dvd review: WHITE DOG

If there was ever a film I thought would never see the light of day on DVD, it would have to be director Sam Fuller’s White Dog. Regarded by many as one of the most controversial films of all time—unwarranted hyperbolic exaggeration if there ever was any—White Dog has languished, practically unreleased since its production in 1982. Since that time it has had a relatively insignificant theatrical release overseas, while never enjoying a legitimate home video release in the United States. It has also become something of an urban myth, creating around it a sense of cinematic taboo usually reserved for films like Ruggero Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust or Michael and Roberta Findlay’s Snuff.

dvd review: THE PERFECT HOLIDAY

There is an undeniable disparity between mainstream films (those films produced for a largely white audience), and those movies produced primarily for an African-American audience. That’s not to say that mainstream movies aren’t insipidly insulting the intelligence of the audience, because Hollywood certainly cranks out more than its fair share of stupid shit. But for every moronic movie catered to a mainstream audience, there are intelligent films to counterbalance the dumb garbage. In terms of holiday fare, for every The Santa Clause 3 there are films like It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street and Die Hard. But when it comes to lighthearted holiday fare targeted towards a black audience, for every steaming turd like The Perfect Holiday you have absolutely nothing.

New Article on MSN

Ever wonder why Will Smith never gets the girl in his action movies? Check out my latest article on MSN.

Attention Shoppers!!!

Okay kids, I just wanted to let everyone know that my two of my films, BLACK SANTA’S REVENGE and DAMAGED GOODS, are now available for purchase as MP4 digital downloads. This means you can watch either movie on your video iPod, iPhone, Zune, or whatever digital player you have that can handle MP4 videos. BLACK SANTA’S REVENGE costs $3.99 and can by purchased by clicking here. DAMAGED GOODS costs $7.00 and can by purchased by clicking here.

This is How It Begins…

I saw this report on CNN about monkeys being used as waiters in a Tokyo restaurant. Is it just me, but shouldn’t we as human beings be concerned about this? I mean, hasn’t anyone else seen Conquest of the Planet of the Apes? This is how this shit starts, people!!! It has all been prophesized!

dvd review: CONFESSIONS OF A PIT FIGHTER

There are some movies, when you watch them, you can’t help but feel you’ve seen them before. That’s because these particular movies are hackneyed jumbles of tired clichés and predictable stories that have already been told time and time again. Once in a while these films manage to at the very least be mildly entertaining, even if it’s in a so-bad-it-is-good kind of way. But when a film doesn’t even manage to be that—when it is entirely predictable and equally engaging—then you’re saddled with something that may not exactly be crap, but by the same measure isn’t close to be good. And that’s what you have with Confessions of a Pit Fighter.

dvd review: STONE

The low-budget American biker flick came into its own in the 1960s, and with a few exceptions, was pretty much played out by the end of the decade. Easy Rider is considered to be the crowning achievement in the genre—a transformative bit of filmmaking that managed to turned an otherwise exploitative flick into art. After Easy Rider, biker flicks in America quickly gave way to other types of B-movies, but in Australia, in the early 1970s, one of the best biker films of all time was just getting ready to come out. Produced, directed, co-written by and starring Sandy Harbutt, Stone, while not nearly as well known in America, remains a seminal entry in the biker genre.

dvd review: VICE

It takes the culmination of many factors to make a truly great movie, but it only takes one thing to make a truly bad movie. That one thing, of course, is the script. If a script is bad, there is no chance at all—as in none—that a movie will ever be any good. It doesn’t matter if the cast is good, the direction competent, the cinematography and the editing all up to par, if the script sucks, so too shall the film itself. And that’s the problem with Vice.

What He Said…

Keith Olbermann weighed in on the passage of California’s Prop 8. I could not have said this any better myself.

The Other Side

Someone recently asked me about my mother’s family. I have written quite a bit about my mother herself, and my father’s family, but I don’t talk about my mom’s side of the family—“the other side.” If you were to simply go by the things I write, then chances are you wouldn’t have much of an impression about the other side of my family, other than the fact that my mom’s parents, to a certain extent, disowned her after she had me. That’s the short version of the story that really amounts to nothing more than the first half of the first chapter of a much longer story that I don’t tell that often. And I realized that in not telling other parts of the story, I was making the other side out to be a family of villains, when that is not the complete truth.