News

Pauline Kael once called the gulf between E.T. and Poltergeist a testament to the confounding ability for one man, Steven Spielberg, to produce one enduring masterpiece and one miserable failure in the space of a year—and God forever damn her for not realizing that Poltergeist is, if anything, a more harrowing portrait of the nuclear family on the verge of dissipation, but I digress. Apparently, she hadn’t seen Mel Brooks’s 1974 one-two punch.

Young Frankenstein is so loving and charmingly goofy in spoofing one of Hollywood’s most successful early genres (the Universal monster movies of the 1930s) that it winds up as much a tribute as it is a parody. But Blazing Saddles, a burlesque about a western town standing in the way of the railroad expansion and the Black sheriff sent to discourage its citizens from deserting, is a limp, shapeless mess of a film...

A strong case could be made that Mel Brooks co-writing and directing "Young Frankenstein" and "Blazing Saddles" in the same year (1974) is one of the greatest filmmaking one-two punches of the 20th century. It's hard enough to make a single comedy that becomes a stone cold classic, but for both of them to have such fantastic reputations 50 years later (despite "Blazing Saddles" having some aspects in it that don't age well for modern viewers) makes this achievement downright legendary. Of course, the fact that these movies came out 50 years ago sadly means that most of the actors who starred in these projects are no longer with us.

For "Blazing Saddles," a film that was so controversial even upon its release that Brooks thought he might be killed because of its content, that means we've already lost towering performers like Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Corman, Slim Pickens, the great Madeline Kahn,...

A short while into Mel Brooks' 1974 comedy Western "Blazing Saddles," the smug a-hole cowboy Lyle (Burton Gilliam) takes a break after a hard day of abusing railroad workers to have a dinner of beans by a campfire. He is surrounded by many other a-hole cowboys, also enjoying their fire-roasted baked beans. As we all know beans to be the musical fruit, the inevitable happens, and one of the cowboys unleashes an audible explosion of flatulence. No one acknowledges it, perhaps knowing that it is a natural part of a bean dinner. Audience members watching "Blazing Saddles" likely rolled their eyes at the fart, feeling that Brooks had stooped a little low in order to employ a fart joke.

The audience's eyerolls become more pronounced with the release of a second fart. A second cowboy affects a strained look of intestinal clenching. Ha, ha, Mel. That's also not funny.

But then there's a third.

Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein, co-written with Gene Wilder (seen here with Marty Feldman and Teri Garr) inspired Tony McNamara’s screenplay adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s novel for Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things (Oscar wins for Emma Stone and costume designer Holly Waddington).

By using well-chosen excerpts from the audiobook of Gene Wilder’s autobiography, Kiss Me Like A Stranger, Ron Frank lets Wilder himself guide us through the documentary, by positioning him in dialogue with many friends and colleagues assembled here, most prominently Mel Brooks, who directed Wilder in a number of groundbreaking movies. We find out how the two met, because Anne Bancroft, starring at the time on stage in Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage (with Wilder as the Chaplain), was dating Brooks, who was looking for an actor to play Leo Bloom in what was to become The Producers. The two men clicked, as they both recall,...

The 1974 spin on westerns sees Mel Brooks pointing at the absurdity of racism and the history of human evil while always ensuring a steady stream of laughter

Though it rarely gets mentioned in the same breath as The Wild Bunch, McCabe and Mrs Miller and the wave of revisionist westerns that came out of Hollywood in the late 60s and early 70s, Mel Brooks’s Blazing Saddles doesn’t need any artfully hazy Vilmos Zsigmond cinematography to upend Old West mythology. True, it is a comedy where a horse gets cold-cocked, a Native American chief (one of three characters played by Brooks) speaks Yiddish and Count Basie’s orchestra makes an appearance on the plains. Yet from the opening sequence, where Chinese immigrants and recently freed Black slaves work under the white man’s whip to build a railroad, this irreverent Looney Tunes spoof of the genre takes a dimmer...

