"DIY viewing of obscure cinema" thread (movie trailers, comments)

[C C]

52 Pick-Up (1986)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090567

Currently, free with ads on Tubi TV and Pluto TV.

Basically a cat and mouse game revolving around a blackmail attempt. An explicit negative for some viewers would be the extortionists' graphic intersection with the porn industry of the mid-1980s. The chief villain is a charismatically vocal jerk who indulges in abrupt spasms of cruelty and violence.

Ann-Margaret seems to be there for no other reason than being Ann-Margaret (not much depth to her role). Though Roy Scheider's character only avoids similar because the script gives him more scenes with agency. Mildly above average (58% rating), though some critics back then like Ebert did praise it somewhat.

52 Pick-Up ... https://youtu.be/yK-ajlxnyOY

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/yK-ajlxnyOY

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Precursors to this topic

The Ones Below (2015)
https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19925-post-82410.html

Time Lapse (2014)
https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19908.html

Out of the Furnace (2013)
https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19873.html

The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995)
https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19849.html

3 Women - Images - That Cold Day in the Park
https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19739.html

May (2002)
https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19646.html

Prey (2022)
https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19597.html

X Film Trilogy (2020s)
https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19522.html

Black Bear (2020)
https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19538.html

Night Crawler (2014)
https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19479.html

Wind River (2017)
https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19020.html

Hell or High Water (2016)
https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19007.html

Sicario (2015)
https://www.scivillage.com/thread-18985.html

[C C]

Kill Me Again (1989)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097662/

Currently free on Tubi TV.

Classic film noir plot. Gullible private eye gets swept up in the machinations of a femme fatale carrying $850,000, who ran away from her psychotic, murdering boyfriend who stole from mobsters.

The studio never gave this movie a chance to fail properly at the box office, stopping promotion and distribution in the early going. The sweet revenge is that over the decades it rose from the ruins to a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Elsewhere, more realistic assessments place it between 60 and 75. Which is still far above the dismal fate that the end of the eighties consigned it to.

Kill Me Again ... https://youtu.be/8QV7l_6dX5c

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/8QV7l_6dX5c

[C C]

The Shooting (1966)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062262/

Currently free on countless YouTube channels (a 4K version even), as well as Tubi TV and Pluto TV.

The 13th film of Jack Nicholson, who was still stumbling around in corners of Roger Corman's discount world.

Varyingly described as everything from the first existential Western to the first acid Western, The Shooting was an arthouse hit in Paris for over a year. But just the opposite in the US, where no distributor wanted it. Eventually it was sold as a lowly television movie.

Screenplay was written by actress Carole Eastman. Director Monte Hellman snipped off the first ten pages that would have provided background for the characters and situation. Thus preempting Stanley Kubrick by a couple of years, who generated similar mysteriousness by eliminating a narrator piece from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The ending of The Shooting wasn't originally intended to be a "what the __" highlight. And it doesn't have to be if you pay close enough attention to the early dialogue.

100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but you know that's inflated -- albeit it definitely has legendary status.

The Shooting ... https://youtu.be/g_l7vUFKmV4

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/g_l7vUFKmV4

[C C]

Private Property (1960)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054209/

Currently free on YouTube and Tubi TV.

Directed and written by Leslie Stevens, who later created the TV series The Outer Limits. His own house and the empty one next door were used as the primary setting. Kate Manx was also his wife, who died four years after the release of "Private Property".

Though tame by today's standards, the first 30 minutes are an overtly frank time capsule for an era still moderately struggling with censorship. Shot in an avant-garde style and sporting a theme of planned seduction by two seedy drifters, the movie was condemned as an abomination by organizations and reviewers of 1960. In contrast, after being classified as a lost film for many years, the refound and restored version of it in 2016 received widespread critical acclaim. An unsuccessful remake with the same title rolled out in 2022.

90% rating on RT. 80% on Metacritic.

Private Property ... https://youtu.be/LhezgzlmlbA

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/LhezgzlmlbA