Blackjack (1998, John Woo)

This one. Looks like a goshdarn TVM, but it's HK AF.
Dolph gets blinded by the light, but it doesn't stop him protecting a supermodel (and some babysitting cough). It makes little sense, but that just added to the fun. Recommended? Go on go on go on go on .... ;)

The Food Of The Gods. 1976.

We got a group of footballers (namely 3) head to a wilderness and one is attacked by giants wasps that look more like giant mosquitoes. One of the men is attacked by a giant chicken at a farm house that becomes overrun by giant rats.

With a film on a budget, you go with what you can and this film uses every single practical effects a person can do, use real rats and little model scales of a car and house for the rats to climbs about on and use paint for the blood otherwise i/m sure the RSPCA would have a field day. The acting is laughable, Pamela Franklin turns up looking innocent and caring for pregnant Belinda Balaski.

Marjoe Gortner is the lead actor and narrator who seems to think on his feet on how to deal with the infestation along with Tom Stovall who wants to make a break for it but seems to be hindered with bad decisions. Ida Lupino is the simple farmer's wife who has been feeding the animals with her own good inspired by god. Never take it seriously but certainly sit back and laugh a few times.

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Food Of The Gods II. 1989.

A doctor experimenting with growth hormone gets out of control.

Set around some university in Canada...I think, the doctor is experimenting with rats and a small foul mouthed boy who certainly needs a smacked arse. We do get some animal activists who decide to trash the place and then brought to the principals office for a reprimand which is funny cos nobody will grass on each other. Gotta give it to the principal who does voice his fears over the experiments and the new pool complex which may be a good feeding ground and battle of survival. The acting...well nobody won a award not even a Razzie so yeah it is that bad, to be honest it did pass some 90 mins away that shall never be returned.

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Poor Things

The new film from Yorgos Lanthimos, who made The Lobster and The Favourite, Poor Things stars Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, a young woman living in Victorian-era London.

The film opens in colour showing her jumping to her death from a bridge, before switching to monochrome where we see Bella living with a heavily scarred scientist, Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Defoe), who she calls "God".

To assist him in his studies, which involve public autopsies and unorthodox/illegal experimentation, he employs a medical student, Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), who almost immediately falls in love with the awkward and childlike Bella, a woman with a limited vocabulary and almost no 'filter'. To use Freudian descriptors, she is entirely the id and without any ego or superego to limit her desires or extravagant behaviour.

Not only is McCandles smitten with Bella, but his debauched lawyer, Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) also falls in love with her and decides to take her away on a European trip, beginning in Lisbon.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this because the trailer was tantalising, but not exactly detail-rich, so I won't give away too many plot points here. I will say that I thoroughly enjoy the weirdness and discomfort caused by watching The Lobster, the offbeat humour and aesthetics of The Favourite, and the nightmarish surrealism of Dogtooth.

With Poor Things, Lanthimos seems to have taken some inspiration from Wes Anderson, Terry Gilliam, and David Lynch, and has created a wonderful environment for his brilliantly named characters, a steam-punk Victoriana which feels historical and futuristic, perfect for the story and characters. He also uses the fisheye lens to great effect and cleverly switches between monochrome and colour to play with mood and location – cinematographer Robbie Ryan deserves every accolade he receives for such remarkable work, as does composer Jerskin Fendrix for providing a wonderfully weird musical backdrop.

I loved the film and laughed out loud multiple times because some of the dialogue is wickedly funny; some of it comes from Bella's impulsivity and lack of inhibition and some of the other characters wouldn't be out of place in a Jean-Pierre Jeunet-Marc Caro film.

Finally, although this is undoubtedly Lanthimos' finest film, it's also the finest performance of Emma Stone's accomplished career – it's the sort of acting achievement which happens very rarely and is notable because of its bravery (few actors of her stature and fame would make a film with so much nudity and sex) and audaciousness.

