John Dunning B Producer
Behind some of the most celebrated Canadian filmmakers is John Dunning, a producer from the Montreal borough of Verdun who helped to kickstart the careers of David Cronenberg, Denys Arcand, and Ivan Reitman. Dunning and his longtime partner André Link ran the Montreal…
Nightcrawler
So far the Toronto Film Festival has not mined any Oscar riches that weren’t already revealed at other festivals. Tonight’s public screening of Working Title’s “The Theory of Everything” may change that. But so far TIFF world premieres “The Judge,”…
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
An apocalyptic story set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and most everyone is crazed fighting for the necessities of life. Within this world exist two rebels on the run…
Abar, the First Black Superman (1977)
“Abar, The First Black Superman” sounds good due to the title, but really this is a huge mess of a film, even though it is fun to watch (despite the brutality). A black family led by an established and successful…
The Vortex – Now available on VOD
Available today through VOD is Supernova Film’s The Vortex. The DVD release date is set for October 11th. Refer to it as “The Vortex: Gate To Armageddon” on ITunes and Vudu. https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/the-vortex-gate-to-armegeddon/id908395848 http://www.vudu.com/movies/#!content/569511/The-Vortex-Gate-to-Armegeddon Peter Paul Basler of Supernova Films told…
Monsters: Dark Continent
Before Godzilla, there was Monsters — director Gareth Edwards’ critically-acclaimed 2010 movie about the invasion of Earth by a race of giant, tentacled behemoths. This month, in the wake of Edwards’ success resurrecting the iconic Japanese monster, his own beasties…
Eegah (1962)
This is the second-greatest story every told. A lesson for posterity. A tale of star-crossed lovers, tortured souls, intrigue, adventure, passion, lies, anger, denial, betrayal, and finally, redemption. The master story-teller, Arch Hall Sr., regales us with an epic feature…
Red Sun (1971)
This Spaghetti Western with enjoyable casting (Bronson , Mifune , Delon and Andress) concerns about robbing a Japanese blade from a train crossing American West and the Japan Ambassador had for gift of emperor (the Japanese Ambassador refers to the…
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)
Considered the first blaxploitation film, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song features Melvin Van Peebles (who also directed, wrote, produced, edited and did music for the film) as Sweetback, a Los Angeles-area “male prostitute”/”sex performer” (who only has relations with females). He…
‘Fires on the Plain’
There are horrors-of-war movies (“Come and See”), and then there are World War II horror movies (“Dead Snow”), and judging by “Fires on the Plain,” it’s not entirely clear whether Japanese splatter director Shinya Tsukamoto understands the difference. The “Tetsuo:…
Super Fly (1972)
This was Director Gordon Parks’Jr. follow-up to one of the most successful and also one of the top five highest grossing pictures of 1971,the straight in-your face blaxploitation crime-drama,”Shaft”,starring Richard Roundtree. This time around,he goes for the exploitation genre a…
Cold Sweat (1970)
This gritty, straightforward, unpretentious, Charles Bronson hostage thriller relies on realistic, white-knuckled suspense to maintain its momentum throughout its tense 94 minutes. James Mason, Liv Ullmann, Jill Ireland, Michel Constantin, Luigi Pistilli and Jean Topart co-star in this no-nonsense, muscular…
Red Ball Express (1952)
he setup, in case you don’t already know it, is this. The troops of the western Allies were bottle necked in Normandy, France, for the first month or so after the D-Day landings. The armies finally broke through the German…
Three the Hard Way (1974)
When diabolical racist/fascist/evil white cracker Monroe Feather (Robinson), with the help of fellow evil whitey, scientist Dr. Fortrero (Richard Angarola) invent a red serum that is harmless to whites and lethal to blacks and plan to dump it in the…
Bermuda Tentacles – DVD/Bluray Now Available
When Air Force One goes down over the Bermuda Triangle, the Navy sends its best rescue team. But in saving the president, the team awakens a creature that threatens the entire eastern seaboard. [youtube_sc url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3t5DtWKpNU”] Bermuda Tentacles was directed by…
Black Caesar (1973)
When Edward G. Robinson filed “Little Caesar” in 1933, he could never have imagined that fifty-two years later it would be reconfigured as Blaxploitation and become a cult classic in its own right. Williamson stars as a former shoeshine boy…
The Nasty Rabbit (1964)
The films produced by Arch Hall Sr. and starring Arch Hall Jr. are overall an entertaining lot, considering the low budgets. They made a juvenile delinquent film (the Choppers), a horror comedy (Eegah), a rock and roll film in the…
Schlock (1973)
SCHLOCK is ridiculous, offensive, ignorant, and childish. It’s also really funny, and it’s now available on DVD with, yes, a great commentary track that you may have to listen to more than once; because in their enthusiastic recollections of making…
Rat Pfink a Boo Boo (1966)
Rat Pfink A Boo Boo is a hard title to review properly. It’s a film I give one star in terms of actual filmmaking, whether it be acting, writing, editing or even making any coherent sense. But I give it…
Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)
First off, I saw the remake first and only after I found that there is an original. The remake is mediocre. The original is nothing special either, but at least it’s better than the remake. For anyone who have seen…