Dec
15
Kirk Cameron can kid himself, but these are the films that will truly save Christmas. Just in time to provide a respite for anyone sick of all that Holly-Jolly, IFC is releasing a pair of notorious erotic classics to the cinema. Walerian Borowczyk’s THE BEAST and IMMORAL TALES had their original debuts in the ’70’s, …
Nov
20
If you’ve been going through the vast collection of films that have lapsed into the pubic domain — and you probably have, because who can afford entertainment otherwise? — you’ve likely stumbled upon an animated feature called, The Curious Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird, a strange little thing with voices by such luminaries as Peter Ustinov, …
Nov
09
Not all megalomaniacs are preening, medal-bedecked-uniform-wearing, sociopathic assholes. Sometimes they’re mousy, tatty, middle-class husbands with a basement full of electronic equipment and a murderous secret to hide. In LFO, Patrick Karlson plays an amateur scientist who discovers a sonic thrum that renders people susceptible to whatever suggestions cross his warped little mind. Bad news for …
Sep
13
We have to be clear about this: There are bad movies; there are reprehensible movies; there are movies that make you consider taking out a contract on the entire DGA, just to be sure that never in the future of humankind will there be a chance that such an affront to common decency could again …
Jul
28
It’s raining sharks, hallelujah! Or maybe whether you’re making that exclamation depends on how highly refined your appreciation of irony is. Yes, SHARKNADO 2: THE SECOND ONE is here, moving the mayhem to New York (to the producers’ credit, largely the real New York), larding the proceedings with copious cameos (hallloooo Andy Dick, Perez Hilton, …
Jul
04
Even in the anything-to-get-your-adrenaline-pumping world of Hong Kong cinema, RIGOR MORTIS stands out. The story of a famous actor, Chin Siu-Ho (played by actual famous actor Chin Siu-Ho — your heard us), who has to contend with a seedy apartment building whose walls reverberate with echoes of his most famous film, the hopping vampire horror-comedy …
Jun
26
There’s nothing particularly wrong with employing the time-space continuum for the pure fun of the concept. EDGE OF TOMORROW makes good sport of it, coming up with a pretty keen action film and allowing Tom Cruise to play comedy beats better than he did in KNIGHT AND DAY. But, given the mind-bending possibilities inherent in …
Jun
12
Well, this is a ticklish situation. I went into EDGE OF TOMORROW a little nervous, knowing this much about it: that Tom Cruise played a soldier who, by some trick of the time-space continuum, was reliving over and over his death during a disastrous attack on an alien invasion force. Sounded intriguing, no question. But …
Jun
12
The speaker of the Louisiana State Senate. An agoraphobic starfish. Two copies of Playboy with their centerfolds torn out. These are probably the only things actor Doug Jones hasn’t been in his variegated career. In makeup and out, whether playing an amphibious scholar, a benevolent alien, or a mute, demonic organ harvester, Jones has managed …
May
13
I for one welcome our new crustacean overlords. Even if you’ve never seen ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS, you probably still know it by heart. It is the perfect model of the drive-in B-movie, a sublime mix of papier-mache creatures, suggestive sexuality, and dodgy science, with just a bit of cold-war philosophy thrown in for …
