Shameless Self Expression

Georges Riviere plays a journalist conversing with two other gentlemen, including the macabre author Edgar Allen Poe. After hearing one of Poe’s supposedly true tales, the doubting Thomas writer is dared to spend a night at Blackwood castle. At first, all seems well. Riviere even meets a girl (Barbara Steele). However, Steele is no ordinary woman. So it begins...   AKA “Danza Macabra” , among other alternate titles in alternate cuts, some with and some without mild Sapphic content. Initially begun by Sergio Corbucci (a veteran of spaghetti westerns like “Django” and “The Great Silence” ), after one week the reins to this 1964 Italian gothic chiller were handed over to Antonio Margheriti ( “Take a Hard Ride” with Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, and Lee Van Cleef, as well as “The Last Hunter” and “The Virgin of Nuremberg” ). The results aren’t exactly Mario Bava quality, but after a far too slow start, this one ends up being quite a good gothic ghost story (if a bit more vampire th...

The ragtag group of police officers trained in the previous films now have the task of helping to train a bunch of civilians as part of a new Citizens on Patrol programme. Yep, it spells ‘Cop’, which must’ve made the screenwriter chuckle heartily. Clearly a PR move, the idea is that by recruiting citizens to help out the cops, the police will win back some trust with the people, which has been dwindling of late. These citizen recruits include Tab Thacker’s ‘Tommy’, who is as wide as Bubba Smith’s Hightower is tall, Billie Bird’s gun-happy grandma Mrs. Feldman, and two skateboard punks played by Brian Backer and a pre-“SNL” David Spade. Perennially hoping for failure is G.W. Bailey’s antagonistic Capt. Harris, who takes a particular dislike to the skateboarders. Corinne Bohrer plays a pretty love interest for Bobcat Goldthwait’s maniacal Zed, and Sharon Stone gets to be hit on by Steve Guttenberg’s resident smart-arse ladies man Mahoney, playing a visiting journalist. Colleen Camp plays...

The rise-and-fall of Tommy Gibbs (played as an adult by Fred Williamson), whose career in criminality begins in the 1950s when the then shoe-shining teen Tommy is a part of an assassination of a gangster, by causing a distraction. Being beaten by a racist, corrupt Irish-American cop named McKinney (Art Lund) also plays a part in shaping Tommy’s trajectory. After a stint in juvie, Tommy comes out ready to climb the criminal ladder, and also ready to take revenge on racist cop McKinney, now the chief of police. All of the ruthless ambition and rage comes at a cost, however. Tommy is so drunk on power he’s alienating loved ones, such as his lounge singer girlfriend (Gloria Hendry), his straight-laced childhood friend Joe (Philip Roye), and even his own mother (Minnie Gentry). Julius Harris plays Tommy’s estranged father, who waltzes back into his life now that Tommy has amassed some wealth and power. D’Urville Martin plays Rufus, another childhood friend who is a preacher of sorts. Val Av...

Four bored stoner college girls (Ashley Benson, Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, and Rachel Korine) don’t have the funds to head off to Florida for Spring Break. Unfortunately, they don’t do the sensible thing and suck it up and stay home. Instead, they commit robbery and head off to Florida where they encounter a dopey but sleazy and volatile drug dealer and wannabe gangsta rapper named Alien (James Franco, clearly having zero interest in making safe career choices). He’s kind of a minor (very minor) celebrity amongst the Spring Break crowd, and when the girls end up jailed on some minor hijinks, Alien bails them out. Soon he’s insidiously inserting himself in their lives, manipulating them. Christian girl Gomez is the only one who can see things have gotten out of hand. The others don’t seem to care, but is Alien the most dangerous person here?   Writer-director Harmony Korine ( “Gummo” ) gives us an empty film about empty people with this 2013 blend of “Natural Born Killers” ...