THE TV SHOW:
They say that too much of a good thing is bad. This is exactly how I (used to) feel about perennial second banana Danny McBride. When he is used sparingly, efficiently, and non-traditionally, he is an amazing presence (see Pineapple Express, Up in the Air, or As I Lay Dying). When meant to be the main attraction or sidekick the star, he can be interesting (Drillbit Taylor), ingratiating (This is the End), or, more times than not, downright irritating (Your Highness). There was a time when he seemed to be everywhere. Now, luckily, he's limiting his exposure before he becomes a pariah to the very people who pay his salaries - meaning fans like you and me. On the other hand, there was no better outlet for his unusual approach to comedy than his recently ended HBO series, Eastbound and Down. Playing an over the hill baseball player hop...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
Film critics do things for various reasons. Money is one - though there is surprisingly little of it in our current publishing clime - and love of movies is another. Then there are those obscure and/or obtuse motives for making our opinions of cinema known. In the case of Scudda-Hoo! Scudda-Hay! it was a weird collections of cartoons by an artist whose name escapes me now. It was back while I was in college and while flipping through his book (I am convinced this person is male), I came across a drawing of a guy holding the leads to two mules. On the one side was a donkey named "Scudda Ho" (sic) and on the other was one named "Scudda Hey" (sic). Without any frame of reference, I turned to my college roommate and said "Scudda Ho!" He looked puzzled. I showed him the drawing and he immediate shot back "Scudda Hey!" From that day on, we used these phrases as a kind of non-sequ...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
It's now more or less a given than the tide of Tyler Perry popularity has ebbed and is starting to slowly sink back into the fringes of the mainstream. His underserved demo still shows up in droves, but for the most part, the days of setting the cinema on fire with his Bible thumping comedies and middling melodramas has passed. Others have picked up on his God/Good vs. Evil shtick and are riding it all the way to a decent return on their investment. As for Perry, he still has the palpitating live audiences to bank on (literally), the masses eager to see their hero in any possible form - writer, director, and perhaps most enthusiastically, as drag dynamo Madea. In this always entertaining persona, Perry does some of his best preaching, be it for salvation from the Lord or for old school etiquette and respect. He'll even toss in a few '70s soul and/or R&B references to prove ther...Read the entire review

THE SERIES:
It's always been a shame that, when they are compared outright, The Twilight Zone gets so much of the smothering praise and The Outer Limits is usually left holding the rotting raspberries. Granted, Rod Serling's brilliant and sometimes breathtaking television show offered more than its fair share of startling ideas and engaging writing. Limits was almost always classified as clever junk, reducing its obvious special qualities into something resembling juvenile pulp comics. It was also referred to as the "Monster of the Week" show, since there was a reliance on aliens, robots, demons, and beasts as the means of crafting fear and dread. Zone loved to flaunt its "psychological" terrors and fright, hoping you'd be inspired to think as well as shrink in your seat. But pound for pound, The Outer Limits really outdid Serling's showcase in the true sci...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird...it's a plane...it's a superhero struggling for his cinematic identity. Indeed, while Marvel has made mincemeat out of its action man competition, more or less owning the comic book genre for the last decade or more, DC and its resident alien superstar have been revamped, reinvented, and rejected over and over again. Richard Donner and his interpretation of Kal-El/Clark Kent may have heralded the dawn of the four panel film, but the original caped crusader has seen his stock plummet, destroyed by bad conceptualizing, weak interpretation, and Bryan Singer (just joking). The truth is, Superman has no real post-modern meaning. He's not a tortured soul ala Batman, a preyed upon minority like the X-Men, or a kid going through some highly unusual growing pains ala Peter Parker. No, he's an extraterrestrial noble who brings nothing really new to the ideal...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
When DVD first hit the marketplace, it was seen as a home video savior by many in the industry. Not only did it require film fans to "re-purchase" their old favorites, earning companies millions for more or less selling fans the same thing, but it actually had the opportunity to increase revenues by breaking out a series of now meaningless tags - "Special Edition," "Collector's Edition," "Anniversary Edition" - which added little to the product but a lot to the bottom line. As with most such fatted calves, the business called show was bound to kill and cook it before it realized what it had done. Sure enough, DVD is on the outs, Blu-ray is struggling, and smartphones and streaming seem to be the way most people want to digest their pleasing popcorn entertainment.

