Angel is taken to the dingiest of filthy brothels imaginable and watches other young women forced into prostitution with military men who act like boys. She’s saved from that level of horror when Viktor (Kevin Howarth, Gallowwalkers), the pimp of the place, takes a shine to her and keeps her for himself. However, she’s still […]
blu-ray
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The Canyons
New to Blu-ray following a much-buzzed-about VOD and limited theatrical run, the IFC Films release casts a voyeuristic eye on Los Angeles couple Tara (tabloid fixture Lindsay Lohan, Liz & Dick) and Christian (porn star James Deen, Anal Buffet 8). They’ve been together for one year, but their bedroom — and other areas of their […]
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Saturn 3
The 1980 box-office bomb takes place on an experimental research station on a moon of the title’s ringed planet. For three years, scientist Adam (ol’ butt-chinned Kirk Douglas) has worked there to solve Earth’s hunger problem hydroponically, alongside Alex (Farrah Fawcett, The Cannonball Run), his much younger partner — in the lab and the space-disco […]
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Eve of Destruction
A female take on The Terminator, 1991’s Eve of Destruction casts the robot, named Eve VIII, in the spittin’ image of its creator, Dr. Eve Simmons (Renée Soutendijk, the Dutch actress known for early Paul Verhoeven films). Eve VIII also shares Dr. Eve’s thoughts and memories, which gets really interesting when it begins acting out […]
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Short Term 12
Although she has been acting since the age of 8, Brie Larson only started to become “a thing” in 2009, as the daughter of Toni Collette’s dissociative-identity housewife on the Showtime series United States of Tara. For all three seasons, the 20-something Larson stood out by playing sassy, brassy and smug. She was so good […]
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Body Bags / Assault on Precinct 13
The opener is the best of the bunch, documenting the first — and quite possibly the last — night shift worked by a pretty young college student (Alex Datcher, Passenger 57) at a gas station. She sits locked in the cashier’s booth as a serial killer lurks close. The suspense gets to her as much as […]
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Passion
A remake of the 2010 French film Love Crime, Passion burns in an advertising agency in Germany headed by Christine (Rachel McAdams, To the Wonder), a bratty, manipulative bitch who uses one of her creatives, Isabelle (Noomi Rapace, Prometheus), as a puppet. When Christine takes credit for Isabelle’s idea for a smartphone campaign spot, it […]
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Lovelace
This approach speaks to the controversy that dogged Lovelace’s later life, in which she denounced porn of all forms, saying that she was coerced by gunpoint and other means into performing oral sex for the cameras of Deep Throat, not to mention dalliances into prostitution. So, no, Lovelace is not the feel-good hit of the […]
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Byzantium
The film takes its title from an old hotel into which Clara (Gemma Arterton, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters) moves with her “daughter,” Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan, The Host). The women are vampires; for 200 years they’ve been bound by blood and that’s a thirst they can’t quite quench, although Eleanor sure wishes she could. To survive, Eleanor seeks […]
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My Name Is Nobody
A half-decade later, Fonda re-teamed with Leone, who this time served as producer for My Name Is Nobody. Although a far less serious film, it’s arguably more entertaining — a pure delight. See if you don’t agree, now that the 1973 film gallops out of the sunrise and onto Blu-ray. Fonda’s Jack Beauregard is an […]