Watch This With Rick Ramos

Nobody Loses All The Time: Pain, Suffering, Purpose, & Mexico - Sam Peckinpah's Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia Ibrahim & I are thrilled to showcase Sam Peckinpah's most personal film (and the only one he claims was released as intended), Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974). A painfully honest depiction of an American ex-patriot living in Mexico who is given one last chance to get ahead...

Weep and You Weep Alone - Park Chan-wook & Spike Lee's Oldboy (2003/2013) On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Ibrahim & I sit down to discuss a film that did much to establish South Korea as a major force in International Filmmaking, Park Chan-wook's 2003 paranoia-riddled Oldboy . One of the earliest films to establish South Korea cinema, Oldboy has only grown in it's importance. Park...

Can You Dig It? - The Warriors : Walter Hill's Exhaustive Look at Youth Culture On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Mr. Chavez & I take a look at one of the great "Cult" Films of the 1970s - Walter Hill's imagining of Xenophon's Anabasis (look it up). Hill has been a favorite of mine for some time. It's a pleasure to dive into his filmography - Hard Times , 48 Hours , Southern Comfort...

More Human Than Human - The Legacy of Robocop On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Ibrahim & I sit down to discuss Paul Verhoeven's 1987 Action-Satire Classic, Robocop as well as it's 2014 remake (from director José Padilha). It's a fun discussion that breaks down what works beautifully in one film and fails miserably in the other. We also discuss the passing of Rock 'N Roll Architect...

Closing the Loop: Straw Diagrams, The Headaches of Time Travel, & The Understanding of the Self - Rian Johnson's Looper (2012) On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Ibrahim & I sit down to talk one of the best films of the 2010's - Rian Johnson's Sci-Fi, Existential Classic Looper . With an incredible cast and standout performances from Joseph Gordon Levitt, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels, P...

The Watermelon Factor: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension and the Making of a Cult Classic We continue our journey into "cult" films. On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Ibrahim & I sit down to discuss a film that we - probably - should have seen years ago. W.D. Richter's 1984 Cult Classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension . Featuring a...

Hiding in Plain Sight: Jack Sholder's The Hidden From time to time you get the chance to uncover a hidden gem. On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Ibrahim & I get to do exactly that. Showcasing 1987's Jack Sholder directed The Hidden , we take a look at a film that many people are unfamiliar with, however for those who have seen it, it is an exceptionally admired and well-appreciated...

An Unforgiving Rain - The Return of the Living Dead On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Ibrahim & I re-visit the Zombie genre with a look at Dan O'Bannon's 1985 cult classic, The Return of the Living Dead . The World is in distress, what better way to fill your days than examining how so many others have struggled to survive. We talk zombies, 80's Schlock, the early days of cable tele...

10 Films to Get You Through These Hard Times -  These are difficult times, no doubt. With so much doom and gloom it may be time to think about pulling ourselves away from so much of the world. This new episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos is designed to give you a li'l bit of help with that. This week I fly solo to give you 10 picks for films that I have seen any number of times, but which - simply -...

Zombie Class War: Yeon Sang-ho's Train to Busan On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Ibrahim double down on our Pandemic Theme, combining pandemics with a Zombie Apocalypse showcased in South Korean director Yeon Sang-ho's Train to Busan . This is a film that has received widespread critical and box office success since its release in 2016. Incredibly well-made, with beautiful cinemato...

The Troubling Nature of Memory - Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys & Chris Marker's La Jetée On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Ibrahim & I are determined to continue with this labor of love. This week we continue our examination of Pandemics through an examination of Terry Gilliam's 1996 Classic 12 Monkeys and it's inspiration Chris Marker's La Jétte . Both of these films have stood the te...

The Emperor Paints - Akira Kurosawa's Dreams With the world staring into an unforeseeable future, I'm going solo with this episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos. This week I change the format a bit so that we can look at individual films until we can figure out a way to bring Mr. Chavez back into The Fortress of Ultimate Darkness. This week I take a look at Akira Kurosawa's Dreams  (1990), a film that...

Contagion  &  Outbreak:  The Pandemic Films of Steven Soderbergh & Wolfgang Petersen On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Ibrahim & I sit down to discuss the ongoing CoronaVirus Pandemic and the films that have preceded it including Wolfgang Petersen's Outbreak (1995) and Steven Soderbergh's Contagion (2011). Two films with radically different approaches - one is an embarrassment of th...

