News

This September, Netflix is bringing you a lot of entertainment with the highly anticipated Nicole Kidman drama series The Perfect Couple, a Netflix original drama film starring Elizabeth Olsen, and the brilliant new animated series Twilight of the Gods. However, for the purposes of this article, we are only including the films that are coming to Netflix this month and have a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the 5 best films that are coming to Netflix in September 2024 with a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Jaws (September 1)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

Jaws is a classic survival thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay co-written by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb. Based on a 1974 novel of the same name by author Peter Benchley, the 1975 film revolves around Sheriff Martin Brody as he teams up with a marine biologist and a local fisherman to hunt down a giant white...

Sunday’s SAG Awards ceremony will be a streaming event for the first time on the Netflix YouTube channel. One of the highlights each year is the special In Memoriam segment. It’s been a particularly rough year with over 100 deaths of prominent actors and actresses who were likely members of SAG/AFTRA. Show producers typically are able to include approximately 40-50 people in a tribute.

Among that group will certainly be Oscar winners Louise Fletcher, William Hurt and Irene Cara, plus nominees Angela Lansbury (a SAG life achievement recipient) and Melinda Dillon. Emmy champs Mary Alice, Kirstie Alley, Leslie Jordan, Ray Liotta, Stuart Margolin, Robert Morse and Barbara Walters.

SEECelebrity Deaths 2023: In Memoriam Gallery

Here is our expansive list of over 100 people who died since last year’s ceremony, several of whom will be honored on Sunday’s event:

Ralph Ahn

J. Grant Albrecht

Mary Alice

Rae Allen...

Frank Pesce, a character actor whose many credits include “Top Gun,” “Beverly Hills Cop” and “Midnight Run,” has died of complications from dementia, his girlfriend, Tammy Scher confirmed to TheWrap on Wednesday. He was 75.

“It’s very sad. He was loved by so many and had more friends than anyone I’ve ever known in my life. He was larger than life,” she said.

Pesce was in a hospital for the final three weeks of his life. He died Feb. 6.

“We walked into his room and everyone knew his name,” Scher said.

Pesce was born in New York in 1946 and began as an extra in “The Godfather Part II,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1991. He was also a stand-in for Robert DeNiro in “Taxi Driver” and Frank Sinatra in “The First Deadly Sin.”

He had a small part in the first “Rocky” movie and formed a lifelong friendship with Sylvester Stallone.

Frank Pesce, a character actor who appeared in the first two “Beverly Hills Cop” movies, “Top Gun,” “Midnight Run” and “Miami Vice,” died on Feb. 6 due to dementia complications. He was 75.

Born in 1946 in New York City, Pesce’s circle of friends included Sylvester Stallone, Tony Danza and Robert Forster, among others. Known for his big smile and colorful personality, Pesce first appeared on screen in 1976 as a guest star on “Police Story.” Throughout his career, he appeared on other series such as “Kojak,” “Knight Rider,” “Blue Thunder,” “The Greatest American Hero,” “Matlock,” “Who’s the Boss?” and “The Master.”

Pesce landed small roles in Stallone films “Rocky” and “Paradise Alley,” as well as Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer’s smash hits “Flashdance” and “Top Gun.”

In a statement to Variety, Pesce’s girlfriend Tammy Scher said, “I met Frank at a very low point in my life. He always said...

Frank Pesce, a colorful character actor whose dozens of credits range from Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun and Midnight Run to Miami Vice, Matlock and Kojak, has died. He was 75.

His girlfriend Tammy Scher told Deadline that Pesce died February 6 in Burbank of dementia complications.

Born on December 8, 1946, in New York City, Pesce put the “character” in character actor. A longtime close friend of Sylvester Stallone, Tony Danza, the late Robert Forster and many other industry players, he was known for his big smile, big stories and bigger personality.

“They make movies about guys like me,” he always said. That quote — more about it below — will be written on his epitaph, Scher said.

Pesce began his screen career in the mid-1970s, guesting on such series as Police Story and Kojak and playing bit roles in the early Stallone films Rocky and Paradise Alley. He went on to work in...

