Shameless Self Expression

Set in 1986 when things are still tense between the US and USSR, several days before President Reagan was set to attend the Iceland summit. The film concerns an accidental collision of a US sub (commanded by Martin Sheen) with a Soviet sub (commanded by Rutger Hauer) as the latter attempted to evade being seen by the other sub. Both subs are armed with nuclear weapons, with the American sub crew wondering if an attack is imminent. While the American sub tentatively refrains from attacking and merely observes nervously, Hauer attempts to save his crew from the catastrophic disaster the collision has caused. Rob Campbell and a young-looking Dom Monaghan play Soviet crew members, Colm Feore is a high-strung KGB man on board, Max von Sydow is a Soviet Admiral, Harris Yulin plays an American Admiral, whilst Regina Taylor plays an American Naval Lieutenant.   A co-production between HBO and the BBC, this 1997 TV movie from director David Drury ( “Defence of the Realm” and plenty of ...

A gang of escaped cons (including Ted de Corsia and Charles Bronson) try to drag recently reformed criminal Gene Nelson (yeah, the guy who directed a couple of crappy Elvis vehicles) into their mess when they need a place to hide out after a bungled robbery leaves a cop dead and one of their own in similar condition. Sterling Hayden is the aggressive, cynical cop who doesn’t believe prisoners can reform, and pressures Nelson to co-operate with the fuzz. However, when a threat is made close to home (that would be wifey Phyllis Kirk), it seems like Nelson has no choice but to take part in the crims’ latest scheme. Timothy Carey is supremely entertaining as a dope addict creep-o henchman, and Dub Taylor has a fun role at the beginning as an unfortunate gas station attendant.   1954 Andre de Toth ( “House of Wax” being his career highlight) B-grade crime flick has its admirers and some fine elements, but Hayden’s typically overbearing dumb thug performance (he even chews toothpick...

Milla Jovovich leads a squad of US troops (rapper-turned-actor T.I. being among them) in the Afghan desert who get swept up in a storm. The troops end up having been somehow transported to a completely different desert landscape. An alien one with an array of giant, predatory monsters who start to wipe them out until only Jovovich is left. With no idea where she is or what is going on, Jovovich has to team up with a band of motley local hunters (including Tony Jaa and Ron Perlman) to take on the monsters.   I don’t set out to like a film anymore than I set out to dislike one. It works out how it works out. On this occasion, I enjoyed myself. Look, it just happened OK? This 2021 video game adaptation from writer-director Paul W.S. Anderson ( “Event Horizon” , “Soldier” , the “Resident Evil” film franchise) is probably his most enjoyable film to date. Mildly enjoyable at that. For most that won’t sound like the most ringing of endorsements, but I have found at least a couple o...

Starting in 1939, Mel Gibson plays an air force test pilot about to propose to the love of his life (Isabel Glasser) when she is hit by a car and ends up in a coma likely soon to die. Finding the concept of being around for her death – let alone waiting around for it to happen – unimaginable, he goes to his inventor friend George Wendt for a bizarre solution. Wendt’s company has been developing cryogenic technology, and he wants Wendt to freeze him for a year and thaw him when it’s all over. Cut to 50+ years later, it’s 1992 and two 10 year-old buddies (Robert Hy Gorman and Elijah Wood) are goofing off in a military storage place where they come across the cryogenic chamber. They accidentally do something to it that awakens Gibson, who is startled to be awakened decades late into a world he barely even recognises. Meanwhile, Wood introduces Gibson to his hard-working single mother (Jamie Lee Curtis). Joe Morton turns up briefly as a doctor.   Pleasant, harmless 1992 romanticall...

Scotland Yard detective Adrian Hoven and a recently arrived American FBI agent played by Christopher Lee join forces to take down two rival Chicago gangs (led by, respectively Klaus Kinski and Eric Pohlmann) that have set up shop in London. Pinkas Braun plays the nephew of a murdered tycoon, and Eddi Arent plays a nosy, shifty butler.   One of the German-made films featuring a dubbed Christopher Lee, this 1962 gangster pic from director Helmuth Ashley (mostly a TV director including the popular “Derrick” TV series) and screenwriter Egon Els, is based on an Edgar Wallace novel. It’s not really my kind of thing, but it has a nice gritty B&W look to it, and it’s far from the worst thing Lee has been in. The story is interesting at times, if not original. From a cinematic history perspective, it’s interesting to see something like this, one of the more obscure films in Lee’s career. There’s something a bit weird about Germans trying to portray events from British and American ...