Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
If you’re a fan of film noir, you’ll enjoy Nora Fiore’s The Dark Beauty of Film Noir in 50 Shots at One Perfect Shot.
One word of warning, as you scroll down through the photos you may feel an overwhelming desire to watch a bunch of great movies!
Mark Mancini and Mental_Floss present 13 Spooky Facts About The Monster Squad. Here are three of my favorites…
3. THE CREATURE DESIGNERS WORKED HARD TO AVOID LEGAL PROBLEMS WITH UNIVERSAL.
First and foremost, The Monster Squad is an affectionate tribute to Universal’s iconic horror movies of the 1930s, ‘40s, and ‘50s. Nevertheless, the studio passed on producing the film, which was ultimately picked up by TriStar. This forced The Monster Squad’s visual effects team to get creative.“Although we were doing a movie that was a takeoff on the Universal classics,” said legendary monster creator Stan Winston, “… none of our designs infringed on the original designs of the Universal characters. There were subtle changes; we had to be sure that nothing about them could be considered a copyright infringement of a design.” Which is why Dracula has no Lugosi-esque widow’s peak, Frankenstein monster’s neck bolts have migrated to his temples, and Wolfman has pointy ears and a face that Dekker describes as “more lupine” than what Universal had come up with.
8. DUNCAN REGEHR BEAT OUT LIAM NEESON FOR THE ROLE OF DRACULA.
In 1986, Liam Neeson was still a relative unknown and, like many struggling actors, decided to try out for a horror movie. Apparently, he nailed his audition with a superb take on the Count. “We thought for sure we [were] going to hire this guy,” producer Jonathan Zimbert revealed inMonster Squad Forever. “Then Duncan came in and was not only as brilliant, but he was terrifying also.” Twenty years later, Wizard magazine named Regehr the “greatest Dracula of all time” for his chilling performance in The Monster Squad.12. THE MOVIE SPENT JUST TWO WEEKS IN THEATERS.
Released on August 14, 1987, The Monster Squad was both a commercial and critical flop.Vincent Camby of The New York Times called it “a silly attempt to cross breed an Our Gangcomedy with a classic horror film, which usually means that both genres have reached the end of the line.” After a two-week theatrical run, the movie was pulled. However, it slowly built a following via video rentals and cable broadcasts.Today, The Monster Squad commands a dedicated fan base. When the cast and crewreunited for a special two-night showing at Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in 2006, both screenings sold out. As Dekker once put it, “It took 20 years for the movie to find its audience.”
Today we have Playing for Change’s riff on the classic Marvin Gaye tune, What’s Going On?
The Creed Featurette is Here!
Want to see the oldest movie footage of New York City known? You can by checking out the video below.
Did you know that Maila Nurmi the actress who played Vampira the horror movie host and character in Plan Nine from Outer Space was also an artist?
She was as you’ll learn (if you didn’t already know) by checking out Self Portraits Painted by Vampira at Neatorama.
I like the look of the trailer below for Outsiders.
Joy Lanzendorfer and Mental_Floss present 13 Facts About L. Frank Baum’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Here are three of my favorites…
1. BAUM FRAMED THE PENCIL HE USED TO WRITE THE NOVEL.
L. Frank Baum—former chicken rancher, traveling salesman, and theater manager—had already published two successful children’s books when he started The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1898. He finished the book in October 1899. He must have been proud of his work, for he framed the pencil stub and hung it on the wall of his study. On the attached paper he scrawled, “With this pencil I wrote the manuscript of The Emerald City.”2. HE GOT THE NAME “OZ” FROM HIS FILING CABINET.
At first, Baum had trouble coming up with a name for the magical land Dorothy visits. Then one day he found himself looking at the filing cabinet in his study. There were three drawers marked “A to G,” “H to N,” and “O to Z.” And so Oz was born.9. THE BOOK SOLD OUT IN TWO WEEKS.
Full distribution began in August. According to the publisher, the first printing of 10,000 copies sold out in two weeks, followed by a second printing of 15,000 and a third printing of 10,000. In November, there was a fourth printing of 30,000 and in January, a fifth printing of 25,000. That’s 90,000 books in the first six months. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz remained a bestseller for two years.
Quick, name the famous actor in the photo above who played Frankenstein.
Nope, it’s not Boris Karloff. Try again. No, he’s not Lon Chaney, Jr.. Try again. No, it’s not Bela Lugosi either. The actor playing Frankenstein in the photo above is Glenn Strange.
Although Glenn Strange played the Frankenstein monster three times (tying Karloff’s record), most folks seldom think of Glenn Strange when they think of Frankenstein. In a career that spanned over 300 roles in 43 years, Strange was best known as Sam the Bartender on Gunsmoke.
