"Imitation of Life" by REM.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Monday, December 30, 2013
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Song-A-Day: Death is the Road to Awe
"Death is the Road to Awe" by Clint Mansell, the Kronos Quartet and Mogwai - the most incredible track from the most amazing soundtrack to one of the greatest movies of all time!
Monday, December 23, 2013
Friday, December 20, 2013
Movie Review: Conan the Barbarian (2011)
Let me tell you a tale of the days of high
unoriginality and tedium…
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Song-A-Day: (You Must Fight to Live) on the Planet of the Apes
(You Must Fight to Live) on the Planet of the Apes by The Mummies.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Monday, December 16, 2013
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Movie Review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
You are planning on having an actual hobbit
in your Hobbit movie, yes?
Monday, December 9, 2013
Friday, December 6, 2013
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Song-A-Day: Drift
"Drift" from Pacific Rim, by Ramin Djawadi, RZA and Blake Perlman (daughter of Hellboy!).
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Monday, December 2, 2013
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Tales of the Shadowmen Vol. 10 is OUT NOW!
Regular readers may have noticed that I've been very irregularly posting reviews of the yearly anthology Tales of the Shadowmen from Black Coat Press, so I'm very excited to announce that I'll be having an entry in the latest volume. My short story "The Great Ape Caper" will be appearing in Tales of the Shadowmen, Vol. 10: Esprit de Corps, and concerns an aging Arsene Lupin staging a daring heist one evening in 1933 New York, just as a certain giant ape has escaped and starts wreaking havoc about town. It's pretty short, but I'm mighty proud of it and very honored to be appearing alongside such luminaries as Brian Stableford, John Peel and Michael Moorcock(!).
So do me a favor and buy the collection either here or the Amazon link below (and remember, buying directly from Black Coat Press means they won't have to take a cut in the earnings). And I promise I will finish reviewing the rest of the series...
Eventually.
Friday, November 22, 2013
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Monday, November 18, 2013
Friday, November 15, 2013
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Song-A-Day: On My Own
"On My Own" from the 2012 Les Miserables, sung by Samantha Barks. Tom Hooper's movie was a wild mixed bag of quality, but one thing's undeniable: all the actor's involved were incredible, like Ms. Barks in the above scene.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Monday, November 4, 2013
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Stream-And-Run, Halloween Edition: Maniac (2012)
Sadly, at no point was there flash-dancing
in this film…
Stream-And-Run, Halloween Edition: Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)
You can never go wrong with Peter Cushing…
Monday, October 28, 2013
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Stream-And-Run, Halloween Edition: The People Under The Stairs (1991)
They don’t come any weirder than this…
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Stream-And-Run, Halloween Edition: Seed of Chucky (2004)
“I don’t know much about myself. I know I’m an orphan. I know I’m a freak. And, of course, I know that I’m Japanese.”
Friday, October 25, 2013
Read My Story "The Man from ABYSS"
So, this is pretty cool...
My short story "The Man from ABYSS" will be appearing in the October issue of the e-zine Voluted Tales, which is out today! The story introduces my character Aleister Max - a sort of James Bond by way of HP Lovecraft, if we must do the cheap Hollywood pitch. Of course there's a little more to it than that, and I have some pretty big plans for the character on down the line, if things work out as such.
So do me a favor and check out the most recent issue of Voluted Tales, and you may want to go ahead and subscribe to the series itself, as they routinely feature a host of excellent genre fiction and articles.
Thanks a bunch!
Friday, October 18, 2013
TV-Theme-A-Day: Dick Tracy
After the Adam West Batman show came close to taking over the world there for a while there, producer William Dozier was eager to repeat the formula with other comic strip characters. The Green Hornet, Dick Tracy, Wonder Woman and Batgirl where all presented as possible series, although The Green Hornet was the only one to make it to series. The camp fad was over nearly as soon as it began, but not before a pilot was shot for the proposed Dick Tracy series. A shame that we never got anymore series out of the craze, but considering how quickly Batman wore out its welcome, it's probably a blessing.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Tuesday Review: A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
“Don't be upset about the
parachute. I'll have my wings soon anyway, big white ones. I hope it hasn't
gone all modern; I'd hate to have a prop instead of wings!”
Monday, October 14, 2013
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Musical-Number-A-Day: Royal Wedding - "You're All the World to Me"
Fred Astaire's famous ceiling dance, accomplished by attaching the set to a gimbal and rotating it while locking the camera in place - a technique that would later be borrowed by the likes of Stanley Kubrick and Christopher Nolan.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Musical-Number-A-Day: Gold Diggers of 1933 - "Remember My Forgotten Man"
One of Busby Berkeley's finest.
