Editorial Review

This time-capsule film from 1971 is a perfect example of having one's cake and eating it, too. Written and directed by filmmaker Tom Laughlin--and starring him in the title role--Read more

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Reviews (102)

The Love Generation.. in all its Embarassing Splendor
I have been catching bits and pieces of this film on TV for years, always trying to discover its identity.Finally I was drawn in by the excellent cover of this DVD editon, and the mystery was solved.
Stick it to The Man!
Billy Jack is one of those movies that seems to have absolutely no middle ground with people, i.e., one either hates it or loves it. I fall into the latter category.
The way the world is
As someone who gets disenchanted with liberal self-righteousness and psychosis quite easily, I need a reminder every now and then of why I refuse to embrace the term "conservative" instead.This film serves that purpose for me.
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Subjects:  1. Action / Adventure    2. Feature Film-action/Adventure    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

When you've got Charles Laughton and Bela Lugosi, how can you go wrong? Shipwreck victim Edward Parker (Richard Arlen) is stranded on an island run by the mysterious Dr. Moreau (Laughton). Moreau is hospitable enough, but the jungle is full of menacing shapes--and what about those ominous references to the House of Pain? Parker gradually learns of Moreau's unholy experiments and worries that he'll never escape. Though it has aged a bit, Read more

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Reviews (26)

Hey, check out that DVD Release Date.
The DVD Release Date above says December 31, 1969.Who knew they had DVDs back in 1969?Oh well, back to the future.

Chilling and creepy!
Even by today's horror movie standards, this first black and white film version of H.G. Wells' "The Island Of Dr. Moreau" can be considered a worthy frightfest!Charles Laughton's portrayal of Dr. Moreau is devilishly evil and far superior to Burt Lancaster's in 1977 (that was a good version, though) and Marlon Brando's in 1996 (Oh, man, that version really sucked!).
Where's Charley?
Come on one of you wonderful DVD companies. Please put out the definitive version of Island of Lost Souls. This is a great film. Creepy, inventive and chilling (not to mention the sexy sexy Lota the panther girl). Great performances by Charles Laughton and Bela Lugosi. Where is it already? I'm giving this DVD only 4 stars because of the other film on it. Wax Museum is okay but I'm waiting breathlessly for Lost Souls. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Horror    2. Movie   

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Reviews (19)

Don' t take it too seriously!
If you have nothing to do, the weather is rainy and cold and there is nothing to watch or even read in your home, come for this amazing and grotesque characterization. It is delirious portrait of fantastic humor, if I may use this term.
"She may have been contaminated."
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman has the best poster of any monster movie from the 1950s, but it's one of the cheapest sci-fi pictures I've ever seen. I saw it yesterday at a local theater as part of a double feature with the giant ant classic Them!, including cartoon, trailers for films like the Ronald Reagan western Law and Order (another film directed by Nathan Juran), and a 1934 Flash Gordon serial.
Come on ! on DVD pleeeaaasseee!!
I used to watched it in LD. It is great classic. Although I weep at the end, but it's real classic. Come on, man.. I should collect it on DVD! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Science Fiction   

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A hilarious history of the Stones
If you want a rollicking good time with the Stones, this is your best bet. Fantastic footage of early concerts where the crowds go absolutely wild and girls leap on-stage. Lots of interviews, observations from the bad boys about their drug busts and crazy lives. Plus some whole songs, not just excerpts. No phony "analysis" from outsiders. This is a great way to spend your evening. When's the DVD out?

Already dated, yet necessary
This documentary was made in 1989, just as the Stones were reemerging from squabbling to become the moneyhoarding juggernaut they'llprobably still be after their grandchildren are dead. Talking head clips are interspersed with news footage, the film gaining momentum as the band mature from whiteboy blues copyists to Dark Gods of Rock. '89-era Jagger bears a terrible haircut, as do suprisingly many of his late sixties Ed Sullivan appearances, but his recollections are mildly candid and thoughtful, which for prim Mick is like the Ricky Lake show.Keith, from meeting Muddy Waters to stealing Brian Jones' girlfriend, offers wonderful barroom frankness, Charlie is still the modern Buster Keaton of drummers (look for his 'hanging out' comment near the end), while Bill Wyman is luckily caught before his retirement two years later. Coverage of the eighties runs too long and is superfluous anyway since the band was running on fumes by then, but you'll want to watch and rewatch the section from 1968-'72,as exciting as the albums they were then making, when not even a soulless beast like Led Zepplin could prevent them from being 'the world's greatest rock n'roll band.' ... Read more

