The Best of Sex and Violence (1982)

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

The wonderfully lurid lay it all out on the table outrageous title does not lie! This resolutely seamy pip does indeed spew forth 28 of the most spectacularly loopy, torrid and trashy 70's and 80's exploitation trailers to ever ooze their slimy way across the big screen. In fact, this blithely brazen schlockfest is often downright mesmerizing in all its marvelously meretricious magnificence.There's plenty of sexy, shapely and positively succulent unclad distaff skin on gloriously abundant display throughout: Among the luscious ladies who doff their duds and bare their beautiful bodies are the adorable Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith (the soft-core musical version of "Cinderella"), vampy Russ Meyer starlet Edy Williams ("Dr. Minx" with William Smith), superb six foot drink of dirty blonde water Dixie Lee Peabody ("Bury Me An Angel"), the perpetually naked Laura Gemser ("Emmanuelle Around the World"), a pre-Prince Vanity ("Tanya's Island"), and a double dose of the delectable Claudia Jennings ("The Singles Girls" and the rowdy redneck romp "Truck Stop Women;" the latter also features Uschi Digard). Fans of the awesomely bountiful Phyllis Davis get to see a lot of this under-appreciated actress' substantial assets in the memorably sleazy trailers for "Sweet Suger" and "Terminal Island." Even better still, the ravishing Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson shows off her considerable smoking hot stuff in the fantastic promo for "The Working Girls." Other transcendently tacky trailers include the eerie "Tourist Trap," the enjoyably dippy "Beyond Atlantis," the simply daft "Fairytales" (one of Linnea Quigley's first-ever flicks), the still quite disgusting after all these years immortal jewel "I Spit On Your Grave," the histrionic "Zombie" ("If you loved 'Dawn of the Dead,' you'll just eat 'Zombie'!"), and much more. The biggest laughs stem from the uproariously insane "Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde" spot, thanks to said plug's inspired use of profane free-form proto-rap phrasing ("Don't give him no sass/Or he'll kick yo a**!"). However, the arrogant Rudy Ray Moore's mighty troika of over-the-top ridiculous ads for "Dolemite," "The Human Tornado," and the especially gut-busting "Disco Godfather" ("We're flying high on a disco trip!") are likewise totally sidesplitting. Hosted by an obnoxiously supercilious and seriously under the weather John Carradine (sons David and Keith briefly pop up at the very end), directed by Ken Dixon of "Filmgore" infamy, produced by the tireless Charles Band, scripted with a wince-worthy emphasis on dreadful puns by Frank Ray Perilli (who also wrote "Laserblast," "Parasite," and "Mansion of the Doomed" for Band), and topped off with a hard-thrashing Richard Band rock score, this cheerfully degenerate cavalcade of pure rancid cinematic swill qualifies as essential viewing for hardcore fans of celluloid depravity.

It's not really any thanks to Mr Dixon that this is such fun. The John Carradine links are at best vaguely amusing and at worst, inaudible or embarrassing. It is astonishing towards the end when even sons David and Keith are somehow talked into appearing, but dad does say something to the effect that have they no work to do to which there is a mumbled reply suggesting that maybe not after this! So embarrassing for the Carradines and just a few blaxploitation fight scenes too many, that seem not even to come under the overall title, but still the sordid 70s product shines through! Particularly good to see the 'I Spit On Your Grave' trail and an interesting one for 'Tourist Trap' and a film called, 'Single Girls', which was new to me and had the line; (whether from the film or just the trailer) 'If we can't get a man easy, then we get him hard'. the overlong blaxploitation segment starts well with, 'Dolemite' and 'Human Tornado' both spoken over by the man himself. All in all an interesting document and a super snapshot of a unique period of cinema history.

With "The Best of Sex and Violence," tons of awesome cinema is distilled, in trailer form, for your viewing pleasure. Presented here are some of the best bits from some of the coolest exploitation movies, from the greatest exploitation era: the 70s.And what's more, you get stuff from both ends of the exploitation spectrum: erotica and violence. Alice in Wonderland (the adult one), Emmanuelle Around the World, Tanya's Island, Zombie, I Spit On Your Grave, Terminal Island, Dolemite, Disco Godfather...and more still!Seriously, this is good stuff. In my opinion, the 70s were the best time for these kinds of movies. You didn't have to be PC; you could have as much nudity and gore and bank-robbing dogs (you gotta watch the video) as you wanted.And these trailers really are fun to watch. The diologue is hilarious, the plots are outrageous, and the visuals are always in-your-face. Not to mention John Carradine's super-bad one-liners that he deadpans in-between the trailers.It might be hard to find, but trust me, it's worth it.

THE BEST OF SEX AND VIOLENCE is a rather mistitled trailer compilation. The trailers are cobbled together with nothing in common; some don't even feature sex or violence! They are pretty memorable, though, and it's great to see them all on one tape. But John Carradine was a mistake. His dialogue is embarrassing and stupid; how did he feel doing this? Then again, how could he have any shame? Over 3/4 of his movies are pieces of garbage! I recommend BEST OF to those looking for a nice sampler of psychotronic titles to seek out, but nothing more.