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Bert I. Gordon rides again, with an excellent encoding of one of his more popular sci-fi monster-ramas. Pert ‘n’ perky June Kenney is so brave that she keeps going back to ‘that old cave outside of town,’ despite not knowing how many giant spiders are on the loose. Teenagers in their thirties and their bebop-crazy rock ‘n’ roll are no match for Gordon’s titanic, screaming arachnid. This spidey is just plain shifty, the kind of unscrupulous fiend that colors his crayons outside the (matte) lines … in crimson B&w blood! June Kenney’s mom knows her girl only two well: “… I hope she hasn’t gone back to that cave.” With some excellent extras, namely about a million rare behind-the-scenes stills from Tom Weaver.

The Spider

Blu-ray

Scream Factory

1958 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 73 min. / Earth vs. The Spider / Street Date June 23, 2020

Starring: Ed Kemmer, June Kenney, Gene Persson, Gene Roth,...

Bang a gong, T. Rex fans. The great British glam-rock studs are finally going into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a year after their comrades Roxy Music. It’s a beautiful moment because Marc Bolan has always stood for everything benignly insane about glam. T. Rex didn’t flourish long — Bolan was killed in a car crash in 1977, just two weeks shy of his 30th birthday, and wrote nearly all his great songs in a three-year hot streak. But he’s been a guiding spirit for cosmic dancers ever since.

Emery Entertainment is delighted to present the St. Louis debut of Flanagan’S Wake at the Playhouse @ Westport Plaza, January 24-March 21, 2020. Performances run Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., with a special Tuesday, March 17, St. Patrick’s Day performance. Tickets are $24.50 and $29.50, and are on sale now through MetroTix at www.metrotix.com or by calling 314-534-1111. Additionally, tickets will be available at the Playhouse @ Westport Plaza box office one hour prior to show time. Groups of 10 or more should call 314-616-4455 for special rates.

All seats are are $24.50 and $29.50 but We Are Movie Geeks has a pair of tickets to give away for the opening night performance of Flanagan’S Wake ! That’s Friday January 31st at 7:30pm p.m. Leave a message below letting us know what your favorite movie that takes place in Ireland is (mines The Quiet Man) . It’s so easy!

The nominations for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2020 are in, and the list features the Notorious B.I.G., Whitney Houston, Pat Benatar, Dave Matthews Band, Depeche Mode, the Doobie Brothers, Judas Priest, Kraftwerk, MC5, Motörhead, Nine Inch Nails, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, Todd Rundgren, Soundgarden, T. Rex, and Thin Lizzy. The top vote-getters will be announced in January and inducted May 2nd, 2020, at a ceremony at Cleveland’s Public Hall.

To be eligible for this year’s ballot, each nominee’s first single or album...

Chicago – Since Chicago is one of the great Irish immigrant cities in the U.S., it stands to reason that a film festival would be dedicated to Irish American films, and Mike Houlihan – a local writer/radio host/playwright/actor/filmmaker – founded this festival in in the Windy City in 2015. The 5th Annual Irish American Movie Hooley will take place September 27th-29th, 2019, at the Gene Siskel Film Center. More information about the three film festival, including tickets, can be accessed by clicking here.

The “Hooley” is not only a nickname for Mike Houlihan, but it also is Irish slang for “party,” and the three day festival takes on that atmosphere as lively conservations take place after the films, with appearances by the filmmakers and subjects of the screenings. Friday, September 27th is Opening Night with “Misty Button,” a narrative black comedy on the propensity of the New York City Irish to create boozy shenanigans.

So, are movie audiences ready for another flick about good looking women being very, very bad? Well, not as bad say as the ladies of The Kitchen. Nobody’s getting whacked or having their legs broken. The dudes in this romp do wake up with some major hangovers (physical and financial). Now don’t get this confused with this past Summer’s similarly-titled The Hustle. This new flick has no wacky slapstick hi-jinks. And it’s based an original story, a magazine article, while the former was a remake…of a remake, showing us that “third time’ was definitely not “the charm”. And instead of the swanky hotels and casinos on the French Rivera, we see the inner working of an NYC “high-end” “gentleman’s club”. The “entertainers’ that work there desperately want to leave the “life”. But they’ve got to be more than “classy exotic dancers’, these ladies have to be Hustlers.

