Blu-ray: Crimewave (1985)Directed by Sam Raimi (who also shares writing credits with Joel and Ethan Coen), and featuring Bruce Campbell, Brion James, Louise Lasser, Paul L. Smith, Antonio Fargas and many other of my favourite actors of that time period, you’d think that Crimewave would be one of my “go to” movies of the past 36 years.However, […]
DVD: Welcome to Sudden Death (2020)Jesse Freeman (Michael Jai White) is a former special forces officer and explosives expert now working a regular job as a security guard in a state-of-the-art sports arena.Trouble begins during a basketball game at the arena, just when Jesse has taken his young son and daughter with him to work […]
Blu-ray: The Criminal Code (1930)The Criminal Code, based on the play by Martin Flavin, was originally produced on Broadway in 1929, and the great Boris Karloff, who appeared in the stage play, is recast here as Galloway, giving him his first noticeable role after being mostly cast in bit parts.Notably, the film is the first of Hawks’ four […]
Written and directed by David Mamet, Things Change is one of those ‘hidden gem’ movies Powerhouse Films excel at releasing under their Indicator series of releases. Gino (Don Ameche) is a quiet, considered older Italian shoe-shiner working in a repair shop in Chicago. He’s poor, lives alone, minds his own business, and gets on with life.One […]
Blu-ray: The Bloodhound (2020)From the first atmospheric scene of a featureless masked figure pulling its lifeless-legged body through a stream and then crawling into the closet of an unknown house, through to the final shot of this fresh take on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher by first-time feature director Patrick Picard, […]
Digital: The Columnist (2019)Newspaper columnist and author Femke Boot (Katja Herbers) is suffering from writers’ block, and her ability to overcome this is not helped by a constant barrage of personal abuse on social media platforms. Upon discovering that her next door neighbour is one of the people posting hateful messages about her, she “helps him” when […]
Digital: Sacrifice (2020)6 weeks away from the birth of their first child, Isaac (Ludovic Hughes) and Emma (Sophie Stevens) travel from America to a remote Norwegian village after the death of a family member there.They are soon looked after by local policewoman Renate (Barbara Crampton), who, along with her daughter, want to make Isaac and […]
Blu-ray: The Invisible Man Appears (1949) The Invisible Man vs The Human Fly (1957) While being familiar with (and very much enjoying) a variety of ‘Invisible Man’ movies, including the classic 1933 James Whale / Claude Rains version, the John Carpenter helmed 1992 adaptation, and the recent 2020 movie which very much exceeded all expectations […]
DVD & Digital: Assault on Station 33 (2021)Military veteran and PTSD sufferer Jason Hill (Sean Patrick Flanery) has arranged to meet his wife, Jennifer (Gina Holden), for lunch at the Veteran’s Affairs hospital where she works.After Jennifer is called away for an emergency meeting with the head of US Military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the […]
Blu-ray: 20th Century (1934)Interestingly, 20th Century has nothing whatsoever to do with time or the studio. It is in fact, a train. The film is based on ‘Napoleon of Broadway’, a very successful play by Charles Bruce Millholland about his experiences in working for the legendary Broadway producer. This screwball comedy film directed by the great Howard Hawks and starring John Barrymore and Carole […]