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Updates
- Charlie's French Cinema Nudity Site
is updated
The King (2006)
The King is one of the most profoundly twisted
and depressing films I've ever seen.
Gael Garcia Bernal plays a young man named Elvis,
the son of a Mexican prostitute and a Southern white man who never
acknowledged his paternity. Elvis is a character of pure evil. When we
first see him, he is being released from the navy. He stops at a
brothel during the opening credits, and then heads "home" to meet the
father (William Hurt) he has never met before. Elvis introduces
himself to dad, who has now repented of the misspent youth which
spawned Bernal, and has become a Baptist preacher with an upstanding
life and a close family. The father essentially tells his son to kiss
off. Not a good move.
Bernal executes a twisted and calculating
"revenge" plan. (I guess it is revenge for dad's slights or imagined
slights against himself and his mother, but his motivation is never
really that clear.) He seduces and impregnates his virginal and
sensitive half-sister without telling her about their blood
connection, then knifes his half-brother to death in secret, all the
while slowly ingratiating himself with his father. He has far more
evil in store for the family before the movie will end.
In essence, Elvis is the devil, tempting and
taunting the Christians as he did to their founder in the desert long
ago.
I'm really not sure what this film is supposed to
be. Is it some kind of an arty horror film about a twisted sociopath,
ala Psycho? Is is some kind of morality play in the tradition of the
Greek tragedies? Or is it a pitch-black comedy which attacks the
hypocrisy of Christian values? I'm just not sure. One critic described
it as a morality play without the morals, and that seems accurate.
Whatever the film's takeaway is supposed to be, and no matter the
intrinsic value of the direction and acting, the plain fact of the
matter is that this film has almost no audience. It doesn't have the
over-the-top guilty pleasures necessary to please the horror film
buffs, and it doesn't have enough focus or a strong enough point to
please the arthouse drama crowd. It is an exasperating and profoundly
non-commercial, feel-bad movie, albeit a slickly constructed one.
Variety called it "pointless" and "unjustifiably ugly," and I echo
those sentiments. It's an unpleasant experience.
It grossed about a quarter of a million dollars
in arthouse distribution.
This film clip of the brothel visit (zipped
.wmv) is the extended version from the DVD special features. The
version in the film itself never shows the prostitute's face! (Not
sure why.) The actress is Veronica Bernal
(no relation to Gael Bernal, her sexual partner in the scene). For
reference, here is her
home
page.
This film clip (zipped
.wmv) is Elvis's seduction of his little sister, who is played
by Pell James.
The Butterfly Effect 2 (2006)
This is a straight-to-video sequel which
belongs on the Lifetime network. It's basically a trite love story
in which a somewhat callous man with a mysterious power to change
the past eventually realizes what a shitbag he has been and makes
the decisions he should have made in the first place. It's just
not worth writing about.
This scene with
Erica Durance (zipped
.wmv) does eventually show a fleeting breast-shot here and
there, but I'll be damned if I ever saw any nipples in there
anywhere. Erica is a pretty girl, however, and the action is quite
hot, so the scene is worth a look even though the lovers are
wearing far too much clothing.
OTHER CRAP:
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Human For Sale - - How much
are you worth?
Another criminal
mastermind:
"A man suspected of
stealing a loaded beer truck was nabbed after a
police dog followed a trail of discarded beers"
The Official Website of Dog
Chapman - The Bounty Hunter
Colbert prsents the latest
animated Tek Jansen adventure,
in which Tek spends the entire episode trying to
dock his ship
Colbert shows the winner of
his green screen competition (George Lucas
finished second)
Colbert gets a surprise
when George Lucas enters his "green screen
challenge" ...
Part 2 of the Lucas
appearance ...
Part 3 (Colbert and Lucas
have a light-saber duel)
Jon Oliver, the Daily
Show's resident Limey, studies America's
militaristic culture.
...
Jon Oliver's report, part
2.
Jon Stewart interviews Lou
Dobbs, part 1
...
Lou Dobbs, part 2
...
Lou Dobbs, part 3
The Daily Show reports on
how much Donald Trump hates garish
overcompensation.
Letterman's
"Top Ten Signs Barbra
Streisand's Gone Nuts"
- When a fan shouted,
'Sing 'Memories',' she beat him to death with
her high heel
- At conclusion of 'The
Way We Were,' bites off the head of a bat
- Invited Mel Gibson to
come over and watch 'Yentl'
- Now believes that
people who need people are only the
third-luckiest people in the world
- When a cameraman
accidentally photographed her from the wrong
side, she shot him with a 12-gauge
- Finally had a nose
job -- to make it bigger!
Premiere Magazine - The 50
Biggest Hollywood Disasters
Just before filming this
ad,, Orson Welles apparently served quite a bit
of wine before its time
TARA REID’S BOOBS HAVE
SURGERY TO REMOVE TARA
Four clips from Babel
(2006)
Behind the scenes at Mel
Gibson's Apocalypto
The trailer for Freedom
Writers
- The project is based
on "The Freedom Writer's Diaries: How a
Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change
Themselves and the World Around Them," written
by high school teacher Erin Gruwell and her
students. In the inspiring book, Gruwell and
her "unteachable, at-risk" students set out on
a life-changing, eye-opening, spirit-raising
odyssey against ignorance, misunderstanding,
and the negative forces in their own lives.