Editorial Review

Director John Waters creates here a wickedly funny--and nasty--comedy starring Kathleen Turner as the ultimate suburbanite: a woman so obsessed with suburban perfection that she kills a neighbor for not separating her recyclables. Hubby Sam Waterston and kids Matthew Lillard and Ricki Lake don't have a clue that in fact it is squeaky-clean mom who is the killer at large in their Baltimore neighborhood and who has murdered, among others, the guy who dumped her daughter. The final courtroom scene is a riot, turning her into a celebrity defendant (long before O.J.) and featuring a terrific cameo by Patty Hearst (yes, Read more

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Reviews (79)

Over-the-Top, But That's the Point
When people (mostly critics) mention two John Waters films they say Hairspray and Serial Mom. The first John Waters film I ever saw was "Pink Flamingos" and until I watched this, that film was the only one I had seen. Waters made that film (commonly called the most disgusting film ever made and rightly so) to get his name out there; His plan worked. He never made a film like that movie, but he still makes films with the intention of shocking his audience. Serial Mom is a comedy that is very over-the-top and has a lot to say about the media. Having only seen Pink Flamingos, I can't believe the same person wrote and directed both of these movies. They both have a strange vision for sure, but they're very different films. Kathleen Turner ('The Virgin Suicides') plays Beverly Sutphin is the definition of a perfect suburban mom. She's like those characters you see in 60's television shows like Leave It to Beaver. She has a loving husband (Sam Waterston)and two children (Ricki Lake and Scooby Doo's Matthew Lillard) Misty and Chip. Everything seems perfect; Then two detectives show up at the Sutphin household to ask Beverly about obscene phone calls her neighbor Dottie (Mink Stole, who worked with Waters on Pink Flamingos as Connie Marble)has been getting. But, Beverly couldn't possibly be making such calls. Or is she? Pretty soon, obscene phone calls escalate to murder, which begins with her son Chip's math teacher. When Beverly is finally arrested after a series of murders, the film really goes over-the-top. The movie isn't perfect; Kathleen Turner is perfect as Beverly Sutphin, but the movie has its share of flaws. It's not hilariously funny, it's mildly funny. The comedy is more to be appreciated than to be enjoyed. This movie is entertaining and it's funny how true most of this stuff is. Look for cameos by former porn star Traci Lords and John Waters as the voice of Ted Bundy. If you like Waters' stuff, check this movie out. If you don't, stay away.
One of the best comedies ever.
This film was made in 1994, a few years after "Cry-Baby". John Waters has a Hollywood sized budget to work with and continues his path to more "mainstream" targeted movies. But for those fans who fear this would compromise Waters' humour - don't worry, it doesn't.
The Greatest Black Comedy Ever!
I love Kathleen Turner, so when I saw this movie at the store I knew I had to have it. After I got home and watched it I loved.
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Subjects:  1. Comedies    2. Feature Film-comedy    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

