Two of Hollywood’s most beautiful stars at the time, Kevin Costner and Madeline Stowe, engage in an illicit affair in this Tony Scott directed film. The scorned husband of Stowe, Anthony Quinn, uncovers the truth and orchestrates an unremittingly grim beat down upon the two lovers. Shockingly violent and ugly, this is a movie plot conjured out of nightmares and grim fantasies. There are no hero saves the day moments in store, just a final, sickening realization within the main characters that maybe it would have been better to have just stayed the course and avoided the ruination of their lives that [More]
This updated retelling of “The Invisible Man” saga starts out promising enough. A scientist donates his living body to his experiment and ends up turning invisible. The trick is in finding a way to get him back to the plainly visible. As the experiment goes awry, there is a momentary feeling of desperation for the scientist’s plight. No solution seems to be forthcoming. But that is where the dread ends. Sanity fades and the scientist ends up going a little batty and begins to luxuriate in the mischief and misdeeds available to him if no one can see him. Before [More]
It is with a heavy heart that I comment on the passing of our very dear friend, Leonard Nimoy. Nimoy proved to be a man of many talents. Among his accomplishments were successful turns as actor, director, writer, singer, and photographer. We all best remember him for his iconic portrayal of the Vulcan First Officer aboard the starship Enterprise, Mr. Spock. The “Star Trek” role endeared him to fans and established his place as one of the most beloved fictional characters in the history of, well, the world! Nimoy’s work as psychologist Dr. David Kibner in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” is to me [More]
My favorite episode from the cinematic horror comic, “Creepshow”. This movie captured the flavor of horror comics infamously represented by the line put out by EC Comics in the 1940’s and 1950’s. There are flourishes of garish, saturated colors which permeate several chapters of this episodic anthology and some transitions from live action to cartoon graphics. Genre heavyweights George Romero of “Night of the Living Dead” fame and writer Stephen King lent their talents to the weird goings on here. This clip details a murderous act of revenge enacted by a jealous husband upon his unfaithful wife and her lover. [More]
There has been a lot of discussion lately involving Clint Eastwood’s new film, “American Sniper”. But Eastwood has had a couple brushes in the past with sniper related elements in his movies. “Dirty Harry” featured a psycho killer who dispatches a lovely swimming in a pool from long range with a sniper rifle. “Joe Kidd” contained a character who uses a high powered rifle with a scope in the Old West to pick off victims. “The Enforcer” was the third picture in the “Dirty Harry” series. It ends up that Eastwood’s unorthodox cop, Harry Callahan, resorts to utilizing a laz [More]
A disquieting tale of the destruction of a remote research station by unknown forces. The culprits are right under our noses but we don’t find out until the very end of the movie. Dread and paranoia in abundance as Robert Culp and Eli Wallach attempt to put a halt to the rapid erosion of the human community at a snowbound scientific research center. Will they find a solution in time? Similar surroundings and situation to “The Thing” but without an other worldly threat. An ABC Movie of the Week entry.
A motorcycle is destroyed during the course of this short film. Take it on good faith that the destroyed machine really was on its last legs. Now to haul it away….Can’t remember how that was accomplished.
A different approach to mastering your musical instrument is demonstrated here. Not the most cost effective way….but, a way. Strongly influenced by The Who and their auto destruction phase.
Joey Chestnut pays a visit to Cub Scout Pack 340 in San Jose, CA. in January 2009. He then proceeds to inhale five burritos. What a machine!
The Americans’ air defense system blows a gasket and a group of six bomb carrying jets is instructed to drop their payloads on Moscow. It is all a computer mistake but one that the US cannot put a stop to. The President’s solution to appease the Russians is far fetched and more than a bit absurd. Suspenseful and tense though the majority of the film making may be, I can’t buy the ending.
I was looking at the Phantasm (1979) trailer and I noticed actor Angus Scrimm, who played ungodly ghoul “The Tall Man” in this series, and “rocker” Gene Simmons of KISS band fame seem to share a few common traits. Check out Phantasm, the movie, and see if you can name a few similarities. Just thought of another one! Both are curators of an interdimensional collective of freaks! Heres the Phantasm trailer link: http://youtu.be/nJojkFFUsdo
An oceanic mining team is coming to an end of a long tour of deep water duty. It is their misfortune to stumble upon a sunken Soviet ship close to their base of operations. Seems that there were dubious genetic experiments taking place aboard the Russian ship that led to its being sunk my the mother country. Our ever resourceful American divers are able to “tap” in to the remnants of the experiment and find that a couple of their crew members become infected with a nasty gene altering material. It isn’t long before it is a battle between humans [More]
“Below” is a nifty, submarine, World War II, ghost story all rolled into one. A submarine on search and destroy patrol in the Atlantic Ocean seems to be itself a cursed, doomed vehicle. Creepy events unfold and ghostly ambience abounds as the submarine meets with one disaster after another. I’ve watched it a couple of times at night and creeped myself out! Nice performance from Bruce Greenwood as the “new” captain of the boat.
Tensions between America and the Eastern Bloc escalate into a devastating nuclear exchange. We see the bleak results unleashed on one of our large cities and its populace. There is an extended sequence in this made for television movie, “The Day After”, detailing a very harrowing nuclear missile attack on Kansas City, USA. It is an interesting collage of actual documentary footage detailing the effects on structures and the landscape by the detonation of atomic weapons, sound effects, and newly created film effects of buildings and bodies vaporizing in the flash heat fires which accompany nuclear blasts. Awful.