Every week this summer, we’ll be taking an historical tour of the Hollywood blockbuster by examining an older film that is in some way a spiritual precursor to one of the weekend’s wide releases. This week: nothing says “desperately garish” like a dance movie sequel titled Step Up 3D. But isn’t that exactly what we […]
By every functional yardstick, Step Up 3D is a stupid movie. This is such an undeniable fact that the only debate worth having is on the precise modality of its stupidity: is it willfully stupid? criminally stupid? delightfully stupid? extravagantly stupid? Yes, yes, DEFINITELY YES, yes. Part of me – nor a small part – […]
From among the Video Nasties Along the sliding scale of cinematic viciousness, there are certain projects which have the tang of notoriety about them from an entirely conceptual perspective. You do not need to see a Nazi sexploitation flick, for example, to know that “Nazi sexploitation” probably describes a pretty sleazy, trashy affair (you would […]
Credit must be given to Alejandro Amenábar’s uncharacteristic and unexpected costume drama Agora for being rather more thoughtful than the average sword ‘n sandal epic. Thoughtful, you might say, to excess. If there’s one thing that’s eminently clear about the script that the director co-wrote with his regular collaborator Mateo Gil, it’s that the two […]
“These are the days of miracle and wonder” sang Paul Simon on the opening track of his 1986 album Graceland, and though he was talking about heart transplants and guerrilla warfare in Africa, his sentiment is truer today than ever before: we truly do live in an age of wonders. For who among us had […]
Every week this summer, we’ll be taking an historical tour of the Hollywood blockbuster by examining an older film that is in some way a spiritual precursor to one of the weekend’s wide releases. This week: the deeply unwarranted sequel Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore finds the hideous trend of live-action movies […]
Imagine that, at the age of eleven, you had starred in a motion picture, that in years since has been widely acclaimed and derided as one of the worst pictures ever put to film. This is the most important thing that you have ever done; so much so, in fact, that at the age of […]
From among the Video Nasties I couldn’t let a Summer of Blood go by without a single, solitary slasher movie, now could I? Though the Video Nasties list offers fewer of them than you might expect, given that it was the incredible popularity of the slasher film that led, at least partially, to the creation […]
