Cinema Smorgasbord

RSS / iTunes / Spotify On this episode of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO VIC DIAZ? we’re heading back to 1973 and the surprisingly Filipino-centric war film A TASTE OF HELL. Starring William Smith as an American soldier helping local villagers fight off the Japanese during World War II and John Gardwood as a soldier who gets horribly burned by a Japanese attack and haunts the nearby villages as a mons...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify After the collapse of Jodorowsky’s Dune project, the work that went into it went on to influence countless other future film projects, but it also provided the inspiration for another work: the comic series THE INCAL, which began in 1981 in the pages of Metal Hurlant (aka Heavy Metal) and continued the collaboration between Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius (aka Jean Gi...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify PRAISING KANE returns with one of Carol Kane’s finest performances, and a truly bizarre cult item. It’s 1978’s THE MAFU CAGE, and we guarantee you’ve never seen anything quite like it. Featuring incest, colonialism, orangutan murder and so much more, the film has gained a strong following over the past decade, and we’re here to find out why. But...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify On this episode of WILD IN THE STREETS we continue our look at the Eurocrime films of the 70s (and beyond) with Sergio Sollima’s 1973 poliziottesco film REVOLVER, starring Oliver Reed and Fabio Testi. Featuring a dynamite score from Ennio Morricone, the film has Reed’s prison warden Vito Cipriani being blackmailed into releasing a prisoner after his wife is taken...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify We made it! Ten(-ish) movies deep, Jackie Chan’s career is floundering. Desperate for a hit, Lo Wei pairs him with James Tien and Bruce Leung for a western-inspired fantasy action epic featuring bizarre twists, excessive face-ripping, and music shamelessly stolen from Star Wars and.. heck.. let’s make the whole thing 3D! MAGNIFICENT BODYGUARDS may have been Jacki...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify The good news is your dates are here. The bad news is.. they’re DEAD! On this episode of YOU DON’T KNOW DICK we’re joined by filmmaker and critic Scout Tafoya (author of Cinemaphagy: On the Psychedelic Classical Form of Tobe Hooper) to discuss Fred Dekker’s beloved horror-comedy NIGHT OF THE CREEPS from 1986. Along the way we chat about Tobe Hooper, h...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify On our Cinema Smorgasbord HALLOWEEN HORROR SPECIAL we’re taking a break from our many themed episodes to instead look at two well-regarded horror films from 2021! We start with the fourth in the V/H/S found footage series: V/H/S 94! Is this a return to form for the often erratic collection of shorts from acclaimed filmmakers? Then we look at the critically acclaimed CE...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify On an explosive episode of ERIC ROBERTS IS THE MAN we’re joined by Effin’ Birds and Swear Trek creator Aaron Reynolds to discuss the Keenen Ivory Wayans-starring action film MOST WANTED from 1997! We also discuss doughnuts as breakfast food, worst first dates, Home Alone (with dogs!), and all the latest Eric Roberts news! CHECK IT OUT! You can find Aaron Reynolds...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify On this premiere episode of GEORGE KENNEDY IS MY COPILOT we’re diving into one of George Kennedy’s most iconic roles: chief mechanic Joseph “Joe” Patroni, from the legendary 1970 disaster film AIRPORT! We’re going to talk about the movie, its legacy, George Kennedy’s performance and why the hell anyone would create a George Kennedy-themed...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify On this episode of HOW DO YOU DO, FELLOW KIDS? we’re looking at the Sundance Grand Jury Prize winning comedy IN THE SOUP from 1992, featuring a dynamite performance from the late Seymour Cassel, small appearances from Jim Jarmusch, Sam Rockwell, Stanley Tucci and Carol Kane, and – of course – Steven Buscemi as aspiring filmmaker Adolfo Rollo! We also chat a...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify Convicted of a crime he didn’t commit, John Merill (kickboxing champ Jerry Trimble) is sent to a brutal island prison run by the sadistic Warden Acosta (Vic Diaz!) in 1993’s LIVE BY THE FIST, a straight up remake of 1991’s BLOODFIST III! This one has George Takei, though! On this episode of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO VIC DIAZ? we took a close look at this Roger C...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify On a very special episode of JodoWOWsky we’re joined by JODOROWSKY’S DUNE director Frank Pavich for a freewheeling conversation covering his first meeting with Alejandro Jodorowsky, the development of the documentary, his influence on Jodorowsky’s career over the past ten years, his future projects and so much more! Check out Frank Pavich on Twitter @FrankP...