Cinefantastique Online

You are browsing the archives of 2009 March.

Much was made in 1983 of the return of Sean Connery to the role of James Bond, in spite of the fact that Roger Moore’s most recent outings had been spectacular financial successes. But the outer space extravagance of Moonraker in 1979 had set many Bond fans pining for the simpler days of the Connery [...]

If you asked me what I thought Ray’s greatest achievement was, I’d say that in my mind it has been his whole life, his entire career. He is the finest animator that ever existed.
—Ray Bradbury

Ray Harryhausen’s latest book, A Century of Stop Motion Animation (Watson–Guptill) arrived in bookstores last November without much fanfare; Harryhausen did [...]

Zombo’s Closet of Horror has a couple of interesting, recent posts, one on KNOWING and one on the WOLFMAN remake. The former takes exception to the negative reviews that the recent Alex Proyas thriller has received; the later speculates on the possiblity that the man-to-wolf transformations will be achieved with computer generated imagery.
In Destiny in a [...]

“The future, Madame, is something we should have started on a long time ago.” – Doctor Genessier (Pierre Brasseur) in EYES WITHOUT A FACE.
Imagine a beautiful dream of lyrical black-and-white images, of a lonely young woman, flitting through her home like a silent spectre, calling her fiance on the phone to listen to his voice [...]

While surfing around the Internet, I stumbled upon DVD Beaver’s comparison of the various discs of 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD. The fantasy classic, featuring stop-motion monsters by Ray Harryhausen, is available in three different versions: Columbia Tri-Star’s DVD (from 1999), Sony’s 50th anniversary DVD, and Sony’s 50th anniversary Blu-ray (both of which were released last [...]

Keith Brown of Giallo Fever reviews an extra special issue of Little Shop of Horrors: the mgazine, devoted to British Gothic cinema, has published an issue titled “Scream and Scream Again: The Uncensored History of Amicus Productions.” Amicus, of course, was the major rival to Hammer Films when it came to churning out colorful, entertaining [...]

[ July 10, 2009 to July 12, 2009. ] [caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Spectacular action wire-work, choreographed by Corey Yuen "][/caption]

The folks over at Sci Fi Japan sound pretty excited about the U.K. trailer for BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE, but I find my own enthusiasm considerably more muted. Slated for theatrical release in Japan on May 29 and in the U.K. on June 12, [...]

The ever reliable Arbogast on Film points us to this item at Icons of Fright, which compares the subtitling of the recent Magnolia DVD and Blu-ray release of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN to the subtitles that appeared in the theatrical print and the advance review screeners that went out to journalists last year. The long [...]

And You Call Yourself a Scientist – our favorite website for in-depth reviews of exploitation cinema – offers up their analysis of TINTORERA! – a 1970s shark-attack opus in which most of the mayhem is inflicted on – rather than by – the sharks:
It was foolish of me, I suppose, when I reviewed The Jaws [...]

This week’s science-fiction, fantasy, and horror home video releases are dominated by two action heroes: Bolt and James Bond, both of whom have titles arriving on DVD and Blu-ray.  Some may object to including them under the umbrella of cinefantastique, but both are far enough outside the realm of the ordinary to warrant the genre [...]

After a successful theatrical run in both 2D and Disney Digital 3D, Disney’s 48th animated film arrives on Blu-Ray and DVD this week, one of a only small handful with a PG rating. BOLT had a troubled production history, going through several different titles, stories, and directors under newly minted C.O.O. and former Pixar chief John [...]

This no-budget piece of worthless shot-on-video drek seems to exist only to prove one depressing proposition: no matter how much you think you have plumbed the bottom of the barrel, the barrel goes yet deeper still. Writer-producer-editor Serge Rodnunskytakes the basic outline of Edgar Allan Poe’s story and turns it into what at first looks [...]

At a scant 106min, QUANTUM OF SOLACE is the shortest Bond film of the official Eon Production line, and the shortest in history after the made-for-television Casino Royale in 1954. Not that length matters (!), but it is a testament to the extent that series producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli are willing to [...]