Penny Thoughts ‘15—Nymphomaniac, vol. II (2014) ***

NR, 123 min.

Director/Writer: Lars von Trier

Starring: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin, Shia LaBeouf, Jamie Bell, Christian Slater, Willem Dafoe, Mia Goth, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Michael Pas, Jean-Marc Barr, Udo Kier, Ananya Berg

While Lars von Trier found a pretty good natural breaking point in his story to end the first volume of his erotica effort “Nymphomaniac”, he doesn’t have quite so natural a starting point for volume 2. The truth is it’s really intended as one epic movie, not two episodes. And now, Criterion has put out extended cuts of both volumes. Yeesh!

Anyway, “Nymphomaniac, vol. II” took a lot of heat as being one of the worst films of last year. I quite enjoyed the first half, and while I didn’t enjoy the second half as much, that is mostly because it is a second half rather than a second story. You’d think it would be difficult not to repeat yourself in a sexposé about the life of a nymphomaniac that was over four hours in length, but von Trier does a very good job of staying on fresh ground throughout.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013) *

UR, 102 min.

Director: Jeff Tremaine

Writers: Johnny Knoxville, Spike Jonze, Jeff Tremaine, Fax Bahr, Adam Small

Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Jackson Nicoll, Greg Harris

Perhaps it is fitting that I should follow up the documentary “The Final Member”, about the world’s only penis museum, with a movie produced by the Jackass crew. “Bad Gandpa” got surprisingly good reviews when it was released in theaters last fall. I have, up to this point, been fortunate enough to avoid anything and everything having to do with the MTV show “Jackass”, which somehow jumped from the small screen to the big screen with three theatrical releases based on its hosts’ stupid choices. Now comes what I guess is their attempt at a dramatic narrative.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Big Trouble in Little China (1986) ***

PG-13, 99 min.

Director: John Carpenter

Writers: Gary Goldman, David Z. Weinstein, W.D. Richter

Starring: Kurt Russell, Kim Catrall, Donnie Dun, James Hong, Victor Wong, Kate Burton, Donald Li, Carter Wong, Peter Kwong, James Pax, Suzee Pai, Chao Li Chi

After finally viewing “Howard the Duck”, I felt I needed to cleanse my palate with another purely 80s flick that is much more satisfying. I had never seen “Big Trouble in Little China” either, but I was taking a bit less of a gamble, since unlike “Howard” this one holds a high cult status rather than a low one. I’d seen much of it throughout the years in bits and pieces, but never the entire thing. It is directed by one of the greatest and underappreciated filmmakers of the 80s, John Carpenter.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—The Visitor (1979) **½

R, 108 min.

Director: Michael J. Paradise

Writers: Ovidio Assonitis, Lou Comici, Robert Mundy, Michael J. Paradise

Starring: Joanne Nail, Paige Conner, John Huston, Lance Henriksen, Shelley Winters, Mel Ferrer, Glenn Ford, Sam Peckinpah, Franco Nero

I’ll admit it. I’m not above film snobbery. I’ve been known to praise movies that are a statement against the mainstream and nothing more. I like to see things in movies that I haven’t seen before. One of my favorite against the grain directors, Werner Herzog, has said that we are starving for new images. While many arthouse films are predicated on the ideal to provide these original images, not all of them do it well.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For / **½ (R)

Marv: Mickey Rourke

Nancy: Jessica Alba

Dwight: Josh Brolin

Johnny: Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Gail: Rosario Dawson

Hartigan: Bruce Willis

Ava: Eva Green

Senator Roark: Powers Boothe

Manute: Dennis Haysbert

Joey: Ray Liotta

Mort: Christopher Meloni

Bob: Jeremy Piven

Kroenig: Christopher Lloyd

Dimension Films and Miramax present of film directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. Written by Frank Miller, based on his graphic novel series. Running time: 102 min. Rated R (for strong brutal stylized violence throughout, sexual content, nudity and brief drug use).

“2005’s “Sin City” represented the ultimate marriage of the two media formats [cinema & graphic novels]. Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller combined their talents, with a little help from Quentin Tarantino, to near literally present a comic book on screen. Miller’s gritty noir graphic novel, upon which the movie is based, reads like some sort of noir hell where the characters are archetypes paying for the sins of all their ancestors in bullets and blood. “Sin City” proves how cinema can even enhance other forms of pop culture.”

I wrote that for my list of the past decade’s 25 best films. “Sin City” changed the way filmmakers conceived of how to make a movie. Nearly a decade later, Miller and Rodriguez finally hand us the long awaited and much talked about sequel to that amazing movie; and while I don’t think the style has played itself out, these filmmakers might’ve. As much as the first film felt fresh and uninhibited, “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” feels tired and ready to give up.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Cheap Thrills (2014) ***

NR, 88 min.