Paramount+ is starting September with a bang with hundreds of new film titles joining its library, from comedies like “Blazing Saddles” and “The Big Lebowski,” to award-winning dramas like “Schindler's List” and “Forrest Gump” and sci-fi thrillers like “Terminator 2” and “Annihilation.”

But the streamer isn’t stopping there, with even more TV series (including Paramount+ originals and exclusives) and sports available throughout the month on the Paramount+ Essential plan and even more titles on the Paramount+ with Showtime.

Check out The Streamable’s picks for the top five titles arriving to the streamer this month!

30-Day Free Trial $5.99+ / month paramountplus.com

For a Limited Time, Get 1 Month of Paramount+ With Code: Lioness

What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Coming to Paramount+ in September 2023? “Blazing Saddles” | Friday, Sept. 1

Return to Rock Ridge with Mel Brooks’ fourth-wall-breaking classic that will leave you anything but tired. The satirical Western-black comedy follows...

Michael Cimino could have done worse for his first directing gig — a big Clint Eastwood-Jeff Bridges buddy picture with guaranteed major attention. It’s a simple crime caper for simple audiences, and he pulls it off in style. The Sunday movie supplements celebrated Cimino as a great new talent. His picture still looks handsome and it runs like a Swiss watch — the writer-director even has his vulgar comedy down pat, giving bad guy George Kennedy a few memorable choice bits to play.

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1974 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date November 12, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges, George Kennedy, Geoffrey Lewis, Catherine Bach, Gary Busey, Burton Gilliam, Roy Jenson, Bill McKinney, Vic Tayback, Dub Taylor, Gregory Walcott.

Cinematography: Frank Stanley

Art Direction by Tambi Larsen

Film Editor: Ferris Webster

Original Music: Dee Barton

Produced by Robert Daley

Written and Directed...

What do Scott Baio, Eddie Deezen, Michael Pare, Todd Bridges, Didi Conn, Corben Bernsen, Lorenzo Lamas, and Tawny Kitaen have in common? They’re coming to St. Louis This Weekend!

Over 25 Celebrities / Pop Culture stars & icons will be invading the St. Charles Convention Center the weekend of August 17-19th, 2018! Celebrities from the Iconic film “Grease” to “Pirates of the Caribbean” to “Growing Pains”, “Happy Days”, “He-Man & the Masters of the Universe” to WWE/WWF stars and Much more to come!

The Con’s site can be found Here

Ticket information can be found Here

Check out this line-up of celebs!

Scott Baio– Best known for his role as Chachi Arcola on the sitcom Happy Days (1977–1984) and its spin-off Joanie Loves Chachi (1982–1983), as well as the title character on the sitcom Charles in Charge (1984–1990), Dr. Jack Stewart in the medical-mystery-drama series Diagnosis: Murder (1993–1995), and the titular hero of the musical...

With Halloween only two weeks away now, that means we have another killer batch of home entertainment releases arriving this Tuesday, primed to get everyone in the mood for the macabre. Cult film lovers should get those wallets ready, as Kino Lorber is keeping busy with The Terror Within II, Revenge of the Dead, and a 4K special edition of RawHead Rex, too.

For those who still venture out into the real world to make their media purchases, Target has the exclusive on season one of Stranger Things that comes in nifty retro packaging, and Criterion has put together a stellar Blu for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.

Other notable releases for October 17th include American Gods: Season One, Wes Craven’s Summer of Fear, Red Christmas, Spider-Man: Homecoming, The Honor Farm, and Alfred Hitchcock: The Ultimate Collection.

American Gods: Season One (Lionsgate, Blu-ray & DVD)

When...

The Movie Pool loves horse-faced women while watching Honeymoon in Vegas, on Blu-ray for the first time!

