Hable con ella (2002), or Talk To Her, is every bit as good as C2000 and Scoopy indicated when they reviewed this Almodóvar film. It is ostensibly about two men united by the fact that the loves of their lives are in a vegetative state, and not expected to recover from the coma. Benigno's love is a ballet dancer (Leonor Watling) injured in an auto accident. Marco was getting serious about Rosario Flores, a bull fighter, when she was gored by a bull. The two men meet in an exclusive hospital. The title comes from Benigno's advice to Marco, "Talk to her."

The film is really about the friendship that develops between the two, and even more, the nature of friendship, and of true love. While many tragic events occur, the film is not depressing, as Almodóvar finds the good in his characters, rather than dwelling on their errors. I can't recall a weak performance in the entire film, and the narrative slowly revels the present and the past effortlessly switching time frames. This lack of a linear frame of reference de-emphasizes the plot, and allows the details and relationships to come to the foreground. The script, in fact, won an Oscar. Oddly enough, this won the Golden Globe for best foreign film, but lost the Goya to Mondays in the Sun. That must be a hell of a film. The score was outstanding, and even song choices, including a personal favorite, Cucurrcucu, Paloma, were also brilliant. It is currently sitting at 8.3 at IMDB, with a rank of #137 of all time.

Three women have exposure. Leanor Watling shows breasts in several scenes, all but one while unconscious. Paz Vega shows breasts and bush in a B&W silent film within the film, and Elena Anya shows all three Bs in a dark, long distance flashback as an ex girlfriend of Marco. This film is a B- or better. Very few subtitled films at IMDB are in the top 250, and is equally popular with men and women.

UPDATES:

Updated volumes: Kristin Scott Thomas

HEAVEN (2002):

Heaven is, in many ways, a brilliant film. It was written many years ago by the legendary and late Kieslowski, the unofficial ethics professor of the filmmaking world. It was to have been the first part of his second trilogy: "Heaven, Hell and Purgatory". It was directed by Tom Twkver, a flat-out genius with a unique style, the man who directed Lola Rennt and the Princess and the Warrior. It is morally complex, and brilliantly executed. But something just wasn't right. The whole is less than the sum of its parts. I never really did manage to put my finger on the exact problem, but I made an attempt in the long review.

• Masha Sirago
• Cate Blanchett (probably not naked, but you can't tell) (1, 2)

SUICIDE BLONDE (2002):

Suicide Blonde is actually a remarkably entertaining film for something made with a budget of approximately zero. It's a gangster comedy-drama in which the gangsters are both threatening and silly, like Miami Cubano updates some of the Runyonesque underworld characters in the films of the 1940's. Shot in the Art Deco District on South Beach, it was filmed with extreme levels of contrast and saturation in order to give a more distinctive flavor to the otherwise unexceptional visuals. It does have a certain flair for a no-budget film.

Summary:

A feckless valet parking attendant is hijacked by psychotic criminals while parking the car of a big-time gangster. During the course of the night, in several desperate self-defense maneuvers, the poor schmuck lucks out of several tricky situations with the hijackers and the car's owner, and ends up assuming the identity of a legendary underworld figure named Scorpion - sort of a Miami version of Keyser Sose. By the time the Cuban Mafia guys finally meet him, it is they who are terrified, not he.

Pretty silly, but an easy watch. Call it a respectable C-, a film to watch if you really enjoy the whole lurid, tongue-in-cheek, Tarantino approach to violence.

Former Playmate Angel Boris provides ample breastitude, and she is joined by an assortment of background strippers, only one of whom was identifiable from the credits.

• Angel Boris (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
• Tonya Goodson

MAILBOX:

Scoop:

I was doing a Google search and came across a mailbag question about my film:

"Hey Scoop, Does anyone have caps of Kira Reed in "Cheerleader Ninjas" (1998)? I haven't seen the flick, but I hear that her scenes are pretty good."

Well, here's the scoop (sorry, had to throw that bad pun out there).  The film is going to be released on DVD in November by Lions Gate Films.  I don't have any DVD screeners right now (that comes from the Lions Gate marketing department), but I will try to get you guys a copy of it so you can give it the review it deserves.  Hopefully, I'll have some before the film hits video shelves.  Then, you can make caps for all of your happy members.

