White Heat (1949)

James Cagney plays the most vicious gangster of his career in White Heat. His name is Cody Jarrett and he is one mean dude. Cagney defines the definition of the antihero with this character. He is psychopathic, ruthless and probably insane but you can't help but love Cody Jarrett.

  Cody and his mother are the masterminds behind the criminal organization. The rest of the gang takes orders from the mother and son and they all are quite aware that Cody trusts nobody in this world except his mother. Even his wife is subject to beatings and constant verbal abuse. If you question Cody or his mother you will get a Cagney sized fist across the chops but if you cross them you are a dead man walking. When the gangs latest heist goes wrong and the police are hot on their trail Cody flies to another state and confesses to a crime that he didn't do. Knowing the phoney crime will get him no more then two years in the pen, he will be getting off easy from the real crime that left four dead and a police officer wounded.

While Cody is serving his time a member of the gang makes a move for his wife. The new couple kill Cody's mother and make a deal with Cody's inmates. Cody is a walking target. His cheating wife and backstabbing partner are trying to see that he never makes it out of prison alive because if he does there will be hell to pay. Well Cody does get out and things end pretty badly for everyone.

With a plot like this and a star like Cagney how could this film fail? The thing that I am most surprised at is that White Heat ever got passed the censors board. Cody's revenge is violent and brutal. He fills fellow criminals and police officers full of bullet holes and at times has this sinister smile on his face. The character of Cody seems to be a complete sociopath with a total lack of empathy for anyone and anything that does not involve him or his mother. Something you are not used to seeing in a 1940's film.

Cody's wife played by the beautiful Virginia Mayo is also a character with a lot of depth. She is drop dead gorgeous but she is rude and crude. Shes a bit of a slut and will also do anything to save her own skin. In the film she is actually the one to put the bullet in Mothers back. She spits, drinks and has little to manners. Of course she gets away with a lot of this because of how attractive she is but even her introduction goes to show that White Heat is going to break all of the rules. We first see her sleeping. Her pretty face is made up with tons of lipstick and eyeshadow but she is snoring like a slob. The camera pans down only to show us she is passed out in a robe. To my knowledge no movie has ever depicted such a beautiful woman in this way before White Heat.

   Part of the reason that White Heat brakes so many rules is due to James Cagney himself. He got his way when Warner Brothers Studios signed a contract saying that Cagney gets to chose all of his own roles and play his character the way he wanted to. He also had the right to rewrite the script if he wanted to. So much of the dark nihilistic tone in White Heat comes from Cagney in this one and it proved to be a huge hit. People were so please to see Cagney back on the big screen doing what he does best and that is of course depicting bad-ass gangsters. In one of my favorite scenes Cody kidnaps a enemy, puts him in the trunk and leaves him there over night. In the morning he grabs a chicken leg and his pistol, walks over to the car and fills the trunk full of bullet holes. Then he takes a bite of his chicken and gets on his way. He does all of this without blinking an eye. This just goes to show the kind of man Cody really is. On the other hand he had a complete and total dedication to his mother. Once his mother dies Cody sets out on a self destructive path of violence and bloodshed. It all comes complete with an amazing nihilistic ending that has to be seen.

Check this one out for some fun with wife-beating, police killing and prison fights. It comes complete with explosions, car chases, burn victims, witty dialogue and plenty of Cagney gun violence. "You wouldn't kill me in cold blood would ya Cody? No I'll let ya warm up a bit".

Bonnie And Clyde (1967)

I will never forget the first time I saw this movie. I watched it with my father in my pre-teen years and I became some what obsessed with the two bank robbers. I think it scared my father a bit when he saw how much I loved these two iconic villains. I would rent the movie over and over again from the library and knew every line and every scene. All these years latter I still hold this film very close to my heart.

Looking back on it now it is no wonder this movie pulled me in the way it did. Clyde (Warren Beatty) is a bad-ass tough guy who doesn't follow any of the rules. He has a hot girl, hes good with a gun and nobody can catch him. Faye Dunnaway plays Bonnie and as a young kid I couldn't help but agree with Clyde that "She's a knock-out". In the opening scene we have the privilege of watching her walk around her room in the nude. It is the ultimate tease for the average 12 year old boy. The camera hits every angle to show off all of her finer points without actually showing any full frontal nudity. I can relate it best to Brigitte Bardot films like And God Created Woman. To say the least this scene was the ultimate tease for me when I was a kid and it is still very sexy today.

