Schlock and Awe

  10 - A Triple Double: Undisputed 3: Redemption, dir Isaac Florentine, 2010 & Ninja III The Domination, dir Sam Fistenberg, 1984      Yes, in the discoveries list I am cheating.  But I watched a lot of movies in 2020.  I was home a lot.  So my number 10 pick is a double feature.  An action double feature.  I don't really have the language to talk about the intricacies of how the action movies move.  All this to say is that after watching Undisputed 3, Scott Adkins is now known as 'The Flippy Guy'.  Host of the Adkins Undisputed Podcast Mike Scott (which every one should be listening too, has called Adkins a human special effect, and he's not wrong.  There are moments where you are not exactly sure how Adkins defied gravity with multiple spiny kick things.  Undisputed 3 is a simple movie - a Flippy Man looking to win a martial arts contest and maybe try to get his life back.  Scott Adkins is a charismatic and char...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME, DIR J L THOMPSON, 1981 & NEW YORK RIPPER DIR LUCIO FULCI 1982      The Slasher genre has it's roots firmly in the Murder Mystery.  It's the Italian's who give the murder mystery a more kill and gore focus: Blood and Black Lace ,  The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Torso .  Incredibly stylish movies with fashion, wealth and a killer often in black gloves.  What is important, especially for the movies I am going to be talking about; is the camera taking the POV or the Killer POV.  Something the later Slasher genre would take up with gusto, as the 1980s slid into masks and machetes, where the the final girl and  body count was more the primary objective.  At the Slasher's height, in the early 1980s, you see the melding with Giallo, as the two movies Happy Birthday to Me and The New York Ripper shows.  They are both Hodge Podge of Hitchcock, mystery, gore, kills but on completely different spectrum of fil...