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Sergio Martino’s Torso may not achieve the sustained delirium of Mario Bava and Dario Argento’s best work, but it’s still a top-shelf giallo. Martino directs with panache, deploying lots of slow zooms, putting the camera in odd positions, and cheekily toying with Pov shots. What’s more, Torso foregrounds a motif that recurs throughout the giallo: the interpenetration of sex, violence, and art.

In the opening scene, a professor lectures his distracted students on Pietro Perugino’s portrait of an arrow-pierced Saint Sebastian. While the professor drones on, the camera slinks around the ornate auditorium, catching the students’ exchanged glances and longing looks, hinting at the erotic appeal that can be unleashed by visual depictions of violence. Later, the evidence from a murder scene will be projected before the students in the same manner as the Perugino: art as murder, murder as art. As it turns out,...

If you think Red Sonja is a cinematic low for Arnold Schwarzenegger, hold onto your popcorn! Helmed by Richard Fleischer and penned by Clive Exton and George MacDonald Fraser, this 1985 flick might not have snagged any Oscars, but it does offer a buffet of campy fun and over-the-top sword fights.

Fans of the Austrian Oak, however, argue that this sword-and-sorcery movie isn’t even close to his worst film. That dubious honor goes to Hercules in New York (1970), the actor’s debut flick.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Brigitte Nielsen in Red Sonja (1985) | Credit:

MGM/UA Entertainment Co.

Schwarzenegger’s first big screen outing, directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman, has been widely panned. The movie’s reputation is so poor that fans often scratch their heads, baffled by how the actor went from this flop to a superstar. One especially puzzled viewer even asked, “How did he become a star?”

Arnold Schwarzenegger...

James Cameron agreed with director Roland Emmerich that he is, indeed, overbearing. The “Avatar” filmmaker pushed back on this being a criticism when asked by The Hollywood Reporter about Emmerich’s decision to drop out of directing a “Fantastic Voyage” remake in 2007, which Cameron wrote a draft of and remains attached to as a producer.

“How is this a headline?” he probed.

During Collider’s Directors on Directing panel at Comic-Con, Emmerich cited Cameron’s “overbearing” behavior in the development process of the remake as his reason for leaving the project.

“I’ve never said anything negative about Roland,” Cameron said. “But anyway: Yes, I’m overbearing. Damn right. When it’s a project where I’ve contributed to the writing, I might actually have an opinion on it.”

“I actually don’t even remember talking to Roland Emmerich about ‘Fantastic.’ I remember the other directors that we worked with...

On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age.

First, the spoiler-free pitch for one editor’s midnight movie pick — something weird and wonderful from any age of film that deserves our memorializing.

Then, the spoiler-filled aftermath as experienced by the unwitting editor attacked by this week’s recommendation.

The Pitch: Film Noir Gets so Many Studio Notes it Achieves Sentience

I’m not the most important person in the world today who loves Venn Diagrams, but “His Kind of Woman” might be best explained as something that rests at the center of a series of overlapping circles. Almost all of those circles are “Howard Hughes wanted reshoots,” to be fair, but there are a number of factors that make this tropical fever dream a fun film noir b-side, best watched with a rowdy group of friends late at night. Alcohol is optional,...

During a Hall H panel at Comic-Con on Friday, directors Antoine Fuqua and Roland Emmerich discussed everything from an “overbearing” James Cameron to Fuqua’s upcoming Michael Jackson biopic Michael and more.

Emmerich didn’t mince words when asked about competing with Cameron for years to get a remake of the classic 1966 sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage off the ground.

“It was a little bit like, James Cameron is very overbearing, and so I at one point just gave up,” said the director. “Because it’s like, is it your movie or my movie? And that’s what happened.”

Emmerich shared that his take on Fantastic Voyage was only in the “very beginning stages” when he finally decided to give up on it. “Because I said, ‘Gosh, why is he so overbearing?'” said the filmmaker. “Look, I’m going to have to say, I do my stuff, and when I cannot do my stuff,...

Pat Heywood, the veteran Scottish actress who made her film debut as Olivia Hussey’s nurse and confidant in Franco Zeffirelli’s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, has died. She was 92.

Heywood died June 26, the Scottish Daily Mail reported.

During her four-decade career, Heywood portrayed the maid in the manor at the center of Freddie Francis’ horror comedy Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly (1970) and the wife of British serial killer John Christie (Richard Attenborough) in the Richard Fleischer-directed 10 Rillington Place (1971).

Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet (1968), which also starred Leonard Whiting alongside Hussey and featured narration from Laurence Olivier, was a hit at the box office as it introduced a new generation to Shakespearean tragedy. Paul McCartney, Phil Collins and Anjelica Huston had been among those considered for the top roles.

The film won Oscars for cinematography and costumes and was nominated for best picture and director, and Heywood...

This post contains spoilers for "Soylent Green" and its source material.