Of course, this means there's a lot of homeless titles out there, movies whose sell-through dates are older than the l...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
As famed film stars Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen were planning to play the roles of Estragon and Vladimir in Samuel Becket's existential tragicomedy Waiting for Godot, British TV producer Sky Arts got the bright idea of following the production while also profiling the people making it happen - the crew and creative teams working at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Built in 1720 (fifty-plus years before the American Revolution, mind you), the venue boasts gorgeous settings, century old seats, a crack staff of carpenters, plumbers, and front service individuals, and smartly dressed executives who seem more interested in how they look vs. the plays they put on. With two superstars of indescribable celebrity (Star Trek, X-Men, and The Lord of the Rings among their resumes) headlining, the limited run is all but sold out. So the point of the eight part TV se...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
Before his brother's untimely death in 2008 at the unthinkable age of 39, Mark Polonia was part of one of the most unusual moviemaking combo of all time. Along with his twin sibling John, the duo took their love of schlock horror and turned out terrific efforts such as Feeders, The House that Screamed, Splatter Farm, and the campy Splatter Beach. While they made many more movies, only a few found their way onto the updated home video format of DVD. Then John passed away and many worried that Mark would end his prolific motion picture ways. Well, the fanbase shouldn't have concerned themselves. The Polonia spirit lives in on solo outings such as Halloweenight, E.V.E. of Destruction, and a slice of simian silliness known as Empire of the Apes. Many in the bad movie club will find this Planet of the Primates rip-off to be a lame, low re...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
During the height of the Great Depression in the 1930s, Hollywood relied on escapism to get audiences to forget their worries for an afternoon and step inside its dream factory. Spectacle laced with song and dance soon became the nation's panacea, the studios cranking out as many examples of this surefire social salve as possible. Among the greats within this business model were efforts by Busby Berkeley, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers, the always marching musical machine of MGM, and regular revues that pulled from Tin Pan Alley to match standards and showtunes for their slight storylines. Fox was also fond of the genre, turning out terrific titles over the course the country's difficulties. A perfect example of their work arrives in the form of the silly and sunny You Can't Have Everything. Featuring contract players Alice Faye and Don Ameche, as well as the Marx-lite anti...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
John Barrymore was larger than life, so naturally, he became an actor. Before his death in 1942, he was considered one of America's greatest, at ease on both the stage and the fledgling silver screen. While his behind the scenes antics have reconfigured his myth away from his talent, we are often reminded of his brilliance both as a performer and as a presence. This is clearly the case with the 1920 silent version of the Robert Louise Stevenson classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Relatively faithful to the novella and adorned with one of Barrymore's best turns, it's a genre must. Granted, special effects and horror make-up have changed a lot in the last 100 years and there are arcane elements to both the narrative and production that need to be called out and considered, but overall, this is a very effect piece given great treatment by Kino Classics. When you consider the added...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
We contemporary critic types love to slam the modern RomCom as being too "cartoony" and "unrealistic." We wax nostalgic about the past, when films were about "real people" and "actual characters" contributing nothing but art and honor to the motion picture genre in question, right? WRONG! Are you serious? You must be joking. With Six You Get Eggroll? Yours, Mine, and Ours? It's Never Too Late? The Long Long Trailer? Maybe sometime in the '70s, the joke-laden look at the battle between the sexes wasn't some hyperactive hullabaloo. Perhaps the '80s was indeed the last decade which took the notion of love and laughter intermingled with a decent dose of realism (there's some severe doubt aimed at Mr. John Hughes direction...). Whatever the conclusion, it's clear that The War Between Men and Women was meant to be a farce. Based on the work of humorist ...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
