Shameless Self Expression

Documentarian Kurt Kuenne tells the story of his friend Dr. Andrew Bagby, a well-loved and respected man murdered in cold-blood at just 28 years old. Kuenne frames this film as a tribute to his friend but specifically for Andrew’s son Zachary to understand the father who was tragically taken away from him before his birth. This would sadly not be the only tragedy documented before the film’s completion.   Whenever I see a discussion about the best true crime documentaries, this 2008 Kurt Kuenne film is almost always mentioned. As is the notion that it’s a devastating film that will emotionally wreck you. So if you’ve not seen the film, go ahead and watch it first. You should generally read my reviews afterwards anyway. Nonetheless, bear that description in mind because this film does seem to upset the vast majority of people who have seen it. I can definitely understand why, however my main emotion both times I’ve watched this film – yes, I’ve subjected myself to it twice over ...

Carl Schell plays a disgraced doctor who accepts a teaching position at a home/school for wayward girls. Before long, people start getting attacked seemingly by a wolf. Or is it something else? Curt Lowens plays the shifty director of the school, Barbara Lass plays a student trying to figure out what’s going on, and Luciano Pigozzi plays the creepy caretaker.   Despite the cheesy AIP-esque title, this 1961 film from director Paolo Heusch (casting director on the infamous “Caligula” ) and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi ( “Terror in the Crypt” , “The Virgin of Nuremberg” , “The Whip and the Body” , “Torso” ) is an Italian offering and a bit more serious than it sounds. Like the later “The Beast Must Die” it’s basically a murder-mystery where the murderer is a werewolf. It’s kinda watchable and there’s some good stuff in it, but not enough to wholly recommend.   The werewolf attacks are too few and far between, with lots of thumb-twiddling throughout. The makeup is pretty...

Isabelle Mejias is the title disturbed teenager who plots to do away with her mother so that she can have her oblivious father (Anthony Franciosa) all to herself. Yes, in that way. Fate intervenes by way of a delivery guy (Paul Hubbard) who misreads signals and then gets violent with the mother. Everything seems to be working to psychotic plan for Julie until she hits a pretty big snag: Her dad starts seeing a new woman…and she’s played by Sybil Danning. Yeah, good luck winning that one, Julie.   Genuinely messed up, bonkers 1982 film from “Chained Heat” director Paul Nicholas and his co-writer Maurice Smith ( “The Joys of Jezebel” ) is admittedly not very good or particularly well-made. I can’t really recommend it, certainly not wholeheartedly. It is however, pretty committed to its crazy-arse central conceit, and that earns it some points at least. That said, the bonkers premise and the commitment to it do also likely limit the film’s appeal for most viewers. In other word...

Tony Young plays one of four green berets (with Peter Brown and Marvin Gaye playing two of the others) who take a break from training recruits for the Vietnam War to take on biker gang The Wizards, one of whom (stunt guy Michael Haynes) directly caused the death of Young’s fiancé (played by a young Cheryl Ladd) and her friend. William Smith plays the mean leader of The Wizards, who is pissed at the reckless Haynes for bringing unnecessary trouble to the gang. Look out for brief appearances by Robert Ridgely, Erik Estrada, and Dan Haggerty (as ‘Bearded Man’).   Flawed 1971 AIP film from director Lee Frost ( “The Thing With Two Heads” , “The Black Gestapo” ) lacks a decent leading man and exploitation goodies but still gets the job done by biker movie standards. If this is your type of thing, there’s no reason you won’t enjoy this one. Lead actor Tony Young was apparently a TV western guy which makes more sense than being in something like this. He’s lost at sea here. Even stuntm...

Alain Moussi plays an amnesiac who wakes up in a U.S. military outpost after being attacked by an unseen entity and jumping off a cliff somewhere in Myanmar. Marie Avgeropoulos is the tough intelligence officer assigned to question him. However, before she gets much of anywhere with him, Moussi is whisked away by martial artist Tony Jaa and several other people (Frank Grillo and JuJu Chan among them) who apparently know the guy. Eventually the premise kicks in: Every six years a portal opens and an alien arrives through that portal to battle nine warriors. Nic Cage turns up as a warrior mentor of sorts. Rick Yune is jiu jitsu warrior Captain Sand.   I figured at the very least a sci-fi action movie with Tony Jaa, Nic Cage, and Frank Grillo wouldn’t be dull and that a film called “Jiu Jitsu” would contain some actual jiu jitsu. Directed by Dimitri Logothetis (the quite solid martial arts film “Kickboxer: Retaliation” ), this 2020 film is barely tolerable at best, and there’s no...

Horrible, scheming husband Andre Morell murders his wife (Catherine Lacey) with the assistance of servants Andrew Crawford and Freda Jackson, and they subsequently bury the body. The resident tabby cat witnesses the murder and Morell becomes obsessed with killing it. All perfectly sane behaviour. Barbara Shelley plays Lacey’s niece, who is one of several relatives who come to stay whilst the police investigate Lacey’s ‘disappearance’. Meanwhile, more murders happen, and the cat somehow seems to be causing them.   Although the company is strangely not mentioned in the opening credits, this 1961 John Gilling ( “The Brigand of Kandahar” , “The Reptile” ) chiller is surely a Hammer film. Scripted by George Baxt ( “Circus of Horrors” , “City of the Dead” ), in terms of plot it actually feels more Amicus or AIP, but the atmosphere is all Hammer right from the thunderous opening and the credits are full of Hammer names. It was even shot at Bray studios, so at the very least I’d say it...

Set in the 1800s in the West Indies on a plantation owned by whip-cracking Lady Susan Walker (Anoushka Hempel), a brutal tyrant ably assisted by the brutish Joxer (Percy Herbert). David Warbeck plays an Englishman who arrives to enquire on the whereabouts of his brother, Lady Susan’s husband who is missing. Character actor Anthony Sharp (in perhaps the most decent performance here) plays Lord Clive, whilst stunt man Bob Minor plays one of the slaves, and an American actor named Bernard Boston plays the snooty, gay, French soldier whom Lady Susan employs as the captain of her private army of mercenaries. The hulking David Prowse turns up in a small role that you can probably figure out the identity of yourself.   There were a couple of times in his career that former ‘nudie cutie’ director Russ Meyer ( “Vixen” , “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” ) attempted to make somewhat ‘serious’ films, “The Seven Minutes” (a PG-rated Russ Meyer film!) being one of them. This 1973 slavery-th...