Sew Tough! I was about fourteen when I first caught First Blood on home video, the perfect age to vicariously revel in such macho histrionics. Immediately afterwards, I ran outside, knocked the first motorcyclist I saw to the ground, and headed off for the woods at breakneck speed with an imaginary entire police force hot […]
Theater Of Blood (1973)
September 14, 2021 by
Film Title
Theater Of BloodSynopsis
Disgruntled actor, presumed dead, starts murdering his critics
Director
Douglas HickoxCast
Vincent Price
Ian Hendry
Diana Rigg
Milo O'Shea
Do you have a mantra that helps you get through life’s darker moments? You know, something that enables you to cope with the searing knowledge that dreams don’t come true and you’ll instead have to settle for second, third or fourth best as you crawl unfulfilled toward your grave. I cling to the insight of […]
Cool Hand Luke
September 11, 2021 by
Film Title
Cool Hand LukeSynopsis
What we’ve got here, Is failure to communicate
Director
Stuart RosenbergCast
Paul Newman
George Kennedy
Strother Martin
J.D. Cannon
Morgan Woodward
Dennis Hopper
Wayne Rodgers
Harry Dean Stanton
“A natural born world-shaker“ Paul Newman has always been in the top tier of the greatest actors of all time. He is certainly in the company of actors like Peter O’Toole, Daniel-Day Lewis, Jack Nicholson, Richard Burton and Sidney Portier. His accomplishments as a beer drinker, race car driver, blue-eyed sex symbol and actor are […]
Cuties (Mignonnes)
September 9, 2021 by
Film Title
CutiesSynopsis
Eleven year-olds, Dude
Director
Maimouna DoucoureCast
Fathia Youssouf
Medina El Aidi-Azouni
Esther Gohourou
Ilanah Cami-Goursolas
Francois Truffaut famously stated: “There is no such thing as an anti-war film.” In essence, what he was getting at is that any subject, when filmed and put on screen for viewers, inherently becomes glamorized and entertaining, and the filmmaker is therefore unavoidably subverted into creating entertainment out of the very thing which they set […]
Cruising (1980)
September 5, 2021 by
Film Title
CruisingSynopsis
Undercover cop Pacino seeks a gay slayer
Director
William FriedkinCast
Al Pacino
Paul Sorvino
Karen Allen
Richard Cox
A lot of gay guys
I once backpacked in Hanoi and happened to walk past a public toilet to see one of the little locals loitering near the entrance. Certain he’d caught my eye, he proceeded to unzip and begin wanking. Slightly taken aback (while trying to hang onto the old adage Travel broadens the mind) I looked around to […]
Shang-Chi And The Legend of The Ten Rings
September 2, 2021 by
Film Title
Shang-Chit and the Legend of the Ten RingsSynopsis
Shang-Chi is forced to confront his past
Director
Destin Daniel CrettonCast
Simu Liu
Awkwafina
Tony Chiu-Wai Leung
Menger Zhang
Fala Chen
Wah Yuen
Michelle Yeoh
“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” – I’ll try not to geek out too much on you. With the release of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, we can officially say the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has really begun. Yes, I know Loki and WandaVision and Falcon […]
The Late Show (1977)
August 26, 2021 by
Film Title
The Late ShowSynopsis
A P.I.’s search for a missing cat turns up a lot more than a missing pussy
Director
Robert BentonCast
Art Carney
Lily Tomlin
Bill Macy
Eugene Roche
Joanna Cassidy
For those who do not know, the 11:30 spot on KNXT (CBS here in the LA market back in the 60s) was filled with old movies five nights of the week. I saw many of the greats from the 40s and 50s on this, The Late Show. I watched the Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, […]
Targets (1968)
August 25, 2021 by
Film Title
TargetsSynopsis
An elderly horror movie star confronts a psychopathic Vietnam War vet who is a mass-murdering sniper
Director
Peter BogdanovichCast
Tim O'Kelly
Boris Karloff
Arthur Peterson
Peter Bogdanovich
Nancy Hsueh
Back in Dear Old Blighty in 87 when I was a cherubic-faced schoolboy half-mesmerized by Tracey Sharpe’s swaying pigtails, a jobless loner in a nearby market town killed his mum, burned their house down and strolled around with an arsenal of high-powered weaponry slaughtering whoever he could find. Ho hum. Guess we all have days […]
Come And See (1985)
August 24, 2021 by
Film Title
Come And SeeSynopsis
The most horrific and shocking war movie ever made
Director
Elem KlimovCast
Aleksey Kravchenko
Olga Mironova
Vasiliy Domrachyov
Viktors Lorencs
Vladas Bagdonas
Liubomiras Laucevicius
World War 2 was a horrific event. The figures are not exact, but reliable estimates put the total civilian and military dead at around 60 million people. The total dead in World War 1 was between 15-22 million people. Yes, it can easily be seen that war sucks and is bad for your health, especially […]
The Protege
August 23, 2021 by
Film Title
The ProtegeSynopsis
Two old guys and a girl
Director
Martin CampbellCast
Samuel L. Jackson
Michael Keaton
Maggie Q
Patrick Malahide
David Rintoul
Robert Patrick
Is it just me or do assassin movies seem to be really hit or miss? Yep, an assassin pun right of the gates. It’s a serious question though. Leon: The Professional is pretty much the gold standard. The first three Bourne movies were pretty solid, but the last two were not. The Hitman and its […]
