Shameless Self Expression

Two hired killers (Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager) contemplate the lack of resistance given by their latest target and can’t figure out why he didn’t fight or flee. They don’t know the identity of the client who hired them, but their target was an ex-racing champ (John Cassavetes) who left the profession to work at a school for the blind. The killers learn that Cassavetes was the getaway driver of a robbery, and that the money was never found. So Marvin get the idea of trying to find out who hired them, why Cassavetes didn’t resist their attack, and where the money is. In flashback, we learn more about Cassavetes, his mechanic buddy (Claude Akins), the woman he falls for (Angie Dickinson), and her dangerous associates (Ronald Reagan, Norman Fell, and Robert Phillips).   It would appear that Ernest Hemingway’s original story isn’t the easiest to translate to film, perhaps due to it being a short story . The 1946 version, from what little I remember of it had Burt Lancaster not quite...

  Set in the 70s, Linda Cardellini is a social worker and recently widowed mother of two, her husband a cop who died in the line of duty. When we meet her she’s on the job, visiting Patricia Velasquez, whose kids were reported truant from school. She finds the boys locked in the closet, whilst Velasquez babbles on about being stalked by ‘La Llorona’, AKA The Weeping Woman, a 17 th Century Mexican folktale. Velasquez is chucked in the slammer and her two kids taken into care. However, not long after the two boys turn up dead. If you’ve ever seen a curse/haunting-related horror film before you’ll be unsurprised to find that soon Cardellini’s kids, and then Cardellini herself start to have visions of La Llorona. Cardellini seeks the counsel of Father Perez (Tony Amendola), who puts her in touch with an ex-priest with more knowledge and experience in such spooky matters (Raymond Cruz). He attempts to cleanse Cardellini’s abode of evil. Sean Patrick Thomas plays a cop who starts to que...

Fred Williamson and D’Urville Martin are opportunistic bounty hunters Boss and Amos, who arrive at a New Mexico town called San Miguel. San Miguel is without a sheriff and mostly full of racist and/or cowardly white folk, including the a-hole mayor (R.G. Armstrong). However, the town is being run over by a band of nasty outlaws led by the hateful Jed Clayton (William Smith, natch), so Boss manages to talk the corrupt mayor into appointing him sheriff, with Amos his deputy. They soon implement a bunch of stringent rules, that seem to involve hefty fines that fill their coffers. Use of the ‘N word’, for instance comes at a hefty price. Meanwhile, Jed and his men are told what’s going on by a certain member of the township, and decide to come to town and meet this new black sheriff. That’s just fine though, because Boss has Jed in his sights anyway. Don ‘Red’ Barry plays the local doctor, with Barbara Leigh a local school marm whom Boss gets to know during his stay.   I’m gonna go...

The title ex-Green Beret (Jim Brown) is back and this time he takes on the mobster Duncan (Ed McMahon!) who tries to kill Slaughter in the opening scene, only to inadvertently kills his friend (Bye-Bye, George Gaynes!). Obviously Slaughter is pissed and sets his sights on getting bloody revenge on Duncan. Brock Peters plays a rigid but honest cop who recruits Slaughter to nab confidential mob documents for him, meaning he can’t just go in and kill Duncan right away. Slaughter recruits an unlikely source to aid him in the document retrieval mission, idiot pimp Jim Creole (Dick Anthony Williams), who happens to be an efficient thief. However, after the first failed assassination attempt, Duncan has hired a hulking assassin named Kirk (Don Stroud) to get the job done right and kill Slaughter. Gloria Hendry plays Slaughter’s fed-up, sexually frustrated woman, Art Metrano is a sleazy underworld figure, Judy Brown is one of Slaughter’s contacts, and Scatman Crothers appears briefly as a guy ...

High-school student Luce (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) was adopted by white parents Naomi Watts and Tim Roth from war-torn Eritrea at the age of 7. In his birth country he was taught from an early age to kill. In America, he’s become a well-liked, academically gifted teen who heads up the debate team, is frequently asked to make school speeches, and is also a damn good multi-discipline athlete. He’s also kind of smarmy, openly admits he’s good at ‘acting’ surprised, and his teacher Miss Wilson (Octavia Spencer) is troubled that the historical figure he’s chosen to write a major thesis on, is a known revolutionary scholar who promoted violence against the forces of colonisation. A bit troubling, right? Luce retorts that he was simply doing as asked – writing in the voice of his subject. Miss Wilson is Luce’s mentor and normally one of his biggest supporters, but now she also accuses Luce of hiding illegal fireworks in his locker. A locker she searches on mere suspicion and without Luce’s consen...