Academy Award®–winning actress Melissa Leo (The Fighter, Treme) stars as Cookie, a teen runaway who escapes her abusive stepfather and heads for the Big Apple along with her younger brother. When she arrives at the Port Authority bus terminal, Cookie meets a charming but sadistic pimp named Duke (Dale Midkiff, Pet Sematary). With nowhere to go, Cookie is soon working for Duke, who introduces her to the harsh, brutal life of a prostitute. Also starring Antonio Fargas (Starsky And Hutch), Julie Newmar (Batman), Leon (Cliffhanger), Randall Batinkoff (Kick-Ass) and Khandi Alexander (Treme).
Here's a slice of nonjudgmental pie for you. With what I surely thought would be a film about a runaway kid getting "turned out" against her will by some sleazeball pimp, turned into a rather refreshing look into "life" & what it takes to survive in a world such as New York. You see, even though she's a hooker she conducts her life outside of the bizz with all the day to day trappings that a office worker would endure. She's the mom to her brother & in many ways she mom to the other"girls" in which she rooms with. She doesn't take drugs or any of the other trappings that many a whore find themselves doing, she does have a psycho pimp DUKE however, but I'll flesh him out later. It was nice to see that the ladies of the night & the other street urchin's form a somewhat scummy community where they all know one another, have loose ties & to a certain degree care for each other, in other words street life is shown as just another way of life.
The cast of streetwalkers is pretty fantastic. First off we have Julie Newmar, the lady who played one of the Catwoman roles in the 60's TV show Batman, playing the older hard edged lot lizard that teaches all newcomers what to watch out for. Looking at her grizzled appearance you gain background into a life that's been a very hard slug but one that put her on top of her world. She's even free of a pimp, she's her own boss & you get she would like to take the girls under her wing if she could. Julie gives a very credible performance here, I don't know much about her in real life, but I'm guessing the hard slug at life isn't to far removed from the woman. Khandi Alexander is a woman I'm only familiar with through CSI Miami, maybe the odd movie here & there but can't remember her from them, she provides a great performance of a woman torn between two sides. She enjoys what she does for a living but has deep fantasies about living a "normal" life, getting married, having a family...ect. Her pimp, played to the hilt by Antonio Fargas, is a rather small time & rather week individual. He has 2 woman in his stable, one is drug addicted & the other, Khandi, has eyes for DUKE. When the heat gets turned on, she's all for numero uno & is quick to drop you as a friend if it saves her ass. Lastly we have Melissa Leo, I don't know this actress at all. I've looked through her resume & a few films I've seen, but don't recall her in them. Man-o-Man is she a stunner. Very hot & plays the roll of "lost" girl very well. The majority of female flesh we see in this film belongs to her & I dare say you needn't any other. Her acting on the whole is very good, given this was one of her first films. She is very believable & when she throws herself into her character, as she does is a few scene's, you can clearly see how she would years later wind up winning an Oscar, quite fearless.
This brings me to the (almost) ultimate badass, DUKE, played bat-shit crazily by Dale Midkiff. The only other person to play a pimp so badass is Wings Hauser in Vice Squad (1982) & is the sole reason Dale hasn't got top honors IMO. Dale brings to the table an unrestrained performance worthy of Oscar glory. You might say it was over the top but I'd have to argue. This is a man in a world most don't know & his struggle to survive is not only day to day, but hour to hour & this reflects in Dale's performance. He's walking the knife's edge & is seconds away dying. When he's in a life or death situation, he acts just like anybody else would, fight or die...just brilliant. When the fight turns to revenge, again you can see his misguided logic, you may not agree with it, but Dale's performance grounds the dealings.
What might be a hard to believe turn of events is that this little sleaze shocker was directed by a woman. Anybody familiar with exploitation films knows there is a long (ok not SO long) list of female directors that have cut their teeth doing films like these & to their utmost credit, they deliver films that are sometimes far superior to their male counterparts, as they know what men like to see & aren't afraid to push it to the edge. Joan Freeman has only one other film to her credit & that was the abysmal SATISFACTION(1988) the Justine Bateman/Julia Roberts vehicle, but it is my understanding she worked for PBS & other before doing this film, she should do a follow up feature called Streetwalkin' 2 as I would pay to see it.
