Yes, it’s a review of a 7 year-old disc release, but we’re tired of waiting for new Halloween movies! We seize the chance to finally absorb one of Tobe Hooper’s most notable efforts — how does it hold up after 44 years? The answer is ‘not at all bad,’ even though the 3-hour TV version…
Big budget westerns from the past are looking better than ever — the fine cinematography and big-star casts dazzle as contemporary films never do. Steve McQueen took a leap to stand-alone action stardom in Henry Hathaway’s prequel to The Carpetbaggers, telling a western backstory. The film’s violence is extremely rough for 1966, and an impressive…
Our Hell Scoop series continues apace this week, with a chilling new batch of sinister goodies that looks frighteningly familiar. Join us, won’t you? Friday, October 6th: The Exorcist: Believer, Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, Totally Killer,V/H/S/85, Johnny Z, Aberrance, Vindicta, Monsters Of California, Cat Person, Foe, When Evil Lurks William Friedkin fans have quite an October…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. This week, we will pair wines with three films that may have escaped your attention, but that caught the eye of TFH Guru Josh Olson. While we breeze through the indie films that…
Let’s pop back once again to take in an old-fashioned Lone Samurai saga — this one’s worth it. Preceding the Lone Wolf and Cub series but sharing a creator and some of the same violent stylistics, it’s a hero-on-the-road tale with creative, original touches, including a spy-ninja angle that enlists what looks like magic at…
Stylish and energetic, this gangster saga from Brian De Palma and David Koepp is solid both in characters and genre action. It’s a crime tragedy set in Spanish Harlem, with a fine perf from Al Pacino as a former kingpin trying to go straight. He’s sprung from a long prison term by Sean Penn’s mob…
The legendary Jim Thompson strikes again: director James Foley’s spin on this intense, character-driven crime piece may be the movies’ truest expression of Thompson’s jaundiced world view. It’s a top title for its players Jason Patric and Rachel Ward, with Bruce Dern sealing the deal. The low-rent margins of Palm Springs are the setting for…
Out of the legendary Rock ‘n’ Roll ‘fifties comes another story that ends on The Day the Music Died. Luis Valdez’s account of the rise and sudden silencing of the great Richie Valens avoids exaggeration to instead celebrate the young man’s positive potential. This is the show that put Lou Diamond Phillips on the map,…
Welcome to our brand-new spooky column Hell Scoop, wherein we will offer sneak peaks at this week’s upcoming horror and thriller releases. This week, Hollywood has such sights to show us. While the big box office arrival on the stateside film scene seems to be the new Gareth Edwards-helmed, John David Washington-starring original sci-fi actioner…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. This week, we will pair wines with three films that put stars in our eyes. I have a friend who puts on wine tasting events. He calls his shows, “Stars of” events. Stars…
The Trial 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray Criterion 1962 / 118 Min. / 1.66.1 Starring Anthony Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, Orson Welles Directed by Orson Welles The funereal music warns us to turn back but the camera moves on, gliding toward the castle and up to a chamber where a solitary figure waits in…
Perhaps the strong women characters got this William Wellman movie chosen for Blu-ray, but it indeed ranks up there with the best of wagon train epics. Robert Taylor plays opposite a large cast of actresses that we see doing the hard work on rugged distant locations. Realism isn’t compromised — the unusually violent story is…
A filmmaker with a genuine vision: Nicolas Roeg’s first solo directing effort is a masterpiece of images and montage, excellent storytelling with intimations of natural forces at work. Abandoned with her brother, Jenny Agutter’s Sydney schoolgirl is helped in survival by David Gulpilil’s aboriginal youth on a wilderness rite of passage. It’s a credible loss-of-innocence…
A happy cult of disc collectors aches for titles from the dawn of sound; the Warner Archive gifts them with this much-improved remaster of what’s known as the actual first all-singing, all talking Hollywood musical. It looks so good, we can feel the footlights burning hard on the talent straight from the stage, while the…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. This week, we will pair wines with three movies from the film noir department. Noir is a word which is near and dear to the hearts of movie lovers and wine lovers alike….
The two-word title for this thriller demonstrates real Truth in Advertising — it’s all about the ba-a-d bear, and everyone else is Special Supporting Snack Food. This 2023 equivalent of an old-fashioned Creature Feature generated positive buzz last February. It’s just your average gore horror thriller with some big talent, that’s also an irreverent comedy…
No CGI allowed! Adventure film fans dote on Real Action happening with real stuntmen, and John Frankenheimer’s Resistance epic has more physical action than almost anything. Burt Lancaster and others risk their necks on moving trains as they derail and explode; the timing of some shots is worthy of applause. The drama about national art…
Croatian animation wizard Dušan Vukotić co-wrote and directed this Sci-fi comedy that gently elbows the genre. It unspools like a children’s film for adults, teasing nudity, exaggerated violence, etc.. The Fun and Games play with a Philip K. Dick idea — the fertile mind of a frustrated Sci-fi writer can morph reality. The aliens he…
Spinout Blu-ray Warner Archive 1966 / 2.35.1 Starring Elvis Presley, Shelley Fabares, Deborah Walley Directed by Norman Taurog Elvis Presley contained multitudes but he was most recognizable as the hillbilly genius of the recording booth and the walking-talking mannequin on a Hollywood assembly line. He starred in 31 movies between 1956 and 1969, making three…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. This week, we will pair wines with three films dealing in darkness. Darkness is a hallmark of a good wine. Red wine, anyway. If you have a dark white wine, you may have…
Strikingly original & endlessly creative, Charles Laughton’s solo directorial effort continues to stun audiences with the expressive power of pure cinema. It’s an ‘American Primitive’ mix of storybook candor and nightmare imagery; the performances are styled after an earlier era of direct drama. Davis Grubb’s theme is more relevant than ever — the conflict of…
Spaghetti westerns are are still popular, especially with high-quality releases like this available. This 1967 pseudo-Django oater is from the boxed set Blood Money – Four Western Classics Vol. 2. It’s concocted to appeal to the fans of Sergio Leone. Gianni Garko is a handsome if colorless bounty hunter hero, and the notorious actor Claudio…
Tagging Carl Franklin’s superb crime thriller as a neo-noir isn’t enough; it’s practically perfect despite being made at a direct-to-video production level. Bill Paxton, Cynda Williams and Billy Bob Thornton give some of the best performances of the 1990s. We also marvel at Thornton and Tom Epperson’s screenplay, which advances some good thinking about race…
Ruthless spy thrills, big-star glitz plus pretensions of political importance: Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway find career-sustaining momentum in this slick, top-talent espionage tale on the fashionable end of post- Watergate paranoia. It’s a box office winner for director Sydney Pollack, who gives the show his special energy — he was Robert Redford’s most consistent…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. This week we have wine pairings for a trio of Faye Dunaway films. It is tempting to just skip the wine and make a pitcher of Faye Dunaway cocktails instead. However, with six…