Dinner and a Movie with Moxie

 Wizards Wizards is a 1977 animated film from master of animation Ralph Bakshi.  Bakshi previously had been known for his urban adult oriented animated films, with Fritz The Cat, Coonskin, and Heavy Traffic, and he wanted to show that he could do a fantasy film that could be enjoyed by the whole family.  Though his idea of a "family" film might differ from most people's it seems.   This film would open the door for his beloved classic Lord Of The Rings in 1978, and he would revisit the world of high fantasy in his 1983 classic Fire and Ice.   Wizards would be his first PG rated animated film, whereas Fritz The Cat and Heavy Traffic had received X ratings, and Coonskin had received an R rating. Wizards is a fantasy film set in the far distant future after humans had destroyed the world in a nuclear war, and it concerns two brothers who are wizards, one the peaceful Avatar, and the other the dark and evil Blackwolf.   Blackwolf in his quest for...

  Dystopian Sci-fi Classics: One of my favourite genres of science fiction is Dystopian Science Fiction, or a story set in a dystopian future society.  One of the great classics of this genre is George Orwell's 1984, many times these dystopian science fiction stories are warnings to society about what we could become if we don't change our current ways, the ideas in 1984 are not revolutionary in themselves, it is realism of the story, because it isn't set far from the reality of the current world, but it takes the current ways of society to an obvious end.   We see these themes appearing often in the genre, in both in print and on film, two of these classic films include George Lucas' debut film THX 1138 and The Wachowski sisters' V For Vendetta.   Some might argue that V For Vendetta isn't science fiction, however it fits in the genre of dystopian future fiction, which is a branch of science fiction, because not all science fiction must be robots and space...

 Verotika Glen Danzig, who is the original frontman for the classic horror punk band The Misfits wrote and directed his debut film, Verotika, which is based on a comic book series published by his company, Verotik.  I will be honest, I am not sure what I expected when I put this film in, I know from his Misfits songs that he has a good taste in b-horror films, and from the cover, I expected a stylistic gothic horror exploitation film.   I am not sure what I just watched...was there a vision that Danzig had when making this film, if so what the hell is it? Verotika is a horror anthology, that is rooted deeply in the Italian exploitation horror style of  directors like Lucio Fulci or Mario Bava, but Danzig's offering seems to be somehow cheaper and less focused, coming off as a comedic parody of the genre.   Sadly it is obvious that this is not Danzig's intention, and honestly I feel a bit sorry for him, I think that in this film he had intention to crea...

The Veil (Starring Boris Karloff) When we hear the name Boris Karloff, the first thing that comes to mind are iconic roles like the Frankenstein's Monster and The Mummy, but later in his career he was doing a lot of horror anthology television shows.   One of these shows was the 1956 The Veil, which has been hailed by some critics as the "best television series that has never been seen", since The Veil was actually never aired on television. 10 episodes were produced before there were issues within the studio.  Since so few episodes were made it was never put into syndication.  There are two extra episodes of The Veil, in addition to the 10 episodes of the actual series, one was a backdoor pilot that was included as part of anthology series, Telephone Time, an episode called "The Vestris".  The other episode  "Whatever Happened To Peggy" was for many years not included in the DVD releases of The Veil, until 2008 Timeless Media Group DVD release.  ...

 Honey Paprika Shrimp With Brussels Sprouts The idea for this dinner came from my co-worker Riley, and I made very few modifications to it.  His original recipe was to bake it, and to do it with broccoli.  However Brussels sprouts are in season, and I wanted to try to do it in frying pan rather than in the oven.   I also thought serving it over a bed of Jasmine rice sounded really good.  The meal has a hint of sweet and a delicate flavour, which was refreshing considering that we've been doing chili and the leftovers from the chili at our house recently, so it was nice to have something that was a bit lighter in flavour profile.  This is definitely a dish that I would happily do again in the future, and maybe try adjusting the levels of ingredients to get different tastes from it.  Ingredients: 1 Cup of Jasmine rice cooked according to your rice cooker's directions 1lb of raw shrimp (I used jumbo gulf shrimp for this dish, but use whatever you pre...