Richard Fleischer's 1973 dystopian sci-fi classic, "Soylent Green," ends with a shocking revelation. Set in a future consumed by ecocide — thanks to unchecked overpopulation and the depletion of resources that came with it — New York City stands on the brink of collapse. The increasing divide between the affluent and the poor has prompted riots over the artificial wafers made by the Soylent Corporation, and their latest product, the plankton-rich Soylent Green, remains coveted, while the rich indulge in organic delicacies. After NYPD detective Robert Thorn (Charlton Heston) gets embroiled in a conspiracy, he learns that the plankton claimed to produce Soylent Green has gone extinct, and that the key ingredients in the wafer instead come from human bodies. "Soylent Green is people!" he shouts in anguish to the crowd assembling around him in the end, devastated that the truth might never be uncovered.

Richard Fleischer's 1973 dystopian sci-fi film "Soylent Green" takes place in the distant future of 2022 when Earth's resources are dwindling, thanks to overpopulation and climate change. Food sources are becoming scant and difficult to maintain. Food and water are rationed for everyone, and the most common foods are small processed crackers called Soylent Red and Soylent Yellow (named for their two ingredients: soy and lentils). A new flavor is taking the populace by storm: Soylent Green is said to be made from plankton and possessed of a much better flavor. It seems that a recent thriving biome was discovered on the ocean floors.

This is a bleak future, and citizens are encouraged to volunteer for euthanasia to keep the population down. The government provides special death rooms where people can relax to calming music and lovely forest scenes as they receive lethal injections.

Charlton Heston plays an NYPD cop named...

The 1970 war epic "Tora! Tora! Tora!" takes place from August 1939 to December 1941, dramatizing the wartime events that led up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The film alternately follows the American and the Japanese military during the same 29-month period, with the American sequences directed by Richard Fleischer and the Japanese sequences directed by Kinji Fukusaku (of "Battle Royale" fame) and Toshiro Masuda. 20th Century Fox ultra-producer Darryl F. Zanuck conceived of the project, as he wanted to give a proper telling of both sides of Pearl Harbor while also wanting to partially exonerate the American military (which had previously been blamed for its inability to prevent the attack).

Planning and shooting "Tora!" took an amazingly long amount of time. Pre-production wrangling lasted about three years, with principal photography taking an entire eight months. To make sure the Japanese segments would be handled by a master, Fox hired Akira Kurosawa to co-direct.

The episode of Wtf Happened to This Horror Movie? covering Amityville 3-D was Written by Mike Holtz, Narrated by Travis Hopson, Edited by Juan Jimenez, Produced by Andrew Hatfield and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

You’ve heard the horrific true story of Ronald DeFeo Jr. You’ve heard of the alleged true story of the Lutz family who moved in afterward. You may have even watched Paulie from the Rocky franchise move into the same house and face a horror scarier than anything a haunted house could ever conjure… his own kids… brother and sister… you know what? I can’t even say it. Don’t you put that evil on me, Ricky Bobby. Just watch Amityville II: The Possession. Bring a loofa and some bleach though because you’re going to want to scrub that off of your memory. Just when you’ve seen it...

Recalling the first time one of his films screened at the Cannes Film Festival, a young filmmaker remembered how the duration of the standing ovation the audience gave seemed to grow with every retelling in the media. In the room, he clocked about “a six-and-a-half-minute standing ovation, [but] by the time I had got back to L.A., it had grown to 20 minutes,” he said. “I said: ‘Wait a minute, I’m happy with six. I never even had a two-minute ovation.’ ”

That director was Steven Spielberg. The film was E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, which closed the 35th Cannes festival in 1982. Even back then, they were timing standing ovations — and arguing about just how long a festival audience stayed on its feet clapping. There’s a long a tradition of using that figure, preferably inflated, as a marketing hook in your movie’s rollout.

“The film that received a 15-minute...

Quentin Tarantino‘s movies have a lot in common with Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, as they are all violent, funny, and intelligently crafted. Tarantino may have gone too far by saying Jaws was once the greatest movie ever made. He contrasted Jaws with films from an earlier generation.

Quentin Tarantino said ‘Jaws’ was so much better than every previous movie

In his 2022 book Cinema Speculation, the Kill Bill director had a lot to say about a certain movie about a giant shark. “When Jaws came out in 1975 it might not have been the best film ever made,” he wrote. “But it was easily the best movie ever made. Nothing ever made before it even came close.”

Tarantino’s take is provocative. Spielberg released Jaws in 1975. By that point, many of the most widely beloved films of all time had come out, including The Wizard of Oz, The Ten Commandments, and The Sound of Music.

Narrow Margin Release Date : 06/18/2024 Shop On Kino Lorber From Peter Hyams, the acclaimed director of Busting, Capricorn One, Outland, Running Scared and Sudden Death, comes this suspenseful remake of the 1952 classic Richard Fleischer film noir. Screen legend Gene Hackman stars as an L.A. District Attorney attempting to take an unwilling murder witness back to the United States to testify against a top-level mob boss. Frantically attempting to escape two deadly hitmen sent to silence her, they board a Vancouver-bound train only to find the killers are onboard with them. For the next 20 hours, as ... Read more...

