Who Watches The Watch?

The opening paragraph of the Chicago Tribune review of this film mentions the awkwardness of releasing a film about a neighborhood watch following the Trayvon Martin shooting. "Timing is everything," Michael Phillips wrote. (He then ties in the Aurora shooting in the third paragraph. Review the film, ass. You're not a sociologist, you're a…
Monster of the Day #525

Monster of the Day #525

Is  this why I've always wanted a fez and smocking jacket?* Maybe. [*Seriously, I have. However, good smoking jackets cost way too much dough.]
Rock Baker’s Video Cheese: The Deadly Mantis (1957)

Rock Baker’s Video Cheese: The Deadly Mantis (1957)

"Universal International unleashes another mammoth insect upon 1950's America. Peter Gunn is on hand to handle the situation." The 1950's were, in almost every way, the zenith of American pop culture. You'd be hard pressed to find a time in which a better aesthetic and audible quality of entertainment existed. Certainly, monster movies were…
Tuesdays with Lorre: Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962)

Tuesdays with Lorre: Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962)

Following his cameo appearance in Irwin Allen’s craptastic The Story of Mankind (1957)—one of dozens of that movie’s ‘star’ turns—Peter Lorre became part of Allen’s stock company. We already examined Lorre’s negligible role in The Big Circus. This was followed a somewhat more substantial part in the movie Voyage to the Bottom of the…
Monster of the Day #521

Monster of the Day #521

An interesting cross-cultural experiment. Toho made 3 of these, and I've always found it sort of weird that no one ever did a box DVD release here. Seems like something that would sell.