 Van Helsing In the spirit of the classic Universal monster mash films of the 1940s, like House Of Frankenstein, or House of Dracula comes the 2004 film Van Helsing.  Van Helsing was written and directed by Stephen Sommers (who also directed The Mummy and The Mummy Returns), and features a monster hunter named Van Helsing, who works for the church, hunting down monsters, the film also features famous movie monsters such as Dracula, The Wolfman, and Frankenstein and Frankenstein's Monster.   The film brings a sexiness, action, and CGI effects to the classic Universal Monsters.   The film has about as much substance as the Universal Monster mashup films from the 1940s, which is to say it is lacking substance, that is more fun than serious.  I honestly think that if the 1940s Universal Monster mashup films were made today that they would look a lot like this, so as far as that goes I feel like this film is great for what it is.  Van Helsing stars Hug...

                      Total Recall Total Recall is a 1990 science fiction film, based on the 1966 short story, Remember It For You Wholesale by Philip K Dick (author of the novel that Blade Runner was based on).   The film was hailed as a special effects masterpiece of its time.   Total Recall took years to become a reality, from lack of interest in production companies, to nightmares in the script writing, and it was finally Arnold Schwarzenegger who took control of the project, and who brought on Robocop director Paul Verhoeven that really brought the film from concept into reality.   With Paul Verhoeven as director, he brought on some of the crew that he worked with on Robocop, they worked off a script written by Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon, and Gary Goldman; though also ideas from the David Cronenberg script were kept as well, though he wasn't given credit for his work.   The fi...

  Island Zero Island Zero is an independent horror film written by Tess Gerritsen, and directed by her husband Josh Gerritsen, and released in 2018.   Island Zero was filmed in Monhegan Island, Camden, Rockport, Northport, Lincolnville, and Isleboro Maine.  The film took place and was filmed in and off the shore of the northern Midcoast of Maine.   The cafe that many of the scenes took place in, were shot in an actual working cafe called Durkees in Isleboro Maine, and many of the cast and crew members were local Mainers.  Due to a limited budget much of the wardrobe came from local Goodwill stores in and around Maine (though to make it more authentic they should have gotten the wardrobe from Mardens, if you are from Maine that I will make sense to you).   The film was independently released in 2018 by Donkey Universe Pictures. Island Zero stars Adam McLaughlen as Sam a scientist who is studying a strange pattern where entire fisheries are dep...

  Us Us is a horror film written and directed by Jordan Peele, and released in 2019.   I honestly think that this is one of the best horror films from the 2010's, and I hope that it is part of a new and fresh direction that horror films might be going in.   Jordan Peele was asked why he only casts black actors in the leading roles of his films, and his response was that we have already seen horror films with white leads, that is most of what we have seen, and he doesn't want to make a film that we have already seen.   Many of the concepts of Us, are not original concepts really, but to be seen from the "black" perspective, and written and directed by a black artist gives it an original twist and view.   Jordan Peele is a fellow cinephile and throughout this film he pays homage to so many great films, like you see an influence of Nightmare On Elm Street, you see an influence from Night Of The Living Dead, The Lost Boys, Michael Jackson's Thril...

  The Unborn (2009) When I watch films to review, it starts first with watching the film, in many cases re-watching a film that I have seen countless numbers of time in the past, I then research the film, reading over the technical and background details of the film, but also reading some of the reviews of the film as well.   I feel that it is important when I review a film to never read the reviews before writing the review, as to be careful not to taint my own views on the film, and let my self come up with my own thoughts on the film, then when I read the reviews I will compare my thoughts to those of others, sometimes I will find myself agreeing with their reviews, other times I will find myself in disagreement with the critics (honestly I find myself disagreeing with the critics more than agreeing with them).   So this is the second time I watched The Unborn, the first time I remember being impressed by it, then tonight I watched it again all of the element...