Movie Review: Rush Week (1989)

Rush Week (1989) - USA - Horror - Unrated

Directed by Bob Bralver

Starring Pamela Ludwig, Dean Hamilton, Roy Thinnes, Donald Grant, Courtney Gebhart, John Donovan, Gregg Allman, Kathleen Kinmont

It's Animal House meets The House on Sorority Row in a well paced and produced slasher flick.

Toni, a journalism major, has just transferred to Tambers College and her first assignment for the college paper is to cover rush week, not something she would prefer to write about. Overhearing a conversation about a missing female student, she noses around to find out if there is a story, despite being put off by the dean and others telling her there is no story that the girl just took off and didn't tell anyone. But she is obviously stepping on someone's toes as she receives strange messages via computer while a cloaked, labris (double-edged axe) wielding figure continues killing college girls.

For those looking for a bloody mayhem type of slasher movie along the lines of Friday the 13th, you are not going to find that in Rush Week as the kill count is low and the movie plays more like a detective story combined with a college hijinx movie.

In addition to the underlying story of Toni searching for a killer, there is a secondary story revolving around the BDB (Beta Delta Beta) House fraternity, a group of pranksters and sleazebags just reinstated after having been shut down the previous year. These two running plotlines are not unrelated, but they do also provide a good pacing for the movie as it moves between a slasher thriller and a fraternity comedy.

What impressed me about Rush Week was the quality of the audio, and I mean on the production end, and the camerawork. The audio is well done with solid dialogue and even nuances as trivial as the crushing of a beer can not being overlooked. The photography uses tight framing, and very much to their credit uses natural lens distortion and perspective to create mood. The night shots are also all well lit, and distinctively night, shot with muted colors, near black & white, while still maintaining detail.

What didn't impress me with Rush Week was the 80s insensitivity. Par for course in an 80s fraternity movie there is likely going to be a derogatory reference to gays. Rush Week goes beyond that by having a fraternity rival to BDB, the Gamma Alpha Epsilon House, regular referred to as the GAE House and pranks are pulled on them which center around homosexuality.

Aside from the gay insensitivity issue, which as I previously stated is par for course in some 80s movies, Rush Week is entertaining with good pacing, playing the slasher theme as a detective story, having plenty of humor with the college fraternity part of the story, and of course with a story that is part slasher movie and part frat movie there has to be boobs, and there are!

An interesting footnote is this movie also is the first acting gig for Gregg Allman, the musician, though in only two scenes and with nothing much to say.

My Rating: 3 Fingers

You can find the full movie on YouTube

Toxic Fletch

Movie Review: Blood Frenzy (1987)

Blood Frenzy (1987) - USA - Horror - NR

Directed by Hal Freeman

Starring Wendy MacDonald, Tony Montero, Lisa Loring, Lisa Savage, Hank Garrett

At a minimum a slasher movie needs a group of actors willing to play victims and a plot any 5 year old can figure out. That minimum is all this bland entry in the slasher subgenre succeeds in accomplishing, other than having two stars from 60s TV sitcoms on-board.

A psychiatrist takes a group of her patients to a secluded spot in the desert for group encounter therapy. Unfortunately for them, and perhaps for the viewing audience too, someone starts killing off members of the group. Could it be one of them? Is there something in someone's past that has come back to haunt them? Are these questions more entertaining than the movie?

An opening flashback sequence, an RV ride into the desert, right off the bat we can see this movie is going places we've all seen before in horror movies. The only thing Blood Frenzy adds is having Lisa Loring (Wednesday from The Addams Family TV show) and Hank Garrett (Nicholson from Car 54, Where Are You?, the TV show) along for the ride.

Most of the acting in this is amateurish at best, save for Wendy MacDonald and Lisa Savage who both do a good job. Lisa Loring's performance belongs in the over-actors' hall of fame. I got the impression they may have shot this in sequence as most of the performances improve as the movie advances. On the other hand the dialogue from the start comes off like one-liners from beer can koozies, and I can't help but feel the writer and producer of this are no strangers to beer can koozies.

The only possible reasons to see this would be if you are a fan of gruesome neck slashing scenes, which seems to be the only special effect the crew knew how to do, or for Lisa Loring's over-acting. Even with the inclusion of a character who is a nymphomaniac, there is no nudity in this movie other than a drunk falling off a toilet, and that's something I would have been happy to not have seen.

My Rating: I give it a finger!

If you really want to see this, you can find the full movie on YouTube.

