June 2017 Archives

Emerson Lake & Palmer (or ELP as they've also been often billed - including on this live recording, drawn from a series of shows in South America, two dates from a 1993 reunion tour and one from 1997) are one of those bands who have gotten kind of a bad rap over the years. Even during their 1970s heyday - when they were one of the top drawing live acts in the world, riding a string of mega-selling albums including Trilogy and Brain Salad Surgery, they were still universally despised by the rock press. But even as the critics routinely

Another week, another five cool things. GLOW I spoke a couple of weeks back about the trailer to the new Netflix series GLOW and now it's finally dropped. I’ve only made it one episode in, but so far I’m digging it. They definitely get the look and feel of the early '80s just exactly perfect. Marc Maron is great as the down-on-his-luck producer trying to throw some misfit ladies together and make them wrestle for ratings. I’m not quite as sold on Alison Brie’s performance yet, but I’m rooting for her. It's not quite figured out its tone just yet.

Press release: For the seventh year in a row, beloved American rock group Grateful Dead returns to the big screen for its highly-anticipated annual event, “Grateful Dead Meet-Up at the Movies 2017.” The Meet Up features the Grateful Dead (Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Brent Mydland, and Bob Weir) in concert, performing to a sell-out crowd of 40,000-plus fans in Washington D.C. The one-night-only event is scheduled for August 1, which would have been Garcia’s 75th birthday. Presented by Fathom Events and Rhino Entertainment, “Grateful Dead Meet-Up at the Movies 2017” will play in U.S. movie theaters

Perhaps one of the most alluring features to be observed within the boundaries of Italian exploitation movies was the industry's tendency to rip-off anyone's work, including their own. Sometimes, the references are quite obvious, such as when they make sequels to other people's movies. Other times, the connections are much more subtle (by Italian filmmaking standards, that is). In the instance of Madhouse, however, we're served a little bit of both: its various parallels to other works are undoubtedly noticeable, but none of them can hold a birthday candle to the fact that the legendary, late great composer Riz Ortolani

Press release: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and DC Entertainment celebrate a decade of heroic animation with the release of the DC Universe Original Movies: 10th Anniversary Collection, a comprehensive box set of all 30 films, 5 animated shorts, new special features and exclusive collectible items coming November 7, 2017 to Blu-ray. The entire 30-film set will also be available on Digital starting August 15, 2017. Launched in 2007 with the landmark release of Superman Doomsday, the DC Universe Original Movies are based on or inspired by storylines and/or characters from within the ever-expanding DC library. Produced by DC Entertainment and

Press release: Iconic cult classic Buffy the Vampire Slayer continues its 20th anniversary celebration during San Diego Comic-Con with a special fan event hosted by Legion M in conjunction with 20thCentury Fox Consumer Products. Coinciding with San Diego Comic-Con, the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 20 Years of Slaying” fan event will be held Saturday, July 22 from 6-9 pm at Side Bar in the Gaslamp Quarter (exact address is 536 Market Street). Fans interested in attending the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 20 Years of Slaying” event can register on the official Buffy Facebook page here. A portion of this event

Devil movies work best when they have a core of revelation. They need characters to struggle against the reality of the devil in their stories, to search for any rational explanation that is evil is not real, has a face, and is looking at them. The Exorcist might end with a half hour of puking, swearing Linda Blair, but that's not until the poor girl is subjected to weeks of medical and psychological tests. Directed by Camilo Vila, The Unholy, a cult favorite devil movie that has finally seen release on Blu-ray feels like it understands the core of what

While it has been something of a long time since he brought us a new feature film, it's still safe to say no one can make a horror movie like Frank Henenlotter. Sure, a countless many may have tried, but no one has ever truly succeeded in emulating Mr. Henenlotter's bizarre form. From that glorious moment in 1982 when his first feature film, Basket Case ‒ the story of a man (as played by the great Kevin Van Hentenryck) who keeps his deformed killer Siamese twin in a wicker basket, letting the little rubber bugger out as they track down

The mid-'90s were a great time to be a burgeoning cinephile. Independent films were becoming mainstream, which meant you could catch really interesting, off-beat, non-studio films at the mall. Guys like Steven Soderbergh, Kevin Smith, and Quentin Tarantino were blowing up cinemas with films not like anything this young college student had ever seen before. Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting was a great shot of adrenaline (er, heroin?) right to the center of this movie lover’s heart. It was so stylish and entertaining. It used music to huge effect. And despite the dead, crawling babies and the diving into the worst toilet

