After a particularly irritating day at work and on the streets of NYC (one of those stinky days when if feels like you've had to go through a marathon obstacle course just to make it 30 blocks home), I unwound with my pal Laura, dining at Chevy's and then taking in Rob Zombie's "The Devil's Rejects" at AMC's 42nd street cinema.
Not the best movie (a little too mean for my taste), but better than Zombie's "House of 1000 corpses," and not just because the film featured a trio of fine actresses in cameo roles (alas, Karen Black didn't make it back to reprise her role of "Mother Firefly").
Seeing E.G. (Elizabeth) Daily (Valley Girl, Pee-wee's Big Adventure and Rod Stewart's 'young hearts' video), P.J. Soles (Halloween, Rock n Roll High School, Stripes, Carrie) and Deborah Van Valkenburgh (The Warriors, Streets of Fire, and TV's Too Close for Comfort) on the big screen after so many years gave me a warm rush of nostalgia and a nice dose of pop culture euphoria. Still, there is a trace of melancholy lingering in my reaction.
Ms. Daily's had a steady career for decades now, but looks to have had some bad work done on her face (my feeling is that most work is bad work). Elizabeth plays a trashy whore alongside Van Valkenburgh, who looks like an aged Rosario Dawson* and gets her throat slit. And P.J. ("what's a matter Bob, ghost got your tongue?" and "it's totally dark in here") Soles is just old and thick. She was Bill Murray's gal in Stripes. He's alternately old and thick buh has "Lost in Translation" and "The Life Aquatic" on his resume and she's got a shitty cameo in "Jawbreaker" and the honor of getting punched and pummeled by Sid Haig in "Rejects." And don't get me started about the sad state of affairs that has DVV credited one above porn star Ginger Lynn Allen on the IMDP cast page for "The Devil's Rejects"
Okay, I may be a wee bit sad and on a high horse about how cruel this business is to women, but at least Rob Zombie shares an affinity for the women of 70's and 80's B cinema and gave them work. That I love.
Blah, blah, blah.
*Note that until the credits rolled Laura insisted that Deborah really was Rosario
This is on a ride called "The Hustler"
At the Greene County Fair in upstate New York
James and Melissa didn't do too well on the ride
I was hoping that there would be a ZIPPER
but it was a pretty low rent fair.
