Noticias

Perhaps the unlikeliest superhero franchise of all is "The Toxic Avenger," a low-budget flick produced by Troma Entertainment in the '80s. As the cult classic gradually found its audience, it spawned a line of sequels, a wave of merchandising, even its own widely forgotten animated series. Blending gory horror with cheap superhero action, often with an undercurrent of social commentary, the Toxic Avenger was the ultimate underdog hero for the late '80s and early '90s. But rather than falling into obscurity, the Toxic Avenger has risen from the cinematic grave multiple times since his debut, including with the property's Peter Dinklage-led revival in 2025.

For those who missed out on Toxie, as fans refer to him, and are curious about the mutated crusader, there's a whole history to the franchise's surprising growth. The influence of the Toxic Avenger series has an impressive span, including with "Guardians of the Galaxy...

“Happy Gilmore 2” is a happy orgy of raucously well-executed Adam Sandler fan service. It’s a pointed exercise in nostalgia, but with a present-tense edge. It’s not some fake update of the clever/dumb brand of slob comedy that made Sandler a superstar in the ’90s. It’s the genuine article, a true revival of Sandler’s Jerry Lewis-meets-rock ‘n’ roll rage. A sequel to his fabled 1996 golf comedy, it extends that movie’s anarchy-on-the-putting-green spirit as blithely as if the original had been made yesterday.

In the ’90s comedies that defined him, Sandler portrayed himself as an arrested man-child, the kind of antisocial loser who had to fight his way in. So you may ask: How easy is it for him to play the misfit-outsider today, now that he’s been encased in so many years of stardom?

It turns out to be easy as hell,...

Harmony Korine is hard to pin down: Stylistically, ideologically, and even rhetorically. While leading a Q&a with him before a mostly teenage and 20-something crowd at the Ringling College of Art and Design at the Sarasota Film Festival on April 12, that quickly became apparent.

Like he was once again appearing on “The Late Show with David Letterman,” as he did frequently in the 1990s, Korine gave some amusing answers — maybe non-answers.

What inspired his latest film, “Baby Invasion“? “I’d seen this Phil Collins video, and I just remember watching it, and I had been drinking Mountain Dew and eating Skittles, and I was playing a lot of Tetris, and the movie just came to me.”

What made him fall in love with Florida, where he’s made his recent movies and has headquartered his company Edglrd? “Strip malls. I was investing in this company that just builds strip malls,...

Every once in a while, a movie makes so much money that it totally shakes up the film industry. This instance is especially true when a genre many considered dead and buried comes along and makes some serious cash. This rarity happened in a big way back in 1999 when American Pie, a movie that cost $11 million, made $235 million worldwide. Think about it – the biggest star in the film was Eugene Levy. More than that – it was a teen sex comedy. That genre played out in the early eighties when Porky’s was such a big hit that every studio decided to make a sex comedy, and pretty much all of them tanked – especially the multiple Porky‘s sequels. Teen sex comedies were replaced by John Hughes’s brand of more thoughtful teen comedies, only for that genre to fall off as well. A year before, Sony made a John Hughes-style teen comedy,...

It's been a rough time being a Looney Tunes fan lately. Warner Brothers just took the classic cartoons off Max and, up until this week, the famous studio wasn't going to release their completed live-action/animated hybrid adventure Coyote vs. Acme. In an unprecdented move, that film is currently in talks to be saved by Ketchup Entertainment. This is the same company that recently released The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie. Now, to celebrate this recent Looney Tunes development, you can pre-order The Day the Earth Blew Up on Blu-ray.

The Blu-ray edition of The Day the Earth Blew Up is currently up for pre-order on Amazon for $26.98 Usd. There's no official cover art for the release yet, simply a placeholder image featuring the film's main poster. This has Daffy Duck and Porky Pig being abducted by a spaceship. However, the physical media version has a release date of Tuesday,...

In the spring, a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. For Eli Roth in spring, however, his fancies tend to turn darker, more menacingly humorous, and toward the more bloodily outrageous. Take his plans for March 21. That’s when the horror film director-writer will be putting out the first release of his collaboration with the Italian soundtrack label Cam Sugar, “Eli Roth’s Red Light Disco: Dancefloor Seductions From Italian Sexploitation Cinema,” which will be distributed through Universal Music.

March 21 is also the day that Roth begins offering “stock” to his rabid fanbase in what he calls his independent “mini-studio,” the Horror Section, in partnership with the investing platform Republic.

An obsessive when it comes to music and film — be it admiration for the currency of horror filmmakers, his own slasher cinematic catalog, or the “commedia sexy all’italiana” soundtracks of the 1970s and early 1980s...

Daffy Duck and Porky Pig attempt to thwart an insidious alien invader in a funny but exceedingly wacky original theatrical adventure. The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Moviegives the beloved childhood icons a 2D, hand-drawn cinematic canvas for total chaos and buffoonery. The screwball plot mostly delights as zany twists run amok until a wild ending that honestly overreaches. The bag of nuts tastes yummy until it doesn't. The filmmakers deserve a golf clap for creativity and stoking fandom's nostalgia, but should have reigned in the hijinks for the bonkers finale.

