The backstory of what some critic dubbed ‘the most expensive home movie ever made’ is truly fascinating, and a striking example of obsession, perseverance, and insanity. Ultimately costing $17 million, this extremely earnest effort to bring the issue of the rapid decimation of big cat populations in Africa to the masses took 11 years…
John Wayne had already experimented with an image makeover in McQ (1972), playing a detective in a fairly dour story involving murder, police corruption, and outright betrayal, but for his second and final poke at the popular cop genre, the Duke opted for a story which embraced some of the elements from his westerns yet delivered the main ingredients of a cop thriller: subterfuge, a hot chick, and more than one car chase…
Composer Mark Isham launches his new label with The Mechanic, and reviews of 3 new La-La Land releases: Dominic Frontiere’s The Rat Patrol, John Debney’s The Young Riders, and James Horner’s Jade…
Return to: Home / Soundtrack Reviews / P to R . Rating: Excellent Label: La-La Land Records/ Released: January 18, 2011 Tracks & Album Length: 45 tracks / (78:40) . Special Notes: 12-page colour booklet with liner notes by Jon Burlingame / Limited to 1200 copies. . Composer: Dominic Frontiere . . Review: The Rat Patrol TV […]
Tales of Giant Bugs on VHS, a Podcast Interview, and Tape Swapping
In addition to a review of the 3D short film ROACH (2022) on VHS, I’ve an interview with its maker, SCHNUDLBUG, and links to an essay I wrote for the latest issue of BRANDON LIM’s zine, FILM FVCKERS, titled “THE GREAT TAPE SWAP”
Now Where Were We? Right. Let’s go back to LAST NIGHT (1998)
Don McKellar’s LAST NIGHT (1998) is the first review after a long pause in activities at KQEK.com
Gothic Steele: An Angel for Satan (1966)
Review of AN ANGEL FOR SATAN / UN ANGELO PER SATANA (1966), Barbara Steele’s last Italian Gothic, on Blu-ray from Severin Films
Tales of Giant Bugs on VHS, a Podcast Interview, and Tape Swapping
In addition to a review of the 3D short film ROACH (2022) on VHS, I’ve an interview with its maker, SCHNUDLBUG, and links to an essay I wrote for the latest issue of BRANDON LIM’s zine, FILM FVCKERS, titled “THE GREAT TAPE SWAP”
ArtScopeTO 10: Interview with Abstract Painter Donna Wise
For my occasional podcast series ArtScope TO, Abstract Painter Donna Wise discusses her unique techniques, and working during the 2020-2021 pandemic.
Podcast: Jason Pichonsky on Restoring Julian Roffman’s THE BLOODY BROOD (1959) + PHOBIA (1980)
Alongside a podcast with CanCon film historian Jason Pichonsky are revised reviews of Julian Roffman’s THE BLOODY BROOD (1959) + John Huston’s PHOBIA (1980), both from KINO Lorber / Unobstructed View.
The core story involves a pilot who runs into an available, functional spacecraft, and boots up into the planet’s now-toxic atmosphere, relying on the craft’s occasionally bristling AI navigation system to find a strata safe from dense clouds, and a roving giant bug determined to make a meal of the tiny craft and its pilot.
Assorted characters collide and interact in the lead-up to Earth’s demise at precisely midnight.
BR: Angel for Satan, An / Un angelo per Satana (1966)
Had Barbara Steele remained in Europe – especially Italy – during the early 1970s, she may well have appeared in giallo thrillers…
BR: Cannibal Man / La semana del asesino / Apartment on the 13th Floor, The (1972)
Cannibal Man has a palpable crime-drama feel – the events unfold after daily title cards – and one can sense Hitchcockian sensibilities…
BR: No One Heard the Scream / Nadie oyó gritar (1973)
After the grisly thriller Cannibal Man (1972), Spanish auteur Eloy de la Iglesia opted for a far less graphic thriller which is part giallo…
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