This weekend, we pay tribute to animation producer and director Walter Lantz (1899-1994).Loved seeing Mr. Lantz on TV hosting The Woody Woodpecker Show back in the 1960's.Here's Walter with his wife and cartoon voice artist Gracie Stafford Lantz (the voice of Woody Woodpecker after the departure of voiceman/storyman Ben Hardaway). Mr. Lantz was assisted very aptly by, to name just a few talented collaborators, animators Shamus Culhane, Dick Lundy, Bill Nolan, Tex Avery, Grim Natwick, Emery…
Jimmy Fallon apologized to Christian about his Survivor 50 twist, but it was what The Tonight Show host said about his conversations with Jeff Probst that really surprised me.
The first recording today starts with the weather. There’s a trail for sport in 2010. A trail for So You Think You Can Dance. Plus a trail for Total Wipeout Celebrity Special. Then it’s another movie, Bridge to Terabithia. I don’t think I got around to watching this at the time. Having watched it now, maybe that was a good thing. My daughter, when I said I was watching this, said she’d seen a review of it, and as a result never wanted to watch it. Let’s see if I agree. Josh Hutcherson (quite a…
After Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx (both contributing music and lyrics) and Jeff Whitty's (book) Avenue Q closed (for the third time) its original West End production, my favourite musical didn't stay away too long, with smaller-scale productions and tours meaning I and a group of similarly addicted friends could keep getting our live fix. It's been away for a few years though, meaning what I think is my fourteenth time seeing it live is in fact a 20th-anniversary production of it opening at the…
Working on a thing which is keeping me very busy, another things which is keeping me busy weekends, and also it’s marking time at the college. So I’ve been watching nothing but silent comedies (for thing #1), but I’ve been watching A LOT of those. But I did fit in GRAND SLAM, which I’d seen […]
FlicFilm Aurora 800 / Midwest Film Company / Zeiss 35mm EF
"What's the worst thing you've ever done?" A soon-to-be-married couple (Robert Pattinson, Zendaya) have their wedding preparations derailed when one of them confesses to “the worst thing they ever did”. I don’t often say this, but I think this film should have been a broader comedy. There’s an edgy feel to it which is super effective in its key moments, and its editing and direction are offbeat and full of surprises. It’s a refreshing thing to see in the cinema. And yet, there were so many…
Rewatched 24 April 2026, rated 5 out of 5 stars the idea of killing people with sex completely blew my 12 year old mind. now, as an adult, i find it completely normal and unsurprising of course Also posted on Letterboxd
Lousia May Alcott's 1868 novel Little Women has been adapted into countless movies, plays, TV series, even a Broadway musical, and our own Collide Theatrical Dance Company recently turned it into an original dance musical. Now Lauren Gunderson, one of America's most produced playwrights of recent years, with a penchant for writing female-focused historical or literary-inspired plays that are fresh, funny, and feminist, has thrown her hat into the ring. And friends, this may be my favorite…
Audio It's fair to say during the first couple of instalments of Planet Doom, I was concerned that the cover with its Axon Eighth Doctor was going to be an over-promise. However enjoyable this redo of Aliens (1986) with the Bruce Master filling in the Ripley role as he's involuntarily tasked with investigating a Time Lord prison containing the parasitic multi-form entity. As with similar stories, it just about finds the balance in making one of the worst people in the universe sympathetic…
I wrote pretty recently about my immense love for, "Storage Wars," as a comfort show of mine. I just enjoy kicking back and chilling with the program. One longtime cast member who retired some time ago would be Darrell Sheets. He had suffered health issues in 2019 and appeared off-and-on until feeling totally done with the show in 2023. Sadly, Sheets has passed and seems to have died due to suicide. He was 67 and is survived by a number of family members. If you or a loved one is struggling…
In 2017, Forgotten Television Drama launched a series of DVDs in conjunction with the DVD distributor Network. Following the untimely death of Network’s Managing Director Tim Beddows and the subsequent closure of the company, we are now making available all the viewing notes that accompanied our releases. Late Summer (Armchair Theatre, ABC, 07 September 1963). Written by Alexander Baron, produced by Leonard White and directed by Reginald Collin. Interviewed about Armchair Theatre in 1960,…
Rocks.
Just living at IFFBoston this week, right? Independent FIlm Festival Boston is at the Brattle & Somerville through Tuesday - centerpieces include Tuner and Remake at the Somerville Friday & Saturday - before decamping to the Coolidge for two screenings of The Invite with star/director Olivia Wilde in person (35mm w/ Q&A downstairs, DCP with intro upstairs).. The big opening is Michael, an
As in prior seasons [NST #909, #912], a couple of classic string boards appear in Hilda s03e07 (Netflix, 2023). ▲ Hilda s03e07 (Netflix, 2023) ▲ Hilda s03e07 (Netflix, 2023) ▲ Hilda s03e07 (Netflix, 2023) ▲ Hilda s03e07 (Netflix, 2023) ▲ Hilda s03e07 (Netflix, 2023) ▲ Hilda s03e07 (Netflix, 2023) ▲ Hilda s03e07 (Netflix, 2023) From contributor Justin Wigard.