If the most terrifying horror monsters are the ones that most reflect real-life terror, then cinematic cannibals might be the most terrifying monsters of all. Unlike vampires, werewolves, or ghosts, cannibals on film are fully flesh-and-blood humans — just with a taste for the flesh and blood of other humans. The garishness of the act makes cannibalism a perfect subject for shock horror, and the cannibal film fully came alive in the ’70s and ’80s via low-budget splatter triumphs like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Cannibal Holocaust,” which pitted their protagonists against horrific waves of flesh eaters.

In recent years, cannibalism has had a bit of a “moment” — on film, at least. As The New York Times pointed out in 2022, a wave of movies, TV shows, and books exploring cannibalism has emerged in popular culture, from “Yellowjackets” to “Bones and All” to “Fresh.” Many of these projects use the practice as...

Floating Weeds Sitting inside his Tokyo home, surrounded by stacks of books and photos of John Ford and Jean-Luc Godard pinned to the wall, the venerated film and literary critic, writer, and scholar Shiguéhiko Hasumi admitted with a wry smile that he was not really in the mood to talk about Ozu. We were gathered for an interview about a new English translation of his book Directed by Yasujiro Ozu, but he had old Hollywood on his mind. As he spoke, he switched between Japanese and French-accented English. “This book was written 40 years ago,” he said. “My last monograph is about John Ford. And this is my latest book. I greatly admire the films of Don Siegel.” He pointed to What is a Shot?. “So, I am so far from Ozu.” Indeed, Hasumi, who turns 88 this month, remains prolific. Spread out on the coffee table in front of him by...

Who wants to come along and ride with James Cameron on a Fantastic Voyage? During a Paris masterclass at Cinematheque Francaise showcasing the legendary filmmaker’s talent as a graphic artist, Cameron commented on his long-gestating remake of the Richard Fleischer-directed science-fiction adventure film Fantastic Voyage, saying he still plans to produce a remake of the classic cinematic gem.

“We’ve been developing it for a number of years, and we plan to go ahead with it very soon,” Cameron said about producing the remake with his friend Jon Landau. “Raquel Welch is not available, but we think we can make a pretty good movie.” In 1966’s Fantastic Voyage, a crew is shrunk and injected into the bloodstream of a comatose scientist to repair a blood clot.

“The Art of James Cameron” in Paris features over 300 of Cameron’s paintings, etchings, and production designs from his private collection. Cameron has signed every piece,...

Netflix is continuing to roll out its celebration of iconic films, this time turning the page to 1984.

As part of the streaming platform’s “Milestone Movies: The Anniversary Collection,” Netflix has unveiled the 1984 films celebrating their 40-year anniversary in 2024 with classics like “Footloose” and “Sixteen Candles” alongside Oscar contenders “Amadeus” and “Iceman.”

The Milestone Movies hail from Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, and Sony — the distributors that license content to Netflix.

Starting today, April 1, 2024, Netflix subscribers can revisit Brian de Palma’s erotic noir “Body Double” and Kevin Bacon’s breakout performance in “Footloose.” How about a double feature? There’s also “Repo Man” and “Beverly Hills Cop,” streaming just in time for franchise reboot “Beverly Hills Cop: Axle F” out this summer.

In addition to the cinematic celebrations in your Netflix queue, in-person special screenings of select films will continue at the Paris Theater in New York and Los Angeles...

It’s not just action stars going to unscrupulous lengths to achieve cinematic prowess in their movies, Action megastar Arnold Schwarzenegger also proved his commitment to his roles by doing what could be unthinkable for many. The actor has endured a lot for his character in his 1982 movie Conan the Barbarian.

Arnold Schwarzenegger in Conan the Barbarian

In his book, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life, the actor revealed the extent of the path he took to meet the demand of the director to acutely portray his character. Schwarzenegger’s confession might be a goosebump for many fans, but it shows how the actor went on to do terrible things for the sake of perfecting a character.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Endured Terrible Things For Conan The Barbarian

Arnold Schwarzenegger in and as Conan the Barbarian

Arnold Schwarzenegger is an action legend with several blockbusters to his credit in his career spanning several decades.

The ‘very male-gazed orientation’ of the 1980s version of Red Sonja will be a thing of the past in the remake, says Matilda Lutz.

Fantasy adventure Red Sonja emerged in 1985, three years after 1982’s Conan The Barbarian and around the time of the unexpectedly daft Conan The Destroyer. Red Sonja, directed by Destroyer’s Richard Fleischer, cashed in on that series’ popularity and also featured its star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, alongside 80s icon Brigitte Nielsen who starred as the titular female warrior.

There has been talk of a reboot of the movie for years, but it seems to be a project that has taken forever to bring to the screen – and we’re not just talking about the hold-ups caused by strikes and pandemics. For well over a decade, various attempts have been made to get the film up and running, with creative talent such as Robert Rodriguez, Rose McGowan, Simon West,...