Love it or loathe it, David Cronenberg's 1983 horror film Read more

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From The Mind Of David Cronenberg
Most people I know either like Cronenberg's film's, or vehemently detest his work. I fall in between. Some of his work I enjoy, others I really don't wish to watch again. This film, "Videodrome," is one I initially really liked when I first viewed it. Then, years later I really didn't care for it that much. Viewing it again a few years later I liked it. Maybe it's because what Cronenberg is showing the viewers in this film is a bit of a reflection of our times. When I see many of the films, and especially reality shows that are on the air, it reminds me of this film.
Television is reality, and reality is less than television
They say you either love or hate this rather bizarre offering from 1983, but I found myself somewhat indifferent as Videodrome approached its conclusion.To my mind, the final third of the story is ultimately too haphazard, esoteric, and too consciously horror-driven to clearly express the themes worked into the heart of the film.It's easy to read a lot into this film, but that's as much of a credit to the viewer as it is to the filmmakers.
Come to Nikkie......become the new flesh!
I would have to say that VIDEODROME is one of David Cronenbergs best movies ever made.Coming from a director that already has an amazing history of films under his best (THE FLY, SCANNERS, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE) it's nothing short of amazing to add VIDEODROME to the already high brow collection.VIDEODROME in short is basically about this television producer (James Woods) who is looking for a new and interesting show to put on his already sleazy network.Soon he stumbles across a strange program called "Videodrome" that has no plot and not story.It's just basically women being whipped or beaten over and over again.Something about the show proves to be addictive and soon the television producer finds himself thrown into a world of psychotic sexuality and even more strange body transformation.Some of the plot details become lost near the end of the movie and when it's over, you might be a little confused or lost.Not to worry.VIDEODROME has enough dark and twisted hidden messages and amped up gore to make this an enjoyable, "smart" Horror film.Wonderful special effects, above average acting and well written story make VIDEODROME a must have for any Horror fans collection. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Horror    2. Horror / Sci-Fi / Fantasy    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

Adapted from the controversial novel by J.G. Ballard, Read more

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Reviews (173)

Sex & Drags and Wreck & Roll
Not to be confused with this years Oscar winning sensation, you can't help but conclude that Crash 2005 must be referencing its older namesake with the opening dialogue... "We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much that we crash into each other just so we can feel something." Crash 2005 is a blockbuster on the controversial subject of racial tensions in Los Angeles.
Remarkable.
I watch movies at the expense of most life sustaining activity. I'm truly obsessed. And this film is very certainly the worst film I have ever seen in my life. I don't mean it's bad as in "Plan 9 From Outer Space" bad -- it's not so bad it is good. It is just profoundly regrettable. I'm not an academic cinephile, and cannot deconstruct its badness in a discursive discourse on psychomorphological eroticism of the postmodern automobile and its inexorable sequelae of non sequitora and ontological teabaggery.Oh...whoops. Sorry for the SPOILER. Uh...all I can tell you is it just ain't no good.But hey! Watch "Crash" made in 2006(?). Now THAT is a brilliant film. Thanks for reading.-CC

SICK AND TWISTED CRONENBERG!!
THIS IS A SICK AND TWISTED MOVIE! IT IS VERY WEIRD!
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Subjects:  1. Feature Film-action/Adventure    2. Movie    3. Mystery / Suspense / Thriller   

Editorial Review

Jack Arnold's horror classic Read more

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Reviews (71)

On a Tributary of the Amazon
We had the pleasure of seeing this the other night in San Francisco at the Castro Theater, in dual projection 3-D against a silver screen.Flimsy little glasses were provided to help blend the images poppped out onto the screen by the twin projectors.It must have cost a mint just to stage this show, but happily the event was packed with like minded Creature lovers and everyone cheered, ooeh and aahed as soon as the Brazilian diggers uncover, in a solid block of limestone, the skeletonized hand of a long dead Creature, its webbed fingers beckoning right out over the audience's heads!It was a powerful punch to the solar plexus and a reminder that even archaeology has its thrills.
Julia Adams as the Beauty.
The Creature has a good reason for wanting Julia Adams for his own! She wears this hot bikini thoughout most of the movie, revealing much of her legs and figure. A dicription of her throughout the movie would be, Long black beautiful hair, small tight frilly bikini revealing her breast figure, most of back is naked , and so are shoulders. The bathing suit comes up short on her hips revealing both legs. Barefoot throughout the whole movie. You might say half naked! If you are looking for a movie with true American beauty, watch Julia Adams in {The Creature From the Black Lagoon}

