1981-1990

Paul Kersey, the soft-spoken family man with the knack for wasting street scum, hoped that, after cleaning an entire neighbourhood in Death Wish 3 (1985), he would hang up his guns, and lead a peaceful life. Nevertheless, more than ever, chaos, panic, and disaster are rampant on the mean streets of Los Angeles, as the unscrupulous drug dealers, Ed Zacharias and Jack Romero, whose rival gangs supply 90% of the narcotics in Los Angeles, exploit the helpless, terrorising everyone with their brutal methods. But, their reign of terror is about to end violently when the innocent teenage daughter of Kersey’s girlfriend dies of an overdose. Now, once again, the guns, and, in particular, Paul’s stainless-steel Ruger Mini-14 GB-F semi-automatic rifle, have the final say. Who can stand in the way of an angry, terribly dangerous, and armed-to-the-teeth Paul Kersey?Read More »

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This shocker will most likely appeal to fans of pitch-black beyond-bad-taste comedy. Others may find it highly offensive and gory as it chronicles the fate of homeless Brooklyn winos when they get into some tainted wine and begin melting into slimy puddles of human goo. The wine, called “Tenafly Viper,” is being sold by the owner of a liquor store who found it lying around in his basement and sells it to the bums for a buck. It is later revealed that the wine was deliberately spiked by the government.Read More »

Set during the World War I in a prison cell. A newspaper satirist, a safecracker and a clerical murderer have been loaded into a common cell until the investigation into their supposed crimes has been finished. The journalist takes copious notes on the situation hoping to publish them later as a novel. The writer catches typhus and in his feverish delirium is no longer able to distinguish between the reality and fantasy of his writing.Read More »

In 1989, Stephen Sayadian, aka Rinse Dream, released one of the most iconic and fantastical works in American exploitation cinema. For the first time since its release, thanks to a new restoration, it will finally find its audience, and retroactively be appreciated as the underground masterpiece that it is. Bizarre, stunning, goofy and unsettling, DR. CALIGARI embraces the avant-garde in its exquisite and hilarious exploitation of America’s repressed libido. As the film’s title might suggest, the film is a loose remake of the German Expressionist classic, following Mrs. Van Houten, a woman who seems to be losing touch with reality, and her treatment under Dr. Caligari, who diagnoses her with a “disease of the libido”. Far more than just narratively similar, Sayadian’s background in set design and art keeps with the silent classic’s highly stylized design, updated with the bright, disorienting commercialism of 1980s Americana. DR. CALIGARI might be one of the American cinema’s most incisive and unique portraits of national excess ever to grace the screen.Read More »

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The military anti-terrorist army takes control of “Chuspi”, an unknown and faraway small village, isolated by the terrorist group “Sendero Luminoso” (Shining Path). A soldier called Vitin Luna, and other young soldiers face an invisible, perhaps superior force. Their unit is commanded by a brutal lieutenant who declares the entire village guilty of treason. In the face of this crisis, Vitin must choose between blind obedience and his own conscience.Read More »

Despite Lieutenant Frank Ochoa’s order to leave New York permanently in Death Wish (1974), Paul Kersey is back in the city to visit an old friend after taking down Nirvana’s gang of savage thugs in Death Wish II (1982). But, death seems to follow the grizzled executioner, and after a shocking discovery, Kersey cuts a deal with the Police Chief, Richard Shriker: kill as many creeps as he wants, provided that he keeps the police informed. This time, Paul means business, and as the sadistic gang of the unhinged sociopath, Manny Fraker, terrorises the tenants of a run-down tenement building, and the entire neighbourhood, Kersey’s brand-new .475 Wildey Magnum alone is not going to cut it. Can “The Vigilante” bring peace back to the once-quiet region?Read More »

A woman finds romance when she takes a job at an aircraft plant to help make ends meet after her husband goes off to war.

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Swing Shift is a 1984 American romantic drama war film directed by Jonathan Demme and produced by and starring Goldie Hawn with Kurt Russell. It also starred Christine Lahti, Fred Ward and Ed Harris. Lahti earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her tragic portrayal of heart-broken ex-singer and Hawn’s character’s close friend Hazel, losing to Peggy Ashcroft for A Passage to India. Singer Belinda Carlisle made a foray into acting and Holly Hunter can be seen in one of her first movie roles.Read More »

Paul Kersey thought his days as a vigilante were long behind him. But when his daughter and housekeeper are savagely assaulted and murdered, Paul is forced to take the law back into his own hands, hitting the tough, gang-filled streets of Los Angeles and embarking on a violent quest for justice. Realizing he has a ruthless vigilante on his hands, Detective Frank Ochoa races to put an end to the building carnage.Read More »

Grant Nebel wrote:
Melancholic Screwball

Into the Night resembles a lot of other films of its time: the Los Angeles version of Scorsese’s After Hours or what Miracle Mile would have been if that thing (you know the thing I mean) hadn’t happened. Moving forward, it’s Collateral with one character gender-switched and actually more gunplay, but its most interesting cinematic relative is Eyes Wide Shut. Let’s call it a second cousin: both films are about a man’s two-night journey after he realizes his wife’s infidelity (imagined in Eyes, real here) and more importantly, both take place in a city that’s not quite real. Kubrick created his own hallucination of New York for his film, but director John Landis and writer Ron Koslow had the advantage of making Into the Night in L. A., a city that’s always already part fiction.Read More »