  
Together Bonnie And Clyde ride across country robbing banks, stealing cars and killing cops. three more baddies join them along the way and it becomes evident that Bonnie And Clyde will never make it out of this alive. The two lovers make an unspoken pact to stick together till the bloody end and leave a legacy behind them that the world could never forget. Sure the story is a bit romanticized but it just makes for a more memorable cinematic experience. I was actually lucky enough to a catch a screening of this thing in a art-house theater. I was surrounded by old-timers and they served wine and cheese. Myself and my mongoloid friends excluded were the only ones amongst the crowd that were not senior citizens. Of course we indulged in the wine but I couldn't help but think to myself what a shame it is that the youth of today are probably unaware of this classic film at large.

The 60's film is as timeless as the two criminal figures themselves. It has something in it for everybody. Its a perfect movie to watch with your best girl because of the romantic subplot that runs through out the film but it is also a great movie to watch with your friends. We get all the car stealing, bank robbing and violent shoot-outs that we deserve. It even has a bit of comedy to it. One scene in particular shows Bonnie And Clyde stealing Gene Wilder's car. "I'm gonna tear those punks apart". It is truly a funny moment and offers up some really funny quotes but don't laugh for to long because as we all know Bonnie And Clyde ends in great tragedy. The Nihilistic ending serves as a sample of things to come in the gritty 70's. For me Bonnie And Clyde is almost a blueprint for a style of film making that is to come from cinemas greatest decade. The sick and twisted, mean spirited 70's.

If you have not yet seen this movie you better ask your dad if you can borrow his library card. Its a must see.

No Country For Old Men (2007)

The Coen brothers are amongst the most interesting filmmakers in Hollywood today. While that isn't saying very much because Hollywood film has gone to complete shit over the past 30 years or so. This makes the Coen brothers work stand out even more.

The Coen bros. seem to have followed a formula that has worked for them even from their earlier works with movies like Blood Simple. It is good story telling which is pieced together with a fair amount of action and some what graphic violence. While the story is generally interesting and holds the attention the films seem to have a certain mysterious element to them as if they purposely leave out certain bits of information from the original script. Whether or not this is actually done purposely I am not sure but for me this what what makes the films of the Coen bros. worth a watch.

No Country is unique in its own sense. With a minimal score and not even to much dialogue. The silence to the film almost gives off a 70's vibe. For me No Country almost plays as a throw back to a time when cinema had a lot more going for it.

We have interesting characters, a nice screenplay and enough violence and bloodletting to give the movie some replay value.

A drug deal goes bad (people die), a man finds the money (people die), a ruthless serial killer wants the money (people die), and the police want the money (people die). Its one big game of cat and mouse and did I mention people die?

No Country For Old Men is an exception to the rule that movies from the 2000's are a complete waste of time. I'm looking forward to the Coen brothers next release.

Naked Killer (1992)

If you took a sleazy Category 3 flick and crossed it with a John Woo action movie like Hard Boiled you would end up with something like this. I of course not being the biggest fan of Hong Kong gun-fu flicks this movie was a breath of fresh air for me.

The Naked Killer relies more on its over the top violence, raunchy dialogue and sheer sleaze factor then the actual shoot-em-up stuff. Sure we have all of the exaggerated shoot outs but they almost seem more comic bookish then anything else.

The movie follows a cop who is tracking down a group of female assassins. These hot Asian babes are known for shooting their victims full of holes, breaking arms and legs and almost always causing some sever genital damage. They cut the dicks and balls off of the men they kill and in one of the more memorable scenes a stupid cop eats the severed dick of a dead man, mistaking it for a sausage.

The plot thickens when our main character learns that the assassin that he has been tracking is a young girl named Kitty who he fell in love with a while back. From here on The Naked Killer turns into a demented romance flick and makes American movies in the same genre like True Romance pale in comparison.