Blu-ray Specs

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Running Time: 96 minutes

Rating: PG-13

Audio: English 2.0 Surround DTS-hd Master Audio, French Mono, Spanish Mono

Subtitles: English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired, French, Spanish

Special Features: Theatrical Trailer

The Set-up

When Jack Singer (Nicolas Cage) loses a high=stakes poker game to a mobster Tommy Korman (James Caan), Jack must give him his girlfriend Betsy (Sarah Jessica Parker) for the weekend. However, Korman plans to win over Betsy for his own, starting with taking her to Hawaii.

Written and directed by: Andrew Bergman

The Delivery

Honeymoon in Vegas could have been another generic comedy, but it is helped by a quirky sense of humor that you usually do not see in romantic comedies. Cage was not too far removed from his Raising Arizona days, and he displays some of that zaniness,...

Rank the week of July 5th’s Blu-ray and DVD new releases against the best films of all-time: New Releases Hobo With A Shotgun

(DVD and Blu-Ray | Nr | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #3839

Times Ranked: 1526

Win Percentage: 47%

Top-20 Rankings: 7

Directed By: Jason Eisener

Starring: Rutger Hauer • Gregory Smith • Molly Dunsworth • Brian Downey • Nick Bateman

Genres: Action • Adventure • Crime • Crime Thriller • Thriller

Rank This Movie

Wake Wood

(DVD and Blu-Ray | Nr | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #15374

Times Ranked: 35

Win Percentage: 32%

Top-20 Rankings: 0

Directed By: David Keating

Starring: Eva Birthistle • Ella Connolly • Amelia Crowley • Aidan Gillen • Timothy Spall

Genres: Drama • Horror

Rank This Movie

13 Assassins

(DVD and Blu-Ray | Nr | 2010)

Flickchart Ranking: #2732

Times Ranked: 1084

Win Percentage: 59%

Top-20 Rankings: 8

Directed By: Takashi Miike

Starring: Koji Yakusho • Takayuki Yamada • Yusuke Iseya • Gorô Inagaki • Masachika Ichimura

Genres: Action • Ensemble Film • Period Film • Samurai Film

Rank This Movie

Bloodrayne: The Third Reich

(DVD and Blu-ray | R | 2010)

Flickchart Ranking: #17903

Times Ranked: 30

Win Percentage: 42%

Top-...

The 2011 Dallas International Film Festival Announces

Award Winners

Jess + Moss receives the $25,000 Target Filmmaker Award for Best Narrative Feature

Elevate receives the $25,000 Target Filmmaker Award for Best Documentary Feature

Five Time Champion receives the $20,000 in Cash, Goods and Services for the Mps Studios Texas Filmmaker Award

If A Tree Falls: A Story Of The Earth Liberation Front receives the Environmental Visions Award

Zero Percent receives the $10,000 Embrey Family Foundation Silver Heart Award

The Legend Of Beaver Dam, The Robbery and Paths Of Hate are named winners for Best Short Film, Student Short and Animated Short

Audience Awards go to Snowmen for Narrative Feature, Wild Horse Wild Ride for Documentary and The Legend Of Beaver Dam for Short

Dallas, TX, April 9, 2011 . For the second year running, the .Dallas Film Society Honors. presented by the Arthur E. Benjamin Foundation provided an elegant forum for the awards presentation at the Dallas International Film Festival presented by Cadillac.

Durham, Nc - The hard truth of cinema takes place at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, Nc from April 14-17. That’s four solid days of movies that don’t feature Natalie Portman’s face being digitally inserted on other bodies. Four days of real people doing real stuff. And you can get some great BBQ.

This years line up has enough goodness to make me have to make painful choices as what to watch. There’s only one screening unless a movie wins a major prize. It’s be there or miss out. Choice wisely. Here’s a few of the films I’m looking to catch:

The Hangman (Thursday 10:20 a.m.) appears to be a creepy classic as it probes the man who executed Nazi Adolph Eichmann. What’s he do now? He ritually slaughters animals. Windfall (Thurs 4:20 p.m.) takes us to Meredith,...