Wednesday

Tuna
"Body and Soul"

Body and Soul (1998) is a boxing film. The formula for one of these is well established, and both good and bad ones have been made. They go pretty much like this. A fighter with a lot of heart is after the championship belt. He has a faithful manager who gets screwed, does some nice woman wrong, success goes to his head, then he is screwed by some syndicate. There are several variations on the ending. This film fits within the above outline, but manages a fresh approach.

Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini is a small town boxer with dreams of the big time. His friend and manager, Michael Chiklis, travel to Reno to go for the belt. Along the way, they pick up hitchhiker Jennifer Beals. She is clearly not pure as the driven snow and is escaping something, but Mancini likes her. Chiklis narrates much of the story, but in a charming manner such that it did not distract. They manage to impress a former great trainer, Rod Steiger. Mancini is good, and the local promoter (Joe Mantegna) decides to make a fortune on him. To help control Mancini, he brings in Tahnee Welch. Beals is still trying to get her head straight, and Welch moves in. Mancini is carefully brought along by the promoter to extract ever dime he can, and eventually set up for an easy title shot. He becomes a lounge lizard while making several lackluster title defenses, while Chiklis, who has become a loud-mouthed embarrassment, is not with him at ringside.

When a good prospect looms on the horizon, it is time for Mancini to either get it together or lose the title. Either way, Mantegna has positioned himself to make a killing, but expects Mancini to loose. What is a little different in this film is that we know everyone's intentions all along, and nobody is perfect. I found myself very involved in the film start to finish, and really cared about the characters. The film had an aura of believability that wasn't hurt by the fact that Mancini was a world champion fighter. Even though the boxing scenes were absolutely authentic, they didn't spend the entire running time in the ring.

Along the way, they managed to display a lovely array of body parts. The ring girls, credited as Karlinda Aguilar, Cloissa A. Ream and Tamarah Kanogy, are wearing very abbreviated bikinis with t-backs. Tiffany J. Wooster, Olivia Jardine and Bernice Dee show breasts in a hot tub at a part. We have breasts from two uncredited show girls in a dressing room. Kristen Shafer shows great rear nudity doubling for Tahnee Welch.

IMDb readers have this at 3.6 of 10. It does not seem to have had a theatrical release anywhere. I found it a very quick watch, and a worthy addition to a popular genre.C.

  • Thumbnails
  • Thumbnails

  • Kirsten Shafer (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
  • Ring Girls (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
  • Show Girls (1, 2, 3)
  • Tub Girls (1, 2, 3)

  • Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy)

    Boys on the Side (1995):

    Drew Barrymore - what a life. First she was the adorable little template for a lisping movie child, then we started to hear how wild she got, even in her early teens. Then she turned 18 and it seemed that she just couldn't wait to take out her puppies on camera. Her first few movies after her 18th birthday - topless nudity. Just like that. Bada bing, bada crosby. Doppelganger, then Bad Girls, then Boys on the Side. After that, it seemed that she had gotten it out of her system, and she kept 'em sheathed for a long time. In fact, she still hasn't really showed 'em clearly since this film, because when she finally took 'em out again, almost a decade later, it was for the foggy, darkness-shrouded, dubious, invisible nipple, pseudo-nudity of Charlie's Angels 2.

    So let's remember the good times, shall we? A few days ago I looked at Bad Girls. This time is the girl-bonding classic Boys on the Side.

    It would be easy to hate this film. Boys on the Side is rated 5.9 by guys at IMDb, and 6.7 by women. Normally we need a difference of 1.0 before we start calling a flick a chick-flick, but this is an exception. This is a fully certified chick-flick because it was directed by one of the high princes of Chickflickland, Herbert Ross. I mean this is the guy who directed Steel Magnolias and Funny Lady, so right away we know that at one time he must have had his male genitalia removed and placed in a blind trust.

    Check out this plot.

    Two women pair up in New York for a cross-country drive to L.A. They are a sloppy black lesbian who has failed as a musician (Whoopi) and a straight white woman (Mary-Louise Parker) who is dyin' of AIDS because the only guy she ever went home with gave it to her. Are you starting to pick up those soap-opera, "men suck" female empowerment vibes? When I say this woman is straight, I don't just mean "heterosexual". I also mean straight-arrow, the kind of woman who writes thank-you notes to the butcher for a nice cut of meat, washes her hands after phone calls, wears a neatly pressed blazer to sell real estate, and places all her albums in alphabetical order. If only she could have lived her life without men. But she's completely heterosexual, which doesn't work out very well for Whoopi, who ends up falling for her.

