POOR WHITE TRASH PART 2 (1974) * ½

You know you’re in trouble from the very first scene.  Two lovers sit outdoors, holding each other in their arms.  Then, the camera slowly dissolves to… the same shot of the two lovers holding each other in their arms!  That’s right, folks:  They pulled a Manos! 

At least this ineptness is interrupted by a not-bad scene where the lover boy gets an axe in his chest.  This sets his best gal a running through the woods where she meets a lecherous country bumpkin who takes her home and holds her prisoner while his equally trashy family members look on.  Eventually, the killer makes his way to their cabin and begins snuffing out the country-fried clan one by one. 

The director was S.F. Brownrigg, and if you’ve seen his Don’t Look in the Basement, you might already know what to expect.  Part ‘70s hicksploitation flick, part ‘80s-style slasher, Poor White Trash Part 2 is thoroughly unpleasant and is filled with long painful scenes of people shouting at one another in overdone southern accents.  Even though portions of the film are a chore to sit through, it fitfully comes alive whenever someone gets bumped off.  In addition to the aforementioned axing, there’s a decent scene where a guy gets his throat torn out with a rake and an OK barb-wire strangulation. 

This was originally released as Scum of the Earth, but it made much more money as Poor White Trash Part 2.  It’s funny because the first Poor White Trash wasn’t that film’s original title either.  That was a drama called Bayou, starring Peter Graves.  Naturally, the two pictures have nothing to do with one another. 

Suggested Drinking Game:  Take a shot every time the psycho patriarch says, "Fetch me a jar", and you'll be just as drunk and demented as he is.  

AKA:  Scum of the Earth.

BONNIE’S KIDS (1972) ***

Ellie (Tiffany Bolling) kills her lecherous stepfather (Leo Gordon) when he tries to rape her sister, Myra (Robin Mattson).  Together, they stash the body and take off for Los Angeles where they hit up their rich uncle (Scott Brady) for a place to stay.  Eventually, he ropes Ellie and a slow-on-the-draw private investigator (Steve Sandor) into a scheme involving a bag full of money.  She convinces the P.I. to take the money and run away with her and it isn’t long between her uncle’s associates (Alex Rocco and Timothy Brown) are in hot pursuit.

Bonnie’s Kids starts out as standard drive-in fare before slowly revealing itself as a quasi-Elmore Leonard type of crime picture.  Director Arthur Marks (who later had a great run of directing Blaxploitation flicks like Bucktown, Friday Foster, and J.D.’s Revenge) does a particularly fine job during the sleazy pre-credits sequence.  Some of the back-and-forth over the money gets a bit repetitive late in the game, but for the most part, Marks keeps things running smoothly, even when the film is hopping from genre to genre. 

The cast is great, which helps tremendously.  Tiffany (Wicked, Wicked) Bolling should have been a star.  Whenever she’s front and center, the movie really crackles.  Mattson is equally fine as the Lolita-like spitfire who plays with the affections of both men and women alike.  Old pros Rocco and Brady add extra dimension to their already colorful characters and leave memorable impressions as well.

T-BIRD GANG (1959) ***

John Brinkley watches in horror as his night watchman father is gunned down by a gang of thieves.  He vows revenge and infiltrates the gang to bring them down from the inside.  When Brinkley is arrested, he tells his plight to a concerned cop (Coleman Francis), who allows him to be a police informant.  It doesn’t take long for the seasoned ringleader of the gang (Ed Nelson) to smell a rat.  

In some ways, T-Bird Gang feels like an early Point Break prototype.  Written by co-stars Brinkley and Tony Miller (who plays one of Nelson’s crew), it’s only an hour long, moves at a breakneck pace, and has a cool jazzy score.  It’s also highly entertaining.  The performances are strong across the board too, with Nelson being the standout as the slimy kingpin.  Even Coleman Francis is rock-solid as the straight-laced detective on the case. 

Some viewers might feel cheated as this is sort of a bait-and-switch.  Even though it was sold as a juvenile delinquent movie, it’s actually a taut crime thriller.  If it’s JD kicks you’re looking for, I’m afraid you’ll have to look elsewhere.  If, however, you’re craving a brutally efficiently little B picture, T-Bird Gang should fit the bill nicely.  It’s a shame director Richard Harbinger didn’t direct anything else because he delivered a crackling potboiler on a meager budget and coaxed some fine performances from his cast.

BURY ME AN ANGEL (1972) *** ½

Dixie Peabody stars as a tough-talking, hard-drinking biker named Dag who is searching for the man who killed her brother.  The scene of him being shot is rather disturbing and is repeated several times throughout the picture.  (Even when she looks at herself in the mirror!)  Despite the fact we see it again and again, it never loses its punch. 

If you can’t already tell, director Barbara (Humanoids from the Deep) Peeters isn’t content on just delivering a run-of-the-mill biker movie.  Sure, she gives us all the scenes you’ve come to expect from the genre.  There are long scenes of motorcycle maintenance, campfire chill-outs, and more than a few montages of motorcycles riding down the highway while (not-bad) classic rock plays.  However, Peeters also gives us some trippy visuals, bizarre flashbacks, and a genuinely unnerving finale that makes Bury Me an Angel stand out from the rest of (the leader of) the pack.   

