What's New
16 Nov 25
Well, once again, thing didn't go quite according to plan, but so it goes. Let's move on to this week's reviews. We had a movie by Fritz Lang last week and we get another one this week in the form of 1941's Man Hunt. We had the Marine Corps' birthday last Monday, but we're not going to quite do the Devil Dogs justice with 1944's Marine Raiders. We'll stay military themed with Robert Mitchum in Man in the Middle. I guess we loop back around to WWII (the aftermath at least) with Marathon Man. We then throw any attempt to tie these movies together and close things out with Man of Steel, which I could've sworn I posted years ago. (It would've benefitted from it if I had, as I was more generous back then.) Anyway, that does it for now. I'll repeat my likely empty promises from last time of trying to get some manga reviews written and actually get a story update together. Can it happen? It's not impossible, but don't put all your chips on it. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 13:05:26
09 Nov 25
My Saturday suddenly evaporated on me, so the time I meant to dedicate to getting some manga reviews written failed to manifest. As such, we'll once again dig into the movie review backlog for content. We start with a pair of Peter Lorre films with Fritz Lang's M and Karl Freund's Mad Love. Next up is Frank Capra's Lost Horizon. We then have the English dub of Toei's second animated feature Shounen Sarutobi Sasuke, the far less imaginatively titled Magic Boy. And since we've got Japan on the mind, what better way to cap things off than with Lost in Translation? And with that done, I'm going to make an effort to get some manga reviews together for next time and maybe actually start to do some writing so we can actually have a story update as well. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 14:07:14
01 Nov 25
I know I promised this on Halloween and technically, it's not yet midnight on the West Coast. I got behind on my viewing schedule (along with everything else being a grand tangle) and so we're going to be two entries shy of the nine I promised, but let's get on with the show. I promised all the Halloween heavy-hitters, so let's start with vampires with 1979's Nosferatu the Vampyre and the 2024 version of Nosferatu as well, then let's take a fictionalized look at the creation of the 1922 original in Shadow of the Vampire. Next up is werewolves with 2010's The Wolfman and if you want to smash those two together, there's Underworld. If that isn't enough of a mashup, let's get vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein's monster and more together in 2004's Van Helsing. Last but not least, from the same director, we have Brendan Fraser in The Mummy. And that does it for this year's Halloween feature. I'll be sure to make a note so I don't find myself two weeks in before I get started next year. And with the week's reviews out, well, I don't quite know what's coming next, so I guess we'll find out together. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 06:42:04
26 Oct 25
Making a Ghouls n' Ghosts/Ghosts n' Goblins comment last time was a convenient way to bundle the subjects of this week's reviews. Let's start with the ghouls with Zombieland and its vastly inferior sequel, Zombieland: Double Tap. For the ghosts, if you're wanting a laugh, try 1988's High Spirits and if you want more of a thriller, you can't do much better than The Sixth Sense. And now for the goblins, let's take a trip to Nilbog for OH MY GOOOOOOOOOD Troll 2 and the retrospective documentary about it, Best Worst Movie. If you were looking for actual trolls, try 1986's Troll or the absolute peak of all troll-related media, Ernest Scared Stupid. Next week's feature will come early so that we make it for Halloween itself. Expect all the heavy-hitters to show up. Now, if only I can tear myself away from my current side project and focus on writing to maybe, just maybe get that chapter of CoP out afterward. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 17:02:36
19 Oct 25
We're off to a late start on the October feature, but we kick things off with some creature features. We start with some proper schlock in the form of Carnosaur, Carnosaur 2 and Carnosaur 3: Primal Species. Next up is some kaijuu action with Mothra vs. Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Mothra, and Godzilla vs. Biollante. We then blend the two with dinosaurs portrayed like kaijuu in The Last Dinosaur. With the Carnosaur trilogy being Roger Corman productions, we bring things full circle with a bit of scifi horror courtesy of the B-movie king, Galaxy of Terror. Next week we'll have ghouls and ghosts, maybe ghosts and goblins, or something similar. In other news, tempting as it is to give TKoH one more week, I'm going to move on to try to get the next chapter of CoP out instead. We'll see what happens. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 16:16:41
