Human body parts turn up floating in the Hudson River and clues lead to New York Police suspecting a serial killer is working in the gay S&M leather scene of the East Village.  Although officer Steve Burns (Al Pacino) is relatively new on the police force, he is asked to go into deep cover to investigate the serial killer because he looks similar to the victims.  Burns gets an apartment in the East Village and poses as a meat packer.  Burns' shows signs of being squeamish about posing as a homosexual.  He is slow to try attract suspects despite the urging of his contact (Paul Sorvino) and he begins to have relationship problems with his girlfriend, Nancy (Karen Allen).

According to its Wikipedia entry, Cruising caused controversy and protest from the New York gay community, as it was though the film might encourage homophobia and violence against gays.  The film is quite dark and gritty and shows some very graphic and explicit scenes of gay sex that probably stretched the limits of an R rating in 1980, which was actually more permissive about such things at the time compared to now.  Perhaps as a straight I may not have a place to say that I don't think the film is anti-gay, but I'm only sympathetic to the gay community not a part of it.  However, I don't think this film gave any different kind of treatment to a community (particularly the gay leather underground, which is real) that any similar community got in crime films of the era.  At the time the films were hard and gritty in their realistic depiction, not hateful.  Bad stereotyping of minorities did escalate further into the 80s as the political climate in America got more conservative.

While this film cannot be separated from the integral aspect of the gay leather community in 1980 East Village New York, I can say that had it been any other culture it still would have made for a decent hard crime film and the fact that it does have the gay leather community as a theme adds some raw grit to the film for being a topic rarely touched by mainstream films.  While I have not been to a gay leather bar or some such thing I am aware of how Hollywood films can treat fringe cultures like punk rock (which often misses the mark, especially back in the 70s and 80s) and the treatment of the gay leather scene rings true.

Another interesting thing about Cruising is Al Pacino's acting.  This was a pre-Scarface film so it is one of his better roles.   Sure I thought some of Scarface was fun in a campy over the top way, but I was laughing AT Pacino for the most part when I saw Scarface, especially for that stupid shitty accent.  His acting just got worse after Scarface.  However, in this film Pacino proves the most interesting character as the serial killer seems to have some weak points in his motivations and flashbacks with his father, it's kind of confusing, but, ironically not as relevant to the film as Burns' dealing with the whole culture.

Cruising may have been released in 1980 but its got the feel of a gritty 70s police drama like The French Connection, Dirty Harry, Night Hawks, and even Death Wish.  This may have been one of the last films of that era as the crime movies turned from dark and noir-ish to right wing power fantasies, which may have been campy and fun, but a drop in the artistic value that films like Cruising had. 

As one might easily suspect, Stripperland! is a parody of Zombieland!  But don't worry, it's not a porno knock off, or maybe do worry because while a movie parody may work well for sketch comedy, the joke gets tired quickly in a feature film.  The film starts out with the first character meeting his co-star and they name each other Idaho (Ben Sheppard) and Frisco (Jamison Challeen).  For an unexplained reason women are turning into crazed strippers with a taste for human flesh.  Idaho survives by a set of rules he developed and Frisco is a tough cowboy with a taste for fresh baked goods.  They meet two women who are not crazed strippers and you pretty much know the rest of the story if you've seen Zombieland!

Stripperland takes it's story as a mostly part for part parody.  Not all the scenes are exact copies of those from Zombieland, but pretty close.  Another problem I have with it is that a comic parody of a film that's already a comedy should be funnier than the original merely out of the sole expectation that a parody is intended to make fun of the original but it doesn't do that.  Probably the worst thing about Stripperland is that the strippers aren't all that sexy and there really isn't much nudity.  So, I guess they're pretty much as disappointing as real life strippers.

If I were to say anything good about Stripperland! I would say that Lloyd Kaufman does a very good acting job in his painfully short role and that the old white rapper guy, Double D (Daniel Baldwin) is actually pretty good at rapping.  If you want to see a funny and entertaining parody of zombie films, see Zombieland!  Stripperland really isn't worth the time, it drags and the joke never really develops.  It gets old at the get go!

