Monday

Tuna
"Videodrome"

Videodrome (1983) is a Sci Fi fantasy effort from David Cronenberg. James Woods stars as the owner of a small cable company which caters to fringe markets with had and soft core porn and the like. He is searching for a new, edgier product to boost subscriptions, and decodes a very strange underground show called Videodrome, which features extreme torture, and no plot. He wants it for his station, and sets about trying to get it. His girlfriend, Deborah Harry sees a short tape at his house, and decides she wants to be a contestant on the show. Up to this point, the film is relatively normal and accessible.

Then woods finds the source of Videodrome, and discovers that there is subliminal content that causes physical changes in your body, and leads to mind control. From this point on, it is not possible to tell what is supposed to be real and what is hallucination, and I fell asleep trying. Reviewers claim this is all about the influence of media on society, and is based on the philosophy of Marshall McLuhan.

IMDb readers have this at 6.8 of 10. The makeup effects were excellent, as well as some of the other special effects, but it was the story that left me cold. Genre lovers enjoy this one, but I would not suggest it to anyone else. C-.

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  • Deborah Harry (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
  • Unknown (1, 2, 3, 4)

    "Straw Dogs"

    Straw Dogs (1971) I find this a very well made film, but a disturbing story. It is the story of an American mathematician (Dustin Hoffman) who rents an English farmhouse for a year with his young wife in her home town. He hopes the country quiet will help him with the studies for which he has received a grant. Hoffman is a wimp, a pacifist and a loner. His wife (Susan George) is also easy to intimidate. When Hoffman ignores her in favor of his book, she begins to flirt with her childhood boyfriend and his pals who are doing some construction on their property. Eventually, the boyfriend lures Hoffman out of the house for a snipe hunt, then returns and has sex with George, then his drunken partner brutally rapes her at gunpoint. She never tells Hoffman.

    When the town folk decide to break into their home to catch a local mentally ill man who they think has molested a town girl, Hoffman finally has had enough, and snaps. George shows breasts in two scenes, the first flashing her bare breasts to her old friend and his cronies, and the second while she is being seduced by her old boyfriend then raped by his buddy. IMDb readers have this at 7.3 of 10. While there is no doubt that it is a well made film, it is not one I was able to relate to. The first half of the film pretty much showed that nobody had it together, and the last third was pretty much all action. I think the big payoff was supposed to be that Hoffman suddenly grew testicles, but a little too late. The fact that I didn't personally enjoy it doesn't take away from the quality of the film. This is a C+.

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  • Susan George (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)

  • Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy)

    .wmv clips:

     

    UPDATES:

    • In case I forgot to mention it Friday, Charlie's (French Cinema) page is updated.
    • About 40 new volumes have been added, raising the encyclopedia count by another 300 or so, mostly in Volume O. All new ones are in yellow.

     

     

    OTHER CRAP:

     

    Other Crap archives. May also include newer material than the ones above, since it's sorta in real time.

    Click here to submit a URL for Other Crap

     

     

     

     

    MOVIE REVIEWS:

    Here are the latest movie reviews available at scoopy.com.

    • The yellow asterisks indicate that I wrote the review, and am deluded into thinking it includes humor.
    • If there is a white asterisk, it means that there isn't any significant humor, but I inexplicably determined there might be something else of interest.
    • A blue asterisk indicates the review is written by Tuna (or Junior or Brainscan, or somebody else besides me)
    • If there is no asterisk, I wrote it, but am too ashamed to admit it.

    Shiloh

    Words from Scoop.

    .avi's from Shiloh.

    .wmv files made by Scoop from Shiloh's .avi's.

     

    Potpourri

    • Men of War is either intended to be a comedy or is a laughably bad movie, but Charlotte Lewis is one megababe. (.avi, .wmv)

    • Dervla Kirwan whips off the top for the Brit miniseries "A Time to Dance" (.avi, .wmv).

    • Maria Conchita Alonso is charming in Moscow on the Hudson, and the flick is actually worth watching. (.avi, .wmv)

     

     

    Flypaper

    I didn't remember a damned thing about this movie, but I must have seen it, because I wrote a short review of it four years ago, before the Movie House came along.

    Flypaper is a slight twist on the Tarantino formula. It does have the intersecting plot lines, sensationalized violence, and perverse humor, but it twists the knife in a slightly different direction. It goes directly for the humorous aspects of the grotesque violence, rather than for the gory aspects. As a result, one guy walks around with his ear off, and another guy spends the last third of the movie with a knife in his head. Now that I think about it, I don't know if anyone ever dies in this movie. They just keep accumulating more bizarre wounds, and losing more body parts. Anyway, it is funny in a sick and twisted way, but the essence of the movie is just pointless schlock, and a little of that goes a long way for me. Look for a truly twisted scene where Lucy Liu and her lover take anti-venom antidote and make love in a nest of snakes, while being bitten viciously in graphic detail. I think this heightens their pleasure - or something.

    That was written a while ago. In the intervening years, Lucy Liu has become a major star.

