The Candy Tangerine Man

Ever watch a movie where a pimp grabs a cue ball after losing a game and yell "white honkey mother fucking ball" you will when you watch Candy Tangerine Man.

This is the story of The Barron a really nice pimp. He's good to all his women he even let's the have weekends off. Why would a pimp do that you ask, because on the weekends he goes home to his wife and family in the suburbs. See his family doesn't know he's a pimp they think he's a traveling salesman.

He works his girls out of a massage parlor and drives around in a tangerine colored custom Rolls Royce complete with pop out machine guns.

He's harassed by crooked cops, gets into it with the local evil pimp, and even has to battle the mob. This is all done in violent fashion. Breasts cut off, mutilation, constant chase and gun battles, you name it.

Its also one of the best exploitation films of the 70s. Its biggest complaint was that the VHS as well as the DVD were horrible transfers. Well I am happy to say Vinegar Syndrome has taken care of that with a beautiful 2k transfer off the original 35mm print.

If that is not enough you also get a beautiful transfer of the film Lady Cocoa.

Lady Cocoa is a lesser know film that I haven't seen since I was a kid. Its about a young diva of a woman named Cocoa. She's stuck in prison for not cooperating in the trail of her racketeering boyfriend. She decides to finally testify against him on one condition, she gets a night out on the town.

She's protected by a young, and old cop but it doesn't take long for her boyfriends muscle to track her down. I know it seems like a generic plot but here's the sell point. One of the evil Henchmen is played by Mean Joe Greene.

Here's all that's included in this collection
1. Scanned and restored in 2k from 35mm archival prints
2. Director's video introduction for The Candy Tangerine Man
3. Commentary track for Lady Cocoa with Director Matt Cimber and Director's Assistant / Actor John Goff
4. Reversible cover for Lady Cocoa
5. English SDH Subtitles
6. Closed Captioning

So if you want to watch a movie with the tagline of "Git back Jack give him no Jive, he's the Baddessst cat of 75" get this release


Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful Prison

Yesterday I say down to watch A Beautiful Prison. I had no real idea what it was, and that was by choice.  Lately I find myself not wanting to know anything about the film I will be watching. It helps make me more prepared to be surprised.

Beautiful Prison is the story of Ben, a mentally handicapped young man who works at a manufacturing plant with his slacker pot head friend Jerry. We find out through a series of very dark and graphic flashbacks that Ben was once normal but a beating he got from his dad caused him to be slow.

His sister just so happens to be married to his boss. Ben spends,most days watching a Mexican soap opera and dreaming of Jubelie, the female lead. His distractions with this cause him to drift off at work causing production delays.

One day after another mishap Jerry steps in to cover for him and gets fired. Fueled by his anger he gets in a physical confrontation with his boss/brother in law and is hit buy a car putting him in a coma.

Inside his dream world he learns he can control what happens. He's no longer slow, he's dating the girl he dreams about, everything is good unroll he starts flashing back to the day in his childhood where he was hurt.

The film has a great washed out color look and the dream world is haunted by zombie like creatures when things are bad. The score of well done and sets the pacing of each scene very well.

The acting on Kaelin Stockwell as Ben is fantastic. He's sympathetic and believable. You become vested through the film watching his character develop. I was actually dissapointed we did not see him play the mentally challenged version of Ben longer as his facial expressions and mannerisms were amazing.

Overall this a a great film. Compelling characters, a great story, and strong performances by all involved make this a high recommendation


Overall 3 out of 5 stars

All American Bully

Bullying has become such a hot topic now it's insane. Kids can get suspended for calling someone stupid. You would think for all the zero tolerance policies that it would be a rare thing for a kid to get picked on, but sadly it's not.

All American Bully is the story about a group of friends who are not popular, but not total outcasts either. There gamers and kind of do there own thing not bothering anyone in the process.
Unfortunately there life takes a turn for the worse when resident bully John decided to beat the crap out of Devon, one of our not cool characters.

