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The Boxer

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Despite a healthy homegrown film industry in the ‘50s and ‘60s, Japan became beholden to Hollywood imports during the blockbuster years of the 1970s. With Jaws topping the box-office in 1976, struggling Toei studios adopted a “if-you-can’t-beat-em-join-em” mentality and drew inspiration from Rocky to produce its own version of an underdog fighter training his way to the top. 1977’s The Boxer might have begun life riding the coattails of the Italian Stallion but director Shuji Terayama ensures there’s enough originality here to go the full ten rounds. Tetsuo Tenma (Kentaro Shimizu) is a club-footed wannabe who’s reached a personal low. Responsible for the accidental death of a co-worker, who just so happened to be the fiancé of the women he loved, his boxing career is going nowhere when he petitions Terayama (Bunta Sugawara), the brother of the man he killed, to train him. The unlikely duo win a few matches and set their sights on the Rookie of the Year match. But the psycholog...
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The Double

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The “Antonioni effect” is on full display in 1971’s The Double , a decidedly non-linear pseudo-giallo that ends where it begins and challenges the audience to sort out everything in-between. Even though Blow Up was five years in the rear-view mirror, Italian cinema was still hopped up on artistic pretensions, most of which would be swapped out for exported box-office appeal in the coming decade. But director Romolo Guerrieri’s film is still somewhat essential viewing for fans with that “gotta-watch-em-all” mentality. A selfish, trust-fund playboy, Frank (Jean Sorel) is second-guessing his marriage to Lucia (Eva Aulin) when her mother, Nora (Lucia Bose) enters the scene. Instantly infatuated, Frank’s oedipal impulses wreak havoc during their trip to Morrocco and the troubles follow them home to Rome, where a free-wheeling hippie acquaintance creates a dangerous love triangle. Following the structure of a jet-set gialli but leaning far more towards psychological angst, The Double ’s ...
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The Outfit

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Author Donald E. Westlake was a crime-fiction superstar long before the “airport lounge” era of contemporary giants like James Patterson and Lee Child. Far from disposable entertainment, Westlake’s books (especially those written under his nom de plume Richard Stark) had a flair for criminal camaraderie and the rare ability to make readers feel like they were in on the job. His signature character, Parker, has been brought to the screen no less than seven times, but 1973’s The Outfit comes closest to capturing the hard, no-nonsense spirit of the books. Fresh out of a short prison stretch, Macklin (Robert Duvall) is fingered for a hit by the crime syndicate who owned the bank he robbed two years prior. Successfully avoiding the best efforts of top boss Mailer (Robert Ryan) to put him underground, Macklin proposes a deal: 250K and everything is forgotten. But one double-cross and several botched assassination attempts later, Macklin takes on the entire outfit to even the scales once...
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Soylent Green

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The evolution of sci-fi from whiz-bang space operas to eco-spiritual odysseys and back again is a fascinating bit of cinematic history. But Kubrick’s 2001 wasn’t created in a vacuum; sci-fi authors themselves had evolved from futuristic prognostication to a more inward, cosmic exploration. Too deep for you? Well, it was a pretty short run until Star Wars put everything back on track. But it left audiences with more than a few socioeconomic warnings to enjoy like 1973's Soylent Green . Based on Harry Harrison’s dystopian detective novel entitled Make Room! Make Room! , the film completes Charlton Heston’s unofficial science-fiction trifecta. He plays Thorn, a cop barely scraping by in a world on the brink of ecological collapse. While Thorn handles the legwork involving the murder of a high-profile executive, his researcher, Sol Roth, (Edward G. Robinson) uncovers a conspiracy involving the latest batch of synthetic food, Soylent Green. Living off the scraps of the one-per...
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Falling Down

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Nervous breakdown. Emotional collapse. Or straight-up freak-out. Whatever you want to call it, most of us are only one heated argument, one unexpected traffic jam or one bad meal away from blowing our top. So 1993’s Falling Down has only become more relevant in a society where it seems only those who scream the loudest get any attention. But director Joel Schumacher’s film is a bit more troublesome than that, delivering a mixed-message of justified racial intolerance and vigilantism that are at odds with its cathartic tendencies. Still…it’s an undeniable attention grabber! Micheal Douglas plays a nameless desk jockey who abandons his car in the middle of traffic and walks through one angry misadventure after another while en route to the home of his ex-wife (Barbara Hershey) to celebrate his child’s birthday. Meanwhile, Lt. Prendergast (Robert Duvall) is trying to coast through his last day on the job when the string of incidents begin to add up. Tracking the suspect’s movements...
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Red Sun

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By the end of the ‘60s, westerns had become truly international. German, Italian, French and Spanish co-productions offered up a grittier version of the Old West than Hollywood could muster at the time. But even European filmmakers knew front-loading your movie with familiar faces meant more worldwide box-office appeal. Which leads us to 1971’s Red Sun , an all-star high-concept affair starring Charles Bronson, Alain Delon, Ursula Andress and Toshiro Mifune in an East-meets-West adventure that attempts to match the U.S. “event movie” vibe with all the sex and violence of European sensibilities. Forced into helping a samurai (Mifune) retrieve a stolen sword, Link (Bronson) heads off in pursuit of his former partner (Delon) who cheated him out of the proceeds of a recent train heist. Their only lead is Cristina (Andress), Gauche’s lover, who is coerced into joining them in pursuit of the loot…and the Emperor’s missing katana. Directed in rather bland style by Bond veteran Terence Yo...
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The Nine Demons

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Even the most rabid kung-fu fans can get exhausted from time to time. Punch, kick, tumble, twirl. Yes, it’s all elegantly choreographed and professionally executed. But wouldn’t it be cool if, like, one guy had a necklace of skulls that transformed into blood-sucking devil spawn? Then say hello to The Nine Demons , director Chang Cheh’s 1984 occult-action film that reunites most of the original Venom Mob for a distinctly outre martial arts entry that wraps horror embellishments around a sturdy wuxia frame. After selling his soul to bring his best friend back from the dead, the next item on Joey’s (Tien-Chi Cheng) agenda is revenge upon his enemies. Backed up by a posse of child demons and one hot witch, Demon Joey goes on the warpath, unleashing his supernatural fury on the baddies who killed his father and any unlucky bystanders. But his dark side is soothed by a love interest who knows there’s a good man in there somewhere. The question is, does selling your soul have a 30-day...
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