Want to hear something funny? As I was sitting here, getting ready to write this review, I only just this very second realized that “Black Christmas” is a play on words. Specifically, it twists around the cheerful upbeat title of the 1954 movie White Christmas starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. In my usual clueless chimpanzee-like way I had never made this connection even though I must have seen the original Black Christmas thirty times in the last thirty-five years. Anyway, that’s my way of introducing today’s movie. Which is not the original, but instead the 2006 remake starring Katie Cassidy, Michelle Trachtenberg, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Oliver Hudson, Lacey Chabert, Kristen Cloke, and Andrea Martin. It was directed by Glen Morgan, who was a brilliant writer on The X-Files and a not so brilliant writer on the most recent incarnation of The Twilight Zone.
Every WWE Studios Film Ranked
When you think of WWE, you immediately think of the wrestling ring. But the company has also been an active participant in the movie world, and this year marks the 20th anniversary of its foray into cinema.
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (2022)
The Walt Disney Co. hasn’t done very much since it acquired the trademark to the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit character in 2006 – for those unfamiliar with the back story, Walt Disney created Oswald for Universal Pictures in 1927 and made 27 silent black-and-white shorts. But Disney lost the rights to the character, at which point he created a new character called Mickey Mouse.
Continue reading
Stonks Goes the Distance! (2022)
Stock trading and investing might not sound like the most obvious choice a children’s book, but the 2021 “Stonks on the Moon!” by the pseudonymous Professor Clark offered a playful mix of child-friendly fiction (complete with anthropomorphic animals and a story about believing in one’s purpose) with sly tributes to investing world’s machinations – including the “to the moon” focus of “apes” and characters that bore more than a coincidental resemblance to Tesla chieftain Elon Musk and financial analyst Keith Gill.
Continue reading
BAD MOVIE MONDAY: SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT (1972)
I would have bet anyone a thousand dollars that 1972’s SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT directed by Theodore Gershuny had been renamed to its current title for a home video release around 1984 in order to cash in on the then new Silent Night, Deadly Night, and I would have lost that bet. “The film was given a limited release in the United States under the title Night of the Full Dark Moon through Cannon Films, beginning November 17, 1972. It was subsequently released as Silent Night, Bloody Night in the spring of 1973 and continued to screen under this title through December 1973.”
Streaming Sundays: Guillermo Del Toro Reimagines A Classic Neo-Noir Thriller in Nightmare Alley
Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley is a masterclass in reimagining a classic film. This lively neo-noir is as vibrant in color as it is in black and white. You can now stream this new classic on HBO Max.
The Bootleg Files: The Farmer Brown PSAs
BOOTLEG FILES 821: “The Farmer Brown PSAs” (a series of late-1970s public service announcements produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture).
LAST SEEN: On YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Old PSAs that have been out of release for decades.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not on their own, but maybe in an anthology collection.
During the late 1970s, there was a growing level of concern among pediatricians, nutritionists and parents’ groups regarding the diet of the average American youth – that generation was raised amid a proliferation of fast-food eateries and an endless bombardment of advertisements for low-nutrition food and beverages, and the threat to the well-being of the nation’s young people was considered to be significant.
Continue reading



