Shameless Self Expression

On Halloween a few years ago, young Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell) babysits a young child and it turns tragic when Corey is locked in a room and the kid subsequently takes a terminal fall. Corey is later found with a bloody knife. The entire town of Haddonfield seems to think he’s guilty but a court acquits him. Cut to the present day and Corey has stuck up a relationship with Allyson (Andi Matichak) the granddaughter of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). Allyson isn’t aware of the fact that Corey’s recently become acquainted with Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney) who spares the young man’s life. Will Patton and Kyle Richards briefly reprise their roles as Frank and Lindsey, respectively.   I should’ve expected this. It’s the third in the modern “Halloween” franchise, so of course this was going to be the “ Season of the Witch” entry (even though technically the original “Halloween” is connected so this is technically the fourth film…but I’d rather not think about that...

  Devon Sawa plays a tattooist suspected of a series of killings of hookers, including a sex worker Sawa happened to have met in a bar before her demise. A cigarette lighter with his business name inscribed on it is also found at the scene of that crime. There’s also the matter of Sawa being an ex-con who served time for accidental manslaughter. Seeing that he’s in deep shit, Sawa sets about investigating things himself to find out the real culprit. Bruce Willis and an aggressive Luke Wilson are the investigating detectives on the case, Sufe Bradshaw plays a singer named ‘Eleanor Rigby’, an associate of the deceased hooker Sawa met. Kenny Wormald turns up as an actor associate of Sawa’s, who owes Sawa a favour.   In spite of a few issues, this 2022 film from director Edward Drake isn’t bad, and for a latter-day Bruce Willis film ‘isn’t bad’ is actually pretty good comparatively. Make no mistake, it’s not a good film, but it’s competent and watchable and after a slew of ...

White, social reformer Adam Cramer (William Shatner) waltzes into a small town in the American South that is about to follow the recently introduced law of racially integrated schooling. It’s not long before the opportunistic, manipulative Cramer is feeding on the ignorance of the predominantly white townsfolk, whipping them into a racist, hate-filled frenzy. A local newsman (Frank Maxwell) however comes to oppose Cramer and the hateful sentiment he is espousing. Leo Gordon plays another townie who starts to catch on to Cramer’s true nature when finding out that Cramer’s been spending alone time with Gordon’s spouse (Jeanne Cooper).   One of the best films director/producer Roger Corman ( “A Bucket of Blood” , “Tomb of Ligeia” ) was ever involved with, this 1962 racial drama is shockingly unknown in the mainstream. If you don’t think William Shatner can act, this is a must-see experience. A mixture of “Night of the Hunter” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” this is a very ...

  Local young mechanic Don Sullivan and sheriff Fred Graham look into the mysterious disappearance of locals and other weird happenings. The culprit is the title beast. Shug Fisher plays the town drunk.   The furthest thing from a good movie, and not quite bad enough to occupy the other end of the scale, this cheap 1959 creature feature from director Ray Kellogg ( “The Killer Shrews” , co-director of the infamous “The Green Berets” ) is in the frustratingly ‘meh’ category. Scripted by Jay Simms ( “The Killer Shrews” ), what we’ve got here isn’t a B-grade or Z-grade film, but a forgettable C-grade one. FX wise what they’ve done is take a normal bearded lizard and blown it up large. The funny thing is that while the Gila Monster and the Mexican bearded lizard (the latter is what we actually have here and larger than the former) are venomous creatures, it’s not remotely threatening or terrifying on screen here. Yet I could name several other similar creatures that would at...

  Vic Morrow stars as a taciturn pilot hired by English businessman Stanley Holloway to fly him to Istanbul. After reaching the destination, Holloway is rubbed out by an assassin. Soon Morrow finds himself in the company of various parties all very interested in procuring some money printing plates they believe Holloway was in possession of and thus assume Morrow has obtained. These interested parties include a grinning American woman (Suzanne Pleshette) and an overweight Turk (Victor Buono), the latter of whom is flanked by two henchmen; an Albanian (Michael Ansara) and a Turkish wrestler (Milton Reid). Charlotte Rampling turns up as Holloway’s daughter, whilst Cesar Romero appears briefly as an investigating lieutenant.   Apparently director Roger Corman ( “A Bucket of Blood” , “Tomb of Ligeia” , “The Intruder” ) originally shot this 1969 film with the intention for it to be the pilot to a possible TV series. The series never eventuated, so with a little bit of a...

  Set during the American Civil War, soldier George Hilton deserts his post to be with his lover who is about to give birth. She dies of cholera before he can get there, and the child later dies of cholera as well. It’s spread just about everywhere, it seems. Hilton lays the blame for this double tragedy at the hands of the child’s grandfather, landowner Ernest Borgnine, who disapproved of their union and basically abandoned the baby. For his part, Borgnine throws the blame in Hilton’s direction. Hilton forms a gang of outlaws (including Alberto de Mendoza and Gustavo Rojo) to seek his vengeance.   The fantastic poster featuring the mean mug of Ernest Borgnine inspired me to check out this 1969 revenge-spaghetti western from director Julio Buchs ( “I’ll Kill Him and Return Alone” , co-scripted by Lucio Fulci). Also known as “Vengeance is Mine” , you can see why: It’s a cold, hard revenge film and damn underrated if you ask me. Buchs shows that vengeance is ugly, blo...

