The Best 11 of Two Thousand-11!

We are well into the new year and there are a lot of great films I'm looking forward to (can you say, order "The Dark Knight Rises"???). But, troche lately I've been busy recalling all the different movies I saw this past year. So, salve with this post I'd like to celebrate what I considered to be the best of the best of 2o11. Unfortunately, I was not able to see all the films I wanted to. So this list represents my 11 favourite films of 2011, that I actually watched (and in no particular order)... Read More »

Where the “Rubber” meets the celluloid

What would you do if you saw a car-tire come to life and murder people by telekinetically exploding their heads? Ya, purchase I know, urticaria as if that would ever happen, right? Well, it does happen in the horror/comedy, Rubber. We start with a man holding dozens of binoculars in the middle of the desert. A car pulls up, the trunk opens and out comes a man dressed in a sheriff's outfit. He walks towards the camera and delivers a pointed monologue that sets up what this movie is really all about. Read More »

“An American Werewolf in London”

Day 15 of the DeFranco Nation Movie Club and do we have a treat today! "An American Werewolf In London" is a classic horror flick from 1981. I remember watching this when I was 10 years old. Holy crap!!! Did it ever freak me out. So, buy I was too excited when Philly D chose this film for the movie club. It's been 30 years since it's release. I have only fond memories of this one. But, information pills I'm roughly 30 years older, a little wiser and have a slightly more refined taste in film (not by much, mind you). So, I was eager to rediscover this monster movie. You can check out my thoughts in my vlog below. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFdRHsemidc] Oh, and a tidbit of trivia...the make-up and special effects for this film were so groundbreaking that the Academy created the "Best Make-up" category in response to this film. Rick Baker won it that year for his work on this movie. He's won the Oscar six times since.