Expelled Grey Matter

I was unfamiliar with Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost before seeing Shaun of the Dead .  I don't recall Spaced being shown on BBC America, so I had no point of reference when it came to in-jokes or cast members that they put in the movie.  I just knew it was going to be about a couple of average joes taking care of zombies.  That was enough for me because the media still hadn't been saturated with zombie films and comedies in 2004.  Also, it looked like a direct tribute to George A. Romero. What I didn't expect is that there would be an entire story at the core about a guy facing the fact he has to grow up as well as mend his personal relationships.  This kind of material can go wrong in so many ways; my main problem with Star Trek: Discovery is awkward conversations about relationships and feelings at times when people should be more worried about being vaporized.  Somehow Pegg and Wright got the balance right in their screenplay, which elevates a film that would h

Night of the Living Dead  was a major hit upon release despite the controversy of it being much more violent and frightening than the usual Saturday matinee fare.  It quickly became a cult and critical favorite and made a lot of money.  However, it didn't make any money for its creator, writer/director George A. Romero.  He failed to put the correct copyright information on prints of the film meaning, under the law of the time, Night of the Living Dead immediately went into public domain. While for the public this means that the original film is easy to access, it also means one doesn't always know what they're getting.  It could be the horrible colorized version or it could be a print of any quality, from sharp cleaned-up black and white in the original aspect to near-unwatchable washed-out prints. In the late 1980s Romero decided to do something about it by writing a new script and working with original producer John Russo as well as Menahem Golan to remake the movie so,

Every version of Dune I have seen up to Dune: Part Two has a problem.  The first part of the book is an introduction of characters, most of those characters (at least the good guys) dying, followed by Paul and Jessica meeting the Fremen and learning how to survive the harsh environment of Arrakis.  Along the way there is a lot of worldbuilding as it takes some time to immerse the reader into a strange semi-feudal society 10000 years in the future that is filled with unfamiliar technology and concepts.   Once the story gets going and Paul begins fulfilling his destiny is when things get tricky.  Frank Herbert handled it well, from the romance with Chani to Jessica finding her place among the Fremen, down to a conclusion that saw Paul walking a fine line between a leader of a great house and a messiah.  There is plenty of action as things ramp up toward the end, but much of the important action is political, and that works fine on the page.  Not so much on the screen, which is why David

I love movies with lots of little creatures raising havoc.  The Gate has always been one of my favorites, both because Tibor Takács has some tricks up his sleeve when it comes to directing the film and because the effects themselves still hold up after all these years.  Combine that with characters that one actually cares about and a great performance by a young Stephen Dorff in the lead and this ends up being a film that, when I see it's on, I end up sitting through the whole thing even though I have seen it many times over the years. Glen (Dorff) is a young kid with a teenage sister named Al (Christa Denton) and a best friend named Terry (Louis Tripp).  The trouble begins when an old tree is removed in Glen's backyard.  Investigating the hole he finds a geode and, with Terry's help, finds an even bigger one that glows inside.  His father makes him fill the hole in before the parents leave for a trip, leaving Al in charge, who decides to use her responsibility to throw a p

The famous hearings of the Parents' Music Resource Center, led by Tipper Gore, happened in 1985.  While we got the Tipper Sticker, the PMRC was pretty much done for afterward, although that didn't keep various states and municipalities from continuing to try to ban albums they didn't like from being sold at stores.  This was a time when heavy metal and hip-hop was still considered dangerous by many parents and older people. This was definitely an influence on Black Roses , a 1988 film by John Fasano that followed his low-budget Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare .  This time around, with screenwriter Cindy Cirile, he puts forth the idea that, like a stopped clock, someone may be right every now and then.  In this case it's a band of actual demons called Black Roses that have found a use for heavy metal music.  Black Roses are a popular band, but they have never performed outside the studio.  They choose the small town of Mill Basin in which to begin their tour.  Many paren

Italian science fiction often runs into a problem.  The problem is to make a decent science fiction film - and not just something to keep the kids at the theater while the parents go shopping - is a proper budget.  Italian film studios were good at cranking out movies on a regular basis, and the Gamma 1 series, of which this is the second movie, was no exception.  The reason they could do it is because most of the movies they made didn't need a large budget.   The War of the Planets attempts to make up for it in any way it can.  While The Wild, Wild Planet , the first in the series, had futuristic sets that looked like wind-up toys, the miniatures this time around are much improved.  Not to the point where anyone would mistake this for an American or even British production, but they are not bad.  Also, for all the criticism this series of movies gets, it was never meant to be hard sci-fi, but rather more in the Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon fashion.  The result is a series of movies

It is amazing how the span of almost a century changes things.  Freaks has long been considered a cult classic even if audiences only have the butchered version to enjoy.  If Todd Browning had made this even 30 years later it would have been controversial, but it still would have been a hit.  In 1932 it was an unfortunate career ender for Browning, as the movie was banned in several states and countries and any goodwill MGM had going into making the movie was gone once they had to pull it from the market.  Hans (Harry Earles) is a little person that is part of a circus sideshow.  He is engaged to Frieda (Daisy Earles), another performer of similar stature, but he seems to have also caught the eye of trapeze artist Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova).  Soon he starts to respond to her charms, not knowing that it is part of a plot between her and strong-man Hercules (Henry Victor) to get as much money from him as possible. Frieda and the other performers suspect this, as well as the ones more sym

