Carnal Highways / Carnal Olympics - 1979 / 1983

I was gifted this random DVD by my ex wife.  Your ex wife gives you porn, things must be at least kind of good right?

This is actual porn.  I expected softcore with a plot and more of "that kind" of thing.  Also, I wonder if there are still the theaters showing porn these days.  I wonder when that stopped being so much of a thing.  I'm sure there were protests, lawsuits, arrests, which ended that whole fad.  But it's fascinating because these DVDs come in a case that shows all the old advertisements and fliers for seeing these porns, in actual theaters.  Where presumably you could jerk it.

Vinegar Syndrome put out this double DVD pack and I put it on last night, in a weird mood I guess.  I enjoyed a glass of cheap wine and watched Carnal Highways first.

Carnal Highways is the story of two aimless dudes who buy a semi truck, and they're eager to hit the roads to deliver their load of desks to San Francisco.  They know that truckers apparently have a reputation for being horny all the time, and so they are also looking to get laid.   They encounter a woman who first recounts a lesbian experience before both truckers fuck her.  Then they continue on, having sex with many women before the end scene where they deliver the desks and group sex ensues.

Carnal Olympics is a kinkier story.  There is a competition on to see which porn actress is the best, and naturally the way to decide this is to have the actresses engage in a lot of porn.  They have a threesome lesbian scene first, then group sex, then they have to seduce police officers.  In the end, there is like a 30-40 minute group sex scene where every guy jerks off into a bucket!

There's so much to say about this double set.  First of all, the actor in Carnal Highways who plays the Mexican dude was not hard most of the movie.  In fact, one thing I noticed is that a lot of the times the dudes would start off flaccid and the girl would have to excite him.  Seems like every guy I see in porn now is rock hard from instant one.  Second off, the hairy girls and the hairy armpits is of course different.  Full on pubic hair, hairy armpits, it's just not seen anymore.  And of course, the difference in girls bodies.  They went for a theme here, having really tall women.  And some of their breasts and other bodies are just not seen in porn nowadays, which I think is kinda too bad.

Was it hot?  Yes, I think so.  I found myself aroused.  Hell, I'll say it, I masturbated to one of the police seduction scenes.  They have anal sex once on the DVD, the lesbian scenes are good, and the long orgy scene in Carnal Olympics is pretty phenomenal.

I haven't reviewed true actual porn on this site, nor was it ever my intention to.  But this is honestly really fun to revisit.  The dialogue is as bad and forced as you remember from being a kid, the music is wacky, the acting terrible.  The people fucking look like some person you'd see at a book store, and that's both refreshing and hot in a way.  Porn, plots aside, used to be way more realistic.  I think we can all agree on this.  Also, the camera work and angles are more like real sex too.  You don't see a lot of insertion or anything else like we see now.  Sometimes the closeups are on literally two blurry thighs sort of moving.

I'd recommend it for fun, definitely.  3 stars.

Planets Against Us - 1962

I put in this 60s film.  A bit about my life now first.   I have been in the cabin, and I literally went through a long period of not watching anything.  I just haven't been in the mood, and with the library and all closed, and since my video rental store has a shitty as fuck collection, I was getting by on only watching The Twilight Zone...  which will eventually get a review, cause fuck it, why not.

This is a typical 50's feeling sci fi flick complete with all the dialogue, vague plot pieces, and glacial movement you'd expect.  It has been a long, long time since I saw something like this.  But I knocked it out, as I do.

This movie is very much dialogue driven, and I guess that makes sense.  Essentially, there is a alien on Earth who has taken the image of a recently deceased guy. This alien somehow appears at multiple places on the globe in the first few minutes of the movie, and when the government finds out about this, they begin an investigation and there is a mystery afoot.

You know, I watched this a day or two ago I guess, but I seriously don't remember anything about this.  I might have fallen asleep, I did sip a nice Irish whiskey during it, but was not drunk for sure.  I think it was completely unremarkable....that might be the problem...?

