Fantomas II: Juve vs. Fantomas (1913)

Fantomas II: Juve vs. Fantomas (1913)

Click here to read about the previous film, Fantomas in the Shadow of the Guillotine. With our cast introduced in the first film, our second hour-long feature can hit the ground running. As the title indicates, our hero moves closer to center stage this time. Indeed, he’s joins Fantômas  with his own opening montage…
Fantomas in the Shadow of the Guillotine (1913)

Fantomas in the Shadow of the Guillotine (1913)

Before there was Mabuse, there was Fantômas. The thing about movies is that they haven’t been around that long. Although a majority of the very earliest films are lost, you can still largely go back to the beginnings of cinema and see the foundations for the great art form of the 20th century being…
Halloween (1978)

Halloween (1978)

I won’t embarrass myself by trying to express the sort of warm human emotions I have little facility for. I will simply note that the comradeship of the various members of the Cabal, past and present, through the last 15 years has been one of the great blessings of my life. To that can…
Swept Away (2003)

Swept Away (2003)

In one obvious respect, Madonna is an atypical focus for this roundtable. She has, after all, starred or costarred in a dozen movies over the years. Not for her the route of, say, Tony Bennett in The Oscar, who gave a performance so famously awful that he never worked as an actor again. One…
The Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf (1985)

The Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf (1985)

1981 was shaping up to be a big year for werewolf fans. Long neglected except for cheesy drive-in fare like Werewolves on Wheels or The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, lycanthropy was due to return to the silver screen in a big way. Fans remain divided on the results. John Landis’ American Werewolf in London…
Zombi 3 (1988)

Zombi 3 (1988)

Zombi 3 is perhaps the most famous film Bruno Mattei is associated with. This might seem sort of ironic, given that he is responsible for somewhat less than half the film. Mr. Mattei stepped in after the original director, Lucio Fulci, became so ill he couldn’t continue the project. And therein lies the tale.…
Cruel Jaws (1995)

Cruel Jaws (1995)

Say what you will, but that title will prove all too accurate. (The film was also known as Jaws 5: Cruel Jaws. I'm not sure if Spielberg ever gave his permission for that, though.) Amongst the many services my good friend Sandy Petersen has afforded me over the years, one of the more dubious…
Steel Justice (1992)

Steel Justice (1992)

Pretty much from the beginning of this site, and thus way back in the days of the VHS tape, I maintained that the last, great untapped source of Jabootu fare was the bad TV pilot. Sadly, these have historically been nearly impossible to track down. A few were released to VHS, but few indeed…
Butterfly (1981)

Butterfly (1981)

By 1940, the 25 year-old Orson Welles was an established, bona fide wunderkind.  He was one of the first multimedia superstars, having established by that tender age brilliant careers both as a stage actor and director and as a radio star and personality. 1938 brought him lasting fame, or perhaps notoriety, following his infamous…