Women in Prison...Again: Caged Fury

And we are back big, bold and brassy. Welcome back to the blog folks and some of you...I won't be talking to. As it has been a request to do more Women in Prison flicks I am begrudgingly doing just that. Today's opus contains inmates being forced to wear lingerie and pass "favors" to the warden for early parole options. No board committee, apparently you just get freaky and your sentence gets lightened. This is Caged Fury.

Breasts? er um I mean Beer?

Shot in the Alabama Hills in Lone Pine California, hive of scum and villainy to the prisoners is never seen to the outside world what lengths the girls must go to survive. One girl can't take it any longer and somehow dug a way into the air ducts that has more room in it than Bruce Willis got in Die Hard. Seriously he could have had a ruck sack, a rifle, canteen and sidearms traipsing through this.

Blonde Escapee (Kascha of Hawaii Vice 2 through 8, Backdoor to Hollywood 6 and 7, Nina's Toys and Boys, Kascha's Days and Nights, Fade to Black, Girls of the Double D 5 and 8) you would think they could have given her character a name, dammit. So rather than alerting this escape, the poonhound higher ranking guard Spyder (Gregory Cummins of Cliffhanger, Last of the Dogmen, Evil Eye, The Italian Job, Bones, NCIS: Los Angeles and Bosch) slaps the guard assigned to watch the cellblock and pops a straight razor to slash his throat. Sensitivity training is coming your way, bubba.

Head Guard (Paul L. Smith of Popeye, Pieces, Dune, Midnight Express, Red Sonja, , Crossing the Line, Desert Kickboxer and Maverick) tends to Blonde Escapee and teaches the girls a lesson in why it's good to fall in line. He may also need to attend a sensitivity training class, or y'know be shot. Whichever works best.

Uh oh Bluto looks horny! Duck and cover!!

We pan shoot around a large ranch area meeting the Collins family. With Kathie (Roxanna Michaels of The Newlydeads, Baja, Glitch!, Playboy: Tales of Erotic Fantasies, David and Lola and Bikini Seasons 2) as her little sister Tracey (Elena Sahagun of Marked for Death, Stigmata, 44, Teenage Exorcist, Firetrap, Tremors 3: Back to Perfection and Magic Man) embarks to move out of the house to L.A. away from that awful, controlling Dad (Michael Parks of Walker, Texas Ranger, From Dusk Till Dawn, Wicked, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Kill Bill: Vol.2, Deathproof, Planet Terror, Street Poet, Red State and Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair). Oh Dad, you're just too old to get this free spirit. Tee hee. Well Dad is handling this as best as he can but he does raise his concern of bad people doing bad things.

A hitchhiker Rhonda (April Dawn Dollarhide of Party Favors, Caged Fury and Dark Vengeance a.k.a. Warforce 3000) as to bail on her ride given he is trying to jump her. She and Tracey make their way to L.A. without a montage. Bit of a let down. Expected some tossing of Cheese Puffs or soda guzzling and a sing along with the songs on the radio but I move on.

Yeah yeah I know. Who are these people aside from Michael Park? What is the point of the film? Will there be shower scenes and so on and so forth. Well relax a damn minute and I will clue you in.

Off to the strip for some lukewarm rock, jiggling and debauchery. God I sound like an old man as I write this but that band was limp. Even Fred Durst would have walked. Meanwhile ex-stuntman Victor (Erik Estrada of ChiPs, Guns, The Modern Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Shattered Dreams, The Bold and the Beautiful, Chupacabra vs. The Alamo and Viturous) is looking to get a creep off of a buddy of his.

The night comes to a crashing halt as the bar bust ends in a fist fight via Victor and his buddy with action mullet Dirk (creator of American Combat Karate and martial artist Richard Barathy) trash the Rainbow Room from the looks of it.

Lulu (Janine Lindemulder of Moving Target, Lauderdale, Caged Fury, Hidden Obsessions, The Coven, Blonde Justice,Killer Looks, Way of the Dragon and Pirates) a hard rocking club girl having a good old time and was a hand in the bar fight herself.

Ewww.  Rat poop. Grody.

This "shoots" set up are shockingly enough involve around porn. Go figure. It seemed more on the up in up. The girls get scooped up due to the porn kingpin was tired of their bitching and whining so off to the gray bar hotel. The prosecution breezes through the charges claiming Tracey was a prostitute offering herself and...this is really blown out of proportion. The hearing is flashing after sentence so you know that went well.

