Up!

Plot synopsis:
In 1939, nine-year-old Carl Fredricksen idolizes famous explorer Charles F. Muntz. When Muntz is accused of fabricating the skeleton of a giant exotic bird he says he discovered at Paradise Falls, he vows not to return until he captures one alive. One day, Carl befriends a girl named Ellie, also a Muntz fan. She confides to Carl her desire to move her "clubhouse"—an abandoned house in the neighborhood—to a cliff overlooking Paradise Falls.
Carl and Ellie grow up, get married and live in the restored house. Carl sells toy balloons at the zoo where Ellie works. After she suffers a miscarriage and they are told they cannot have a child, the two decide to realize their dream of visiting Paradise Falls. They save for the trip, but repeatedly have to spend the money on more pressing needs. Finally, the now elderly Carl arranges for the trip, but Ellie suddenly becomes ill and dies.
Years later, Carl still lives in the house, stubbornly holding out while the neighborhood homes are torn down and replaced by skyscrapers. When he accidentally injures a construction worker, the court deems him a public menace, ordering him to move to a retirement home. However, Carl comes up with a scheme to keep his promise to Ellie by turning his house into a makeshift airship, using thousands of helium balloons. Russell, a young Wilderness Explorer who visited Carl in his effort to earn his final merit badge, for assisting the elderly, becomes an accidental stowaway.
After surviving a thunderstorm, the flying house lands on a tepui opposite Paradise Falls. Carl and Russell harness themselves to the still-buoyant house and begin to walk it across the mesa, hoping to reach the falls before the balloons deflate. Russell encounters a tall, colorful flightless bird, whom he names "Kevin". They then meet a Golden Retriever named Dug, who wears a special collar that allows him to speak and who vows to take the bird to his master. The next day, they encounter a pack of aggressive dogs led by Alpha, a Doberman Pinscher, and are taken to their master, who turns out to be Charles Muntz. Muntz invites Carl and Russell aboard his dirigible, where he explains to them that he is searching for a giant bird. When Russell notes the bird's similarity to Kevin, Muntz becomes hostile, believing they are attempting to capture the bird themselves. Carl flees with Kevin and Dug, but Muntz captures Kevin and starts a fire beneath Carl's house, forcing him to choose between saving it or Kevin. After Carl saves the house, he and Russell eventually reach the falls, though Russell is upset at Carl for abandoning Kevin. Carl looks through Ellie's childhood scrapbook and is surprised to find that she has filled in the blank pages with photos of their marriage, along with a note thanking him for the "adventure" and encouraging him to go have a new one.
The repentant Carl goes outside, only to see Russell sailing off with some balloons and the leaf blower as propulsion to try to rescue Kevin. Carl lightens the house enough to follow. Russell is captured by Muntz, but Carl manages to board the dirigible, tether the house, and free Russell and Kevin. Dug inadvertently defeats Alpha with his cone of shame and becomes the dogs' new leader. Muntz pursues them around the airship, trapping Dug, Kevin and Russell inside Carl's house. Carl lures Kevin back onto the airship, with Dug and Russell clinging to her back. Muntz leaps after them, but snags his foot on some balloon lines and falls to his death. The house then descends out of sight through the clouds.
After reuniting Kevin with her chicks, Carl and Russell fly the dirigible back to the city. Carl presents Russell with his final badge: a grape soda cap that Ellie gave to Carl when they first met. Meanwhile, Carl's house has landed on the cliff beside Paradise Falls, fulfilling his promise to Ellie.

Tags: pornographic, comedy, psychedelic, murder, violence

Review:
The film begins quite mysteriously in a dungeon where a young man is torturing an Adolf Hitler look-alike We then quickly cut to a stunning nude, played by Kitten Natividad, who teasingly introduces the audience to the setting We are in Northern California, in a small, rural community Just outside of town, a very beautiful, buxom young lady is hitchhiking along a lonely country road She is picked up by a young man, who happens to be the infant terrible of the local rich set...
He tries to take advantage of the girl's abundant sexuality but after a short sequence involving a brutal rape, she turns the tables and ends up killing him...Russ Meyer has never been one to linger too long on a single shot He likes to cut, especially to ladies running naked as jaybirds around the lush countryside In this case, however, he has added more than just a tease with Kitten Natividad, who narrates the events of the story with a husky, British accent while displaying her terrific figure The true star of the show, however, is Raven de la Croix, whose piercing dark eyes and fully rounded, voluptuous figure combine with some firmly loyal acting for an explosive performance.
This is something like the odd film out in Russ Meyer's later film career.
