‘Bluebeard’ (1972): So much potential, but mostly goes to waste

With the days getting more brisk as the sun loses its power to warm us, and the nights getting longer and more still, it wouldn’t be unexpected to have a certain melancholia creep into one’s temper. Drinking and cleaning your guns in the dark helps to shake it loose, but only so much. What one really… Read More ‘Bluebeard’ (1972): So much potential, but mostly goes to waste

‘Wicked, Wicked’ (1973): The only Duo-Vision movie ever released has us seeing two

Okay, enough. I swear to god if I hear my kid “lecture” me one more time about how essential it is to see The Second Coming of Christ’s director Christopher Nolan’s latest portentous snoozefest in its proper “cinematic form,” I’m going to lose it. This is the kid who’s never seen Lawrence of Arabia or… Read More ‘Wicked, Wicked’ (1973): The only Duo-Vision movie ever released has us seeing two

‘Boxcar Bertha’ (1972): Early Scorsese gangster flick isn’t good, but it’s entertaining

So I spent the equivalent of 20 goddamn hours (it seemed) watching Scorsese’s laughably bad, The Departed, with one of my kids, who then spent another hour or so trying to explain to me why it was so great and why I was so wrong in hating it. He, of course, failed. If I want… Read More ‘Boxcar Bertha’ (1972): Early Scorsese gangster flick isn’t good, but it’s entertaining

‘Cold Eyes of Fear’ (1971): Ramped-up Hitchcockian suspenser sports bizarre Morricone score

Seeing that the latest 4k blu-ray Alfred Hitchcock “ultimate collection” release was not only sold out but a tad pricey for yet another upgrade (I mean honestly…how many times am I going to buy Saboteur?), I decided to rummage around my vast subterranean DVD vault to scrounge up something that was 1) suitably “Hitchcockian,” and… Read More ‘Cold Eyes of Fear’ (1971): Ramped-up Hitchcockian suspenser sports bizarre Morricone score

‘A Star is Born’ (1976): How do you really feel about your fans, Babs?

So, I haven’t thought about Barbra Streisand in something like decades (I honestly thought they had found her dead at the Orange Julius in her Malibu mansion’s subterranean mini-mall). But when I saw she was browbeating asking the Academy to sing about Robert Redford at the Oscars (who didn’t die at a mall but rather… Read More ‘A Star is Born’ (1976): How do you really feel about your fans, Babs?

‘Black Mama, White Mama’ (1972): Dirty-minded WIP actioner delivers the goods

Here at our newly renovated Movies & Drinks west coast offices, we’re continuing our commitment to not only Black History Month (we’re only running blaxploitation flicks in our screening room where whitey gets his shit blown up—oh, wait: that’s all of them), but also to la révolution (America will never truly be a classless society… Read More ‘Black Mama, White Mama’ (1972): Dirty-minded WIP actioner delivers the goods

‘Sheba, Baby’ (1975): Not bad, but you’ll wish you were 9 again

Is it Black History Month yet? Do they still call it that? Well, I’m starting it right now, getting inspired by gorgeous Pam Grier’s knobs, in the low-key entertainment, Sheba, Baby, the 1975 American International Pictures blaxploitation hit directed by William Girdler, and starring Pam Grier, Austin Stoker, D’Urville Martin, Rudy Challenger, Christopher Joy, Dick… Read More ‘Sheba, Baby’ (1975): Not bad, but you’ll wish you were 9 again

‘Schoolgirl Report #1: What Parents Don’t Think Is Possible’ (1970): What do schoolgirls want this holiday season?

So…while we’re all waiting for Dick Van Dyke to kick off (please…you think anyone’s going to care the day after he hits 100?), there’s currently not much else to do in the popular culture than celebrate the upcoming Christmas holiday. And what’s the best way to do that? Why, with early 70s German soft-core porn,… Read More ‘Schoolgirl Report #1: What Parents Don’t Think Is Possible’ (1970): What do schoolgirls want this holiday season?