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I am blown away by how excellent this first movie-watching experience was. Finally we get a reboot that delivers by creating a new continuity without plagiarizing or disrupting the source material. And unlike the well-meaning but unoriginal and lazy reboots coming out of Hollywood, "The Littlest Reich" isn't stifled by political correctness and trying to please everyone. Yet it doesn't sacrifice intelligent morals for its shock value.

Its a simple yet clever premise based on the essential ingredients of a classic modern tale. Essentially its a dark spoof of the original film with the same motives but its own voice, style, universe, politics and point of view. Most importantly it only strengthens the subtext of the original story and showers it in obvious fandom.

Where I think the screenwriter struck genius is making this a film for fans of the original first and foremost but still accessible to wider tastes, not the opposite. Too many reboots and sequels throw out the appeal of the old for eager accessibility by not studying the story mechanics that do or do not still work. This fella knows you have to have Nazis, puppets, slasher victims and 80s fanboy chic, but he finds new uses for all of these things. He fashions something personal from the first film and transplants it to a modern platform. The Puppet Master mythos is reinvigorated but NOT re-purposed.

TLR echos the many obsessions, themes, tropes, aesthetics & appeal of the entire PM catalog, so it fits in like a jewel among its dated and meager family to uplift them to younger, hipper and maybe less educated critics who wouldn't expect so much value from a reboot of an 80s horror cheapie about killer dolls. This is why its not just great cinema, its a great meta meditation and pop cultural commentary on cinema itself. And I'm grateful that a modest indie production could still accomplish this in 2018.

This is Fulci's ripoff of Suspiria. Murder at a hotel, a female protagonist shows up, creepy people work there, the occult is involved, etc. it lifts a few scenes directly like a blind person being bit by their seeing eye dog. The Beyond, while beautifully shot and directed well enough, is a very stupid and slow film that borrows too much from previous Fulci films.

The rare Dan Aykroyd-driven film. It's a simple SNL-type premise: The Nutty Professor but with pimps. But Aykroyd ensures it's classy, lively and good spirited. It's low on big laughs or clever gags but it's very watchable for the excellent casting, soundtrack and a few rewarding scenes including a clear ode to The a Blues Brothers. If only it was directed by a more comedy-inclined filmmaker.

It's not nearly as exciting, fun or cool as the original but it's still a creative and well-made sequel that is hated because of a horrible version that had nothing to do with the director/writer. It's no Blade Runner yet it's the first of a zillion films that tries to be. The drastic changes from the original film were panned at the time but in a culture swamped in bad remakes and redundant sequels, maybe posterity will appreciate how Highlander 2 ramps up the political and existential themes that were wallpaper to its more exciting predecessor.

What today is an obvious mash up of Rosemary's Baby and Repulsion (complete with Mia Farrow clone) was a clever cash in on a then fresh genre. It's predictable, unoriginal and somewhat stale, but it's also one of the more lavish and well-crafted Italian giallo. It's not the best of the countless Occult horro films that came out of Europe but it's far from the worst.

In the vein of John Waters or early Harmony Korine, Giuseppe Andrews attempts high level art house cinema on the most meager and grimy production values. It's confrontational, offensive, nauseating, exploitative but also existential, lyrical, experimental and occasionally profound. It's a bunch of drugged out skits and one note gags, but assembled in a clever and very watchable format that I can't compare to any other film. Very rewarding for fans of auteurist and outsider art.

It's your standard Jerry Lewis directed film. While a great actor and praised by the French for how weird his directing is, Lewis is not a funny director. He's so indulgent, ego driven and dismissive of the audience. The whole thing is an obvious love letter to Dean Martin that remakes the style of the old Martin/Lewis comedies. But people expected an Ocean's 11 spinoff, not Sammy Davis Jr doing a Jerry impression for 3/4ths of the runtime.

For Jerry fans, it is one of his most bizarre and well budgeted films so Lewis makes his directing the star. It's never funny but it is experimental technically. It's dated and somewhat offensive politically: racism is treated as a joke, minorities buffoons, women are ornaments and Lewis, Sammy and Lawford are way too old to try to be hip or youthful. I enjoyed the minor action scenes which were the biggest stretch for Lewis and there is a clever plot in there (not written by Jerry) but it's trashed for long unfunny mugging takes and unoriginal slapstick that slows everything down. Some will find that genius but it's obviously Lewis exploiting the opportunity he was given and loading up on filler rather than thinking hard or saying anything or putting the sauced fun on-set on to the screen.