In the beginning.......
The 1954 classic available for your own collection! This is more than just another talkie. This is sort of a peice of cinema history. The classic beauty and the beast story is told in a wonderul way! With great underwater shots and fairly good special effects, this is a wonderful item for anyone to own. I think what I liked most about it is that it was a little bit different than all the other monster flicks. Beacuse you really feel sorry for the Creature when he gets shot. I think one of my favorite scenes was when he bust's the cage and and escaped the ship. There are just so many wonderful things about this movie. Like how well Rieu Browningswam in that heavy suit, and the classic scene where Julia Adams decides to go take a swim, not knowing that the Creature was trieing to get her attention below. And Finally after a bunch of lousey attemps to steal his precios beuaty, he sneaks on the boat and walks up behind her, puts her over his shoulder and carrys her down to his watery home. Let me point out that Julia Adams is lousey screamer for monster movie's! Not very important considering she is so beautiful throughout the movie, but definetley no Fay Wray. One of the best clips is when the Gill Man lifts up his hand out of the water and almost grabsthe girls foot, but she moves in the nick of time! The first time I ever saw this however, I was a little disapointed with how sort of sudden it ended. Right after the guys come to Julia's rescue, they shoot him and he wobbles back into the ocean and die's.Maybe a little too breif I thought. However there are two sequels after the original, that showed the Creatures sad encouters with mankind and civilization. This will always be one of my favorite movies and Im sure you'll enjoy it if you havent already seen it. Seen it or havent, it is a spectacular movie to own, and I also reccomend the two seqeuls.
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Subjects:  1. Horror / Sci-Fi / Fantasy    2. Movie   

Editorial Review

Pandora couldn't resist opening the forbidden box containing all the delusions of mankind, and let's just say David Lynch, in Read more

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Reviews (988)

The whole less than the sum
There are undeniably interesting set-pieces in this film as there are also undeniably awful ones. Lynch, presumably presented this one as an oblique head-scratcher and it is. I'm not convinced, as some viewers seem to be, that it means anything. Each inpretation seems to present holes of their own. All in all, cinephiles should find more than a scene or two to enjoy as long as one loses all expectations that there is any guarantee of relation to the rest of the film.

Food for brain...(do you have large appetite? )
These clues are helpful only if you have watched the whole movie :)
1 Star for the sexy women who get naked
I rented this movie because I had heard by a few friends that it was interesting.I watched it twice (which took 5 hours of my life) and I still cannot understand much of anything.
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Subjects:  1. Drama    2. Movie    3. Mystery    4. Mystery / Suspense    5. Suspense   

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Reviews (33)

I LOVED IT AGAIN
I saw this movie the one and only time when I was eight in the theatre and I remember the entire black audience roaring through the whole thing. I didn't know what was better, Black Belt Jones, Enter the Dragon, or Three the Hard Way. But I do know I loved them all. I'm now 39 and I've seen Three'' and Enter'' a couple of times over the years but I could not find Black Belt Jones anywhere to save my life. Well, turns out a friend of mine had a copy on DVD (yes there is one) and I just watched it. I LOVED IT ALL OVER AGAIN! Sure, it's campy and very seventies, but for some reason (maybe the comedy) it stands out as the best of the Blaxplotation genre. As a young black kid in the seventies I loved Jim Kelly (Wow, a black Bruce Lee) and I wanted a fro like his. Hmmmmm, memories. The theme song was borrowed a bit by LL Cool Jay for Jingeling Baby. (WAN UN WAN UN WAN UN WYETT)I Highly recommend this one for any body looking to simply have a good time with a creative martial arts movie that will have you in stitches. OH, AND WHAT IN THE HELL KINDA CAR WAS THAT THE JIM KELLY WAS DRIVING. IT LOOKS LIKE A CROSS BETWEEN A PACER AND AN OLD DODGE CHALLENGER. Oh, and let me add that this movie showed the original gangsta cell phone in action. I'll leave that one to when you watch it.

One of the best bad movies ever
This film isn't a comedy, but the opening credits are 3 of the funniest minutes in motion picture history!A friend and I like to watch bad films, and I recommended this one to him; he ended up thinking it was even funnier than I did.
Seriously, WB. Where's the DVD????????
Hands down a absolute classic of blaxploitation and martial arts. The opening credits alone is more fun than most of the movies out today.
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Reviews (10)

