Sheba, Baby

Sheba, Baby (1975)

Runtime: 90 minutes

Directed by: William Girdler

Starring: Pam Grier, Austin Stoker, D’Urville Martin, Rudy Challenger, Richard Merrifield

From: AIP

This Pam Grier blaxploitation effort is leaving Prime at the end of the month; this plus “Director: William Girdler” intrigued me.

The fact that most of the movie is set & filmed in Louisville, Kentucky was also of interest; that’s not a common filming location, especially for blaxploitation. Grier is an ex-cop in Louisville turned Chicago PI-she must be successful, judging by her Gucci bag-who returns to her hometown to protect her father-owner of a loan company-from gangsters that want him to sell out. Austin Stoker is her dad’s business partner and potential love interest.

Is Sheba as good as Coffy or Foxy Brown? Nope. This does not mean there wasn’t fun to be had. The acting, action beats, characters, period clothing, funky score, & scenarios are all fine. The villains are all hissable; the setpieces include action on a river and a chase through a county fair. For the older Americans reading this review, you might be amused that a short scene is set at a Burger Chef restaurant; there’s a long-defunct chain from the past.

It was also nice seeing Austin Stoker and D’Urville Martin in major roles—the latter was a bad guy known as PILOT. The movie is funny as there are multiple characters w/ pro wrestling monikers: BRICK, SHARK, HAMMERHEAD, KILLER, WHALE, RACKER, and TANK. Pilot was one of several hysterical OOT characters.

It was the standard boilerplate blaxploitation that included some offensive terms I won’t repeat here; thankfully, I enjoy the standard boilerplate, along with the few William Girdler films I’ve checked out. Grizzly and Day of the Animals were unpolished yet still fun animal attack pictures. In the future, more will be viewed.

 

Do Not Enter

Do Not Enter (2026)

Runtime: 91  long minutes

"Directed" by: Marc Klasfeld

"Starring": Adeline Rudolph, Jake Manley, Nicholas Hamilton, Francesca Reale, Javier Botet

From: Lionsgate!

It’s also good advice: Do Not Enter the world of this movie!

By now I’ve heard many bad things about this film from Lionsgate that was dumped on Prime; however, the detail that this is based on the novel Creepers by David Morrell (! Yes, the dude who wrote First Blood) made me curious. Curiosity definitely killed the cast in this case.

From a popular review on Letterboxd from someone I don’t follow, many changes were made from page to screen. The book didn’t include Gen-Z asstagonists as our urban explorer leads. These bozos (including a guy I’ll call Temu Austin Butler) are YouTubers, although not even successful YouTubers. Given how unlikable they are, no wonder. They can’t even find success after discovering alleged Basquiat graffiti. Well, they and a Vice News reporter (!!)-the novel did come out in 2014-visit an abandoned hotel purportedly containing the missing money of real-life gambler/gangster Meyer Lansky.

The movie is just wretched. Do Not Enter is as “scary” as a basket full of fluffy kittens, is the entertainment equivalent of soma pills when it isn’t insufferable, it was impossible to even somewhat like any of the characters besides the reporter until villains that are even worse show up, and they rip off ideas from much better horror pictures. This includes the actual big bad that has killed previous visitors, and of course wasn’t in the novel either. The climax was not only WTF, but also pathetic.

I could dwell on Do Not Watch-how the place has no electricity (most of the movie is dimly-lit, which sadly is a common modern genre problem) yet security cameras are running… or how a key character survived a fall from a great height, or how insulting the scene after the climax was. Instead, one solace I can take for viewing a crummy motion picture: warning others to stay away. I know it dropped 5 months ago but don’t watch this at Halloween-or any other time of year-as it’s not even a funny sort of bad.

Hallucinations

Hallucinations (1986)

Runtime: 60 minutes

Directed by: Mark Polonia/John Polonia/Todd Michael Smith

Starring: The directors

From: CineGraphic Productions

I know some will laugh that this is my first POLONIA BROTHERS joint. I’ve never viewed one of Mark Polonia’s solo efforts either. Zero budget horror is not something I partake in; who knows what I’d think of his modern films (usually involving sharks) but I do have to give Mark and his late twin brother John props for making a horror picture an hour long that wasn’t so bad the viewing experience was like an endurance test… and it was all done at their house during one snowy Pennsylvania winter when they plus the other director-their friend Todd Michael Smith-were all gangly teenagers.

They portrayed siblings (Smith’s character was adopted; one of the twins was “mentally handicapped”) whose unseen mother “always worked,” explaining why the trio are the only actors in the film. The three have a fractious relationship w/ each other; subsequently, the teens all experience the titular hallucinations that range from “bad thing happens to their cat” & “figure in monk robes” and “snake/tube demon” to other phallic imagery; as this is a film where one of the brothers in his tightie-whities adjusts his peen right on camera… only teenage boys could create such a film!