If you can, I recommend watching Poor Things at the cinema but, if you can't go before the theatrical run finishes and have enjoyed either The Lobster or The Favourite, then this is definitely one to buy when it is released for viewing. As I haven't seen The Killing of a Sacred Deer, I'm going to watch that this weekend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlbR5N6veqw

Blue Monkey. 1987.

A lot of people said gardening can't be great for you, well this film is a example, old boy pricks his finger on a plant, sent to the hospital apparently suffering a diabetic shock only for a parasite to come out of his mouth. A cop played by Steve Railsback is there after his partner is gunned down and has a laugh with a few children, manages to step up when CDC close off the hospital and everyone tries to man up and go on a bug hunt.

Don't look at the poster it doesn't do the film any praise or justice, but this is a salute or homage to the 1950s B movie Them as it seems to use the same size of Ant from the film but in a darker colour. We always get a doctor or scientist who seems to know every species of bug and predicts the mother ant will give birth to at least 400 babies...yeah mate we all wanted to know that when the mother ant is on the PMS from hell rampage. This was a blind watch for me and although I did enjoy it the down side for me was in parts it did got a bit too dark to where the eye straining was a bit too much, certainly worth a re-watch.

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Deadly Eyes. 1982.

Finally managed to sit through this one in one go and watch it right to the end. Based on James Herbert's The Rats novel, the film is set in Toronto and not London...some films change locations to the source novel.

The city is overrun with rats, nothing new there but these are overgrown rats that have been exposed to some sort of growth chemical that someone obviously flushed down the toilet and gone into the sewers....hold on a second I thought the rats were overgrown by a bigger mutated rat that gave birth to a litter. No wonder Mr Herbert disowned the film, Robert Clouse who gave us Enter The Dragon must have been laughing with the work he had to do.

I'm pretty sure some close up of the rats (dogs in costumes) were shown continuously through out the film, there is plenty of blood and few bits taken from the novel but this was a disappointment for me as i love the books. So I have seen it...that's it for me with this film.

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The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

I simply had to rewatch this last night after posting music from it in the Movie Soundtrack thread, it's such a wonderful score from Randy Edelman and Trevor Jones.

The whole film is a masterpiece from director Michael Mann with Daniel Day Lewis superb as the brooding Hawkeye and Russell Means equally brilliant as Chingachgook, the actual last of the Mohicans, seeing as Hawkeye was adopted.

The final showdown with the main villain Magua, a sadistic Mohawk scout (A terrifying Wes Studi) is sublime. Taking place on a cliff edge path, Hawkeye, Chingachgook and his actual son Uncas (Eric Schweig ) chasing Magua and a band of Mohawk warriors in order to rescue two English women. Uncas is killed by Magua whilst Hawkeye guns down Mohawks left and right.

Just when you think Hawkeye and Magua will face off in one final climactic confrontation it's Chingachgook who fights him. If you can call it that. It's so matter of factly over and done with in a near blink of an eye.

Magua brandishes two blades and swipes at Chingachgook who expertly ducks and thrusts his tomahawk into Magua's back, turns, puts the blade into his arm snapping the bone at the elbow, before scything it into Magua's shoulder. Chingachgook then steps back, tuts to himself at the stricken Magua then delivers a final killing blow through Magua's stomach and out his back.

It's brilliantly constructed and out of the blue and i always end up watching it more than once it's so blink and you'll miss it. There's no white saviour it's Indigenous Native American vs Native American.

A perfect end to a near perfect film.

Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor.

A trio of cold case investigators stay at the manor of the Carmichael's who's murder and disappearance was never solved.

Since it was revealed we would be getting a new instalment to the Hell House LLC franchise I was intrigued how it would go and then we are told it would be set in a house....different way to go, but went with this in a open mind.