    • Sadie Frost (.avi, .wmv).

    • Lucy Liu (.avi, .wmv). As described above, this is a unique scene.

     

    Perhaps these tips will help if you have trouble with the codecs for these movies:

    Shiloh says:

    FYI when I hypercam vids to make the file size smaller I use DivX MPEG-4 Fast-Motion for the video compressor, then I use virtualdub to compress the audio. The properties for the vids says the video codec:  DivX Decoder Filter & audio codec:  Morgan Stream Switcher which I'm not familiar with. When I compress the audio with virtualdub I use MPEG Layer-3.  A friend of mine told me about compressing the audio about (6) mos. ago. Like I said previously, only been capping for a year & a half & I'm no expert. Hopefully this info will help members with the proper codecs for my vids.
     
    When I cap big brother's I use hypercam mostly & sdp & asfrecorder if the set up allows me. I stopped using camtasia cause the file sizes were always too big, could never figure out the process, over my head lol, plus it cost too much to buy in my opinion.

    A reader says:

    You mentioned that some users were having trouble with the videos on your site. There is a tool designed to determine what codec is needed for a video. http://www.headbands.com/gspot/ Hope this is useful to you or your users.

    Scoop says:

    I made the .wmv versions of each video. The codecs for these: Windows Video V8, Windows Audio 9. The upside of these is that you know the codecs, and they'll play in the Windows Media Player. The downside is that they are slightly larger, and slightly lower quality.

    Spaz
    'Caps and comments by Spaz:

    "Adam & Evil" (2004)
    Recently released low budget teen horror with all the cliches. The only real sex scene was ruined by the blatant use of a body double.


    "Savage Island" (2003)
    Another recent relesase. Hicksploiation about a yuppie couple who run afoul of some hillbillies on an island. A surefire recipe for disaster. No nudity.


    "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" (1999) (TV)
    Deadful Coppolla movie ruined by Adam Baldwin. The euro DVD release "The Prophecy of the Tiger" shows more skin by Karen Cliche.


    "The Fear: Resurrection" (1999) aka "Fear 2: Halloween Night"
    Horror on available on DVD in Europe. Stars a wooden statue with the acting range of Adam Baldwin. No nudity.

    LC
    Two excellent finds by LC...

    • Italian mega-babe Monica Bellucci topless in scenes from "Agents secrets" (still in theaters in Europe and not available in the US).

    • Natalia Verbeke, the Spanish cinema star showing breasts and bush in a sex scene from "Dot the I" aka "El Punto sobre la I" (2003).

    Dann
    'Caps and comments by Dann:

    "The Cooler"
    Sometimes the acting makes a mediocre story worthwhile, and that's the case in this 2003 drama/romance. Outstanding performances by William H. Macy, Maria Bello, and Alec Baldwin make up for a plot that's sometimes slow and thin in the middle, but with a cool ending. Maria's nude scenes didn't hurt, either. :-)

    Macy plays a "cooler", a guy whose luck is so bad he's used as a jinx by a mob-run Vegas casino, to kill the luck of patrons on a winning streak. He does his job well just touching a roulette table will stop a run, until he falls in love with a cocktail waitress. When love causes his luck to change, his crooked boss is less than pleased. Despite it's flaws, this very well-acted movie is worth watching.

    The movie was originally rated NC-17, then re-edited to get an R rating before release. Apparently they didn't release the NC-17 version (yet), but I sure wish they would.

    Johnny Moronic
    New on DVD, Johnny pays tribute to the ladies of the "Love Actually".

    • Elisha Cuthbert and January Jones, no nudity but both still look just fine to me.

    • Sienna Guillory, also known by Fun House readers as Helen from the the "Helen of Troy" mini-series. No nudity.

    • Keira Knightley, the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star also stayed dressed.

    • Laura Linney, the Oscar nominated actress goes topless (link #2). (1, 2, 3)

    • Heike Makatsch, the German born actress wears a tight sweater in #1, and looks amazing in a red bra and panties in #2. (1, 2)

    • Martine McCutcheon (1, 2)

    • Lúcia Moniz

    • Joanna Page, ultra-cute and very nude. (1, 2, 3)

    • Emma Thompson

    Variety
    Caro Lenssen The young and gorgeous Dutch actress going full frontal in scenes from "Cloaca" (2003). Lenssen is the daughter of another well know Dutch actress, Renée Soutendijk. 'Caps by Lament.

    Lacey Chabert DeadLamb 'caps of the former "Party of Five" star all grown up and showing off some very nice cleavage and leg views during a recent appearance on "The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn".

    Lindsay Lohan
    (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)

    The "Mean Girls" star showed off a ton of cleavage on this past weekend's "Saturday Night Live". This episode was something of a rarity for this season of SNL...it was actually funny! Thanks to DeadLamb and don22

    Simone Kessell
    (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

    Señor Skin 'caps of the lovely Kiwi actress topless in scenes from "Stickmen" (2001).