It’s weird how many films in the Disney canon are compilations of shorter films.  In some of these portmanteaus, the associations between the films will be stronger than in others.  It was a trend starting with Fantasia, and look at how tenuous the connections are between the pieces of that film. 1949’s The Adventures of […]

I listen to a great deal of psychedelic music from the late 60’s, especially that from the UK.  I suspect my listening preferences have established a false correlation in my mind, where I have misled myself into believing I also enjoy off-kilter British comedies of that era.  With each additional one I watch, I am […]

I keep thinking the comedies of the 80’s were all oversexed, but then I forgot about such glorious outliers as Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, which seemed to subvert every expectation one might have for a comedy from a major studio at the time.  Almost as audacious, but not quite as good, is 1983’s Strange Brew. This […]

1981’s Outland really wants to be Alien.  Its opening title sequence recalls that of the earlier film.  It takes place in a grimy, grungy mining facility on the Jupiter moon IO, but it might as well be the Nostromo.  The score is by Jerry Goldsmith, who provided that service for the other film.  Heck, I […]

Cathryn Harrison must have had a curious upbringing.  In her teenage years, she starred in two deeply weird movies: Louis Malle’s Black Moon and Robert Altman’s Images.  She was also in the Donovan-starring The Pied Piper, which had to the most traumatic of those films to make.  At least, it is the most traumatic to […]

When I first saw a blu-ray listing for 1993’s The Killing Box, I was more than a bit confused.  It isn’t that weird nowadays to have a movie where, during the civil war, both sides find themselves facing a common enemy of undead confederate soldiers. What did surprise me is the cast for this.  Really, […]

I remember the first time I saw 2002’s Reign of Fire, as I was hoping it would be as laughably bad as it looked.  I mean, just look at this plot, set in a future after an apocalypse brought on by dragons which had been unleashed from deep within the earth during a subway tunnel […]

Wendy Toye was a rarity, a woman directing features in mid-century Britain.  Unfortunately, women are still vastly in the minority among studio directors today, but that does seem to be improving. She started doing short films, among them the exceptional The Stranger Left No Card.  Unfortunately, few offers to helm features were forthcoming.  When they […]

In 1966’s Assault on a Queen, you’ll see Frank Sinatra as you’ve never seen him before: as one of those goofy deep-sea diver figurines some people put at the bottom of an aquarium.  I was just disappointed his objective wasn’t one of those tiny treasure chests where the lid occasionally opens, with a burst of […]

Like the central character of 1986’s I Like Bats, I also like those mammals, and feel they are unfairly maligned.  Just look at the bodies, sans those leathery wings, and they’re a bit like small dogs.  The opening credits roll over one eating some sort of fruit, possibly an orange, and it is adorable. Still, […]

I have been trying in vain to find a list of neo-noir films that either were originally intended for cable television or the video market and which instead found theatrical distribution, or vice-versa.  I’m not having any luck with that, but I wondered if 1990’s Buried Alive was ever shown theatrically, despite being made for […]

As I write this, the Disney Movie Club will soon be ending its operations.  By the time this piece goes live, that will have already happened.  This was a service essentially based on the old Columbia House model: get a few titles for next to nothing, then be stuck having to buy titles at full […]

For a couple of months, I once worked at a post office distribution facility as auxiliary seasonal help.  It was deeply horrible experience.  I was routinely called a “scab”.  One time, I had a manager tell me to move a cart, but I was immediately advised by a co-worker, “You’ll get hurt if you move […]

The back cover of the blu-ray for 1961’s Night Tide puts this indie horror film in such storied company as Night of the Living Dead and Carnival of Souls.  Both of those films have been inducted into the Criterion Collection.  This one hasn’t, and I don’t believe it has any chance of doing so.  Maybe […]