What I loved about “The Spine of Night” is that directors Philip Gelatt, and Morgan Galen King don’t shy away from the fact that their movie is meant to be a modern “Heavy Metal.” It’s an unabashed celebration of Ralph Bakshi, Frank Frazetta, steam punk, and heavy metal right down to the rotoscoping animation that is used to bring the film’s vision to life. The animation is right on par with what you’d expect from the master Ralph Bakshi but I was happy that the pair of directors who write the film kept true to the story that they were telling through the very end.
Tag Archives: Action
Expend4bles (2023)
Sylvester Stallone’s “The Expendables” was a fun novelty. In 2010. It took all of the big action stars from the eighties, striking the pleasure spots of Gen Xers and got by on its gimmick–for a while. It began life as “The giants of action cinema! All here! All kicking ass!” right down to “Well, here are people that have been in a few action movies.” With the series only four movies in, “The Expendables” has cashed in all of its nostalgia points. It’s now ironically transformed from a loving eighties homage to the one of the numerous clumsy, stale, action vehicles that many eighties action stars resorted to headlining in the late nineties and early aughts.
Bad Movie Monday: The Gauntlet (1977)
I was debating which movie to review this week. Normally, I always have a few titles floating merrily in the back of my mind. However, more often than not, I don’t write anything about them because they just don’t speak to me. They don’t stand out. A movie really needs to go that extra mile, and either be a lot better or a lot worse than I expected, in order to elicit a passionate need to discuss it in me. So I was in a bit of a pickle. I just couldn’t think of anything really worthwhile to review. Then, last week, my friend brought Clint Eastwood’s 1977 Cop Thriller THE GAUNTLET to Bad Movie Monday and I knew as soon as the end credits started rolling that this was the movie I was going to write about. Good God Almighty.
Bad City (2022)
In a city riddled with poverty and crime, a local corporate boss decides to go political to take control of laws and what is allowed to be built within city limits. At the same time, a gang war seems to be brewing. Soon, a special police unit is put together to investigate.
Bad Movie Monday: Winterbeast (1992)
My favourite kind of bad movie is the kind that has such crazy twists and turns, and is so borderline incomprehensible, that it makes me go “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?” when the end credits roll. The kind of movie whose editing seems to have been done by a drug addicted colour blind monkey with ADHD and two left hands. The kind of movie that doesn’t dwell too long on little minute details like acting or writing, or having scenes be in order. The kind of movie that feels like it was made by aliens trying to imitate human emotions, badly. So, with this in mind, today’s review is for a movie that embodies everything I love. WINTERBEAST is one of the more bonkers Bad Movie Monday entries that I’ve torture… I mean, entertained my friends with in a long time.
The Prodigal Son (1981) [Arrow Limited Edition]
A man who was always told he was the best master of kung fu discovers that it was a reputation bought for him by his father, leading him to question his life and seek the teachings of another master to truly become the best.
Big Bad Film Fest Shorts Block [Big Bad Film Fest 2023]
Following an adventure to get to the fest, partially caused by a drunken GPS and me not realizing I was going in the wrong direction until I was way too far, I missed some of the shorts, but using the listing from the fest’s site, I was able to retrace the films and here are a few thoughts on them.