Directed by future cult director Jess Franco, this is a restrained and commercial film that doesn't have much of his voice but all of his skill. This would be his most profitable box office global hit ever as it was made for producer Harry Alan Towers, a guy who got big locations, big international stars and big distribution. To be honest, this is mostly Towers' film, which isn't bad. Its melodramatic, easy to digest and has some softcore kicks.

This is considered the genesis of the Women in Prison film genre and quite a few writers claim there wouldn't be an Orange is the New Black without it. It establishes the archetypes like lesbianism, corporal punishment, evil wardens and big escape plans. Surely that stuff is lifted from male prison films, but whatever.

Jess Franco would remake and riff off of 99 Women many times and some of those films are more entertaining or at least more sleazy: Sadomania, Tropical Inferno, Women Without Innocence, Love Camp.

This is one of the best silent films that I've seen. Its a great mix of tragedy and comedy with visuals and lessons that are still modern. Its a painful tale of conformity and the American dream without the implausibly happy Hollywood ending. Before Hollywood set its rules, a mainstream film could experiment and say what it wanted to say more easily. Gore Vidal gets the lion's share of the credit as the director of this lyrical and balanced epic of 1920s realism. But the lead John Murray is so impressive in his vulnerability and believable naivety.

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The Italians invented the theatrical lowbrow slapstick that became a staple of 20th century film. Their brand is more juvenile and extreme, but they also bring their advanced culture and customs to it. That makes a film like "Policewoman" a mixed bag. Its cheap and cynical as any grindhouse film you can find, but it has gorgeous art direction and solid filmmaking. The script is kinda weak, full of lame gags and Italian humor is probably lost in translation. There's a lot of racial humor that comes off mean and the physical humor never becomes sophisticated beyond fart jokes and falling down. But this is a watchable mess. Its a good education on 80s Italian film culture and it has its redeeming moments. Edwige Fenech is a bonafide star and she's enough of a draw for most men.

As bad as it is, you can do worse. And it fits in the genre with Troma and bad 80s Porky's ripoffs, so there's definitely an audience for this still.

I was impressed with so much of this film. Based on what sounds like a very clever and well-researched occult fiction novel, this is just as straight-forward and paced to thrill lightly. Luckily the film is full of creepy but gorgeous atmosphere and benefited from a solid cast. Its tame by today's standards of extremity, but thats its charm. This is one of Hammer Films' more watchable and smart movies.

But its not all roses. There is religious paranoia, appallingly open racism early on and builds to a appropriately vicious and insane revelation that its all been conservative Protestant propaganda meant to brainwash, scare and sabotage politically. This would explain the very unhappy and un-arousing tone of every moment.

The insulting exploitation and dated correctness spoils the rewatchability of the film, no matter how well made and cult-worshiped it is. I recommend to audiences who can not only overlook the stupidity and lameness of the message to appreciate the formal aesthetics of the artistry, but can also put it in the right context (AKA not young people!).

What starts as an entertainingly inept mashup of "Alien", "The Abyss", "The Fly", "The Thing" and even "Jaws" slowly unravels into a cynical, tasteless, remorseless, uninspired and depressing piece of public trash. There is no sense in any of it. T he worst part is seeing so many classic B-actors of the era slumming and being wasted. But the performances of Ernie Hudson, Meg Foster, Richard Crenna and so many others lifts the awfully directed, awfully written, awfully edited footage afloat.

It had to have been made by a fly-by-night Z-grade indie production more accustomed to cheap porn or Straight-to-VHS store idiocy. At least, thats the vibe it gives. But I'm sure there are some tasteless, racist, infantile and very deprived people who would find this decent. I did when I was 8 years old, but now its just an embarrassing experience.

This is a testament to all of the worst qualities of film in the late 80s into the early 90s, the negative result of the commercialism, post-modernism and political incorrectness of some major filmmakers of the 70s and 80s. This tripe has flowed ever since.

Leviathan is like a prototype for popular hollow spoofs like "Pacific Rim" and America's "Godzilla" movies. Its trying to be something and failing but you accept the failure because of the stars and familiar special effects. Avoid this movie unless you want to learn what NOT to do as a filmmaker and what an audience-hating film feels like.

This starts very strong, being a much tighter and serious movie than the first. This feels like real horror. But the wheels fall off due to missing scenes and a literal unfinished ending. I guess Sam Z Arkoff, the studio head at American International Pictures (AIP), put less money into this sequel, despite the success of the original. That was the practice then with exploitation franchises (and the penny-saving Hollywood films of 2017).

Everything considered, its an OK watch. Not as good as the first Blackula and not even required viewing like Black Caesar's fabulous sequel "Hell Up In Harlem". But if you are forgiving in the mood for entertaining 70s cheese that is quite strong, check out SBS.

