Screen Rant is pleased to present an exclusive first look at the trailer for The Bastard Sons, which is set to release in July. The indie crime thriller has been acquired by Cranked Up Films, which serves as the genre arm of indie distributor Good Deed Entertainment. Not only is it a tantalizing revenge thriller in its own right, it is also the feature directorial debut of actor Kevin Interdonato (who played Dogsy on The Sopranos).
The Bastard Sons centers on an organized crime group in New Jersey and the fallout of their boss being murdered. His son Vincent (played by Interdonato himself) takes it upon himself to get "the bastard sons" back together in order to take out the villain. As they attempt to get justice for the death of a loved one, they must contend with the dangerous criminal underworld in which they were raised and the demons it brings with it.
The Bastard Sons centers on an organized crime group in New Jersey and the fallout of their boss being murdered. His son Vincent (played by Interdonato himself) takes it upon himself to get "the bastard sons" back together in order to take out the villain. As they attempt to get justice for the death of a loved one, they must contend with the dangerous criminal underworld in which they were raised and the demons it brings with it.
- 7/6/2023
- by Tatiana Hullender
- ScreenRant.com
You needn’t be gifted or amazing, just follow this advice.
Whatever your opinion of his Amazing Spider-Man movies, there’s no denying Marc Webb’s proficiency as a director. He’s been filming in some capacity since he was a kid and spent many years after college honing his craft helming music videos (regular clients included Green Day, Ashlee Simpson, and My Chemical Romance) before making his feature debut in 2009 with the hit romantic comedy (500) Days of Summer.
Now, following his two Spidey installments, he’s back to directing smaller movies, two of which arrive this year: Gifted, which opens in theaters on Friday, and Amazon’s The Only Living Boy in New York, which first hits cinemas in August. In the following collection of tips to aspiring filmmakers, he shares advice on working on different scales, making mistakes, the importance of collaboration, and giving actors freedom.
1. Always Be Creating
Webb apparently believes in the “ABC...
Whatever your opinion of his Amazing Spider-Man movies, there’s no denying Marc Webb’s proficiency as a director. He’s been filming in some capacity since he was a kid and spent many years after college honing his craft helming music videos (regular clients included Green Day, Ashlee Simpson, and My Chemical Romance) before making his feature debut in 2009 with the hit romantic comedy (500) Days of Summer.
Now, following his two Spidey installments, he’s back to directing smaller movies, two of which arrive this year: Gifted, which opens in theaters on Friday, and Amazon’s The Only Living Boy in New York, which first hits cinemas in August. In the following collection of tips to aspiring filmmakers, he shares advice on working on different scales, making mistakes, the importance of collaboration, and giving actors freedom.
1. Always Be Creating
Webb apparently believes in the “ABC...
- 4/5/2017
- by Christopher Campbell
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
By Hank Reineke
Curt Siodmak’s The Magnetic Monster is one of the more thoughtful – and thought provoking - science-fiction films of the era. Produced by Ivan Tors (whom would share screenplay credit with Siodmak), this intriguing 1953 release from United Artists is a cerebral, worthy addition to the classic sci-fi canon. Its likely most fondly remembered among devotees of 1950s sci-fi for whom the presence of a rubber-suited monster is not a prerequisite.
Richard Carlson (It Came From Outer Space, The Creature from the Black Lagoon) essays the role of Dr. Jeffrey Stewart, a brilliant graduate of Boston’s M.I.T. now working for the Osi (Office of Scientific Investigation). Stewart and his assistant, the bespectacled egghead Dr. Dan Forbes (King Donovan) are self-described “Detectives with Degrees in Science.” They’re government “A-Men,” the “A” prefix representative of their pedigree in atomic energy research. The two are called by...
Curt Siodmak’s The Magnetic Monster is one of the more thoughtful – and thought provoking - science-fiction films of the era. Produced by Ivan Tors (whom would share screenplay credit with Siodmak), this intriguing 1953 release from United Artists is a cerebral, worthy addition to the classic sci-fi canon. Its likely most fondly remembered among devotees of 1950s sci-fi for whom the presence of a rubber-suited monster is not a prerequisite.
Richard Carlson (It Came From Outer Space, The Creature from the Black Lagoon) essays the role of Dr. Jeffrey Stewart, a brilliant graduate of Boston’s M.I.T. now working for the Osi (Office of Scientific Investigation). Stewart and his assistant, the bespectacled egghead Dr. Dan Forbes (King Donovan) are self-described “Detectives with Degrees in Science.” They’re government “A-Men,” the “A” prefix representative of their pedigree in atomic energy research. The two are called by...
