Shameless Self Expression

Newly minted Musketeer D’Artagnan (a dashing Michael York) and his fellow Musketeers Athos, Porthos, and Aramis (played by a brooding Oliver Reed, gregarious Frank Finlay, and dandified Richard Chamberlain) find themselves engaged in a battle between King Louis’ (Jean-Pierre Cassel) forces and a band of protestant rebels, that temporarily sees the Musketeers having to rescue an old enemy-turned spy (Christopher Lee’s dastardly henchman Rochefort) from certain death. But it’s not long before the one-eyed swordsman and his scheming lover Milady De Winter (Faye Dunaway) are back to their wicked ways, seeking revenge on D’Artagnan in particular, for events from the previous film. Meanwhile, the master manipulator Cardinal Richelieu (Charlton Heston) sits on the sidelines, pulling the strings from afar. Geraldine Chaplin and Simon Ward are back as Queen Anne and her lover The Duke of Buckingham. Roy Kinnear is in fine form as bumbling servant Planchet, and Raquel Welch once again stars as t...

Set in Spain in the 1500s, John Kerr goes to the coastal castle of his dead sister to pay respects to her widow, played by Vincent Price. He can’t seem to get a straight answer out of the man as to how his sister died, though looking at Price’s tortured face it’s clear that something truly horrific befell her. The more time Kerr spends in the castle, the more unhinged Price seems to get. It appears that he’s haunted by childhood memories watching his mother (Barbara Steele) and uncle tortured with the giant, swinging pendulum by his own father, a member of The Spanish Inquisition. Luana Anders plays Price’s loyal sister.   Popular 1961 entry into the Edgar Allen Poe cycle of films from AIP and director Roger Corman ( “Fall of the House of Usher” ), getting a big boost from Vincent Price’s go-for-broke performance. I am more partial to the slightly more dour and restrained “Tomb of Ligeia” , but there’s lots to like here. Well-shot by Floyd Crosby ( “Fall of the House of Usher” ...

Henry Golding plays the character known only as Snake Eyes, an underground cage fighter who is recruited in America by a Yakuza boss named Kenta (Takehiro Hira) who offers him a deal: Work for him in his gun-running enterprise and Kenta will deliver to Snake Eyes the man who killed his father years ago. However, when Snake Eyes is ordered to kill Kenta’s supposedly disloyal cousin Tommy (Andrew Koji), Snake Eyes helps Tommy escape, making an enemy of Kenta in the process. Tommy shows gratitude to Snake Eyes by taking him home to Japan and eventually invites him to join his ninja clan. That’s if he can survive the training process, which involves challenges set by Hard Master (Iko Uwais) and Blind Master (Peter Mensah), respectively. Meanwhile, Kenta hooks up with the criminal organisation known as Cobra. Samara Weaving plays G.I. Joe agent Scarlett, whilst Úrsula Corberó plays her Cobra opposite Baroness. Haruka Abe is Tommy’s deadly serious head of security, who isn’t a big fan of Sna...