10 to Midnight....Does anyone really know what time it is?



10 to Midnight: 8 out of 10: Wow this was a pleasant surprise. Part cop/part vigilante film; it is a Charles Bronson movie after all. Part slasher film; with an effective Gene Davis as the white creepy Ted Bundy style psycho. And part after-hours film. Everyone is naked even the killer, though thankfully not Charles Bronson)




Even though it is a mishmash of genres 10 to Midnight works surprisingly well. The slasher parts complement the cop action and let's face it attractive people getting naked rarely makes a film worse.


Almost a surprise then that Roger Ebert gives the film zero stars. Roger tends to like a decent exploitation film. Roger’s vitriol “Logic isn't the problem with this movie, however. A lack of humanity is.” “This is a scummy little sewer of a movie, a cesspool that lingers” seems out of place for a competent mainstream hard R action film. Maybe the slasher subtext with the cop angle threw him but the film simply isn't that exploitative. It just is what it is.




Now it can certainly be argued that a zero star review from Roger is a badge of honor of sorts. Certainly, no film given zero stars by Ebert is all bad except Freddy got Fingered and The Life of David Gale. In fact, if you want a library of exploitation classics There are admittedly worse places to start than Ebert's zero-star reviews.





What Roger objected to is the film is sleazy. Guess what it is. Yeah, I hate it when sleaze rears its ugly head in my otherwise fine exploitation movie. And this is a true exploitation movie. Naked nurses, naked serial killing and Charles Bronson doing a Mark Furman with a vial of blood. Nothing puts a smile on my face faster.










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