First Thoughts on Kevin Can Wait

Being more of a movie fan whose television watching consists mostly of 70s and 80s TV reruns, if I get into something current on television it is either through word-of-mouth or channel surfing and finding something interesting to watch. Having watched some CBS show that must have been so interesting that I don't even remember which show it was, learning that Kevin James is coming back to series television with a new show is the first time in years I have looked forward to a TV show.

I like Kevin James as an actor for several reasons. Of course he is funny and does a lot of physical comedy, but he can also be touching and sympathetic in his performance, not coming off like someone who is interested in delivering the laugh while not caring whether they offended their audience. Along the same lines he is, in my opinion, a family-friendly presence among a dying breed in the world of entertainment. His movies are among the few I wouldn't hesitate to put on the TV when family and friends of all ages are around. I can't say the same for a lot of fare that's on TV at any time of the day.

I also cannot give a fair assessment of his new show from one episode. Positive or negative, one episode does not make a series and it takes a few episodes to get a feel for a show's staying power. Additionally as I had seen the CBS preview show hosted by Kevin James as well several promos for the show, I had seen much of this first episode already, and really want to kick myself for not allowing myself an undiluted first experience.

The premise of the show is Kevin plays...uhm...a guy named Kevin. He has just retired from the police force and is looking forward to his retirement "me" time, spending more time with his family and doing all those macho guy-things with his retired buddies.

Screeeeeech!

Enter his eldest daughter who not only shows up with her boyfriend from college to introduce him to dad for the first time, but she also drops the bombshell that they are engaged. Oh, and there is a cherry on top as well: she is dropping out of college to support him while he is developing his "app" that will be the next big thing.

Yes, the boyfriend, though a nice guy who does care about Kevin's daughter, is a geek, and not the sports loving, beer swilling, macho kind of guy dad would like to hang out with, and frankly dad doesn't like the guy for that very reason. But Kevin does have a soft spot, and his daughter, her dreams, what makes her happy and, yes, even if that includes a boyfriend dad can't hang with, are more important than his plans for retirement.

Hence, Kevin Can Wait to enjoy his retirement plans while he lets his daughter and his soon to be son-in-law move into his home so she can continue with school. Naturally there are going to be adjustments, and potential entertainment value in those adjustments.

This first episode, though spoiled through my own fault of watching previews and promos, did offer quite a few chuckles still. It's much of the same character he played in Kings of Queens, but with three kids this time around and certainly different challenges as he has to be even more responsible, an entertaining choir in itself as Kevin James often and well portrays a 12 year boy trapped in an adult body.

No previews for me before next week's episode. The show looks promising so far. The pilot was solidly written. Kevin James' real life brother, Gary Valentine, is a part of the cast, as well a few familiar faces from shows and movies he has done. One of the advantages James has with bringing his friends along is they always seem to have fun together and that fun element spills into the audience. With the potential fun factor of Kevin James and friends, a fresh approach for him playing a father in an overall different situation, and so far some solid writing, it looks hopeful for another hit series for Kevin James.

Toxic Fletch

Is Blake Lively Being Slandered?

Right up front, I would say she is being slandered.

Page Six and other News Boobs picking up the story are reporting that Blake Lively refused to uncross her legs while sitting in the front row of a Michael Kors fashion show, even after be told to do so by the chairman of the fashion show.

Can you just feel the misogyny in this?

Oh, wait. The part about it being for the photographers so the attendees legs don't get in the way of their shots, well, that would explain it, right?

That's bunk!

Oh, it's for the photographers alright. But it's not for the reason the News Boobs are reporting. There are many, and I mean many shots from the fashion show with Blake Lively in the background. Page Six spins this as Blake Lively being lucky enough to sit in the front row, when in actuality the fashion show is lucky enough to have Blake Lively sitting in the front row, and the photographers are clearly taking advantage of it as there are even shots of Blake Lively with only a part of the runway model showing. But in those shots, Blake Lively is sitting with her legs crossed.

In body language, crossed legs means one of two things. One is a defensive posture, the same as crossing your arms, but that's not what is at issue here. The other is it represents an in-change posture, and that is looked upon as masculine. Blake Lively's posture just simply wasn't compliant, as apparently sexist News Boobs and others think a woman should be.

Blake Lively is certainly being slandered, in my opinion, for not being "in her place", as some would like to think a woman should be. The photographers certainly weren't hurt by her crossed legs as evidenced by all the photographs taken of the beautiful woman.

Yeah, suck on that, Page Six.

*Unlike the News Boobs at Page Six and other outlets reporting this story of earth-shattering importance in the scope of world events (it's sarcasm!), I am not representing this as anything other than being my opinion.

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Toxic Fletch has left the building.