    The two of them set off to L.A. for somewhat indeterminate reasons, and on their way they decide to make a stop in Pittsburgh to visit Whoopi's old friend, a zonked-out space cadet of a nympho druggie (Drew Barrymore, who else), who is in an abusive relationship with a scumbag drug dealer, a guy whose mental condition is so far gone that he makes Drew seem in comparison to be as focused and logical as Judge Souter. During this visit, the three women subdue the guy, hit him with a baseball bat, duct tape him to a chair, and flee. Empowerment rules, dudesses! Unfortunately for our newly-empowered babes, the scumbag dies, and they become fugitives from the law.

    Did I mention that Drew is pregnant, and that the father may be Mr. Scumbag? Or not, since Drew has slept with the entire male student body of Carnegie-Mellon University, and one entire sell-our crowd of a Steelers game eight weeks earlier. So we have a dyin' woman, a pregnant murderer, and a rather conspicuous black lesbian takin' a road trip through the heartland, searchin' for America and their own souls and that kind of meaningful crap. And then the murderess falls in love with a handsome and idealistic young cop (Matthew McConaughey) who loves her but is having some trouble with the whole wacky murder thing.

    Yeah, yeah. I know it sounds like it sucks. It has every possible strike against it. But actually it doesn't suck. There is some humor, and all of the melodrama is underplayed to the extent reasonably possible. All of the women's actions lead to reasonable consequences (which means death for one and a jail sentence for another), and the emotions are played with restraint. The situations may start out larger than life, but people end up dealing with those situations in measured and realistic ways. Most important with a soap opera, the character development is deep, the characters are both real and sympathetic, and the actresses knew how to bring them to life. To be honest, all of those positives make up for the preposterously contrived story. I think you'll miss them when they're gone, and you'll wonder what will happen to the two who survive. I got into the story and never thought of reaching for the fast-forward because I liked the characters and enjoyed having them in my living room.

    There was a surprise for me. If I was ever aware that Whoopi could mimic singers, I didn't remember it. She sings one song in the manner of Janis Joplin, and one or two in the manner of Karen Carpenter (!!), and she does a passably good job of mimicry in each case. The few bars she sings of Superstar, accompanied only by her own halting piano work, will bring tears to your eyes, given the context of the film.

    So, it's a dyin' woman female empowerment chick-flick all right, but it's not one of those so drenched with estrogen that you guys have to stay away for fear of having your testicles shrivel up. If your significant other forces you to sit through it, you can probably pretend to be interested and work that into some post-cinema hanky panky, and you'll be charged up by the sight of Drew's full and ripe young melons.

    • Drew Barrymore (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

     

    Other Crap:

    Other Crap archives. May also include newer material than the links above, since it's sorta in real time.

    Click here to submit a URL for Other Crap

     

     

    MOVIE REVIEWS:

    Here are the latest movie reviews available at scoopy.com.

     

    • The yellow asterisks indicate that I wrote the review, and am deluded into thinking it includes humor.
    • If there is a white asterisk, it means that there isn't any significant humor, but I inexplicably determined there might be something else of interest.
    • A blue asterisk indicates the review is written by Tuna (or Junior or Brainscan, or somebody else besides me)
    • If there is no asterisk, I wrote it, but am too ashamed to admit it.

    ICMS

    Words, pictures, and vids from ICMS

     

    "Once Upon a Time in America"  (1984)

    "Once upon a Time in America" (1984) is of course one of Sergio Leone's cinematic masterpieces. Both Scoop and Tuna reviewed and capped this one thoroughly, so I have nothing to add. Please also have look at Scoop and Tuna's excellent caps in the back issues of June 9 and 13, 2003. My clips come from a version that aired on BBC. Compared to the version they reviewed it looks like Elizabeth McGovern's gyno shot is darker while Ann Neville's hair color in both places is more brownish instead of reddish. Sadly I don't know Miss Neville well enough to know what color is closest to reality.
     
