Given all the zombie fare we’ve had since 2002, did we really need another sequel to 28 Days Later?  I didn’t recall being all that impressed by the first sequel, that being 2007’s 28 Weeks Later.  In the time we waited in vain for 28 Months Later, we’ve seen The Walking Dead (and its many […]

There’s an old saying about how, behind every great man, there’s a great woman.  I always interpreted that as meaning any man would only be where he is because he had the support of an even better woman.  Still, it scans as a bit back-handed.  1941’s The Great Man’s Lady opens with a text that […]

Robert Ryan was one of the most convincing actors of Hollywood’s golden age whenever you needed a psychopath or a staunch bigot.  The irony is, in real life, he was gentle, generous, and very liberal.  He was a strong supporter of civil rights and a vocal opponent to McCarthy’s Community witch-hunt, at the times when […]

For some time now, I have had the nagging feeling we, as a species, are becoming less inspired and are losing our imagination.  It doesn’t help that artificial intelligence could possibly create every potential variation on every story trope known, and do so in a short span of time.  Not that human screenwriters seem capable […]

The most pleasantly surprising thing to happen to me in life so far has been winning a video contest for Brian Wilson’s song “Heroes & Villains”.  I was stunned my stop-motion video won.  In fact, I still can’t believe it.  With the increasing distance of time, I can see how my contest entry actually isn’t […]

As I write these words, there is an unhinged effort to undo diversity, equity and inclusion policies around the U.S., a movement that was collectively known as DEI when it was being used to shape policy under the previous administration.  Despite there being much talk of a change to a “merit-based” leadership, it really comes […]

A long-running trope in fiction, song and movies has been the person who goes to the big city and finds themselves corrupted by it.  Somewhat less popular is a storyline where a girl does that, only for her brother attempt to rescue her, then he gets framed for murder and executed, and the brain from […]

So far, I have only seen Angela Pleasence in two movies: From Beyond the Grave, which is one of those Amicus anthology films, and 1974’s Symptoms.  From those performances, I would have thought she would be a very weird, socially awkward and slightly off-putting person in real life.  Lord knows she’s creepy enough in these […]

Most of the most innovative pictures leave a series of imitators in their wake, and it is inevitable the majority of those will be inferior.  Consider the legacy of Pulp Fiction, where we had at least a decade of excessively verbose and profane ne’er-do-wells and chronologically jumbled timelines.  Then there’s 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, […]

In 1955’s The Court Jester, Danny Kaye had a great recurring shtick with a tongue-twister he has to remember to keep from getting poisoned.  I have a feeling the creative team behind 1961’s On the Double were aiming for similar comedy gold when Kaye’s spineless enlisted man finds a great many occasions to muse upon […]

Despite being an American citizen, and by birth on U.S. soil with two natural-born citizens as parents, the present administration’s obsession with deportation has me apprehensive of leaving the country, for fear I might not be allowed back in.  This may be needless worry, but I still thought of this when seeing how easily Ray […]

1940’s The Fatal Hour is the fourth movie in which Boris Karloff would play San Francisco detective Mr. Wong.  For those who haven’t seen the previous installments, this poverty row production puts him in makeup that lengthens his eyes.  Fortunately, he doesn’t do an Asian accent.  Still, it is understandable if actors in yellowface is […]

Fire is a serious threat, which is why we have the age-old example of certain necessary restrictions to free speech, that being yelling “FIRE!” in a crowded theatre.  In 1971’s The Andromeda Strain, each of four scientists are visited by government officials who inform them more formally, and rather free of emotions, that there has […]