Category: Watching

I never understood how Starship Troopers is supposed to be an anti-fascist film.  The whole thing seems pretty rah rah rah USA USA USA to me.  Maybe the message is clearer in Heinlein’s original novel, but I haven’t read it. 1998’s Soldier came out only a year later and I feel it had a similar […]

There are many people who seen vastly more film noir that I have, but I don’t know any of them personally.  And I have been slow to see some of the most legendary titles of this genre, as I simply wander through my stacks of blu-ray discs and get to the landmarks as they happen […]

One of my favorite short stories is The Jane Fonda Room by Jonathan Carroll.  In that story, the newest resident of hell selects from a list of possible punishments “The Movie Room”.  Jane Fonda is his favorite actress and so he will be shown her entire filmography.  And then the entire series of movies again.  […]

Waxwork surprised me by being better than I anticipated, so I was curious why it only has one sequel.  After all, many deeply terrible horror movies have spawned seemingly endless progeny.  I don’t feel I need to see Witchcraft to tell you it isn’t worthy of the sixteen installments that series has to date. 1992’s […]

William Castle is largely remembered for the horror movies he directed in the 1950’s.  To be more accurate, he’s legendary for the gimmicks he employed in select theatres for some of his features.  Things like the buzzers under the seats for The Tingler, or a skeleton on a wire flying over viewers’ heads at a […]

One of the weirdest movies I love is 1977’s House, a Japanese movie that I can’t describe any better than Criterion’s assessment of “like Scooby Doo by way of Mario Bava.”  I have seen some other deeply bizarre cinema from Japan (I’m looking at you, Tetsuo: The Iron Man), but I never thought I would […]

Man, I am getting tired of movies subverting my expectations.  I keeping throwing in a movie I think will be awesome and it sucks.  Get myself ready to laugh at a film that looks to be hilariously bad, and it will end up actually being good. Such is the case with 1974’s Who?  I mean, […]

I can never figure which one is the parent company and which is the child, but Powerhouse and Indicator put out some amazing blu-ray releases.  Their sets are often in solid, chipboard boxes, with thick perfect-bound books full of essays.  The special features on the discs themselves are usually an embarrassment of riches. All this […]

As soon as I saw the title card for 1947’s Singapore, I had the same-titled opening track from the Tom Waits album Raindogs in my head.  I’ve always hoped I will someday see a noir with a vibe like that astounding track, but I only see ones that have traces of its greatness.  Unfortunately, what […]

First off: this isn’t that prehistoric film Hammer made in the 60’s, where Rachel Welch famously wears that fur bikini.  That was One Million Years B.C.  Just wanted to get that out of the way. 1940’s One Million B.C. comes to us courtesy of Hal Roach, a guy better remembered for his work with Harold […]

Aldous Huxley must have led an interesting life.  I can’t believe the same guy who wrote Brave New World also scripted The Devils, a movie Warner Bros seems intent on burying since its release in 1971.  This is the same guy who wrote a book that provided the inspiration for the name of the band […]

I find it hilarious when a movie sets up what is supposed to be a startling reveal of an actor, when the response I imagine anybody would feel is “So what?”  In the case of 2023’s The Pope’s Exorcist, we have a slow push-in on a priest in a hat.  Hatted, this person looks a […]

It’s hard to believe Affleck is from Boston, because his Baws-tawn accent in 2010’s The Town sounds so fake to my ears.  That’s unfortunate, because he is the star of the picture.  It’s also strange, since he was directing himself. He’s not a bad director, actually.  His pictures so far have not had any distinct […]

Every time somebody says the title of Suddenly, Last Summer in the 1959 film, I suddenly can’t get that song by 80’s band The Motels out of my head.  Go figure, those words get spoken about 10 times or so over the course of the film. This movie pairs Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor, who […]

When writer and director David Chase discusses his life’s accomplishments, I’m sure he talks mostly about The Sopranos.  Maybe he occasionally touches on The Rockford Files or Kolchak: The Night Stalker.  But I suspect he rarely, if ever, talks about his first movie screenplay, for 1972’s Grave of the Vampire. This is an odd movie.  […]