I was thrilled when this Smilebox Cinerama version of The Wonderful World of The Brothers Grimm was released on Blu Ray earlier this year, and even though it is a relative newcomer to the Slaughtered Lamb Cinema Library, it was a done deal that this would fill the 'W' slot when the time came! Whatever the film may lack, I must say the presentation is excellent. We watched it in the Smilebox format (as we did with  How the West Was Won ) to best replicate the original Cinerama experience. The story of Willhelm and Jacob Grimm frames the feature, with three primary fairy tales presented within the film: "The Dancing Princess," "The Cobbler and the Elves," and "The Singing Bone." If you wonder why you've not heard of these particular fairy tales, producer (and director of fairy-tale sequences) George Pal specifically selected stories for which the audience not already know how they end. Yvette Mimieux and Russ Tamblyn star in "The Dancing Pr...

  When it came to our 'V' movie, we had the potential list narrowed down to two Vampires ... and two Virgins ... and Christopher Lee was the deciding factor to go with The Virgin of Nuremberg .  The film is a classic creature feature. Gothic castle, dungeon full of torture devices, women running around in nightgowns, and creepy disfigured characters wandering around the premises.  Now for surprise numero-uno — the Virgin of Nuremburg of the title isn't one of the gothic maidens running around the castle. Nope! She's a completely different kind of maiden — one of the iron variety! The film wastes no time in giving us a glimpse of a victim with her eyes poked out via said torture device. Or was that just in our character Mary's imagination? Well, once you know her husband Max maintains a museum of torture devices in the family castle, it's not so much of a stretch to believe her.  Surprise numero two-o — this isn't a period film! All the trappings were there, ...

  The tagline proclaims, "Jane Russell as you've never seen her before!" If the way in which you've never seen her before is in fact underwater , chalk one up to truth in advertising. ( Vonna adds that for all the Jane Russell fans, she can be seen in numerous bathing suits and cleavage/leg admiring tropical attire. )  Underwater  seems to me to be a precursor to Peter Benchley's  The Deep  (which I haven't seen, and therefore is a candidate for this series as well). I have to assume with all the ballyhoo about the $3 million dollars and three years spent making it,  Underwater  must have been the first significant widescreen, technicolor film to have been shot, appropriately enough, underwater.  The draw for me was that it was coming from director John Sturges, the man responsible for numerous classics, my favorite being The Great Escape . This film is definitely in a different league than that one (pun intended). The story revolves around two...

I was excited that we were able to screen  Treasure of the Four Crowns  as our second 3D feature of the series. To be fair, the version of the film that we've had in the Slaughtered Lamb Cinema library for years is a pan and scan DVD, so the recent upgrade to widescreen and 3D made this a timely addition. And whereas  A*P*E  was a 3D knock off of the 1976 King Kong remake, Treasure of the Four Crowns serves up a low-rent 3D  Raiders of the Lost Ark .  While there are arguably some over-the-top visual effects that might hold up under 2D viewing, let's put our cards on the table and clarify that the only way you should invest any time with this movie is in its 3D version. I can't imagine that the included red/blue anaglyph 3D version included on the disc is worth watching, but if you have a Blu Ray 3D setup, you can experience film in the most favorable means possible. And this isn't a subtle, look at the cool depth of the shots 3D effort (though the...

We had enjoyed  Starship Troopers  as a popcorn action flick when we saw it in the theater, and hadn't revisited it in years, and never on The Slaughtered Lamb Cinema screen, so for our S movie, I thought it might be fun to experience in Dolby Atmos. Right off the bat you're exposed to jingoistic propaganda that sets the stage for what you're in for. Though I'm not a big fan of the original Robert Heinlein novel, which I read after first seeing the film, Verhoeven has fun satirizing what most consider a right-wing, pro-military novel. At the end of the day, it's easy to enjoy it for what it is at the most basic level — hapless soldiers versus space bugs (which are pretty cool — and refreshingly non-Giger- esque — designs). The film is a loud, boisterous, flashy, non-stop adventure; just what you would expect from the director of Robocop , Total Recall , Basic Instinct and Showgirls ... While the two leads, portrayed by Casper Van Dien and Denise Richards, are pret...

Let's talk about Raise the Titanic. A late seventies star-studded epic featuring: a John ( King Kong ) Berkey poster — check!; a John ( King Kong ) Barry score — check!; and produced by Sir Lew ( Capricorn One ) Grade — check! I waited a long time for a widescreen, HD release of the film, and have held out for the right time to watch it on The Slaughtered Lamb Cinema screen. Thanks to our 52 Pick-Up series, the time was finally right! While I knew the name Clive Cussler from my days working in the bookstore, I was not previously aware that Raise the Titanic was the first of his Dirk Pitt novels to be adapted to the screen. Now, to be fair, only one more ( Sahara , with Matthew McConaughey as Pitt) has been made since then. And to be perfectly honest, Dirk Pitt wasn't the star of Raise the Titanic — it was the ship herself. A 55-foot scale model of the doomed, majestic ocean liner. And who was responsible for the film's extensive model work, might you ask? Would you believe...

Q ! As we've worked our way through the alphabet in this series, this was the only letter for which I had already determined the film several weeks in advance. Though I have owned the film for years, I had never gotten around to watching it (though we did go on a bit of a Larry Cohen-binge after watching Steve Mitchell's great documentary King Cohen ). A stop-motion giant monster movie? What's not to love! I'm pleased to report that we had a great time with it. That's not to say that the film isn't without its rough edges — the film often cuts between scenes abruptly — often where a little finesse with transitions would have come in handy. If I did't know better, I might have assumed that this was a cut version of the film. But that minor gripe aside, it really is a roller-coaster ride.  The film wastes no time getting right down to business, with our winged pal Quetzalcoatl flying around New York (without being seen, mind you), biting heads off window-washe...