joe dante

Movies To Watch This Christmas

Christmastime is here again and Movies In Focus is presenting you with a list of Christmas movies to watch over the festive season. Some are naughty and some are nice, but they’re definitely an intriguing selection of movies to light-up your [...]

December 4, 2021

Uncovering Curiosities: Horror Anthology TALES OF HALLOWEEN

Tales Of Halloween is a 2015 horror anthology film which takes eleven of genre’s best filmmakers and offers them the chance to let their talent and imaginations run wild. Ten short films over the course of 90 minutes seems like a lot, but [...]

October 7, 2021

Notebook Reviews: SMALL SOLDIERS

Joe Dante – 1998  Joe Dante’s Small Soldiers is a big disappointment. The film was always going to suffer comparisons to his 1984 hit Gremlins and sadly it just doesn’t stack-up, despite an intriguing premise and a good cast (Tommy [...]

June 25, 2021

Notebook Reviews: GREMLINS

Joe Dante – 1984 Joe Dante‘s Gremlins is a film which has held-up incredibly well in the face of time and CGI. Dante’s film opens as a Capraesque comedy before descending into a 1950s-style creature feature. It’s the perfect [...]

June 5, 2021

Notebook Reviews: THE ‘BURBS

Joe Dante – 1989 The great Joe Dante‘s The ‘Burbs is brilliant. This black comedy features one of Tom Hanks‘ best performances and it has the perfect amount of comedy and macabre humour to make it something special. The [...]

May 10, 2021

Uncovering Curiosities: Joe Dante’s THE HOWLING

1981 was a wonderful year for werewolf films. The year saw the release of John Landis’ An American Werewolf In London, Michael Wadleigh’s Wolfen and Joe Dante’s The Howling. Landis’ film was the bigger hit of the three and Wolfen has [...]

April 9, 2021

Top Christmas Movies: GREMLINS

Joe Dante’s comedy-horror Gremlins is as festive as it is freaky. The film is a Spielbergian/Capra-gone-to-hell (Crapra?) tale about a horde of mischievous creatures destroying small town USA during the Holiday Season. The great cast which [...]

December 13, 2020

Uncovering Curiosities: Joe Dante’s BURYING THE EX

Throughout his career the mighty Joe Dante has always had a knack for successfully infusing horror with other genres. Gremlins saw him reach the darker side of a Spielbergian/Capraesque family drama and The ‘Burbs put a horror spin on a [...]

November 30, 2020

Uncovering Curiosities: Joe Dante’s MATINEE

Joe Dante films always have a tremendous mischievous streak running through them. 1993’s Matinee certainly has it, but it doesn’t have the same sense of the macabre that permeates films like Gremlins or The ‘burbs. That’s because Matinee is [...]

November 20, 2020

Mayhem Film Festival 2018: Days One & Two

Kicking-off in Nottingham’s Broadway Cinema, the first two days of the 14th Mayhem Film Festival brought together a wonderful selection of genre films introduced by Chris Cook and Steven Sheil. Movies In Focus was once again on-hand to bring [...]

October 13, 2018

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Blu-ray Review: Joe Dante’s Werewolf Classic THE HOWLING

1981 was a wonderful year for werewolf films. The year saw the release of John Landis’ An American Werewolf In London, Michael Wadleigh’s Wolfen and Joe Dante’s The Howling. Landis’ film was the bigger hit of the three and Wolfen has [...]

March 9, 2017

Trailer For Joe Dante’s New Horror-Comedy BURYING THE EX

Photo by Suzanne Tenner Joe Dante is a genre director with a tremendous list of credits to his name – The Howling. Gremlins, Innerspace and Movies In Focus favourite The ‘Burbs to name just a few. He’s now back with a new horror-comedy, [...]

April 29, 2015

Now A GREMLINS Remake!

Joe Dante’s Gremlins is a perfect little film, one which has grossed a mighty $153 million at the US box office since it was released in 1984. It has great charm, fantastic pratical special effects, strong story and a wonderful score by Jerry [...]

January 20, 2013

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