The Original Black Christmas, Revisited

Merry Christmas, everyone… or Happy Holidays, whichever one you prefer. I’ll announce now that there will be no review posted by me on Christmas itself. I’ll likely watch Die Hard but I already have three reviews of that posted on Letterboxd and a 4th isn’t really needed. I might also view other films that don’t need additional reviews either. However, I hadn’t seen the OG Black Christmas in years and I was happy to review this again-even if my opinions are the same as in the first review.

The film is still a Canuxploitation classic, a progenitor to the slasher genre, and a quality horror film all wrapped up w/ a bow on top. The film follows the members of a sorority in Canada who are not only harassed by an extremely creepy obscene phone caller who says the most vile comments that can’t be repeated here, a weirdo has entered and hides in their sorority house. For those that identify as female, if the idea of a gross man saying vile things to you on the phone isn’t blood-curdling, some man hiding in your house and committing murders will be.

What I seem to always forget about Black Christmas: how hilarious it can be. I’ll never forget Margot Kidder’s Barb, the blunt alcoholic who offered the film’s most hysterical moments. However, the house mother’s also an alcoholic and especially in the first half, I laughed often. There’s even a bumbling cop-insert your own pithy comment if you wish. That said, when there’s drama and horror, the film succeeds with the chilling atmosphere, the memorable characters, the brutal kills, the 70’s wood paneling, the measured pacing, the eerie score from Carl Zittrer.

Viewing this made me remember that I never tipped my cap to the late Olivia Hussey, who a few days from now passed away one year ago. While only a few of her movies have been tackled by me, I’ve never had a beef with her and she was arguably the highlight as the lead who not only had to deal with being terrorized, but she has a problem w/ her boyfriend Keir Dullea and isn’t afraid to stand up for her feminist rights. The rest of the cast is fine, including Art Hindle and the great John Saxon.

What is especially appreciated now when compared to modern films in general: the ambiguity, the plot points that aren’t fully explained. Those moments left a mystery arguably makes the picture more petrifying. The movie is a horror classic even if you divorce the impact Black Christmas had on the genre and only focus on the plot that unfurled on screen. The ending was a punch to the gut, in the best ways.

The 2006 remake and the 2019 remake are both bad films even if they would have had different names and no connection to the 1974 movie. The OG Black Christmas, on the other hand, I was happy to witness again-even if the picture isn’t a cheery, heartwarming affair full of mirth. Again, I’ll wish everyone a non-denominational Happy Holidays.

Kin-Dza-Dza!

Kin-Dza-Dza! (1986)

Runtime: 132 minutes

Directed by: Georgiy Daneliya

Starring: Stanislav Lyubshin, Levan Gabriadze, Yury Yakovlev, Yevgeny Leonov, Nikolai Garo

From: Mosfilm

“A Soviet comedy” turned out better than you might expect. For years I’ve known of this sci-fi comedy film; as Arrow recently added it to their streaming service via Deaf Crocodile (I’d be happy if they added more releases from the Deaf Crocodile label) last night felt the time to finally give the movie a shot, despite the long length of over 2 hours.

I was worried how the comedy popular in a Communist country would translate to a modern capitalist heathen like myself. To “borrow” a phrase, this is “Mad Max meets Monty Python by way of Tarkovsky.” Apparently, fans of Kurt Vonnegut might also dig this. A middle-aged dude named Vladimir Mashkov (not the Russian actor who was in Behind Enemy Lines and Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol) and a young Georgian named Gedevan Alexidze randomly meet each other as they interact w/ an old guy claiming to be an alien. Hysterically, he says he stole clothing from a bum as if was Kyle Reese!

The alien has a teleportation device but doesn’t know how to give home. The two Soviets of course don’t believe him-Vladimir presses a button and suddenly both Vladimir and Gedevan are on the planet Pluke in the Kin-Dza-Dza galaxy. What follows is wacky absurd humor as they meet a pair of odd dudes and discover the planet’s language is one where most words are pronounced as “Groot”… er, I mean “Koo”, it’s a post-apocalyptic desert planet (most of this was filmed in Turkmenistan, i.e. a country that’s had a horrible human rights record since the fall of the Soviet Union but that’s not germane to the conversation) where matchsticks are currency and other oddities won’t be spoiled by me. I can say that the violin Gedevan has-which isn’t even his, but long story-was used as the power of music means the same across the universe.

