This video is for the third single from AC/DC’s 13th studio album, Ballbreaker. This video features AC/DC rocking out on stage while oil-covered women keep the fans running backstage and end up getting covered in oil. Back in 1995, this is how we all assumed AC/DC made sure sure the show never ended.
This video was directed by the band’s usual director, David Mallet.
Enjoy!
No, Michael, you may not.
Enjoy!
It’s easy to forget now but, in the mid-90s, slam poetry and spoken word performances were trendy for a brief time. As with anything that was trendy, MTV had to jump on the bandwagon and ruin it through overexposure. For a while, in 1995, every commercial break on MTV seemed to feature Maggie Estep performing. Estep wasn’t the only performer featured, of course. There was another poet whose name that I cannot remember. He would do pieces about sports and how the announcers would never just tell you what the score was. It’s funny because it’s true, right?
This video received moderate airplay on MTV and it was featured on an episode of Beavis and Butthead. Director Mark Pellington was one of those video directors who worked with everyone. He later went on to have a middling feature film career.
Enjoy!
Kay Egan (Tanya Roberts) goes undercover as a nurse at a sex clinic because she thinks that Dr. Scott Callister (John Henry Robertson) and his wife, Jessica (Delia Sheppard), are responsible for the suicide of her sister. Working undercover leads to Jessica meeting private detective Barry Mitchum (Nick Cassavetes), whose partner Monica (Gail Harris) died under mysterious circumstances while she was working undercover at the clinic. Is there anyone working at the clinic who isn’t undercover?
This is a Jim Wynorski film, which means the plot is mostly just an excuse for the female members of the cast to disrobe. Like many of Jim Wynorski’s films, it’s trashy but entertaining. It’s a sex clinic where therapy comes in the way of hallucinations, strobe lights, and choreographed stripping. Kay falls in love with Barry but, when she realizes that Jessica is into her, she used that to her advantage and buys Barry some extra time for his investigation. Jan-Michael Vincent plays Warren Robillard, a twitchy associate of the Callisters. It’s a Wynorski film all the way.
Jim Wynorski later said that he had a difficult time working with Tanya Roberts, who brings little of her old Charlie’s Angel spice to her role. But John Henry Robertson and Delia Sheppard are a blast as the evil sex clinic owners. Adult film actress Gail Harris is so sexy and likable as Monica that it’s a shame that she’s only has a few minutes of screentime.
Sins of Desire is a perfect example of why you couldn’t have late night Cinemax without Jim Wynorski.
Reportedly, this video was eventually meant to be far more elaborate but, when those plans fell through, the band went for a more minimalist version that was directed by Peter Christopherson. Take after take was filmed until Reznor was properly exhausted and punch-drunk.
Peter Christopherson has also directed videos for Filter, Soft Cell, Stabbing Westward, and the Ben Folds Five, amongst others.
Enjoy!
Todd (Zach Galligan) is married to Emily (Krista Errickson), who was previously involved with Todd’s brother, Berke (Michael Bowen). When Berke comes by for a visit, he discovers that Emily is cheating on Todd with Darcy (Luca Bercovici). A confrontation between Emily, Berke, and Darcy ends with Darcy dead. While covering up the murder, Emily is also plotting to take all of Todd’s money for herself. David Warner appears as the therapist who struggles to keep straight who is double-crossing who.
In the 90s, where could you see the lead of Gremlins being betrayed by both his sexy wife and his no-good brother? Where, in the 90s, could you see the star of Hello Larry try to reboot her career as a Kathleen Turner film fatale? Where, in the 90s, could you see the man who would one day play Buck in Kill Bill playing Zach Galligan’s long-haired brother? Only on Cinemax!
Mortal Passions was an attempt to do a modern noir and it has all of the expected tropes, from the clueless husband to the morally gray relative to the wife who is planning on betraying everyone. Krista Errickson is sexy and dangerous as Emily, ruthlessly plotting Todd’s downfall while walking around in lingerie. Errickson’s femme fatale is never as clever as she thinks she is but fortunately, for her, all the men around her are idiots. Galligan and Bowen are both believable as two of the most easily manipulated people that you’ll ever meet. And then there’s David Warner, phoning it in and getting away with it because he’s David Warner.
Mortal Passions is Late Night Cinemax at its trashiest best!
This cover of the Peter Frampton hit was featured on the soundtrack for one of the seminal films of Generation X, Reality Bites. Back in the day, MTV advertised the Hell out of Reality Bites, even though the movie portrayed MTV as being intellectually vapid and a net negative for the culture.
(As opposed to Ethan Hawke and his band, Hey, That’s My Bike!)
Enjoy!
Billy Idol Should Be Dead is the title of a new documentary about Billy Idol and, watching the movie, it’s hard not to agree.