The Day the Earth Blew Up opens with Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, both voiced by the Emmy-winning and supremely talented Eric Bauza, as youngsters in a precarious predicament. Farmer Jim (Fred Tatasciore) saves the troublesome tykes and becomes an adopted father trying to corral their ridiculous shenanigans. Daffy grows to be intense and uncontrollable while...

Horror cinema has a strange habit of resurrecting itself from time to time. The Universal monsters of the 1930s enjoyed a technicolor reincarnation in the Hammer films of the late 1950s; slasher films bled out by the mid-'80s, but Scream brought them back with a vengeance; and the walking dead just keep coming back for more. Today's zombie fans can easily see why this trope never dies with this list of terrifying 20th-century cult classics and hidden gems.

Everyone knows that George Romero is the reigning champion of zombie cinema, but the tradition he established has begotten a horde of powerful and innovative followers whose films still stand up today. This horror history lesson will show fans of modern hits like The Walking Dead and the 28 Days Later franchise that their faves come from a grand tradition that refuses to stay dead.

This Early Zombie Film Is Still...

Most people with a cursory knowledge of Hollywood history have a general understanding that the movie stars of today were the unknown (or barely-knowns) of yesterday, and that most actors get their start in projects that are either barely seen or exist at some level of disrepute. It's a bit of camp fun to check out some of these unlikely early works and see future A-list talent turn up in B-movies: Tom Hanks in "He Knows You're Alone," for instance, or Meg Ryan in "Amityville 3-D," or Denzel Washington in "Carbon Copy." Then there's the flip side of this phenomenon, where a future star gets a big, juicy role in a prestige picture made by an established director, like Dev Patel in "Slumdog Millionaire," or Hailee Steinfeld in "True Grit."

There is also, however, a happy medium to these two extremes: a film made by a Hollywood legend which debuts...

Last weekend, we celebrated 10 years of fears at the 10th annual Tampa Bay Screams horror convention. Our afternoon was spent at the Occ Roadhouse and Museum in Clearwater, Florida. Despite the rainy, chilly, weather the pavilion hosting the dealer’s dungeon, panel stage, and film festival was lively and attendees were in good spirits.

While last year’s convention showed the resilience of the Tampa Bay horror communities in the face of seemingly endless budget cuts, this year radiated a sense of confidence and air of “we aren’t going anywhere.” After the Tampa Bay area was hit with two devastating hurricanes in late 2024, events like this are more important than ever as they bolster relationships and support systems in the arts community.

Seeing the menagerie of subgenres and fans is always a treat at conventions like this. There is just as much enthusiasm for the high-concept, high-budget, classics as...

Murder By Decree (4Kuhd) (4K Uhd) From Bob Clark, the acclaimed director of Dead of Night, Black Christmas, Breaking Point, Porky’s and A Christmas Story, comes this horrifying murder-mystery which pits legendary detective Sherlock Holmes against the notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper! When Scotland Yard is unable to stop the gruesome rampage of Jack the Ripper, a citizens’ committee asks Sherlock Holmes and his trusted associate Dr. John H. Watson to investigate. Now the brilliant pair must follow a terrifying trail of clues that includes a frightened psychic, a suspicious inspector (David ... Read more...

The first word heard in “Feeling Randy” is “boner,” which, when taken together with the film’s title, promises a salacious and raunchy comedy. But writer-director Dean Lent’s debut feature (not counting the 1987 anthology film “Border Radio”) is sweeter and much more sublime than the usual teenage-boys-trying-to-lose-their-virginity romp. That may be its plot, but this semiautobiographical project is far from films like “Porky’s” or “American Pie.” Set in the Bay Area in the 1970s, “Feeling Randy” offers a humorous and sensitive portrayal of coming to terms with one’s sexuality.

Announcing its irreverent tone through sly chapter titles written in period-appropriate Recoleta font, and a droll voiceover from its eponymous lead (Reid Miller), “Feeling Randy” wastes no time establishing its premise and then keeps the narrative rhythm flowing. The setup is simple: Four teenage boys plan to lose their virginity by taking a road trip to a Nevada brothel.

Despite some excellent movies hitting theaters, 2024 was, to use a sports phrase, a rebuilding year. The 2023 Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA strikes ground Hollywood to a halt before the studios ultimately agreed to some much-needed concessions for the folks who physically make the films and TV shows we all love, and the downstream effects of that unnecessarily drawn-out labor stoppage spilled into 2024. Movies and shows that were supposed to come out needed time to restart production, studios delayed some releases into 2025, and the industry as a whole experienced a contraction. The first half of this year was rough at the box office, but thanks to several major wins near the end of the year, theatrical exhibition managed to stay alive and make up a ton of ground.

