An unfamiliar New York. Navigating the dangerous waters of Once Upon a Time in America. Sergio Leone’s gory fairytales. The fear of a film swinging immoral. The impossibility of Pee-wee’s Big Holiday. Paul Reubens performs the magic trick. Is Pee-wee reading weirder or are we? Lost to time: 42nd start and geographic places that no longer exist on this earth. Continue reading
Ennio Morricone through casual viewing. Italy gives exploitation a high-art spin. Totally unintentional: Dario Argento appears everywhere. How Once Upon a Time in the West creates tension differently than the well-cited Mexican stand-off. The Sergio Leone color coded hat system for differentiating protagonists and antagonists. Different films require different musical motifs! A unique byproduct of playing against type. Four Flies on Grey Velvet’s plot cheat allows audiences to live deliciously. To focus on the plot is to miss out on the piece. No colored hat system to be found. Continue reading
The final chapter in a series where Double Feature takes on two genres it was not prepared for. Years later, the return to Spaghetti westerns and kaiju (Japanese monster films)! The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Remembering where the dollars trilogy started. Michael pets the white cat. The approachability of film analysis. A defense of popular art films. The emotions the character defining titles take an audience though. What motivates western gunslingers? Who do they feel accountable to? Rugged individualism and the concept of trust. The unholy alliance. A getting away with pacifism in a violent western. Cowboys are allowed to cry. Appeal to the popular classic western genre. The most iconic standoff in cinema history. A anniversary monster world tour. Godzilla: Final Wars. Portraying Godzilla decades later. Double Feature discovers a secret Scientology allegory. Sure, why not add mutants. Japan destroys New York. The most destroyed cities in film. Atragon! Mothra, Anguirus, Rodan, Zilla, King Caesar, Hedorah, Ebirah, Kamacuras, Kumonga, Manda, Gigan, Monster X and Nilla. Where did Nilla come from?! Too cute to be bad. The future of Godzilla. Continue reading
A return to two genres Double Feature was not prepared for. Spaghetti westerns and kaiju (Japanese monster films) return! For a Few Dollars More following A Fistful of Dollars. Lee Van Cleef as Douglas Mortimer. Ridiculous weapons. American McGee’s Alice. Unintentional smash cut humor. Sergio Leone’s signature. Spaghetti bank heist! Finally arriving at the formula for the lazy Sunday movie. Gamera: Gaurdian of the Universe as an example of the Heisei era of kaiju. Non-toho kaiju. Gamera before the reset. The difference in special effects. Still not supernatural. Well, mostly. Why is Gamera so bizarre? The Lost Continent of Mu. Atlantis. Coming up: Number Two Hundred! Continue reading
Two more genres Double Feature will never be fully prepared to cover. Spaghetti westerns and kaiju (japans monster movies). Two foreign films that popularized their genres in west. The dollars trilogy. What is a spaghetti western? How you can tell when something is dubbed, even in the same language as it’s shot. Ambience in recordings. Ennio Morricone (aka Dan Savio) and what makes the score. Setting the tone for a spaghetti western. The town. The solution? Elimination! Mexican border towns. What other westerns were doing at the time. The morality of the man with no name. Toho Company. Ltd. The eras of kaiju. Adapting Gojira for American audiences. Varan the Unbelievable. The worst translations. Godzilla mythology. Continue reading
