Fight for your Life (1977, Robert A. Endelson)

Fight for your Life (1977, Robert A. Endelson)

"This is the story of three escaped convicts who take a middle-class Black family hostage for a relentless nightmare of racist humiliation, sexual violence and extreme vengeance."

While reading up on this film I read that it is flat out banned in Britain it almost caused riots where it was shown. Most of the time when I read facts like this or "it made people faint!" I always take it as an exaggerated comment. After seeing this film I really do believe the comment. I still can not believe that this film exists and that it was in one time in theaters.

Fight for your Life is hands down the most politically incorrect film I have ever seen and on top of that it's one of the most offensive films I have ever seen. Having said that this film is incredible. It's beyond insane and it's beyond intense. It really qualifies as one of those films that you have to see to believe.

Where to begin with this one.....William Sanderson gives one hell of a performance as the lead convict. He plays the most racist character I have ever seen and will ever see. Every racist remark you can think of he says and every racist thing that you think a person can do he does. He is also over the top in every single way. This is a trademark in these exploitation films but it works in this one given that the film breaks any and all boundaries. So the over the top acting fits right in place.

What else is in this film other than this beyond racist character? Everything. Seriously. Everything. There is a certain death that is just crazy. There is rape. Oh and of course there is some revenge. It's got everything and it pushes everything to an uncomfortable boundary. It might offend most people and some people will find it horrible. I found it amazing.

This is hands down the best exploitation film I have seen. If you are into these kind of films you have to check this one out. It really is insane.

- Ridiculously Awesome

The Muthers (1976, Crio H. Santiago)

"A group of women sister pirates must get into a prison/slave market and save their sister who is in there by breaking out."

This film is just beyond ridiculous. It's a postapocalyptic, pirate, blaxploitation, women in prison, prison breakout, war film with some nudity here and there. Whats even more ridiculous is that it somehow works.

I don't really know why it works or why it turns out good but I think it's because of the overall over the top sense of story we are presented. It reaches such an odd point where you just want to watch to see how it all turns out. Given this and the over the top bad guys and girls that are given to us thanks to the over the top film we can't help but cheer for the The Muthers as they try to breakout.

Sure, the film has some horrible and stiff acting but if you are able to look past all this the film is a lot of fun. I can honestly say that I enjoyed it way more than I maybe should have. If it was on DVD I would already own it too.

- ***

Just awesome.

Once again I had the pleasure of going to the grindhouse fest again. Once again everything was nothing but amazing. The thing that made this day stand out though were the films which were actually good in both of their own ways.

The audience was great like always and so was everything else, especially the trailers. I had the great experience of watching a lot of trailers from the guy who directed the first film. The Muthers, and what a bunch of trailers! This guy might be the most over the top filmmaker ever and I am dying to see his Road Warrior rip offs which just left me in awe.

I really don't want this festival to go away but oh well.....hopefully they will do this again next year or at least do a version of the infamous QT Fests that have long been going on in Texas I believe. I hate being this kind of person but why the hell Texas and not LA Tarantino???? Seriously, I thought you loved LA?

Nothing much can be said. I can't wait to go again.

A big sad sigh....

I used to love going to forums where people talk about film. I have stopped doing this and it's been a long time since I have visited one. Why? Well, first of all, I am not a film snob and I do not think I am better than anyone else. Now having said that....

The reason why I have not visited these sites has been because I just got tired of it all. I got tired of the endless Fight Club/Clockwork Orange/Donnie Darko *fill in a well known good film here* threads. It seems that more and more of these "film buffs" are just watching films to scratch off their lists so they can later on pull it out to reference that they know what they are talking about because they have seen ______. There are very few people out there who I truly consider film buffs. By this I mean people who have not only seen some of the well known good films but have also spent time checking out more films by certain directors or some little gems or what I like to call "digging for films"

Once again, by this I mean that it seems that everyone now on these forums say stuff like "Scorsese is a god!" and when asked what films they have seen they answer with "Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Taxi Driver" I'm all for this but whatever happened to After Hours, King of Comedy, Last Temptation of Christ etc... There is no passion to discover films by yourself anymore. Everyone just looks at lists or watch "Lawrence of Arabia" because dear god what will other film buffs think?!!! It just all annoys me.

There also seems little to no true film discussion and instead seems to be a lot of people just circle jerking eachother because they have all seen a good film but when asked whats so good about it resolves to a simple one sentence answer. I'm not saying that this happens all the time but it does seem to happen a lot of the time. The other main thing that bothers me is that very few films are discussed that are pre 70's. So many great classic films out there but no one bothers to watch them unless if they are in AFI top 100 .

Anyways this is the main reason why I have grown tired of these film forums. I was bored tonight and decided to check out one of these forums and this is the first thing I read after the first post. These are someones ratings...

