I finally got the blogs and sites from my 500-odd tweeps loaded into my NetVibes, so hopefully every couple days or so I can highlight the posts I find particularly good. No rhyme or reason, just cool stuff I’m reading, that you should be seeing, too:
- Movies, Silently gives us a nice, and succinct, re-imagining True Grit as a 1917 movie. Also, a nice plea for more Westerns that are just Westerns–not sci-fi Westerns, thank you very much,
- A great review of a movie I’ve only recently become acquainted with and have loved: First Man Into Space (1959) from Anti-Film School.
Comprised of strong performances, well-used stock footage, an eerie small town vibe, a gee-whiz cosmic opening, and underlying paranoia about what lies beyond the clouds, First Man Into Space is a first-rate B-movie that deserves the attention of genre fans everywhere.
- Daily Dead, fast becoming one of my favorite movie news sites, tells us about a great project to save the old drive-in theaters:
In less than 3 months, the majority of American drive-in theaters will face closure with the movie industry’s switch from film to digital. Upgrading to digital projection costs roughly $80,000. We want to preserve this iconic part of American car culture. So we’re taking the first step by starting a drive-in fund and donating 5 digital projectors. Your vote decides where they go.
- Dave at his 2,500 Movies Challenge has a short review of another film I’ve recently been introduced to, They Call Me Trinity (1970), a pitch perfect comedy/spagehetti western. I found it after listening to the very first episode of a podcast I’ve also just come to, the Gentleman’s Guide to Midnite Cinema from way back in 2008. Watch the whole thing here.
- Goreguy gives us a review of a truly bizarre looking Japanese 2001 film The Happiness of the Katakuris. To give a sense of what this movie offers, here’s Goreguy describing the opening scene:
The first scene in the movie is a claymation sequence containing some cherubic creature flying out of some soup, and tearing out a woman’s uvula because it looks like a heart, and then getting eaten by a bird. This is pretty much spoiling it, but it’s the first scene of the movie, so get over it. I want you to have a good idea what kind of movie we’re dealing with here. Also, aside from a metaphor about the circle of life which I guess you could technically shoehorn into the movie, this sequence has NOTHING to do with anything else that happens after it.
I cannot wait to check it out, but until then, here’s a trailer:
- I’m grateful to have been included in a couple posts lately as providing a “related article.” Most recently, this was with Nerdometrics post on the feasibility of Japan rebuilding Tokyo after Godzilla attacks. This made me wonder about something that’s been on my mind lately: would not the residents of Metropolis, having been victimized by several supervillians looking to mix it up with Superman, not suffer collectively from massive cases post-traumatic stress disorder? But mainly I appreciate being a part of the same post as the truly awesome Kyle Yount, of Kaijucast, one of my favorite podcasts lately. My contribution was my post for the Dynamic Duos on Film blogathon from a month or so ago, on Godzilla and Mothra as Kaiju Frenemies.
- The other
42nd St. Cinema Backstory 