Don Murray, who received an Oscar nomination for his performance opposite Marilyn Monroe in the 1956 film adaptation of William Inge’s play “Bus Stop,” has died. He was 94.

His son Christopher confirmed his death to the New York Times.

In the 2017 reboot of “Twin Peaks,” he played Bushnell Mullins, the chief executive of Lucky 7 Insurance.

Murray also starred in the fourth entry in the “Planet of the Apes” franchise, “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes”; played Brooke Shield’s father in “Endless Love”; and recurred on prime-time soap “Knots Landing” as Sid Fairgate.

Reviewing “Bus Stop,” directed by Joshua Logan, the New York Times said: “With a wondrous new actor named Don Murray playing the stupid, stubborn poke and with the clutter of broncos, blondes and busters beautifully tangled, Mr. Logan has a booming comedy going before he gets to the romance. A great deal is owed to Mr.

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger,” reads the Nietzschean maxim that serves as epigraph for writer-director John Milius’s 1982 adaptation of Conan the Barbarian, thereby encouraging viewers to plumb the philosophical depths of this rousing sword-and-sorcery epic starring Arnold Schwarzenegger from the get-go. So it’s sort of ironic to consider that, given the film’s commercial success and subsequent cult status, Milius no doubt contributed to the seemingly endless proliferation of this slogan across multiple platforms, emblazoned on everything from motivational posters to coffee mugs.

Milius’s seriousness of intent is signaled from the opening scene when Conan’s father (William Smith) advises his young son (Jorge Sanz) to trust nothing in this world but his sword. Critics at the time believed this solipsistic bit of paternal advice to reflect the ruthless individualism of Reagan’s America. But things are a bit more complicated than that,...

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

In all honesty, the films of 2023 should take a backseat to the images we are seeing every day in Gaza, where journalists and average citizens have been recording and documenting a daily assault on their homes and livelihoods by the Idf. Whatever fakery we watched and enjoyed in the cinema this year should always be kept in perspective in importance with images that are real and actually happening right now. The Palestinians who have documented these important images have been targeted and killed with intent and purpose to silence what their photos and videos are showing and saying.

List of journalists who have been killed.

The below is of lesser note:

Best First Watches:

Angel’s Egg La belle noiseuse Centipede Horror Charley Varrick Coffy Crimson Gold...

It took a very long time for Hollywood to take Marvel Comics seriously, and "Howard the Duck" gets a lot of the blame for that. By the mid-1980s, films like "Star Wars" and "Superman: The Movie" had incited a proper revolution in the film industry. Genres that previously weren't big hits — financially or critically — didn't just make lots of money, but they made movie stars out of actors nobody had previously heard of, and even won awards. All of a sudden, sci-fi/fantasy and pulp heroes weren't just "kids' stuff." They were surefire recipes for four-quadrant success.

But even though Marvel was churning out superhero TV shows like nobody's business — not just Saturday morning cartoons but primetime hits like "The Incredible Hulk" and "Spider-Man: The Animated Series" — Marvel's first big budget foray into live-action theatrical features wasn't based on one of their most iconic costumed crimefighters. Instead it was "Howard the Duck,...

In Sibyl, Sandra Hüller appears at the midway point for a scene-stealing role as a director attempting (and failing) to prevent a love triangle between her two leads from derailing her movie. This performance so impressed Justine Triet that she wrote the lead in her next feature specifically for Hüller.

That follow-up, Anatomy of a Fall, stars Hüller as a successful author, Sandra, who must defend herself in court against allegations that she murdered her writer husband, Samuel (Samuel Theis). The couple’s legally blind son Daniel is the sole witness, and much of Anatomy of a Fall deals with his coming-of-age as he hears unfiltered accounts of his parent’s troubled marriage presented as evidence against his mother.

While containing clear true crime elements, Anatomy of a Fall is less interested in a “Did she do it?” conclusion, instead more concerned with probing how moments in our lives and...

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new self-help book and memoir “Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life” recalls the crazy things he had to do to pull off his most iconic film roles. Most wildly, he reveals that he bit into a real, dead vulture while filming takes for 1982’s “Conan the Barbarian.” Schwarzenegger writes that the film’s director, John Milius, forced him to do “terrible shit” during the making of the film.

“I learned to ride horses and camels and elephants. I learned how to jump from large rocks, how to climb and swing from long ropes, how to fall from a height,” Schwarzenegger writes (via Insider). “I basically went to another vocational school, this one for aspiring action heroes.”

“Then on top of that, Milius had me doing all kinds of terrible shit. I crawled through rocks, take after take, until my forearms bled. I ran from wild dogs that...

