Watch This With Rick Ramos

Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark  This year Halloween fell on a weekend . . .  We've come to the end of the Halloween season. Two months of Vampire movies finds us ending on a cult favorite from the 1980s. In 1987 Kathryn Bigelow would direct her first solo-outing by re-imagining the Vampire film as a Neo-Western centered around a young couple and the family of vampires that haunt and terrorize a moder...

E. Elias Merhige's Shadow of the Vampire Sometimes it's simply a thrill to watch one your favorite actors let loose and have a great time. F.W. Murnau's 1922  Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror is widely - and deservedly - considered one of the greatest films of all time. A mythology has formed around the making of the film including the idea that its star, Max Shreck, was an actual vampire. With thi...

Carl Theodore Dreyer's Vampyr If you dig deep enough, Cinema will unleash great treasures. The Silent Era ended in 1927 with the release of The Jazz Singer . . .  Movies would never be the same. A number of filmmakers would utilize the new technology in innovative, imaginitive, and groundbreaking ways. Fritz Lang's M comes to mind. Musicals became a reality and would astonish audiences. Storytelln...

Adrien Beau's The Vourdalak If you dive into the depths of World Cinema you will often discover magic. You may not know that you're viewing something exceptional while you're watching it, but you will find yourself realizing the power of the image, the power of ideas from different corners of the world. This week Mr. Chavez & I find Adrien Beau's 2023 French "Folk" Tale The Vourdalak, a film of nu...

Tobe Hooper's Salem's Lot From time to time movies slip through the cracks. Although Tobe Hooper's Salem's Lot is considered a television classic, it is a film that your movie podcaset host has somehow missed these 46 years. Adapted from Stephen King's 1975 best-seller, this 1979 adaptation features David Soul from TVs Starsky & Hutch,  as well as future Mrs. Holly McClane, Bonnie Bedelia. What co...

Park Chan-wook's Thirst One of the great thrills of the past ten-plus years is the discovery of new, exciting, and challenging films. On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos , Mr. Chavez & I dive into the cinema of South Korea's Park Chan-wook for 2009s Thirst . It's fascinating to watch stories we believe we understand and are sure we have witnessed every variation. Park Chan-wook's Vampi...

John Landis's Innocent Blood  There are times when you have to take what you can get from a project. This week Mr. Chavez & I look at John Landis's 1992 Horror/Mob/Vampire/Comedy, Innocent Blood . With a talent such as Landis, the strokes are broad and without nuance. Innocent Blood is no exception. There are definitely the seeds for an exceptional Horror/Comedy hybrid, however this film is servin...

Samurai Dhampir - Yoshiaki Kawajiri's Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust What an incredible find! This week Mr. Chavez & I return to the world of Japanese Anime with this discussion of Yoshiaki Kawajiri's 2000 Dark Vampire Fantasy, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust . Coming fifteen years after Toyoo Ashida's Vampire Hunter D , what Kawajiri creates is breathtaking. Simply put, Japanese Anime expands the bounda...

Fanged Housemates - Taika Waititi & Jermaine Clemente's What We Do in the Shadows This week Mr. Chavez & I dive into the World of Reality Cinema with Taika Waittit & Jermaine Clemente's 2014 mockumentary, What We Do in the Shadows . A comical look at the undead that misses more often that it hits, Waititi & Clemente take a reality television approach to the vampire legend, both literary and cinema...

Someone To Die For: Ariane Louis-Seize's Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person The title alone may put off some audiences, however to do pass on this film would be a mistake. The rare film that explores genre with an intent to experiment, open up, and entertain, Louis-Seize's French-Canadian co-production is an exciting and beautifully realized look at a coming-of-age story wedged in...

Mamuwalde Unchained: William Crain's Blacula  Well Boys & Girls, this week Mr. Chavez & I begin our yearly dive into Horror, returning to the genre with a search for lesser-known, less-discussed titles in the Vampire sub-genre. Over the next two months we will be traveling to Korea, Canada, the American Southwest, a post-apocalyptic Japan, and New Zealand. This week we start in Transylvania and tr...

Pilot Going Down: Robert Zemeckis's Flight This week we close out our Denzel Washington Love Fest with - arguably - one of his best performances. In 2012 Mr. Washington would team with Director Robert Zemeckis for  Flight , a film that is rarely discussed, but that has powerfully affected this film watcher. For this episode, Mr. Chavez & I sit down to watch, examine, and discuss this incredible pe...

Battle for the Conn: Tony Scott's Crimson Tide You can never get enough Denzel Washington. This week Mr. Chavez & I sit down to talk the first of five collaborations with director Tony Scott, 1995s Crimson Tide . This first collaboration of Washington and Scott would fall almost directly in the middle of Scott's career and would be the fourth collaboration between Scott and the Don Simpson/Jerry B...