Colin (Alastair Kirton) enters the home of his friend Damien (Leigh Crocombe) with a wounded arm.  While he cleans his arm in the kitchen sink he is attack by Damien who is now a flesh eating zombie.  He stabs Damien in the head with a knife to kill him, but Colin's wounds from Damien kill him.  However, Colin awakens as zombie.  From there the film takes Colin's perspective as a zombie as he learns to eat human flesh, gets mugged for his sneakers, runs into his sister, and other mishaps.  

Colin is a film made in England and shot entirely on video and edited on a home PC for a budget of 45 British pounds.  The writer and director Marc Price uses low production value and amateur actors to his advantage with a zombie film that has quite a fresh and clever angle on the genre.  Kirton gives an amazing performance as a mindless zombie that seems to have some sympathetic qualities.  Colin's faculties are limited but his naivete gives him an edge that makes the character vulnerable and identifiable to audiences.  I have never seen a film before that has taken the zombie's point of view in such a deep and meaninful way.

Had I seen Colin sooner, I would have added it to my top ten list of zombie films I posted on IMDb.  The film is not just a quality zombie film but highly effective and masterfully done for any film.  This is a zombie movie everyone needs to see.  

Six of Vince's (Stephen Graham) friends want to cheer him up after his recent divorce.  They hire a bus to travel to a remote town called Moodley where the women out number the men four to one for a wild weekend of boozing and lechery.  They get to the down mid-day, but the streets are abandoned and no one is in the pub.  The find a woman on the street but she is attacked by a man in military garb (Terry Stone).  They attempt to rescue the woman, but she attacks them.  They end up rescuing the soldier, but in their attempt to escape they find their bus driver, Candy (Christina Cole) also attacks them.  When the soldier regains his bearings he tells them that the women have been infected by an experimental biological agent that turns women into man-hating homicidal maniacs.

Doghouse is a British horror comedy in the tradition of Shaun of the Dead.  While I found the film mildly enjoyable, it is certainly not the masterpiece of film Shaun of the Dead is.  While Shaun of the Dead took the zombie subgenre to a new level by making a good balance of horror and comedy, Doghouse doesn't quite make it either way.  It always seems to just miss the mark on everything it attempts to do.  The laughs garner some mild amusement and some of the horror is interesting, especially a scene where a military man remains alive with his chest torn open and his heart still beating, but the homicidal women are too silly to be taken seriously for horror, but neither are they silly enough to be all that comedic.

I do want to say more good things about Doghouse, because I'm really running it down for a movie that I don't hate at all, but I don't love it either.  I would say it was worth a watch, but not much is there to get excited over and the whole thinly veiled theme of the homicidal women representing modern day relationships is not all that clever and not quite that funny either.  I feel pretty split over this one, but for the most part don't watch this before you see Shaun of the Dead, which this film seems like the poor man's poor man's version of.

The setting is Detroit Rock City, but heavy metal is on the decline.  The two gay fathers of the singer/guitarist of metal band, Satan's Fist, Ace Spades (Josh Hooper), Frank (Bart Allen Burger) and Dave (Glen McFarland) are hard pressed to make ends meet in their heavy metal music store.  But they still buy their beloved son the guitar of deceased rock legend Eddie Lee Stryker (Mike C. Hartman) for his birthday.  After playing better than ever at a band practice in the shop, Ace discovers the guitar is possessed by the restless spirit of Stryker and it speaks to him (the voice of Dave Doran).  He tells Ace he was killed by Detroit crime queen Mrs. Delicious (Brenna Roth)

Mrs. Delicious runs a protection racket and loan sharking outfit among other things.  She also has a pathological hatred of heavy metal.  The guitar reveals to Ace that Frank and Dave burrowed money from Mrs. Delicious to buy the guitar, and she plans to kill them.  She also plans to bomb the club that hosts the upcoming battle of the bands contest so she can kill every metal head in Detroit.  The guitar gives Ace special powers to become a skull-faced heavy metal super hero (Denny Hundiak) to help him combat Mrs. Delicious and her goons.

Although he makes an appearance in it, Heavy Mental is not produced, directed, or written by Loyd Kaufman or Michael Herz, but it is certainly a Troma film.  Like most Troma films, Heavy Mental takes advantage of low production and budget to add to the humor of the film.  It seems that Heavy Mental is to Detroit what The Toxic Avenger is to New Jersey in that both are a super hero parody based on the not-so-celebrated stereotypes of each region, with Detroit being the "Rock City" solely on the basis of a song by rock legends, KISS, and, of course, The Toxic Avenger goofing on New Jersey's reputation for toxic waste.

