Hell Behind the Bars Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Why five stars? Is it for Great Acting? Or Great Dubbed Voices? What about great action? Great Story? NO on all counts, it is badly acted badly dubbed and generally a waste of time however For the Male Viewer it is quite enjoyable, It could qualify as A Hard Softcore Movie? I haven't seen so much Bush since the last election and since Porky's!Mr.Skin would be Proud!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Hell Behind the Bars

Get 20% OFF

Click here for more information about Hell Behind the Bars

Read More...

Ilsa - She Wolf of the SS (1975) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)"Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS" is perhaps one of the better known exploitation films made in the last thirty years. The picture, directed by Don Edmonds and starring Dyanne Thorne in the titular role, is also one of the most disturbing. Oddly enough, I found this movie even more sickening the second time around. The first time I watched Ilsa do her stuff was on an old VHS tape about five years ago, and I didn't think the film was as horrific as many viewers made it out to be. Usually, the disgust factor works the other way around: the first viewing is the worst with the shock value wearing away on subsequent viewings. I should probably question the value of even watching "Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS" more than once, but I wanted to see what the picture looked like with a snappy new transfer to DVD. Moreover, I wanted to listen to the commentary track with Edmonds, Thorne, and producer David Friedman of "Blood Feast" fame (billed here as Herman Traeger). I wasn't disappointed; the picture quality of "Ilsa" is stunning for such a low budget piece of trash. The commentary track too makes this disc a must have for lovers of schlock cinema. Just don't pop this one in the DVD player when the relatives show up or as a substitute for taking your gal out on the town.
Set in the waning days of the Second World War, "Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS" takes place in a special medical camp where the brutal camp commander Ilsa (Dyanne Thorne) and her busty minions wreak havoc on a bevy of female prisoners. There are a few guys around too, mostly to act as boy toys for Ilsa's ravenous appetites. Ilsa's supposed to be conducting experiments on helpless prisoners that will benefit the German military effort, but she's got quite the disturbing side project going on as well. According to the She-Wolf, women possess certain biological characteristics that make them more resistant to pain then men. You can almost guess what happens next. Ilsa sets aside a hidden little laboratory in the basement of her office to test out her personal theories while the approved experiments take place in another building. Both sets of trials are excruciating to watch. The Germans test the effects of high pressure, boiling temperatures, and diseases on the female inmates of the prison. Down in the basement, Ilsa and her two blonde goons strip down to the waist in order to administer severe beatings to selected troublemakers. There's a lot more I could detail, but believe it or not these are the least offensive scenes in the movie. "Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS" is sick, sick stuff.
A sort of hope fills the prisoners' hearts when Wolfe (George Knoph) enters the camp. The new inmate has a "special ability" that allows him to find a way into the frosty heart of the buxom camp commander. Behind the scenes, the prisoners plot to escape from the prison any way they can. It won't be easy, not when one faces Ilsa, her she-wolfettes, her male assistant, a pack of sadistic guards, and machine gun towers. In the meantime, the degradations continue unabated. Ilsa whips up a few special treats for a visiting general (Wolfgang Roehm) that truly turn the stomach as Wolfe, Mario (Tony Mumolo), and Kala (Nicolle Riddell) carefully map out there plan. Will the prisoners escape? Will Ilsa and her handmaidens receive their just desserts? Will the Allies arrive at the camp before everyone perishes at the hands of the Germans? Will tough chick Anna (Maria Marx) withstand Ilsa's experiments and thus prove the commander's theory? Will you be able to keep your lunch down during the hour and a half it takes to watch the movie? These questions, and many others, will find resolution by the time the final credits roll.
What won't find resolution is your utter disgust with the film. A gallon of mouthwash won't remove the bad taste this movie leaves behind in your mouth. I found myself inadvertently comparing Edmond's picture with "Schindler's List," another film dealing with German atrocities during the Second World War. Truth be told, "List" is much more harrowing in its depictions of the concentration camps and the horrible living conditions of those people enslaved by the Germans. What sets "Ilsa" apart, what makes it even worse than "Schindler's List," is that it's all done for cheap, value neutral kicks. Why else play up endless scenes of nudity in a movie about war crimes? Despite Thorne's amazingly campy performance, "Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS" is a ghastly film that should repulse more than it exhilarates. Even more disturbing is the admission on the commentary track that the movie sets come from the television show "Hogan's Heroes." You won't see LeBeau, Carter, Sergeant Schultz, or Colonel Klink in this movie! If you find anything remotely exhilarating about this picture, you've been falling behind on your electroshock therapy treatments again.
Dyanne Thorne does pull off her role with ease, coming across as a heartless, cold monster without an ounce of remorse in her bones. It's quite the contrast to listen to the commentary track and realize the actress seems like an intelligent, sunny personality with a good sense of humor. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your view), the commentary track, a trailer, and a few biographies are the only extras on the disc. If you feel up to it, after you watch Ilsa ham it up as a German camp commander, you can watch her in three other films reprising the character-with slight modifications-in the Middle East and in Siberia. These are classic movies, for sure, but they're upsetting ones as well.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Ilsa - She Wolf of the SS (1975)

