King Kong (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #28

King Kong has appeared in at least 12 films over the last 90 years, either as the lead character or one of a group of monsters. In my opinion, there have only been three real King Kong films. These three all tell the same story, in different forms, of King Kong's discovery and his journey to America. All three films have the same name: "King Kong".

The first film was made in 1933, and is rightly considered to be a masterpiece.

The second film was made in 1976, following the original story, with a few significant changes. The story is told in the present day (i.e. 1976) instead of the 1930's, and the final battle takes place on top of the newly built World Trade Centre instead of the Empire State Building.

This is the third film, made in 2005, and it closely follows the 1933 version. It even takes place in 1933, with a great amount of care taken in portraying the Great Depression of the 1930's.

The film's strength is less in the action than in the emotional depth. Look at Kong's eyes as he stares lovingly at the actress Ann Darrow. Has computer animation ever been so emotional?

This is one of the most beautiful scenes ever filmed, full of artistic merit. Sunrise over Manhattan at the top of the Empire State Building.

But the peaceful serenity doesn't last. The enemies are coming.

Kong has to make his last stand, on top of the world's highest building.

The film's casting is superb. Nobody else but Naomi Watts could have played the beautiful actress Ann Darrow. Her large eyes and toothy smile perfectly portray her naive innocence.

Naomi's large eyes make her look like a 1930's film star. All that's missing is the black eye liner. Or would that have been pushing it too far?

Her face is repeatedly framed against beautiful scenery. The screenshots from this film could be used for a Naomi Watts pin up calendar.

Or maybe there should just be six photos of Naomi Watts in the calendar, and six photos of Kong in alternation. Beauty and the Beast.

Ann Darrow does her Titanic scene.

It's a much smaller boat, but the sorrow is just as intense.

Don't jump!

The film crew captures this moment.

The director Carl Denham is almost moved to tears.

Jack Black was picked to play Carl Denham because of his physical resemblance to Orson Welles. Never mind his looks, his acting is superb! Another perfect choice.

So is Adrien Brody as the brooding playwright Jack Driscoll. I'd go as far as to call this his signature role.

I wanted to watch the film in a single sitting, but I was interrupted by my ex-wife. There were loud shouts in my village, so she wanted to know if there had been a goal in the Euro 2020 Germany-France match. Yes, there had just been an own goal. We didn't know what television channel was broadcasting the match, but after a few trial-and-error attempts I found it for her. She asked me to watch the second half with her, which I did. It was an interesting game. Two very good teams, equally matched, but with no outstanding players. By that, I mean there were no players like Pele or Maradonna with magical flair that set them apart from the others. The final result, 1:0 for France, was fair. Either team could have won.

Then I rushed back to "King Kong" to watch the last half hour. I enjoyed it with a glass of LSD in my hand. If my readers don't know what that is, they should follow the link.

Success Rate:  + 0.7

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Future World (4 Stars)

There are actors that I love, whose films I always want to see. The first names that spring to mind are Jim Carrey and Gemma Arterton. There are actors I don't like, whose films I usually avoid. I emphasise the word usually. The best examples are Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx.

Then there's James Franco. I wouldn't call him one of my favourite actors. He's not even in my top ten. And yet, whenever he makes a film I'm curious about it. I can't say why. There's just something about him that makes me interested whenever his name appears in a new film. I've been aware of "Future World" ever since the trailers were released three years ago. It's a post-apocalyptic film, and I don't usually like post-apocalyptic films. And yet it stars James Franco, so I sat waiting in vain for it to be featured on a streaming service. Finally I saw the Blu-ray on sale for 5.99 Euros, so I grabbed it. That's cheaper than the price of a cinema ticket, so if I don't like it I can give it away afterwards.

P. S. I never sell films on Ebay. If I don't like a film I give it to one of my friends who lives locally. If any of my readers live in Germany, anywhere near Stuttgart, I have a large pile of DVDs that I'm willing to give away. Come visit me with a carrier bag and I'll let you take whatever you want.

The film takes place after a nuclear war has destroyed most of mankind. Worse than the war itself was an illness, the Red Virus, which broke out after society had broken down. Under better circumstances a cure could have been developed, but it was impossible for scientists to work effectively in the devastated buildings. Now society is divided into small communities, scraping a living as best as they can. James Franco plays Warlord (without an article), the leader of an all-male motorcycle gang called the Raiders.

