Monthly Archives: August 2019

Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker D23 First Look

Posted on by Arleigh

Star Wars Rise of Skywalker

This past weekend saw Disney’s own convention called D23 come and go over at Anaheim, CA. Everything Disney-branded were announced and talked about. We got more news on Disney’s upcoming streaming service, more Marvel Studios news from Disney+ shows to information on the MCU’s Phase 4 plans. There were even some news about the fallout of the Marvel/Sony issue which has taken Spider-Man out of the MCU proper. Yesterday saw the release of the latest theatrical poster and a special First Look at this upcoming holiday release of Star War: Rise of Skywalker.

The final installment in what’s being called as the Skywalker Saga, the first look trailer shown at D23 yesterday has now been released for general audience consumption and from what I can see it bears some resemblance (at least from some of the images shown) from the old Dark Horse Comics Star Wars: Dark Empire (now just part of Star Wars Legends).

From the very ordered battle formation of Imperial Star Destroyers, to C3PO with red, menacing eyes to Rey in black Sith Robes that echoed Dark Empire’s Luke Skywalker also donning the black Sith Robes and becoming an apprentice of Sith Lord Palpatine.

While much of the stories and ideas from the comics and books of the 1990’s up until the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney has been made moot with the release of the latest films, the Star Wars creators have been mining the so-called Star Wars Legends for ideas and characters to create a new canonical universe.

This latest trailer for Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker does seem to have some influence from that comic book series from Dark Horse and I think that should make for an interesting conclusion to this latest film trilogy.

International Weirdness : “Suburban Coffin”

Posted on by Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)

Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)'s avatarTrash Film Guru

As a general rule, when a movie’s IMDB summary is scant on details, you know something’s up. I mean, whoever makes a film can go in there and write whatever blurb about it they want, and yet writer/director Benjamin Rider — the guy behind 2018 UK production Suburban Coffin — submitted only a cryptic, one-sentence description of the fruits of his labor (and 2,000 pounds of his money). Verbatim, it reads : “The devil, disguised as an insurance salesman, appears in the suburbs of London.”

Which, fair enough, is what this flick is about — but surely that can’t be all it’s about, can it?

Actually, uhhhmmm — yeah, it can. Clocking in at just over an hour, this is nevertheless a bit of a slow burn, and probably features a few too many characters for its own good. Alasdair Melrose turns in pretty solid work as Old Scratch himself…

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Music Video of the Day: Half Life by Spector (2019, dir by Callum James)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I like the mix of glitz and ennui that’s present in this video.  When I first saw this video, I have to admit that I mistakenly thought the video had been filmed in several cities in the United States, one of which was I was sure was Las Vegas.  I’m really glad that I actually bothered to google “Where was Spector’s Half-Life video filmed” before I wrote up this post because it turns out that I was 100% incorrect.

(See?  Everyone complains about Google but, sometimes, it can be your best friend.)

It turns out that this video was shot in East London.  Fred Macpherson is sitting in the back of an Uber and having a minor existential crisis as he watches the world pass him by.  According to the linked article, this video was very much a bit of a do it yourself project with Fred just riding around with a camera crew who recorded whatever it was that they saw during the drive.  That takes a certain amount of courage because, seriously, what would you do if you saw absolutely nothing while you were driving around?

(Myself, I’d probably wonder how I suddenly found myself in Vermont …. I’m joking!  I swear, it’s just a joke….)

Anyway, as I said, I like the mix of glamour and insecurity that’s present in this video.  Anyone who has ever felt isolated while surrounded by hundreds of people will be able to relate to this video’s theme.  This video is for everyone who has felt like they were lost even though they knew exactly where they were.  And yet, I don’t necessarily feel that this is a pessimistic video.  As long as the journey’s continuing, there’s always something new on the horizon.

Enjoy!

Lisa’s Week In Review: 8/19/19 — 8/25/19

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

 

“Happy Halloween!”

I started out this week with a lot of energy but it quickly vanished halfway through Tuesday.  I think it’s probably because of the heat.  But fear not!  The horrid Summer season is almost over and soon, it’ll be time for the October Horrorthon!

Here’s what little I did this week.

