Category: Featured Posts
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Blaxploitation #1: Super Fly (1972)
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Read more: Blaxploitation #1: Super Fly (1972)What the hell are these cats up to? A successful Harlem coke dealer with the extraordinary name YoungBlood Priest (O’Neal) wants one last big deal before going straight. His partner Eddie (Lee), who appears to be doing an impersonation of Sammy Davis Jr. throughout, wants to stay in the game. Stop groaning at the back…
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Starring Debuts #6: Harvey Stephens in The Omen (1976)
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Read more: Starring Debuts #6: Harvey Stephens in The Omen (1976)According to the nursery rhyme, little boys are made of snips, snails and puppy dogs’ tails. However, some parents being driven up the wall by their misbehaving spawn probably believe they’re actually jam-packed with satanic DNA. Take Damien Thorn. There’s just no hope with this kid. Appoint a nice nanny to look after him? She’ll…
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Starring Debuts #5: Eddie Murphy in 48 Hrs. (1982)
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Read more: Starring Debuts #5: Eddie Murphy in 48 Hrs. (1982)The pioneering brilliance of the ancient Greeks laid many of the foundations for Western civilization, producing great leaps forward in fields as diverse as philosophy and science. For hundreds of years progress and innovation flourished until the curtain was violently brought down by the Romans. What a shame. Somehow, though, a cinephile like me finds…
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Starring Debuts #4: Kathleen Turner in Body Heat (1981)
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Read more: Starring Debuts #4: Kathleen Turner in Body Heat (1981)Now this is my idea of a Strong Female Role. Kathleen Turner’s performance in Body Heat hasn’t quite carved itself into pop culture as unmistakably as Louise Fletcher in Cuckoo’s Nest, Judy Garland in Wizard of Oz or Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, but it’s hard to think of any woman who’s made a better…
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Starring Debuts #2: John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever
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Read more: Starring Debuts #2: John Travolta in Saturday Night FeverYou’d think the sight of a bloke walking down a street carrying a tin of paint isn’t much of an opening for a movie. But we’re talking John Travolta in his pomp here, and he’s not just walking, he’s strutting like an electrified peacock to those falsetto disco gods, The Bee Gees. “Well, you can…
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The Enforcer (1976)
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Read more: The Enforcer (1976)Tagline: The “dirtiest” Harry of them all! Entire Story In Fewer Words Than Are In This Sentence: Harry endures militants, radicals and, worst of all, women. Homoeroticism: The lead baddie, Bobby Maxwell (DeVeren Bookwalter) shares Harry’s love of the kill, a look of erotic rapture overtaking his face as he shoves his huge knife into…
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Starring Debuts- #1: Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee (1986)
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Read more: Starring Debuts- #1: Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee (1986)Here in Oz there’s a cringe factor around Crocodile Dundee, despite it being a worldwide phenomenon that took well over three hundred mil at the box office. Perhaps it’s disliked in hipster circles because it was such a runaway success. After all, the titular character is a rough hewn, leg-pulling pub-dweller, the sort of guy…
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Witchfinder General (1968)
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Read more: Witchfinder General (1968)“Men sometimes have strange motives for the things they do.” So says Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General, and one of this brutal flick’s coarse joys is trying to work out his. Does he really believe he’s doing God’s work? Or is he merely an opportunist, a man happy to take advantage of the breakdown in law…
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Magnum Force (1973)
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Read more: Magnum Force (1973)Tagline: This time the bullets are hitting pretty close to home! Entire Story In Fewer Words Than Are In This Sentence: Harry could just kill his Stupid Chief this time. Homoeroticism: Once again limited almost exclusively to the fetishization of guns, beginning with the opening credits sequence, which consists of a very long shot of…
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King Richard
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Read more: King RichardOver the last few years, I’ve had the opportunity to get to know a few retired Major League Baseball players at the Colorado Rockies fantasy baseball camp. The first time they walked into the room with us, I turned into the nine-year-old me that fell in love with baseball. I was practically giddy at the…