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New Release Reviews

Blu-Ray Review: Smooth Talk (Criterion)

The sad news of Treat Williams’s recent death seems particularly poignant ahead of the Criterion Blu-ray release of Smooth Talk, which saw the actor play one of his more menacing roles as Arnold Friend opposite Laura Dern’s teen-tearaway Connie Wyatt.   The film, directed by Joyce Chopra and based on Joyce Carol Oates’s short story […]

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New Release Reviews

New Release: Prey

Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey (2022) simultaneously pays respect to and gently subverts the 1987 Arnie vehicle to which it is a loose prequel. On the one hand, it grounds the franchise in the simple premise that made John McTiernan’s Predator so effective to begin with: two creatures – one human, one extraterrestrial – going head-to-head in […]

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Feature News

Comfort Movies During Self-Isolation: Part II

During this time of global uncertainty and self-isolation, some of our frequent contributors share their top five “comfort movies” that help them get through troubling times. Peruse our list, revisit an old favorite, and perhaps even discover a new movie that may provide some solace.  Share your favorite comfort movies with us @BigPicFilmMag. Kieron Moore […]

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Feature Screengem

Screengem: Ol’ Painless (Predator, 1987)

‘Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion’. So said that famous raconteur and aesthete ‘Stormin’ Norman Schwartzkopf. When John McTiernan dropped his crack troupe of commandos into a Central American jungle meat-grinder in the film Predator he made sure they were packing more than their accordions. Ladies and gentlemen, […]