Girl Boss Guerilla

Description: Miko Sugimoto is the leader associated with the Red Helmet Gang, a biker woman gang from Shinjuku just who wind up in Kyoto and work out a bid to just take covering the neighborhood woman gangs there. Successful for a short time in ruling the roads it isn't very long before Miko and her crew run afoul concerning the neighborhood Yakuza, and are also forced to turn to Reiko Ike, a ronin Yakuza woman, and sis to among the top Yakuza in Kyoto, for assistance, resulting in a murderous showdown at a little coastal resort.

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Celluloid Nightmares

Shiro Yumeno scripted this tighten, effective combination of the pinku-eiga and thriller genres similar of a sexed-up version of 8MM. Kiyomi Ito stars as a girl whom gets her rational kicks attempting to resolve difficult criminal instances, and begins to research a record which shows the outcomes of a brutal killing determined using the knife-equipped digital camera itself (clearly encouraged by the classic Peeping Tom). Despite its occasional, necessary jeopardises to pinku-eiga director, Yumeno and formulas Hisayasu Sato manage to keep suitable tension through. Yukio Ono, Reika Kazami, and filmmaker Kazuhiro Sano co-star.

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Check to the Queen (1969)

Description: Delightful movie joining effectively eroticism, mental and physical cruelty and sick relationships. Very refined and tasty as to aesthetics, a real joy for eyes of those who love fashion, hairstyle and interior design of that period, the movie tells the development of a slave - master relationship becoming estabilished, consciously, between a born-well lady, agoraphobic and essentially devoid of interests and propulsions other than sadomasochistic imagination accompanying her days, and a famous actress, who hires her as a lady's companion

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The Peeping Tom

Description: A reasonably stylish film with decent performances and production values, full of the glorified and glamorized physical and sexual violence you would expect from a Category III Hong Kong film. Yet the plot that drives The Peeping Tom is far too simplistic to warrant repeat viewings. It's a basic cat-and-mouse thriller that fails to deliver many thrills or keep you guessing. There are no interesting twists and turns in the plot -- a problem that plagues other HK movies, such as The Shackle (a lesser film which shares numerous similarities with The Peeping Tom). Still, The Peeping Tom offers some cheap thrills and minimal titillation. And, of course, gorgeous leading lady Jade Leung (Black Cat, Killing Me Hardly) is reason enough to give this one a try.
Review: As far as latter day CAT III flicks go, The Peeping Tom is definitely one of the few watchable ones. Directed by Ivan Lai, The Peeping Tom is a seedy little film with extremely creepy rape scenes - creepy because Lai shoots them to blatantly titillate his audience rather than shock or disgust them.
The cast is nothing special, other than the super hot Jade Leung from the Black Cat movies, and the characters are hilariously idiotic (even more so than your average HK CAT III). The gore is also minimal, but the film scores major points for the demented leg fetish angle it takes.
While it's got nothing on Lai's earlier efforts like Daughter of Darkness and its sequel, The Peeping Tom should be sleazy and insane enough to please most fans of this kind of stuff. The film gets progressively more out of control as it goes and features a handful of great scenes.

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Dracula in Pakistan (1967)

This is exactly the type of stuff you expect the good people over at Mondo Macabro to release under their formidable DVD-label: Obscure, horror-themed curiosities from all over the globe! These movies aren't necessarily good, but definitely unique in some way and they at least always feature aspects that appeal to avid cult collectors. This particular oddity, for example, is a Pakistani vampire movie (how many of those do you know?) and it's one of the only horror films ever to be heavily censored not because of the horrific subject matter but because the female characters act & dress too provocatively! The Mondo Macabro DVD restores all the cut footage in which the women dance "too" sensually, although sometimes you wish it hadn't because these parts are overlong, dreary and serve absolutely no purpose. The story introduces Rehan (interesting how some of these actors have last names and others don't) as an overly ambitious scientist striving to become immortal. He develops an elixir that does the job, but the side effects involve an allergy to daylight, pointy teeth and the incontrollable hunger for human blood. In short, the poor man transforms into a vampire (although he doesn't seem to mind) and nobody in a large area around his mansion is longer safe, especially not when he sets his mind to drinking the blood of Dr. Aqil's beautiful fiancée. The first half of the story is involving and occasionally even atmospheric & suspenseful, but then it turns into a dull family drama with hardly any noteworthy moments, apart from the virulent man vs. vampire showdown in the end. The popular title "Dracula in Pakistan" is obviously the best choice for marketing purposes, but "The Living Corpse" is of course far more accurate since there's no actual blood relation between Professor Tabani and the legendary count of Bram Stoker's novel. The film does try really hard to be reminiscent to "Dracula", however. The main star, Rehan, could easily pass for Christopher Lee's brother from another (Pakistani) mother, the "brides" also look familiar and the script even bluntly copies famous quotes that are irreversibly linked to the original Dracula ("Children of the Night … What music they make"). In fact, the absolute most suitable title for this movie would be "The Pakistani Vampire Musical". There really are a LOT of musical interludes. Some of the songs are truly misfit (La Cucaracha in a horror film?), others are sexy (the bride's dance to a song that sounds like "The Shadows") and just plain goofy (the women's overlong beach song), but they practically all are redundant and exclusively added to stretch the running time. "The Living Corpse" is a curious find for people with a wide interest in global cult cinema, but not necessarily fundamental viewing for horror fanatics.

