I have a title ready if anybody ever decides to make a second movie about a deadly dessert that consumes the consumer, and that is Terrormisu: The Dessert Which Eats You.  Not that this is any better than the title of a movie where that is exactly what happens, that being 1985’s The Stuff.  Looking […]

Somebody I know once watched an ant carrying an impossibly large cake crumb.  This person was very impressed and wondered aloud how much honey the ants in the hive might make from that.  After a pause, the rest of us broke out in hysterical laughter, though it is easy to make the logical fallacy that […]

If one didn’t know in advance 1957’s The Tarnished Angels was from a Faulker novel, the turgid dialogue might clue in a person.  An example: “I could tell you an idyll of winged knights jousting with death, if I felt you could smell a story the way you smell whiskey.”  Huh? This is from Rock […]

A good friend of mine lost a considerable amount of weight by reducing their sodium intake.  That is difficult to do in the present age, where there is so much of the mineral in every product.  Before seeing 1954’s Bait, I never considered a complete lack of it could possibly be detrimental to one’s health.  […]

It has been a while since I’ve heard about anybody winning a Darwin Award.  That dubious honor goes to a person who accidentally removes themselves from the gene pool through a manner which is darkly humorous.  Consider the recipient who “won” after flying their jet-propelled Impala into a cliff face at 300 MPH.  Watching 1991’s […]

The horror movie trope of the babysitter alone with one or more children in the house as she is stalked by a psychopath is cliche as to become a kind of Mad Libs. Let’s see: [name of actress playing younger than her chronological age] is a [level of education or, if college, major] student babysitting […]

There must be a law somewhere mandating Bono has to appear in every music documentary.  In a way, it is noble he makes himself available for so many productions of this type.  On the other hand, he never fails to appear self-important as he dispenses a typical load of shite like he does in 2013’s […]

I can suspend my disbelief for some of the strangest things.  Zombies.  A mineral from space growing out of control and threatening to destroy the world.  Tom Cruise as a human being with actual feelings.  But I had the hardest time accepting the central conceit of 2013’s Snowpiercer. You see, the entirety of the picture […]

Propaganda posters are an element of WWII culture which intrigue me.  Consider that famous slogan from some of them: “Loose lips sink ships”.  William Wright is a high-ranking government agent in 1945’s Escape in the Fog, yet he fails to heed that wisdom, loudly talking on the phone when the treacherous Ernie Adams is lurking […]

In Ian Frazier’s book Coyote vs. Acme, there’s a deeply strange piece which appears to be the script of a play, except all the characters are various places.  In 1953 noir City That Never Sleeps, Chill Willis plays the city of Chicago.  We first hear him, as the city, waxing pretentiously about what happens at […]

I wish I had been to a Tiki bar before I stopped drinking.  I am aware exotica has a taint of cultural appropriation, yet I am fascinated by the aesthetic of America’s obsession in the 50’s with the south Pacific. 1954’s Hell’s Half Acre has the curious distinction of being a noir which was filmed […]

1957’s The Crooked Circle is a boxing noir where the technical advisor in the opening credits is revealed to some unfortunate soul with the name of Mushy Callahan.  You have to wonder how many punches a guy had to take to the face to get a name like “Mushy”. A young boxer played by John […]

1985’s crime comedy Big Trouble is not an adaptation of Dave Barry’s novel of the same name.  In fact, I’m less sure of what it is or, at least, what it aspires to be. Perhaps the thing I least expected it to be is a picture directed by John Cassavetes.  It is a sad way […]

One of my favorite videogames is Frog Bog for the Intellivision.  It is a simple premise and had been a game even before that particular incarnation.  Each of two players controls a frog, trying to catch as many airborne insects as they can as the leap from one of two lily pads.   It is uncomplicated […]

I miss Matt Groening’s Life in Hell comic strip.  More likely, I am feeling nostalgia for the days of the alternative newspapers in which it would appear.  The two characters I found most interesting were the identical, fez-topped Akbar and Jeff, and my most favorite of their appearances is when one secretly reads the diary […]