In no way is it as well crafted as "Vixen", "The Supervixens" or "Beneath the Valley of the UltraVixens." Of course it's far superior to "Blacksnake," "The Seven Minuets," or "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls." As far as its "plot" is concerned, well, in order to have ANY appreciation of Russ Meyer films in general, you really can't be too concerned with the "plot" to begin with.What makes this movie worth watching (especially if you're a hetero male) is Raven De La Croix in the role of Margo Winchester.
This Beautiful-Busty-Lovely-Dynamo Brunette Chick is IT--the bottom (and TOP) line.Actually, she's a little over-the-top, but that's part of her charm!This is Raven's one and only movie for Meyer, and it's a shame that he didn't use her as much as he did Uschi Digart or Kitten Natividad.
It is truly a shame that Raven didn't get as many featuring roles as she should have in the 70s and 80s.As I said in another review, this movie makes for a fine half of a double feature with one of Raven's other movies, "The Lost Empire." You can watch them back to back believing that "Margo Winchester" is just an alias of "Whitestar." It has been joked about that a remake of this film should be done.
During the 1970's Russ Meyer established a reputation for producing low budget movies exploiting violence and nudity which were very successful as midnight features in conventional cinemas, or at drive in cinemas.
They established a recognisable genre which usually followed a similar template and made a Russ Meyer film very easy to recognise.
Other common features in Russ Meyer films are (1) great photography of a variety of exceptionally scenic locations (to my mind this is often the most attractive feature of his work), (2) a naked siren or spirit who watches over the proceedings, and periodically comments on them in a moralistic way, (3) a corrupt law enforcement officer with a voracious sexual appetite who eventually meets a "just" death, (4) a script which ultimately delivers violent death to all those characters that Meyer regards as completely antisocial (these include all homosexuals, anyone associated with the drug trade, and any Nazi supporters who have survived World War II), and (5) some sort of postscript that summarises the lessons which we are expected to have learned from the film that we have been viewing.
"Up" was released in 1976 and is I believe the best, (or the worst - according to ones point of view), of the films of this genre he produced.Such a film could not be easily imitated today, it dates from a time when the augmentation of mammaries was not usually practiced, so the fairly vigorous movements Russ required from his cast always led to very pronounced "bouncing boobs".
Nevertheless Raven de la Croix has an extremely expressive face which, when compared with some other Russ Meyer films, minimises any deficiencies in this respect.
Continued flashbacks make it difficult to follow, but this film is comedy rather than drama, and anyone viewing it today will be watching it for the visual effects (including both the types of spectacular natural scenery so generously featured), rather than the story line.A good review should help its reader to decide whether they would regard the film as worth watching.
With "Up!" this is simple, if you are a fan of Russ Meyer but do not know this film, you should certainly, in my opinion, accept any opportunity to see it because it is a more mature production than many of those which preceded it.
If you are one of those to whom Meyer's somewhat incoherent films will not appeal, the information above should be sufficient to save you from investing valuable time watching it..
Meyer's perverse mix of humor, sex, and violence is at its best in this film.
The many positive sex scenes in the movie are not shot as porn so much as parodies of the notion of sex as bliss (note the quick cut aways and the scene changes (mostly in beautiful natural spots), creating a sense of hours of lapsed time while preventing any build-up of erotic aura).
Russ Meyer makes his films, when they're at their best or most brilliantly deranged, like the dream of some sexually charged sixteen year old who's seen his share of pornos and 70's era exploitation films.
To give just a brief example- and maybe as one of the quintessential scenes in any exploitation flick- the scene where two completely naked women, one Eva Braun Jr with a knife and screaming maniacally about the fall of Nazism and the plight of his 'father', run after one another trying to kill each other in the woods.So Up!
is in another in a whole body of works where Meyer turns the conventions of the usual in movie-making, like a kooky member of National Lampoon, but at the same time I'm not sure it's one of his very best.
It's a little scatter-shot in the story, if there is one closely to even follow with the Greek Chrous (Kitten Navidad) where in every time whatever semblance of a story is taking shape we're led off by this narrator and Meyers's editing which takes us into a strange loop of sequencing of events and images (which in and of themselves are good, but distracting).
Mostly this involves the early scenes with Adolph Schwartz (ho-ho), who gets masochistic sex from a dominatrix and a man with a huge thing, and then gets killed mysteriously in his bathtub.
Then we're thrust into some backwoods group, including a shifty but well-intentioned sheriff (Monty Bane), a big, uproarious homunculus in Rafe (Bob Schott), and of course Meyer's 'harem' of girls.It's fun, in all basic intentions, to see these girls have fun and go into exuberant glee doing their scenes, as opposed to the more degrading XXX features that get pretty boring after a while.