The Warden Sybil (Mindi Miller of Hell Up in Harlem, Body Double, Amazons and Deadly Embrace)suffers no fools, gives the lay of the land (PUN INTENDED!) and tells the new inmates of the chores they can do to lighten their sentence.

Detectives Stoner (character actor extraordinaire James Hong of Chinatown, Bladerunner, Big Trouble in Little China, Merlin, Wayne's World 2, The Shadow, Mulan, Bladerunner video game, Spawn, Jackie Chan Adventures and RIPD) and Elston (Hugh Farrington of T.J. Hooker, Arizona Heat, Airwolf, The Terminator and Caged Heat) look into Tracey's rushed arrest and there is none on the books. Like she wasn't even charged or processed.

Feeling something's hinky between the jail and the porn kingpin so it's time for a montage??? Nah they just start investigating but hitting the streets and contacts a little rougher.

Will Tracey be locked up indefinitely?? How the hell would a prison get away with this?? And why does Paul Smith speak his lines so softly?

So the crux is young girls goof and get used and abused. Crooked system, crooked guards and warden. Seen it. This is not Chained Heat, folks. Never thought I would be using that as a base of comparison but there it is. The creativity is there but not a lot of follow through. This doesn't feel like the prison isn't being observed and even if it wasn't, um California taxes pay attention if not just the justice system. The warden will have pay for all the lingerie plus her bondage outfits and boy that does show up on a credit card purchase. Not sure the theme is either reform school girls or wayward girls. No real direct distinction.

Is it a thriller or is just an excuse to parade girls around in Fredrick's of Hollywood apparel. Primarily this is a sex slave scenario of millionaires blowing into town, porking away on their dollar and off they go. There is some actual drama between Tracey and Rhonda as they have each others' backs but the tropes are a bit heavy in this one. And the warden is channeling her inner Dyanne Thorne of the Ilsa She-Wolf series. Hell her name is Sybil Thorn which many believe a nod to both Sybil Danning of Chained Heat and Dyanne Thorne of Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS.

Exterior shots aside, my God California is some gorgeous country. From mountains, the desert and the forests, you forget how much of this nature beauty is there. Run time is 95 mins normally but there is an 85 min version.

Not my cup of tea but it has an audience somewhere and certainly not the darkest WIP film I have seen.

Critters 3 got kinky.

Made for TV Movies

Welcome one and all! I have returned!!!! We are scrambling to get the Rotten Ramblin' On Podcast Campaign out there to folks. This week we are trying to get funds to get the podcast up and running and the hope we will build a podcast for folks to listen. With that being said this week I will be tackling a concept that has been hitting our idiot boxes since the mid 60's. I speak of Made for TV Movies. The term is a full-length film that was produced for and/or distributed by a TV network and I are made specifically for television.

TV Movies is the action is!

The first ever TV movie began in 1961 with the NBC Saturday Night at the Movies. The first of these being the 1964 film, See How They Run which is a chase film with children stalked by hired killers after they accidentally took a piece of evidence that points to a cartel which murdered their dad. Intense concept, right? Aside from the creature feature Sy-Fy silliness, the TV Movie has massed audiences of various ages and generations.

I plan to find 5 completely different genre based films for TV to give a better perspective and scope and allows for decent story-lines. Ranging from nuclear war, police dramas, murder mysteries and family oriented films.

Fabulous hair means drama on the way.

Mickey Rooney Week: Captain Courageous

Hiya kids and welcome back for Day 2 of Mickey Rooney Week.  I thought I would bring us back a bit yet again.  Very few actors have a career spanning more than 7 decades worth.  From child star of the silent films to voice work for The Fox and the Hound, Rooney has been in this racket for more years than few could survive.  How about a sea faring adventure?  Let's take a spoiled near-do-well and see if he can stay afloat. from the pages of acclaimed novelist Ruyard Kipling (The Jungle Book, The Man Who Would Be King, Baa Baa Black Shep and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi) This is Captain Courageous.

The good news boy, is we aren't cannibals.

Manuel Fidello: Wake up, Little Spoiler. Hey, wake up, wake up!  Somebody think you dead, they have celebrations.



