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chrisjhouse
Reviews
Street Sisters (1974)
An original blaxploitation flick
Blaxsploitation cinema of the 70's is littered with the same old tiresome genres: Martials Arts, Gangster movies and Drug Smuggling. So it's refreshing to come across a movie that tries to shake the boundaries and try something new. Granted Arthur Robinson's 'Sister, Sister' aka Black Hooker and Don't Leave Go My Hand, suffers somewhat dramatically from amateur directing, but overall the movie delivers its story well enough for the audience to appreciate the intentions it sets out to achieve.
The story follows the early years of a young white boy, abandoned by his mother; A high class African-American hooker from the city, to be brought up by her grandparents in the poor black regions in the countryside. The denial of her son, is illustrated through her disgust at his white skin, blonde hair and blue eyes, a child born a bastard to a drunken white man and a prostitute. The child however, alien to a world of racial bigotry, wants only the love of his estranged mother. After losing his childhood sweetheart and first love to his preacher grandfather at the age of 16, he decides to leave home for the city in search of his mother, only to finally find her and be greeted with stone cold denial, and contempt. A lifetime of rejection and hardship is too much to bare for the son... How will he cope?
A fairly thought provoking story which undeniably sets out to challenge the social and ethnic class structures that were so divided in working class America in the 70's. Which I feel the current IMDb rating does not give it credit for. There's no pretending that this movie is anything particularly special, but it does manage to string together a plausible narrative, which offers somewhat more than the usual pimp/blow/fist fighter we're so used to with blaxploitation.
The strength of this movie comes from the performance of the leading actress Sandra Alexandra who plays the working girl mother. Besides Alexandra's performance, the rest of the cast is nothing out of the ordinary, but the ideals this movie is trying to flagstone, speak louder than the actions actually portrayed on the screen.
Le prix du danger (1983)
80's French exploitation cinema, takes a crack at 'The Running Man'.
The Running Man, a book originally written by Stephen King, under a pseudonym 'Richard Bachman', has achieved some cult standing thanks to the 1987 action packed Schwarzenegger bicep flexer. Its easy to place Prize of Peril within the 'rip-off' category, as it's not uncommon to see 80's European cinema re-create their own low budget exploitation takes on Hollywoods big hitters. But to do that with Prize would be a mistake, as this was released in 1984, three years BEFORE the chainsaw wielding, ice skating fireball that is the Running Man we all know.
Although cast mainly with Italian actors, Prize was actually directed by Frenchman Yves Boisset and shot on location in France and the former Yugoslavia. Although not actually credited to be an adaptation of the original novella by Stephen King, it's difficult to believe that his work was not in some way an inspiration for the movie.
The plot, set in the future, tells of a game show where the contestants are witted out against a team of trained bounty hunters who are set out to dispose of them for the blood thirsty TV audiences that watch the show religiously. The aim for the contestants is to reach the finish line, alive! Our hero, unlike his predecessors, turns the fight on the bounty hunters! Much to the shock and dismay of the audience.
The pace of the movie is well set, action mixed with intrigue keeps you watching, and you quickly feel admiration for the struggling hero (played by Gerard Lanvin), as he blunders his way through everything that's thrown at him. A far more interesting character is portrayed by Lanvin than we witness with Arnie's character in the 1987 film 'The Running Man'. The overtones of the movie are more sinister and the comment on society stronger than the American attempt, although the budget is hardly comparable. Sadly this is illustrated most obviously, by the distinct lack of imagination for set design. Unless we are supposed to believe this is set in the near future, then the overwhelming 1980's look the movie has throughout is definitely a negative.
However the budget should not be a deterrence, to what is, in whole, a very watchable and well made film. Not as glamorised nor as violent as 'The Running Man' but overall a more educated and engrossing movie. Still has its flaws, but its worth a watch.