Basket Case was a strange little film that got director and writer Frank Henenlotter noticed, but it has also been a bit of an albatross for him.  Its existence has made it hard at times for him to get investors interested in the movies he wants to do; not because they have any problem with it, but because the question always comes up about another sequel.  Henenlotter never intended to do a sequel in the first place, but relented and pitched Basket Case 2 along with Frankenhooker in order to help get the latter made. Basket Case 2 was quite the departure from the first movie, removing the brothers from the gritty New York setting of the first and having them hide out in a mansion with a number of imaginative freaks that look similar to the creatures in Nightbreed .  It was still gory enough to carry on from the first, but the comedic aspect was emphasized more and, this time, it left things on a definite cliffhanger. It has been a number of months sense Duane (Kevin VanHentenryck)

I had mixed feelings when I heard this was coming out.  It is one of my favorite Stephen King novels, and it has a lot in it.  There are giant pterodactyl-like birds, bloody killings, many scenes that are difficult to reproduce on film and, of course, some controversial parts involving underage sexual activity.  I never expect the latter to be in any adaptation, but it wasn't something that changed the story in any way when left out.  In 1990 an adaptation of the novel for theatrical release would have been a massive expense, so my main concern was that it was being adapted into a television mini-series. Even though it was on television that didn't mean it would be terrible.  Salem's Lot was a worthwhile adaptation, and within the span of 11 years much had changed in what could be shown on television.  Then there was the fact that Tim Curry was to play Pennywise, one of the most well-known horror villains, and he was almost certain to get it right.  This was most important

Tobe Hooper had a drive-in hit with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre , which became one of the most revered, and reviled, horror films of all time.  The movie was a visceral, though rather bloodless, descent into murder and madness, and remains effective to this day.  Watching it is something one has to plan for as it can be an exhausting experience.   It was a while before a follow-up happened and, when it did, Hooper and Kim Henkel, who had co-written Chain Saw , set up in a Hollywood soundstage to make a backwoods exploitation film based on a man named Joe Ball who murdered a number of people at his motel in the 1930s and was said to have fed them to his alligators out back.  This time they didn't hold back on the blood, but at the same time Hooper seemed to have forgotten what made Chain Saw so popular. Judd (Neville Brand) owns the Starlight Motel next to a swamp in East Texas.  He also has set up a sketchy zoo, the star of which is a Nile Crocodile that he keeps out back.  The cr

Beverly and Ferd Sebastian were a husband-and-wife filmmaking team.  Making their first films in the 1960s, Beverly branched out into writing scripts, bringing the whole production business further in-house.  Besides her and her husband, their children and other relatives would often appear in their movies, which were general drive-in fare and exploitation films. One of those films they made was The Single Girls , a movie about swingers being stalked by a killer, and one of the members of the cast was Claudia Jennings, who happened to be Playmate of the Month in 1970.  She had been building her acting career since getting noticed in Playboy  and asked Beverly once The Single Girls was complete if she could write a script specifically for her, just not give her a ton of dialog.  From that one of the most famous hixploitation films was born.  Desiree Thibodeau (Jennings) is a Cajun woman who lives and hunts in a swamp in Louisiana.  Since she doesn't have a permit, local law enforcem

The history of Cannon Pictures confuses and frustrates me.  This studio should have been, and for a while it was, as successful as any of Roger Corman's ventures.  For the most part they specialized in the same type of films, only Cannon seemed to have found there niche with crime dramas and sequels rather than sticking with horror and exploitation.   The problem was Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus wanted Cannon to be more than what it was.  When that failed it came to a number of high-profile hail Maries that were meant to save the studio from bankruptcy.  In 1987 they made one last attempt, purchasing the rights to Superman from Ilya and Alexander Salkind, working with Warner Bros. for distribution and, at a budget of $36 million, putting into production the fourth film in the lucrative series.  Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve) starts contemplating what to do as his days protecting Earth continue.  He decides to sell his parents' farm, leaving an artifact on the property in case

I understand that David Lynch is a gateway to many aspiring filmmakers.  I also understand the need to be "clever" as there is a need to set one apart early in a career.  The problem is that every other young filmmaker who has an idea also knows the same thing.  Surrealism often helps to keep the critics at bay, and twist endings are often used to make up for lack of substance throughout the rest of the story. Mary (Deanna Russo) moves back to the suburb where she grew up as her husband has been transferred for job reasons.  She arrives a few days before her husband and kids with little furniture but a lot of time on her hands.  The furniture soon arrives courtesy of a disquieting delivery man (Jeff Daniel Phillips), but Mary is more concerned about a creepy ice cream man (Emil Johnsen) she sees delivering treats in the neighborhood. She soon meets her neighbors, as well as one of her neighbor's 18-year-old son Max (John Redlinger).  In a home without a husband or kids fo