Category Archives: Movie Reviews
Films Better Left Remembered: Gorath
Gorath (1962) Spaceship JX-1 (the first manned flight to Saturn) is ordered to change course and intercept Gorath, a rouge star barreling through the galaxy, heading straight for a planet-shattering collision with the earth. Outfitted in white coveralls and helmets, the crew of JX-1 look more like contestants in a go-cart race than astronauts, but in Gorath’s future of the “80s,” these are the men with the right stuff. Continue reading
Filed under Cult, Japanese Monster Movie, Movie Reviews
The Spirit Movie
Frank Miller and Will Eisner were good friends, and there’s no doubt Miller had nothing but the best intentions when he made The Spirit movie. That said, he seems to have little or no faith in the source material. The humor, humanity, fun, and sheer joy of visual storytelling have all been stripped away. Miller, in a desperate attempt to give The Spirit a kind of “edge cred,” has retrofitted the comic with an ill-fitting contemporary “attitude,” pumped it up with exaggerated, over-the-top action, and injected it with a terminal dose of “irony” steroids.
Continue reading
Filed under Movie Reviews
The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe (1942)
Ever wonder what two great writers like Poe and Charles Dickens would talk about if they met? Well The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe finally answers that question. They’d talk about copyright law, of course! Continue reading
Filed under Movie Reviews
The MGM Dogville Shorts
Produced at the dawn of the sound era, the Dogville films, through their very existence, reflect the insatiable appetite filmgoers at the time had for talking pictures. That’s clear enough from the films’ tagline, “All Barkies” (a play on the era’s ubiquitous “All Talkie” promotional slogan). Ironically, these shorts are, in one way, actually more watchable than many of the features of the day as the “actors” voices, and all other sounds, were dubbed, freeing the four-footed thespians from the movement restrictions that sound enforced on their two-legged contemporaries. They fly airplanes, drive cars, fight wars, go to nightclubs…all with a freedom of movement human actors on film had to wait years for. Continue reading
Filed under Cult, Movie Reviews, Podcast companion piece
Curse of the Faceless Man (Plus Audio Review of The Lost Missile)
A mummy movie is never a good idea. Why? Because the only way to make the mummy a credible threat is by having it lumber after women who appear to suffer from some kind of inner-ear disorder. Incapable of sustained equilibrium, these women always stumble and fall for no apparent reason as they run in a blind panic, even when a brisk walk could easily out distance their bandaged assailant.
It’s not enough that the “faceless man” of the title is ancient and slow and wrapped in bandages–no, this particular mummy is also made of stone! This not only makes it the slowest mummy in film history, but for the first half of the film, even when the Faceless Man does manage to move, he is only capable of sustained, modest activity for minutes at a time.
Not every effort can be a home run, but this isn’t even a bunt.
In any case, Curse of the Faceless Man remains a cautionary tale for anyone who might consider making a mummy movie. The lesson? Don’t. That’s all there is to it: don’t.
Filed under Cult, Movie Reviews
Spaceflight IC-1
Unpublished Playboy interview with Stanley Kubrick/Bernard Knowles.
Interview by Anonymous.
Early in 1968, Playboy magazine contacted me about the possibility of interviewing Stanley Kubrick. It was an offer I eagerly accepted. 2001: A Space Odyssey had just opened, and critics, whether they loved the film or hated it, were united on one point: nothing like it had ever been see on a movie screen before.
But was that really true? Continue reading
Filed under Cult, Movie Reviews
Holiday (audio review) Plus Backstory: Gertrude Sanford Legendre
Back in my years as a teenaged Cinema Misfit, I gobbled up any film that was made in the 1930s…romances, musicals, screwball comedies, gangster movies, even Paul Muni films…I saw and loved them all. Now, as I move into the sunset of my life (or at least the mid-afternoon), my ardor for some of these flicks may have waned a bit (I’m looking at you, “Bringing Up Baby”), but “Holiday” has always retained a hold on my heart. Continue reading
Filed under Movie Reviews
Classic Silent Comedy: Never Weaken
What about Harold Lloyd’s character in Never Weaken (who is mildly criminal, suicidal, and cowardly) makes him a silent comedy hero? While he doesn’t evoke the sympathy felt for Chaplin’s tramp, or demonstrate the amazing athletic abilities of a stone faced Keaton, Lloyd still possesses the one quality that a silent comedian must have if he’s to become a hero: he challenges the status quo in some way (even if it’s inadvertently, completely by mistake) and upsets the apple cart of daily routine. Make no mistake about it. Never Weaken isn’t about anything but being funny. It has a single, burning question at it’s center: how many jokes can be crammed into a single 40 minute film? Still, like all good silent comedies, Never Weaken can’t help but also reveal a world of unlimited possibilities, surprises, and laughter. Continue reading
Filed under Movie Reviews, Silent film
X-Files: I Want to Believe
If you’re expecting government cover-ups, ETs, implants, and alien hybrids–you know, X-Files kind of stuff–this might not be the movie for you. Continue reading
Filed under Movie Reviews
Deserves a Look: “I Promise to Pay”
I Promise to Pay (Columbia, 1937) tells the story of a low-level office clerk, Eddie Lang (Chester Morris), who wants nothing more than to be able to finance a one-week vacation for his wife, Mary (Helen Mack) and their two children. To do so, he succumbs to the lure of easy money from an illegal loan shark (Leo Carrillo). When he is unable to pay back the loan immediately and is forced to contend with the 1,000 % yearly interest rate, he falls victim to a myriad of nasty thugs who threaten him and his family with bodily harm, kidnapping, and death. A fast-paced, surprisingly stark depiction of the Depression era bolstered by winning performances, especially that of Leo Carrillo’s creepy yet compelling depiction of a ruthless, egomaniacal crime boss. Continue reading
Filed under Deserves a Look, Movie Reviews
Jim Rutherford
Nancy Louise Rutherford
Lou Aguilar
The Misfits