Click here for more information about Ilsa - She Wolf of the SS (1975)

Read More...

Against the Wall (1994) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I am a native Attican, living elsewhere now, but truly
an Attican. I was 17 when the events of this movie occured.
As acted and the accuracy of events written, this movie
captures as close to the truth as I've ever witnessed. All
of the actors have now gone on to do excellent work, but
to date, none can do a better thing than the truth they told
in this piece. There are small and great stories that beg to
be passed on. I am not the arbitor of which category Attica
falls in. But it needed to be well told----and so it was.
I wish someday that someone would tell the truth of the
tenor of the town itself. Though there was a local "watering
hole" represented, I fail to know which it was ------or
a compilation of them all-----all five or six in a village
of, at that time, 2,000-----plus or minus a few. The truth
is, the real census records INCLUDE the population of the
prison. Part of what every lexicon of the riot excludes is
the real danger posed by the town's people. There are few
I knew that weren't expecting a deluge of inner-city
"blacks" to invade the town with the intent of holding
hostage the "innocent" residents. Not a man with a gun failed
to have it parked by the door. Actually, man or woman.
A village, economically depressed and relying on the sole
industry of warehousing human beings is a strange little
society. The film was effective and faithful in representing
the secrecy or "don't ask" policy of the guards and the
town. The direction to alcohalism the rookie headed was
true. It may be true or not now. Then, it was a fact. The
degredation of the prisoners was a fact. The feeling and
unacknowledged fear the guards felt every day was true.
The notion they were never armed is NOT true. Most had personal
or State issued side arms. Fact.
The movie is a great endeavor well done. Same players,
from front to back lines------finish the story.
L.M.Anton

Click Here to see more reviews about: Against the Wall (1994)

A young guard witnesses the Attica prison uprising as he becomes a hostage in the prisoners negotiations. Based on a true story.

Get 17% OFF

Click here for more information about Against the Wall (1994)

Read More...

