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Tag Archives: Comedy
Deconstructing Hollywood … for laughs: Hellzapoppin (1941)
http://youtu.be/Sr00G-UMgVU
A friend who teaches film to university students occasionally offers a course in comedy. He’d originally thought it would be fun, but was quickly disillusioned. Of course, comedy, more than drama, tends to be specific to its context as jokes … Continue reading
John Dies At the End … and that’s not a bad thing
I’ve been a fan of Don Coscarelli’s work since the first time I saw Phantasm in 1979. Made when he was just 24, that film followed two “family” features – Jim, The World’s Greatest (1976, co-directed with Craig Mitchell), about … Continue reading
Year End 2012
A few days ago I spent the evening with four friends at our annual get-together to discuss what we had seen during the past year. Back when I was first invited to join the group years ago, there would often … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged BFI, Comedy, Criterion, Fantasy, Home Video, Ken Russell
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More in-flight entertainment
Flying to England a few weeks ago for my nephew’s wedding, my experience of airline entertainment was even less satisfying than on my trip to Beijing last year. As before, the wide selection of movie choices was undeniably eclectic – … Continue reading
DVD Review: The Disco Exorcist (2011)
It’s 1979 and blithely charming narcissist Rex Romanski (Michael Reed) spots sultry Rita Marie (Ruth Sullivan) across the disco floor. Dancing inevitably leads to hot sex and they meet up at the club again the next night. But Rex’s eye … Continue reading
Recent Viewing part 3: brief notes
Two years after writing The Wild Bunch (1969), Walon Green teamed up with respected documentary producer David L. Wolper for one of the oddest films ever to win an Academy Award. The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971), although it got the Oscar … Continue reading
Posted in Review
Tagged Comedy, Directors, Documentary, DVD, Literary Adaptation, Thrillers
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Goon: Made in Winnipeg
Winnipeg may have been put on the cinematic map by the international success of Guy Maddin, and there have occasionally been other interesting home-grown movies – the best feature ever made here, Greg Hanec’s Downtime (1985), is finally getting a … Continue reading
Stanley Kubrick 4B: America in England
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
By 1964, Stanley Kubrick had been honing his filmmaking skills for more than ten years in a series of increasingly ambitious projects, all of which were somewhat conventional in terms of form and content – film noir, historical epic, war … Continue reading
Posted in Review
Tagged Actors, Comedy, Directors, George C. Scott, nuclear war, Peter Sellers, Sidney Lumet, Stanley Kubrick
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Recent viewing – theatrical
I actually got out to see three movies in the theatre in January. Surprisingly, I liked all of them. Haywire (2011) by Steven Soderbergh Over the years, I’ve found Steven Soderbergh’s work to be very hit-and-miss. When he’s good (from … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Action, Actors, Comedy, Directors, Review, Roman Polanski, Steven Soderbergh, Thrillers, Tomas Alfredson
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DVD diary: September – part two
Dark Of The Sun (1968) The great cinematographer Jack Cardiff, responsible for the dazzling imagery of Michael Powell’s A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947) and The Red Shoes (1948), and Albert Lewin’s Pandora and the Flying … Continue reading
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Tagged Action, Animation, British Film, Comedy, Directors, Documentary, Horror, Mexican Film, Review
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