Fantasia 2018 starts this week! This week!
Kermit arm flailing time, it’s time to get excited and get deciding on what to see. OMG So. Many. Movies. I mean I want to see it all! But this year I cannot go for all the fest, but only a few days, so I will have to make choices, but not just yet, as right now is time to dream. Dream of what I want to see, not just what I can see. Here is, in a totally not scientific way, but a nerdtastic way, the films that have me muppeting all over the place.
Zombie movies have become the superhero movies of modern age where not a lot of people think there can be much original material to mined from it anymore. This year has proven those skeptics wrong with the haunting “Cargo,” and the incredibly complex “The Night Eats The World.” A healthy mix of “I Am Legend,” “Dawn of the Dead,” and “Castaway,” it’s ten minutes too long, but manages to come out in the end as a scary zombie movie with insight about the horrifying world that can linger outside of our doors.
The Wasp is one of the oldest, most important Marvel characters of all time (she was one of the original five Avengers), and she’s also someone who has been waiting in the wings for far too long. In “Ant-Man and The Wasp,” the heroine finally gets her due in a movie that’s about her legacy as much as it is about the Avengers, and Ant-Man, overall. After the two heavy meals that were “Black Panther” and “Infinity War,” Peyton Reed’s return to “Ant Man and the Wasp” is like a nice light after dinner sorbet. It’s a palate cleanser, it’s simple, and it’s quite good.
I’ve had a lot of time to think about Lowell Dean’s follow up to 2014’s “WolfCop,” and while I did love the original movie for its balls and unique premise, I can’t say I loved “Another…” Is it a poor follow up to the original? Absolutely not, but with the bigger budget and massive acclaim, it feels more like Dean forced a lot of the cult aspects, and has a tough time progressing the narrative of his hero Lou Garou. That said, “Another WolfCop” is still a fun cult movie romp that gets a nice blu-ray treatment for fans.
BOOTLEG FILES 644: “Hitler Lives” (1945 short film that won the Academy Award).
LAST SEEN: It is on YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: A mistaken belief that it is in the public domain.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.
When the 18th Academy Awards were presented in March 1946, much of the attention was devoted to Joan Crawford winning the Best Actress Oscar for her comeback performance in “Mildred Pierce” and to Billy Wilder’s “The Lost Weekend” winning the Best Picture honors. Less attention was given to the Warner Bros. short “Hitler Lives,” which won the Best Documentary Short Subject Oscar. Unknown to the Oscar audience that night, “Hitler Lives” was not an original film, but rather a rehash of an Army training film. And calling the film a documentary was charitable, as the film was clearly more of a propaganda essay than a serious nonfiction production.
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As part of our Female Filmmaker Friday series, we will bring films by women to everyone’s attention each Friday.
Based on the life and crimes of female serial killer Aileen Wuornos, “Monster” is an acclaimed true crime biography starring Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci that garnered Oscar nods and plenty of awards.
Friday the 13th, the Shudder streaming service is hosting a twenty four hour horror movie marathon with the one and only Joe Bob Briggs. Explained as his alleged last marathon and time on television, Joe Bob will take us through his classic format of unfiltered opinions, jokes, one-liners, and Drive-In Totals. But this time we’ll be submitted to some great horror films unedited, uncut, and in all of their glory. I for one intend to get in as many movies as possible (I can’t stay up 24 hours anymore), and I hope you’ll join Joe Bob and his legion of mutants to ring in possibly the last marathon the main man will ever host.
Here are five fun ways you can prepare for “The Last Drive In.”