Cult Classics: BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA (1986).

Today we celebrate a great American.  Oh totally, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but also: John Carpenter, one of my very favorite filmmakers of all time.  Here’s something I wrote on February 11th, 2009:  I recently received in the mail the limited edition 2-disc score album for John Carpenter’s Big Trouble In Little China.  It’s a [...]

Cult Classics: BLACK DYNAMITE (2009).

In recommending Black Dynamite, the temptation is to get caught up in the spirit and get silly.  Let me go another way, keep it relatively serious, and promise that this is the funniest movie currently playing in any movie theater – that is, unless you’re heading to the multiplex this weekend to make fun of [...]

Movie Review: KUNG FU PANDA 2.

      Kung Fu Panda 2 contains at least one landmark:  It’s the first time I’ve ever seen acupuncture performed in a kids movie.  It doesn’t last long, but it’s specific and eccentric enough to be noteworthy. More importantly, this is a good sequel.  It expands on a few of the story threads established [...]

Movie Review: SUCKER PUNCH.

Let’s talk about the fetish movie for a second. Not the X-rated variety, but instead the strain of cinema where very talented filmmakers get away (or don’t get away) with indulging themselves with recurring elements that are arguably inessential to the various stories they’re telling. What I mean is that some filmmakers obsess over images [...]

Cult Classics: STORY OF RICKY (1991).

Story of Ricky is a rarely-screened Hong Kong kung fu movie, based on a super-violent comic series called Riki-Oh.  The movie was first released in 1991 but I didn’t see it for the first time until 2008.  After seeing it, I had four immediate thoughts: 1. Is…um… everybody okay over there?!? 2. It would be pretty damn interesting to see what [...]

Now on DVD: THE GREEN HORNET (2011).

    The Green Hornet’s release date had been pushed from last year into this January.  January is typically a Bermuda Triangle, a dead zone where nothing can thrive, a month where good movies go to die against many many bad ones.  The release date did not bode well for fans of Michel Gondry, the [...]

What I Watched 1.2.11: Kung Fu Hustle/ Showdown In Little Tokyo.

Kung Fu Hustle.                                  Showdown In Little Tokyo.     

Movie Review: THE EXPENDABLES.

Official Expendables sweat stains! _____________________________________________________ The Expendables travel around in a flying boat that is marked with the words “Wildlife Conservancy,” which is kind of the key to the movie’s sense of humor right there.  Whenever these guys visit a foreign locale, they let loose with an inferno of gunfire and scorched earth that probably [...]

Answer Tracks & Friday Fights.

An answer track, in musical vernacular, is a response to a previously recorded and released song.  The Ten Awesomest Movies About Fighting is a post by my great friend Zach Oat over at Television Without Pity (read his work daily!) to celebrate the release of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.  (Read my review!)  I thought [...]