We got people being interviewed about the family and learn of their fate, and then introduced to the lead investigator who has some childhood trauma and willing to go the distance to find answers. We get the tv investigation reporter from the 80s in the house who really didn't want to be there longer than anticipated, that was a eye catcher. There is some mention to the Abaddon Hotel and mentions of Andrew Tully. This was a bit of a hit and miss, the acting is on par with some found footage films, the actors do their best with what they can, writer/director Stephen Cognetti tried to do something different and give the audience the tense and jump scares we love but some bits don't make sense.

Probably best watched back to back, there is a extra scene after the end credits.

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Mean Girls (2024)

Modern take Musical based on the 2004 original that sees a new student try and navigate the ways of High School. Whilst it incorporates modern ways such as Social Media, if you like the original, stick with that. This wasn't nearly as good and the songs aren't memorable at all. Tina Fey and Tim Meadows return and Lindsey Lohan has a cameo.

Should have stuck to my instincts when I saw the Trailer.

Beekeeper

Jason Statham is a former Operative who goes on the rampage when a friend commits Suicide after being scammed. This is Jason Statham doing what he does best and it seems he had a whale of a time. The villains are detestable and you want them to get what they deserve. Nothing complicated (That is what I wanted) and a very enjoyable watch, definitely one of those sit back and enjoy whilst being able to switch your brain off. Jeremy Irons and Josh Hutchison co-star.

Tokyo Joe (1949)

Humphrey Bogart plays an ex colonel who returns to Tokyo following WWII to try and pick up with his old life and his wife (Florence Marly) but discovers nothing is as it was and his wife is now married to Alexander Knox.

A fairly stodgy drama most notable for being the first American movie allowed to film in postwar Japan and being the film to revitalise the career of Japanese matinee idol Sessue Hayakawa. Bogart is always watchable but Knox to put it mildly is dull. Things improve in the final third when the film focuses on the air smuggling of fugitive war criminals in which Bogart becomes involved.

Everest (2015)

Heart stopping true life story about two expeditions and their attempt to reach the summit of Everest in 1996, as a terrible storm approaches.

Fascinating, gripping and er' blood chilling account of a real event, thankfully without much fiction added as basically it just wasn't needed. You care for everyone and the large cast does well making each character both believable and involving despite not having much to work with in some cases.

What should have been a showcase of Blu-ray picture quality and 7:1 Dolby Atmos sound descends around the hour mark into a grueling stomach churning watch as the storm takes no prisoners and frozen bodies are left dying on the mountain where they remain to this day. Even third time round this has devastating emotional impact.

I need to watch a gruesome horror film now to cheer me the f*ck up.

Mercenary Fighters. 1988.

A president of a African country is loosing the voting system and wants help from a band of "Mercs" to put it right and sort out the rebels and protesters.

Peter Fonda doning long hair and a ponytail comes in with his band out ex Veitnam Vets who are a gun for hire, cause a few things to stir up and then decide who's team should they be on. From a Cannonxpect very little and we get that except a decent shoot out at the end. I saw a trailer for this (under the title Freedom Fighters) and peaked my interest but the film itself wasn't that great for me, even though some familiar names appear in it.


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It is a gripping story and a fairly harrowing viewing experience. As you thought it was good, I highly recommend the similarly themed North Face, a German film based on the true story of a 1936 climbing expedition on the titular part of the Eiger Mountain.

I have the 4K Ultra HD release of Everest and the detailed picture, plus the expanded colour/contrast range with HDR is really striking, and the Dolby Atmos track is superb. I almost felt cold when watching it! :lol:

It's been a long time since I've seen it and there have been a few times when I felt like rewatching it, but something else took my attention. Your review has made me feel like making an effort to give it another viewing this weekend or next week. :clap:

Thanks for the suggestion, Nos.

Funnily enough i'd dug my dvd of North Face out to watch in the next few days as it was one i wondered about upgrading to Blu. I had no idea it had even come out on 4K. North Face seems quite an obscure film for a UK 4K release.

Sorry, I was talking about the 4K Ultra HD release of Everest, which is very good. I have the North Face Blu-ray, which has very good picture quality and an excellent DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track to immerse you in the climbers' experience.

