Category: Movies

Nonhuman Meditations

A still from Jaws featuring actor Roy Scheider in front of the mechanical shark puppet.

Tracking a Mechanical Shark

By Alyssa Wejebe • September 16th, 2022

Alyssa follows the adventures of Bruce, the mechanical shark in Jaws.

A mop-haired Robin Hood places a golden apple atop Maid Marian's head, presumably to shoot off with an arrow. She does not look pleased

The More the Merrier: Two Robin Hoods from Hammer Films

By Orrin Grey • August 30th, 2022

Robin Hood pictures were once big business.

A stoic cop in a suit and sunglasses is walking stoically through some stoic traffic

Lunatic Meets Lunatic: Two Good-Natured Caper Films from Hong Kong Director Johnnie To

By Orrin Grey • August 17th, 2022

A pair of surprisingly lightweight and amiable caper flicks in the vein of more recent thriller confections such as 2013’s Now You See Me.

Keifer Sutherland is sidding criss-cross-apple-sauce in a room with high arched windows and afternoon yellow light with a lone lamp for company

Today’s a Good Day to Die: Reliving the Past with Flatliners (1990)

By Orrin Grey • August 9th, 2022

It’s no surprise that Schumacher made the campiest of Batman movies, because there’s an extravagance to the production design here that would have been right at home in Burton’s Gotham City.

A still from the trailer of The 8-Diagram Pole Fighter, featuring the lead monk standing with a bloodied lip next to his praying companion and a fellow fighter

Carnage and Blood: Two Kung Fu Movies from Opposite Ends of the Genre’s Heyday, Both with Numbers in the Titles

By Orrin Grey • June 2nd, 2022

One is a bloody Saturday morning cartoon that barely bothers to connect its interminable fight scenes with any kind of story, the other an elegiac lament about the inadequacy of heroism in the face of death.

The Monster Club

By David Busboom • May 31st, 2022

Everyone at this club is kind of spooky!

Eyeing Elsewhere

A close-up of Robert Pattinson wearing cape and cowl in The Batman.

Something in the Way

By Phillip Russell • May 30th, 2022

In The Batman we’re presented with a caped crusader who is an extension of the police – he isn’t just a nocturnal animal prowling the streets for crime, he’s their nocturnal animal.

Four portraits of the lead characters from the cover of the 4K version of the film Wild Things

Something Bad Might Happen: Wild Things (1998) on Unrated 4K

By Orrin Grey • May 26th, 2022

Wild Things is a product of its time in so many ways.

The title screen for La Llorona, with the name of the movie opaquely set over a glowering sculpture of a skull

Strange Things Happen There: Two Early Mexican Horrors

By Orrin Grey • May 17th, 2022

A piece of history – not merely Mexican cinematic history, not merely horror history, but a broader snapshot of a period in time, and the changes that were happening around it.

A black and white engraving of a large ship on stormy seas.

The Mary Celeste

By Deirdre Coyle • May 10th, 2022

I watched the 1935 thriller The Mystery of the Mary Celeste (released in the U.S. as Phantom Ship). I took notes while watching, which include helpful annotations like “what is even happening” and “yikes this is racist.”

A still from the trailer for Red Angel, where a spooked and unclothed nurse has a tense conversation with a doctor in a warzone

Hell Couldn’t Be Much Worse: The Grim Anti-War Message of Red Angel (1966)

By Orrin Grey • April 28th, 2022

“If people at home saw me, they’d realize how terrible war was and hate it.”

Good Kung Fu Part Three: Shawscope Volume One from Arrow Video

By Orrin Grey • April 14th, 2022

After this, though, there are two more discs…

No Accounting for Taste

In a still from Evangelion: 3.0+1.0, a dark-haired boy stares longingly in front of a blue sky filled with fluffy clouds.

Everything Old is New Again. And Then Some

By Adam Boffa • April 12th, 2022

Thanks to one weird trick, the reboot has gotten a new lease on life.

Exploits Feature

Putting the Beast to Bed

By Bryn Gelbart • March 31st, 2022

If there’s gotta be an ending, why not make it a happy one?

Superhero Movies To Look Forward To in 2022

By Alan Smithee • March 21st, 2022

Who doesn’t love a great superhero romp? If you’re looking for some fantastic superhero-themed movies to get your feet stamping in the aisles this year, we have great news for you – there’s plenty to look forward to! Here are 5 exciting superhero movies coming to our screens in 2022 – be ready for action and adventure! Superhero movies have proven to be a popular way to get people back in the theaters, so there’s sure to be even more releases this year. From light-hearted comedy romps to serious delves into the minds, personalities, and stories we love so much,

Still from the movie Challenge of the Masters showing a bunch of martial arts fighters with bo staffs.

Good Kung Fu Part Two: Shawscope Volume One from Arrow Video

By Orrin Grey • March 9th, 2022

More films from the Shawscope Volume 1 box set of Shaw Brothers kung fu films.

King Kong

By Stu Horvath and John McGuire • March 7th, 2022

The Eighth Wonder of the World left some surprising marks on D&D.

