Four men board a New York subway train before revealing automatic rifles and taking the passengers hostage. Their leader (Robert Shaw) demands a one million dollar ransom, to be delivered within one hour. At the other end of the radio … Continue reading REVIEW: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
I have always been fascinated by Disney’s ‘dark’ period, which commenced with The Black Hole in 1979 and wound up with the catastrophic failure of The Black Cauldron in 1985. Disney has always leavened its family films with elements of … Continue reading REVIEW: Night Crossing (1982)
Nikki Ferris (Hayley Mills) travels with her musicologist aunt (Joan Greenwood) to the Greek island of Crete. There she meets the charming stranger Mark Camford (Peter McEnery), and gets pulled into a life-or-death adventure against a murderous thief (Eli Wallach). … Continue reading REVIEW: The Moon-Spinners (1964)
There are plot revelations during Angel Heart (1997) that bear some discussion, but of course will reveal things best experienced the first time by watching the actual film. If you have never seen the film before, note that next two paragraphs are … Continue reading REVIEW: Angel Heart (1987)
Chanteraide (François Civil) is a sonar specialist assigned to a French submarine. After a near-contact reveals an unidentified submarine of Russian design, he risks his career and criminal arrest in an attempt to properly identify the new vehicle. Meanwhile Russian … Continue reading REVIEW: The Wolf’s Call (2019)
10 years after their near-fatal shootout with police, rampage killers Otis (Bill Moseley) and Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie) escape from prison – their companion Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig) having been executed for his crimes. Teaming up with criminal “Foxy” Coltrane … Continue reading REVIEW: 3 From Hell (2019)
Kim Ki-woo (Choi Woo-sik), a young man living in poverty, miraculously scores a part-time job tutoring mathematics for a rich Korean family. When that family needs an art tutor, Ki-woo knows of an excellent choice. When the family fires their … Continue reading REVIEW: Parasite (2019)
East Germany, 1979. Two families, the Strelzyks and the Wetzels, conspire to secretly build a hot air balloon and use it to cross the border into the West. When they barely survive their first attempt, they must race against time … Continue reading REVIEW: Balloon (2018)
Writer/director Shinya Tsukamoto made an enormous impact internationally with his low-budget 1989 tech-horror Tetsuo: The Iron Man. Shot in grainy black and white with a piercing industrial soundtrack, it rapidly became a cult hit around the world and attracted a fiercely … Continue reading REVIEW: Bullet Ballet (1998)
Hiding in the shadows of a bus shelter, the career criminal Zhou (Ge Hu) meets the mysterious Liu Aiai (Kwei Lun-mei). He was expecting his wife. She insists she has come on her behalf. Across the road from a police … Continue reading REVIEW: The Wild Goose Lake (2019)
