Claudia Cardinale
Claudia Cardinale was born Claude Joséphine Rose Cardinale in La Goulette, a neighborhood of Tunis, French Tunisia. Her mother, Yolande Greco, was born in Tunisia to Sicilian emigrants from Trapani. Her father was a Sicilian railway worker, born in Gela….
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
As far as family-oriented fantasy kitsch goes, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad is pretty ridiculous stuff. But those with a soft spot for this ‘70s relic will be thrilled with boutique label Twilight Time’s limited edition Blu-ray release. Directed on…
I, Frankenstein’ Dead on Arrival with $7.7 Million
It looks as though “I, Frankenstein” is deteriorating before our very eyes. Pre-weekend projections had Lionsgate’s horror-inspired actioner in the mid-teens this weekend. That was reigned back to $10 million midday Friday, and now its total looks even grimmer: about…
The Late Great Gordon Hessler
http://www.dvddrive-in.com/hessler.htm Gordon Hessler was born in Germany, the son of a Danish mother and an English father. Educated in England, he moved to the US while in his late teens and spent several years working in documentaries. At Universal, “I…
Composer Riz Ortolani Dead At 87
Italian soundtrack composer Riz Ortolani, who won a Grammy for his “Mondo Cane” theme “More,” and whose wide range of music for movies was featured in three Quentin Tarantino films and on the Dino Risi-directed classic “The Easy Life” (Il…
Bitch Planet
By her own account, its title wasn’t what she led with in proposing new projects to Image Comics or her artist collaborator. But, Kelly Sue DeConnick told the laughing, applauding crowd at Image Expo earlier this month, of the potential…
Big Bad Wolves
The publicity campaign for Big Bad Wolves, a nasty little revenge thriller from Israeli filmmakers Navot Papushado and Aharon Keshales, quotes Quentin Tarantino’s decree that it’s the “best film of the year.” Tarantino saw Big Bad Wolves at last year’s…
I, Frankenstein
Frankly quite silly, I, Frankenstein parades its grim atmosphere as a badge of coolness, apparently unaware how little fun or excitement there is in this dull corpse of a film. Starring Aaron Eckhart in a fantasy-action update of Mary Shelley’s…
CGI and The Big Bucks Of Cinema
The 2000s was the decade when movie special effects really came into their own. Thanks to the pioneering work of companies like Industrial Light and Magic and directors like James Cameron and Peter Jackson, new techniques like CGI and advanced…
Video Paradise
There are easier ways to rent a movie but for Jason Patrone, nothing beats the experience of visiting Video Paradise. The mom-and-pop video shop on the northwestern corner of Alma School and Warner roads with the flamingo logo and the…
Ice Soldiers
If you saw a festival of B.C.-raised director Sturla Gunnarsson’s three decades’ worth of films, you could be forgiven for thinking each was made by a different director. Sturla Gunnarsson His more than 40 titles start with the Oscar-nominated 1981…
‘Raze’ Jabs At Exploitation
Somewhere between squalid exploitation movies and Tarantino brashness, “Raze” is lurking, waiting to slug you in the face. In this assaultive film by Josh C. Waller, women are kidnapped, imprisoned and forced to fight to the death with their bare…
‘B’ is for beach and budget
ALL hail Sam Arkoff, who, with much less flamboyant partner James H. Nicholson, brought the low-budget B-picture into the modern age from 1954 to 2000 with the immortal American International Pictures. Home to director Roger Corman and creative hothouse for…
Frankenstein At The Movies
Much like the monster himself, Frankenstein’s screen history has had many disparate parts since Boris Karloff first lumbered into cinemas playing the character from Mary Shelley’s novel in 1931. With I, Frankenstein in theaters Friday, we talked with noted horror…
Tarantino Abruptly Abandons New Film
Just a little over a week after announcing the working title of his next western, Quentin Tarantino has shelved The Hateful Eight after learning that details of the script apparently leaked yesterday, Deadline reports. Tarantino additionally said he is now…
The Madness of Re-Animator
It had been over twenty years since I last saw Re-animator, so I was looking forward to re-watching this classic from the last great decade of horror, the 1980s. I was 17 when I first saw this low budget gore-fest…
Dario Argento
Dario Argento was born on September 7, 1940, in Rome, Italy, the first-born son of famed Italian producer Salvatore Argento and Brazilian fashion model Elda Luxardo. Argento recalls getting his ideas for filmmaking from his close-knit family from Italian folk…
Terror at London Bridge
Jack the Ripper is back. It’s 1985. He’s killing people on London Bridge — the London Bridge that got rebuilt Arizona. But don’t worry, The Hoff is on the case. This is the barnstormingly ludicrous plot of Bridge Across Time…
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
uring the Golden Age of Hollywood, which began with the advent of the talkies in the late 1920s, movie studios released what were known as the B Movies. Paired with a full-length film to give the audience a double-feature movie…
Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead
The first Dead Snow was a cult favourite, and Wirkola has subsequently raised his profile by directing the 2013 Paramount release Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. Nonetheless, this sequel will mostly be of interest to genre buffs. (It was announced…