WARNING: this trailer contains NUDITY/SEXUAL SITUATIONS & is not safe for work environments, unless of course your looking to get your ass fired.
Ok lets get this out of the way first, this is not "porn" this is merely a good old fashion "sexploitation" film in which a shit ton of REALLY hot girls from some eastern block country got paid very little cash to take off their clothes, get fiddled by HOT GIRLS for the shear pleasure of "men" & love every minute of it.....well the last bit may be false, but their faces don't lie do they......... Really though this is my kind of "porn", it has genuine sex appeal, some very erotic stuff. It doesn't go "all the way" but what little is left to your imagination might as well be the CN Tower (phallus joke intended). Not showing actual sex, no matter how close it gets, still allows the mind to wander into that place & arouse you in ways "hardcore" never could.......not that "hardcore" doesn't arouse mind you, it does that in SPADES, but seeing penetration takes away the minds ability to fantasize. However at the end of the day we're still talking about whipping up a batch of baby batter or nut butter which ever you prefer.
I've been after Bound Heat's films for a few years now, mainly because they truly remind me of the sexploitation films of yesterday with a hint of Andrew Blake/Radley Metzger thrown in. They are not easy to come by, you either have to pay through the ass & buy directly from them, or get your local smut peddler to bring one in for you(& might still have to pay through the ass).
Production values are quite good given the fact we're dealing in smut here. While the acting varies greatly, from decent to quite poor...who are we kidding, as long as there is naked females, they could be speaking Dutch for all I care, but some of these gals weren't picked for their thespian skills is all I'll say.
In closing, I'm really looking forward to all other films in Bound Heat's collection from what I've seen, just top notch stuff.
Well done
8/10
After 10 years in prison, Driver (Dwayne Johnson) has focused on one thing – hunting down the people responsible for brutally murdering his brother. Now a free man with a terrifying purpose, he sets out to find and kill all those on his list. But on his heals are two men who will do anything to stop him – a veteran cop (Billy Bob Thornton) and a hitman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) who finds his match in this worthy opponent. Now, the hunter is also the hunted.
To start, even though this movie came out in 2010 I did not see it until this year, so it will no doubt be in my top 10 films of 2011. This movie got quite the cold shoulder from critics, one saying the Rock was playing a man that had ice running through his veins, nobody would ever seek revenge in such a cold, calculating way........are they fucking crazy, that's EXACTLY what someone would act like, no remorse, no listening to pleas for mercy, just flat out kill the people that did you wrong & do it as fast as possible. I really have to give it up for the Rock, he is awesome in this role. After years of thinking he's all but dried up in adult action films, just putting in paycheck jobs for Disney, this was a very welcomed return.
When a movie needs that certain type of scum bag, the kind that makes you feel dirty just watching him slither through scenes, the kind that you need a have a shower & scrub yourself clean after watching the film, you CAN'T do better than Billy Bob Thornton. The man projects douche bag better than anybody else, he's fantastic. Again, after years of playing bullshit characters in throw away films he finally finds a film that can play his strengths to the max, & he's allowed to go full tilt. Not a over the top performance that one might expect, but a slow, slimy one but also one of tragic human nature, you do feel pity for him.
Along with the revenge theme, there is another string threading this film together. One of a hitman that has one more job in him. Played straight faced by Oliver Jackson-Cohen, his job is to take out Driver(the Rock) before he can kill his way through his list of evil doers. The main problem I have with this character is I'm never really convinced he is a killer. I enjoyed the back story of him being a broken kid, setting his mind to conquer anything he wishes & achieving success in whatever he sets his sights on, it's just I think the role needed a better actor to bring the out believability in the character. With Oliver all I get is a spoiled rich kid with a gun, not that that isn't part of the killer, it's just when killer mode gets turned on I'm not buying what Oliver is selling.
Director George Tillman has no doubt studied the great vigilante films of the past. I'm reminded of movies like The Driver(1978), Breaking Point(1976), Rolling Thunder(1977)....ect, just fantastic stuff!!, The films soundtrack is aces. I don't know if Geoff Foster is the man responsible for putting it together, but whoever did, it hits all the right notes from start till finish. Music is key to films such a this, just watch any QT movie & you get my point, when the sound cues happen & when it's done right you get this tingle that turns to a shiver, brilliant job.
9.5/10