Billy Idol Should Be Dead covers Billy Idol’s storied career, from being a member of the Bromley Contingent to his time as lead singer of Generation X to his solo career and his current status as an unlikely elder statesman of rock and roll. The film features interviews with Miley Cyrus and Billie Joe Armstrong and, despite the age differences, you only have to listen to them and then listen to the 70-something Billy Idol to see the difference between a true rocker and a pretender. Even in his 70s and speaking in a gravelly voice, Billy Idol still has the charisma and the confidence that made him a star. He still has the genuine punk rock attitude that bands like Green Day have made a lot of money imitating but which they have never matched.
The documentary is as open about Billy Idol’s history of drug abuse as Idol himself has been. Idol became a heroin addict at an early age and doesn’t really start to think about cleaning himself up until his father comes over to America and scolds him. Throughout the film, we hear about overdoses and lost weekends and all the times that Billy Idol came close to dying. We also hear about the motorcycle accident that nearly lost him his leg and which ultimately inspired his most controversial album, Cyberpunk. Why did Billy Idol survive while so many of his contemporaries did not? Why was Billy Idol able to survive heroin while so many of the original punk rockers succumbed to it? Who knows? Luck of the draw, perhaps.
The theme of family runs through Billy Idol Should Be Dead. Though Billy’s father is no longer around to offer up his perspective, Billy’s mother is and she’s the epitome of the perfect English mum, amused by her son’s antics even when she doesn’t quite understand them. Billy Idol’s relationship with his father is one of the running themes of the film. It was a difficult relationship but one built on familial love. The relationship is reflected by Idol’s relationship with his own children, all of whom seem to be remarkably stable for someone who grew up with a rock star for a father.
The film alternates between archival footage of the young and cocky Billy Idol and black-and-white scenes of the contemporary Billy Idol. The older Idol still has his swagger but he also has a hard-fought wisdom that younger Idol lacked. The younger Idol thought he was indestructible while the older Idol is happy to be alive and be a grandfather. The older Idol also reveals himself to be far more thoughtful than I think anyone gave the young Idol credit for being. This documentary shows not only how Billy Idol survived a lifestyle that should have killed him but also how and why he’s earned his place as one of rock’s elder statesmen.
Billy Idol probably should be dead but this documentary will make you happy that he’s not.
Brad recently told me that he missed out on Late Night Cinemax in the 90s so, for this week, I’m going to review a few films from the era. I’m going to start with Stormswept, which is currently available on Prime.
Dottie (Melissa Moore) is a Louisiana realtor who has been assigned to show a plantation to Marla (Kim Kopf), an actress. When Dottie enters the main house, she has flashbacks to a traumatic experience that happened years ago. Dottie tries to talk Marla into looking at a different house but both Marla and the crew who are shooting her latest movie are drawn to the plantation. On a stormy night, a game of truth or dare leads to hypnosis, nudity, attempted murder, more nudity, the supernatural, and even more nudity.
Stormswept is the epitome of a 90s Cinemax film. Before Cinemax became a semi-respectable network and all of the old direct-to-video softcore films moved to streaming platforms, late night Cinemax was the main place to see films like Stormswept. Movies like this are why Cinemax was, for the longest time, nicknamed Skinemax. (Even Jerry Seinfeld made a joke about it on an episode of Seinfeld when he said, “People don’t just bump into each other. This isn’t Cinemax.”) Most of the movies that showed up on late night Cinemax in the 90s weren’t very good but, for viewers of a certain age, they were very popular.
So, what about Stormswept? Is it any good? The plot is impossible to follow and the dialogue is so risible that it could have been written by AI but it’s a still a film that, for better or worse, epitomizes an era. Whatever else, Stormswept does generate some atmosphere and, even more importantly, it features some of the most popular B-movie actresses of the 90s. Melissa Moore, Kim Kopf, Lorisa McComas, and Kathleen Kinmont are all featured in the movie and they all give better performances than the material probably deserved. Melissa Moore, who I will admit is one of my favorite Cinemax actresses, is especially good as Dottie. Even though the camera ogles her and, as soon as Moore opens her bedroom door in a towel, it’s obvious that the towel will be on the floor within minutes, Melissa Moore still gives a committed and sincere performance as the only person in the house who truly seems to understand that something bad is going to happen. She is still sympathetic and believable as Dottie and you actually do want to find out the secrets of her past experiences with the mansion.
I should give proper warning here. Stormswept is definitely a softcore film, make no mistake about that. Even by the standards of 90s Cinemax, a few of the scenes are unusually explicit. But, with its game cast and occasionally interesting story, it’s also a pretty good example of what made late night Cinemax memorable beyond the nudity.
This video, which was taken at a 1982 concert in St. Louis, is as close as we have for a music video for Remember the Heroes. Co-written by Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain, this song is Sammy Hagar’s tribute to the men and women who have served this country, many of whom have made the ultimate sacrifice.
There aren’t many Memorial Day rock song out there. Trust Sammy Hagar to do the day and its meaning justice.