DOOR – They go on about this being the first Japanese giallo, but it doesn’t feel like that to me. I’m not complaining. I’m no devotee of all that stuff and didn’t feel particularly stung by the lack of stale mystery. ‘Door’ is far more elliptical; hard angles, everything is concrete, the deathly sheen of modernity always closing in… I dunno, if Ballard did a slasher? A woman in a tower block fends off a salesman who insists on sticking his nose in; escalate to cat and mouse involving a small chainsaw. Though an aerial glide near the end feels like it might be a bravura moment in an Italian murder flick, ‘Door’s vibe is minimal and trancey. The first hour had me at full immersion – no melodrama, no big horror, just queasy suspension. What’s with the trash bag? It keeps coming back. ‘Door’ finds some room for the typical in its scenes of hide and seek, but even these feel mannered and somehow hazy. New to me, excellent and strange; this ‘Door’ has a ‘Way Out’ sign next to it for sure.

SEVEN BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS – Onwards to an actual giallo, by Umberto Lenzi. I prefer his trashier moments – who can walk away from ‘Nightmare City’ without a little lift in their heart? ‘Eyeball’ too, from prior to his sleazo cannibal years, but what a romp, it just zings along not giving a shit that it’s high on its own silliness. SBSO isn’t like that. Lenzi keeps a tight leash on excess and bewilderment, enough for me to wonder whether I’d like it. My worries about it being another tepid detective yarn dolled up with a bit of pop art proved unfounded however, and I ended up a convert. For one thing, it’s pacy - there’s a leanness to it that sidesteps procedural drag (the real killer in so many gialli, boredom, is absent). Then there’s all the stuff I genuinely like about these films, the wild style and zany ornamentals, present in the slight overkill of zooms and a panoply of arty shots that make the people in them seem as if they’re talking in quotes – how else can one say anything whilst so artfully framed by those marble horse heads? Etc. The murky, stripped down psyche score sets such a nice mood. SBSO is perfunctory in plot and concept, but that’s not important. In a way, Lenzi is saying – “this is how to do a giallo” – and maybe he’s right.

Blowback (2000, Mark L Lester)

Mario Van Peebles vs James Remar? Go on then ...
Sadly this one is a tad perfunctory. It all sounds crazed enough, shady governmental type resurrects serial killer etc, but it's just so flatly told. Shame. Next!!!



The Marvels (2023, Nia DaCosta)

Only watched this as I laughed my arse at the first. This though is a churning mess of poop. Stooopid movie. Even the schtick with the cat bored me this time. Meh.



The Satan Bug (1965, John Sturges)

Effective enough "panic" thriller, it's still not a patch on The Andromeda Strain imho. Someone's stolen a virus. Is it the commander from Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea? Hmmm. A film of its time, that played up to the paranoia of the period.

This one sounds interesting Demon, you have peaked my interest.

Night Swim. 2024.

A family move into a new home with a pool and slowly uncover a dark secret about the house and pool.

I know a few will see the name Jason Blum and think the movie will not be that great, I can't really blame them as some films he has put out is shit, with co-producer James Wan I took a gamble on this with Annmarie to go to the cinema and it paid off well.

Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon (no not Condom) play the new arrivals with kids Amelie Hoeferle and Gavin Warren move into the house with a not so great looking pool at first but hey it's a fixer upper as you do with new places. There is a decent back story to the happy family that may be a bit sensitive to those who know someone suffering M.S.

There is a lot going on with a bit too much talky talky , certain bits do take time to build up to and does pay off with some decent jump scares added in (Annmarie and the couple few seat down jumped about 6 times) with plenty of decent acting even from the kids with good creative writing and direction from from Bryce McGuire who manages to create perfect timing. It's only 15 certificate rating but worth a watch.

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I was thoroughly entertained by The Marvels and was surprised it has such mixed reviews. I know it isn't the finest film in the MCU, but it neatly incorporated the female leads from the TV series WandaVision and Ms. Marvel to make a sequel to Captain Marvel which is both funny and emotionally engaging.

