Several years ago my brother refused to watch On the Waterfront because it was in black and white. No matter how hard I tried to persuade him, the fact that it was ‘old’ made him impervious to it.I think a lot of people see the title BFI and feel that whatever the film is, it’s […]
Cinema & Digital Download: Beasts Clawing at Straws (2020) Joong-man (Sung-Woo Bae) is underpaid and overworked at a sauna where he has to put up with a cocky young boss who is high on the power he holds over his staff, before going home to care for his sick mother. At the end of a […]
4K UHD Blu-ray: The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (1970) Dario Argento hit the screen with a bang (well, multiple stabs to be more precise) with his directorial debut The Bird With the Crystal Plumage. Setting the scene for his many giallo movies to follow, TBWTCP contains twists, turns, clues and red herrings aplenty as you […]
Blu-ray: Hell Night (1981) The 20th of 101 Films ‘Black Label’ series of releases, Hell Night is yet another superbly packaged and special features heavy addition to this great selection of titles (see here for them all). A 4K scan of the best surviving archival 35mm film print with minor SD inserts to replace missing […]
Blu-ray, DVD & Download-to-own: Life in Colour (2021) Anything with David Attenborough in is going to be informative, emotional, and visually stunning. At least that’s the opinion I’ve held for a long time now, and it certainly didn’t change after watching Life in Colour. David once again travels to an eclectic mix of places around […]
Blu-ray: Invincible (2001)Written and directed by the inestimable Werner Herzog, Invincible is based on a true story and follows Jewish blacksmith Zishe Breitbart (Jouko Ahola) as he journeys to pre-WWII Berlin and becomes a strongman performing in a club owned by the mystical Herschel Steinschneider (Tim Roth).It is here that Zishe is forced to take on the […]
4K UHD Blu-ray: True Romance (1993)Written by Quentin Tarantino, directed by Tony Scott, and starring Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, Christopher Walken, Bronson Pinchot, Michael Rapaport, and a host of other actors at the top of their game (including Val Kilmer as Elvis Presley…if you haven’t watched this before, I shall […]
Blu-ray: The Big Fix (1978)The Big Fix is one of those late 1970s political/detective stories that are… you know… ‘quirky’ and… 1970s. Hmmm.Directed by Jeremy Kagan and based on the novel by Roger Simon (who also did the screen writing), it stars Richard Dreyfuss as ‘Quirky’ (oh there’s that word again) private detective Moses Wine (there’s a lot of Jewish […]
Blu-ray & Digital: Babymother (1998)The one and only full feature directed by Julian Henriques (who is now a Doctor and lecturer in media in London), Babymother tells the story of Anita (Anjela Lauren Smith) and the club reggae scene in late 90s London.It’s rather difficult for me, a 50- something white woman from a small […]
Massacre TimeAfter the huge success of A Fistful of Dollars, Italy started churning out westerns. Fernando Di Leo had previously co-written A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, A Pistol for Ringo and The Return of Ringo, so it’s a no brainer he’d eventually be given his own film, that being Massacre Time.The film’s title was taken from the […]