Clive Barker has an odd legacy on film.  He completely disowned the movie made from the first story he wrote, which was Underworld.  No, not the picture you’re thinking of, but one George Pavlou directed in 1985 and which isn’t strictly horror.  I find it strange Barker teamed up with Pavlou again just a year […]

The legend of Robin Hood is one of those stories everybody knows, but which has never really clicked with me.  I’m curious why it has endured as long as it has.  It seems, even today, somebody feels compelled to make another movie or television series of it from time to time. I doubt anybody will […]

The term “toxic masculinity” has been in vogue for the past few years.  While I think it is correct to call men out on our bullshit, films such as 1950’s The Capture reveals some weird expectations society has put on men to be “macho”, and I think that environment is partly responsible for some of […]

I am a big fan the two Dr. Phibes movies.  Some people seem to find them mean-spirited, but I think they’re too goofy to take seriously.  Part of what sells it is how much fun Vincent Price is having.  John Considine isn’t Price, but he channels some of that diabolical glee as the villain in […]

I have yet to see a film with the outlandishly popular Minions in it, and yet I find the adoption of them into current zeitgeist irritating.  Hands down, the single worst aspect of 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife were the mini Stay Pufts, which were basically the Minions of that film.  Somebody behind 2024’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire […]

My brother-in-law is a massive Ghostbusters fan, which I find curious, as he was all of four years old when the original film was released.  As for myself, I was in the key demographic for it: young enough to clamor for all the tie-in merchandise I could get, while old enough to understand what was […]

I was recently read a book about the making of the movie Airplane!, even though I’m not that film’s biggest fan.  One of the main takeaways for me from Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane! is how most of the humor that works best in the film is due to it […]

There are so many character actors I have seen in so many old movies that I’m starting to wonder if I will eventually find a movie where the entire cast is actors like Eugene Pallette, William Demarest and Patsy Kelly.  One such actor is Elisha Cook.  I suspect four randomly picked noirs from that genre’s […]

There’s nothing I like better in a film than snappy dialog.  I have found Bob Hope to be an excellent actor for delivering such repartee.  So I was surprised by how little I laughed when watching 1949’s Sorrowful Jones.  One of the first problems is the dialog scans as smart and snappy, but it isn’t […]

I recently read the most recent Johnathan Carroll novel, Mr. Breakfast, and there was a bit in it where a character is grateful to her boyfriend for introducing her to the films of Preston Sturges.  I think it sad that is a name not more broadly recognized today.  It is almost as depressing to me […]

Now here is one odd noir.  1956’s The Boss begins as US soldiers are returning home from fighting in the first world war.  That’s earlier than when most such films are set. Also, this is a thinly-veiled biopic of a real public figure, ala Citizen Kane, which is odd for the genre.  Not sure why […]

A few decades ago, I used to be a big fan on the Indiana Jones series.  I was all excited when the original trilogy was released on DVD, only to discover various aspects of the films now seem unpleasant and inappropriate.  When the tone towards cultures outside the “first world” wasn’t condescending, it was patronizing.  […]

1941’s Horror Island is the fourth and final film on the third volume of Scream Factor’s Universal Horror series.  All four films in this installment suggest the name of this series is becoming increasingly inaccurate.  The first, Tower of London, was a straight-up historical drama, though it did have a fair amount of suspense and […]

Anybody who seen 1955’s The Court Jester will fondly recall the scene where Danny Kaye struggles to remember a silly rhyming device he’s given to remember which of two goblets has poison in it.  Without looking at an earlier review I wrote of that, let’s see if I can remember it correctly: “The poison is […]

It is going to be difficult to discuss in any relevant way 2024’s Late Night with the Devil without giving too much away.  Of course, “too much” will vary from person to person, so my plan is to peel away only a few layers of this onion, and give a warning to bail before I […]