You have not been getting enough pasta in your cinematic diet! To remedy that, track down Bandidos, a spaghetti western that has real spice in the sauce.
A mean and gritty western
Apr 14
Ahem.
This was actually supposed to be my second entry in the last Roundtable, but when I lose a DVD somewhere in the house, it stays lost…
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In which John Carradine is sent to Mapleton, Massachusetts, to clean up the mess made by Turhan Bey, and ends up fouling the nest even more thoroughly.
Meanwhile, Kharis decides that he’s had enough of High Priests interfering in his love-life…
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Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!
Hitchcock in space
Apr 4
The movie Lifepod takes Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat and gives it a sci-fi twist. It’s an interesting idea, but director Ron Silver is no Hitchcock.
Yahrzeit? OK, OK, so Jess Franco wasn’t Jewish. That’s OK: neither am I. Still, this is the one-year anniversary of his death, so in his honor I’m posting reviews from two of the last — how shall I put it? — unambiguously good years of his film-making life.
1965
Miss Muerte/The Diabolical Dr. Z — often called Franco’s best film.
1966
Cartes sur table/Attack of the Robots — Franco’s first movie with Eddie Constantine.
Residencia para Espías/Golden Horn — Franco’s last movie with Eddie Constantine, who really looks better in black & white.
The independent horror movie The Carrier is in several ways unlike any other horror movie you can think of. But ultimately it won’t be to everybody’s taste.
Jumping in on the 1980s fad of showing Vietnam vets in a more heroic light, P.O.W. The Escape gives David Carradine the opportunity to show Rambo a thing or two.
Six years before filming the international box office smash The Gods Must Be Crazy, South African filmmaker Jamie Uys made Animals Are Beautiful People, a nature documentary that served as an interesting warm up for what was to follow.
Be careful what you wish for
Feb 28
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In honour of our resurrected blog, a resurrected review of a film about a resurrection:
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When Andy Brooks gets home from Vietnam, his family and friends can’t help but notice that he is somehow “different”.
They don’t know the half of it…
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Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!
The ABC network must have really loved the bionic man and woman series they aired in the 1970s, since years later they whipped up the television movie Running Delilah. It’s more or less the same idea, but nowhere as fun as it was before.
It’s a tasty confection
Feb 13
Although dessert is usually saved for last at the dinner table, The Chocolate War makes for a very satisfying cinematic meal.