By Ricky D
www.SordidCinema.com
Nobody Movie Review Nobody doesn’t break new ground for the action genre, but director Ilya Naishuller’s fight sequences and stunt choreography are so good— and Bob Odenkirk’s performance is so great— it’s essential viewing for any fan of action cinema. This week on...
The Book of Boba Fett Season One Review This week on After Dark, Marc Kariloff of The Nintendo NEXpress Podcast joined to talk about The Book of Boba Fett. With a lot of sand and a bit of pathos, Star Wars is finally telling the story...
After an 11-year gap, Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson’s megabuck meta-slasher Scream franchise came back with the fourth installment in 2011, and to mark the occasion, Ricky D, Justine Smith and Simon Howell went back and dissect the original trilogy...
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Following up from our epic Lord of the Rings ‘cast, Ricky D and Simon Howell had to find a way to keep the ante high to discuss The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. They could think of nothing better than to...
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Review With The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey looming, we faced a problem: how do we tackle Peter Jackson’s epic, 11-hour (if we go by Extended Editions) Lord of the Rings saga without going insane? Ricky D and Simon...
Heels Season One Podcast Review This week on After Dark, we invited Mariko McDonald of the Talk AEW Podcast to discuss Heels! You don’t have to be a professional wrestling fan to fall head over heels in love with the new STARZ series starring Stephen Amell....
Yellowjackets Season One Podcast Review Welcome to Sordid Cinema After Dark, a series of bonus episodes in which we break down our favourite shows, past and present. Join Randy Dankievitch, Ricky D, and rotating guests as they discuss the current state of television...
The Matrix: Down the Rabbit Hole The Matrix is a movie made of groundbreaking special effects, superb martial arts combat, and mind-bending science fiction. It’s a movie that was not only ahead of its time but has stood the test of time...
Censor Review The act of censorship cuts deep into the heart of Censor, a slick first feature from Welsh writer/director Prano Bailey-Bond. Censor is a nostalgic treat for anyone old enough to remember the infamous “video nasties” scare of the early eighties but it’s also...
James Wan’s impact on contemporary horror is undeniable. The Malaysian-born Australian filmmaker is not only the co-creator of the Saw and Insidious franchises but he’s also the creator of The Conjuring Universe, the second highest-grossing horror franchise of all time. Marking his return...
The Beta Test Review Writer-director-actor Jim Cummings’ made a splash with Thunder Road and The Wolf of Snow Hollow, two independently produced films that were both very well received on the American indie circuit. His latest, The Beta Test, co-written and directed with its co-star PJ...
Spider-Man: No Way Home Podcast Review Not even the pandemic can stop millions of people from flocking to theatres to watch the third installment of John Watt’s Spider-Man trilogy starring Tom Holland as everyone’s favourite neighborhood Spider-man! Spider-Man: No Way Home unwrapped the best...
Scream (1996) Review Wes Craven’s Scream was an unexpected smash hit in 1996, revitalizing the horror genre and inspiring a new generation of self-knowing teen slasher films. For a generation of kids, Scream provided a gateway to horror movies, but how does it hold up 25...
Succession Podcast Special! Fans already buying what Succession is selling won’t need us to convince them why they should be watching the show but in this episode of the Sordid Cinema Podcast, we do our best to convince everyone else why...
One False Move Spoiler Review This week on the Sordid Cinema Podcast, we explain why we agree with Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel that Carl Franklin’s low-budget crime pic One False Move, is one of the best films of 1992. Scripted by Thom...
Anyone who’s even remotely familiar with Quebec cinema will know his name: Xavier Dolan is currently Canada’s chief prestige cinematic export, for better or worse. On episode 398 of the Sordid Cinema Podcast (then known as Sound On Sight), Kate...
Dune 2021 Review There’s a lot to like about Denis Villeneuve’s version of Frank Herbert’s Dune and this week on the Sordid Cinema Podcast we discuss what we admire about the Montreal filmmakers’ adaptation of the complex, weighty sci-fi novel and how it compares to...
