We're selling out ONCE AGAIN with Ari Aster's controversial neo-western thriller black comedy EDDINGTON, starring Joaquin Phoenix as sheriff Joe Cross, who runs for mayor against Pedro Pascal's Ted Garcia in a small New Mexico town during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. It's sometimes uncomfortable, occasionally hilarious, and has some real bite - though some audiences didn't know what to make of it. On this episode we go through some recent watches, discuss the Ari Aster films we've seen so far, and then have the DEFINITIVE conversation about EDDINGTON (with some warning before any spoiler talk). Enjoy!

The post Episode 288 – Cinema Smorgasbord Sells Out – Eddington (2025) first appeared on Cinema Smorgasbord.

For the final time (until his real breakthrough a decade later), Golden Harvest is trying to make Jackie Chan a star in the U.S. and they've signed up U.S. exploitation film director James Glickenhaus to transform Chan into a high kicking Charles Bronson in 1985's THE PROTECTOR. Playing a hard-nosed New York City cop teamed with Danny Aiello, Chan swears and shoots through a blood revenge film, but then - thoroughly displeased with the experience - he went and added a bunch of new scenes for the Hong Kong release. On this episode of WE DO OUR OWN STUNTS we look at Jackie Chan's frustrations, the good (and bad) of each release and WHICH REIGNS SUPREME. Enjoy!

The post Episode 278 – We Do Our Own Stunts – The Protector (1985) first appeared on Cinema Smorgasbord.

It's the PREMIERE episode of our new limited series SERPENT'S TAIL: THE FILMS OF KIYOSHI KUROSAWA and on this episode we discuss why we chose the filmmaker as our subject, our (limited) experience with his work, a bit about his background and dive into his first two features: 1983's KANDAGAWA PERVERT WARS and 1985's BUMPKIN SOUP (aka THE EXCITEMENT OF THE DO-RE-MI-FA GIRL). Both films have a unique mix of eroticism and surrealism, and are a world away from the films we most closely associated with Kurosawa. Enjoy!

The post Episode 286 – Serpent’s Tail: The Films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa – Kandagawa Pervert Wars (1983) & Bumpkin Soup (1985) first appeared on Cinema Smorgasbord.