Godzilla; A Review
Despite a strong cast including Bryan Cranston and Sally Hawkins, Gareth Edwards’s big-budget B-movie lacks a human face Godzilla’s back … another city gets trashed in an overfamiliar blockbuster. Photograph: Allstar/Warner Bros/Sportsphoto Ltd At least they get the monster…
“The Great Hypnotist”
A brooding psycho-mystery which pits a confident hypnotherapist against a beautiful patient who claims she can “see dead people,” “The Great Hypnotist” reconfirms Taiwanese helmer Leste Chen as an accomplished stylist capable of dressing up B-movie material in a classy…
Enter Hopalong Cassidy
“Hop-Along Cassidy” (aka “Hopalong Cassidy Enters”) was the first of 66 features starring William Boyd as Hoppy. One of the most successful and best written of the “B” western series, it was to run from 1935 to 1948. As…
The Satan Bug
You want Armageddon? An Apocalyptic threat? This gives you the unscientifically-pegged Satan Bug, a virus so lethal, it can kill everyone in California in a few hours, the U.S. in a week, and the world…oh, a couple of months. Towards…
The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari
Made in 1919, “The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari” was literally years ahead of its time and remains a triumphant accomplishment in the genre of German Expressionism. Remembered mainly for its stunning sets, which featured crooked buildings and twisted landscapes, “Cabinet”…
Blood Glacier
n an era of predictably tweaked horror premises and haunted-house flicks with 10-dollar titles, a doggedly straightforward monster movie like Blood Glacier can feel refreshing, if not exactly fresh. There’s no spin, no switcheroo—just old-fashioned creature and make-up effects and the bare…
The Time Machine
In 1960, filmmaker George Pal brought to fruition a visionary concept for a film based on a novel by H.G. Wells, about an inventor who builds a machine that enables him to travel through time, specifically into the future, where…
Mothra vs. Godzilla
“Godzilla vs. Mothra” (1964) has been known for a very long time as probably the best Godzilla film, in many circles even over the first one, and rightfully so. All the elements were probably at their best for this film…
Demon Seed
‘Ridiculous… only time well tell’; well, my dear Proteus, time has indeed been able to tell: this film is ridiculous. “Demon Seed” is a film with no real ‘intelligence’ or purpose; it is a grand guignol puppet show embossed with…
The Devil’s Rain
This has got to be one of the strangest movies ever made, yet somehow I still find myself revisiting it at least once a year despite the fact that it’s seriously flawed. I will attempt to explain why that is….
7 Faces Of Dr. Lao
‘7 Faces of Dr. Lao’ is one of those movies after you watch it and wonder “You know, why are more people not talking about this?” ‘Dr. Lao.’ is the story of an old Wild West town where nothing exciting…
Phase IV
Phase IV is not your average movie experience. Definitely not for everyone, so, see it if you get the chance (Last I saw it was a 1997 airing on The Sci-Fi Channel.) and decide if it’s for you. It’s even…
Black Christmas
The girls of a sorority house are being tormented by a twisted prank caller who continually calls to convey increasingly vile and abusive sentiments. What at first appears to be a sick joke eventually turns violent for the girls during…
Colossus: The Forbin Project
As a computer named Colossus it certainly earns it moniker as you see how seriously huge the thing is in the opening scenes in its cavernous type home that looks a bit like the laboratory scenes out of Forbidden Planet”,…
StarCrash (1978)
Take Caroline Munro. Put her in a leather space bikini with matching boots, give her a ridiculous looking laser gun, have someone get some oil on her chest and we are talking entertainment. Now, add a plot that is reminiscent…
The Brood
The Brood juxtaposes divorce, anxiety with parent-child relationships, with a story that is basically crazy vengeance that turns to ugly territory sooner than later. Like Scanners, it’s only gruesome in short spurts (some pun intended), and while it’s noticeable Cronenberg…
War Of The Worlds
The flaws I find in this film are pretty much the problems you will find in any fantasy/sci-if or horror film of this vintage. It’s small things, like Ann Robinson’s character being the only one without dust on her after…
The Starlost
Forget about “The Twilight Zone” or “Outer Limits” or the classic “Doctor Who” years with Tom Baker: CTV’s THE STARLOST is the creepiest, most subtly disturbing television show ever made for general audiences. The background story about how the show…
They Came From Within/Shivers
Shivers(1975) is a fascinating first film especially for a person who was learning to direct professionly on the job. An interesting part about this movie is that Cronenberg did Shivers(1975) without having a clue of what people in the film…
WOLFCOP
Yes, you read that right – WOLFCOP. Half wolf, half cop, all B-movie badass. “It’s not unusual for alcoholic cop Lou Garou to black out and wake up in unfamiliar surroundings, but lately things have taken a strange turn. Crime…