And one or two good reasons for you to see them in 2021
One of the most anticipated moments for people who love cinema is the publication of those lists with the 10 best films of the past year, made by critics, magazines/newspapers, and even by great filmmakers (Quentin Tarantino loves to do it).
While they often generate hatred and controversies, these lists also provide good tips by mentioning titles that may have been ignored.
2020 was an atypical year in many ways, with closed movie theaters and canceled festivals. …
Shots and explosions are as traditional as Santa Claus
Some time ago, Christmas was that day of the year when the whole family gathered in the room to see one of the numerous adaptations of “A Christmas Carol/Scrooge”, or maybe “Santa Claus: The Movie” (1984); with some luck, you could catch any of the first two “Home Alone”.
More recently, people started to realize that “Die Hard” (1988) is also a typical Christmas movie. After all, it tells the story of a police officer facing a group of terrorists in a luxury building during a Christmas party and brings every kind of joke with the holidays — from the classic line “Now I have a machine-gun, ho ho ho” to the “Christmas miracle” that happens when the door to a safe opens to the sound of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”). …
They are still alive and kicking, in case someone is still following
Popular wisdom used to profess that “nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes”. Judging by 2020 and the announcements already made for 2021, I believe that we can also include “…and movie sequels” in this statement.
New episodes of endless, big Hollywood franchises like “The Fast and Furious”, “Mission Impossible”, “Jurassic Park” and even “Predator” and “Indiana Jones” are coming. And I don’t particularly agree that some of these franchises deserve to last that long, but I fully understand that there’s a huge fanbase that keeps them alive.
On the other hand, there are other long franchises that simply refuse to die — even if they have already run out of gas along the way. These franchises are even difficult to follow sometimes, with a lot of unrelated direct-to-video sequels, or spin-offs, reboots, remakes, prequels, etc, etc. Anyway, it’s a miracle that most of them have made it this far! …
There’s a lot to be seen and discovered in this masterpiece
The first and only horror film directed by genius filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, “The Shining” hit theaters 40 years ago, in May 1980. Originally, its reception was not the best. Stephen King, the author of the 1977 novel that inspired the film, was one of its greatest critics, complaining about the adaptation. The audience might have hoped for another kind of horror and did not understand Kubrick’s approach — let’s remember that a cheap horror film like “Friday the 13th”, released in the same year, was much more successful. …
“Summer of ‘42” tells a love story that was traumatic in real life
In the summer of 1942, when New York author and screenwriter Herman Raucher was a young boy spending a family vacation on Nantucket Island, he had a romantic experience with an older woman. That one night they spent together haunted Raucher for years. Until he decided to revisit his memories and put what happened that summer on paper.
It first became a movie screenplay, written in the 1950s; then at the same time a book and a successful 1971 film directed by Robert Mulligan. …
Feature
This overlooked British action film isn’t cited as an influence on the South Korean zombie sequel, but it’s strangely familiar…
The creator of Coffin Joe talks about porn, pride, and regrets
In 2012, I was invited to take part in an incredible project called Memória do Cinema (Memory of Cinema), created by Heco Produções and carried out in partnership with the Museum of Image of Sound (MIS) and the Government of the State of São Paulo. This project allowed me to interview Brazilian filmmaker José Mojica Marins, a cult artist and a true icon of horror cinema (because of Coffin Joe, the character he created and lived for decades).
Mojica was 76 years old at the time and our conversation lasted for almost three hours. Shortly thereafter, he would suffer a heart attack that left him very weak and reclusive, until his death on February 19, 2020, at the age of 82. …
The creator of Coffin Joe talks about filmmaking and censorship
In 2012, I was invited to take part in an incredible project called Memória do Cinema (Memory of Cinema), created by Heco Produções and carried out in partnership with the Museum of Image of Sound (MIS) and the Government of the State of São Paulo. This project allowed me to interview Brazilian filmmaker José Mojica Marins, a cult artist and a true icon of horror cinema (because of Coffin Joe, the character he created and lived for decades).
Our conversation lasted for almost three hours and was filmed on September 11, 2012. Mojica was 76 years old at the time and still very lucid. Shortly thereafter, he would suffer a heart attack that left him very weak and reclusive, until his death on February 19, 2020, at the age of 82. …
The creator of Coffin Joe remembers his first movies
On February 19 this year, José Mojica Marins died in São Paulo at the age of 82. He was one of the great Brazilian filmmakers and the pioneer in the production of Horror Cinema in the country. He was also the creator of Zé do Caixão (Coffin Joe, in English), a sadistic undertaker who, for now, is the first and only 100% Brazilian horror character — who doesn’t borrow elements or characteristics from international creatures.
Mojica had a sui generis life. Although he is remembered for directing horror films, he made a little bit of everything: erotic comedies, melodramas, westerns, musicals, and even X-Rated films. His private life, on the other hand, was too complicated to be summarized here, with multiple relationships with several women, sometimes at the same time. …
Feature
How many times can you stand to see the same thing?
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