- 12/14/2016
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Ivan Tors and Curt Siodmak 'borrow' nine minutes of dynamite special effects from an obscure-because-suppressed German sci-fi picture, write a new script, and come up with an eccentric thriller where atom scientists behave like G-Men crossed with Albert Einstein. The challenge? How to make a faceless unstable atomic isotope into a worthy science fiction 'monster.' The Magnetic Monster Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1953 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 76 min. / Street Date June 14, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Richard Carlson, King Donovan, Jean Byron, Leonard Mudie, Byron Foulger, Michael Fox, Frank Gerstle, Charles Williams, Kathleen Freeman, Strother Martin, Jarma Lewis. Cinematography Charles Van Enger Supervising Film Editor Herbert L. Strock Original Music Blaine Sanford Written by Curt Siodmak, Ivan Tors Produced by Ivan Tors Directed by Curt Siodmak
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
How did we ever survive without an "Office of Scientific Investigation?" In the early 1950s, producer Ivan Tors launched himself with a trio of science fiction movies based on that non-existent government entity, sort of an FBI for strange scientific phenomena. As of this writing, Kino has released a terrific 3-D Blu-ray of the third entry, 1954's Gog. The second Tors Osi mini-epic is the interesting, if scientifically scrambled Riders to the Stars, which shows up from time to time on TCM but has yet to find its way to home video in any format. The first of the series, 1953's The Magnetic Monster is considered the most scientifically interesting, although it mainly promotes its own laundry list of goofy notions about physics and chemistry. As it pretends that it is based on scientific ideas instead of rubber-suited monsters, Tors' abstract threat is more than just another 'thing' trying to abduct the leading lady. Exploiting the common fear of radiation, a force little understood by the general public, The Magnetic Monster invents a whole new secret government bureau dedicated to solving 'dangerous scientific problems' -- the inference being, of course, that there's always something threatening about science. Actually, producer Tors was probably inspired by his partner Curt Siodmak to take advantage of a fantastic special effects opportunity that a small show like Magnetic could normally never afford. More on that later. The script plays like an episode of Dragnet, substituting scientific detectives for L.A.P.D. gumshoes. Top-kick nuclear troubleshooter Dr. Jeff Stewart (Richard Carlson) can't afford to buy a tract home for his pregnant wife Connie (beautiful Jean Byron, later of The Patty Duke Show). He is one of just a few dauntless Osi operatives standing between us and scientific disaster. When local cops route a weird distress call to the Osi office, Jeff and his Phd. sidekick Dan Forbes (King Donovan) discover that someone has been tampering with an unstable isotope in a room above a housewares store on Lincoln Blvd.: every metallic object in the store has become magnetized. The agents trace the explosive element to one Dr. Serny (Michael Fox), whose "lone wolf" experiments have created a new monster element, a Unipolar watchamacallit sometimes referred to as Serranium. If not 'fed' huge amounts of energy this new element will implode, expand, and explode again on a predictable timetable. Local efforts to neutralize the element fail, and an entire lab building is destroyed. Dan and Jeff rush the now-larger isotope to a fantastic Canadian "Deltatron" constructed in a super-scientific complex deep under the ocean off Nova Scotia. The plan is to bombard the stuff with so much energy that it will disintegrate harmlessly. But does the Deltatron have enough juice to do the job? Its Canadian supervisor tries to halt the procedure just as the time limit to the next implosion is coming due! Sincere, likeable and quaint, The Magnetic Monster is nevertheless a prime candidate for chuckles, thanks to a screenplay with a high clunk factor. Big cheese scientist Jeff Stewart interrupts his experimental bombardment of metals in his atom smasher to go out on blind neighborhood calls, dispensing atom know-how like a pizza deliveryman. He takes time out to make fat jokes at the expense of the lab's switchboard operator, the charming Kathleen Freeman. The Osi's super-computer provides instant answers to various mysteries. Its name in this show is the acronym M.A.N.I.A.C.. Was naming differential analyzers some kind of a fetish with early computer men? Quick, which '50s Sci-fi gem has a computer named S.U.S.I.E.? The strange isotope harnesses a vague amalgam of nuclear and magnetic forces. It might seem logical to small kids just learning about the invisible wonder of magnetism -- and that understand none of it. All the silverware at the store sticks together. It is odd, but not enough to cause the sexy blonde saleswoman (Elizabeth Root) to scream and jump as if goosed by Our Friend the Atom. When a call comes in that a taxi's engine has become magnetized, our agents are slow to catch on. Gee, could that crazy event be related to our mystery element? When the culprit scientist is finally tracked down, and pulled off an airliner, he's already near death from overexposure to his own creation. We admire Dr. Serny, who after all managed to create a new element on his own, without benefit of a billion dollar physics lab. He also must be a prize dope for not realizing that the resulting radiation would kill him. The Osi troubleshooters