This is the story of Harvey Cheyne (Freddie Bartholomew of Anna Karenina, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Lloyd's of London and The Town Went Wild), a spoiled brat that only wants his absent father's attention and approval so clearly one should misbehave and get thrown out of private boarding school.  Yeah that trick always works.  Burton Cheyne(Melvyn Douglas of The Vampire Bat, Woman in the Dark, Ninotchka, This Thing Called Love, Hud, Being There and The Changeling) takes the lad on one of his business trips via steam ship.   In a fit of arrogance and misbehavior, Harvey falls overboard in the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.

Saved and brought aboard the fishing vessel "We're Here" by Portuguese fisherman Manuel Fidello (Spencer Tracy of Dante's Inferno, Adam's Rib,  Judgment at Nuremberg, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner)  and takes him before Captain Disko (Lionel Barrymore of Brooding Eyes, The Temptress, Body and Soul, The Thirteenth Hour, You Can't Take It with You and Key Largo) who Harvey fails to convince has wealth and needs to get back to land.  Disko offers him a job to earn his wages back to mainland in 3 months.  Harvey quickly learns that his whining, conniving and temper tantrums will not get him his way and sets out to work for a living.

Not sure I like the title "Salty Dog".

He finds mentor ship in Manuel and a father figure that he never saw in his own father. Thankfully the Captain's son, Dan (Mickey Rooney of Killing Midnight, Boys Will Be Boys, The First of May, Chicken Soup for the Soul and Phantom of the Megaplex) is roughly his age and the two do have fun after work.
Will Harvey ever find his way back to his father and if so, would that life mean anything to him after the sweating and toiling of his new one?

Directed by Victor Fleming (Reckless, Test Pilot, The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde and Joan of Arc) this story does a bit of is now the cliche' backdrop at sea, rocking boat via rear projection shots and the Schufftan process (lens shot through plate glass at a 45 degree angle to provide depth) with floor and seat movement followed up with matte paintings of the area the imagination is captured well enough that the cast is at high sea.

You see son, big money is in oil, steel and land.  Look at these figures.

Dunaway Week: The Towering Inferno

And a fine hello and how do you do my readers and enjoy this last day of Dunaway Week and I thought we would end this one in a blaze of glory.  A star studded cast of the likes that 20^th Century Fox liked cramming together to leave us wondering and guessing, “What the heck was their estimated budget on this flick?”  With enough man’s man actors that happen to be pretty to keep the ladies’ attention coupled with some danger, excitement and really wild things, this movie is guaranteed to pull on the heart strings, make your stomach flip flop and ensure your disdain in most politicians.  This is The Towering Inferno.

Now ladies, the fire is actually upstairs.

James Duncan: Everything under control?

Chief O’ Hallorhan: You’ve gotta move all these people out of here.

James Duncan: Aw, now, just how bad is it?

Chief O’ Hallorhan: It’s a spoiler, mister, all fires are bad.

Architect Doug Roberts (Paul Newman of The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting) get back after an lengthy vacation in time to see his creation, a towering skyscraper nearly complete and there is to be a shindig like no other to pat some backs on its completion. The owner James Duncan (William Holden of Sunset Blvd., The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Wild Bunch and Network) is holding court with the Mayor and several up and comers in San Francisco when a small fire breaks out on the 81^st floor due to faulty wiring.   Roberts and the engineer Giddings go to the 81^st floor and attempt to stop a security guard from getting curious when he opens a door causing a flash fire to break out killing the guard and burning Gidding so badly he could die.  Roberts rushes back to Duncan and tries to get this party evacuated and Duncan dismisses it as not really an issue. 

Ugh, wish that guy would catch on fire.

Typical trusting in sprinklers I guess.  The fire department is alerted and Chief O’ Hallorhan (Steve McQueen of Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Great Escape, Bullit and Junior Bonner) demands evacuation begins now as the building is slowly being engulfed in flames.   At the party, Susan Franklin (Faye Dunaway of Little Big Man, Midnight Crossing, The Gamble and Up to Date) is helping to evacuate the VIPs and herself with an orderly fashion.  Most of the party members have managed to disembark but eventually even the express elevators become too dangerous and there is no easy way out of this now blazing deathtrap in the sky.