I’m a huge Christopher Lee fan, and I enjoyed director Jon Spira’s previous documentary “Elstree 1976” more than most seemed to, so I was very much looking forward to this 2024 documentary on cinema’s Lord of Misrule . Sadly, there’s not much here you can’t find in the aforementioned Lee autobiography (an updated version of his Tall, Dark, and Gruesome ). The added gimmick of soundalike Peter Serafinowicz and accompanying marionette puppet narrating Lee’s story is bizarre and completely unnecessary, though the vocal impersonation is quite solid. The puppet was just a step too far for me, and the animated segments were also rather ugly-looking. If you’ve not read the autobiography in any of its editions, you may want to check this one out. If you’re a Lee aficionado/fan like me (I’ve seen 131 of his 290 IMDb acting credits thus far, for what it’s worth), it’s watchable but not especially essential viewing.   I did learn a few things here, for instance I didn’t know that actres...

Set during WWII and based on a book by Bernard Newman, Michael Rennie stars as a Polish schoolteacher recruited by the Polish resistance to be the inside man in an attempt at sabotaging a rocket built by the Nazis (The ‘V-1’ of the film’s title). Patricia Medina plays Rennie’s wife, Sir Christopher Lee plays a German prison camp officer.   Good, solid work by George Pastell and Patricia Medina still doesn’t do much for this dull WWII flick from 1958 also known as “Missiles From Hell” . Directed by Vernon Sewell (who went on to direct “Curse of the Crimson Altar” and “The Blood Beast Terror” for Tigon British) and scripted by Jack Hanley and Eryk Wlodek (neither of whom have extensive IMDb credits), the film actually starts rather well. The opening 20 minutes are stark and terrifying stuff. Sadly, after that it becomes a bog standard ‘let’s try and outsmart the Nazis’ rah-rah film with heavy use of stock footage. Also not helping things is the boring Michael Rennie as our lea...

Cocoa (Veteran Vegas entertainer Lola Falana) was jailed for contempt of court, refusing to testify against her gangster ex-boyfriend. After some time behind bars she’s had a change of heart, so cops Ramsey (Alex Dreier) and Doug (Gene Washington) are tasked with escorting her to a Vegas hotel awaiting her court appearance. Sounds simple, right? Not so. Cocoa is a petulant and hostile diva, and there’s a couple of hitmen (one played by ‘Mean’ Joe Greene) sent out to snuff her before she gets to court. Millie Perkins turns up as one half of a honeymooning couple in town.   A nice little surprise, this obscure 1975 blaxploitation film from director Matt Cimber ( “The Black 6” , co-starring Gene Washington and ‘Mean’ Joe Greene) and screenwriter Mikel Angel (who also scripted “The Black 6” ) doesn’t come with glowing reviews or scores but I must say I rather enjoyed it. Yes it’s really cheap-looking, but so are most of these films – because they were made cheaply. It’s also got...

The story of Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Sir Christopher Lee) the politically moderate founder of Pakistan. A Muslim lawyer, Jinnah fought to form a separate nation from India for the Muslim minority, whilst Mahatma Gandhi (Sam Dastor) wished for India to stay united and proposed Jinnah as the new PM as a compromise. James Fox plays British viceroy Lord Mountbatten, Indira Varma plays Jinnah’s wife, and veteran bit player Vernon Dobtcheff plays a British dignitary.   Although Christopher Lee’s title performance received some critical notice and the actor himself was very proud of the work, this modestly budgeted 1998 biopic from director Jamil Dehlavi ( “Immaculate Conception” with Melissa Leo) and co-writer Farrukh Dhondy ( “Red Mercury” with Stockard Channing and Ron Silver) was largely ignored at the time and still very little-known today. Part of that is probably due to the poor marketing of the film, and difficulty in finding a distributor. It’s hard to get people to talk abo...

David Strathairn attends his 45 th high school reunion and becomes curious as to what happened a guy named Swede Levov after running into his younger brother (a dreadful Rupert Evans) at the reunion. Swede recently passed and Evans tells Strathairn the tragic tale. Ewan McGregor plays Jewish-American ‘Swede’, married to a stunning former beauty queen (Jennifer Connelly), and father to a rebellious daughter (Dakota Fanning) who gets caught up in the anti-Vietnam War movement of the late 1960s. Molly Parker plays a well-meaning but seriously misguided psychiatrist.   First-time director Ewan McGregor doesn’t make it easy for himself by tackling the Pulitzer Prize-winning work of Philip Roth with this 2016 drama. Unfortunately, Ewan really isn’t up for the task with this extremely silly film full of absolutely dreadful dialogue and unconvincing performances. Adapted by John Romano ( “The Lincoln Lawyer” , the infamous “Cop Rock” ), in terms of plot and themes there’s some inter...

Big-hearted John Ritter and his wife Amy Yasbeck (whose heart is considerably smaller) adopt young Michael Oliver from Gilbert Gottfried’s adoption agency where the juvenile devil has been traumatising the staff of nuns. Ritter, whose disreputable businessman father Jack Warden is a cold-hearted jerk, wants to do everything right with ‘Junior’ that his father did wrong with him. Junior however, is a malevolent little turd who lives almost solely to cause mischief and has been pen-pals with a psycho dubbed ‘The Bow Tie Killer’ (Michael Richards). Every now and then a film comes along that apparently I shouldn’t like because it’s considered trashy or puerile or just plain low-class.   Screw everyone else, “Problem Child” is a perfectly fine, amusing film and you’re all just plain wrong about it. This one’s underrated and I say that knowing that Gilbert Gottfried is in the cast and the first pee joke is mid-opening credits. Directed by Dennis Dugan (who has helmed way too many Ad...