Cube (1997) Review This week on the Sordid Cinema Podcast, we revisit Vincenzo Natali’s 1997 science-fiction horror film Cube; a low-budget, high-concept, mind-bending, sci-fi-thriller that revolves around people trying to escape a giant cube made of 17,576 different rooms, some of which...
Squid Game Podcast Review You might think we’re late with our review of Squid Game, but we swear, it was all by design. Now that the hype has whittled down, we decided to sit back and discuss the Netflix phenomenon and why we...
No Time To Die Podcast Review With the help of certified Bond nut and ex-co-host Edgar Chaput, Ricky and Simon take a look at the gargantuan newest entry in the venerable (or at least very, very old) action series, which provides a definitive sendoff for...
David Lynch Special Part 1: Mulholland Drive Review In what turned out to be one of the most epic conversations in our podcast’s history, Ricky, Simon, and Edgar Chaput were joined by David Lynch superfan and friend of the show Kate Rennebohm...
Midnight Mass Review This week on the Sordid Cinema Podcast, we discuss Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass, the Netflix series which some critics are calling one of the best shows of 2021. The seven-episode creature feature smartly weaves together vampire tropes with biblical texts, blending horror with...
Nosferatu the Vampyre Review This week, we take a look back at Nosferatu – no, not that one! Werner Herzog’s 1979 stab at the Dracula mythos, Nosferatu the Vampyre, complete with the great and terrible Klaus Kinski as the titular ghoul, is the one we’re...
The Big Sleep (1946) Podcast Review Sex, drugs, gambling, pornography, murder — not the topics one normally thinks of when picturing a Humphrey Bogart movie, but they’re just the tip of the iceberg of dirty dealings in Howard Hawks’ adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s The Big...
The Suicide Squad Podcast Review This week on the Sordid Cinema Podcast, we discuss James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, a movie that’s not only edgy, sharp, and funny but directed with so much style and verve, it’s one of the most entertaining comic book...
To Live and Die in L.A. Review We continue our informal, intermittent series on grimy cops vs crooks genre movies (see also: Drug War, King of New York, Hard Boiled) with William Friedkin’s slick-but-gritty 1985 thriller To Live and Die in L.A. With its amoral characters, full-frontal...
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Old, the latest thriller from the endlessly inventive — if not always successful — director M. Night Shyamalan, has critics divided. Some argue the film features an intriguing concept, but its execution is extremely...
Psycho III Review Reviving Norman Bates for the decade of slasher movies was a no-brainer, but Psycho II dove too deep into irrelevant lore and forgot about the fun. Thankfully, director and star Anthony Perkins righted the wrongs of Norman’s past with the wickedly...
A Quiet Place: Part II Review New movie! Remember new movies? Those still come out on occasion. Simon decided it was time to treat the Sordid Cinema audience to something a little more contemporary than usual, so it’s time to dissect John Krasinski’s A...
Sleepaway Camp Review This week on the Sordid Cinema Podcast, Ricky D, Patrick Murphy, and Simon Howell travel back to 1983 and review Richard Hiltzik’s deeply gay-coded Sleepaway Camp. The crew discusses the many different interpretations of the film and breaks down the...
Babe: Pig in the City Podcast Review Originally dismissed by most critics and audiences as too dour and scary for children, George Miller’s Babe: Pig in the City holds up today as a beautiful, haunting portrait of the toll an urban existence can take on...
Terminator 2 Review In 1984, director James Cameron created the Terminator franchise. His film of the same name explored a war between humanity and sentient machines, in which victory could only be assured by sending a naked bodybuilder back in time. Seven years...
Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning Review When is a direct-to-video beat-’em-up also a brutally dark meditation on mortality, identity, and the cyclical nature of violence? When it’s John Hyams’ Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning! This hyperviolent action-horror-sci-fi hybrid divides us: is it a...
