We’re in bunker mode on the screenplay for the day’s remainder, so no semi-deep thoughts this p.m. We’ll just leave you with the above snippet of the classic documentary 80 Blocks from Tiffany’s, an account of gang life in the Carter-era South Bronx. The social background is ceaselessly tragic, the clothing style mind-blowingly great. And […]
Tags:80 Blocks to Tiffany's·Bronx·fashion·movies·New York City
The holiday weekend’s just hours away, and we’re mighty spent from a long week of writing and tending to Microkhan Jr. So we’re gonna outsource this week’s Bad Movie Friday to the late Richard Jeni. His target? The egregiously awful Jaws: The Revenge (aka Jaws IV). As Jeni rightfully points out in his routine, there […]
Tags:aviation·Bad Movie Friday·Jaws IV·movies·Richard Jeni·sharks
For the second installment of our nascent First Contact series, we’re gonna hit the layup and blog about this classic culture-clash documentary. A prized Microkhan correspondent and former New Guinea resident summarizes the film with far more acumen than we could ever manage: Basic story is that the initial European settlements in Papua (south side […]
Tags:anthropology·Australia·First Contact·Mick Leahy·mining·movies·New Guinea
“Harrowing” is probably the only word to describe the above trailer for Burma VJ, a new Danish film that consists largely of illicitly shot video of the 2007 protests. As we know from first-hand experience, Burma is one of the toughest reporting gigs around, which makes the proliferation of disruptive media all the more important […]
Screenplayin’ and parentin’ for the day’s remainder, so we’re gonna leave you with a follow-up to last week’s Bad Movie Friday winner, the seminal Hard Ticket to Hawaii. This particular scene does not feature unnecessary use of a rocket launcher, but it does teach us all a valuable lesson: When a stranger asks you to […]
After a week’s hiatus, Bad Movie Friday returns with a vengeance, as well as the most unnecessary use of a rocket launcher ever committed to film (c. the 1:20 mark). The ridiculous clip above is plucked from the 1987 Skinemax anti-classic Hard Ticket to Hawaii, in which several Playboy centerfolds play badass DEA agents. The […]
Tags:Bad Movie Friday·Deron McBee·Hard Ticket to Hawaii·movies·Skinemax
Microkhan has to jet downtown to beg The Man for affordable health insurance (prognosis: grim), so no Bad Movie Friday this week. But we’ve got the next-best thing to reward you for a work week well-done—Manimal, dude, Manimal. How Microkhan loved this cheese back in his grade-school days, and how we wept when NBC unceremoniously […]
We rarely get misty-eyed over the celebrity deaths, but yesterday’s passing of Dom DeLuise really got to us. That’s because he helped form our earliest impression of Ancient Roman decadence, with his turn as a gluttonous, Nero-like emperor in History of the World Part I. (Above; language slightly NSFW.) To this day, we can’t read […]
Tags:ancient history·Dom DeLuise·History of the World Part I·movies·Roman Empire
Let Microkhan go on record as saying that we’ve enjoyed at least one frequently derided Sylvester Stallone flick (the campy-yet-terrifying Cobra). But when it comes to Over the Top, we have no choice but to agree with the masses. Like so many of Sly’s 1980s vehicles, it’s all-too-easy to envision the movie-exec brainstorming that went […]
Tags:arm wrestling·Bad Movie Friday·movies·Over the Top·sports·Sylvester Stallone
Breaking early today to head downtown and catch a screening of Adam. (Thanks, James.) In my absence, enjoy the above slice o’ lyrical genius from MF Doom (or, as he now prefers to be called, DOOM). Any rapper who knows his Star Trek minutiae is worthy of only the highest praise.
