well, no, strictly speaking not eight tapes, look you see. it would be correct to say eight discs, for that is how many i gone watched and will write (badly) of here. no, eight films would not be right, for one of them wasn't a motion picture as such. yes, even though it was moving images.
as ever with this sort of post i would suggest that a ***SPOILER WARNING*** is very much in place just after the next (and first) image, listing the titles. should you wish to remain unaware of what goes on in any of these tapes (discs) then it is quite likely best you read no further. but, that said, you have my every assurance that the spoilers for Friday 13th 4 are totes worth it and may well inspire you to watch the film. or not.
no particular order is used here and, rather unhelpfully, also they are not going to be shown in the order what they are in that image above. sorry for that. except there is some slight order, for the first one is one that i referenced (i think) towards the end of my last post on this subject.
it is so that the film The Entity has lurked around in my mind for 40 odd years without me ever getting around to watching it. the box for it down the video shop always looked vaguely interesting, but not enough to rent. from memory one friend at school, can't recall who sorry, did see it and was well impressed, but also reviewed it in a way that suggested if i watched it then it would be a bit like that time (and remember i was young) i watched An American Werewolf In London after being told i was not allowed to and subsequently having nightmares for weeks.
plot? a young lady (Barbra Hershey) is living a fairly routine life when all of a sudden she starts becoming a victim of brutal, horrifying, violating attacks. bad enough in itself, but it seems they are attacks of a paranormal, invisible "entity" type. her plight is made all the worse, then, for on top of these highly distressing attacks few seem to believe her story.
this was actually rather good. at times it felt this was a borderline "let's do Exorcist but mix in something like I Spit On Your Grave", but they generally swerved away from this being outright exploitative trash. Barbra Hershey is excellent, as is Ron Silver as the "doctor" (or what have you) trying to determine if this is real or not. absolutely boss soundtrack, too. not a film for all, since the subject of the attacks - ghosts or not - isn't comfortable viewing, but well worth watching.
one night i was home, or place of exile, feeling a bit out of sorts. i considered what fifteen year old me would have done alone with a video. the answer was not erotica, thank you, but that i would have very much watched some class horror, with particular emphasis on trash the BBFC cut or banned.
which is how i ended up watching Friday 13th Part 3 (at the cinema in 3D no less) and Friday 13th Part 4, the one rather misleadingly dubbed "the final chapter". didn't really like the first two, with the original being rather boring and the second just some bloke with a sack on his head going about, mostly, with an axe.
part three was also, as confirmed by watching it again, really rubbish. leaving aside how dire the 3D effects look in a flatter 2D, effectively this is a bunch of kids you take a dislike to immediately getting killed in a variety of ways. also very little nudity, and what there is is "tastefully" filmed so as not to show anything for long. the only decent aspects of this one are that Jason got his iconic ice hockey mask in it and there was some different ways in which people got killed.
quite rare for the 4th film in a series to be the "best" but that is precisely what Friday 13th Part 4 is. yes, admittedly, it gets that status purely as it has the most nudity of any of the films, but still. this one has a relatively decent plot, is extremely well paced, class killing scenes and some actual, proper, decent acting. best of the latter is easily Crispin Glover.
up above this writing should be a brief video showcasing Crispin Glover's bonkers spastic dancing in the film. this in itself would make it class, but you also get to see the (then) young actor be all dorky and shy, use sexual swear words, do a sex, this dancing and, let me remind you of the spoiler warning, also eventually get (briefly) crucified. calling this the crowning glory of Crispin Glover's career feels like a bit of an understatement. think it will have only been a year or so after this that he did Back To The Future, improbably playing Michael J Fox's dad.
speaking of fifteen (or so) year old me, i finally (or if you will eventually) got around to watching one of them "oh yeah that looks good" films. i saw the trailer for Deadly Pursuit, released in some countries as Shoot To Kill, about a dozen times at the cinema. this was, of course, when cinema was a cheap and easy to access form of entertainment, and not the life consequence decision is bizarrely is today. for some reason i never got round to seeing it, or renting the video.
happy days, then, when i saw it for sale down on my preferred tape (and disc) seller at the market. all sorts of nostalgia kicked in and so i bought it. which was hurdle one, the second (and final) hurdle being to use what time i have to sit and watch it.
my brother was delighted to see that i had found a copy of the video (disc) and also knacked me for not having watched it before, stating that it was really good. he was right, which is kind of peculiar since his general stance on cinema is that Convoy is the greatest film ever made. this was an excellent thriller, with the big plus that the "baddie" is really well hidden and not ruined by any spoilers in the trailer. both Sidney Poitier and Tom Berenger were class, and shout out for a then relatively unknown Kirsty Alley being really good too. won't give any plot details, but worth a watch.
