Sunday

Tuna
"Friday the 13th"

Friday the 13th (1980) is a low budget ripoff of Halloween, in other words, a copycat teen slasher film. I have no explanation why it was a box office bonanza, and spawned so many sequels. It is pretty much a by the numbers teen slasher. Kids at camp, all councilors. The first ones to have sex are the first ones to die. Lots of gore, pretty well done, I might add, lots of startle scares, high body count, and room for a sequel.

The only nudity is one breast from Jeanine Taylor as the first victim. IMDb has this at 5.7 of 10. Made for an estimated $700K, it grossed $37.5M. The first act is well photographed, introduces some entertaining minor characters, and has a few laughs. Once the ripping stops, it is dark and stormy ad hard to see. This has a Bacon number of 0, in that it was Kevin's premier film. This is a C+. Slasher fans seem to agree that this is one of the must see films of the genre.

  • Thumbnails

  • Jeannine Taylor (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)

    • Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy)

    Smile (1975):

    It's not easy to do a good job with either vicious satire or black comedy. The inherent problem is that those literary genres tend to establish a relationship of condescension between the audience (in unison with the author) and the characters in the story. Since the audience has nobody to identify with, and since identification is the essence of vicarious literary pleasure, the black comedy must compensate the audience in some other way. The typical compensation would be one of the following:

    1) Method One: The black comedy is so inventive and funny that the lack of an emotional anchor is not noticed by the audience. (The Stanley Kubrick approach in Lolita and especially in Doctor Strangelove.)

    2) Method Two: The black comedy is offset by a true generosity of spirit toward some sympathetic characters. (The Mel Brooks approach, seen most clearly in Blazing Saddles.)

    The problem with Smile, a parody of small-time beauty pageants, is that it wavered between method one and method two.

    It seemed to be trying at times to give us some characters to love:

    • the nice, naive girl

    • the bitter town drunk who questions the false values of the town which is hosting the pageant

    • the professional choreographer whose rough exterior disguises compassion and genuine concern for the girls

    • the son of the pageant organizer, who is a normal teenager and just wants to see naked contestants

    In the last analysis, however, none of the sentimental devices or attempts to portray "genuine" people really worked. In fact, the sub-plot about the town drunk could and should have been cut completely from the film, since it really had no relevance at all. As for the other characters, the film needed to commit to them emotionally, and could never quite cross that line.

    It did a better job on the actual satire of the vacuous contestants and the unctuous low-level showbiz types who organize and host the pageants. I liked the film best when it was being really cruel. One contestant shamelessly uses her Mexican-American heritage for sympathy. One girl's "talent" is folding clothes. The choreography is hilarious. The judges have private agendas. The host is an insincere empty suit with a massive ego. And so forth. That assortment of characters gave the film moments.

    And that's what you'll get if you watch. Moments.  Now that I think about it, I have about the same reaction to many of director Michael Ritchie's films: Semi-Tough, Fletch, The Scout. Some good moments, nothing more. The films always seem to lack sufficient inspiration to be great black comedies, but they always seem at times that they might ... almost ... get there.

     

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    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.

    NOTE: because of a unique combination of circumstances with the Windows media player and some substantial bandwidth theft, we will have to do all of our movie files in zip format. Left click on the files as you normally would to view a picture. When you get a choice, click on "save", and put it on your hard drive in the directory of your choice. UnZIP and play from there.

    I know this is not especially convenient, but it allows the film clips to continue. I can protect .zip files from hot-linking in the same way I can protect still images. For some reason, if I protect .avis and .wmvs from hot-linking, they will not play in the Windows media player, and I can't get a satisfactory work-around. Perhaps I will find a better solution, but for now this new policy allows you to continue getting the movie clips you want to see, which is much preferable to my abandoning the clips altogether.

