Women in Cages (1971)

9o7HlcAWf3avyxTYaN6ePErrRKKCarol Jeffries was just set up by her boyfriend, a drug dealer who makes her take the wrap for a massive drug deal he was involved in during an illegal cock fight. Carol, a vulnerable and innocent woman, has just found herself in a women’s pen in the middle of nowhere with vicious female criminals. And she has nowhere to go but down, baby. She’s forced to endure the tribulations of prison life involving psychotic roommates, horrible living conditions, and a violent matron named Alabama (Ms. Pam Grier, herself) who sleeps with all the prisoners, and punishes them with “The Playpen” when they refuse to abide by her sexual favors. Did I mention the drug dealers on the outside are trying to assassinate Carol to keep her mouth shut?

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Cannibal Ferox (1981)

cannibal-ferox4Watching Ruggero Deodato’s “Cannibal Holocaust” was an experience that I still remember with fondness. I sat with the DVD in hand at my television with a pit in my stomach and prepared to finally view what is considered one of the most controversial and taboo films ever made. And I wasn’t disappointed. Watching “Cannibal Ferox” was a different experience altogether. Maybe it was because the movie is not as good as the aforementioned horror film, or maybe it’s because Umberto Lenzi approaches this horror flick from a sexploitation angle with sensual women ravaged by cannibals instead of the mock documentary style as Deodato’s film.

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Wanted

1144570-wantedSo, here I sat on the wobbly edge, wondering if I should even read “Wanted.” I mean no one cared about the comic, they loved the movie before it even arrived in theaters, and the stupid comic was short lived, but then I saw that final scene where our main character is screaming in to the page with the bubble reading “This is my Face While I’m fucking you in the ass,” and I chuckled so hard, I had to at least give it a chance. Lasting only six issues, and then being made in to a movie that’s kind of faithful to the comic. Wesley Gibson is an average man who… you’ve seen the trailers for the movie, I assume. Anyway, Wesley Gibson is your average schmuck who could have been played by someone a little more reliable than James Mcavoy. The guy’s a good actor, but not who I envisioned.

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Dirty Harry: Two Disc Special Edition (1971) (DVD)

11405Harry Callahan does all the dirty work. He does the dirty work that the people in the force wouldn’t do were it not for him. In the first half of “Dirty Harry,” he has to cut his lunch short and walk across the street in the middle of gun fire to stop a bank robber. And the cavalry is taking a while to get there and help him. He stops his eating, and is forced to single handedly put an end to the heist, and he goes back and finishes his lunch. He does it because he has to, because without him it all goes to shit. That’s Dirty Harry, the man with the magnum who sparked quite a controversy upon his introduction with many assuming he was an ode to, and endorsement for vigilantism and right wingers.

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Ms. 45 (1981)

45If there’s anything that gets my goat more than apocalypse films, and superhero films, it’s revenge flicks. Revenge movies make up some of the best cinema I’ve ever seen, from Samurai epics, to Western tales, and Abel Ferrera’s “Ms. 45” is that revenge movie in the vein of “I Spite on your Grave” where a woman who has suffered the crime of rape, now strikes out against all men, instead of the men who hurt her. Anna is a meek mute girl who designs clothes during the day time. On the way home, she’s anally raped on the street, and then staggers home wounded to find that a man has broken into her home and, angered that she has no valuables, decides to rape her… again.

Anna can’t catch a break, as you can imagine.

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Blitzkrieg: Escape from Stalag 69 (2008)

BlitzFINALlobby-1Ah Nazisploitation, one of my favorite sub-genres of the Grindhouse niche. After watching the “Ilsa” movies last year, I found the subset to be a very fascinating and varied area with titles attempting social relevance and failing immensely. “Blitzkrieg” is the incredible ambitious and sophisticated dip into the nazi exploitation gallery with a very unusual and original story that hearkens back to Jess Franco and Don Edmonds. “Blitzkrieg” sets down on 1955, a little over a decade after the holocaust where a secret group of officers are busting ex-Nazi death camp owners and arresting them.

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Shark Swarm (2008)

shark-swarm-rlstvI would love to say that this is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, I really would, but when all is said and done, it’s really just a typically awful television movie with a three hour run time that is about as necessary as another killer shark movie. When I finished “Shark Swarm” I blamed myself for sitting through it, and I completely forgot about it once the credits rolled. Boring as piss, “Shark Swarm” is one of the most derivative of the killer animal movies with elements that don’t try to break the mold and instead just follow along with clichés incessantly bringing us through the motions until the finale. Sharks are traveling in swarms because well… we’re never given a real explanation.

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