Either way, it kept me mildly entertained sometimes, but it was slow as cold molasses and it had no thrills to it at all.  Cool monster shots at the very end for like 15 seconds.  1.5 stars.

Prophecy - 1979

Aw, my breeding ground.  The 70's, horror, sci fi.  I rented this from the very limited and extremely random selection had at my local Super 1 Foods, where there's a built in little movie rental place.  It's still open and running.  Essential business y'all.

Prophecy was a movie I'd seen before many years ago.  In one of my killer animals/giant monster marathon runs I used to have in the day, I rented this and saw it for the first time probably 12 years ago.  I kept it in the back of my mind, and this is my first time rewatching it.

Robert Foxworth, Talia Shire, and Armand Assante star in a film by John Frankenheimer.  Those are a lot of names for a late 70's horror, but since Jaws had made a big "splash" earlier in the 70's, this got made and made with a surprisingly high amount of seriousness and budget.

Phophecy starts with some killed hikers and a environmental specialist being brought in.  He is Robert Foxworth, and he doesn't want kids but his wife (Talia Shire) is pregnant and hasn't told him yet.  They reach the land where the deaths happened and are greeted by hostile Indians, led by Armand Assante as John Hawk.  They investigate the land and a nearby paper mill.  Turns up that there are giant mutant fish and other things everywhere, and it might be because the paper mill is dumping mercury into the water.  Sure enough, that's the case and the proof is in the 9 foot mutant bear that's hunting and killing people.

This movie kicked my ass.  It has tons of cool acting first of all, and the violence ranges from hilarious to some of the best of it's time.  Visible wires during several scenes clash perfectly with prime puppet sort of practical effects, but it all looks awesome and every other part of this movie is selling the shit out if it.

The fact is that I was unprepared for the pacing, and even for it's time it moves very slow in parts.  I checked several times to see how much was left.  That said, it really brings the thrills at other parts.  Yes, certain things prevent it from being taken seriously, but if you look at it as a prime so-bad-it's-good specimen, than it definitely succeeds.   I'd give it 3.5 stars.

The Street Fighter - 1974

I don't know if I ever really saw this movie before. I know Sonny Chiba and I know I've seen some of his movies, I also know of the Street Fighter series and I know of the multiple sequels therein. But I honestly don't remember if I'd ever seen this movie before. I guess I fail.

I put it on last night having recently re-watched both Kill Bill 1 and 2. It's easy to see where that movie got its lineage. Street Fighter is brutal and violent and groundbreaking and overly stylistic and all that would later be known as Quentin Tarantino's trademark Style.

Early on in the film it's apparent that Street Fighter draws a lot from classic japanese Cinema. Toshiro Mifune was basically the same character in most of his movies, and even looks very similar to Sonny Chiba. They both have similar facial expressions and I would have to think that Chiba was deliberately modeling himself after Mifune.

There's all sorts of fun and wild things happening in this movie too. Besides the fact that the plot moves fast, there is multiple story lines going on at the same time, there is brand-new groundbreaking special effects, and there is an antihero dark main character who we want to learn more about.

I've started to watch the sequel right after the first one, but honestly without getting too much into the sequel let me just say that the first film is a necessary, amazing, still relevant and groundbreaking film to this day and I give it five stars.

Nowhere to Run - 1993

Jean Claude Van Damme hasn't been mentioned in this blog yet. I think. I rented a JCVD double pack dvd with this and The Order.

Jcvd plays a criminal who in the beginning escapes jail with his buddy. Jcvd is a good guy though and once he escapes he becomes a drifter and camps out on land owned by Rosanne Arquette. She soon discovers him and once he beats up some hunters she knows he's good.

So then this movie becomes a classic good versus bad with the girl everyone wants to fuck thrown into the middle. And she does get nuuuuude.

I had a really good time watching this despite the fact it's a pretty stupid sub par action flick.  I was in the right mood. It's kinda lame though and probably 2 stars.

