I’m not even sure where to begin with this one. I suppose it would help if I pointed out that Professor Kleks first appeared in a classic Polish children’s book back in the Forties. The author, Jan Brzechwa wrote three books about the character, and, in the Eighties, they actually filmed three movies about Professor […]
Read more "Pan Kleks w kosmosie [Mr. Blob in the Universe] (1988)"Recently, I’ve reviewed two movies by one of my favorites of the younger generation of Japanese anime directors, Mamoru Hosada. So it seems inevitable that I would also catch up with a film by yet another talented young Anime director, one of the best of the group often referred to as “the next Miyazaki” — […]
Read more "Ai no utagoe o kikasete [Sing a Bit of Harmony] (2021)"(literal title: The Dragon and the Freckle Princess) Mamoru Hosada is perhaps the best of that generation of young anime directors who have all been called “the next Miyazaki.” Although, to be fair, I still prefer his early films, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars to anything he’s made since. He first started […]
Read more "Ryû to sobakasu no hime [Belle] (2021)"Curiouser and curiouser. This was my third early Sixties Italian science fiction film for the weekend. And, by far, the oddest. Even for the early Sixties. Now there are still a few little-known science fiction movies from the age before Lucas lurking out there which I haven’t seen yet. But it isn’t always easy to […]
Read more "La poupée [The Doll] (1962)"There is bad, and then there is epically bad. And then there’s Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. Look, there just aren’t enough words out there to convey how dreadful this thing is. Although “Sammy Petrillo” would be a good start. He and the official star of this film, Duke Mitchell, were the nightclub act you […]
Read more "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952)"(Literal Title: 28 1/2 Delusional Giant) I never thought I would see this film. I suppose I could blame Mamoru Oshii for this: after all, his rather strange career has gone in a lot of very odd directions since he made the films which are hailed as his big classics: The Ghost in the Shell […]
Read more "28 1/2 mousou no kyojin [28 1/2] (2010)"(Literal translation: The Flying Saucers) Honorable Mention I’ll confess that Mexican cinema is one of those areas I haven’t spent much time exploring. Which, of course, means that I keep finding a few interesting films to watch. Heck, some of them, like El monstruo resucitado [Monster](1953), are quite good. Fortunately, I don’t have to do all […]
Read more "Los platillos voladores (1956)"(aka, Phoenix 2772, Phoenix 2772: The Cosmic Zone of Love. Literal translation: Phoenix 2772: Space Creature) Osamu Tezuka. It’s really hard to grasp Tezuka’s place within the Anime and Manga world. Perhaps the best comparison might be to Walt Disney, although that really doesn’t quite cover it either. Yes, his Astroboy series — and the […]
Read more "Hi no tori 2772: Ai no kosumozôn [Space Firebird 2772] (1980)"The weird thing is that, if I told you that Hammer made an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic story, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” in 1959, most of you would assume that it was a lesser-known horror film from the start of their horror cycle. Although, if you look at their three, completely unrelated […]
Read more "The Ugly Duckling (1959)"“The media said there was nothing falling from the sky. But everyone knew there was. “It was Boomtown, forty miles up and falling apart, piece by piece.” Something strange happened back in the Canada of the 1980s. I honestly don’t know what, but they produced a lot of very strange low budget films, most of which […]
Read more "Terminal City Ricochet (1990)"
rivets on the poster 