tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56389862760882041972009-11-12T01:50:44.699-08:00Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.comBlogger157125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-53644970549504733572009-11-04T10:54:00.000-08:002009-11-04T10:54:31.461-08:00

In full disclosure, I got my copy of this movie from the director, Corbin Bernsen. However, I'd been planning on seeing this for probably a year after learning the star was Bill Moseley, whose performance in Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 I and my friend Nick became obsessed with in high school. Unbelievably, he already had a website for his "Chop-Top" character which even more

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-89290884084626657192009-10-26T17:43:00.000-07:002009-10-28T13:06:36.933-07:00

The success of Paranormal Activity is more interesting than the movie itself. At this point a lot of people are going to see what the buzz is about, and I can't imagine there have been a lot of repeat viewings, even from those who had a good time being scared.  The success has trounced Saw VI, which may encourage other studios to pit their horror movies against Lionsgate's franchise in October.

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-37809121446503368182009-10-23T14:12:00.000-07:002009-10-27T15:59:04.696-07:00

Roger Corman certainly deserves both praise as well as condemnation. I've praised him a lot lately and must now mention one of his biggest stinkers, the career of Jim Wynorski. His oeuvre is not offensively bad, yet there's something cloying about every film being self-aware and campy to compensate for lack of budget. That's what killed the Troma epoch too quickly. Wynorski's greatest

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-46764500992624981982009-10-20T00:43:00.000-07:002009-10-31T12:44:54.403-07:00

The genre juggling phase of Tarantino's career has culminated in a genre film. After blatantly copying as many decades-old genres as possible in Kill Bill and clumsily combining the serial killer flick with the 70s car chase flick in Death Proof, the question being asked even by his fans was if he was capable of an original, non-homage movie. Well, maybe not the fans. His answer to the

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-44393869544520624342009-09-30T15:30:00.000-07:002009-09-30T15:36:50.832-07:00

NOW AVAILABLE

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-76388613868576168622009-09-24T17:47:00.000-07:002009-09-27T13:46:12.888-07:00

I haven't read Howard Stern's Private Parts. The film version is a mediocre movie and the content strongly suggests that the book is better. The problem is that there are really two movies here, one about Stern's rise to fame and the other about his subsequent battle with censorship. What makes the latter feel so separate isn't the film's fault, even though the forces of censorship are embodied

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-13065946667367390752009-09-17T11:18:00.000-07:002009-09-17T11:22:33.091-07:00

Charles B. Griffith might have been the best screenwriter Roger Corman ever snagged. Before turning Ib Melchior's grim dystopian short story "The Racer" into the camp satire of Death Race 2000, he created two brilliant loose variations on the tale of Sweeney Todd: the unacknowledged A Bucket Of Blood, in which a janitor who turns people into sculptures to impress beatniks, and The Little Shop Of

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-56023144903179001712009-09-12T17:30:00.000-07:002009-09-12T21:49:19.974-07:00

My dad recounts this film's notoriety upon release, and now the film has been completely forgotten. The brutality of the ending was apparently hyped the same way the bloody squib-laden ending of Bonnie & Clyde was that same year. One was a classy picture pretending to be gritty. This is Roger Corman's gritty crime epic, an imitation of a classy old time picture with far better direction than

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-52035639906692150982009-09-03T17:00:00.000-07:002009-09-13T13:06:36.320-07:00

Todd Solondz is a man of deftly disguised humanity. Sympathetic characters for whom we do not merely relate but empathize are virtually extinct. The alternatives offered by "alternative" channels or faux independent subsidiaries of media conglomerates (like the distributors of this picture) are typically vapid soulless stand-ins for the author's egomania. When sketching a myriad of characters

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-87954313347973960262009-08-23T22:03:00.000-07:002009-08-23T22:53:05.043-07:00

Mr Sandman, bring me a dream!As promised, the very special premiere of my first commentary track with Andrew of The Stop Button and our Alan Smithee Podcast: Just in time for - actually, a pre-emptive strike against Rob Zombie's Halloween II: The Sequel, our commentary is on Rick Rosenthal's 1981,Halloween II better known as "the one at the hospital"!at iTunesin MP3Halloween II features great

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-68047183473949676752009-08-18T14:35:00.000-07:002009-08-18T15:17:23.411-07:00

Hey, folks!This weekend I will be recording my first feature length film commentary with Andrew Wickliffe of The Stop Button on a very special episode of An Alan Smithee Podcast.The film is the ORIGINAL Halloween II, in honor of Rob Zombie's Halloween II which opens August 28th. There are a lot of bad things to say and a few good ones too. We'll do our best.Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes,

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-19163311123144879862009-08-08T01:16:00.000-07:002009-08-16T21:42:49.607-07:00

The quasi-incestuous pedophiliac of Orphan are already bound for footnoting in the downfall of Western Civilization. The sole unexpected moment in the whole move comes directly after (except the twist ending, which is only an explanation - we know she's evil pretty quickly - is whom is titular orphan Esther's second and final victim. Everything else is telegraphed miles ahead, even by the camera

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-10373822584925678292009-08-07T00:34:00.000-07:002009-08-16T21:21:16.651-07:00

The young lady behind me at Moon couldn't stop giggling at the Kevin Spacey smiley face robot. His voice comes out of a space age trash can on an arm that more resembles a piece of hospital bed apparatus than R2-D2, and the small LCD screen mounted in front like a blood pressure monitor instead displays a yellow smiley face that makes a lot of chatroom emoticon faces. Spacey's mellifluous voice

