2nd Night at the Grind House Film Festival

Man, Pam Grier still looks fine. Aliye here, and just back from the Hollywood getting my triple feature on and saw "Executioners from Shaolin", "For a Few Dollars More", and "Coffy". I skipped Shogun's assassin because I seen as a kid a lot and really appreciate the uncut, subtitled versions of Lone Wolf and Cub. Don't get me wrong, I still find "SHogun Assassin" entertaining, but not on the big screen. The Japanese cuts show more beauty and scenery than the American cut dubbed version. Even though it serves its purpose as a party film(still you can the watch the Japanese versions with a bunch of friends) I just couldn't see it in theatres. The first film I saw was in the afternoon, "Executioners From Shaolin" , a beautiful martial arts epc from Lar-Keu Leung( Shaolin Master Killer). It was a movie that blends, not just dope kung fu, but a fresh sense of humor and melodrama. Lo Lieh, of course, playing the inevitable bad guy Pai Mei. The industructable Pai Mei invading the Shaolin Temple and killing the abbott, and leaving behind one student to lead his vengeance on Pai Mei. Lo Lieh is a great actor and is basically the Erich Von Strohiem of kung fu movies, he is the "man you love to hate". Pai Mei is one of the biggest bad ass characters ever to hit the screen.
After the feature I saw "For FEw Dollars More", what hasn't been said about that movie? SErgio Leone is a G!!!!!!!!!!!! Lee Van Cleef is badass, the score rocks, EAstwood kicks ass. i could go on. Plus Gian Maria Volonte is just a poetic bad guy playing Indio. I could go on and sweat this movie and not analyze it. I won't, out of the whole "Dollars" trilogy I can choose. i believe to watch them all simultaneously and just enjoy. Their all perfect. i could say that this is the most highly underrated of the trilogy. The opening shot in "For a Few Dollars more", is just genius. A pan widescreen of the landsape and you see a guy riding a horse in complete silence. All you can hear the horses feet. Then bam gunshot from nowhere and the guy is dead and falls off the horse. No close-up to see if he's alive, just the cameras stays like that and the opening credits are what opening credits should be. The style is there, but Leone was not looking at this film from the outside. He invoked characters that you get into and that justify the style. It is a movie that flows. You get invested in these characters so much, that Leone's style just passes through you and invites you to his movie. The scene I do love is the end when lee Van Cleef rides off to the sun and Eastwood counts the bodies finds out he's missing one. Then one of hthem is behind him and right before he loads his gun Eastwood just blast his ass. Then it cuts back ot Lee VAn Cleef on his horse riding off in the sun and he turns back and says," Any trouble, boy", Eastwood replies," Just having trouble with my counting". Need I say more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Coffy" is another excepetion of "what hasn't been said about this movie". But who cares. i was familar with this movie at the age of 14 and loved every minute of it. it was a pleasure to see this on the big screen, because you just don't get feel has do on TV. Especially the dialogue, that went on to influence "jackie Brown" and Tarantino's style. i prefer jack Hill's dialogue though because it has resonance of Shakespeare using street slang. Watching TArantino's revival DVD special on Jack Hill for "Switchblade Sisters", said that most of Shakespeare's trademarks are found in most of his movies. Jack Hill use to direct Shakespear theatre. The movie overall was shown at the upstairs theatre at the Hollywood, and I sat up close to Pam Grier's busty size. That right there stills the show for about a second and the audience just shuts up and gaze. Even the girls. Guys that brught their girls said,"DAmn give some of that brown sugar". Guys were pleased. BEfore the movie started was old school trailers for other blaxploitation movies that were real cool. "J.D.'s REvenge", that is awesome, starring the great Glen Thurman and Louis Gossit, directed by Arthur Marks. The whoole audience was laughing, but I found it so enjoyable. After that was an 70's mpaa label, rated R for adults or something. Then the trailer to "Shaft" starts playing and the theme music starts playing and at the end of the trailer the voice tagline was "If you wanna see Shaft, You better ask Yo' Mamma". Everyone was dying, and I was hootin and hollering. Then the movie played and the one thing I love about "Coffy" is the opening. Its the Roy Ayers music playing in the background while Willie walks into the club, and I know everyone single of dialogue from this entranace."Look over there. I plenty of tail. I got more tail than I can handle. I even got white tail. Waht you talking about ........." The whole is just great from start to finsh, and starting to repeat some the lines in the theatre out loud. Then listened to the soundtrack suppiled by Roy AYers. The opening title is just awesome. The title flies out the screen, and then "Coffy is the Color of your skin". The whole audience was reacting to it just as much as I was. The one scene i do love is at the end when she aiming the shotgun at Howard and he talks her out of shooting him, then the white woman shows up and she shoot him in the crotch. That was influenced by "King Lear". The last shot when she walks off in the sunrise on the beach and the Roy Ayers track "Shining Symbol". its start off,"Its not the End, Its the beginning". Then is blast into ," Revenge is a virtue, you stood while you could. You're a shining symbol". It's just perfect. Didn't mean to spoil it for you, but through the bloody mayhem, T&A, sex, drugs, and the N' word just look out for that scene. You might miss it. It's not a vital scene, because the all the violence and dialogue is done so well that you might overlook it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is Mr. Nyoka sayin 'Good Night, an Good Luck".