Posts tagged Science Fiction
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS: A Mutant Franchise Learns To Control Its Powers
Dec 27th
As ready-made as some comic books might seem for film adaptations, some of them have a complexity that makes it difficult to capture their essence on the big screen. The X-Men is a good example: despite its movie-friendly elements - a strong component of melodrama, a guys-on-a-mission element that allows for multiple adventures — it More >
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES: The Damn Dirty Apes Are You And Me
Aug 15th
There was no reason to expect that was any further gold to be mined from the Planet Of The Apes franchise. As popular as it once was, the Apes series is often dismissed as camp by modern viewers (Your Humble Reviewer would argue otherwise) — and Tim Burton’s awful 2001 remake of the original film More >
Digi-Schlock: BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (Shout! Factory Blu-Ray)
Aug 12th
It’s been a while since Corman fans were last able to enjoy a New World Pictures classic on blu-ray. Thankfully, Shout! Factory has added a fan favorite to their collection of Corman blu-ray releases in the form of Battle Beyond The Stars. This release gives the film the special edition treatment it deserves, pairing a More >
BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS: A Cheerful Assault On The Big Studio Death Star
Aug 9th
The writing was on the wall when Steven Spielberg took material that would be considered drive-in fodder and crafted it into a mainstream blockbuster called Jaws. However, the real coup-de-grace came between 1977 and 1979 when 20th Century Fox released two monster hits, Star Wars and Alien. Like Jaws, both took b-movie storylines and applied More >
Digi-Schlock: MST3K VS. GAMERA (Shout! Factory 5-DVD Box)
Aug 5th
Shout! Factory has done well by fans since they picked up the Mystery Science Theater 3000 catalog, picking up where Rhino left off via both box sets and stand-alone discs. However, they’ve really done veteran fans a favor by collecting the long out-of-circulation Gamera episodes in one handy box. They’ve also added in a few More >
MST3K VS. GAMERA: A Wisecracking Don Quixote Finds His Atomic Windmill
Aug 2nd
A satirist is only as good as the material they are satirizing. The object of humorous scorn has to inspire obsession, an intense need to ridicule and a bizarre sense of affection in the satirist — all at the same time. If the satirist can find this kind of target, they can truly make magic. More >
Digi-Schlock: OBLIVION (Shout! Factory DVD)
Jul 15th
Shout Factory has become a real Santa Claus figure for cult movie fans in a short period of time: their Roger Corman releases are standard-bearers for the b-movie set and their excellent work the Gamera series and their ongoing MST3K line is nothing to sneeze at, either. Unfortunately, when you release tons of product, not More >
Digi-Schlock: DAMNATION ALLEY (Shout! Factory Blu-Ray)
Jul 14th
If you’ve paid attention to lists of holy-grail cult movie requests for video collectors in the last decade or so, chances are Damnation Alley was on a few of them. This elusive major-studio curiosity has been requested in the digital format by fans for over a decade. It almost got released some years back when More >
DAMNATION ALLEY: The Post-Apocalyptic Genre Meets Its Apocalypse
Jul 12th
Some movies are more interesting for what they represent than their actual artistic worth — and that can definitely be said for Damnation Alley. This big-budget adaptation of a cult fave novel by Roger Zelazny came out the same year as Star Wars — 1977 — and it represents the dying gasp of 1970’s-style dystopian More >
OBLIVION: A One Way Ticket To Boot Hill (With A Laser Gun)
Jul 11th
Charles Band has always gone for quantity in a big way. Whether you’re talking about his Empire or his Full Moon production companies, Band has never been afraid to pull the trigger and he filled theaters, video stores and pay cable stations with all manner of genre productions. Unfortunately, his push for quantity is often More >
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