Tony Osio
Executive Producer
"Cheerleader Ninjas"

Visit our film website at http://www.cheerleaderninjas.com
 

OTHER CRAP:

• Hammer & Tongs, the British commercial and video-directing and producing team, will helm a feature film based on Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• smutty book covers of the 50s
• here's a larger version of that awful picture of a certain plumped-up diva
• Iraq is now officially free - they have a boy band. That is the price of freedom.
• why are there so few sex and nude scenes in new movies? Blame John Ashcroft (Great picture of Halle Berry)
• more naughty pics of the PGA streaker
• giant-breasted old-time model Roberta Pedon
• Florida DJ's make prank call to Fidel Castro
• If you've ever worried about who will take care of you and your family in the event that you get abducted by aliens, there's good news -- you can take out an alien abduction insurance policy! Or at least the Weekly World News thinks so.
• Scatalogue: 30 Years of Crap in Contemporary Art, opens Thursday at Ottawa's SAW Gallery. Will there be a tribute to The Hours? Once again, we see them many faces ... er ... feces... of Canada.
• In the publicity coup of the year, former White House intern Monica Lewinsky was chosen today to narrate the audio book version of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s best-selling memoir, “Living History.”. (Note to the slow and the slow at heart: Borowitz's columns look like real news items. They are not.)
• Plumber's butt is now in style for women

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 Lawdog or Junior or C2000 or Realist or ICMS or Mick Locke, or somebody else besides me)
• If there is no asterisk, I wrote it, but am too ashamed to admit it.

• Salma Hayek, beautiful toplessness and near frontal exposure in a lesbian love scene.

• Lucia Bravo, nude with breast exposure.

Be sure to pay Graphic Response a visit at his website. www.graphic-barry.com.

Diggin deep into history we have caps from two movies, released in 1957 and 1963.

First and foremost, IMHO, is Brigitte Bardot in the Vadim-directed original of ...and God created woman. Silly fucking movie, but BB gets as bare as anyone would allow in the middle of the last century.

Five collages of Brigitte.

• Side-al nudity while sunbathing
• Nude, rising from the bed, with some damn model-ship sail in the way.
• Bottom in a bikini
• Wet t-shirt on top row, bum in undies on the bottom row
• T-shirt and wet dress caps

Then there is Daniella By Night (1963), starring Elke Sommer as Daniella.

Three collages here:

• Elke being stripped-searched behind a curtain (cleverly done so as to appear like a staged dance routine)
• Elke, when the curtain parts (bottom half of collage) and in tight pants, showing that our tastes in womens's bums has evolved in the past fifty years.
• Uncredited topless dancers. I stuck in this one because these gals could well be the first in a very long line of women who played strippers and gave up the goodies on screen, but who faded into history, known only to God. There ought to be some sort of directory of babes who played strippers, with chapter and verse of which movie, which scene, which babe.

Today a look at Holly Sampson in "The Regina Pierce Affair".

Holly has had a strange career, starting out in the late eighties with guest appearances in TV shows like "Matlock", "The Wonder Years" and "My Two Dads". Then switching gears she became a soft core staple in scores of B-movies.

Anyway here is Holly showing us all of her lovely body.

• Holly Sampson (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)

"Frida", and "Adaptation."...more proof for Hollywood that car chases, cute kids and talking dogs don't win Oscars, breasts do!

First up, "Frida", the bio-pic of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

• Salma Hayek bares her lovely breasts and gets it on in a lesbian scene. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)

• Lucia Bravo, breast exposure. (1, 2, 3, 4)

• Mia Maestro, gorgeous rear nudity in Link #2. (1, 2)

• Ivana Sejenovich, full frontal nudity. (1, 2)

Next up, "Adaptation." the movie based on writer Charlie Kaufman's struggle to adapt the best-selling book "The Orchid Thief" into a screenplay. Oddly enough, Kaufman's fictional alter ego "Donald Kaufman" was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Oscar.

• Catherine Keener, showing some pokies. (1, 2)

• Judy Greer, very lovely breast exposure. (1, 2, 3)

• Meryl Streep, some cleavage and pokies. (1, 2)