 Not only does Devon take a beating, he gets video taped taking said beating. Then the video goes viral at,school.  What makes it all the more sad is that these two used to be good friends.  But they drifted apart

Devon unfortunately has some shitty ass dad who actually gets mad he didn't man up and fight back. He has a crappy teacher to who tells him to use his brains to fight back, thus calling him a wimp and,encouraging revenge.

From here the film takes a pretty good left turn into exploitation as we delve into Devon and his friends plan for revenge. Let's just say nerds don't make good blackmailers. We have incest, a horribly graphic rape scene, and a pretty good twist ending.

Overall it's a really good film that's also very well acted. My only issue,is John, the bully's backstory. It almost, almost makes him to sympathetic a character.

I will say it's a film parents should watch,  but not with their children. This film is a hard R rated movie, but it's sadly a very realistic film about the consequences of bullying.


Overall 3 out of 5 stars.

Sex. Murder, Art

Sex, Murder, Art! Catchy title and a box set I have been salivating to see. These are all films by notorious director  Jorg Buttgereit. The films comprised in this massively loaded Blu Ray set, are some of, if not the most bootlegged and sought after horror films of all time, and rightfully so as they are all nasty little treasures to say the least.
 
Let's start off by listing what films you get. Nekromantik 1 and 2, Der Todesking (The Death King), and Schramm. Yes all of these in one set, and keep in mind this is the only proper release,of Der Todesking. Let,me quickly give you a rundown of these.

Nekromantik a film so gross my wife can't watch in fast forward. The title I'm sure gives it away but it's the story of a road clean up guy who finds a body and brings it home. From there he and,his girlfriend enjoy it together to say the least. As gross as it sounds, and is, it's actually more of a dark comedy. Really
Nekromantik 2 picks up where part one ends. I can't give you full detail as that would ruin the ending of part one, but I can tell you this one focuses on the girlfriend
.
Der Todesking (The Death King) is one in had never seen before. Its really odd to say the least it takes place over,the coarse of 7 days and tells the story of 7 different people who kill themselves, or others. Its interesting to say the least

Schramm is my favorite of the bunch. Its a film about a dying serial killer only it's all told from his perspective. Its got some fantastic Gore effects for the true Gore hounds out there.

This set is without a doubt the most loaded box set out there. I have no problem saying Scream Factory and Arrow should strive to put out sets that are this high quality. Here is all that included.

New Director's Approved HD Transfers
Two versions of Nekromantik
Exclusive Introductions for each film by Jorg Buttgreit
Q&A with Jorg Buttgereit
Audio Commentaries
The Making Ofs
FeaturettesStill Photo Galleries
Jorg Buttgereit Trailers
Documentary: Corpse F*****g Art
Short films: Hot Love, A Moment of Silence at the Grave of Ed Gein, Horror Heaven, Bloody Excess in the Leaders Bunker, My Father
Music Video: Half Girl by Jorg Buttgereit
Original Motion Picture Soundtracks
Live Concert of Nekromantik
 2BD Exclusive new art design by Silver Ferox
Exclusive CD Soundtrack of Nekromantik & Der Todesking
Exclusive CD 2 Soundtrack of Nekromantik 2 & SchrammBD
Exclusive 40-page perfect-bind booklet with Interviews & exclusive photos

This is a must own set, and I must stress not just a must own for horror and Gore fans. These films are well made to say the least. If you don't mind the subject matter definitely give it a look.  The sound and picture transfers are an absolute thing of beauty to say the least.  I have never seen older films up-scaled to a quality this high before.


Overall 5 out of 5 starts must purchase 

Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla

Hmmmm.....you ever watch a movie you can't categorize? Like this one for instance, Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla. Its not a horror movie, it's not funny, it's not suspense, it's not a drama, but one thing it is, is fantastic.

