Jaws (1975)
I never consider what I write here to be reviews. They’re more celebrations and my thoughts on films. Most criticism is abhorrent to me — how dare someone who created nothing tear down the work of hundreds of artists, all following the call of the auteur — when they are simply throwing a few words on […]
Uncle Sam (1996)
How does Jason discover his hockey mask? When does Freddy find his glove? And how soon can we get a cadaver dressed up as the personification of the American government? He stole it from Shelly Finkelstein. He made it himself in his boiler room. And around 39 minutes of so, give or take, in 1996’s Uncle Sam. […]
Phantom of the Mall (1989)
Before this whole internet thing and social media and everyone connected to a screen all the time era that we live in now, teenagers used to gather at a place called “the mall.” It contained everything they needed — a movie theater showing the latest entertainment, a place to buy media like audio cassettes and […]
Prophecy (1979)
In the biography of his life, director John Frankenheimer said that his alcohol problem had gotten so out of hand, he started to do work below his own standards. The movie that the director of The Manchurian Candidate, Black Sunday (the one with the blimp, not the one with the magical eyes and evil of […]
Meteor (1979)
How do movies get inspired? Sometimes, they come to us whole cloth. Other times, they’re inspired by a book, a comic or an old TV show. And in other occasions, they’re based on crazy theories, like 2004’s The Day After Tomorrow taking a cue from the speculative science tome The Coming Global Superstorm by Art […]
Batman and Robin (1997)
It’s hard to find a movie as critically reviled and universally despised as Batman and Robin. But I was going into this with an open mind. I hadn’t seen the film in twenty years, since seeing it on opening night. I must have blocked the film out of my mind with some PTSD-like fight or flight […]
Bad Dreams (1988)
Everyone likes to proclaim that the world is so much worse today than it ever has been. If you feel that way and weren’t alive for the 1970s, allow me to debase you of this notion. The “Me Decade” was full of random violence, the fuel crisis, Three Mile Island, Watergate, Son of Sam, the […]
A whole bunch of Alien rip-offs all at once!
If I had all the time in the world, I’d write up more detailed essays on some of the films that Alien inspired. That said — I’d be upset at myself were I to not inform you, dear reader, of these homages. Or ripoffs. You can say ripoffs, if you wish. Inseminoid (1981) This British/Hong Kong film was […]
Forbidden World (1982)
A week of only watching Alien ripoffs? Sure. Sign me up. Along the way, I’ve got to explore some old favorites, unearth some dusty TV movie affairs and learned of the existence of 1982’s Forbidden World, another Roger Corman produced effort that uses Galaxy of Terror’s sets and Battle Beyond the Stars’ special effects. Director Allan Holzman (Emmy winning director/editor of Steven […]
Xtro (1982)
Alien is a haunted house movie in space that has begat a slew of imitators, copycats and outright rip-offs. 1982’s Xtro, on the other hand, is truly a movie that has something for everyone, if everyone includes folks who want to see movie about a father reconnecting with his son, as well as a film where Maryam […]
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