"We are all in the gutter, but some of us..."

"...are looking at the stars."
-- Oscar Wilde

Movies Archive

Our So-Called "Expert"

This site is updated Thursday at noon with a new article about an artistic pursuit generally considered to be beneath consideration. James Schellenberg probes science-fiction, Carol Borden draws out the best in comics, Chris Szego dallies with romance and Ian Driscoll stares deeply into the screen. Click here for the writers' bios and their individual takes on the gutter.

While the writers have considerable enthusiasm for their subjects, they don't let it numb their critical faculties. Tossing away the shield of journalistic objectivity and refusing the shovel of fannish boosterism, they write in the hopes of starting honest and intelligent discussions about these oft-enjoyed but rarely examined artforms.

Recent Features

The Nature of the Hero, Rowling-Style

A few months ago, I decided to take the plunge: I would burn through the Harry Potter series, now complete, all in one go. It's been... interesting. I've discovered all kinds of things I had not realized before, including the fact that Harry is - to put it diplomatically - not a particularly effective hero.
Continue reading...

All I Want For Christmas Is A Few Good Books

In the spirit of the season, here are ten, in alphabetical order by author.

ONE TRILLION AND ONE LEANING TOWERS

1. Overture Island
On December 4, 2008, the future ended. The event that marked its end was the death of a 92-year old man from the not uncommon cause of heart failure. It would not have been an epoch-ending event save for one detail: the man’s name was Forest J Ackerman.

Continue reading...

Forgetful?

Movies Category

The Venus and the Fox

Vancouver's twin palaces of sin The Venus Theatre is what one might call a disgusting shithole. Located in Vancouver at 720 Main Street, in what most refer to as the toughest, roughest neighbourhood in all of Canada, the Venus is the kind of entertainment venue where you have to be a total badass to even show up -- heck there's a scary biker bar right next door. So why would one forego a nice relaxed jerk-off session provided by your home entertainment system for this inhospitable level of hell?

By Robin Bougie on March 8, 2007 6:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lipstick

Big Budget Hollywood Exploitation! As some of you Ernest Hemingway fans may well remember, Margaux Hemingway was the fifth person in her family to commit suicide, her death ending a Hollywood career sullied by alcohol, epilepsy, an eating disorder and life in the shadow of a more famous sister, Mariel.

By Robin Bougie on January 11, 2007 7:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Cumming Of Jizzus - Scene 2 Set Diary

In thy kingdom, he cums! The relatively short 4 hour shoot for the first scene of this triple XXX bible story provided some very exciting results, but how would scene two of THE CUMMING OF JIZZUS play out? Well, it took a while to get started since the first snowstorm of the season in Vancouver held up our performers, and some other minor distractions kept us from getting rolling until an hour after we'd planned. Undaunted, we carried on -- ready and willing to get sleazy and holy at the same time.

By Robin Bougie on December 14, 2006 6:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Jizzus Set Diary, Day One

Witnessing the res-Errection This past Saturday (November 11th 2006) was a day at least 4 months in the making. It was somewhere about that long since scriptwriter Karina Jordi provided us with the script/idea we'd need to roll this project in motion, and investors had been nailed down. The project?

Cinema Sewer presents: THE CUMMING OF JIZZUS.

By Robin Bougie on November 16, 2006 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Searching For Sin in New York

Two Vancouverites seek sleaze in the city that never sleeps I'm a porn journalist, and I live in the Canadian city of Vancouver.

Ok, maybe I shouldn't even call it a city... because in comparison to New York, it's a small hick town, and I can say that with some degree of confidence after recently finally making my way to the Big Apple along side my wingman, a gawky fellow comic and movie nerd nicknamed the Dirty Bird. A friend who shares my same first name -- Robin.

By Robin Bougie on October 19, 2006 6:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is Milo In Heaven, Mommy?

Columbia: Killing kitties for cash Over the decades, rumours about the existence of snuff movies has run rampant despite the fact that no evidence exists to support these dark claims. After a large amount of my own research into the topic, I've come up with nothing but a lot of dead ends and goofy urban legends... with one exception.

