The spaghetti western Navajo Joe is an unusual entry in this genre. It isn’t because the lead actor is American – there were plenty of spaghetti westerns made with American actors. What’s unusual about it is that it’s one of the few spaghetti westerns that has a Native American character in it. That fact was enough to intrigue me enough to watch it, as well as the fact that Burt Reynolds has called this movie the worst of his career. Worse than the movies he’s made with Albert Pyun and Uwe Boll? Read the review and find out.
That’s right, George Lucas’ first feature film, an expansion of an experiment short from his film school days, has never before graced my eyes. That’s okay; it’s with a seasoned bearing that I can look at the output of the 24-year-old Lucas and harrumph at all the thinly-veiled adolescence present in THX 1138 (1970).
Bees, and the knees thereof.
Not just the first official American release of Mothra on DVD, but Battle in Outer Space and H-Man as bonuses, all for under $20 (at most vendors). Commentaries, etc.
The only complaint is that Sony seems to like that design now where they mount several discs on a single, elongated spindle. This makes getting one movie out a pain, and increases the likelihood of scratches and such. Still, a pretty fab deal nonetheless.
I think that means that pretty much all the classic Toho dai kaijus are now available here.
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In a fabulous piece of news, on 20th October Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will be releasing The William Castle Film Collection. The set will contain The Tingler, 13 Ghosts, Homicidal, Mr Sardonicus, Strait-Jacket, Zotz!, The Old Dark House and 13 Frightened Girls – as well as the documentary Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story. There will be mountains of bonus material, including two episodes of the Castle-produced TV series Ghost Story.
In more great news, the latest additions to the Warner Archive Collection (an infuriating way of doing it, but least they are doing it) include The Terminal Man (hello-oo-oo, Michael Crichton!), Razorback, the Hammer version of She, From Hell It Came (oh, yeah!), and – YES, YES, YES!!!! – Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark!!!! Quick, everyone! – run out and buy it now, before they release the remake and rape all our childhoods!!
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Who let the dinosaurs out?
Aug 17
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Yes, it’s true: until now, I had never seen Jurassic Park. Somehow, the combination of later-career Spielberg with later-career Crichton was always a bit too much for me. Then, too, I was afraid that the film’s science might provoke me into one of my Dull Thudding Rants.
Yes. Well.
However, on the bright side…the dinosaurs are frickin’ awesome.
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Hey, who broke things?
Aug 12
While I was on vacation, one of y’all hit a baseball through the window of the Cabal clubhouse and broke something; on the front page, the sidebar loads beneath the main content instead of beside it. Better ‘fess up if you want your ball back.
Update: Fixed it. HTML, it’s so delicate at times…
In the meantime, you can thrill to the action as tough guy George Raft walks all over London in I’ll Get You (1952). No, that’s not all he does, silly. Sometimes he takes a cab.
I'm so embarrassed…
Aug 6
Thanks to this latest roundtable, it is with some embarrassment that I have to admit that I had not seen Son Of Frankenstein until just recently, despite it starring Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, and Bela Lugosi. It’s with further embarrassment that I admit that I have not seen that many classic horror movies from Universal Studios. And it’s with even further embarrassment that I must admit that until recent years, I hadn’t watched that many older films. For my long and tortured explanations for all of the above, read the review.
Thanks. I needed that.
Aug 5
Gingerdead Man 2: Passion of the Crust (2008) barely spends any time with the murderous cookie because it’s too busy delivering a cutting send-up of a waning B-movie studio that cranks out killer doll movies. It’s like a valentine to me!
[Auto-posting this while still on vacation. But that’s okay, the Hieratic Head is too!]
Zero Hour!
Aug 3
I saw Airplane! over the weekend, and so decided to finally take a look at the film that inspired it, Zero Hour! I’m sure Liz is working up a complete review of this flick for her series on disaster movies, so this is a quick glance mostly contrasting the original film with its comedic remake.
Teleport City’s Man in Australia weighs in:
STONE
The thing with Stone that makes it so important is if you pull apart the elements that make up this film, you can see it’s cinematic progeny throughout the next twenty years (or more) of Australian film production. If you look at the bikie and road element, you can see the direct influence in films such as Mad Max, The Road Warrior and The Chain Reaction (AKA: Nuclear Run). Which in turn spun off into films like Turkey Shoot (AKA: Blood Camp Thatcher / Escape 2000), Deadend Drive-In (AKA: Dead End), and Salute of The Jugger (Blood of Heroes). If you look at the crime element, which granted, isn’t really expanded upon in Stone, but it’s the beginning of a trend in Australian cinema, you can see the offshoots in films such as Ghosts of the Civil Dead, Stir, Fortress, and even Chopper. And I don’t think it is such a huge leap to compare Stone with Nick Cave / John Hillcoat’s Kangaroo Western, The Proposition – the primary difference being (apart from The Proposition being a historical piece) is that in Stone the central unit is a motorcycle club, whereas in The Proposition it is about family. But both feature main characters that have to go in ‘undercover’ into a disenfranchised community and solve a problem. And that’s just the influence in Australia. This is not the time for a discussion about violent post-apocalyptic Italian barbarian films!!!