Cinema Smorgasbord

After a bumpy and controversial start to his career, that bumpiness would continue for Kiyoshi Kurosawa with 1989's SWEET HOME, a unique videogame/film collaboration that is colorful, entertaining and full of goopy FX by the legendary Dick Smith, but after a post-theatrical re-edit things would go sour between Kurosawa and producer Juzo Itami. It would be a few more years before Kurosawa would direct another feature, returning with...

2025 is the YEAR OF CAROL KANE! From Star Trek to It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia to a documentary about her relationship with her mother (CAROL &JOY, coming soon!), to appearing in the latest Darren Aronofsky movie, it's a busy time in the world of PRAISING KANE and we're loving it. We break down all the latest news on this episode, followed by a look at the strange Caitlin Adams-directed crime-comedy STICKY FINGERS starring Hel...

Two gang members pull a double cross on Claudio Cassinelli's Raul Montalbani after a bank robbery in Mario Caiano's occasionally spirited 1976 film BLOODY PAYROLL (aka VIOLENT MILAN). BIG MISTAKE! Cassinelli spends most of the film tracking them down to get a little revenge, helped by the sympathetic sex worker Leila. It's bookended by some terrific action (especially the car and motorcycle chases in the first thirty minutes, but t...

Your Oliver Reed-loving pals are BACK on a brand new episode of FURTHER REEDING and we're checking out the filmed-in-Denmark 1972 science fiction oddity Z.P.G., where Reed and Geraldine Chaplin play a couple in a dystopian near-future where childbirth has been outlawed. Instead people cling onto weird child-like automatons while slowing losing their minds and eating steak-flavored paste. That's good eating! When Chaplin's Carol dec...

Uh oh! The gang is back talking all things Paul Bartel on another episode of BARTEL ME SOMETHING GOOD and this time not only are we yacking about 1976's HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD, the made-for-a-bet directing debut of both Joe Dante AND Alan Arkush (and featuring Paul Bartel, Dick Miller and Mary Woronov among many other familiar faces), but we also start with a very special episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents from 1985 directed by Tim ...

One this rootin'-tootin' episode of HOW DO YOU DO, FELLOW KIDS? we're checking out the made-for-HBO western THE LAST OUTLAW from 1993 featuring a murderer's row of early 90s character actors: Mickey Rourke, Dermot Mulroney, Ted Levine, John C. McGinley, Keith David and - of course - Steve Buscemi! Not only that, it was written by Eric Red (who wrote THE HITCHER and NEAR DARK) and directed by THE QUIET EARTH/YOUNG GUNS II/FREEJACK's...

We're selling out ONCE AGAIN with Ari Aster's controversial neo-western thriller black comedy EDDINGTON, starring Joaquin Phoenix as sheriff Joe Cross, who runs for mayor against Pedro Pascal's Ted Garcia in a small New Mexico town during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. It's sometimes uncomfortable, occasionally hilarious, and has some real bite - though some audiences didn't know what to make of it. On this episode we go ...

For the final time (until his real breakthrough a decade later), Golden Harvest is trying to make Jackie Chan a star in the U.S. and they've signed up U.S. exploitation film director James Glickenhaus to transform Chan into a high kicking Charles Bronson in 1985's THE PROTECTOR. Playing a hard-nosed New York City cop teamed with Danny Aiello, Chan swears and shoots through a blood revenge film, but  then - thoroughly displeased wit...

It's the PREMIERE episode of our new limited series SERPENT'S TAIL: THE FILMS OF KIYOSHI KUROSAWA and on this episode we discuss why we chose the filmmaker as our subject, our (limited) experience with his work, a bit about his background and dive into his first two features: 1983's KANDAGAWA PERVERT WARS and 1985's BUMPKIN SOUP (aka THE EXCITEMENT OF THE DO-RE-MI-FA GIRL). Both films have a unique mix of eroticism and surrealism, ...

