News

Illustration by Jeff CashvanMovie-lovers!Welcome back to The Deuce Notebook, a collaboration between Mubi Notebook and The Deuce Film Series, our monthly event at Nitehawk Williamsburg that excavates the facts and fantasies of cinema's most infamous block in the world: 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues. For each screening, my co-hosts and I pick a title that we think embodies the era of 24-hour theater hopping, and present the venue at which it premiered...Since we began in 2012, we’ve had the extreme pleasure of inviting the occasional guest curator to take over for the night with a title of their choosing… Our friend Chris Poggiali of Temple of Schlock fame has been an annual visitor, and this month Chris has contributed to our column with a fabulous piece about Japanese samurai films and their entry into the US mainstream.Chris is an authority on genre films and theatrical distribution history,...

Presented by Cynthia Rothrock | Written by Leroy Patterson | Directed by Charles Band

Trailer compilations have, in recent year, become big business, they have also become increasingly important in terms of keeping trailers alive. In this time of streaming and digital downloads, where films come sans trailers and extras, there’s no real way – beyond these types of compilations – of seeing interesting trailers for obscure films you may not be aware of.

Titles such as Trailer War, Trailers from Hell, the UK’s very own Grindhouse Trailer Classics, Drive-In Delirium, Attack of the 80s, and 42nd Street Forever have not only kept the trailers alive in a physical format, but also allowed new audiences to discover new (old) films. Keeping up this tradition is Full Moon, who have released a number of trailer compilations already as part of the Grindhouse line – mainly focussing on the sleazier end of genre cinema like...

You'll always be careful with knives after seeing the outrageous, impossibly gory violence of this brain-warping samurai series from the early 1970s. Tomisaburo Wakabayashi rolls his tiny tot Daigoro through feudal Japan, looking for trouble. There's simply been nothing like it: breathtakingly beautiful images aestheticize bloodletting as never before or since. Lone Wolf and Cub Sword of Vengeance, Baby Cart at the River Styx, Baby Cart to Hades, Baby Cart in Peril, Baby Cart in the Land of Demons, White Heaven in Hell + Shogun Assassin Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 841 1972-1974 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 630 + min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date November 8, 2016 / 99.95 Starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, Akihiro Tomikawa. Written by Kazuo Koike, Goseki Kojima Produced by Shintaro Katsu, Hisaharu Matsubara, Tomisaburo Wakayama Directed by Kenji Misumi, Buichi Saito, Yoshiyuki Kuroda

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

In an unexpected move, Criterion has released one of the most influential Japanese film series of the 1970s,...

Back in 2012, Justin Lin (Fast and Furious) was attached to direct a new big-screen version of Lone Wolf and Cub, an iconic Japanese manga about an honorable executioner whose family, except for his newborn son, is killed. The executioner is falsely accused of being a traitor and becomes an assassin, all while caring for his infant son and seeking justice. First published in 1970, the manga became immensely popular in Japan. It's an epic story, told over 28 volumes by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima, and it eventually inspired six movies, four plays and a television series. The Japanese-language movies were made in quick succession from 1972 to 1974, receiving limited distribution in the U.S. (See poster above for Lightning Swords of Death, the third installment...

Read More...

Quentin Tarantino officially begins his tenure as film programmer of the New Beverly Cinema tonight when he re-opens the La institution after a monthlong remodeling. On the docket is a Paul Mazursky double feature of Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and Blume In Love, which kicks off three months of Tarantino-programmed films, as Deadline reported last month. Many of those films, screened on film either on 16mm or 35mm, will come from Tarantino’s personal vaults. Tonight’s Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice print is the best known print out there, according to Tarantino, who was gifted with the newly struck print after his Django Unchained opening.

After floating the beloved New Beverly business for years, Tarantino took over as manager and programmer last month from owner Michael Torgan with a renewed commitment to screening movies only on film. New features and upgrades inside the historic theater include the addition of mechanical masking,...

In the realm of dark musical delights, 2013 has been quite a historic year: legends in their respective genres returned and/or reunited, while others marked the swan songs of their careers; iconic artists turned out some of their finest work, while some innovative up-and-comers set loose fresh and evil earworms on our collective brains. Honestly, it was damn near impossible for me to narrow the list down to just thirteen entries – a mere Top 10 was out of the question – and cutting names felt like chopping off my own extremities (which I'll admit would be an impressive journalistic statement, but could lead to unpleasant side effects I'd rather not deal with). Still, I found a way to make it work. Well... okay, I cheated, actually. More on that later. But for now, let's cycle back through 2013 – definitely a banner year for scary sounds! [Be sure to click on the titles for full album reviews.] 1. Maniac: Original Soundtrack If you associate old-school...

Cinema is a kind of uber-art form that’s made up of a multitude of other forms of art including writing, directing, acting, drawing, design, photography and fashion. As such, film is, as all cinema aficionados know, a highly collaborative venture.

One of the most consistently fascinating collaborations in cinema is that of the director and actor.

This article will examine some of the great director & actor teams. It’s important to note that this piece is not intended as a film history survey detailing all the generally revered collaborations.

