Screening in NYC: STARSHIP TROOPERS (1997).

When Starship Troopers was released, the TV spots went heavy on the use of Blur’s ”Song #2″ (Woo-hoo!) and explosions and the Melrose Place prettiness of its cast.   I remember seeing those ads.  I remember how the marketing went overboard to make Starship Troopers look like, for example, Independence Day, from the year before, the kind of hooting-and-hollering [...]

My Top 50 Movies Of All Time (At This Exact Point In Time.)

I probably should be doing about 50 other things at this very moment, but I saw this great top-50 list today and was inspired it to immediately answer it.  I made my list very, very quickly, so in plenty of ways it’s the most honest form a list like this could ever arrive in.  While the numbering is fairly [...]

From The Archives: OUTLANDER (2008).

Originally published elsewhere.   The other day, I found a stack of my old artwork from my high school years. I didn’t remember myself as being the little metalhead that the evidence suggests that I was, but the proof is in the paper. Rock on, little fella! What metalheads and teenaged cartoonists and the producers of Outlander all [...]

From The Archives: AVATAR (2009).

  Been thinking about the 3-D format lately, due to Hugo.  Seems a good reason to review some thoughts from two years back.  Avatar is like nothing you’ve ever seen before, even though you’ve absolutely seen this story many times before.  Is that a coy contradiction?  Is it a negative statement?  I hope not.  I [...]

31 FLAVORS OF HORROR #23: NIGHT OF THE CREEPS (1986).

Speaking of Attack The Block, here’s one of its spiritual ancestors.  Night Of The Creeps is one of those everything movies.  It’s a monster drink, a mix of everything kids and grown-ups alike love so much about genre movies.  This is a movie  that seems to answer that question: “If you got your chance to [...]

31 FLAVORS OF HORROR #22: ATTACK THE BLOCK! (2011).

    One night in 1986, my grandmother woke my sister and I in the middle of the night with an urgency.  I was nine, my sister seven.  Grandma loaded the two of us into the car and drove us to the outskirts of town.  Half-asleep, I watched the deep-dark-blue skies as Halley’s comet zoomed into [...]

31 FLAVORS OF HORROR #14: THE THING (2011).

It’s possible there might be something new, insightful, and complimentary that can be written about John Carpenter’s The Thing, but luckily that’s not the task in front of me today.  Here’s what I once wrote in brief about The Thing (1982 edition): ____________________________________________________________________ What can be said, at this point? John Carpenter remade a sci-fi classic [...]

Now On DVD: THOR.

Hey, what did the beat-up boxer say when his trainer asked him how he was feeling? THOR! So Thor‘s out on DVD and Blu-Ray today.  My review was pretty funny, if I do say so myself.  And I do. “So myself.”  Anyway.  Thor.  Let’s go back there together, shall we?’ ______________________________________________________________________________ Here’s what I liked [...]

Cult Classics: ATTACK THE BLOCK! (2011)

One night in 1986, my grandmother woke my sister and I in the middle of the night with an urgency.  I was nine, my sister seven.  Grandma loaded the two of us into the car and drove us to the outskirts of town.  Half-asleep, I watched the deep-dark-blue skies as Halley’s comet zoomed into view.  The [...]

Screening in NYC: ALIEN (1979).

BAMcinématek is running a somewhat surprising film series between July 11th and July 19th:  A tribute to screenwriter Dan O’Bannon, who authored or co-authored or worked on some of the more influential films of the last couple decades in horror and science-fiction.  O’Bannon has credits on John Carpenter’s first movie, Dark Star, along with Paul [...]