Unlike the knock-offs that followed in “Blair Witch”‘s wake a decade ago (“The St. Francisville Experiment,” anyone?), the new crop realizes there’s more to the subgenre than merely tweaking the title. (Well, everyone but The Asylum and their “Paranormal Entity.”) In first-time writer/director Dominic Perez’s “Evil Things,” five college students (whose actors are largely as […]
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24 Hours to Kill / Assignment to Kill
In 1965’s “24 Hours to Kill,” the title carries a winking dual meaning. Mickey Rooney is Jonesy, part of an airline crew en route to Athens, but forced to make an emergency landing in Beirut, of all locales. As soon as he’s on the ground and headed to the hotel, he notices he’s being followed. […]
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Tekken
Turns out, the movie isn’t much more complex. Its near-future setting imagines a grim scenario following “the terror wars,” where the globe then is ruled by eight corporations. America has fallen to Tekken, where metal-helmeted warriors known as Jackhammers enforce the corrupt government, which has banned coffee, chocolate and oranges. But in the appropriately named […]
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The Sweet Life
Purported to be a rom-com for those who dislike rom-coms, the 2003 work is unfortunately as generic and unremarkable as its title. That’s too bad, because I was an insta-fan of James Lorinz since his inspired turn in Frank Henenlotter’s notorious “Frankenhooker” of 1990. Here, now with a Pooh belly he hides beneath flame-embossed bowling […]
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Big Bad Mama / Big Bad Mama II
<iframe marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" style="width: 120px; height: 240px;" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=oklahgazet-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0042FUHUM&fc1=000000&IS2=1 As a grade schooler who harbored a sizable crush on Angie Dickinson watching her as Pepper Anderson in the mid-’70s TV series “Police Woman,” I always wanted to see her in “Big Bad Mama” whenever it popped up on cable. Naturally, with it being rated R, I […]
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Not of This Earth
<iframe marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" style="width: 120px; height: 240px;" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=oklahgazet-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003XL6EIA&fc1=000000&IS2=1 You can tell from the start that the 1988 remake of “Not of This Earth” is going to be a blast, because the credits are compiled using scenes from entirely different films, with their only point of commonality being owned by Roger Corman. Full of goopy monsters […]
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The Goonies: 25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition
<iframe marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" style="width: 120px; height: 240px;" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=oklahgazet-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B000QFW7UA&fc1=000000&IS2=1 Two warnings about the new, quarter-century anniversary Blu-ray set of “The Goonies“: 1. It will make you feel really old. 2. That damn Cyndi Lauper tie-in song will lodge in your brain for hours, if not days. The Steven Spielberg-produced, Chris Columbus-penned, Richard Donner-directed spectacle holds up […]
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Sherlock Holmes: 1964-1965
<iframe marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" style="width: 120px; height: 240px;" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=oklahgazet-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003NF97NA&fc1=000000&IS2=1 Who cares if BBC’s two-disc “Sherlock Holmes” set comes late to the release party spurred by last Christmas’ Robert Downey Jr. blockbuster reboot? At least it’s here, and I thought it was lost forever. To be specific, this “Sherlock” is the short-lived 1964-65 BBC series starring Douglas […]
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5 Films by Dario Argento
2008 As it should, the blood flows bright red in the Italian giallo movies that comprise Anchor Bay’s box set “5 Films by Dario Argento.” Known for his stylish eye behind the camera —? not to mention the oft-traumatized eyes in front of the camera —? Argento is one of the few directors worthy of […]