I thought Brie Larson (Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel), Teyonah Parris (Monica Rambeau), and Iman Vellani (Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel) had excellent on-screen chemistry and bounced off each other – both literally and figuratively – very well, benefiting from some energetic and imaginative direction by Nia DaCosta.

In some respects, Vellani was the star of the show because she managed to upstage Brie Larson and Samuel L. Jackson. Kamala Khan is a little like the female version of Tom Holland's Peter Parker in his early Marvel films because he's almost overwhelmed by what's going on and is just happy to be involved with the world-famous superheroes in his life, so it's a similar relationship between Kamala Khan and Carol Danvers to the one between Peter Parker and Tony Stark/Iron Man.

I watched it with someone who hadn't seen Captain Marvel or Ms. Marvel and she loved it, choosing to go and watch it again later that week.

On an entertainment level, I thought it was a massive success, but on an objective level, I don't think it's a top-tier MCU film like Black Panther, Iron Man, or Avengers: Endgame, but it's one I thought had the right balance of comedy and pathos, drama and fantasy, and will stand up to repeated viewings.

I love The Satan Bug. A nostalgic guilty pleasure.

It seemed to turn up on a Sunday afternoon every year during the seventies. Back then I found the idea of a bug that could kill everyone quite a scary proposition. It's an Alistair McClean sixties glossy tech thriller, and a slightly more than borderline sci-fi, where everyone in authority seems to wear a fedora. It's starts as a closed room mystery and then expands to a race against time adventure. There's nothing taxing here; the twists are not very surprising; the villain not a surprise either. But it's perfect for a lazy Saturday or Sunday afternoon airing just like back in the day. Give it a spin...

Thanks Rob certainly be looking to find it for a watch.

Kill Baby... Kill! (1966)

Somehow a film Mario Bava made in eleven days for a bet ends up the director's masterpiece is a mystery but in my opinion it is. Understandably the film doesn't have much plot but it is compensated for by some exquisite atmospherics. Bava's innovative visuals have always been a strength of his films but here he produces his greatest work especially given the time constraints.

Bava gives us tombs with cobwebs so large they hang like curtains, wonderful fog shrouded streets, a brilliant spiral staircase sequence so disorientating that it could have come from Hitchcock himself. Then there's the heroic Giacomo Rossi Stuart pursuing an unidentified figure through identical rooms only to catch up with himself, and best and most iconic of all, the ghostly Melissa's ball bouncing through corridors and down streets sending all who see her to terrifying deaths.

Kill Baby... Kill is hard to better for subtle, malevolent, supernatural menacing atmosphere. Every shot has been lovingly orchestrated by Bava to achieve maximum impact from his lighting and colours to wonderful dramatic effect and endows the film with a majestic beauty.

Crap title, mind you.

Dead & Buried. 1981.

After this was discussed last week...or the week before I gave this one a re-watch and still totally loved it. Set in the peaceful town where the locals really don't like visitors.

All of the actors are solid enough, but Jack Albertson steals the show as the eccentric, big band loving Mortician Dobbs. In one of his final performances, he delivers a character whose unsettling realism and reverence for the dead will make you completely forget his also classic turn as the kindly grandpa in Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. Rather than just play this character, he inhabits his psyche and becomes Dobbs the funeral director and coroner and it shows.

Everything from the low key bits of eerie score music to the often slow and dreamlike pacing of the plot, is dedicated to heightening the viewer sense of disconnection and dread, leading up to a well known sort of twist climax. The pacing can be a hit or a miss, right from the start it goes the way a decent horror should, good build up of how the locals are and then it goes a bit slow and then picks up again. Certainly a classic film.

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Metamorphosis (1990, G. L. Eastman)

Yup, the 'phagus himself, who also wrote the thing. :nod:
A scientist is given a deadline, going the direct route with the old expermintation ... with the usual results plotwise. Maddening film. It's as crazed as they come, but the pacing is ... slack to say the least. Shame cubed. Harumph.

