Cannibal Girls (1973)

 

CANNIBAL GIRLS  (1973)   ¢ 1/2

    D: Ivan Reitman

    Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Ronald Ulrich,

    Bonnie Nielsen, Mira Pawluk, Randall Carpenter,

    Robert McHeady, Alan Gordon, Allan Price,

    Earl Pomerantz, May Jarvis, Rick Maguire

Improvised, low-budget horror about a couple of clueless tourists and three young women with a ravenous appetite for meat. Shot in Canada in nine days on a budget of $12,000, and that's pretty much what it looks like. A DVD bonus feature in which director Ivan Reitman and producer Danny Goldberg talk about how they made and sold the movie is more entertaining than the picture itself. 

Listomania / Take 14

 

More actors with at least two Academy Awards:

Spencer Tracy

Ingrid Bergman

Gary Cooper

Bette Davis

Jason Robards

Katharine Hepburn

Jack Nicholson

Peter Ustinov

Luise Rainer

Walter Brennan

Michael Caine

Best Sellers (2021)

 

BEST SELLERS  (2021)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Lina Roessler

    Michael Caine, Aubrey Plaza, Scott Speedman,

    Ellen Wong, Cary Elwes, Frank Schorpion

Michael Caine, walking with a cane and looking like he needs one, plays a novelist who hasn't published a word in 40 years. Aubrey Plaza plays a publisher who coaxes him back into print. Together they embark on the book tour from hell, doing readings in dive bars when his crude behavior causes bookstores to cancel their appearances. Caine's masterful, as always, and Plaza does a nice job in a role for which you'd think she'd be miscast. In the end, it plays out in some predictably heartwarming ways, but Caine, acting crotchety, and Plaza, being Plaza, do a lot to keep it from getting too cute. CGI allows a much younger Sir Michael to make a brief televised appearance. 

Alien Thunder (1974)

 

ALIEN THUNDER  (1974)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Claude Fournier

    Donald Sutherland, Gordon Tootoosis, Chief Dan George,

    Kevin McCarthy, Sarain Stump, Francine Racette

Racism on the Canadian prairie, with Donald Sutherland as a Mountie on an obsessive mission to track down the Cree Indian who killed his best friend. Parallels to "The Searchers" are obvious, and Sutherland's Dan Candy, like John Wayne's Ethan Edwards, is doomed by his own fanatical quest: If he captures his quarry, the quest ends and he loses the thing that defines him. If he doesn't, he's a failure on a quest that goes on forever. "You've become a hunter with nothing to hunt," Chief Dan George tells Sutherland at one point. He's chasing a ghost. The cinematography and the Saskatchewan locations look good, but the storytelling's a little murky. Kevin  McCarthy has a cameo as Candy's dead comrade, which allows the two "Body Snatchers" stars to share the screen for a minute or two. 

Donald Sutherland

(1935-2024)

Blast of Silence (1961)

 

BLAST OF SILENCE  (1961)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Allen Baron

    Allen Baron, Molly McCarthy, Larry Tucker,

    Peter Clune, Danny Meehan, Charles Creasap

A terse, efficient film noir, shot on a minuscule budget, about a hit man who gets off the train from Cleveland to do a job in New York over the holidays. Writer/director Allen Baron had illustrated comic books, and has a real eye for composition and the New York streets. As an actor playing the lead role, he bears an uncanny resemblance to George C. Scott. Lionel Stander, with a voice like sandpaper, delivers the sardonic narration. A secret treasure, for sure, and for fans of the genre, a gem that should not be missed. 

The Castle of the Living Dead (1964)

 

THE CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD  (1964)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Warren Kiefer

    Christopher Lee, Gaia Germani, Philippe Leroy,

    Mirko Valentin, Antonio De Marino, Donald Sutherland

The players in a theatrical troupe bring their act to a castle to perform for a sinister count played by (who else?) Christopher Lee. The count has made some novel advances in the field of taxidermy, and the actors could all end up part of his collection if they don't stay away from his cognac. Watch Donald Sutherland, playing multiple roles in his first theatrical movie, and see if you don't think he's having a good time. 

Blue Ice (1992)

 

BLUE ICE  (1992)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Russell Mulcahy

    Michael Caine, Sean Young, Ian Holm, 

    Bobby Short, Jack Shepherd, Phil Davis, 

    Bob Hoskins, Alun Armstrong, Patricia Hayes

Faint echoes of "Casablanca", with Michael Caine as a nightclub owner and retired secret agent who dusts off some of the skills he learned in the trade when people around him start turning up dead. Naturally, there's a woman involved. This is about one-half a real good movie and one-half a merely routine one, and Caine gives it about what it deserves, nothing more, nothing less. Bobby Short noodles a few tunes at the piano - Dooley Wilson being no longer available - and Charlie Watts sits in with the jazz band at Caine's club. 

But I'm a Cheerleader (1999)

BUT I'M A CHEERLEADER  (1999)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Jamie Babitt

    Natasha Lyonne, Clea DuVall, Michelle Williams,

    Cathy Moriarty, Bud Cort, Mink Stole, RuPaul,

    Melanie Lynskey, Douglas Spain, Kip Pardue

A high-school cheerleader gets sent off to one of those places that's supposed to turn gay teenagers into straight ones, in a comedy that's kind of where John Hughes and John Waters meet up, but without Waters' good-natured depravity. (Mink Stole has a small role as the girl's mother.) An amusing take on a subject that in the real world can be pretty horrifying. Clea DuVall stands out as a fellow inmate, a lesbian for whom aversion therapy is definitely not going to work.