Back when it was released, the main rub against Brad Pitt's undead apocalypse tentpole World War Z was that there wasn't...enough...zombies. Of sure, there were CG throngs, masses using a hive mentality to swarm walls and lay waste to cities. But where was the interaction, the one on one so to speak, that made George Romero and others like him legends? The answer, simply, was that WWZ wanted to do something different, and barely succeeded. In fact, after seeing the very rough indie effort Dead Weight, one suddenly sees where Mr. Jolie and his blockbuster went wrong. Without a substantial backstory, without characters and motives you care about, you need lots of the living dead less your film be nothing more than a collection of action sequences. In this case, co-directors Adam Bartlett and John Pata decide that the love story they've concocted and random remind...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
Okay film folks, it's time to take the Solaris test. Show of hands - how many of you out there believe that Andrei Tarkovsky's sci-fi fable is the equal to, or the better of, Stanley Kubrick's considered classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey? Keep those mitts up. Really? All right. Now, how many think said Russian allegory is nothing more than an overly ambitious pile of cinematic claptrap that's too damn long and Hella-boring? Hands up again? Wow. Okay. Now, the point of this little exercise is to illustrate how one should approach the filmmaker's first movie made outside the USSR, the tantalizing tone poem Nostalghia. While obviously not on the level of Tarkovsky's other efforts like Ivan's Childhood, Andrei Rublev, or the aforementioned journey into inner/outer space, if you love Solaris and find it the aesthetic equal to Kubrick's solemn shape...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
It used to be that any old piece of martial arts crap would do. Didn't matter about the piss poor dubbing. No one cared about the bad cropping and free form editing style. No, as long as a fan got to see that rarified glimpse of Asian action, all was right with the world. After all, home video was a fledgling force back then and product was product. Grab some full screen scam, add in the necessary Western words, and plunk on an intriguing title card (King of Kung Fu, Master of Dragon Fighting) and you'd find an audience, any audience. Desperate consumers shouldn't be considered. Beggars, in other words, couldn't be choosers. Now, some three decades into the whole VHS/DVD/Blu-ray/Streaming reality, junk can't be labeled as legend. People will care. They don't want any old chop socky shite. They want quality. They want The Shaw Brothers. They want ANYTHING other than so...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
The next time you go to a mainstream movie and you see one of your favorite actors or actresses dropping trou and exposing their naughty bits to you, or the storyline tackles a subject that is sexual either in theme, subtext, or outright bonking, you can blame/thank the exploitation era and - perhaps more importantly - the envelope pushing foreign films that came out under its erotic auspices for such frankness. Apparently, other countries around the world lacked our Puritanical perspective and didn't mind showing a bit of skin (or simulated sex) for the sake of its proposed motive. If you were 'Curious Yellow' or into Inga, you remember the impact this kind of film had. While the true pioneers were pushing the "educational" aspects of the nudist colony film, France and Sweden were sending us our sultry, secret desires. By 1970, this was all becoming old hat, which is why you can f...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
Everyone always complains about Hollywood circa 20?? as representing the lowest level of motion picture pandering ever attempted by the industry. They point to niche filmmaking, selective superstardom, the endless desire to repeat successful film formulas, and remake everything in sight, claiming that, "in the good old days," stuff like this was wholly unacceptable. Apparently, someone needs a refresher course in the ways of the Town of Tinsel way back when. Decades ago, long before there were umpteen sequels, franchises milking all the money it can out of an eager and gullible public, the movie biz still understood what side of its bread the butter was banking on. How else can you explain the 30 plus movies made with swimmer turned star Esther Williams, or the 15 films made with Norwegian figure skater (and World Champion) Sonja Heine? With TV still a populist pipe dream, the stud...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
Stand-up comedy has come a long way since the days of blackouts in between burlesque acts, carefully considered night club fare, the practiced, perfected "five minutes" for that one-off appearance on a late night talk show and the beloved two sided LP. Ever since the '70s, Steve Martin, the advent of the rock star comedian, and the lure of easy access via HBO, Comedy Central, and likeminded outlets, the teller of jokes has gone from ticket sales gimmick to superstar, from warming up for the chanteuse to starring in their own hit sitcoms and films. As a result, there are hundreds of working comics today, each one offering their own unique, demographically approved takes on the current events of the day, the journeyman observations of existence, and every once in a while, the tantalizing taboo of society's sacred cows.

