Isn’t it great how a movie, an album or a book can come along and completely subvert your expectations? Going into 1948’s The Boy with Green Hair, I thought it would be incredibly goofy, or at least have a sci-fi element to it. Instead, this sweetly good-natured tale is a plea for compassion and understanding. […]
Author: placelogohere
Movie: Cube (2021)
Remakes are always a dicey proposition, especially when you’re remaking 1997 sleeper cult title Cube, where the first person we saw was quickly and cleanly diced by a trap. I wouldn’t have thought there would be any reason for a Japanese reworking of the material. If anything, I thought a J-horror version would have a […]
Movie: The Sacred Symbol (1984)
One more film…just one more film… Watching the many movies on the Ormond Family box set has been a fascinating journey, while often being a bit of a slog—especially in the religious half of the set. If I hadn’t been taking notes during each movie, I would never have been able to remember what happens […]
Mixvember
Like most people my age, I used to make a great many mixtapes, back when these were on cassette and so were truly mixtapes. I welcomed the age of being able to burn compact discs in a computer, enabling easier mix creation and duplication. I think it’s funny how few people have any equipment to […]
Movie: Peking Express (1951)
The World Health Organization recently identified aspartame as a potential carcinogen. It seems weird they may soon be trying to take away my wife’s Diet Coke. I know I’m not going to try to intervene. The ending of 1951’s Peking Express has Joseph Cotten’s WHO doctor mowing down Chinese counterrevolutionaries with a machine gun. I […]
Movie: It’s About the Second Coming (1980)
Having subjected myself to all of Ron Ormond’s religious films, it was time to see if his son Tim is a better filmmaker. I don’t believe I am being unnecessarily cruel when I say the acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree. To use some biblical phrasing, one nut begat another. Following the template of […]
Movie: Squaring the Circle (2022)
“Vinyl is the poor man’s art collection.” This remarkable statement appears to have been coined by Noel Gallagher of Oasis fame, however unlikely it seems to me he could ever come up with anything that clever. There’s a lot of truth in that statement, regardless of who said it first. I know I have been […]
Movie: The Last of Sheila (1973)
We barely get to see Yvonne Romain as the title character of 1973’s The Last of Sheila before she is run over by a mysterious driver. Most of the movie takes place a year after this, aboard Sheila, a yacht owned by Romain’s widower, played by James Coburn. Sheila (the person, not the boat) had […]
Movie: 39 Stripes (1979)
As the end of the Ormond family box set is in sight, I was desperately hoping one of their religious films would finally break from the pattern of filler worked around a literal sermon. With 1979’s 39 Stripes, my…um, prayers were answered. Unfortunately, what I got instead was Ormond demon spawn Tim starring in a […]
Movie: One Crazy Summer (1986)
Savage Steve Holland. No air quotes around “Savage”. That is how the director of 1986’s One Crazy Summer is billed. This sounds like somebody who might be a pro wrestler, but he doesn’t look like one. Still, I can imagine him being a fan of that, as this movie has a similar kind of manic […]
Movie: 23 Seconds to Eternity (2023)
WTF, KLF? I admit I purchased the blu-ray of 2023’s KLF film 23 Seconds to Eternity knowing little about the musical group except they were legendary pranksters of a sort. What intrigued me most about them is they once burned a million pounds of their money as a performance piece. Aside from that, all I […]
Movie: The Believer’s Heaven (1977)
Up to 1977, the films the Ormond family made with Estus Pirkle had been focused almost exclusively on what Hell will be like. Having grown up in a similar church, I wasn’t surprised their focus is predominately on the stick and not the carrot. But we finally get to see Pirkle’s vision of Heaven in […]
Movie: A Weekend with Lulu (1961)
Before Hammer Films made their first horror movie, and for some time after, they made all kinds of pictures, dabbling in genres like comedy, war, drama and crime. So, although they had been doing great box office with monster movies for a few movies, they were still making like comedic fare like A Weekend with […]
Movie: Backtrack (1990)
I will lay it all out on the line from the beginning: 1990’s Backtrack is a terrible movie; although, like many deeply bad films, it is interesting in that it takes risks more tasteful pictures wouldn’t attempt. Also, half of the experience of enjoying this film is the commentary track that accompanies the film on […]
Movie: The Grim Reaper (1976)
The opening of 1976’s The Grim Reaper opens with a scene of the kind of deep humanity and understanding I have come to expect from the religious films of the Ormond family. It expresses a sentiment I would have expected from the church I grew up in. In a moment of awe-inspiring compassion, a preacher […]