     

    Follow-up

    • Yesterday we saw Mimi Rogers posing naked for Jeff Bridges in A Door in the Floor. Today we have a very similar scene in which Amy Irving shows her stuff to Dennis Hopper. (.wmv zipped, .avi zipped)

    • We also saw Mimi Craven, Wes's ex in an episode of Dream On. Here's the former Mrs Craven in Dogwatch. (.wmv zipped, .avi zipped)

     

     

    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.

    Crimson Ghost
    NOTE: We currently have to do all of our movie files in zip format. Instead of viewing them online, save the zip files to your hard drive in the directory of your choice, un-zip and play from there.


    Today from the Ghost...some assorted video clips (zipped .wmvs as usual)

    • Felicity Huffman aka Mrs. William H. Macy...here she is topless and gettin' it on with Eric Stoltz in scenes from the made for Showtime series "Out of Order".

    • Judy Greer, very brief, but well lit toplessness in a scene from the multi-Oscar nominated movie "Adaptation.".

    • Penelope Ann Miller doing some topless dancing in the Brian De Palma film "Carlito's Way" (1993), starring Al Pacino and Sean Penn.

    Dann
    'Caps and comments by Dann:

    "The Hunger"
    Catherine Deneuve stars as a 2000 year old vampire in this 1983 cult classic. Susan Sarandon plays a doctor researching aging.

    When the vampire takes a lover (and she takes both male and female), the lover becomes immortal, at least as long as they're the current lover. Once cast aside, they age rapidly, usually within a day, and die of old age.

    When her current lover dies, the vampire takes up with the research doctor, allegedly to help research aging, but of course, she has something else in mind.

    A decent vampire story that's also notable for the lesbian scene between Deneuve and Sarandon.

    DeadLamb
    DeadLamb's latest weekly Prime Time skin report.

    From the NBC series "Las Vegas"

    • Molly Sims, some teaser down blouse and upskirt views.
    • Nikki Cox, her usual amazing cleavage.
    • Vanessa Marcil, not much skin, but very tight pants, and she grabs her crotch after getting laid.


    From the WB series "The Mountian"


    From another WB series, "One Tree Hill"

    • Bethany Joy Lenz, tight tops and a great down shirt cleavage view.
    • Summer Altice, the former Heffer (August 2000) wearing skimpy lingerie and showing a bit more partial rear nudity than you'd normally expect to see in prime time.


    One more from the WB. From the series "Smallville"

    • Brianna Lynn Brown, doing the arms over boobs thing as she runs out of a locker room soaking wet and without her shirt on.

    Oz
    'Caps and comments by Oz:

    "Guarded Secrets"
    We'll start with the naked ladies in Guarded Secrets, a movie for which the plot is irrelevant. The full works by Brandi Coppock, Carla Sofia Lescius and some unnamed women. Almost as naked were Gabriella Hall and Lesli Kay Sterling.

    • Brandi Coppock (1, 2, 3, 4)
    • Carla Sofia Lescius (1, 2, 3, 4)
    • Unknowns (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
    • Gabriella Hall (1, 2, 3, 4)
    • Lesli Kay Sterling (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)


    "The Allnighter"
    No nudity in The Allnighter but a lot of nice looking women headed by Dedee Pfeifer, Janelle Brady, Mary Petrie, Denise Dumont, Christina Lane and Ruth Zachariah. Susanna Hoffs (of The Bangles) is supposedly naked as she has sex whilst using a sheet as a form of contraception.


    "Last Dance"
    Mimi Craven appeared topless on Saturday's Funhouse and she flashes a breast in Last Dance where she plays a stripper.


    "Sweet Revenge"
    A bit of knicker is shown by Helena Bonham-Carter in Sweet Revenge.

    Variety
    Natalie Portman
    (1, 2, 3)

    		Fantastic, high quality stills featuring scenes from her upcoming movie "Closer". Even though she plays a stripper, there is no nudity here, but still...Portman looks stunning!

    Sarah Kaite Coughlan
    (1, 2)
    and
    Viktorija Soldatenko
    (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

    		Both ladies are topless in Señor Skin 'caps featuring scenes from the 2002 direct-to-vid Eric Roberts movie, "Endangered Species".