Author: Dave Franklin
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Starring Debuts #28: Warren Beatty in Splendor in the Grass (1961)
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Read more: Starring Debuts #28: Warren Beatty in Splendor in the Grass (1961)Bud Stamper (a 23-year-old Beatty) and Deanie (a bewitching Natalie Wood) excel at capturing such sexual repression, desperate to get it on.
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See You in Disneyland
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Read more: See You in DisneylandTed Bundy would have to be one of my favorite serial killers. How can you not love the endlessly fascinating little scamp, given his yen for necrophilia and keeping severed heads as trinkets?
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Starring Debuts # 27: Diane Keaton in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)
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Read more: Starring Debuts # 27: Diane Keaton in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)Keaton had loads of juicy roles throughout the seventies, including two Godfathers and all that excellent Woody Allen stuff, but the financially successful, bafflingly titled Goodbar was the first to truly put the focus on her. In many ways it’s a bad, overlong movie and I’d argue she’s miscast coz it sure is weird seeing…
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C’mon, Billy
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Read more: C’mon, BillyC’mon Billy, Come to me, You know I’m waiting, I love you endlessly, C’mon Billy, You’re the only one… These mania-infused lyrics are from a glorious PJ Harvey paean and it’s only when she goes on to reveal ‘having his son’ that I twig she isn’t singing about the late, great Billy Wilder. But even…
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A Sly Appreciation: Part 3
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Read more: A Sly Appreciation: Part 3Judge Dredd slaps on a codpiece, platform boots and some plastic shoulder pads, looking like a glum Gary Glitter unsure if he’s off to give a concert or play American football.
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A Sly Appreciation: Part 2
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Read more: A Sly Appreciation: Part 2First Blood is a fave, Part II isn’t, although I’d still argue it’s a must see. The sleek, adrenalin-pumping original, in which Rambo only killed one man, even managed to flirt with plausibility on occasion, but the sequel turns him into a rightwing comic book superhero
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A Sly Appreciation: Part One
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Read more: A Sly Appreciation: Part OneStallone is the only actor to have a number one film at the American box office for six decades in a row. I guess critics need to bear that in mind if they want to try to mock his acting, writing, directing and overall contribution to cinema.
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The Not Quite #8: Mean Streets (1973)
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Read more: The Not Quite #8: Mean Streets (1973)Scorsese’s first hit was also the first time he hooked up with De Niro. Lots of people see Mean Streets as an essential entry in their impressive partnership, but I think it would produce juicier fruit down the line. I hope you’re not gonna insist that makes me a mook. Cast: Keitel, De Niro, David…
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Starring Debuts #26: Max von Sydow in The Seventh Seal (1957)
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Read more: Starring Debuts #26: Max von Sydow in The Seventh Seal (1957)We’re film fans, right? This means we’ve occasionally gotta get out of our comfort zone and give the likes of the mopey-as-fuck Ingmar Bergman a go. It can’t all be Arnie, Scorpio and King Kong breaking a dinosaur’s jaws, can it? And so to fourteenth-century Sweden. A bloke has come home from fighting the Crusades…
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Dirty Old Men: Part 4
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Read more: Dirty Old Men: Part 4Tony Leung Ka-fai and Jane March in The Lover (1992) I still remember the hullabaloo about March’s debut in which it was rumored (like Christie and Sutherland two decades earlier in Don’t Look Now) that she was actually doing it. Amazing, really, that the public so often gets sucked into such nonsense. March plays a…