THE DANMAN CAN

An undeniably weird and specific film. It's obviously very personal, and I appreciate its artistic statement, despite plenty of reservations and while openly acknowledging that I am not its target audience. It has some funny moments, solid performances by its leads, and it's mostly well made, but it also has some cringe-worthy, on the nose dialogue and references, intentional (?) anachronisms, and the kills are poorly executed. I'm really split on how I feel about it, but I'm giving Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma  (2026) (I don't really understand the title either) the benefit of the doubt.

Mario Bava ’s A Bay Of Blood (aka  Ecologia del delitto aka Twitch Of The Death Nerve ) is an influential giallo, considered one of the key proto-slashers. Inventive and beautifully executed kills (via  Carlo Rambaldi ), moody cinematography, a splendid score by Stelvio Cipriani , and several twists in the finale (courtesy of the prolific  Dardano Sacchetti ) give ABOB  plenty of rewatch value. Mario Bava Feature Films Ranked Giallo Feature Films   Ranked

Story Of Ricky (aka Riki-Oh ) (1991) was introduced to me as a teenager by my friend Mike and his brother Brian. It's one of the earliest examples of a batshit crazy film that I can remember watching. SOR  plays in the same field as the 1986 anime  Fist Of The North Star  [ review ], also based on a manga, and also introduced to me around the same time ( FOTNS itself became a live-action movie in 1995). By that I mean both films have a stoic hero and are chock-full of ridiculously over-the-top violence, impossible feats, and muscle-bound men doing battle. SOR remains immensely entertaining—a dystopian martial arts 'n mayhem prison splatter classic.

"Oh, Skip. You can pin me any time you want to. Or maybe I should just pin you."

Blow me down , I will never understand the disdain and disrespect aimed at Robert Altman ’s Popeye (1980). I know it underperformed at the box office, and critics weren't too kind to it, but I absolutely adore this film. I watched it many times when I was young (not quite an infink, as the titular character would say, but pretty young), and I continue to get nothing but pleasure from this movie, which is almost as old as I am. Casting is tremendously important to a film like this, and the filmmakers nailed every choice (down to the small roles that only those familiar with E.C. Segar ’s strip would recognize). Robin Williams isn’t exactly the comic strip Popeye, and he's not quite the Fleischer cartoons Popeye, but he’s Popeye nonetheless. And he’s sublime. His muttering, his movement, the faces he makes—all memorable and endlessly amusing. Shelley Duvall was born to play Olive Oyl . She embodies everything about the character—her mannerisms, her physicality, her voice, h...

It was a whole lot of fun to see David Wain 's Wet Hot American Summer (2001) in a theater for its 25th anniversary (almost on the date that the film takes place, August 18th). I hadn't watched WHAS  in 10 years (yikes!), and it gets funnier each time I see it (it had been a while since I had laughed that much). It puts me in the mood to revisit the two very solid Netflix miniseries as well.

"Simple just shit itself." This was my first revisit of  Kevin Smith 's Red State (2011) since 2012. I wasn't as impressed as I was on my first viewing, but I still think it's a well-made, interesting mashup of genres with solid performances (and a far better film than several others by Smith). Kevin Smith Feature Films Ranked

🎵 Oo-wooo 🎵 "They blew up Congress!" (laughing) Tim Burton Feature Films Ranked

"Donald, you are a real card-carrying cunt." Based on Mart Crowley 's (who also wrote the screenplay) 1968 play ,  William Friedkin 's  The Boys In The Band (1970) (which utilized the entire stage cast) involves a group of queens in Manhattan at a birthday party crashed by a square, hetero (?) friend. Full of manic energy, acerbic dialogue delivered in rapid-fire succession, and dramatic camerawork, Friedkin's film is a funny but sad, self-reflexive, self-criticizing, and self-pitying work—tackling stereotypes while remaining humanist. "What's so fucking funny?" "Life. Life's a goddamn laugh riot." William Friedkin Feature Films Ranked

"It's classified, ice cream man. It's classified." Ice Cream Man (1995) is not a very, very, very good film, but it is a happy, happy, happy good time. Recommended for fans of  Jack Frost  (1997) [ review ],  Uncle Sam (1996) [ review ], and  The Tripper (2006) [ review ].