Various Film Clips:

Amanda Pays has not been very generous in the nudity department. In fact, if you look at her career in still captures, these two scenes seem to be unimpressive and you might even be tempted to say that she is not nude at all, but both scenes look hot as film clips. The first is from The Cold Room, whwn she was only 25 years old. The second from Leviathan, five years later.

• Amanda Pays film clips (1, 2)

The final clip is from an episode of Red Shoe Diaries, and is noteworthy for two reasons (1) there is clear frontal nudity from Nina Siemaszko (2) she is having sex with none other than Joey Tribbiani!

• Nina Siemaszko

 

48 Hours (1982):

1982 was quite a year for films, especially for youthful audiences. Sci-Fi-Fantasy fans say it may have been the best year of all time. Blade Runner, The Wrath of Khan, E.T., Conan the Barbarian, Tron, The Thing, Liquid Sky, The Road Warrior, Poltergeist, Cat People, The Dark Crystal, and Beastmaster all debuted that year, and Videodrome was only a month behind.

Trends began that year in other genres. Stallone kicked off the Rambo series with First Blood. The modern teensploitation film was born, as Fast Times and Porky's debuted to large audiences. Body Heat hit the international theaters in 1982 (it had debuted in the USA in 1981), and the femme fatale erotic thriller was born, or more accurately reborn, since it had flourished briefly in the 1940s - without nudity - in films like Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice. 

There were plenty of other memorable films that year: Tootsie, Gandhi, Diner, My Favorite Year, An Officer and a Gentleman, Garp, The Verdict, Missing, Sophie's Choice, An Officer and a Gentleman, Fanny and Alexander, and Fitzcarraldo.

You have to think 48 Hours is a pretty good movie, and must be fondly remembered, when you consider how well it has held up against the stiff competition 1982 had to offer.

Here is a list of the top dozen films from that year with 10000 or more votes, based on IMDb ratings:

1	Blade Runner (1982)	8.3
2	Gandhi (1982))	8.1
3	Thing, The (1982))	7.9
4	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)	7.8
5	Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982)	7.6
6	Pink Floyd The Wall (1982)	7.5
7	Tootsie (1982)	7.4
8	Poltergeist (1982)	7.3
9	Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)	7.1
10	First Blood (1982)	6.9
11	48 Hrs. (1982)	6.8
12	Conan the Barbarian (1982)	6.5

And here is a list of the top dozen box office earners that year:

1	ET: The Extra-Terrestrial	$435,110,554
2	Tootsie	$177,200,000
3	An Officer and a Gentleman	$129,795,554
4	Rocky 3	$125,049,125
5	Porky's	$109,492,484
6	Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan	$79,912,963
7	48 Hrs.	$75,936,265
8	Poltergeist	$74,706,019
9	The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas	$69,701,637
10	Annie	$57,059,003
11	The Verdict	$53,977,250
12	Gandhi	$52,767,889

 

It's pretty clear that this film was considered quite good in its time, and there are some good reasons why 48 Hrs still gets some respect. (1) Just as Porky's, Fast Times, and Body Heat played important roles in launching popular new genres, 48 Hrs was seminal in the launch of the "mismatched buddy cop" action movie genre, which led to the Lethal Weapon Movies, the Rush Hour movies and a few zillion more.  (2) 48 Hrs was Eddie Murphy's screen debut, and instantly launched him from the Saturday Night Live cast to A-list status as a big box office draw and one of the best action/comedy movie stars of the eighties. Murphy proved so popular that this film would soon be followed by Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop. I suppose there is a sad side to that story. After more than two decades of trying, Eddie has never been able to equal what he accomplished back then, and those three films remain his three highest-rated live action films at IMDb:

1. (7.29) - Trading Places (1983)
2. (7.20) - Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
3. (6.79) - 48 Hrs. (1982)

The film is not just a valuable relic. It still holds up pretty well. The bickering between Nick Nolte and Murphy is still pretty funny, James Remar still seems to be an especially creepy bad guy, and the action scenes are still fun to watch.

