Back in 2007, I reviewed “Spine Tingler!” for the Slamdance Film Festival, a yearly event that’s much more entertaining and fulfilling than its counterpart Sundance. “Spine Tingler!” is quite possibly one of the best horror documentaries and film documentaries of all time ranking with “The Kid Stays in the Picture” and “The Shark is Still Working” as the account of a Hollywood mogul and his attempts to make filmmaking so much more fun not only for the man behind the camera, but for the folks watching in the audience.
Tag Archives: Comedy
Blood Dolls (1999)
It burns us! It burns us! Ow… just ow! I am a humongous fan of “Puppet Master” and as someone who grew up with early nineties cable where they did nothing but play crappy C grade horror, I basically was spoon fed a diet of Troma, Full Moon, Monstervision, and anything with the title “Marilyn Chambers” as my midnight naughty entertainment and I just flat out enjoyed almost anything I could get my hands on that was bargain basement including “Puppet Master” which is admittedly silly and surreal, but still a lot of fun. Hell, I sat through “Prehysteria” three times!
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead (2010)
I was a little hesitant to actually sit down and watch Jordan Galland’s horror comedy since its box describes it as being akin to a Woody Allen film as well as an homage to Shakespeare, because let’s face it, horror fans just don’t care about Shakespeare much. But what I experienced was something of a mixed bag of a horror comedy that is both very intelligent and very entertaining. Not only does the film manage to subtly breakdown famous stage plays and literature of all kinds, but it’s a horror comedy very much in the vein of the eighties comedies in which our hero is an inept schlub who is oblivious to the horror around him until it’s much too late to do anything about it.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Ultimate Collector's Edition (DVD)
Milos Forman’s masterpiece of dramatic filmmaking is a movie that has managed to elude me for literal years. I’ve tried to track down “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” for ages (it’s been my white whale), and every time it’s been one more of the many classics that was easily out of my grasp for one reason or another. Being given the opportunity to watch the film finally in a touched up widescreen edition with 5.1 surround sound managed to be the experience I’ve been waiting for, and Forman’s master opus is well worth the hype.
Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)
Monty Python takes no prisoners with what is a movie based around the stupidity, hypocrisy and inherent fallacies of religion, and the entire idea of martyrdom, in which a man named Brian seeking only to gain some sense of importance is suddenly a messiah and god, and only by accident. He has the origins of a normal Biblical figure, but after encountering Romans, mindless followers, moronic praisers, violent apostles, and the like, Brian mid-way discovers that he really never wanted to be anywhere near as important as the boy born in the manger next to him named Jesus.
The Continuing and Lamentable Saga of the Suicide Brothers (2009)
To say that “The Suicide Brothers” is something of a whimsical bit of surrealism is an understatement. “The Suicide Brothers” is an utter demonstration in absolute folklore that meshes urban legend, Tim Burton fantasy, and as an absolute demonstration of that classic tale of a figure seeking death and finding it when they’ve stopped searching. Rupert Friend’s “The Suicide Brothers” is a look at two brothers in the dark forest of Bavaria who take it upon themselves to engage in a ritual suicide attempt almost every single night.
The Solo Adventures (2010)
Director Daniel Smith and Co-Collaborator Jeff Sheetz took it upon themselves to create possibly one of the finest homages to the “Star Wars” universe of all time, and one of the most clever looks in to the untold story of Lucas’ most iconic characters by taking the combined talents of Dave School from Universal Studios to tell their own prequel, the prologue to Han Solo and Chewbacca.