Chicago – What is an Irish “Hooley”? What do you think? It’s just another name for a good old shamrock shindig. Founder/Producer Mike Houlihan, the Gene Siskel Film Center and Hibernian Transmedia presents the 4th Irish American Movie Hooley 2018, September 28th through the 30th, with special screenings and appearances each of the three nights. For more details and tickets, click here.

Three films will be shown, one on each night, with discounts available for the last two films with a purchase of a full price ticket on Friday the 28th (click link above for details). On Friday, September 29th, “Covadanga” will be shown, and director Sean Harofilis will make an appearance. On Saturday, September 29th, “Cardboard Gangsters” is the film, with director Mark O’Connor in person. Finally, on Sunday the 30th, “Mother’s Day” is screened, with director Fergus O’Brien appearing on behalf of the film. An...

★★★★☆ Anna Biller's The Love Witch is a movie aesthetes of kitsch will embrace with open arms. Not that the film's distinct look is mere window-dressing or getting by on camp charm alone. A political work of true authorship if ever there was one, Biller not only directed, she wrote the screenplay, she's the film's editor, its set decorator, served as the costume and production designer, and also found time to compose the music. All of it a striking success.

Samantha Robinson (who looks like giallo icon Edwige Fenech) is Elaine, a narcissistic young witch. Her new aim in life is to cut out all the hard work in relationships and make them perfect, so she won't ever be rejected again. On the hunt for Mr. Right, her philosophical outlook is a melange of staunch feminism - she wants control (not an unfair demand) - but the methods are anti-feminist...

Stars: Jim Sturgess, Kate Beckinsale, Michael Caine, Ben Kingsley, Brendan Gleeson, David Thewlis, Jason Flemyng, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Sinéad Cusack, Edmund Kingsley, Ciara Flynn, Christopher Fulford | Written by Joe Gangemi | Directed by Brad Anderson

If you were told about a film based on an Edgar Allen Poe short story with stars including Kate Beckinsale, Michael Caine, Ben Kingsley and Brendan Gleeson I’d be surprised if your interest wasn’t peeked. Stoneheart Asylum (aka Eliza Graves) is just that… based on The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether by Poe it tells the tale of an Asylum where not all is as it seems.

When Edward Newgate (Jim Sturgess) a medical school graduate arrives at Stonehearst Asylum he finds himself transfixed by Eliza Graves (Kate Beckinsale) a patient supposedly suffering from “Hysteria.” Working under Dr. Silas Lamb (Ben Kingsley) he finds himself impressed with the doctor’s unconventional methods of treatment.

Crazy in Love: Anderson’s Gothic Sprinkled Romance Deserves to be Tarred and Feathered

Fresh off the surprise box office success of 2013’s Halle Berry headlined The Call, director Brad Anderson returns to the creepy confines of the mental ward with Stonehearst Asylum, reminiscent of his well received 2001 film, Session 9. Assembling another terrific cast for this period piece, those familiar with a fine tradition of Gothic cinema will immediately begin to pick up on the threads of Edgar Allan Poe that inspired the macabre switcheroo generating the dramatic conflict. But even before we get to that point, Anderson’s latest arrives Doa, a cold, tepid turkey that isn’t ever sure of the mood it wishes to generate. Scenes fluctuate rapidly, and we’re left to decide whether this is supposed to be a prim and proper brooding romance of stiff corsets and constricted consecrations, a downright queasy...

"The Voice" star judge and singer Cee Lo Green may serve some time for allegedly serving up a Mickey Finn (doctored drink) to an unsuspecting female. The "Forget You" singer is in court on charges he slipped ecstasy into a woman's drink. The "F*** you" singer/song writer appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom for his arraignment on a felony drug charge. The five-time grammy award winner pleaded not guilty to allegedly giving a woman ecstasy. If he is convicted, the 'Voice' star could face up to four years in prison. Even though he faces the maximum of four years, this is not a state prison case and most observers believe the end result will be minimal time served.. Cee...

Time was, you fancied a spot of dancing in your film; you saw a musical. Now, having inexplicably become a genre in itself, the demand for dance movies has never been higher. Yet it’s fair to say that ninety minutes of backflips, bodypops and contrived interracial romances are not to everyone’s tastes. And so the studios’ uneasy relationship with the dance scene has resulted in many films trying to slip it past us like a musical Mickey Finn. Think Tyler Durden groovin’ to hide Marla from the police. Think Matthew Patel threatening Scott Pilgrim through song. Think Peter Parker tearing up that jazz club in Spider-Man 3. Actually, no. Don’t think that.

