"In the Mirror of Maya Deren"

This wonderful documentary is about the avant garde filmmaker who led the independent film scene way back in the '40s. I have been an obsessed fan of Maya Deren since I first saw her seminal "Meshes of the Afternoon" when I was a kid. I won this documentary in a contest Zeitgeist Films had where they asked an obscure trivia question about her. I can't remember the question, but I remember winning.

This portrait of her and her films and those that knew her is by filmmaker Martina Kudlacek, it's based on the book "The Legend of Maya Deren" and uses footage from Deren's films, interviews and observances from Stan Brakhage, Amos Vogel, Anthology Film Archives’ Executive Director Jonas Mekas, and others. The soundtrack is by John Zorn.

One of my favorite scenes is of Jonas Mekas standing in his famous East Village, New York City Anthology Film Archives holding spools of 16mm film preserved in old Stella D’Oro coffee cans.

Born in Kiev in 1917, and known best for her work in experimental film, she was also a poet, a dancer, a choreographer, a dancer, a writer, a photographer, an ethnographer and knew Voodoun very well. Her book on Voodoo, "Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti" is very interesting!

She died October 13, 1961.

"Quatermass and the Pit"

...or "Five Million Years to Earth" depending on where you lived.

I love this 1967 British film by Hammer Film Productions! It's a sequel to the other films, "The Quatermass Xperiment" and "Quatermass 2," and like its predecessors it was written by Nigel Kneale. I'm such a huge fan of Kneale's smart writing!

This was directed by Roy Ward Baker and stars Andrew Keir as Professor Quatermass, and honestly I like him so much more than Brian Donlevy who played the role in the two earlier films. However, I like Donlevy, too.

The cast is strong with such powerful performances like James Donald, who was in "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (for Christ's sake!) and the beautiful and talented Barbara Shelley who also stands out in Mark Gatiss's BBC documentary "A History of Horror".

All in all a solid film and to me, but for a few things, still it stands up and gives me the same kind of thrill it did when I saw it as a kid.

"The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride"

Again, as with the first one, I just wasn't up to watching it, but the 13 year old in the house forced me, too.

This film centers on Simba's daughter, Kiara, who falls in love with Kovu, the boy lion raised as one of Scar's followers. Wanting so badly to be together, they must ignore the two people that keep them from one another; One being the most evil creature ever on film (pretty close, I think) Kovu's mother, Zira, and the other is Simba, who is still holding a grudge against the Outlanders. Kiara is the key to a resolving the bitter hatred between Simba's pride and the outcast pride led by the mate of Scar.

I didn't find a single song I liked in the soundtrack and I was surprised to find that Joss Whedon has written some of them.

It was okay. Maybe it was better than I thought it would be. I tell ya, though… I'm about Loin King-ed out! Yet, this scene is awfully cute! Oh, and a lil' scary!

"Mad Monster Party?"

Baron von Frankenstein voiced by Boris Karloff, decides to retire, leaving the monster business to his nerdy nephew, Felix Flankin. He calls an international roster of monsters to a creepy convention. The party consists of the Creature and his mate voiced by Phyllis Diller, Frankenstein's seductive assistant Francesca voiced by the sexy Gale Garnett, Dracula, the Werewolf, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Invisible Man, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, The Mummy, and It… It seems to be King Kong and I imagine they were told not to use the name because of legal reasons.

I loved this when I was a kid! I still love stop-motion, but watching this with a 13 year old in the room proved to me kids today are way more sophisticated. She seemed completely bored with this after years of loving Tim Burton's "Vincent," "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Corpse Bride".

Mad Magazine creator Harvey Kurtzman penned the script, but the puns and jokes fall so flat one would think Famous Monsters of Filmland's Forrest J. Ackerman had written the script.