Press release: In 1975, actor-director-producer Chris (STANLEY, TWELVE O’ CLOCK HIGH) Robinson accepted an offer from his brother to make a film for $25,000 dollars - but he had to script, cast and begin shooting the film in a matter of weeks! Robinson gathered together a cast of veteran professionals on both sides of the camera with whom he had worked with on previous projects, and the result was THE INTRUDER, a bloody Agatha Christie-style mystery horror thriller starring Mickey Rooney, Yvonne De Carlo, Ted Cassidy and Chris Robinson (who also wrote, produced and directed). Never distributed theatrically in the

There are no villains in My Neighbor Totoro. No violence either. There are monsters of a kind, but when Mei the precocious four-year-old meets the largest and scariest looking one, King Totoro, she laughs then bounces on his belly and takes a nap. The adults are all generous and good. The father is neither a bumbling fool, nor hateful and sarcastic like so many fathers in feature films these days, but rather thoughtful and kind. When his children tell him they saw strange little black things crawling around his house or a giant owl-like magical creature in the forest, he

Audrey Hepburn begins the last week of June with her last night as the Star-of-the-Month. Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey consider The Lady Eve as one of The Essentials. Also nights of films starring James Caan, films revolving around European vacations, and epic westerns. Star of the Month: Audrey Hepburn - Paris When It Sizzles (1964) - Monday, June 26 at 8:00 p.m. (ET) A Hollywood producer hires a beautiful secretary to keep his drunken screenwriter on track. Rollerball (1975) - Tuesday, June 27 at 8:00 p.m. (ET) The star of a bloodthirsty future sport tries to clean up the

Drum Corps International (or DCI as they are commonly called) was formed in 1972 as the non-profit governing body for drum and bugle corps in the U.S. and Canada (DCI is international much like how Major League Baseball's championship is the World Series though it only ever includes a tiny percentage of the planet). Every summer DCI hosts competitions throughout the United States, which concludes in August with the week-long DCI World Championship. For many years now the start of the season has begun in Indianapolis. Fathom Events hosted a live viewing of this competition last night in movie theaters

I work from home which has all kinds of advantages. One being that I don't have a boss with prying eyes constantly checking out what I've got pulled up on my screen. Nerd that I am what I've got pulled up on one of my screens is usually a comic book. Whenever I need a short break I pull one up and read a few pages. Day after day, week after week I've been able to read quite a few comics. Got two read this week which is nice because the movie watching took a bit of a hit. But

Ever since making its way to Sacramento in 2014, I’ve had the pleasure of covering each Wizard World convention. That was actually the first time I had attended an event of its kind, and I was completely blown away by how much of a nerd nirvana it turned out to be. Whether you are into movies, television shows, comic books, or anything pop-culture related, there was something for everyone at the event. I’ve always looked forward to each one, but, to be honest, I was a little let down by the 2016 convention. I’m not saying it was an entirely

Not for the faint of heart, John Wick returns in another action-packed, stylish shoot-'em-up that sees our "hero" leave audiences breathless as he leaves behind another massive body count in his wake. Picking up shortly after the first film, the prologue finds retired assassin John Wick in hot pursuit of his stolen 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1, which has been stored in the chop shop of Russian mobster Abram Tarasov (Peter Stormare), uncle of Iosef, who brought John back into action by stealing his car and killing his dog. It's clearly the principle of the matter to John as he

Press release: To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera’s animation studio on July 7, 1957, Hanna-Barbera, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (WBHE) is releasing a comprehensive catalog of classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons to date. The 60th anniversary catalog collection is a celebration of the lovable gang of animated characters that children and adults alike remember and continue to influence pop culture around the world. The Diamond Collection will include over 70 seasons of the most popular animated titles of the 50s, 60s and 70s, many of which have not been released on DVD or Digital

To the trained eye of an advanced mystery movie sleuth, spotting the writing team of Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac as the authors of the film you're about to experience is a darn good indication you're in for a treat. Sure enough, Georges Franju's 1961's mystery, Pleins feux sur l'assassin ‒ which shall be referred to henceforth by its English title, Spotlight on a Murderer ‒ is such a treat. While it may have only been the third feature film for the late visionary filmmaker, Spotlight on a Murderer should serve as an inarguable example of just how far one

