JUNESPLOITATION Week One (June 1-5)

I did F This Movie's Junesploitation challenge for the second consecutive year and it was a blast. I didn't start writing about these until I'd already gotten going, so these are all post-dated. But I wanted to write about everything I saw, while breaking things up so there's not one post with all 30 entries. I also picked two trailers to preceded each of these films (like I did with the Summerfest movies), just to be extra nerdy.

So, if I may begin at the beginning...

1. Space!

MESSAGE FROM SPACE (1978)
Trailers: The Terrornauts, Starcrash

One of many Star Wars knock-offs to come out of the late 1970s/early 1980s, this one stands out for its Japanese flavor. Directed by Kenji Fukasaku, who would go on to direct the hugely influential BATTLE ROYALE (2001) — the movie everyone compared The Hunger Games to — this is worth watching for its style (especially the costumes and sets, which are pretty incredible considering the kind of budget this film must have had), and seeing the obvious attempts at Star Wars elements (for example, Beba 2, which is clearly this movie’s version of R2D2) is kind of interesting. In the end, though, I found it hard to follow because the story is kind of a mess and there are just too many characters. And that’s not even getting to the magical glowing walnuts.

2. Westerns!

ZACHARIAH (1971)

Trailers: 3 Supermen of the West, El Topo

(Rewatch) When I saw this before, it was the penultimate film of a 24-hour movie marathon and I wanted to see it again less bleary-eyed. It’s definitely a weird one, bleary-eyed or not. Starring John Rubinstein and a very young and pretty Don Johnson and featuring anachronistic modern music, this psychedelic "electric western" is trying its best to be philosophical but mostly feels like it was written in a huge haze of weed (not that there's anything particularly wrong with that, but it's a very distinctive vibe). A prime example of a movie that was made explicitly for the time it came out. There is a ton of purposefully anachronistic music to set a particular mood. And despite the title character’s interlude (and strange canary foreplay) with a prostitute, where we are assured of his sexual prowess, this movie is gay as a day in May. A fitting movie for Pride month, and not the last one on this list.

3. Kung Fu!

DIRTY HO (1979)

Trailers: Challenge of the Masters, Crippled Avengers

I got that big Shaw Brothers Blu-ray set months ago and spent much of April and May burning through it. This was the last one I hadn’t watched. Not my favorite (nothing will top CRIPPLED AVENGERS and FIVE DEADLY VENOMS), but still quite enjoyable. I love the clever ways Gordon Liu’s character fights while simultaneously hiding his skills. This movie is also pretty refreshing plot-wise, as it’s a rare Shaw Brothers film that isn’t about revenge. And after watching all those other movies so close together, it was actually a relief not to be watching yet another movie that revolved around rival martial arts schools and people literally killing each other over which style is better (I swear, that’s got to be the plot of at least half of the kung fu movies I’ve seen).

4. ‘90s Action!

AGAINST THE LAW (1997)

Trailers: Mercenary, Memories of Murder

This movie is not a western but its main character thinks he is in one. Richard Grieco (formerly of the original 21 JUMP STREET) plays a homeless drifter who believes he is an Old West-style gunfighter and is searching for a worthy adversary to prove how fast a draw he is. He sees a fitting opponent in a cop (played by Nick Mancuso) who's been in the news for killing a drug dealer in a shootout. And because he knows the power of television, he kidnaps a news reporter (played by Nancy Allen) to document the big showdown. This is very much a 90s, washed out neo-western and Grieco's character is kind of fascinating. Is he actually delusional or is he just trying to live out a fantasy life that he's seen in a bunch of movies?

5. Free Space!

WONDER WOMEN (1973)

Trailers: Policewomen, The World of Suzie Wong

I couldn’t find a decent print of this streaming, so I ended up watching the Rifftrax version, which gave me the amazing “shot a woman in the face” sequence. If you squint hard, this is a bit like a low-rent James Bond, if Bond was an insurance investigator played by Ross Hagen. The villain’s plot reminded me a lot of the more out-there Bond villain plots, and Nancy Kwan’s muscle is a team of hot chicks that are on their way to a pillow fight. The action is pretty quality for a film of this type, and the centerpiece is an amazing jitney chase that lasts at least 10 minutes. I only wish there were a better quality print out there to watch.

I'll be putting the rest of these up, a week at a time, as soon as I can. Click on the "junesploitation" tag on any of the posts to get to the rest.