Me and You and Everyone We Know(2005- July) 59
Grindhouse (Rodriguez/Tarantino) 97
300 [2nd] (2007- Snyder) 93

Why does this bother me so much? Where to start.....Me and You and Everyone We Know is the film that Little Miss Sunshine tried to be and it's one of the last true indie films that established an original plot mixed in with original realistic characters and above all it also gave us Miranda July who is in my opinion one of the best bets in new directors. True, you can debate to no end with this but if I were to read that you also gave 300 a 93 and went to go see it twice then I really already think you have no merit to hate Me and You and say that I am wrong.

And then there is Grindhouse......

When I saw this ahead of everyone I knew that it would come back to haunt me. I really liked the film but I couldn't help but think of all the "posers" that would see the film and praise it to no end. I bet you whatever you want that if you were to get 50 people who praise the film so much on these forums that only about 5 or 6 are true grindhouse cinema fans. The others are just people that think grindhouse films are cool and the film was just like it because "they had scratched prints and the trailers!" I'll bet you anything that you want.

This is just meant to be a rant. I once again don't think I am better than everyone else but a lot of these people claiming they are "film buffs" just annoys me and to a certain point offends me. Film lovers? Ok. But film buffs? No. They lack the amount of passion that makes film buffs stand out so much.

Death Race 2000 (1975, Paul Bartel)

"A champion of a brutal cross-country car race of the future where pedestrians are run down for points."

This one lives up to it's title and plot. It is a low budget quickie from grand master Corman and its a quick and fun ride while it lasts but sadly like most Corman films it suffers for the same reasons. I know this one is regarded as a B movie classic and it certainly deserves it's spot but I couldn't help but feel that this could have been an A movie classic with a little more of a budget. I highly doubt it though since I can't see any studio at the time actually making this outrageous film.

Death Race 2000 is just an excuse to exercise a lot of cool low budget style while sticking in enough action and nude scenes to make everyone happy. The film is at its most funnest when we get to to see some of the over the top racing scenes which luckily comes often. Everyone in this one is also just as over the top, especially David Caradine who spends the entire film in an odd S&M type of costume. There is not much more than could be said. Everything is just ridiculous and over the top but that's what makes it fun.

I really wish I could write more but writing more on this odd gem is not doing it justice. If you like these type of films then you have already seen it and if you haven't then I'm sure it's on your "to watch" list. It's been on mine for awhile and I'm happy to say that it lives up to it's title and reputation.

- ***

David Caradine as Frankenstien and his car.
How can this movie not be awesome?

Screams of a Winter Night (1979, James L. Wilson)

"10 college students go camping, when they get there, they tell scary stories to each other."

This should be great cheesy fun, like Slithis, but instead is kind of creepy and intense. I attribute these things to its low budget feel and cheap directing skills. For example, since the budget was low the camera hardly cuts during its spooky scenes. This makes you feel like something if going to jump out at you all of a sudden . It never really does and the scares don't deliver but the feeling it gives is very uncomfortable.

Once again, I don't know what else to say about this one. The scary stories the characters tell eachother are nothing new but one manages to be kind of creepy. I seriously think that if the film had a bigger budget this could have become a great horror film. The other reason I think this is because of the ending sequence. I have no idea why but the ending feels extremely intense. I don't even know what was going on in the ending but it was intense for sure.

Not much else to say about this one.....

- **

Slithis (1978, Stephen Traxler)

"A nuclear leak creates a mutant Slithis sea monster, which terrorizes the variety of pets, winos, and hippies who hang around Venice, California."

I loved Slithis. I can honestly say that I loved every single minute of it. This one has everything that you would want from a B movie. It has horrible acting, horrible cinematography, horrible special effects, horrible edits and reaction shots, it even has horrible over the top characters. So in other words....this movie is awesome. I even loved how it tried to be an old school horror film while trying to be a modern scare fest. Everything in this film is so ridiculous and over the top that you cant help but be amazed by it. I would buy this on DVD in a second if it was out.

I also want to point out how much I loved one actor in this. I don't know his name or who is character actually was. I think he was a police captain or something but I am still in awe of him. He has to give the most over the top performance I have ever seen. Seriously this is the most over the top acting you will ever see. He is in this one for about 10 minutes but he absolutely kills ever single second and every single minute. His background acting is even over the top. Just sheer power. That's the only way I can review his acting.

I don't know what else to say about this one. All these "grindhouse films" are hard to write about and even harder to rate. There is not much to write about them and that's why I love them so much. I would even go as far to say that you know everything about each of these films after just looking at the poster. I mean, look at this poster. It just screams of coolness and it is.

- Ridiculously Awesome