Blu-ray: Murphy’s War (1971)A very different story from the Max Chatto novel, Murphy’s War starring real life married couple Peter O’Toole and Siân Phillips and directed by Peter Yates, is a showcase for O’Toole’s acting.Set in South America, filmed in Malta and Venuzula, it tells the story of the last survivor of a UK WW2 Nazi torpedoed ship, who […]
Blu-ray, DVD & Digital: High Crime (1973)High Crime is one of Italy’s more famous Poliziotteschi films, made during a period of socio-political turmoil in Italy and high crime rates.They were infamous for their graphic violence, rape, organised crime, car chases, and corruption, with cops and criminals normally tough working class loners, who act outside a corrupt bureaucratic system.This one stars my […]
Blu-ray, iTunes and Amazon Prime: The Last Metro (1980)The Last Metro, made in 1980, written and directed by François Truffaut, and starring Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu and winning nearly every award going, is a classic of cinema that passed me by.It follows the actors and workers of a theatre in Montmartre during the Nazi occupation of Paris in […]
Blu-ray: Wild Things (1998) Alas, they don’t make film like this anymore. What’s that? NO sigh of relief from Tina? No feminist outburst? Nope, just a genuine lament at the loss of ‘sex-thrillers’ such as Basic Instinct, Fatal Attraction and director Jon Macnaughton’s Wild Things. Apparently star and producer Kevin Bacon said this script was […]
Blu-ray: The Men (1950)During World War II, U.S. Lieutenant Wilocek (Marlon Brando in his first cinema role) is shot in the back, severing his spinal cord. We next see him alone in his own room, away from the other injured soldiers in a VA hospital and refusing to see his fiancé Ellen (Theresa Wright). Cared for […]
Cinema: Wild Men (2021)Lumbering towards a local shop dressed in furs, a Viking enters and fills his shopping basket full of biscuits and crisps. On getting to the checkout he can’t pay because he has no money, and offers the cashier his axe in payment. This isn’t a time traveller, it’s a man called Martin […]
Blu-ray: Rogue Cops and Racketeers – Two Crime Thrillers from Enzo G. CastellariFabio Testi stars as inspector Nico Palmieri in Enzo G. Castellari’s (Keoma, Inglorious Bastards) 1976 Italian crime Poliziotteschi drama The Big Racket. Sent to small Italian town, Palmieri and his partner take on a gang of criminals who have a racket demanding ‘safety’ money off […]
Blu-ray: One For the Road (2003)Directed by Chris Cooke from his 1999 short film Shifting Units, One For the Road tells the story of a group of men who have banned from driving and are on a rehabilitation course for drink drivers Unfortunately the ‘look’ of the film is rather off-putting. In a time of HD and […]
Blu-ray: Rio Conchos (1964)The 1960s were a great time for westerns, whether they came from America or Italy/France/Germany/Spain. Rio Conchos is one of better ones. Starring Stalwart ‘cowboy’ Richard Boone as ex-Confederate Army officer Jim Lassiter, who is known for killing any Indian he comes across for revenge after the murder of his wife and baby.He’s […]
DVD & Digital Download: Agnes (2021)Carmelite Convent somewhere in America asks for help with Sister Agnes (Hayley Macfarland), who appears to be possessed by a demon. Okay before I go on, this conjures up a scary story doesn’t it? A group of stern nuns coping with a demonically possessed woman? Well – no. The tone […]
