Shameless Self Expression

  1972 concert in the L.A. Coliseum, organised by Memphis’ Stax Records to commemorate (and raise funds for) the seventh anniversary of the Watts riots in Los Angeles (the original 1965 riots where 34 people died, not the Rodney King stuff in the 90s), and headlined by soul legend Isaac Hayes (at perhaps the pinnacle of his career and symbolically wearing gold chains!), as well as other Stax artists for a 100,000+ crowd. Interspersed between the music are interviews with members of the African-American community talking about the unique black experience in America (some of which is snoozer material, but a lot of it is fascinating). Amusingly one such member is a pre-Isaac the Bartender, Ted Lange!   Regarded by many as the African-American “Woodstock” , this 1973 Mel Stuart documentary with occasionally brilliant but somewhat uneven music featuring artists on the Stax label both excellent and, um...yeah not excellent. Despite a background in documentaries, I’m not sure ...

60s-loving student Thomasin McKenzie gets into a London fashion school, allowing her to move into the Soho area. Renting a room from grim-faced, no-nonsense Dame Diana Rigg, McKenzie starts to experience unusually vivid dreams set in 60s Soho. The dreams centre around an aspiring young singer named Sandie (played by Anya Taylor-Joy), and before long McKenzie is starting to take influence from her. But then the dreams start to get darker and more disturbing…   Director Edgar Wright ( “Shaun of the Dead” , “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” ) and his co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns ( “1917” ) clearly have an affinity for the Swinging 60s and genre cinema. Unfortunately, that does not result in this 2021 film being any good . The problem I think is that Wright and Wilson-Cairns have created this world ripe for horror, but haven’t placed the right story into it. They’ve thrown too many genre influences into the mix, complicating something that would’ve been so much better if simplified. ...

Set in London, somewhat unappealing ne’er-do-well Jon Finch is having a bad time of it. He loses his job at the pub (accused of imbibing on the job by owner Bernard Cribbins). He is now sleeping at a crummy hostel where he needs to keep an eye on his wallet at all hours of the night. He also argues forcefully with his ex-wife (Barbara Leigh-Hunt), and when said ex-wife is strangled, he becomes the prime suspect in the ‘Necktie Strangler’ case. Thing is, he’s innocent, we learn early on that an outwardly charming associate of his (Barry Foster, in no mystery at all) is framing him as he continues to murder pretty young lady after pretty young lady. Anna Massey plays Finch’s only true ally, with Clive Swift his chicken-livered old pal emasculated by wife Billie Whitelaw. Whitelaw believes Finch a sadist because the divorce settlement included accusations of ‘extreme cruelty’, which Finch claims he and Leigh-Hunt made up to speed things along. Alec McCowen plays a copper on the case, whos...

A desperate prison guard (Dolph Lundgren) with a terminally ill daughter hears from an incarcerated gang leader that he hid $3 Million in cash inside an abandoned building that he stole from a rival criminal gang. He sets about entering the building and nabbing the cash to pay for his kid’s cancer treatment (Said kid being played by Lundgren’s own daughter Ida). Adding a fly into the ointment the building (formerly a hospital) is rigged with explosives and set for demolition very soon. Scott Adkins plays a down-on-his-luck ex-MMA fighter now making a buck as part of the building’s demolition crew when he stumbles upon the cash and sees literal dollar signs. Meanwhile, as these two men are about to collide and the explosives set to detonate, outside a ruthless gang of crims (led by Scott Hunter) are about to enter the building. They aim to claim the cash for themselves as Hunter’s brother was the true owner of the loot.   Not-bad, if somewhat poor man’s version of Walter Hill’s ...

Kinda sorta (definitely) based on the true story of Albrecht Muth, Christoph Waltz stars as Ulrich Mott, a foreign-born Washington social climber accused of killing his 90ish wife Elsa (Vanessa Redgrave). Mott, supposedly a brigadier general in the Iraqi Special Forces, used his former journalist wife’s political connections as he hosts swanky parties with bigwigs, and sets up a bullshit Ponzi scheme of an NGO brilliantly called the Eminent Persons Group (Ulrich so desperately wants to be seen as eminent himself). The only person who seemingly sees Ulrich for the lowly con artist that he is, is Elsa’s middle-aged college professor daughter (Annette Bening) who suspects the man killed her mother.   Austrian-born actor Christoph Waltz makes his underwhelming directorial debut with this flat, unsurprising 2020 con artist crime-drama. Scripted by David Auburn ( “The Lake House” ) and based on a Franklin Foer article for the New York Times, it’s somewhat based on a true story but yo...

Cynical American psychologist Dana Andrews arrives in London to meet a colleague (Maurice Denham in an excellent cameo), only to find that the man has died. Andrews scoffs at the suggestion that Denham’s run-ins with a Satanic cult resulted in him being cursed. He then meets the cult’s leader (played by Niall MacGinnis) and that’s when all manner of eerie things start to occur. Pretty sure the unflappable shrink doesn’t know what to think. Peggy Cummins plays Denham’s niece, who assists Andrews in his investigation.   Director Jacques Tourneur ( “Cat People” , “The Comedy of Terrors” ) had moved away from RKO and producer Val Lewton by the time of this popular 1957 cult horror film. Based on a Montague R. James short story and scripted by   Charles Bennett ( “The 39 Steps” , “Foreign Correspondent” ) & Hal E. Chester ( “School for Scoundrels” ), it’s more plot and character driven than the Lewton ‘chillers’. In fact, for much of its length it plays more like an occult...

  A grieving, hard-drinking widower and war veteran (Chad Michael Murray) finds himself caught in the middle of some trouble between cops (Swen Temmel, Bruce Willis), and criminals (whose numbers include Zack Ward, Michael Sirow, Donna D’Errico, and Sean Kanan). The gun battle steps onto Murray’s property after a drug bust gone bad.   More of a Swen Temmel and Chad Michael Murray film than a Bruce Willis film, this 2021 film from director James Cullen Bressack (who directed Willis and Murray in “Fortress” ) is pretty shoddy stuff. The editing and camerawork in the fight scenes in particular is dreadful, achieving nothing except drawing your attention to the stunt doubles by (badly) trying to disguise them. Judging by the end credits, nearly every credited actor had their own stunt double. Somewhere Tom Cruise is weeping.   I like that Bressack tries to give the film a sense of urgency out of the blocks, but it does make it a touch difficult to find your bearings...

In 1972, devious Johnny Alucard (Christopher Neame) is the descendant of a disciple of Dracula, and gathers his groovy pals to an abandoned church so he can resurrect the Count for a bit of a giggle. It’s no laughing matter when the Count (Christopher Lee) indeed rises from the grave to make Alucard and the others (Caroline Munro, Janet Key, and Marsha Hunt among them) into his followers to do his bidding. However, among Alucard’s friends is the virginal Jessica Van Helsing (Stephanie Beacham), granddaughter of Lorrimer Van Helsing (Peter Cushing), the descendant of Dracula’s arch enemy. Michael Coles turns up as a police inspector.   The first two Hammer movies in the Dracula cycle that I saw were 1968’s “Dracula Has Risen From the Grave” , and this 1972 effort from director Alan Gibson ( “Crescendo” , “The Satanic Rites of Dracula” ) and writer Don Houghton ( “The Satanic Rites of Dracula” , “The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires” ). I much preferred the earlier film both then...