I know Joel Fry from the films Paddington 2, Yesterday, and Cruella, and the TV shows W1A, Twenty Twelve, and Game of Thrones.

I think Hizdahr zo Loraq is the only serious role I've seen him play, so it will be called to see him playing a research scientist in a horror film.

In all three of those films he's fine. Roles that suit him. I'm sorry but a research scientist just doesn't work for him and jars the whole film. Although Dem is right, he not the only bit of miscasting. Just for me the biggest error. Nothing against him as an actor I must add. Just a role that really doesn't suit. Which is a problem as the lead character.

We watched Lucio Fulci's Murder Rock for the first time. Pleasingly this actually had a proper budget, it looked like a real movie. It was a very much fun bank holiday film. Huge lapses in logic at times (which might be a given with much of Italian genre cinema) but highly entertaining.

Being a giallo that's influenced by Flashdance and Fame, there's quite a fair amount of footage of dancing, something I never thought that I'd see in a Fulci movie. Although to be fair, he did seem to be enjoying showing us how much the dancers were suffering when repeatedly practising their routines.

Highlight of film was probably the Ray Lovelock dream sequence. It was enjoyable to recognise various actors in this. My only serious criticism is that we both guessed who the killer was around three quarters of the way through. :) Would much rather that UK Arrow release something like this rather than Demonia.

The Mummy (1999)

I'd forgotten what an entertaining film this is. Sitting somewhere on the fence between adventure and horror film, Stephen Sommers film is a vibrant, fast paced action adventure even though elements have been recycled from other movies.

This is more a reimagining of 1940's The Mummy's Hand than the original Karloff classic eight years earlier with Brendan Fraser and John Hannah in similar roles to Dick Foran's adventurer and Wallace Ford's comedic sidekick. The likable Fraser is ideal and has nice chemistry with Rachel Weisz as the heroine whilst Arnold Vosloo is perfectly cast as the reanimated mummy Imhotep.

Made in 1998 this was spectacular in it's use of special effects, albeit effects that are ten to the dozen nowadays, but thankfully they still stand up today and it all looks visually stunning on Blu-ray.

I Spit On Your Grave 2

Sequel in name only to the remake which sees an aspiring Model played by Jemma Dallender go on a Photo shoot only days after gets brutally Raped, shipped off to Bulgaria and buried alive. Only after some luck where the container falls through some ground and it reopens, she regroups and gets her bloody violent revenge. She is befriended by a Priest and a Police Detective.

By the name of the Film, you know what to expect. Dallender's performance is really good and the bad guys were so evil, you wanted her to get her revenge and boy does she. One scene made me heave and one seen actually tops Casino for using a Vice as a weapon.

The Rape scenes are very hard to watch so be careful if you are watching with someone and I'd rather those scenes were shorter and the revenge scenes longer. but it's worth a watch if your tolerance levels are high.

The BBFC trimmed almost two minutes off the UK release in comparison to the US dvd i have.

https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=69182

Windtalkers (2002)

Nicolas Cage stars as a Marine sergeant assigned to protect a Navajo radio operator during an operation to take the island of Saipan away from Japanese control. Protection isn't his only order though as he's also not to let the code breaker get into Japanese hands via any means possible.

Directed by John Woo, this is certainly action packed but it all feels so heavy handed. It lacks the humanity of say Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge, and just feels too clunky and cliched all round. The heroic finale should have the viewer close to tears as Gibson's film did but the only tears here would come from laughter.

Despite buying the US dvd when it first came out over twenty years ago, tonight was only my second ever viewing. I was never remotely bored by the film but i doubt by this time next week i'll remember too much about it either.

I've been exploring the wonderful two disc Second Sight release of Censor (2021) across the last couple of days rewatching the film and appreciating it even more than i initially did when i first saw it in early December and then with the commentary from director Prano Bailey-Bond and producer Kim Newman.

Also watching the various documentaries, interviews and short films also on the release as well as the feature length Ban the Sadist Videos! documentary and half hour interview with Severin Films head David Gregory about the video nasties and what it was like in the UK during that ridiculous period in the eighties and nineties.

I Start Counting. A teenage girl's everyday life and adolescent crush on her much older (adopted) brother start to go awry when she begins to suspect he might be the serial killer stalking women in her community. A very young Jenny Agutter stars in this early 70s British drama/thriller. Enjoyable enough, though it's a bit more coming of age drama and less thriller than I was hoping for.

Good Film but it gets weird at the end.

Regarding the Documentary, I loved the part where the MP wanted to ban all 15 and 18 rated films from Video Shops and that James German had to step in and basically imply that it's going too far.

Schindler's List and Chaplin were the examples given