Denzel Wandering the Wasteland: The Hughes Brothers' The Book of Eli There are few great actors who can also be considered movie stars. Denzel Washington is certainly on that short list. A few weeks back we discussed his crowning achievement,  Malcolm X . In 2010 he would produce and star in the Hughes Bros. directed, The Book of Eli . The rare instance of an action film with a purpose beyond mere...

Neo-Nazi Family Drama: Tony Kaye's American History X Some films simply don't age well. With the passing years the problems of a narrative can become glaring. Such is the case with Tony Kaye's  American History X   (1998). A difficult subject that would have been better served with a revised script and a stronger director,  American History X  suffers from a forced and simplistic narrative. Good p...

A Time for Martyrs: Spike Lee's Malcolm X  Last Week Spike Lee, Ernest Dickerson, and Denzel Washington started Mr. Chavez & Myself on an artistic, political, and introspective j ourney. We originally intended to discuss this masterpiece in one episode, however art, life, and the conversation often dictate a different outcome. Last week was the "making" of  Malcolm X , this week WatchThis W/RickRa...

By Any Means Necessary: Spike Lee & The Making of Malcolm X  Cinema can change attitudes, englighten ignorance, strengthen understanding and faith. In 1992 director Spike Lee would partner with star Denzel Washington and long-time cinematographer (and NYU schoolmate) Ernest Dickerson to bring to the big screen the life of one of the most important firgures of the 20th Century, Malcolm Little to be...

Chaos, Frame by Frame: Alex Garland's Civil War We're on top of it. The podcast continues to look into the  possible disintegration of this country. We've discussed dystopias, comical and deadly serious looks at atomic annhilation, immigration abuse, fascism, paranoia, and now the full-on dissolution of the country. Last year Alex Garland directed  Civil War a well-acted, interesting look at the f...

Total Massacre - Takashi Miike's 13 Assassins   Not a whole lot is better this week, so Mr. Chavez & I find ourselves digging deeper into an examination, coping, and understanding of Fascism, Cruelty, and Troubling Political Rule with this week's film, Takashi Miike's 2010  13 Assassins . Miike's vision is typically brutal, violent, and magnificent.  13 Assassins exceeds the critical constraints o...

Operation Wetback: Richard "Cheech" Marin's Born in East L.A.  Somethings refuse to change and what was true three and a half decades ago continues to be true today. With a nation struggling under the hand of an adminstration refusing to look at human beings as anything more than numbers, "Cheech" Marin's  Born in East L.A. seems even more relevant today than it did when it premiered in the summer...

Mutual Doomsday: Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove /Sidney Lumet's Fail Safe   Recording a mere two days before Donald Trump fired on Iran, Mr. Chavez & I sit down to discuss nuclear war and the incredible self-destructiveness of humankind. In 1963 Stanley Kubrick would direct one of his earliest masterpieces. With a ridiculous and hilarious George C. Scott, frighteningly honest Sterling Hayden, a...

Kill Along to Get Along: Bernardo Bertolucci's  The Conformist Does Life Imitate Art or Does Art Predict and Comment on Life?  Regardless of Bernardo Bertolucci's reputation - admitted questionable actions in the realization of art - the Italian filmmaker is regarded as one of the great Auteurs of Cinema. Films from  1900   (1976) thru the Oscar-winning  The Last Emperor (1987), and the controvers...

Citizen Accused: Orson Welle's Film of Franz Kafka's The Trial Few authors can lay claim to creating a genre, however it could be argued that Franz Kafka did just that with stories like  The Metamorphosis , In the Penal Colony , and this week's cinematic adaptation, The Trial. The term  Kafkaesque , instantly builds a sense of excitement, confusion, and paranoia in readers - many whom are only fam...

Forest vs Iron Town: Hayao Miyazaki's  Princess Mononoke This week Mr. Chavez & I continue our exploration of Japanese anime with a look at 1997s beautiful and breathtaking  Princess Mononoke .  Mr. Chavez & I are both very new to the world of anime . . . these episodes are our ntroduction to this magnificent world. Featuring story elements of traditional folk tales, the hero's journey, and enviro...

High School Murder Tournament - Kinji Fukasuku's Battle Royale  This week Mr. Chavez & I look back to the beginning of the new millennium and an examination of the paranoia, violence, and uncertainty societies all over the world were facing. In 2000 Japanese director Kinji Fukasuku would bring to the screen one of the most controversial, thought-provoking, and challenging films of the new century....