Interview with the Vampire - 1994

There's new horror, there's old horror, and then there's "formational" horror.  I'm coining this right now, and it simply means the horror from when you were young, perhaps getting introduced to the genre, and you watched these movies, and they helped you understand what the genre was.

I don't know what exact age I was when I saw Interview for the first time.  I do remember that even then, the cast was a huge deal.  The cast is, in retrospect, probably one of the biggest things about this film, and very much helped it achieve success.  That and direction by Neil Jordan helped the film gain mainstream attention.  I don't have to google it to know this film must've been a financial success.  It simply HAD to be.

Brad Pitt stars as Louis, a downtrodden and defeated man who gets munched on by Tom Cruise and becomes a vampire.  Louis relates his story of vampire life to Christian Slater, and as the story unfolds we see Antonio Banderas and Kirsten Dunst play other leading figures in the vampires chronicle.  And you know what?  It holds up.

I remembered most of this film.  What I didn't know at the time, and on rewatching really stands out, is that it's shot extremely well, and the pacing is such that a two hour film simply flies by.  There is an odd mysticism to the characters, there is small attention to deal, there is nudity, there is a bit of violence, but overall it's remarkable how tame this film is.  IMDB classifies this as a Drama/Thriller moreso than horror, and I agree with that definition.

I'd say, on rewatching, there a few moments of plotholes, and some parts that don't make too much sense, but overall it is fantastic world-building, and it's believable as a vampire movie can be.  It made me want to read the book, and it also made me wonder about these characters more.  Also, I forgot that the Interview segments take place in San Francisco, so that was a fun bit.  I have walked by the building where the interview takes place many a time, shit, it's right on Market Street.

I sorta wish this had generated a few sequels and/or more of a legacy.  We got Queen of the Damned, but I don't think that had any of the same characters, and for sure was not as good.  This is something where I'm frankly shocked it didn't make a bigger impact in the media and sell some film rights to Anne Rice adaptations.  I give it a nice, 4.5 star rating.

The House that Jack Built - 2018

I remember when I worked at the independent theater we got the movie Dogville directed by Lars Von Trier.  Although I did not see it, this was my introduction to him as a director.  Later, I found Antichrist on a list of "disturbing films" and watched it.  I don't really remember my thoughts on it.

I gave Melancholia a shot, didn't like it, and I also thought about watching Nymphomaniac but I never got around to it.  But given that I heard about The House that Jack Built (THTJB) and I heard it was horror, I was killin' time at the video rental store, saw it on the new release shelf, and picked up a copy.  Fuck it, eh?  How bad could it be?

I put it on with zero expectation and the movie reminded me of why I happen to think, though often under-utilized, forgotten about, and given a bad reputation, horror can truly be as expressive a genre as anything else worth appraisal.

We hear some voices talking in the beginning and the tale unfolds.  It is the story of Jack, played by Matt Dillon.  Jack is a serial killer and intelligent, interesting person.  This film is not the story of a serial killer though, it is the story of an artist, and it is a story of the pain of being human, the pain of creation, and the pain of what we all do when we are forced to live through this world and this existence.  It just so happens he is also a sadistic killer.

And I do not mean to say he is not vicious, and I do not mean to say the film doesn't focus on the killings.  Through a thorough examination of five (actually more than five, but whatever) incidents in which he killed someone, we see the portrait painted of a strange, withdrawn, though charismatic and likable man.  He has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and his relationship to himself is surprisingly detailed and tender.  He knows himself, for better or worse, and he understands us better than we do ourselves.

The gruesomeness and the sense of tension is the first thing I noticed.  With such a wildly unpredictable main character, there are several moments where I felt a profound sense of dread and doom for Jack and the people he'd interact with.  The movie also goes through lengths to establish his chaotic and dysfunctional nature.  We see the childhood version of him, for example, in a display of the psychotic beginnings of killing and showing the "way he has always been".