The nameless metal super hero that Ace becomes looks similar to the skull faced character "Eddie" made famous on the cover of metal legends Iron Maiden's albums.  Ace also has a tendency to defeat his enemies by killing them in horribly bloody ways like the Toxic Avenger.  Although, there are many parallels to the Toxic Avenger, I find this film almost as enjoyable as the first Toxic Avenger, better than 2 and 3, but not as good as Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV, but that's a hard one to beat.

Heavy Mental is full of silly over the top gore and violence, kick ass metal on the soundtrack, crazy characters like a guy in a rooster mask, and plenty of hot chicks with big love pillows.  This is another film that is not for the overly serious and as far as lowbrow films go a fun kick to watch, it doesn't slow much and remains consistently funny and energetic.  

In the year 2000, an outspoken Christian theocrat, who is also a U. S. presidential candidate, (Cliff Robertson) makes a prediction that a massive earthquake will separate the sinful city of Los Angeles from the America.  On August 23, 2000 such a disaster happens, causing the San Fernando Valley to fill with ocean water and become the San Fernando Sea.  The city of Los Angeles becomes an island from Malibu to Anaheim.  

When the Christian theocrat wins the election he makes an amendment declaring him president for life.  He also goes about creating what he calls, the new "Moral America."  He makes he makes non-Christian religions, atheism, alcohol, tobacco, red meat, non-marital sex, firearms, profanity etc. illegal.  Those found guilty of such crimes can either repent and be executed by electrocution or deported.  The island of Los Angeles is no longer considered part of the U. S. A. and becomes a penal island of sorts.  The island is the deportation destination for the new Moral America.

In 2013, the president's daughter, Utopia (A. J. Langer), becomes seduced by a Peruvian revolutionary named Cuervo Jones.  He talks her into stealing a super secret weapon from her father, which is called "The Sword of Damocles" which is a device that controls a network of satellites capable of delivering concentrated EMP pulses that can knock the power out of any thing or place he chooses.  Utopia steals the device and hijacks Air Force 3 to crash land on the island of Los Angeles and deliver it to him.

When Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), the soldier turned criminal who rescued an earlier U. S. President from the prison island of New York in 1997, arrives to be deported to Los Angeles, the president meets with him to offer him the mission of rescuing the device.  When Snake declines, he is told that he has been infected by a virus called Plutoxin 7 that will kill him in 7 hours.  He will only be given the antidote if he returns with the device.  The president has no care for the return of his daughter.  

Escape from L. A. takes a turn toward a bit of camp and parody in comparison to the film it is a sequel to, Escape from New York.  The film winks at the camera a little in terms of the parallels that this film has with the first one.  There are a few one liners and quick references that support this.  There are also other parallels in terms of the characters.  The cast is an ensemble cast like the first film with some different players.  Stacy Keach plays a character very similar to the one Lee Van Cleef played in Escape from New York.  Steve Buscemi as Map to the Star Eddie plays a similar role to Ernest Borgnine's Cabbie character in the first film.  Although she doesn't play the main villain Pam Grier fills the blaxploitation star appearance that Isaac Hayes made in New York.  On top of that Paul Bartel and Robert Carradine make cameos.

The cynicism of Escape from New York reflects the socio-political climate of the early 80s.  However, Escape from L.A. seems to reflect the ironic cultural climate of the 90s.  Although the film is by no means a comedy, the silliness comes in unusual forms.  Pam Grier plays an old acquaintance that was a man when they last saw each other.  Bruce Campbell plays the "Surgeon General of L.A." who leads a cult of people obsessed with looks and constantly replace body parts.  This may have some serious social commentary, but Campbell hams it up the way he does best and brings a thick coating of irony to all of it.  The scene that made me want to go see the film from the trailer is Snake surfing on a tsunami caused by an earthquake, which is awfully cheesy, especially with the lousy CGI used to make it.

The dark machismo of Snake Plissken gets a dose of irony as well, but a badass outfit to go with it as he is somewhat treated with the kind of humor that makes all those Chuck Norris jokes on the internet so funny.  It appreciates the badassedness of the character but pokes fun at it's most over the top elements, but in somewhat subtle ways.