  • Ann Neville likes to play dead, also in a car, and takes a full approach.  (.wmv zipped, .avi zipped)

     

  • Olga Karlatos remained really chaste exposing only one breast, stroking it with a gun.  (.wmv zipped, .avi zipped)
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    Scoop's notes:

    1. Here is the Movie House page for Once Upon a Time in America. Since I have argued on several occasions that this is probably the single greatest film I have ever seen, I can't really add any more praise, can I? I wish I had never seen it, so I could watch it again without knowing any of the secrets. The DVD is much brighter and lighter than this broadcast version.

    2. I made the .wmv versions of each of the ICMS videos. (He makes the .avis, of course.) The latest codecs for these: Windows Video V9, Windows Audio 9. The advantages of these are (1) you know the codecs; (2) they'll play in the Windows Media Player with any up-to-date windows OS; and (3) the file sizes are economical. The major downside is that the quality is inferior to the originals.

    3. If you have trouble with the .avi videos on this site, there is a tool designed to determine which codec is needed for any video. http://www.headbands.com/gspot/

    4. Because of a unique combination of circumstances with the Windows media player and some substantial bandwidth theft, we have to do all of our movie files in zip format. Left click on the files as you normally would to view a picture. When you get a choice, click on "save", and put it on your hard drive in the directory of your choice. UnZIP and play from there. I know this is not especially convenient, but it allows us to carry film clips. I can protect .zip files from hot-linking in the same way I can protect still images. For some reason, if I protect .avis and .wmvs from hot-linking, they will not play in the Windows media player, and I can't get a satisfactory work-around. Perhaps I will find a better solution, but for now this new policy allows you to continue getting the movie clips you want to see, which is much preferable to my abandoning the clips altogether.

    Jr's Polls
    Here are the final results and comments for last week's poll: Which actress has been the most convincing playing a stripper



    I wanted to revisit a poll we did a few years back to see how or if things have changed. So on that note...

    This week's poll:

    Who has the best bum in Hollywood?

    Here is a short list of nominees.

    Phoebe Cates in "Paradise"
    Claire Danes in "To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday" (thong)
    Jessica Alba in "Idle Hands" (partial)
    Natalie Portman in "Closer" (thong)
    Halle Berry in "Monster's Ball"
    Elisha Cuthbert in "Girl Next Door" (thong)
    Ludivine Sagnier in "Water Frops in Burning Rocks" and "La Petite Lili"
    Audrey Tautou in "Le Libertin" and "A Very Long Engagement"
    Irčne Jacob in "The Big Brass Ring" and "Spy Games"
    Nicole Kidman in "Dead Calm", "Billy Bathgate", "Billy Bathgate" "Malice", "Eyes Wide Shut", "The Birthday Girl" and "Cold Mountain"
    Denise Richards in "Wild Things"
    Neve Campbell in "When Will I Be Loved"
    Kari Wuhrer in "Boulevard", "The Crossing Guard" (thong), "Beyond Desire", "Vivid", "Ivory Tower", "Poison", "Spider's Web" and "King of the Ants".
    Jamie Pressly in "Poison Ivy: The New Seduction"
    Mimi Rogers in "The Door in the Floor"
    Mädchen Amick in "Dream Lover"
    Laetitia Casta in "The Blue Bycicle"
    Bridget Fonda in "Single White Female" and "Jackie Brown"
    Elle MacPherson in "Sirens"
    Holly Hunter in "The Piano" and "Living Out Loud"
    Angelina Jolie in "Gia"
    Milla Jovovich in "Chaplin" and "No Good Deed".

    Please Email Scoopy Jr. with more nominees, comments or suggestions.


    Here are the results of our most recent other polls...
    The Top 20 Nude Scenes of 2004

    The Best Nude Film Debuts of the 80s

    The Best Nude Film Debuts of the 90s

    Flautista
    'Caps and comments by Flautista:

    "Yerma" (1999)

    This film is based on the novel "Yerma" of Federico García Lorca who is a good and important Spanish writter. And directed by Pilar Távora. The movie shows us the culture in a Spanish Region called "Andalucia" in the 70's

    Nudity Review: Aitana Sánchez-Gijón appears topless.


    "Dead of Night"

    Nudity Review: Tara Taylor shows the breasts and a thong view while being undressed in a car.

