Check out 'Mixed Blood' tonight — 'Mean Streets about to detonate!'

Thanks to EVG reader Steven Sonnenblick for sharing this with us… At 2 a.m. tonight (early tomorrow morning?), Turner Classic Movies is playing Paul Morrissey's "Mixed Blood" … the LES cultish classic from 1984.



Here is the IMDB description:

Brazilian drug dealers in the lower east side of Manhattan start a war with a rival gang of Latino drug dealers. Their soldiers are Latino kids all under 17 because, as Rita La Punta says, "They can kill and not go to jail." The war escalates to include their German heroin supplier, his sexy English girl friend, a Puerto Rican ex-cop, and the Japanese police captain. This movie is about racism, police corruption, junkies and drug dealing. There is plenty of killing and even a visit to a store dedicated to the Latino pop group "Menudo."

And the trailer!



Trivia! This was John Leguizamo's feature film debut… Morrissey, a longtime Andy Warhol associate, shared this photo from the shoot in Tompkins Square Park … (Leguizamo is on the far right…)

The "Eyes" have it: For five bucks

Back in January we linked to a post the Bowery Boys did on the old NYC howler "The Eyes of Laura Mars" starring Faye Dunaway. A friend of EV Grieve reported that this hammy laugher was in the $5 bin at the Union Square Virgin Megastore... well worth the hours of entertainment the film will provide. Uh, in other words, I bought a copy.

Life on Laura Mars

Ah, the Bowery Boys do justice today to a long-lost (unintentionally hilarious!) NYC classic...The Eyes of Laura Mars from 1978. With Faye Dunaway fresh from winning an Oscar for Network. As the Bowery Boys put it:

As such, it seems a thin but playful satire of downtown New York decadence. Manhattan looks unusually great for such a commonplace horror flick. The best set is easily Mars' studio, in one of the Chelsea warehouses piers overlooking the Hudson River, just steps from the West Side elevated highway. The most notable -- and campy scene -- erupts at Columbus Circle, at a ridiculous fashion shoot involving burning cars and models in lingerie and fur coats. Oh Columbus Circle! Were you ever so fun?

You get a taste of Hell's Kitchen in a brisk chase scene involving Tommy Lee Jones' cop character, his feathered hair flapping in the wind. But seeing Soho was more striking to me, devoid of shopfronts, mysterious flat warehouses during the day that open to become large, disco-thumping galleries at night. There are still galleries in Soho, of course, but the one in 'Laura Mars' is a big, hokey circus. (The director even condescendingly throws in a dwarf, to get the point across.)

Here's a trailer/infomercial for the film....



And those memorable, uh, lines...

Stopping the music

Last July, I posted the intro to the most deliriously awful movie set in New York, 1980's "Can't Stop the Music" starring Steve Guttenberg, Bruce Jenner and the Village People.

Well! I just got a little note from the folks at YouTube about the video...



Harumpf!

Still, there are other copyright enfringement videos that you can enjoy until the YouTune killjoys remove them...

Like the intro to the arthouse hit Weekend at Bernie's!



Or my exclusive video of Olafur Eliasson's waterfalls on the East River...

James Bond in New York

As you read here exclusively, the new James Bond movie opens today -- The Quantum of Solace...Which reminds me there has only been one Bond film with scenes in New York -- 1972's Let and Let Die, the first one starring Roger Moore. Which I've seen now, oh, 10,000 times. Well, it's not the best Bond film...and a little, uh, dated, in terms of diversity. Still.



Did Felix Leiter really just say "Get me a make on a white pimp mobile"?





The Live and Let Die novel by Ian Fleming was published in 1954. In that, Bond stays at the St. Regis; he tries to make himself seem more "American" to throw off the enemy.

Bonus excerpt!

First!

"He was reminded to ask for the 'check' rather than the 'bill,' to say 'cab' instead of 'taxi' and to avoid words of more than two syllables."

Later!

"He spent the morning on Fifth Avenue and on Broadway, wandering aimlesly, gazing into the shop windows and watching the passing crowds. He gradually assimilated the casual gait and manners of a visitor from out of town...[Bond] had a typical American meal at an eating house called 'Gloryfied Ham-N-Eggs' ('The Eggs We Serve Tomorrow Are Still in the Hens') on Lexington Avenue."