I knew the ending would be divisive from early on, as I realized that we took a step into weird territory via the narration, which happens between Jack and (I thought at first) god.  Towards the end, he meets this godlike character, and the movie takes a weird arthouse bizarre introspective turn.  It wasn't the best nor the strongest end to be honest, and it does feel like the director must've wanted to show Jack was in fact not a good person who would not come to a good end.  In a way it feels a bit tacked on, sort of like they wanted to have a redeeming factor to the film.  Eh.

Amazing that even from a perspective such as mine, someone who "has seen it all" there are still new, interesting, and unique horror films that manage to inspire, upset, and disturb as well as they always have.  Four stars.

Tampopo - 1985

Ending a boxset is a hard thing to do. It finishes and I don't feel much like watching trash anymore, or like writing.  I also went on an almost 3 week trip, so there's that.

I got back to Sandpoint Idaho and felt the ol' urge to watch actual good movies too. So I went to the library and into the foreign section and loaded up on 7 foreign flicks including this, Tampopo.

I took an edible and wood-worked all day and then put in Tampopo, expecting a romance, or maybe a dumb comedy.

What I got though was a way ahead of its time comedy of small time life, a riff on Western cowboy film, and a commentary on Japanese culture which is a goldmine of comedy if you get the references, which I do...

Tampopo is a small ramen shop worker who encounters a couple mystery men early on. They order ramen and deliver the verdict: it's not good. They have a particular set of skills however, and they call in their best to help this woman train to become the best ramen shop in Japan.

It's fucking hilarious, and the ramen slurping never stops. The plucky young actress in it is great, the cowboy-ish men are hilarious, the stakes are insane, and you'll learn a lot about ramen along the way.

It's maybe 15 minutes or so overly long, but all in all, it's a fantastic journey well worth taking. See it stoned. 4 stars.

Mill Creek's Excellent Eighties - Boxset Review

Oh man.  I was in the thrift store in Sandpoint recently and I saw a sight which I had to get.  It was the Mill Creek Pure Terror boxset.  50 movies.  50 MORE movies.  I bought it.

The things that I do, I do because I can?  Because I am used to it?  I am not sure.  Either way, I finished this stupid set, a set which I have to say pushed me far, really far.  And I believe it will have the record for 0 star films, and will be rated lower than any boxset so far.

Speaking of, here is the link to the Swingin' 70's Boxset and a link to the Sci-Fi Invasions Boxset.  Fuck it.  Link this shit up.  Gorehouse Greats is here too.

Presen-TED HERE!  For YOU!  With LINKS!  Retrospectives!  Reviews!  Stars!  In the order of how they are written on the booklet in the disc (aka not alphabetical order).