random time. i randomly went into a shop where i randomly found myself as it looked a bit interesting. they didn't really specialise in tapes (discs) or what have you, but had a few on the shelf. one of them was a film called Zombie Women Of Satan 2, which looked most decidedly English made but also most decidedly sans any official BBFC certification or what have you. on asking for the price i was told £5, so went sure, why not.
there was some trepidation about putting this video (disc) on, as everything about it said it was home made. which would usually mean poor quality picture, terrible sound and awful camerawork. not so, as it happens. really well made and, surprisingly, exceptionally funny. well, if you have a vaguely dark sense of humour i suppose.
i had not seen the first film, true, but it didn't feel like i missed out. could follow it just fine, and besides the cover promised this was "boobier", so likely i would enjoy this more than the first anyway. certainly it was so that there was a fair bit of (topless only, but still) female nudies, which was agreeable on top of the ridiculous humour on the show. quite surprising just how much nudies, really, as the whole cast seems to be off of (why aye man) Newcastle, a city renowned for quite prudish, Victorian to Jane Austen levels of disdain for displays of flesh. not all that many people within my limited social circle i could suggest this film too, but all the same i enjoyed it.
since we are (and i am never far away from it with my choice in film) on the subject of nudies, i have clocked that "world cinema", or foreign language films, tend to sail through the draconian ways of the BBFC. usually they would censor anything with nudies, but they appear to take as a given that anything in a foreign language is "artistic" and don't cut it. yes, i appreciate that one can access all sorts of curious, gruesome and exotic "nudies" on the internet, but i do like a proper video (disc) and also enjoy getting such things that the BBFC appear to have either overlooked or applied a double standard to.
not surely exactly, but i would suspect that i purchased these two on "special offer" off of Fopp whilst down in that there London (innit). possible also one from HMV on Oxford Street, but likely Fopp, since they appear to specialise in the more, um, esoteric sort of film. if that is the right word. yes, both were bought in the hope that significant, copious nudies were present, but if there was a decent story then that would be a welcome plus.
perhaps this will sound mean, but all the same Ecstasy (or as the credits show A Thought Of Ecstasy, which implies the BBFC let the full tilt version through) highlights what makes directors like David Lynch and. vaguely in terms of some of the subject of the film, Stanley Kubrick more celebrated (or to be frank superior) to others. all that is needed for a cinema masterpiece is here, but this is woefully dull due to how poorly it was made. alas, just filming some desolate area of the desert does not make it poignant or meaningful. you know you have an issue when the large amount of nudies, and close up full on penetrative "action" (usually a big no no for our censors), is just dull. quite the shame, really a lost chance of making a remarkable motion picture. film students should watch it just to learn what to avoid so as not to f*** up a really good set of material.
a fair bit of money (less than £50, but still) has been spent to learn that the Shameless video (disc) label is one gigantic con. there's about 5 or 6 of their discs (tapes) what i have bought now, all with the promise of them being sleazy, controversial and (most importantly) laced with nudies. more often than not they have turned out to be bland, mostly fully clothed, dull C or D grade films. sadly Top Sensation continues this trend, and i think it will be the last one i buy off of them.
from what i could tell the "plot" of Top Sensations was that two grifters were conning some wealthy lady out of a lot of money on the basis they would help her son "overcome his shyness" towards ladies. it appears to be famous for a scene where a lady has an "intimate moment" with a goat, which is both quite a European cinema thing and not the sort of thing i would imagine anyone wishes to watch, or at the least would not admit to such an ambition. there's a vaguely amusing scene where some peasant farmer is caught (ahem) entertaining himself in some bushes as he watches two topless ladies sunbathe on a yacht (he seems more than the audience), otherwise dull and forgettable.
on the plus side of this video (disc) the nudies are mostly agreeable, as in all of the female ones are and the male ones they didn't have to include. would have been nice to have a couple of streakers, but this appears to be American. and none more American than with the "backyard wrestling", featuring some keen types going at each other with cheese graters and fire. yes, at the same time. they, oddly,, are not the most retarded people in the video; that will be the various skateboarders and "rollerbladers" or whatever who(m) try to rind (or "grind") railings, bannisters and what have you some considerable distance up from ground level. results of this are somewhat enjoyable but mostly predictable.
yes, i do indeed have a huge pile of classic, or well regarded films here to watch. but instead i have indeed just watched all of this lot with some spare time. mostly just dig what you dig, and rather watch stuff what appeals rather than worry about what other say you should. especially nudies.
yes, i do indeed have a huge pile of classic, or well regarded films here to watch. but instead i have indeed just watched all of this lot with some spare time. mostly just dig what you dig, and rather watch stuff what appeals rather than worry about what other say you should. especially nudies.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
