At The Movies: CAPONE (2020) – Review
CAPONE is bleak and, at times, hard to watch. In fact, it edges up to the border of being a full-blown horror film.
Articles by Matthew Essary
At The Movies: EXTRACTION (2020) – Review
It’s clear that everyone involved with EXTRACTION wanted this to be a calling card to the rest of the film industry…
Check The Back Shelf vol. 3 – The Hong Kong “Temple of Doom”: A look at BURNING PARADISE
The 1994 Hong Kong film BURNING PARADISE (aka BURNING OF THE TEMPLE aka BURNING PARADISE IN HELL) could easily be re-titled “Fong Sai Yuk and The Temple of Doom”. Let me explain…
Video CULTure’s Top 15 films of 2019
We are three weeks into 2020 and last year is already starting to feel like a distant memory. That’s why I greatly relish getting to look back at the previous year’s films and trying to select a handful that I think are shining examples of the best the year had to offer and present them to you, the reader, in hopes that you will revisit them (or watch them for the very first time) and receive the same emotional and intellectual nourishment they gave me.
What’s new in 2020 for Video CULTure!
The year 2020 is here and the Video CULTure podcast is still going strong! We are so thankful to all of you- our listeners and supporters. We are looking forward to keeping the doors open on the “virtual video store” here at podcast for a long time to come for you all! With any new year though, there also comes new year’s resolutions. It’s no different here at the official home of Video CULTure.
Check The Back Shelf vol. 2 – The Hong Kong WITNESS: A look at WILD SEARCH (Starring Chow Yun-Fat)
The regional cinema of Hong Kong, at one time, was said to produce the best action films ever released. Hong Kong filmmakers used inventive staging and a heavy focus on stunt and fight choreography, putting those aspects on equal footing with the other elements of constructing a film, like casting and editing. It was not unheard of for the crafting of these scenes to take up the bulk of a film’s shooting days. This commitment to creating thrilling sequences led to the phrase “Hong Kong-style action” being used as high praise for any film intended to thrill an audience.
Check The Back Shelf vol. 1 – Django versus the Japanese Mafia: A look at 1972’s YAKUZA WOLF (Starring Sonny Chiba)
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. . . “
When essayist, Charles Caleb Colton uttered this famous quote, he could not have known how well it would apply to so many modern-day situations, as a film enthusiast it immediately makes me think of the explosion of films that arrived in the wake of Sergio Corbucci’s seminal 1966 Italian western, DJANGO.