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The comedian and former The Daily Show correspondent talks about his favorite Blaxploitation movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Casablanca (1942) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

The Castle (1997)

The Spook Who Sat By The Door (1973) – Bill Duke’s trailer commentary

Pressure (1976)

Robinson Crusoe On Mars (1964) – Mick Garris’s trailer commentary

Boss (1975)

Django Unchained (2012) – Brian Trenchard-Smith’s trailer commentary

The Thing With Two Heads (1972) – Stuart Gordon’s trailer commentary

The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971)

The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970)

Last of the Mobile Hot Shots (1970)

Black Samurai (1977)

Truck Turner (1974)

Schindler’s List (1993)

Black Caesar (1973) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary

Hell Up In Harlem (1973) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary

Judas And The Black Messiah (2021)

Friday Foster (1975)

That Man Bolt (1973)

Blacula (1972)

Foxy Brown (1974) – Jack Hill’s trailer commentary

Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1976)

Willie Dynamite (1973) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Billy Jack (1971)

John Wick (2014)

The Matrix (1999)

Cleopatra Jones...

The writer/director returns to talk about his favorite Blaxploitation movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Man Bites Dog (1992)

Trick Baby (1972)

The Exorcist (1973) – Oren Pelli’s trailer commentary

The Untouchables (1987)

Predator (1987)

Purple Rain (1984) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

The Loved One (1965) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Live And Let Die (1973)

Enter The Dragon (1973) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary, Brian Trenchard-Smith’s trailer commentary

The Green Hornet (1974)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) – Darren Bousman’s trailer commentary

The Last Dragon (1985) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Dead Presidents (1995)

Hell Up In Harlem (1973) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary

Black Caesar (1973) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary

Shaft (1971) – Bill Duke’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing

Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)

Coffy (1973) – Jack Hill’s trailer commentary

Midnight Cowboy (1969) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Taxi Driver (1976) – Rod Lurie’s trailer commentary

Boxcar Bertha (1972) – Julie Corman...

We told you. Remember the rules. You didn’t listen. Now we’re Back with an all new batch of guest recommendations featuring Blake Masters, Julien Nitzberg, Floyd Norman, Tuppence Middleton and Blaire Bercy.

Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Wild Angels (1966)

Spirits of the Dead (1966)

The Trip (1967)

Mooch Goes To Hollywood (1971)

Stalker (1979)

The Candidate (1972)

The Parallax View (1974)

Network (1976)

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Ace In The Hole (1951)

Margin Call (2011)

Death Wish (1974)

Death Wish (2018)

Seconds (1966)

Soylent Green (1973)

Rage (1972)

Assault on Wall Street (2013)

Repo Man (1984)

Elmer Gantry (1960)

The Train (1965)

Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)

Strange Brew (1983)

To Have And Have Not (1944)

Singin’ In The Rain (1952)

Easter Parade (1948)

The Band Wagon (1953)

Guys And Dolls (1955)

On The Town (1949)

Casablanca (1942)

The Dirt Gang (1972)

Back To The Future (1985)

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

The Big Sleep (1946)

Bomba, the Jungle Boy (1949)

My Man Godfrey...

Larry Cohen details the typically unorthodox story behind the hurry-up production of the sequel to his sleeper hit Black Caesar. Fred Williamson’s Black Godfather is resurrected from his semi-death to avenge himself on the Mafia. James Brown’s music was dumped by Larry in favor of Edwin Starr, and ended up on Brown’s album “The Payback.”

The post Hell Up in Harlem appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Harlem gangster Fred “the Hammer” Williamson takes on the Mafia and crooked cops in Larry Cohen’s own version of The Godfather saga, which spilled over into a sequel (Hell Up in Harlem), released only 8 months later. Larry takes us behind the scenes of one of his biggest hits. Songs by The Godfather of Soul, James Brown.

The post Black Caesar appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Larry Cohen, the director of campy horror classics like It’s Alive, The Stuff, Q and God Told Me To, has died at the age of 77.

Bloody Disgusting first reported news of the prolific screenwriter and filmmaker’s death, which Cohen’s publicist confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter, adding that Cohen died Saturday night surrounded by friends and loved ones. No cause of death was revealed.

Cohen – who also penned the grisly Maniac Cop series, Best Seller, Phone Booth and Cellular alongside episodes of police procedurals like Columbo and NYPD Blue...

Larry Cohen, the avant-garde writer and director who made his mark in the horror and blaxploitation genres with such innovative cult classics as It's Alive, God Told Me To, Black Caesar and Hell Up in Harlem, has died. He was 82.

