Saturday

We seem to be back to full strength except for Tuna. The boys of summer, down there in the Aussie heat, are making up for some of us Northern Hemisphere flu victims. Mr. Moronic went nuts today, and OZ will have a massive column tomorrow.

As for me, I kinda made some bad guesses yesterday. I had four movies stacked up and I think I probably watched the wrong two. LC has a film clip in here somewhere of Vera Farmiga in Joshua, and Johnny Moronic has several clips and caps from West. The two I watched were sort of a waste of time. One of them had nudity, but from an obscure bit player, and was unwatchable. The other one was a surprisingly good movie, but with minimal nudity.

Poor Boy's Game

I'll start with the good movie. You never heard of it, I suppose. I never did I until I popped it in. It's a relentlessly grim boxing drama - sort of.

When Donnie Rose was a young man of 17, he went to prison for beating another young man so brutally it left him mentally and physically handicapped for life. Donnie is white. His victim is black. Nine years later, Donnie is out, and he's a different man, but the only place left for him to go is the same violent and racist neighborhood that created him. At the other end of town, the black community still wants revenge. The instrument of justice will be a devastatingly talented champion boxer who challenges Donnie to a match that Donnie's family and peers won't let him refuse.

The father of Donnie's victim (Danny Glover) waited nine years to avenge his son's fate at the hands of Donnie, but when the two men finally meet they realize they they are the only two sane people in a world filled with bloodlust. The father used to be a boxer himself, and knows the champ's weaknesses, so he agrees to help Donnie acquire enough boxing skills to survive the match. Their unlikely partnership makes them outcasts from their own groups.

The film's climax is the big battle between Donnie and the champ.

This film had the potential to be a disaster. It's treading on well-worn thematic ground, and it seems too convenient that the father of the victim just happens to be a brilliant boxing trainer. Despite those liabilities, it manages to avoid the minefield of clichés and it strikes exactly the right balance between serious themes and intriguing narrative.

The director managed to deliver a solid and affecting drama almost entirely on the shoulders of Danny Glover, who gave the film a veneer of professionalism and authenticity in a role that could easily have been misplayed because it required him to start with great anger, then experience an epiphany, then undergo a significant character shift without losing sight of the fact that he was helping the man who once beat his own son into retardation. Glover's quiet, understated dignity matched up well with the laid-back Rossif Sutherland, who played the part of Donnie. The two men had very little dialogue, so they needed to convey a lot with looks and body language, and they pulled it off.

I also like very much how the writer brought the boxing match to an end using none of the possible outcomes you can imagine. The temptation must have been great to give in to boxing movie clichés, but the author found another path which derived naturally from the previous events in the script.

I haven't been a great fan of director Clement Virgo in the past. I thought that Lie With Me was basically just a soul-dead sexploitation movie and a massive misfire. Even the explicit sexuality wasn't very sexy. But I have revised my opinion of the director based upon this film. In terms of resources he had nothing to work with except Danny Glover. There wasn't much of a budget, and the rest of the cast was a roster of nobodies, but Virgo had Glover and a good script, and he built upon them well.

Variety called it "intelligent" and "compelling," albeit unmarketable. The Hollywood Reporter called it "wise" and "stirring." I agree with all of those adjectives, unfortunately including the unmarketable part. It's a quiet, dignified, complex low-budget Canadian indie movie with no big stars, just the sort of film which plays to empty theaters. Very few people will ever see this film, but those who look for a worthwhile serious drama may find it a real diamond in the rough.

There's just a tiny bit of flesh from Laura Regan when she gets a tattoo on her butt, but the other scene on this clip is a sex scene. While there's no real nudity, it's a fairly effective scene.

 

On Bloody Sunday

On Bloody Sunday is a grade-B torture porn movie. I don't know if it is any good or not, because the version I have has the director's commentary instead of the film's audio. I learned enough to know that I'm not going to seek out the correct audio.

A couple of minor notes:

  • The film features Danny Trejo. (He's the rugged-looking guy who plays Machete in the faux promo in Grindhouse.) This guy's career is going crazy. In 2003 he received a credit in only three films, and two of those were made by his cousin, Robert Rodriguez. Three more in 2004. Draw a line right there. Above that line: no career. Below that line: this guy is now in more movies than Michael Caine and Eric Roberts added together! And the numbers are growing like a snowball rolling downhill. Nine in 2005, ten in 2006, thirteen in 2007, and already eight more in years which have not arrived yet!
  • For perhaps the only time in his career, Trejo is not the ugliest guy in the cast. Another one of the "stars" of this film is the fat guy from Borat! As Comic Book Guy might write: "ugliest.cast.ever."

