Poor White Trash (1957)

Original title: Bayou

Director: Harold Daniels

Writer: Edward I. Fessler

Composer: Gerald Fried

Starring: Peter Graves, Lita Milan, Douglas Fowley, Jonathan Haze, Ed Nelson, Eugene Sonfield, Evelyn Hendrickson, Milton Schneider, Michael Romano, Timothy Carey

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Somewhere, a 15-year old girl may be a teenager... in the Cajun country, she's a woman full-grown! ...and every Bayou man knows it!

Plot: A community of Cajun fishermen living around a remote bayou includes one authentic beauty, Marie, who wants to better herself but must deal with the unwelcome attentions of storekeeper Ulysses. When she meets Martin Davis, visiting New York architect, they hit it off at once; but the sinister Ulysses is not inclined to suffer a Yankee rival.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

I kinda figured, this being from '57, it wasn't going to deliver what the title suggested.  The story is pretty simple.  Ulysses (Carey) is a dangerous asshole that takes what he wants and no one in this little Cajun community will stand up to him.  He rapes Marie (Milan) and gets jealous as hell when Martin (Graves), an architect from NYC, takes a liking to her but there's a hurricane a-brewin' that's sure to shake things up even further.  There isn't much reason to see this except that it's got Peter Graves, Jonathan Haze (Seymour from THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1960)) and a wild performance from Kramer!

Nope.  It's Timothy Carey but he is definitely a wild card when it comes to acting. This 6'4" guy often times acted his way into being the oddest or most memorable character in a lot of the pictures he did.  In this one he's off the charts again (did you see that dance in the video above?) as the asshole rapist.  He definitely stands out, that's for sure.  Here's something salacious for you, Marie is 15 years old and the adult Martin never questions her age; he just goes along with the flow...even when that river moves him down to nailin' her during a hurricane.  That scene is just awful, too.  The lovemaking (mostly kissing from what I can see) is superimposed with the rough, crashing waves created by the hurricane.  And there's the horrendous trumpet/mariachi-esque music where the theme lasts a few seconds but it's repeated at least 10-20 times.  It's an assault on the eyes and the ears. That's the hurricane sex scene.  After that Martin finally shows some balls (he's a pacifist that doesn't want to fight) when he's forced into battling it out with Ulysses.  There's no surprise who wins.  There's a tiny bit of nudity near the beginning when Ulyysses is chasing Marie and rips a piece of clothing off her as he catches up to her two or three times.  You see her backside but that's it.  Everything else is cleverly concealed even though the chase lasts a lot longer than you'd expect.  Great job on the editing.  I'm a sucker for these sleazy Southern pictures so it was worth my 83 minutes.

Stan Lee's Mutants, Monsters & Marvels (2002)

Director: Scott Zakarin

Composer: ???

Starring: Stan Lee, Kevin Smith

More info: IMDb

Plot: In this video, filmmaker/comic writer Kevin Smith interviews the legendary comics writer, editor and promoter Stan Lee about his life and work. In two seperate films, "Creating Spider-Man" and "Here Come the Heroes," Stan Lee discusses the creation of his greatest character, his career in the comics field and his relationship to his creative collaborators, especially the artists and co-writers, Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

Stan Lee is such a chatty, interesting guy that it's fun simply watching him talk about his life  in comics.  The two 'features' total about an hour and a half but they're very informative and fun.  He covers lots of material talking about all of the characters he created or had a hand in creating.  The only rub I've got is in the first few minutes of the first feature.  Kevin Smith says 'uh-huh', 'yeah', 'right', and so on, acknowledging every single sentence Lee speaks and he interjects frequently as if to show us he knows what Lee's talking back.  At first it's really annoying but eventually it starts to dissipate so you focus on Lee.  I really dig Smith but it old fast.  The disc is fun for fans of Stan Lee and he really delivers the goods and for that, it's worth picking up on the cheap.  It's got a few extras including text cast bios, a two-minute behind the scenes featurette (really?  two minutes is all you could muster?), a 7-minute interview with Stan's wife, Joan, who he's been married to since 1947 (!!!), less than a minute unused clip with Kevin and Stan about the 1990 FANTASTIC FOUR movie, 14 minutes of audio of Stan reading his poem, "God Woke" (God, says Stan is the greatest super hero of all (!)), and 3 minutes of Stan's home movies.

