Month: May 2022
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Starring debuts #17: Gene Wilder in The Producers (1967)
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Read more: Starring debuts #17: Gene Wilder in The Producers (1967)Comedians often suck when they try their luck on the big screen. They might be established stand-ups able to sell out 3,000-seater venues or a much-loved part of Saturday Night Live, but something invariably starts to stink during their feature-length stuff. To be fair, it’s very difficult for any performer to make consistently funny flicks.…
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The Shawshank Redemption
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Read more: The Shawshank RedemptionI despise Stephen King, his novella of Rita Hayworth, and The Shawshank Redemption. It was an un-readable blot of blueberry mustard smeared on a Maine tourist map from 1973. Why ’73? Well, that’s the last year of Maine’s state pride as it is the last year it WOULD NOT be associated with this human cowlick…
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Hold The Dark
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Read more: Hold The DarkWith Hold the Dark, Jeremy Saulnier’s third such endeavor and fourth feature, the director’s reputation as a state-hopping connoisseur of America’s backwoods is well and truly confirmed. A reputation not so much for achievement as inclination; mainly an infatuation with subcultures situated at the peripheries of mainstream society. His penchant for uncompromising and violent depictions…
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Imaginative Bursts of Sadism
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Read more: Imaginative Bursts of SadismDo you ever do that thing, perhaps while life hasn’t been treating you too brilliantly, when you start reading up on sicko Nazi and serial killer shit? You don’t mean to (perhaps you’ve got a spare half-hour between charity commitments) but somehow you’re disappearing into the bowels of the internet consuming blood-drenched pages about medieval…
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Escape From Alcatraz (1975)
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Read more: Escape From Alcatraz (1975)We have discussed this many times, the separation of the actor from the person and the person’s politics and religion. In the movie review world, except for rare occasions like the aging Queen Rex Reed, an actor or director’s greatness overwhelms whatever personal shenanigans that he or she might harbor in real life. Nevertheless, Clint…
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The Amusingly Bonkers: Part Two
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Read more: The Amusingly Bonkers: Part TwoSwitchblade Sisters AKA The Jezebels (1975) Normally if a movie contains knife fights, rape, pimping, drug dealing, nudity and shootings, you can safely assume it’s a drama. Not Switchblade. It’s pure comedy from start to finish. It’s so OTT there’s not one ounce of dramatic tension to be found, but wander into its overheated, estrogen-fuelled…
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I Went With What the French Call: les apeshit
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Read more: I Went With What the French Call: les apeshitExcuse me, you say, Oh sagacious and inerrant Mr. Cobb–however do they market our movies overseas? One word: Badly. –So it’s just a direct translation, then? Two words: You wish. Or, as they would translate that sentiment in Malaysia: Of Terrible Consequence to Original Things Super-Duper High-Five. “They called this movie ‘Little Jew I Want…
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The Amusingly Bonkers: Part One
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Read more: The Amusingly Bonkers: Part OneThere are plenty of people who take enormous pleasure in hooting through terrible movies. The so-bad-it’s-good crowd. Fair enough. I must admit I enjoy The Exorcist’s craptastic sequel, a flick that regularly ends up on lists of the worst ever made. I also heartily respond to the mammalian madness of Orca: The Killer Whale, a…
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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
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Read more: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” – It’s not complicated. We’ve seen the multiverse coming to the MCU for quite a while. It all started when the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) taught us about the multiverse in Doctor Strange. We get another glimpse of it in Avengers Endgame, when the Ancient One explained to…
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Brazil (1985)
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Read more: Brazil (1985)80% of people claim to have read 1984 while only 16% have actually done so, and 78% of people who’ve seen Brazil claim to have understood its parody of 1984. While we have no data on how many are telling the truth, it’s safe to surmise that 14% made the connection. Like 1984 the world…