Films I Watched:

  1. Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
  2. Basic Instinct (1992)
  3. The General (1926)
  4. How To Stuff A Wild Bikini (1965)
  5. Long Shot (2019)
  6. Rivals (1972)
  7. Sherlock, Jr (1924)
  8. Susan Slade (1961)
  9. Under the Silver Lake (2019)
  10. Zombies of Mora Tau (1957)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. 60 Days in Narcoland
  2. Bachelor in Paradise
  3. BH90210
  4. Big Brother 21
  5. The Bold and the Beautiful
  6. Dance Moms
  7. General Hospital
  8. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
  9. The Office
  10. Saved By The Bell
  11. So You Think You Can Dance
  12. The Terror: Infamy
  13. The Young and the Restless

Books I Read:

  1. Best.  Move.  Year.  Ever. (2019) by Ben Rafferty
  2. Star Spangled Scandal (2019) by Chris DeRose

Music To Which I Listened:

  1. Adi Ulmansky
  2. Beabodoobee
  3. Bikini Kill
  4. Bob Dylan
  5. Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard
  6. Carly Rae Jepsen
  7. Chloe MK
  8. Chromatics
  9. Coldplay
  10. Elvis Presley
  11. Fitz and the Tantrums
  12. Gabrielle Alpin
  13. Gwen Stefani
  14. Joywave
  15. JP Cooper
  16. Lana Del Rey
  17. Maude LaTour
  18. Michael Spaulding
  19. Moby
  20. Neon Indian
  21. Penny Police
  22. Rich White
  23. The Rolling Stones
  24. Saint Motel
  25. Taylor Swift

Links From Last Week:

  1. Ryan The Trashfilm Guru has a patreon that you should consider subscribing to!
  2. On Pop Politics, Jeff wrote about planning a vacation in a time of uncertainty, why The Single Guy was better than Caroline in the City, the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act, Jay Inslee, Seth Moulton, and Joe Walsh!
  3. On her photography site, Erin shared: Red Car, The Girl With The Magic Camera, Looking At The Trees, Looking Up In Black and White, Administration Building, Abandoned House, and Spring Creek in Black-and-White!
  4. I wrote about Big Brother for the Big Brother Blog!
  5. On SyFy Designs, I observed Dorothy Parker’s birthday and wrote about the new Socialist monopoly game!
  6. On my music site, I shared songs from Adi Ulmansky, Gabrielle Alpin & JP Cooper, Carly Rae Jepsen, Chloe MK, Penny Police,  Joywave, and Avril Lavigne.
  7. Breaking: Spider-Man Out of the MCU: Marvel, Sony Can’t Reach Deal
  8. Name of next James Bond film revealed – No Time To Die
  9. Apparently, Everyone Just Forgot about the Allegations against Mark Halperin
  10. Five Years Later, It’s Time To Admit We Overreacted About Apple Putting A Free U2 Album On Our Phones
  11. The “Queen Of Artsploitation” Christina Lindberg Speaks! Great New Interview And Look At Her Career!
  12. It’s A Dancing Show: Sean Spicer danced for Trump’s amusement, now let him dance for ours

Links From The Site:

  1. Care reviewed Ready or Not!
  2. Erin profiled Bruce Minney and shared The Office Game, She Tried To Be Good, Man Hunt, The Exotic Affair, Welcome the Wicked, She Who Strays…., and Journey into Ecstacy!
  3. Gary reviewed Treasure Island and the Baron of Arizona!
  4. I reviewed Susan Slade and shared the poster art for Black Widow and music videos from Penny Police, Maude LaTour, Chloe MK, Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes, Michael Spaulding, Beabadoobee, and Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard!
  5. Ryan reviewed Sniper Corpse, No Title, and I Totally Know What You Did Last Summer!

Want to see what I did last week?  Click here!

Here’s The Poster For Black Widow!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Usually, I only share trailers but I simply had to share the first official movie poster for the MCU’s Black Widow, which will be coming out in May of 2020.

Seriously, this is so kickass!

Now, before you read any further, I guess I should say that I’m about share a spoiler from Avengers: Endgame.  I think everyone in the world has seen that movie by now and, if you haven’t, you probably don’t care about the MCU or any of that other stuff.  But still, just in case, consider this to be your SPOILER WARNING:

I really liked Avengers: Endgame but I do have to admit that it really pissed me off that they killed off Natasha.  Storywise, there was no reason to kill off Natasha.  If anyone in that scene needed to redeem themselves by sacrificing their life for the greater good, it was Clint!  After all, Clint’s the one who spent the past few years going around the world and killing anyone who he felt didn’t deserve to still be alive.  (And yes, Clint killed a drug lord at the start of the film and drug lords are evil but he also killed everyone who worked for the drug lord and some of those people were probably decent people who were doing what they had to do to survive or provide for their families.)  The whole movie felt like it was set up for Clint to finally prove he deserved to be an Avenger by sacrificing his life.  Instead, they killed off Natasha and it just felt totally wrong.

(It also felt rather cynical.  Of course, they couldn’t kill Clint.  They needed Jeremy Renner around to appear in the show about Hawkeye’s daughter that’s going to be on the new Disney streaming service.)

