VIOLENT NIGHT (2022)

  Appropriately enough I watched this at a Christmas Day gathering. I can't say I gave it my undying attention for most of the opening segments but luckily this isn't the sort of film that you really have to invest much energy in watching. It's basically a mobster film where our action hero is Santa Claus who's not afraid of getting quite violent with those who are naughty. Fairly predictable for most of it's runtime it's at least a mildly entertaining series of bloody wacky kills. Also Santa here has a Viking origin and uses a big hammer like Thor so that's kinda unique. Also he looks like Hacksaw Jim Duggan so old-school wrasslin' fans can enjoy that.

SCORE (1995)

  Obviously director Atsushi Muroga  was very influenced by RESERVOIR DOGS when he made this Japanese gangster flick. From the bank job leading to a wounded crook begging to be taken to a doctor to the undercover cop infiltrating a gang of mobsters this has quite a few touches of the Tarantino classic sprinkled in. It is way more action-packed than it's inspiration though even if it lacks some of that films more stylish touches. There's also a bit of TRUE ROMANCE thrown in with a couple trying to get away with some jewels. It's also unique in being a Japanese film that takes place in America(even though it was actually filmed in The Philippines). An entertaining mix of 90s action clichés that moves very quickly.

 There was a SCORE 2: THE BIG FIGHT in 1999 but I'm not sure if they used any Hollywood films as a template for that one.

                                          Seems even nuttier in German!:

 

HELL HAS NO BOUNDARY (1982)

  So this woman(Wong Lai Fun) gets possessed by the demon of her former life which seeks vengeance any anyone who wronged her in their past lives. We get to see how terrible it was in a long flashback scene to World War II complete with Japanese war atrocities including molestation, rape and murder of adults and children. Apparently according to this demon we're all responsible for everything every one of our past lives has done. What a drag! This movie is not a drag though because we get some classic gross category III moments including drinking from a dirty toilet bowl, castration by a crab, death by being turned into a toilet paper mummy, a disembowled(and eaten!) little girl, maggot munching and it all ends with a good ol' Buddhist exorcism. Probably the highlight of a recent all-day category II marathon I caught at the local weirdo arthouse theater. 

THE BLACK MAGIC WITH BUDDHA (1983)

  I saw this one recently as the first movie in a whole marathon of category III films from Hong Kong. It starts off with a couple of guys stealing a brain from a mummy which apparently works like a magical genie in that it can grant the owner wishes. Unfortunately it also sorta works like that monkey's paw story because there are ultimately some bad consequences to your actions. There's a heavy-breathing killer brain, lots of goopy monster action towards the end which reminded me of THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN and Buddha with a swastika painted on his chest saves the day! 

 I do wish there was a better quality version of this available since I think I need glasses now after trying to decipher the blurry subtitles of this on a big screen. 

MR. WISE GUY (1942)

   This is the 8th film in the East Side Kids series, right after the classic SPOOKS RUN WILD, and it's kind of a forgettable one. The kids get sent to a reform school this time and have to solve a murder. Not much stands out about this chapter except maybe the black kid(Ernest "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison) getting covered in white paint and ending up in white-face after stealing a chicken. Also we find out Muggs'(Leo Gorcey) first name is Ethelbert. Not exactly essential unless you're some kinda completist. 

HENRI PACHARD'S LADIES ROOM (1987)

  Henri Pachard started out directing smut way back in the 60s on actual film, by the 80s though he was forced to switch to video which this one is a sorry example of. This is the era where they usually sorta still attempted the flimsiest of story to wrap around the sex scenes. In this case though there really isn't a story but instead just a collection of sex scenes that all take place in the same bathroom throughout the decades starting in the 30s. The first scene has a girl vomiting in a toilet while the action takes place in the stall next to her so that sets a nice classy mood! The rest of the decades sexual antics are pretty standard starring all the big names of the era like Jerry Butler, Krista Lane, Tom Byron, Herschel Savage etc. up until the final bit with Sharon Mitchell as a male-to-female sex-swapped punk rocker. Her sucking a guy's ass while the muzak version of A-Ha's "Take On me" plays is pretty strange and ends things on a bizarre note. I can easily see how Pachard was able to crank out 20 of these "movies" in '87 since they seem to have minimal effort put into them.

GIRLS ARE FOR LOVING (1973)

  This is the final chapter in the GINGER trilogy of films. I'd only seen the first part titled GINGER before and wasn't really that big of a fan. Luckily this one is a lot better. It starts right out with a couple of assassinations of some naked folks and then it's pretty much all sex & violence for the whole runtime including electrocuting genitals and lots of gunplay and kung-fu(sometimes half-nekkid kung-fu!). The vibe of the movie itself is a crazy 70s version of girl-power where while the 2 main ladies, Ginger(Cheri Caffaro) and her nemesis Ronnie(Sheila Leighton(credited as Jocelyn Peters for some reason), who did mostly TV stuff including most notably STAR TREK) do kick ass they also spend a lot of time getting raped so that's quite the juxtaposition. 

 Also apparently back in 2010 I found the original film to be a bit racist, well we don't have to worry about that this time around since Ginger has got herself a black love interest(Timothy Brown, another mostly TV actor most well known for being in M*A*S*H).  2010 me will be so happy!

Germany had a way artsier poster and title(GINGER: THE SEX SYMBOL WITH A LICENSE TO LOVE)!:

H.O.T.S. (1979)

 This was originally supposed to be title T & A ACADEMY and that might be the perfect title to describe what you get here. A very obviously ANIMAL HOUSE-influenced story of a group of girls getting revenge on a snooty sorority by creating their own group called H.O.T.S.(what that actually stands for is only revealed at the end of the movie) and stealing away all their men. A very stupid movie that includes bumbling cops and mobsters(one of which dons a robot suit at one point), a post-PATRIDGE FAMILY Danny Bonaduce as a rocking student, nekkid sky-diving, various nekkid Playboy playmates of the era, a bear and a seal as mascots, fat girl jokes that will offend your progressive blue-haired friends, sped-up BENNY HILL running, a conehead and ends it all with a strip football match. There's plenty of T & A on display and if you can handle the the extreme dumbness this is a fun ride. 

 Interestingly Cheri Caffaro, star of the GINGER series of sexploitation films in the 70s, was one of the co-writers of this but doesn't appear in the film.

 

                         Released on video in Germany as simply AMERICAN TEENS!: