A Better Tomorrow (1986) – John Woo

A Better Tomorrow was a hole in my John Woo and Hong Kong cinema that I wanted to fill, People have raved about it for years, that it helped define a generation of HKers and became a cult classic among North American film lovers. It features melodrama and lots of gunplay. It also has a…

Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) – Tim Burton

I hadn’t seen Pee-wee’s Big Adventure since it first came to home video in 1986. Paul Reubens aka Pee-wee wasn’t on my radar before that, it was all very much Back to the Future and Miami Vice for me. So when I was introduced to it one night, I found myself laughing aloud, hugely enjoying…

The Hidden (1987) – Jack Sholder

It’s been a couple of decades since I last watched this cult classic. I remember enjoying it at the time, but I never got around to watching it again, or enjoying if for the blog. Until now. Kyle MacLachlan coming off Blue Velvet, and just about to dig into Twin Peaks (coincidentally his character in…

The Final Girls (2015) – Todd Strauss-Schulson

The Final Girls is a delightfully meta-horror comedy with an emotional heart thanks to the performances of Taissa Farmiga and Malin Akerman. Farmiga is Max Cartwright, the daughter of Alexandra (Akerman) who has always wanted to be a movie star, but keeps getting recalled for her one big role, in an 80s cult classic slasher…

Zardoz (1974) – John Boorman

John Boorman wrote, prodiced and directed this sci-fi cult classic that has Sean Connery running around in red underwear and thigh high boots, waving a pistol and his moustache around. With a commentary on class, knowledge, and sex, the film wasn’t a big hit at the time, and sort of settled into the cultutal subconcious,…

Q (1982) – Larry Cohen

The next title from the Dragons & Dinosaurs chapter in DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies book is one I remember from my youth, not because I saw, but because I didn’t but the poster fascinated me. Of course, if the special effects were on par with the artwork of the poster this would have…

Pet Sematary (1989) – Mary Lambert

DK Canada’s Monster in the Movies continues to guide me through their chapter on zombies, and Paramount’s first adaptation of Stephen King’s classic horror novel arguably falls well within the realm of the undead. It became a cult classic, and the film has aged fairly well, it is, however, populated with television actors, which at…

Zombie (1979) – Lucio Fulci

The next zombie movie to be featured in DK Canada’s highly enjoyable (and bloody) Monsters in the Movies book has been on the periphery of my life for a long time, though I had never seen it. I remember seeing the poster for Zombie aka Zombie Flesh Eaters aka Zombi 2 on the theater sheet…

The Return of the Living Dead (1985) – Dan O’Bannon

Dan O’Bannon who helped write Ridley Scott’s Alien, worked with John Carpenter on Dark Star, wrote the super helicopter fave, Blue Thunder, the original Total Recall, the questionable, but imminently enjoyable Lifeforce, ushers me into the next chapter in DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies book, Zombies! Using Romero’s classic Night of the Living Dead…

Ginger Snaps (2000) – John Fawcett

Werewolf movies get the Canadian treatment with the cult classic, Ginger Snaps. The next werewolf title featured in the immensely enjoyable Monsters in the Movies by John Landis, and available now from DK Canada provides a unique spin on the mythology of the lycanthrope when tying in the cycle of the werewolf with that of…