Clara Bow was one of the biggest box office draws in the 1920s. This was one of her many silent movies, a comedy set in the Canadian backwoods in a place called Mantrap.
The film can basically be summed up as: city girl is charmed by the country life and her backwoods husband, then get bored and is seduced back by to her city ways when a couple of NY guys (Percy Marmont and Ernest Torrence) arrive on vacation. Clara flirts with everyone and there is a bit of a menage a trois (all in a chaste 1920s fashion of course) but it all ends very well and everyone goes home happily for tea.
Clara was made for this film with her bubbly ways. The plot is a bit obvious but the film has plenty of charm.
"What is this film about?" "Paintball gone wrong." "OK good - what did you just say?"
A paintball tournament (and this is for pros not people on a work away day messing about) is held in the USA starring a motley collection of character stereotypes. There is a decent cash prize for the winner. Only the problem is someone has switched their paint gun for real weapons and is starting to waste the competitors for real. Well someone is taking the tournament just that little bit too seriously...
Ex-Vietnam vet Jeff Moldovan looks to save the day and hunt the bad guy down. Although the film is rather poor in many ways it does have some reasonably good action scenes and the ending (and thus the unmasking of the bad guy) was decent in keeping you in suspense.
With a title like this you know its probably not going to be a philosophical work, especially as the notorious Wong Jing is behind it...
This film can be best described as a softcore porn crime thriller in that it involves a candidate for the position of HK Chief Executive (Alex Fong) who is also a successful businessman but in his office building women working alone at night get raped yet this somehow does not affect his election standing...
The fact he keeps seeing naked women while out on the campaign trail doesn't affect him either or the fact he likes a bit of rumpy pumpy on his desk though he does go and see old-flame turned psychologist Angie Cheung who suggests he cut himself off from the world for 24 hours.
When the 24 hours are up, and he scarcely remembers what has happened in that time, he finds out one of his office staff, Pinky Cheung, has been raped and he is the suspect. By an amazing coincidence though Pinky's brother is the cop assigned to the case. So no clash of interests there.
To be fair to the film the story is not that bad though not very original and you can see the twist coming a mile off. Gratuitous use of female nudity and writhing bodies of course but an entertaining little film for all it's faults. The film may have been inspired by President Clinton and his legendary libido.
Snake Eater stars Lorenzo Lamas as an ex US Marine special forces soldier and now a cop. He has to use his skills and experience to track down the people who killed his parents and who have kidnapped his sister...
All of which sounds great, the problem is Lamas' character is fairly inept as a soldier and cop. The film chronicles his mis-adventures tracking down a stereotype band of inbred rednecks in the woods. He gets there in the end but gets trapped or beaten up a lot.
Well that's not the only problem with this film, everything else about it is also fairly inept though you don't watch these films for the acting or original storytelling let's face it.
The film is redeemed by some amusing and interesting scenes such as the trap to catch criminals early in the film and the action is not just endless shootouts and explosions. However it's not a film you'll be desperate to see again anytime soon.
If there is to be an award for the film with the best title ever then this 1970s Shaw Brothers film may be in with a shout...
Using Malay witchdoctor magic a crippled young man having a hard time (played by Danny Lee Sau-Yin) transforms himself into an oily maniac, or to be precise a monster made out of oil, and basically busts some ass...
Low-concept maybe but definitely high-cheese, this is an entertaining 70s shock horror flick but don't expect high art. The special effects are not fabulous (but then again it was mid-70s on a low budget) and that is maybe part of the appeal. There is also plenty of female nudity on show and a number of women get their clothes ripped off. Yeah its that kind of film. Sex and oily monsters. Like a Friday night in Wan Chai.
What more could you want? A plot? Well there is one! More or less. Mind you, the plot is full of holes. A monster made out of oil does have one rather large design flaw, but no one seems to realise this until the end. Is this film any good? It is hard to tell really, no doubt a large part of the appeal is the fact it is called Oily Maniac...
