Cult Films

I caught two American science fiction mind benders at South Korea’s Jeonju International Film Festival last month that have been very divisive among viewers and critics. I enjoyed them both and recommend auteur Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color, which is his long-awaited follow-up to his debut film Primer, and director Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin. Both challenging works are unique artistic …

Rate This Movie SYNOPSIS: This violent and allegorical Mexican western attracted a cult following in its day. It is the story of El Topo, a gunslinger who sets out for revenge against the outlaws who slew his wife. He ends up getting his revenge and saving the life of a woman who is being terrorized by bandits. She leads El …

SYNOPSIS: Uses a courtroom debate approach to explore the issues of filmmaking and fanaticism around one of the industry’s most famous franchises and its creator. The innovative film combines filmmaker and celebrity interviews with fan films – submitted via the film’s site – to make this the world’s first digitally democratic feature documentary. REVIEW: If anything is to be said …

SYNOPSIS: The Assignment “The Witches Talisman” Once in the depths of the frozen North, Arose a dark power. To some they were known as the Alliance. John Nolan was said to belong to this group. The town of Madison was built in the form of a pentagram on Indian burial ground, and John Nolan tried to set forth the end …

SYNOPSIS: “Heavily pregnant Lenore Davis tells her husband, Frank, that she is in labor. They leave their eleven year-old son Chris with their friend Charley and they head to the Community Hospital. Lenore feels that something is wrong and delivers a monster that kills the team in the delivery room and escapes through a skylight. Lieutenant Perkins comes to the …

SYNOPSIS: Dr Daniel Jekyll researching into drugs that would help mankind avoid surgery discovers a white powder that unleashes the animal in every man, and in his case turning him from a shy and timid doctor into a wild sex crazed party animal. To the delight and dismay of both his rich fiancée and stripper girlfriend. REVIEW: Another lost gem …

SYNOPSIS: “In Canada, a writer visits the Indian storyteller Pi Patel and asks him to tell his life story. Pi tells the story of his childhood in Pondicherry, India, and the origin of his nickname. One day, his father, a zoo owner, explains that the municipality is no longer supporting the zoo and he has hence decided to move to …

SYNOPSIS: “In 1935, seasoned diplomat Robert Conway is sent to rescue a group of British nationals who find themselves in China the midst of a rebellion. Conway manages to get them all out and also to escape with his brother George and several others on the last airplane only to find that they are being flown far into the Himalayas. …

SYNOPSIS: Home video changed the world. The cultural and historical impact of the VHS tape was enormous. This film traces the ripples of that impact by examining the myriad aspects of society that were altered by the creation of videotape. REVIEW: Way back in the late 80’s I was an employee at (what was then) the biggest video rental/purchase store …

SYNOPSIS: “In the second Star Trek film, Admiral Kirk is now a Starfleet Academy instructor, while Captain Spock serves as a cadet training officer, while being in command of the USS Enterprise. Meanwhile, scientists aboard Space Station Regula One are conducting the Project Genesis experiment, and the USS Reliant is assigned to the Genesis project. While surveying a lifeless planet …

Rate This Movie SYNOPSIS: Bully is a 2001 drama film, based on actual events, starring Brad Renfro, Rachel Miner, Bijou Phillips, Nick Stahl, and Michael Pitt. The screenplay was written by David McKenna (under the pseudonym Zachary Long) and Roger Pullis, who adapted the book Bully: A True Story of High School Revenge (ISBN 0-380-72333-6) by Jim Schutze. The story …

SYNOPSIS: Andy is a new teacher and an inner city high school that is like nothing he has ever seen before. The students have to go through a metal detector when they go through the front door and everything is basically run by a tough kid named Peter Stegman. Soon, Andy and Stegman become enemies and Stegman will stop at …

SYNOPSIS: “The year is 1936. Archeology professor Indiana Jones narrowly escapes death in a South American temple with a gold idol – by poison dart, fall, and finally a giant boulder that chases him out the front. An old enemy, Rene Belloq, steals the idol and then orders Hovito Indians after Indy. Indy, however, escapes back to the USA, where …

SYNOPSIS: “The evil tyrant Sador and his army of the mutants Malmori threatens the peaceful Akira farmers of the planet Akir with his Stellar Converter weapon and tells that he will return to collect their harvest. The former Akira warrior Zed advises that they should hire mercenaries to protect them from Sador and offers his spaceship to seek them out. …

SYNOPSIS: “As the title would suggest, it follows the travels of the legendary sword Excalibur through Arthurian myth, from the violent, powerful hands of Uther Pendragon, to a long-years’ rest in the stone to being redrawn by Uther’s son Arthur, who uses it to defeat the evil invaders and establish the great court of Camelot and the great Knights of …