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Musical-Number-A-Day: Sweeney Todd - "Johanna (Reprise)"
"Johanna (Reprise)" from Sweeney Todd, just about the only thing of worth Tim Burton's done of late (that wasn't in animation).
Monday, October 7, 2013
Musical-Number-A-Day: Singin' in the Rain - "Make 'em Laugh"
"Make 'em Laugh" from Singin' in the Rain, performed by Donald O'Conner, who here outdoes most screen action heroes and comedians with just this one number.
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Sunday Review: Gravity (2013)
Can
you hear me, Major Tom? I’m stepping through the door, and I’ll be SPOILING
this movie in a most peculiar way...
Friday, October 4, 2013
Concept-Art-A-Day: Ran
In lieu of more traditional storyboards, for his 1985 masterpiece Ran Akira Kurosawa hand-painted each scene of the movie. The final film was painterly in the way only Kurosawa could be, but still doesn't quite match the raw power of the original paintings.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Concept-Art-A-Day: Battlestar Galactica
Not sure this painting for the original Battlestar Galactica qualifies as "concept art," but it's Frank Frazetta, so we'll let it slide.
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Concept-Art-A-Day: Batman: Year One
Proposed costume designs from Darren Aronofsky's sadly unproduced Batman: Year One.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Concept-Art-A-Day: Spider-Man
A Green Goblin proposal from Bernie Wrightson from the original 2002 Spider-Man, which is leagues better than the Power Ranger reject they wound up using in the actual film.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Concept-Art-A-Day: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Concept art from Raiders of the Lost Ark by the legendary Jim Steranko.
Friday, September 27, 2013
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Trailer-A-Day: From the Orient With Fury
From the Orient With Fury, aka Fury on the Bosphorus, aka what "motion picture experts call a masterpiece in international espionage."
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Trailer-A-Day: Magnolia
This trailer for PT Anderson's Magnolia is a perfect example of how to sell a movie: it gives absolutely no details of the plot itself, yet still is a perfect encapsulation of what is found in the finished product.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Trailer-A-Day: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, which, if we're being honest, makes for a better trailer than an actual movie. The feel and the look and the attitude behind it all was right, and the cast was rather excellent, but Kerry Conran's debut movie was lacking in the sort of red-blooded thrills found in the pulpy, serialized entertainment it sought to emulate.
But still, it's a pretty great trailer on it's own.
Monday, September 23, 2013
Trailer-A-Day: Starcrash
Starcrash from 1978, featuring the incomparable Caroline Munro, David Hasselhoff and Christopher Plummer (!). About as low-rent as it gets, but I'm far more willing to forgive plenty of imagination with no budget than I am budget with no imagination.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Sunday Review: Breakheart Pass (1975)
Alistair
MacLean? Interest picqued. Charles Bronson? Guaranteed look. Yakima Canutt?
Ticket SOLD…
Friday, September 13, 2013
Poster-A-Day: Zeppelin V. Pterodactyls
This unproduced effort from Hammer Films never got past the poster stage - the company went out of business before production could start. I don't know what's cooler: the fact that Hammer considered making a film called Zeppelin V. Pterodactyls, or that they came up with concepts for movies based on little more than a poster.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Poster-A-Day: Skyfall
Artist Mike Mahle set about to create new posters for all 23 Bond films - my favorite being this one he did for Skyfall. You can check them all out here.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Poster-A-Day: Dark of the Sun
Two today, because Dark of the Sun has so many badass posters it's impossible to choose just one. I must confess I still have yet to see this one, featuring Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux and Jim Brown, so shame on me. But with those three in the lead it's impossible to see how the film won't deliver. There's also apparently a chainsaw fight in the film that actually lives up to the poster, so that alone should be worth the price of admission.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Monday, September 9, 2013
Poster-A-Day: Cockfighter
Ah, the 70's.... When Warren Oates could star in a crime thriller about becoming Cockfighter of the Year.
It was a very special time.
Friday, September 6, 2013
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Scene-A-Day: The Wire
The standoff between Omar Little and Brother Mouzone that opens the season three episode "Middle Ground." The Wire was an amazing show all-around, but what impressed me most was it's ability to keep it's hard-nosed, ripped-from-the-headlines feel while still keeping a flair for the cinematic. It was a show that delved deep into the day-to-day bureaucracy and drudgery of police procedure, but that still made time to include scenes like the above, which would feel at home in some of the best Clint Eastwood westerns.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Monday, September 2, 2013
Friday, August 30, 2013
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Monday, August 26, 2013
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Book vs. Film: Casino Royale (1953/2006)
“The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning…”
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Monday, August 12, 2013
Friday, August 9, 2013
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Thursday Review: Sushi Girl (2013)
We’ll go ahead and get this out of the way: No, Mark Hamill does not play his role here like the Joker.