Dead Air, Slapstick, and Lucas’ Last Laugh A Lucasfilm movie so panned on its original release that it almost made people forget Howard the Duck. When Universal accepted American Graffiti in 1972, George Lucas gave them first-look deals on two projects: Radioland Murders and “an untitled science fiction film.” One became the biggest franchise in … Read more
Real Genius arrived on Home Video back in February of 1986! Most 80s movies about smart kids don’t actually respect smart kids. Either they’re feckless loners (WarGames), hopeless losers (Revenge of the Nerds), emotionally volatile over-achievers (Breakfast Club) or taped-up coke-bottle-glass wearing jokes. Real Genius is different. It doesn’t just put the nerds in the … Read more
Spy Spoofs, Bright Yellow VHS, and Wellie-Wearing Cows Shhh! Top Secret! snuck onto home video this week back in 1984, after a lukewarm June 22nd theatrical release. Top Secret may have lost the box office battle against other ’84 summer heavy weights like Gremlins and Ghostbusters, but Val Kilmer’s cool, calm and quotable ZAZ spy … Read more
Teen Witch materialised on Home Video today in 1989, after an April 28th theatrical release. My favourite negative review of the film is by Chris Willman of the Los Angeles Times: “…complete with teen wish-fulfillment fantasies, condescending moralizing, asinine musical montages, horrifying pop songs, french kissing, blatant product plugs and Dick Sargent.” Those are also … Read more
The Soundtrack of 1985 for an R-Rated Record Breaker People forget just how huge this was. Adjusted for inflation, it’s still one of the highest-grossing R-Rated films in history – with a total US box office gross of 730,714,743 in 2024. The original home video release also broke some records too, with 1.3 million units … Read more
I’ll admit I’ve never actually gone to Camp, but thanks to a lifetime spent vicariously living through movies and TV shows, I feel like I have. And I’ve come to have a pretty solid understanding of what goes on there. Arts and crafts, skinny dipping, maybe some competitive white-water rafting, spooky stories around the campfire, … Read more
Bargain Bins, Box Art, and B-Movie Gold “Cellar Dweller (1988) is one of those classic rental titles that seemed to fall through the floorboards for almost 20 years. After the Empire collapse, and later the New World implosion, the only copies you could find were the bargain-bin dwelling low quality EP ‘Starmaker’ re-issues from ‘91. … Read more
Art Deco, Ghosts and Theatrics “From here on, it gets really scary!” That’s the immortal Geoffrey Rush as Stephen Price, channelling Vincent Price (in spirit and surname), in William Malone’s House on Haunted Hill (1999). This film is one of those rare late-90s horror gems that somehow manages to be campy, grotesque, and genuinely creepy … Read more