Grindhouse
The essence of “Grindhouse,” Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s exuberant, uneven tribute to the spirit of trash cinema, is distilled in a scene from “Death Proof,” Mr. Tarantino’s feature-length contribution to the project. Two vintage American muscle cars, already scuffed…
Hollywood Boulevard
It’s a satire. It’s an action picture. It’s a romantic comedy. It’s a T&A movie. It’s a murder mystery. It’s a horror film. It’s a female vigilante exploiter. In other words, it’s not an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink epic, it’s an everything-and-the- kitchen-sink…
The Eh-List
A WHEEZING PERVERT makes obscene phone calls to a sorority house. Michael Ironside stews in a bachelor pad, writing angry letters to a feminist talk show host. Five horny students at T & A High make a pact to see…
John Milius
John Frederick Milius (born April 11, 1944) is an American screenwriter, director, and producer of motion pictures. He co-wrote the first two Dirty Harry films, received an Academy Award nomination as screenwriter of Apocalypse Now, and wrote and directed The…
Arnold Is Back
This weekend Arnold Schwarzenegger will be 66 years and eight months old: exactly two-thirds of a century since he arrived on this planet from some far-off steroid asteroid, and about one-third of a century since Conan the Barbarian certified the…
Abraxas
If straight-to-video films represent a poor gamble for anyone looking for quality, you can imagine what the odds are against a straight-to-video science fiction film. Add a Canadian production pedigree into the mix, and you would probably have more success…
Cannibal Girls
Shot in 1972 by a then-unknown filmmaker Ivan Reitman, Cannibal Girls may not have been the first Canadian horror film ever made, but it quickly gained a reputation as one of the sleaziest Canadian B-movie concoctions of its era. Where…
The Brood
avid Cronenberg established himself as Canada’s premier auteur of the macabre with his first two films, Shivers (aka They Came From Within) and Rabid. Exploring the depths of the mind and its externalization through the body, Cronenberg was a burst…
In Praise Of Nazi Zombies
There are some real gems in Entertainment Weekly’s March 21 cover story on “criminally underrated” movies, television shows, albums, books and games, with stars such as Tilda Swinton weighing in with their own highly idiosyncratic recommendations of unsung entertainment options….
White Dog
am Fuller’s 1982 thriller White Dog made a big impression on me when I watched a scratchy VHS copy in the mid-1980s, so I approached with caution the new DVD/Blu-ray edition (in Eureka! Entertainment’s Masters of Cinema series). No one…
Mondo Cane
“Mondo Cane” of 1962 is the first of a bunch of Italian ‘Mondo’ Shockumentaries and, without any doubt, an immensely influential piece of Exploitation cinema. Gualtiero Jacopetti and Paolo Carva came up with an entirely new style of film-making with…
The Ambushers
The third ‘Matt Helm’ picture came out in the same year as ‘You Only Live Twice’ ( starring Sean Connery as ‘James Bond’ ), ‘Casino Royale’ ( an all-star 007 spoof headed by Peter Sellers ), ‘In Like Flint’ (…
Russ Meyer
Russell Albion “Russ” Meyer (March 21, 1922 – September 18, 2004) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, film editor, actor and photographer. Meyer is known primarily for writing and directing a series of successful low-budget sexploitation films that…
Lorenzo Semple Passes
Lorenzo Semple Jr. the creator of the campily classic Batman TV series who went on to craft such big-screen paranoid thrillers as The Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor — though he would be replaced on both films…
Five Quick Questions with Stephen Folker
Stephen Folker is a family man that’s just one of the guys. Enjoying a drink, BBQ, and if time allows relaxing in his home’s fortress of solitude. Growing up he loved making whacky and goofy videos and eventually started making…
The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane
Rynn Jacobs is a lonely, but well equipped 13-year old girl who lives with her poet father, while keeping a dark secret in the cellar. Although whenever somebody dropped by she would tell him or her that her father was…
Charles Napier
Charles L. Napier (April 12, 1936 – October 5, 2011) was an American character actor, known for his portrayals of square-jawed tough guys and military types. Though the Kentucky native was most proud of his work as a thoughtful judge…
Duck You Sucker
In Mexico at the time of the Revolution, Juan, the leader of a bandit family, meets John Mallory, an IRA explosives expert on the run from the British. Seeing John’s skill with explosives, Juan decides to persuade him to join…
The Good, The Bad And The Weird
One way to look at the career of the South Korean director Kim Jee-woon would be to praise him for refusing to repeat himself; another would be to write him off as a dilettante who dabbles in one film genre…
The Father Of 3D: Sid Pink
Sidney W. Pink (March 16, 1916 – October 12, 2002) was an American movie producer and occasional director. He has been called the father of feature-length 3-D movies. He is also noted for producing early spaghetti westerns and low-budget science-fiction…