Over the past few years, I’ve lost quite a bit of heroes. Johnny Cash, Steve Irwin, Bob Clark, Robert Altman, Hubert Selby… I could go on and on. Today’s news however, was quite a blow. Kurt Vonnegut was finally dead. And I don’t mean “finally” like “about damn time!” No, I mean it like, “He’s had a good run.” This guy smoked cigarettes like the best of them and used to joke about they haven’t killed him yet. I was glad Vonn...

It’s been a long time. Back in August of 2006, Matthew Curtis (Florida Film Festival Programming Director) offered me a chance to be the Programming Coordinator for the 2007 FFF. To me, there was nothing I wanted more, even though I knew I had to sacrifice a few things. If I took this job, it would mean that I wouldn’t be able to attend festivals for the next 7 months or so, nor would I really be able to write for Film Threat. I had to come to grips with a reality that I wouldn’...

Overheard at Target between a twentysomething guy and a girl. “I don’t know. ‘Click’ might be worth buying,” the guy says. “Did you see it?” “No,” the guy responds. “Maybe we should buy ‘Babel’ instead,” the girl suggests. “No. I saw that. I liked it, but it isn’t worth buying.” “Is ‘Click’?” “I don’t know. I didn’t see it, but it’s about a guy with a remote control that does things. The cover looks funny, too.” Overheard at Border’s. An o...

A long time ago, I enjoyed “Family Guy.” I really did. After clicking on the end of the Superbowl, I watched “Family Guy,” and it wasn’t love at first sight. However, upon repeated viewings of the first season I found it was charming. Yes, okay, it was a rip-off of “The Simpsons,” I know. Peter is Homer, Lois is Marge, Meg is a despicable Lisa, and Stewie is a much younger Bart. I get it. But I laughed, and I laughed a lot. Brian is still a great charact...

A lot of filmmakers, well…about 95% of all filmmakers spin a story about how when they were a kid they “started filming movies at age 7 on an old 16 millimeter I found in my parents garage.” Blah blah. When will they realize that story is every budding filmmakers story. Get some new material. As you can tell, I have no such story. However as a film writer, I can say I spent nearly every weekend in a movie theater. When I was really young-like, 5-7-we lived in shitty ass Orland, CA and al...

Whenever I do any television outside of G4, I feel like I’m cheating. But I do it a lot and I know there’s nothing wrong with it. My masters at the other network will just have to deal. Anyway, some of you might have noticed that I’ve appeared as one of the many rotating talking heads on a show on the Reelz Channel called What it Takes. I appeared on episodes discussing the careers of Sam Jackson, Drew Barrymore, Kevin Costner, Nicholas Cage, Eddie Murphy and Jim Carrey as w...

Rob Zombie. “Halloween.” I like Zombie. I like “Halloween.” I don’t like Zombie doing a remake of “Halloween.” It seems ridiculous and self-serving, and I think he deserves all the backlash he has received. That said, I think he’ll do a great job and make a movie that is frightening and able to fill seats. I won’t be one of those seat fillers, though. (Perhaps if it were a sequel instead of a new paint-by-numbers kit.) Zombie, as proven with his other two films (“Hous...

This is inspired by a column I read on another very popular film website. I’m not usually a fan of their articles, but once Brandon Lee was brought up, I couldn’t help but want to reflect on my own thoughts about him. So… I cried when Brandon Lee died. It sounds very silly, I agree, but in spite of your brow batting, I did. I was young, I was very impressionable, and I looked for role models everywhere I turned. And yes, I somehow connected to Brandon Lee on an odd level. Watch...

I have to admit, I’m a fan of writer Jim Emerson who pretty much stirs some interesting topics in his blogs about film. One of my favorite new entries in his blog is his examination of films that are rather good but plagued with bad or tacked on endings that ruin the films sometimes. It’s much lengthier and complex than how I describe it, but I was thinking about some films that were pretty much given terrible or displeasing endings that I still ponder on. “28 Days Later”...

“People come up to me and say, ‘’You played Snake Plissken.'’ I didn’t play Snake Plissken, I created him!” Kurt Russell is one of those actors who is at that level of Bruce Campbell. Hell, he’s likely equal to his level of sheer cult power, because shit, it’s Kurt Russell. There has been plenty of wonderful Kurt Russell moments this year so far. I mean, playing Stuntman Mike (replacing Mickey Rourke) in what looks to be one hell of a fucking bad...

I should begin by telling you that there is absolutely no truth to the racy headline you see screaming at you from above. Okay, there is some truth. But the real story might cause more confusion, so allow me to explain. Yes, there is a video floating around on the web which does contain a few hard PG-13 or R scenes (depending on your level of sensitivity) involving attempted “lovemaking” along with some fairly explicit audio featuring myself and another woman. And, yes, it is also...

Well, Tarantino and Rodriguez wanted to bring us the Grindhouse experience and they did. I sat in a smelly theater, watching a double feature with crappy film quality, and no one except me, my mom, my sister, and about three other folks were in attendance. Those who watched didn’t get the joke. I can’t blame them. But has anyone ever heard of this internet thing? It’s amazing, actually. Hear me out: If I don’t know what Polycarbonated Hypodrynoxodil is, I’ll go on t...

As is my usual mode of operation, I showed up at the theatre before it even opened. First in line … if there had been a line. The outside of the theatre was a mess due to renovations, but inside of the theatre made the disaster outside look positively inviting. Discarded soda bottles littered the floor and torn out sections of the wall exposed wood and wiring to any who cared to see. A sign begged patrons to excuse the mess because the theatre owners were adding a couple new screens to...

What the fuck happened to Grindhouse? It’s not like people weren’t hungry for horror movies. Disturbia, a barely concealed remake of Rear Window, is #1 at the box office. At the same time Grindhouse isn’t even on the top ten anymore. Is there no justice? Well, if you think about it for a minute, it becomes kind of obvious. Looking at the 53 million dollar budget given to both Planet Terror and Death Proof gives us the first clue. It’s about 530 times higher than the avera...