Shameless Self Expression

John Travolta plays a widower and former dirt racer whose son (Toby Sebastian) is now carrying on the family name in the sport. Racing for his dad’s team isn’t going so well, in fact funds are getting harder and harder to come by and the current car just isn’t able to keep up. So Sebastian makes the controversial decision to switch over to Michael Madsen’s team, who is Travolta’s long-hated rival. Daddy’s a tad pissed about it to say the least. Shania Twain turns up as Travolta’s love interest, Kevin Dunn plays Travolta’s drinking buddy, and Rosabell Laurenti Sellers is Sebastian’s main squeeze.   Despite all of the Scientology stuff and a few allegations of creepy massage behaviour, I’ve always found John Travolta to come across like a pretty affable, nice guy. He’s also got obvious charisma and a bit of talent in there too. Unfortunately, that talent does not extend to choosing decent scripts, a lack of aptitude that he’s had all the way back to “Urban Cowboy” , but it’s been...

A marriage on the rocks is put to an extreme test when the family goes on a ski trip to the Austrian Alps. When the family encounters a sudden avalanche while having lunch at a restaurant, Ferrell ducks out of the way, grabbing only his phone and leaving his family behind. Everyone survives physically unharmed, but this instinctual selfishness does not go unnoticed by wife Julia Louis-Dreyfus or the kids and it lingers throughout the rest of the holiday. Not that Ferrell (who still hasn’t dealt with the recent loss of his father) doesn’t try to pretend that all is well and nothing happened. Yeah, you fucked up and you know it, pal. Miranda Otto plays the family’s randy, insistently self-appointed tour guide, whilst Giulo Berruti plays an overly friendly ski instructor, and Kristofer Hivju turns up late in the film as a safety officer of the hotel the family is staying at.   “The Green Lantern” . “Jonah Hex” . “The Happening” . “An American Haunting” . All widely reviled films w...

Writer David Manners and wife Jacqueline Wells are honeymooning in Hungary when they get caught up in the conflict between old acquaintances Dr. Vitas Werdegast (Bela Lugosi) and an Austrian-born Satanist named Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff, credited here as just ‘Karloff’) in the latter’s rather bizarre modern-looking house/lair. It seems the evil Poelzig has committed some very great wrongs towards Dr. Werdegast, and they are set to hash it all out.   Director Edgar G. Ulmer ( “My Son, the Hero” , “Detour” ) and his co-writer Peter Ruric ( “Twelve Crowded Hours” with Lucile Ball) take nothing more than the title and an on-screen cameo by the title character for this 1934 Universal horror film. Whatever it may lack in Edgar Allen Poe (it’s closer to Aleister Crowley territory), it makes up for by looking great and being good, sinister fun.   Released prior to “Bride of Frankenstein” , Karloff gets one of his best early showings here as the sinister and creepy – but ...

Jessica Chastain stars as Molly Bloom, whose autobiographical book the film is based on. Bloom is a former Winter Olympian, whose hopes of Olympic glory were dashed in a tragic accident during the 2002 Olympic qualifiers. Driven hard by her shrink father/coach (Kevin Costner) Molly is an ultra-driven competitor, but now her dreams are shattered and she needs to pivot. Instead of the planned route of law school, Molly defers and moves to L.A. soon working as the office manager for a-hole Dean Keith (Jeremy Strong), a real estate guy who eventually gives Molly a gig running his underground poker game. A bunch of high-rollers and famous people attend Dean’s games, which means big tips for Molly. Molly has bigger ambitions though, she’s watching and learning. When she gets an opportunity to run her own high-stakes poker game with a well-known actor (Michael Cera, allegedly playing Tobey Maguire!). For a while, it’s going great and Molly’s able to keep things ‘sorta’ legal. For a while. Mol...

A wealthy industrialist (Teodoro Corra) invites some friends and associates to a swanky island home for some fun in the sun…and a little business. Corra has invited chemist pal William Berger with the purpose of talking to him about Berger’s new scientific invention. A very lucrative invention that Corra (and other guests, I might add including sexy Edwige Fenech) would very much like to purchase and profit from. Berger isn’t interested, he’s here for a holiday. Then someone turns up dead. And another. And another. It seems we have a murderer amongst this group of friends.   Director Mario Bava ( “Kill, Baby…Kill” , “Black Sunday” , “Black Sabbath” ) didn’t like the script and only accepted the assignment for the money. Critics don’t seem to like it much either, then nor now (Yet they laud over the quite similar and very enjoyable “The Last of Sheila” ). However, I actually think this giallo-mystery unofficial take on “Ten Little Indians” from 1970 is very good-looking (and so...