Little Big Prince
In France, the publishing world is falling over itself to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s modern book of parables, Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince). In the book, the title character relates the story of his cosmic adventures to a downed pilot on Earth. Since its writing in 1943, the book has [...]
War and Tulips
George Pal’s Tulips Shall Grow was released in 1942. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Cartoons this stop-action masterpiece is about the enduring love between a Dutch boy and girl who face the invasion of their idyllic homeland by The Screwballs: A race of mechanical men who threaten to destroy everything in [...]
Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video: SNL’s First Film
Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video is a film from 1979 written, directed and hosted by Michael O’Donoghue. O’Donoghue was a writer and a featured player during Saturday Night Live’s first seasons and this flick features appearances by many of the original Not Ready for Primetime Players including Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Gilda Radner. The film [...]
Dennis Hopper's Wild Ride
People who know me know I love to read and during the holidays I look forward to the books I’m inevitably gifted almost as much as I look forward to the fun, food, family and friends. I’ve been plowing through some of the books St. Nick sent my way and am planning on mentioning some [...]
Alejandro Jodorowsky: Star Man
Alejandro Jodorowsky is one of my favorite artists of all time. One reason why I love this guy’s work so much is that he does it all: writer, director, actor, mime, magician, comic book author, tarot card expert. He’s completely brilliant and hilarious, and both of those traits are present in his films – which [...]
River Phoenix Rises Darkly
Actor and musician River Phoenix died from drug-induced heart failure in 1993. Only 23 years old, Phoenix had delivered intense, emotional performances in movies like Stand By Me, Running on Empty, Dogfight and My Own Private Idaho, and he was working on a film called Dark Blood when he passed away. That film will finally [...]
Hell Yes
I’ve sang the praises of Withnail and I on the blog before, but I was recently reminded of another, great, bizarre British comedy that also debuted in 1987. I’m not sure what was in the water that year, but it was something compellingly strange and relentlessly absurd. Looking at DVD’s online, I came across a [...]
Boys will be Boys
Hollywood usually blows it when it comes to conspiracy theory movies, but in 1978 they got it right. Here is Wiki’s take on The Boys from Brazil: Young, well-intentioned Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg) stumbles upon a secret organization of Third Reich war criminals holding clandestine meetings in Paraguay and realizes that Dr Josef Mengele (Gregory [...]