While we'll likely be seeing the effects of the strikes and the subsequent contraction for a while, the floodgates are preparing to open for...

The ’90s – a time when Bruce Willis was ‘the guy’ for Hollywood. Fresh off Die Hard and coasting through a streak of hits, hits like The Fifth Element, Armageddon, and The Sixth Sense, he was Hollywood’s everyman hero with just the right amount of smirk. If a movie needed someone to crack wise (sometimes for the heck of it) while saving the day, Willis was first in line. But even when you’re on top, it’s easy to misread the room.

The Sixth Sense is a Bruce Willis classic | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Over the years, Willis passed on roles that turned out to be major hits—or gave others their defining moment. Some decisions were understandable, while others…well, even Bruce has admitted he’d love a do-over. Here are ten roles Bruce Willis turned down and (probably) regretted instantly.

10. Broadway Brawler (1997)

This one requires a caveat,...

Here’s why Disney rejected Back To The Future (Photo Credit – Amazon Prime Video)

When Back to the Future hit theaters on July 3, 1985, it flipped Hollywood. Michael J. Fox went from TV star to mega-celebrity, while director Robert Zemeckis made waves. Despite getting rejected by Disney for being “too scandalous,” the film ended the year as a box office champ, leaving fans craving more time-travel adventures!

How Did Back to the Future Get Made?

Zemeckis and screenwriter Bob Gale first crossed paths at USC in 1971, forming a creative bond that would ultimately shake the cinematic landscape. They dabbled in TV and scored a brief break with the Misfire 1941, which was more a flop than a blockbuster. But they brushed off that bomb and charged ahead. After creating Used Cars in 1980 with Kurt Russell, they decided it was time to unleash a wild time-travel concept. They were riding high on their...

Quick Links What Is Incoming About? Incoming's Pros & Cons Critical Response to Incoming

New to Netflix on August 23, 2024, Incoming has enjoyed great steaming success despite ranking as one of 2024's worst feature film comedies. The story concerns a quartet of first-year high school students overcoming great trepidation as they gear up to attend their first high school party. The derivative paint-by-numbers comedy by first-time filmmaking siblings Dave and John Chernin adds nothing new to the subgenre, calling to mind much funnier examples such as Porky's, American Pie, and Superbad.

Yet, despite earning a lowly 13% Rotten Tomatoes score, the sophomoric teen comedy has found a viewership groove on the streaming platform that continues to favor quantity over quality to accommodate the current binge-watching trend. Over the past weekend, Incoming ranked behind only The Union as Netflix's most-watched movie in the U.S., further magnifying Netflix's biggest existential question - at what...

Film critic Roger Ebert used to say that a movie wasn’t about what it was about — it was about how it was about what it was about.

That’s why, when someone told him that they weren’t interested in “Raging Bull” because they didn’t like boxing, he immediately dismissed that person as an idiot. Few directors prove Ebert’s thesis as definitively as Paul Brickman, whose “Risky Business” is newly available in an exquisite 4K Uhd edition from Criterion. While this 1983 comedy is unquestionably “about” a lot in the traditional literary sense — even on the page, it’s an exceptionally accomplished piece of satirical storytelling filled with razor-sharp irony, fertile metaphors, and clever structural conceits — what elevates it to true greatness is a style no one but Brickman would have thought to apply to the subject matter.

That subject matter — a sexually inexperienced teenager partners with a...

The return of Eddie Murphy to the iconic role of Axel Foley has the internet abuzz. Not only has Murphy been making the most of his press tour, but he’s also having fun reliving Beverly Hills Cop as a major franchise in pop culture. With the recent release of Axel F, we thought it was time to rank the iconic series that helped turn Eddie Murphy into a superstar. Check out our ranking below!

Suggested“One crazy guy worth working with”: Eddie Murphy Actually Considered Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Insane’ Beverly Hills Cop Pitch 4. Beverly Hills Cop III (1994) – Directed by John Landis

From its opening set piece, Beverly Hills Cop just feels off. Murphy gave the movie his all, and reuniting with John Landis looked good on paper. However, by 1994, Landis lost his touch as the director who once helmed Coming to America and Animal House. Even a theme...

(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)

"'American Pie' is the latest in a long tradition of immature, self-indulgent comedies that celebrate the recklessness of adolescents." That's what Looking Closer's Jeffrey Overstreet had to say in his original review of "American Pie" in 1999. On the flipside, Film Threat's Chris Gore declared the movie to be "one of the greatest teen films of all time." Let us never forget that two things can be true at once.

Written by an unknown named Adam Herz, it originally began circulating with the clever title "Untitled Teenage Sex Comedy Which Can Be Made for Under $10 Million That Studio Readers Will Most Likely Hate But I Think You Will Love." The gimmick worked and it got the attention of studios, becoming the...