Kitty is the only girl for our dead-beat cop (literally). Ever since he witnessed his brothers death during a cops and robbers shoot out, he has been impotent. The day he met Kitty he became as he says "Hard as a rock" and she is the only girl in the world that can cure him of this affliction. Naturally Kitty is very important to the cop. More important then the police force and even more important then his own life. If that's not a twisted love story, I don't know what is.

The movie also sports lots of hot lesbian action and a bunch of sleaze-bag, rapist men. These moments of course help The Naked Killer achieve its Cat III rating. While this movie undoubtedly would appeal more to a male audience it still can be a fun watch for couples. That is providing your best girl isn't a typical, jealous, paranoid freak. Naked Killer has this sort of romantic charm to it but it is of course all done in very bad taste. We do get some bare breasted babes here and there but the film works perfectly the way it is and that being hot scantily dressed Asian babes who will shoot you full of holes and break your neck.

Some of the other highlights involve a man who has his achy-breaky skull smashed in with weights (complete with head explosion and splatter), violent genital stabbing, an exploding house, suicide, rape, dead cops and really funny dubbing. Even the subtitled versions are all really funny and to top this all off the film is very well made, with very slick camera work, plush sets and very nice lighting. I recommend only picking this thing up if you can find it uncut. The cut version can be missing as much as 11 minutes.

The Mechanic (1972)

Director Michael Winner who is best remembered for the Death Wish movies is also responsible for this Charles Bronson action flick. While The Mechanic isn't exactly at the top of my favorite Bronson flick list it is still worth a watch at least once for fans of the man with the mustache and all the guns.

Bronson plays a hit man who takes on a young apprentice after he kills the kids father. Bronson's new trainee is into fast cars, women and parties but its not long before he is a full fledged killing machine and who better to learn from then Charles Bronson...

We get a couple of elaborate murder scenes, exploding homes, exploding cars, lots of shotgun-fu and even a scuba diving Charlie Bronson.

For me this movie is just a little bit to {PG} and lacks in the violence department a bit. This really limits the replay value of the movie. However it does come complete with a twist ending. They recently remade this thing and I am not planning out watching that anytime soon. For now I will stick with the 1972 {PG} version.

Hitch-Hike (1977)

If you took Rabid Dogs and crossed it with Last House On The Left we would end up with something like Hitch-Hike. Of course in Mario Bava's Rabid Dogs, George Eastmen is our main source of violence but this time around we get David (Last House On The Left) Hess as our violent protagonist.

Italian cult icon Franco (Keoma) Nero is on the road with his wife Eve when they stop to pick up a Hitch-Hiker played by Hess. Picking this bastard up was the biggest mistake of the married couples life. They are held hostage at gun point by the criminal/killer hitch-hiker.

Hitch-Hike is a pretty miserable movie. Franco Nero and his wife are far from happy even before they pick up the hitch-hiker. The film opens with a shot through the scope on Franco Nero's riffle. He zero's in on his wife and holds the cross hairs directly between her eyes. Nero decides to shoot a deer instead of Eve. They spend most of their time arguing and fighting and Nero likes to rape his wife at least once or twice a day.

Things get worse when the king of rape joins the couple across country. Of course David Hess does what he does best and adds some more rape-happy hi jinx to the mix.

Nero is forced to watch his wife being ravaged by another man but he doesn't seem to care much about Eve's feelings instead it seems that his manhood and "Latin pride is hurt" and to make things even more twisted it almost seems as if Eve might like the abuse a bit but it is never clearly stated. "My wife is what you call a bit of a whore".

David Hess and Franco Nero are great together. We get a pretty cool fight scene between the two actors and Hess claims in an interview that Nero really broke his nose in that fight.

Its awesome to watch Franco Nero doing a fight scene in a cast because his hand was broken on his previous film Keoma, a Spaghetti Western classic where Nero apparently busted his hand from punching his horse!?!? Ya gotta love a man who openly admits to punching his horse so hard that he breaks his hand.