By Robin Bougie on September 21, 2006 8:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)

NOTHING IN COMMON BUT THE HUNGER OF A 1000 NIGHTS WITHOUT A MAN

The women-in-prison movies of Roger Corman In the early seventies, Roger Corman grew tired of making biker gang movies and figured that shooting women in prison films in the Philippines could allow him to make films even cheaper, would offer better weather, more exotic locations, and a cast and crew willing to work for peanuts in the hope of making it big in the international market.

By Robin Bougie on August 24, 2006 6:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Love Blackmailer

Meet Ted Leversuch, a Canadian smut peddler from the '60s A lot of trash cinema fans don't realize that Canada has a long and sleazy history of sexploitation films. Until somewhat recently -- despite being a Canadian citizen, as well as ‘60s filth-film booster, I didn't either.

By Robin Bougie on July 27, 2006 6:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Ping Pong Club!

Love and comedy DIE DIE DIE!! It's Japanese name is "IKE! Ina-Chuu Takyuubu" or "Let's go middle school Ping Pong club!", but it's better known to its tiny fan base in North America as PING PONG CLUB. No plot synopsis or standard review could ever properly convey what there is to like about this series, but let me take a shot at it anyway.

By Robin Bougie on June 29, 2006 7:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

A Mid-'70s Drive-In Triple Bill!

Visit our snackbar for sodas and hot buttered popcorn! Pin open your eyelids and get ready to scream like a mongoloid! This week I'm highlighting a trio of 1970s exploitation drive-in movies that have mostly been forgotten by today's movie renting public that rarely stray from the "New Release Wall" in their local Blockbuster. I'll tell you what -- fuck Blockbuster. They won't have this stuff, so support your local indie video store.

By Robin Bougie on June 2, 2006 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"I'll kiss anything that moves!"

TV castrated my favourite movie I'm sure it's happened to all of us at one time or another. You'll be flipping channels and arrive on a TV broadcast of one of your favourite motion pictures, one where you know lots of the scripted dialogue by heart. Then suddenly, as if one of the characters has been possessed, a different voice comes wafting out of their mouth, and whatever they used to say is now gone and changed into something far more vanilla.

By Robin Bougie on May 4, 2006 5:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Long Jeanne Silver

She's foot-free and fancy loose! A short list of the some of the most bizarre, more outlandish XXX fare of the 1970s wouldn't be complete without mentioning an eye-opening 1977 Alex De Renzy feature film titled LONG JEANNE SILVER. In fact, of all the porn films in my collection, I've gone though the most trouble to get this particular one, so excuse me if I feel overly compelled to tell you its story.

By Robin Bougie on April 6, 2006 7:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

SCHOOL IS NOW IN SESSION

Separating fantasy from pornographic reality One of my earliest masturbatory fantasies (I have a feeling it may be a common one for many young boys) was the idea of taking part in a sex education class that involved a physical demonstration. Of course meaning: my grade 6 teacher Miss Dawson taking part in various types of sexual activity while perched up on her desk in front of the class.

By Robin Bougie on March 9, 2006 5:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We are all Naked

Who wants a slice of '60s Euro-Canadian art-porn? WE ARE ALL NAKED (1966/69) Starring: Alain Saury, Catherine Riberio, Jacques Normand, Gerard Desales

This sex flavoured art film, a gorgeous Canada/France co-production shot in black and white with pathos and depressing drama to spare, promotes the concept that living with a poverty-stricken dysfunctional family on the beach in France -- really SUCKS.

By Robin Bougie on February 10, 2006 12:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Japan's first nude superheroine

I hide my face, but not my body! I first became aware of the Japanese cult-sleaze-comedy phenomenon known as "Kekko Kamen" (1991 aka Kekko Mask) while looking through a grey market video dealers catalogue -- you know, one of those photocopied "hard-to-find movies from many lands" tracts that were the only way to find a lot of this stuff pre-internet. The mini review tagged onto the listing in order to fish people into ordering the tape went something like "Japan's first and only nude superheroine and protector of schoolgirls".

By Robin Bougie on January 12, 2006 2:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Life is Better Underground

My obsession with below-ground parking lots Since the first Cro-Magnon man set foot in the limestone caves of Lascaux, we have has a bittersweet relationship with cool, dank places. They provided mankind with much needed shelter from the elements, yet in their dark recesses they also supplied material for our nightmares -- whether they materialised as a flesh-ripping cave bear or a knife-wielding street thug jumping out as you fumble with your keys. Thus the instinctive and primal fear that grips everyone of us anytime we venture into the bowels of our urban sprawl: underground parking lots.

