HARVEY (1950)

Fifty-one years before DONNIE DARKO, but more in spirit with YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, HARVEY is the idealistic story of a wealthy man, Elwood P. Dowd (Jimmy Stewart), who lives in a small town and has a 6' 3.5" tall rabbit for a best friend.  The rabbits name is Harvey and they tell each other everything.  Thing is nobody else can see Harvey.  They're too busy with their lives and relationships and jobs.  They can't be bothered to be born rich and crazy and spend their evenings walking around with a 6' 3.5" tall rabbit.  Elwood's sister, Veta (Josephine Hull), wants Elwood placed in a mental institution for his own good.  Also, so she and her daughter can get along with their lives and not have their social standing destroyed by having a screwball brother on full display.  That's easier said than done because it seems that everywhere Elwood goes people open up and really take a liking to him...it's almost as if he has an guardian angel watching over him.

As long as you accept HARVEY in it's own reality it's a fine film.  Of course, if you had somebody like Elwood P. Dowd living in your house you'd think he was as crazy as a loon.  But as a film, HARVEY is delightful.  The story is charming, Josephine Hull is hilarious, the story is imaginative, the dialogue is so much fun to watch spin round and round, solid direction, good pace, the camerawork is clever (I like how in a lot of shots there's extra space left for Harvey), excellent supporting cast and Jimmy Stewart...wow!  The wonderful Josephine Hull rightfully won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance here, but I'm very tempted to say that Mr. Stewart should have also won for his performance.  I can't think, off the top of my handsome head, of another actor that could have pulled off the role of Elwood P. Dowd as masterfully as he did.  Great stuff.

Recommended for the unjaded.

THE FORBIDDEN LEGEND: SEX & CHOPSTICKS 2 (2009)

"I have to ejaculate!"

Gang rape; silk bondage; non-stop fucking; a woman stuffing grapes in both her pussy and asshole (fun fact: she can peel them and shoot them across the yard with her pussy); murder; death by female masturbation with a large wooden dildo; death by dick exploding; sex on a swing. This movie has a lot of wild shit going for it...everything but the light-hearted craziness that made the first one so much fun to watch. There's still some humorous moments, but it's not as much fun as the original.

Starting directly where the original left off, Part 2 has Simon continuing with his sex-crazed ways. He returns home and immediately has some acrobatic sex with his concubine Lotus (played by the mayor of Boner Town: Serina Hayakawa). Then things take a darker direction when Simon kills his friend's wife because he wants her to fuck her. And that's my problem with the movie. It's too serious.  In Part 1 Simon was innocent and funny, but in this one he's an asshole. Plus he never mentions the art of the Iron Dick! What the fuck?! That was the funniest part about the original.

That leaves us with the sex: all of the women are very attractive and there's almost nonstop nudity, but there's something missing. It just wasn't as over the top and free-spirited as the original. Part 1 seemed hotter. The opening sex scene with the grapes and the swing was the highlight of the movie. I also really enjoyed seeing Serina tied up...goddamn! Other than that it's kinda forgettable.

Worth watching if only for Serina Hayakawa and Kaera Uehara's nude scenes, but don't expect the wackiness of the first one. Also the DVD cover is misleading because it shows the bald woman, Moon, from the original, but she's not in this movie. And that sucks cause she was hot and super flexible!

A whole boatload of NSFW screenshots here.

Part 1 - The Forbidden Language: Sex and Chopsticks (2008)

THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT (1967)

I was curious what Jacques Demy did as a follow up after ripping out my heart and stomping on it with THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG.  Well, I never would have guessed this.

THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT is the story of two happy young girls (Catherine Deneuve and her real-life sister Francoise Dorleac) in the town of Rochefort.  They teach instruments and dancing to young kids and in their spare time they happily dance and sing all over the joint.  Nobody finds this strange because everybody happily sings and dances almost nonstop in Rochefort!  It's like an insane asylum.  Most of the action takes place around the main square.  You got the two girls, their mom, a music shop owner, a pretty waitress, some motorcycle salesmen, sailors, a painter, Gene Kelly...Gene Kelly?!!!  That's right.  Around the 45 minute mark Gene Kelly, Monsieur Twinkle Toes himself, comes strolling onscreen and my eyes popped out.  What's he doing here?  Singing and dancing apparently.  The singing sounded to be dubbed, but his French dialogue was impressive.

Anyway, the story is pretty basic: people longing to fall in love, blah, blah,blah, people fall in love, The End.  None of it seems to be taken seriously.  The dancing and the feel of the film seem to be more important.  That said, I wasn't feeling it.  Some of the songs were nice, but the majority of them left me flat.  The dancing was alright, but nothing jawdropping.  Overall, it was a tolerable watch, but I was really hoping for something better.

One interesting thing I did notice was in inclusion of Michel Piccoli who would also appear the same year with Catherine in BELLE DE JOUR, but in a much darker role.