Friday

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Of Love and Shadows (1994) is two films in one. First, it is a love story between Jennifer Connelly and Antonio Banderas. Second, it is about the atrocities and abuses of power committed by the military leadership that declared a state of emergency in 1973 in Chile. Connelly attempts to play one of the privileged class, who close their eyes to the abuses around them. She is single, but engaged to an Army officer, and works for a fashion magazine. In walks Banderas. He was a psychologist before the takeover, and is now hoping for a job as a photographer. There is much more to him, however. His father was a strong anti-Fascist in Spain, and his priest brother, with his help, is collecting evidence of human rights violations. Although Banderas is not on any blacklist, he is working "in the shadows" to overthrow the military government.

Inevitably, Connelly and Banderas fall in love, and, just as inevitably, Connelly starts seeing the reality of torture and oppression. The dialogue was awful, Connelly didn't have the skill to pull of the part, and only Banderas was equal to the role. However, just when I was sure I had the entire story figured out, they shot Connelly. From there to the end, I was engaged in the story. IMDB readers say 4.9 of 10, and the few critics listed at IMDB were enthusiastic in their disapproval. Connelly almost shows a breast near the beginning of the film while with her fiancee, then again shows most of a breast, including some nipple in a love scene with Banderas. This could have been an interesting story. The political situation in Chile is interesting, and the Connelly character, and her new found social conscience could have made for a great character driven drama. There were also plenty of chances for action, and for suspense. There is a good film in the basic story, but they were several actors, and a script short of making it. D.

Billy Bathgate is actually a pretty good movie, much better than the 5.7 rating at IMDb would lead you to believe, but the problem with it is that you'll feel you've seen it before, even if you haven't. It's a completely unoriginal, retro, 1930's-style movie about gangster Dutch Schultz, complete with a syrupy old-fashioned musical background score mixed in with actual period music. It isn't new and it isn't new-fangled. I'm not sure how that important that is to you, but if you don't care, then it is a well-acted film (Dustin Hoffman, Steve Buscemi, Bruce Willis, Nicole Kidman) with good production values and Nicole Kidman naked in two separate full-frontal scenes..

• Kidman (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

The Seniors is a mostly unfunny 1978 campus comedy about students who become millionaire pimps. The DVD is 4:3, and is one of the worse transfers ever, full of noise, artifacts, bad sound -  it's obviously just transferred from another multi-generation medium of some kind. But it has a Priscilla Barnes topless scene that I've never seen before, and is thus elevated to the rank of cinema classic, at least for this moment.

• Barnes
• others (in the second collage you will see a woman showering with a very young Dennis Quaid - 24 years ago) (1, 2, 3, 4)

Sometimes the magic of the movies just isn't quite magical enough. In the biopic of serial killer Ted Bundy, Bundy has his fiancee trussed up and is putatively dinging the bejeepers out of her. Except for the minor detail that he's obviously thrusting into her pants, and not her genitalia - see collage #1. I can see why the actress didn't want to do that scene naked, but they really needed to work harder to maintain the illusion.

This film is OK, I guess, but I really can't give you any reason to watch it once you've seen our collages. It is really superficial. If I had made this, I don't think I would have been so cavalier about Bundy's treatment of his victims. That kind of stuff works well in fantasy movies, but the memories are still quite fresh for some of their loved ones. I sure hope the families of Bundy's victims don't watch, because it's pretty grisly stuff, with occasional black humor as hell. I guess I'm not one to say that a movie is in bad taste, because when it comes to fantasy movies, I often like bad taste. But in my opinion, this film walks the line.

• Boti Bliss (1, 2, 3)

Updates:

new Encyclopedia volumes for: Johanna ter Steege,  Drew Barrymore, Sandrine Bonnaire, Glenn Close, Georgina Cates, Phoebe Cates, and Lana Clarkson

Other crap:

• Hugh Hefner wants fewer nude women in Playboy.
• If you haven't already read about it, the Iraqi VP, in essence, challenged Bush to a duel with Saddam. Dubya turned it down. here's a tip for you youngsters. If someone challenges you to a duel - accept. You see, the guy who is challenged gets to pick the weapon, so all you have to do is choose something at which you are good, and he bad. For example, if the guy who challenged you can't swim, you choose underwater spear guns. Our second tip o' the day - don't challenge anyone. Wait until he challenges you.
• Retrocrush picks the worst Halloween costumes of all time. This is great stuff!
• Weekly World News reports that J-Lo's butt is an alien implant

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.

Rabid Grannies ('89) is a Troma production made in Europe. Not a bad little effort, either, with the premise of two old ladies turning on a bunch of relatives who cannot wait to feast on them, metaphorically speaking. Lots of gore, some wittiness but only one bare breast. That was shown by Francoise Moens, who I gather was Miss Belgium in 1978. Got this movie because an actress named Ann-Marie Fox is in it. That is also the name of the Hefmate for Feb '82, and I thought maybe it was her and she would get all nekkid and stuff... but no. This movie's Ann-Marie Fox played one of the grannies and I, for one, was relieved to see her covered from head to toe.

• Françoise Moens (1, 2, 3)

• Thumbnail preview
• Jamie Bochert. Links 3 and 8 have clear breast exposure. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

The highlights:
Topless...links 1,2 and 4
Thong view...link #5
See-thru...links 7 and 8
Almost full frontal...link #6

Here's the breakdown:
Links #1 and #3...topless with arm over breasts.
Link #2...breast and nipple exposure!
Link #4...topless with arm over breasts, a hint of areola and a thong view!
Link #5...side breast view!

There is currently an ad campaign of Sisley in our town with this picture. Do you have an idea who the girl is of if there are more pics of her?

-M