On this long-awaited episode of YOU DON'T KNOW DICK we're joined by film critic extraordinaire Alan Cerny to discuss the life and career of actor Dick Miller, starting with a cut sequence (directed by Joe Dante) from the film AMAZON WOMEN ON THE MOON featuring Dick as a beleagured ventriloquist, and finishing up with a lengthy look at the 1957 Roger Corman classic ROCK ALL NIGHT! We discuss its soundtrack (featuring The Platters an...

You will believe a pod can cast on a brand new episode of CINEMA SMORGASBORD SELLS OUT where our mild-mannered hosts go deep on Superman lore, our favorite Superman comics and films and - of course - having a nice chat about James Gunn's new SUPERMAN film, and the launching of the new DC cinematic universe. There's lots to get angry about, so look up to the sky.. it's a bird, it's a plane, it's time to LISTEN!

The post Episode 284 ...

On an ACTION PACKED episode of Praising Kane we're DOUBLING UP: first with the 1988 satirical TV special from Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau RAP MASTER RONNIE: A REPORT CARD, featuring - you guessed it - Ronald Reagan kicking it old school (along with appearances from The Smothers Brothers, Jon Cryer and - of course Carol Kane), and finishing up with the Valerie Harper-starring TV movie DROP-OUT MOTHER (aka GOODBYE SUPERMOM) whic...

Luc Merenda plays Inspector Giorgio Solmi, a renegade cop investigating a string of suspicious military deaths in Sergio Martino's poliziottesco SILENT ACTION, also featuring Mel Ferrer, Delia Boccardo and the always welcome Tomas Milian as the suspiciously uptight Captain Mario Sperli. Featuring a tremendous car chase and a grenade-filled helicopter attack sequence near the end, it's a mix of action, intrigue and - unsurprisingly ...

We're lost in the stacks in this long-awaited episode of JodoWOWsky, not only covering half a year of Alejandro Jodorowsky news but tackling two of his most beloved - and complex - comics works, starting with his masterwork collaboration with the legendary Georges Bess THE WHITE LAMA and finishing with the lush, grotesque historical narrative THE BORGIAS, created with the equally legendary Milo Manara. There's plenty of wild, obsce...

On an inspiring episode of ERIC ROBERTS IS THE MAN we're joined by author, teacher and Jeopardy champ Lance St. Laurent to do a deep dive into the 1995 made-for-TV film SAVED BY THE LIGHT, based on a TRUE STORY where town jerk Dannion Brinkley was hit by lightning, died, and came back with MYSTERUOUS POWERS - including a heap of predictions for the future that just might have come true! WOW! Anyway, it's a bunch of hooey, but let's...

On a smoky new episode of HOW DO YOU DO, FELLOW KIDS? we're slamming java and puffing darts with Jim Jarmusch in the all-star black and white anthology film COFFEE AND CIGARETTES. Spun off from a series of previous caffeine-drenched shorts (several of which are included here) from as early as the mid-80s, you get interesting collections of actors and musicians (RZA & GZA & Bill Murray! Steve Coogan and Alfred Molina! The White Stri...

George Kennedy wrote a book! In fact, George Kennedy wrote THREE books, with two being mystery novels featuring him playing himself and on THIS episode of GEORGE KENNEDY IS MY COPILOT we're talking about the first half of 1983's MURDER ON LOCATION featuring intrigue, suspense and lots of dialogue about BOOBS. Then we're going long on Robert Aldrich's classic 1968 men-on-a-mission WWII classic THE DIRTY DOZEN featuring Lee Marvin, E...

We're taking a brief respite from American films on WE DO OUR OWN STUNTS to return to Hong Kong (and Japan!) for the sequel to the wildly popular WINNERS & SINNERS, it's the even MORE wildly popular MY LUCKY STARS from 1986! Starring the 5 Lucky Stars (minus John Shum, but with extra bonus Eric Tsang), it's bookended with some wild Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao action sequences and the meaty center is full of silly comedy - and lots of...

FURTHER REEDING (the world's finest Oliver Reed-themed podcast) returns with Oliver Reed's first starring role: the 1961 Hammer horror classic CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF! Despite Reed's starring credit he doesn't appear until the half-way mark of the film, but within minutes he shows his potential for stardom.. and that's before he turns into a hairy, drooling monster! A much different werewolf tale than the Universal classics, it's fil...