Escape from L. A. doesn't have the grit of Escape from New York, but while I consider New York a masterpiece it was of its time and that cynicism cannot be reproduced.  Actually, I'm glad Carpenter didn't try to repeat that darkness and gave us Snake Plissken's adventure that more reflected the time of its release.  Overall, while it doesn't beat Escape from New York by a long shot, I think Escape from L. A. is a sequel worthy of the first and a hell of a lot of fun to boot. 

In the near future, crime rises 400%.  In 1988, the island of Manhattan is turned into an island prison surrounded by 50 ft. tall barriers and mined bridges.  The prisoners go in and never come out.  In 1997 Air Force One gets hijacked en route to a summit meeting between the U. S. A., the Soviet Union, and China.  A terrorist disguised as a stewardess crashes the plane into a building on Manhattan Island.  The President (Donald Pleasence) escapes in an escape pod.  He is equipped with a homing device wristband and he is handcuffed to a briefcase containing a secret cassette tape that is vital to the summit meeting.  He survives the crash, but is captured.

Bob Hauk (Lee Van Cleef) offers a deal to an ex-special forces soldier turned criminal named "Snake" Plissken (Kurt Russel).  If Plissken can enter the island prison, find the president and the cassette, and return them in 24 hours, then he will receive a full pardon.  When Plissken reluctantly agrees he's injected with small explosives in his carotid arteries set to explode in 24 hours.  They can only be diffused 15 minutes before they're set to explode. If they explode they will kill him.  Snake has to enter the island via a glider that lands on the World Trade Center, which is used as a secret access point by the police.  From there Snake is left to do what he can to rescue the President and the tape.

Escape from New York starts with a compelling premise and remains just as compelling throughout the film.  The setting of an island prison overrun by dangerous criminals allows the basis for all kinds of stories and characters.  This film should have garnered more sequels and would have made some pretty cool video games.  This exciting before it even gets started.

Snake Plissken is great as the story's anti-hero.  The character is clearly an homage to "The Man with No Name" of Clint Eastwood westerns fame,with maybe a hint of homage to Rooster Cogburn with the eyepatch.  The dystopian landscape of the isle prison of makes for a great futuristic version of the wild west of American history.  Russell's depiction of Snake makes you completely forget that he had quite a few rolls as a kid in Disney films.

Kurt Russell isn't all that you get from Escape from New York, although, given his performance, he could have been enough.  The film has quite an amazing cast.  Donald Pleasence may not have quite the same screen time that Doctor Loomis did in Halloween, but, being the great actor he is, makes that screen time count.  Then you got film legend Ernest Borgnine as a seasoned cabbie named Cabbie that provides Snake with some help and information, but still covers his own ass, which is what you expect from a guy who is clearly an inmate who has spent more time than most on the island.  I can't not mention Harry Dean Stanton and Adrienne Barbeau who make very interesting characters.  Isaac Hayes makes an amazing villain as the Duke of New York.

Apparently John Carpenter wrote Escape from New York as a social commentary on the Watergate scandal.  However, the connection between this film and Watergate probably plays out better in Carpenter's mind than it does on screen, which turns out to be a good thing.  Aside from the dates in the film, the film stands the test of time.  Had it been more on the nose with Carpenter's intentions it may have appeared very dated very quickly.  Actually the statement the film makes is still relevant even if you're interpretation may be different from the writer's, it has that quality, which is good writing. 

The caretaker of a summer camp called Camp Blackfoot is a drunken asshole nicknamed "Cropsy" (Lou David) for the garden shears he constantly carries.  He's notoriously mean to the campers.  One night, a group of boys set up a prank where they wake him from a drunken stupor to a skull with lit candles on it on his dresser.  When he sees the skull he freaks out and smacks it off the dresser onto a gas can.  The gas can instantly sets his cabin and him ablaze.  

It takes Cropsy five years of hospitalization before they release him.  Unfortunately, modern medicine was no help in keeping him from becoming permanently disfigured.  Dressed in a coat and hat to hide his deformities he drives out into the world.  The first thing he does is pick up a hooker and murders her.  Then he makes his way to a summer camp, near the now closed Camp Blackfoot, called Camp Stonewater.  There he continues to murder people.

