Blu-ray & DVD: Stormy Monday (1988) Brendan (Sean Bean) is a young loner looking for work and a chance to earn an honest day’s pay. He happens to walk into a jazz club run by Finney, (Sting) who quickly takes a shine to Brendan offering him the opportunity to be more than just a cleaner. […]
Blu-ray: Pulp (1972) A year on from working together on Get Carter, writer/director Mike Hodges and cinematic legend Michael Caine team up once again for another crime movie, albeit one with a slightly quirky narrative. Mickey King (Caine) is a successful ‘pulp‘ novelist, whose titles ‘My Gun is Long’ and ‘The Organ Grinder’, give some […]
Blu-ray: The Wonderful Worlds of Ray Harryhausen, Volume 1: 1955-60 Surely Ray Harryhausen needs no introduction!? A pioneering special effects maestro, he is responsible for some of my fondest early movie watching memories…I still shudder whenever I see Talos slowly turn his head. But more of that particular memory when I review Volume 2 in this […]
Blu-ray & DVD: Animal Factory (2000) Based on the semi-autobiogahphical novel of the same name by Eddie Bunker and helmed by Steve Buscemi in only his 2nd time as director of a feature film, Animal Factory follows Ron Decker (Edward Furlong), a young man sentenced to 10 years in San Quentin State Prison for a drug dealing conviction, […]
Blu-ray & DVD: Erik the Conqueror (1961) It would be crude to the point of offence to call renowned Rabid director Mario Bava the Asylum of his day, but his 1961 foray into the historical adventure genre, Erik the Conqueror, is – in essence – a schlocky, low-budget, copyright-swerving unofficial remake of 1958 Kirk Douglas […]
DVD: Betjeman – The Collection Betjeman: The Collection features three of Britain’s former Poet Laureate’s BBC documentaries: A Passion for Churches (1974), A Bird’s Eye View (1969-71), and Four with Betjeman: Victorian Architects and Architecture. Regular listeners to our podcast will know of my love of documentaries, and these BBC productions certainly don’t disappoint. A […]
DVD: The Vietnam War (2017) I have a degree in History. I spent three very happy years immersing myself in, mainly British History, but my love of the subject extends worldwide, and especially to America. Having said that, I know next to nothing about The Vietnam War. However, I am familiar with Ken Burns and […]
Blu-ray: White Palace (1990) Max Baron (James Spader) is a 27 year old business man attempting to ‘get over’ the tragic death of his wife. Nora Baker (Susan Sarandon) is a ‘rough around the edges’ hard drinking, untidy 44 year old waitress who ends up being the object of his lust. White Palace is a […]
DVD: The Mystery of Edwin Drood (2012) Charles Dickens died in the middle of writing this his last (obviously!) novel and since then there has been enormous speculation about how he would have finished it. No one really knows, but writer Gwyneth Hughes went back to original sources, such as accounts of conversations Dickens had […]
Blu-ray: Torture Garden (1967) Amicus Productions made many fantastic movies between 1962 and 1977, though they are widely regarded for their horror anthologies of which Torture Garden was their 2nd. Torture Garden’s 4 short stories are framed by a group of people visiting Dr. Diablo’s fairground haunted house attraction. Dr. Diablo (Burgess Meredith) invites them […]