Piranha 3DD
“Piranha 3D” was a film that, for all intents and purposes, probably should not have succeeded, yet it ably demonstrated that if a director fully commits themselves to an idea, no matter how unappealing, the results can impress. Indeed, Alexandre…
Haywire
Building a movie around a mixed martial arts fighter seems like a good way to earn a spot on the straight-to-video express. Unless, of course, you’re Steven Soderbergh. Then — because you’re smart and imaginative and can seemingly make any…
Land of a Thousand Balconies: Discoveries and Confessions of a B-Movie Archaeologist
Jack Stevenson has devoted a good part of his life to the pursuit of eccentric screen oddities, and this book is a very personal look at his journey. Most books on the subject are general guides to the genre and…
The Golden Age of Crap
Just because you can’t respect a movie doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it. The Golden Age of Crap serves up a sampling of junk-food flicks that gained their audiences on videocassette rental shelves during the ’80s and ’90s, a time…
Zombies: An Illustrated History of the Undead
The zombie phenomenon is unique in Western popular culture. From its origins in the voodoo beliefs of Haiti, it has become a key ingredient in today’s cinema, popular literature and comics. With one simple premise that the dead rise again…
Nerds Rise
Last week, when The Avengers assembled to save America, once again, from someone with a British accent commanding an army from outer space, AO Scott, the New York Times film critic, did something insane. “The secret of The Avengers,” he…
Gremlins 2
People didn’t get Gremlins 2: The New Batch when it was released in the summer of 1990, six years and a week after its blockbusting predecessor. It grossed less than a third of the original’s box-office take ($41.4 million versus…
Retro Everyone Should See
The greatest science fiction movies don’t just have cool ideas or an unforgettable story — they also have a distinctive visual style. And a lot of our favorite films reach back into the past, for retro visions of the future…
Stealing Las Vegas
It’s pretty unlikely for a filmmaker to get his big break after spending more than 20 years as a university professor, but that’s exactly what happened to Francisco Menendez. The head of UNLV’s film department, Menendez showed his independent feature…
The King
Hollywood is a weird dream that Roger Corman dreamed once upon a time. In 1955, with a degree in industrial engineering and no movie background whatsoever, he directed his first film, Swamp Women. It was a terrible film. Like most…
Tokapi
So D.B. Cooper is back in the news. Forty years ago, a well-dressed man hijacked a Boeing 727, extorted $200, 000 in ransom money, then parachuted into uncharted terrain, never to be seen again. Last week’s newspapers contained fresh speculation…
How A Monkey Saved Fox
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is here. Its arrival marks yet one more opportunity for Twentieth Century Fox to cash in on a series that’s been a bonanza since 1968. In that year the original Planet of the…
Screaming All The Way To The Bank
Devoted reader Craig Edwards has requested the story of how schlockmeister Jim Wynorski (whose next low-budget release is Gila!, about the attack of a giant lizard) got his start in Hollywood. So I’ve cribbed from my Roger Corman: Blood-Sucking Vampires,…
No Texting In Movies
Yes, I admit I’m old-fashioned. I’m just back from a writers’ conference hosted by the American Society of Journalists and Authors. There I discovered it’s considered cool to share the insights you’re gleaning by tweeting them to your thousands of…
Film Noir Festival
Last week, I dined at Musso’s with a tall, dark stranger. If that couldn’t get me in the mood for a Film Noir festival, nothing would. Musso and Frank Grill, a mainstay on Hollywood Boulevard since 1919, is dark, wood-paneled,…
Maniac Cop
Innocent people are brutally killed on the streets of New York by a uniformed police officer. A young cop, Jack Forrest (Bruce Campbell, TV’s BURN NOTICE and the EVIL DEAD trilogy), finds himself marked as the chief suspect after his…
Visiting Hours
Visiting Hours came completely out of nowhere. There’s not much info out there about this Canadian slasher, which actually helped create a sense mystery and terror to the narrative. The movie starts off not unlike The Howling, with a journalist…
Classic Vampires
The theme of the vampire is very popular for decades and is refreshed regularly or reinterpreted. With his latest album Dark Shadows also joins cult director Tim Burton in the ranks of the vampire film with one. In order to…
Dragon Wasps
Typically wasps are known for their stingers. Stingers look to be the least of your worries here what with these dragon wasps earning their namesake with their ability to project fire like flying flamethrowers. Mr. Syfy Corin Nemec stars in…
Ghost Rider
Ghost Rider, a character invented in the early 1970s, is, I think we can all agree, really cool-looking, but that’s about where the logic of his invention ends. Why not have a leather-clad biker, with a flaming skull for a…