Shameless Self Expression

Set in late 1950s Indochina, where various criminals (war and otherwise) find themselves a fairly comfortable existence far away from their troubles with the law. Scott Adkins plays an Irish boxer (and former IRA member) who competes in pit fighting contests run by former Nazi Vladimir Kulich. After a dispute between Kulich, his chief enforcer Marko Zaror, and Adkins’ American ex-pat bar owner pal Keith David turns tragic, Adkins is brutalised and left for dead. He isn’t dead, however but he is angry. Very, very angry. After recuperating with locals (including a cameo by Aki Aleong, of all people), Adkins gets set to unleash hell on Kulich, Zaror, and Kulich’s other attack dog Cung Le. Juju Chan plays Adkins’ love interest.   Sometimes interesting, good-looking 2017 film from writer-director Jesse V. Johnson (who directed Adkins in “The Debt Collector” , “Avengement” , “Triple Threat” , and “Accident Man” ) throwing martial arts star Scott Adkins into a mixture of “Ong-Bak” an...

Olivia Colman comes to visit her elderly father (Sir Anthony Hopkins), a dementia sufferer who has a habit of going through caregivers rather rapidly due to his volatile and stubborn nature. While Hopkins rants about a thieving former caregiver, Colman tries to tell her father that she is moving to Paris to be with a man, and that she has organised a new carer to take care of him (Imogen Poots). However, just as you’ve processed all of this new information, there is confusion – because we’re seeing things from the point of view of a dementia sufferer.   Sir Anthony Hopkins won the Best Actor Oscar here in this 2021 big-screen adaptation of a 2012 play. It has been written and directed by Florian Zeller, who wrote the play and it looks every bit the play up there on the screen. That’s always an issue for me, it may be less of one for you or none at all. Otherwise this is a solid, occasionally inventive film about a very serious and extremely sad subject. It’s not nearly as good ...

Based on Roger Emerson Garis’s play The Pony Cart , Patrick Allen and Gwen Watford play parents to 9 year-old Janina Faye. New arrivals in Canada from England, Allen is to be the new school principal in their small town. Whilst attempting to ingratiate himself with the local societal pillars, he is put in a horrible position when young Faye claims to have been the victim of an elderly sex pervert who made her and another girl parade around naked for him. This elderly person just so happens to be Clarence Olderberry Sr. (Sir Felix Aylmer, in an incredible casting choice), the town’s eldest and wealthiest inhabitant. He and his lumber mill owner son Clarence Jr. (a solid Bill Nagy) basically run the town. The parents are undeterred and hope to take Olderberry the Senior to court for paedophilia. It turns many in the community against them who are either ignorant on the possibility of such crimes, or merely staunch defenders of the Olderberry family. He never actually ‘touched’ the girls ...

Experienced scuba divers Don Shirley and Dave Shaw lead a small team to explore South Africa’s Boesmansgat underwater cave in order to locate and recover the body of diver Deon Dreyer, who never resurfaced after going on a team dive there 10 years prior. As the title suggests, it’s an expedition on which Dave would tragically lose his life. The film serves as a tribute to the well-respected Dave.   I don’t normally respond well to ‘death by reckless, avoidable misadventure’ stories. I didn’t relate to “Into the Wild” at all for instance (I much preferred “127 Hours” , where the main character was more momentarily cocky than entirely reckless). Thankfully, this 2020 documentary from Jonah Malak is a little bit different. It’s largely a very personal tribute to a well-liked diver who was attempting to help find a fallen comrade when he himself died. I still think underwater cave diving is pure insanity, and the above ground scenery here is so stunning I can’t understand why you’...

Randy middle-aged Victorian Era gentlemen (Geoffrey Keen, Peter Sallis, and John Carson) meet up with young hedonist Ralph Bates at a whorehouse (cue the limp-wristed ‘madam’, played by a camp Russell Hunter), and the latter suggests a new thrill. This leads them to sleazy pawn shop owner Roy Kinnear, who just so happens to own Dracula’s belongings, including some dried blood. After performing a ritual in a church, Bates chokes on the blood he has consumed, and whilst flailing about he is promptly beaten and kicked to death by the horrified trio of hypocrites who subsequently flee. When Dracula (Christopher Lee) turns out to have been resurrected he sees his fallen apprentice and takes out vengeance on the corrupt gentlemen and their offspring.   One of the better films in the Hammer series of Dracula films, this 1970 Peter Sasdy ( “Countess Dracula” , “Hands of the Ripper” , “Nothing But the Night” ) film features the best cast of the series, and an interesting story. There’s ...