Cohen died Saturday night at his longtime home in Beverly Hills, his friend Merv Bloch told The Hollywood Reporter.

The older brother of late Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen — she got her start promoting his early films — Cohen began his career by writing for television in the late 1950s, and he created the Chuck Connors-starring Branded for ...

Larry Cohen, the avant-garde writer and director who made his mark in the horror and blaxploitation genres with such innovative cult classics as It's Alive, God Told Me To, Black Caesar and Hell Up in Harlem, has died. He was 82.

Cohen died Saturday night at his longtime home in Beverly Hills, his friend Merv Bloch told The Hollywood Reporter.

The older brother of late Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen — she got her start promoting his early films — Cohen began his career by writing for television in the late 1950s, and he created the Chuck Connors-starring Branded for ...

By Jeremy Carr

The success of Larry Cohen’s 1973 Blaxploitation classic, Black Caesar, was so immediately evident that producer Samuel Z. Arkoff, then head of American International Pictures, put the sequel wheels in motion almost instantly. The follow-up, Hell Up in Harlem, was released just 10 months later, still in 1973. Such a hasty turnaround certainly makes its mark on the completed picture, with a frenetic tempo, chaotic storyline, and haphazard construction that all seems to mirror its own pace of production. Yet even in the face of this slapdash development, the film itself is thoroughly entertaining, if not quite living up to its predecessor.

Reprising his role as Tommy Gibbs, the shrewd criminal entrepreneur who worked his way up through the underworld ranks in Black Caesar, Fred Williamson starts off the sequel in dire straits. As seen in the earlier film, Tommy had proudly flaunted an aggressive charm, with a sly...

Tfh Fearless Leader Joe Dante very astutely tip-toes around Larry Cohen’s stylistic filmmaking identity early on in King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen. Dante notes, “I would hardly call him the John Cassavetes of exploitation movies, but he does have a certain raw, visceral, realistic style.” Indeed, Larry Cohen’s signature film, Q: The Winged Serpent (1982), feels like what would happen if John Cassavetes directed a Ray Harryhausen film. And movie fans the world over are all the better for that most unlikely of authorial fusions!

For cineastes in La, King Cohen debuts Friday, July 20th, at Laemmle’s Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre. There will be supplemental shows on the 23rd at the NoHo 7, and the Laemmle Monica on the 26th. It will expand to other select markets on July 27th (keep a sharp eye on the flick’s official site for further screening details). The...

Listen I have nothing against ants – rubber tree plants, veracity, etc – but put enough of them together and I get nervous. Radiate them? You get the big ass ones in Them! (1954). Delve into cosmic circumstance and you have the smarty pants overlords of Phase IV (1974). Throw a bunch on the television, make them poisonous and you end up with The Love Boat meets The Towering Inferno goofiness of Robert Scheerer’s It Happened at Lakewood Manor (1977), a pretty silly and damn entertaining TV flick.

Aka Ants! upon rebroadcasting and future home video release, It Happ – screw it; let’s just call it Ants! okay? It’s a more fun and less pretentious title (which this thing is anything but), and to the point. Okay, Ants! originally aired December 2nd as part of The ABC Friday Night Movie, and it’s competition was The Incredible Hulk on CBS, while NBC trotted...

Featuring: Martin Scorsese, Eric Roberts, Traci Lords, J.J. Abrams, john landis, Robert Forster, Barbara Carrera, Rick Baker, Joe Dante, Yaphet Kotto, Michael Moriarty, Fred Williamson, Eric Bogosian | Written and Directed by Steve Mitchell

Buckle up for the true story of writer, producer, director, creator and all-around maverick, Larry Cohen. Told through compelling live interviews, stills and film/TV clips, the people who helped fulfill his vision, and industry icons such as Martin Scorsese, John Landis, Michael Moriarty, Fred Williamson, Yaphet Kotto and many more, including Larry himself, bring one-of-a-kind insight into the work, process and legacy of a true American auteur…

I’m not going to lie, there’s no way I can talk about the documentary King Cohen without any bias. Larry Cohen is, to this day, one of my all-time favourite filmmakers. He has been since the first time I saw Q The Winged Serpent on TV. Seeing...

Back in the heart of London’s West End for its 18th ‘adults-only’ anniversary, the world renowned horror and fantasy film festival will take place at the Cineworld Leicester Square and The Prince Charles Cinema from Aug 24 – Aug 28 2017, taking over five screens to present 64 films including 20 World, 22 European and 18 UK Premieres. Fourteen countries are represented spanning five continents, reflecting the current global popularity of the genre.