Saftiges Kräuterhuhn auf Spinat, Pilzen und Kartoffelpüree Saftig gebratenes Kräuterhuhn auf einem Bett aus Blattspinat, Kräutersaitlingen und Kartoffelpüree. Einfach nur lecker! Direkt zum Rezept Jeder kennt das: Man brät Hühnerbrust in der Pfanne, freut sich auf ein leckeres Essen, doch das Huhn ist am Ende so trocken und zäh, wie einst in der Schulkantine. Was für eine Enttäuschung! Es geht aber auch anders. Mein Kräuterhuhn gelingt mir immer saftig und das liegt an mehreren Stellschrauben:…
The Fritzes award honors the best interfaces in a full-length motion picture in the past year. Interfaces play a special role in our movie-going experience, and are a craft all their own that does not otherwise receive focused recognition. The 2026 Award for Best Robots: The Electric State The Fritzes has been tracking robots in cinema for a few years now. My favorite from 2025 is The Electric State. The film is a Netflix film adaptation of Simon Stålenhag’s luscious illustrated novel of the…
The creative team of the "Love" series set their sites on Donald Duck, and the results are magical. The post Donald Duck Vacation Parade appeared first on PIPELINE COMICS.
Andrew Sarris, in his 1963 essay “The Auteur Theory and the Perils of Pauline” reflected on the emerging idea of a film auteur like this:After a given number of films, a pattern is established, and we can speak of the Rays, of Ophuls, Renoir, Mizoguchi, Hitchcock, Chaplin, Ford, Welles, Dreyer, Rossellini, Murnau, Griffith, Sternberg, Eisenstein, Stroheim, Bunuel, Bresson, Hawks, Lang, Flaherty, Vigo, as we speak of artists and authors in other media.Thirteen years later, Hitchcock put it more…
I join Ben Baker and John Matthews for another look at some of the flimsy imports that ITV regions used to pad out Saturday afternoons with when they couldn't be bothered showing ALF...
Leonardo DiCaprio in Romeo + Juliet (1996) Vitals Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo Montague, moody romantic mob heir Verona Beach, Summer 1996 Film: Romeo + Juliet Release Date: November 1, 1996 Director: Baz Luhrmann Costume Designer: Kym Barrett WARNING! Spoilers ahead! Background Baz Luhrmann’s brash update of Romeo + Juliet remains the highest-grossing live-action William Shakespeare adaptation nearly thirty years after its release. While his tendency toward spectacle isn’t my preferred cinematic…
ETHICS AND EVASIONS It’s a cluttered upper room, overcrowded with grand old furniture, a gramophone, harp, oddities like fencing foils and a home-built valve radio. The sense is of heavy old-fashioned prosperity worn to junk. It’s sixteen years since the old man died, ruined in the 1936 crash, but nothing has been moved or sold. Now in 1968 his two sons need to clear it as the building is demolished. Vic’s in charge: Elliot Cowan looking resignedly weary, still in police uniform as he pulls…
At Comfort TV, David gets our week off to a start with a look at the much-maligned Season Four of The Twilight Zone, the year the series shifted to one-hour episodes, and finds some gems in the mix.The Omega Factor is the focus of John's post at Cult TV Blog, specifically the episode "The Undiscovered Country." He calls it Scotland's "predecessor to The X-Files," which is a heavy burden to carry. Does this inaugural episode from 1979 pull it off?At The View from the Junkyard, this week's…
I haven't seen Demon Seed in who knows how many years. I remembered it being well done, and the ending certainly stuck with me, but until I saw this video, I hadn't given much thought to the film or to how well the major elements had aged. If you remade the film under a different title, I doubt many viewers would suspect that the source novel was over 50 years old.The Tragic Betrayal in the Editing Room of Demon Seed (1977) It's important to note not just how closely Demon Seed tracks with…
Queen of Chess (2026) • View trailerFive stars (out of five); rated TV-PG, and suitable for all agesAvailable via: NetflixBy Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 4.26.26Empowerment documentaries don’t come better than this one. Rory Kennedy’s fascinating profile of chess prodigy Judit Polgár prompts viewers to stand up and cheer. Repeatedly. Judit Polgár and Garry Kasparov played each other many times, but no game was morenotorious than their first match, in early 1994, at Spain's…
Dust Bunny (2025) • View trailer2.5 stars (out of five); rated R, for considerable violence, implied gore and child endangermentAvailable via: HBO MAXBy Derrick BangFile this one under “Be careful what you wish for ... you might get it.” Writer/director Bryan Fuller developed a reputation in the early 21st century for creating adorably quirky television shows such as Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls and — most particularly — Pushing Daisies. He then got more serious last decade, putting his spin on…
The Thing From Another World (1951)
We are back in film festival mode! Indeed, one of the best times of the year. We have been Fantastic Film Festival Australia superfans for a while now, and in 2025 we took time off work and bought VIP passes. It was so good we're doing it again this year.Last night was opening night so we headed out to the Lido to see Hokum. Hokum is legitimately scary and seeing a movie like that in a sold-out cinema is always great. At one point someone in the audience inadvertently said "nope" aloud as the…
What's Up, Doc? is, I guess, just a perfect film. I can remember exactly one other movie of its ilk that I watched with sheer glee — amazed by how contemporaneously funny it was, by how awful it was, and by how obviously, in retrospect, it influenced so much of the genre: the-thin-man. But even more so than that film, What's Up, Doc? is all gas, no brakes. The commitment to screwball never wavers, not even for a single second, ramping up and up and up in abject silliness until — as Babs says in…
🍿Just watched Jurassic Park with my kid. He enjoyed it. It holds up, just as it did the last time I watched it about 10 years ago. The animatronics are still impressive, the CGI less so.
