copafeelia

In a much better mood today. Waking up early, making coffee and watching Meet the Press has a way of making me feel connected with home. Early morning phonecall from Yvette this morning too as she was getting off her overnight shift at the shelter. It sounds like things are crazy there. An employee who has forced herself into a friendship with Yvette has been caught stealing meds from the girls who are getting care there. It's a total Girls, Interrupted setting there and I couldn't deal with it.

I'm going to get to painting here in a bit. I'm finally in the mood so I better strike while the caffeine is flowing. Just kinda' preoccupied by browsing SG galleries. Yummy.

Just a coupla' reviews now... --------------

SUPERMAN III
Christopher Reeves brings dignity to a movie that doesn't deserve it. Richard Lester, who directed the ill-fitting segments of Supe II after the Salkinds made the mistake of canning Richard Donner, takes full control here and tries to squeeze slapstick humor into a series that had up to that point taken its mythology relatively seriously. A shame because there was some stuff to work with here - primarily the evil Superman that emerges when the last son of Krypton is exposed to red kryptonite. The junkyard showdown between Clark Kent and the evil Superman is pretty cool. And then there's the whole matter of Richard Pryor - what were they thinking? Robert Vaughn and Annie Ross embarrass themselves. Kent returning to Smallville and his high school sweetheart Lana Lang (Margot Kidder only makes bookend appearances as Lois Lane) provide some nice moments. Overall, however, the movie is undone by Lester's British penchant for bad slapstick. Superman deserves reverence - not this shoddy, unfunny, dated, supercomputer plot. A good thing is driven further into the ground by a third sequel that ends up being much much worse. **(but just barely)

BASKET CASE
The story of a boy and his deformed, surgically detatched siamese twin, whom he carries with him in a basket. Belial has quite a temper though so don't cross him or he'll fuck you up. He's jealous too, which means "normal" brother Duane has to watch who he gets close too. Most of the action takes place in the seedy underbelly of a pre-Gulianni NYC. Basket Case has a gritty feel and a great dark sense of humor that prevents it from ever really being scary. But it's fun, and it was groundbreaking for it's budget at the time. There's lots of gore but the budget dictated the cheap effects which are more endearing than effective. Director Frank Henenlotter continued exploring similar ground through his career with mixed results (Brain Damage, Frankenhooker, et al.). A perfect example of a 70s drive-in movie chiller. ***

EMANUELLE AND THE LAST CANNIBALS(aka Trap Them and Kill Them)
Joe D'Amato's cannibal epic is also a soft core erotic epic. Emanuelle changed her name as a disconect from her literary namesake with Emanuelle in America (also D'Amato's). The outrageously hot Laura Gemser is the black Em, a reporter who sets off to investigate cannibal killings in the deep deep jungle. Soft core sex and nudity is offset by gore-tastic cannibal attacks. Works for me. Like all European sleaze, there is a tendency towards some talky stretches - but at 90 minutes its tighter than Emanuelle in America. As is the case with most movies in the cannibal genre, the gore is not for the squeamish.
**1/2