Friday, August 30, 2024

GODZILLA REBORN: GOJIRA (1954) / SHIN GODZILLA (2016) ROUND TABLE!!!

GOJIRA (aka GODZILLA) (1954) d. Ishiro Honda (Japan)
GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS (1956) d. Ishiro Honda/Terry Morse (Japan/USA)
SHIN GODZILLA (2016) d. Hideaki Anno (Japan)




It’s impossible to approach this episode’s subject with any objectivity, so I’m not even going to try. My childhood infatuation with this Tokyo-stomping behemoth first piqued an interest in monster movies, from which my passion for horror cinema followed. Granted, my gateway encounter was a far cry from the dark and imposing figure introduced to Japanese audiences in 1954 – by the time I met Godzilla in the mid-’70s, he had evolved into a rambunctious, bellowing, drop-kicking superhero, defending humankind from the evils of pollution, alien interlopers and the like.

Friday, August 23, 2024

40 YEARS OF THE TOXIC AVENGER (1984)!!!

THE TOXIC AVENGER (1984) d. Lloyd Kaufman/Michael Herz (USA)
THE TOXIC AVENGER PART II (1989) d. Lloyd Kaufman/Michael Herz (USA)
THE TOXIC AVENGER III: THE LAST TEMPTATION OF TOXIE (1989) d. Lloyd Kaufman/Michael Herz (USA)
CITIZEN TOXIE: THE TOXIC AVENGER IV (2001) d. Lloyd Kaufman (USA)




There are Hollywood big-budget blockbusters. There are edgy exploitation flicks. There are scrappy independent films.

And then there are TROMA movies.

Neither celebrated for their subtle nuance nor held in high regard by the critical cognoscenti, Troma managed to carve out an indelible place in cinema history, with its 1984 flagship production featuring the “first superhero from New Jersey,” The Toxic Avenger, co-directed by the Troma Team of Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz and scripted by Joe Ritter and about a dozen other people.

Friday, August 16, 2024

HAMMER HORROR: THE GORGON (1964) / THE REPTILE (1966) Round Table!!!

THE GORGON (1964) d. Terence Fisher (UK)
THE REPTILE (1966) d. John Gilling (UK)




By the mid-1960s, Hammer Studios had exhausted its supply of classic Universal monsters, with vampiric counts, stitched-together reanimated corpses, lycanthropic curses, and bandaged Egyptian shamblers all present and accounted for. In response, the creative teams dug out their tomes of Greek mythology and exotic travel guides to conjure two original monsters, both – coincidentally or not – featuring female creatures levying doom on the locals.

Friday, August 9, 2024

THE SIXTH SENSE & STIR OF ECHOES: GHOST SUMMER OF 1999

THE SIXTH SENSE (1999) d. M. Night Shyamalan (USA)
STIR OF ECHOES (1999) d. David Koepp (USA)




With scores of classic ghost movies populating the silver screen, video shelves, and streaming queues, it's still a pleasant surprise to have two noteworthy examples arriving the same year. That’s exactly what happened in 1999 when M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense and David Koepp's Stir of Echoes hit theaters within a month of each other.

Saturday, August 3, 2024

DOUG AND THE DINOS - THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT (1974)!!!

THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT (1974) d. Kevin Connor (UK)
AT THE EARTH'S CORE (1976) d. Kevin Connor (UK)
THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT (1977) d. Kevin Connor (UK)
WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS (1978) d. Kevin Connor (UK)




After a British cruiser is sunk by a German U-boat in the waning days of WWI, the remaining survivors – led by square-jawed American Bowen Tyler – turn the tables on their aggressors, floating in a lifeboat until the sub surfaces and taking the Jerrys by surprise. As food supplies dwindle, an uneasy truce is drawn after they happen upon a mythical uncharted island named “Caprona” which boasts all manner of evolution from dinosaurs to cavemen.