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Category Archives: Reviews
Castor’s Underrated Gems: All That Jazz (1979)
Warts-and-all biopics are rarely given full breadth by the subject themselves but Bob Fosse defrocked himself of all aggrandizement and his gift of disclosure was All That Jazz. It’s a blazing crowning achievement from the Broadway director who channels his … Continue reading
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Castor’s Underrated Gems: Long Weekend (1978)
For those of you who thought the ecological terror that was promised in The Happening is worth another whirl, gaze your eyes backwards and discover the unsettling Australian chiller Long Weekend. The score is a discordant composition that could’ve been … Continue reading
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Castor’s Underrated Gems: The Stuff (1985)
As my colleague Robin has illustrated in the past, Larry Cohen is an auteur of bizarro, idiosyncratic cult cinema. The Stuff is a serrated satire on food marketing with the premise of a Roger Corman B-picture where a sentient, Fluff-like … Continue reading
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Runstedler’s DVD Pick of the Month: The Salvation
While it doesn’t really offer the Western genre anything new, who really cares? Kristian Levring’s excellent revisionist Western The Salvation, starring Mads Mikkelsen, the always charming Eva Green, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, is a great experience and full of surprises. It’s … Continue reading
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Tagged Danish, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Western
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The Reviewinator: Independence Day – Resurgence (2016)
20 years is a long wait for a sequel, but not that long if you weren’t actually waiting for it. I think most people gave up interest in an Independence Day sequel after a few years. The first movie, after … Continue reading
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The Reviewinator: Penny Dreadful (2014-2016)
Based on the popularity of “penny dreadfuls”, 19th Century British stories famous for their lewd and violent content, Penny Dreadful interweaves several classic horror stories and sets them in 19th Century London. You have Dracula, Frankenstein and his monster, Dorian … Continue reading
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The Reviewinator: The Conjuring 2 (2016)
Ghost movies based on true stories are tricky. How much truth is actually translated to the screen? How much is shed in favor of jump scares and big-budget climaxes? Not to mention the number of poor families that suddenly claim … Continue reading
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Castor’s Underrated Gems: A New Leaf (1971)
Years before she would direct the notorious box office fiasco Ishtar, writer-director Elaine May was a frequent collaborator with Mike Nichols. You may have heard of him considering he was the journeyman behind classics like Carnal Knowledge, The Birdcage and … Continue reading
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The Reviewinator: X-Men – Apocalypse (2016)
Eight movies in, not counting Deadpool, and any franchise would start to feel stale. They’ve already travelled through time once, so what’s to stop them from doing it again? It’s created a sort of “nothing matters anymore” kind of feel to it, stripping off … Continue reading
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The Reviewinator: Banshee (Season 4) (2016)
From the creator of True Blood, Alan Ball, comes this non-supernatural crime thriller, Banshee. With only four seasons, it’s significantly shorter than most TV shows strive to be. In an age where shows try to drag out forgettable storylines, not to mention … Continue reading
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