I had a few points I wanted to make about this film now.  This hails from the disaster genre producer Irwin Allen whose is known mostly for TV like: Land of the Giants, Swiss Family Robinson, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space.  The common factor in this was people were made almost extraordinary due to insurmountable dangers and how they performed under the pressure.  With his production of The Posiedon Adventure getting less than great input it was a bit of a gamble to put this top notch cast in a film but Allen wanted this to be big.  With amazing scale model work, John Williams’ score to provide scope and no less than 57 separate sets this film is a work up of good story, great cast and some brilliant direction.

Free donuts for firefighters??!!!

Wil Wheaton Week: Stand by Me

Welcome back readers for Day 2 of Wil Wheaton Week and of course we will speak about a film that captured our imagination and hearts and caused a lot of young boys to swear.  No seriously the Christian Moralition actually got into the MPPA’s butt about the vulgar language mouthed by these youths.   Yes it is a bit sad and pathetic but it happened dammit.   So let us venture with 4 young boys who are in search of adventure, discovery of self and even a dead body.   This is Stand by Me.

 

Beats doing a film with Dennis Miller!

The Writer: Now he said, “Sic’em boy!” But what I heard was, “Chopper! Sic spoilers!”

From the fevered and demented mind of Stephen King and brought to life on the screen via director Rob Reiner (This Is Spinal Tap, The Sure Thing, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, A Few Good Men and The American President) gives us the tale of four boys in Castle Rock Oregon during the Labor Day weekend in the far away time of 1959.  The gang consists of Gordie (Wil Wheaton of EverQuest II, Rainbow Six: Lockdown, Grand Theft Auto IV, Ben 10: Alien Force, Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Fallout: New Vegas) who is a clumsy bookworm with a pension for telling and writing stories who is constantly ignored by his father who put Gordie’s brother Denny (John Cusack of Better Off Dead, One Crazy Summer, Say Anything, Grosse Pointe Blank, The Thin Red Line, Must Love Dogs and 1408) the football jock that died in an accident and truly connected best with Gordie than anyone else.  Gordie's best friend Chris (River Phoenix of Explorers, The Mosquito Coast, Little Nikita and Sneakers) whose entire family consists of thugs, thieves and general criminals and is tired of being lumped in with them or even labeled the same as.  Teddy (Corey Feldman of Gremlins, Lost Boys, License to Drive, Voodoo and Bordello of Blood) a squirrelly kid that is mentally and physically scarred by his father who had to be institutionalized and lastly Vern (Jerry O’ Connell of Sliders, Scream 2, Mission to Mars, Las Vegas, Crossing Jordan Do Not Disturb and Piranha 3D) a slightly overweight kid that ends up the butt of many jokes. 

Wait, I'm gonna be buff and marry a supermodel? Whatever future boy!

Hanging out in their tree house Vern tells his buddies about his older brother and buddy talking about dumping a stolen car and stumbling on the body of a missing boy that was in the papers.  The four of them get the bright idea to hike out, find the boy Ray’s body and become local heroes.

I could totally play Indiana Jones!

Lying to their collective parents about going out to camp; our stalwart foursome follows the train tracks to where Ray would be lying.  Taking a short cut through the junkyard the lads find the steadfast protector dog that is the fear of all boys this age as he is known to go for the balls and we ain’t talking tennis or baseballs. 

A few notes on this particular movie now if you will.   From the soul bearing throughout this film to the amazing performances in such young actors you could almost feel the camaraderie in the group.   They are typical boys growing up trying to figure out what to do with their lives, where they go from here and what is waiting for them later on.

Now I am sure the nitpickers that have reviewed this film prior want to point out the flubs or goofs like seeing 1980s cars in the background in and around the junkyard or seeing Topps baseball cards before they were created but you know what?  This is a great, clever film and I really don’t give enough of a crap over minor mess ups.

I DIDN'T GET MONSTER SQUAD!!!!!!

Burn Notice Season 2: Electric Boogaloo

Well folks you know how when a show is created and feel nothing will come as close to the same level of writing the first season offered you?  The same jam packed action or suspense clearly cannot be topped.  Pin your ears back, open your eyes and prepared to be wowed.  This is Burn Notice Season 2.

This message will contain spoilers and self-destruct if you dislike it.