Soviet/Russian cinema until last night was best-known to me for the Tarkovsky films & Come and See. There are other genres I’ve checked out but at least in the case of Dza, the wacky absurd comedy stylings did entertain me. Terry Gilliam is another comparison I heard, specifically Brazil. I now understand why this oddity is a cult film around the world and was (is?) still popular in Russia/the surrounding environs.

January and perhaps 2026 in general, I hope to have at least a bit more variety in what is viewed/reviewed. More documentaries, foreign films from the likes of Russia-including comedies-various oddities, etc. Thank goodness Kin-Dza-Dza! translated well to a 2025 capitalist pig like myself.

Have Rocket, Will Travel, Revisited

Now was the time to see The Three Stooges during their Curly Joe era. As I saw all 190 of their shorts at Columbia during 2025, it felt right to see the first time Curly Joe DeRita was part of the Stooges. After the shorts department at Columbia shut down and the Stooges were unceremoniously fired, Joe Besser left the act due to his wife’s health. DeRita was hired as he was also a veteran comedian who’d been around for decades. He shaved his head to accentuate his faint resemblance to Curly. The Stooges became popular on television so Columbia decided to capitalize by making this movie, using the sci-fi genre as those pictures were also popular at the time.

I now appreciate Have Rocket, Will Travel more than in the past now having seen all their routines on film from 1934 to 1959. Of course, the movie’s a silly affair where the trio have the blue-collar job of “maintenance men in this universe’s version of NASA.” Like with the attempts at exploring outer space at the time, many failures occurred. A rocket crashed right by where the Stooges lived. They do the nice thing and attempt to help Norwegian scientist Anna-Lisa (a pretty blonde from Norway) before the entire affair is shut down. They attempt to create better rocket fuel, and like what would commonly happen in their shorts, they accidentally succeeded.

As they were victims of circumstance (i.e. victims of soicumstance) they end up on the rocket as it lifts off and lands on Venus, where bizarre sights are seen & heard-including a kaiju-sized tarantula -along with villains that create robot duplicates of the Stooges. Me, I was happy to see modifications of old routines, along with new ones such as the boys dealing w/ the lack of gravity in space. Uncommon but not unheard of: Moe, Larry, & Curly Joe sing! Yes, it was the film’s theme song.

Ultimately, DeRita acclimated himself rather quickly to the role of Third Stooge, the movie felt more alive than too many of their shorts the last few years at Columbia, the rehashing of such ideas as “The Stooges poke fun at high society” didn’t feel hackneyed, and the movie was an easy 75-minute watch. I’ll only watch those movies on rare occasions yet it was nice to see the boys after viewing all 190 of their shorts in 2025. Of course Rocket wasn’t a classic like their best shorts from the glory days; at the same time, the movie still entertained me.

As a sidenote, I can’t speak for the public appearances the trio did all the way to 1970-when both Moe and Larry experienced failing health-but this was the last time an eyepoke was done by the Stooges in a film. Evidently, parents carped loudly that their children were poking each other without the foreknowledge of how the Stooges did it without injury.

Naked

Naked (1993)

Runtime: 131 minutes

Directed by: Mike Leigh

Starring: David Thewlis, Lesley Sharp, Katrin Cartlidge, Greg Cruttwell,  Claire Skinner

From: Thin Man Films

Another great movie I won’t watch again. Before last night, the only Mike Leigh film I’d seen was 1983’s Meantime, a dreary yet captivating look at a family struggling during a recession in Thatcher’s England. I knew enough about Naked going in that it wouldn’t be an easy watch-that was proven to be the case once I finally watched the film via a DVR recording made when it showed on Turner Classic Movies way back 6 months ago.

David Thewlis was Johnny, an unemployed lout who constantly smokes cigarettes when he isn’t having sex or trying to have sex-an intellectual type who believes in conspiracy theories… and is a terrible human being. Turns out, he wasn’t the only terrible man shown in Naked. The women are also struggling in a miserable nihilistic look at a UK post-Thatcher but even if he’s arguably not the worst man you witnessed in the picture, Johnny is a misanthrope that sucks the energy and light out of a room like a vampire, but not before souring the entire atmosphere of the area-it was almost like he salted the ground, preventing anything to grow from the ground.