Dear Mister Wonderful:  The only film in the boxset I literally turned off.  This was slow and boring, Joe Pesci is ok in it.  Some guy lives and grows in New York.  I turned it off, no stars.
Intimate Agony: At a small beach community where everyone is sleeping with each other, an outbreak of STDs threatens everyone.  Made for TV and like a soap opera. Boring. No stars.
Second Sight:  A Love Story:  A blind woman has always resisted surgery or a seeing eye dog.  When she gets robbed and starts a relationship, she'll rethink both those decisions.  3 stars.
A Minor Miracle:  Pele stars in this story of orphans who are in a orphanage closing down.  The old man who runs the place tries to get Pele to help, and eventually he does.  It's okay...2 stars.
Agency:  Thriller story of a man working at a advertising agency where shady actions eventually lead to a death and a man on the run.  Pretty decent movie keeps you into it.  3 stars upgraded to 3.5.
The Train Killer:  Now that I'm done with the set, the good movies really stick out.  This was a creepy and strange story of a disenfranchised man trying to derail trains.  Good acting. 4.5 stars.
Lamb:  Liam Neeson stars in this bizarre story of a priest who kidnaps a boy from a religious school to try and give the boy a better life.  It felt a bit undeveloped, we never learn a why. But it's really well acted and the ending was super dark, and I want to read the book.  4 stars, upgraded to 4.5.
My Mom's a Werewolf: An 80's comedy made for the family, which feels 100% exactly what that type of movie should be.  The mom is likable, the silliness is in full effect.  2.5 stars.
Bail Out: Linda Blair and David Hasselhoff are bounty hunters out for a kidnapped daughter of a businessman.  It's a light action, relatively who-cares flick.  Pretty awful, half a star.
When the Bough Breaks: Ted Danson stars in the story of a dead body that turns up, it gets looked into by a psychologist, and it uncovers a shady underground organization.  Likeable, 3.5 stars.
The Lady and the Highwayman: This and Hazard of Hearts are based on books, books written about old timey stuffy British people having long, boring relationships.  I don't care! No stars.
Liar's Moon:  Matt Dillon stars in the story of star-crossed lovers.  It's not quite Romeo and Juliet.  But, it is entertaining and the actors are good.  It has it's charms.  Odd twists in the later half.  2.5.
Toby McTeague: Dog sledding adventure!  A young boy has a fallout with a father who gets injured.  Now the only way to save their family is for Toby to enter a race!  Predictable, 1.5 stars...maybe 2.
Dog Day:  We begin with a bank robbery, which leads the criminal to a farm in a field where everyone is kinda crazy and hijinks ensue.  Impossible to understand, and incredibly bad.  No stars.
Scandal Sheet: An alcoholic actor is targeted by a tabloid newspaper, and they decide the best way to get him is to hire a writer who is his friend.  Well acted and emotionally engaging.  I liked it, 3.5.
Hunk: My intro to the set was a lighthearted comedy, about a nerd who wishes to be a hunk.  80's rom-com with a few laughs and it was entertaining enough.  Predictable, sure, but fun. 3 stars.
Choices: Demi Moore is in this story of a star football player who is partially deaf.  When this is discovered, it threatens to unravel his world.  Plot holes and very undeveloped. 1.5 stars, or 2 maybe.
A Hazard of Hearts: Helena Bonham Carter in another old timey love and romance film.  She is won in a card game by a rich baron and surprisingly affection grows.  Yawn.  2 downgraded to 1 star.
High Risk: James Brolin leads a group of people who rob a drug lord and are pursued by his gang.  Why they thought this plan would work is anyone's guess.  Average Z grade action flick. 2 stars.
The Kidnapping of the President: William Shatner is a member of the Secret Service when the president is kidnapped by a crazy terrorist.  Really entertaining and keeps you engaged.  3.5 stars.
The Day Time Ended:  I opted not to rewatch this movie, I've seen it about 3 times already.  I really like it, on multiple rewatches some errors stick out, but it's still a 4 star sci fi flick I'll see again.
Laser Mission: Brandon Lee in a standard action movie I'd seen before.  Rewatching it, it's fine but it's so generic and middle road.  He's also not very good at acting.  It's like 1.5, 2 stars.
Blunt, The Fourth Man: Anthony Hopkins in the story of a British guy who helps the Soviet Union, or that's what it tells me it's about.  Watching it, I had no idea what was going on.  2 stars.
Shadows in the Storm: Mia Sara in the type of movie we've seen before.  She's a sexy temptress who meets a gullible writer and eventually gets his cash.  Dark and odd, has a certain atmosphere. 3 stars.
Cave Girl: Dumb comedy about a nerdy guy who goes back in time and starts dating a cute cave girl.  It has really bad comedy, but lots of nudity.  It's what you expect.  1.5 stars.
Shaker Run: A mystery woman enlists a racecar driver to carry undisclosed cargo to an unknown location.  Action meets thrills in this decent, basic thrills flick.  Meh.  2 stars.
