blcrumpacker

IMDb member since June 2003
    Lifetime Total
    5+
    IMDb Member
    20 years

Reviews

Katakuri-ke no kôfuku
(2001)

Sound of Music vs. Godzilla
No Gojira here. I threw that in to emphasize the abrupt, extreme changes in tone and style that define this movie. This family's dream is realized when they set up a guest house in the country. But the steady stream of peculiar guests find new ways to die. The music and dance numbers stress the joy of family togetherness, which then segue into burying people and sweating out visits by the police. The characters delude themselves and each other. Stop action animation alternates with live action, making deadly struggles look like Gumby outtakes. The editing also plays with time, using flash backs, foreshadowing, alternate story lines, etc. It all sounds bizarre, but this director has a light touch. You'll remember this one. BC

Invasion of the Bee Girls
(1973)

late night, low budget, low brow fun
Pointy sideburns, big hair, blue eye shadow, huge Jackie O sunglasses, cheesy soundtrack, paisley...yup, we are back in the 70s. This movie has lots of soft core sex and gratuitous violence [not that I'm complaining] tarted up with sci fi trappings like ancient computers, bee girls wearing low cut mini lab coats, and pasty faced dead guys who came and went at the same time, so to speak. The direction, lighting, photography and sets are below average, but this is fun to watch anyway. Best viewed while under the influence. Victoria Vetri, previously seen sloshing out of her tiny fur bikini in When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth [sample dialogue: "Akita! Neekro!"], fights off the oily charms of William Smith and other cave men this time around. She even Gets Topless twice. The Queen Bee, Anitra Ford, gets naked for some bald scientist type, just so she can kill him of course. She could pass for a supermodel today. Some gay, lesbo and SM moments, too. BC

The Best of Everything
(1959)

soapy fun
In the 1959 New York publishing world, the execs drink like fish, smoke like chimneys, and feel up the help, while the women duck and cover. Everyone leaves work at 5 pm unless they're trying to nail someone right there in the office; or unless dragon lady Joan Crawford ordered them to work late. Those were the good old bad old days. Good soapy fun, with Hope Lange fending off Stephen Boyd while she carries on a long term nonrelationship with a married man; Suzy Parker as the model actress whatever banging her director Louis Jordan, who throws her away like a Kleenex; and Robert Evans creates George Hamilton's persona. BC

No More Ladies
(1935)

Some funny lines
This film is not entirely dismal. Robert Montgomery is light and smooth as the playboy who nails anyone he wants, including the wives of his friends. The long list includes Gail Patrick, who plays Carole Lombard's nasty older high society sister in "My Man Godfrey". In this bizarro world film, she is a banjo playing bar fly. Anyway, before RM and Joan Crawford get married, he is told not to go into her room because she is in bed. Response: "Since when is a lady in bed an object of repugnance?" Joan runs around in sharp designer outfits, and restrains herself from chewing the scenery - much. In short, some snappy dialogue amid the heavy drinking and innuendos. To quote someone clever, "marriage is the death of hope and the birth of despair." BC

Just Imagine
(1930)

ambitious mishmash
This movie is now running on cable. It is an ambitious mishmash of Flash Gordon, Yiddish vaudeville, and Busby Berkeley musical, superimposed on a lame "romance thwarted" story structure. The acting is stilted or too stagey. The sound and cinematography are crude even by 1930 standards. By comparison, the production standards in Harold Lloyd's silent movies sparkle. The movie ends in a courtroom, just like many idiotic movies of today. Don't let this discourage you, though. There are some snappy one liners. It's fun seeing Maureen O'Sullivan years before her nude swimming sequence in the Tarzan movie; and Mischa is good as an astronomer. He will appear five years later in "My Man Godfrey" as the protege of Carol Lombard's mother. And the "vintage future" sets, swoopy modern clothes, mutant Martians, and personal hovercraft with twin boom tails resembling P-38s are wonderful. This movie is funny and not preachy, while "Things To Come" is the opposite. BC

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