Moscow on the Hudson (1984) is my personal favorite Robin Williams film, and is new to DVD next week. Maltin is also a fan of this film, giving it 3 1/2 stars, but IMDB readers say 6.1/10. Interestingly, the older you are, the more likely you are to like it, with under 18s at 4.5, and over 45s at 6.8. It is a simple idea -- a Russian Circus musician (Williams) defects during a US tour in Bloomingdales. The film is about how he becomes an American. One of the themes of the film is the entire "melting pot" experience. He hides under the skirt of an Italian store clerk (Maria Conchita Alonso) who later becomes his girlfriend, gets hooked up with a Cuban lawyer, moves in with a black family, and so on.

Williams was second choice for the role. They wanted Dustin Hoffman, but selected Williams when Hoffman wasn't interested. Later, when Hoffman changed his mind, he was told it was too late. To prepare for the film, which starts in Russia (actually Munich, as the former Soviet Union would never have allowed this to be filmed there), Williams learned Russian in three months, and learned to play sax in his spare time. Director/Writer Paul Mazursky comments in the feature length commentary track that Williams, at first, was trying to be funny all of the time, but soon learned that this was a straight part that had humorous moments, and adapted to give one of his best performances.

Maria Conchita Alonso has a lengthy topless scene in the bath with Williams, where Williams is constantly tweaking her nipples. We also see pretty much everything in a dark scene with Williams Russian girlfriend, played by stage actress Olga Talyn. I am pretty sure I see pubic hair in some of the images. The DVD is a wonderful transfer, and has both Widescreen and 4/3 versions. This film is a B or better.

I have had better days.  Today, I watched two of the worst movies of the year 2001, neither with any nudity, and a piece of hand held 8mm cinema verite crap. Life does have its cycles. Yesterday, I  got to watch Almost Famous and Tanya Roberts naked.

NEW DVD RELEASE: American Outlaws. H.L. Mencken was wrong, you know. It IS possible to go broke underestimating the taste of the American public. Just ask the guy who produced this film, about how Jesse James put together the very first boy band. The money man raised $35 million to make this movie, and got back - well, no real money, but some of those paper coins that they used to put in Mallo Cups, plus a bottle of T.J. Swann, and almost a thousand complimentary advantage miles on Buddy Holly Airways. 

6% good reviews from the top critics (lower than Battlefield Earth)

• Ali Larter in her swimming togs. Don't know if anything is visible. Probably not. Larter is a beautiful woman who seems to have more talent than necessary to appear in these crappy films targeting the Dawson's Creek crowd. (She was also the whipped cream bikini chick in Varsity Blues)

NEW DVD RELEASE: Fiona is an Amos Kollek cinema verite hooker-heroin-lesbian thing. Joyless, depressing, technically awful. However, it contains extremely explicit sex and nudity.

• Anna Thomson Levine. Anna bears a very strong resemblance to the Warner brothers cartoon character, Tweety Bird. The first collage is nearly a gyno-cam shot. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
• three way sex with an on-screen BJ. Now THAT's entertainment. They made a film called That's Entertainment, and one called That's Dancing, but I think the world is now ready for That's Blowjobs.

Sing along with me, to the tune of That's Entertainment

Call 'em "French"

Call 'em "blowjobs" or "sucks"

Give me head

I don't need any fucks

Make 'em cheap 

like below twenty bucks

Hey, hey, that's blowjobs

NEW DVD RELEASE: Ghosts of Mars. Terrible movie, no nudity. Lost just as much money as American Outlaws, and deserved it about equally. Is actually rated lower than Outlaws at IMDB, but some people liked this one. About  20% positive reviews, and a surprising three stars from Roger Ebert.

• Natasha Henstridge in her undies

Charlie's French Cinema Nudity site is updated.  Be sure to check out the caps of Asia Argento in Scarlet Diva

First up, Krista Errickson bares here breasts a few times in scenes from "Mortal Passions" (1990). In the grand scheme of B-movies, this one actually had a little star power with "Gremlins" star Zach Galligan in the lead, and B-movie legend David Warner rounding out the cast.

Here is Diana Roy in 1983's blockbuster hit (ha,ha), "Invinciible Barbarian". Diana is captured, stripped, tied up and then tortured with a really strange contraption made of pointy sticks. This is the highlight of the whole movie.

-Hankster

The movie opens on Selma Blair's tiny titties, which could be worse; unfortunately, the lighting is not that great.

In her second nude scene, she has to undress before being taken from behind, alas there's not really more to see than what's in the trailer, ie a full body side nude shot which doesn't show much.

What struck me is the similarity of this scene with one from "le secret" (which I happened to watch again yesterday): in "le secret", we have long full nude body shots of Anne Coesens while she's 'estimated' by the guy, and her moves (especially with her hands) and face express her fragility and give the scene a great intensity.

In Storytelling, the scene is much shorter and during the 'estimation' we are just shown the guy's face which gives much less strength to the scene IMHO. I guess a full frontal Selma would have been too much for MPAA.