Shameless Self Expression

Whilst the majority of Britain is undergoing the chills of winter, the remote Scottish island of Fara is strangely in the midst of a sharp heatwave. It’s causing communications issues, and the small populace are cropping up dead one by one, mysteriously. Strange flashing lights are seen, what’s that all about? Surly visiting scientist Godfrey Hanson (Christopher Lee) has his suspicions as to what is causing the mayhem, whilst other assorted characters converge at a local inn/pub to figure out what to do, and get mightily sloshed in the meantime as temperatures only get hotter. Gruff-voiced, square-jawed Patrick Allen plays the pub owner who is also a writer. He’s married to Sarah Lawson, but his on-and-off mistress Angela (Jane Merrow) turns up at the inn/pub to cause her own kind of mayhem (and bring her own kind of heat ). Sydney Bromley appears briefly as an old vagrant, whilst Peter Cushing plays a local doctor.   Director Terence Fisher ( “The Horror of Dracula” , “The Mum...

The Creed family (Jason Clarke, Amy Seimetz, and kids Jeté Laurence and a toddler played by both Lucas and Hugo Lavoie) move to Ludlow in Maine where doctor Clarke has found work. Unfortunately, their new home is situated on a very dangerous road, leading to the poor family cat Church being fatally wounded by a car. New neighbour Jud Crandall (John Lithgow) informs Clarke that behind the house and through the woods lies an old Indian burial ground that has become a ‘pet cemetery’ (The film and novel’s title being deliberately misspelled). So, the duo go that night to bury the departed pet. Astonishingly, the next morning Clarke finds that Church is alive again…if somewhat ‘changed’. He’s creepy-looking and grumpier than internet meme sensation Grumpy Cat (Who is also dead, but hopefully not reanimated). And then something dire happens to one of the children…and that’s when the trouble really starts.   The first adaptation of the Stephen King novel was a darkly comedic take, an...

Set in Changi prison during the tail-end of WWII, George Segal is American Cpl. King, an enterprising sort who uses bribery and theft to control not just the other men in and around his rank, but also the higher-ups, and even starts conning his Japanese captors, too. Cpl. King’s chief antagonist is Lt. Grey (Tom Courtenay), a rigid British officer from a working class background, who makes futile attempts to enforce military law inside the prison camp. Unfortunately for Lt. Grey, it’s useless because even the top brass in camp (played by Sir John Mills, Leonard Rossiter and Denholm Elliott) are reluctant to do anything about ‘King Rat’. James Fox plays the posh-sounding Marlowe, whose ability to speak Malay sees him as quite valuable to Cpl. King, who has a new racket in mind involving ‘rat meat’. Patrick O’Neal plays one of the other American POWs and King’s right-hand man.   Having written the screenplay to the wonderfully entertaining POW film “The Great Escape” , James Clav...

Former ‘Nam veteran and killing machine John J. Rambo (Sly Stallone) is still traumatised by his combat experiences and his subsequent treatment back home. It’s been a long time, and Rambo tries to keep the PTSD issues at bay, while he lives on a ranch with a family who may or may not even be his family. Supposedly he has a teenage ‘niece’ (Yvette Monreal), who has a grandmother who I think might’ve been Rambo’s housekeeper at some point. Maybe she still is. Anyway, the not-quite niece has a yearning to reconnect with her long absent father. John and…whoever the women he’s living with is (the details are sketchy for a film with such a long set-up), try to dissuade her from tracking the man down. Apparently he’s bad news and wants nothing to do with the girl anyway. Of course, Monreal nicks off to Mexico to find the deadbeat dad anyway. There she quickly finds her dad, but she also runs into serious trouble. She runs into some bad dudes who kidnap her with intention to pass her around i...

Scott Adkins is once again Casey, an American proponent of the martial art of Ninjutsu. When Casey’s pregnant Japanese wife (Mika Hijii) is rubbed out, he’s on a vengeance mission to find her killers. A friendly face, Nakabara (Kane Kosugi) turns up at the funeral, and suggests Casey come to Thailand to deal with his grief in another country. Casey initially declines, but eventually takes Nakabara up on his offer. However, his wife’s murder still haunts Casey, and with intel supplied by Nakabara, the trail eventually leads Casey to a brutal drug baron named Goro (Shun Sugata).   I was extremely disappointed with the first “Ninja” , but had heard that this 2013 sequel from director Isaac Florentine ( “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , “Undisputed III: Redemption” , “Ninja” ) was a damn near masterpiece of the martial-arts action movie genre. Having now finally gotten my hot little hands on it, I’d say the hype is a bit much, but this is unquestionably a much better film than t...