Avalanche Sharks Deliver Fun
If you loved the cinematic glory that was Sharknado, hold on to your tail fins. There’s a new implausible shark-related film on the tube — and this one has bikinis and snow. Avalanche Sharks delivers just what its title promises:…
12 Monkey’s Filming For Syfy
The pilot episode for “12 Monkeys” – a new Syfy series inspired by the 1995 Terry Gilliam film starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt – is being filmed at the University of Michigan’s North Campus Research Complex (NCRC) on Monday…
‘Expendables 3’ teaser
It would sound mean to hope third time’s a charm with the would-be Dream Team of action movie series “The Expendables,” but we’re still waiting for it all to click. The first go-around with Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and Lee…
Keoma
By 1976 the western craze in Italy had died down quite a bit and the end of the cycle was in reach. Most of the films being released at this point were 2nd rate, B-grade productions on deteriorating sets made…
China 9 Liberty 37
In 1978 the western genre was as good as dead on both sides of the Ocean, but some people just wouldn’t accept it and thought it could be saved with a new impulse. Monte Hellman had both puzzled and fascinated…
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (Jan. 3) Big picture: After being “marked,” a young man is relentlessly pursued by mysterious, dark forces. Yes, this is yet another sequel in the Paranormal Activity franchise. But isn’t it ironic that the plot…
50 Years Later, TV’s Ghoulardi Lives In Punk Rock
Before the Sex Pistols formed in London, before CBGB opened in New York, Cleveland had the Electric Eels. “Someone asked me what my influences were,” says guitarist and founder John Morton, “and I said, ‘Among other things, Sun Ra, Ghoulardi…
Jail Bait
In “Jail Bait”, Ed Wood applies his boundless enthusiasm and limited talent to the crime movie genre. From a technical viewpoint, it’s actually one of his less unsound features, although that cuts down somewhat on the unintentional laughs that it…
William Castle
William Castle (April 24, 1914 – May 31, 1977) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor.Orphaned at 11, Castle dropped out of high school at 15 to work in the theater. He came to the attention of Columbia…
47 Ronin
EAST meets west with a flurry of digital trickery in 47 Ronin, an ill-conceived martial arts epic inspired by the real-life tale of a group of Samurai. While the original story is tightly woven into Japanese culture, Carl Rinsch’s lavish…
Kung Fury
“He’s a kung-fu renegade cop. Now, he must defeat the most evil kung-fu master in the world: Adolf Hitler, aka Kung Führer.” That, in a nutshell, is Kung Fury, a proposed short action movie currently seeking $200,000 in funding on…
James Nicholson
As a child, Nicholson developed a love of movies, especially fantasy and science fiction films. While in high school, he joined a science fiction fan club, where he met Forrest J Ackerman. The two produced a fantasy fanzine together. Years…
Starship Troopers Is Coming Back
Giant bugs from outer space is definitely B movie stuff, and as silly as much of Starship Troopers was, I did enjoy it, primarily because of the CG bugs, which were some of the best computer effects I’ve ever seen….
Santa Claus The Movie, the Mexican version
How to explain the unusual 1959 feature from Mexico, wherein the Merriest Man on the Planet teams up with Merlin the Magician to defend the magic of Christmas against Ol’ Sparky, a/k/a the Devil — or, to be more accurate,…
Hallmark’s Christmas B-movies are weirdly addictive
Judging from the offerings on most major networks this week, you’d think they stopped making Christmas specials decades ago. We still rely heavily on “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Miracle on 34th Street,” “A Christmas Story” and of course everyone’s favorite…
Silent Night Deadly Night
After his parents are murdered, a young tormented teenager goes on a murderous rampage dressed as Santa, due to his stay at an orphanage where he was abused by the Mother Superior. Ah, Christmas. Although it has become increasingly commercialized…
Croczilla
Move over Godzilla. The Japanese have nothing on the Chinese when it comes to big cheesy monster movies featuring humongous, rampaging reptiles as low-budget B-movie fans will see with this 2011 Chinese-language feature (dubbed into English) that was originally titled…
Sonny Chiba
Pivotal figure in the 1970s explosion of martial arts cinema as lethal “fists for hire” trouble shooter, Takuma (Terry) Tsurugi, starring in the phenomenally popular and ultra violent “The Street Fighter” series of action films. Sonny Chiba wasn’t a graceful,…
The Big Boss
The first major-release film starring Bruce Lee not only kicked off his career, it also led to the creation of other exploitation subgenres. “The Big Boss,” also known in the U.S. by its American title, “Fists of Fury,” is typical…
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song
A film about a black male prostitute would be considered racy today; that Melvin Van Pebbles created and released such a film in 1971 makes “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” groundbreaking. The film’s themes of black radical self-sufficiency (up to and…