This is not the time to be pedantic; while the rating isn’t that of a 5-star masterpiece, this does not mean that mad respect won’t be given to them by me. This had more practical effects than expected-and they typically looked great for what presumably was hardly any cash. This includes fake blood and various props. There’s even a prosthetic chest and a DIY version of Freddy Krueger, along w/ other things I dare not spoil. The plot is rather threadbare and more like a demo reel. At the same time, there was a lo-fi musical score + an explanation at the end for the bizarre imagery. Sure, the tape goes wonky a few times and at times the dialogue is quite difficult to decipher; who cares when you see a puppet urinate on a photograph!

I won’t go down the rabbit hole of zero budget horror yet I was still glad to have seen something unique like Hallucinations. If John Polonia hadn’t passed away in 2008, I’m sure he and twin Mark would still be making movies together, nevermind the critical opinion or their quality. The exuberance, the teen excitement, the authentic awkward teen moments, this helps the viewer overlook its limitations.

Raising Cain

Raising Cain (1992)

Runtime: 92 minutes

Directed by: Brian De Palma

Starring: John Lithgow, Lolita Davidovich, Steven Bauer, Frances Sternhagen, Gregg Henry

From: Universal

Heck, why not start Spooky Season now? Especially when you unknowingly watch the Director’s Cut of Raising Cain… originally made by Dutch director Peet Gelderbrom-based on the original script-and so liked by De Palma, he had Shout Factory work w/ Gelderbrom to make an HD version for release on Blu. Don’t ask how I “have a copy” of the film & just realized after viewing which version it was. The reasons for me starting the season of spooky movies now-the earliest I’ve done so: 

* I never participate in Cinemonster’s annual Hooptober lists (this year will be the 13th installment!)

* There’s a competing challenge of watching 100 horror movies in 92 days that has already began

* On a messageboard (technically, it’s a Discord thread… but the thread used to be on a messageboard; long story) last night there was discussion of Brian De Palma. Someone watched Blow Out and wasn’t a fan; that was disappointing to hear. As others discussed which De Palma they liked the most… might as well check out something new to me. I’ll say more about my Halloween lists at the end so people don’t have to wait for discussion of the movie.

John Lithgow returning to the De Palma world to star in a psychological horror piece where he portrayed a child psychologist who has multiple personality disorder, is bonkers to begin with & goes haywire when discovering his wife Lolita Davidovich is having an affair… I was intrigued. Lithgow and his performance(s) ruled, but I have to note that Davidovich also did a swell job, especially in the opening act as she helped established what a weird, wacky movie this is. Truthfully, this is so odd, it might as well be an Italian movie from the 70’s or 80’s! That’s a compliment.

I won’t go into detail on why this is so weird aside from the multiple personality disorder aspect, except that at least in the Director’s Cut, the film made the viewer feel as if you were peering into the mind of Dr. Carter Nix & it felt like you had schizophrenia yourself. From research, the differences between this and the theatrical is mostly the order of several scenes. Naturally, the movie was shot well, had nice atmosphere (the San Francisco area), fine scares, dark humor, and a sweet score from Pino Donnagio. Raising Cain isn’t one I rate at the top of the director’s filmography; that said, the movie’s still pretty good.

Several reviews have compared this with Peeping Tom; that’s a film people will be GOBSMACKED I haven’t seen yet. That should be one I finally tackle by Halloween this year… the Psycho allusions were obvious, right from the opening credits to one scene blatantly lifted. In a few weeks, De Palma will turn 86. I hope he will live for years to come but you never know. What an entertaining filmmaker with all his genre films-sometimes trashy, sometimes not-that I usually at least like. Looking at the latter days of his career is a task for the future.

As always… whenever I do Spooky Season, the list won’t be posted publicly until it’s completed, around November 2. I watch whatever the heck I want. More so than typical, there are some ideas of what will be tackled; there might be the widest variety of films, shorts, cartoons, and what have you this time, but we’ll see.

Road Trip

Road Trip (2000)

Runtime: 93 minutes

Directed by: Todd Phillips

Starring: Breckin Meyer, Seann William Scott, Paulo Costanzo, Amy Smart, DJ Qualls

From: Dreamworks

As sometimes occurs, a movie from my high school or college days was revisited for the first time in ages. This is from my college years; you can imagine the reaction Road Trip got when I was at a friend’s place in my hometown during college break-me and several other people of similar age greatly enjoyed the movie and its vulgar humor. I can’t even repeat the convo-it was as adult as the dialogue in the film-that was had after the scene at the sperm bank and whether “a certain technique” shown on camera was real… looking at Google now, evidently it is!

Road Trip is a silly film revolving around a sex tape and the titular road trip being taken to prevent the accidentally-mailed tape from being seen by a long-distance girlfriend. There are crass moments and topless women, although there’s also the uber-nerd DJ Qualls growing up & becoming more assertive. The lead quartet was entertaining-Breckin Meyer was fine as the lead-although the character portrayed by Seann William Scott was a clone of Steve Stifler.