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-72556844416440426352009-07-20T16:26:00.000-07:002009-07-22T14:56:55.130-07:00

Lloyd Kaufman, director of The Toxic Avenger and distributor of this film to this day, remarked in his autobio that Bloodsucking Freaks is possibly the most morally irredeemable film the infamous Troma Entertainment ever associated with. I have long held The Toxic Avenger's hit and run/head crushing scene as the personal barometer of offense. Every longtime exploitation film fan likes to think of

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-1384808182040000182009-07-14T15:12:00.000-07:002009-07-18T06:03:50.581-07:00

Linda Blair's career trajectory took a camp icon turn somewhere along the line, not blossoming into other actresses debuting in horror like Jamie Lee Curtis or Sigourney Weaver. The often mocked The Exorcsit II: The Heretic was no Aliens and after some light dramatic work, the late 70s and early 80s brought starring roles in trash classics like Roller Boogie, Hell Night and Chained Heat. Savage

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-43635886057253111612009-07-03T14:21:00.000-07:002009-07-08T16:44:05.779-07:00

In a blaze of grungy 80s excess, Joy Sticks takes the dubious honor of the greatest movie ever made to do with videogames. All they had to do was throw a lot of half naked women around an arcade and add the other basic comedy ingredients of nerds, fat guys and an older authority figure who wants the teenage hangout of sin and depravity shut down. The offhanded regard this film bears for the

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-82460047464016311192009-07-02T21:32:00.000-07:002009-07-03T00:21:52.431-07:00

Todd Holland directed many hilarious episodes of The Larry Sanders Show and several good episodes of Twin Peaks, so I at least knew this would be competently staged pablum. There's discernible skill on display in what he admitted at a New Beverly Cinema screening was simply grist for Fred Savage's potential film career and Nintendo payola. Despite the a heartwarming spin on Rain Man for kids

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-82009298848900080832009-06-25T16:57:00.000-07:002009-06-27T22:27:41.693-07:00

Fairy tales have been interpreted as rape parables by feminists for years so they already make a perfect fit for boners. Like x-rated animated features, there's also a small niche of live action erotic fairy tale comedies with the sophistication of a snickering eleven year old. Animated fairy tales have the extra benefit of being instantly identifiable with Disney's most frequently adapted

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-56318430096134053952009-06-16T21:02:00.000-07:002009-06-16T21:06:28.371-07:00

The most inerrant feature of the Terminator franchise, once seemingly dead yet revived six whole years ago after twelve years before the last installment, has been John Connor. In addition to changing the actors who play him, his will and purpose in the two non-Cameron sequels has been refashioned each time to suit the shortsighted needs of each film.In Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Nick

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-80146375150858604392009-06-10T00:27:00.000-07:002009-06-10T22:45:17.362-07:00

It's hard to review this movie without spoiling the ending and even harder to watch when Turner Classic Movies' Robert Osbourne ruins the ending before you've watched it. Usually an innocuous source of grandfatherly trivia in between excellent commercial free programming - the only game in town - it saddens me that Osbourne now cannot be trusted before the movie to give away too much of a tricky

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-6207073243919677962009-06-07T13:26:00.000-07:002009-06-07T17:25:31.362-07:00

Rebecca must have been a great novel. As a film and Hitchcock's first American production there's a glossiness that feels distancing, thanks to producer David O. Selznick, who also kept him at a distance from the stage when winning the Best Picture Oscar. Hitchcock didn't get anything for decades until a lifetime achievement award and remarked in the interim that it was much more a Selznick

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-31868308653340113872009-05-22T23:50:00.000-07:002009-05-26T16:34:11.701-07:00

The phrase retroactive continuity (abbreviated to "retcon") wouldn't be as well known as it is today without the Internet providing a forum for the establishment of phrases pertaining solely to pop culture. Consistency, in this example taking the form of episodic story continuity, is rarely necessary and frequently stifling as an ubiquitous corporate stopgap against creativity even when the

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-28386137097579663442009-05-19T10:55:00.000-07:002009-05-23T19:30:09.444-07:00

WC Fields and Mae West are in some ways so similar that their star comedic team-up doesn't work. They never exactly compliment each other, hearing one and then the other speak is like listening to an elderly couple whose mouth ligaments are turning to mush. Their big moments and gags are usually at arm's length, even when in the same room they tend to be at opposite ends of it. West wrote the

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-42983913281897417982009-05-17T21:08:00.000-07:002009-05-17T21:10:27.798-07:00

In which Andrew and I try our new Good Movie / Bad Movie format with the classic Terminator 2 (just in time to be topical) and Crow T. Robot's favorite Kim Cattrall vehicle, Mannequin!

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638986276088204197.post-3722094469920637862009-05-08T19:17:00.000-07:002009-05-14T18:34:23.226-07:00

The trailer to Angus seemed immediately mature to me as a ten year old and the young leads much older. There was also the then-hip Green Day headed ensemble kidz punk and "alternative" music soundtrack provided by the executive producer of the film and the band. This is a highly neglected film although the starting price is $17 on Amazon for the VHS, indicating that those who found the film at

Chip Buttyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12511505932392754809noreply@blogger.com0