John Carpenter and his most of his fans seem to be in agreement that 1992’s Memoirs of an Invisible Man is the worst film of his prime era.  Most people seem to define that era as ending with In the Mouth of Madness two years later.  I recently rewatched Memoirs and, while it is far […]

I was previously resistant to the allure of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, whether the TV show or the 1992 film.  I only finally rolled the dice on the movie because I needed a third, similarly-priced titled for a Target “buy 2 get 3” sale.  I’m glad I did, because I found the movie to be […]

It’s odd film noir rarely addressed mental illness, as it feels like perfect fodder for the genre.  1957’s The Night Runner is an odd film concerning a recently released patient with a violent past.  At first, I thought the film would take a sympathetic approach to such people.  In the end, it instead suggests people […]

I have never seen The Wackiest Ship in the Army, but I was thinking about the title of that movie before I started playing the disc for the 1962 feature We Joined the Navy.  This ended up being a light-hearted romp, but fairly intelligent for the first two acts, when I was thinking, “OK, not […]

Have you ever noticed how most of the crime movies of the Coen brothers are either straight-up drama or black comedies?  Take Raising Arizona and No Country for Old Men, for example.  It’s hard to believe such drastically different works could have been the product of the same minds. But only a fool would try […]

Jordan Peele has made three fascinating features to date, though I admit I was reluctant to see the latest, 2022’s Nope.  For one thing, I thought his previous film, Us, had a great deal of potential that went largely unrealized.  Also, the media was quick to label this latest work as his “alien” film.  I […]

I’m depressed to learn about the recent demise of UK media distributor Network.  It seems we’re losing producers of physical media at a greater rate than new ones are forming.  Now that Network has ceased operations, I doubt anybody will pick up titles of theirs like 1942’s The Night Has Eyes.  This picture is simply […]

Do hetero women ever look at pornographic photos while hanging out together?  Does a woman of that orientation ever show nude photos of herself to another woman?  I doubt this, but this is portrayed as a completely natural activity in the 1970 giallo The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion.  Then again, this is […]

The opening credits of 1953’s A Lion Is in the Streets play out on top of footage of a lion in front of the Lincoln Memorial.  It walks back and forth in front of it, occasionally stretching up towards it and roaring.  Though I’m sure this was done a set, I wondered how they got […]

1996’s Joe’s Apartment had CGI cockroaches that sang and danced in extensively choreographed numbers.  And yet I was more surprised when the things spell out the last name of Bradford Dillman’s character in 1975 horror film Bug.  I hate to inform the filmmakers, but it had the exact opposite effect of what they intended.  I […]

1939’s Rio has five or six songs in it.  I lost count after a while, so I’m not sure.  I only know each song is more terrible than the one that preceded it.  The strangest thing is this isn’t technically a musical. The movie begins in England, where a group of excitable businessmen are waiting […]

“It’s completely deserted.  It smells of dead holidays.”  This isn’t the kind of dialog I expected in 1965’s Catch Us If You Can.  By all logic, this should have been a retread of A Hard Day’s Night, except starring The Dave Clark Five.  Mind you, the movie starts out in the vein of that film, […]

I’ve never stopped to think about it, but I never understood what the big deal was supposed to be about Kim Basinger in her heyday.  Having finally watched 1987’s Blind Date, I realize I hadn’t seen her in a genre she truly excels in, and that is screwball comedy. While filled with touches that firmly […]

The opening credits of 1950’s Spy Hunt say it was based on the novel Panther’s Moon.  I was willing to bet good money that title wouldn’t make any sense in regard to the movie it was adapted into. I would have lost that bet.  This quirky noir centers around two black panthers loose in the […]