The Cable Guy Review He came…He saw…He tormented… There are plenty of overnight success stories in Hollywood, but none quite like Jim Carey’s rise to fame. After a stint on In Living Color, Carey transitioned to the big screen with Ace Ventura, which became a...
Powerful organizations shrouded in secrecy, pulling strings from the shadows, snuffing out all who would dare expose the truth to an unsuspecting populace… It’s hard not to love conspiracy thrillers, and 1970s movie theaters were chock full of them. This...
Drug War (2012) Review Do you love crime movies but wish they’d just jettison all that junk you don’t really need? You know, love interests? Backstories? Metaphors? Who needs ’em? Johnnie To sure didn’t when he put together 2013’s grim, single-minded Drug War,...
Raiders of the Lost Arc Review It’s a movie celebrating how they used to make ’em — and yet, they don’t make ’em like Raiders of the Lost Ark anymore. Steven Spielberg’s action masterpiece has aged easily as well as the most valuable cinematic...
Super 8 Review After a year of anticipation through teasers, images, and speculation, J. J. Abrams’s third feature Super 8 (featuring his first original screenplay) was released in 2011 to much an overwhelming amount of hype. Fans expected big things while critics seemed out...
Mission: Impossible 1996 Film Review The Mission: Impossible franchise may be more known today for its death-defying stunts and blistering action, but director Brian De Palma brought different sensibilities to the very first production of this longstanding Tom Cruise vehicle. 1996’s Mission: Impossible is...
Hard Boiled Review This week on Sordid Cinema, we travel back to 1992, and for the first time ever on the podcast, we sit down to review a John Woo film. And not just any John Woo film, but arguably one of the single...
Point Blank (1967) Review Way back on episode 126 of the Sordid Cinema Podcast, we reviewed John Boorman’s gritty, raw crime drama Point Blank, featuring superb performances by Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson. The 1967 thriller combines elements of film noir with stylistic...
Black Coal, Thin Ice Review For our first non-English feature in a minute, we take a trip to Heilongjiang Province to dissect Black Coal, Thin Ice, Diao Yinan’s grim 2014 neo-noir. (Its successor, the more widely-seen The Wild Goose Lake, may, or may not be...
The legend of King Arthur has never been lacking in cinematic retellings, but none can compare to John Boorman’s gorgeous and thematically faithful Excalibur. From the vast and tangled web of source material, the director of Point Blank and Deliverance distills the epic myth down...
White Men Can’t Jump Review In 1992, Ron Shelton wrote and directed one of the greatest sports movies of all time starring a then relatively unknown Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrleslon who was previously only known for his work as the fifth...
Ravenous (1999) Review In one of our most spirited episodes in recent memory, the gang unites with guest Mike Worby to sing the praises of Antonia Bird’s gonzo 1999 cannibal shocker Ravenous. Is it a horror movie, a western, a cannibalism drama, a homoerotic...
The Guest Review Way back in 2014, we sat down to discuss The Guest, a pretty crafty genre pastiche written by Simon Barrett and directed by Adam Wingard of You’re Next fame. The film follows a soldier who introduces himself to the Peterson family, claiming...
Beyond Thunderdome and Fury Road In what was supposed to be the very last episode of Sordid Cinema (before we decided to bring back the show), we recorded the second part of our Mad Max extravaganza. In this episode, we start...
Max Max and The Road Warrior The release of Mad Max: Fury Road, George Miller’s triumphant return to the franchise he created 36 years prior (!), prompted us to record a two-part extravaganza devoted to Miller’s series of post-apocalyptic thrillers. We get to Fury Road in...
Apocalypto Review This week the Sordid Cinema Podcast gets to the (ahem) heart of what makes Mel Gibson’s 2006 action-epic, Apocalypto, still such a thrilling watch. The simple story of a Mayan villager brutally kidnapped in order to be ritually sacrificed to appease...
