I don’t know why I never got around to seeing the THE CROW sequel from the director of SIX-STRING SAMURAI. Always was curious. Still took me 19 years. Lance Mungia’s THE CROW: WICKED PRAYER, just like the previous one, was meant for theaters, but I think it only played somewhere around here? Wiki(dprayer)pedia says its theatrical run was only in Seattle and only for one week, and I do remember seeing an ad for it and being confused, but I was thinking it was in Eastern Washington. Anyway, I didn’t go.
URBAN LEGEND (1998) is, to my mind, one of the most “obviously we’re making this because of the success of SCREAM” horror movies that exists. It’s another young-people-whodunit-slasher, with a similarly constituted cast of pretty young movie and TV stars, but instead of killings inspired by horror movie tropes, these ones are based on popular urban myths. At the time I think I took it as dumb but pretty enjoyable, which is also how I feel about it now, and about many non-classic slasher movies. Like most of them it benefits from age – it’s a time capsule now rather than the latest the genre has to offer, so we have different expectations for it. (read the rest of this shit…)
A RETURN TO SALEM’S LOT is Larry Cohen’s weirdo theatrically-released sort-of-sequel to Tobe Hooper’s TV mini-series of the Stephen King book. But really it just takes the location – the tiny town of Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine – and the idea of doing a vampire story there. It’s not the same vampire or the same type of vampire. It doesn’t connect, from what I remember. But I like that.
Joe Weber (Cohen’s muse Michael Moriarty) is an anthropologist working on a CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST type documentary when he finds he has to come home to look after his troublemaking teenage son Jeremy (one-time actor Ricky Addison Reed, who IMDb claims was cast to play Robin in Tim Burton’s BATMAN in scenes that were never filmed). Joe brings his son to the old, recently-inherited fixer-upper in his birth-town of Salem’s Lot (as some but not all abbreviate it). (read the rest of this shit…)
Before Riverdale, before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, before Christopher Nolan Batman, before 9-11 even, there was a different type of comic book movie: JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS. Inspired by the Archie comic book and Hanna-Barbera cartoon, writer/directors Harry Elfont & Deborah Kaplan told a goofy version of the little-rock-‘n-roll-band-tested-by-overnight-superstardom story.
Actually maybe we should forget about comics and consider this timeline: it was a year before American Idol started. The Spice Girls had packed it up the year before. NSYNC and Backstreet Boys were still popular. The movie seems to offer the Pussycats as a refreshing alternative for teenage girls to obsess over instead of boy bands, but it should be noted that Destiny’s Child, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Lopez, Janet Jackson, Brandy, Madonna, Mary J. Blige, Pink, and Aaliyah (plus Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson) all had hits that year. But I guess the Pussycats do stand out by playing instruments. Their songs are kind of sassy pop punk, not good in my opinion but not as intolerable as some in-movie music. (read the rest of this shit…)
From the director of PUNISHER #2 and the star of PUNISHER #3 comes a solid, entertaining period gangster movie. It’s a biopic of Danny Greene, an Irish American union president, gang enforcer and dodger of car bombs in Cleveland, Ohio circa early ’60s through late ’70s. If it had been done as two separate movies maybe it would’ve got an arthouse release and some critical respect, but they did it as one so it was barely released by Anchor Bay and nobody ever heard of it. (read the rest of this shit…)
What this movie is about is pie fucking. There is a kid who fucks a pie in it. There is also a guy who fucks a grapefruit apparently but you don’t see that. But this guy fucks a pie.
The version I saw is the unrated DVD, which I guess has extra pie fucking footage. in the original apparently it was a standing up with the pie position, wheras here it is a missionary position with the kid mounting the pie. The cover of the unrated DVD shows all the young gals on the cover but don’t be fooled, none of them do any pie fucking in the movie, it is only this one guy. (read the rest of this shit…)
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Recent commentary and jibber-jabber
VERN on Jackie Brown: “I awarded it “Best Picture – Comedy, Musical or Badass” in the 1999 Outlaw Awards, but I don’t believe I…” Oct 25, 00:10
Inspector Hammer Boudreaux on Other: “In one of those odd coincidences where two movies in the same year have a similar concept, GOOD BOY is…” Oct 24, 10:10
Bill Reed on Bring Her Back: “SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS FOR REAL, SPOILERS Agreed with you on the ending, Skani. After all the pre-meditated, manipulative, and horrible…” Oct 24, 06:26
Skani on Bring Her Back: “SOME SPOILERS Everything I read told me that this movie was all wrong for me, but I watched it anyway,…” Oct 23, 20:04
M. Casey on Jackie Brown: “Yeah, this is a great one, I’ve been meaning to see it again and need to get around to it.…” Oct 23, 19:07
Mr. Majestyk on Other: “I thought the face thing was going to be a twist where everybody else has a disgusting monster face, indicating…” Oct 23, 15:40
BuzzFeedAldrin on Bring Her Back: “I did enjoy this, though not as much as Talk to the Hand mainly because I don’t enjoy characters in…” Oct 22, 08:40
Dreadguacamole on Bring Her Back: “There’s been other horror movies I enjoyed more this year, but put me against the wall and I’d say this…” Oct 22, 06:32
Skani on Black Phone 2: “Agreeing with the consensus on this one. I liked it. I though Bichir was the standout. I really like this…” Oct 21, 20:45
Ben C. on One Battle After Another: “I wish I was in the “movie of the year” camp on this one – there was a lot about…” Oct 21, 15:05
MaggieMayPie on Bring Her Back: “Bill – “What is in the water down under? (Oh, right, it’s spiders.)” startled a literal lol out of me.” Oct 21, 14:51
emteem on I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025): “A few random thoughts I had while reading the review of a movie I haven’t seen yet. 1. My wife…” Oct 21, 13:23
Bill Reed on Bring Her Back: “For me, this was the most uncomfortable horror movie since HEREDITARY. It’s not as fucked-up as that one, but it…” Oct 21, 12:53
Sarah Stegall on High Plains Drifter: “One explanation for the rape scene is that it’s a test of the town. Everyone knows what’s happening, and they…” Oct 21, 10:49