The influence of 1970’s The Chinese Boxer, a Shaw Brothers movie written, directed by, and starring the one-(armed)-man phenomenon that was Jimmy Wang Yu, can never be understated. It influenced a shift in Chinese/Taiwanese cinema, moving away from long-haired heroes in bad wigs, flowing gowns, and swishy swords to something […]
Reviews
Hardboiled: Three Pulp Thrillers by Alain Corneau (1976-81)
The thing about Alain Corneau’s crime thrillers is, for all they take their time telling a story, they let you know what they’re really about straight away. Each of the three titles collected in this Radiance Films Blu-Ray set kicks off with a sequence or shot that immediately flags up […]
Rulers of the City (1976) Light-Hearted Revenge Based Eurocrime
Released on Blu-ray this week by Radiance and Raro Video is Rulers of the City – an Italian Euro Crime/Poliziotteschi offering from 1976 by director Fernando Di Leo. The filmmaker had already provided the genre with staples such as Caliber 9 (1972), The Italian Connection (1972), The Boss (1973), and […]
The Barnabáš Kos Case (1965) Triangle of Madness
Without doubt the greatest film ever made about a triangle player in a symphony orchestra, Second Run’s Blu-Ray release of The Barnabáš Kos Case sees them returning to the work of the Slovakian director Peter Solan. Previously, they’d released the other film the busy director made in 1965, Before Tonight […]
What Happened Was… (1994) Worst first date ever, or worst date EVER?
The hulking figure of Tom Noonan casts a deceptive shadow. The gangly character actor who found fame in films by Michaels Cimino and Mann (most notably the latter in Manhunter) is a distinctive yet understated presence, sizing up at an impressive 6ft 5in and possessing some memorably melancholy eyes; even from […]
Paddington in Peru (2024) A Fun Adventure That Can’t Escape the Shadow of Its Predecessors
The third Paddington film, Paddington in Peru, faced a few complications before even arriving in theaters. The director of the first two films, Paul King, was unable to return due to commitments to Wonka (2023), leaving a comparitively inexperienced Dougal Wilson to fill in with directorial duties. Additionally, Sally Hawkins, […]
Play It Cool (1970): walking the fine line between melodrama and exploitation
The picaresque structure, in which a roguish but sympathetic hero moves through an episodic plot usually set in a criminal underworld, was used in early landmark novels like Don Quixote and Moll Flanders. It’s now used more in pornography than serious literature, but if that’s a fall from grace no-one […]
The Birthday (2004) Farcical Doomsday Celebration Twenty Years Late to the Party
Last year I reviewed the Russell Crowe-helmed The Exorcism, a film I made a big deal out of for being filmed all the way back in 2019, only to be pushed out a whole five years later in 2024. Well, that seems mighty quaint now compared to the curious case […]
Dressed to Kill (1980) Dressed to Thrill, or Dressed to Disappoint?
Brian De Palma has garnered significant levels of criticism for being sexist over the years, and this is at its most relevant in the ways he likes to film women in the shower, as seen in the opening of both Carrie and Dressed to Kill, De Palma also includes shower […]
The Terminal Man (1974) Alienation and Loss of Identity in Los Angeles
When David Lynch recently passed away, I ended up reflecting on my High School Film Studies teacher who introduced me to Mulholland Drive (2001) and sent me down the rabbit hole. That class was life-changing, a crash course in film history, where he had the freedom to draw out some […]