Through the lens of 2024, “Dogfight” plays like a subtle, personal film you would expect from indie director Nancy Savoca (“Household Saints”), but that’s not what Warner Bros. thought they were making.

“They were thinking ‘Porky’s.’ They thought it was a comedy,” said director Nancy Savoca while on IndieWire’s Toolkit podcast to discuss “Dogfight,” which is entering the Criterion Collection on April 30.

At the end of the 1980s headed into the early ’90s, when Warners was developing Bob Comfort’s “Dogfight” screenplay, teen comedies were big business for the studios. Alongside the wild success of the classic slate of teen comedies John Hughes wrote, directed, or produced, the “Porky’s” trilogy came to define the sex comedies of the era. It’s through this lens the studio saw the dogfight competition in Comfort’s script: A group of young soldiers pick up the “ugliest” woman they can find, bring her to a bar,...

Tom Cruise's Risky Business joins the prestigious Criterion Collection, marking a pivotal moment in his career. The film is praised for blending tender romance with a sharp critique of capitalism, even if it's goofy fun on the surface. Criterion's release includes a 4K Uhd restoration, special features, and interviews, making it a must-have for film and Cruise enthusiasts.

Tom Cruise has been one of the biggest Hollywood stars for four decades, and has starred in almost 50 movies, but until today, none of them have been represented in the most prestigious film collection in the world — the Criterion Collection. The home media distributor collects the greatest or most culturally important films of all time and immaculately restores them and curates magnificent special features. And now, Cruise's 1983 film Risky Business will be the 1,227th movie added to the collection.

The Criterion Collection announced its inclusion today, April 15, with the film being...

The year was 1985 when Super Mario Bros. took the Nintendo Entertainment System by storm; Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes debuted in newspapers, and two unlikely friends named Marty McFly and Emmett Lathrop Brown piloted cinema’s most iconic time machine to a year when Panama hats and kitten heels were all the rage, 1955.

Fiercely protected at a level akin to Ghostbusters and Star Wars by millennials worldwide, Robert Zemeckis’s Back to the Future sits enthroned at Nostalgia Mountain’s top. The original film has spawned two sequels, a cartoon series, video game adaptations, a Broadway musical, and more. But how does it hold up by today’s standards? Strap on your seatbelt, and prepare yourselves to see some serious shit because this is Back to the Future Revisited.

In 1977, Robert Zemeckis did the unthinkable. He bulldozed into Amblin Entertainment without an appointment, heading straight for Steven Spielberg’s office.

Tony Ganios, the comedic actor known for his turn as fan-favorite Meat in Bob Clark’s “Porky’s” and as Perry in Philip Kaufman’s 1979 coming-of-age comedy-drama “The Wanderers,” died Feb. 18 following surgery at a hospital in New York. He was 64.

Ganios’ finacée shared the news on social media — publishing a tweet that featured a photo of the two holding hands with the caption, “I love you so much, my love. I’m broken.” She later followed up with a tweet containing a photo of Ganios and the caption, “The last words we said to each other were, “I love you.” Love is an understatement. You are everything to me. My heart, my soul and my best friend.”

Ganios was known for his roles in 1980s teen comedies and action movies. He gained prominence for his portrayal of tough, muscular characters that frequently had him tap into character acting to play...

Tony Ganios, the actor who made his film debut in Philip Kaufman’s 1979 coming-of-age comedy-drama The Wanderers and played audience favorite Anthony ‘Meat’ Tuperello in the 1980s Porky’s sex comedy franchise, died Sunday following surgery at a hospital in New York. He was 64.

His death was announced on social media by his fiancée, Amanda Serrano-Ganios, who said that the actor fell ill last week, was hospitalized Saturday with a spinal cord infection, and passed away Sunday of heart failure.

Cast as one of the Bronx Italian-American street toughs in the 1963-set The Wanderers, based on the novel by Richard Price, Ganios became, for much of the ’80s, a go-to actor for directors looking for a touch of East Coast flavor. Ganios re-teamed with his Wanderers co-star Ken Wahl for a recurring role as a mob lawyer on Wahl’s 1987-90 crime series Wiseguy.

John Friedrich, Ken Wahl, Tony Ganios,...

Eli Roth's 2023 slasher film "Thanksgiving" famously started its life back in 2007 in the form of a fake trailer sandwiched in between Robert Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" and Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof," two movies released as a single mega-feature called "Grindhouse." The goal of "Grindhouse" was to recreate the experience of seeing a cheap exploitation double-feature in a run-down New York theater in the early 1980s, complete with film scratches, missing reels, and several previews for upcoming ultra-salacious genre movies. The trailers were all fake at the time, but since 2007, the trailers for "Machete," "Hobo with a Shotgun," and "Thanksgiving" have been made into real movies.

Roth, as the director's fans know, is a voracious cineaste, and has likely spent more time watching movies than most people. He also wears his influences on his sleeve; in the credits for Roth's 2013 cannibal film "The Green Inferno," he includes a list...

