Posted in: Brain Blasters, News and Opinions by David Annandale on July 28th, 2006
Let us sing a hymn in praise of bad movies. Not ordinarily bad, of course. There is very little joy to be had in anything touched by Martin Lawrence. No, the crap that brings warmth to the heart of the badfilm fan can be the B-movie so inept that the set falls down. But there is also the big-budget, A-lit pic that pulls a Hindenburg, and those are to be treasured as well.
I have this latter type of badfilm in mind because I saw Lady in the Water over the weekend. Now, I cannot recommend this film if ...
Posted in: Brain Blasters, News and Opinions by David Annandale on July 21st, 2006
In our last thrilling episode, I talked about Vampyres as being one of the pinnacles of European erotic horror. I felt that I couldn’t very leave the topic without saying a few words about the man whose lengthy career has largely been built around this form: Jesús (Jess) Franco. Cult movie connoisseurs will already be very familiar with him, and should feel free to stop reading now. For the rest of you, consider this a brief, guarded, introduction.
The word “prolific” hardly begins to describe Franco...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 18th, 2006
New from Sony Home Entertainment comes the complete series of Jim Henson's The Storyteller starring Mr. Elephant Man himself, John Hurt, and a slew of eye-popping creations from Jim Henson's Creature Shop. The series focuses on classic folk tales, fables, and legends, including "Fearnot," "The Heartless Giant," "The Three Ravens," and six other wonderful family-friendly tales on one disc. Also provided as part of the set is an additional disc entitled Greek Myths, which provides even more Henson-esque entertainment with the following four tales:
Posted in: Brain Blasters, News and Opinions by David Annandale on July 15th, 2006
Let us consider the term “erotic horror.” This sub-genre doesn’t have a very strong tradition in North America, despite the best efforts of Seduction Cinema and Misty Mondae. I exempt the films of David Cronenberg from this consideration, as they are hardly designed with titillation in mind – they are much colder, analytical works, and the label once applied to them – “venereal horror” – is still more appropriate. No, there just hasn’t been that much on this side of the pond, relatively speaking. Perhaps in its stead...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 11th, 2006
Gregory Peck plays Francis Chisholm. After losing his parents as a young boy, and then his sweetheart (to moral turpitude, it seems), Francis enters the priesthood. His unorthodox ways make him a failure initially, but kindly bishop and mentor Edmund Gwenn sees potential in the man, and sends him off to China to be a missionary. There too, things get off to a rocky start, but a turnaround happens when he saves the son of a local mandarin. His struggles are far from over, but through it all, he remains a triumphantly decent man.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 10th, 2006
Career criminal Ray Milland shows up at the ranch of Korean vet Anthony Quinn, looking for his old flame, Debra Paget. She is now married to Quinn, but she hasn't adapted well to country life, still carries a torch for Milland, and is in the very process of leaving Quinn. She and Milland rekindle their romance, and are planning to leave town with the million dollars Milland has just scored. When Milland runs over a state trooper, he forces Quinn to guide them through the wilderness to the Mexican border. A struggle for both survival and Paget's love ensues.
Posted in: Brain Blasters, News and Opinions by David Annandale on July 7th, 2006
It lurks behind a poster whose taglines are deliciously over the top, arguably meaningless, grammatically dubious, and utterly misleading: “BEHIND THIS MEMBRANE... you will be driven to a point... midway between LIFE and DEATH!” (?!?!) Further: “The only people who will not be STERILIZED with FEAR are those among you who are already DEAD!” Now, there have been many films to promise/threaten heart attacks/strokes/what-have-you in their ad campaigns, but The Flesh Eaters (1962) is, to my knowledge, the on...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 7th, 2006
Tyrone Power has been plying his trade as a pirate in the waters near Jamaica. When his former captain becomes the governor of Jamaica, Power goes straight. He has his eye on Maureen O'Hara, who is engaged to a duplicitous aristocrat who is feeding information to unreformed pirate George Sanders (utterly unrecognizable in shaggy red hair and beard). There will be many complications before Power can claim the resisting O'Hara as his own.Compared to the Errol Flynn pirate movies Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk, this one is a bit light on the action, really only getting down to the buckling of swashes in the final act.
Posted in: Brain Blasters, News and Opinions by David Annandale on June 30th, 2006
Herewith begin my weekly musings on the field of cult movies. As an opener, it would probably behoove me to define exactly what is meant by a “cult movie.” I’m going to be a bit disingenuous here, and provide a definition arguably so nebulous that some might consider it useless. That’s fine. There have been many attempts at this sort of definition, and most founder on specifics once one moves much beyond the “I know one when I see one” type of description often applied to porn. That said, here goes. Generally speakin...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 18th, 2006
Carla (Yuliya Myarchuk) is a Venetian in London, looking for a flat in which she and her boyfriend Matteo can live once he actually arrives there. In the meantime, she has been in London for a month, and he is in Rome, pining for her. Both of them are getting a bit sexually frustrated, but Carla works that issue out with a series of affairs, and for some reason, Matteo seems to have a problem with this.We are once again in the of Tinto Brass' ass-worship and cheerful infedelity. The tone is established by Carla's opening credit stroll through Hyde Park (a walk which Matteo will recreate later to transformative effect), which is depicted as a carnal wonderland.