There are few films less deserving of a big-budget remake than Red Sonja. It plays more like a sword-and-sorcery spoof than a genuine adventure, due in large part to the most awful dialogue this side of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation—as well as the craven addition of a Short Round-style sidekick. If memory serves, Red Sonja was […]
Tags:Bad Movie Friday·barbarians·Brigitte Nielsen·movies·Red Sonja·Rose McGowan
As previously noted this week, Microkhan recently re-watched the great Fitzcarraldo as part of his ongoing screenplay research. Of particular interest was the second half of the film, in which Klaus Kinski’s aspiring rubber baron encounters a tribe of Amazonian headhunters. Since Now the Hell Will Start contains a similar culture clash, we wanted to […]
Tags:Fitzcarraldo·Klaus Kinski·movies·Robert Towne·Werner Herzog
One of the things I’ve learned while writing the Now the Hell Will Start screenplay is that it’s tough to make coincidences believable. They’re often necessary for the plot to move forward, alas, so you have to finesse them. You certainly don’t want audience members turning to each other to say, “Um, that wouldn’t happen […]
Tags:American Ninja·Bad Movie Friday·Judie Aronson·Michael Dudikoff·movies·Now the Hell Will Start·Steve James
There’s such a wealth of fascinating tidbits in this National Nuclear Security Administration archive, it’s hard to know where to begin. Many of the goodies, such as this mind-blowing clip from Operation Castle, will already be familiar to students of atomic-testing history. But others are of a much rarer nature, and some were declassified just […]
Tags:Alaska·Amchitka·atomic testing·movies·Operation Castle·sea otters·weapons
In celebration of the forthcoming Easter holiday, Microkhan would like to offer a very special dud for Bad Movie Friday: the infamous Leonard Part 6. The Bill Cosby spy spoof is allegedly a comedy, but is known to evoke fewer laughs than the typical root canal. As the Washington Post‘s Rita Kempley so succintly put […]
Tags:Bad Movie Friday·Bill Cosby·Leonard Part 6·movies·Smurfs
Microkhan is off to the Elm City today, so this’ll be the last post for the next, oh, 19 hours or so. Thought I’d keep on this week’s Soviet-invasion theme, by offering up the climactic scene to Chuck Norris’s Invasion USA. I don’t think a spoiler warning is necessary, since no moviegoer with a half […]
Following on yesterday’s mention of the brief heyday of Soviets-invade-the-Heartland films, Microkhan feels morally obligated to post the above Red Dawn clip. In the interests of novelty, we’ve steered clear of the obvious—no “Wolverines!”, no “Avenge me!” Today’s pick is the more obscure, but equally delicious scene in which the evil Soviet commander demonstrates the […]
Tags:movies·Red Dawn·Soviet Union
Even in their wildest schemes, the Soviets likely never contemplated the invasion of America. Okay, maybe they would’ve liked to bite off an Aleutian Island or two. But sweep into the Heartland and bring the word of Lenin at gunpoint? Yuri Andropov wasn’t exactly Genghis Khan, in terms of expansionist vision. But, oh, how Hollywood […]
Tags:1980s·movies·Soviet Union
Once again, the joyous end of the work week spurs Microkhan to dredge up a hilariously negative movie review of yore. This week’s slab of celluloidic infamy is Death to Smoochy, perhaps history’s greatest testament to Robin Williams’s talent for irritation. As depicted in the video above, it also features Ed Norton singing an anti-heroin […]
Last week, Microkhan sang the praises of Surviving the Game, particularly the strong supporting work done by Gary Busey. We stand by that opinion, but we must confess there’s a reason that Ernest R. Dickerson’s 1994 action flick isn’t part of the mainstream cinematic canon. And that reason is the video above, in which the […]
Tags:F. Murray Abraham·movies·Surviving the Game·The Simpsons
With the 26-year-old Sri Lankan civil war continuing to wind down—or, at the very least, enter a decidedly less conventional phase—the Colombo government faces a big challenge: How do they bring the Jaffna Peninsula back into the national fold? The region has been dominated by the Tamil Tigers for years now, and the insurgents managed […]
My 13-month-old son and I just spent an exceedingly pleasant evening listening to WEFUNK Show 555, a chronicle of Paisley Park‘s Golden Age creations. If you have even a passing interest in the genius/megalomania of Prince, the show is highly, highly recommended—not just for the killer music, but also for the fascinating trivia provided by […]
My recent movie diet has mostly consisted of classy fare—I doubt Bridge on the River Kwai played many double bills with the likes of Switchblade Sisters. But Microkhan is by no means a film snob, and likes the occasional semi-brainless action flick as much as the next pint-sized Mongolian monarch. Case in point: Ernest R. […]
Another Friday, another end-of-week paean to terrible movie reviews. This time, instead of digging though the proverbial crates, Microkhan would like to cite the A.V. Club’s recent take on the Howard the Duck DVD release: Finally, the book can be closed on the DVD era: Howard The Duck, a George Lucas production every bit as […]
As Microkhan’s regular readers know well, Fridays ’round here mean it’s time for hilariously negative movie reviews of yore. This week’s victim is John Travolta’s Scientology-infused sci-fi stinker Battlefield Earth, which remains the great blemish on Forest Whitaker’s otherwise amazing career. How the man behind Ghost Dog and Charles Jefferson got suckered into this disaster […]
With the official end of the work week just hours away, it’s time for Microkhan to offer a parting treat before he jets ’til Monday morning: Yet another hilariously negative movie review of yore. Inspired by the A.V. Club’s recent smackdown, I’ve decided to call out Dana Stevens’ classic pan of The Love Guru. As […]
Tags:Bad Movie Friday·movies
As part of my research for the Now the Hell Will Start screenplay, I’ve been devouring a slew of classic flicks. Last night’s homework assignment was David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai, which I hadn’t seen in over a decade. To say it stands the test of time is an understatement—a true epic […]
Tags:David Lean·movies·Now the Hell Will Start·Sri Lanka·WWII
Apologies for today’s lighter-than-usual posting. I’m mobile, working on the Now the Hell Will Start movie and enjoying Assamese tea at a Cobble Hill joint. Rest assured, the esoterica will recommence in full tomorrow. In the interim, please enjoy one of Microkhan’s guilty pleasures: Hilariously negative movie reviews. There just aren’t many harsher thumbs downs […]
Tags:Bad Movie Friday·housekeeping·lambada·movies·Now the Hell Will Start