There is a wealth of information and study available on such duos as John Ford & John Wayne, Howard Hawks & John Wayne, Elia Kazan & Marlon Brando, Akira Kurosawa & Toshiro Mifune, Alfred Hitchcock & James Stewart, Ingmar Bergman & Max Von Sydow, Federico Fellini & Giulietta Masina/Marcello Mastroianni, Billy Wilder & Jack Lemmon, Francis Ford Coppola & Al Pacino, Woody Allen & Diane Keaton, Martin Scorsese & Robert DeNiro...

The blokes and birds at Grimm Up North in Manchester, England, are hosting a "Samurai Splatter" double bill of Shogun Assassin and Baby Cart to Hades next Friday, February 17th, and we have all the details right here!

Shogun Assassin Synopsis:

Censored, banned, bootlegged, mistreated, but ultimately unstoppable, this is unquestionably the most popular samurai film in the West since the days of Akira Kurosawa. The chanbara classic was lifted from a hugely popular comic book saga and, still wet, transferred glistening to the screen. After being framed for disloyalty to his clan lord, disgraced ronin Itto Ogami (with three-year-old son Daigoro in tow) travels medieval Japan as the most skilled samurai-for-hire bar none. But as the treachery and obstacles in his latest mission quickly pile up, Ogami is forced to handle it the only way he knows how. Filled with memorable setpieces, iconic characters, and violent action, this series...

Italy’s Dylan Dog is interesting in that it is one of the first foreign comics adapted by Americans for the big screen. With the video release of the little seen feature film coming July 26, we were given to consider the foreign comics we know as readers and may have never seen the film versions. The first adaptation of Dylan Dog was a homegrown effort, 1994’s Dellamorte Dellamore (known in English as Cemetery Man or Of Death and Love) from director Michele Soavi.

Other countries have tried their hand at adapting their homegrown comics as films, with about the same level of fidelity and success as most American attempts. For example, there the dreadful 1966 movie based on Peter O’Donnell’s brilliant Modesty Blaise. Not to be outdone in awfulness, America tried their hand at a prime time series, starring Ann Turkel. The 1982 ABC pilot aired and got some reasonable...

Pasadena - Forget the AFI Top 10 list of Best TV shows. Why should care about TV since they are the American Film Institute? This is kind like the American Diabetic Prevention Society’s Top 10 Favorite Sugary Candy Bars list. Or Bravo’s Top 10 Hunting Shows. Or Madd’s Best 10 Drinks to Mess You Up. Or Charlie Sheen’s Top 10 Things You Can Do Without Involving Hookers and Blow. If they care about TV that much, shouldn’t they be the Aftvi? But they are a pack of List Whores over at AFI with their 100 Years a 100 Stupid Lists press releases.

Why does critic or critic group have to tell you the Best or Worst of the Year? Party Favors is proud to announce the Meh Awards for the 10 TV shows that didn’t work for me in 2010. They weren’t the most pathetic things on TV, but made me lose interest in watching them.

AMC announced today the official renewal of the zombie series “The Walking Dead” for a 13-episode second season.

5.3 million viewers watched the 90-minute premiere on Halloween two Sundays ago, making it the most watched opening episode of any AMC series. More importantly, from the network’s perspective, the show reached a new cable television record for number of adults 18-49, a key demographic for securing advertising. The second, more gruesome episode played to 4.7 million viewers.

In the press release, Sharon Tal, AMC’s Svp of Scripted Programming, delivered a groaner of a quote saying, “I wish all programming decisions were no brainers like this one!”

The series is based on a comic book series of the same name by Robert Kirkman (who executive produces the show), Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard, and centers on a small group of survivors traveling across the U.S. in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse.

The news broke late Monday night (May 24) that Joe Jonas had spoken to People magazine and explained to them that his relationship with Demi Lovato is no more. "Demi and I knew going into our romantic relationship that it may not be an easy one," Jonas said. "I realize over the time we have shared together that I feel I care more about our friendship right now. It was my choice to break up but I love her as a friend."

For her part, Lovato made a similar statement on Twitter. "Things didn't work out but we'll remain friends," she wrote, also clearing up the rumors that she was already dating somebody new. Break-ups are hard, and while Lovato seems to be taking it in stride, she should be allowed to lash out a bit (especially considering it appears as though the decision to end the coupling was Joe's). But...

The Shogun's former decapitator-in-chief turns Lone Wolf with his young son as they wander the dusty tracks as masterless samurai, always keeping an eye out for the Shogun's nasty ninja’s.

Shogun Assassin must surely be one of the most infamous video nasties, a product of an age not so long ago but which now seems curiously nostalgic to our desensitised modern eyes. “Blood gushes out all over the screen – as if being hosed into the camera!!” Vipco proudly announces on the cover of it’s previously banned 1980 rehash of the first two instalments of the Baby Cart series, itself a version of the original Lone Wolf and Cub manga comics.

Shogun Assassin is basically a violent repackaging of the Sword of Vengeance and Baby Cart at the River Styx films, edited together to maximise the violence and minimise the story for we bloodthirsty Westerners who, in the golden age of gore,...