deliver a stern lesson that all of us need to remember: "In nuclear research there is no place for lone wolves." If you think about it, the agency's function is to protect us from science itself, with blame leveled at individual, free-thinking, 'rogue' brainiacs. (Sarcasm alert.) The danger in nuclear research comes not from mad militarists trying to make bigger and more awful bombs; the villains are those crackpots cooking up end-of-the-world scenarios in their home workshops. Dr. Serny probably didn't even have a security clearance! The Magnetic Monster has a delightful gaffe in every scene. When a dangerous isotope is said to be 'on the loose,' a police radio order is broadcast to Shoot To Kill ... Shoot what exactly, they don't say. This line could very well have been invented in the film's audio mix, if producer Tors thought the scene needed an extra jolt. Despite the fact that writer-director Curt Siodmak cooked up the brilliant concept of Donovan's Brain and personally invented a bona fide classic monster mythology, his '50s sci-fi efforts strain credibility in all directions. As I explain in the Gold review, Siodmak may have been the one to come up with the idea of repurposing the climax of the old film. He was a refugee from Hitler's Germany, and had written a film with director Karl Hartl. Reading accounts in books by Tom Weaver and Bill Warren, we learn that the writer Siodmak had difficulty functioning as a director and that credited editor Herbert Strock stepped in to direct. Strock later claimed that the noted writer was indecisive on the set. The truly remarkable aspect of The Magnetic Monster comes in the last reel, when Jeff and Dan take an elevator ride way, way down to Canada's subterranean, sub-Atlantic Deltatron atom-smasher. They're suddenly wearing styles not worn in the early 'fifties -- big blocky coats and wide-brimmed hats. The answer comes when they step out into a wild mad-lab construction worthy of the visuals in Metropolis. A giant power station is outfitted with oversized white porcelain insulators -- even a set of stairs looks like an insulator. Atop the control booth is an array of (giant, what else) glass tubes with glowing neon lights inside. Cables and wires go every which-way. A crew of workers in wrinkled shop suits stands about like extras from The Three-Penny Opera. For quite some time, only readers of old issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland knew the secret of this bizarre footage, which is actually from the 1934 German sci-fi thriller Gold, directed by Karl Hartl and starring Hans Albers and Brigitte Helm. Tors and Siodmak do their best to integrate Richard Carlson and King Donovan into this spectacular twenty-year-old stock footage, even though the extravagant production values and the expressionist patina of the Ufa visuals are a gross mismatch for The Magnetic Monster's '50s semi-docu look. Jeff's wide hat and David Byrne coat are there to make him look more like Hans Albers in the 1934 film, which doesn't work because Albers must be four inches taller and forty pounds beefier than Richard Carlson. Jeff climbs around the Deltatron, enters a control booth and argues with the Canadian scientist/turnkey, who is a much better match for the villain of Gold. Jeff changes into a different costume, with a different cap -- so he can match Albers in the different scene in Gold. The exciting climax repurposes the extravagant special effects of Otto Hunte and Günther Rittau, changing the original film's attempted atomic alchemy into a desperate attempt to neutralize the nasty new element before it can explode again. The matching works rather well for Jeff's desperate struggle to close an enormous pair of bulkhead doors that have been sabotaged. And a matched cut on a whip pan from center stage to a high control room is very nicely integrated into the old footage. The bizarre scene doesn't quite come off... even kids must have known that older footage was being used. In the long shots, Richard Carlson doesn't look anything like Hans Albers. A fuel-rod plunger in the control room displays a German-style cross, even though the corresponding instrument in the original show wasn't so decorated. Some impressive close-up views of a blob of metal being bombarded by atomic particles are from the old movie, and others are new effects. Metallurgy is scary, man. The "Serranium" threat establishes a pattern touched upon by later Sci-fi movies with organic or abstract forces that grow from relative insignificance to world-threatening proportions. The Monolith Monsters proposes giant crystals that grow to the size of skyscrapers, threatening to cover the earth with a giant quartz-pile. The Sam Katzman quickie The Day the World Exploded makes The Magnetic Monster look like an expensive production. It invents a new mineral that explodes when exposed to air. The supporting cast of The Magnetic Monster gives us some pleasant, familiar faces. In addition to the beloved Kathleen Freeman is Strother Martin as a concerned airline pilot. Fussy Byron Foulger owns the housewares store and granite-jawed Frank Gerstle (Gristle?) is a gruff general. The gorgeous Jarma Lewis has a quick bit as a stewardess. The Kl Studio Classics Blu-ray of The Magnetic Monster is a fine transfer of this B&W gem from United Artists. Once hard to see, it was part of an expensive MGM-Image laserdisc set twenty years ago and then an Mod DVD in 2011. The disc comes with a socko original trailer that explains why it did reasonably well at the box office. Every exciting moment is edited into a coming attraction that really hypes the jeopardy factor. At