Okay, enough. I swear to god if I hear my kid “lecture” me one more time about how essential it is to see The Second Coming of Christ’s director Christopher Nolan’s latest portentous snoozefest in its proper “cinematic form,” I’m going to lose it. This is the kid who’s never seen Lawrence of Arabia or… Read More ‘Wicked, Wicked’ (1973): The only Duo-Vision movie ever released has us seeing two
“You got any friends?”“My guns.”“Kinfolk?”“My horse.”
We have a joke around the Mavis digs (besides myself) that whenever a royalty check from my publisher arrives in the mail, it’s even money at best that the postage paid will be more than the check amount…if a royalty is even generated that particular quarter. Such is the fate of the author of a… Read More ‘Modesty Blaise’ (1966): Modest Bond spoof has high expectations, but lacks game director
I was trying to think of a movie that reminded me of my old man (to celebrate this upcoming Father’s Day), and since I couldn’t find anything titled, Hilariously Funny/Psychopathically Maladapted Depressive with Sadistic Personality Disorder and Suicidal Tendencies, I turned to ‘ol John Wayne. My old man used to laugh at him…but he loved… Read More ‘True Grit’ (1969): John Wayne’s Oscar-winning performance is still fresh, funny & exciting
In an effort this Memorial Day weekend to watch something—anything—other than The Dirty Dozen or Where Eagles Dare or Kelly’s Heroes or The Green Berets for the umpteenth time, I rooted around and came up with a real overlooked gem from the late 1960s: the captivating, offbeat big-scale WWII adventure, Hannibal Brooks.
So I spent the equivalent of 20 goddamn hours (it seemed) watching Scorsese’s laughably bad, The Departed, with one of my kids, who then spent another hour or so trying to explain to me why it was so great and why I was so wrong in hating it. He, of course, failed. If I want… Read More ‘Boxcar Bertha’ (1972): Early Scorsese gangster flick isn’t good, but it’s entertaining
Amiable, mindless (…and mostly inexplicable) thick ear for fans of 70s all-star international co-productions.
Nasty, sick-humored film noir classic, from one of the genre’s leading directors.
I can’t stand my dog. It’s a whole story.
Seeing that the latest 4k blu-ray Alfred Hitchcock “ultimate collection” release was not only sold out but a tad pricey for yet another upgrade (I mean honestly…how many times am I going to buy Saboteur?), I decided to rummage around my vast subterranean DVD vault to scrounge up something that was 1) suitably “Hitchcockian,” and… Read More ‘Cold Eyes of Fear’ (1971): Ramped-up Hitchcockian suspenser sports bizarre Morricone score
Movies & Drinks 