Well we last left Michael Weston (Jeffery Donovan of Burn Notice, Hitch, Another World and Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2) he was getting his buddy, former SEAL and likable alcoholic Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell of The Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. and Spider-Man) and former IRA girlfriend Fiona Glennanne (Gabrielle Anwar of For Love or Money, Body Snatchers, Scent of a Woman and Three Musketeers) out of a tight spot with some heroin dealers, then he was loaded up to meet his mystery date/keeper of his leash regarding his burn notice.   Hours pass and Michael is aching for some action when his mild dozing is interrupted with explosions, assault rifle fire and a bit of odd screaming.  His cell phone goes off and man his reception is amazing in my opinion; a female voice informs Michael her name is Carla and she wants to know if he is up for a few errands

From this rather impressive build-up it really sets the tone for the season.   Fiona and Sam are slowly and against their collective will start to like one another.   The insanity and repercussions of last season is taking a toll on Michael’s family as well and Michael has that series of issues to contend with.

From layman’s eye this show takes another leap into very technical camera maneuvering, high speed car chases, mixed martial art hand to hand and more gun fights than a Segal movie.  Creator Matt Nix sets the bar and tries to push this show to the letter Director of Photography William Wage ( Love Potion No. 9, Purgatory, Down in the Delta and Surface) combines crane shots, on-board cameras ,dolly tracks and just about anything needed to get the shot.  Hell I am just shocked to not find cameras mounted on the actors for some bizarre POV shot.  Familiar faces ranging from science fiction, comedy and drama emerge this season and you will be stunned when you see them.   If you made it through Season 1 and were blown away by this series with complex characters leading complicated lives and odds are against them, you will thoroughly enjoy season 2 , but don’t tell anyone were you got this information or we are all in the soup.

Call me Snake..

In the far away timeline of 1997(huh?), crime has risen nearly 400% so prior to that in 1988 New York City has been converted into the world’s maximum security end all prison.  Those that have been convicted of high treasonous crimes are deported to New York and given no chance of parole.  New York is surrounded by a 50-foot high wall of concrete and razor wire, the bridges are mind and waterways are patrolled by regular routine helicopter fly bys.   The United States Police forces are camped around it like an army.  China, The Soviet Union (Communism is the wave of the future!) and America are in negotiations when Air Force One is hijacked by a terrorist liberation front called the National Liberation Front causing the President to use an escape pod and landing in the prison.  A rescue attempt must be made. 

Lotta spoilers in the Hudson.

Hiyas folks today we review the 1981 despotic future storyline Escape from New York.   Brought to us by legendary director/editor/composer John Carpenter (Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, The Fog, Remake of the Village of the Damned and Vampires) and writer/director Nick Castle (Major Payne, The Last Starfighter and Taps)   America has become a police state enforcing law with extreme prejudice and vital information needed for the summit, Police Commissioner Robert Hauk (Lee Van Cleef of The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Gunsmoke and Have Gun Will Travel) must recruit former special forces solider “Snake” Plissken (Kurt Russel of The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, Escape from L.A.) to infiltrate the prison, get back the President (Donald Pleasance of You Only Live Twice, Halloween 1,2,4,5,6) and off the island in 24 hours.  A full pardon is offered for this blatant suicide mission and Snake is tagged with a dissolving explosive in his system to keep him in check.    Snake uses a glider to land on the Sears Tower in order to take off at a later date.   Getting to ground; Snake runs into a cornucopia of criminal elements of all types, ranging from cannibals, small time offenders to mass murderers.  Now added by temporary alliances the clock is running out for the President and Plissken must reluctantly save the day.

At this point I would love to point out what it is about this movie that makes it so enjoyable.  Cost effective effects for the glider’s radar was done with a scale model of Manhattan Island with a series of reflective tape to look like a mapping process.  With a 6 million budget in 1981 managed matt based shots, aerial helicopter shots of which was used with the St. Louis National Guard as Blackhawk police copters and furthermore due to the fire in 1973 for two days; this area’s safety was blocks devastation that according to Carpenter it spoke volumes to him and was the ideal set for his steady cams via dolly track.  His minimum lighting techniques always give his films a more eerie feel in the same fashion Hitchcock had.  His love of anamorphic camera lens gives his sets more scope and depth to the film. 

If you enjoy this particular genre of possible futures, Do NOT skip this film.  With memorable lines, excellent character development, this is an overall great experience to be had.