In the time before the nuclear war mankind had been highly dependent on sentient robots, but they're the exact opposite of Skynet. Humans wanted war, but the robots wanted peace. When the robots were unable to prevent the war they either self-destructed or went into hiding. The film features a robot called Ash. After the war she powered herself down into hibernation mode, hoping to be woken up at a better time. Warlord finds her and wakes her up. He has a remote control device with which he can control her. He makes Ash his lover and his bodyguard.

Ash is a very beautiful robot, and she's been built to be an anatomically correct imitation of a woman. This is what we can expect in the near future. Whenever there's a new invention, the first use is for practical purposes, and then people wonder if they can use it for sexual purposes. Look at the printing press. Its first use was to print the Bible, but after this it was mostly used to print small erotic stories, mostly about the sexual exploits of wandering knights. When the first films were made in the late 19th Century, they began as short five minute clips of spectacular scenes, but the main use soon became short erotic films. When artificial intelligence develops enough to make human-like robots, their first use will be to perform heavy labour, but they'll soon be adapted for use as sex dolls.

The film's hero is a young man called Prince. He lives in a farming community called Oasis. His mother is sick with the Red Virus and at death's door. There are rumours about a place called Paradise Beach where medicine is available to cure the virus, so he sets out with two friends. The first stop is a place called Love Town, where women (real women) are available as prostitutes and dehumanised sex toys. When the strippers dance the customers can press buttons to give them electric shocks. Disgusting!

This is the place where Prince first encounters Warlord. Ash seduces Prince and kills his two friends. She's ordered to kill Prince as well, but her programming malfunctions and allows her to resist the remote control. She rescues Prince and accompanies him on his journey to Paradise Beach.

Except it isn't Paradise Beach any more. The medical advances in the town are now being used for recreational drugs, and the town has been renamed Drug Town. What chance does Prince have of finding the medicine his mother needs? Added to his problems, Ash has been damaged and needs repair.

I shan't write anything else about the plot, except to mention a moving scene in which Prince and Ash discover an abandoned church in the desert. Prince tries to explain to Ash what religion is. He tells her that people used to go to church when they wanted to stop sinning. That's a very simplified summary of religion, but it's what Ash wants. Prince teaches Ash how to pray, and she asks God for the strength to stop doing bad things. She thanks Ash for "giving her a soul".

I couldn't resist including this screenshot of Milla Jovovich as the evil ruler of Drug Town. Evil? She's deliciously evil! She tempts Prince while Ash is non-functional.

This film has been awarded a whopping 0% by the reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes. What??? It's nowhere near that bad. I enjoyed it, even though it's a post-apocalyptic film. The reviewers criticise it for not being original. That's unfair. Not much originality is possible within the parameters of post-apocalyptic films. The genre was defined by "Mad Max" and "Beneath the Planet of the Apes". Love Town and Drug Town could have appeared in any other post-apocalyptic film, but there are still small traces of originality. I'm not aware of any other films in which a robot finds religion. There are also lesbian scenes which are untypical for the post-apocalyptic genre. There are elements of female empowerment, also untypical for this genre. You'll have to watch the film to see what I mean.

I almost forgot to mention that there's an important mid-credits scene. Don't stop watching it too soon!

This is a film for me to keep. If you visit me, don't expect to take it with you. It's worth watching again.

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TV Series: Dexter Season 5

The fifth season shows Dexter adjusting to being a single father after his wife was killed by the Trinity Killer at the end of season four. The season begins immediately after the end of the last season, less than an hour later. It ends two months later with Harrison's first birthday. The season was filmed a year later, so the baby had to be replaced who was playing Harrison. The actor wasn't named in the fourth season, but in the fifth season Harrison was played alternately by the identical twins Luke and Evan Kruntchev.

This photo was probably taken a couple of years after season five. They played the role until season seven. At the time they appeared in season five they were one year old.

The passage of time is more apparent in the case of Dexter's step-daughter Astor, played by Christina Robinson. We can see that more than a few hours have passed in her development since the end of the last season. She's precocious on all counts. In season four she was 11 and looked 13; now she's 12 and looks like she's 14. Her age is also stated in the series for the first time. Dexter tells her she's only 12, but she's told her best friend Olivia that she was 14.

Dexter looks disapprovingly at his daughter's short skirt.

"Parents! I wish I'd never had them!"

Astor is getting a first hint of a bosom in the fifth season, which she didn't have in the fourth.