that time, just the sight of a hero in a radiation suit promised something unusual. Nowadays, Hazardous Waste workers use suits like that to clean up common chemical spills. The commentary for The Magnetic Monster is by Fangoria writer Derek Botelho, whose name is misspelled as Botello on the disc package. I've heard Derek on a couple of David del Valle tracks for Vincent Price movies, where he functioned mainly as an Ed McMahon-like fan sidekick. His talk tends to drift into loosely related sidebar observations. Instead of discussing how the movie was made by cannibalizing another, he recounts for us the comedy stock footage discovery scene from Tim Burton's Ed Wood. Several pages recited from memoirs by Curt Siodmak and Herbert Strock do provide useful information on the film. Botelho appreciates actress Kathleen Freeman. You can't go wrong doing that. Viewers that obtain Kino's concurrent Blu-ray release of the original 1934 German thriller Gold will note that the repurposed scenes from that film look much better here, although they still bear some scratches. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, The Magnetic Monster Blu-ray rates: Movie: Good + Video: Very Good Sound: Excellent Supplements: Commentary with Derek Botelho, Theatrical trailer Deaf and Hearing Impaired Friendly? N0; Subtitles: None Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: June 8, 2016 (5138magn)
Visit DVD Savant's Main Column Page Glenn Erickson answers most reader mail: dvdsavant@mindspring.com
Text © Copyright 2016 Glenn Erickson...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
How did we ever survive without an "Office of Scientific Investigation?" In the early 1950s, producer Ivan Tors launched himself with a trio of science fiction movies based on that non-existent government entity, sort of an FBI for strange scientific phenomena. As of this writing, Kino has released a terrific 3-D Blu-ray of the third entry, 1954's Gog. The second Tors Osi mini-epic is the interesting, if scientifically scrambled Riders to the Stars, which shows up from time to time on TCM but has yet to find its way to home video in any format. The first of the series, 1953's The Magnetic Monster is considered the most scientifically interesting, although it mainly promotes its own laundry list of goofy notions about physics and chemistry. As it pretends that it is based on scientific ideas instead of rubber-suited monsters, Tors' abstract threat is more than just another 'thing' trying to abduct the leading lady. Exploiting the common fear of radiation, a force little understood by the general public, The Magnetic Monster invents a whole new secret government bureau dedicated to solving 'dangerous scientific problems' -- the inference being, of course, that there's always something threatening about science. Actually, producer Tors was probably inspired by his partner Curt Siodmak to take advantage of a fantastic special effects opportunity that a small show like Magnetic could normally never afford. More on that later. The script plays like an episode of Dragnet, substituting scientific detectives for L.A.P.D. gumshoes. Top-kick nuclear troubleshooter Dr. Jeff Stewart (Richard Carlson) can't afford to buy a tract home for his pregnant wife Connie (beautiful Jean Byron, later of The Patty Duke Show). He is one of just a few dauntless Osi operatives standing between us and scientific disaster. When local cops route a weird distress call to the Osi office, Jeff and his Phd. sidekick Dan Forbes (King Donovan) discover that someone has been tampering with an unstable isotope in a room above a housewares store on Lincoln Blvd.: every metallic object in the store has become magnetized. The agents trace the explosive element to one Dr. Serny (Michael Fox), whose "lone wolf" experiments have created a new monster element, a Unipolar watchamacallit sometimes referred to as Serranium. If not 'fed' huge amounts of energy this new element will implode, expand, and explode again on a predictable timetable. Local efforts to neutralize the element fail, and an entire lab building is destroyed. Dan and Jeff rush the now-larger isotope to a fantastic Canadian "Deltatron" constructed in a super-scientific complex deep under the ocean off Nova Scotia. The plan is to bombard the stuff with so much energy that it will disintegrate harmlessly. But does the Deltatron have enough juice to do the job? Its Canadian supervisor tries to halt the procedure just as the time limit to the next implosion is coming due! Sincere, likeable and quaint, The Magnetic Monster is nevertheless a prime candidate for chuckles, thanks to a screenplay with a high clunk factor. Big cheese scientist Jeff Stewart interrupts his experimental bombardment of metals in his atom smasher to go out on blind neighborhood calls, dispensing atom know-how like a pizza deliveryman. He takes time out to make fat jokes at the expense of the lab's switchboard operator, the charming Kathleen Freeman. The Osi's super-computer provides instant answers to various mysteries. Its name in this show is the acronym M.A.N.I.A.C.. Was naming differential analyzers some kind of a fetish with early computer men? Quick, which '50s Sci-fi gem has a computer named S.U.S.I.E.? The strange isotope harnesses a vague amalgam of nuclear and magnetic forces. It might seem logical to small kids just learning about the invisible wonder of magnetism -- and that understand none of it. All the silverware at the store sticks together. It is odd, but not enough to cause the sexy blonde saleswoman (Elizabeth Root) to scream and jump as if goosed by Our Friend the