Springtime has arrived in California and do you know what that means? BUGS! During the past week I’ve battled a couple of spiders in my kitchen, wrangled with a beetle that invaded my bathroom and took up arms against a small army of moths raiding my closet. These creepy critters seem to be everywhere so it seemed like a good time to revisit one of … Continue reading WHEN INSECTS ATTACK: GENOCIDE (1968)
After reading and writing about Peter H. Brothers’ book Mushroom Clouds and Mushroom Men: The Fantastic Cinema of Ishiro Honda recently I was motivated to watch Dogora (1964), which is one of Honda’s lesser-known films and one that I hadn’t had the opportunity to see yet. I’m not sure how I managed to overlook this little gem involving a giant jellyfish from outer space with … Continue reading Jewel Thieves & Giant Monsters: DOGORA (1964)
For the past week the Bay Area has played host to a Godzillathon taking place at Viz Cinema in San Francisco’s Japan Town. This Godzilla film festival started on May 5th and ends tonight on May 13th with a showing of Yoshimitsu Banno’s film Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971). The Godzillathon coincided with what would have been film director and writer Ishiro Honda’s 99th birthday on May … Continue reading Mushroom Clouds and Mushroom Men: The Fantastic Cinema of Ishiro Honda
I spent Labor Day sick in bed. I was feverish, sore and incredibly cranky due to having my weekend plans derailed by a bad cold. On Monday night I began to feel slightly better after binging on Nyquil and homemade chicken soup so I curled up on the couch and turned on the TV. While searching for something to watch I stumbled on the recent … Continue reading GOING UNDER: REVISITING COMA (1978)
THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (’52) is available to stream on FilmStruck until October and if you haven’t seen this science fiction classic it’s a terrific opportunity to get caught up with one of the most acclaimed genre films released during the 1950s. If you have already seen it, you’ll find that it’s a great movie to revisit thanks to the snappy dialogue, solid cast … Continue reading 10 Fun Facts About THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1952)
For decades screaming was often the weapon of choice for women in action, science fiction, and horror films. We were expected to shriek, shout, yelp, whimper, squeal and squawk in the face of serious danger and (hopefully) a man would eventually come to our aide. So you can imagine how frightened I was when I first heard the tagline for ALIEN back in 1979. I was a … Continue reading IN SPACE NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM
Forget the overplayed John Hughes comedy HOME ALONE (’90). If you want to watch a fun family-friendly film during the holidays look no further than ALL MONSTERS ATTACK (’69) now streaming on the Criterion Channel of FilmStruck. This kinder and gentler Godzilla sequel was designed to appeal to kids of all-ages and features a young boy left home alone who must outsmart some hapless criminals … Continue reading Japan’s Home Alone: ALL MONSTERS ATTACK (1969)
I’m afraid I’ve been neglecting Cinebeats again but I’ve been busy with various personal projects and obligations. I’ve also recently started writing for Publishers Weekly but I thought I’d finally update with some highlights from TCM’s Movie Morlocks. Here’s some of the more interesting (in my estimation) film related writing & entertaining babble I’ve produced in the last 6 months. You might notice that the … Continue reading 6 Months of Film Writing
Highlights from my April & May contributions to TCM’s Movie Morlocks. You can read all the articles by following the links below: – Happy Birthday Doris! Excerpt: “The legacy of this vivacious movie star, popular vocalist, television personality and animal rights advocate is truly unparalleled. And knowing Doris Day’s is still here with us doing good work that benefits us all is something worth celebrating!” … Continue reading April & May at The Movie Morlocks
I was disappointed to learn that H.R. Giger has died at age 74. He was a brilliant man and one of my favorite artists. In recent years he was still active and his work has been on my mind a lot following the release of PROMETHEUS (2012). I hoped that we’d get the opportunity to see more of his film production work before he left … Continue reading H.R. Giger 1940-2014
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