Let’s be honest, what is there really left to say about Police Story? It’s one of the icons of Hong Kong action, it launched a 7 movie spanning franchise, it was pivotal in making Jackie Chan one of the most beloved faces in world cinema, and above all that, it […]
Rob Simpson
Chief Editor
Host of the Uncut Network. With a love of movies kicked off by Hong Kong Action and Claymation Monsters, Rob has forever been cradled in the bosom of Cinema. Rob has his hands in many a pie, including no budget film making. Filthy
Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell, Bastards! (1963) All Hail Suzuki, King of Gonzo! (Review)
It has been a banner year for Seijun Suzuki thanks to Arrow (Academy & Video), with the release of two boxsets featuring 10 of his early Nikkatsu movies [video], the Taishō Roman Trilogy and now, the latest of the bunch, Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell, Bastards! To be fair, […]
The Case Of The Scorpion’s Tail (1971) Sergio Martino’s Giallo Detours (Review)
While watching Arrow Video’s latest, The Case Of The Scorpion’s Tail, a thought struck me. Be you a fan of horror or genre cinema, as much as you’d like the opposite to be true, you can’t know about all movements and styles – it’s that very reason why, I, personally, […]
Iron Monkey (1993) One of the best entry points of Kung-Fu Cinema (Review)
If DVDs wore out as VHS did, my old Hong Kong Legends Iron Monkey DVD would’ve been degraded to the degree that it’d probably play more like a bootleg than a legit release. Everyone has movies like that, movies where you know you want to watch something but you don’t […]
Loveless (2017) A Russian apocalyse within a dissolving marriage (Review)
Russian cinema is certainly one for its figureheads. Sergei Eisenstein was instrumental in many theories that would go on to establish the cinematic language. Andrei Tarkovsky established and nigh on perfected the arthouse. And since his passing there wasn’t really much of a centrepiece for Russian cinema, as such, it […]
The Grifters (1990) Punk-ish Neo-Noir that kick-started one of the best eras of crime cinema (Review)
101 films co-produced a new making-of documentary for Stephen Frears’ The Grifters. In which, a producer states that Martin Scorsese believed Jim Thompson’s novel of the same name was among the best crime novels that hadn’t been adapted and so sought to amend that fact. With the legendary Taxi Driver […]
Youth (2017) Part political treatise, part dance movie, and part horror of War movie (Review)
Back to 1942 is one of the bleakest movies of recent years, Feng Xiaogang directed a horrifying presentation on the human cost of war. The 2012 movie showed an invading army turning their weapons on civilians, people selling their children just so said offspring can eat and enough self-sacrifice to […]
Cure (1997) Modern Horror Masterpiece about Evil’s absolute power to indoctrinate
In 1999, Hideo Nakata’s gloomy horror masterwork, Ring, popularised a wave of horror films from Japan that took the world by storm under the banner of J-Horror. J-Horror, like any genre or movement, has its line-up of standards and tropes, with the harsh digital look of muted Green, Grey and […]
ReBorn (2016) Tak Sakaguchi’s return is a case of mixed blessings (Review)
Tak Sakaguchi retiring was a bit of a running joke once upon a time, with news reports flipping sides on a near-daily basis. “Today he isn’t retiring, tomorrow he is”. Unfortunately, the ‘speed master’, friend of Sion Sono, and surprisingly good actor within the martial arts community faded from our […]
The Gate (1987) One of the finest gateway movies into horror fandom (Review)
Laika films have a remarkable position in modern cinema, not only are they keeping the wonder of stop-motion animation alive for the next generation, but they are also a flag bearer for gateway horror. Between Paranorman, Coraline, and, to a lesser extent, the Boxtrolls, they are providing that same generation […]