Naked is not an easy watch; as expected going in, not only is the language as crass as I’d expect from this sort of British movie, the world as presented is an unpleasant one. After all, the movie BEGINS with a sexual assault, and it’s not the only one you see in Naked. Yet, the journey was captivating despite the grim nature. Despite all the F-bombs and other words I can’t say in full, there’s acres of memorable dialogue. The direction, cinematography, and score set the mood and fit the story. Yet, it’s the cast that delivered, especially David Thewlis as Johnny. This fascinating role catapulted him into high-profile roles ever since. Sure, that meant appearing in the awesomely bad Island of Dr. Moreau remake but I’ve seen him in the likes of Wonder Woman and I understand he was swell in those Harry Potter movies.

It'd be a crime to reveal much more, re: Naked. The title was apropos-there are naked people throughout, including full-frontal from Thewlis if that’s your thing.

Silent Night, Bloody Night

Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972)

Runtime: 85 minutes

Directed by: Theodore Gershuny

Starring: Mary Woronov, James Patterson, Patrick O'Neal, Astrid Heeran, John Carradine

From: Cannon!

Tis the season for me to finally see this proto-slasher film. I’d like to call it Silent Night, Deadly Night, despite viewing a print on YouTube calling it Deathouse (its IMDb title) and Letterboxd using its original release title Night of the Dark Full Moon. The film had 70’s pacing (which I know not everyone loves) but I was enthralled throughout.

The film starts with the owner of a rural house in a small bucolic New York town in 1950-Wilfred Butler-being lit on fire and subsequently passing away. Two decades later, Wilfred’s grandson Jeffrey comes to town to sell the house. His middle-aged lawyer John Carter (not from Mars) arranges for the sale of a creepy building. Carter has a much-younger mistress named Ingrid. While Astrid Heeren was a lovely model turned actress during this period, Carter had a wife and at least one child, so I can’t condone the affair. Running concurrently with that and Jeffrey meeting w/ Mary Woronov (in her debut as the mayor’s daughter), an unknown figure escaped from a mental hospital and kills w/ an ax. This includes a dog, regrettably.

I dare not reveal more about this moody chiller. The mixed reviews on Letterboxd are understandable; me, I enjoyed the film’s hypnotic qualities, the rural setting, the mysteries, John Carradine as a mute, how it’d pair well w/ Messiah of Evil, how it’d also pair well w/ Black Christmas due to more than one plot point, how it was a progenitor to the slasher genre, the presence of several Andy Warhol Players, Lloyd Kaufman as an associate producer, and how Cannon released the film.

No matter the title you wish to use, Silent Night, Bloody Night was an influential horror picture I was happy to have finally partaken in, especially a few days before Christmas.

Urban Justice

Urban Justice (2007)

Runtime: 96 minutes

Directed by: Don E. FauntLeRoy

Starring: Steven Seagal, Eddie Griffin, Carmen Serrano, Kirk B.R. Woller, Jade Yorker

From: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Steven Seagal put someone in the Camel Clutch… and presumably killed them!

If you’re wondering why in the world I would watch and review a random direct to video picture from a reprobate like Seagal, there’s a good reason: despite not remembering that he put someone in the Camel Clutch (broke his back and made him humble!), I actually saw this long ago. I believe it was ’09 that the former Spike TV had on some show where some dude interviewed people in Hollywood while showing a film… which had nothing to do with the film being shown-I don’t know why either. In any case, they showed an edited for TV version of Urban Justice and from hearsay, this was one of the better Seagal DTV efforts.

The punchline is which director was on while they played Urban Justice. It was… UWE BOLL, I swear this is true. No, the all-timer moment did not happen—Boll did NOT talk about Seagal or Seagal’s movies, which I’m still a little salty about. I was still amused to hear Ol’ Uve talk about his pictures. As for Urban, Ol’ Steven in “the hood” is as wacky as you’d imagine.

I also did not recall that he allowed himself to be a middle-aged badass who had an adult son police officer. Son Max is a good cop who is murdered; in fact, involved in the execution were dirty cops… insert your own pithy comments if you so desire. The movie was full of cliché and offered few surprises, although wasn’t terrible in my eyes. Yea, it’s a hood movie full of vulgar language & F-bombs-in hindsight, I don’t know how they made a TV edit!-which I didn’t love… although in more than one scene that was so prevalent I laughed because it was like a parody.