Ghidorah's skull from King of Monsters, lit up with leds and strung up with wires.

King of All Monsters

By Karin Malady • March 3rd, 2022

When you know who the real monster is, the fight feels triumphant.

A still from the movie 5 Shaolin Masters showing a bare chested man foisting off a man in a martial arts pose.

Good Kung Fu Part One: Shawscope Volume One from Arrow Video

By Orrin Grey • March 2nd, 2022

Monsters are better than kung fu, kung fu is a whole lot better than nothing.

Kim Basinger in a white shift with her hair blown back sexily

Don’t Have to Be Cool to Rule My World: My Stepmother is an Alien (1988) on Blu

By Orrin Grey • February 24th, 2022

My Stepmother is an Alien seems like the kind of movie I would have seen as a kid.

Exploits Feature

What We Never Saw

By Orrin Grey • January 31st, 2022

Where the Saw franchise didn’t go, but maybe should have.

Past Presence

Tiny multicolored squares are arranged in larger blocks on a black background. Their orientation suggests a top-down view of a warehouse setup.

Unholy Aisles

By Emily Price • January 27th, 2022

In a new column, Emily Price sets out to examine media objects’ relationships to time and loss.

Vincent Price canoodles in fear with a lab skeleton.

Gimmicks Aside, The Tingler is Fucking Fantastic

By Ciara Moloney • January 21st, 2022

The Tingler is a gimmick movie: not (just) a campy bit of fun, but a genuinely scary, inventive and clever film.

Best of 2021

A side-view of partially unspooled movie film.

The Best Movies of 2021

By Team Unwinnable • December 29th, 2021

2020 was a year of establishing a new normal in terms of media consumption, specifically with film, and this year continued the trend.

A woman in a yellow dress holding a red rose.

A Dangerous Dream: Revisiting Mill of the Stone Women (1960) on Blu-ray

By Orrin Grey • December 23rd, 2021

“Trouble began with a woman…”

Another Look

A man and his daughter wearing worn clothing make their way through a train yard.

Solitary Masculinity

By Yussef Cole • December 1st, 2021

The solitary, prepper-style know-how in 2018’s Leave No Trace feels eerily familiar to the masochistic “git gud” approach which has long plagued videogames.

Exploits Feature

The Green Knight

By Clint Morrison Jr. • November 30th, 2021

For Shame!

Eyeing Elsewhere

A tiny figure in a flowing cloak stands atop an enormous sand dune, the sun setting directly behind them.

What Lies Beneath The Sand

By Phillip Russell • November 30th, 2021

How deep into Dune is Hollywood willing to dig?

2021 Unwinnable
Halloween Video Store

Week Five: Halloween Horrors

By Team Unwinnable • October 29th, 2021

For the final week of Unwinnable’s Halloween Video Store, the gang offers up their favorite flicks that take place on the actual day.

A Japanese woman with her head in her hands and two miscolored eyes sitting at a table in front of a wall of sculptural eyes.

A Dark, Dank Death: Blind Beast (1969) on Blu-ray at Last

By Orrin Grey • October 28th, 2021

Blind Beast is a film that I had been meaning to watch for decades, ever since I worked in a video store.

Feature Story

Reconsidering Rotoscoped Animation for its Second Century

By Morgan Galen King • October 28th, 2021

Rotoscoping puts the human body in the spotlight, where the focus on the body and its relationship to the fictional world around it is ever-present.

Feature Excerpt

A World Beyond: The Inadvertent Sci-Fi of Universal’s Original Mummy Sequels

By Orrin Grey • October 27th, 2021

If you think about it, mummies are the original time travelers.

2021 Unwinnable
Halloween Video Store

Week Four: Classic Creeps

By Team Unwinnable • October 22nd, 2021

It’s Week Four of Unwinnable’s Halloween Video Store! This week we go back to our horror roots with the gang’s favorite classics.

2021 Unwinnable
Halloween Video Store

Week Three: Haunted Houses

By Team Unwinnable • October 15th, 2021

It’s Week three of Unwinnable’s Halloween Video Store! This week, Orrin Grey has the gang pull Haunted House movies out of the rafters!

Performers from the David Lynch Dune movie, specifically Sting and Patrick Stewart are visible.

The Sleeper Has Awakened: Watching the David Lynch Dune for the First Time in this, the Second Year of the Plague

By Orrin Grey • October 14th, 2021

So, nearly forty years later, in a world with a very different cinematic landscape, on the cusp of a new, much bigger-budget adaptation, did I come out knowing that I’ve seen Dune?

2021 Unwinnable
Halloween Video Store

Week Two: Mythos Monsters

By Team Unwinnable • October 8th, 2021

Week two of Unwinnable’s Halloween Video Store is upon us! This week, Orrin Grey has the gang pull Cthulhu Mythos movies down from the shelf!

Goldie Hawn in Overboard, laying on a deck chair in a red swim suit with one foot up in the lap of a man who is doing her toenails.

A Distinctive Experience: Overboard (1987) on Blu-ray in 2021

By Orrin Grey • October 7th, 2021

Overboard must be saved from itself.

2021 Unwinnable
Halloween Video Store