By Robin Bougie on December 15, 2005 5:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

25 Cinematic Cliches I Never Wanna See Again

And I hate every last one of them. Those of you that know me fairly well know that I adore making lists. I get a serious thrill out of it. In that light, here are "25 Cinematic Cliches I never wanna see again." Enjoy!

By Robin Bougie on November 17, 2005 6:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (116)

Remembering the Teenage Sex Comedy

Lusty nostalgia for the Atari generation. It's probably really tough for today's male youth to understand what the older generations had to go through in their youth to get some inspiration to burp the worm. Today you just turn on your computer, toss a DVD in the player, or watch pay TV and it's showtime. What about the young gents of the '50s, '60s, '70s or my wonder years, the '80s? It wasn't easy to get even a whiff of a nipple back then. If you grew pubic hair in the Reagan era, you had to either hope you were gonna find some musty stroke books in the woods or make do with something that wouldn't arouse your parents suspicions; like Teenage Sex Comedies.

By Robin Bougie on October 20, 2005 6:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

All the Devil's Angels

Uncovering the John Cassavettes of classic adult cinema The history of smut has as many unbelievably odd characters as it has movies, and it seems one who takes an active interest in this sordid cinema is always uncovering a quirky previously unknown filmmaker or performer worth obsessing over. The cool thing is that it's nearly always someone who has flown under everyone else's radar, and you get that raw discovery high usually reserved for treasure hunters and palaeontologists. Classic porn is -- even today with a new resurgence of interest -- the most under appreciated and under documented genre of film history. In that vein, may I introduce you to a weird little pornographer named Ted Roter.

By Robin Bougie on September 22, 2005 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

JAPANESE SUKEBAN AND NAKED NUNS!

'70s Japanese exploitation by Norifumi Suzuki Keeping in mind that "Sukeban" translates from Japanese as "Teenage female delinquent", and that in SUKEBAN GUERILLA (1973) said nubile ruffians initiate each other by holding each other down and tattooing each others entire left tit, you should be fully aware that any filmic trash fan worth their mustard will adore this funky turd from start to finish. That said, the dozen or so Sukeban films made in the 1970s, though released as exploitation, were trojan horse vehicles for powerful social commentary.

By Robin Bougie on August 4, 2005 8:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

3 times the sleaze, 3 times the fun!

Sexploitation cinema provides a saucy slab of sleaze Sexploitation, for those of you uninitiated, is a sub genre of adult film that for the most part predated the first hardcore sex films of the early to mid '70s. These low budget pictures were nudity packed with full figured women, kooky dialog, and drive-in and grindhouse theater advertising campains that promised the world in a kitchen sink, even if they didn't deliver much in the way of actual sex. Thankfully, what they lacked in hardcore action, they almost always made up for in terms of enjoyably sleazy degenerate characters and storylines right out of your favorite dime store pulp novel.

By Robin Bougie on July 7, 2005 5:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Me N' Smithee

Bougie finds himself face to face with an enigma I've never been so nervous or star struck as when I was recently graced with the supreme honor of speaking to the one and only Allen Smithee. This was no ordinary film director. Prior to the interview, I was racked with stressful indecision. Would I ask him about his directing an actress of a high caliber such as Jodie Foster in BACKTRACK (1989)? Or would I query as to what sort of preparation he went through prior to the filming of BLOODSUCKING PHARAOHS IN PITTSBURGH (1991)?

By Robin Bougie on June 23, 2005 7:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Little Darlings

Steep your aged loins in virgin-themed cinematic nostalgia I spend a lot of time skimming the DVD listings on eBay, and a couple days ago I scored the nearly forgotten Hollywood teen-sex classic Little Darlings on DVD via someone with the user name "forgotten films". It's a rare homemade bootleg these guys offer, but is the best quality bootleg I've ever seen. Animated menus, extra features... the works.

There isn't much to be said in terms of back story for this review except that I saw the movie when I was 12 and because of it I acquired a MAJOR-HEAD-OVER-HEELS crush on both of the movie's headliners: Tatum O'Neal and Kristy McNichol. Seeing the movie again for the first time in 20 years, I'm amazed at how well it holds up...

