Osamu Tezuka is probably as close to Walt Disney as anyone in Japan will ever be. He started out by redefining Manga and then jumpstarted the Japanese anime market with Astroboy. In his early work, he told surprisingly dark stories for younger readers featuring a running cast of familiar characters, but later moved to more […]
Read more "Fumoon (1980)"Look, it’s a question of time and place. When a mysterious boy who seems to be from the future or another reality appears suddenly in England’s West Country and says he is looking for a mysterious intersection of all the lines of power called “the Juganet,” I instantly guessed what it was. After all, I’ve […]
Read more "Sky (1975)"(Literal title: Bend it! Spoon) This is an absolutely incredible film. You need to see it. Unfortunately, none of you are likely to be happy with a bare statement like that, so we’ll have to go into a bit more detail. One of my favorite Japanese comedies is Summer Time Machine Blues, a beautifully minimal […]
Read more "Magare! Supûn [Go Find a Psychic!] (2009)"This one starts so well. I know, I’ve said that before, and it’s usually a prelude to telling you that, despite a promising beginning, things do not go well by the time the movie is done. Which, yes, is the case here, although it isn’t exactly a bad film. It’s just not the film it […]
Read more "Yesterday’s Target (1996)"There is nothing I can think of which more clearly shows just how widely accepted flying saucers had become by the 1970s than this film: a children’s film featuring benevolent aliens. Of course it is a very Disney-fied take on UFOs, one which has a lot in common with the sort of films Disney was […]
Read more "Escape to Witch Mountain (1975)"Mark’s 1000th Review! Help him celebrate by adding your comments and felicitations below! And by all means, settle back with your favorite vintage Soviet popcorn and watch one of his all time favorite Science Fiction films — And yes, one of the all-time best, as well! Ku! An ordinary Muscovite, is on his way to […]
Read more "Kin-dza-dza! (1986)"It goes something like this: The science teacher at an exclusive girls’ school has made an important discovery, one that the scientific establishment refuses to credit, a discovery that could power the world and make all weapons obsolete. Now, if you haven’t guessed, this all has to do with the power of the mind, although, […]
Read more "Blood of Dracula (1957)"There are some films out there that are so curious it is hard to know what to think of them. Somehow, it seems like a lot of them ended up on video back in the Eighties. Music of the Spheres was one of those films funded by the Canadian government. They used to fund lots […]
Read more "Music of the Spheres (1984)"This was David Cronenberg’s first film and it is in many respects a dry run for Scanners. It is also seriously strange and arty. He got the Canadian government to give him a substantial grant to write a novel, but made this film instead. I really don’t know how they reacted, although I’m cynical enough to […]
Read more "Stereo (1969)"This was one of George Pal’s last SF films, and opinion is greatly divided on it. I am in the camp that thinks it is a minor classic. It was one of the first — or perhaps the first — of that now familiar subgenre, the paranoid thriller about rogue telepaths. One of the scientists […]
Read more "The Power (1968)"
rivets on the poster 