Spielberg's the producer, Belushi's the star and Lawrence Kasdan of Star Wars fame is the writer. Its not the funniest film or the most exciting, but it is charming and builds to a very romantic ending. This is the most human and restrained acting that we ever got from Belushi and he would've been as successful as Bill Murray or Chevy Chase had he lived. You can totally see him prepping for those same goofy dad or romantic loser roles. You have to give a lot of the credit to his co-star Blair Brown who is very warm and believable throughout. I thought the script was a bit too cutesy and failed to have the zing of the Spencer Tracy/Katherine Hepburn films its shadowing, but its still impressive as a story because the characters have chemistry. We spend most of the film with just two characters, but they don't become tiring. The film has the magic and sweetness you expect from Spielberg, but its not as visually interesting as it would be if he directed. I think the only thing dragging the film down was the directing which is very routine and almost TV quality. It would be ranked higher if it was more cinematic. But its a good movie and a bittersweet testament to the talent of a beloved young actor who died too soon.

This is one of the smaller films Tobe Hooper directed in the 80s and 90s but one of his darkest in subject matter. There are quite a few thematic links to Texas Chainsaw Massacre: we had a virginal girl getting wrapped up in an underground cabal or torture and black magic. This is not as intense but keeps you invested with its bizarre style and solid performances. Hooper fans won't be turned off by the absurd and symbolic moments, but mainstream horror fans won't get it. This is not a slasher film, but all Hooper films get unfairly graded as such. He works with very esoteric and macabre stories that are not supposed to be realistic. They are old school horror movies with a more intelligent knowledge of evil and depravity. Hooper may have topped himself 2 years later with the similar film "The Mangler" which also starred Robert Englund, who is really having fun in both films. Big recommendation to fans of David Lynch or Jess Franco, whose sometimes producer Harry Allan Towers produced this film!

The film is less of a Spider-Man movie than a Sam Raimi movie starring Spider-man and Dr Octopus... who curiously resemble Raimi IRL. The film is full of bad CGI, bad slapstick, wacky camera-work and flat teenage melodrama. It's "deeper" than the first in that it's full of tragic characters, but it cartoonish in its rendering. Its hard to care about anyone when the cast are all wooden, the directing is juvenile and the script is cliché. But, while overlong and completely idiotic, the film is a crowd pleaser: flashy, fast, loud and easy to understand. Sam Raimi is like the poor man's Spielberg or Zemeckis, which was in demand in the early 2000s. This film is a poor copy of Superman 2. Watch Superman 2.

A technically impressive but problematic and shallow character study about sexual abuse. Repulsion is hugely influential on everything from giallos to Suspiria to the early American slashers (Halloween, Elm Street) to Twin Peaks to Black Swan to It Follows. Its a favorite art-horror film and hailed as an early "masterpiece" from Roman Polanski.

You can't separate Polanski's statutory rape of a female child from whatever statement he made in Repulsion. Polanski delves deep into the Daddy Issues of a sexually damaged young girl and critics praised him for this early examination of "rape culture", but there's a clear criminal fetishization of his female protagonist's emotional weakness and sexual unavailability that is highly disturbing. Its disgusting that she is made sympathetic by surviving a highly unrealistic/convenient sexual attack and must be rescued by a father figure. This film is less about women and their victimhood by men than Polanski's romantic dream of sexually tortured young girls.

I can't call it a masterpiece for its troubling psychology and that its derivative of the even better horror films "Marnie" and "Carnival of Souls". Polanski was a post-modernist who reinterpreted films for an art-house crowd and often got too much credit for simply making the films more cynical and violent (As if the influence of De Palma and Tarantino wasn't clear enough).

The film inspired 100 great films made by well-meaning male "feminists" of damsels acting out man-fearing fantasies, but how many are actually helpful to women? Are they anti-rape or do they simply exploit rape to set up violence in a faux-intellectual/faux-moralist style? I mean the purpose of Repulsion was to show a man's view of man's abuse of women. Gradually we ended up with complex and liberated heroines fighting off male oppression and maybe we owe films like Repulsion with starting the topic in film. But that doesn't mean these film aren't offensive or dated or reprehensible.

With Repulsion, Polanski laid the template for a new style of oppressive, paranoid, psycho-sexual horror and influenced everything that came later. Its still pretty effective although its had its ideas perfected by Polanski and others. But Repulsion is probably more tasteful, restrained, personal and ultimately creepy given the revelations about Polanski. The film remains a twisted yet important piece of cinema history like its creator.

