Author: Dave Franklin
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Bloody Sam says “Hi”.
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Read more: Bloody Sam says “Hi”.Dying before he was sixty seemed like a fitting final action for the maverick film-maker Sam Peckinpah. Better to burn out than fade away and all that. For whenever Sam was in town the rage-filled stories of excess flew thick and fast, tales that included wild on-set bust-ups, legendary alcohol and coke consumption, budget blowouts,…
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Starring debuts #20: Lorraine Stanley in London to Brighton (2006)
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Read more: Starring debuts #20: Lorraine Stanley in London to Brighton (2006)“Nice isn’t it? To see a bit of color.” So says Kelly (Stanley) as she looks at the green fields through a train window on the way from London to the seaside. It’s a banal observation and yet so telling. There is no color in Kelly’s life. No joy, no hope, no normality. Every day…
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My brain…? It’s my second favorite organ.
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Read more: My brain…? It’s my second favorite organ.Woody Allen is a prolific artist who’s been making roughly a film a year since the late sixties. His timid yet talkative onscreen persona (simultaneously intellectual and stupid, riddled with self-doubt and wrapped up in his weedy, balding, bespectacled frame) surely places him among the most distinctive film stars of all time. It’s a double-edged…
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Blast Of Cannon: Part 2
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Read more: Blast Of Cannon: Part 2Lifeforce (1985) Horror director Tobe Hooper made three flicks with Cannon in rapid succession, but the relationship only further sullied his artistic reputation. Together they coughed up the derided remake Invaders from Mars, a comedic sequel to his blistering Texas Chainsaw, and the box office bomb Lifeforce. Still, at least this sci-fi flick has reached…
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Blast of Cannon: Part 1
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Read more: Blast of Cannon: Part 1You’ve probably heard of MGM and United Artists, but what about the very lovely Cannon Films? It was a studio that took on the Hollywood big boys in the 1980s. For a glorious, plate-spinning few years it became the world’s largest independent movie production company, cranking out up to six low-budget pictures a month. How…
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Fucked-Up Films #6: Romper Stomper (1992)
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Read more: Fucked-Up Films #6: Romper Stomper (1992)Film Title Romper Stomper Synopsis Heil Crowe! Director Geoffrey Wright Cast Russell Crowe Daniel Pollock Jacqueline McKenzie Alex Scott What are these sick bastards doing? Worshipping the Third Reich, threatening to chop people’s legs off with an ax, mourning decapitated mothers, and terrorizing the Vietnamese in a Melbournian suburb. Is the villain any good? The…
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Starring debuts #18: Mark Hamill & Harrison Ford in Star Wars (1977)
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Read more: Starring debuts #18: Mark Hamill & Harrison Ford in Star Wars (1977)Star Wars remains the dog’s bollocks, a bona fide pop culture phenomenon, and an astonishing exercise in world-building with its fucking cool light sabers, eye-melting hyperspace travel, hokey Jedi mind tricks, planet annihilation, and lovable stormtroopers, none of whom are capable of hitting a cow’s ass with a banjo. Only a retard can fail to…
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Starring debuts #19: Joe Spinell in Maniac (1980)
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Read more: Starring debuts #19: Joe Spinell in Maniac (1980)Joe Spinell was a hemophiliac who bled to death in 1989 in his early fifties. Throughout his 17-year film career, he overwhelmingly played bit parts, but had an extraordinary knack for picking the right projects. We’re talking the first two Godfather and Rocky movies, as well as Taxi Driver, Sorcerer, and Cruising. Pretty good, huh?…
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Tina! Bring Me The Axe!
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Read more: Tina! Bring Me The Axe!Cinema is littered with ridiculous turns, most of them delivered by Nic Cage. Talented as he is at scenery chewing (as anyone who’s seen Con Air or The Wicker Man remake will attest) I still don’t think his frequent hammy excesses can ever reach the level of Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest. This 1981 travesty…
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Fucked-Up Films #5: Wolf Creek (2005)
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Read more: Fucked-Up Films #5: Wolf Creek (2005)Film Title Wolf Creek Synopsis Australia. The outback. And you thought venomous snakes were scary. Director Greg McLean Cast John Jarratt Nathan Phillips Cassandra Magrath Kestie Morassi What are these sick bastards doing? Actually, Ben, Kristy and Liz aren’t sick bastards. They’re lovely guys partying on the Western Australian coast who are about to undertake…