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Original Gangstas (1996)

Marvin Bookman is a small shop owner in Gary, Indiana, USA. After he sees a drive-by shooting of Laurie Thompson's son by a local gang, he gives up the license number of the car to the police. The gang doesn't like this so they go to the store and rough him up. Soon, John Bookman comes to town to set the wrong things right. With the help of Laurie and his old friend Jake, they attempt to take back the streets and show the new breed of gang members what the true originals can do.
A blaxploitation-movie with the stars of this genre, Fred Williamson, Jim Brown, Richard Roundtree, Ron O'Neal and Pam Grier. One year before "Jackie Brown" Pam Grier and Robert Forster starred together in this movie. B-movie veterans like Charles Napier and Wings Hauser complete the cast and that is a good reason to watch this movie.

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4 Film Favorites: Urban Action (Black Belt Jones, Black Samson, Hot Potato, Three the Hard Way)

Thankfully none of these films star Keith Urban, but are instead some previously unavailable Blaxploitation films. Coz as we all know now, "Urban" means "Black". I found this out years ago working at a video store when reading the monthly business catalogues that advertised "urban" films like Phat Beach and Belly as being very profitable in "urban neighborhoods".

But anyhow, there are fewer Blaxploitation fans as big as I(in loyalty, not body mass), and I've been waiting to get my mitts on two of these titles for some time now. Three of the four films feature martial artist, Jim Kelly, who we all remember from Enter the Dragon as John Saxon's buddy. First on the bill is Black Belt Jones, directed by Enter the Dragon's director, Robert Clouse. Jones is an all around butt kicker who works for a karate school run by Scatman "How'd you like some ice cream, Doc?" Crothers. He's also working with the feds or something. Some mafiosos employ their "urban" man, Pinky, to try and gain possession of the karate school by any means possible to expand their evil real estate project. Well, after Pinky's goons start roughing up Jones' pals, it's all out war with Jones slapping the snot out of everyone and winning over Gloria Hendry(who does some snot slapping herself). Tongue in cheek, and as Ronnie Dawson would say, "ACTION PACKED!"

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Cleopatra Jones And The Casino Of Gold

Special Agent Cleopatra Jones knows the heroin pipeline stretches from Hong Kong to the U.S. - and she's dead set on shutting the pipeline off at its source. But the Dragon Lady (Stella Stevens), lecherous, drug-running underworld queenpin, is taking dead aim against Cleo.

Tamara Dobson returns in beautiful, brainy, fighting form to her signature role in Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold. Amid the picturesque sprawl of Hong Kong and Macao locales, Cleo faces relentless danger. She kicks, flails and transforms a street corner into a chopping center. Breathless excitement is in store when she slips inside the Dragon Lady's plush gaming rooms. That's one sure entertainment bet!

Some things are frankly mystifying about this DVD release and the movie itself in terms of its high quality. In 1975, most film stock was pretty poor, especially for budget productions. Casino of Gold looks like an A-list production with great film quality, camera work, lighting, etc. and the DVD release is sharp as a tack. Someone somewhere really applied themselves to this transfer because I've seen Blu-ray releases of 70s films that don't look nearly as good as this. Worth every penny, you would be easily justified in thinking it's high-def if you saw it unawares.