In the second episode Dexter's two step-children, Astor and Cody, leave him to live with their grandparents. Astor can't stand Dexter any more and insists on leaving. Cody wants to stay, but Dexter tells him to go, because he thinks brothers and sisters shouldn't be separated. Later in the season Astor returns to Miami, though not to Dexter. She runs away from her grandparents with the intention of squatting in her old family house, which she wrongly assumes is empty.

Dexter is obviously basing his decision to let Cody go on his own life. His half-sister Debra is his closest friend, in many ways closer than his ex-wife or the other girlfriends he has in the series.

Watching the series for the second time, I can see that the fifth season isn't as well structured as the previous seasons. The season starts with Dexter being the primary suspect for his wife's murder. He's cleared in the second episode, because he was seen in Trinity's house at the time his wife was killed, but I think it would have been more interesting to have murder suspicion hanging over his head for the rest of the season. It would have been more interesting, and in line with Dexter's moral ambivalence, to see him planting evidence to clear himself of the murder.

Each season of "Dexter" has a big killer and a series of minor killers, the monster-of-the-week. The fifth season begins with the Santa Muerte killings, heads arranged with voodoo symbols. This gives the viewer the impression that this will be the season's big killer, but the Santa Muerte killings slowly fade into the background as the season continues. The Barrel Girl killer is caught and killed quickly, but just as we think this is over a conspiracy develops which involves four other men in the case, even though they only raped the women and left the actual murder to one of their gang. The ringleader didn't even rape the women, he just motivated the others while he stood watching. He was the worst of them.

This distraction between the two big cases for Miami Metro isn't bad in itself, but two things bother me:

1. Dexter doesn't get involved in the Santa Muerte case. He doesn't even seem to be bothered. He just lets his sister and the other police get on with it. This seems very out of character for Dexter. Normally he'd be anxious to kill anyone responsible for such gruesome murders.

2. The case isn't even solved completely. Miami Metro finds out that the killers are the Fuentes Brothers, Carlos and Marco. In the seventh episode Carlos is shot dead in a nightclub raid, but Marco escapes. The police don't bother with a manhunt for Marco, even though he shoots a police officer dead. That would usually be an ideal setup for Dexter to get into action.

A new arrival this season is Lumen Pierce, played by the amazing actress Julia Stiles. Dexter rescues her shortly before she's murdered by the Barrel Girl killer. He tells her to go home, but she stays with him. She won't leave Miami until all five of the gang are dead.

She insists on being present for the kills. At first Dexter refuses, but eventually he allows her to perform the kill herself while he looks on.

The relationship between Dexter and Lumen is something that the viewer can better understand than Dexter himself, so the voiceover doesn't match what's really happening. Dexter thinks of her as a kindred soul. He thinks that she has a Dark Passenger similar to his own. He thinks of her as a partner for the rest of his life, the only person who truly understands and accepts him the way he is. Alas! It's not to be. Lumen doesn't have a Dark Passenger. She doesn't need to kill to satisfy any inner longing. Her only motivation is revenge. After the death of the five men who tormented her, her killing spree is over. She wants to go back to living a normal life. Maybe she'll settle down and get married, but it can't be Dexter. It's true that she understands and accepts him, but she also understands that she can't live the rest of her life with him.

In the first episode Dexter says that he's seen 67 people die. This is a mistake. While watching the fourth season I had the idea to make a list of Dexter's kills. I'm glad I didn't start the list, because there's already a list online that's better than any I could have made myself. It's a joint work on the Dexter Fandom site. It doesn't just list the kills we see in the episodes. That's as far as I would have gone. It includes the names shown on the wall in the Bay Harbour Butcher case (Season Two) and correlates them with the number of blood slides shown in his box. In addition, the list includes four kills only mentioned in the Dexter web series "Early Cuts". I wouldn't have included them, even though the other three kills in "Early Cuts" are verified in flashbacks in the television series. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that it's right to include them as canon, because they don't contradict the series. On the contrary, they give names to the blood slides we see in Dexter's box.

This means that Dexter had killed 93 people by the beginning of the fifth season. I'll probably post a simplified version of the Kill List in my blog. The fandom page is a comprehensive list, but it's not easy to understand. I had to read it a few times to figure everything out.

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Deathgasm (4 Stars)

Amazon Friday #4

You know how people tell you that heavy metal is satanic and will put you in touch with the Devil? It's true. And how do I know? It's because I just watched "Deathgasm", and the film told me everything.