Its bittersweet to see Lucio Fulci slumming in a film that is mostly cheap, unoriginal gore effects and dull filler footage, but Fulci bares more of his persona and sincerity to this film than his much better films. Playing himself in a ludicrous giallo plot, Fulci plays a "Greatest Hits" of his parlor tricks and cheapest techniques. This is even cheaper than his later work so there's nothing inventive or sophisticated in his camera-work or cinematography I'm afraid. But Lucio plays with his own identity and genre trappings. He returns to his roots in slapstick comedy and straightforward giallo and merges it with his metaphysical horror and psychotic splatter. It doesn't hang together as a good movie, but an interesting experiment and fun experience for fans who love him. Its a love letter to fans from a dying artist. He didn't get the chance to make great works too often, but he always had the vision and energy and even something this bizarre and unsuccessful is evidence of some kind of genius Fulci had. This is a fitting reflection of him and his imperfect but audacious career and soul.

Off the bat, Lousie Lasser makes this movie. She plays the emotionally destroyed mother of twin sons who are severely screwed up. If you know anything about her history (and an infamous SNL incident that labeled her too crazy for showbiz), you know that the pain in her performance is real.

She elevates what, on its own, is a gory and clever slasher film that is above-average for its special effects and brilliant plot twist. De Palma pioneered this premise in "Sisters" (and someone probably inspired him), but I've never seen it used with slashers and its a PERFECT fit. The film is cheap and limited, but the story and crew are fantastic. Its shot and scored well. Besides some story lulls, its a good ride. And the ending is the cherry on top: brutal, poetic and satisfying. Quite ahead of the time in its cynical 80s humor.

This is a horror gem.

The only Buneul I can recall seeing are Un Chien Andalou and Virdinia. Death in the Garden was a totally different experience but just as eye-opening. Its based more firmly in reality and its similar on the surface to films like The African Queen. Its a hard-boiled adventure in the jungle, told in a 2-act scenario with a great emphasis in setting up the relationships and identities of the cast. That sets it apart from so many films of this nature. You care so much about these people. And Buneul keeps them believable and complex. You have no clue who will survive or betray the team. The answers are shocking but the ultimate climax is refreshing. You get an almost romantic and optimistic payoff that is earned... without being melodramatic.

It goes without saying that the film is brilliant technically and stylistically. Bunuel was a true master and this is a masterpiece for its genre. Recommended for fans of well-made adventure/thrillers from any time or place.

David DeCoteau is one of my favorite low budget directors because he tries to bring class, beauty and a little camp to all of his genre work. This is your typical Full Moon on paper: few locations, tiny cast, almost no action or gore or sex. But DeCoteau keeps the pace breezy, the performances endearing and the cinematography splendid. He's directed some of the best Full Moon films and helped develop the best parts of its brand style. This is a Frankenstein movie for teen girls, but its well-made and enjoyable for everyone. There's even a little gay subtext to make it more interesting (another DeCoteau touch).

A very enjoyable silent B-movie and superior to many Tarzan films. Many Tarzan movies skip Tarzan's tragic origin and load the film with too much action, animals and comedy. Its interesting that this massive franchise started with a slow, logical and character-driven movie. Tarzan comes off more like a superhero here than in any of the other films. He's powerful, heroic and sensitive. Kudos to Weissmuller for playing Tarzan as a more primal innocent wildman (bringing great acting to the series) but Elmo Lincoln is the perfect fantasy of a jungle superhero. This film seems to be missing a lot of footage because its so disjointed and the over-the-top cuteness of the child Tarzan and the over-the-top evil of Tarzan's African enemies will annoy modern viewers. But the rest of the film holds up. Even the B&W photography is awesome.

One of the laziest Full Moon movies considering the obvious budget involved. There's almost zero action, stale dialogue throughout and every single scene drags twice as long as it should. Its shot well and the cast aren't slouches, but there is no story. Nothing happens. Its filler until an abrupt and anticlimactic finale that rips off your money. Typical for Charles Band. Avoid this one.

Its a generic un-scary blend of Jason, Leatherface, Michael, The Prowler and all the early slashers. Its a lot more serious and better shot than later slashers, but not as entertaining or fresh. It starts strong but runs out of story midway. The strongest element is the cinematography. The sound is super cheap and the abrupt and cringey ending only works because its so bad that its funny.

You don't have to know the erotic thrillers being spoofed to enjoy this Carl Reiner film. Its smart slapstick in his usual absurdist and cinematic style. Its corny stuff but its totally self-aware cheekiness. I found myself LOL'ing quite a bit and also enjoying the acting, cinematography and editing. Reiner is a master comedy director and this is as enjoyable as The Man With Two Brains and Summer Rental. This one just doesn't appeal to as big or hip an audience.