Was there anyone out there clamouring for a sequel to the David Niven and Gregory Peck led The Guns of Navarone? I ask this mainly because its sequel, Force 10 From Navarone, released almost twenty years after the original, and featured no cast members of the original. The Guns of Navarone hits the spot when it […]
Movies & Documentaries
Scorsese Shorts (1963-74) supremely confident first steps of a master (Review)
Thanks to sites like Vimeo and YouTube, it’s now easier to see short films than it has been since the days of the supporting feature. In between, the only shorts that were widely distributed were ones by notable directors, as was the case with Scorsese x 4, a VHS compilation […]
The Vanishing (1988): Performance-driven 1980’s Psychodrama hits hard (Review)
Not only a stark reminder of why I don’t like going on holiday, but The Vanishing also provides a tightly wound adaptation of a book I haven’t read. My aversion to reading Tim Krabbé’s apparently excellent The Golden Egg and holiday making aside, The Vanishing is arguably the most popular directed piece from one George Sluizer, who you […]
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) The Sexual or the Spiritual? (Review)
Released to Blu-ray by Arrow Academy this last week, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is the renowned Japanese new wave filmmaker Nagisa Ōshima’s 1983 adaptation of Sir Laurens van der Post’s semi-autobiographical works, The Seed and the Sower from 1963 and The Night of the New Moon from 1970, each inspired […]
Husbands (1970): Hard Going, But Intentionally So (Review)
If you want a divisive film, look no further than Husbands, released on Criterion Blu-ray from June 9th. On it’s release in 1970, John Cassavetes drama polarised critics and audiences alike. Jay Cocks of Time magazine described it as “one of the best movies anyone will ever see. It is […]
Distant Journey (1949) a nihilistic vision of Nazi persecution (Review)
I was intrigued to hear that Alfréd Radok’s Czech drama, Distant Journey, was one of the first films to depict the horrors of the Holocaust. I was left gobsmacked, though, to hear that the film was released in 1949, only a couple years after the Holocaust ended. For Radok to […]
Snowpiercer (2013) Next Stop, Class Warfare (Review)
The film now arriving on Blu-ray this week is Snowpiercer. UK Home media apologise for the delay, which was due to a taste failure from Harvey Weinstein. I mean, there’s late and there’s very late. I actually think I’ve spent a similar amount of time waiting for Snowpiercer as I […]
The Specialists (1969) Eccentric French Spaghetti Western Grime (Review)
As I continue to grapple with the tried and tested tropes of the spaghetti western, I find myself more drawn to certain aspects. Shootouts that have a tinge of tension to them, but at the same time manage to incorporate darker, underlying motifs. For a Few Dollars More fits the bill […]
The Family Way: Hayley & Hywel 4Eva (Review)
It’s perhaps a measure of how London-centric our society is that if you were to mention playwright Bill Naughton to anyone then those who had heard of him at least would tell you that he wrote Alfie, the 1963 stageplay about a cockney Casanova that has been twice made into […]
Kwaidan: The King of the J-Horror (Review)
Before Hideo Nakata changed all the rules for what it means for an Asian Horror movie to court worldwide notoriety, Kwaidan was the Japanese ghost story that put the country on the map. I still think there’s an argument to be made that this is still is the case as […]