Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Sam Panico A movie about a socially awkward, totally obsessed film fan whose love of old films borders on the obsessive, with nights filled with movie after movie after movie? This one hits a little too close to home.Eric Binford (Dennis Christopher, Breaking Away) works in a Los Angeles film distributor warehouse by day and watches movies by night. He' the guy I was referring to earlier - someone so into movies he gets bullied by his family and co-workers. And when he meets Marilyn O'Connor, who looks like Marilyn Monroe, he finally finds someone whose looks are similar to the movie ideal that life does not always achieve. Or maybe he's just so crazy that when he sees her, he goes into a fantasy fugue state and only sees what his brain will allow him to see.Somehow, Eric is able to ask her out, but she stands him up by accident. This makes him go completely out of his mind, transforming himself into various film icons to destroy his enemies.First, he re-enacts Kiss of Death by pushing his Aunt Stella (who is really his mother) down the steps, showing up to her funeral as Tommy Udo, the role Richard Widmark played in the film. No one gets it. No one has seen the movies that Eric loves. There is no one to discuss them with. They can't even put her grave next to Marilyn Monroe's grave in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetary.Eric then becomes Count Dracula, attending a midnight showing of Night of the Living Dead. Eric then goes to Marilyn's house in a scene that's taken from Psycho. She screams, he drops his pen into the water and the ink becomes the blood. "I only wanted your autograph," he yells as he runs.Eric then goes back to find a hooker who had been rude to him. He chases her, she falls and dies, then he drinks her blood. Obviously, Eric has not seen Martin. Actually, the way this scene is intercut with scenes from old black and white horror films, I am certain that the makers of this film have seen Romero's vampire film.Now that Eric has gone this far, why not dress up as Hopalong Cassidy and kills off Richie(Mickey Rourke in an early role), a co-worker who bullies him. Oh yeah - Tim Thomerson is a criminal psychologist who is working with a policewoman (they're having sex, because 1980 and all) to find what he believes is a serial killer. The big problem is that his captain wants all the glory for himself.Eric talks to his aunt as if she were still alive, then after watching Halloween (producer Irwin Yablans also produced that film), he pleasures himself to a photo of Marilyn Monroe.Eric's dream has been to own his own movie theater and to make his own movie. He tells a sleazeball named Gary Bially his idea, Alabama and the Forty Thieves and you get the feeling not much good can come of it.Eric's boss fires him and won't allow him back into work to get his posters. As his everyday self, even when trying to talk like a movie character, Eric is impotent. But when he's dressed as The Mummy, he can frighten his boss into a heart attack.After seeing Gary Bially on a talk show, talking up the movie Eric created as his own, Eric shows up to the produer's brithday party. Dressed as James Cagney's character from White Heat, he fires a submachine gun at everyone in the room before killing the man who stole from him.The cops are on to Eric, but he's hired Marilyn for a photo shoot and is all set to re-enact The Prince and the Showgirl when Thomerson's character arrives. Eric runs to Mann's Chinese Theater and makes it to the roof before dying just like Cagney in White Heat, yelling, "Made it, ma! Top of the world!"Writer and director Vernon Zimmerman also created Unholy Rollers, but this movie is way beyond that. It shows how only seeing the world as the movies can be a danger to yourself and everyone else. Eric goes from shy and withdraw to dark and mean by the end of the movie, as he slowly becomes a new character. I wonder what he would have thought about the movie that they made his life into?

