2024 the best movies ever made review

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(as of Nov 11, 2024 09:20:08 UTC - Details)

In these pages Roger Corman, the most successful independent filmmaker in Hollywood relates his experiences as the director and/or producer of such low-budget classics Attack of the Crab Monsters, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Raven, The Man with the X-ray Eyes, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Night Call Nurses, Bloody Mama, Piranha, and many others. He also discusses his distribution of the Bergman, Fellini, and Truffaut movies that later won Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Film category. Corman alumni—John Sayles, Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicholson, Vincent Price, Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich, Peter Fonda, Joe Dante, and Jonathan Demme, among others—contribute their recollections to give added perspective to Corman's often hilarious, always informative autobiography.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ DaCapo Press; First Edition (August 1, 1998)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 254 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0306808749
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0306808746
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
Reviewer: T. C. Rypel (author of the GONJI series)
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Legendary adventures in guerilla filmmaking...
Review: Superb read. We've recently lost the legendary producer-director ROGER CORMAN (at age 98!). This autobiographical career retrospective, released in 1990, is forever fresh. Obviously timely in the moment, this absorbing, smooth-reading book---at once hard to put down and a quick-bite comfort read---hearkens you back to the lost Silver Age of cinema strike-back against the hypnotic grasp of the early TV years, the 1950s and '60s.Roger Corman was an iconic commando leader of that low-budget, indie-movie, double-feature lashback that pried the masses out of their living rooms (especially the growing money-to-burn sector of thrill-seeking teens) and courted their repeat patronage. The resultant so-called "B-movies"---a misnomer ported over from the Hollywood Golden Age, when the secondary feature on a double-bill was relegated to lower marquee billing and presumed "B" status---created the indelible B-movie concept in popular viewer fancy that denoted cheap-looking and poorly executed film fare (often enough worthy of much LOWER alphabetical value). Cheesy characters in fast-moving plots that seldom bore up to close scrutiny---or credibility, often enough. Pleasant passing of time---hey, what were you guys looking for?!And nobody ever carped beyond the occasional "worst flick I ever saw, man!" They were rapidly-paced, exploitative, mostly forgettable fun. Perfect popcorn accompaniment. And lo and behold----a lot of them were damned good shoestring-budgeted filmmaking, holding up to latter-day appraisal.Corman was the foremost expositor of this phenomenon. The book is rife with his canny lessons on making every penny count. Endlessly fascinating, detailed and anecdotal, this wonderful memoir, supplemented with dozens of boldface-offset comments from many of the fledgling film artists Corman tutored and launched (e.g., Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Nicholson, Robert Towne, Peter Bogdanovich), is a sobering correction to the often-heard, nose-crinkled lazy jeering about "Roger Corman movies."Corman's wildly entertaining book, professing no illusions about what marvels could be created on the cheap, casts a follow-spot on the man's wisely mapped-out journey outside the expensively clunky Hollywood mechanism.The truth is all in there. And cheap or not, truth bears a value that can't be airily dismissed.

Reviewer: zverina dot com
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A Rollicking Read
Review: As fast-paced and fun as this memoir is, it still probably took me longer to read than it took Corman to make some of his movies.Before reading this, I didn't know much about Corman and figured he was just a low-budget schlockmeister whose only concern was turning a buck. And while it is true he was very business savvy and motivated by profit, making movies was always about more than the money. Corman emerges as a very funny, creative, and ambitious filmmaker, whether directing, producing, or distributing.This book offers great insight into the business side of movies in tandem with hilarious behind the scenes anecdotes. Corman discovered and/or nurtured the fledgling careers of dozens of future Hollywood giants, including Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola, Dennis Hopper, Ron Howard (as director), Jonathan Demme, Martin Scorcese, Sylvester Stallone, and James Cameron, to name just a few. In a town known for backstabbing, fleeting loyalty, and dirty dealing, it's telling that Corman seems to be universally hailed as a fair and generous collaborator, as attested by the many testimonials in this book. (Of course, they wouldn't include the negatives, if any, but even outside of this book I haven't found anything to besmirch his reputation.) He had a great eye for talent and gleefully exploited it by paying more in opportunity than cash, but those opportunities launched many to great heights they might never had achieved if they'd had to work their way up gradually within the more bureaucratic and less meritocratic studio system.After reading this I watched Corman's original Little Shop of Horrors (1962) (purportedly made in just two days and one night of shooting) and laughed harder at a movie than I have in years. Corman, educated as an engineer, placed efficiency foremost and famously didn't waste words on set, preferring to move quickly to the next setup rather than dribbling time away in piddling "thank you that was great" fluffing of cast and crew egos. He was a master of maximizing budgets, often scripting and shooting entire new films if he had time remaining on a set, which apparently was the case with Little Shop, hence its rushed production. But that sort of headlong gung ho push to keep creating and take advantage of every opportunity resulted in more than one masterpiece.Corman's story is fascinating and inspiring. It would be hard, if not impossible, to replicate his career trajectory today, but with new filming and distribution technologies, there are unique avenues for today's hungry filmmakers to make a splash, and this book might just serve as an impetus for them to get out there and make it happen.

Reviewer: Steve Vernon, Horror Author and Windbag at Large
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: All right, so the book looks great. I've read the first chapter, but I've had to use a magnifying glass. The font is TINY and my eyes are old.Still, I'm waiting for June and I'm going to read the rest of it, with a magnifying glass, on a lawn chair on my front patio.With a cold beer...******************************************************Okay, so it's June and I just finished reading the book this week and it truly rocked. If you're a fan of cheesy horror movies in general, or the late Roger Corman in specific, buy a copy of this book.Once you get accustomed to the small font the chapters begin to fly by. Corman was well known for his speed and efficiency in filmmaking, and it definitely shows in this bio.It's raining today, but the next sunny day I am heading for the patio, with a beer, to start reading Charles Band's Confessions of a Puppetmaster: A Hollywood Memoir of Ghouls, Guts, and Gonzo Filmmaking!I love these kinds of books. I've got an autobiography of Don Coscarelli on the way later this month.

Reviewer: S-Prix-O-Net
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: rférence pour le cinéma "indépendant " et pour la logique de production à moindre coût.

Reviewer: Michael Huck
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Having watched as a teenager the Poe movies starring Vincent Price and Ray Milland made by Corman and becoming a life-long fan of Corman and his unique ways of making movies it's a very interesting book on learning how Corman became Corman. The only sad point is, that the book does not include the later later years as Corman is still working and a second book or an update would be great.

Reviewer: Willie Taylor
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I really loved this book. It is well written, with some interesting snippets from famous faces Corman worked with over his career. These snippets often give a funny and contradictory viewpoint to that put forward in the main text. I had never heard of Corman before reading the book, I simply bought it because of the title. I feel very lucky to have tripped over a real gem.

Reviewer: Grace Jones
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: bought as a gift