Foster on Film

2012 was an excellent year for fantasy, science fiction, and horror films…at the top…but it didn’t have a lot of depth. I’ll ignore mediocrity for now and focus on the winners. #5 Upside Down I’m starting with a cheat. I can’t say that Upside Down is the 5th best genre film of the year, even

Ah, the Bond title sequence. It is as iconic as Bond himself, or at least has been since the playbook was completed with Thunderball: Beautiful female silhouettes undulating about with weapons pointed at them or in their hands against surreal backdrops. Good ones can set the film up. Bad ones pull the audience down. I’m

I was asked by a friend (yes, a real one, not just a Facebook one) what the Best ‘50s—early ‘60s science fiction films were. I asked if we were talking “best” or “most important” and he said “Why not both?” As I’ve just finished a panel at Dragon Con on the subject, and making that

The second of the Big Three horror icons (Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr.), Boris Karloff found stardom with Frankenstein after struggling in silent films. He was grateful for his success and never minded being typecast, and typecast he was. If he wasn’t a monster, a monstrous servant, or a crazed killer, he was a mad doctor.

I remember years when getting a dozen fantasy and science fiction films was impressive. 2017 gave us 59. Yeah, if you look carefully you might find another or three, but I think I’ve done my share so this is my final ranking for the year. And its been a good year not only for having

I discovered Renaissance in the early ‘80s and was sucked into the beauty of their music. I hadn’t heard anything like them, and while I’ve run into copies and bands treading similar ground since, there’s nothing like the original. Back before “progressive rock” was a term, there was Renaissance, which along with Genesis  and Yes,

Once again, a musical list that no one asked for, but it was on my mind, so here it is. Gabriel has been one of my favorite artists from before I had any idea on who he was. He was the mind behind the progressive band Genesis, and when he left it, so did most

Overrated does not mean bad. That’s obvious, but I feel I need to point that out to save myself from hate-filled emails. None of these would five would fit on my worst of 2012 list. There are things so much worse. These films are watchable, but have garnered far more praise than they deserve. #5

To go with my ranking of all of the Bond films last week, here is my ranking of the Bond villains. Everyone always says that the villain makes the Bond film. I don’t think so. But there is some relationship. I’m going with main villains, as there are lots and lots of villains. Henches will

Sure, I’m still doing these–and one I was working on required some re-watching, so I went with Hope for today. Bob Hope was such a dominant comedian when I was a kid that is is bizarre to see how he is slipping from public consciousness. He also wan’t a very good comic when I was

Edward G. Robinson was one of the kings of early gangster cinema (along with Jimmy Cagney, George Raft, and their second banana, Humphrey Bogart).Things changed in a decade, with old-style crime movies fading, replaced by war movies and Film Noir, and elevating Bogart over the other three. But most of Robinson’s best films came after

No man has personified a film genre like Errol Flynn. He is the icon of Swashbuckling. He was rarely acclaimed for his acting, which is unfortunate. He may have been limited both in his abilities and in his opportunities, but given the right part, no one was better. Who else could wear tights and project