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Skeleton Crew

By Adam Lippe

The easiest way for filmmakers to get themselves out of being painted into the corner is with a deus ex machina. Sometimes that deus ex machina is a lapse of logic, like Samuel L. Jackson driving on the highway and looking out his window at the exact moment Bruce Willis flies out of a water […]

Once Upon A Time in America vs. Phantasm IV: Oblivion

By Adam Lippe

Those who haven’t seen either Phantasm IV: Oblivion or Once Upon a Time in America may be lost reading the content below. They also may be annoyed that the ending(s) and plot points are ruined for them. But I doubt it. There are many who believe that the ending of Once Upon a Time in […]

L’Enfer

By Adam Lippe

L’Enfer threatens to have a more interesting backstory than the film itself. Originally written by director Henri-Georges Clouzot (Diabolique) in 1964, Clouzot made several attempts to make the film, but always had problems with the structure, and needlessly elaborate fantasy sequences. Thirty years later, Clouzot’s widow sold the script to a producer, who offered it […]

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Roadracers

By Adam Lippe

Whenever there’s a genre parody or ode to a specific era of films, such as Black Dynamite’s mocking of Blaxploitation films or Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof, the second half of Grindhouse, the danger is that the film might fall into the trap of either being condescending without any particular insight, or so faithful that it becomes the very flawed thing it is emulating.

Black Dynamite has nothing new to say about Blaxploitation films, it just does a decent job of copying what an inept [...]

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Featured Quote (written by me)

On Cold Fish:

Though the 16 year old me described the 1994 weepie Angie, starring Geena Davis as a Brooklyn mother raising her new baby alone, as “maudlin and melodramatic,” Roger Ebert, during his TV review, referring to the multitude of soap-operaish problems piling up on the titular character, suggested that it was only in Hollywood where Angie would get a happy ending. “If they made this movie in France, Angie would have shot herself.”

Well Cold Fish was made in Japan, where Angie would have shot herself and that would have been the happy ending.