Category: Watching

Movie: Thunder Road (1958)

Maybe somebody can prove me wrong, but I doubt there has ever been a good movie where running moonshine is the chief mechanism driving the plot.  The first such picture off the top of my head is White Lightnin’ Road, and what an abomination that was.  It is the kind of subject matter that consistently […]

Movie: Moving Violations (1985)

It is awfully sad when a film cast as its lead somebody only because they are the relative of a famous actor.  Consider the pathetic Operation Kid Brother from 1967, which is one of the very few pictures to star Sean Connery’s younger brother, Neil.  I thought about that feature a great many times while […]

Movie: Bang! Bang! You’re Dead! (1966)

A great many comedies of the 60’s were riffs on James Bond.  In retrospect, one would think there had to be at least one film in cinemas on any given week after 1964 that had some sort of spy hijinks in a foreign country and featuring at least one beautiful, “international” woman.  The lead actor […]

Movie: The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom (1968)

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 […]

Movie: Strange Brew (1983)

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 […]

Movie: Outland (1981)

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 […]

Movie: Images (1972)

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 […]

Movie: The Killing Box (1993)

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, […]

Movie: Reign of Fire (2002)

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 […]

Movie: The Teckman Mystery (1954)

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 […]

Movie: Assault on a Queen (1966)

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 […]

Movie: I Like Bats (1986)

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, […]

Movie: Buried Alive (1990)

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 […]