The Future of Work and Death is a documentary narrated by British actor Dudley Sutton. The film is broken into two parts: work and death, and discusses the issues tied to the rapid progress of technology and what this means for human beings in regards to these areas of life. This film that features a bunch of "experts" whose credentials are not quite clear and still aren't clear to me after trying to look up their credentials. While we are a culture that loves our experts, it is always important to understand where their supposed expertise comes from. A number

MOSS takes place over a 36-hour period in a small riverside town in rural North Carolina. The film opens with Moss (Mitchell Slaggert) waking up on his 18th birthday. The day not only marks his birthday but the 18th anniversary of his mother's death since she died giving birth to him. He lives with his dad (Billy Ray Suggs), a driftwood artist, who has never gotten over the death of his wife. The two are at odds and Moss believes his dad now blames him for his mother's death. After Moss returns from shooting some fish for breakfast, his dad

Every era gets the horror monsters it deserves, I think. In the '30s and '40s old literary monsters were brought to cinema in the form of the Universal classics: Dracula, Frankenstein, and movies beyond, with one foot in the present and one in the past. The time periods of the movies were always vague - main characters dressed relatively contemporaneously, but somehow lived in ambiguously ethnic European villages. The lord of the manor may wear a modern suit, but the peasants next door had lederhosen, torches, and pitchforks always at the ready. Modern horror revolves around zombies or haunted houses

You hear stories about people wanting to migrate from their home country to a new area all the time. All of them want to start a new life in a new location because their current residence is no longer fitting for them for a multitude of reasons. Many have dreams of how their new life will be once they move, and they are mostly positive. But, upon their arrival, the harsh reality sets in, and the dreams and goals they had are pushed to the wayside as they embrace their new life. That’s the basis for many films about immigration,

Memory is a funny thing. I can remember very clearly the first time I watched Dario Argento’s The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. I remember the apartment we were living in, which dates the viewing to around 2006-2007. I remember that small living room. I remember watching it on the floor. I remember my wife sitting on the couch doing something else - probably grading papers or studying for an exam so she wasn’t paying close attention to the movie. It was the weekend, either Saturday night or Sunday afternoon. I remember all that but hardly anything about the movie

Working together on Rifftrax Live: MST3K Reunion Show must have been as much fun for for the cast as it was for audiences, as most of the gang reunited for RiffTrax Live: Summer Shorts Beach Party! which is getting a second showing on Tuesday, June 20 at 7:30 p.m. (local time). Over the course of the night, they riffed on seven shorts to varying degrees of success. The RiffTrax trio (Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett) opened the night with a short directed at kids starring a bizarre animal mascot named Ricky Raccoon, who helps a young boy

Even if you're just now joining us here on Planet Earth, there's a fair chance you've already heard someone utter that annoying catchphrase people who post nothing but inspirational memes on their Facebook page tend to use: "Go big or go home." In all honesty, however, there is absolutely nothing wrong with heading off someplace other than one's former place of residence if things don't go as "big" as you had hoped. Indeed, the protagonists of this quartet of Twilight Time releases certainly have no intention of returning home in the unlikely event of failure. But then, with an assortment

Sam Peckinpah's second film, Ride the High Country, is a captivating Western about two old gunslingers who reunite for a dangerous job. With limited resources and futures, their relationship is tested, as is each man's character, along the journey. Former marshal Steven Judd (Joel McCrea) is hired by a bank to transport gold from the mining town of Coarse Gold. Six miners have been killed trying to make the trip, but he needs the work. Steve runs into his old deputy Gil Westrum (Randolph Scott), who is working as a hustler with a young man named Heck Longtree (Ron Starr),

Audrey Hepburn continues as June's star-of-the-month, as do the Noir Alley and Gay Hollywood spotlights. Tina Fey makes her debut as The Essentials co-host, and there are nights of themed programming focusing on Cult Classics, actor Louis Wolheim, and stories set around European Vacations. Star of the Month: Audrey Hepburn - How to Steal a Million (1966) - Monday, June 19 at 8:00 p.m. (ET) A legendary art collector lends his prized (replica) Cellini Venus to a prestigious Paris museum. Before tests can be done which would prove the Venus is a fake, though, the collector's daughter enlists the services