I know this won’t be a popular take but even at the time I never understood the popularity of Tom Green; nobody better ever ask me to ever tackle Freddy Got Fingered… I wouldn’t watch that even if you gave me $10,000! In Road Trip, Green wasn’t as intolerable-and his role was only supporting-so that doesn’t ruin Road Trip. An opinion we will be more in harmony with: Andy Dick is a gigantic creep. He’s only in two scenes so that doesn’t ruin the film either. Thankfully, Fred Ward also has a supporting role.

Road Trip isn’t the best movie of its type; the movie & its humor is uneven. There are fat jokes but those were still popular at the time. Be that as it may, I was still entertained. The edgiest moments haven’t aged as horribly as the most controversial scenes in a picture like Revenge of the Nerds. I am relieved the film could still entertain me approximately a quarter-century after first viewing. The directorial career Todd Phillips had: this never could have been predicted by me at the time.

 

Mr. Wong, Detective

Mr. Wong, Detective (1938)

Runtime: 69 minutes... nice

Directed by: William Nigh

Starring: Boris Karloff, Grant Withers, Maxine Jennings, Evelyn Brent, George Lloyd

From: Monogram 

Why not view Boris Karloff in yellowface? In the past I’ve checked out both Warner Oland & Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan, along w/ Peter Lorre as Mr. Moto. Courtesy of low-budget B-movie purveyors (Monogram Pictures) I was expecting to see another Pacific Rim Asian character as a stereotypical wise man who uttered fortune cookie aphorisms & used the word “please” often.

In this first of several films in the series, this wasn’t really the stereotypes exhibited by the character James Lee Wong. I never can complain about the job Oland, Toler, Lorre, and now Karloff did in yellowface, as poorly as that has aged. Simon Dayton is a businessman (he owns a “Chemical Works” company) who has several people he has heat with; they’re all suspects after Dayton is found dead in his office. One stereotype that was present: there’s also a white police detective who has a churlish attitude-here, more so than usual-and is made to look a fool by his Asian counterpart.

Mr. Wong, Detective is one of many serious 30’s or 40’s low-budget mystery pictures which aren’t must-see yet are competent and watchable, featuring fine detective work & intrigue. This was the first which had a scene where because reasons, a scene involves a glassblower and he made a pipe with a globe on one end that would eventually be separated from the stem. At that point, though, it resembled… a giant meth pipe! No, I don’t use meth myself-I’ve just watched shows like Cops and Live PD in the past. 

Boris Karloff-the highlight of the movie, undoubtedly-sounded like standard Boris Karloff. That at least made the experience not as awkward. Who knows if I’ll ever check out another Mr. Wong picture; at least this initial installment was a decent watch.

 

Juice

Juice (1992)

Runtime: 96 minutes

Directed by: Ernest R. Dickerson

Starring: Omar Epps, Tupac, Khalil Kain, Jermaine Hopkins, Cindy Herron

From: Paramount

Peer pressure steered me this way. I’ve never good about fulfilling requests in a timely manner (although in the next few months I will try harder to fulfill a few ones made months ago) but when a few people recommended this in the comments for my review of another Ernest R. Dickerson joint-Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight-I’d better fast-track this & make a viewing a priority. I'd have... gotten squeezed if there was a long delay. Juice was a movie I was glad to see. Some “Black movies” from the 90’s were viewed by myself (a dumb white guy) in the past... Boyz in the Hood and Menace II Society; it was nice to see one on the East Coast instead of the West Coast.

A quartet of teen male friends are followed in Harlem. They are a crew who don’t like going to school-instead, they visit pool halls, run a-foul of a Puerto Rican gang, and swipe LP’s from a record store. Omar Epps (Q) has aspirations to be a hit deejay; the other three don’t have such lofty ambitions yet. The opening is a hangout movie as we get to know the quartet; hints are dropped that once a major event occurs and things go wrong, one of the four shows their true colors. A classic film of the 40’s is a huge hint.

Juice was well-directed by Dickerson; impressive for a quality cinematographer making his feature-film debut. The quartet of leads (Omar Epps, Tupac, Khalil Kaid, Jermaine Hopkins), the first three made their acting debuts. They all performed well although a certain character was able to show menace and intimidation once the film shifts. Samuel L. Jackson had a small yet memorable role, and another acting newbie (Queen Latifah) did well in the few scenes she was in.

The world was unvarnished, a true-to-life examination that Black teens could have experienced in Harlem; the acquisition of a certain item caused someone to lash out and take revenge against others, or show their true colors. In addition, the hip hop score/soundtrack added texture to the experience. I don’t want to sound like a curmudgeon so I won’t elaborate on why I feel the rap songs here are MUCH better than modern rap. At least people like Big Daddy Kane, Naughty by Nature and Erik B. & Rakim didn’t use AI for all (or part) of an album, like Tyga just released.

No matter your race/ethnicity, anyone can enjoy Juice, especially if you’ve viewed such pictures like Boyz in the Hood and Menace II Society. This was a quality recommendation from several Letterboxd members, in other words.