Cinema Shock

"I'm a fifty terrabyte, self-evolving, neural network, double backflip off the high platform. I'm not a swan dive."

For the next entry in our Virtual Insanity series, we’re diving headfirst into the world of early virtual reality—and the filmmaker who helped bring it to the big screen. This week, we're going behind the scenes on VIRTUOSITY, the 1995 cyber thriller starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. But before we get ther...

"I can carry nearly eighty gigs of data in my head."

For our Cinema Shock summer series, we wanted to take a look back at a few movies that were celebrating significant anniversaries this year. When we began browsing films released in 1995, we noticed an interesting trend: There was a glut of cyber thrillers released that year. And more specifically, cyber thrillers that dealt with the concept of virtual reality. 

This probably sho...

"I want to get online... I need a computer!"

For our Cinema Shock summer series, we wanted to take a look back at a few movies that were celebrating significant anniversaries this year. When we began browsing films released in 1995, we noticed an interesting trend: There was a glut of cyber thrillers released that year. And more specifically, cyber thrillers that dealt with the concept of virtual reality. 

This probably shouldn't b...

“Please watch out for each other and love and forgive everybody. It's a good life, enjoy it.”

Over the course of this series, we've come to not only love Jim Henson's work even more than we already did, but we've come to love and appreciate the person that Jim Henson was. In a cynical world, Henson was a beacon of hope and optimism and he spent his entire career — his entire life — trying to share that optimism with the world at la...

"Everything I've done, I've done for you. I move the stars for no one.”

After the release of THE DARK CRYSTAL — and its critical and commercial failure — Jim Henson and his collaborator on that project, illustrator Brian Froud, went back to the drawing board for their next ambitious fantasy project.

Utilizing the lessons that they’d learned on that film, they looked to craft another story with the same amount of imagination, but wi...

This episode was originally released in May 2022.

In this Cinema Shock Rewind episode, we're revisiting our episode on Frank Oz's LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. Oz got his start as Jim Henson's closest collaborator, working with Jim during the Muppets' early years, and serving as a key piece of the Muppets' creative framework through the years of The Muppet Show and the subsequent feature films. In fact, Oz made his solo directorial debut...

"Hey, I tell you what is. Big city, hmm? Live, work, huh? But not city only. Only peoples. Peoples is peoples. No is buildings. Is tomatoes, huh? Is peoples, is dancing, is music, is potatoes. So, peoples is peoples. Okay?"

With his dream project THE DARK CRYSTAL taking so much of his time and energy, Jim Henson was content to slim down his role on the next Muppet project and allow his right hand man Frank Oz to take the helm in hi...

"Another world, another time, in the age of wonder. A thousand years ago, this land was green and good - until the Crystal cracked."

After the completion of THE GREAT MUPPET CAPER, Jim Henson focused on a project that had been in the works for years — its earliest seeds were planted well before even The Muppet Show had begun production — an ambitious fantasy film made in collaboration with renowned illustrator Brian Froud.

That fil...

"There'll be mystery and catastrophe! But it's all in fun, you paid the money - wait and see! Hey! A movie! Starring everybody! And me!"

After the success of THE MUPPET MOVIE, Jim Henson had hoped to get funding for a fantasy film that had become a sort of dream project of his. But that film — which would not feature the beloved and recognizable Muppets — would be a sizeable risk, so his producer convinced him to strike while the...

“Life's like a movie. Write your own ending. Keep believing. Keep pretending.”

With The Muppet Show, Jim Henson had reached the goal that he’d set for himself many years before: He’d managed to get his beloved Muppets their own weekly television series.

Not only that, but it was an enormous success, quickly becoming one of the most watched television shows in the entire world. The Muppets were as big as they’d ever been. The next s...

Happy TWIN PEAKS Day everyone! 

To celebrate the day that FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper first entered the town of Twin Peaks, we wanted to offer our listeners a Free Preview of the first members-only episode of our Twin Peaks watch-along podcast FIRE SHOCK WITH ME!

We did a deep dive into the creation of the TWIN PEAKS pilot episode as part of our series David Lynch: Absurd Encounters a while back (you can listen to that episode he...

By the mid-1970s, Jim Henson and the Muppets were as big as they'd ever been. They'd helped turn Sesame Street into a household name and continued to be a hot commodity on the variety show circuit.

But Jim had yet to do the one thing he'd been trying to accomplish since the early 1960s: Create a prime time television show starring the Muppets, and one that wasn't solely aimed at a preschool audience.

He made several attempts along ...

“As children, we all live in a world of imagination, of fantasy, and for some of us that world of make-believe continues into adulthood.”

Despite spending years fighting against the notion that puppets were nothing more than “children’s entertainment,” Jim Henson found his greatest success thus far working on a television show aimed at toddlers: the groundbreaking educational series SESAME STREET.

But before he got there, Jim went ...

It’s time to start a brand new series here on Cinema Shock! For the next few weeks, we’ll be telling the story of Jim Henson.

To truly tell the story of Henson’s life and career, we have to go all the way back to the beginning: In this inaugural episode, we’ll explore Jim’s early years, through the creation of his first TV show, SAM & FRIENDS (where Kermit the Frog made his first appearance), his groundbreaking commercial work,...

"I'm afraid to close my eyes, I'm afraid to open them."

1999 was a landmark year for film, and several films released that year have had a lasting impact, greatly influencing everything that followed. And with the possible exception of THE MATRIX, few films have had changed their respective genres as much as THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT.

Created by a handful of film students for practically no money, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT has become t...

"We're sorta like 7-Eleven. We're not always doing business, but we're always open."

For Gary’s pick for a movie from 1999, he went with an infamous film that’s thre true definition of a “cult film.” When THE BOONDOCK SAINTS was (barely) released in theaters, it had practically no impact at all, but months later, when the movie hit home video, it became a bonafide word-of-mouth sensation, especially among younger audiences who view...

We’ve decided to wrap up 2024 with a look at a few films that are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year. 1999 has become known as one of the best movie years of all time. While we’ve already touched on some of the biggest films of that year (THE MATRIX, FIGHT CLUB), there are a handful of films from that year that may not fit into one of our long form series, and we wanted to make sure they got their due.

So for this (sh...

"I'm twelve. But I've been twelve for a long time."

For the latest radomly chosen Cinema Shock Roulette entry, the wheels of fate have taken us to Sweden, where we’ll explore the story behind Tomas Alfredson’s LET THE RIGHT ONE IN.

Based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN was almost instantly recognized as a modern day horror classic when it was released in 2008. In this episode, we’ll walk through its enti...

After working on the short first season of TWIN PEAKS, David Lynch felt the pull back to feature length filmmaking when he was given a book called Wild At Heart by Barry Gifford. The book seemed ripe for a big screen adaptation and David Lynch immediately began work on it. Within a couple of months, he found himself in New Orleans with stars Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern, plus a host of regular Lynch collaborators.

The production and...