Brody is a teenage metalhead whose mother is sent to a mental hospital after performing a sexual act with a man dressed as Santa Claus in a mall. What's so bad about that? I'm sure Santa enjoyed it more than shouting "Ho ho ho" and giving presents to children all day. Brody is still a minor, so he's put into the care of his aunt and uncle in the sleepy little town of Greypoint. It's the worst possible place he can imagine. He's surrounded by Christians who beat him up in school for being different.

Brody befriends a couple of geeks who introduce him to the wonderful world of Dungeons and Dragons, but he isn't really happy until he meets a fellow metalhead called Zakk. Together with the geeks they form a band called Deathgasm.

By chance they stumble on an ancient melody with a Latin inscription. They think it will be a good song for their band, so they play it loud. The melody is an incantation to summon Aeloth, the king of the demons. Everyone who hears the song is possessed by a demon. Those who are possessed rip out their eyes, but they can still see. They walk around the town murdering people. Brody is told by the town's local psychic that Aeloth himself will possess the most evil person in the town at 3 am, and then he'll take steps to rule the world. Only Deathgasm can stop him, but they don't know how.

The film is also a love story. When he's not busy saving the world, Brody tries to win the heart of a cute girl called Medina. Does a relationship between a metalhead and a Christian schoolgirl stand a chance? I'd say No, but there are no metal chicks in the town. Brody has to take what he can get.

"Deathgasm" is great fun. I'm glad I managed to watch it before Amazon removes it. One of the other films on my Amazon watch list has disappeared since last week, so nothing is certain.

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Friend Request (5 Stars)

Today I took a short break from my week of bingeing on "Dexter". Over the last two days I watched the first six episodes of season five with Benjamin, and I wanted to watch the next three episodes this evening, but he said he'd rather watch a horror film. "Friend Request" was the first film I thought of. It's a genuinely scary film. Benjamin likes "Dexter" a lot, but most of all he likes horror films. He shares my Netflix account, so I can check out his viewing history, and he's been watching horror films more than anything else.

By the way, Netflix used to allow users to access their viewing history in their account profile. For some reason this feature has been removed, but the information is still accessible via a back door. Log in to the user you want to examine, then visit the page www.netflix.com/WiViewingActivity. If you want to examine the viewing history of a different user (and I often check my grandson's viewing history) you have to close the page, log into the other user, then open it again.

I recommend this film highly because of its scariness, but that doesn't mean it necessarily makes good sense. Its strength is in its atmosphere, not the feasibility of its plot. The film is about a lonely young witch who kills herself so that she can transfer her consciousness into the Internet; more accurately, she transfers her consciousness into Facebook. If you can accept this premise you'll greatly enjoy the film. If not, you'll be on the side of the majority of critics who tear the film apart.

The film does have a serious message. It shows the danger of using Facebook as a popularity contest. The film begins with Laura Woodson having 825 Facebook friends. Marina Mills has 0 friends. Laura adds Marina as a friend, but unfriends her a few days later. Marina is so devastated that she sets out to destroy Laura by taking away all her Facebook friends. We see the friend count counting down as she's unfriended by one person after another. Of course, she has a small group of real friends who would never unfriend her, so Marina kills them to bring Laura's friend count down to 0.

I find it unfortunate that Facebook uses the word "friends". I would prefer to call them "contacts". I currently have 125 people on my Facebook friends list. There are about 40 who I would call my friends, less than a third of them. Out of that 40 there are only a handful that I would call close friends. If you're reading this, you know who you are.

So if I only have 40 friends, why do I keep the other 85? It's because they're people who interest me enough for me to want to know what they think. I probably don't talk to them or reply to their posts, but I read what they post, and I might occasionally click Like.

125 Facebook friends is a manageable number. If I had more my timeline would be flooded and I wouldn't have time to read everything they post. That would be sad. I can't say where the sensible limit would be. You have to decide that for yourself. The more people you have on your friends list, the more time you have to spend reading posts. Or should I say that the other way round? The more time you want to spend using Facebook, the more friends you can allow yourself. Just increasing your friend list in order to make yourself look popular isn't just vain, it's stupid.