In the early eighties, Arnold Schwarzenegger had become a star through his role in Conan the Barbarian. Following a critically maligned but successful sequel, Conan the Destroyer, Schwarzenegger sought to move into more contemporary roles. His contract with producer Dino De Laurentis was ending, but the legendary mogul wanted to use Schwarzenegger’s star power to launch another adaption of Robert E. Howard’s work – Red Sonja. The resulting film was a star vehicle for Brigitte Nielsen, who some saw as a potential female action icon, and Schwarzenegger, due to his contract with De Laurentis, had no choice but to appear in a critical supporting role (for which he would be top-billed) opposite Nielsen, who played the titular character.

Directed by Richard Fleischer, who had also directed Conan the Destroyer, Red Sonja, with its $6.9 million gross, ranks as the least successful film Schwarzenegger made during his heyday, with even his wife,...

Sci-fi is a catch-all term, really. Most folks might think of franchises like Star Wars or Star Trek when they hear it—imagining fantastical vistas with magic wizards and teleportation beams. And to be sure, the space opera is a prized staple in the genre’s cabinet of curiosities; but the more interesting science fiction, or at least the type that sticks around in the old noodle, is the more grounded “hard sci-fi.” With a greater emphasis on speculation and estimation derived from the scientific realities of their times, as opposed to the flights of fancy in their pulps, these are stories created by writers, directors, and artists with an eager eye on the horizon.

It is easy to walk out of a film and announce “that will never happen,” but there have been plenty of times where the sci-fi of today turned out to be the scientific reality of tomorrow.

It's been a long road, getting from there to here.

One might recall in June of 2023, it was announced that several key executives and programmers at Turner Classic Movies were callously canned by the new management at their parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. For many, this was tantamount to nixing TCM altogether. CEO David Zaslav made this decision at the end of a string of bad decisions that made him look like the film world's most callous villain. After the weird rebranding of HBO Max to merely Max, it was starting to look like Zaslav didn't give a damn about film history.

It certainly looked that way to Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson, three lovers of vintage film and advocates for the preservation of classics. The trio famously called Zaslav to appeal for the retaining of TCM and the re-hiring of some of their old staff. A...

Few American filmmakers of the last 40 years await a major rediscovery like Hal Hartley, whose traces in modern movies are either too-minor or entirely unknown. Thus it’s cause for celebration that the Criterion Channel are soon launching a major retrospective: 13 features (which constitutes all but My America) and 17 shorts, a sui generis style and persistent vision running across 30 years. Expect your Halloween party to be aswim in Henry Fool costumes.

Speaking of: there’s a one-month headstart on seasonal programming with the 13-film “High School Horror”––most notable perhaps being a streaming premiere for the uncut version of Suspiria, plus the rare opportunity to see a Robert Rodriguez movie on the Criterion Channel––and a retrospective of Hong Kong vampire movies. A retrospective of ’70s car movies offer chills and thrills of a different sort

Six films by Allan Dwan and 12 “gaslight noirs” round out the main September series; The Eight Mountains,...

1984’s Conan the Destroyer was an attempt to soften Arnold Schwarzenegger’s titular barbarian into a PG-rated fantasy film hero. The result was a movie that was only a middling success in theaters, being overshadowed by Arnold’s other big 1984 movie, James Cameron’s The Terminator. Conan the Destroyer proved to be the last time Arnie would play Robert E. Howard’s Cimmerian icon, and in the decades since its release the movie’s reputation has been pretty atrocious. Hardcore fans prefer John Millius’s darker, R-rated Conan the Barbarian to Richard Fleischer’s lighter, family friendly version which seemed to owe a lot more to eighties fantasy movies like The Beastmaster than Millius’s original. It’s a deeply silly film, and one of the cheapest Schwarzenegger’s films of the eighties, with him essentially forced into making this and the following year’s Red Sonja to fulfil a...

Frederic Forrest, who earned critical acclaim opposite Bette Midler in The Rose and collaborated with Francis Ford Coppola, has died. He was 86.

Other than earning both Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for playing Huston Dwyer — the opposite end of a doomed relationship — in 1979’s The Rose, Frederic Forrest is perhaps best known for playing Jay “Chef” Hicks, who loses his head both mentally and literally, in Apocalypse Now the same year. For both performances Forrest was recognized by the National Society of Film Critics as that year’s Best Supporting Actor.

Bette Midler took to Twitter to pay tribute to her co-star, saying Frederic Forrest was a “remarkable actor” and “brilliant human being.”

The great and beloved Frederic Forrest has died. Thank you to all of his fans and friends for all their support these last few months. He was a remarkable actor, and a brilliant human being, and...

This story is part of The Hollywood Reporter’s 2023 Sustainability Issue (click here to read more).

In 1970, 20 million Americans participated in the first Earth Day. One of the more alarming predictions that day was from Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich, who foresaw a future in which “population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make,” resulting in the starvation death of hundreds of millions.

Hollywood took notice and released a string of eco-disaster films in the years to follow.

In 1972’s Silent Running, a science fiction film starring Bruce Dern — and directed by 2001: A Space Odyssey effects master Douglas Trumbull — all plant life on Earth has gone extinct. And 1973’s Soylent Green, with Charlton Heston (who had starred in two other sci-fi hits, 1968’s Planet of the Apes and 1971’s The Omega Man), took Ehrlich’s ideas to scary, if campy, extremes.