A Christmas Story was initially overlooked upon its release but has since become a national treasure and a top 100 film in American Cinematic History. Zack Ward, who played bully Scut Farkus in the film, faced challenges with people starting fights with him after its release. Recent interactions with fans have been positive, with people recognizing Ward and bringing him joy by mentioning his character's defeat in the movie.

A Christmas Story is one of the most beloved holiday films of all time, and November 18th marked the 40-year anniversary of the movie hitting theaters. While it may be an iconic Christmas film today, such wasn't always the case, and Zack Ward, who played notorious bully Scut Farkus in the production, took to X to reflect on the success of A Christmas Story.

Released in theaters on November 18, 1983, A Christmas Story was directed by Bob Clark, who up until that time...

Despite being considered a classic today, Back to the Future faced numerous rejections from movie studios in the '80s due to its tone and content. Studios at the time preferred raunchy, R-rated sex comedies, but Back to the Future's balanced and grounded approach has given it lasting appeal. The film ultimately got made thanks to Steven Spielberg's support and the success of director Robert Zemeckis's previous hit, Romancing the Stone.

While Back to the Future is now considered a sci-fi classic, many studios turned the movie down for absurd reasons. It’s not controversial to state that Back to the Future is one of the best films of the '80s. The premise of a teenager who must ensure his parents get together after accidentally time-traveling back to the 1950s and messing with original events is a work of high-concept genius. While Back to the Future...

Another weekend in the books, another weekend atop the box office for "Barbie." Director Greta Gerwig's pop culture phenomenon has now topped the charts for four straight weekends, a feat that few movies will ever get to claim — particularly in the post-pandemic landscape. It's remarkably rare air, only enjoyed by the biggest of big blockbusters like "Spider-Man: No Way Home" or "Top Gun: Maverick." But as the rest of August looks largely devoid of any certain breakout hits the question must be asked: how many weekends can this movie keep the crown?

According to The Numbers, "Barbie" added $33.7 million domestically in its fourth weekend, representing a shockingly great 36% drop from its prior frame. The movie's week-to-week holds have been truly impressive up to this point, as positive word of mouth has carried it to impressive heights. Big competition from "Oppenheimer," "Meg 2," and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" has hardly mattered.

Harmony Korine teased upcoming Venice premiere “Aggro Dr1ft” in Locarno, where he picked up the Pardo d’onore Manor award for outstanding achievement in cinema.

“I am excited. I have never made anything like it. I was trying not to make a movie. I don’t know if it will be a scandal, but it will be its own statement,” he said.

“Aggro Dr1ft” stars Spain’s Jordi Molla and Travis Scott. Korine has already worked with Scott on “Circus Maximus” – as well as his friend Gaspar Noé, surprise guest at the fest, who ended up co-moderating his Saturday masterclass.

“It was pretty wild. It was crazy!,” said Korine about the “last-minute” collab with Scott, also opening up about his humble beginnings.

“I grew up in Nashville, I was born into a commune. My dad made strange documentaries about Southern moonshiners and circus people, and then he sold some weed.

For many of us, high school was a time that we spent overly invested in our own adolescent lives and juvenile misadventures that (at the time) seemed to be the most mature and important thing in the world. And in some cases, the witty antics and perverted scheming of Jim Levinstein and his friends hit the nail right on the head- and especially for those of us who were going through our formative years in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.

And as most movie nerds do, I used to find myself feeling seen and heard by the American Pie movies in that I related to being a suburban teenager whose attention was constantly shifting between dating way out of my league, and the constant desire to make the leap from a hormonal teenager to a grown up with everything under control. After all, these movies follow that very journey...

Ah, 1978. It was the year that Slashfilm writer Lee Adams entered the world, and two movies changed the course of comedy forever (those landmarks are unrelated; I'm not trying to claim any credit). Those movies were "National Lampoon's Animal House" and Cheech and Chong's "Up in Smoke" — two lowbrow hits whose influences are still felt to this day.

There was lowbrow stuff before 1978, of course. Slapstick — the age-old art of falling over, breaking things, and hitting people — was still doing the rounds in the increasingly weary adventures of Inspector Clouseau. But the class of '78 was different: wild, irreverent, raucous, bawdy, subversive, counterculture comedy that delighted the kids and antagonized the squares.

The two films had their roots in the '60s. Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong developed their stand-up act in the latter part of the decade before making their break on the big screen with the granddaddy of stoner movies,...

The headline of this column is doubtlessly unfair. I’m judging a movie before I’ve seen it, before it has even been made. Given the vast volume of junky indifferent product that now slides through the megaplex, and the streaming ocean, on a weekly basis, why not settle in for an ambitious remake of “Vertigo,” Alfred Hitchcock’s romantically kinky and voluptuous dream thriller of 1958? At least it’s not “Texas Chainsaw Xviii” or another “Minions” movie. At least it will be interesting (right?).

