Author Archive: Mark R. Hasan

Podcast: Austin Wintory’s REMNANTS + ERICA (2019)

In a new podcast, composer Austin Wintory discusses scoring the interactive PS4 video game ERICA + the eclectic music on the compilation album REMNANTS.

Elvis, Fox, Disney, and the Digital Oubliette

A review of Elvis Presley’s WILD IN THE COUNTRY (1961) on Twilight Time Blu + Editor’s Blog on Disney’s restrictions of the 20th Century-Fox catalogue.

GLOW vs. Vegas

Assessing the pulse of Netflix’s GLOW as the ladies handle life in Las Vegas, and whether Season 3 is a signal the end might be near.

Diplomatic Bungling: The Chairman (1969) + The Ugly American (1963)

Cold War thrillers and diplomatic bungling galore in THE CHAIRMAN (1969) on Twilight Time Blu + THE UGLY AMERICAN (1963) from Mill Creek.

The Magic of Robowar (1988)

Review of Bruno Mattei’s PREDATOR-ROBOCOP-ALIENS rip-off ROBOWAR (1988), starring Reb Brown, new on Severin Blu.

Podcast: Austin Wintory’s REMNANTS + ERICA (2019)

In a new podcast, composer Austin Wintory discusses scoring the interactive PS4 video game ERICA + the eclectic music on the compilation album REMNANTS.

Dante Tomaselli’s Out-of-Body Experience (2019)

Admirers of Dante Tomaselli’s prior sonic explorations will be quite surprised at the shift the director of Torture Chamber (2013) and Desecration (1999) took with his latest album, titled Out-of-Body Experience, released July 4th, 2019 via TuneCore…

ArtScopeTO 09: Interview with Photographer Pengkuei Ben Huang

ArtScopeTO Podcast interview with photographer Pengkuei Ben Huang, whose series SOLEMN PINES FADING THINGS is running at Toronto’s Urban Gallery as part of the 2019 Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival.

BR: Wild in the Country (1961)

Perhaps due to the success of King Creole (1958) and G.I. Blues (1960), Elvis may have had some leverage and was able to star in two dramas to prove his acting chops, but the resulting films…

TV: GLOW – Season 3 (2019)

In Season 3 of GLOW, Netxflix’s medium hit series, the writers answer the pressing question of How is the GLOW team doing in Las Vegas?

BR: Chairman, The / Most Dangerous Man in the World, The (1969)

The premise of this pulpy, more-than-slightly tongue-in-cheek thriller is ludicrous: a retired geneticist agrees to a potential one-way trip to Maoist China and retrieve the secret formula that enables growing any kind of food in any temperate zone…

BR: Ugly American, The (1963)

After a largely successful series of films in the second half of the 1950s, Marlon Brando’s push into the 1960s seemed a little cursed, starting with his lone directorial effort, the weird but compelling western…

BR: Robowar / Robot da Guerra (1988)

Alongside Strike Commando (1987) and Shocking Dark (1989), Robowar is an important entry in Bruno Mattei’s tropical rip-off series in which the plot, scenes, dialogue, and characters of an American hit film(s) are slightly reworked, as done by the husband & wife team of Rossella Drudi and Claudio Fragasso…

LP: John and Mary (1969)

Written during his busiest period (1968-1970), Quincy Jones’ score for John and Mary was quite sparse, leaving obligatory space for the film’s myriad dialogue exchanges and source music, but the score is memorable for being atypical of the material Jones was writing at the time: action comedies (The Italian Job, The Hell with Heroes), comedies (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,Cactus Flower), and the funky style of They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!

CD: Runaway Train (1985)

For some soundtrack fans, it was a bit of surprise to learn the composer of pioneering synth scores had begun his career with large orchestral scores for John Boorman’s Excalibur (1981) and Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal (1982)…

LP: Bourne Identity, The (2002)

The first film in the enduring franchise gave John Powell the perfect opportunity to write what remains both his definitive action sound, and the definitive action score of that decade, blending large orchestral sounds with layers upon layers of electronics…