Beginning with their study of "The Diary of
Anne Frank" and the Holocaust, the Freedom
Writers seek out heroes in the wider world. As
their writing projects develop, the students
strive to become their own heroes.
U.S. Questions Size of
North Korean Nuke Blast
... Kim Jong-Il Says Size Does Not Matter - 'The
Earth Moved,' Claims North Korean Dictator"
Heavily invested in Plasma
or LCD? Bad news. They're both obsolete
- "world's first laser
television ... half the price, twice as good,
and use a quarter of the electricity of
conventional plasma and LCD TVs."
Maz Fleischer's first-ever
color cartoon, Betty Boop: Poor Cinderella
The game show - Who's More
Grizzled??
President Bush's Statement
Regarding North Korea's Totally Non-Foreseeable,
Non-Negotiable Development of Nukular Weapons
(WHITEHOUSE.ORG)
"Who is Hollywood's Biggest
Hack? Most Wanted Actor? Most Deranged Director?
More than 50 of the industry's top power brokers
dish out the honors in an Exclusive Radar Poll"
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Movie Reviews:
Yellow asterisk: funny (maybe). White asterisk: expanded format.
Blue asterisk: not mine. No asterisk: it probably sucks.
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Over 18 and Ready (1969)
Over 18 and Ready is a grindhouse effort. Mary McRae plays the secretary to
an exploitation movie maker, but she originally had come to Hollywood to be in
the movies, so when he has trouble finding his newest leading lady, she
campaigns for the part. In order to get the job, she must sleep with him and
also with his lesbian wife, who provides the financing. She would rather be
doing the photographer, but they move her into their Malibu home to avoid
competition. A sexy maid provides diversion when nothing better is around. It
ends badly, with the sinner being punished for her sins.
IMDb has no opinion as yet, but when and if they do, it will not be good.
The acting was poor, the transfer is full of scratches, Mary McRae is plump by
today's standards, and it is just plain sloppy. There are two bath scenes in
different houses, but both use the same tub. In one scene, you can see a crew
member's arm (see image 36 of Mary McRae).
Of course, there were far worse efforts in grindhouses in the late 60s,
making this one a low C- if grindhouse is your bag, baby.
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Dann reports on Lower City: This 2005
Brazilian drama about a lover's triangle doesn't bring anything new to the
party, but I still liked it, even though it's in Portuguese with English
sub-titles.
Two lifelong friends own a freight-hauling
boat together. They give a prostitute/stripper a ride one day, and both
men become friends with her. Both men also have sex with her (for free).
As the three become closer, and the men
each become more fond of the girl, she struggles desperately to maintain
an intimate relationship with both hoping they can all stay friends, but
naturally, their love for the girl drive the men apart.
As you can see, nothing really new here,
but I still liked it. One reason is that the chemistry between Alice
Braga and the two male leads really transferred onto the screen. It's
also a very gritty if somewhat depressing story, as lower city refers to
the slumlike area where the three lived and worked. These weren't high
society-type folks, and the actors did an excellent job of conveying that.
Alice Braga |
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Notes and collages
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Tara Fitzgerald in Sirens. This daydream
moment of Tara's character (while she is attending church) is debatedly
the most erotic moment in this wonderful film not because she is running
towards the viewer but because she is actually running towards that
cluster of randy young men....
Looking for Mr. Goodbar. This was Diane Keaton's
radical break away from comedy films in an effort to get herself
noticed in Hollywood as a serious actress. It worked. I saw this
film in the theater as a teen; the ending freaked me out.
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Heather Doba
in the immortal cinema classic, Mr Jingles |
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Jessica Hall
in Mr Jingles. This film could be headed for the
all-time worst rating at IMDb. It is currently rated 1.5. There have been 98
votes, and 69 of them are 1/10 (and 11 of the others are obviously bogus
10/10 votes!).
Scott Weinberg
wrote:
"Not including the opening and closing credits, Mr.
Jingles runs about 65 minutes, which is about 62 more than you'll
need. When we're not being treated to a murderous clown doling out some of
the lamest gore effects imaginable, the filmmakers (ok, the guys who own
the camera) deliver endlessly tedious conversations about weed, sex, and
the neighborhood's "hidden" secret. Eventually the chit-chat dies down, a
few more idiots are (unconvincingly) killed, and we're left with an ending
so moronic it boggles the mind. This flick gets it all wrong: acting,
writing, lighting, lensing, pacing, killing ... It's pretty amazing,
actually. How something this worthless even gets pressed onto DVD is
simply beyond me"
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Diora Baird
in Hot Tamale (This may be a re-run. I've lost track of
it. If so, sorry!) |
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