Hitch-Hike comes complete with a Franco Nero nervous breakdown that is to funny to describe, Two dead cops complete with a brutal blood spraying squib, of course all the rapey stuff, some homosexual undertones, a vicious hippie motorcycle gang, crash and burn car scenes, shoot-em-up scenes, full frontal female nudity, a sing along Manson family type song and a really downbeat 70's ending.

Criminal Woman : Killing Melody (1973)

This Pinku Violence movie plays somewhere between a Women In Prison movie and a classic revenge tale in exploitation. Maki is our lead bad-ass female, who is imprisoned for slashing the face of a Yakuza member who is part of the clan that was responsible for her fathers death.

The prison scenes are very reminiscent of the Scorpion : Female Prisoner movies with gratuitous fight scenes and of course the tearing of clothing to show off some naked flesh which is expected from the genre with movies like The Big Doll House and Caged Heat. The unforgettable knife fight scene between Maki and a rival prisoner has to be seen to be believed. The two women hold a rope in their teeth and slash at each other with a broken shard of glass. The object being that if the opponent screams and the rope falls from her teeth she is of course the loser. This scene runs really long at what seems close to ten minutes but is well worth the time.

Between bare breasted cat-fights Maki shares stories with the other delinquent prisoners and we get a bit of back story on each. Maki also plans on finishing what she started and acting out her vengeance against the Yakuza clan that killed her father. She plots out an elaborate plan of attack to destroy the gangsters. The plan is to kill one important gangster and make it look like an assassination which will start an inner conflict and they will kill themselves off. Then the pickings will be slim and Maki can take the boss and the big men out on her own. Now that's a cool fucking plot!

Maki teams up with three fellow delinquent girls from the neighborhood to help her on her path of revenge. We do get our share of nudity but personally I feel we could have had more. The most blatant sexual scene is a bondage S&M scene that reminds me of a cross between De Palma's Scareface and Girl Boss Guerrilla. Maki is stripped nude and bound with rope. She is beaten for information but when she doesn't speak even when a ruthless Yakuza member gets a bit chainsaw happy. Might I point out that this film came out one year before the classic Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Criminal Woman : Killing Melody comes complete with stabbings, slashings, bad-ass shoot em up scenes, tits & ass, tattooed Yakuza bitches, police officers have their achy-breaky skulls smashed with beer bottles, chainsaw-fu (complete with violence towards mannequins, burning cigarettes to the nipple and much more ridiculous Japanese mayhem all done in Pinku bad taste.

A must see for exploitation fans and lovers of female fatal's!

Street Mobster (1972)

Directed by the same man who would later do Battle Royale and its sequel. This 70's flick tells of a natural born loser. In fact he was born on the day that America dropped the bomb and Japan lost the war. From birth he was condemned a loser. A no good "punk" and that's what he chooses to be.

Our anti-hero is arrested and jailed when convicted for a brutal attack on rival Yakuza gang members. He traps them in a Japanese bath house and goes to town on the naked men with a sharp knife. He cuts them up real good and leaves a bloody mess for the police to find. He also had his hands in drugs, theft and a prostitution racket. In other words the streets of Tokyo are probably a whole lot safer with this man locked in prison.

Once his time is served, our main character decides to get right back into the chaotic mess of gang life. His first stop as a free man is back down to the bath-house where he sliced up his enemies. He enjoys the company of a sexy Asian babe but doesn't manage to get his rocks off before getting into a ass-naked fist fight with some fellow degenerates. Next he forms a small street gang. Together they aimlessly roam the streets and destroy local shops and pick fights with other small time gangs. The message is... Hey we are taking over this town. Stay out of our way or we will smash you up. The only problem is they bite off more then they can chew with a dangerous well established Yakuza clan. They join forces with another Yakuza gang but it is only a matter of time before our self destructive main character insults every major boss from every gang in the city. It is obvious that this man has a death wish and things will be coming to a violent end.

Luckily for us we don't have to wait till the end for violence. This movie is a non stop street fight from beginning to end. Loaded to the brim with stabbings, brutal rape scenes and broken bottle-fu. We also have some incredibly good looking women in this movie. The Street Mobster falls for a girl that he raped and sold off to a whore house in his younger years. We have our share of nudity for added kicks but there is also a compelling story of a hopeless love that runs through the film as a sort of subtext. These two nihilistic characters bond together on the thinnest line between love and hate and their performances make for some pretty emotional scenes.