I Love You Phillip Morris (2010) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)"I Love You Philip Morris" tells the real life story of Steven Jay Russell, who in 1998 received an unprecedented 144-year prison sentence for fraud, conning, impersonating, and multiple escapes from Houston's Harris County Jail. The film shows us sequences that seem utterly impossible, but in fact actually happened, which only goes to show that truth really is stranger than fiction. No, I will not describe them to you. Enjoying the film depends on the audience's reaction to Russell's actions. It's a little like a magician revealing his secrets; the trick itself is a lot of fun, but seeing what went into making the trick work can be quite fascinating, especially when you realize just how much effort goes into making something look simple. The apparent ease with which he executes his schemes is equally mind boggling.
Jim Carrey's portrayal of Russell is a delightful bag of contradictions. He's funny but touching, exaggerated but believable, contemptible but justified, caring but manipulative. There are times when it seems like he's thinking of no one other than himself, and there are other times when it's clear that he does what he does out of love. It's a daring, complex performance, and it's for reasons other than the fact that his character is gay; it establishes that Carrey is capable of something deeper than outlandish personalities and extreme physical comedy. His take on Russell is engaging, although it's not necessarily understandable. This isn't a criticism. Sometimes, it's preferable for audiences to figure out characters for themselves, for them to put their own spin on why certain people are they are way they are.
We're given a small glimpse of his childhood, in which he learns that he was adopted. We then flash forward to his early adult years; he's married to a woman who's a bit too religious and perhaps a little ignorant but sweet nonetheless, he has a delightful daughter, and he's the manager of a Texas food service company. But after surviving a car accident, he decides to live his life as an openly gay man, and he leaves his family behind for Miami. It's there he realizes that living a gay lifestyle is more expensive than his salary as a sales manager will allow. So he does what any man vowing to live authentically would do - he becomes a conman. After relatively simple schemes like feigning slips and falls in public places, he plunges headfirst into various types of fraud, including credit card, passport, and insurance. He even sells bad tomatoes.
Unfortunately, his crimes catch up with him, and he's arrested and sent to jail in Texas. He learns the ropes quickly; everything essentially boils down to a choice between paying someone off, learning how to fight, or giving someone oral sex. He knows who to talk to and where to guide someone should they need something. He spends all his free time in the library, where he reads nothing but law books. Into his life enters Philip Morris (Ewan McGregor), a soft spoken gay man who was tried and convicted for theft of service. He wants to see if there's a legal way to help an AIDS patient lying in the infirmary. Russell lies and tells Morris that he's a lawyer. The two immediately hit it off. Over the next few weeks, they form their own little slice of heaven in a jail cell, oblivious to the yard beatings and the cell searches.
At this point, I'm going to stop describing the plot, for I want you to be surprised by the lengths Russell will go to be with Morris. I will say that what the film, in its own offbeat way, is surprisingly sweet. Glenn Ficarra and John Requa's screenplay, based on Steve McVicker's book "I Love You Philip Morris: A True Story of Life, Love, and Prison Breaks," reveals a delicate and finely crafted balancing act between humor and drama; it's funny, though it never resorts to desperate slapstick or gross-out vulgarities, and it's heartfelt, yet it steers clear of broad, contrived sentimentalism. It's bold and appealing - a romantic comedy that refuses to follow the rules of a romantic comedy.
Apart from Carrey and McGregor, I was pleasantly surprised by Leslie Mann, who appears briefly but is no less important as Russell's ex-wife, Debbie. Even after learning that he's gay, even after they get divorced, even after he gets sent to jail, the two remain on fairly good terms. This is amazing coming from a woman perpetually hung up on what the Lord does and does not intend to have happen. She believes that Russell is a man who doesn't know who he is and is always searching for something. I guess that makes sense. Why else would he be so reckless in his attempts at pretending to be what he isn't? Part of what makes "I Love You Philip Morris" such a good movie is that it presents Steven Jay Russell without forcing us towards any definite conclusions about him. True, he may be serving an unusually long jail sentence (in solitary confinement, no less), but you have to admit, he is a romantic.

Click Here to see more reviews about: I Love You Phillip Morris (2010)

Jim Carrey stars in the 'outrageously funny" (Rolling Stone) true story of a spectacularly charismatic con man's journey from small-town businessman to flamboyant white-collar criminal, who repeatedly finds himself in trouble with the law and on the lam - all in the name of love. Costarring Ewan McGregor, I Love You Phillip Morris is an unbelievably true comedy that's being called 'the best performance of Carrey's career" (Village Voice).

Get 37% OFF

Click here for more information about I Love You Phillip Morris (2010)

Read More...