Atom. When a call comes in that a taxi's engine has become magnetized, our agents are slow to catch on. Gee, could that crazy event be related to our mystery element? When the culprit scientist is finally tracked down, and pulled off an airliner, he's already near death from overexposure to his own creation. We admire Dr. Serny, who after all managed to create a new element on his own, without benefit of a billion dollar physics lab. He also must be a prize dope for not realizing that the resulting radiation would kill him. The Osi troubleshooters deliver a stern lesson that all of us need to remember: "In nuclear research there is no place for lone wolves." If you think about it, the agency's function is to protect us from science itself, with blame leveled at individual, free-thinking, 'rogue' brainiacs. (Sarcasm alert.) The danger in nuclear research comes not from mad militarists trying to make bigger and more awful bombs; the villains are those crackpots cooking up end-of-the-world scenarios in their home workshops. Dr. Serny probably didn't even have a security clearance! The Magnetic Monster has a delightful gaffe in every scene. When a dangerous isotope is said to be 'on the loose,' a police radio order is broadcast to Shoot To Kill ... Shoot what exactly, they don't say. This line could very well have been invented in the film's audio mix, if producer Tors thought the scene needed an extra jolt. Despite the fact that writer-director Curt Siodmak cooked up the brilliant concept of Donovan's Brain and personally invented a bona fide classic monster mythology, his '50s sci-fi efforts strain credibility in all directions. As I explain in the Gold review, Siodmak may have been the one to come up with the idea of repurposing the climax of the old film. He was a refugee from Hitler's Germany, and had written a film with director Karl Hartl. Reading accounts in books by Tom Weaver and Bill Warren, we learn that the writer Siodmak had difficulty functioning as a director and that credited editor Herbert Strock stepped in to direct. Strock later claimed that the noted writer was indecisive on the set. The truly remarkable aspect of The Magnetic Monster comes in the last reel, when Jeff and Dan take an elevator ride way, way down to Canada's subterranean, sub-Atlantic Deltatron atom-smasher. They're suddenly wearing styles not worn in the early 'fifties -- big blocky coats and wide-brimmed hats. The answer comes when they step out into a wild mad-lab construction worthy of the visuals in Metropolis. A giant power station is outfitted with oversized white porcelain insulators -- even a set of stairs looks like an insulator. Atop the control booth is an array of (giant, what else) glass tubes with glowing neon lights inside. Cables and wires go every which-way. A crew of workers in wrinkled shop suits stands about like extras from The Three-Penny Opera. For quite some time, only readers of old issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland knew the secret of this bizarre footage, which is actually from the 1934 German sci-fi thriller Gold, directed by Karl Hartl and starring Hans Albers and Brigitte Helm. Tors and Siodmak do their best to integrate Richard Carlson and King Donovan into this spectacular twenty-year-old stock footage, even though the extravagant production values and the expressionist patina of the Ufa visuals are a gross mismatch for The Magnetic Monster's '50s semi-docu look. Jeff's wide hat and David Byrne coat are there to make him look more like Hans Albers in the 1934 film, which doesn't work because Albers must be four inches taller and forty pounds beefier than Richard Carlson. Jeff climbs around the Deltatron, enters a control booth and argues with the Canadian scientist/turnkey, who is a much better match for the villain of Gold. Jeff changes into a different costume, with a different cap -- so he can match Albers in the different scene in Gold. The exciting climax repurposes the extravagant special effects of Otto Hunte and Günther Rittau, changing the original film's attempted atomic alchemy into a desperate attempt to neutralize the nasty new element before it can explode again. The matching works rather well for Jeff's desperate struggle to close an enormous pair of bulkhead doors that have been sabotaged. And a matched cut on a whip pan from center stage to a high control room is very nicely integrated into the old footage. The bizarre scene doesn't quite come off... even kids must have known that older footage was being used. In the long shots, Richard Carlson doesn't look anything like Hans Albers. A fuel-rod plunger in the control room displays a German-style cross, even though the corresponding instrument in the original show wasn't so decorated. Some impressive close-up views of a blob of metal being bombarded by atomic particles are from the old movie, and others are new effects. Metallurgy is scary, man. The "Serranium" threat establishes a pattern touched upon by later Sci-fi movies with organic or abstract forces that grow from relative insignificance to world-threatening proportions. The Monolith Monsters proposes giant crystals that grow to the size of skyscrapers, threatening to cover the earth with a giant quartz-pile. The Sam Katzman quickie The Day the World Exploded makes The Magnetic Monster look like an expensive production. It invents a new mineral that explodes when exposed to air. The supporting cast of The Magnetic Monster gives us some pleasant, familiar faces. In addition to the beloved Kathleen Freeman is Strother Martin as a concerned airline pilot. Fussy Byron Foulger owns the housewares