Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

The R-Rating As a Selling Point: When Films Become Preoccupied With Their Rating

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Tom Jolliffe looks at when films become pre-occupied with their rating…. We’ve seen this become increasingly more common. A reboot, a remake, or just as a counter to other films in the genre, there comes a desire to market a film as being (almost rebelliously) R rated. This weekend in fact, sees a prime example. […]

Cinema and the End of the World As We Know It

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Tom Jolliffe takes a look at cinema’s end of the world fascination… As we sit in the age of Trump (currently unfazed by the plight of climate change, and skating on a sheet of thin ice as far as North Korean relations) and Brexit, aforementioned climate issues, and a general sense that democratic systems aren’t […]

90s Video Action Stars Part II – Jeff Wincott, Michael Dudikoff, Mark Dacascos and Cynthia Rothrock

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Tom Jolliffe continues his look back at 90’s video action stars (read the first part here)…  As I continue on with my 90’s action rampage, revisiting those VHS purveyors of fisticuffs and footicuffs (footicuffs?), I find myself already suffering brain degradation. Some films I revisit have blurred in my memory and re-watching only confirms what […]

Essential Cinema: Wake In Fright

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Tom Jolliffe takes a look back at the Australian outback classic, Wake In Fright… Occasionally I’ll see a film which almost escaped attention upon initial release. Perhaps a great piece of cinema that didn’t quite stick upon its release. Wake In Fright, a key landmark in Australian cinema never quite captured the world outside the […]

Goblins, Monsters, Brown Loafers and Paranoid Schizophrenia: The True Nature of Labyrinth

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Tom Jolliffe goes deep underground in the Labyrinth to uncover a darker underbelly… Celebrating its 33rd anniversary, the cult kids classic, Labyrinth has grown in reputation over the years. Initially an unsuccessful theatrical release, critically dismissed (as many kids films tended to be then), it has spent the best part of 32 years invading the […]

90s Video Action Stars Part III – Hulk Hogan, Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson, Loren Avedon, Jeff Speakman and Bobbie Phillips

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Tom Jolliffe returns with the latest instalment of the 90s Video Action Stars Rampage [read part one and part two]… At this stage in my revisit of 90’s video action stars, I find myself not only dredging through the dark recesses of my brain in order to think up who to run the rule over […]

A Little Bit Of Love For Tom Cruise

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Tom Jolliffe shows his appreciation for Tom Cruise on the actor’s 57th birthday… Approaching 40 years in the industry. Tom Cruise has spent over 30 of those as a superstar. He’s been a box office behemoth. A star turn, a headliner and a poster boy for blockbuster pulling power. He’s also been maligned and dismissed. […]

Why Cinema Needs Nicolas Cage Cranked Up to 11

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Tom Jolliffe on why Nicolas Cage at his wildest is a gift to cinema… To say Nic Cage is a divisive character would be quite the understatement. Likewise, as an actor. You could say, with great understatement, that he’s an oddball. As an actor, you could also say he tends to be most known for […]

90s Video Action Stars Part IV – Gary Daniels, Joe Lara, C. Thomas Howell and Thomas Ian Griffith

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Tom Jolliffe with the latest delve back to the video shelf with 90’s video action stars [read part one, part two and part three]… With so many 90’s action icons worked through already, you’d imagine I was beginning to struggle for subjects to cover. You’d be mistaken. It feels like I’ve barely scratched the surface […]

Enter The Muscles from Brussels: The Jean-Claude Van Damme Tournament Fight Film

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Tom Jolliffe looks at Jean-Claude Van Damme’s history of tournament fight films… If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. For a while in the earlier career of Jean-Claude Van Damme, that seemed to be more or less the case. When Enter the Dragon ended up as a cultural and cinematic phenomenon, a host of imitators […]