Romance On the High Seas (1948)

 

ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS  (1948)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Michael Curtiz

    Jack Carson, Doris Day, Janis Paige, Don Defore,

    Oscar Levant, S.Z. Sakall, Leslie Brooks,

    Franklin Pangborn, Johnny Berkes, Eric Blore

A nightclub singer and a private eye, both pretending to be someone they're not, meet on a cruise ship in a passable musical comedy that ought to be better, considering the level of talent involved. It was Doris Day's first screen acting role. The Epstein brothers wrote the script, with some additional work by I.A.L. Diamond. Busby Berkeley did the choreography. Look for the "Casablanca" references.

Janis Paige

(1922-2024)

The Boys In the Boat (2023)

THE BOYS IN THE BOAT  (2023)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: George Clooney 

    Joel Edgerton, Callum Turner, Hadley Robinson,

    Peter Guinness, Jack Mulhern, Thomas Elms,

    Luke Slattery, Wil Coban, Tom Varey, James Wolk

An old-fashioned crowd-pleaser based on Daniel James Brown's bestselling book about the eight-man University of Washington rowing team that challenged and beat the Germans at the 1936 Olympics. There might've been eight men in the boat - nine, if you count the coxswain - but the movie focuses mainly on two characters: Joe Rantz (Callum Turner), a hardscrabble working-class kid who tries out for the crew because of the job that goes with it, and Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton), the coach, whose pep talks to the boys are something less than eloquent. You know where it's going to go and you can see how it's going to get there, but the formula's hard to resist and the races are exciting. Filmed in the UK, which presumably looks more like Seattle used to than Seattle does today. 

Angel of H.E.A.T. (1983)

 

ANGEL OF H.E.A.T.  (1983)  ¢ 1/2

    D: Myrl A. Schreibman

    Marilyn Chambers, Mary Woronov, Stephen Johnson,

    Remy O'Neill, Milt Kogan, Dan Jesse, Gerald Okamura

Marilyn Chambers doesn't do hardcore in this, though she does get naked for a minute or two. The story's some moronic nonsense about agents and androids and computer chips and a mad scientist, and for sports fans, there's even a mud-wrestling competition, but the main reason the movie exists is to provide a low-budget excuse for Marilyn to take off her clothes. So, okay, mission accomplished, but it still looks and sounds like a porno without the explicit sex. Mary Woronov gets nude briefly, too.

The Captain Hates the Sea (1934)

 

THE CAPTAIN HATES THE SEA  (1934)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 

    D: Lewis Milestone

    Victor McLaglen, Helen Vinson, John Gilbert,

    Fred Keating, Walter Connolly, Alison Skipworth,

    Wynne Gibson, Leon Errol, Tala Birell,

    Akim Tamiroff, Arthur Treacher, Donald Meek

Numerous flawed characters cross paths on a cruise ship. There's a story involving a detective, a couple of swindlers and some stolen bonds, but that's just something to pass the time while everybody's on board. The Three Stooges appear briefly as the ship's orchestra, and John Gilbert, in his last movie, plays an alcoholic with knowing conviction. 

Charms (1973)

 

CHARMS  (1973)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Leo Garen

    Keith Carradine, Cristina Raines, Scott Glenn

    Hilarie Thompson, Robert Walker Jr., Mike Combs,

    Gary Busey, Doria Cook, Dan Haggerty, Tom Jones

Just after the end of the First World War, a ragtag gang of bikers roll into Bingo, a town somewhere out on the plains of Nebraska. They stick around just long enough to raise a little hell and then high-tail it out of town, chased by an equally ragtag, motorized posse. They elude the posse by hiding out on a farm run by two half-Indian sisters, not knowing that one of the women has an ancestral connection and magical powers. A hippie hillbilly motorcycle comedy western with a touch of horror, broadly acted by everybody except Cristina Raines as the severe older sister (billed in the credits as Tina Herazo) and Robert Walker Jr. as a mute member of the gang. A lot of it's really hokey, but there's something interesting going on here, too. Maybe the loco weed had something to do with that. It's an odd one, for sure. Shot in 1971 and released two years later. Alternate title: "Hex".

Barbie (2023)

 

BARBIE  (2023)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Greta Gerwig

    Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Kate McKinnon,

    America Ferrera, Ariana Greenblatt, Michael Cera,

    Will Ferrell, Rhea Perlman, Simu Liu, Issa Rae

"Barbie" is the most garish, candy-colored product-placement movie ever, and the most subversive. It's a measure of Greta Gerwig's skill as a filmmaker that it manages to be both. It's about what happens when Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) cross over into the real world and find that it's nothing like Barbieland, and then go back to Barbieland and find that it's changing, too. Everything's staged the way it might be imagined by a little girl playing with dolls, the little girl being Gerwig, smart, devious, playful, and up to something more than just playing with dolls. The first woman-directed feature to make more than $1 billion at the box office. Even the Kens out there ought to have a good time.