Shameless Self Expression

The small Arizona town of Abalone is being targeted by soulless tycoon Clint Stark (Arthur O’Connell), who wants the locals to sell all their land to him for a cheap price before a railroad is supposedly meant to come through the town. Although most of the town seems to have bought Stark’s bullshit, the main hold-out is widowed Angela (Barbara Eden) the local librarian and school teacher. John Ericson plays the local newspaper man and chief opponent for Stark…and chief admirer of Angela. Entering this small town is a mercurial old man named Dr. Lao (Tony Randall), riding a donkey and looking to place an ad in the paper for his travelling circus that will play in town for a couple of nights. It’s a very special performance aimed squarely at the townsfolk of Abalone.   One of my childhood favourites, this bizarre but enchanting 1964 blend of ‘townie’ western and mythology-tinged fantasy from producer-director George Pal (his last directorial effort, he previously produced the 195...

Manilla bank owner Charlie Davao (A Filipino actor who looks like a cross between Yul Brynner and Henry Silva) gets involved in a bank robbery where a $15 million CIA secret slush fund has just been transferred. The kicker? The robbery will be carried out by a group of blind martial artists! (Leo Fong, D’Urville Martin, and Filipino star Tony Ferrer among them). Fred Williamson turns up (very) late as lawman Jesse Crowder.   A movie about blind martial artists robbing a bank was either going to be hilariously awful or good, schlocky fun. I couldn’t see any other option. Well, surprise, this 1978 cheapie from Filipino director Efren C. Pinon ( “Last Target” with Ferrer and Davao) is somehow completely forgettable. Scripted by Jerry O. Tirazona ( “Last Target” ) and co-star Leo Fong (a veteran low-budget writer/director/producer/actor), I took an instant dislike to the way the whole thing was set up. If these blind guys need instructors to help/train them so much, is the heist r...

  Well-respected Dr. Pride (Bernie Casey) is trying to find a cure for liver disease, an illness his mother died from. He creates a special serum, and after a failed experiment on a patient, Hyde makes some changes and this time experiments on himself. Unfortunately, the serum turns him into a lighter-skinned homicidal monster targeting hookers. Rosalind Cash plays a fellow doctor, Marie O’Henry a hooker, Stu Gilliam an idiot pimp, and Ji-Tu Cumbuka a police detective.   The late, great Bernie Casey sure does have a wacky credits list when you look at it, doesn’t he? He was in a James Bond movie (The rogue “Never Say Never Again” ), he turned up in silly comedies ( “Spies Like Us” , “Revenge of the Nerds” , “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” , “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka” , the awful “Tomcats” ), John Carpenter movies ( “In the Mouth of Madness” ), Scorsese movies ( “Boxcar Bertha” ), action movies ( “Under Siege” , “Sharky’s Machine” ), hell he was even in “The Man Who F...

Narrated by a man who will only be identified at the end (played by Jesse Plemons), this is the story of political operator Dick Cheney (Christian Bale) who first served under Gerald Ford (a solid Bill Camp), and George H.W. Bush, before becoming the ruthless Vice President under George W. Bush (Sam Rockwell). It was largely Cheney who orchestrated the narrative that led America to invading Iraq. Amy Adams plays Cheney’s shrewd wife Lynne, Steve Carell plays Donald Rumsfeld, Tyler Perry is Colin Powell, and Alison Pill plays Cheney’s lesbian daughter Mary.   I didn’t like the look of this 2018 biopic from writer-director Adam McKay (whose best film is the action-comedy “The Other Guys” ) from the trailer, with Christian Bale in particular looking more like fat Chevy Chase than Dick Cheney. Having now seen the film, Bale’s probably the only thing here that I didn’t have too much of a problem with. The director of just about every Will Ferrell vehicle ever made is wholly miscast...