Evil Dead The Musical
Magicians, impressionists, impersonators, topless dancers and … bloody chain saws? The thin line between shows for “locals” versus “tourists” gets a little more blurred when the Plaza hosts an open-ended run of “Evil Dead: The Musical” starting next month ….
There’s probably no good way to ease into the films of Takashi Miike, at least in the days before the prolific genre maestro started varying his extreme cinema provocations with offbeat experiments like the splatter-musical The Happiness Of The Katakuris…
We Just Love Silent Films
Sure, you’ve heard of old movies, but one highlight of this year’s Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival reaches back 88 years, reviving the silent film “The Moon of Israel.” The revival fits right in with the rediscovery of the silent…
Dark Bridges
The always-accurate Wikipedia defines “genre film” as: “A motion picture (such as a western, a gangster film, a musical, or a film noir) that plays on the expectation of the audience regarding familiar plot structures, characters, setting, and so on.”…
Robert Lippert
Robert L. Lippert has to be one of the most dynamic men in the Motion Picture Industry. He was born March 11, 1909 and was left the same day on the doorstep at San Francisco Catholic Charities Orphanage. Robert was…
Tremors
Giant killer worms in the desert. It sounds absurd, but this 1990 science fiction/horror/comedy flick strangely makes it work. Some call it a B-movie cult classic (It did go on to spawn two sequels, a prequel and a short-lived TV…
Manos: The Hands of Fate,
“Manos: The Hands of Fate” is a 1966 horror film written, directed by and starring insurance/fertilizer salesman Harold Warren. The plot follows a vacationing family who find themselves lodged in the home belonging to a pagan cult. The plot was…
Saving Bond
Mendes became attached to Skyfall so long ago, back when it was called Bond 23, that you might have been forgiven for thinking he would never actually get to make it. But while MGM sorted out its money troubles and…
Hell Comes To Frogtown
From Fangoria Years ago, I used to watch the old USA Network show UP ALL NIGHT, which showcased some of the most bizarre, eclectic, off-the-wall—and also original and highly entertaining—films ever. Unlike the major Hollywood flicks, these B-movies took chances…
Percy Kilbride
Familiar to million as the twangy, bucolic Pa Kettle, Percy Kilbride first stepped on the stage in the role of an 18th-century French fop in a San Francisco production of Tale of Two Cities. Interrupting his career to serve in…
10 Lamest Mockbusters
A mockbuster is a film, often made with a low budget, created with the apparent intention of piggy-backing on the publicity of a major film with a similar title. These movies have similar names like “Snakes on a Train” –not…
Orpheum goes digital
“The release of ‘Avatar’ in December 2009 represented the pivotal moment for digital cinema, with digital technology forming the bedrock of the modern cinema environment,” said David Hancock in a 2011 story in the California-based IHS Screen Digest. “Before Avatar,…
Cult Movie Mania
Cult movies live on, thanks to people like Andy Lalino, who began the popular “Cult Movie Mania Screaming Cinema Series” at the Tampa Pitcher Show. The film series focuses on modern movies created to look like Cult B Movie Classics….
The Last Drive In
The 1930’s will always be remembered as the decade of The Great Depression. But it wasn’t all doom and gloom in the 30’s. For instance, a New Jersey man opened the very first drive-in movie theatre in 1933. The outdoor…
Blacula
In 1780, Prince Mamuwalde (William H. Marshall), the ruler of an African nation, seeks the help of Count Dracula (Charles Macaulay) in suppressing the slave trade. Dracula refuses to help and transforms Mamuwalde into a vampire and imprisons him in…
The Avengers Open
If you’ve paid any attention to the box office over the past few years, you’ve heard the constant drumbeat that the international box office has been increasingly driving Hollywood’s bottom line. Even for movies that are massive stateside hits, international…
100 Years Of Paramount
During its 100 years in the entertainment industry, Paramount has morphed from a New York City-based producer of silent films into a multibillion-dollar studio that could be considered the crown jewel of the Viacom media empire. In its birth year,…
The Zombie Shopping Mall Experience:
A few weeks ago we told you about the zombie shopping mall – a live action experience that puts you and your chums in the starring role of a George Romero-style horror movie. After days of frenzied retweeting, film quoting…
Bela Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó, commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in…
Got Them Studio Blues
At a convention of movie theater owners here on Tuesday, Walt Disney Studios displayed plenty of fanfare, trotting out Johnny Depp to promote his 2013 remake of “The Lone Ranger” and hiring 11 bagpipe players to herald “Brave,” a film…