While walking down the street late one night, Sam (Tony Musante), an American freelance writer living in Rome, spies a man and a woman struggling inside a modern art gallery. The woman is stabbed and the man, dressed in a black trench coat, black hat, and black leather gloves slips out the back. Sam rushes in to help her but is trapped between two automated sliding doors and is thus forced to watch helplessly as the woman, bloody and dying, screams for help. A passerby calls the police and they are able to resuscitate the woman before she dies. Sam

I first interviewed Kevin Sorbo back in 2013, when he was doing a promotion for a little film called Storm Rider. But, back then, I was talking to him over the phone while on my lunch break at the day job I had at the time. This year, I was able to speak to him in person for five minutes. Sure, that’s not a lot of time for an interview, but it’s enough to get in some questions while he’s on a break from signing autographs and taking pictures. Sorbo is one of the many guests lined up for the

Sooner or later in life, everyone reaches a point where personal obsessions and rather weird views seem to overtake either their private or professional output. Indeed, Arrow Academy's box set of The Jacques Rivette Collection presents one such unique phase from one of the men most commonly associated with the French New Wave period. By the time he made the movies included in this six-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo ‒ Duelle (Une quarantaine), Noroît (Une vengeance) (both 1976), and Merry-Go-Round (1981) ‒ Jacques Rivette had veered off of the road less traveled he and his contemporaries had become so famous for frequenting.

House II is one of the few movies I can remember seeing ads for on TV when I was watching cartoons in the afternoon. The ad would come on again and again, and it looked like everything I could want in a movie - monsters, human sacrifice, John Ratzenberger. However, it was also a horror movie (kind of) so no one in my family would take me to see it in the theater. When I eventually got to see it on VHS it didn't become a favorite, but there was so much strange content in there, so many weird little

Summer has come to Oklahoma which means it's hot. Damn hot. Too hot to do anything but sit inside and watch movies and TV, which is exactly what I did this week. So let's get to it. Sherlock: "The Six Thatchers" The newest season of Sherlock has been out a little while but I’m just now getting to it. It comes out so sporadically (its been on since 2010 but is only in its fourth season) that my memory of what happened last time is always fuzzy. This episode focuses on Mary, John’s wife, who I barely remember as a

The Criterion Collection is releasing six titles in September just in time for back to (film) school. New to the collection are Murray Lerner's Festival; Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women; Michael Haneke's The Piano Teacher; Jon Nguyen, Rick Barnes, and Olivia Neergaard-Holm's David Lynch: The Art Life; and Orson Welles' Othello. A high-def upgrade is also being provided to Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca. Read on to learn more about them. Rebecca (#135) out Sept 5 Romance becomes psychodrama in Alfred Hitchcock’s elegantly crafted Rebecca, his first foray into Hollywood filmmaking. A dreamlike adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel, the film stars

Created during the period in United States history when the House Un-American Activities Committee was destroying lives under the pretense of protecting the country from Communism, Fred Zimmerman's High Noon is a classic tale about an individual who must stand up alone for what he believes against seemingly insurmountable odds. Its theme is applicable to many situations where the just path can leave a person isolated because of dangerous consequences. Three men ride into Hadleyville in the New Mexico Territory and head to the train station. Dimitri Tiomkin's score and the reactions of those they pass by indicate trouble is

While the notion of living in a world ravaged by nuclear war may be a regular staple in motion pictures today, it was just as much of a newfangled concept in the 1950s as was the very thought of a post-apocalyptic society itself. Of course, when it's an era where the basic "science" behind surviving an atomic blast suggested hiding under your school desk would do the trick, you have to expect a fair bit of silliness from the few movies that dared to tackle the subject. Certainly, Edward Bernds' World Without End ‒ a lavish Technicolor CinemaScope production from

What can you say about a monster movie featuring a walking, stalking, murderous tree on a wooden rampage? In the instance of From Hell It Came, you can say a whole heck of a lot just by saying very little. In fact, the most commonly referenced review of the movie was a six-word piece which read nothing more than "And to Hell it can go!" But ne'er fear, kiddies ‒ From Hell It Came has managed to uproot itself and terrorize unsuspecting filmgoers once again. This time, however, bad movie aficionados 'round the world will be able to fully immerse