In addition to the finale (which I wouldn’t dream of spoiling) Bury Me an Angel has a couple of oddball sequences that keep the viewer amused.  I mean how many biker pictures do you know feature bikers meeting a witch in the desert for a bowl of “Pot Stew”?  And how many of those feature Dan Haggerty as a hippie art teacher? 

Speaking of teaching, there’s a great gonzo sequence where Peabody and her crew break into a school looking for her brother’s murderer.  They barge into the office, hold the principal at gunpoint, and taunt his secretary (all while “comedic” music plays).  Before they enter the school though, they’re stopped by two young students who say, “You can’t bring a gun to school!” 

Peabody replies, “I think it’ll be alright this once!” 

Wow. 

There’s also a psychological aspect to Bury Me an Angel that makes it memorable.  We really get under Dag’s skin and get to know what makes her tick.  A lot of that is due to Peabody’s great performance as the vengeful biker.  Even though she’s tough and mean, she gets to show off her delicate side too.  She’s especially memorable during the jaw-dropping ending.   

It’s not all perfect though.  The film has one of the most unconvincing bar fights in screen history.  All the breakaway furniture is painfully obviously, the fight choreography is childish, and the comic relief is more dumb than funny.  Still, just on the strength of its WTF moments and Peabody’s impressive performance, Bury Me an Angel is one biker picture worth digging up.

KUNG FU GENIUS (1979) **

Cliff Lok decides to open a karate school even though he apparently only has one student.  The rival schools don’t like the fact that a newbie can open his own school on a whim, so they try to kick his ass.  Naturally, he mops the floor with them and earns the respect of nearly all the schools.  One upstart student from a rival school, still smarting from defeat, comes after Lok’s student, which sends him on a quest for revenge. 

The plot is an old hat and while the action is plentiful, it’s not exactly jaw-dropping stuff.  Many of the fight sequences go on too long and since the stunt work and choreography is uninspired, they have a tendency to get repetitive.  It’s never boring though, so there’s that. 

We also get a handful funny moments, like when a Kung Fu master uses his patented “Duck Style” (complete with poorly dubbed-in quacks), but the film is more successful at getting laughs from its soundtrack cues.  It blatantly steals the Rocky theme for one of the training montages and one scene reuses Goblin’s score from Dawn of the Dead.  I know I’ve always said, “If you're going to steal from someone, steal from the best”, but this is a little ridiculous. 

An evil Kung Fu master gets the best line of the movie when he says, “Today, we’re going to piss on your spirits!”

THE KUNG FU WARRIOR (1980) ** ½

Here’s yet another Kung Fu comedy set in the Drunken Master mold.  This one at least has the novelty of taking place in modern day.  It also has a few laughs too. 

Our hero is a bartender who uses his Kung Fu prowess to skillfully avoid traffic while skateboarding to work.  He also uses his Kung Fu abilities to help him tend bar, which gets him into trouble with a couple of rowdy customers.  He later gets an old karate master to train him so he can steal a vest full of money so he can put his girlfriend through college. 

The Kung Fu Warrior starts off well enough, but the laughs slowly dry up as it goes along.  The action is decent for the most part.  I liked the scene in which the Kung Fu master beat up some thugs while protecting his pet bird.  It’s just a shame that the training scenes are mostly a bust.  (Our hero basically spends all his time on a swing.) 

The film also suffers from some weird shifts in tone.  I mean did we really need the long scene where the Kung Fu master tries to take out a loan?  That’s not the sort of thing that energizes your silly Kung Fu comedy. 

Once the plot about retrieving the vest made of money rears its head, it’s all goes downhill from there.  There is one pretty good scene in the end where our hero kicks a guy’s butt using his skateboard though.  Whenever he’s off his board, the movie is strictly routine.

HELL OR HIGH WATER (2016) *** ½

Chris Pine and Ben Foster star as two brothers who go around West Texas robbing banks.  Enter Texas Ranger Jeff Bridges, who is just a few days shy of retirement.  He pursues them at his own pace, hanging out in places they’ve been, and trying to get inside their head.   

The thing is, the duo is more than just bank robbers.  They have a reason why they’re doing what they’re doing.  I’m not saying it’s right, but to someone is their situation, it seems like their only option.  The way writer Tayler Sheridan and director David Mackenzie slowly lay all their cards on the table is one of the joys of the movie.   

It’s also wickedly funny too.  Some of the banter between Bridges and his half-Indian/half-Mexican partner Gil Birmingham is hilarious.  Foster’s hotshot character also gets a lot of laughs, even when he’s serious as a heart attack and twice as mean.   

Hell or High Water has a ‘70s type of flavor.  It unfolds at its own pace and some of the best scenes happen in long takes that don’t draw attention to themselves.  The cinematography is excellent and the desolate landscapes and rundown small towns are filmed with lots of character.   

The narrative is a bit smallish and overly familiar, but the performances are great all around.  Jeff Bridges can do this kind of ornery sheriff role in his sleep by now, so be glad he still has one eye on the wheel.  While he may seem like he’s slipping into Rooster Cogburn mode occasionally, he still finds ways to keep his crochety character feel fresh.  His final scene with Pine is mesmerizing.  Pine, who is a bit overlooked when it comes to his acting chops, is Bridges’ match in every way and holds his own throughout the intense finale.   

Like Bridges, Foster has played similar variations on his character before.  However, he finds a few new notes to emphasize here and the result is a psycho that has a tinge of sympathy to him.  Foster also gets the best line of the movie when he says:  “Only assholes drink Mr. Pibb!”