It has a few minor flaws here and there, but there's only one major thing wrong with 48 Hrs. In the quarter of a century since it was released, it has been so widely copied - and even improved upon - that everything in it which seemed so fresh in 1982 now seems like a tired cliché which has been done better elsewhere. We can never again enjoy it with 1982 eyes. Sad, but true! Rating: (Used to be a B- in its day, but doesn't seem that good when watched with 2006 eyes.) Still a good sound genre flick, and deserves to have a much better DVD than this dark, poorly mastered, featureless release.  C.

Denise Crosby Greta Blackburn

Other Crap:

Olbermann again goes on an O'Reilly rant

Headline of the day so far: "Couple Cited In Fake Penis Nuking Plot"

Some Monty Python Interview Footage Not Seen Since 1975

Cool! The Simpsons opening sequence performed by live actors

Florida Voting Machines To Be Scrapped For Applause-o-Meter

A new (and not very good) clip from Scary Movie 4 - The Hefner Girls

"Cash vs. ash: Is microwaving money a laughing matter?"

"Playboy won't pull its March issue over actress Jessica Alba's claim that she was made an unwitting cover girl to fool readers into thinking she is nude inside"

• "The magazine added that celebrities routinely grace its cover without appearing naked inside." In other words, Playboy's counter-argument is that it's OK to dupe their readers with the Alba pic, because duping their readers is their standard business practice!

"Midwest Oil fined for selling gas too cheaply"

• The Minnesota laws against providing a good value to consumers are quite comparable to the laws requiring high school principals to discourage independent thought

It's the Year of the Dog, so "Conan O'Brien sends Triumph the Insult Comic Dog to visit New York's China Town for Chinese New Year."

This week's movies - follow-up: Bangor Daily News reviewer ruins Ultraviolet's valiant attempt at 0% positive reviews. Some other critics said:

• "...so awful that you'd swear it had been directed by Uwe Boll."
• "utter crap"
• "laughably atrocious"
• "visibly low-budget CG work, exceptionally hackneyed and imitative action and dialogue ... nearly lifeless."
• "all the costumes match the colors of these sets, further amping the unintentional hilarity of the combat set-pieces, which come dangerously close to looking like an incredibly expensive deodorant commercial. Wimmer soon shrugs and gives himself over to complete camp by the end, which features Violet dueling with the villain using flaming swords. Meant to shake action conventions, it looks more like a Hawaiian luau gone horribly awry."

Swanson, Eisler Win "Skating with Celebrities" - as 14 million watch!

• The solid ratings say "sequel"

The trailer for VOLVER Pedro Almodovar's new film, which stars Penelope Cruz.

"SpoofCard calling cards offers you the ability to change what someone sees on their caller ID display when they receive a phone call."

• Frankly, I don't want people to have this ability. On the other hand, the last time I picked up my phone, rather than letting the answering machine get it, was about 15 years ago.

The trailer for Let Them Eat

• "Let Them Eat" is a poetic and haunting journey which spans from the turbulent time of the French Revolution to present day. From the prison cell of the former Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, to Bella, a woman who seems to be leading a parallel life with a deep connection to the former queen. Seamlessly drifting from present to past, each woman's story unfolds while both struggle to make peace with their past before one leaves the Earth and so the other can embrace her future. Laced within the story are beautiful spoken word poems which delve deep into the hearts and souls of our two heroines exposing their secret world of passion, lust, pain, love and triumph. This is a story of great courage, strength and ever-lasting love which bridges the two lives and the two women together forever."

"Stuff rich people get for free ... Swag permeates the Oscars"

Lead paragraph of the day: "If you're one of the lucky ones who opened your morning Bryan-College Station Eagle on Thursday and found a large penis staring back at you, well, congratulations."

Top Ten Signs Your Cat Is Too Fat

• He used 8 lives on heart attacks. OOPS! That's actually one of the Top Ten signs that Dick Cheney is too fat.

Letterman: Top Ten Signs You're Not Going To Win An Academy Award

Scarlett Johansson says she was 'sort of shocked' when a TV interviewer groped her breast at the Golden Globes.