How many of you know what the maximum size of the Facebook friends list is? I found out from experience. I wanted to add someone in Birmingham (a real friend) to my Facebook friends list, and I got a message that told me his friends list was full. Ugh! He had 5000 friends. I told him about it the next time I saw him, and he said he'd unfriend someone to make room for me. The next day he only had 4999 friends, so I sent him another friend request, which he accepted. This man (Adam Ward) is a concert promoter, so I can understand him having to keep in touch with a large number of people. Nevertheless, isn't he flooded by Facebook posts which are too many to read?

I spend a limited time on Facebook each day. I spend more time writing blog posts than I do replying to comments on Facebook. That will never change. If you're one of my close friends, you should be reading my blog every day. Despite being only a film blog, I reveal more of my personal thoughts in my blog than in Facebook.

If you want to send me a Facebook friend request, my address is www.facebook.com/michael.hood.397. Please accompany the friend request with a message telling me that you read my blog. I decline random requests from people I don't know. If you tell me you read my blog I'll know we have something in common, and we can talk about films.

Success Rate:  - 0.9

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TV Series: Dexter Season 4

This week I'm finally continuing with "Dexter". Over the last three days I've watched the whole fourth season with my son Benjamin (three episodes on Friday, three episodes on Saturday, six episodes yesterday). I didn't want to watch more than three episodes yesterday because I was feeling tired, but Benjamin insisted on continuing. "Dexter" is just too addictive.

We finished watching the third season in January, five months ago. We would have continued sooner, but Benjamin wasn't allowed to visit me. You know, Coronavirus and stuff. This stupid disease is disrupting my life even without anyone in my family getting ill. The only person in my immediate family who has caught the Coronavirus is my mother-in-law, who lives in an old people's home in Korntal. Most of the residents caught the virus last year. There were a few who died, but my mother-in-law wasn't very ill. It's hit and miss with this virus; some people are affected more than others.

There have been big developments between the seasons. At the end of season three Dexter and Rita got married. She was already pregnant, I don't know in what month, but probably in the first half of the pregnancy. Now they have a baby boy, Harrison, who's 10 months old, so this season must take place at least 15 months after the end of the third season. Maybe some devoted fans have been able to pin down the chronology.

The passage of time can be seen the most clearly in the aging of the actress Christina Robinson as Dexter's step-daughter Astor. Okay, she's aged less than 12 months in real life, but she's developing fast. She's now 11 in real life, probably the same age as she's meant to be in the series, but she looks older.

Dexter's step-son Cody, played by Preston Bailey, is also aging fast. Preston is 8 years old. In the series they're supposed to be two years apart. Rita says that when she first met Dexter Astor was 9 and Cody was 7.

The fourth season features John Lithgow as Arthur Mitchell, the Trinity Killer. He's given that nickname because he's been killing people in groups of three for thirty years: a young woman is bled to death in a bathtub, an older women is forced to jump from a high building and a man is bludgeoned to death with a hammer. The detectives discover late in the season that it's actually a group of four, because a young boy is buried alive. This remained unknown for years because it was the only one of the four murder victims whose body was hidden. That means that he's not a Trinity Killer, he's a Quadrinity Killer. I've been assured that the rarely used word quadrinity is correct.

I find that the season gets off to a slow start. Don't get me wrong, it's enjoyable all the way through, but it isn't until the sixth episode (of twelve) that it becomes truly fascinating. That's when we begin to know the Trinity Killer. We finally meet his family and get to understand his motivation. He's a school teacher and a good Christian. He's a deacon in his church, and in the school holidays he volunteers to build homes for the homeless. This is when a cat and mouse game begins. Dexter visits the church and becomes Arthur's friend. That is, Arthur thinks of him as a friend, but Dexter intends to kill him, just not yet. He thinks he can learn from Arthur how to balance a family life with being a serial killer.

Dexter picks other victims while he's waiting to kill Arthur Mitchell. One of them is Zoey Kruger, played by Christina Cox, a policewoman who killed her own husband and daughter and made it look like a home invasion. She's someone who couldn't balance family and killing.

Ironically, when Arthur tries to kill himself, Dexter saves his life. That sounds absurd at first, but we have to remember that Dexter isn't merely a vigilante; he gets pleasure out of killing. It would be a disappointment to watch his next victim take his own life. However, the complications in the final episodes make Dexter regret sparing Arthur's life.