8 Million Ways To Die

Jeff Bridges is an ex-cop who goes after the Killers of a Prostitute who he was helping to protect. Rosanna Arquette and Andy Garcia co-star in a Film that promised so much but doesn't deliver on the Action it promised.

It's similar to the Richard Gere Film No Mercy, both released in 1986 by CBS Fox Video and had VHS Covers that made it look like a Action Film but is more talk based.

Mad Foxes

A Biker Gang and a man feud with each other. Well this is certainly something. It's a Section 3 Video Nasty, it's very corny with it's script, the most least threatening Karate School, a Rape scene and revenge scene (Which may still cause problems for the BBFC therefore it's not had a release) and a womanizing man who is meant to be the hero (Getting a 18 year old drunk and is very keen shall we say) lots of filler scenes in a 77 minute Film and a ending which fits it well.

Worth a watch every now and then but with the boring bits forwarded on.

Terminator

A bone-a-fide classic, don't really need to go into any details about the plot. I think it's the best one in the series, the Police Station scene is awesome with good performances throughout.

The Blu-Ray is really good as well.

The Bricklayer (2023, Renny Harlin)

There's a name you've nae seen in a while.
Aaron Eckhart in Taken tbh.
They need him for one last job, but saddle with him a rookie.
Thrilling premise or what?
Actually much like The Killer, there's fun here to be had.
There's one bit that will make you go "come on now", but that's the magic of movies cough. Lawdy. Yes, he uses a trowel :nod::lol::pop2:

Visiting Hours. 1982.

We got T.V. journalist Lee Grant giving a interview to a woman who was abused by her husband and killed him in self defence and seems to trigger something in deranged Michael Ironside who clerly has some "Mommy" issues and goes on the attack. When she survives, he goes to the hospital to finish her off.

First time checking out this slasher, even though I had the Blu-Ray in my collection for a while, early morning horror always cheers me up. I gotta say Michael Ironside has always been a good actor to watch and can go into the role menacing which he does in this. Lee Grant is a strange one to cast but manages to show you don't have to be a big boobed blondie to survive a total psycho.

For being filmed in 1981, the film has a surprisingly fresh and considerably modern look to it. Whereas many horror films of this era suffer from poor ageing, this is one of a rare few that seems to have retained a contemporary edge of your seat scenario where the floor will be best to sit on that way you ain't gonna hurt yourself or give yourself a sore ass. I don't know why I held off watching this for so long.

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Superman II. 1980.

Just in case you need a refresh on the plot, General Zod, Ursa and Non have escaped the phantom zone, Lex Luthor has escaped prison and join forces with the three Kryptonians and take on Superman who has found love...aww sweet....with Lois Lane.

Another re-watch of this one this time in 4K, the 4K has the two versions, Richard Donner and theatrical version, I watched the original theatrical version. There is some comical moments with Clark's leg meeting a taxi cab, Lois trying to prove Clark is Superman and Lex throwing up a white cloth and believing he can rule Australia.

The visual effects have been touched up but still look unrealistic with the attack on Houston and i'm sure you can see the string attached to the RPG that is aimed at Non before he catches it and general Zod blowing the fire to the pub. Sound Quality is a bit touchy I kept having to turn it up and down in a few places but managed to still enjoy the film.

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Superman III. 1983.

Yep it's the Richard Pryor one that has a good comical opening and Superman flying in saving the day while planting a pie in the face of someone. Robert Vaughn is the industrial tycoon wanting everything possible along with his sister Annie Ross and mistress Pamela Stephenson tagging along. Managing a way not to kill Superman but finding a darker side to him and control him seems to work, and a new love interest for Clark from a high school sweetheart that was replaced when Margot Kidder got sidelined to a cameo role.

