Back in the day I bought just about every VHS I could find and still own a great deal of the ones I’ve purchased through the years. I would stumble across some great films and some not so great ones, but either way I was educating myself thought I didn’t realize it. Honestly, a lot of the films that I didn’t care for back in the day are the ones I fell in love with later on in life. The House Of The Yellow Carpet is one of those films.
Evilspeak was a film that I’d always heard about but never saw a physical copy of in the video or retail stores. It always seemed to hide from me so I never got to see it until now . . .
Scream Factory isn’t just about the popular horror films, they love the lower budget underrated flicks as well and that’s what I love about them. I do wish Scream Factory would focus a little more on VHS-only films and less on stuff that has already received a DVD release but I can’t complain. I love my HD. I’m stoked that a film like Evilspeak has seen the light of day on Blu-Ray because this film is batshit insane and all the blood looks glorious in HD.
An all-girl fighting movie with Zoe Bell? Hell yes! Is it good? Meh . . . There are many great qualities that Raze does have so let’s start with those.
On his new album, Paint The Moon Gold, New York City musician Rene Lopez draws upon the rich musical tapestry of his city and pens a love letter—to New York, his family, and his heritage. The charismatic Mr. Lopez almost has an old school jazz singer vibe, though he calls his style of music “Electric Latin Soul,” which is as good of a descriptor as anything. Paint The Moon Gold is a cohesive, high-energy album that is paced cleverly. In fact, the album picks up in pace in the last quarter, leaving the listener on a high, rather than drifting off to sleep, lulled by quiet songs and quiet ideas. It’s a smart trick.
On her second album, All Or Nothin’, Nikki Lane (with the help of producer Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys) lets fly with incredibly hook-filled songs about drinking, smoking pot, one night stands, and crappy ex-boyfriends. Nikki Lane is a hard one to pin down: her music easily thematically fits into the “outlaw country” camp, and her voice is a magical mix of Loretta Lynn and Dusty Springfield, and All Or Nothin’ is crazy with the steel guitar of country, but she’s not exactly country. The most striking tracks on All Or Nothin’ sound like they’re straight off of the Red Bird label, the early ’60s girl group record company founded by Leiber and Stoller.
There are quite a few slashers out there and among them are some underrated ones. Last month I focused on Hide and Go Shriek for VHS Visions and now I bring you another hidden gem called Iced.
One of my goals in life is to watch every single film in existence. That isn’t a realistic goal but I would love to think I could achieve it someday. There are many films out there that I’ve never heard of and that is why I love companies like Olive Films. They release things that are popular amongst a certain fan base but that fan base is usually an older audience. The films they release please their existing audience as well as people like me because I get to see films I would probably never seek out because they are hard to find or just not in existence anymore.
A question I often ask myself is: what happened to Christian Slater? I honestly don’t know the answer but ever since 2004 he has had a weird career. I’ve always thought he was a fun actor and decent in the movies he was in. I know people tend to laugh at that but I honestly don’t know what people have against him. It’s true that he doesn’t act in the best films these days but still, where did it all go wrong and how did we end up disliking Christian Slater?
I enjoyed Tinto Brass’ film Cheeky recently (review) so I was excited to watch another feature by him, in this case Private, which is also known as Fallo! and Do It! It’s an anthology about . . . sex. Of course it’s about sex; what else would Tinto Brass make a movie about?
I’ve heard the name Tinto Brass thrown around for a number of years but never watched any films he’s made. For these past few months, I’ve been delving into the more risqué side of cinema and watching vintage hardcore and softcore porn. Apparently, Tinto Brass is a “god” when it comes to this stuff, but I have a different outlook on films like this.
Cheeky is a softcore film with a few harder shots but all in all, it’s a silly comedy about a girl looking for an apartment and her boyfriend trying to find out if she actually cheated on him. Yeah, these films don’t have great plots.