Trapped Ashes (2006)

 

TRAPPED ASHES  (2006)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Joe Dante, Monte Hellman, Ken Russell,

    John Gaeta, Sean S. Cunningham

    C: Henry Gibson, Rachel Veltri, Lara Harris,

    John Saxon, Scott Lowell, Joyce Bartok,

    Michèle Barbara Pelletier, Dick Miller

When six people on an exclusive studio tour find themselves trapped in a backlot haunted house, the tour guide suggests they follow the plot of a famous movie that was shot there and try to escape by telling each other horror stories. In one of the stories, a woman has a sexual encounter with a Japanese ghoul. In another, a screenwriter's life takes a twisted turn when a friend sets him up with his girlfriend. In a third, a woman's twin is a tapeworm. In the fourth (actually the first), an actress faces dire consequences when she has breast enhancement surgery (yuck!) and her boobs turn into vampires. And there's still the matter of how these people are going to get out of that house. Nothing that happens in this is very surprising, and the movie's too goofy to be really scary - or maybe it's not goofy enough - but you could do worse than to put yourself in the hands of these filmmakers. Flash back to an earlier time, and it wouldn't be hard to imagine Boris Karloff or Vincent Price in the Henry Gibson role. 

Rampage (1963)

RAMPAGE  (1963)  ¢ ¢

    D: Phil Karlson

    Robert Mitchum, Jack Hawkins, Elsa Martinelli, Sabu

Robert Mitchum plays a guy who traps wild animals for zoos. Jack Hawkins plays a guy who shoots wild animals for his trophy room. Machismo boils over when Elsa Martinelli comes between them. Also, some real big cats.

Womb (2010)

 

WOMB  (2010)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Benedek Fliegauf

    Eva Green, Matt Smith, Tristan Christopher,

    Lesley Manville, Peter Wight, Ruby O. Fee,

    Hannah Murray, Natalia Tena, Gina Stiebitz

A boy and a girl meet up on an isolated beach and become best friends. They separate when she moves away, but 12 years later, they reconnect and become lovers. Then there's an accident and things get strange. Cloning and incest are involved. This is an odd one, and a movie you could watch just for how it looks. It's beautifully shot, and director Benedek Fliegauf holds shots several beats longer than you'd expect, so you get plenty of time to take the images in. There's a stillness and slowness to the movie that's almost hypnotic, and a lot of those images feature Eva Green. Take a look.

The Virginian (1929)

 

THE VIRGINIAN  (1929)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Victor Fleming

    Gary Cooper, Walter Huston, Mary Brian,

    Richard Arlen, Chester Conklin, Eugene Pallette

In his first all-talking movie, a lean, young Gary Cooper plays Owen Wister's nameless cowboy, who stands up to a rustler played by Walter Huston, romances a schoolmarm played by Mary Brian, and rolls and lights a cigarette using just one hand. Movies were still figuring out what to do with sound at that point, and Cooper was still figuring out how to act in them. They'd both improve a lot in the next few years. According to IMDb, Randolph Scott was Cooper's dialect coach, resulting in what may or may not pass for a Virginia accent. 

Two Moon Junction (1988)

TWO MOON JUNCTION  (1988)  ¢ 1/2

    D: Zalman King

    Sherilyn Fenn, Richard Tyson, Kristy McNichol,

    Louise Fletcher, Burl Ives, Martin Hewitt,

    Juanita Moore, Millie Perkins, Don Galloway,

    Dabbs Greer, Milla Jovovich, Hervé Villechaize

Softcore, soft-focus erotica about a society princess who falls for a carnival hunk. The sex scenes - the whole point of something like this - aren't nearly enough to make up for the dullness of the romance-novel plot. Kristy McNichol does a lively bit as a fun-loving truck driver, but appears too briefly and disappears way too soon. 

Utopia (1951)

 

UTOPIA  (1951)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Léo Joannon, John Berry

    Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Suzy Delair, Max Elloy,

    Adriano Rimaldi, Luigi Tosi, Claude May

Laurel and Hardy's last movie, in which Stan and Ollie inherit a topical island and a boat to take them there, isn't quite as bad s its reputation suggests. Some of the gags land, especially early on, but overall, it's hit-and-miss, and it drags toward the end, with a detour into political satire. Stan was visibly ill during filming, and while his performance is fine, his emaciated appearance undercuts some of the funny stuff. "Here's another nice mess you've gotten me into," Ollie says just before the end title rolls. They're the last words he'd ever say onscreen. "I couldn't help it," Stan says, crying, just as he had in other films many times before. And with that, Laurel and Hardy's movie career was over. Original title: "Atoll K". 

Naked Edge / Take 9

 

Kate Winslet in "Iris"

Stella Stevens in "Slaughter"

Marion Cotillard in "Ismael's Ghosts" 

Sienna Miller in "Factory Girl"

Emma Stone in "Poor Things"

Molly Parker in "Suspicious River"

Neve Campbell in "I Really Hate My Job"

Eva Green in "Proxima"

Sean Young in "Blue Ice"

Melora Walters in "20 Bucks"