Not so much everyone's favourite but it does have it's moments of being good, not every film you see Gavan O'Herlihy get drunk and fall off his seat backwards, or a man surviving a good drop off a building in ski's or Annie Ross having a make over done by computer. I know I slated the previous film with the effects but this one has been touched up nicely with picture and sound quality.

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Superman IV: The Quest For Peace. 1987.

We all knew this one would come up, Gene Hackman returns this time without Otto or Miss Teschmacher but has a nephew joining him in the form of Jon Cryer and Samantha Weyson who is seen only in a small bit and a background appearance. Mark Pillow is the radiation product of Lex that he wants to use his "Nuclear Man" to destroy Superman. Margot Kidder and Mariel Hemingway is the love interest to both Superman/Clark Kent.

Sidney J. Furie got hired by Cannon for this instalment and given a decent budget then to have it sliced and diced and then badly edited that parts don't make sense but still managed to be more entertaining the more you watch it. Picture quality for the 4K version is a bit sharper that Perry White and Jimmy Olson look like they been in the sun too long and Lois looking like she is whiter than Michael Jackson. The sound is a bit sharper that the sound had to be turned down slightly.

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Zombie Holocaust. 1980.

A journalist teams up with some doctors after body parts from dead bodies go missing and witness a worker eating a heart. They travel to a island and meet up with a doctor who is performing strange experiments.

We got cannibals in a zombie flick or is it zombies in a cannibal flick :confused: either way Ian McCulloch turns up and tries to be the hero again like what he did in Zombie Flesh Eaters and i'm sure they used the same sets from that film for this one. Donald O'Brien turns up as the mad doctor who is performing the experiments and gives out a great line while someone is screaming.

It does have it's mash up and blood and gore, for it's time and budget director Marino Girolami wanted to give the audience great make up effects and doesn't really disappoint and some little nudity. Holding my hands up, I was never really that keen on this one but slowly warming up to it.

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AKA 'The Bouncing Arm Movie' !

Dvd night!

Deadly Reactor (1996, David Heavener)

Lead actor directs? Poapoc caper? Stuart Whitman??
Sold.
Many highlights. The townsfolk seem to be Amishish. Honest. Our hero is rugged and manly, though I kept thinking of David Essex at points what with his lustrous locks. Lawdy.



Strike Of The Panther (1991, Brian Trenchard-Smith)

A sequel! Must find the parent, as this was high grade second tier action ... until the disc crapped out on me. Unconsolable Demon!! :nod::pound:



Omega Cop (Paul Kyraizi)

Ron Marchini caper.
Now this has been featured on BOTW, so I only had myself to blame. Ron plays the man of action. Adam West is clearly drunk in all his scenes. Our hero traverses the poapoc landscape scooping up bints a go go. Lawdy cubed.

See No Evil. 1971.

A somewhat British Giallo with Mia Farrow playing the lead of a blind woman Sarah who goes to visit relatives in the country manor only for the family to be stalked and killed and leaving Sarah to defend for herself.

Did director Richard Fleischer deliberately pace and carefully considered direction to make a decent thriller by using everything at his disposal and cinematography to make the viewer be drawn into the film. The film can have you almost on the floor instead of edge of your seat right from the time where Sarah arrives at the manor straight up to the end with the nice suttle twist ending that still has me saying "Oh Ya F@?ker". Considering this was a flop when it was released to the public, this is actually a enjoyable mystery thriller , thanks to Dem for pointing out the Indicator/Powerhouse release, best version of this film I have watched.

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Holy Spider. 2022.

A journalist travels to the city of Mashhad to investigate the murders of sex workers by a killer who calls himself "The Holy Spider".

This was a blind buy and had no idea what I was getting myself in for, the actors I have no clue about or ever heard of them so that was a good start.

The film opens up with a prostitute doing her work (there is a scene of her performing oral and it is hardcore) and then meeting her death. Zar Amir Ebrahim is the female journalist and we are introduced how tough the laws are on women on their own in the city. Early in the film we are seen who the killer is and then the suspense builds up on how to catch a killer who leads a normal family life that's almost like the BTK killer Dennis Radar. The kills can be mild but also in one part can be brutal and we see the aftermath. The film was made in Iran and does contain subtitles.

