Sunday, July 15, 2012

B-Movie Review: Deadly Weapons

Synopsis:
A trio of mobsters kills a man to find a blackmail list. When one of the mobsters keeps the list for himself, he is killed by the other two. His girlfriend, Crystal finds them to take her revenge.

Tim's Opinion:
Deadly Weapons is certainly early 70's exploitation at it's best... or worst depending on your opinion. Everything about this movie screams 70's, the hair, the clothes, the decor. Nothing in this movie leaves any doubt when it's made. The acting, as you would expect, is pretty bad. This is especially true with Chesty Morgan, whose expression is pretty much the same throughout the movie, no matter what her mood. It is also pretty obvious that her lines were dubbed.

The plot of the movie is nothing special, just a typical revenge movie. Really the only reason this movie is made is to show off Chesty Morgan's huge breasts. In most of her scenes she is nude, and in most of the rest, she's showing a considerable amount of cleavage. When she catches up with her boyfriends killers, she dispatches them by smothering them between her giant knockers. At least they died happy, especially Tony, played by Bill The Butcher from Gangs Of New York... never mind, my mistake. That was Harry Reems. Well, he certainly looks like Bill The Butcher.

I noticed in the credits, the name Saul Meth. I don't know if they were on meth when making this movie, but it certainly looked like Chesty Morgan may have been on Valium, or at least a strong sedative.

Obviously, this is not a movie to be taken seriously. Deadly Weapons is totally campy 1970's. In the final scene, Crystal pulls a semiautomatic pistol out of a drawer, yet the closeup of the gun being fired is a revolver. Continuity obviously wasn't high on their priority list. If you're offended by nudity, then you certainly want to steer clear of this one. If you're into camp, and into exploitation movies, then you will want to add this one to your collection. This was overall a bad movie, yet definitely worth seeing, at least to laugh at the ridiculousness of the whole thing.

Lisa's Opinion:

From the fine people of Something Weird Video is a 1974 cheap mafia film called Deadly Weapons. As someone who is a big fan of the 1970s, I find this film quite......well...ummm.......interesting from the credits on. It stars Zsa Zsa, but it is not the Zsa Zsa that we know of and she has certain assets that those who wish to have ridiculously large breast implants can aspire to; only Zsa Zsa's are real. Another name that caught my eye was Seth Meth and Nick/talent agent. I am not sure sure of back then, but with this day and age, the name Meth itself might have some thinking about the movie itself.

Deadly Weapons combines all the tackiness of 70s fashion, all the chintziness of a certain place of the time as well as some strangeness. One such strangeness is the wide vocal variety of what seems like dubbing of the actors and the deadpan expressions of the actors themselves. There was even a scene where the main character, with the large assets, takes a job as a stripper in Vagas and the crowd goes wild. Only it shows a polite audience in a theater in what it looks like, a polite "golf clap". It is not hard to figure out what they were refering to when they named the film as she also uses these assets to smother her boyfriend's killers to death. Deadly Weapons is definitely one of those movies that one has to see to believe.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

B-Movie Review: When Nature Calls

When Nature Calls (1985)

Synopsis:

A burned out construction worker takes his family to live in the wilderness.

Tim's Opinion:

I have found Troma movies to be hit or miss. This one... I'm not sure. It was certainly bizarre. It did have us laughing at some parts, and wondering WTF at others. One of the WTF moments was certainly Bambi falling in love with the bear. I mean Bambi the teenage daughter, not Bambi the cute little fawn from the Disney movie. And then the scene with the Indian wrestling with the cougar. I'm guessing the cougar was upset that the Huskies won the Apple Cup once again. In addition there are the weird, inexplicable interruptions by Morey Amsterdam and Fred Blassie.

Aside from the theme song, a lot of the music sounded like something from a Disney nature documentary. It's only the bad jokes that make it clear that it is a Troma movie, not Disney. Actually a lot of the gags made it look like a bad Zucker Brothers movie in the same vein as Naked Gun or Airplane.

This movie was good for a few laughs, but I've definitely seen better comedies. Although I have to admit it is one of the better Troma movies that I've seen, but I have seen better.

Lisa's Opinion:

When Nature Calls, aka The Outdoorsters, made in 1985 by the crew from Troma, is a spoof off of the old 1970s "get back to nature movies" such as Swiss Family Robinson or Grizzly Adams. Actually, they are not exactly like the Swiss Family Robinson or Grizzly Adama. The daughter, by the name of Bambi, has some strange tastes in dates. In fact, she literally dates animals as it is revieled in a relationship she has with a Grizzly Bear. Little Billy, a suscriber to Capitalist Pig magazine still continues his obsession with money as he tries to undertake many money making ventures in the middle of nowhere. Even the dog, Squirt, develops a taste for tranquilizers at the end. 

Meanwhile, several people are intervied to find out why this family decided to leave. We have a psychologist who reveals how disturbed Bambi and the rest of the family is while he challengess the interviewer to a wrestling match. We have Morey Amsterdam as just being himself, and even a brother of the Native American friend of the family, Weejun as well as the cougar's ex girfriend who instist that the cougar was not stalking Weejun. 

Just when you are glued to a climatic scene in the movie, it goes to intermission. Like the usual intermission clips, the food dances on a stage and may make you think, "Hmmmmm, good idea, let's all go to the lobby to get ourselves a treat". However, as the clip progresses and various drugs present themselves and the food, especially the hot dogs, engage in certain unsavory activities, you may end up thinking "On Second though, let's NOT go to the lobby to get ourselves a treat. I take it that they are really unsavory". So, I take it as a lesson that it's best to bring your own.

Overall, this movie has me thinking, " Did they have a little too much city air or too much wilderness air when they wrote this?"