By Robin Bougie on May 12, 2005 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Skin-somnia

Bougie is up all night pondering anti-porn zealots and Bagel Bites I'm sitting there watching late night TV and there's this commercial. It's nothing special, and nothing I haven't seen many times before. It's typical in its banality, but resplendent with this totally inane theme song. He's not visible, but I can hear that this guy is just rockin' out while we are looking at these cheese covered disks coming out of an oven, and the guitar is wailing, and he's just giving his all -- singing about goddamn Bagel Bites.

By Robin Bougie on April 14, 2005 3:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Joke only about your face, Willis!

Diff'rent Strokes: What a festive jest it is to be molested! I'd like to change speeds this time out, and cast an eye towards the idiotbox instead of the silver screen. Our location will be New York, where a cast of characters featured a wealthy widower named Philip Drummond (Conrad Bain), who lived in a luxurious penthouse with his nubile teenage daughter Kimberly (Dana Plato). As the story went, Drummond's black housekeeper grew sick, and upon her deathbed bequeathed to her affluent white boss her two sons, Arnold (Gary Coleman) and Willis (Todd Bridges).

This was the ground broken on episode one of DIFF'RENT STROKES entitled "Movin' in" -- when it first aired on November 3rd 1978, and it was the pilot episode of one of my all time favorite sick-coms. Right from the start, critics heaped shit all over it, while viewers ignored the critics and ate it up.

By Robin Bougie on March 17, 2005 6:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Bogus Celebrity Nudes Revealed!

Debunked celebrity porn by The Fake Detective Either in their '40s noir cinema incarnation, or as modern day gumshoes, detectives are pretty low-key and don't usually announce their presence by yelling out to anyone who will listen about their ability to solve crimes, but a 60 year old Wisconsin man named Ed Lake who is better known to photoshop devotees as "The Fake Detective", does just that on his beat -- the internet.

By Robin Bougie on February 17, 2005 7:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just Try and Stop the Music, I Dare You

Mmmm-hmmm...The Village People need love too While the success of the average movie is certainly based upon inspiring in the viewer a suspension of disbelief, great works from the camp genre succeed in their suspension of other qualities. Namely, good taste (what ever the hell THAT is) and the rule that most films are nothing but ball-less scrotums that give you exactly what you expect, but rarely what you want.

By Robin Bougie on January 20, 2005 7:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Kamikaze Hearts of Gutter Punk Lesbians

Make-believe, addiction, despair, two-bit sleaze and two-bit dreams. During the “Sharon Mitchell film festival” held at the Coolidge Corner Theater in Boston on June 6th 2000, the legendary porn queen showed clips from her XXX films spanning her 3 decades long career and provided a running commentary for the audience. Sharon held the crowd in rapt attention while she revealed the title from which each clip was taken, the director and, when she remembered, anecdotes about the cast and what drug she was on at the time the footage was shot. It was usually heroin or marijuana, and in some cases, both. One such example was the ultra-rare documentary KAMIKAZE HEARTS, which also depicted Mitchell -- then addicted -- passionately defending drug use.

By Robin Bougie on December 23, 2004 5:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At The 23-Screen Stadium-Seating Nacho-Serving Cineplex Of Madness

Mysterious creatures. Bizarre science. A dark, snowbound fortress. The occult. Tentacled, crustacean-inspired monsters. Hellish apocalypse. Primordial evil. Madness. Hellboy, the well-received latest film from neo-post-schlock auteur Guillermo del Toro (Cronos, The Devil’s Backbone, Blade II), offers these and other delights, all of which are common motifs in the work of that impossibly influential champion of the strange: early-20th-century author/weirdo H.P. Lovecraft.

By Gutter Guest on August 26, 2004 10:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Learning Vince's Dirty Moves

In July 1996, Hulk Hogan shocked the world by becoming what oppressed him the most as a hero in the 1980s: he turned heel. As the garbage filled the ring, he told Mene Gene Okerland, "As far as I'm concerned, all this crap in the ring represents the fans out here. " That year Pro Wrestling Illustrated's poll voted Hogan as the most hated wrestler.