Its the story of a socially awkward man named Warren, who is played brilliantly by Glenn Maynard. Warren is an ice cream man with no real friends he has a cat, but he accidentally runs him over at the beginning of the film. He's so distraught that throughout the film he continues to leave food out for it.
Warren walks with a limp, doesn't talk much but is obsessed with a local actress named Katie George. She the star of soap opera he watches. He's convinced she is the kindest, most beautiful woman in the world. He cuts pictures of her out of magazines and tapes them up in his ice cream truck. Ohh yea he records the show and pauses it so he can masturbate to her as well.

One day he finds out they are filming in a nearby park and sets up his ice cream van in the area with the hopes of meeting her. Unfortunately for him it's got a tough crowd and he soon starts being harassed by a drug dealer/pimp who runs shop on the corner.

One day Katie does show up, and to the delight or Warren is as nice as can be. He even buys a video camera to keep a video diary of his hopes she will come back. Its through this we watch his complete mental breakdown as he can no longer differentiate reality from fantasy.

Glenn Maynard is absolutely amazing as Warren. In fact he may be the most sympathetic character I've ever seen in film. In the beginning when he runs over his cat and begins sobbing I actually felt horrible for him. Hopefully we see him in more films as his acting ability was second to none.

Like I said, I can't really classify the film but no matter what type of film you prefer your bound to enjoy this gem from beginning to end.


Overall 4 out of 5 stars 

Jurassic Prey

I've said it before and I will say it again. I grew up watching and loving old stop motion monster movies. I still love them. Godzilla in a rubber suite stepping on plastic tanks, or a stop motion King Kong battering a dinosaur is way more entertaining to me then a cgi creature movie. With that said I was quite anxious to sit down with Jurassic Prey.

Jurassic Prey is the story of 2 bank robbers. After they pull a job they head out to an old cabin with the police in hot pursuit they grab a girl who, as fate would have it, just robbed her criminal boyfriend. Because of that she has goons chasing after her.

So now we have people in a remote cabin, people outside the cabin waiting for them, and just some occasional people wandering around. We also have a giant dinosaur outside to eat them.

The dino, as far as I can tell is a guy in a big rubber suite. When you get full on body shots Its an old school stop motion dinosaur. Just fyi, the suite and the puppet don't really look similar. It also has the cool little off screen kills where you see a limb from the dino and a person being mutilated.

Of course everyone has to band together, sort of, at the end to try and stop animal and escape.
This film is fun plain and simple. Giant monster, stupid people for food, what more do you need.

 If you dig films like this you should definitely add it to your collection



Overall 2.5 out of 5 Stars.

Scars

Ok so try and picture a movie about 2 friends who happen to be girls and who happen to be incredibly beautiful. Now picture these two beautiful women hugging in a room full of blood. Why picture them doing that, because there not only incredibly hot, but also completely insane.

Scars is the story of two women. One a lovely punk rockish lady who wears cat like make up. One day her husband or boyfriend asks her to grab him a beer. She does, then smashes the bottle over his head and stabs him to death.

Our other lovely lady enjoys dating married men. After she seduces them she also enjoys blackmailing them. She has a nice flat rate as well. Five grand up front then two grand a month after that.

One night her blackmail doesn't go so well after her jilted lover starts beating the crap out of her. Luckily our other beautiful lady is around to kill the guy thus saving her.

As the two become closer friends they both realize how much they enjoy killing men. Through various means they meet, and violently kill random men the encounter. Unfortunately there not overly good at covering up the crimes and soon a detective begins hunting them.

I could try and do a makeshift comparison like picture "insert movie title here" now picture it with 2 serial killing women, but that would do it no justice. This is a film that is not only incredibly well done, but original as well. Part slasher, part coming of age, part art house, I've never really seen a film like this.

Aside from being gorgeous, the two female leads do an amazing job portraying there roles. Relying on mannerisms, as they don't have tons of dialogue they covey a sense of fear to the audience, as well as making you feel almost sympathetic to what there going through, and doing.

If you like movies then watch this. Doesn't matter what type as I stated it fits into so many different categories, and succeeds on so many levels that you can't compare it to anything. Just trust me when I say to go pick this up.

Overall 4 out of 5 stars!