(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)"(Literal translation: The Underground Chamber) It’s hard to believe this is a children’s film. I mean, look at the beginning of this film: darkness, and a deep, resonant surge of sound, glimpses of the mechanism of a Planetarium, alternating with a steady beeping and elegant Bengali script against blackness. In the heart of it all, […]
Read more "Patalghar (2003)"Let’s see: We’ve got a fun time travel story, complete with a brilliant scientist, a twisty time-spanning plot, a good looking guy, a cute girl, an evil twin brother (complete with evil twin brother beard), and an actor playing three parts. And if I point out that it also includes three big production song numbers […]
Read more "24 (2016)"Look, there is a basic rule every filmmaker trying to make a drug culture film should follow: Don’t make it while you are high. There are a lot of things — an incredible, almost unimaginable number of things — which may seem like a great idea when you are stoned that just don’t work once […]
Read more "Brainblast (1987)"You have to admire Christopher R. Mihm’s willingness to take his home-based film industry — making homages to some of the greatest B-Movies ever made — into strange and previously unexplored territory. I mean, who ever heard of a retro Fifties Monster Movie stage musical? In fact, Chris, with a bit of help from lyricist […]
Read more "The Monster of Phantom Lake: The Musical! (2017)"[Spoilers Ahead!] Happy Feet…A science fiction film? Don’t be silly. However, it is an unacknowledged remake of a classic Science Fiction film from the Seventies. Or of one of many other, basically similar science fiction films about alien encounters. Okay, you’ve see animated films before so you know the sort of thing: a kid who […]
Read more "Happy Feet (2006)"Honorable Mention (…Well, part of it is science fiction. If you squint hard enough.) The same year that Ghostbusters came out, Bill Murray and Dan Ackroyd appeared in a comedy written and directed by one of the best writers from Saturday Night Live, Tom Schiller, in his feature film debut. But you’ve never seen it. […]
Read more "Nothing Lasts Forever (1984)"
rivets on the poster 