While the actual content is sometimes all over the place, like with Rafe's rape scenes, where he turns into a true drunken gorilla, the actual quality of the film-making is nearly flawless.
demonstrates some great Meyers' product: beautiful, voluptuous, and mostly funny women (loved the one woman who's voice sounded out of femme fatale noir), total horn-dogs and beasts in men, and a bit of vicious satire to boot.
My personal favorite of Russ Meyer's films.
Pretty much everything that could possibly happen sex wise is thrown into this thing including three different rapes, which makes me wonder why Ebert went out of his way to try and get certain films banned due to their "treatment of women".
The lack of plot really helps matters because in the end this is a very fun film full of laughs but it's mostly the outrageous sex scenes that make it so memorable..
I love Russ Meyer movies!
That's really just an excuse for a slew of scenes like none you've ever seen, and dialogue (co-written by Roger Ebert!) that continually astounds.Kitten Natividad makes her mark as "the Greek Chorus" but the real star here is Raven De La Croix (as Margo Winchester) who is the most stunning women to ever grace a Meyer flick.
This film was made later in Meyer's career and is more along the lines of Supervixens and Beyond the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens rather than Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and Vixen - and that's OK with me.
There is a slim plot line in this film - revolving around the murder of a man named Adolf, who looks a lot like Hitler.
The film really focuses on the absolutely stunning Margo Winchester, a sexy lady who waltzes into town shortly after the murder and gets into a scuffle with a man who tries to pick up her up, and ends up killing him.
The local cop gets her out of trouble, and she takes a job at a local cafe...Russ Meyer endows his film with a truly surreal style, and that helps to ensure that Up is the hilarious fun time that it is intended to be.
This girl is absolutely amazing and pretty much makes the film worth watching on her own, the fact that the rest of it is so good only increases the appeal of Up. The narrator idea comes off as being a bit corny, but it fits in well with the style of the film and the way that the topless girl telling the story goes about her business never fails to amuse.
The fact that the film stars a Hitler look-alike might make you think that Meyer has some sort of point to make - but if he did, I didn't catch it.
Overall, Up isn't my favourite Meyer movie, but it's a very good one and comes highly recommended!.
one can imagine pretty clearly why the Sex Pistols wanted Russ Meyer and Roger Ebert to make their movie.
The film opens with Hitler bottoming for his well hung hustler Paul (played by Robert McLane, who was in the queer 'Love Story' A Very Natural Thing 1974).
Up!, writer-director Russ Meyer's twenty-fifth film, is a rare find: a feature that should be a bona-fide turn-on for many.
Most of the rest of the film deals with the question "whodunit?" although the activities of busty characters like Margo Winchester are interesting distractions for sure.
This is the second Meyer film I've seen that features a black woman giving head to somebody, and the subject matter hasn't ceased to titillate me yet.
Meyer, or "King Leer" as he was sometimes called, hasn't failed to deliver an erotic, primal, and at times silly motion picture that wouldn't be complete without the undulating of a totally nude Kitten Natividad as she narrates the story.
Natividad's "roll call" of the characters gets a bit tedious by the third go-round, but who watches Meyer films for the story?
I just watched Russ Meyer's up yesterday and i thought it was really funny.
I have heard Russ Meyer used a lot of strippers and go-go girls from that time and with big natural breasts, this is before silicon.
And i thought Kitten was very funny, talking between scenes and doing these ridiculous go-go steps and screaming like she's coming.
Russ Meyer's movies have always struck me as a cross between porn and the Loony Toons.
Adolf then takes a nice, relaxing bath, reads the paper, & gets eaten alive by a piranha called The Nimrod.Summarising the story would be an idiotic exercise - it involves a young couple, Paul & Sweet Li'l Alice (Paul is the previously mentioned Pilgrim, & Sweet Li'l Alice is a nymphomaniac, surprise surprise), a stranger in town called Margo (also, presumably, a nymphomaniac), a corrupt cop called Homer (I guess you could call him a nymphomaniac, except he's a guy), & loads of drooling, sex-starved hillbillies.
Get the picture?Plus, the plot (ho, ho, ho) is helped along by the Greek chorus of a romping, naked wood-nymph who keeps reminding the audience of the ongoing investigation into Adolf Schwartz's murder.
'Up' is no exception, but unfortunately, it's one of his later films, which tend to display a much nastier, truly misogynistic bent, & contains two of the most offensive scenes I've seen in a Meyer film.The first involves Margo being beaten almost to death & then raped while unconscious.