Director: E.L. Katz

Writers: David Chirchirillo, Trent Haaga

Starring: Pat Healy, Ethan Embry, Sara Paxton, David Koechner

E.L. Katz’s “Cheap Thrills” is a very dark movie indeed. It involves a man played by Pat Healy, whom horror enthusiasts might remember from Ti West’s “The Innkeepers”. He finds himself in a desperate financial situation. He has a new child and has just received an eviction notice on his apartment door. He loses his job and finds himself in a bar where he runs into an old friend. They share a few drinks and are asked to share a few more by an eccentric couple who seem to have money to spare.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Django Unchained (2012) ****

R, 165 min.

Director/Writer: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins, Dennis Christopher, James Remar, David Steen, Dana Gourrier, Nichole Galicia, Laura Cayouette, Ato Essendoh, Sammi Rotibi, Clay Donohue Fontenot, Escalante Lundy, Miriam F. Glover, Don Johnson, James Russo, Tom Wopat, Don Stroud, Russ Tamblyn, Amber Tamblyn, Bruce Dern, M.C. Gainey, Franco Nero, Cooper Huckabee, Doc Duhame, Jonah Hill, Lee Horsley, Zoë Bell, Michael Bowen, Robert Carradine, Jake Garber, Ted Neeley, James Parks, Tom Savini, Michael Parks, John Jarratt, Quentin Tarantino

Django!

Django, have you always been alone?

Django!

Django, have you never loved again?

Love will live on, oh oh oh...

Life must go on, oh oh oh...

For you cannot spend your life regretting

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Repo Man (1984) ****

R, 92 min.

Director/Writer: Alex Cox

Starring: Emilio Estevez, Harry Dean Stanton, Tracey Walter, Olivia Barash, Sy Richardson, Susan Barnes, Fox Harris, Tom Finnegan, Del Zamora, Eddie Velez, Zander Schloss, Jennifer Balgobin, Dick Rude, Miguel Sandoval, Vonetta McGee

In high school, my friends and I would imagine that the Sheen family (Martin Sheen and Charlie Sheen) name was actually Sheen rather than Estevez and act out a scene about Emilio changing his name from Sheen to Estevez. At that point in time, it would’ve made no sense. No actor who wanted to make a name for himself would change his name from a respectable and established Hollywood white name like Sheen to something of obvious ethnicity like Estevez. We would even play it as if his first name was actually Steve—or something closer to the white norm of Martin and Charlie—and he purposely changed it to Emilio Estevez as some strange act of rebellion.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Death Race 2000 (1975) *

R, 80 min.

Director: Paul Bartel

Writers: Robert Thom, Charles Griffith, Ib Melchoir (story “The Racer”)

Starring: David Carradine, Simone Griffeth, Sylvester Stallone, Mary Woronov, Roberta Collins, Martin Kove, Louisa Moritz, The Real Don Steele, Joyce Jameson, Carle Benson, Sandy McCallum, Paul Laurence, Harriet Medin, Vince Trankina, Bill Morey

I’m all for cult classics. I love “Repo Man”. “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” is a delicious guilty pleasure. However, so many of them are really no good at all. There’s a reason a cult needs to be formed in order to appreciate them. “Death Race 2000” falls into that category. Only a cult could appreciate this movie.

Machete Kills / ** (R)

Machete: Danny Trejo

Voz: Mel Gibson

Mendez: Demian Bichir

Miss San Antonio: Amber Heard

Luz: Michelle Rodriguez

Desdemona: Sofía Vergara

Mr. President: Carlos Estevez

La Camaléon: Lady Gaga

El Camaléon 4: Antonio Banderas

El Camaléon 1: Walt Goggins

El Camaléon 2: Cuba Gooding, Jr.

Cereza: Vanessa Hudgens

KillJoy: Alexa Vega

Zaror: Mark Zaror

Osiris Amanapur: Tom Savini

Open Road Films presents a film directed by Robert Rodriguez. Written by Kyle Ward. Screen story by Robert Rodriguez & Marcel Rodriguez. Running time: 107 min. Rated R (for strong bloody violence throughout, language and some sexual content).

In a tradition that has become a signature of the mock-grindhouse films of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, Rodriguez’s new film “Machete Kills” starts with a trailer for another grindhouse film. The name of the film is “Machete Kills Again… In Space”. This is confusing since I had just bought a ticket for “Machete Kills”. Why was I seeing a trailer for a sequel to a movie that was just released? The trailer reveals the plot of this second sequel to Rodriguez’s brilliant exploitation spoof “Machete” in pretty clear detail. We see Machete’s exploits in space in what appears to be a film that has lost all touch with the original “Machete” beyond the fact that it looks like a bad 70s b-movie. What happened to the renegade federalé who has turned into a Mexican folk hero with a penchant for unique weapons and a taste for the blood of evil men? Lasers and jet packs? Really?!