Hard Knox: A bunch of misfits are enrolled in a military school led by the tough director Knox.  Alan Ruck is great, not in it enough, and the rest is super boring and predictable.  2 stars.  I guess.
Reborn: Weird, weird story of a evangelical priest played by Dennis Hopper, who finds and recruits a woman who is suffering from actual stigmata.  The atmosphere is unique, ambiguous, with great performances and music.  Made me want to see more by director Bigas Luna.  5 stars.  Unique.
Saigon:  Year of the Cat: Judi Dench is in this story of a woman meeting and falling in love with a embassy worker in Vietnam.  Political intrigue film, cause saying "thriller" is overselling it.  2 stars.
Act of Love: Mickey Rourke and Ron Howard lead a interesting film about a pair of brothers.  When one is paralyzed in a motorbike accident, he asks his bro to kill him.  He does.  Now we have a courtroom drama and mystery about why he did it.  Based on a true story and really gripping, 4 stars.
Delta Force Commando: Fred Williamson is tracking down guerrillas who have a nuclear bomb.  This B-grade actioner felt like a "so bad it's good" fun watch, but still only about 3 stars.
Tuareg: The Desert Warrior: Mark Harmon is Tuareg, a enigmatic desert man who encounters political prisoners who he swears to protect.  Odd movie, uneven, but had potential.  2.5 stars.
My Chauffeur: Really dumb comedy about a ditzy airhead girl who becomes a chauffeur at an elite company, and through her smarts and dumb luck solves all her situations.  It's a no-brainer.  No stars.
Twisted Obsession:  Jeff Goldblum is in this weird, uneven story of a writer who meets and becomes intrigued by a young directors sister.  I guess it's supposed to be a thriller?  It had good parts, 3 stars.
Portrait of a Showgirl: POAS sounded really boring in the writeup: an examination of the lives of three showgirls and their relationships.   But, it was decent and well acted.  3 stars, nah maybe 2.5.
Night of the Sharks:  I made my ex watch this tame shark thriller with Treat Williams.  Watching this movie was no "treat" though.  It's mostly bland action and some mild shark thrills.  2 stars.
Tomboy:  Tomboy!  She's a road runner!  Tomboy!  Fuck that song man, I still remember it.  Tomboy is a stupid, slow, boring movie about a tomboy meeting her racing idol and going up against him. 1.5.
Callie and Son: Did not know this would be a 2.5 hour epic about mother and son and their lives.  Whew.  It was long, detailed, and had some okay parts I guess, but WOW.  Just too much.  2.5 stars.
Slipstream:  Again, I opted not to rewatch Slipstream.  This movie obviously had potential with the idea and actors and director, but it ends up being too vague and undeveloped.  2 stars for trying.
The Cold War Killers: Terence Stamp in a political thriller about a downed German plane and a race to get the contents which could have huge repercussions.  Too much talking is the problem. 3 stars.
We Think The World of You:  Slow, slow drama with Gary Oldman as a gay man whose dog becomes a point of contention.   I fast forwarded a lot of this boring, bland movie.  No stars.
Christabel: Elizabeth Hurley in a huge, sprawling 2.5 hour war drama about a British family in Germany during WWII.  Like Callie & Son, a LOT.  It's alright, I guess.  I gave it 3?  No, 2.5.
Mesmerized: I'd wanted to see this before the set.  Jodie Foster and John Lithgow as a young woman married to an older man and their bizarre, dysfunctional relationship.  Could be my copy was edited, but the story felt incomplete.  Though very well acted.  I gave it 4.5, but it's more like 3.5.
Somewhere, Tomorrow:  I expected a drama, but instead it's a dramedy and even has romance.  Sarah Jessica Parker is the only one who can see the ghost of a recently deceased guy.  3.5 stars... or 3.
A Time to Die: Slower version of the classic revenge story.  A WWII soldier goes after the Nazis who killed his family and tried to kill him during the war.  Pretty average, about 2.5 stars.
Savage Journey: Who knew there was a Mormon history lesson on the set?  Brigham Young moves the Mormons around while facing obstacles and persecution.  Mildly interesting.  1.5 stars or 2.
Casablanca Express:  Action vehicle for Jason Connery as he tries to save a train carrying Winston Churchill which has fallen into enemy hands.  Decent middle of the road flick, 2.5 stars.
Scarecrows: This set could've used more horror.  One real horror movie on here was above average for a B-horror flick.  Killer scarecrows attack bank robbers who are in their cornfield. 3, 3.5ish.
The Patriot: Another middle road action movie, this one involves a guy protecting a nuclear weapon from falling into the wrong hands.  Leslie Nielsen and nudity spice it up a bit.  2.5 stars.
Deathrow Gameshow: Another movie I wanted to see before the set!  In this actually funny comedy, Chuck hosts a deathrow themed gameshow in a Robocop-like future.  Like I said, actual comedy, and entertaining in a strange offbeat manor.  I liked it, 4 stars.