If you’ve read this far, you’ll enjoy the short piece by Jim Knipfel titled The Other Frankenstein Monster: The Strange Fate of Glenn Strange at Den of Geek.
I’m really looking forward to the new series, The Sheriff of Babylon by Tom King and Mitch Gerads. Check out the interview below and maybe you’ll be on board too.
Tara Aquino and Mental_Floss present 11 Expert Facts About Leon: The Professional. Here are three of my favorites…
1. NATALIE PORTMAN’S PARENTS WERE COMPLETELY AGAINST HER PLAYING MATHILDA.
It was an extremely complicated role for an 11-year-old: Not only would she have to deal with a broken home and violence, but she’d also have to deal with the unwanted sexualization of a young girl. In Starting Young, a documentary about Portman that’s included on the 10th anniversary DVD edition of Léon, the actress admits that after she read the script, she was so moved to tears by the film that she knew she had to have the role. Her parents weren’t as convinced. “My parents were like, ‘There is no way you’re doing this movie. This is absolutely inappropriate for a child your age … and I was like, ‘This is the greatest thing I’ve ever read! You’re gonna ruin my life!’” she shares in the doc. “[I] was basically just fighting with them so much.”4. PORTMAN’S PARENTS ARE THE REASON WHY MATHILDA QUITS SMOKING IN THE FILM.
As per the agreement Portman’s parents outlined with Besson, the actress was allowed five fake cigarettes in her hand during the entire film shoot, and she was never allowed to inhale a single one of them. If you pay close attention to her character, you’ll see that she only puts the cigarette to her lips, but never blows smoke out. Additionally, her parents demanded that her character quit smoking at some point in the movie. In the film, Léon scolds Mathilda for smoking, and later you see her throwing her unfinished cigarette away when she’s alone.10. BESSON HAS SHUT DOWN RUMORS THAT A SEQUEL IS IN THE WORKS.
So stop asking. During his press tour for Lucy, Besson told The Guardian, “You can’t imagine how many people ask me for a Léon sequel. Everywhere I go they ask me. If I was motivated by money, I would have done it a long time ago. But I don’t feel it.”In an earlier interview with Cinema Blend, Besson elaborated on the topic, saying, “Natalie is old now, she’s a mother … It’s too late. If I got an idea tomorrow about a sequel, of course I would do it. But I never came up with something strong enough. I don’t want to do sequels for money; I want to do a sequel because it’s worth it. I want it to be as good or better than the original.”
Eddie Deezen and Mental_Floss present 11 Things You May Not Know About John Lennon. Here are three of my favorites…
9. HE WAS ORIGINALLY SUPPOSED TO SING LEAD ON THE BEATLES’ FIRST SINGLE, 1962’S “LOVE ME DO.”
Lennon sang lead on a great majority of the early Beatles songs, but Paul McCartney took the lead on their very first one. The lead was originally supposed to be Lennon, but because he had to play the harmonica, the lead was given to McCartney instead.10. “ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE” WAS THE BEST LYRIC HE EVER WROTE.
A friend once asked Lennon what was the best lyric he ever wrote. “That’s easy,” replied Lennon, “All you need is love.”11. THE LAST PHOTOGRAPHER TO SNAP HIS PICTURE WAS PAUL GORESH.
Ironically (and sadly), Lennon was signing an album for the person who was to assassinate him a few hours later when he was snapped by amateur photographer Paul Goresh on December 8, 1980.Lennon obligingly signed a copy of his latest album, Double Fantasy, for Mark David Chapman. Later that same day, Lennon returned from the recording studio and was gunned down by Chapman, the same person for whom he had so kindly signed his autograph.
Morbidly, a photographer sneaked into the morgue and snapped a photo of Lennon’s body before it was cremated the day after his assassination. Yoko Ono has never revealed the whereabouts of his ashes or what happened to them.
Kurt Russell and Matthew Fox draw down on each other in this Bone Tomahawk clip from Entertainment Weekly!
If you’ve ever wondered what Jurassic World would have looked like had it been made in 1978, ChiefBrodyRules has created a trailer to show us.
Well played, Chief, well played.
In 2010, Randy Guijarro purchased the vintage photo above for two bucks. Guijarro is a collector of old photos and the shot of some folks in the wild west playing croquet would make a nice addition to his collection.
It was recently confirmed that one of the croquet players in the photo is none other than Billy the Kid and the other folks playing are the Kid’s gang known as the Lincoln County Regulators.
The photo has been verified to be legit and is going to auction. Guijarro’s two buck purchase could bring in as much as five million dollars.
I’m not sure which surprises me more…
Source: People.
