Akira
‘Akira’ is an astonishingly influential film, easily as much so as cinema’s touchstones Citizen Kane and Pulp Fiction. Its impact is made more difficult to judge, though, given that it was made more than sixteen years ago, and didn’t make…
Intro To Anime
The real history of the medium is frequently chaotic and bizarre (as is the medium itself), and to cover it in depth would take hundreds of pages (I’ve been threatening for years to write such a book), but that’s not…
Barbarella
Jean-Claude Forest created the character of Barbarella for V-Magazine in 1962, at the request of its editor, Georges H. Gallet, who was already familiar with Forest’s work as France’s premier science fiction cover artist and had commissioned an illustrated version…
Ray Dennis Steckler: American Auteur
There was Ray Dennis Steckler. He said in an interview that the reason he didn’t use completed scripts for his movies was that if you had a script, you had to find locations to match the script, you had to…
A Tribute To Harryhausen
As part of their focus on special effects artist in general and Ray Harryhausen in particular, the Cinémathèque Québécoise offers three events on Saturday, April 20, 2013. The first event, at 5 p.m., is free. Phil Boot, who manages the…
Dennis Hopper:Legend
When Dennis Hopper first arrived in California from Dodge City, Kan., at 17, he found work at the La Jolla Playhouse. He cleaned dressing rooms “like a stable boy,” writes biographer Tom Folsom. “What a glamorous job that was,” recalled…
The World Needs More Talking Cat Movies
The film revives the B-movie genre by embracing the qualities of many 1990 straight-to-video flicks. If you’ve ever pushed a VHS into a VCR, this movie will grip you with nostalgia. The movie revolves around two families gripped with extremely…
Jack The Boring
One day Nicholas Hoult will be a household name, but “Jack the Giant Slayer” won’t be the movie to catapult him to leading status. Probably the best thing that can be said about Bryan Singer’s take on the centuries-old fairy…
Lincoln Center Honors Pam Grier
At a mini-festival in her honor at New York’s Film Society of Lincoln Center March 15-17, Pam Grier greets a fan with “Namaste,” the Hindu recognition of the divine within, and holds her hands in the prayer pose. Yet she…
‘It Came!’
One comic book this summer is embracing groovy aliens, British culture and B-movie awesomeness. On Aug. 7, Titan Comics debuts It Came!, a new four-issue miniseries by Dan Boultwood (Hope Falls) that takes the monsters, mayhem and mischief of yesteryear…
Wacky Hollywood Marketing
As movie marketing has become increasingly convoluted, we’ve been subjected to trailers with commentary, trailer introductions, and trailers for trailers. But the most bizarre and seemingly pointless aspect of the promotion process yet is what studios call “B-rolls.” Generally, b-roll…
Heart Felt Scenes: Revisiting My Bloody Valentine
In the late ‘70s and early ’80s, in the wake of Halloween’s record-setting success, producers were madly scrambling to grab any remaining holidays to center their own slasher movie around. As slasher films typically hinge on payback for some perceived…
Lucio Fulci: Italian Goremaster
Lucio Fulci (1927-1996) is an Italian horror film director whose cult and popularity have increased since his death. He is most famous for the films Zombie Flesh Eaters and The Beyond – the latter of which was a huge influence…
The Ten Best Dario Argento Films
I’m a big fan of Hitchcock, so naturally I’d be a big fan of Italian giallo films. I love the murder mystery, and giallo always had a horror touch to them with the nasty kills. My first giallo was a…
Bitter Candy: Hansel and Gretel
Moviegoers craving something sweet and satisfying should pass on “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters.” Hollywood’s latest fairy tale re-imaging sells itself as a sugary treat but delivers bitter disappointment. This latest chapter in Hollywood’s goal to milk classic tales with…
The Return Of Sonny Chiba
Hollywood Reporter has announced that Chiba’s first film for Assembly Line will be Bushido, a film about “a band of Buffalo Soldiers and Japanese samurai serving together in the American Civil War.” The film is based on an original story…
Monte Hellman And Roger Corman
Born in 1932, the future Two-Lane Blacktop director had studied film at UCLA, worked as a TV editor, and founded a theatre company before, in 1959, he started making monster movies for Corman. For Corman, as well as working as…
Mr.Bad:Uwe Boll
UWE BOLL is often referred to as the worst filmmaker in the world. This seems to pain Mr. Boll, a gregarious 42-year-old German whose best-known movies are based on video games. So he has shared the pain with his critics,…
The Promise Of B Bollywood Movie Posters
I’m not drawn to the movies as much as I am to their images. When I look at old B-movie posters and stills, I tend to fantasise about the worlds behind them, they provoke my imagination and start off stories…
Digital Projection Has Drive-In movie Theaters Reeling
As the night grew darker, a cold wind whipped across the asphalt expanse of the vintage Rubidoux Drive-In Theatre in Riverside. A howling gust banged open the door to the snack bar, where hot dogs glistened on metal spits and…