News

Last year, Charles Band’s company Full Moon announced that they were launching a new production label called Pulp Noir, which would focus on “edgier, weirder, darker horror and dark fantasy films.” Two Pulp Noir movies, Quadrant and Death Streamer, have since made their way through production – and while those movies were initially released in color, all of the Pulp Noir movies will also get black & white “noir” releases, so there are both color and black & white versions of Quadrant and Death Streamer available on the Full Moon Features streaming service. While we wait for more Pulp Noir movies to be made, Band has started going through the Full Moon library to give some of their older films the black & white / noir treatment. This noir series, which is expected to consist of at least a dozen films, got started with a black & white version of the 1984 sci-fi thriller Christmas classic Trancers.

Chicago – The latest Disney Studio live action reboot of an animated classic is the worst thing to happen to “Snow White” since the poisoned apple. This woebegone misfire in re-imagining the 1937 film hit a new low with this incompetent, incoherent, and incomprehensible miscalculation of epic proportions.

Rachel Zegler is Snow White, a princess daughter of a benevolent king and queen … but her mother the queen later dies. Enter the Evil Queen (Gal Gadot), who disappears the king and makes Snow White a scullery maid. When the mirror routine happens … who’s the fairest of them all? … and determines Snow White instead of the Evil One, the Queen banishes her to the forest. There she meets seven dwarves and a Robin Hood type named Jonathan (Andrew Burnap) – essentially the prince in this story – who leads a gang who are loyal to Snow’s father. Snow’s new team then sets out to get the kingdom back.

Another live-action remake from the Mickey Mouse studio, another season of inflated controversies and extremist behavior from those swayed by questionable agendas. Whether it’s Rachel Zegler’s (West Side Story) casting as Snow White, potential narrative changes, the actress’ criticism of the original film, or the decision to use CGI dwarfs instead of real actors, the truth is that none of these controversies are actually relevant to expectations or one’s eventual opinion of the movie. In fact, I have no interest in them whatsoever.

The online debate has been drowned in exasperating noise, fueled by the same bad-faith channels that thrive on artificial outrage and wide-eyed thumbnail reactions. We already know what’s going to happen: Snow White will be relentlessly review-bombed, making ratings on various public platforms utterly meaningless.

RelatedThe 100 Greatest Movies of All Time

As for the film itself, the premise remains untouched: this musical adventure...

The absolute best small scale ‘perfect crime’ thriller has nail-biting suspense, humor, sexy scenes, a shocking violent scene and apparently a terrific collaboration between director Daryl Duke and writer Curtis Hanson. Elliott Gould and Christopher Plummer give unique, superb performances, and Susannah York is enticing as well. It’s not neo-noir, it’s better than neo-noir. With a very early John Candy performance, too.

The Silent Partner

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1978 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 101 min./ Street Date June 18, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Elliott Gould, Christopher Plummer, Susannah York, Céline Lomez, John Candy.

Cinematography: Billy Williams

Film Editor: George Appleby

Original Music: Oscar Peterson

Written by Curtis Hanson from the book Think of a Number by Anders Bodelsen

Produced by Garth H. Drabinsky, Joel B. Michaels, Stephen Young

Directed by Daryl Duke

“We grab each moment and we make it count!”

The Silent Partner is a wonderful sleeper that most...

After a 61-year-old Iowa man admitted in open court to sexually abusing his granddaughter, the victim’s mother is asking why prosecutors are recommending he be given probation instead of prison time.

“What’s five years’ probation?” Kasey Hilpipre, the mother of the victim asked, according to Who TV. “Is he gonna pick her up again and take her into the woods again and she may not come out? What justice is that? What safety is that for the remainder of her life?”

Dean Hilpipre, of Alden, the victim’s paternal grandfather, pleaded guilty Jan. 4 to two felony counts of second-degree sexual abuse,...