Celebrating “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” Ten Years Later

In 2010, “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” shocked me. Not because of Edgar Wright. If there’s any director out there that knows pop culture, it’s Edgar Wright. It’s more so how much Edgar Wright understood the idea of pop culture and how absolutely annoying the idea of nostalgia had become. It’d somewhat become a monstrosity of awareness, sarcastic catch phrases, and smug gate keeping. While “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” is a wonderful film filled with laughs, and some excellent performances, it’s also a polemic about how much pop culture has replaced actual culture. While a lot of others saw it as a great action celebration, I saw it as immensely cynical. It’s also why I love it so much.

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Crackpot Christmas Movies: Encore Presentation

Santa teaming with Merlin the Magician to defeat Satan? Charlie Brown’s Christmas with a Rudy Ray Moore-worthy soundtrack? And why are the prehistoric Flintstones celebrating a holiday rooted in the birth of Jesus? “The Online Movie Show” decks the halls with an encore presentation of its Christmas show starring Facebook’s funniest man, Anthony “Kingfish” Vitamia, in a roast of the silliest, most violent and least likely holiday movies of all time. Continue reading

Five More Gems Still Not on DVD, Blu-Ray, or 4K UHD

While Studios are once again repackaging John Hughes movies in to yet another compilation Blu-Ray, and re-releasing “Grease” for the umpteenth time, there are still a laundry list of movies that have only ever been released on VHS and Laserdisc. Continuing from the last list, here are five more movies that deserve a Deluxe Physical release for collectors.

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Freaky (2020)

Blumhouse has found a little niche market in taking classic comedies and turning them in to bonafide horror movies. After “Happy Death Day 2 U,” they take the creaky Disney classic “Freaky Friday” and add a slasher twist to it. Shockingly, it works more times than it doesn’t. Christopher Landon doesn’t just embrace the classic narrative, but he tops it off with a gory slasher movie, and even injects so many LGBTQ overtones that it wouldn’t surprise me if it picked up steam as a LGTBQ classic very soon.

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The Bootleg Files: The Divine Mr. J

BOOTLEG FILES 749: “The Divine Mr. J” (1971 religious satire starring Bette Midler as the Virgin Mary).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO:
On a VHS label in 1984.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Legal threats by Bette Midler have kept this out of circulation.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Unlikely.

In May 1974, newspapers in New York City began to carry advertisements for a film opening at the Festival Theater called “The Divine Mr. J.” The advertisements alerted moviegoers this was the film debut of Bette Midler, who achieved her career breakthrough two years earlier with the album “The Divine Miss M,” and the caricature of Midler used on her eponymous second album was the featured image of the film’s promotion.
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This Thanksgiving, Stay Home and Watch These Five Great Movies about Food

2020’s been twelve months of pure chaos, but hopefully you can find some peace in viewing some great movies. For Thanksgiving while you’re chomping down on turkey, or tofurkey, or turducken, or whatever horrifying facsimile of turkey that you can concoct, be sure to stay home, and check out these five great movies about food. 

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