For the dog days of summer, what could be better than a movie with some canine teeth? And some claws. And a loud bark. And a nice wine for a dog day afternoon. “The Howling” is a great 1980s werewolf film – there were a few of them back in the day. This one boasts…
Legendary Special Effects Make-Up master Dick Smith created the primordial transformations for 1981’s Altered States and Altered States would be a fitting job title for the visionary craftsman who died this week at 92. Smith was responsible for the look of so many movie characters, from Brando’s grizzled mob boss in The Godfather to The Exorcist‘s demon child to Taxi Driver‘s mohawked sociopath that…
With last week’s news about a federal judge in California declaring the state’s death penalty “cruel and unusual punishment” and therefore unconstitutional along with this week’s horror story about a bungled execution in Arizona, Brian Trenchard-Smith’s recent trio of capital punishment-themed films proved particularly prescient. With that, we’d like to re-introduce Brian’s commentaries, ripped, as they say, from today’s headlines….
Andrew Sarris called it the Citizen Kane of jukebox musicals but A Hard Day’s Night long ago broke free from the constraints of being “just” a great musical. Director Richard Lester’s most remarkable accomplishment was making the movie equivalent of a great Beatles song, a soaring, occasionally heartbreaking, ode to joy played out in 87 minutes. Appropriately, the…
By David S. Schow Hall: “Where’s the library?” Dutton: “No need for books — everything’s in the computer.” One of the few regrets of my adult life is that I never got to meet Michael Crichton, who died too young, November 2008. Eminently emulatable, he had conquered publishing, film and television and remains a personal…
Thoughts occasioned by the release of Adieu au langage Godard and the Permanently New One “It has to face the men of the time and to meet/The women of the time. It has to think about war And it has to find what will suffice. It has/To construct a new stage. It has to be on…
To mark the 30th Anniversary of Gremlins, Warner Bros. has released Joe Dante’s (first) subversive masterpiece on DVD and VOD today. Here’s a round-up from around the web celebrating the little green guys’ special day. Pop Sugar‘s 30 Fun Facts about Gremlins Zach Galligan talks about the scaly critters’ lasting impression on pop culture here. Gremlins Online (your…
Here’s another installment featuring Joe Dante’s reviews from his stint as a critic for Film Bulletin circa 1969-1974. Our thanks to Video Watchdog and Tim Lucas for his editorial embellishments! Exploitable potpourri of sex, comedy, action with high school setting has enough funny stuff to draw and amuse youth trade in ballyhoo markets and…
We here at TFH have always thought of the great Vilmos Zsigmond as one of “our” movie icons, having begun his distinguished cinematographic career in the humble swamps of low budget exploitation before rising on his own merit to a justly celebrated mainstream career. So it is with fond memories of the likes of The Sadist, The…