Tuesday

St Paddy's Day

Killshot

200?

You see it above, The dreaded question mark which leaves no question that something is amiss.

A lot in this case.

Killshot is a routine gangster flick about a divorcing couple who witness an attempted murder, and thus become targets for the killers. The FBI sends them into witness protection, but the killers are quite a bit smarter than the FBI and figure out a way to fake their own deaths, thus flushing the witnesses out of hiding and back to their home.

The film is not without positives, the strongest of which is the powerful, dominating presence of Mickey Rourke as a cool and composed native American (?!) who works as a professional killer. The story comes from an Elmore Leonard book, and Mr. Leonard's work has inspired several memorable films, including Jackie Brown, Get Shorty, Out of Sight, two versions of The Big Bounce, and two versions of 3:10 to Yuma. The cinematographer is Caleb Deschanel, arguably the best in the business (5 Oscar nominations). The director is John Madden, who was nominated for an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love. The supporting cast is solid as well. Diane Lane and Tom Jane play the endangered couple, and the legendary screen beauty even puts in a few minutes in a t-shirt without a bra in a cold room.

And she looks so young.

Because she was!

And that brings us back to the matter of the question mark. You're probably wondering why a film with all that A-list and B-list firepower is going straight to the bargain bin at Wal-Mart. Long story.

Killshot had a troubled development process. Filming was completed in 2005, but that footage proved incapable of being edited into an acceptable film, so the principals were called back for more shooting in January of 2007. In the re-writing process, one main character was eliminated altogether, so Johnny Knoxville, who was featured prominently in the original theatrical trailer back in 2006, ended up being cut from the film completely. At various times, script revisions were done by Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella, both of whom were inconsiderate enough to die before the film could be completed. At one time Quentin Tarantino was attached to the film in some type of producer status, but he didn't end up signing the scorecard. Over the years, the film had been tentatively scheduled for a release in five or six different periods, all of which got postponed as the key distribution deadlines approached. At least some of that had to do with internal problems at the Weinstein studio. In the process of reorganizing their operation in the past year or so, the Weinsteins tried (and failed) to sell their rights to this film, but no other studios took the bait. After all the starts and stops, the film's final theatrical presence in North America was limited to a trial run in five theaters in Phoenix, after which the suits decided to release it to DVD with no theatrical rollout. It might have found its way into a few more theaters on the coattails of a Mickey Rourke Oscar, but the Mickster lost out to Sean Penn, and that shut off the last hope for a Killshot run in the cineplexes.

To be honest, this film is better than many theatrical releases, but everyone could see that it was not headed for blockbuster status, and nobody was much motivated to push it. Fixed expenses had already been covered, of course, but nobody was confident that the film would cover the variable expenses involved in a theatrical run. It might have grossed $20 million or so with a little luck, but a big chunk of that would have been eaten up by the usual costs of making prints and buying ads. Given that the studios pick up all of the variable expenses but get only about half of the gross, and given that the cash outlays occur before the grosses accrue, they suits didn't like their odds, so the DVD path seemed to be less risky, especially since the Weinsteins seem to be watching their pennies in the midst of rumored cash flow problems

So it goes.

As for the film itself, it lacks anything to make it memorable, but it's not such a bad watch if you ignore some of the implausible elements of the script and just focus on the positives I listed above. It would have been a mediocre theatrical product, but as a straight-to-DVD product, it is primo rental material for fans of the genre! The Mickster alone, fascinating as always,  makes it a worthwhile time-killer for those who like the Elmore Leonard oeuvre.


 

I think you can see from the nude scenes that the film is not so bad. I left the scenes completely intact from start to finish, each kind of a self-contained chapter of the film, just to give you some idea of how the film flows.

Nudity:

In this scene, the Mickster blows away Mark Twain and a topless chick (Alexis Butler).

In this scene, the Mickster continues his murderin' ways, but does not kill Diane Lane, who spends the entire scene wearing only a flimsy t-shirt and panties. And remember this film was lensed four years ago, so Diane looks that much riper!

 

  • * 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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saw III

2005

Deborah McCabe Three 1920x1080 film clips.

Samples below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


"Manchild"

2007

Cerina Vincent shows the boobs in "Manchild" a pilot for Showtime that was not picked up. Caps and 2 clips.
 

 

TV Land

A pair of newsbabes today, first up leggy Liz Claman of "Fox Business News". Caps and a short clip.

 

Then Jamie Colby in her boots that are made for walking in the "Fox Report". Caps and a really short clip.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes and collages

Lips of Blood

Beatrice Harnois

1975

 

 

This film is another Jean Rollin erotic vampire classic!

 

 

 

 

 

"The Devil's Mercy"

(2008)

Recent DVD release but no nudity.

Deborah Valente: very sexy

 



"Cube Zero"

(2004)

Prequel to the Cube series.

Stephanie Moore: sexy

Terri Hawkes: sexy

 


 


"Diary of the Dead"

(2007)

Another zombie movie, another Canadian actress shows her boobs.

Amy Lalonde: topless

 





"Wild Roses"

episode: "Boom and Bust"

unknown: bra and panties



 


"Being Erica"

In the episode "Mi Casa, Su Casa Loma," Sarah Gadon dresses up like a Hefmag bunny for Halloween and has fully clothed sex.


 
and

last week Anna Silk getting her boobs honked by Erin Karpluk in high def


 




"The Jon Dore Show"

episode: Jon Needs Quick Cash

Tamsen McDonough: sexy as prostitute.

 


 

"Billable Hours"

episode: "My Millie for a Muffin"

A then unknown Jessica Rimmer shortly before she appeared as a lead in the cable series Zalman King's Body Language. Jessica Rimmer is the sexy supermodel on your far left



 



"The Nasty Girl"

(1990) (aka Das Schreckliche Maedchen)

German movie based on the true story of a German student who digs up her town's recent Nazi past and because of
that is considered by her neighbors even more evil than Eva Braun and Ilsa the Wicked combined.

Lena Stolze: pokies, nude swim.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pics

Jessica Simpson - upgrade on a famous nipple exposure

 

Courtney Cox - fresh look at a classic wardrobe adjustment from about a year ago.

Annie Huntley in The Art of Travel

 

Film Clips

The women of Out of the Dark (1989): Bond Bradigan, Karen Mayo-Chandler, Lynn Danielson. (Karen died a year or two ago. She was still in her forties.)

Johnny Moronic catches us up on Underbelly. This time it's Anna Hutchison in season two, episode seven (the latest one to air.)

You've seen the pics of Katy Perry in that crazy blouse which barely covers her breasts. Here's a video of her in that get-up.

This one is a non-nude, but it's brand new and features two stars quite close to the A-list: Colin Firth and Jessica Biel in Easy Virtue. Biel's body looks great, but her face does not. The make-up is wrong or something. Sample right.