My roundtable entries, the April Ghouls Monster-Rama, another B-Fest straggler, and more:

The Beast Within (1982), in which the combination of cannibalism and the blood of the First Nations apparently gives you the power to turn into a rapey cicada monster, except not really…

Galaxy Quest (1999), in which people making fun of Star Trek make a better Trek movie than most of the real things…

Kitten with a Whip (1964), in which wannabe Senators should never give a psychotic beatnik girl an even break…

Ladyhawke (1985), in which evil bishops don’t give the objects of their unrequited love any even breaks, either…

Sweet Jesus, Preacherman (1973), in which a black hit man contracting for the mafia goes undercover in Watts impersonating an idealistic minister…

The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976), in which the Boggy Creek guy tries his hand at the emerging slasher genre…

and…

Willie Dynamite (1973), in which it’s hard out there for a pimp, but not nearly as hard as it is for his stable.
 
 
 

Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1976)
A.K.A. Dr. Black, Mr. White and The Watts Monster.

It’s a little surprising that Dimension Pictures, the exploitation outfit that released the Rudy Ray Moore “Dolemite” movies, would make a Blaxploitation movie with so little grit to it. Yet here it is: a Blaxploitation take on “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” that isn’t so much Black as… beige. Trust me: few people in the world are a pasty-white as I am, and if even I notice how tepidly the movie addresses its Black audience, there’s probably something wrong.

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SUGAR HILL (1974)

When the owner of a successful nightclub refuses to sell out to the local crime-boss, he is beaten to death by the mobster’s goons.

The crime-boss soon has reason to regret his chosen style of business negotiation, however, when it turns out that the nightclub owner’s girlfriend has friends, not in high, but in low places. Very low places.

Subterranean places…

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When the blaxploitation craze dried up at the major Hollywood studios, Fred Williamson kept chugging along by making his own star vehicles, Death Journey being one of them. It’s more often than not silly and inept, but it’s all the same a lot of fun to watch.

The documentary UFO’s Are Real attempts to convince viewers that we are not alone in this universe. And no, I didn’t make a typo with the title – there’s an apostrophe in the title both on the video box and in the opening credits, and it’s just the start of many problems to be found with this documentary.

Just before hitting it big with Labyrinth, future Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly starred in the teen movie Seven Minutes In Heaven. Despite the suggestive title, it’s actually a sensitive and thoughtful drama that both teenagers and older viewers will enjoy.