It’s now available at ClassicMoviesNow.com through MGM’s made-on-demand program, with no frills attached, but the important thing is that it’s out at all … assuming you’re a Price checker. If you liked his AIP vehicles adapting Edgar Allan Poe, you’ll probably feel the same about this AIP vehicle adapting Jules Verne — two novels, to […]
Rod Lott
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True Legend
To HK aficionados, this will come as no shock, as the film bears the directorial credit of Yuen Woo Ping. Although known to American audiences as the guy behind the wire-fu choreography of “The Matrix,” “Kill Bill” and “Charlie’s Angels,” he’s responsible for the whole of some kick-ass projects in his homeland, including Chan in […]
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Hesher / Just Peck
In the infancy of “Saturday Night Live,” John Belushi starred in a sketch about an obnoxious party guest, “The Thing That Wouldn’t Leave.” That’s the character of Hesher in a nutshell, minus the cultural impact. As played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“Inception”), he’s an aimless, homeless, near-worthless stoner metalhead who essentially enters the house of grieving […]
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The Venetian Affair
“Venetian” opens with a bang — an explosion at the table of a nuclear disarmament summit, and the person to blame is one of the men sitting there: the diplomat repping the United States. Fenner, now replete with sobriety issues, is called back into action in a plot that involves peeping telescopes, fatal gunshots, secret […]
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Mean girl
Warning: Lisa Lampanelli said her stand-up comedy act is like anal sex: “At first, it’s a little uncomfortable, but with enough liquor and lube, it’s a surefire hit.” See for yourself how it hurts so good when the “Queen of Mean” brings her barbs to FireLake Grand Casino on Friday. An audience favorite of Comedy […]
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‘Pan’ am
After playing Peter Pan an estimated 3,000 times over 20-some-odd years, one could expect Cathy Rigby to feel an ownership of the role. She does, but not to the point where she’ll only eat the brand of peanut butter that bears the character’s name. “I eat any peanut butter I can get,” Rigby said. “I […]
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Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
Now that said original has been reissued, coattail-ridin’ style, by Warner Archive, I’d alter that response to, “I liked it OK, but I definitely still prefer the original.” With much fewer resources, the 1973 version is far more effective. The person being menaced by the trolls in the walls has always been Sally, but here, […]
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Bad Dreams / Visiting Hours
“Bad Dreams” centers on Cynthia (Jennifer Rubin), the lone survivor of a Jonestown-esque religious cult that ended in a blaze 13 years ago, when its charismatic brainwasher of a leader, Harris (Richard Lynch, “Invasion U.S.A.”), soaked everybody in gasoline a lit a match. She’s spent the entire time since in a coma. Almost immediately upon […]
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Sword and Sorcery Collection
Two of them, 1984’s “The Warrior and the Sorceress” and 1985’s “Barbarian Queen,” were paired in a double-feature DVD last year that you now need to sell or pay forward. Here, they’re joined by 1983’s “Deathstalker” and 1987’s “Deathstalker II.” As you may have surmised, barbarian movies were big business in the 1980s, following Arnold Schwarzenegger’s […]
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Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
But let’s give credit where credit is due: This is a remake of a fondly remembered, made-for-TV movie in 1973. Although effects have come a long, long way, baby, I still prefer the original. Living underneath the new-to-them Rhode Island mansion of architect Alex (Guy Pearce, “Animal Kingdom”); interior-designer girlfriend Kim (Katie Holmes, TV’s “The […]