Helmed by Richard Fleischer...

Dreams.Some of my favorite work at this year’s Berlinale engaged in some way with death or the afterlife. Lighten up, you say? Impossible. The most literal and beguiling of these was Lois Patiño’s Samsara, which ingeniously conjured the transitional passage between life and death, Buddhism’s intermediate state of bardo. There were the cinematic afterlives of lost films, excavated collections, and reimagined family albums; the archive’s perpetual reincarnation as a generative source for experimental and artists’ film. There were homages to artists from the past, whose legacies continue to inspire the present, including work by the recently deceased Michael Snow and Takahiko Iimura, and film tributes to avant-garde legends like Margaret Tait in Luke Fowler’s Being in a Place, and John Cage in Kevin Jerome Everson’s If You Don’t Watch the Way You Move. Then there was the teeming, unseen world of spirits...

Ricou Browning, who took to the water as the menacing Gill-Man in the Creature From the Black Lagoon and as the creative force behind the original Flipper movie and TV show, has died. He was 93.

Browning died Monday of natural causes at his home in Southwest Ranches, Florida, his daughter Kim Browning told The Hollywood Reporter. “He had a fabulous career in the film industry, providing wonderful entertainment for past and future generations,” she said.

The Florida native also served as a stuntman on Richard Fleischer’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), doubled for Jerry Lewis in Don’t Give Up the Ship (1959) and “played all the bad guys in [TV’s] Sea Hunt,” he said in a 2013 interview.

Plus, Browning directed the harpoon-filled fight in Thunderball (1965), another underwater scene in Never Say Never Again (1983) and the hilarious Jaws-inspired candy bar-in-the-pool sequence in Caddyshack (1980).

Browning, who said he could routinely hold his...

The story of miniaturized medicos set adrift inside the body of an ailing Russian scientist, Richard Fleischer’s preposterously entertaining film has something for everybody, including enormous balloon-shaped sets and the balloon-shaped Raquel Welch in form-fitting scuba gear. Starring old guard Edmond O’Brien and chiseled ladies’ man Stephen Boyd, this high-tech Saturday matinee garnered unusually good reviews and plenty of action at the box office.

The post Fantastic Voyage appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

When 1960s and ‘70s icon Raquel Welch died last week at the age of 82, much of the media focus was on her (well-deserved) status as one of the most memorable and gorgeous sex symbols in movie history. A lot of the coverage, in fact, noted that the Chicago native’s substantial talents as an actress, singer, and dancer, were overshadowed by her status as one of the era’s premiere pinups.

While she may be best remembered for her turn as a skimpily-clad cavewoman in 1966’s One Million Years B.C., her breakout role came earlier that year in the 20th Century Fox sci-fi spectacle Fantastic Voyage. The film was Welch’s fourth, but the first in which she had a lead role. She played Cora Peterson, one of five members of a medical team who are miniaturized, along with a small submarine, and injected into the body of a defecting...

Raquel Welch, the American actress known for her role in One Million Years B.C. that made her a 1960s pin-up icon and later made a memorable guest appearance on Seinfeld, has died at 82.

Welch’s son Damon Welch confirmed his mother’s death (via The New York Times), although no cause was given.

Welch was born Jo Raquel Tejada on September 5th, 1940 in Chicago, and expressed interest in entertainment and performing at an early age. She studied ballet and won numerous beauty pageants in her youth, enrolling in a theater program at San Diego State College after graduating high school.

Following a series of one-off television appearances, Welch made her first leading feature film appearance in 1966 starring in Richard Fleischer’s sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage, which was a commercial success and quickly secured her star status. The following year, she appeared in Don Chaffey’s One Million Years B.C.; her...

Raquel Welch, the actor who became an icon and sex symbol thanks to films like “One Million Years B.C.” and “Three Musketeers,” died Wednesday in Los Angeles after a brief illness, her manager confirmed to Variety. She was 82.

She came onto the movie scene in 1966 with the sci-fi film “Fantastic Voyage” and the prehistoric adventure “One Million Years B.C.,” the latter of which established Welch as a sex symbol. The actor went on to appear in the controversial adaptation of Gore Vidal’s “Myra Beckrinridge,” “Kansas City Bomber” and Richard Lester’s delightful romps “The Three Musketeers” (1973), for which she won a Golden Globe, and “The Four Musketeers: Milady’s Revenge” (1974). She was one of the first women to play the lead role — not the romantic interest — in a Western, 1971 revenge tale “Hannie Caulder” — an inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” (2003), according to the director.

(Earlier, Marlene Dietrich and Joan Crawford...

10 Rillington Place, part of a mundane row of apartments in London, was ground zero for one of the most infamous serial killers in England’s history. Richard Attenborough plays John Christie, a ghoul who used his wall space and floorboards to hide his grisly deeds. Directed by Richard Fleischer, the film co-stars John Hurt as the poor chap who took the rap for Christie before justice prevailed. Judy Geeson plays Hurt’s wife.

