Just when it seemed small-gauge filmmaking was becoming a thing of the past (at least in terms of viable commercial releases), along comes the micro-budget horror film I Am ZoZo. Writer-director-cinematographer Scott Di Lalla decided to forgo the often characterless sharpness of high definition video in favor of Super 8mm film stock. Shot entirely on...
Category: Entertainment
An Honorable Man: Interview with Bomb Girls’ Antonio Cupo
Canada may have been on the other side of the pond while the historic battle known as World War II unfolded, but as a country it was no less invested in the conflict as far as manpower and womanpower. While their husbands, brothers, cousins, and other male family members (as well as friends) were risking...
Music Review: Lenny Kravitz – Are You Gonna Go My Way (Deluxe Edition)
The third album by Lenny Kravitz, Are You Gonna Go My Way (originally released in 1993), is also his third to be treated to a two-disc deluxe anniversary reissue. When Kravitz first burst on the scene in 1989 with his debut, Let Love Rule, many wrote him off as a derivative hippie-era ‘60s revivalist. The...
New Music for Old People: Farther From the Style Was the Plan
When I was in the band The Blues Project in early 1967, I started writing songs that suggested to me that horns would make them sound better. I asked the leader of the Project, Danny Kalb, if we could add horns to the lineup and he turned me down, saying we couldn’t afford it (true)....
Daydream Believer: Interview with Ironside’s Kenneth Choi
It is rare that an actor has a chance to walk in the well-worn shoes of a character already familiar to TV audiences. Kenneth Choi is one such actor. He can currently be seen as Captain Ed Rollins in NBC’s remake of the long-running police procedural crime drama Ironside, which aired on the same network...
Blu-ray 3D Review: The Little Mermaid (Diamond Edition)
In 1989, The Little Mermaid restored Walt Disney Animation Studios to the standards of its glory years after a very trying decade. An adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen classic, Mermaid’s co-directors Ron Clements and John Musker, aided immeasurably by the music of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, crafted a true Disney classic. Now available...
DVD Review: Scooby-Doo! 13 Spooky Tales: Ruh-Roh-Robot!
The last few weeks have been a veritable feast for Scooby-Doo! fans. Late-August saw the release of the all-new feature film Scooby-Doo: Stage Fright. Earlier in September we had a new compilation, 13 Spooky Tales: Run for Your ‘Rife!. Now Scooby-holics can add Scooby-Doo! 13 Spooky Tales: Ruh-Roh-Robot! to their collections. It’s another two-DVD collection...
Blu-ray Review: Drums Along the Mohawk – Twilight Time Limited Edition
Set in 1776, smack dab in the middle of the American Revolutionary War, Drums Along the Mohawk is an notably placid Western. The John Ford-directed film, shot in color in 1939, meanders along at a nearly casual pace. Gil Martin (Henry Fonda) marries his best gal Lana (Claudette Colbert, well into her 30s at the...
Blu-ray Review: Blood of Redemption
Some movies begin to slip from the memory as soon as the end credits roll. Others fade while actually viewing the movie, with each scene becoming increasingly harder to pay attention to. So it is with Blood of Redemption, a direct-to-video action flick so crushingly purposeless, it’s a challenge even following the by-the-numbers, cookie-cutter plot....
Music Review: Bob Dylan – Another Self Portrait (1969-1971) – The Bootleg Series Vol. 10
Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series has unveiled many true gems since it first launched in 1991, but the tenth volume just might be the most listenable in terms of feeling like an actual album. The fact that the 35 tracks on Another Self Portrait (1969-1971) – The Bootleg Series Vol. 10 were recorded during one of...