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
CJ Holden on Avatar: Fire and Ash: “Dude, I LOVE the old Harryhausen fantasy flicks, but let’s be honest, Christopher Nolan is the kind of filmmaker who…” Dec 27, 05:18
Skani on Avatar: Fire and Ash: “Nolan is one that exists in that gray zone, where I can’t always be sure how much of my resistance…” Dec 27, 04:55
KayKay on Avatar: Fire and Ash: “Hehehe… as our patron saint of barroom philosophy and Ace Cooler Dalton once grunted: Opinions vary. Mine? I’m downright stoked…” Dec 27, 04:14
Curt on Alphabet City: “RIP Amos Poe. The films of his I’ve watched so far include THE BLANK GENERATION (essential), THE FOREIGNER (which I…” Dec 26, 18:45
CJ Holden on Trancers: “Likewise. Don’t think I ever heard anything bad about her personally, but she is sadly someone who started out in…” Dec 26, 09:16
Dreadguacamole on Trancers: “CJ – I’m not much of a TV person, so all I had to be judgemental about was her post-TRANCERS…” Dec 26, 09:02
CJ Holden on Avatar: Fire and Ash: “Eh, I liked the first two AVATARs a lot, but the last Nolan joint that I actually enjoyed was THE…” Dec 26, 09:00
KayKay on Avatar: Fire and Ash: “CJ, unless you’re into paying premium prices for cinematic Ambien, skip this dud. Pocket your cash and wait for Nolan’s…” Dec 26, 07:47
CJ Holden on Avatar: Fire and Ash: “You guys, 22€ to see the movie in IMAX 3D HFR? And that’s just the cheapest seat! I feel like…” Dec 26, 02:13
Skani on Avatar: Fire and Ash: “I find myself in the same position as Adam and Chuck*, where almost the only thing I have to say…” Dec 25, 20:46
KayKay on Avatar: Fire and Ash: “I will admit Walter Chaw’s outrage can overwhelm his obvious talents as a film critic sometimes, but the man does…” Dec 25, 18:45
Chuck on Avatar: Fire and Ash: “I am glad the people who like these movies can enjoy them. They are aggressively not my thing. Don’t even…” Dec 25, 17:37
Skani on Worm on a Hook: “Season’s greetings, Vern and Denizens of Verlandia! About two weeks ago, tragedy struck our household. I set down my eight-year-old…” Dec 25, 09:37
VERN on Avatar: Fire and Ash: “Well, he also co-directed a 3D concert film with Billy Eilish.” Dec 25, 09:00