Each month The Grumps bring you a selection of what’s new and now in the Action genre. Strap in for Round-house Round-Up! From Brian Miller: Crazy Samurai: 400 vs 1 (2020) [New on blu ray […]
Category: Columns
‘AMER’ AS A REPRESENTATION OF OUR PSYCHOSEXUAL OBSESSION WITH DEATH
“Love, art thou sweet? then bitter death must be;Love, thou art bitter; sweet is death to me.O Love, if death be sweeter, let me die.” — Alfred, Lord Tennyson As a major motion picture, Amer […]
SIDESTROKE BUDDIES: On sexual naivete in Mario Bava’s ‘Hercules in the Haunted World’
“With the boys forget the girls / Boys with boys, girls get with the girls and / The boys with the boys / It’s only right and natural” — The Frogs It is amusing that […]
Brian De Palma’s Body Double: Shrewd Metatextual Masterpiece or Shameless Masturbatory Piece?
In a time when sexuality is frowned upon in a country already well-known for its puritanical attitudes, I’m shocked filmmaker Brian De Palma hasn’t been dragged away by an angry mob in a flurry of […]
‘BABY DOLL’: THE 1956 FILM for fans of JOHN WATERS
The first movie I intended to write about for this edition of “Weird Boners” was A Dirty Shame. I’ve been wanting to revisit John Waters’ films, and Tracey Ullman stuck a bottle of water up her […]
VICIOUSLY SEXY MERMAIDS: EROTIC VIOLENCE IN ‘THE LURE’
Before I dive headfirst into my Weird Boner selection (it’s about mermaids, so “dive”, get it?), I need to begin with my introduction to the phrase “weird boners” itself. I used to co-host a podcast […]
BE FRUITFUL: ‘SPECIES’ (1995) TACKLES THE SCARY AND THE SEXY OF (IN)HUMAN REPRODUCTION
Given that it’s ostensibly what sex is for, it’s surprising how the act of impregnation is the source of so much psychosexual drama. I know for most men, the thought of knocking someone up you […]
“OBSESSED WITH COMPUTERS”: THE SHATTERED MIND OF LILLIAN NEBBS IN ‘EDGE OF THE AXE’
“Stop it, Lillian! I’m not Charlie! You are!” On September 15th, 1989, Overseas FilmGroup released Edge of the Axe: a gory, Spanish-American slasher about townspeople in a small community called Paddock County, enjoying their summer […]
NEW IN ACTION: APRIL 2021
Action is alive and thriving. Here are just four of the many recent Action genre releases and reissues to bless our lives with pure destruction. Jiu Jitsu (2020) [added to Netflix] The trailer for this […]
OH, HO, IT’S MAGIC! THE DECEIPT OF KENNY HAMPSON IN ‘TERROR TRAIN’
“It wasn’t just a prank! Doc, he was sick!” Roger Spottiswoode is not a name on the lips of too many film fans these days. He’s no John Carpenter or David Cronenberg, and certainly no […]
BRAWL, BABY, BRAWL: ‘NOBODY’ ISN’T WHO YOU MIGHT THINK
Ah, the theaters are open once again. You know what that means: the kind of prices that make piracy an attractive option; popcorn so old it votes Republican; and jerks who talk so loudly you […]
MIXTAPE: INTO ACTION!
To cap off Action Week, brace yourselves for our turbo-charged Spotify playlist filled to the brim of rock, pop, and hip-hop tunes from and inspired by some of our favorite Action movies. And be sure […]
THE VISUAL AND COMEDIC ABSURDITY OF ‘TORQUE’
“Cars suck,” the not-so-hidden message in the opening scene of Joseph Kahn’s 2004 action piece Torque, presents itself with cocksure bravado via a super-stylized spinning street sign. The sequence, a late addition to the movie, […]
WELCOME TO AMERICA! ‘RUMBLE IN THE BRONX’ AS A MASTERCLASS IN CULTURAL FUSION
The 1994 movie Rumble in the Bronx, which launched Jackie Chan into international superstardom overnight, was the result of a carefully-planned effort to bring Jackie to Western audiences. Chan, already in his 40s at the […]
ESCAPIST CINEMA: WE CAN’T GET AWAY FROM ‘THE RUNNING MAN’
The following piece was finished early on Monday morning, not knowing the great Yaphet Kotto would be pronounced dead in just a matter of hours. While The Running Man is very clearly an Arnold vehicle start to […]