The final fate of Special FBI Agent Dale Cooper and the folks of Twin Peaks
With this final set of episodes the cult classic television series "Twin Peaks" comes to an end. It is not so much that these are bad episodes per se, but given the high standard David Lynch and company created during the best moments of the first season, they all suffer in comparison. Plus, the final scene is the textbook example of adding insult to injury for a fans dealing with the cancellation of the series:
A couple of average episodes lead up to the most chilling hour of television ever.
After it was revealed who killed Laura Palmer the series didn't seem to have any clear direction.This may be one of the things that led to the show's decline and cancellation and if that wasn't bad enough David Lynch ends the series with the most nightmarish episode ever leaving fans choking on their damn fine cups of coffee.The next to last episode ends with an eerie strobelit confrontation but it's the last episode itself that delivers the real chills.Agent Coopers journey into the mysterious otherworldly Red Lodge is supremely creepy.Beginning with the hypnotic song Under the Sycamore Trees(Which you can find on the Twin Peaks:Fire Walk With Me soundtrack)to agent Cooper being pursued from room to room by his evil dopelganger.Masterfully directed by David Lynch it's equal to any of his best creepy movies like Lost Highway.Like being woken up in a middle of a nightmare it will leave you hanging but will stay in your mind forever.I don't remember T.V. shows I've seen last night but the final episode of Twin Peaks still haunts me 15 years later.

WOULD YOU LIKE SOME COFFEE?
This image of the Red Room, this world of Twin peaks is horrifying!! I must admit I cried for hours after the ending of this show. I was extremely depressed, I still get depressed about and the first time I watched it was in January 2000. I really love this tape. I love TWIN PEAKS. It needs more to it. I want Lynch to direct another TWIN PEAKS movie!! I want MORE!!! PEAKS IN MY MIND HASN'T DIED. FRANKLY, I see Peaks still around, in a spooky world!!!! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Drama    2. Movie    3. TV Shows    4. Television   

Editorial Review

Edward D. Wood Jr. was an actor writer-director-producer, occasionally in drag, who combined meager bursts of talent with an undying optimism to create some of the most bizarrely memorable "B" movies to ever come out of Tinseltown. Though Wood died in obscurity as an alcoholic in 1978, his films have been considered cult classics for years. He is consistently voted the worst director who ever lived. You would think this an odd subject, but director Tim Burton harnesses the undying hopefulness that made Wood such a character. Shot in black and white, just like Wood's creations, this stylized, witty production captures the poetic absurdity of Wood's films and his unconventional life. Burton's recreation of Wood's wonderfully awful Read more

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Reviews (212)

"Must See" for Edward D. Wood Jr. fans
Tim Burton's "Ed Wood" never hit it big at the box office but has now become a cult favorite, much like its eponymous subject.
QUE BELLA, BELA LUGOSI..
AWESOME, A REALLY AWESOME FILM, MARTIN LANDAU IS FANTASIC , BUT SO MANY OVERLOOKED PERFORMANCES BY DEPP, PATRICIA ARQUETTE, BILL MURRAY, AND SARAH JESSICA PARKER. WHAT AN OFF-BEAT APPROACH OF MAKING A BIO PIC ABOUT SOMEONE, ESPECIALLY ABOUT AN ECCENTRIC LIKE ED WOOD, A B MOVIE DIRECTOR WHO LOVES WOMENS CLOTHING , THE GREAT THING ABOUT THE PICTURE IS THAT, THE MOVIE DOESNT BASE UPON THAT SPECIFIC FLAW, IF NOT, A FLAWLESS APPROACH TOHiS RELATIONSHIPS AND HIS CORNY WAY OF DIRECTING, HE THOUGHT HE WAS GENUIS AND WAS TERRIBLE AT IT. A COMPLETE OPTIMISTIC.

Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp always brings a fresh and bold aura to any setting Ed Wood is no exception.Martin Landau was exceptional.This is a bizarre accounting of bizzare people.FASCINATING!!! This is especially interesting for the movie/history buffs. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Comedies    2. Feature Film-comedy    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

Before Kevin Smith became a Hollywood darling with Read more

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Reviews (431)

Funny, yet not laugh out loud
I must say that I really did enjoy Clerks yet, to my surprise, it was not the laugh out loud movie I thought it would be. It certainly had the charactics of a film students class project. It allowed you to capture the sense of monotany that everyday retail clerks can relate to, while at the sametime showing the real fun of working in a retail situation. I don't mean to sound like I was disapointed, I certainly was not, I just was expecting something different considering all of the hype I had heard. Jay and Silent Bob are certainly a funny pair, just not bust out loud in this perticular appearance. (see this BEFORE you see the sequal)

Worst Movie Ever Made
Self indulgent, purile, child-like, pure unadulterated garbage of the highest order.
A Classic
The title says it all, I think this movie is a classic.A good yet strange strange movie that strated a very crazy animated cartoon show. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Comedies    2. Feature Film-comedy    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

Future Read more

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Reviews (266)

first half good, second half terrible
I saw this movie when it first came out and as a mother of two teenage girls it really scared me. it was good up to the point where the parents figured out who these people were & then it just got stupid. But I never forgot about it.