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify Following the worldwide success of El Topo and The Holy Mountain, Alejandro Jodorowsky connected with Michel Seydoux to pursue any project he wished. The answer? An adaptation of the beloved, expansive science fiction novel by Frank Herbert. What followed was an epic collaboration involving the director and a collection of legendary collaborators (or “spiritual warrior...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify On this episode of PRAISING KANE we’re back in the silent era with Carol Kane, but this time in a broad Mel Brooks-ian comedy! Gene Wilder directed, wrote and starred in 1977’s THE WORLD’S GREATEST LOVER, a silent-era chuckler about a baker (Wilder) who travels to Hollywood in order to become the next Rudolph Valentino, despite an unfortunate collection of...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify On Forgotten Gems we look at festival favorites that have been cast aside or fallen out of favor. On this episode we’re looking at the 1994 Sundance sensation WHAT HAPPENED WAS…, which won the Grand Jury Prize and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival. Directed, written and starring Tom Noonan it examines one painfully awkward date...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify We’re getting Wild In The Streets with Umberto Lenzi’s gleefully exploitative 1974 crime thriller ALMOST HUMAN (aka THE DEATH DEALER, aka Milano odia: la polizia non può sparare). Featuring a stand-out slimy performance from Tomas Milian, the film follows small-time scumbag Giulio Sacchi as he goes on a spree of murder and mayhem throughout Milan while tough cop...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify On this episode of Cinema Fantastic (a trip to the genre film festivals around the world) we’re traveling to the 2009 London Frightfest film festival in London, England to check out two ultra-violent heavy-hitters: Dario Argento’s GIALLO and The Mo Brothers’ MACABRE. The tenth anniversary of Frightfest, 2009 marked a big expansion in terms of the festival,...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify On a landmark episode of WE DO OUR STUNTS we continue our chronological look at the career of Jackie Chan with his first great movie: 1978’s SNAKE & CRANE ARTS OF SHAOLIN! Directed by Chen Chi Hwa (who would later collaborate with Jackie on POLICE STORY), the film is about a marital arts student (played by Jackie) who is guarding “Eight Steps of the Snake an...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify It’s not only the return of ERIC ROBERTS IS THE (bad word) MAN, it’s also the return of the STALKED BY MY DOCTOR SERIES with 2021’s JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED. A return to the heady days of the original STALKED films, this time we have Dr. Albert Beck hiding out in an abandoned house.. but not for long! We also talk at length about a newly launched Eric R...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify On YOU DON’T KNOW DICK we look at the films and TV work of the beloved character actor Dick Miller! On this episode we’re joined by writer, producer and podcaster Scott Weinberg to discuss the legendary Roger Corman cheapie horror-comedy THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS! We look at the history of the legendarily threadbare production, the various remakes and tributes (...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify What’s Steve Buscemi up to in the 1991 star-studded gangster film bomb BILLY BATHGATE? Not much! Despite a big budget, an incredible cast (Dustin Hoffman, Nicole Kidman, Bruce Willis and.. uh.. Loren Dean!) and Tom Stoppard handling the script, it’s a lifeless and predictable slog. On this episode of HOW DO YOU DO, FELLOW KIDS? we try to work out what went wrong,...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify On the latest episode of FORGOTTEN GEMS? we’re traveling back to 2004 to check out Joshua Marston’s much lauded (particularly for its lead performance by Catalina Sandino Moreno) drug smuggling drama MARIA FULL OF GRACE. But aside from that dynamite lead, does the film hold up to our older – and somehow even MORE cynical – eyes? And does it even matte...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify Ken Russell tackles the life of “the great lover” Rudolph Valentino in 1977’s VALENTINO, an occasionally inspired bio-pic that fixates (and speculates) on the silent film star’s much-debated sexuality. On the latest episode of PRAISING KANE we’re looking at the film, its stars, and whether or not it’s Ken Russell-y enough to deserve redisc...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify Billed as “the screen’s first erotic kung-fu classic”, FIRECRACKER stars RAW FORCE’s Jillian Kesner as a butt-kicking karate expert who travels to Hong Kong (actually the Philippines) to track down her journalist sister who recently vanished. Featuring topless fight scenes, stick fighting and, of course, Vic Diaz as “Grip”. Essentially a r...

RSS / iTunes / Spotify On this rip-roaring episode of Cinema Fantastica we’re traveling to the 2014 (premiere) edition of the Chattanooga Film Festival in Chattanooga, Tennessee to pit two festival favs against each other: James Ward Byrkit’s low budget sci-fi mindbender COHERENCE vs Sion Sono’s epic tribute to filmmaking (and “mankind’s greatest achievement”) W...