Name That Logo: Deluxe Warner Bros. Edition
In other parts of town the lion roared, the tower beeped, and the world turned with machinelike regularity and precision. Of all the major Hollywood studios, Warner Bros. was the one most likely to allow graphic designers to let loose …
Dig a hole: Jerry G. Bishop, the architect of Svengoolie
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/sep/19/53443/ He was Chicago television's answer to SCTV's 'Count' Floyd Robertson, a professional broadcaster picking up change on the side while dressed in a sub-Ben Cooper Halloween getup and telling jokes between commercial breaks on a low budget kid's horror-movie …
Grate cinema: Munster, Go Home!
My first screening of Munster, Go Home! came -- as it did to many Mockingbird Heights maniacs my age -- on the top half of a double bill with the Don Knotts dud The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. MGH had …
Bob Hope reviews The Iron Petticoat from the grave
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/sep/18/53378/ Hey, hi, ladies and gentlemen, this is Bob ‘More Dangerous Dead Than He Ever Was Alive’ Hope acting as guest reviewer here on The Big Screen. Speaking of mortality, I wanna’ tell ya’, that Marks gives me more attention …
Grate cinema: The Spy Who Loved Me
When it comes to playing 007, everybody does it better than Roger Moore!
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/sep/18/53371/ At the risk of alienating James Bond acolytes everywhere, with the exception of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the franchise pretty much ran out of steam after Thunderball. People who prefer Roger Moore to Sean Connery should not be …
Free parking returns to Horton Plaza!
Has it really been seven months since the #@$%&*!#$&@#s at Horton Plaza decided to replace 3 hours of free parking with the flat unreasonable rate of $8 an hour? Business must have taken a hit, for it was announced that …
4th row center: A night at the Egyptian and a day at the Chinese
DISCLAIMER: The title of this article is false and misleading. For the sake of full disclosure, when confronted with a hundred foot screen, you'll find me parked two rows behind my customary position in the 4th row. Up in Hollywood …
What San Diego multiplexes have that Hollywood picture palaces don't
The past two days in Hollywood have been a rapturous vacation from San Diego multiplexes. Sunday night saw the sparkling presentation of a 60-year-old dye transfer, 35mm dual projector 3D print of Martin and Lewis' Money From Home. The screening …
Trailer Park: Rocky Stallone vs. Jake DeNiro in Grudge Match
It's "bash DeNiro Friday" at
This is not the celluloid Visine needed to cleanse my eyes of the retinae-burning The Family. This is a joke, right, Bobby D? You can't be doing it for the green. Stallone is happy to devour any piece of meat …
Paul Schrader 'likes' me!
Halfway through the screening of Luc Besson's dismal mob comedy The Family, an image from one of Robert DeNiro's early, funny films flashed through my brain. Miami, 1962, and they've just tossed a bloated Jake LaMotta in the cooler where …
Review: The Family
I’d issue a SPOILER ALERT!, but how does one go about curdling something as putrescent as The Family? By now we have all grown accustomed to THE GREATEST ACTOR OF HIS GENERATION using the eeny-meeny-miney-moe method of script selection. With …
Dig a hole: Noise reduction pioneer Ray Dolby
"I was never a gold-digger, or an Oscar-digger, or anything like that. I just had an instinct about the right sort of things that should be done in my business. So all these things just fell into place." -- Dr. …
Vanity, thy name is plate?
It's one ampersand away from being just another plate on the 101. Considering this photo was taken in Hollywood, it's a shock that it doesn't read "UBER S&M." The fact that it's attached to a Caddy, -- aka a vehicle …
Village Person Randy Jones to tie the knot
Hey! Remember The Village People, the supergay supergroup who helped to introduce Middle America to the concept of homosexuality with chart-topping hits like YMCA, In the Navy, and Macho Man? Randy Jones, the cowboy of the group and star of …
Destin Cretton talks about his long-term commitment to Short Term 12
Look at the big shot kid who years ago walked into Citizen Video where I used to work, with a copy of his first film, the superb documentary, Drakmar: A Vassal's Journey, in hand, currently making the rounds to promote …
Studio collagist Jacques Kapralik created the fabric of Hollywood ballyhoo
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/sep/10/52967/ Normally a derisive terms, Hollywood collagist Jacques Kapralik was the master of the cut-and-paste job. My fascination with sculpted, 3-dimensional caricature dates back to character design on a Colorforms set my Aunt Jen presented me with on the occasion …
Crisis in the aisle: blogger calls cops over texting twit
A midnight screening of a low budget shocker at the Toronto International Film Festival became even more horrifying when a brave blogger — fed up with blue lights dotting his peripheral vision — called 911 on a texting fool. It's …
Dig a hole: Cal Worthington
Never so much as a rank and file member of the motion picture industry, Calvin Coolidge "Cal" Worthington's presence was felt in practically every film produced during Hollywood's golden era. At one point or another, his crass commercial spiels and …
4th row center: Triumph of the Will
The long-awaited demise of Hitler's bodyguard, Rochus Misch, had finally arrived. His death at age 96 brings to mind my one and only dust-up with Bund-lovin' brown shirts. It was one of the first films I remember driving to after …
Review: Terraferma
Terraferma opens today at Landmark's Ken Cinema. Click for Showtimes. Director Emanuele Crialese (Respiro, Golden Door) opens by elegantly casting a net over the audience -- we assume the fish’s point-of-view -- hoping to reel us into his thawed Frozen …