I mostly outgrew action films a couple of decades ago. I came of age during the late '80s/early '90s, which I’d argue created some of the very best and very worst action films. Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Van Damme, Seagal - if those names don’t mean anything to you, then you missed out on some kick-ass, utterly ridiculous action flicks. During those years, I watched nearly every action movie I could get my hands on. I loved every explosion, every increasingly gigantic gun, every dumb one-liner. But, as noted, at some point I got tired of them. Explosions became boring, car chases

Press release: Following the success of the Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke cinema events, GKIDS, the acclaimed distributor of multiple Academy Award-nominated animated features, and Fathom Events, the leading distributor of event cinema, are proud to announce a partnership to bring the biggest series of anime titles to U.S audiences throughout 2017. The series features Studio Ghibli’s revered animated classics, a selection of GKIDS new release titles and an ongoing animated short film mini-festival. The 2017 partnership kicks off with the iconic My Neighbor Totoro, from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, on Sunday, June 25 and Monday, June 26. Totoro

Walt Disney is continually proving its efforts at adapting every animated classic in its vault is financially successful, and, because of that, there will be more coming down the pipeline. The Lion King, Mulan, and Dumbo are currently in pre-production, and there are plenty of others that have already been announced. Don’t be shocked if they announce live-action adaptations of Aladdin, The Aristocats, or anything else for that matter. The formula works, and people will flock to see whatever Disney puts out. That being said, Bill Condon’s update of Beauty and the Beast is practically an exact replica of the

Can you sit down with three children ages seven, nine, and eleven, and watch a 75-year-old animated film without them getting restless? Yes, and no one was more surprised than I. Surprised simply because I had forgotten just how good, and ahead of its time, Bambi was. All of the children found the film “sad”, “cute”, and “fun”, with the ending being their favorite part, and all would definitely watch it again. I can’t recall the last time I saw the brilliant telling of the life, loves, and losses, of the Prince of the Forest and his friends, but I

TCM can have breakfast or dinner with star-of-the-month Audrey Hepburn on Monday night. David Letterman and Alec Baldwin talk about The Big Sleep. In addition to more entries in Gay Hollywood and Noir Alley, there are nights of programming focused on Marlene Dietrich, Powell & Pressburger, and Father's Day. Star of the Month: Audrey Hepburn - Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) - Monday, June 12 at 8:00 p.m. (ET) A young writer gets caught up in a party girl's carefree existence. Desire (1936) - Tuesday, June 13 at 8:00 p.m. (ET) Before they can marry, two society types run off with

As a small child, Jacinto Molina became heavily captivated and inspired by the classic Universal horror movies of the '30s and '40s. So much so, in fact, that he would later craft his own series of bloody horror outings in his native Spain under his better-known alias, Paul Naschy. All but begetting the Spanish horror boom of the late '60s and '70s, Naschy's more celebrated character would be that of a tormented lycanthrope named Waldemar Daninsky, whom his creator (and portrayer) continued to torture onscreen more than a dozen times over a span of 36 years in-between his many varied

Given its own yellow utility belt, Batman: A Celebration of the Classic TV Series is a marvelous compendium about the TV series which ran for three seasons from 1966-69 and is still currently airing in syndication. Adam West, the first Bruce Wayne/Batman for many, gave his blessing to the book by writing the Introduction in which he thanks fans for the life he has been granted thanks to their love of the show. Authors Bob Garcia and Joe Desris were very thorough, beginning the story by acquainting readers with the three ABC executives, understandably referred to as “wise men,” who

Even though nearly everyone involved in the creation of Harry Alan Towers' legendary film series have since passed on, the world has nevertheless heard from Fu Manchu again thanks to the efforts of Blue Underground. To the uninitiated (or at least overly-sensitive), Towers' Fu Manchu franchise started out in 1965 with The Face of Fu Manchu ‒ effectively reviving the long-absent (and nowhere near politically correct) villain from Sax Rohmer's legendary master of "yellow peril" thanks largely to the late great horror icon Christopher Lee and his effortless ability to play a baddie. Even when the 6' 5" British actor

Press release: Top ensembles of Marching Music’s Major League will come together for a night of dramatic, passionate and exceptional performances during “Drum Corps at the Cinema: 2017 DCI Tour Premiere.” The event will feature the season-opening debuts of six of Drum Corps International’s (DCI) groups: Blue Stars (La Crosse, WI), Bluecoats (Canton, OH), The Cadets (Allentown, PA), Carolina Crown (Ft. Mill, SC), The Cavaliers (Rosemont, IL) and Crossmen (San Antonio, TX). Presented by Fathom Events and Drum Corps International, this exclusive live event will show in U.S. cinemas on Thursday, June 22, 2017 at 8:30 p.m. ET/ 7:30 p.m.

