You know the hoary cinematic chestnut of the retiring cop whose last day proves quite the pickle? The reality-rooted The Wave ups that finality ante with a frickin’ tsunami! Not for nothing did this taut thriller become the year’s biggest deal in its home country of Norway, where the scenario depicted is expected to happen in … Continue reading The Wave (2015)→
The Towering Inferno, by the numbers: • 138 stories, stands San Francisco’s brand-new Glass Tower • 300 partygoers celebrating this massive erection — the world’s largest • $2 million saved by going with electric wiring inferior to the architect’s specifications • one fire caused as a result • and nearly three hours of star-studded cheese … Continue reading The Towering Inferno (1974)→
Should you choose to take a wine tour of Chile, pack a football helmet and an autograph book — the former in case of earthquakes; the latter because you just might run into Selena Gomez. That Spring Breakers starlet makes an uncredited cameo in Aftershock, a shaky quake pic more interested in a retching scale … Continue reading Aftershock (2013)→
That buzz you hear is The Swarm, disaster mogul Irwin Allen’s speculative epic about killer bees. As far as that subject goes, this one runs a distant second to 1991’s coming-of-age dramedy My Girl (Macaulay Culkin, nooooo!), but with Allen at the rare helm (he functioned not as director, but as producer for the influential … Continue reading The Swarm (1978)→
Keep your expectations low to the ground when slithering your way into Calamity of Snakes. This is, after all, a Hong Kong film whose opening credits include such crew positions as “lighiting” and “propesman.” However, Bruceploitation-vet director and co-writer Chi Chang makes up for any spelling errors with serpents, and lots of ’em. Our hero … Continue reading Calamity of Snakes (1983)→