Repetition & Wind - Béla Tarr & Ágnes Hranitzky's The Turin Horse On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Ibrahim & I sit down to discuss a widely-praised and critically-heralded film. From directors Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky, The Turin Horse focuses - not on morality - but rather the trials and repetition of daily life. Although beautiful to look at, this has been the most divisive f...

"Tell the Truth" - Dax, Van Gogh, Shields, Tatum, & Spartacus: The Many & Varied Truths of Kirk Douglas (12/09/16 - 02/05/20) On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Ibrahim & I sit down to discuss the career of the last great Hollywood star, Kirk Douglas. Through early supporting roles in such classics as Out of the Past (1947) and graduation to starring roles in The Bad and the Beautifu...

A Truthful Love - The Power of Cassavetes, Rowland, & Falk - A Woman Under the Influence On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Ibrahim & I sit down to discuss Cassavetes' Masterpiece, A Woman Under the Influence featuring Gena Rowlands in one of the greatest performances ever committed to film. Cinemas are filled with dramas, comedies, action, and romance - Cassavetes' film is funny, vi...

Another Go 'Round - The 2020 Academy Awards  On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Ibrahim & I sit down to - once again - discuss our predictions, choices, and problems with the Academy Awards. The nominations are all in and we are ready for the arguments that will come out of this annual pointlessness (we actually do have a good time of it). Take a listen and let us know what you think...

You Must Remember This . . . The Continuing Power of Casablanca  On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Ibrahim & I sit down to discuss a film, widely considered on of the greatest ever made, Michael Curtiz's 1942 classic of Love, Espionage, & Resistance in a troubled and dangerous world, Casablanca . Focusing on the heartbroken and cynical American ex-patriate, Rick Blaine, Casablanca h...

A Very Naughty Boy -  Re membering Terry Jones (1942-2020) On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, I welcome Mike Black back to The Fortress of Ultimate Darkness to discuss the passing of one of the great comic minds of the 20th Century - Monty Python's Terry Jones. From his appropriation of his mother's mannerisms to play one of the great drag women roles in television and cinema, Jones...

The Long, Dangerous Road into Hell: Henri-George Clouzot's Wages of Fear and William Friedkin's Sorcerer  Remakes are more often than not mistakes that embarrass their filmmakers and stars and bring diminished returns to their studios. They are usually critical embarassments that should have never been green-lit, however there are the occasional remakes that defy expectations, realizing a unique a...

A Temporary End - Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Ibrahim & I sit down to review Episode IX, the - presumably - last episode of George Lucas' original story, characters, and world. For over forty years audiences have been captivated by Luke, Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and the rest of the Rebel Alliance in their battle against the Galac...

The Falsity of Truth - Orson Welle's Citizen Kane and Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Ibrahim & I sit down to discuss the paradox of truth focusing on two of the most important films in the history of cinema, Orson Welle's 1941 RKO Classic Citizen Kane and Akira Kurosawa's 1950 Venice Film Festival Golden Bear Winner Rashomon . Each film examines the unce...

The Little Brother's Shadow: Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas & Casino Yeah Scorsese's Goodfellas is the older film, but Casino is the grander and more far-reaching of the two films. One of the great debates of modern cinema has been Casino 's reputation in the shadow of Goodfellas .  In a career spanning nearly five decades, Martin Scorsese's critical reputation has ranked  - arguably -   over every...

Voyeurs' Eye - The Life & Death of Bob Crane  On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Ibrahim & I sit down to discuss Auto Focus , Paul Schrader's 2002 biopic of Hogan's Heroes star, Bob Crane. Crane, a popular television star of the late 1960s, would slowly be eaten away by his sexual addiction. Paul Schrader continues his examination of controversial and contradictory men in one of his...

The Filmmaker's Friend - Remembering Roger Ebert (June 18, 1942 - April 04, 2013) It's been six years since Cinema lost one of it's greatest champions - Roger Ebert. On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Ibrahim & I sit down to remember this great critic, journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner. He would become the film critic for The Chicago Sun Times in 1967 and continued in this capacity u...