I consider myself a heel. I have dark hair and dark eyes. And I'm usually up to no good. Catherine Kidd once asked me, after knowing me in Montreal for about a year "Are you nice?"

By Gutter Guest on July 7, 2004 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Dominion of Shlock

Nat Taylor invented the multiplex cinema and was one of the founders of the private film-industry lobby in Canada, so feel free to despise him. But since the guy just died this past February 29 at a helpless age 98, why not remember him for his virtues - primary among them his role in bringing the world The Mask (1961), Canada's first enduring contribution to schlock — and 3-D — cinema.
Continue reading...

By Gutter Guest on May 6, 2004 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Underfoot No Longer

Supersized critters are superhungry, too.

Marty McKee: Yeah, I know you've done a lot of different genres, but I've always wondered why that [giant animals] was so interesting to you.

Bert I. Gordon: [Pause] I don't know. [Laugh]

Bert Gordon (AKA Mr. BIG, director of The Food of the Gods) doesn't know why, and neither do I. I just know that I like movies that feature giant animals: giant rabbits, giant rats, giant sharks, giant snakes, giant insects (i.e., ants, wasps), giant women, giant lemurs, giant chickens, giant men, giant turtles, giant cephalopods (i.e., octopus, squid), giant monsters from space and the rare but delightful giant crustaceans (i.e., crabs).

By Gutter Guest on April 8, 2004 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Stella Performance

Human-Robot artistic collaboration deemed successful.

Leiji Matsumoto's Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5y5tem is a near-feature-length animated silent film with a musical score that almost exactly corresponds to Discovery, an album by French band Daft Punk. This is obviously by intention; Daft Punk have a history of great, weird videos, from the Spike Jonze-directed "Da Funk," which featured a dog-man walking around and talking to people, all the time carrying a boom box he couldn't turn off, to the precisely choreographed Busby-Berkeley-meets-robots-and-mummies clip for "Around the World," directed by Michel Gondry. Interstella 5555 is kind of a different, more ambitious thing. Though only three videos were ever released and shown on TV (for the album's singles), the band had Matsumoto put together animated shorts for each song on Discovery, which when played together, form a narrative whole.

It's the right time for it; seems like these days people are complaining less about the pernicious influence videos have had on feature filmmaking , and have woken up to the fact that some of the most interesting stuff being done in the moving-picture business is happening in these clips, their brevity allowing for more experimentation and less concern with the vagaries of the box office.

By Gutter Guest on March 11, 2004 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Paw through our archives

Science-Fiction ~ Comics ~ Romance ~ Screen ~ Videogames ~ Movies ~ Main

Robin Bougie lives in East Vancouver, and has been self-publishing his work since he was 18, with almost 70 zines at last count. His latest series is Cinema Sewer, which is a deep, sweaty, probing look at the underbelly of sleazy movie history in the exploitation, porn, and horror genres. Robin also does porn industry journalism for Screw Magazine in New York, and online for www.yesportal.com and www.sexwrecks.com.

Of Note Elsewhere

The sound of electricity, the sound of water. Artist Atsushi Fukunaga creates sculptures with giongo or manga's onomatopoeic sound effects. ( via One Inch Punch and thanks, Mr. Dave!) ~Did you know Ursula Le Guin worked on an Earthsea screenplay with Peeping Tom and Black Narcissus' Michael Powell? I didn't. There's more in her Vice Magazine interview. (via Kaiju Shakedown) ~Origin Museum director, Joe Garrity, writes the Artful Gamer about building Richard "Lord British" Garriott an Ultima reagent box: "The Reagent Box ended up to be a 2-year effort in finding the individual reagents and binding each to a velvet base with brass wire, presenting them with a 19th-century-scientific look."
~

Every day is fun day at Kaiju Shakedown. This time: chibi Watchmen, awesome criterion-type designs for Chinese movies and a trailer for Cat Head Theatre's upcoming samurai film.

~American Elf James Kochalka is stuck in Vermont. Watch it. ~"No doubt the audience in the plush seats of the Tivoli was enthralled. For the first time in a feature film, they could hear the creaking of the stairs, the ghostly wind and the voices of the characters. Even the credits were spoken." Eric Veillette writes about The Terror and talkies in Toronto. ~View all Notes.
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