Footloose was released 40 years ago today. And I have never been able to sit through it. I remember my mom rented it for us to watch one evening and then we all got bored during the chicken race scene with the tractors. I was more fascinated by how Kevin Bacon’s Ren McCormack had theContinue reading “‘Footloose’ At 40: Still Too Outrageous To Be Enjoyed”
Category Archives: Flashback Friday Frights
‘Tremors’ Shakes Up Horror Genre
A movie like Tremors shouldn’t be as good as it is. Released during the winter of 1990, it was typically reserved for the bottom of the barrel of movies. Tremors boasted a nice cast of Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Reba McEntire and Michael Gross. It had also been scheduled to be released during the FallContinue reading “‘Tremors’ Shakes Up Horror Genre”
’12 Monkeys’ Is Bruce Willis’ Best
Now that he’s retired from acting and retreated from the public following a diagnosis of aphasia and reports from his family and friends that he can’t speak and has memory loss, at one time, Bruce Willis was one of the biggest stars in the world. Even though he didn’t make good movies most of hisContinue reading “’12 Monkeys’ Is Bruce Willis’ Best”
‘Edge Of Tomorrow’ Is ‘Groundhog Day’ Meets ‘War Of The Worlds’
Tom Cruise has grown from a 1980s teen heartthrob to a 1990s acclaimed actor to a 2000s action star to an overall odd celebrity. Maybe it’s the Scientology stuff. The whole Oprah episode didn’t help his reputation. There’s a lot of people who don’t like him even though at 61, he’s still jumping out ofContinue reading “‘Edge Of Tomorrow’ Is ‘Groundhog Day’ Meets ‘War Of The Worlds’”
‘Straw Dogs’ Has A Better Bite Over Its Original’s Meager Bark
Filmmaker Jean-Luc Goddard once said, “The way to criticize a film is to make another film.” In 1971, when Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs was released during the Christmas holiday season, it shocked audiences and divided them. Based on the novel The Siege at Trencher’s Farm, it starred Dustin Hoffman as a meager intelligent mathematician whoContinue reading “‘Straw Dogs’ Has A Better Bite Over Its Original’s Meager Bark”
‘The Wraith’ Scares Up A Good Time
A movie like The Wraith seems to be a casserole of genres. It’s about a murdered person who returns from the grave to exact revenge in a slasher style where each killer is murdered one by one mostly. But it’s also a western, set in the Arizona desert, where the main protagonist like Clint Eastwood’sContinue reading “‘The Wraith’ Scares Up A Good Time”
‘Identity’ Has A Great Look
A movie like Identity draws its inspiration from Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. A character even references it at one point. And why not? Most thrillers/horrors owe some debt to Christie and what she did to help the genre. But this movie has a twist that is so good that when you thinkContinue reading “‘Identity’ Has A Great Look”
‘Eye See You’ Coded But Has Some Life
Like most people, I spent my youth hanging out in the aisles of video rental places like Hollywood and Blockbuster. One day, I came across a shelf that had VHS and DVD copies of Eye See You starring Sylvester Stallone and wondered “How did I miss this?” I still read Entertainment Weekly, before the writersContinue reading “‘Eye See You’ Coded But Has Some Life”
‘Jacob’s Ladder’ Is A Nightmare That You Never Want To Experience
Christmas may be over but a movie like Jacob’s Ladder isn’t technically a Christmas movie. It’s set in the dreary late fall/early winter of December for a reason. It’s about the darkness a man experiences following a traumatic experience. Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) was once a philosophy professor but after his youngest son, Gabe (MacaulayContinue reading “‘Jacob’s Ladder’ Is A Nightmare That You Never Want To Experience”
‘Christmas Evil’ A Noteworthy Entry For The Killer Santa Horror Subgenre
There’s just something about Santa Claus that is so creepy when you look at it. He’s an omniscient omniprescient person who is immortal and is able to travel around the world like The Flash (or Quicksilver for the MCU fans) and deliver presents. Popularized in A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement Clark Moore, he’sContinue reading “‘Christmas Evil’ A Noteworthy Entry For The Killer Santa Horror Subgenre”
Zane Says 