As the first woman to be prominently featured in multiple MCU films, Natasha was always my favorite Avenger and killing her off before she even got to star in her own movie just felt totally wrong to me.  (The fact that Brie Larson’s dull Captain Marvel got her own showcase before the Black Widow will always bug me.)  Still, I did take some solace from the fact that, even after Natasha’s death, there was still a Black Widow movie scheduled to come out and Scarlett Johansson would be starring in it.

Of course, then I found out that the Black Widow film is a prequel and it also sounds like the film’s ultimate goal might be to introduce Florence Pugh as the new Black Widow.  Don’t get me wrong.  Florence Pugh is one of the best actresses around but still, Scarlett Johansson will always be the Black Widow to me and the character’s pointless death will always bother me.  So, up until a few minutes ago, I was not quite as enthusiastic about seeing the Black Widow film as you might normally expect me to be.

But, seriously, this poster is freaking perfect.  It’s everything you would want a poster for a Black Widow stand alone film to be.  I hope the movie itself lives up to fierceness in Natasha’s eyes.

I guess I’ll find out in May!

Ready or Not, Review by Case Wright (Dirs. Matt Bettinelli and Tyler Gillett)

Posted on by casewright

R Or not.jpg

The will to survive is a strange thing. Why do some people give up their wallet or purse to a mugger freely and others snap and fight to the death? Back in the days when I could jog, I was in Central Park early on a Sunday and a mugger tried to take my little POS MP3 player.  I could’ve done the smart thing and given it up, but something just clicked and I started punching and punching.  His face was total shock and he wandered off.  He wasn’t threatening my life, but it didn’t matter if he were, I would’ve acted the same. And Yes, my 93 tracks ranging from Springsteen to Modest Mouse remain safe to this day.  Ready or Not tests whether Grace (Samara Weaving) has the will to survive and she didn’t even have an ipod to protect.

The people hunting people is almost a sub-genre, but this movie had style.  It’s got horrible and quasi-incompetent murderers, a tough but vulnerable heroine, and lots and lots of BLOOD!

Grace is set to marry into a family of rich asshats who treat her like garbage.  Well, except for Daniel (Adam Brody) the brother of Alex – the groom to be.  Daniel thinks she should leave because she’s too good for his worthless family.  Daniel has a point.  The aunt is a mean spirited jerk and all of the people who enter the family are pretty desperate in one way or the other, making them agreeable to participate in their lethal affairs.

Grace decides to marry Alex anyway even though the family’s shitty personalities are on full-display.  The honeymoon begins and Grace must choose a card because she is entering the family.  A creepy box has a playing card and determines which card; sometimes the game is Chess, Checkers, or Hide and Seek.  If Hide and Seek is chosen, the family will hunt the new entrant to the family and sacrifice him or her to Satan- In-Laws … Am I Right?!!!

Grace picks hide and seek and the game is a foot….dun dun dun! This kicks off a lot of suspense and humor as Grace fights her in-laws to the death.  Grace asks her new husband Daniel why he didn’t warn her that his family is a bunch psycho killers?  His response: You would’ve left me.  Daniel, you suck! We all hate you Daniel…A LOT!

The family hunts Grace all over the estate and she gets hurt and screams….and Screams…AND SCREAMS! Samara Weaving’s screams are THE BEST EVER.  They are a mixture of gutteral staccato and high pitched terror and they are legit real.  All other scream queens before her must hail the new Queen.   Here is an example of Samara’s amazing scream queen skills:

RIGHT?!!!! She’s is legit awesome – a throwback and beyond to the glory days of horror. She’s a mix of vulnerable and badass, cunning and funny, basically she rocks this entire movie! Everyone should go see this movie tonight!

Yes, this review is a little brief, but I don’t want to spoil too much.  Enjoy!

 

Monster Con: Vincent Price in THE BARON OF ARIZONA (Lippert 1950)

Posted on by gary loggins

gary loggins's avatarcracked rear viewer

We all know and love Vincent Price for his creepy performances in horror films, from his demented Henry Jarrod in HOUSE OF WAX, to all those AIP/Roger Corman/Edgar Allan Poe shockers, to his turn as The Inventor in EDWARD SCISSORHANDS. But the actor was more than just a screen fiend, playing in many a filmnoir, comedies, costume swashbucklers, and even the Western genre. Our Man Vinnie got top billing in a strange little oater titled THE BARON OF ARIZONA, and as a bonus for film fans the director is a young tyro by the name of Samuel Fuller!

In this bloodless but gripping outing, Price plays James Addison Revis, a swindler, con man, and forger who  concocts an elaborate, grandiose scheme to gain control over the Arizona Territory in 1882. He begins his con game ten years earlier by grooming an orphaned waif named Sofia to later be…

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