I spent much of last week catching up on all the DC films to prepare myself for the release of Wonder Woman. We had planned to see it on Saturday, but we all got ourselves too excited and wound up catching it Friday night. More on that in a moment. The rest of the week was brimming with lots of cool things. So many in fact, I had to spend a little time narrowing down exactly what I wanted to talk about. Which is my definition of a great week. So let's get to it. Wonder Woman This is the

Count Hervé de Kerloquen (Pierre Brasseur) is told he won’t live through the night. Before he expires, he slips into a hidden room deep within his castle. The next day, his seven cousins show up at the estate to claim their inheritance only to be told they will have to wait five years. While the doctors are sure he died during the night, no one can find his body so the law considers him only missing. The cousins cannot afford the upkeep on the castle and its many lands for that long so they launch a desperate search for the

Billed as “a movie based on the twisted legend of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson” and inspired by his Rolling Stone article "The Banshee Screams for Buffalo Meat" about attorney, activist, and author Oscar Acosta, Where the Buffalo Roam tells of their friendship and how their paths diverged, with Bill Murray starring as the good doctor and Peter Coyle playing Acosta stand-in, Carl Lazlo. The 1980 cult film is being released by Shout Select (#21), but its audience will likely continue to be limited to Thompson fans. Where the Buffalo Roam opens with Hunter typing away in his snow-covered Aspen, Colorado

If the Academy ever opted to include a category for the goofiest faces made on film, RKO's 1937 production of Fight for Your Lady would have to win one of the first posthumous awards. One of three movies director Benjamin Stoloff made with a young unknown actress by the name of Ida Lupino (a few years away from becoming the film noir femme fatale and pioneering producer/director she is best remembered for today), this charming little lighthearted ditty from yesteryear finds John Boles (the third wheel of James Whale's love triangle in 1931's Frankenstein) as a famous singer with a

Amma Asante’s A United Kingdom has the feel of something that just missed the window for Oscar consideration and was dropped into limited release in February of this year, since the studio couldn’t think of any other month to put it in. It’s a pristine-looking picture that carries the textbook moments of a historical biopic, and never misses a beat in making sure it has all the things it needs in order to make a successful, crowd-pleasing feature. A grandiose score, beautiful scenery, and big speeches are all featured here. By now, the formula is overdone, and, in most cases,

Some movies become so iconic they become transcendent. How many people have quoted lines like “Leave the gun. Take the cannoli,” or “…sleeps with the fishes,” or “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse,” and have never even seen the movie? Marlon Brando in his tuxedo, or with an orange in his mouth. A horse head in the bed and the gun behind the toilet. There are so many lines, so many scenes and images in The Godfather that everyone knows it regardless of whether or not they’ve seen the film. It's a movie that has seeped into

For the past nine years, several actors have played similar performances to that of Sam Elliott’s in The Hero, and have gone on to obtain Oscar recognition. It happened for Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart, and, to an extent, Michael Keaton in Birdman. All three played a once-famous icon that has lost his way and attempts to make a comeback while, at the same time, starting a new relationship and trying to reconnect with estranged family members. Rourke and Keaton received nods for their performances, while Bridges won for his. You could say that the

Listen closely and you can hear a million voices suddenly cry out in anger that I did not choose Beauty and the Beast as my pick this week. I did consider it, but ultimately decided that I am simply not the fan it deserves. Were my wife writing this article, she’d be all over it, but as it's me and not her, I decided to go in a different direction. A Cure For Wellness is a psychological thriller from Gore Verbinski. An ambitious executive is sent to a mysterious “wellness center” in the Swiss Alps to rescue his company’s CEO

Get Out was a surprise critical and commercial box-office success earlier this year, seemingly coming out of nowhere to make a lasting impression. Although its themes borrow liberally from disparate film predecessors, primarily Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and The Stepford Wives, the movie as a whole is a welcome breath of fresh air in the overwhelmingly formulaic U.S. film industry. It’s principally marketed as a horror film, and while it certainly has its share of thrills, it’s more of a Black Mirror alternate-universe mindgame than a typical gory, blood-soaked horror flick. The movie follows an eventful weekend for a