Robert Downey Jr., who is in talks to produce and possibly star in a remake of “Vertigo” at Paramount (home of the original film), is a great actor. But once he became a box-office superstar, 15 years ago, with “Iron Man,” he got sucked into the escapist vortex of Marvel and “Sherlock Holmes” and duds like “Dolittle.” Downey, who is about to turn 58, needs to rediscover himself as an actor.

101 Films presents the Bob Clark: Horror Collection, featuring the director’s highly influential horrors of the early 1970s, brought together for the first time. Though he would achieve wider success in the 1980s with hit comedies such as Porky’s (1981) and A Christmas Story (1983), Clark’s run of three horror movies a decade earlier — low budget horror-comedy Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things (1972), chilling Vietnam War critique Deathdream (Aka Dead of Night) (1974) and genre-defining slasher masterpiece Black Christmas (1974) — ensure his legacy as a master of the horror genre.

Title 029 on the 101 Films Black Label, this limited-edition set also features new Bob Clark documentary ‘Dreaming of Death’, stunning newly commissioned artwork for all three titles with reversible sleeves, a booklet with new writing on Clark’s career, a set of art cards, and extensive additional content.

Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things

Led by a mean-spirited director, a theatre...

The legendary RZA joins hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss a few of his favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Man With The Iron Fists (2012)

Cut Throat City (2020)

Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)

Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)

Cooley High (1975) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Car Wash (1976) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Grease (1978)

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Tfh’s Mogwai Madness

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020) – Dennis Cozzalio’s best of 2020

The Devil You Know (2022)

The Last American Virgin (1982)

The Beastmaster (1982)

Porky’s (1981)

Sixteen Candles (1984)

The Breakfast Club (1985)

Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982) – Karyn Kusama’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

There Will Be Blood (2007)

Carmen Jones (1954)

An American In Paris (1951)

Singin’ In The Rain (1952) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

The Wizard Of Oz (1939) – John Badham’s trailer commentary

Is That Black Enough for You?!?...

Last week, we looked at Wtf Happened to the cast of A Christmas Story in a special yuletide edition of Wtf Happened to this Celebrity. This week, we’re digging back into Bob Clark’s 1983 classic, A Christmas Story, and looking into how the film itself got made in the first place. While many consider it one of the definitive holiday movies now, in 1983, it was a pretty modest film that came from a director best known for exploitation films, Bob Clark.

Indeed, the Canadian Bob Clark had already made one Christmas classic, 1974’s Black Christmas, which is widely regarded as the first classic-style slasher film, within having also made the most popular Canadian film of all time, 1981’s Porky’s. Yet, neither of those hard-r films would have you think Clark could make a gentle, PG-rated Christmas movie that would stand the test of time. Suffice it to say, he pulled it off,...

Find out where to watch A Christmas Story, one of the most popular holiday movies ever made.

There are few Christmas movies that are so universally known to viewers as the 1983 comedic classic directed by Bob Clark. A Christmas Story tells a nostalgic tale of Ralphie Parker, a nine-year-old living in 1940s suburban Indiana. Narrated by Jean Shepherd, whose writings inspired the film's script, audiences are treated to a whimsical and entirely relatable account of one Christmas season where Ralphie, played by Peter Billingsley, is obsessed with receiving a particular present. Bob Clark conceived of the idea behind A Christmas Story in the late 1960s after hearing Shepherd recount tales on a radio program of him growing up in Indiana around the same time period that the movie takes place. It was not until shortly after his box office hit, Porky's, in 1981, that Clark convinced a studio to produce the holiday flick,...

Given that 1983's "A Christmas Story" only continues to grow in popularity with each passing year, one of my favorite party tricks to use when a relative or friend is in the throes of TNT's annual 24-hour marathon of the heartwarming holiday comedy is explain how it and 1974's "Black Christmas" — a bitter, bleak, and uncompromising horror classic — were made by the same director, Bob Clark.

It's a fun bit of trivia because both movies are so diametrically opposed in tone, with each exploring very different facets of Christmastime. Yet when examined closely, "A Christmas Story" and "Black Christmas" have a surprising amount in common, with the films containing a streak of knowing cynicism when it comes to the trappings of the holiday.

As it turns out, this isn't by coincidence. While Clark was never really an auteur director, careening as he did between numerous genres and budgets, his...

The holidays, in general, are about family. Spending time with family, appreciating family, and also, getting really sick of family after an afternoon listening to that one crazy uncle rant just a little too long about god knows what this time. But that sense of family leads to wanting to watch family-friendly, wholesome content, which is no doubt part of why "A Christmas Story" is on TV around the clock every December. It's become a genuine classic, beloved enough to have been added to the National Film Registry. Not bad for a movie about a little kid just hoping to get a Bb gun for Christmas.

Along the way, Ralphie — our protagonist — gets into mischief with his friends, drops an F-bomb in front of his old man, and gets a little too into his father's major award (that just happens to be shaped like a woman's leg). Come to think of it,...

