With a name like Invaders from Proxima B, you’d be forgiven for presuming this low-budget effort from writer, director and star Ward Roberts would be chock full of men in green rubber suits, tacky flying saucers and dodgy laser effects. Well, there are certainly variations on those, but the last […]
Reviews
A Queens Ransom (1976) The One with The One Armed Boxer and James Bond (Review)
Did you ever hear about the time James Bond and The One Armed Swordsman started in a film together? No? Would it surprise you more to know that they did two movies in the mid 70s, both made under the banner of Golden Harvest? One of which sees release this […]
Hunt Her Kill Her (2022) – A Predictable Slasher Comfort-Blanket for Horror Enthusiasts
No genre rests on its laurels quite like horror, and there’s a simple reason for that. Take a basic premise, litter it with predictable, generic tropes, plus the odd, timely wink to your audience, and chances are, there will always be a faithful following, big or small, primed and ready […]
Prison Walls: Abashiri Prison I-III (1965) – Layered Yakuza Trilogy takes you on a wild journey (Review)
Rare is the cinematic saga that maintains consistency. For every Lord of the Rings, there’s ten Star Warses (pick any of the trilogies) or Jurassic Parks (ditto), veering wildly from side to side as they try to work out just what put millions of bums in seats to see the […]
Breathe (2024) Starry low-budget thriller is lacking in atmosphere (Review)
Science fiction is often a genre that is complemented by social critique. After all, what better way to rip apart where we’ve been than looking forward to where we may be going? Currently in theatres is the alpha prime of big swing social sci-fi: the latest instalment of the Planet of […]
Luminous Woman (1987) – A surreal Japanese study of alienation, violence and societal corruption (Review)
Picture this: a hulking man advances, barefoot and wearing nothing but trousers and a fur jacket – one might easily assumed he’d skinned himself – through a dystopian desert with dirt, rubbish and waste spanning the entire frame. The very air is tinted with purple, as if the atmosphere itself […]
A Family Affair (2024) “Bearded Joe Shorn of Jokes” (Review)
Rather famously, the TV critic of the Daily Mirror was not impressed with John Cleese’s sitcom Fawlty Towers when it made its debut in 1975. “Long John Short on Jokes” was the pronouncement of the former Monty Python star’s farcical hotelier comedy, now considered a much loved classic and often […]
Nightwatch: Demons are Forever (2023) Left-Field Legacy Horror Sequel with Lashings of Nordic Noir (Review)
I am not one of those horror fans who watched Hellraiser at 8 and instantly fell for the macabre of the movie world. I was a late bloomer. Even so, two movies cut through during my teen years and helped move me from ambivalence to acceptance and later, fandom: Hideo […]
The Almond and the Seahorse (2024): Low-key and Earnest Disability Drama (Review)
Stage to screen adaptations can be a mixed bag, either by playing it too safe with a stripped-back aesthetic that makes the film essentially a recording of a stage show, or by pushing too far with camera trickery and story expansion that means the strengths of the play are lost […]
Dogfight (1991): Transcending Misogyny to Make a Very Real Human Connection (Review)
Released to the Criterion Collection this week is Dogfight, Nancy Savoca’s 1991 movie that undoubtedly features one of River Phoenix’s finest performances. In a career that burned fast but brightly, the aptly named Phoenix was cast against type here as a belligerent, foul mouthed jarhead; a role that was arguably […]