The Quote of the Day comes from Brigitte Bardot: "Canada is not an underdeveloped nation. It is a rich country. It does not have to trade in seal skins, fat, oil and penises"

A brain teaser - oldie but goodie (answers below)

The answers to the quiz

Nick Lachey has a great life

Britney Spears upset by internet photos

• "There was a time when that title would've sent millions of guys on a frenzied porn hunt. Of course that was before Britney stepped in the Ugly-mobile and took a long drive down Chubby Avenue"

Our nominee for wife of the year

Power Sox??

Shock Absorber - sports bra (just mess with it -it's actually pretty cool)

Playboy Casting Call - Girls of the Big 12

"Rove Admits To Stalking Hillary"

• "A spokesperson for Senator Clinton declined to say what her next move would be following the Rove admission, but suggested that either a restraining order or a bikini wax/hard-core douching were the leading options."

Here's an IMDb entry you may have missed.

Wow - here's some breaking news: Clay Aiken just might be gay

The text reads:

• "I'm not sure what it's going to take to convince some people that Clay Aiken is gay. Does he have to send his proctologist flowers with a note saying call me, or is it enough that the National Enquirer went to press yesterday with web cam pictures and a transcript of Aiken soliciting sex from a 22 year old male schoolteacher in Boston on the gay chat site Manhunt.net"

Is Joaquin Phoenix with Eva Mendes?

• Frankly, I don't care. I'm linking to this because it has several hot pictures of Eva Mendes in which her clothing is often transparent, and Eva is majorly caliente

Movie Reviews:

Yellow asterisk: funny (maybe). White asterisk: expanded format. Blue asterisk: not mine. No asterisk: it probably sucks.

"Casey the Coed"

Casey the Coed (2002) is a soft core made with hard core performers. Lets start by getting the minimal plot out of the way. Casey (Laurie Wallace) is married to an uptight accountant, who confides in his office mate that he thinks se is having sex with other women. His office mate explains that it would be a dream come true, and then goes out to the back alley to have a lunchtime tryst with Allysin Chaynes. Meanwhile, Laurie Wallace and her nude model, Roxanne Hall, are practicing for the Lesbos Olympic Games (in a 16 minute long girl/girl scene).

The next day, wifie gets Marsha the Nympho (Monique Dane) from hubby's shipping department to seduce him while she continues her Olympic training. Finally, hubby catches her, is not impressed, and gets to sleep on the couch for his efforts. On day three, a naked Casey gives him a choice, fuck her or paint her. As he can't paint, his choice is easy.

Obviously, the plot is not much at all. However, the entire film has one or more naked women wiggling against someone else in good light, and with no fancy camera tricks. Boring, yes, but great eye candy, and these are evidently "A" list porn stars. I started with over 600 frames of clear nudity, and whittled it down to two days worth of images. Tonight, we have Laurie Wallace and Monique Dane. All four women show everything.

Laurie Wallace Monique Dane

"Harvest of Fear"

Harvest of Fear (2004) is a teen slasher variety movie made for less than $60K. Right off the bat, that is amazing. Even more amazing is that it manages bare breasts, belonging to Dawnn Pavlonnis, who usually wrangles extras, sever attractive women, lots of grisly murders, and, best of all, and ending that surprised me.

There are also two characters that are nearly Deliverance creepy. The film looks very good considering the budget. Sure, I saw the tip of a boom mike once, and one scene was shot with a wide angle yielding way too much barrel distortion, but the film has a lot of production quality for a film made for next to nothing.

A young doctor comes to intern in a small town in the same job his coroner father had right out of medical school. Back then, it was the scene of several grisly murders. Someone was eventually charged, but the town is divided as to whether the guilty party was ever caught. All of this happened during the annual harvest faire, the local equivalent of spring break. It starts happening again. Who is the mad ripper, and why?

IMDb readers say 4.4. Don't get me wrong, this is a very low budget indie, and looks like one for the most part, but ends up a watchable and entertaining genre effort. In an era where first run studio films can cost $100M or more, it amazes me that a film maker can't put together a feature film for less than $60K. This is a low C or high C- as a credible genre effort.

Dawnn Pavlonnis