I kind of miss films about working-class people fighting corruption and injustice, there was something keenly American about the communist principles of blue-collar people unionizing and fighting for so many of the things we take for granted as American workers. I won't bother to create a list of those things, I'll presume you're aware of…

A movie that starts with an introduction to working class dragster affection, while a "news reporter" takes notes on the young men and women devoting themselves to fast cars, but ends in a miasma of Abbot and Costello style yucks and slapstick. The two ends of this movie don't quite dovetail but then so much…

A terrible snooze of a teens-in-trouble film without an ounce of subtlety, charm, or wit. New good- girl moves to town and finds herself being indoctrinated into a lazy girl-gang that basically revolves around getting new girls to wear pants to school and making complete fools of themselves, because, girls in pants! Who ever saw…

The Grateful Dead are one of those bands who arc through our last several decades in a number of forms always lead by the ever charismatic lead guitarist and singer Jerry Garcia (He ain't just a favorite flavor of ice cream!), and this six part docu-series does a nice job telling their story and connecting…

To be fair Shriley MacLaine was never my idea of a fantasy playmate, and while she manages to produce several distinctive looks and characters in this little collage of short plays, they are mostly unattractive, mousy people, despondent, mistaken and pitiable. There's not much that's sexy or compelling about pitiable. I only say this because…

Having just enjoyed Sellers and Woody in the raucous comic vamp of that pussycat thing I reviewed a few days ago, I decided to splurge on this hot number as well. This time a spy spoof, obviously, though very loosely, based on the Ian Fleming novel(s). The first third of this film was quite difficult…

Yep, Dirty freakin' Dancing. Laugh it up dear boozers, but in 1987 I was much too serious (severe even as I watched Troma films) to remotely consider glancing at this Patrick Swayze vehicle that was a hands-down favorite of my proper British Grandma (from Exeter). Yesterday I decided it was time to delve into the…

This is basically an "Elvis movie" without Elvis, but with the very cute Mamie Van Doren who is like a mini cross between Mansfield and Mae West (but leaning toward cute, rather than sultry). This film is set around rodeos, and There's a ton of rodeo footage, trick riding, calf roping, and such built around…

I Saw A Film! Filmed in "psychovision" we're told! It's really filmed in Micky Hargitay vision (Hercules playing body-builder most famous for his relationship with the doomed 50's -60's bombshell Jayne Mansfield). And lots of bongos in the soundtrack for some reason. Basically, a crew of photographers and models have arrived at castle hoping to…

It's hard to imagine all this stuff happening already before I was really old enough to appreciate it. I've mentioned elsewhere that I grew up in the country and was blown away accidentally finding Saturday Night Live and Don Kirshner's Rock Concert on late night television. Nights in my folks house growing up were so…