“Cheap” is the most accurate way to describe Phantasm IV: Oblivion, a direct-to-video sequel that splits time between Mike (an old-looking Michael Baldwin) and Reggie’s (Reggie Bannister) time-traveling fight against The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) and lots of silly, pointless outtakes from the first Phantasm (here presented as “flashbacks”). I guess Don Coscarelli deserves some…

Having already exhausted all the horrific and action-adventure possibilities of his Phantasm series, writer/director Don Coscarelli falls back on mystery-sapping exposition for Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, a direct-to-video catastrophe that continues the story of Mike (Michael Baldwin, returning to the role after James LeGros’ turn in the first sequel) and Reggie’s (Reggie Bannister)…

For Phantasm II, writer/director Don Coscarelli piles on more gore, more tongue-in-cheek humor, and more elaborate set pieces in an attempt to enliven what turns out to be little more than a big-budget rehash of his 1979 cult hit. Seven years after the first film’s events, Mike (now played by a young James LeGros) is…

An example of ambiance making up for incoherence, Don Coscarelli’s dream-like Phantasm is a film that benefits from repeated viewings, as its surrealistic story about a supernatural grave-robber, his demonic hooded dwarfs, and his deadly flying spheres makes next to no sense the first time around. Young Mike (Michael Baldwin) and his super-cool older brother…

Eschewing politics in favor of an intimate look at life in the Marine Corps during 1991’s Gulf War, Sam Mendes’ Jarhead (its title the moniker for marines, whose crew-cut heads resemble jars) functions primarily as a prolonged metaphor about suppressed sexual urges. Reluctantly entering the military because of his father’s distinguished service in Vietnam, Swofford…

More crudely constructed and slightly less gory than the similar Cannibal Holocaust, Umberto Lenzi’s putridly shot Cannibal Ferox (aka Make Them Die Slowly) charts the journey from New York City to the Amazon jungle of a NYU anthropology student named Gloria Davis (Lorraine De Selle), her brother Rudy (Danilo Mattei), and slutty sidekick Pat (Zora…

A stunning tale of survival in which director Werner Herzog once again crafts the portrait of a kindred adventurous spirit, Little Dieter Needs To Fly focuses on Dieter Dengler, a German-American who recounts his youthful dream of being a pilot, his success at fulfilling this aspiration by flying warplanes for the U.S. military during Vietnam,…

Following up his breakthrough hit Halloween, John Carpenter eschewed slasher flick terror in favor of ghost story eeriness with The Fog, an atmospheric tale of the angry undead in which a small California coastal town becomes literally haunted by its past. An ominous fog rolling into Antonio Bay carries with it the sinister spirits of…