5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Impossibly Good, October 14, 2010
This review is from: Impossibly Funky: A Cashiers du Cinemart Collection (Paperback)
Mike White, a Detroit native and deeply dedicated cinema fan, has published his first book. Titled "Impossibly Funky : A Cashiers du Cinemart Collection", the book is an anthology of articles from Mike's magazine -- published from 1994 to 2007. Beginning as a photocopied underground "zine", Cashiers du Cinemart (CdC) evolved into a record store distributed magazine before ceasing distribution in 2007.
I had an opportunity to read the book early, and very deeply enjoyed the insightful and well done articles. As a fan of B-movies, scifi, Star Wars, and samurai epics, this book hits squarely on all of my buttons.
I think the book really caught me when it got into the analysis of what went down in the development of Alien3, Payback, Highlander, Gremlins, 8mm, Hulk and the exhaustive list of all the Superman attempts that thankfully never flew. It's a dissection study of whodunit in the chain of events that resulted in some legendarily flawed works. It's the sort of "how could they screw this up?" answers fans have always pondered. The book lays it out, play by play.
I'm surprised at the background knowledge everyone on staff seems to have had. For example, revealing to us that Gibson's "Payback" was the Nth iteration of a film version of Richard Stark's "The Hunter" series. It's also amazing to me that, like "Indiana Jones and the Sauncer Men", terrible killed scripts resurface to haunt us later.
Then, there's the section on Black Shampoo. I love Dolemite and Shaft, but I hadn't seen anything yet, until I got ahold of Black Shampoo. Were it not for this book, I might have missed it. I would strongly suggest that when ordering this book, you pair it with the movie. Amazon has it for $5. You owe it to yourself to see it. You just won't believe it until you've seen it for yourself.
Black Shampoo
Aszurom
[...]
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Good fun ....., December 28, 2011
This review is from: Impossibly Funky: A Cashiers du Cinemart Collection (Paperback)
When I first discovered Mike White, I erroneously assumed that he was the "Chuck & Buck" guy. I eventually became educated, RE - "Cashiers du Cinemart," and this other Mike White. I used to snag my copies of his "CdC" from the splendid Toronto video store called "Suspect," where I also used to rent all of my trashy video picks. It was at "Suspect" that I first came upon (forgive the obscene imagery) the films of John Woo, Ringo Lam, et al. I don't care to go on (I have to pee), but this collection of pieces from Cashiers du Cinemart is well worth the purchase.
It is good fun. A major smile.
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Get Funky NOW!, December 20, 2010
This review is from: Impossibly Funky: A Cashiers du Cinemart Collection (Paperback)
Mike White's collection of 14 years of the underground film 'zine - "Cashiers du Cinemart" is worth every penny.
The book gives a broad overview of cult film, interviews with directors and actors and writers (including an interesting face-to-face with novelist James Elroy). Another interesting section of "Impossibly Funky" is the review of various scripts that could have been films - especially, a look at all the versions of "Superman" and "Indiana Jones 4". Also, there's a breakdown of the original ideas/scripts for Andrew Kevin Walker's "8mm".
Overall, "Impossibly Funky" is fun, fast and a freakishly good time for anyone who loves film. Pick it up and enjoy it!
Check out an interview with Mike White that I did for WDET 101.9FM - Detroit Public Radio.
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