 

Notes and collages

Clue

Colleen Camp

Part 2 of ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maisie Undercover : Old Flames

The Maisie Undercover series of soft-core has not made it to the IMDB yet. Charley White plays Maisie Calloway, a former policewoman who now does a bit of PI work on the side.

Charley White

 

 

 

 

 

 

Various clips from Backbeat, which is about the early Beatles years. Sheryl Lee and Finola Geraghty

A film clip of Irena Westbrook in Maslin Beach

Many, many minutes of footage of Sophie Guillemin nekkid in L'ennui (monster download, 135 meg)

Film footage of Maria Botto in Seres queridos

 
Agnes Bruckner is out and about in a minimum of clothing.

 

 

 

 

 

The Comedy Wire

Comments in yellow...


Monday in Brussels, a year-long celebration kicked off to mark the 50th anniversary of one of Belgium's most famous exports, the Smurfs.  The little blue creatures who use the word "Smurf" as a noun, verb and adjective were invented in 1958 by the late cartoonist Pierre Culliford, who called them "Schtroumpf."  The celebration began with Smurfberry cake and sarsaparilla juice, and over the next year, it will include a DVD rerelease of the 1980s Smurf
cartoon series, a new Smurf comic book collection and a 3-D animated Smurf movie.

*  This whole year is gonna be one big, smurfin' pile of smurf. 

*  The one positive point: at least he gave up trying to use "Schtroumpf" as every part of speech.



Lenka Komparova of Slovenia complained to the Health Ministry after she found a mouse foot in a jar of pickles, but she was shocked when they told her to consider it "a special additive."  A spokeswoman said, "It is completely normal in big factories to have mice wandering around, and yes, every now and then they get caught amongst the machines and do get bottled, seasoned, preserved and even make it in one piece to consumers.  Although not very pleasant to see, however, they pose no health threat at all."  Komparova replied, "I don't know what they eat at the ministry, but finding dead animals in jars of food isn't normal."


*  It's like the prize you find in a box of cereal...In fact, it's exactly like the prize you find in a box of Slovenian cereal. 
 



Sunday at the Ninoy Aquino Airport in Manila, a policeman frisking a Japanese traveler felt something odd on his buttocks.  The man was
ordered to remove whatever was in his underwear, and he took out 34 marijuana cigarettes that were hidden in his butt.  He claimed he hadn't planned to sell them, he just wanted to experience smoking pot.

* His ass is grass.