When Legendary Pictures’ MonsterVerse rumbled into movie theaters in 2014 with Godzilla, it did so with an advertising campaign that emphasized the movie’s gravitas. Director Gareth Edwards conservatively doled out peeks at the titular creature for two-thirds of the movie. The series’ second movie, Kong: Skull Island, showed a markedContinue Reading
Jules takes place in a small Western Pennsylvania town named Boonton, which is located just south of Pittsburgh. It’s one of those communities that seems to only exist in the movies where everyone knows everyone else’s business. For some reason, the town holds counsel meetings every week. Milton (Ben Kingsley)Continue Reading
An atomic-age update of Frankenstein, 1958’s The Colossus of New York takes Mary Shelley’s concept of man resurrecting the dead and puts a 1950s spin on it. Directed by Eugène Lourié (The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms,) the film has some visual panache, but is hampered by a weak script andContinue Reading
When I chose to review Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 2001 film, Pulse, I had no real idea what it was about. The title resonated because I had heard of a 2006 American remake. American remakes of Japanese horror films tend to remove most of the cultural elements that I find fascinating. ThisContinue Reading
In the 1970s, nature-runs-amuck movies became all the rage. One of the first of the decade, 1972’s Frogs, is not one of the better examples of the genre. Directed by George McCowan, who worked mostly in television, and scripted by Robert Hutchison and Robert Blees, Frogs revolves around a rich,Continue Reading
A meteor impacts the Earth somewhere in rural Wisconsin. As it falls, it causes a disruption in the atmosphere that alerts NASA and the Strategic Air Command to its presence. NASA sends Dr. Vance (Steve Brodie) to the area to meet with local astronomer Dr. Langer (Barbara Hale,) who hasContinue Reading
If you’ve ever wanted to know from where the idea for Godzilla originally spawned, look no further than 1953’s The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. It inspired not just Godzilla but virtually every atomic-age giant monster movie that followed it. In fact, it was the first movie to feature a creatureContinue Reading