Here are a few screenshots from the movie, filmed in part in Harlem:

The grittiest, most realistic 90 seconds of any film ever set in New York City

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the particular clip that I was looking for from Taxi Driver. Or The French Connection. Or Sweet Smell of Success. Or...

But! We do have Weekend at Bernie's. Which is appropriate since this classic from 1989 is set during Labor Day weekend. I'm still trying to figure out what route our heroes took to work...



Meanwhile,...I can't remember what the critics thought. They loved it too, right?



Oh.

Happy birthday, Gene Simmons!

We don't usually do this kind of thing here. But! Seeing as Kiss is the second-greatest band from New York who liked to get gussied up, we're making an exception! Anyway, Kiss co-founder Gene Simmons was born on this date in 1949 (born Chaim Witz in Haifa, Israel). He and Queens native Paul Stanley formed Kiss in New York in December 1972.

Simmons, of course, is also featured in two of the greatest motion pictures ever made.

Runaway from 1984:


And! The masterpiece: Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park from 1978:


Meanwhile, AMC took to Coney Island to discuss Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park (via Kinetic Carnival)


We imagine Gene will be doing some really low-key today to celebrate.

Tonight in Tompkins Square Park: Bag searches (oh, and a movie)

More bag searches in store for tonight's movie presentation in the Park?

As for the movie, it's Better off Dead.  An American classic. (Oh, c'mon -- just give me this one...)

The Gov. has grim news: get ready for the worst economy in decades

According to today's Post anyway:

Gov. Paterson, convinced the state faces its worst fiscal crisis since the mid-1970s, will deliver the grim news in an unprecedented special address to New Yorkers as soon as tomorrow night, The Post has learned.
The governor's address - which his aides hope will be televised by public and cable news stations - will say that plunging state revenues will force painful cuts in state services, necessitate a reduction in the state work force, possibly through layoffs, and require other difficult economic measures, source said.

The city's kitty is also doomed as doomed can be. 

Which makes this tie-in so perfect! Let's go out and buy expensive Depression-era clothes!



The duds say it all - and it's depressing.
Taking a cue from the grim economy, this fall's fashions at Banana Republic, Gap and H&M are featuring a distinctly Depression-era trend of cloche hats, pencil skirts, conductor caps and baggy, vintage-style dresses.
One of the most popular styles appears to hark back to the impish, newsboy getup of the 1930s: baggy trousers, caps, pinstriped vests, oxford lace-up shoes and utilitarian handbags.
"We associate the newsboy look with urban poverty - street kids of the 1930s," said Daniel James Cole, a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
"Given that we're in an unstable economy and an uncertain political landscape, it's possible that a retro style has come back as a way to connect with our heritage."

Now. Let's seize the day!

They just didn't get it

A quick note on the end of "Siskel & Ebert"/"Ebert & Roeper." As Roger Ebert noted yesterday on his Web site, "After 33 years on the air, 23 of them with Disney, the studio has decided to take the program named 'Siskel & Ebert' and then 'Ebert & Roeper' in a new direction. I will no longer be associated with it."

I still haven't forgiven them (from 1989!) for trashing one of the greatest bad films ever (partially) shot in NYC.

Can't stop the laughing, er, music

For the holiday weekend, let's pay homage to a most deliriously awful movie set in New York, 1980's "Can't Stop the Music." There's camp-o-rama galore with Valerie Perrine, Steve Guttenberg, Bruce Jenner and the Village People.

You've seen it, right? (It's OK if you have -- I actually own the damn thing. Think I paid $2 for it. Or so I'm claiming.)

The rather grainy-looking intro gives you all you need to know. Enjoy!

Tompkins Square summer movie series begins tonight

And I'm ready to defend Better Off Dead as a great movie.

Alphabet City...it heats up when the sun goes down!

I watched Alphabet City the other night for the first time in about, oh, 15 years. I wanted to like the movie more than I did. It's definitely worth watching for many reasons, such as seeing a hammy Jami Gertz play a high-priced teen hooker. There are also some great shots of what the neighborhood used to look like.

Anyway, from here on out, I'm only dressing like Vincent Spano.

Movie trailers have sure come a long way since 1984...



Bonus footage!




[Thanks to jeremizle for posting these.]

And another film called Alphabet City in the works...?

Hmm, feel like seeing a movie at my neighborhood theater -- what shall I see?

There are so many great New York movies

Though this isn't one of them -- Hercules in New York, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Still, a hoot to watch. At least the highlight reel below.