An extremely violent, graphic & gratuitous scene which seems totally at odds with the comic atmosphere that the film is really trying to achieve.The second is even worse in its own way - Margo is gang-raped in a bar, with Russ Meyer himself in the crowd, egging it all on.
Things go really crazy when the giant lumberjack raping Margo grabs Sweet Li'l Alice & tries to rape them both at the same time.
Doesn't make much sense on any level, but little does in this film.Meanwhile, the murder investigation continues, & the resolution involves the offspring of Adolf Hitler & Eva Braun...Meyer fans will find a few laughs in 'Up!', as he seems to be going for insanity over titillation, but anyone else will be baffled, offended, or both..
The dialogue, though at times brilliantly funny (screenplay was co-written by film critic Roger Ebert!), is totally nonsensical.
Oddly enough, even with the one-woman Greek chorus, UP still doesn't make any sense: Paul dressed as a Pilgrim; the time at the bottom of the screen (why?!?!); Margo who starts talking like Mae West; the one-woman Greek chorus naming suspects of people who obviously have nothing to do with the killing of the Adolph Hitler look-alike Adolph Schwartz; after the chainsaw scene, Margo and Alice become "friends" but the next scene, Alice wants to kill Margo; the whole conversation between Margo and Alice when they run around in the forest at the end contradicts everything that we just saw in the film, like when Alice says Paul is into young boys and yet we saw Paul making out with her and Margo and a couple of other women throughout the entire movie; Margo's real "official" identity at the end, etc.
It looks like Russ and company forgot to shoot many scenes that would have given the film a more cohesive feel to the entire loony proceeding but as it is now, it's a near total mess.
And it also looks like they ran out of money when they were shooting the last scene, when Margo, Alice and Paul confront each other, as it suddenly stops right then and there.
And to make things more hard to take, UP, like so many late Russ Meyer films, is an overindulgent and way too boisterous movie.
Questionable moments in UP, like the rape scene at the bar, where Rafe, the big silent lumberjack rapes not one but two women at the same time, come to mind.
At one point, as Rafe rapes Margo, men at the bar gather around him and cheer him on.
Comical because that scene, like the entire movie itself and like all Russ Meyer films made after BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, was made to look like a cartoon.
Russ Meyer is to adult films what Tex Avery was to cartoons.
The rape scene is really filmed like a cartoon, with tons of screaming and men with axes in their stomachs that spew blood all over the place and yet they walk away like nothing had happened.
A first in a Russ Meyer flick!), everything that follows sorta looks quaint.
Margo, played by Raven De La Croix, was okay and seems to have a lot of fun but she's not much of an actress.
More than any other Russ Meyer films, except for ULTRA-VIXENS.
And there isn't a single impotent men in the entire picture (another Russ Meyer first), so everyone is having a good time.
when people talk Meyer films, I never hear Up!
Love the rednecks and hillbillies in Meyer films- they don't seen Hollywood.
I should preface this review by pointing out that Russ Meyer films are loved by many and berated by an equal amount.
The themes of violence, sexual exploitation and taboo content either delight some, or greatly offend others.I encourage you to develop your own take on Russ's unusual films.The film opens with an S&M session involving Paul, the Nazi Adolf Schwartz (who bears a striking resemblance to another famous Adolf) and several concubines.
Alice the owner and wife of Paul, knows a good thing when she sees one and realizes that Margo's beauty will attract customers.
The other bar patrons hear the cop arriving and flee leaving only Alice, Rafe and Margo inside.
As Rafe continues to rape Margo, Alice jumps on his back attempting to end his barbaric assault.
In a torrent of splashing gory blood Rafe is torn to shreds with the chainsaw.The movie then cuts to Margo making a phone call at a phone booth near the woods.
And if all this gets too confusing, Russ Meyer helpfully arranges for a one- woman nude Greek chorus (Kitten Natividad) to pop up at intervals to explain what's going on, even if she fails to entirely do so.
Its typical delightful Russ Meyers campy world of sex, violence, suspense and hot girls with ridiculously huge knockers.
This 1976 movie was co-written, produced, and directed by Russ Meyer.
The movie starts with Adolph Schwartz (Edward Schaaf), an old German guy who looks like Adolph Hitler, being killed, when a hungry piranha is dropped into his bathtub.
Later, the breathtakingly beautiful Margo Winchester (Raven De La Croix) hitch-hikes into town, gets a job at the local diner, and becomes romantically involved with the sheriff.
Near the end of the movie, Margo discovers who the murderer is.