Shameless Self Expression

Russian police officer William Hurt investigates the murders of three faceless bodies found in the title area in Moscow. Along the way he becomes romantically entangled with a possible suspect (Joanna Pacula). Lee Marvin and Brian Dennehy play elusive, shadowy Americans in Russia, Ian McDiarmid plays a Russian professor, Michael Elphick plays one of Hurt’s police colleagues, Ian Bannen is Hurt’s superior officer, Richard Griffiths is a lawyer, and long-serving character actor Alexander Knox turns up as a General.   Irresistible 1983 police procedural/mystery from director Michael Apted (Director of the “Up” series of documentaries, as well as “Gorillas in the Mist” ) is really solid, underrated stuff with some terrific performances. An inscrutable Lee Marvin is in great, wily form in one of his last films, and he’s genuinely funny at times in how unhelpful and elusive he proves to be. Ian McDiarmid (seemingly having a lot of fun in a quirky part), Ian Bannen (in a latter-day J...

The harrowing, shameful true story of the largest lynching in American history…the lynching of several Italian immigrants. Set in 1890s Louisiana, businessman Sam Houston (Christopher Walken) wants control of the dock businesses overseen by Macheca (Joaquim de Almeida). Two families of Italian immigrants currently run things; the Provenzano family operate the docks, while the Matrangas sell the goods. When Macheca proves unable to be bought, Houston conspires with the corrupt mayor (Kenneth Welsh) and racist political figure William Parkerson (Luke Askew, in one of his best turns) to turn the two families against one another. This results in a death and several of the local Italian community being framed for murder and conspiracy to commit. Alessandro Colla plays young, innocent Gaspare Marchesi who works with his family for the Matrangas and gets caught up in the whole mess. Meghan McChesney plays Gaspare’s Irish love interest. Clancy Brown plays the fair-minded local police chief, Br...

In the late 1800s, anthropologist Peter Cushing is still somewhat grieving for his wife, who eventually went insane, and has recently died in an asylum. Cushing has brought back an interesting find from his latest expedition in Papua New Guinea. He has uncovered the skeleton of a primitive man which he claims predates the Neanderthal by millions of years. Attempting to clean the skeleton up with a bit of water, he notices that the skeleton is starting to regenerate flesh and blood. Cushing, who is interested in the idea of evil as a virus or force, believes he can extract blood from this creature to essentially create an immunity from this evil. He also thinks it can stop daughter Lorna Helbron from inheriting her mother’s ‘curse’. Needless to say Cushing encounters unforeseen problems that result in a killer creature on the loose. Christopher Lee turns up as Cushing’s jealous half-brother, a scientist in his own right who runs an asylum for the insane…one that soon sees a patient (cha...

Gary Busey plays a Vietnam vet and recently paroled ex-con who tries to make a fresh start after his prison stint for a self-defence killing. Back in his small Texas hometown with a loving wife and daughter (the latter played by the late Judith Barsi), Busey’s chances at attaining normalcy aren’t looking good considering his parole officer is the very same corrupt sheriff (Seymour Cassel) who got him put on an unfair murder charge in the first place. Then there’s the menacing drug-running biker gang ominously riding around, led by evil-eyed Blade (William Smith). Blade just so happens to be on the sheriff’s payroll, and when he and his crew try to force themselves on a local nurse (Kimberlin Brown), Busey saves the day. Blade later retaliates in a brutal and tragic fashion, making the sheriff perhaps wish he’d found better, less volatile partners to be in league with as Busey calls down the thunder on them. Yaphet Kotto plays J.B., a retiring deputy who is caught in the middle as he’s ...