Like the Def Comedy Jam, The Kings of Comedy, an...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
We all have that band, that beloved musical group that we wish we could have seen live, back in their day. Sure, it's great that Journey travels the country playing a well rehearsed collection of their greatest hits to adoring fans, but how "Journey" is this Journey if only two of the five members are original? The same goes for revamps of noted acts like Styx, Foreigner, and perhaps the worst of all, Thin Lizzy. It's a shame for those growing up long after a famous group has long since disbanded (or, sadly, died off). How many people would love to see The Beatles or The Clash today, even if they were all alive and in the 70s and 60s, respectively? Level 42, that one hit wonder (at least in the US) of "Something About You" fame (you remember the video, where the lead singer was dressed like a combination of John Steed and a harlequin?), has been in this boat since original founding...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
It's one thing to be named "the next big thing" by the media. The press are always looking to anoint the heirs to the mantle manufactured by The Beatles, Alfred Hitchcock, or Stephen King. Sometimes, the sentiment is so misguided (One Direction as the Fab Four's post-modern equivalent? Bullsh*t!!!) you have to laugh. In other cases, the artist and its audience actually believes the shortsighted hype, resulting in a kind of perfect storm of self-aggrandizing. Such is the case with The Stone Roses. After all, the opening track on their debut album was titled "I Wanna Be Adored" and they really believed they deserved such adulation. From their humble roots to their ever expanding egos, this was a band who believed ever piece written about them, and when there was nothing in print, they made up their own myths. By the time songs like "She Bangs the Drum" and "Elephant Stone" were raci...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
There is a legend surrounding homemade horror moviemaker Chester Novell Turner, a legend that may or may not be deserved. For some, his Black Devil Doll from Hell and its anthology companion piece Tales from the QuadeaD Zone are lost artifacts from a time when cinema only required a camcorder, a willing cast, and an idea. Call it the Things era of fright flicks, a cultural point when even the most talent-free individual could load up a Super VHS tape with their most foul, fetid visions, but for many, these bottom of the Mom and Pop video shelf epics deserve preservation and perspective. For others - and sadly, I believe yours truly to be part of this vocal minority - they're junk excuses for entertainment cobbled together by someone without the basic skills for making memorable movies. The new two DVD release by Massacre Video, offering up both films for your v...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
There is nothing more frustrating - or in some cases, fun - as misplaced passion. There are times when ambitions are so amplified that you either reject everything outright or fall into the rhythms of the creator's obvious fervor. Outsider filmmakers like Damon Packard or Giuseppe Andrews fit this mold, making their own unique cinematic visions without giving a good goddamn what the rest of the artform thinks. They see what they need to see and relate it in ways that have to be experienced, not explained. Then there are the homemade horror buffs like Chris Seaver and Dave Campfield. Fueled by the never-ending fount of scary stuff spewing from VCRs and basic cable over the last few decades, filmmakers like them believe that nothing is better than obvious homages to the creepshow comedies of the past, resulting in such treats as Mulva: Zombie Ass Kicker or Caesar and Otto's...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
After he was dethroned as one of Apple's guiding executives, the personal PCs co-founder, Steve Wozniak, decided to focus on all things pop culture. His first major idea was the US Festival. Personally paying for the creation of a venue near San Bernadino, California and inviting such known acts as The Police, The Cars, and Fleetwood Mac, the original 1982 event was perceived as a success (though Wozniak ended up losing almost $12 million on the deal). The following year, artists like David Bowie, Van Halen, and The Clash signed up, though the punk icons couldn't cop to the corporate charade behind the four day celebration of music and technology. Considered by many to be one of the great music festivals (though many who performed at it consider their contributions to be among their worst) there has been a Holy Grail assessment of the shows (oh - and Woz lost even more money this t...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE:
When the history of his career is written, James Franco will either be known as a jack of all trades (and, perhaps, master of none) or a true example of a post-modern renaissance man. No other actor with his matinee idol good looks has parlayed his particular slacker/stoner/star vibe into a legitimate career as a writer/director/performer/author/activist/thinker and artist, dabbling in everything from short fiction to theater, film both mainstream and experimental, and roles both traditional and slightly out of the ordinary. He is just as comfortable mocking his own "is he gay?" aura on Comedy Central as he is dishing out the hissable villain dialogue alongside Jason Statham in the recent thriller Homefront.

