Everyone makes a big deal over what a racist caricature Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu was, but, if these overly sensitive critics would deign to read just one of Rohmer’s wonderful books, they’d learn differently. To wit (from The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu): "Imagine a person, tall, lean and feline, high-shouldered, with a brow like Shakespeare … Continue reading
I hope someone makes a movie about my life someday. If they do, I’m guaranteed to not only be remembered forever, but also to be remembered as better looking than I really am – after all, they rarely cast uglies in the lead of a motion picture. For example the Bronte sisters were not exactly … Continue reading
300, and its explosive box office run, had a lot of surprises for the industry, but one of the greatest was the ease with which Gerard Butler anchored the film in his star-making turn as King Leonidas. And ever since then, casual fans and fanboys alike have been looking forward to what he’s going to … Continue reading
When people think about teen films from the 80s they fall into a John Hughes reverie, but for my money one of the best teen films of the decade had nothing to do with that guy or his players; it’s Taps, a 1981 military school drama with a killer cast, including George C Scott, Timothy … Continue reading
Hey, now we can say that the summer season is really kicking in. Wait, maybe I should say it like I’m David Caruso:Well, now it’s obvious.Summer’s kicking in.Shit, that was way too Shatner. Or maybe I’m on to something…THE MOST INTERESTING FILM OF THE WEEKWell, since there’s only one picture opening wide this week (Captivity … Continue reading
For me, movies based on kung fu manuals pretty much reached an impenetrable ceiling when Stephen Chow turned out the slow-starting, yet insanely entertaining Kung Fu Hustle. For the unfortunate uninitiated, he played a shifty geek whose life was irrevocably altered when some vagrant sold him a manual on the “Buddhist Palm” technique as a … Continue reading
Somehow, the idea of an Al Pacino/Robert DeNiro film still seems like an event film even though the the legendary actors haven’t had the same quantity of powerhouse roles as they used to, both choosing to pursue passion projects and in the latter’s case to also make horrible commerce pictures. Can’t fault him I suppose. … Continue reading
Say what you want about Smokin’ Aces (and a lot of you did), it was a pleasure to have Joe Carnahan once again orchestrating cinematic mayhem after an interminable five year layoff (just another reason to hate Mission: Impossible III). Though the script was little more than an excuse to get a bunch of badass … Continue reading
With regards to the Transformers character design argument, I’m staying way the Terry Funk out of it – mostly because I don’t care, but also because my grading scale on giant robots is insanely forgiving. Basically, if they look like they could throw a Big Boy the length of three football fields, then they’re alright … Continue reading
Welcome to the next CHUD List. We’ve tackled our essentials list and the continued revelation of our Kills List from 2003, and now that we’ve begun the beguine, we must continue. Behold: The CHUD.com Top 50 Disappointments. A quick word on the criteria. We could very easily have spent this whole article discussing sequels and … Continue reading