Shameless Self Expression

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 about a

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 interest

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 Adam S

  Viggo Mortensen is the mild-mannered gay son of bigoted Lance Henriksen, an angry old man who is now plagued by cancer and dementia. He brings the old man away from the family farm to stay with him and his husband (Terry Chan) while Henriksen looks more locally for a home of his own. Unfortunately, the abusive old bastard doesn’t recall making the suggestion and is none too happy. He’s also not remotely tolerant of his son’s same-sex marriage. Meanwhile, we get flashbacks to when Henriksen was a younger man and frankly no nicer in disposition. Gabby Velis plays Mortensen and Chen’s adopted daughter, whilst Laura Linney turns up as Henriksen’s daughter, whose family Henriksen is every bit as hostile around. Illness or not, the guy’s an unrepentant arsehole.   Viggo Mortensen makes his directorial debut with this 2021 dementia drama, which he also produced, scripted, and co-stars in. Mortensen’s parents both had dementia, so the material here obviously meant something to him. My fa

Business tycoon Orson Welles (seen in flashbacks) is shot dead, with investigative reporter Michael Wilding put on the case. Margaret Lockwood is Welles’ widow, John McCallum his loyal but seemingly secretive aide. Miles Malleson plays Lockwood’s uncle.   Mostly colourless 1952 mystery from director Herbert Wilcox ( “The Lady With a Lamp” , “The Heart of a Man” ) had a conclusion I didn’t predict, but I also can’t say I cared much. The film takes a good while to really kick into gear and once it does it still doesn’t fire up much interest. Michael Wilding’s slightly cheeky performance as the detective was the only thing keeping me awake here. Orson Welles’ late participation is curious, it’s such a nondescript film and his lively, if unsubtle cameo performance isn’t enough to lift the film. He’s fine, but why is he here ? A pretty big waste of the always solid Miles Malleson in a nondescript role as well. I must say leading lady Margaret Lockwood didn’t do much for me, nor

Jason Evers (credited as Herb Evers) plays a brilliant but unethical surgeon who gets into a car wreck with his girlfriend (Virginia Leith). She’s decapitated, so naturally Evers decides to walk away with her disembodied head to use in his experiments back at his lab. He’s got the head…now where to find the other body parts? Answer: the sleazy underbelly of society, of course! Did I mention that Evers has some of his previous experiments hidden away in his lab? Actually, one failed experiment isn’t hidden away: His assistant, who has a deformed arm due to a botched experiment.   Written and directed by Joseph Green, this 1962 sci-fi film is often considered one of the tent poles of the ‘so bad it’s good/funny’ realm of bad cinema. It’s miscast in that field in my view. I honestly believe that this is pretty much the film Green (who strangely only directed one other film in 1986!) set out to make and he has mostly executed it to that design. It’s clearly not a film that is trying to

Cheung Lik and his master are forced to battle the title assassins (one of whom is played by Bolo Yeung), as are another apprentice and master pairing with the two students eventually needing to join forces.   Sometimes enjoyable, sometimes confusing 1977 martial arts film from writer-director Yeh Fang (an actor who only directed four films, his next one in 1991!) with a far too abrupt finale. I liked a good chunk of it, just not quite enough of a good chunk to ultimately recommend the film on the whole.   I liked the early humour of a master getting continually bailed out in fights by his apprentice. I also enjoyed the ‘Whirling fist’ and the killer who arrives via a coffin and for some reason looks like a zombie. The subsequent fight is bloody good, in fact there’s so much action (almost wall-to-wall) that there’s no time for it to get dull. The downside to that of course is that with such little emphasis on plot and character it’s occasionally hard to find your bearings. So

No one’s going to call “Flight of the Navigator” a 5-star classic, but for a certain group of us who were kids in the mid to late 80s, it’s a film most of us recall fondly. As a 44 year-old I see the film as interesting and really quite strange, whereas I responded mostly to the comedy and adventure as a kid. It still works, just differently for me now. I’d also been vaguely following star Joey Cramer’s life after the film, which seemed to take some very dark turns. So when I heard about this 2021 documentary from director Lisa Downs, I just had to see it. It’s a film about a child star gone wrong, which seems beyond cliché at this point. However, five minutes in and I was already emotional. This guy seems to have gone through a lot over the years and even during the filming of this documentary you get the sense that it’s still a day-to-day struggle. There’s a reason why addicts don’t generally refer to themselves as former addicts even after kicking the habit. It’s always an ongoing

School chums Ivor Novello and Robin Irvine are both taken with shop girl Annette Benson. Irvine eventually gets her pregnant, but because rugby player Novello’s family is wealthier she claims the child is his, telling the headmaster that one of his students has gotten her up the duff (which is apparently seen as an indiscretion of some sort). Novello – being a good and decent chap – takes the fall for his friend because he doesn’t want the latter to lose his scholarship and knows he won’t own up to the truth. Novello is subsequently expelled and his life falls even further apart from there.   Watching the restored 100+ minute version of this 1927 silent film from Sir Alfred Hitchcock ( “Blackmail” , “Vertigo” , “Psycho” ), I got the distinct feeling that the shorter cut for once probably would’ve worked a bit better for me. However, at any length this was never going to be one of The Master’s better films. Adapted by Eliot Stannard ( “The Pleasure Garden” , “Champagne” ) from a p

Set in the mountains of North California in the late 1800s, a family of cattle farmers battle freezing, snowy weather and an almost mythological panther that is picking off the family’s cattle. The rather unpleasant and stubborn Curt (Robert Mitchum) decides it’s high time to go in search of the panther and kill it. Beulah Bondi and Philip Tonge play the miserable family elders, with Tab Hunter, William Hopper, and Teresa Wright filling out the rest of the family. Diana Lynn plays the intended love of the family’s youngest (Hunter). Carl ‘Alfalfa’ Switzer plays an old Native-American named Joe Sam.   Of all the films in the ‘Classic Western Collection’ DVD box set I purchased cheaply a while back (I know, no one buys DVDs anymore except me), this 1954 William A. Wellman ( “The Ox-Bow Incident” , “The High and the Mighty” ) film was one of the most highly touted and anticipated by me. I don’t know what everyone else was seeing here, this is shoddy, stagey, and dull. There’s a very

Set in 1939, when Americans appear to be largely apathetic to the impending war in Europe, perhaps unaware of the serious threat posed by the Nazi regime. Newspaper editor Harry Davenport is looking for hard news from his foreign correspondents and decides to insert a fresh face. Enter apolitical crime reporter Johnny Jones (Joel McCrea) to be sent to Europe and find out what’s really going on. After Davenport gives him the more important-sounding nom de plume Huntley Haverstock (!), he is sent to investigate negotiations conducted by a supposed peace organisation, to see whether war is imminent. The organisation is headed by Herbert Marshall, along with Dutch diplomat Albert Bassermann playing a key role. Laraine Day is Marshall’s daughter, a member of the rather amateur peace group, and the near-instant object of Haverstock’s affections. Haverstock gets barely a chance to talk with Bassermann before he is felled by an assassin, right in front of Haverstock’s eyes. Haverstock has land