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WolfmanOz at the Movies #53
Man is the warmest place to hide 1982 was a seminal year for science fiction movies, of which there were three outstanding films of the genre released, all of which were quite different in style and audience engagement. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial was on its way to becoming the highest grossing film of all-time; Blade Runner…
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WolfmanOz at the Movies #52
Ealing comedies As promised last week, this weeks post will be taking a look at the comedies from Ealing Studios – thanks to Pogria for the suggestion. Ealing Studios is a London based film and television production company and is actually the oldest continuously working studio facility for film production in the world of which…
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WolfmanOz at the Movies #51
Is cinema dying ? As I write this last post for the year, a feeling of melancholy and sadness is with me as I write about what I believe is that movies and the thrill of going to the cinema and luxuriating in the magic of the big screen appears to be dying. There was…
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WolfmanOz at the Movies #50
Laurel & Hardy Well for my last post before Xmas, and to bring a smile to Cats faces, I can think of no better topic than to discuss the most beloved comedy duo in cinema history in Laurel & Hardy. Stan Laurel (1890-1965) and Oliver Hardy (1892-1957) started their career as a duo in the silent…
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WolfmanOz at the Movies #49
B movies In old Hollywood, B grade movies identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicised bottom half of a double feature. However, this practice largely ceased by the end of the 1950s with the studios changing their departments into TV production divisions. B movies often represented a particular genre e.g. westerns while low-budget science-fiction and horror…
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WolfmanOz at the Movies #48
Yipee-ki-yay, motherfucker Was the catchphrase used by New York police detective John McClane in the action thriller Die Hard. Since it’s release back in 1988, Die Hard has stood the test of time to be considered one of the best action thrillers ever made. And because of its’ Christmas setting it has become a favourite…
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WolfmanOz at the Movies #46
Biopics . . . have been a staple of cinema for ever and a day in dramatising the life of a historically-based or non-fictional person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and they differ from docudrama films and historical drama films in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a single person’s…
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WolfmanOz at the Movies #45
Great movie endings Sometimes the ending of a movie can elevate it to another level – think of The Bridge On The River Kwai, Casablanca and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest to name a few classics. So the following 3 selections are from lesser known films that have an outstanding ending/climax. With the release…
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WolfmanOz at the Movies #44
Demonic Possession It’s now 49 years ago that William Friedkin’s supernatural horror classic The Exorcist was first released (actually at Xmas in 1973). The film is based on the novel by William Peter Blatty, which it follows very closely in depicting the demonic possession of a young girl and her mother’s attempt to rescue her through…