The opening night attraction is the global premiere of Universal Pictures Home Entertainment’s criminally entertaining Cult of Chucky (pictured above), with writer and director Don Mancini and stars Jennifer Tilly and Fiona Dourif in attendance, alongside the iconic deadly doll of destruction himself. Mancini said today:

It’s a true pleasure to be hosting the world premiere of Cult Of Chucky at FrightFest. I have fond memories of unveiling Curse Of Chucky there in 2013 so it’s great to be returning to the...

Strangely enough, Pam Grier’s last Blaxploitation feature, 1975’s Sheba, Baby, would be the title to introduce her to a much wider audience thanks to its PG rating. Though undoubtedly adult in theme, it’s a kittenish exercise compared to the violence, gratuitous sex, and shameless taken-for-granted racist and misogynistic antics of earlier efforts. Its classification as the final chapter of Grier’s Blaxploitation days is also sort of a misnomer, since this refers to the last time she’d don her famous persona as an action star in pursuit of a more serious career, heading into Drum (a sequel to the infamous Mandingo), starring opposite Richard Pryor in Greased Lightning, and even a Ray Bradbury adaptation in Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983). But 1975 was one of several sterling years for Grier, headlining three films, though none of them would eventually reach the same iconicity as the prior year’s...

Cult director Larry Cohen’s sophomore feature, Black Caesar gets a Blu-ray treatment courtesy of Olive Films. One of two bona fide Blaxploitation efforts Cohen made with Fred Williamson before lurching into the upper echelon of cult genre with his notable guerilla techniques, this basic reworking of 1930s gangster films, (borrowing from items such as Mervyn LeRoy’s iconic presentation of Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar) displays a bit more integrity in its characterizations than many of these exploitation efforts lack. Reworking a familiar bildungsroman trajectory, Cohen positions his protagonist as an opportunistic product of his environment, leaving us with a moral uncertainty as his hero is completely consumed, an inevitable result of continued sustenance from the gutter. By today’s standards, it’s incredibly problematic rendering of urban certainties has the tendency to repulse, and yet Cohen instills Williamson with a bit of presence and dignity often lacking...

I am a fan of Larry Cohen. From Black Caesar, Hell Up in Harlem, the It’s Alive series, and Q: The Winged Serpent, the man has developed a diverse body of work, and most of it is at least worth watching. Somehow, Gold Told Me To had eluded me up until Blue Underground released it to Blu-ray. This was not at all what I expected it to be, and may have become one of my favorite Cohen films. Fans of offbeat cinema should take note, this is one of this year’s Blu-rays that you’re not going to want to miss. I say “offbeat” because from the outside looking in, this just looks like your typical New York City thriller, where people are being terrorized by an unknown murderer. In reality, this is a Sci-Fi tale at its very core, and ventures into even stranger territory before it’s all over.

http://www.urbanactionshowcase.com

https://www.facebook.com/UrbanActionShowcase?fref=ts

Urban Action Showcase is an event to showcase action and martial arts to the world. The events are presented by Action Scene Combat (Asc) Productions, a production company which was founded in 2000 by Demetrius Angelo. Demetrius worked on movies and tv shows, not only as a fight choreographer, but also as an actor and director. Some of them include S.E.A.L.S Domestic Warfare (TV series), 3 X Harder: My Man’s and ‘Em and more. Demetrius also has a great background in Martial Arts, studying in styles such as Western Boxing, Chinese Boxing, Kobudo and many more.

Past events have brought many stars which include Michael jai White (Blood And Bone), Robert Samuels (Dont Give A Damn), Kelly Hu (Martial Law), Fred “The Hammer” Williamson, Ron Van Clief and many more great stars. Urban Action also brings you workshops to get involved with,...

There continues to be talk of the all-women version of The Expendables, so why not an all-black version? Actually, there already kinda was one way back in 1996. Blaxploitation stars Fred Williamson (Black Caesar; Hell Up in Harlem), Pam Grier (Foxy Brown; Coffy), Jim Brown (Slaughter; The Dirty Dozen), Ron O’Neal (Super Fly) and Richard Roundtree (Shaft) and director Larry Cohen (Black Caesar; Hell Up in Harlem) came together for a movie titled Original Gangstas. It was sort of what The Expendables is all about now — nostalgia for the action movies of the ’80s and early ’90s with a round up of legendary action heroes who are now middle-aged or older — but then, it was in tribute to the African-American-focused genre of the ’70s as well as an answer to the rise of the urban crime films that broke out through the early work of John Singleton, the Hughes Brothers and Mario Van Peebles, the...