Nicolas Roeg's bizarre blend of high drama, searing sex and over-the-top brutality waited a year, only to be given a tiny American release. It then dropped out of sight. We're now in a better position to appreciate the show's great actors - especially Theresa Russell, the boldest and bravest actress of the 1980s. Eureka Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition Small>1983 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 130 min. / Ship Date May 10, 2016 / available through Twilight Time Movies / 29.95 Starring Gene Hackman, Theresa Russell, Rutger Hauer, Jane Lapotaire, Mickey Rourke, Ed Lauter, Joe Pesci, Helena Kallianiotes, Corin Redgrave, Joe Spinell, Frank Pesce, Timothy Scott. Cinematography Alex Thomson Production Designer Michael Seymour Film Editor Tony Lawson Original Music Stanley Myers Written by Paul Mayersberg from a book by Marshall Houts Produced by Jeremy Thomas Directed by Nicolas Roeg

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

I remember Nicolas Roeg's Eureka as being one of the biggest busts of the 1980s.

Welcome to Holiday Favorites, a series in which Slackerwood contributors and our friends talk about the movies we watch during the holiday season, holiday-related or otherwise.

Today's pick is from seasoned sound designer turned writer/director Steven DeGennaro, whose short film First Date premiered during the Afs ShortCase at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival. DeGennaro successfully wrapped a crowdfunding campaign and raised over $35,000 for his first feature, Found Footage 3D. Here's his holiday favorite:

There’s only one holiday movie in my family, and that’s 29th Street. The movie tells the sort-of, almost, but not-really "true" story of the first winner of the New York State Lottery, Frank Pesce (who wrote the film and plays a supporting role). Danny Aiello plays the domineering father of the clan, whose son, played by Anthony Lapaglia, is supposedly the luckiest man alive. So lucky, in fact, that it turns out to be a curse.

William Friedkin: Why Sorcerer’s Spell Refuses to Die

By

Alex Simon

In the mid-1970s, there were few American filmmakers riding as high as William Friedkin. The French Connection swept the 1971 Academy Awards, nabbing Friedkin a Best Director statuette. The Exorcist, released two years later, broke box office records to become one of the top grossing films of all time. Boasting creative power and freedom that most directors could only dream about, Friedkin opted to film an updated version of French auteur Henri-Georges Clouzot’s classic The Wages of Fear (1953).

The result, 1977’s Sorcerer, became one of the most notorious box office bombs of the decade. Its dark, unrelenting tale of four desperate, disparate men (Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal, Amidou) who undertake a suicide mission by driving truckloads of nitroglycerine across the rugged South American jungle wasn’t what the changing tide of audience tastes were buying then,...

By Devin Faraci (from our sister site Badass Digest). The posters below will be available at tonight’s (Feb 8th) screenings of Maniac, Maniac Cop 2, and tomorrow’s (Feb 9th) screening of Vigilante. Director William Lustig will be in attendance at all three shows!

William Lustig has made some of the most interesting exploitation films of all time. He’ll be in Austin this week showing three of them – Maniac, Vigilante and Maniac Cop 2. But he also runs a DVD/Blu-ray company called Blue Underground that preserves and releases cult classics. The latest releases include Lustig’s own Maniac, Quiet Days in Clichy and Salon Kitty. Deep Red is coming up.

I was able to chat with Lustig last week. I talked to him for a half an hour, but that’s not even close to enough time with a guy like this. I hope to be able...

Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Blue Underground Video:

.

If you’re in the Los Angeles area, don’t miss special big screen showings of Vigilante and Maniac this week!

Grindhouse Film Festival Presents a Tribute to Robert Forster

Vigilante

(with surprise second film to be announced)

Special Guests: Robert Forster, William Lustig and Frank Pesce

Thursday, November 4th, 7:30pm

New Beverly Cinema

7165 West Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036

http://www.newbevcinema.com/calendar.cfm

Grindhouse Releasing Presents in Association with Blue Underground

Maniac

Introduction and Q&A with Director William Lustig

Friday, November 5th, Midnight

Nuart Theatre

11272 Santa Monica Blvd, West Los Angeles, CA 90025

http://www.grindhousereleasing.com/theatrical.html

http://www.landmarktheaters.com/Market/LosAngeles/NuartTheatre.htm

Maniac was just named one of the Best Horror Movies of 2010 by Amazon.com!

#7 on the attached list (and City of the Living Dead is #12)

http://www.

DVD Playhouse September 2010

By

Allen Gardner

The Girl Who Played With Fire (Music Box Films) Follow up to the hit The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo finds Lisabeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) and Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) joining forces once again as Blomkvist is about to break a story on Sweden’s sex trade, which leads unexpectedly to a dark secret from Elizabeth’s past. Starts off well, then quickly nose-dives into sensationalism and downright silliness, with a pair of villains who are straight out of a Roger Moore-era James Bond film. A real letdown for those of us who felt Dragon Tattoo had finally breathed life into the cinema’s long-stagnant genre of the thriller. Bonuses: English language track; Trailer. Widescreen. Dolby 5.1 surround.

