Author archive - Andrew Roberts
Cheesecake, With A Side of Whisky: Long Beach Roller Derby’s “Summer of Slam”
The reporter had shown up a little late to the game, just in time to catch the beginning of the bout itself but too late to see live music by The Champanties or the singing of the National Anthem, which was just as well: The Mondo Sports Desk had no time for Anthems or panties, [...]
Read More »Salt
In Salt, Angelina Jolie portrays the titular clandestine agent on the run from the CIA–among others–after a former KGB man implicates her in a plot to assassinate the President of Russia. After a prologue set in North Korea, the action shifts to present-day Washington DC, where Salt and her fellow CIA agents are surprised to [...]
Read More »Repo Man (1984)
As embarrassing as this is to admit, I had never seen Repo Man until I was assigned to review it, and now that I’ve seen it I’m embarrassed that it took me this long. For those out there who are still laboring under the same deficit, the plot of Repo Man goes something like this: [...]
Read More »Harlequin/Dark Forces (1981)
Australian politics take a turn for the weird in 1980′s Harlequin (aka Dark Forces), a stylish and intermittently campy supernatural thriller based on the Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin’s unusual relationship with Tsar Nicholas II and Nicholas’ wife and son. Senator Nick Rast (Tsar spelled backward, just in case you missed it,) played by David Hemmings, [...]
Read More »Strange Behavior (1981)
Pete Brady (Dan Shor) has a problem. Actually, he has several: His dad the sheriff is a bummer, he’s having a hard time scraping up the money for his college application, his classmates are being inexplicably murdered, and Tangerine Dream music follows him everywhere he goes. In an attempt to rectify the second problem, Pete [...]
Read More »Watchmen: Take Two
Editor’s Note: We’ve already posted a review of Watchmen, but thought it might be a good idea to get the perspective of someone who hadn’t read the comic book series. Here’s Andrew’s take: Watchmen, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Big Blue Cock This writer is not a big reader of comic [...]
Read More »Tinker Bell (2008)
Yes, I Really Watched That, Case File 1705: Tinker Bell The opening of Tinker Bell informs us that fairies spontaneously generate: The laughter of a baby calls them into being, you see, and it is just such a sound that impels a dandelion seed to Never-Never Land where (as luck would have it) it becomes [...]
Read More »The Reader
Put simply, The Reader is Oscar-bait: a Holocaust movie with fancy production values and Big Themes, filled out with a cast of reliably excellent actors and surprising unknowns. What sets it apart from the usual WWII Weepy is its setting (postwar Germany), its primary focus (an…ahem…unorthodox relationship), and its frank yet careful exploration of the [...]
Read More »Space is the Place (1974)
Sun Ra made weird music, so it’s no surprise that his motion picture is pretty damn weird too. Space is the Place is like The Seventh Seal meets Up In Smoke meets The Day the Earth Stood Still, with an esoteric Afro-centric jazz score and a Black Power philosophical gloss thrown in for good measure. [...]
Read More »The Spirit
The Spirit had potential: the cinematography and art direction were killer, the cast was made up primarily of attractive women, and the titular hero (played by Gabriel Macht) gets to live out every adolescent boy’s fantasy of derring-do, sexual magnetism, and indestructibility. So far, so good. Had The Spirit been a silent movie, it might [...]
Read More »Movie News
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MONDO CONTEST: Win Dinner-For-Two at the Home of “Forbidden Zone” director RICHARD ELFMAN!
Richard Elfman wants YOU over for dinner! We're giving away a DINNER FOR TWO AT CASA ELFO! (yes, that's Forbidden Zone director/Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo founder Richard Elfman's L.A. home!), grilled by Grillmeister Elfman himself!!
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Egyptian Theatre presents 007 AT 50: THE COMPLETE JAMES BOND RETROSPECTIVE!
The American Cinematheque and The British Academy of Film and Television Arts Los Angeles Present… 007 at 50: The Complete James Bond Retrospective! Friday, June 8 – Sunday, June 24, 2012 10 Nights, 2 Theatres, 22 Films on the Big Screen! Egyptian Theatre · 6712 Hollywood Blvd · Los Angeles, CA · 90028 Aero Theatre · 1328 Montana [...]
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“The Avengers” smashes another record, crossing $1 Billion globally in 19 days
The Walt Disney Studios has announced that Marvel’s The Avengers is expected to cross the $1 Billion threshold at the global box office on May 13, its 19th day in release. This is the first Marvel Studios film and the fifth Walt Disney Studios release to reach this important milestone. The news comes just a week [...]
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Reviews
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Cosmopolis
David Cronenberg's "Cosmopolis" is a welcome return to style, complemented with fine performances from an ensemble class. Unfortunately, the film is nowhere near as compelling as its seemingly heady themes and examinations would suggest.
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Pick of the Week – Breakfast at Tiffany’s, August 23rd at Regency Buenaventura 6
"There once was a very lonely, very frightened girl. She lived alone except for a nameless cat..." Blake Edward's BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S screens Thursday, August 26 at Regency Buenaventura, 7:30pm. Alicia's Pick of the Week.
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Tormented (AKA “Rabbit Horror 3D”)
Initially armed with the tremendous title Rabbit Horror 3D (tell me you wouldn't run out to see that immediately), this surreal, fantasy/horror blends elements from a number of children's films such as Alice in Wonderland and The Little Mermaid, but its final product is decidedly NOT for children...
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