    • Tara Taylor (1, 2, 3)

    Crimson Ghost
    NOTE: We currently have to do all of our movie files in zip format. Instead of viewing them online, save the zip files to your hard drive in the directory of your choice, un-zip and play from there.


    Today from the Ghost...a couple of vids of former fashion model turned actress Ely Pouget in scenes from "Red Shoe Diaries 5: Weekend Pass" (1995).

    She topless in all 3 and getting in on in clips #1 and #3.

    • Ely Pouget (zipped .wmvs) (1, 2, 3)

    Variety
    Anne Hathaway The star of "The Princess Diaries" showing a whole bunch of cleavage at some Hollywood event. Unfortunately there is still no release info for "Havoc", her latest movie which features her very nekkid.

    Jennifer Love Hewitt As mentioned in Other Crap, in the upcoming made-for-Oxygen movie "Confessions of a Sociopathic Social Climber", JLH strips down to sexy undies. It's hard to tell from these 'caps, but there may (or may not) be some areola on display. Look for it on cable March 12th.

    Jenny Agutter Here is the sexy co-star of the 70's sci-fi classic "Logan's Run" going full frontal in scenes from the Aussie movie "Walkabout" (1971). 'Caps by Kitt.

    Bridget Fonda
    (1, 2, 3)
    and
    Jennifer Jason Leigh
    (1, 2, 3, 4)


    Mr. Nude Celeb takes a look at the 1992 flick "Single White Female". Both Fonda and Leigh go topless. Fonda also bares her bum in #1, and shows a hint of pubes in link #3.


    Melania Urbina
    (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)

    Part two of Vejiita's 'caps featuring Urbina topless in more scenes from the Peruvian flick, "Django: la otra cara" (2002).

    Kristanna Loken
    (1, 2, 3)

    Señor Skin 'caps the "Terminator 3" babe baring a bit of breast in a love scene from Lord of the Rings style movie, "Ring of the Nibelungs" (2004).

    Pat Reeder www.comedy-wire.com
    Pat's comments in yellow...

    MAN CONVICTED OF ASSAULT WITH McMUFFIN
    Egg McMullet - In Holland, Michigan, Scott Rodgers was fined $600, given probation and three days in a work program and banned from McDonald's for misdemeanor assault and battery after he threw an Egg McMuffin at a McDonald's manager. He had ordered four of them with ham, but one had sausage. His attorney claimed he didn't throw it but rather returned it quickly. But the prosecutor said, "The manager was picking egg out of her hair."

  • And sausage! Which was the POINT!
  • So what? Customers are picking hair of their egg all the time.
  • He eats four Egg McMuffins at a sitting? He SHOULD be banned from McDonald's.
  • These days, he's lucky she didn't sue him for assault with a deadly weapon.


    WILL SMITH SAYS HE'LL ASK PERMISSION TO CHEAT
    Big Willy - Will Smith told the New York Post that his wedding vows with Jada Pinkett-Smith didn't include the words "forsaking all others," but he'd never cheat without asking permission first. Smith said, "Our perspective is, you don't avoid what's natural. You're going to be attracted to people... The vow that we made was that you will never hear that I did something after the fact. If it came down to it, then one spouse can say to the other, 'Look, I need to have sex with somebody. I'm not going to if you don't approve of it - but please approve of it.'" Smith said other celebrity couples have sought marital advice from them, including Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, and Bruce Willis and Demi Moore.

  • Well, THAT worked!...Now, ALL of them are having sex with other people.
  • So far, the only co-star Jada's given him permission to have sex with is Tommy Lee Jones.


    BRITNEY FORGOT SHE HAD KNEE SURGERY
    Oops! I Did It Again! - Britney Spears may be out $10 million due to her bad memory. She's suing eight insurance companies for refusing to pay the cost of canceling her tour due to a knee injury. But the insurers say she didn't check the "pre-existing condition" box and reveal she'd had knee surgery five years before. Britney's lawyers claim the new injury is unrelated to the old one, that a doctor certified her "in a fit condition to tour," and she just innocently forgot she'd had knee surgery.

  • It could happen! She's already forgotten her first marriage!
  • Obviously, the doctor who declared her fit to tour isn't a voice specialist.
  • Gee, I wonder how Britney wore out her knees while becoming a star?...