Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Them! 1954

  ★★★★★ Rewatched 13 Mar 2025

  THE GRANDMAMA. THE QUEEN BITCH. Template for a thousand inferior imitations, and possibly the first appearance of one of my favorite tropes, the ambiguously-named scientist/professor/journalist who turns out to be (gasp) a lady! And a tough as hell lady, too.

  I admit it helps that I first saw this as a kid (thanks for overseeing my cultural education, Dad) and thus experienced it much as anyone in the 50s would have, without decades of acclimation to better effects and more…

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  The Monolith Monsters 1957

  ★★★★ Watched 13 Mar 2025

  Gosh, I love the trend in 50s scifi of trying to invent monsters that aren't creatures. You can just tell the writers were deadly bored with aliens and giant bugs, and desperate for something new, something that didn't feel like a retread of every other movie. This, Magnetic Monster, arguably Kronos... yes, the worst of them get bogged down in talk and aimless wandering, but the same can be said of plenty of the more conventional offerings (Monster from Green…

Popular reviews

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  Gymkata 1985

  ★★ Rewatched 10 Mar 2025

  The thing about Kurt Thomas is, I have no doubt that in real life he was strong enough to kick my head entirely off, but in this movie he makes Mark Hamill look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

  The fight scenes have some of the loudest Foley work I've ever heard, possibly in an attempt to make Thomas seem more powerful; it doesn't help, but I find it oddly charming. Maybe it's how familiar so many of the stock punching sounds seem.…

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  TNT Jackson 1974

  ★★½ Watched 09 Mar 2025

  I don't think anyone here is very good at what they do, but it doesn't overstay its welcome.