Mr_Ectoplasma Dennis Christopher plays Eric Binford, an awkward and isolated film geek who is obsessed with the movies. He spends his free time obsessively watching the classics of Hollywood's bygone era, chain-smoking and ignoring the nagging of his abusive aunt. After meeting an aspiring actress/Marilyn Monroe lookalike, Eric falls deeper into his delusions of cinematic grandeur, and begins executing his enemies just like he sees in the movies.Confused social commentary or perhaps just a cleverly written meta-narrative for modern horror cinema, "Fade to Black" is an all around treat that caters to anyone who considers themselves a cinephile. Part horror film and part psychological drama, the film oscillates between Eric's day-to-day life struggles and the grim re-enactments he begins making of his favorite film scenes. Although a low budget picture, the cinematography here is classy and the camera picks up on the glamorous facade of Los Angeles and juxtaposes it with its underbelly of working class citizens, which parallels with Eric's internal struggle. Dennis Christopher's neurotic performance is key here, as he exemplifies the role of the excessive dreamer. Part of the film's success in connecting to the audience is the ways in which Eric reminds us of ourselves— we are all dreamers, some more than others, but his internal struggle as it manifests into real life theatrical performance reveals a bit about our own dreams and how they square up with our realities— hopefully with not quite as horrific of consequences. An innocent and plucky performance by Linda Kerridge as the Marilyn Monroe lookalike/object of affection is a memorable counterpart to Christopher, and unfolds as a postmodern Marilyn phantasm of Eric's delusions. The understated and downbeat conclusion does not lend the film a "feel good" tag by any means, but is there any other way for it to end? "Fade to Black" is a film made by dreamers, for dreamers, but its protagonist's plight is universal—we all have the makings of the perpetual underdog. Although the vast majority of us have the better sense and dignity to not act upon our destructive fantasies, there is a cathartic and appropriately voyeuristic element to watching someone live out that which is internalized in a free society. After all, we are not the owners of our fantasies or our desires; they are the owners of us—and there's a little Eric Binford in all of us, too, whether we want to admit it or or not. 9/10.

Sandcooler What was this movie even trying to do really? Is it some kind of variation on slasher movies, or is it just your everyday "dude masturbating to Marilyn Monroe photographs"-flick? Whatever it is, it's not good. There are just so many bothersome little things in this movie that do not work out. The writing feels like nobody put any thought in it, it's just so unstructured and clumsy. Just take the thing de resistance of this movie: the action scene. The highlight of this scene is apparently a car running into a bunch of cans, but what were these cans doing in the middle of the street? Is ad space so expensive in this town. Also, you have the protagonist's aunt. No, his mother. No, his aunt. This mystery would without a doubt be absolutely fascinating if it had any bearing to the plot whatsoever. Then you have the killer's disguises, which start out okay but eventually just come down to wearing a hat. Wow, a hat. Who is this guy, never seen him before. Things like that just really bring the mood down, it gives the film a very amateur feel. Dennis Christopher is great in this, every other aspect blows goats.

Cristopher_Jeorge Christopher plays Eric Binford, a generally unlikable film geek who by day putts around on his scooter delivering posters. By night however he sits around in his undies and a blazer watching old movies and being tormented by his wheelchair bound Aunt. He's disliked at by co workers and can only find solace in his love of movies. It figures that when mean ole Auntie attacks his prized projector with no remorse that Erics fragile mind goes KABLAM! and he sends her Evil Keneiveling in her wheelchair down the staircase. It's from that point on that Eric starts dispatching any enemies he has dressed as various film icons. Dracula, the Mummy, Hop a Long Cassidy, Cody Jarret. After Eric has his dream idea for a big budget picture stolen by a greasy producer he really loses it and rents an old car with suicide doors and some how gets a tommy gun and exacts a humorous revenge. Dare you not to laugh at the "Happy Birthday Sucker!" line. I also dare you not to cringe during the Marilyn poster on the ceiling scene, Dave Stoller how could you?? Well after Eric has wiped out half of California it all climaxes, of sorts, in White Heat "top of the world ma!" finale. This movie is only barely tolerable and its really a standout in the high on concept low low low on execution department. I think Dennis should have stayed on his Masi and Tim Thomerson shouldn't be allowed to make any other films except for a sequel to The Wrong Guys. "Watch out for that pancake Duke!!" haha, almost as classic as Breaking Away. 4/10