We all know Tamara Dobson owned this role, but Norman Fell is terrific and under-used as her theoretical boss.

The DVD quality is so good I'm tempted to give 5 stars but ultimately this is a guilty pleasure, not high art. Strongly recommended though.

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Black Mama, White Mama/Foxy Brown

Pam Grier. Two Pam-tastic blaxploitation favorites! In Black Mama, White Mama (1973/87 min.) gorgeous Grier is an escaped convict handcuffed to a white revolutionary. In Foxy Brown (1974/94 min.), Pam's gonna stick it to the man who killed her boyfriend 2 DVDs. Color/R/widescreen.
Who is Pam Grier's contemporary? Nobody. Anything with Pam is a guarantee adventure ride and Black Mama, White Mama/Foxy Brown are two fine examples of what 70s cinema was all about, action, action, and action. Pam had a cameo recently in The Man With The Iron Fists, she's still around and still has that unique presence that draws you in and keeps you captivated, why she has not received a Life Time Achievement Oscar is beyond me. Far from her only great performances, this double feature is a fine introduction to her work. If you don't know Pam, you don't know 70s cinema.

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Roger Corman's Cult Classic's Lethal Ladies Collection 2 (The Arena / Cover Girl Models / Fly Me)

Kidnapped by Roman soldiers, four beautiful women must battle for their lives in The Arena . . . while attempting to beat the Romans at their own game. Starring Pam Grier and Margaret Markov (The Hot Box and Black Mama, White Mam). Directed by Steve Carver (Big Bad Mama and Capone).

They’re fast. They’re beautiful. They’re deadly . . . they have to be. A fashion photography assignment teams three American models and inadvertently plunges them into the mystery and danger of international espionage in Cover Girl Models. When an invaluable roll of microfilm is sewed into one of the girls’ fashion gowns, they are drawn into the violence and intrigue of a spy-vs.-counterspy conspiracy. Starring Tara Strohmeier (The Great Texas Dynamite Chase), Pat Anderson (TNT Jackson), Lindsay Bloom (H.O.T.S. ) and Vic Diaz. 

In Fly Me, a group of martial arts assassins board a passenger plane. Once in the air, the group terrorizes the passengers and insists that the plane be rerouted to another destination. But they picked the wrong plane to hijack, as these stewardesses don’t just serve meals and beverages:their hands and feet are lethal weapons! Starring Pat Anderson (Cover Girl Models), Lenore Kasdorf (Missing In Action) and Vic Diaz. 

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Roger Corman’s Cult Classics Triple Feature: Action Packed Collection

Double features have been common at movie houses and drive-ins. They lump together two films with the hope the crowd will make more trips to the concession stand. The more prestigious title comes second as the headliner. The Triple feature is rare with the exception of a Star Wars or Lord of the Rings marathon. Not many respectable theater owners want a crowd lingering that long. But the more sketchy theaters known as grindhouses craved a long-term audience. The programming is a little more complicated with the best film coming second in the rotation. The third film of the night could be a stinker thus allowing the crowd to sleep or focus on debauchery with fellow audience members. Roger Corman’s Cult Classics Triple Feature: Action Packed Collection maintains this line up with a trio of car chasing excitement.

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The Alphabet Murders (1966) DVD

With a twinkle of his eye and a twirl of his moustache, Tony Randall steps into the patent leather pumps of Hercule Poirot - and joins the ranks of Charles Laughton, Albert Finney, Peter Ustinov, David Suchet and more distinguished actors who’ve charmed generations of audiences as Agatha Christie’s renowned Belgian detective. The Alphabet Murders, based on Christie’s The ABC Murders, adds lots of laughs to the brain-teasing tale of a serial killer who chooses his/her victims in alphabetical order. As quickly as you can say ABC, Poirot is on the case, pursuing gorgeous Amanda Beatrice Cross (Anita Ekberg), who confesses to the crimes in Poirot’s Turkish bath. Poirot is shocked. After all, the ladies have their own facility elsewhere in the building! A befuddled British Intelligence officer (Robert Morley) galumphs along in Poirot’s wake. And Margaret Rutherford and Stringer Davis of the Miss Marple movie series make surprise cameos to add even more fun to the mysterious goings-on.

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