Thoughts...  Alright, for the record!  18 movies got above a 2.5 score.  21 movies were 2 stars or below.  7 movies were upgraded in my review, 4 were downgraded.  I guess that gives the entire boxset a rating of about 2 stars, which feels accurate.

There was no overall "takeaway" from this like the takeaway I had from the Sci Fi Invasion set.  Other than this:  these movies sucked.  Honestly, the bad ones were WAY worse than the bad movies on the 70s or the Sci Fi sets.   Compared to some movies in the set, even the Mormon movie wasn't so bad.  At least it was real shit, and interesting enough.

Say what you will about the other sets, but at least none of them made me watch a 2.5 hour movie.  And two of them nonetheless?!  Come ON!  No way, do not watch those.  They're okay movies but they are not worth the time needed.

As usual, I do not promise to watch all the movies on the Pure Terror boxset.  I got other shit to do my friend.

A Time to Die - 1982

So, I finally finished the 80s set.  I started this boxset a long time ago, but I kept it on the DL until I finished the 70s set.  I focused on this set once I got to Idaho basically.

A Time to Die is a film which I had started at some point and then I guess I didn't finish?  I know I started it because I remembered the scene with the topless chick.  You will always remember those scenes.  Anyways, now I finally finished it.

A Time to Die is a revenge story, the story of  a guy who's village and wife are killed by Nazis.  He survives a gunshot to the head and comes back, swearing vengeance on those that killed everyone and shot him.  So we're returning a little bit to the action movie theme which was present in the set earlier.  And honestly, good finish.

The movie is a bit slow, and I for sure didn't care a lot of the time, but it was pretty decent.  Overall, it's probably low rent entertainment, and only comes out as "good" because it is in comparison to the other films on the set.  I give it 2.5.

Portrait of a Showgirl - 1982

I have (maybe, depending on my internet connection later) either finished the boxset or I have one movie left.  I saved this for last because of how the plot sounded.

Plot:  Written down, this sounds so slow and boring.  It says it is about the lives of three showgirls, shown at different points in their careers and in their lives.  As they go through the...weeks or maybe two months, I guess...where they're training for their big Vegas show, we see them interacting with each other, and we see how all that goes.

POAS is the type of thing which sounds on paper extremely boring, but it ain't so bad.  The movie shifts focus between the three of them, although honestly it's mostly about only two.  I have a truly hard time saying what happened with the third girl, or even who the third girl was.  I don't remember names, so here we go.

Girl 1:  Older, married to Tony Curtis, 16 or so years in Vegas, had been a showgirl at some point before I think.  Her story is not a personal growth one really.  She is a bitch and eventually gets a bit nicer, and additionally her financial struggles are a plot point.
Girl 2:  Arguably the main focus and main character.  She is the first girl we see, in her nice new car driving to Vegas escaping her old life.  The movie follows her as her old lover comes back to get her to return to him, and as she dates a charming and genuinely likable medical student she finds in Vegas.

POAS is not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but I still fast forwarded the dancing.  Who cares, I mean c'mon.  I'll give this a slightly above average 3 stars.  See!?  I don't even want to give it a 3.5, which is a rating I've given on this set before.  It just is not a 3.5 star movie, it's not my fault.  In comparison to things on the set, the many 0 star hurt films, this is a 4 star movie.  But alone?  As a film?  This is fucking 3 yo.