THE UNHOLY ROLLERS (1972)

Claudia Jennings, who you might remember from 'GATOR BAIT or THE GREAT TEXAS DYNAMITE CHASE, is sick and tired of her lame job at the cat food factory so she tries out for a local roller derby team, makes the team and somehow parlays that into "making lots of money".  Of course, fame has it's drawbacks (especially when you are slightly insane) and soon Claudia goes off the deep end.

I didn't know what to expect from UNHOLY ROLLERS, but with the words "unholy" and "rollers" in the title I was hoping for some sort of Satanic rollerskating action...that didn't happen, but it would have been cool!  Has there ever been a movie about a successful roller derby team that owes it's prosperity to Satan?  If not, there should be.  Anyway, UNHOLY ROLLERS is your standard Roger Corman-produced 70's movie: low budget, quick pace, female nudity, light on story, heavy on cheap thrills, mediocre acting.  That's really about it.  I honestly just kinda sat there watching the whole thing in a trance.  The story is unimportant and Claudia's character goes through life with zero concern for the consequences of her actions.  Example: after being attacked by some lesbians who strip off her clothes on a bar room pool table, she leaves with a dude on a motorcycle.  She finds a gun in his bag and immediately starts firing it off at random signs and people on the street.  This is just a normal event in her life!

Overall, it's a mildly entertaining film, but nothing worth going out of your way to see. On the positive side, there was a quick glimpse of Princess (MUDHONEY) Livingston in a crowd scene and a brief appearance by Kathleen Freeman as Claudia's mom.  Also a young Martin Scorsese was the Supervising Editor.  How strange is that?

Holy fook...it's Princess Livingston from MUDHONEY!

Kathleen Freeman

SHUTTER ISLAND (2010)

Borrowing from a number of other things-aren't-quite-as-they-seem films, SHUTTER ISLAND is about a federal marshal, Angus McCootybritches, who's visiting an insane asylum to investigate a missing patient.  The asylum is located on an island and right from the very beginning things don't seem right and guess what?! They aren't.

I was really excited about this film, but as the story slowly progressed my disappointment grew. It's not a bad film by any means. The acting by McCootybritches is good and the direction by Scorsese is alright, but the story is dead on arrival and extremely predictable. Also, what's up with the lame CG effects? They were distracting in their shittiness.

It's worth watching, I guess, but I was hoping for something original.

This isn't the first time we've seen Max in an insane asylum.