store and granite-jawed Frank Gerstle (Gristle?) is a gruff general. The gorgeous Jarma Lewis has a quick bit as a stewardess. The Kl Studio Classics Blu-ray of The Magnetic Monster is a fine transfer of this B&W gem from United Artists. Once hard to see, it was part of an expensive MGM-Image laserdisc set twenty years ago and then an Mod DVD in 2011. The disc comes with a socko original trailer that explains why it did reasonably well at the box office. Every exciting moment is edited into a coming attraction that really hypes the jeopardy factor. At that time, just the sight of a hero in a radiation suit promised something unusual. Nowadays, Hazardous Waste workers use suits like that to clean up common chemical spills. The commentary for The Magnetic Monster is by Fangoria writer Derek Botelho, whose name is misspelled as Botello on the disc package. I've heard Derek on a couple of David del Valle tracks for Vincent Price movies, where he functioned mainly as an Ed McMahon-like fan sidekick. His talk tends to drift into loosely related sidebar observations. Instead of discussing how the movie was made by cannibalizing another, he recounts for us the comedy stock footage discovery scene from Tim Burton's Ed Wood. Several pages recited from memoirs by Curt Siodmak and Herbert Strock do provide useful information on the film. Botelho appreciates actress Kathleen Freeman. You can't go wrong doing that. Viewers that obtain Kino's concurrent Blu-ray release of the original 1934 German thriller Gold will note that the repurposed scenes from that film look much better here, although they still bear some scratches. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, The Magnetic Monster Blu-ray rates: Movie: Good + Video: Very Good Sound: Excellent Supplements: Commentary with Derek Botelho, Theatrical trailer Deaf and Hearing Impaired Friendly? N0; Subtitles: None Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: June 8, 2016 (5138magn)
Visit DVD Savant's Main Column Page Glenn Erickson answers most reader mail: dvdsavant@mindspring.com
Text © Copyright 2016 Glenn Erickson...
- 6/14/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
If you submitted a short film to the ABCs of Death 2 26th director challenge and your entry didn't get chosen to appear in the film, then have no fear because a second chance has been provided in the form of ABCs of Death 1.5. Everything you need to know can be found here!
From the Press Release
Producers Ant Timpson and Tim League announced today the 26 entries chosen to be a part of Drafthouse Films’ ABCs Of Death 1.5, a spin-off of the immensely popular Magnet Releasing anthology series.
The original 2012 film delivered 26 dark tales from the industry’s most celebrated genre directors, and its hotly-anticipated sequel hits cinemas in 2014. Both anthologies conducted a worldwide “Search for the 26th Director”, which allowed one exceptional fan-made entry to appear in each finished film. The original movie sought “T” entries – and ultimately chose Lee Hardcastle’s stop-motion animated “T is for Toilet.” The upcoming sequel,...
From the Press Release
Producers Ant Timpson and Tim League announced today the 26 entries chosen to be a part of Drafthouse Films’ ABCs Of Death 1.5, a spin-off of the immensely popular Magnet Releasing anthology series.
The original 2012 film delivered 26 dark tales from the industry’s most celebrated genre directors, and its hotly-anticipated sequel hits cinemas in 2014. Both anthologies conducted a worldwide “Search for the 26th Director”, which allowed one exceptional fan-made entry to appear in each finished film. The original movie sought “T” entries – and ultimately chose Lee Hardcastle’s stop-motion animated “T is for Toilet.” The upcoming sequel,...
- 1/8/2014
- by John Squires
- DreadCentral.com
Drafthouse Films has officially announced ABCs of Death 1.5, a spin-off that contains 26 short films from their most recent “Search for the 26th Director” competition for ABCs of Death 2:
“New York – January 8, 2014 – Producers Ant Timpson and Tim League announced today the 26 entries chosen to be a part of Drafthouse Films’ ABCs Of Death 1.5, a spin-off of the immensely popular Magnet Releasing anthology series.
The original 2012 film delivered 26 dark tales from the industry’s most celebrated genre directors, and its hotly-anticipated sequel hits cinemas in 2014. Both anthologies conducted a worldwide “Search for the 26th Director”, which allowed one exceptional fan-made entry to appear in each finished film. The original movie sought “T” entries – and ultimately chose Lee Hardcastle’s stop-motion animated “T is for Toilet.” The upcoming sequel, in its search for an “M”, ultimately decided upon Robert Boocheck’s wildly clever “M is for Masticate.”
Producers Ant Timpson and Tim League,...
“New York – January 8, 2014 – Producers Ant Timpson and Tim League announced today the 26 entries chosen to be a part of Drafthouse Films’ ABCs Of Death 1.5, a spin-off of the immensely popular Magnet Releasing anthology series.
The original 2012 film delivered 26 dark tales from the industry’s most celebrated genre directors, and its hotly-anticipated sequel hits cinemas in 2014. Both anthologies conducted a worldwide “Search for the 26th Director”, which allowed one exceptional fan-made entry to appear in each finished film. The original movie sought “T” entries – and ultimately chose Lee Hardcastle’s stop-motion animated “T is for Toilet.” The upcoming sequel, in its search for an “M”, ultimately decided upon Robert Boocheck’s wildly clever “M is for Masticate.”
Producers Ant Timpson and Tim League,...