For most of his career, Arnold Schwarzenegger has been known as the tough guy, the guy that can kick butt and take names. His career launched when people saw him in the body-building documentary, Pumping Iron, and then really took off with films like the Terminator series, the Conan films, Predator, and Total Recall. But as the actor and former governor of California is getting ready to turn 70 this year, he’s taking on roles that are unlike anything he’s done before. Of course, he hasn’t completely given up on doing another Terminator, even though the world didn’t need one,

Similar to the Hays Code in the United States but officially state-sponsored, Sweden created a censorship board in 1911. Designed to keep anything offensive from perverting the young minds of moviegoers, it banned movies as diverse as Battleship Potemkin, Nosferatu, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Mad Max from being played in Swedish theaters. With the rise of home video, an influx of illegal bootleg VHS tapes began finding its way to film fans across the country. By the 1990s, a growing number of filmmakers and movie lovers began protesting this censorship by demanding that the law be thrown out. Writer

A full quarter of a century before he would stun filmgoers around the world with Battle Royale in 2000, the late Kinji Fukasaku was already blowing his own established cinematic perimeters out of alignment with violent and gritty crime dramas. Certainly, 1975's Kenkei tai soshiki bōryoku ‒ which shall be known henceforth by its international English moniker, Cops vs Thugs ‒ is no exception. It is, however, quite a bit different than the many similarly-themed yakuza flicks of the time, inasmuch as its main protagonist is a cop this time around; one who has learned an effective (though highly questionable)

No need for June gloom thanks to TCM. Monday nights will focus on star-of-the-month Audrey Hepburn. In addition to David Letterman, Billy Bob Thorton stops in to guest-program. The programs Gay Hollywood and Noir Alley both continue on the schedule. Star of the Month: Audrey Hepburn - Roman Holiday (1953) - Monday, June 5 at 8:00 p.m. (ET) A runaway princess in Rome finds love with a reporter who knows her true identity. The Black Cat (1934) - Tuesday, June 6 at 8:00 p.m. (ET) A Stanist faces off with the vengeful man whose wife and daughter he has stolen.

Press release: For nearly twenty years, Exhumed Films has been the premier cult movie cooperative in the Philadelphia area, screening literally hundreds ofhorror, sci-fi, and exploitation classics on the big screen. Now, Exhumed Films brings their audience a new dimension in genre cinema: 3-DEMENTIA! is a major retrospective of 3-D films from the past four decades. The 1970’s and 1980’s saw a resurgence of three-dimensional movies, particularly in the realms of horror, science fiction, and action/adventure films. Some of the most infamous and beloved 3-D titles in history were released during this era; the majority have not seen the light

I try to go into movies cold, knowing as little as possible about them. I might watch a trailer and read the blurb, but there is something really nice about letting a film unfold before you without expectation. That’s really hard to do in this age of anticipation. We are pummeled with so much information about a movie long before it opens I sometimes feel like I’ve seen it before I walk into the theater. This is especially true with big summer blockbusters and comic-book movies. This week I caught a couple of movies I’d been avoiding because the culture

Who’s in the mood for meatloaf with a side of existential dread? OK, I’m only so glib because writing about Chantal Akerman’s landmark Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles is a daunting proposition. This 200-minute masterpiece, which largely takes place within the confines of a middle-aged widow’s modest Brussels apartment, isn’t merely a slow-cinema progenitor, and it’s certainly not anything resembling an endurance test. Any film that runs past three hours, particularly one so resistant to narrative norms, is bound to be called “challenging,” but that label just doesn’t apply here. Jeanne Dielman unfolds like a thriller in

Of the spate of Japanese movies that infiltrated the American consciousness at the beginning of the 21st century, when the industry was in a sadly short-lived renaissance, most, like The Ring and The Grudge were by relatively young filmmakers. One, however, was the surprise swan song of a septuagenarian who had been making movies all his life: Battle Royale, directed by Kinji Fukasaku. That's the movie where naughty schoolkids are sent to an island to do televised battle to the death. It was also the last film that Fukasaku would make (he died in the middle of directing the sequel,