One of the best films I saw last year was Tomas Alfredson’s TINKER TAILOR SOLIDER SPY (2011) based on John Le Carré’s novel of the same name. It stars Gary Oldman in a career defining performance that’s earned him an Oscar nomination. I hope Oldman takes home the award but I’m not here to talk [...]

I love a good horror anthology so you can imagine how thrilled I was when I recently sat down to watch THREE CASES OF MURDER (1955) for the first time. This unusual British film seems to have gone relatively unnoticed by numerous horror film historians and if it does warrant a mention it’s usually dismissed [...]

By the early 1960s American International Pictures (AIP) had established itself as a purveyor of popular teen films. From rock and roll dramas to hot rod thrillers and teenage monster movies, AIP made a lot of money making cheap films that were quickly cobbled together and rushed into production. These films appealed to young people [...]

2012 marks the 50th anniversary of Sean Connery’s debut as James Bond in Terence Young’s DR. NO (1962). In honor of the event Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios along with Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment recently announced that they have a program of exciting events planned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of the longest running film [...]

The holidays are over and like many folks I did a lot of shopping in the last few months but I didn’t frequent many shopping malls or major retail outlets. I spent most of my time and hard earned dollars in secondhand stores and antique shops. This wasn’t just a budget conscious choice. It was [...]

2011 marked the 40th anniversary of Masterpiece on PBS and I couldn’t let the year pass without making note of the show’s accomplishments and sharing some highlights from their current schedule. After 40 long and impressive years Masterpiece is better than ever and if you’re not watching you’re missing some of the most thoughtful, well-written [...]

Last week I included Marcus Hearn’s latest book, The Hammer Vault: Treasures From the Archive of Hammer Films, in my two part list of Favorite Film Related Books of 2011. This week I got the opportunity to ask the author a few questions about his new book as well as discuss Hammer’s enduring legacy. The [...]

This is the second half of a two part list I’ve compiled featuring my favorite film related books of the year. As I mentioned in my previous post, a surprising number of good books were published in 2011. From lush coffee table gift books to intimate autobiographies, the range of interesting reading material I came [...]

I enjoy reading about the movies I love almost as much as I enjoy watching them and this year I found myself doing a lot of reading. This was partially due to the fact that I’m more housebound lately but publishers were also very generous this year. I received many press releases as well as [...]