”Twas home video that first began sawing away at television’s umbilical cord. It was bad enough that stations sliced and diced movie running times quicker than a Popeil Chop-O-Matic to make room for commercial breaks. ...
by Scott MarksIt was to be the first image I’d seen projected since the lockdown. The trailer pronouncement landed with the jaw-splintering force of a fist enfolding a roll of quarters: “From the director of Crazy Rich ...
by Scott MarksA haughty fashion designer (Emma Thompson) and the seamstress most likely to dethrone her (Emma Stone) wage battle in this, the third live-action attempt on the part of the studio to ransack the Disney Vault, ...
by Scott MarksNorth Hollywood arrives with the tagline: The first ever movie about becoming a pro skater. Sonja Henie and I, Tonya to the contrary, for the sake of argument the profession referred to in the catchphrase ...
by Scott MarksA sort of Ronald Reagan tropical melodrama riddled by Luis Buñuel with good, nasty, subversive gags. E.g., Michel Piccoli's devout Catholic missionary, obliged to pretend to a vigilante mob that he has spent the night with a prostitute, hangs his ...
by Duncan ShepherdCrossbows-and-animal-skins science fiction, set in a 21st-century penal colony. Some sternum-bruising directorial "touches" by Martin Campbell punctuate the general triteness and tedium. And Ray Liotta has a chance to "stretch" himself, a chance to find out whether he can be ...
by Duncan ShepherdWith six Chainsaw films to reflect upon, one would hope that director John Luessenhop (Takers), eager to decorate the Leatherface family tree with crisp teen body parts, would have at least unearthed a fresh meat hook or two upon which ...
by Scott MarksWalter Matthau? A bank robbing serial killer wanted by both good guys and bad guys alike?! Times were tough. The actor had to hock wedding presents just to pay the rent. The $2500 this minisculely ...
by Scott MarksMy original intention was to cover a couple of Woody Allen’s middle-to-modern funny films. Then I happened across this hilarious, never-broadcast, half-hour PBS mockumentary on YouTube. I hope you enjoy this Holy Grail of hilarity ...
by Scott MarksThis week’s offerings include a trio of documentaries that range in subject from the history of everyone’s favorite curse word, Miami’s cocaine cartel, and for openers, a cautionary fable for the marginally talented among us ...
by Scott MarksThe Hemlock Society's monthly “Right to Die Film Series'' isn't going to let a pandemic keep it down. The group’s next meeting will be held virtually on December 20 with SOD (Suicide on Demand) as ...
by Scott Marks”Twas home video that first began sawing away at television’s umbilical cord. It was bad enough that stations sliced and diced movie running times quicker than a Popeil Chop-O-Matic to make room for commercial breaks. ...
by Scott MarksIt was to be the first image I’d seen projected since the lockdown. The trailer pronouncement landed with the jaw-splintering force of a fist enfolding a roll of quarters: “From the director of Crazy Rich ...
by Scott MarksA haughty fashion designer (Emma Thompson) and the seamstress most likely to dethrone her (Emma Stone) wage battle in this, the third live-action attempt on the part of the studio to ransack the Disney Vault, ...
by Scott MarksNorth Hollywood arrives with the tagline: The first ever movie about becoming a pro skater. Sonja Henie and I, Tonya to the contrary, for the sake of argument the profession referred to in the catchphrase ...
by Scott MarksLuchino Visconti's beautifully cadenced rendition of the Thomas Mann novella. In slow zooms and panning shots, it scrutinizes the deterioration, amid wilting heat and epidemic, of a prissy musical composer, lingering too long at a deluxe hotel, held there by ...
by Duncan ShepherdMatthew McConaughey plays a bag-of-bones, good ol' boy piece of sex-addled trailer trash who has the misfortune to bang the wrong (female) intravenous drug-user (HIV+) in the wrong way (sans condom) in the wrong place (darkest Texas) at the wrong ...
by Matthew LickonaWith six Chainsaw films to reflect upon, one would hope that director John Luessenhop (Takers), eager to decorate the Leatherface family tree with crisp teen body parts, would have at least unearthed a fresh meat hook or two upon which ...
by Scott MarksIn the decades since Linda Blair first hocked up a pea-soup facial, Hollywood xerographers have found in demonic possession a perennial cash absorber. Director James Wan (Saw, Insidious) stylishly resists the easy temptation of schlock-shocks and CGI as a means ...
by Scott MarksWalter Matthau? A bank robbing serial killer wanted by both good guys and bad guys alike?! Times were tough. The actor had to hock wedding presents just to pay the rent. The $2500 this minisculely ...
by Scott MarksMy original intention was to cover a couple of Woody Allen’s middle-to-modern funny films. Then I happened across this hilarious, never-broadcast, half-hour PBS mockumentary on YouTube. I hope you enjoy this Holy Grail of hilarity ...
by Scott MarksThis week’s offerings include a trio of documentaries that range in subject from the history of everyone’s favorite curse word, Miami’s cocaine cartel, and for openers, a cautionary fable for the marginally talented among us ...
by Scott MarksThe Hemlock Society's monthly “Right to Die Film Series'' isn't going to let a pandemic keep it down. The group’s next meeting will be held virtually on December 20 with SOD (Suicide on Demand) as ...
by Scott Marks