Category: Watching

I need to learn to temper my expectations.  It seems every time I think a screwball comedy will be amazing, I find myself experiencing varying degrees of disappointment.  Such is the case with 1937’s Topper. As this stars Cary Grant, I am stunned this couldn’t be anything less than amazing.  But that’s because I keep […]

2018’s Patient Zero is yet another in the long series of zombie, and zombie-like, movies that are still clogging distribution channels to this day. But even completists might want to avoid this one.  Figured we would just go ahead and that out of the way now. Although the infected here aren’t technically zombies, they meet […]

Raiders of the Lost Ark spawned many imitators, resulting in multiplexes of the 1980’s becoming clogged with action comedies where various scoundrels end up in some exotic location as they pursue treasure of some sorts.  Given the timing, I’m not sure if Race for the Yankee Zephyr (also released as Treasure of the Yankee Zephyr) […]

I love the movie Cabin in the Woods, which subverts many of the clichés of the horror genre, especially the slasher sub-genre.  While it skewers, and pays tributes to, many such films, it might as well have been a direct parody of 1981’s The Burning.  I may not like slashers but, even if I did, […]

While watching 1988’s Waxwork, I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about a different movie, that being Cabin in the Woods.  I think the latter film is truly great.  The earlier one, not so much, though there are some interesting similarities. In both films, a certain number of people must be offered as a sacrifice at […]

1951’s Detective Story was nominated for four Academy Awards and it scored Lee Grant a Best Actress award at Cannes.  It is directed by William Wyler, who also helmed Ben-Hur, Roman Holiday and The Best Years of our Lives.  The movie was critically revered in its time and, as I write this, it has a […]

1967’s Night of the Big Heat is a strange animal, and I don’t mean the monster in it, though I will get to that later. The first thing we see is some guy at the desk of some sort of facility.  No idea where we are or what kind of science is being performed, but […]

When I tossed the disc for 1958’s Orders to Kill into the blu-ray player, I thought I was going to see a film noir.  Although the black-and-white photography makes excellent use of shadows, I ended up getting far more than I bargained for. The plot takes place in 1944.  Paul Massie plays a soldier who […]

I cannot be the best judge for whether 1977’s Dynasty is a good kung fu picture, as I am not a fan of the genre.  At least it was in anaglyphic 3D (those red and cyan glasses), so that provided some amusement. The movie takes place in the Ming Dynasty, where a ruthless emperor with […]

Escape from New York was one of those 80’s films that had a massive influence on the genre.  The opening of 1990’s Class of 1999 is obviously inspired by the introduction in that movie. We start with animation intended to look like a computer display as narration informs us there are “free-fire” zones in every […]

With a title like Love Slaves of the Amazons, one goes into this 1957 movie expecting high camp.  And it lowers to those expectations, with Caucasian women as natives, limply doing badly choreographed numbers on sets made with no attempt at realism. I could have appreciated the picture on that level, if it hadn’t been […]

There are a great many movies I have seen only because they were featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 or Rifftrax.  It is rarer to see a movie deserving of, but has yet to receive, that treatment.  Such is the case with 1989’s Alien from the Deep. And that isn’t to say […]

I keep thinking I don’t like prison movies, and yet many of the best noirs are set in prison.  1956’s Behind the High Wall isn’t of the caliber of Brute Force, but there is still a lot I liked here. Tom Tully plays a prison warden who genuinely cares for the prisoners and wants to […]

I am not much of a fan of Nicholas Cage, at least not of most of his work since The Rock.  To me, he transitioned at that point from being an unusual, though serious, actor to become a scenery-devouring ham.  I find it annoying so many are fans of his least grounded performances, especially his […]

1966’s The Witch is the last of the four titles I watched in Arrow Video’s blu-ray box set Gothic Fantastico: Four Italian Tales of Terror.  Two of the movies were duds, while Lady Morgan’s Vengeance was shockingly good.  The Witch is probably the second best, though at some distance behind Vengeance. The plot concerns Richard […]