Current wisdom in the literary world of the thriller genre is that you must immediately hook your reader in with some violence right from the first page. After that, you can focus on character, setting etc, but the bloody stuff has to be placed right up front. Released to Blu-ray […]
Mark Cunliffe
Senior Contributor
Mark's first cinematic experience was watching the Cannon and Ball vehicle, The Boys in Blue. He hasn't looked back since. Hailing from Lancashire, he is an occasional contributor to Arrow DVD, writing booklet inlay essays on a variety of titles, including Children of Men and The Day of the Jackal. He has also written a chapter for Ste Brotherstone and Dave Lawrence's book, Scarred For Life Vol II. He is often found on Letterboxd, has appeared on the Talking Pictures podcast and also writes for We Are Cult, Horrified and America's left-leaning news outlet ZNetwork. He is also a regular contributor to the Geek Show's podcasts, including Pop Screen and the Uncut series.
Coach to Vienna (1966) Defying the Perceived Wisdoms of WWII (Review)
Another day, another release from Second Run of a Czech film that fell foul of the authorities as the optimism of the Prague Spring gave way to the reassertion of Soviet control and the period of normalisation that took a hold of the country until the eventual collapse of the […]
A Time for Dying (1969) Audie Murphy’s Last Stand (Review)
Here’s a curio released by Indicator Powerhouse this week, the final film of both director Bud Boetticher and star Audie Murphy, A Time for Dying was made in 1969 but didn’t actually receive a cinema release until 1982, having been tied up with litigation in the intervening thirteen years. This […]
The Devil’s Trap (1962) Avante Garde sounds and visions in this slyly clever satire (Review)
Another Czech film from the 1960s gets dusted down and given the usual exemplary treatment from the Second Run label this week and anyone in the know or familiar with some of my previous reviews will expect the usual discussion about how the film has a subversive message regarding the […]
Crazy Thunder Road (1980) Japan’s Mad Max or Generational Clash? (Review)
Released to Blu-ray this week by the Third Window Films label, Crazy Thunder Road is the breakthrough movie of Gakuryu, the artist formerly known as Sogo Ishii. A high-octane and proudly (cyber)punk movie, Crazy Thunder Road was actually the filmmaker’s graduation project. So impressive was it deemed for a student […]
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1982) An Obscure Take on the Traditional British Murder Mystery Novel (Review)
The British film industry of the late twentieth century is one that I am deeply fascinated by. From the early 1970s onwards, it was an industry cash-strapped by Hollywood’s decision to return home after rinsing the profitable new wave/kitchen sink/swinging London milieus of the previous decade. Compelled to either emulate […]
The Party and the Guests (1966): So Good They Banned It Twice (Review)
Released on Blu-ray this week by the exemplary Second Run label, The Party and the Guests is a 1966 Czechoslovakian film from Jan Němec that holds the distinction of being one of a handful of films to be ‘banned forever’ in its native land by communist authorities who, in the […]
Dillinger (1973): Print the Legend (Review)
“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend” is an infamous quote from John Ford’s 1962 classic Western The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance that could arguably be seen as the inspiration for Dillinger, John Milius’1973 directorial debut, dusted down by Arrow Video and given the Blu-ray treatment this week. Based on […]
Merry-Go-Round (1956) Romeo and Juliet in Communist Hungary (Review)
Released this week as part of Second Run’s Hungarian Masters limited edition three disc Blu-ray (see m’colleagues reviews on this site for the other two films in the set), Merry-Go-Round, or to give it its original Hungarian title Körhinta, is rightly held up as one of the finest achievements in […]
Le Samourai (1967) Alain in the Underworld (Review)
Criterion delivers Alain Delon’s most iconic performance to Blu-ray this week with the release of Jean-Pierre Melville’s classic, Gallic ode to ’40s US gangster movies, Le Samourai. In what is arguably his greatest role, the impossibly handsome Delon stars as as assassin-for-hire Jef Costello. Dressed in trenchcoat and a deeply […]