Movieline Online

I’m betting Smokey and the Bandit wouldn’t have been a pop-culture sensation if Burt Reynolds had raped Sally Field in the backseat. But that’s the tactic used in Bad Georgia Road (1977), released the same year, which pits an uptight city girl against a hooch-running roughneck trying to outwit the authorities and the competition. Carol Lynley plays Molly, the heiress of a moonshine business run by Leroy (Gary Lockwood) and Arthur (Royal Dano) who aren’t exactly thrilled by the idea of a New Yorker cutting in on their half of the profits. But Molly is inexplicably turned on by Leroy’s misogynistic shenanigans, setting up a series of meet-cute, fish-out-of-water escapades until finally she’s fornicated into submission. Yep, it’s that creepy. Even setting aside the rape-as-seduction scene (which is impossible), Bad Georgia Road flubs almost every chance to be entertaining. A Dukes of Hazzard -style country cop who dresses up in drag to catch the boys in the act has some potential,...

Jackie Chan may be the most recognizable Hong Kong action star of the last 40 years, but his childhood friend and frequent collaborator Sammo Kam-Bo Hung has had a career that eclipses Jackie’s in many respects. Both trained at the China Drama Academy and worked their way up through bit parts in Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest productions to become in-demand performers. But Sammo upped his game from stuntman to stunt coordinator to producer, director and, eventually, his own production company. And as the Hong Kong vaults have opened for more North American releases, casual fans are finally getting a chance to appreciate just how skillfully Hung built his career onscreen and off. The Owl vs. Bumbo (1984) sets up a buddy comedy with George Lam as “The Owl,” a heist artist who ripped off the mob for millions, and Bumbo (Hung), an ex-thief sitting on the hefty proceeds from a bank job. They’re both blackmailed by a straight-arrow cop trying to weed out the corruption in his own ...

Hong Kong humor isn’t always appropriate for mixed company. Even the initiated have to admit its full of homophobia, crude sexual innuendo and outdated pratfalls. But then again, so was every installment of Police Academy . And at least T he Haunted Cop Shop (1987) adds ghosts, vampires and a quickie-mart manager who’s also a master of kung fu! Set at a rural police station used as a Japanese after-hours club during the occupation, the current staff unwittingly releases General Issei – now a bloodthirsty vampire - from the spirit world. As he makes the rounds turning victims into his undead slaves, two cops and their superior look to undo the damage without becoming supernatural casualties themselves. A sort of Abbott & Costello Meet the Hungry Ghosts , this Wong Kar-wai co-written spoof happily embraces the broad comedy clichés established by Sammo Hung’s Encounters of the Spooky Kind - and even gives it a name-check. What’s most surprising is that, for all the narrative c...

Hearkening back to the Roger Corman era, when everything you needed to know about a movie was right there in the title, Frankenhooker (1990) is a creative low-budget effort from writer/director Frank Henenlotter, whose Basket Case (1982) was the best movie ever made about a Siamese twin living in a wicker basket. Both films are actually cleverer than you’d expect and share a self-deprecating sense of humor. Starring Patty Mullen, former 1987 Pet of the Year and a genuine Jersey girl, Frankenhooker begins with her dismemberment courtesy of a remote-controlled lawnmower. Racked by grief, her fiancé heads into the streets of Manhattan to collect body parts from all-too-eager prostitutes in hopes of reconstructing her. The end result, however, is a purple, pasty-faced monstrosity who escapes the lab and goes out looking for more “tricks.” There’s not a frame of Henenlotter’s film that isn’t ridiculous, offensive, stupid, or all three at once. But it’s also all in good fun. Synapse’s new...