Tales from the Far Side (1994)

Director: Marv Newland

Writers: Gary Larson, Marv Newland, J. Falconer, Dieter Mueller

Composer: Bill Frisell

Starring: Kathleen Barr, Doug Parker, Lee Tockar, Dale Wilson

More info: IMDb

Tagline: It's going to be a bumpy night.

Plot: A series of Gary Larsen's "Far Side" gags are turned into short animated gags, such as a Frankenstein cow; an insect airline's in-flight movie; deers, hunters, and UFOs; wolf home-movies; egg horror flicks; and cowboys & aliens.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

I LOVE the comic strip.  For me it's second only to Calvin & Hobbes and a close second at that.  This near-half hour special is simply Larson's single panel comic brought to life.  It's not as fun as the comic strip but it's really dark in tone and Frisell's score sets the mood to a 'T'.  If you imagine one of his comics, widen the field of view and start the camera off to one side and ending on the punchline, you'll have a good idea at how this animation works.  There are also gags that weren't in his strip like the airplane filled with all manner of insects flying to their destination with a bug flight attendant handing out larvae for the on flight meal.  That might have been a comic strip but what follows wouldn't have been (the attendant's head is eaten by a passenger).  If you dig the strip you'll probably dig this to some degree.  It's not a home run but I've seen it twice now and I think I'm done but I'll never grow tired of Larson's comic. 

Gun Crazy (1950)

Original title: Deadly Is the Female

Director: Joseph H. Lewis

Writers: MacKinlay Kantor, Dalton Trumbo, Millard Kaufman

Composer: Victor Young

Starring: Peggy Cummins, John Dall, Berry Kroeger, Morris Carnovsky, Anabel Shaw, Harry Lewis, Nedrick Young, Trevor Bardette, Mickey Little, Russ Tamblyn

More info: IMDb

Tagline: SHE BELIEVES IN TWO THINGS...love and violence!

Plot: A well meaning crack shot husband is pressured by his beautiful marksman wife to go on an interstate robbery spree, where he finds out just how depraved and deadly she really is.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

This one's been sitting on my shelf wrapped in plastic for years and I finally slapped it in.  What a great fucking flick!  The first few minutes might seem like it drags but it's important to the story so stick with it.  You find out what Bart's (Dall) motivations are.  Cut to adulthood and Bart has turned himself around and he's on track to do what he loves to do.  Once he gets himself a job as a sharpshooter at a carnival he meets Annie (Cummins) who you know is going to be bad news...and she is.  But the funny thing is she's really devoted to Bart which is really endearing.  Let's forget these two are a modern day Bonnie & Clyde, you know...with killin' folks and shit.  It's an odd romance that you can get behind, that is until, you know...with killin' folks and shit. The cinematography is outstanding.  DP Russell Harlan put his camera in some unusual places, getting some great shots and he keeps stuff in focus you wouldn't believe except you're seeing it.  The two leads work wonderfully together.  I've been a fan of Dall's ever since seeing ROPE (1948) thirty years ago. It's amazing he only has 8 movies and a handful of TV to his credit. Cummins is in the same boat. The Warner Bros. DVD looks great and it comes with a commentary by author and film noir specialist, Glenn Erickson. I look forward to hearing it someday.

The Sender (1982)

Director: Roger Christian

Writer: Thomas Baum

Composer: Trevor Jones

Starring: Kathryn Harrold, Zeljko Ivanek, Shirley Knight Paul Freeman, Sean Hewitt, Harry Ditson, Olivier Pierre, Tracy Harper, Al Matthews, Marsha A. Hunt, Angus MacInnes

More info: IMDb

Tagline: He has the power to make you live his nightmares... And he's dreaming about you.

Plot: A disturbed telepathic man is able to transmit his dreams and visions into the minds of the people around him.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Meh.  OK thriller/horror with good performances and mood, I suppose, but I didn't find it all that compelling.  The opening few minutes (see video above) are fantastic but once he's in the hospital it's a slow go until the end of the picture.   It's not as if it struggles to the finish line.  It's the doctors trying to figure out what's going on with this kid and how to fix it added with scene after scene of strange goings on they can't explain that add to the pacing problems.  Maybe there's a bit too much of it.  Beats me.  The ending works for the picture so if you dig the film you'll dig the ending.  I found the film somewhat flat but it's not a bad picture.  The Paramount DVD has a great looking widescreen print and not a single extra.