Writer/producer/showrunner David Kajganich discusses a few of his favorite films with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

All The Fine Young Cannibals (1960)

Badlands (1973)

Bones And All (2022)

A Bigger Splash (2015)

Suspiria (2018)

Deathdream (1974) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Porky’s (1981)

A Christmas Story (1983)

Black Christmas (1974) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings

Murder By Decree (1979) – Mick Garris’s trailer commentary

Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things (1972)

Black Vengeance a.k.a. Poor Pretty Eddie (1975)

The Poseidon Adventure (1972) – Robert Weide’s trailer commentary

Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Tfh’s Mogwai Madness

Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975)

The Last Wave (1977) – Brian Trenchard-Smith’s trailer commentary

Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World (2003)

What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary

Dressed To Kill (1980) – Dennis Cozzalio’s Criterion review

The Last Picture Show (1971) – Mark Pellington’s trailer...

(Welcome to Did They Get It Right?, a series where we take a look at an Oscars category from yesteryear and examine whether the Academy's winner stands the test of time.)

1982 was a crucial year in Hollywood moviemaking. The New Hollywood that brought the auteur-driven boom of the 1970s had firmly ended, with the financial calamity of Michael Cimino's Western epic "Heaven's Gate" the previous year placing the final nail in that coffin. Look at the box office of 1982, and you see a fascinating melange of prestige dramas like "An Office and a Gentleman," sex comedies like "Porky's," and the onset of the franchise filmmaking that will come to dominate today's Hollywood with "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" and "Rocky III."

The hit among hits, the king among kings, of 1982 was Steven Spielberg's "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," which just enjoyed an IMAX re-release to commemorate its 40th anniversary.

Based on both John W. Campbell, Jr.'s 1938 novella "Who Goes There?" and its 1951 film adaptation "The Thing from Another World," John Carpenter's 1982 film "The Thing" is often celebrated as one of the better films of its decade. "The Thing" notoriously bombed upon its initial release, a financial failure that may be attributed to the more upbeat, less nihilistic alien film "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" from earlier that same year. Additionally, "The Thing" is a bleak, cold, angry film, which may have been a tough sell for audiences more eager to consume larger hits like "Rocky III," "Annie," "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," and "Porky's." 

Many pundits will be eager to point out that "The Thing" features some of the scariest and most grotesque special effects of any feature film. The titular Thing is a shapeless mass of tissue and goop that can invade the body of any living host,...

The teen sex comedy craze kicked into overdrive in the spring of 1982 when Bob Clark's semi-autobiographical raunch-fest "Porky's" stunned the industry by racking up 105 million for distributor 20th Century Fox at the U.S. box office. The nation's critics shredded it, but the film's target audience didn't care. They identified with the characters' unabashedly juvenile antics, and kept going back for more.

You'd think rival studios, which rushed their own hormonally addled high-school comedies into production, would've been fine with this critical/commercial trade-off, but Universal had serious misgivings about their August 1982 release, "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." In fact, according to director Amy Heckerling and star Judge Reinhold, they nearly shelved it.

Too Hot For Theatrical?

In a 40th anniversary article for The Hollywood Reporter, Reinhold, who plays the wincingly overconfident Ridgemont senior Brad Hamilton, alleges that executive resistance to the material was fierce. "We were really heartsick,...

We've waited one more minute at the hardware store, our couch potato hearts thumbing through cable TV reruns of "George of the Jungle," idly watching "Porky's" for the 27th time this week, all in anticipation of the trailer for The Roku Channel's "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story," and our patience, dear friends, had paid off. The teaser for the upcoming biopic is finally here, and audiences can now see actor Daniel Radcliffe in full Yankovic regalia playing the biggest star to emerge from the comedy/music scene since the heyday of Spike Jones through the days of...

The post Weird: The Al Yankovic Story Teaser: Someone Get Daniel Radcliffe an Accordion appeared first on /Film.

Exclusive: Kim Cattrall has joined the cast of Peacock’s Queer As Folk in a recurring guest star role. The Golden Globe winner will portray a martini-soaked, high-society Southern debutant with trailer park roots in the series, which was picked up by the streamer in April.

The series, a reimagination of the hit British series of the same name from Russell T. Davis, follows the lives of a diverse group of friends in New Orleans whose lives are transformed in the aftermath of a tragedy. A U.S. remake, set in Pittsburgh, aired on Showtime from 2000-2005.

Cattrall joins previously announced cast members Ryan O’Connell, Jesse James Keitel, Candace Grace, Johnny Sibilly, Devin Way and Fin Argus.

Queer as Folk is produced by UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group. The series is created, written and executive produced by Stephen Dunn, who will also direct the pilot episode. Executive producers also include Jaclyn Moore,...