- 1/8/2014
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
We’re back with another edition of the Indie Spotlight, highlighting recent independent horror news sent our way. Today’s feature includes VOD release information for Armistice, multiple teaser trailers, a Q&A with Matt Thompson from Bloodline, and a preview of Dept. of Monsterology:
Dept. of Monsterology: ”Officially, it’s the Department of Cryptozoology, Mythological Studies, Parapsychology and Fortean Phenomena. But to the rest of the students and staff at the Dunsany College, baffled by the cloak of secrecy that surrounds the Department and its affairs, it has another, more dismissive, name: The Department of Monsterology. Funded by the mysterious Hampton Foundation, the Dept. operates several field teams that roam the globe on extended research expeditions.
Their brief: to investigate the dark and unexplored corners of our world – the places we’ve forgotten, lost or believe to be mythical. And to study those things that may still be lurking there.
Dept. of Monsterology: ”Officially, it’s the Department of Cryptozoology, Mythological Studies, Parapsychology and Fortean Phenomena. But to the rest of the students and staff at the Dunsany College, baffled by the cloak of secrecy that surrounds the Department and its affairs, it has another, more dismissive, name: The Department of Monsterology. Funded by the mysterious Hampton Foundation, the Dept. operates several field teams that roam the globe on extended research expeditions.
Their brief: to investigate the dark and unexplored corners of our world – the places we’ve forgotten, lost or believe to be mythical. And to study those things that may still be lurking there.
- 12/22/2013
- by Tamika Jones
- DailyDead
The organisers of this years London Film4 Frightfest have announced a huge, vibrant and eclectic mix of talent set to appear at this year’s FrightFest the 13th event at the Empire Leicester Sq., including Jennifer Lynch, Sheridan Smith, Dario Argento, Dominic Brunt, Ross Noble, Peter Strickland, Claudia Gerini, Michele Placido, Harry Treadaway, Michelle Ryan, Russell Tovey and The Soska Sisters…
Read on for the official press release:
As individual tickets go on sale tomorrow (Saturday 28 July), Film4 FrightFest announces its guest list, which boasts a whole host of directors from around the world including: The Manetti Brothers. (Paura 3D), Federico Zampaglione (Tulpa), Paul Hyett (The Seasoning House), co-directors James Nunn and Ronnie Thompson (Tower Block), Jennifer Lynch (Chained), Paco Plaza ([Rec]3 Genesis), Matthias Hoene (Cockneys Vs. Zombies), Jon Wright (Grabbers), Conor MacMahon (Stitches), Glenn McQuaid and David Bruckner (V/H/S), Eron Sheean (Errors Of The Human Body), Stig Svendsen...
Read on for the official press release:
As individual tickets go on sale tomorrow (Saturday 28 July), Film4 FrightFest announces its guest list, which boasts a whole host of directors from around the world including: The Manetti Brothers. (Paura 3D), Federico Zampaglione (Tulpa), Paul Hyett (The Seasoning House), co-directors James Nunn and Ronnie Thompson (Tower Block), Jennifer Lynch (Chained), Paco Plaza ([Rec]3 Genesis), Matthias Hoene (Cockneys Vs. Zombies), Jon Wright (Grabbers), Conor MacMahon (Stitches), Glenn McQuaid and David Bruckner (V/H/S), Eron Sheean (Errors Of The Human Body), Stig Svendsen...
- 7/27/2012
- by Phil
- Nerdly
Disney has dismissed senior members of staff from Marvel Studios' marketing department. High-ranking executives including Dana Precious, Jeffrey Stewart and Jodi Miller have parted company with the firm, Deadline reports. Disney introduced the redundancies to pave the way for its plans to distribute Marvel's film releases itself, starting with next year's The Avengers. The report also suggests that the dismissals were performance-related, (more)...
- 8/24/2011
- by By Mark Langshaw
- Digital Spy
Has Disney begun to take more control of our Marvel CBMs as many fans feared they would back when they took over the company? Probably not. But you might be forgiven for thinking so based on the following report from Deadline.. Everybody is trying to keep this secret. But I’ve learned that yesterday Disney canned Dana Precious, Evp of Worldwide Marketing for Marvel’s La Studios (she had replaced Doug Finberg at the end of last summer), and Jeffrey Stewart, VP of Worldwide Marketing (he’d been brought in by Dana), and Jodi Miller, Manager of Worldwide Marketing. That’s essentially Marvel’s entire marketing department. The official reason for this is that Disney will be handling the marketing for The Avengers and all future Marvel movies themselves, But this does not mean we will be seeing the long feared "Disnification" of said movies as Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige...