There's so much that happens in the series. I've only just scratched the surface. To do it justice I'd have to review every single episode, rather than just write thoughts about the whole season. Angel Batista and Maria LaGuerta become a pair. Dexter's sister Debra is torn between her lover Anton and the former FBI agent Frank Lundy. Debra is searching for information about her father's lovers. And there's much more. The only series I can name with greater complexity is "The Sopranos". I've already watched "The Sopranos" three times, but I need to return to it again.

For now I'm sticking to "Dexter", because Benjamin is staying with me all week. That should give us time for one more season.

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As I've pointed out before, the complete series of "Dexter" has only been released on DVD in the UK. If you want it on Blu-ray, order it from Germany. The original English version is included, and the menus are in English.

Act of Vengeance (4½ Stars)

Amazon Friday #3

My recent Amazon Friday feature is worth it. When I logged into Amazon Prime today to watch this film there was a message that it would be leaving Amazon Prime in six days. I caught it just in time.

"Act of Vengeance" was released in 1974, and it's also known by other names. In the UK it's called "The Violator", and in Australia it was released as "Rape Squad". When it was released on DVD the name was changed to "Rape Squad" in America as well. That's actually a more appropriate title.

Linda Shoemaker is raped when she's leaving a horse stable late at night. It's not a typical rapist. With the exception of date rape, rapists usually pick a victim at random. This man says that he's been observing Linda for a long time, and he knows everything about her: her name, her address, her job and even her boyfriend's name. Notable is that the man is wearing an orange boiler suit and a white mask. He forces her to sing "Jingle Bells" before raping her.

He looks like he's modelled on the serial killers in films like "Halloween", except that it was made in 1974, years before the other films. Could it be the other way round, that "Act of Vengeance" inspired "Halloween"?

Linda goes to the police, and she's not happy with the line of questioning. The police officer wants to know if she'd been drinking or taking drugs, as well as other questions that made her sound like it was her own fault. The next day her boyfriend suggests that she was sleeping around and had called it rape to excuse herself. This treatment of rape victims was typical in 1974, but I'm sure it also happens today. It's the twisted male attitude that all women want to be raped.

The only thing in Linda's favour is that four other women have also been raped by the same man; the same orange suit, white mask, and they had to sing "Jingle Bells". The police now call this serial rapist Jingle Bells, but they have no clues who he is. Linda joins up with the other four women to form a group they call the Rape Squad. Their main aim is to find their attacker, but they also want to protect all woman from rape.

The women advertise their services for stopping rape. They visit a self defence class to train, but the teacher, a karate black belt called Tiny, tells them they'll need years of practise before they can fight rapists. She offers to join their squad, bringing the membership up to six.

The Rape Squad's first client is a woman who was raped, but her assailant, a respectable nightclub owner, was found innocent in court. Linda visits the club and visits the owner in his room, making it quite clear that she doesn't want sex. When he tries to force himself on her the other squad members, waiting nearby, burst into the room, rip off his clothes and tie him to the bed.

They pour a bottle of sulfuric acid onto his hard penis. At least, that's what he thinks it is. They've put the label on the bottle just to scare him. It's actually just a permanent blue ink that will mark him for life. He's left tied up when they leave, which will mean an embarrassing explanation to whoever finds him.

Their second client is a woman who's been receiving obscene phone calls. The women are more lenient with him. They just rip his clothes off and give him a warning.

But Jingle Bells has been watching them all this time. He's aware of their vigilante activities, and he wants to make the first move. He thinks that he's more than a match for them, as long as Tiny isn't with them. He waits until she's out of town at a karate tournament, and then he invites the other five women to meet him in a deserted zoo.

I enjoy this film, even though it has a camp style. I've always liked rape'n'revenge films. I like seeing men suffer when they've abused women. This film is better than other films in the same genre, because the rape scenes aren't very explicit. We know it's bad, but the details are skipped. "I spit on your grave", the best known rape'n'revenge film, spends so much screen time showing the rapes in vivid detail that I already felt sick before it came to the revenge.

Several film critics, including Roger Ebert, criticise the film because the women are inviting rape, or at least not doing enough to prevent it. I have the greatest respect for Roger Ebert. He's the film critic who inspired me to start my blog, but in this case he is totally on the wrong track. He takes offence to the fact that the women in the film never wear bras, and they are frequently wearing see-through blouses and mini-skirts. Roger, you should be ashamed of yourself! It doesn't matter how little women are wearing, they're never asking for it. If Roger Ebert were still alive today, I'd write to him and demand an apology.

The film is no longer available on DVD, so its removal from Amazon Prime is a sad loss.