Cinema Smorgasbord

Claudio Cassinelli plays a man on the edge in Sergio Martino's unique eurocrime oddity THE SUSPICIOUS DEATH OF A MINOR which mixes comedic elements, the elaborate (and stylish) murder sequences from the popular giallo films of the time - including a knock-off Goblin-style score almost as good as the real thing - and the usual Poliziotteschi trappings of the era to create something a bit scattershot, but totally unique. Filled with ...

On our first episode of YOU DON'T KNOW DICK since Roger Corman's passing at the age of 98 we've brought in those ringers from The New World Pictures Podcast to help us discuss Corman's lasting legacy, their favorite Roger Corman-directed films, biker gangs and biker movies, and - specifically - 1966's THE WILD ANGELS featuring Peter Fonda, Nancy Sinatra, Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd and - OF COURSE- the legendary Dick Miller. Check it ou...

On this episode of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO VIC DIAZ? (the world's finest podcast devoted to "the Filipino Peter Lorre" Vic Diaz) we're checking out the oddball 1971 (though filmed in 1965) B&W sorta-spy horror film BLOOD THIRST featuring a wise-cracking cop in a foreign land, a monster that looks like a diseased testicle, many legitimate - and accidental - red herrings and, of course, the legendary Vic Diaz playing a rare good guy. It...

On this episode of BARTEL ME SOMETHING GOOD (the world's finest Paul Bartel-themed podcast) we're finishing up the directorial career of Paul Bartel with some television odds & sods! First up are two episodes of the TV show CLUELESS, based on the popular 1995 film starring Alicia Silverstone. This 1996 series is a cut above the sitcoms of the time and brought along a surprising amount of the film's cast, and not only has Paul Barte...

Who loves Bud Cort? We (being the hosts of Praising Kane, the world's most beloved Carol Kane-themed podcast) do! On this episode we're doing a FULL CORT PRESS with not one but TWO Kane/Cort pairings (and some bonus Bud in the news section). We start with a spooky episode of 80s anthology favorite Tales From the Darkside putting Cort against Kane in a light-hearted magic battle. Then we move onto the startlingly unfunny 1984 comedy...

An episode of HOW DO YOU DO, FELLOW KIDS? without Steve Buscemi?! Well, not quite! Though Buscemi doesn't appear in 2022's THE LISTENER, which concerns a help line worker (played by Tessa Thompson) dealing with the trials and tribulations of (unseen) callers in the time immediately following Covid lockdown, it's directed by the man himself! It's a unique film, and we go through its strengths and weaknesses and if it feels tied to a...

One stage of Jackie Chan's career comes to an awkward conclusion in FEARLESS HYENA 2, with producer Lo Wei taking old footage (from the first Fearless Hyena, along with some bits from Spiritual Kung Fu) along with some a few new scenes filmed before Jackie's controversial move to Golden Harvest to create something predictably incoherent. Filled with actors doubling Jackie (in disguise), pieces that don't quite fit together, and the...

In 1974 Mario Bava was struggling after a series of financial failures and decided to turn towards a genre completely new to him: Poliziotteschi! Adapting a crime story by Michael J. Carroll, he was almost finished filming when the producer filed for bankruptcy, leaving the film to sit on a shelf for twenty years (well after Bava's death in 1980). On this episode of WILD IN THE STREETS we take a look at the revived film RABID DOGS,...

ERIC ROBERTS IS THE MAN returns and this episode is packed with NEWS, SURPRISES and 2024's AMITYVILLE BIGFOOT, which features a Sasquatch squirting toxic milk out of its nipples (among other things). We're helped along this rocky road by The Nu Metal Agenda Podcast's Cranfather, who assists us in breaking down all the latest Eric Roberts news and social media posts and immediately regrets his decision to choose this film for us to ...

After a 23-year hiatus away from directing (and with an assist from the Jodorowsky's Dune documentary) Alejandro Jodorowsky returned to filmmaking with the autobiographical fantasy (based on his own book) THE DANCE OF REALITY in 2013. On this episode of JodoWOWsky we break down all the latest Jodorowsky news (including Julia's experience attending some recent screenings with Jodo himself!), take a look at the Adan Jodorowsky-direct...

Nobody is talking about FURIOSA anymore, so it's time for Cinema Smorgasbord to step in with our much delayed opinion! We discuss the pacing, the performances, the brutality, our favorite Mad Max films in the series, the FX and - BRIEFLY - the box office. Does FURIOSA have what it takes to make it EPIC, or was it just another Beyond Thunderdome? LISTEN AND LEARN, PALS!

The post Episode 227 – Cinema Smorgasbord Sells Out – Furiosa: ...

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO VIC DIAZ is BACK! On this episode Tom Selleck is an American museum curator in the Philippines who becomes obsessed with a painting of three witches being burned at the stake when he notices one eerily resembles his young wife Chris (Barra Grant) in 1972's DAUGHTERS OF SATAN. What follows is SATANISM, witchery, a demon dog from HELL, and lots and lots of day-for-night filmmaking. Also.. the wonderful Vic Diaz a...

Hot diggity dog! On a returning PRAISING KANE we're committed to giving you the best possible value for your ears, so not only are we going over the latest Carol Kane news, we're also discussing both an episode of the beloved sitcom CHEERS (featuring Carol Kane as a woman who catches Sam's eye before he discovers she was previously in a mental hospital), and we also go deep on the Barbara Mandrell-starring TV movie BURNING RAGE fro...

BIG NEWS on this episode of HOW DO YOU DO, FELLOW KIDS? where we discuss the recent distressing assault on Steve Buscemi on the streets of New York City, all the recent Buscemi news - including him joining the cast of WEDNESDAY - and we go long on Tom DiCillo's indie black comedy LIVING IN OBLIVION! We also chat about our own limited experience as making movies and talk about why some find the film inspiring, while it's scared othe...

On this episode of Cinema Fantastica we're traveling back to 1984 and the Boston Science Fiction Film Festival in Boston, Massachusetts - one of the longest running genre film festivals in the United States! This iteration was an all-night science fiction movie marathon, and we're putting two genre classics against each other: Roger Corman's unnerving X: THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES from 1963 vs Saul Bass' environmental sci-fi/horro...

After helping him get out of his previous contract (and some messy business with some Triads) Jackie Chan owed martial arts superstar Jimmy Wang Yu some big favors, and he started paying up by appearing briefly in the truly bizarre 1983 action/comedy FANTASY MISSION FORCE. Despite a plot structure that (loosely) copies The Dirty Dozen, FANTASY MISSION FORCE throws in amazons, Nazis, vampires, ghosts, Brigitte Lin, musical numbers, ...

On this very special episode of GEORGE KENNEDY IS MY COPILOT we're joined by the Swedish writer and George Kennedy-enthusiast Anders Landby to discuss his work covering the career of George Kennedy, his Instagram page devoted to George Kennedy, and the proper way to pronounce "Smorgasbord"! Luckily he also joins us to discuss a rare 1980s PSA featuring George Kennedy as well as the totally bizarre sasquatch/alien/zombie sci-fi/horr...

On this episode of BARTEL ME SOMETHING GOOD (the world's finest Paul Bartel-themed podcast) we're tackling Paul Bartel's final directorial feature, the sadly abused (and semi-unavailable) bunker comedy SHELF LIFE from 1993! Born out of a stage-play by stars O-Lan Jones, Andrea Stein, and Jim Turner, Bartel turns it into a wildly visual phantasmagoria of rituals, re-enactments and hormonally confusing games, with a typically wicked ...