Overlooked & Underseen: WORLD’S GREATEST DAD (2009).

Now let’s go back to the piece I wrote about World’s Greatest Dad (on 11/20/2009), a movie which I saw as one of the most daring comedies of 2009, and as conclusive proof that you can never entirely write off anyone.  I rewatched the movie this morning and was glad to see that I can [...]

Screening In NYC: HOUSE (1977).

  This recently-excavated cult classic is the weekend movie at Landmark Sunshine Cinemas here in New York.  YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS CRAZY GODDAMN MOVIE.  It’s great.  Here’s why: Hausu (aka House, from 1977) is without a doubt, one of the weirdest fucking movies I’ve ever seen, and goddamn it but that really must be saying something.  It’s strange that standing in the face of this [...]

Go See: 21 JUMP STREET (2012).

“Nobody knows anything.” — William Goldman. 21 Jump Street, as you probably know by now, is a movie which gives a comedic treatment to the late-1980s Fox television series, which starred a pre-Tim-Burton Johnny Depp, about young police detectives who go undercover as high school students.  The movie was directed by Phil Lord & Chris Miller (who last directed the kids’ [...]

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 [...]

31 FLAVORS OF HORROR #30: THE LOST BOYS (1987).

  The Lost Boys is one finely-aged wedge of 1980s cheese. I don’t know what experience a first-time viewer would have with it, but for those of us of a certain age, there’s a fondness. For those of us who were high school comic book geeks, it was one of the first times we were represented on [...]

31 FLAVORS OF HORROR #27: NIGHT OF THE COMET (1984).

After Night Of The Creeps, Night Of The Comet is the best “Night Of The” movie of the 1980s.  (There were many.)  These are the kind of movies you hope for, every time you venture off the mainstream path looking for something out of the ordinary.  These are the kind of movie there just plain [...]

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 #19: CARRIE (1976).

For a very long time, Carrie has been a noticeable empty spot on the list of major horror movies I’ve seen.  There’s actually a pretty good reason for it:  Carrie is so entrenched in pop culture by now that it’s one of those movies that everybody knows, with or without seeing it.  If you’re a [...]

31 FLAVORS OF HORROR #15: FRIGHT NIGHT (2011).

I’ve never been one to root for the bad guy, but lately, it’s been happening more and more.  It may have something to do with being a life-long Yankee fan and having to get used to Alex Rodriguez.  More likely, it could be the fact that more and more  movies are being made where better, more [...]