Shameless Self Expression

A DEA agent (Leslie Bibb) investigates the drug-related deaths of her sister and her sister's husband. A drug boss (Barry Pepper) deploys The Cook (Nic Cage) to look into who has been messing with his shipments, with an enforcer (Cole Hauser) accompanying him. Laurence Fishburne and Adam Goldberg play a couple of drug-snorting, hooker-banging lowlife pushers, whilst Clifton Collins Jr. and Natalia Reyes play a farmer and his wife, and Peter Facinelli is another DEA guy.   2019 crime-drama from writer-director Jason Cabell is like a cut-rate “Traffic” but directed by Paul Schrader ( “Hardcore” ) on speed or something. Cabell (a former Navy SEAL who only co-directed one film before this) is trying to do it all in 90 minutes as well. The result is a pretty big failure, with poor Laurence Fishburne’s worst performance to date as a seedy, hooker-banging coke fiend in a film that’s already got Nic Cage. The film just hasn’t got the running time appropriate to deal with the scope of ...

The true account of Dr. Crippen (Donald Pleasence) a meek and henpecked husband to a vulgar, low-rent showbiz veteran (Coral Browne) whom he is accused of murdering in early 1900s Britain. Samantha Eggar plays Dr. Crippen’s secretary/mistress, James Robertson Justice is a suspicious ship captain, Sir Donald Wolfit a barrister, and Oliver Johnston a trial judge.   Despite the lurid cover art and the presence of Donald Pleasence in the title role, this 1963 film from director Robert Lynn (2 nd Unit director on “Superman” and “Superman II” ) and screenwriter Leigh Vance (a veteran TV writer/producer who also co-wrote “The Frightened City” starring Herbert Lom and Sean Connery) is not a horror film. It’s a real-life tale of murder, and a rather solid one at that.   I won’t say Donald Pleasence gives a subtle performance, because we all know subtlety was never his thing. However, you’ll likely be surprised by how low-key and mild-mannered his Dr. Crippen actually is. Wat...

Telepathic aliens led by Christopher Lee come to Earth to conduct breeding experiments on humans. A kind of alien United Nations group tries to stop them, getting in touch with astronomer and sceptic (Robert Vaughn) for assistance.   Poverty-stricken Canadian sci-fi garbage from writer/director/co-producer Ed Hunt (the somewhat OK horror pic “Bloody Birthday” ) from 1977. The same year that his long-time friend and co-star Peter Cushing was appearing in “Star Wars” , future Count Dooku himself Christopher Lee was barely containing his lack of give-a-shit whilst wearing black pyjamas with an oddball hoodie. I think this might just be his worst-ever film, even worse than “The Keeper” (another bargain-basement Canadian turd), “End of the World” , and “Police Academy: Mission to Moscow” . The film’s other star, Robert Vaughn is clearly bored shitless, too. Vaughn was a very fine actor like Lee, but when Robert Vaughn was bored and collecting a paycheck, it wasn’t difficult to dete...

James Coburn plays an emotionally barren hitman who lives for the job and is entirely free of personal attachments. Sent to Europe by his bleakly cynical contact (Burgess Meredith), he has three jobs to do, firstly in Spain and then in Brussels. In the former he meets bored jet-setting American Lee Remick, and a relationship starts between the two. He gets the job done nonetheless, but by the time he gets to setting up for the third kill he starts to…have feelings…and questions. Has his experiences with the fun-loving but callous Remick and her bourgeois friends (Lilli Palmer, Claude Dauphin, and Patrick Magee) changed this once ice-cold, efficient killer? Meanwhile, Meredith shows up in Madrid to check that Coburn is getting the job done. Karen Black plays a hooker, and Sterling Hayden plays a farmer and family man, who may be more than just a farmer.   Dismissed at the time for the wordy, existential script by writer-director S Lee Pogostin (writer of the appalling “Nightmare...