The Funhouse (1981)
This movie seems like it’s going to be a slasher, yet much like Eaten Alive, it exudes a level of real fear, sleaze and menace that few films reach. Yet it has a heart and joy to it that makes me love it. It’s also one of Becca’s favorite childhood films! We open on Amy (Elizabeth Berridge, Amadeus) […]
LEAGUE OF FORGOTTEN HEROES: Meteor Man (1993)
Between Hollywood Shuffle and his HBO specials, Robert Townsend was a major force in comedy in the 1980’s and 90’s. This early attempt at showing what an African-American superhero would be like is sorely overlooked. Jefferson Reed (Townsend, who also directed, produced and wrote the film) is a high school teacher who dreams of playing jazz, […]
Poltergeist (1982)
If a movie is a great film, does it matter who made it? I come from advertising, where it’s hard at best to figure our credit and uncouth to loudly demand it. So the controversy about this film — whether Spielberg or Hooper directed it — doesn’t really matter to me Because the important thing […]
LEAGUE OF FORGOTTEN HEROES: The Shadow (1994)
After Tim Burton’s Batman, producers scrambled to get a comic book movie — any comic book movie — up on the screen. So why not the hero who directly inspired the Caped Crusader (Batman’s first appearance in Detective Comics #27 is a tale that’s directly influenced by The Shadow story “Partners of Peril”)? The trouble is […]
MESSED UP AND MUSICAL: Bugsy Malone (1976)
I often write about movies in the middle of the night, when the rest of the world is asleep. Sometimes, a movie will seem like a dream instead of something real. Imagine a musical gangster movie starring all child actors with music by Paul Williams. Yet, wonder of wonders, this movie actually was filmed. Sir […]
See you at the drive-in!
Rebecca and I will be at the drive-in all weekend! You should go! It’s at the Riverside Drive-In Theatre in Vandergrift, PA!
MESSED UP AND MUSICAL: The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001)
Becca hates this movie. When I asked her for her review, the words stupid, boring and dumb were used. I asked why and she replied, “It’s just horrible.” Me? I loved it. As Paula Abdul sang, “Opposites attract.” Also, much like that song, I hate cigarettes and Becca likes to smoke! All four generations of […]
MESSED UP AND MUSICAL: Streets of Fire (1984)
Streets of Fire is no ordinary movie. It is, as the poster promises, “a rock ‘n roll fable.” It also feels like it comes from a reality unlike our own, a place of perpetual night, thanks to a majority of the film being shot on two large sets that were covered in a tarp 1,240 feet […]
Still more self-promotion
MESSED UP AND MUSICAL: Rock and Rule (1984)
Nelvana was a Canadian animation powerhouse in the 1980’s, producing the Boba Fett cartoon in the Star Wars Holiday Special, Droids, Ewoks and even the live action Whoopi Goldberg movie Burglar. Along the way, Nelvana’s franchises have been shown on over 360 television stations in more 180 countries, in approximately 50 languages. But their first major film was Rock […]
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