- 8/23/2011
- ComicBookMovie.com
Exclusive: Everybody is trying to keep this secret. But I’ve learned that yesterday Disney canned Dana Precious, Evp of Worldwide Marketing for Marvel’s La Studios (she had replaced Doug Finberg at the end of last summer); Jeffrey Stewart, VP of Worldwide Marketing (he’d been brought in by Dana); and Jodi Miller, Manager of Worldwide Marketing. That’s essentially Marvel’s entire marketing department. Marvel redundant jobs were on the line ever since Disney bought the publisher/studio in 2009. And the marketing department even more so this summer after Paramount released Thor and Captain America domestically and internationally, thus effectively ending that studio’s marketing and distribution of Marvel pictures. I’m told that on June 24th, Rob Steffens, who is Marvel Studios’ Evp Operations, met with all of the department at the Manhattan Beach offices in what was described as a “Disney Rules of the Road” meeting.
- 8/23/2011
- by NIKKI FINKE
- Deadline Hollywood
Jeff Stewart, formerly Reg Hollis in the ITV cop show, earns Manhattan film festival best actor for Under Jakob's Ladder
It is a long way from Sun Hill to Los Angeles, but one British actor has made the leap from unglamorous copper to Hollywood star after winning a best actor award at the Manhattan film festival.
Jeff Stewart played whiney-voiced Reg Hollis in the long-running ITV police series The Bill for 24 years. Now he has picked up the award for his new film Under Jakob's Ladder.
The film, which also took home the award for best film at the awards is something of a departure for Stewart. He plays Jakob Seel, a German living in 1940s Soviet Russia. A far cry from portraying bobbies on the beat, the film explores Stalin's secret police in the anti-religous state. Made in only 21 days on a small budget of only £200,000, the story is...
It is a long way from Sun Hill to Los Angeles, but one British actor has made the leap from unglamorous copper to Hollywood star after winning a best actor award at the Manhattan film festival.
Jeff Stewart played whiney-voiced Reg Hollis in the long-running ITV police series The Bill for 24 years. Now he has picked up the award for his new film Under Jakob's Ladder.
The film, which also took home the award for best film at the awards is something of a departure for Stewart. He plays Jakob Seel, a German living in 1940s Soviet Russia. A far cry from portraying bobbies on the beat, the film explores Stalin's secret police in the anti-religous state. Made in only 21 days on a small budget of only £200,000, the story is...
- 8/14/2011
- by Alexandra Topping
- The Guardian - Film News
Jeff Stewart has opened up about the time that he attempted to kill himself following his firing from The Bill. Stewart cut his wrists immediately after producers of the ITV crime drama informed him in 2008 that his character PC Reg Hollis, whom he played for 23 years, would be axed. Speaking to The Sun, Stewart explained that he had been pushed to his limit when the surprise decision capped off a spate of personal problems. "When producers said the character was going, it was the straw that broke the camel's back," he told The Sun. "I just remember going to the dressing room and time seemed to go very quickly." On his suicide attempt, he added: "It's very sobering. What I hadn't had time to do was to process what I had been told. "I didn't see a counsellor, it was evident I was okay and I never worried how it...
- 8/13/2011
- by By Daniel Sperling
- Digital Spy
That Kate Bush, eh? Prolific songwriter by day, Doctor Who writer at night. Well, actually, that's not true. It was just a rumour circulating at the time that Christopher Bailey was actually a pseudonym for the eerie warbler. And I'm not too sure that Bailey would be too happy about the link.
Still, in a way you can see why a handful of folks might think this. Like Bush's meisterworks, Kinda is unusual, eccentric, deep 'n' meaningful, and also very entertaining. Some of the set pieces could possibly have come from one of Bush's videos, especially the scenes in Teabag's mind. You almost half expect Bush to leap out of the darkness from behind the steel girders to start crooning a variant on 'The Man With The Child In His Eyes' called 'The Woman With The Vile In Her Eyes'.
So pull out the psychologist's chair, and let's delve deep...
Still, in a way you can see why a handful of folks might think this. Like Bush's meisterworks, Kinda is unusual, eccentric, deep 'n' meaningful, and also very entertaining. Some of the set pieces could possibly have come from one of Bush's videos, especially the scenes in Teabag's mind. You almost half expect Bush to leap out of the darkness from behind the steel girders to start crooning a variant on 'The Man With The Child In His Eyes' called 'The Woman With The Vile In Her Eyes'.
So pull out the psychologist's chair, and let's delve deep...
- 12/22/2010
- Shadowlocked
Jeff Stewart may never win an Oscar or a Golden Globe, but very few actors can claim to have created a character as well-loved as The Bill's PC Reg Hollis. Stewart made the eccentric gardening-fanatic police officer a cult hero, bringing comic relief to the ITV cop show for 24 years. Reg may have bowed out of the show in 2008's 'Heat On The Beat' episode, but Stewart will be always fondly remembered by all Bill fans for his numerous enthralling and humorous storylines. The Aberdeen-born thespian worked on shows including Crossroads, Minder, Hi-De-Hi! and even cameoed in Doctor (more)...
- 3/27/2009
- by By Alex Fletcher
- Digital Spy
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