The post 10 Rillington Place appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

"To me," Quentin Tarantino writes, "'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' is one of the few perfect movies ever made." The celebrated "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" director drops the observation near the tail end of his latest book "Cinema Speculation," a nonfiction rumination on cinema. In fact, his praise of "Chain Saw" isn't even the focal point of the chapter it's found in, it's a preamble to an entire chapter dedicated to Tobe Hooper's 1981 big studio follow-up, "The Funhouse." He goes on to write that there are few movies that can really be called "perfect," which is fine since that isn't the end goal when it comes to storytelling. "Nevertheless," he goes on, "when it's accomplished (even by accident), it's an achievement."

Speaking with Jimmy Kimmel while promoting the book, Tarantino listed a handful of movies that he considers perfect, prefacing his picks with clarification on...

This Region-Free import gives us both versions of Gillo Pontecorvo’s fictional tale of colonial misdeeds that sums up old Europe’s attitude toward the New World. Marlon Brando’s agent provocateur and freebooting soldier of fortune foments revolution against the Portuguese and then hires out to reverse everything he’s done for English interests. The big scale production was filmed in several locations across the globe; it has a standout performance from Evaristo Márquez as a charismatic peasant eager to become a conqueror.

Burn!

Region Free Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 194

1969 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 129, 112 min. / Street Date December 28, 2022 / Available from Viavision / au 79.95

Starring: Marlon Brando, Evaristo Márquez, Norman Hill, Renato Salvatori.

Cinematography: Marcello Gatti, Giuseppe Ruzzolini

Production Designer: Sergio Canevari

Art Director: Piero Gherardi

Film Editor: Mario Morra

Original Music: Ennio Morricone

Written by Franco Solinas, Giorgio Arlorio

Produced by Alberto Grimaldi

Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo

The enterprising Italian producer Alberto...

Twice a month Joe Lipsett will dissect a new Amityville Horror film to explore how the “franchise” has evolved in increasingly ludicrous directions.

After the highs of Amityville 2: The Possession, it’s hard not to see Amityville 3-D as something of a letdown. The Richard Fleischer-directed film lacks the visual flare that Damiano Damiani brought and the result is a film that is lacking all of the energy and verve of the first sequel. The new film feels more leaden and by the numbers, even as the film works overtime to justify its 3-D gimmick, which was all the rage in early 80s horror.

One stand-out aspect of the third Amityville is that it’s unafraid of being mean. The women, in particular, are treated horribly; the film’s two cruelest – and most memorable – deaths are reserved for supporting cast members Candy Clark (!) and Lori Loughlin (!!).

Unfortunately, the...

Strange World, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ new family offering is indeed strange, a film that ought to skew much older because of its reference points but caters to a surprisingly young audience too, mostly on account of its brilliant lava-lamp aesthetics. It also comes with a timely eco-message, albeit one so convoluted that the specifics of it are hard to register when there’s so much action going on. But as with most things in this gelatinous universe, it’s better just to let things slide, and it may be the case with this similarly protean production that its inability to solidify might explain Disney’s difficulty in promoting it.

The story begins in Avalonia, where bullish explorer Jaeger Clade (Dennis Quaid) is leading a small expedition to find out what lies beyond the icy mountains that isolate his country from any other contact. Along the way, his meek son...

Whether you are religious or not, there is no denying that Jesus Christ is one of the most influential and important figures in human history. His life and teachings have inspired billions of people worldwide, and have been the subject of many movies over the years. The crucifixion is undeniably the most significant event in the short but meaningful life of Jesus.

In this blog post, we will take a look at 10 of the best movies about Jesus Christ. We’ve ranked these Biblical epics based on an aggregate of viewers’ ratings.

10/10

Risen (2016)

Director: Kevin Reynolds

Starring: Joseph Fiennes, Tom Felton, Peter Firth

IMDb User Rating 6.3/10 29K Rt Audience Score 70 10K Meta User Score 6.9 Votes 85

“Risen” is a 2016 historical drama about the aftermath of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion. With a budget of 20 million, “Risen” is a 2016 American epic biblical drama film directed by Kevin Reynolds.

The story follows Clavius (Joseph Fiennes), a high-ranking Roman soldier,...

Richard Fleischer’s Biblical epic is a class act all the way, and one of producer Dino De Laurentiis’s greatest accomplishments. Anthony Quinn’s guilty, perplexed bandit survives and subsists but never understands the importance of the man crucified in his place; the view of early Christianity is respectful and free of pious clichés. It’s an excellent image of the ancient world, with gladiator scenes that are possibly the best ever. Fleisher does exceedingly well with the enormous sets and a well-chosen international cast: Ernest Borgnine, Valentina Cortese, Vittorio Gassman, Katy Jurado, Arthur Kennedy, Silvana Mangano, Jack Palance.

