I like to think Gene Wilder was probably a smart and funny guy in real life.  While not a huge fan of his, he usually brought something to the screen that somehow conveyed warmth while simultaneously seeming a tad aloof.  It was like he usually was thinking of a very clever and cutting remark but […]

If there is one moment in 1965’s Crack in the World which sums it up concisely, it is an innocuous sign reading “CENTRAL OPERATIONS” and pointing to the right.  This is a few feet in front of an elevator, except it is facing the viewer and not those disembarking.  Unless the sign is double-sided, that […]

It is my understanding most law enforcement officers never have to fire a shot in the line of duty at any point in their career.  Poor Jamie Lee Curtis ends up shooting dead a gun-waving robber on the first day of the job in 1990’s Blue Steel.  When I stopped to think about it, the […]

One of my favorite Beatle quips was courtesy of one of those weird Christmas flexi discs they used to release through their fan club.  Talking about the black-and-white Hard Day’s Night, George Harrison says they’re working on another film, and this time it will be in color.  John Lennon doesn’t miss a beat when he […]

Is it possible to write anything resembling an objective critique of the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters?  For one thing, it isn’t even sure what its name is, with the single-word title in an isolated credit towards the beginning, while the end credits declare its full title to be Ghostbusters: Answer the Call.  Both titles are […]

Funny how much I miss the repertory cinema that used to be in the city closest to where I live.  It has now been 33 years since it projected its last film (Raging Bull, and I was one of very few people at that screening).  And yet, I actually didn’t see many films there while […]

James Woods has always had a nervy intensity.  No wonder he stays so thin.  He probably burns it all off in nervous energy.  Funny how it never crossed my mind that some of that energy could be from drugs; that is, it never crossed my mind until I saw 1988’s The Boost. Woods plays a […]

I’m not big on swords and sandals films, known colloquially as “peplum”.  It seems telling that word is so similar to “pablum”.  So I was surprised by how much I enjoyed 1961’s Hercules in the Haunted World.  It doubtlessly helped it was directed by Mario Bava, a director so fond of strongly colored lighting that […]

1974’s Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell is the sixth and last time Peter Cushing would play the mad doctor for Hammer Films.  This is a curious film, and not just because I thought the first version of his creation was supposed to be the monster from hell.  And the second, and the third, and […]

The opening minutes of 1957’s She Played with Fire are like a dream and that’s because, well…it turns out to be a dream.  We first see a metronome in action, before its arm transitions to a windshield wiper going across a car windshield on a stormy night.  Next, we’re floating through the heavy front doors […]

Quite often, my wife and I will watch a movie where one or the other (or both) of us will remark we wish we could see a film about some of the minor characters instead of the main characters.  I was surprised when that wish was fulfilled by 1959’s The Crimson Kimono, an alleged noir […]

There are some wildly popular movies I don’t get around to until it seems every other person on Earth has seen them.  I still haven’t bothered watching Titanic, as I suspect I have seen the entire picture in piecemeal fashion through endless clips I’ve been exposed to over the decades.  From what I’ve seen, I […]

Orson Welles always strikes me as being like an excessively precocious child, always so desperate to impress the adults.  He may have been highly intelligent, but something about his body of work consistently left me with the impression he was insecure.  His arrogance only reinforces my belief. I present as evidence 1947’s The Lady from […]

Fair warning to those who are particularly adverse to spoilers, and I hope I’m not giving anything (at least, not too much) away by saying 2013 found footage horror film (really, are there any non-horror found footage films?) Borderlands ends in what may be my favorite closing line of any film.  Heck, the IMDB page […]

Preston Sturges is largely, and rightly, regarded as the king of screwball comedy.  Alas, 1949’s The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend has a reputation which precedes it.  For one thing, it was such a disaster that it nearly ended his career.  The picture has had something of a critical reappraisal in decades since.  Now having […]