With a love of cinema woven into its DNA, The Monster Squad helped indoctrinate ’80s kids to the classic monsters. The generation that grew up watching it on home video and HBO look back on the 1987 film with the same reverence director Fred Dekker had for the Universal monster movies, and now they’re passing it down in a similar fashion. There’s no better way to introduce the next generation than with the new 4K edition.
Conceived as “The Little Rascals meets the Universal Monsters,” the cleverly-plotted film clocks in at a tight 82 minutes. The punchy script by Dekker and Shane Black doesn’t have an ounce of fat on it, save for the casual homophobia, misogyny, and body shaming of the time. Drawing inspiration from Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, human characters offer well-placed levity and a bevy of memorable one-liners, but the monsters are played straight.
The...
Conceived as “The Little Rascals meets the Universal Monsters,” the cleverly-plotted film clocks in at a tight 82 minutes. The punchy script by Dekker and Shane Black doesn’t have an ounce of fat on it, save for the casual homophobia, misogyny, and body shaming of the time. Drawing inspiration from Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, human characters offer well-placed levity and a bevy of memorable one-liners, but the monsters are played straight.
The...
- 12/8/2023
- by Alex DiVincenzo
- bloody-disgusting.com
Though “The Godfather” is referenced a few times in “Mafia Mamma,” a fluffy comedy starring Toni Collette as a reluctant mob boss, the lack of direct quotes seems like a missed opportunity. There’s no “make her an offer she can’t refuse” joke, for instance, the moment American mom Kristin (Collette) is strong-armed into inheriting one of Italy’s most powerful crime families. And while Kristin’s arc perfectly matches the sentiment of “great men are not born great, they grow great,” this slam dunk was passed up for a more generalized approach.
The frivolous slapstick and unique premise of “Mafia Mamma” has much more in common with “Analyze This” than it does “The Godfather,” though the execution is not as clever. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke (“Thirteen”) from a script by J. Michael Feldman and Debbie Jhoon with story credit to Amanda Sthers, “Mafia Mamma” tried to fit a...
The frivolous slapstick and unique premise of “Mafia Mamma” has much more in common with “Analyze This” than it does “The Godfather,” though the execution is not as clever. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke (“Thirteen”) from a script by J. Michael Feldman and Debbie Jhoon with story credit to Amanda Sthers, “Mafia Mamma” tried to fit a...
- 4/12/2023
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
This madcap musical from 1935 about an American dance star visiting London swirls effortlessly back into cinemas, with classic songs from Irving Berlin
Like a Shakespearean marriage comedy with a spoonful of Feydeau farce, this madcap musical from 1935, from screenwriters Allan Scott and Dwight Taylor and director Mark Sandrich, saunters back for a re-release. It features Fred Astaire as Jerry, the American dance star visiting London, a city seen in almost surreally weird back projections – and Astaire incidentally does an intentionally terrible Cockney accent when he pretends to be a hansom cab driver. (It is one of the rare times he does not appear in faultless evening dress.) Irving Berlin’s classic songs Cheek to Cheek and Top Hat, White Tie and Tails are great, and Astaire swirls on a forward-tilting gyroscopic axis with his spindly arms and legs effortlessly orbiting him like Saturn’s moons.
Playing opposite him – and of course,...
Like a Shakespearean marriage comedy with a spoonful of Feydeau farce, this madcap musical from 1935, from screenwriters Allan Scott and Dwight Taylor and director Mark Sandrich, saunters back for a re-release. It features Fred Astaire as Jerry, the American dance star visiting London, a city seen in almost surreally weird back projections – and Astaire incidentally does an intentionally terrible Cockney accent when he pretends to be a hansom cab driver. (It is one of the rare times he does not appear in faultless evening dress.) Irving Berlin’s classic songs Cheek to Cheek and Top Hat, White Tie and Tails are great, and Astaire swirls on a forward-tilting gyroscopic axis with his spindly arms and legs effortlessly orbiting him like Saturn’s moons.
Playing opposite him – and of course,...
- 4/5/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
In light of the Supreme Court Dobbs decision effectively overturning Roe v. Wade, many reproductive rights activists have criticized cisgender heterosexual men for staying silent on the issue of abortion rights — even though men are also impacted by the availability of safe, accessible abortion. But as we discuss on this week’s episode of Don’t Let This Flop, Rolling Stone‘s podcast on internet culture, there are a handful of men who are speaking out against Roe v. Wade being overturned — they’re just not the men you’d expect (and in some cases,...
- 7/6/2022
- by Ej Dickson
- Rollingstone.com
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