In a coincidental tribute to Raquel Welch following her passing a few weeks back, over the course of a few nights we watched  The Three Musketeers ,  The  Four Musketeers , and Return of the Musketeers  in The Slaughtered Lamb.  The first two films were shot as a single feature, and subsequently split and released a year apart (much to the chagrin of cast and crew members who were paid for a single film!), with the third film reuniting the cast and director fifteen years later. Produced by the Salkind's (who would go on to produce the original Superman films a few years later), and directed by Richard Lester (who was responsible for the classic Beatles films A Hard Day's Night and Help! ), I will admit that I went in with pretty high expectations. In retrospect, coming from the Salkinds I think I was looking for the tale of the Three Musketeers by way of Richard Donner (director of the original Superman and far too many great films to list here), rather than ...

  I'm a fan of Steven Soderbergh (and appreciate the fact that his projects tend to cover a pretty wide spectrum of genres), so we had seen and enjoyed the original Magic Mike on Blu Ray. Having booked tickets to take Vonna to see Magic Mike's Last Dance this weekend, it was only appropriate that we not risk missing out on the subtle story nuances that could be lost on us if we didn't watch the initial sequel, Magic Mike XXL , so we decided to check it out in The Slaughtered Lamb last week. What I didn't realize until the credits rolled was that unlike the first and third films in the series, the second was produced but not directed by Soderbergh himself. Which allows me to give it a bit of a pass for lacking in the story department. What we're served up is basically a road trip movie, with a requisite stop every few minutes for an obligatory stripper scene. Having seen more than enough exploitation films in my life, I can't fault this one for pandering to its...