Wolverine Delivers
It’s a weird time we live in when I can describe a film as “cheap” because it “only” cost around $100 million to produce. But such is the case with this smaller-scale X-Men spin-off. As such, while there is little…
Irene Ryan-Genius
Ryan was born Irene Eileen Noblett in El Paso, Texas, the daughter of James Merritt Noblett and Catherine “Katie” McSharry. Her father was from North Carolina and her mother was a native of Ireland. She had one sister, Anna, who…
Big Ass Spider On The Way
Big Ass Spider! has fun with the idea of a giant spider terrorizing Los Angeles, mostly by centering the film around the unlikely heroic duo of expert exterminator Alex Mathes (Greg Grunberg) and security guard Jose Ramos (Lombardo Boyar). ……
Robots Smacking Monsters In The Puss
I’ve heard a lot about the decline of cinema over the past few years, and plenty of people have complaints about the seemingly endless stream of artless summer blockbusters that focus more on explosions than stories. But none of that…
The Flops Of Summer
Analysts are predicting that R.I.P.D, starring Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds, will become the fourth such film in as many weeks to underperform. The costliest failure so far has been The Lone Ranger, starring Johnny Depp, which cost $250 million…
The Thing from Another World
Director: Christian Nyby, Script: Charles Lederer, Story: John W. Campbell Jr. (Who goes There?) Cast: Kenneth Toby, Robert Cornthwaite, Douglas Spencer, Margaret Sheridan, James Arness. I am going to try to be kind when I give my opinions about this…
Boxcar Bertha
Watching early films by classic directors in the midst of discovering their trademark style always proves to be an interesting endeavor, and Martin Scorsese’s Boxcar Bertha is no exception. Made the year before Scorsese’s breakthrough hit, and first tale of…
King Larry
Less money, more freedom!” has long been the mantra of film-makers working in the B-movie arena. Yes, the critics will sneer at them. No, they’re not going to win Academy Awards. The pay-off is the chance to be subversive, innovative…
The Lost Empire Rediscovered
In 1983, a young director stepped behind the camera for the first time and began to shoot a film which he thought might be both his first and his last. An ardent fan of �B� cinema, Jim Wynorski decided to…
GASSSSS
Roger Corman’s Gas-s-s-s, his final film as director for AIP, is dated (and probably even was for the period it got released), but somehow it’s almost part of its charm. It’s an irreverent comedy about a noxious gas that wipes…
This Bite’s For You
Its synopsis: When a freak hurricane swamps Los Angeles, nature’s deadliest killer rules sea, land and air as thousands of sharks terrorize the waterlogged populace. Sounds scary and made for basic cable. The movie pulled actors like Tara Reid out…
Sharknado Creates Cash Wind Fall
The cheesy Syfy channel thriller Sharknado drummed up something besides 387,000 social media mentions last week: The studio behind the movie reports that Sharknado’s buzz put the afterburners on DVD sales and licensing deals, helping to fuel a near quadrupling…
Ghost Shark
Interest in the Syfy network’s line of low-budget “Original” monster films recently saw a significant uptick with the premiere of Sharknado. After setting the Twitterverse aflame, Sharknado became something of a schlock cultural event and secured its destiny as the…
Five Quick Questions with Justin Armao
Bloodsucka Jones is the baddest vampire hunter on the planet and his trusty sidekick Vanessa help a couple of idiots fight an army of vampires in one hell of a horror comedy so if you love graphic violence, kids cursing,…
World’s End
They’ve done it again. The team behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz smash out another twisted gem: a boozy buddy movie with a big twist. See itThe final instalment in Edgar Wright’s Three Flavours Cornetto series — a…
Ozploitation:Patrick
Not Quite Hollywood director Mark Hartley’s new feature is a scorcher — a cattle prod to the senses that reminds the Oz film industry that “genre” isn’t a dirty word. See itThe gatekeepers of Australian film financing bodies, baby boomers…
Beware Of The Blob: Honoring a Timeless Classic
The legendary 1950s science-fiction film “The Blob” was celebrated this weekend at Phoenixville’s 14th annual Blobfest. Released in 1958, “The Blob” starred a young Steve McQueen and Aneta Corsaut and was filmed locally in Phoenixville, Chester Springs and Downingtown. The…
Five Quick Questions with Laurene Landon
While on stage in 3rd grade, Laurene had parents cheering her loudly for her femme fatale role in a play. That moment she knew she was destined to be an actress. At the same age she also realized she won’t…
A Mexican In Hollywood: Del Toro and Pacific Rim
Brace yourself, otaku boys across the globe, Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim is the most expensive B-movie ever! And that’s a big, big compliment in the season of sterile blockbusters, for this is an… Of course I’m speaking from the…
Sharknado: the most terribly good movie of the summer
Sharknado, pundemic on Twitter, has restored the B-movie back to its rightful place in American life: cult summer blockbuster and universal inside joke. To join in you don’t need a TV or even to have seen the movie. You only…