On the eve of the Academy Awards, a new video has been released for "Django Unchained" -- take a look above. The video shows footage from Quentin Tarantino's "Django," set to the song "Unchained," a mashup of James Brown's "The Payback" and Tupac's "Untouchable."

"Unchained" was mixed by Claudio Cueni, an audio engineer who worked with Tupac.

Brown's "The Payback" is the title-track off the singer's 1973 album. The music from the album was intended for use as the soundtrack for "Hell Up in Harlem," a '70s blaxploitation film. "Untouchable" was released in 2006, ten years after Tupac's death. The song was featured on Tupac's posthumous album, "Pac's Life."

"Django Unchained" is up for five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Christoph Waltz, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, and Best Original Screenplay.

(This article contains some minor spoilers for Django Unchained and be warned that most of the clips included are Nsfw)

Like many of Tarantino’s previous films Django Unchained is filled to the brim with film references. Below I’ve attempted to guide you through some of these references and links to other films.

I’ve only seen the film once at a screening and am sure that given the opportunity to sit down with the film on Blu-ray I will undoubtedly find even more, so the following is in no way definitive but hopefully provides some answers to for those wondering what Tarantino was referencing in Django Unchained. Also, most importantly, hopefully it will lead you to check out some of the films in question.

The most obvious film reference in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained is right there in the title. Django was a 1966 ‘spaghetti western’ directed by...

After all the debates, controversies, and stereotype accusations have cleared, looking back on Blaxploitation cinema today it’s easy to see healthy portions of the crime and action genres. Using these genres and the struggles of the black community, these films were created for those that wanted to see African American characters on the big screen not taking shit from the man, “getting over”, and–above all else—being the heroes in movies. In the documentary Baad Asssss Cinema, Samuel L. Jackson gives his take on the heroes of Blaxploitation: “We were tired of seeing the righteous black man. And all of a sudden we had guys who were…us. Or guys who did the things we wanted those guys to do.”

The unsung supporting players in these films that backed Fred Williamson and Pam Grier and many other stars were people acting and making a living off of it.

Remakes, sequels, reboots: these are common parlance in the film industry today and have been since its birth, really. There is no film property immune to this, especially a successful one. And though the blaxploitation genre, which reached its height of popularity in the 1970s, still enjoys a rabid cult following, few of the attempts to re-energize this vital branch of American film have been very successful.

Until now.

Black Dynamite, the 2009 film starring Michael Jai White, is now also an animated series now airing Sundays on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. And while the character and his world may still effectively be a cult happening, it is clear that Black Dynamite is the most successful blaxploitation property to hit the streets since platform shoes went out of fashion. Loaded with sex, violence, and sex and violence, Black Dynamite is the true sequel to Shaft that fans have been waiting for.

Welcome back to Junkfood Cinema; we take our Coffy black…and with six spoonfuls of Häagen-Dazs. You have just stumbled Across 110th Street and Hit! the internet’s most Boss bad movie column like a Hammer, and there’s No Way Back. Every Friday (Foster), we Drum up another Jive Turkey, becoming Mr Mean as we Savage! and Slaughter the movie right In Your Face. But then, as if we were a Thing with Two Heads we lay aside all our Hangups to tell you why we think the film is actually Super Fly. Then, for The Final Comedown, we’ll offer a Big Time delicious themed snack food item for you to cram down your food Shaft. This week’s big score: Hell Up in Harlem Alas it is time once again to bid farewell to Blaxploitation History Month, and this third incarnation in which we’ve focused on the best of the best worst blaxploitation...

The last time we heard from Gaspar Noé he was taking us on a demented Pov view through the seamy underbelly of Tokyo in "Enter The Void" and crying over "Avatar." And while he's currently contributing to the forthcoming omnibus "7 Days In Havana," been eyeing Bret Easton Ellis' "The Golden Suicides" and talking about a "sentimental, erotic" movie he wants to make, the unpredictable helmer may have something else completely different in store for us. Talking recently with Film Comment (print edition via IFC) B-movie maven Larry Cohen--best known for directing blaxploitation classics "Hell Up In Harlem" and "Black…...