On the surface, The Burning seems like a Friday the 13th knock off.  Yet, this film deals more with developing the characters and developing a plot with several subplots beneath the main plot.  The main plot, which is simply Cropsy on a murderous rage with some twists at the end, seems more to be a palette for the subplots.  Much has to do with the shy milquetoast camper, Alfred (Brian Backer) who has problems with meeting girls and being bullied by Glazer (Larry Joshua).  So, while the movie goes through many of the common motions of a slasher flick set in a summer camp, like naked teenagers being stalked in the woods, there is quite a bit of character development and solid plot, which actually makes the murder victims more sympathetic and their deaths all the more gruesome.

The violence and gore of the film tarts out grisly, then at the camp it goes from mild to more intensely gory murders.  I was worried at first, because the makeup effects are by the master of horror effects Tom Savini, and when they got mild after the initial burst, it didn't look good for the gore.  But don't worry, if you stick with the film, you get to see the master's craft.

Another pleasant surprise in the film is Jason Alexander of Seinfeld's George fame as Dave.  This is before he went bald and he plays more of a con-artist/hustler type of character rather than the nebbish yet darkly selfish George Costanza.  The character of Dave is different from George, but is almost as funny and there is more swagger to Dave than George.

The Burning is one of the more sophisticated slasher films I've seen that is otherwise a very typical kind of slasher film.  I'm a huge fan of Friday the 13th, but I have to say quality-wise, The Burning has more artistic value and retains quite a bit of entertainment value.

A milquetoast office equipment repairman, Warren Stacy (Gene Davis), kills women who reject his sexual advances.  The Los Angeles Police detectives assigned to his case, Leo Kessler (Charles Bronson) and Paul McCann (Andrew Stevens), face difficulty in their investigation because Stacey constructs sound alibis and kills his victims while nude.  Kessler becomes certain the killer is Stacey, but can't prove it.  He plants evidence, but his partner refuses to play along when he finds out and Stacey is released when the charges are dismissed.  Stacey returns to killing women,which happen to be women close to Kessler's daughter, Laurie (Lisa Eilbacher).

While 10 to Midnight is not Death Wish, the film certainly feeds the beast that wants to see Charles Bronson as a gun toting bad ass.  However, one of the main differences between these two films is he actually is the law this time.  As my synopsis reveals, being a cop doesn't prevent him from playing by his own rules.  This is another Charles Bronson film made in the political climate of the 1980s where street crime was strong in New York and Los Angeles and the police departments were truly corrupt.  So, while this seems like extreme right wing fantasy, I can understand the sentiment behind the film, especially for people who really were victimized by criminals that existed mainly due to the inadequacy of the system.

Also unlike Death Wish, 10 to Midnight is about the investigation of a serial killer.  So the anger of the film isn't quite about the backlash of common people to every day street crime.  Yet, it is a response to the downgraded punishment of people who do horrible deeds and plead insanity in their trials.  I'm split on this though.  I can understand the sentimentality, but the notion of those pleading insanity are all a bunch of fakers rubs me a little as a person who has mental problems and confronts the problems of dealing with people who think I'm faking, or worse yet, those who don't believe mental illness exists, and it's not just Tom Cruise and the Scientologists, many people who think they're ordinary or don't realize that they totally debunk mental illness are this way. It's not that I need to be locked up, but people think my bouts with depression can be "walked off" or just waved away.  It's more complicated than that and not everything is a "political correctness conspiracy."

But that is reality, 10 to Midnight is a film and we're dealing with fantasy here.  Sure art reflects life, but if you can distinguish the fantasy from the reality this film is an exciting and suspenseful action film with a sense of ethics that doesn't work in the real world, but that's why films like these are made and did quite well in the 80's.  It captures the peoples imagination in ways zombie films are so popular these days, they strike a primal chord that feeds a dark part of us that probably should be fed to keep if from getting too hungry.  As I often say, I don't condone killing criminals without a trial, but I understand.  At the same time if you take this film seriously, then you're view is limited.  The irony is unintended but there is something to be said about the naivete of this film.

10 to Midnight evokes quite a few base emotional responses.  It gives us a boyish "guy next door" for a murderer to feed into the primal paranoia that a murderer could be anyone, even this schmuck.  Then you get the anger and frustration caused a system that is inadequate and corrupt, and the fantasy of empowerment that comes from Charles Bronson taking the law into his own hands.  When we relate to him we feel his power.  This film hits those chords rather well and makes for quite a watchable film.  It's not high art by any means but still fun to watch.