(1968) What’s an old-school Hollywood legend like Burt Lancaster doing on a label like Grindhouse Releasing? After viewing The Swimmer, I still don’t know. As odd as the 1968 obscurity is, it’s still too classy to be caught dead in a grindhouse theater. What matters ultimately is that it’s on Bluray at all.At once allegorical […]
Grindhouse
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The Big Gundown
In fact, The Big Gundown has been floated in some circles as the genre’s best not coming from the genius of Sergio Leone, and Grindhouse Releasing’s superb, four-disc set is like a dare for you to argue otherwise. Clearly, as much love has gone into this package as it went into production of the movie […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Corruption
One of the first I added to my list was 1968’s Corruption, a mad, mod thriller starring Hammer horror icon — and later Star Wars‘ Grand Moff Tarkin — Peter Cushing. As luck would have it, Grindhouse Releasing has made my search nonexistent with a Blu-ray/DVD combo that marks its North American video debut. Another […]
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Mold!
Opening with President Reagan’s infamous crack speech, the 1984-set Mold! unfolds in a secret facility deep within the Arizona desert. Scientists there have spent two years of funding on developing a strain of mold (they call it “stacky mort” to shorten its long, boring name) as an ecological weapon to destroy the Colombians’ drug fields […]
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Manborg
The title refers to a curly haired soldier (Matthew Kennedy) who awakens in the future, post-Hell Wars, to find himself rebuilt as, yes, part man, part machine — a Manborg, if you will. Dr. Scorpius (Adam Brooks) has created him in the hopes of besting the evil Count Draculon (also Brooks), who feeds upon humans: […]
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The Victim
Someone needs to define “grindhouse” for Mr. Biehn, I’m afraid. The hardworking man who helped define the ’80s in early James Cameron films (Aliens, The Terminator) is a good actor and, as it turns out, a competent director. His script, however, is awful. For one thing, it’s hardly enough on which to hang a feature […]
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Zombie A-Hole
I wish I could say the live-action Zombie A-Hole matched those felt-based shenanigans of Massacre; instead, I must admit being disappointed. While it exhibits flashes of Mills’ indie-minded manic brilliance, three things killed it for me: • amateurish acting, • nudity just for the sake of nudity (to a ridiculously exploitative degree), and • a […]
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The Disco Exorcist
Opening with a disclaimer that the producers have no memory of making the motion picture, the indie feature obviously revels in that era of exploitation, immediately passing itself off as a ’70s no-budget, B-horror pic as authentically as it can: heavily embedded grain and scratches, a couple of “SHOT MISSING” frames, reel-to-reel tape decks, lava […]
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42nd Street Forever: Blu-ray Edition
That adds up to nearly four hours of absolutely outrageous ads. Trust me: Whether you watch in a single sitting or several, it’s a real car-chasing, cycle-revving, bomb-exploding, fist-punching, karate-chopping, foot-kicking, gun-shooting, knife-throwing, laser-blasting, woman-screaming, race-baiting, acid-pouring, eye-gouging, head-chopping, phallus-castrating, breast-squeezing, bed-writhing, succubus-sucking, wrist-tying, drug-injecting, butt-whipping, panty-ripping, bikini-filling, disco-dancing, jail-busting, snake-attacking, robot-battling, voodoo-pinning, slime-invading, dominatrix-singing, […]
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Nude Nuns with Big Guns
Make that a sacrilegious twist. And as with the also new-to-DVD “Dead Hooker in a Trunk,” you need not proceed beyond reading the title. On a smack trip after being beaten up within an inch of her life, nun Sister Sarah (Asun Ortega) awakens with new purpose: doing the Lord’s work. She already does, but […]