There is some good news. If I had watched the film with the correct sound, I probably would not have been able to identify the obscure actress who does the nudity. The director comes right out and says "here's Evina Luna," and talks about some of her modeling gigs. Per IMDb, this clip is her entire acting career.

 

 

  • * Yellow asterisk: funny (maybe).

  • * White asterisk: expanded format.

  • * Blue asterisk: not mine.

  • No asterisk: it probably sucks.

OTHER CRAP:

Catch the deluxe version of Other Crap in real time, with all the bells and whistles, here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have an inner ear virus, nothing serious, but I can't work on the computer.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Breathless

(1983)

The Time Machine goes back to see some of Valerie Kaprisky topless and even some far off  full frontal. Just try to ignore the Richard Gere butt shots.

Valerie Kaprisky

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes and collages

Alien vs Predator

 

Sanaa Lathan

 

Scoop's notes: you may have noticed that Rok dates his collages. I took these out of sequence and ran them all together since they are so topical. (The sequel opened this week in theaters.)

 

 

 

 

 

"The Hunger"

Season Two. Episode: "WEEK WOMAN"

 

When an illegal immigrant is threatened with deportation, his girlfriend finds him a lesbian that is willing to marry him for some money. But this marriage of convenience turns out to be something unexpected, when the lesbian turns into a housewife the week after, and the week after that into a dominatrix, and so on. Having a completely different woman each week could be fun for some time, but if you get a killer bitch on your hands one week, you better watch out.

I remember saying that the second season of The Hunger was not as good as the first one. Well, well the intros and closures aren't as good, it's true, but season two has some fun episodes with some great nudity. I wish this series had kept going, and regret that it only lasted 2 seasons.

Lisa Bronwyn Moore

 

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween

It's said that Rob Zombie's 2007 version of John Carpenter's classic 1978 horror flick Halloween is not a remake but rather a "re-visioning" of the story, and after seeing it, I kind of agree. It faithfully tells the story of Michael Myers, but with more details of his early years and original crime, and of course with Zombie's penchant for stark and chilling details.

Michael Myers at 10 years old is a troubled and unstable child, product of a dysfunctional home and bullying at school. On Halloween night in 1963, while his mother is at work as a stripper, Mikey snaps and kills his teen-age sister, her boyfriend, and her mother's live-in boyfriend. He spares only his baby sister, whom he loves dearly.

Michael is sent to Smith's Grove Sanitarium. His psychiatrist, Dr. Sam Loomis, works with him for 16 years without making any progress, and Michael is clearly doomed to life in the institution when he makes a bloody and deadly escape while being taunted by guards who are raping another inmate.

Once free, Michael heads back to his hometown to search for his baby sister, and Loomis must try and warn the residents of the town, and find the sister, before Michael does.

Purists may not care for this version, but taken on it's own, this is a very good and very scary horror flick. And of course, because it's from Zombie, it's plenty gory and graphic.

Sherri Moon Zombie Kristina Klebe Danielle Harris
 
unknown Hanna Hall

 

 

 

 

 

Johnny Moronic

Lots more today from the prolific Aussie. From Fire, series 2, we start with Tottie Goldsmith. (Film clip here, samples right)
Fire, series 2, Rebecca James. (Film clip here, samples right)
Fire, series 2, Rachael Blake, (Film clip here, sample right)
Fire, series 2, Louise Bitcon. (Film clip here, sample right)
Gillian Alexy in West. (Film clip here, sample right)
Blazey Best in West. (Film clip here, sample right)
Victoria Mussett in Boogeyman. (Film clip here, sample right)
Radha Mitchell (and Alexa Davalos in one clip) in Feast of Love.  (Film clip here, with Russian audio. Samples right)
Fiona MacGregor in Fire, Season 2
Isla Fisher (underwear) in Wedding Daze
Nadine Garner in City Homicide, series 1
Yale Stone in West

Other material

A nice collage formed from those Clair Forlani paparazzi pics from about a year ago.
Film clips of Elizabeth Banks and Maria Bello in The Sisters.
A very short film clip of Vera Farmiga in Joshua
Several pictures of the Russian National Youth Soccer team. The women's team, of course.

Some higher quality captures of Teresa Srbova in Eastern Promises.