Barabbas

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 132

1961 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 137 min. / Street Date June 29, 2022 / Available from [Imprint] / au 39.95

Starring: Anthony Quinn, Silvana Mangano, Arthur Kennedy, Katy Jurado, Harry Andrews, Vittorio Gassman, Norman Wooland, Valentina Cortese, Jack Palance, Ernest Borgnine, Arnoldo Foa’, Michael Gwynn, Laurence Payne, Douglas Fowley, Robert Hall, Joe Robinson, Friedrich von Ledebur,...

Richard Fleischer's peplum film "Red Sonja" was released in the United States on July 3, 1985, making it the very first feature film to be based on a Marvel Comics character. And while some scholars in the field of Depression-era pulp magazines might point out that Red Sonja actually finds her origins in Robert E. Howard's 1934 Magic Carpet Magazine short story "Shadow of the Vulture" (wherein she was called Red Sonya of Rogatino), it's clear that Fleischer's film was more directly based on Marvel's repurposed version of the character from 1973.

If one needs further evidence of the "Red Sonja" movie's Marvel credentials, one can point to the presence of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film, as a very Conan-the-Barbarian-like character named Kalidor. While this doesn't technically link "Red Sonja" to the 1982 film version of "Conan the Barbarian," it's close enough to be considered at least a spinoff. After all,...

To celebrate the first ever 4K restoration of Richard Fleischer’s 1985, action-adventure epic, Red Sonja – released on DVD, Blu-ray, 4K Uhd and 4K Uhd Limited SteelBook Edition 18th July – we are giving away a 4K Uhd Blu-ray!

Brigitte Nielsen stars as the iconic, flame-haired heroine who sets out to avenge the death of her family after being granted extraordinary powers by a mysterious vision. On her way to find the tyrannical Queen Gedren, played by Sandahl Bergman (Conan The Barbarian), she meets Kalidor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, a powerful stranger from whom she refuses to accept help. The film features a score from the renowned, Academy Award-Winning® Ennio Morricone.

Studiocanal have commissioned legendary Italian artist, Renato Casaro, to create a brand-new artwork that will celebrate “Red Sonja” as the titular heroine. Casaro designed the original 1985 Red Sonja poster and is considered one of the most important illustrators in film history. His hand-drawn...

To celebrate the first ever 4K restoration of Richard Fleischer’s 1985, action-adventure epic, Red Sonja – released on DVD, Blu-ray, 4K Uhd and 4K Uhd Limited SteelBook Edition 18th July – we are giving away a Blu-ray!

Brigitte Nielsen stars as the iconic, flame-haired heroine who sets out to avenge the death of her family after being granted extraordinary powers by a mysterious vision. On her way to find the tyrannical Queen Gedren, played by Sandahl Bergman (Conan the Barbarian), she meets Kalidor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, a powerful stranger from whom she refuses to accept help. The film features a score from the renowned, Academy Award-Winning Ennio Morricone.

Studiocanal have commissioned legendary Italian artist, Renato Casaro, to create a brand-new artwork that will celebrate “Red Sonja” as the titular heroine. Casaro designed the original 1985 Red Sonja poster and is considered one of the most important illustrators in film history. His hand-drawn art has...

"We could've ruled the world together!" Studiocanal UK has revealed a new trailer for the 4K restoration re-release of the campy action classic Red Sonja, which originally opened in July of 1985. The movie was a follow-up to Conan the Destroyer, which was a huge success the year before, so they made another just like it. Directed by Richard Fleischer, the epic 80s fantasy action film Red Sonja has been restored in 4K Uhd with a score from the legendary Academy Award-Winning composer Ennio Morricone. Based on stories by the creator of Conan the Barbarian, Robert E. Howard and featuring new original artwork by the artist Renato Casaro (seen below). The fearless warrior Red Sonja sets out to avenge her family's murder and rid her kingdom from the tyrannical rule of evil Queen Gedren. This one stars Brigitte Nielsen as Red Sonja, Arnold Schwarzenegger as Kalidor, Sandahl Bergman, Paul Smith, Ernie Reyes Jr,...

Angus MacLane, animation veteran and director of the new Pixar adventure Lightyear, discusses his favorite movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Taking Off (1971)

Reign of Terror (1949)

Kiss Me Deadly (1955) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s review

Lightyear (2022)

Toy Story (1995)

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) – Brian Trenchard-Smith’s trailer commentary, Dennis Cozzalio’s Beyond Furious series, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Innerspace (1987) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Mars Attacks! (1996)

The ’Burbs (1989) – Ti West’s trailer commentary, ’Burbs Mania at Tfh

Alive (1993)

Star Wars (1977)

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937)

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)

The Matrix (1999)

Alien (1979) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing

Aliens (1986) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Tron (1982)

The Blues Brothers (1980) – Adam Rifkin’s trailer commentary

Howard The Duck (1986) – Alex Kirschenbaum’s review

Wall-e (2008)

Predator 2 (1990)

Alien vs. Predator...