Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

The biggest problem with Ghostbusters: Afterlife is its disregard for what makes the Ghostbusters tick. It’s like co-writer/director Jason Reitman racked his brain to find the most uncharacteristic thing the original characters could have done and just went from there. At the same time, that very thing was the only new or original thought that went...

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a film whose pleasures lie not in what happens so much as how it happens. Early on, Howard (Walter Huston) spells out the plot in broad strokes: “Never knew a prospector yet that died rich … going with a partner or two is dangerous. Murder's always lurkin' about....

King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

King Kong vs. Godzilla (hereinafter KKvG) is a silly little satirical sci-fi B film. It's also 16 minutes shorter and about a million times better looking and less fucking stupid than Godzilla vs. Kong. Practical special effects will always trump computer-generated imagery, and seldom does that superiority become more apparent than when you put these...

Merlin and the Book of Beasts (2009)

Merlin and the Book of Beasts is a lost opportunity. A bestiary that is both a compendium and a grimoire, imprisoning the very “monsters” that it catalogs, is a fantastic fantastical concept. Sadly, the magic just wasn’t there.  Morgan Le Fay stole the book from Merlin (James Callis) “many moons ago,” and now it is...

Man-Eater of Kumaon (1948)

Man-Eater of Kumaon prefigures such films as Jaws, The Ghost and the Darkness, and even Cujo, not just in their man vs. Animal premise, but most notably because they are all the fruit of honest hard work and sheer ingenuity. They sure don’t make ‘em like that anymore. The question is, why can’t they —...

The Mountain (1956)

The Mountain opens with a magnificent sequence, featuring a passenger plane crashing and burning near the top of Mont Blanc in the French Alps, that puts to shame the pitifully phony, computer-generated aerial (or land based, or maritime) action set pieces we see today even in high-profile, big-budget productions.  It's wonderful to behold in a...

The Thundermans Return (2024)

The only reason to watch The Thundermans Return is strapping young glamazon Kira Kosarin. She hasn’t changed a thing since the end of the original TV show, which means she still has that sexiest of all combinations: the sweet, innocent face of an angel on top of a pornstar body.   Kira always had a...

The Lost Medallion: The Adventures of Billy Stone (2013)

Watching The Lost Medallion: The Adventures of Billy Stone, I feel like Dirk Bogarde in Death in Venice. I'm inclined to believe that to elicit such an association from any viewer was not what writer/director Bill Muir had in mind — but then, why did he shoot a scene of a wet, shirtless, Tadzio-like Billy...

Mad Heidi (2022)

Why is Mad Heidi mad? The plot, such as it is, involves the use of dairy products (cheese in particular) for nefarious purposes, such as creating soft-brained “super soldiers;” could the first part of the title be an allusion to the mad cow crisis of the mid-90s? If so, that ship sailed long ago.   And...