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The film is based on a real crime that happened in Iran between 2000 and 2001.

Death Has Blue Eyes (1975, Nico Mastorakis)

His debut.
Fun flick. :nod:
Two layabouts fall in with two blondes, who really rock their world. Lawdy. Not quite as insane as the film he made the following year, it's still no Hallmark flick :laugh:. Spotting two actors from that film also added to the fun ahem, as was a rather ... individual ... musical number ahem.
Having seen quite a few of the man's films over the years, I can honestly say I'm not surprised and will be revisiting this one sharpish. The Arrow BD looks crisp enough imho, and the sound was clear.

HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK – The undisputed acme of ‘soiree goes wrong in arid late seventies home’ is ‘Abigail’s Party’. HOTEOTP may lack much Steadman, but it makes up the shortfall with the glowering presence of David Hess and his blade-to-breast fixation. I like Hess’s look, his lumpy face and sly eyes. That weird slo-mo bellow he does at the end always puts me on edge. HOTEOTP is about what happens when yuppies invite a couple of proles home for sherry and poker; their cheap laugh upends when Hess whips out the razor, making them wish they’d stuck with getting tramps to dance for meths. Is it class war? Is it just Deodato rubbing our noses in it? Everyone in this film is a bit of a shit-bag. This universal lack of the moral compass actually makes you feel for Hess (a little) as he lies dying like a mauled buffalo. It’s so sleazy and grubby, but there’s an element of zeitgeist about it; The House On The Edge Of The Park looks out over the glacial hinterlands of the eighties / nineties / Now and takes in Brett Easton Ellis’s neo-con era sybarites as well as Haneke’s subzero interiors. As always, a revisit is an opportunity to notice new things, and I saw more shadows this time, a noirish inkiness spreading itself across the cream carpets.

COBWEB – Peter‘s parents have a garden full of decomposing pumpkins. To some that’s just quirky, but I kept looking at it, thinking “there has to be a skull in it.” I got the skull, I just wasn’t expecting Rapunzel. I liked Cobweb. I thought I was being set up for a delve into the psyche of a troubled young man and that the spooky photography was all a projection; that was before I twigged that the whole thing was more an excuse to parade nice visuals of cellars, mouldy interiors, and hoodlums creeping around in animal masks. It loses some atmosphere when it goes off the rails into monster stuff, it gets a bit blunt, though that bluntness itself still satisfies. The mist hangs heavy over this Halloween fairytale, and I don’t need much more than that.

Pleased you've seen this one. I noticed there was a blu available here in Blighty. Sounds like one to pick up for this October.

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

It's always nice to mention something new each time i review a favourite film so this time i noted the game of oneupmanship, if it can be called that, by the officers aboard Lord Vader's star destroyer - Executor. It's a little merry-go-round of pass the admiralty until Vader chokes you to death for inefficiency.

Note the withering look Michael Sheard's Admiral Ozzel gives Kenneth Colley's Captain Piett when Vader commends him for discovering the rebel base on the Hoth system and then the uneasy way the newly promoted Admiral Piett accepts the post from Vader with the dead Ozzel on the floor, having incurred Vader's wrath for leaving hyperspace to soon thus alerting said rebels to the Imperial fleet.

Captain Needa (Michael Culver) also incurs deadly Vader's wrath for losing the Millennium Falcon when practically within the star destroyers reach. Meanwhile Admiral Piett somehow uncharacteristically survives the film and Vader's retribution living until the finale of Return of the Jedi.

It seems the only officer Vader doesn't terrify is General Veers (Julian Glover) who leads the Empire's successful ground assault on Hoth, commanding the lead AT-AT Walker. Although unlike Piett, he's never seen again.

That took ages to type with one finger thanks to my extremely painful right shoulder tendon injury.