Street Mobsters offers up frantic camera work that seems to be ahead of its time. Its less obnoxious then the fast cutting movies of today but the formula is similar. With this movie the camera work makes sense. It adds to the chaos of the street violence and reminds me of the race war scene in Romper Stomper that takes place in the streets. Street Mobster also offers up a scene where a mans fingers are chopped off and some nasty gun-violence.

By the time the credits role this one gets a bit repetitive but it still makes for an awesome 70's crime film from Japan.

City On Fire (1987)

Yes I admit, I am one of the many who felt it necessary to check this movie out after it became known that Quentin Tarantino riped it off when he did Reservoir Dogs. I also admit to being a fan of Tarantino and don't waste my time calling him a hack. I am aware that he rips every movie off in order to create something entertaining for us cinema fanatics. Lady Snow Blood and even The Blood Spattered Bride were not safe from Kill Bill. This still doesn't make Tarantino's movies any less entertaining for me.

 City On Fire tells the oh so familiar story of an undercover cop who meets with some burglars for a jewelry heist. Instead of Tim Roth, Chow Yun-Fat plays our sneaky piggy. He takes a bullet during the heist and dies in the final showdown. The famous "Who killed Nice Guy Eddie" scene was lifted directly from City On Fire and in my humble opinion City On Fire ends on even more of a downer note and that is because there is more going on in the Chinese film. I wouldn't go as far as to say there is more character development because Tarantino really knows how to write interesting characters with witty dialogue but City On Fire has much more back story.

Chow Yun-Fat's character is ready to be married and loses his girl due to the fact that he is always working on top secret and dangerous police cases. All he wants is out of the police force but they will not except his resignation until this final mission is completed. This makes it all the more shocking when he dies in the end of the film.

City On Fire also comes complete with dead cops, car explosions, knife to the hand, hot Asian women, really bad dancing, slimy skulls and proves that work and pleasure should never mix.

Is it better then Reservoir Dogs? I can't really say. It was definitely first. I like both movies for different reasons. I will say I think it takes a lot of talent to form a story like Reservoir Dogs from this movie. Every Tarantino fan should check this movie out for themselves and perhaps the world will stop viewing the man as a genius and take him for what he is. A man who makes over budgeted exploitation flicks with roots that date back to when he was just a school-boy movie-geek.

The Unholy Three (1925)

Tod Browning and Lon Chaney do it again. Browning delivers another amazing movie from the enviorment that he feel most comfortable from... The circus side show.

Lon Chaney plays a ventriloquist in a circus side show named Echo. The name suits him well since he has the ability to project his voice in such a fashion that nobody can tell where it is coming from. Echo teams up with the circus dwarf played by Harry Earles who we all know and love as Hans from Browning's Freaks and the strong man Hercules. Together the three criminals plot out the crime of a lifetime.

Chaney disguises himself as an old woman and Harry Earles posses as a infant. Hercules plays the babies father. They steal some expensive jewelery from some very wealthy people. Things go wrong and eventually the three criminals kill a man. Its not long before the law is on there ass and they have to decide whether or not to run or keep up the act and stay in character.

First off Harry Earles is amazing and really does pass as a baby. Chaney is great as usual but I had a harder time believing him as the old woman then I did Earles as an infant.

They also did a talkie version of the film in 1930. The remake would be Chaney's last film and the only time he ever spoke on film. I have never seen the remake and don't really even feel the need to because the original is just to good on its own. Its funny because this particular Tod Browning & Lon Chaney collaboration is greatly over looked. Everybody talks about the great Alonzo The Armless which would come out two years after this film and of course the remake due to the fact that it was Chaney's last picture. Its shame because The Unholy Three really is another great. It has a level of realism in the violence that sort of surpasses all other Browning films that I have seen.