The Killer Inside Me (IFC Films) Michael Winterbottom’s adaptation of Jim Thompson’s classic, and notorious, novel about the psychotic mind of a small town sheriff (Casey Affleck,...

Death Wish (1974) spawned an endless array of clones both in the U.S. and Europe. The influence of Death Wish is so immense that filmmakers are still aping the source material. One of the entries in this multi-decade wave of thugs-kill-man's-family-so-man-kills-thugs movies is Bill Lustig's Vigilante (1982). The film, which will be available on a slick new Blu-Ray from Blue Underground on September 21st, is a grim spartan work that has enough edge to really stand out from the pack.

It is New York City in 1982. Rapists, hoodlums, and gangs dressed in bandanas and blue jean jackets are trolling every nook and cranny of the city in search of innocent middle-class prey. One of the victims is Eddie Martino (Robert Forster), a working class schlub who is ready for a vacation his wife (Rutanya Alda) and little boy. Eddie's vacation never happens because Rico (musician Willie Colon) slices up his...

CHICAGO -- ''29th Street'' is bordered on the north by Capra-land and on the south by ''Wiseguy'' turf. On either side, however, the moon shimmers down like a big pizza pie in this glowing, gooey opener of the 27th Chicago International Film Festival.

Layered with more ham and cheese than all the pizzas on the East Coast, 20th Century Fox may slice only a modest b.o. piece from this old-style production, but this warm offering will have special appeal to video renters on snowy holiday nights.

It proved a perfect festival opener here in Chicago for the gown-and-tux set; festival director Michael Kutza is to be commended for not sending his patrons off on a sour, brooding first-night note, a la most fest directors who seem to deem it their cultural duty.

Alternately uplifted and weighed down by seemingly all the Christmas Carols in the kingdom, writer-director George Gallo's fable-like family story about an Italian-American's winning $6.2 million in the New York lottery is, undeniably, warmed-up populism, but in this manic, microwave age, that's kind of a blast of fresh air.

In ''29th, '' Anthony LaPaglia stars as Frankie, a kid born under a dubiously unlucky star -- no matter how he screws up, everything turns out right and that tends to anger people, especially in this solid, work-ethic Italian neighborhood in Queens. His work-hard-get-nowhere pop (Danny Aiello) envies him; his good-guy Big Brother (Frank Pesce) resents him and the neighborhood ''wiseguys'' watch him.

Told in flashback style, beginning with Frankie's winning the lottery and then going berserko with depression, ''29th Street'' tenderly traces the explanation of why a guy glomming this much dough would feel downcast; as Rocky Balboa would say, it's definitely ''mentally irregular.'' Well, there is an explanation. Better yet, one that is both plausible and heartwarming, but it takes a considerable amount of time to get to it.

In the process, Gallo serves up essentially a time-capsule of Americana, Italian style, from Eisenhower to Reagan, which tends not only to gum up the plotworks but distance our feelings as well. Nevertheless, there's a terrific climax and denouement and while not all prior cinematic sins are forgotten, most are forgiven.

Spicing the production is Aiello's performance as the tormented paterfamilias, burdened by gambling debts and upstaged by his sons' accomplishments. Hats off also to LaPaglia as the sweet and screwy Frankie and to Lainie Kazan as the family's staunch and spirited matriarch.

Tech contributions are distinguished by Robert Ziembicki's flavorful production design but lessened by William Olvis' super-saccharine score.

29th STREET

20th Century Fox

A David Permut Production

A George Gallo Film

Producer David Permut

Writer-director George Gallo

Based on a story by Frank Pesce, James Franciscus

Executive producer Jerry A. Baerwitz

Co-producer Ellen Erwin

Associate producers Frank Pesce, James Franciscus, Katie Jacobs, Pierce Gardner

Director of photography Steven Fierberg

Production designer Robert Ziembicki

Editor Kaja Fehr

Music William Olvis

Costume designer Peggy Farrell

Sound mixer Steve Aaron

Color/Stereo

Cast:

Frank Pesce Sr. Danny Aiello

Frank Pesce Jr. Anthony LaPaglia

Mrs. Pesce Lainie Kazan

Vito Pesce Frank Pesce

Sgt. Tartaglia Robert Forster

Philly The Nap Ron Karabatsos

Jimmy Vitello Rick Aiello

Running time -- 101 minutes

MPAA Rating: R

(c) The Hollywood Reporter...