A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966)

Director: Fielder Cook

Writer: Sidney Carroll

Composer: David Raksin

Starring: Henry Fonda, Joanne Woodward, Jason Robards, Paul Ford, Charles Bickford, Burgess Meredith, Kevin McCarthy, Robert Middleton, John Qualen, Jean-Michel Michenaud, James Berwick, Allen Collins, Jim Boles, Virginia Gregg, Chester Conklin, Mae Clarke, Ned Glass, James Griffith

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Rule of the game: you must sit in from the beginning! And it's the wildest poker game in the west!

Plot: A naive couple and a child arrive to the town on the way to San Antonio, Texas to buy a farm there. There is a poker game between the richest men in the region. The man cannot resist it and though he is a very bad poker player, enters the game betting all the money of his family. In the climax of the game he suffers a heart-attack. His wife then takes his place in the table. That's the only way of recovering their savings. But there is a little problem. Can anybody explain her how to play poker?

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

This is one of those cute and harmless Westerns but it's really just a gambling picture set in the Old West.  Fonda is great (as always) as is the rest of the cast.  There are a lot of familiar faces including Woodward, Robards, Ford, McCarthy and more that you'll recognize from other Westerns from the 60s and 70s even if you've never heard their names before.  Burgess Meredith makes me giggle with glee every time I see him in anything.  I just love that man.  There's a pretty tight and engaging story, too.  It's part drama, comedy and thriller.  The suspense builds to a head and then we get something really special at the end which should have you howling with laughter.  Jason Robards is a scream at the end.  I really enjoyed this flick.  There's a sense of fun throughout but it's the bits of drama and tension that elevate it to something more than just a one-note picture.  It probably won't blow your socks off but it's almost a sure bet (ahahahahahaha) that you'll dig it if you're into the genre.  Say, what's the deal with a lot of Westerns from this time where they look too new and shiny?  This one's got it.  The problem with it is it makes it feel like a set (which it was) instead of the real thing.  It's not a big sticking point with me but it is something that I'd change if I had a magic wand.  Damn, that wand would get a lot of wear and tear...but that's another story.

Witchouse (1999)

Director: David DeCoteau

Writers: Benjamin Carr, Matthew Jason Walsh

Composer: Jared DePasquale

Starring: Ariauna Albright, Matt Raftery, Monica Serene Garnich, Ashley McKinney, Brooke Mueller, Dave Oren Ward, Marissa Tait, Dane Northcutt, Kimberly Pullis, Jason Faunt, Ryan Scott Greene

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Evil beyond evil.

Plot: On Mayday 1998 in the town of Dunwich, Massachusetts, Elizabeth gathers together a group of specially selected friends for a rather odd party. It turns out that she is the descendant of a malevolent witch named Lilith who was burned at the stake precisely three hundred years ago. Now Elizabeth hopes to resurrect her dreadful ancestor and has a specific (and murderous) need for the guests she has chosen.

My rating:  5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

There are two things keeping me from giving this dumb as fuck movie a lower score.  Jared DePasquale's ballsy score and the dialogue and acting is so ridiculously bad that I laughed a few times.  I don't recommend watching this alone.  You should watch this with friends and liquor.  Some of the actors do alright but there are a couple that are downright horrid.  That's where the laughs start.  Then you've got this so-bad-it's-funny dialogue.  It's over the top and silly stupid.  The effects are fine except someone went chimpshit over using thunder and lightning effects. This is made by Full Moon after all so you're going to get some good effects.  They know how to get the most of out their limited bucks.  Anyone looking for nudity can move onto something else.  And, being a Full Moon picture, the running time is pretty short (thankfully) at an hour and twelve minutes.  It's a bunch of kids making a movie.  I'll throw down some cash that they enjoyed making it a lot more than you will watching it.  The Full Moon DVD is fullscreen, which is probably as it was filmed, and the only extras are trailers for more FM movies, DEAD WANT WOMEN, KILLJOY'S REVENGE, ZOMBIES VS. STRIPPERS, EVIL BONG 3, KILLER EYE: HALLOWEEN HAUNT, GOOBERS, SHANDAR, and HAUNTED CASINO.  I picked up the box set that has the second and third film in the franchise for two bucks.  Not bad but I won't be watching the rest of the set. 

unusually long opening credits but with a great music cue from