WHY PEOPLE HATE THIS MASTERPIECE??????!!!!!!!!!
OK! Maybe the movie is low budget for the 70's, but the HORRIFIC ART is still creepy for more than 30 years.
**THIS REVIEW IS ONLY FOR THE DVD**
GREAT EXTRAS! Many people find this movie to be highly disturbing, with extras included! This movie HAS been unrated, in fact, in its first release it didnt even go through the MPAA (it did a while later). The extras include ALL:
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Subjects:  1. Horror    2. Horror / Sci-Fi / Fantasy    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

Before he became an overrated filmmaker, Cameron Crowe (Read more

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Reviews (210)

Goodtimes
Stoners, music, girls. 80's High school times in Cali. It takes you back to when vans were cool and the girls had way to much hairspray. Everytime I watch this movie Im ready to hit the beach. Good movie!

A movie they would never make today!
This is a great film. But, sadly, it would never be made today. I mean, try to imagine a film in which a 15 or 16 year of character has an abortion and it is taken as just another plot point. (Compare this to Crowe's Singles which brought back the oh so convienent miscarriage, like something out of a 1940's movie.) Also, imagine a film begin made today which invests so much time in developing its characters. Yep, you can't. So enjoy it for what it is, a window on a lost world.

Fast Times indeed!
One of the classic high school movies, Fast Times spawned a slew of teenage talent on the big screen, but no one was more memorable in this movie than Sean Penn as Spicoli.Amy Heckerling cuts out a slice of Southern Californian life from a San Bernardino high school that shows both honor students and misfits alike.While the signature moments belonged to Spicoli, there were many other great scenes such as the ongoing burger war in which Judge Reinhold finds himself on the short end of the spatula.Meanwhile his little sis, a seemingly innocent Jennifer Jason Leigh, experiments with dating and sex with an amusing pair of misfits, Brian Backer and Robert Romanus.Phoebe Cates tries to set her young prodigy straight but to no avail.Forest Whitaker even has a significant moment in this movie as the bruising defensive lineman who takes out the destruction of his prized car on the opposing team.Little did he know that Spicoli had a hand in it.But, it is the hilarious relationship between Spicoli and Mr. Hand (Ray Walston) that steals the show.Fast Times may appear a bit dated, but it hasn't lost any of its humor.
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The most opulant of Roger Corman's Poe films for A.I.
For "The Masque of the Red Death," one of the seven Edgar Allan Poe films that Roger Corman made for American International in the early 1960s, the producer-director had the advantage of Charles Beaumont, one of the scripters from "The Twilight Zone" who also wrote "The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao," and science fiction author R. Wright Campbell, doing the adaptation for this 1964 film. What you have to keep in mind is that Poe's originally tale is barely long enough to be considered a short story in the first place, but it is a neat title and it did have a pretty good twist. Beaumont and Campbell come up with an elaborate story to set up how it is that the Red Death attends Prospero's masque. One of the things they did was incorporate "Hop-Frog," another Poe story, but another is to turn Prospero and his sister in worshippers of Satan (reformed, apparently, compared to what we would see from other Hollywood films such as "Rosemary's Baby" in the next decade).
One of Roger Corman's best Poe adaptations!
Vincent Price is wonderfully sinister as the evil Prince Prospero, who in medieval Italy has large parties at his castle while the countryside is devastated by a deadly plague called "The Red Death". His equally evil wife, Juliana (played by the beautiful Hazel Court), worships Satan with even more passion than he does. When Prospero discovers a beautiful young Christian woman, Francesca (played by Jane Asher), in the poor village, he begins a determined campaign to corrupt her soul, eventually even stabbin