From his days as a James Dean wannabe to his work on Freaks and Geeks and his mainstream breakthrough as Spider-man's pal/eventual enemy Harry Osborn, he's de...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
At first, it's the gimmick that grabs you. Using a single setting, and single 96 minute stead-cam shot, Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov hopes to illustrate the whole of his nation's history. Told within the magnificent Hermitage Museum (the Winter Palace, to be exact) and following an arcane, non-chronological approach, the end result is like watching ghosts gather. Yes, there is a plot of sorts (an unseen narrator walks through the historic visage, his traveling companion - a 19th Century French Aristocrat named The Marquis de Custine - schooled on the parts of Russian folklore he's misinterpreted) and lots of visual pageantry. But if you only take Russian Ark for its face value wow-factor alone, you're missing the point. Few films have ever captured the museum experience better. In fact, one could argue that this film is a primer for anyone thinking about creating an e...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE:
They say that music is the universal language. No matter your place on the planet or the words you use to express yourself, the chords and scales or your typical tune will supposedly translate across continents and between borders. It also has charms to soothe the savage breast/beast (take your pick) and is the ambassador to people and places where traditional means of diplomacy find failure. Music can also become the voice of humanity, the power within revolution and the anthem to change. The use of sound as a means of protest wasn't strictly the stuff of the '60s, however. Before Bob Dylan introduced the world to activism via his arcane lyrics, Woody Guthrie and his ilk were taking folk traditions and turning them into commentary on our then current social norms. By the time we found ourselves dying within disco, the notion of musicians as mouthpieces for various political cause...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
If you could go back in time, to the dawn of television, and tell those who were about to enjoy the brand new medium that, one day, people would stare in entertained awe as men manned massive trawlers in order to bring in the seasonal haul of fish, crab, lobster, et. al., one imagines a blank stare, followed almost immediately by a shriek in recognition of how horrifying this superficial future must be. All kidding aside, the fact that Deadliest Catch has been one of Discovery Channel's most popular programs, highlighting the hardships of those who make the sea their workplace and the dangerous job of harvesting same their struggle, is indeed a head-scratcher. Sure, the series (now in its ninth season) illustrates how difficult it is for modern fisherman, but the attempt to paste some kind of narrative on the otherwise nasty occupation has always smacked of forced sensationa...Read the entire review

THE FILMS:
The title itself reminds us of bygone days when friends would come over, a trip to the local Mom & Pop Video Store was in order, with the results of said visit spilling out onto the floor with a combination of disappointment (they never had the new releases you wanted) and determination. How many of us horror fans discovered a new classic or a personal favorite via this VHS equivalent of dumpster diving? So when Scream Factory promises and All Night fright film marathon, we are instantly whisked back to those days of wine coolers, crappy frozen snacks, and some dread-dominant schlock. Not all of the four film offered here - What's the Matter with Helen? , The Vagrant, The Godsend, and The Outing - warrant such found recollection, but each have their limited joys, with a couple guaranteeing a decent return on your terror tendencies. Let's deal...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
I was a punk growing up. No, I didn't have the Mohawk or the safety pins (how cliche). Instead, I drank in the anti-social, anti-music statements of The Ramones and The Clash, The Sex Pistols and the kings of De-Evolution, DEVO, as they destroyed the disco dinosaurs like a musical meteor out of a primordial sky. As a teen in the '70s I was torn between the peer pressures of my specific sphere of influence (all Styx and Journey, and...SHUDDER...Molly Hatchet) and the amazing music coming out of New York and the UK. When punk went West, I went too, grabbing hold of any Fear or X albums I could. By the time I was in college, New Wave had taken over and the DIY movement was relegated to a few goofs like The Anti-Nowhere League. Heck, even Johnny Rotten went post-punk with his brilliant brand of deconstructionism, Public Image Ltd. Today, poseurs love to proclaim Green Day and th...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
You have to be careful with fantastical creatures, especially when you want to mess with their meaning. For example, Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard can get away with crafting a killer unicorn for their brilliant horror deconstruction The Cabin in the Woods because, well, basically because they have the fanboy backup to support such a switch. Besides, the whole entire movie was about debunking terror tropes so why not a one horned horse with a taste for blood. Something similar happens in the weird monster movie Red Clover. If you haven't already guessed, this is a low budget fright flick that wants to take on that fabled Irish imp, the leprechaun, and turn him from a Frosted Lucky Charms loving pot of gold guardian to a wicked demon with a vendetta against a small American town and a thirst for familial revenge. Granted, we've already seen the wee mythological being bel...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