Whether it lies in wait for the right song to come along or tucks itself away into the closing credits, the dance scene can still work as one of cinema’s greatest surprises. Listed below...

Spoilers The latest installment of Sons of Anarchy was a smorgasbord of head shaking events. I had to sleep on it before penning some thoughts. Highlights of this jam-packed episode include a Belfast beatdown bonding session, Walt Goggins as a fetching trans-sexual working girl, the Chucky Getaway Walk - my new strut to master based on Michael Marisi Ornstein's hilarious turn masquerading as an Iraqi war-vet-turned-confectioner delivering a Mickey Finn Fudge package that facilitates some major fat shaming, a double perverted sexual blackmail session and ultimately a deep bloody bite in the ass for Tig, who cannot get a break this season. How much suffering can one man take this season? Tig's bum stitches Back to Walt. The...

In our writers' favourite film series, Jonathan Glancey is bewitched by the silver-screen sorcery of Laurel and Hardy's 1937 classic

Love this review or is it just another fine mess? Post your own take here or enjoy a little comedy tit-for-tat below

Mary Roberts's father has died, leaving the deed of a gold mine to the innocent young Southern belle (played by Rosina Lawrence), who is working as a skivvy in Mickey Finn's Palace, a raucous saloon bar in Brushwood Gulch. Stan and Ollie have been charged with delivering this precious document to her. They are readily gulled into giving it to Lola Marcel (Sharon Lynne), a hard, bottle-blonde vaudeville singer pretending to be Mary. Realising their mistake, they set about – calamitously, of course – getting it back.

Not much of a plot, I suppose, but enough to spin Way Out West into an hour-long feature film I have watched time and again.

Soap opera "The Young and the Restless" was just flat out fun with actress Sean Young in an arc where she tries to off the show's alpha bad guy, Victor. SOAPnet features the Y&Tr, and Eric Braeden.s character, Victor Newman, was sweet talked by Young's character Meggie McLaine, who culminates her nefarious golddigger doings with a well-timed Mickey Finn en route to Vegas. Victor snaps out of his feigned comatose state in time to grab up a shocked Meggie. If you are watching, you know that Meggie has also fixed Nikki good, spiking her tea and sending her to rehab where Meggie conveniently forwards her a staged wedding camera photo of Victor and Meggie. Nikki is consoled...

Tony Dipreta, a cartoonist with a pedigree as long as Joe Palooka's reach, died on June 2.

Best known as the last artist on Joe Palooka (1959 – 1984) and Rex Morgan, M.D. from 1994 until 2000, Tony got his start at the fabled Quality Comics as a letterer in 1940. He assisted Lou Fine, Gill Fox and Bob Fujitani before working on such notable features as Airboy, Uncle Sam and Daredevil (the original pre-Marvel character). During the 1950s he did an enormous amount of humor, horror and western anthology work, primarily for Marvel (Atlas) Comics.He later worked on Marvel's black and white horror magazines such as Tales of the Zombie, Monsters Unleashed, and Dracula Lives. His last published comic book work was Fantastic Adventures #3 (Oct. 1987) where he did the humorous "The Score Board Kid" written by former Mad editor Jerry DeFuccio.

In addition to working on Joe Palooka and Rex Morgan -- both highly...

Following on from an insightful chat about The Big Lebowski, here is part one of our Double Feature film costume review with Kristin M. Burke from FrockTalk.com.

Fewer motion pictures have warranted so much over analysis as The Big Lebowski (1998). The Coen Brothers, extraordinarily talented as they are, simply did not write all the hidden meanings that magazines, blogs, and now even books have subscribed to the piece. The Big Lebowski is a far-out fun detective homage, just not as deep as some people think.

So without disappearing on our own magic carpet ride, let’s have a look at the film’s costume design by Mary Zophres (Ghost World, 2001; A Serious Man, 2009) and tell you why it rocked so hard in an almost completely non-subtextual way.

The Coen bothers are technical writers. It may appear on the surface that their movies are made up as they go, or...