In one very gratuitous moment of violence Harry Earles kicks a child in the face. The scene comes complete with blood that pours from a child's smashed in nose. This is something that you wouldn't see in your average movie even by today's standards. The movie also comes complete with a bad-ass killer gorilla but unlike the remake and the talkies that would follow in the 30's and 40's this is not a man in a gorilla suit. The used a real ape and with some movie magic managed to make this thing look enormous and vicious as hell. Echo keeps the ape for his own protection and yes we do get some crazy ape-fu. Aside from the violence we have the expected subplot of a doomed love story which is necessary for every Chaney picture. Chaney's performance is touching as usual and despite how evil the character of Echo is the audience once again can't help but feel sorry for this heart broken man.

Bad Lieutenant (1992)

Two years after King Of New York Abel Ferrara throws The Bad Lieutenant at us. Personally preferring this film over King Of New York (which I am also a very big fan of) it is easy for me to go back and watch this one again and again.

Harvey Keitel is not a happy man in this movie. His character is about as low as you can get. Human life means nothing to him. Not his own or the suffering people from the New York City streets. He spends his time drinking excessively and doing lots of drugs with prostitutes. He shoots heroin, snorts cocaine, smokes crack & opium right in front of us. The audience cant help but wonder how long he will last and it seems inevitable that he will meet his fate soon. Not to mention that there is a crime lord who is out to blow him away due to the fact that he owes him a $120,000 for some bad bets on the world series. While Baseball is not my thing, cinema is and The Bad Lieutenant offers up crazy scenes of sex & violence.

A nun is gang raped by two young criminals. There is a $50,000 reward for the man who catches the scum who did it. Harvey has to make a decision whether or not he will follow through with the case and use the money to pay off the man who has a hit on him or continue going about his evil ways. His character also struggles with religion in general and in one of the most memorable scenes Keitel kneels before Jesus and calls him a "Rat-Fuck". Then in the next moment he prays for forgiveness. "Where were you? Forgive me. I did so many bad things".

The Bad Lieutenant has a very nihilistic ending that leaves the viewer thinking after its all done and over with in a very similar way to The King Of New York. Its almost as if Keitel excepts his fate and knows it is to late for him. So in a final act of goodness (or is it?) he lets the criminals go in hope that they will find a better life. His life for theirs in a sense.

Oh and in case you wanted to see Harvey Keitel naked one more time, watch for an incredibly awkward scene of swinging Keitel dick. It shouldn't disappoint you.

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

Al Pacino in one of his best roles in this 70's heist flick. Dog Day Afternoon is supposed to be based on a true story of a homosexual who robs a bank to pay for his lovers sex change operation. The robbery is botched up and we get a stand off between the criminals and the police with the bank tellers being held hostage.

Dog Day Afternoon's style and mood reminds me of movies like Taxi Driver and something that Paul Shrader would have written. Pacino's character Sonny is a great anti-hero in the ranks of men like Travis Bickle. Sure hes a criminal but he has charisma and the people of NYC need to relate to a nihilistic fuck up like this. During the all day and all night hostage stand off, Sonny gains the respect of some and the interest of the entire city with his radical verbal beatings towards the police. When it becomes known that he is a homosexual the city is in a uproar and every Tom, Dick and Harry feels the need to voice their opinions, as if the mans sexuality has anything to do with his actions or his impact on society.

John Cazale who I remember best as the big shot with a handgun who gets slapped around by Robert De Niro in The Deer Hunter plays Sal, Sonny's partner. Sal adds a whole other level to the film. His character is extremely awkward and it really says something about the company that our main character keeps. Sal is ready to kill everybody and commit suicide. He makes it clear that he is not ready to go "back" to jail and that death is a much better alternative but Sonny easily manipulates Sal into doing exactly what he wants.

Lance Henricksen (Piranha Part 2 : The Spawning, Pumpkinhead, Terminator) shows up as a sharp-shooter cop who puts a bullet cleanly between the eyes of the bad guy. We also get a cross-dressing lunatic, a bit of racism, a bit of sexism, a bit of violence and a political message to go along with it. A Dog Day Afternoon is a great example of brilliant 70's film making and a time in cinema that just doesn't exist anymore. Great dialogue, great writing, great characters and great acting adds up for a great movie.

Pay attention to the lack of music in the film. It really adds to the whole experience.