In an effort to aid the casual reader who may not be up on all the jargon of the dedicated Jabootuist, this glossary will explain words and phrases ranging from general ‘film’ terms to the more specialized language of the Jabootuite.
Atomic Grenade (n): Any explosive device that results in an explosion far out of proportion [...]
Most people have a hobby of some sort, an activity that they engage in purely for the satisfaction it brings them. As with friends, we can’t really explain why we pick the ones we do, other than they just seem to fit.
I can think of three general types of hobbies (though they can certainly overlap). [...]
I used to do a snarky run-down of the cheese flicks being hawked at the annual American Film Market conventions. However, this year Variety is not listing plot synopsises to go with the titles, so what’s the point?
However, good news for giant monster buffs. The Korean director who made the not-that-great Reptilian has [...]
One of the things that makes horror such a sturdy genre is that a lot of the classic monster archetypes act as obvious and handy metaphors for the darker aspects of the human condition. Vampires touch on issues of spiritual corruption and sex (and, in the modern Anne Riceian vamps, on a narcissistic ‘youth’ [...]
Marvel Comics is in the new this morning. On the one hand, some of their superheroes are to be honored on U.S. postage stamps, as the classic DC comic characters were recently. Several of the featured characters are the usual heavy hitters–Spider-Man, The Hulk, Wolverine, Silver Surfer, Iron Man, The Thing, Captain America–but [...]
Devil Dog is another fondly remembered made-for-TV horror film from the genre’s golden age, although this one played on CBS, not the ABC of Movie of the Week fame. It actually premiered on Oct 31st, so it’s certainly appropriate Halloween viewing. It’s just good, campy fun.
Following closely in the pawsteps of such films [...]
This film answered some questions I’ve been asking this month as I watched a parade of solid low-budget horror fare from the ’70s and ’80s. To wit, why our the modern equivalents of these films, the DTV movies that pack the video stores each week, and the Sci-Fi “original” movies, so inevitably poor? [...]
In a year replete with terrific cult movie DVDs (Brainiac, Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightmare), one of the best is Classic Media’s swank “Gojira” DVD, which boasts for an extremely reasonable price both the Japanese and heavily altered American cut of the film, commentaries, documentaries, a booklet and one of the nicest packages I’ve ever seen.
Classic [...]
“Nobody knows nothing,” screenwriter William Goldman once said about the movie business. And he’s right. My first reaction to hearing that Keanu Reeves was going to star in cyber-sci-fi movie called The Matrix was, “Good grief, doesn’t anyone remember Johnny Mnemonic?!” (On the other hand, my fears were belatedly at least partly justified [...]
Much consternation is going on right now due to the fact that NBC is cutting $750 million dollars from their budget, and that this means that there will be less scripted programming on the network next year, and more reality and game shows, which is a lot cheaper.
I have to admit, I don’t know what [...]