15 Oct 25
Here it is halfway through the month and if it wasn't for my sister talking about her marathon of the Final Destination movies, I might have completely forgotten about the annual October spooky movie reviews. >_< I guess I was too wrapped up in missed deadlines on the story updates and the shift of anime seasons. Well, I owe you guys ten movies, so I'm going to make it up to you by expanding the next two regular review updates to eight titles and then I'll to a special nine-movie post on Halloween itself. Coming up will be covering some scifi horror including genetic horrors and kaijuu action. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 00:27:19
12 Oct 25
As the remainder of the Summer 2025 anime I have left to cover are either series I haven't started yet or ones I'd only gotten an episode or two in, I've only managed to get one ready for this week's reviews, Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus. I haven't anaged to get any manga reviews written either, so we'll just be digging out more entries from the movie review backlog to fill things out. We start with the 1936 Jean Harlow romcom Libeled Lady. We jump ahead to the 60s with Sidney Lumet's 1962 film adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night, the 1963 version of Lord of the Flies, and Warren Beatty and Jean Seberg in 1964's Lilith. It's sheer coincidence that I've got a neat three-year sequence represented here. I'm going to try to make use of having Monday off to get some more anime viewing done and also try to focus my remaining time and effort to getting that chapter of TKoH finished. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 16:40:54
05 Oct 25
For this week's installment of Summer 2025 anime, we have Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra, City the Animation and Season 2 of I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability. And then from the movie review backlog, we have the Donnie Yen sequel to the Jet Li remake of a Bruce Lee film, Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen and the postwar documentary Let There Be Light. There will be at most two more installments of Summer 2025 anime, I imagine, and after that I'll look to catching up on the long list of titles in my backlog. Having once again missed my deadline for RttW, I'll be switching over to TKoH to see if I won't have a little more luck there. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 15:16:38
28 Sep 25
I was thrown off a bit when I discovered a couple of the series I was going to feature today ended up having thirteen episodes instead of twelve, but one of those airs on Saturdays, so I'm able to bring it out today after all, and that's The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity. We also have Clevatess and Nyaight of the Living Cat (which was surreal to watch at times with the mascot). To round things out, we have a couple movies from the backlog, M Night Shyamalan failing to follow Kirk Lazarus' advice in Lady in the Water and speaking of Kirks, we have Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn facing off in Last Train from Gun Hill. We'll see what catchup I can get done for next week's reviews and make further effort on getting that chapter of RttW done. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 13:05:17
21 Sep 25
We kick off this week's reviews with the new release of Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc. From there, we begin our coverage of the Summer 2025 anime season with a trio of Season 2s: Call of the Night, Dandadan, and My Dress-Up Darling. And because Season 2 of The 7th Prince and Kaijuu No.8 aren't finished yet, we'll round things out with a new series, Detectives These Days Are Crazy! We've got plenty more to come, probably enough for four or five weeks, and that's not counting backlog viewing I need to get done. As you've no doubt noticed, I missed my deadline again for CoP, so I'll move on to RttW and see what I can get done. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 14:07:48
14 Sep 25
Take up your sword with the 1954 adaptation of Sir William Scott's The Talisman, King Richard and the Crusaders; 1953's Knights of the Round Table and Kevin Sorbo in Kull the Conqueror. If you want to swap the Occident for the Orient for your action (sort of), then there's Kung Pow: Enter the Fist. Or if you'd rather make love than war (again, sort of), then enjoy Billy Wilder's Kiss Me, Stupid. Next week we should be able to start the Summer 2025 anime coverage and maybe while my kiddos are gearing up for bunkasai, I can get that chapter of CoP finished. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 15:55:33