Shout! Factory once again is giving us a double feature DVD, one a blaxploitation film set in New York City and the other a gritty noir-flavored film set in Saigon during the Vietnam War. Both have the connection to the war itself. And I’ll be the first to say that they are both worth your time, forgotten gems that have never seen the light of a DVD release until now.

Ossie Davis directs Gordon’s War, actor and director who made what I consider the finest blaxploitation film around (Cotton Comes To Harlem) and he does wonders with a tried and through plot consisting of a man on a mission of revenge against those who wronged the people of his neighborhood in the mode of good ol’ 70′s vigilante justice. Gordon Hudson (Paul Winfield) comes home from the Vietnam War where he finds out that his wife has died from a heroin overdose.

Since the earliest days of American cinema there has been a shadowy counterpart to the commercial mainstream: exploitation movies — pictures whose appeal lies in their sensational treatment and leering promotion of often lurid and prurient material. Pre-1960, when mainstream Hollywood worked within severe restrictions on content, exploitation movies offered audiences titillating glimpses of the deliciously taboo, usually under the guise of being some sort of instructional cautionary against the very subject matter being exploited i.e. sex in “hygiene” movies like The Road to Ruin (1934), drugs in anti-drug movies like Tell Your Children (1936, re-released in the 1960s/70s as camp classic Reefer Madness), and gambling in the anti-vice Gambling with Souls (1936).

By the 1950s, as the studios entered their long post-war decline, downscale producers launched a new vein of exploitation moviemaking, churning out low-budget thrillers (mostly sci fi and horror) aimed squarely at the burgeoning youth audience. Again, the movies were cheap,...

Chicago – The 1970s were the golden age for the youthful, angst-ridden style of filmmaking, but it also had its share of fun with James Bond, super bad action films and Burt Reynolds comedies. Richard “Jaws” Kiel, Fred “The Hammer” Williamson and character actor James Hampton experienced that side of the 1970s, and told all at the Hollywood Celebrities & Memorabilia Show.

The Hollywood Celebrities & Memorabilia Show is a biannual event in Chicago where attendees can meet and greet the stars, collect autographs and find cool collectibles at the comprehensive memorabilia market. The next show in the area is scheduled for September 25th and 26th, 2010.

HollywoodChicago.com was there at the last show in March, and ran into those stars from the 1970s, who sat down and talked about the era. Photographer Joe Arce was also there to capture the moment.

Richard Kiel, “Jaws” from the James Bond Film Series

The mountainously...

They say a well-rounded education is the key to success, and if that truly is the case, the my schooling is woefully incomplete when it comes to the subject of pop. That's why we bring you "Popology," the guide to modern radio-friendly stars as seen through the eyes of a guy who grew up on punk and metal. In case you missed previous installments, catch up with Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and the Spice Girls here.

In this week's installment, Puff Daddy brings rap to the radio.

In today's musical landscape, it's easy to take hip-hop for granted as a force on pop radio. There have been crossover hits as long as there have been DJs cutting up breakbeats and MCs spitting rhymes. And while pop radio readily embraces rap songs that have no aspirations to be pop tunes (the...

From MTV.Com: Claireece Jones is one of life's write-offs: an illiterate, junk-food-fat Harlem teenager living on welfare with her viciously abusive mother and, from time to time, her father, who drops by to rape her. She already has one child as a result of his assaults — a little girl with Down's Syndrome — and is currently pregnant with another. Claireece's future seems anything but uncertain. Somehow, though, she's managed not to write herself off.

"Precious" is one of those rare movies that come winging in from nowhere and knock you out. Gabourey Sidibe, who plays the title character (Claireece goes by the name "Precious"), is an untrained actress — a Bronx college student whose only performing background is in school stage plays. But she has great instincts, and watching her draw out flickers of hope through the mask of sullen indifference that Precious presents to the world is thrilling to watch.

From MTV.Com: Claireece Jones is one of life's write-offs: an illiterate, junk-food-fat Harlem teenager living on welfare with her viciously abusive mother and, from time to time, her father, who drops by to rape her. She already has one child as a result of his assaults — a little girl with Down's Syndrome — and is currently pregnant with another. Claireece's future seems anything but uncertain. Somehow, though, she's managed not to write herself off.

"Precious" is one of those rare movies that come winging in from nowhere and knock you out. Gabourey Sidibe, who plays the title character (Claireece goes by the name "Precious"), is an untrained actress — a Bronx college student whose only performing background is in school stage plays. But she has great instincts, and watching her draw out flickers of hope through the mask of sullen indifference that Precious presents to the world is thrilling to watch.