Yes, Seagal was portly by this point and was stationary as he did his martial arts; editing and camera movements were a great asset. In his 2010 movies, he evidently mostly sat down and hardly did any movement whatsoever! Most of those sound worthless. This in contrast was a standard generic action film which has the hilarity of EDDIE GRIFFIN as the lead heel-at least he was a funny villain at times-and a glorified cameo from Danny Trejo.

To its credit, Seagal did more than typical for his DTV era (again, this is hearsay talking), there were giant squibs used for gunshots, and there was lip service paid to the moral issues revolving around getting revenge. For all the movie’s faults, there were some merits and wasn’t unintelligible as evidently most of his 21st century movies were. Yes, Seagal is a bad person IRL and yes, his appearance the past several years is best described as “pregnant with rhinoceros.” I was still glad to have seen Urban Justice in unedited form.

Perhaps I was delighted to finally hear a line that someone I know on a messageboard occasionally brought up as a gag. In a room where he just beat up a gaggle of Black gangbangers, hearing Steven Seagal utter, “Imma be doing the f*****’ now!” was as outrageous as you’d imagine.

Sholay, Revisited

Yes, I saw the famed 1975 Indian movie again-and the first time since late 2016... but this time on the big screen: 

So, I got to see Sholay on the big screen last night. It wasn’t until Tuesday evening that I discovered a Cinemark cinema in Orlando was playing this legendary Hindi-language film until the 19th.

People of South Asian heritage (no matter if you live in India or elsewhere) will likely be delighted I got to see the movie that way. Those not familiar: research plus reviews on Letterboxd paint the picture that Sholay is still one of the most popular & beloved films in the history of Indian cinema—no small feat for a country rich in cinema featuring flicks in many different languages. The cultural impact of that movie-to the point that more than a few lines of dialogue are known to everyone in India-can be read on Sholay’s Wiki page. I’ll explain why I was happy to revisit the picture, this time on the big screen.

Sholay can be seen as a riff on The Magnificent Seven; I say that rather than The Seven Samurai because Sholay can be imaged as a Western set in rural India. A former police officer who now lives in a remote village hires two lovable scoundrels he met a few years ago (who helped him fight off bandits on a train in the first of numerous exciting action setpieces) to capture Gabbar Singh, a vile villain w/ no redeeming qualities who raids the village often.

As it’s a masala movie from India, this means a mix of many different genres & tones. There’s wacky comedy that did not always hit the mark with a dumb white guy like me-the purpose of a prison warden who is modeled after Chaplin’s character in The Great Dictator (including Hitler mustache) is lost on me-suspense, pathos, shootouts, explosions, romance, tearjerking moments, and yes, musical numbers.

As typical, those were catchy tunes featuring well-choreographed routines. I was most captivated by the musical number dedicated to Holi, a Hindu holiday where colored powder and colored water are sprayed/thrown all around. Also unsurprising to me was how the relationship between the two male leads came off as (to a dumb ignorant white guy in America, anyhow) homoerotic. I’ve never sat on a mate’s shoulders while playing harmonica, or vice versa!

Moments that are culturally curious to me aside, I had a great time getting the unexpected experience of seeing classic cinema from another country at a mainstream cinema in Orlando. The story was compelling, never too overwrought or convoluted. Unlike too many modern movies, instead of a pathetic weakling of a villain, Gabbar Singh was a terrifying heel, a credible threat who reveled in being an evil bastard. Amjad Khan arguably was the highlight as Gabbar but our heroes (Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, and the recently-departed Dharmendra) also were memorable, as were the main women parts as brought to life by Hema Malani and Jaya Bhaduri.

You don’t need to be South Asian to enjoy Sholay and its main themes-revenge, heartbreak, bravery, sacrifice, love, etc. The cut I saw last night was only a minute shorter than Seven Samurai—while a full meal, I was happy the theatrical experience was brought close to home-if not for Sinners, this would be the best film I saw theatrically in 2025, regardless of year of original release. This also contained none of the bombastic, preposterous, OOT moments that is sometimes found in modern Indian film-perhaps it would be better for me if I sought out more classic cinema from the country.

To clarify, the version I checked out last night-the restored version-is a 206-minute Director’s Cut. Not only is that version in 2.20:1 widescreen, the most violent moments (including the original ending) restored; the 1975 theatrical cut had those violent bits excised by the censors. In any event, this is a highly rousing picture I can recommend to anyone.