Prisoners of the Ghostland screenwriter/producer Reza Sixo Safai joins hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss his wildest cinematic experiences.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Infested (2002)

The Howling (1981) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings

Hollywood Boulevard (1976) – Jon Davison’s trailer commentary

Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla (1952) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary

Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021)

Mandy (2018)

Candy (1968) – Glenn Erickson’s trailer commentary

S.O.B. (1981)

The Shining (1980) – Adam Rifkin’s trailer commentary

Robin Hood (1973)

The Story of Robin Hood (1952)

Modern Times (1936)

The Kid (1921)

The Deer (1974)

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

Qeysar (1969)

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

The Warriors (1979)

New Jack City (1991)

Colors (1988)

The Whip And The Body (1963)

Blow Out (1981) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

Porky’s (1981)

Cinema Paradiso (1988) – Glenn Erickson’s Region B Blu-ray review, Glenn Erickson’s 4K Blu-ray review

Circumstance (2011)

Ninja 3: The Domination (1984)

Flashdance (1983)

Debbie...

Exclusive: Golden Globe winner Kim Cattrall has joined the cast of Hulu’s How I Met Your Mother spinoff, How I Met Your Father, in a major recurring role.

Cattrall will play the future version of Hilary Duff’s character Sophie, who is telling her son the story of how she met his father, much like Josh Radnor (and Bob Saget’s) Ted Mosby did in the original series.

Sophie’s story will transport audiences back to the year 2021 where she and her close-knit group of friends— Jesse (Chris Lowell), Valentina (Francia Raisa), Charlie (Tom Ainsley), Ellen (Tien Tran), and Sid (Suraj Sharma)— are in the midst of figuring out who they are, what they want out of life, and how to fall in love in the age of dating apps and limitless options.

Series writers Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger will also executive produce alongside Himym creators/exec producers...

“Only I didn’t say fudge… I said The Word. The big one. The queen mother of all dirty words… the F-dash-dash-dash Word!!!!”

It’s Christmas in July when A Christmas Story screens at The Wildey Theater in Edwardsville, Il at 7:00pm Tuesday July 27th. $3 Tickets available starting at 3pm day of movie at Wildey Theatre ticket office. Cash or check only. Lobby opens at 6pm.

I used an air rifle I got one Christmas growing up, but I never had a mail-in decoder ring which required me to consume mass quantities of Ovaltine, I never ran into bullies with yellow eyes, and I never took a dare to stick my tongue to an aluminum pole in the middle of winter. Of all the holiday films that have been released in the last 34 years, did anyone envision that the sleepy low budget film from 1983, generically titled A Christmas Story,...

Mike Fenton, the legendary casting director who worked on the “Back to the Future” franchise, “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and scores of other classic movies and TV shows, has died. He was 85.

Fenton co-founded what is now known as Casting Society of America in 1982. He was a prominent casting director for more than 40 years, with a mile-long resume that stretched from “The Andy Griffith Show” and “That Girl” to “Chinatown,” “American Graffiti,” “The Godfather II,” “Blade Runner,” “A Christmas Story,” “Norma Rae,” “Footloose,” “Honeymoon in Vegas” and “Chaplin.”

“Working with Mike Fenton was like working in a candy store — he made casting a blast,” Steven Spielberg said in a statement. “His fervent support of actors was the stuff of legend, and after landing a part, any actor’s smile was rarely as wide as Mike’s. He didn’t just support actors, he launched crusades.

This tribute to director Bob Clark and the 1983 chestnut “A Christmas Story” was originally published Dec. 20, 2007 on the Variety blog “Littleton On the Air”

It’s that wonderful time of year, time for repeated viewings of the holiday pic that never, ever gets old, 1983’s “A Christmas Story.”

TBS is obliging with its annual 24-hour marathon of the pic, starting Monday, Christmas Eve, at 8 p.m. Et. My family’s “Christmas Story” DVD is well-worn — no matter how many times we’ve seen it, we crack up at the scene where Darren McGavin unpacks his “fra-gi-le” major award. We can pretty much recite this movie from start to “you’ll shoot your eye out” finish.

But this year the fun of the pic that perfectly balances the sweet ‘n’ sour ‘n’ silly of the season comes with a tinge of sadness for the memory of “Christmas Story” helmer Bob Clark,...

Seth MacFarlane will produce a reboot of the 1984 nerds vs. jocks comedy “Revenge of the Nerds” that will star and be written by comedians Kenny and Keith Lucas aka The Lucas Brothers, an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

The project is currently in development at 20th Century Studios, with MacFarlane producing with Erica Huggins for his company Fuzzy Door Productions. The Lucas Brothers will co-write the script with Alex Reubens, who has written for both “Key & Peele” and “Rick & Morty.”

The new “Revenge of the Nerds” will be a reboot rather than a direct remake of the original, which has not aged well due to its depictions of rape that have been criticized in recent years. The new film will be set in the present-day and will re-imagine what we consider nerdy in 2020.

The original film from 1984 and directed by Jeff Kanew only grossed $40.8 million worldwide,...