Around the same time that Oren Peli was setting up a camcorder it two wannabe actor's bedroom, the better to film their supposedly shocking story of haunting and demonic possession, director Alec Tuckman was working on his own indie fright flick. With a significantly bigger budget than what would end up becoming Paranormal Activity, he crafted a tale about an occult obsessed movie producer, his semi-interested gal pal, and a family that moves into their home post-tragedy. Yep, this is one of those the-cheaply-priced-mansion-with-a-pool-and-a-guest-house-is-so-inexpensive-because-somebody-DIED-there plots, with some unusual twists and turns along the way. Originally released as Cold Blood Canyon, it came and went with little notice. Now, a new DVD distributor, hoping to cash in on the popularity of Peli stop-now-before-we-sequelize-again series has re-titled the film <...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
Almost all future shock is the same. Either it's a cautionary tale of technology out of control or a warning to mankind that they are not alone in nature/knowledge/the universe. They are typically built around dystopias, societies suffering at the hands of their own hubris, places where the natural order has been thrown out of whack and everyone believes in the viability of their misguided master plan. Delete is a film like this (actually, it's a Canadian mini-series marketed as a cinematic event for the Reelz Channel), except it does its doom and gloom bit with all the spectacle of a school project. It's not bad, so to speak, just limited by things such as budget, direction, set-up, premise, pay-off, concept, casting, and cleverness. We are supposed to see this story of a self-aware computer program and its desire to destroy mankind as a creative and original concept. Inste...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
Everyone mocks Robin Williams, Robert DeNiro, and Nicolas Cage for taking on roles and ridiculous scripts, all in the name of a paycheck, but why not Danny Trejo? Granted, talk like this could get someone seriously beat up, but the former convict turned character 'actor' is nothing if short of a cinematic ATM. This year alone he is set to star in or participate as part of 12 films or TV shows. He's made close to 50 such stops in the last 36 months. Wow. Now, no one expects someone with his limited range and heartbreaking back story to simply turn down a possible pay off, but, seriously, have you seen Zombie Hunter? How about Death Race 3: Inferno? Have you been privy to the painful The Bill Collector, or how about Spy Kids 4: All The Time in the World. Truth be told, Trejo was built for one role and one role only - Robert Rodriguez's ex-Federale turned U...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
You've probably never heard of Arif Mardin, but chances are you've 'heard' him. Yes, you read that sentence correctly. The celebrated producer and arranger for Atlantic Records may not be a certified household name, but you've definitely felt his aural branding on such superstar acts as The Bee Gees, Aretha Franklin, The Rascals, Carly Simon, Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, Hall & Oates, and hundreds of others. As a young boy in his native Turkey, Mardin wanted to be part of the music world. He excelled at jazz, got a scholarship to study at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston (thanks to lifelong friend Quincy Jones) and eventually fell into the laps of Atlantic executives Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun. Along with seasoned studio vet Jerry Wexler, Mardin made musical history, providing the backdrop for a string of seminal hit songs. On his own, he would create another...Read the entire review

THE SHOW:
Before it decided to push buttons and envelopes, cable TV was a bastion of oddball programming choices. Today, niche channels take up the slack for feeding a specific demo, but a few decades back, the major outlets tried to be everything to everyone. There were kid shows in the AM, self-help and reruns of hour long dramas in the afternoon, and some self-proclaimed 'prime time' offerings at night. And then, when most people were preparing for bed, these pay stations would put out their more risqué material, made up mostly of silly sex farce variety shows (Showtime's Bizarre), softcore delicacies (anything on 'Skinemax'), and stand-up comedy showcases, none of which was more popular than A&E's Evening at the Improv. Shot at the famous LA club and featuring a wealth of soon to be superstar talent, it was the average Joe's chance to see what big city folk were giggli...Read the entire review

THE FILM:
There's a fine line between the shocking and the merely salacious. There's an even finer one between exploiting a subject and over-exposing an audience to material too grim to humanly contemplate. Take a film like I Spit on Your Grave. The subject matter wants to make the total debasing of an innocent woman it's first half stock in trade. Then, once she's been significantly defiled and left for dead, she returns to seek her revenge in ways just as nauseating as the manner in which she was treated. Then there's efforts like the Japanese Guinea Pig films, giddy gorefests where nothing is left to the imagination and everything is spelled out in alarmingly sexists visions of blood and torture. Sitting somewhere between these two extreme examples is the Chilean chum bucket Hidden in the Woods. As an illustration of how homemade horror filmmakers view their often uns...Read the entire review