Crime Without Passion (1934)Streaming free at YouTube
This starts with an amazing opening for 1934, as three “sisters of Evil” rise up from Hades, flying like bats, intercut with imagery of murders. I briefly wondered if I’d been deceived, and this was actually some black-and-white schlock from the 1990s.Written, directed, and produced by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur (The Front Page, Twentieth Century, Wuthering Heights, etc), this is one of their lesser collaborations. The story is sorta silly and merits no mention, but the movie is worth watching just for Claude Rains’ performance as a fabulously snarky and uncaring defense lawyer who’ll get anyone off, on any charges.When he himself needs legal advice, another Claude Rains pops up in a visual effect, spouting yet more snark.Verdict: YES.♦ ♦ ♦ Criminally Insane (1975)Streaming free at Internet Archive
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| NEVERENDING FILM FESTIVAL #252 [archive] MAR. 4, 2024 |
This is a schlock slasher film about a fat woman who kills anyone who comes between her and her food. When her grandmother tries to enforce a diet, she gets stabbed. When the grocery delivery man wants past-due payment, he gets brained with a bottle. It’s ineptly made, with occasional racist dialogue and a wasted subplot about domestic violence, but Criminally Insane has an important message: Shut the hell up about other people’s weight.Verdict: NO.♦ ♦ ♦ Crippled Avengers (1978)
a/k/a Mortal Combat
a/k/a The Return of the Five Deadly Venoms
From the legendary kung fu studios of Run Run Shaw and his brother Runme, this is quality widescreen kickass action with serious talent on both sides of the camera. Classic chop socky!Chu Twin comes home from a hard day’s work to find his wife murdered, and their son Chu Cho Chang horrendously injured, his arms chopped off at the elbows. At first, it’s about righteous revenge as iron prosthetic arms and fists are crafted for the crippled Chu Cho, but the quest takes twenty years, and by then the violence has made Chu Twin and Chu Cho into angry assassins.Same as Chu Cho was attacked, they brutalize and maim anyone who gets in their way. Then their victims, all disabled, band together to seek their own vengeance on the vengeance-seekers.Obviously, this is epic martial arts melodrama. The molten metal poured down a man’s throat, pokers into eyeballs, a metal wrap to squish skull and brain, etc, are gruesome, but an action movie needs motivation, and it’s just good-natured torture that sets up the battles to come.The whole movie would be profoundly disturbing if you thought about it, so don’t.Verdict: YES.♦ ♦ ♦ Cronos (1992)Streaming free at Effed Up Movies
An antiques dealer discovers a device from 400 years ago that looks like a spider and prolongs human life. He winds it up and it injects some liquid into his hand, which becomes quite painfully inflamed, and soon he has an insatiable thirst for blood.A standard horror plot, in other words, but writer-director Guillermo del Toro adds the new twist of telling the story very slowly. Much of what happens is filler, scenes that don’t really add to the story or tell us anything about the characters, but look sorta cool. Which, sorry, isn’t enough.Ron Perlman adds fleeting moments of fun, as an almost comedic, bumbling henchman who has no hesitation to kill anybody, but mostly it’s a yawn with great visuals.Unexplained: How does any liquid not evaporate in 400 years?Verdict: NO.♦ ♦ ♦
The Crying Game (1992)Streaming free at Effed Up Movies
Maybe you know the famous plot twist, but you might not know or remember that there’s more to The Crying Game than that. Forget the twist and the hype; it’s a very good movie. Several Irish Republican Army revolutionaries kidnap a British soldier named Jody (Forrest Whitaker). He’s kept in an abandoned and remote house, guarded by the IRA’s Fergus (Stephen Rea), and a gentle but tense friendship develops between Jody and Fergus. Jody’s a hostage, though, so the friendship might not last long.The rules of The Crying Game change when you least expect it, but what matters is that it works. Everyone on screen seems damaged, like everyone in real life, and what happens feels like it could.Neil Jordan’s script and direction rock, and all the major players deserve the kudos they got — this might be Jordan’s best movie and Whitaker’s best performance, and it’s definitely Rea’s and Jaye Davidson’s.But can I just say, Jim Broadbent? His quipping bartender is the warm, slyly comic center the film needs and just when it needs it. He adds a lot of heart to a movie that already had a lot of heart.Verdict: BIG YES. 3/4/2024
• • • Coming attractions • • • The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
The Day After (1983)
A Day in the Country (1946)
Days of Heaven (1978)
… plus sometimes,schlock, shorts, and surprises.jpg)
There
are so many good movies out there — old movies, odd or artsy, foreign
or forgotten movies, or do-it-yourself movies made just for the joy of
making them — that if you only watch whatever’s on Netflix or playing at
the twenty-plex, you’re missing out.To get beyond the ordinary, I recommend:Alter • Cineverse • Criterion • CultCinema Classics • DocsVille • Dust • Fandor • Films for Action • Hoopla • IHaveNoTV • IndieFlix • Internet Archive • Kanopy • KinoCult • Kino Lorber • Korean Classic Film • Christopher R Mihm • Mosfilm • Mubi • National Film Board of Canada • New Yorker Screening Room • Damon Packard • Mark Pirro • PizzaFlix • PopcornFlix • Public Domain Movies • RareFilmm • Scarecrow Video • Shudder • ThoughtMaybe • Timeless Classic Movies • VoleFlix • WatchDocumentaries • or your local library. Some people even access films through shady methods, though of course, that would be wrong.
Reviews are spoiler-free, or at least spoiler-warned. Click any image to enlarge. Arguments & recommendations are welcome, but no talking once the lights dim, and only real butter on the popcorn, not that fake yellow stuff.
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