Escape from New York was one of those 80’s films that had a massive influence on the genre.  The opening of 1990’s Class of 1999 is obviously inspired by the introduction in that movie. We start with animation intended to look like a computer display as narration informs us there are “free-fire” zones in every […]

With a title like Love Slaves of the Amazons, one goes into this 1957 movie expecting high camp.  And it lowers to those expectations, with Caucasian women as natives, limply doing badly choreographed numbers on sets made with no attempt at realism. I could have appreciated the picture on that level, if it hadn’t been […]

There are a great many movies I have seen only because they were featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 or Rifftrax.  It is rarer to see a movie deserving of, but has yet to receive, that treatment.  Such is the case with 1989’s Alien from the Deep. And that isn’t to say […]

I keep thinking I don’t like prison movies, and yet many of the best noirs are set in prison.  1956’s Behind the High Wall isn’t of the caliber of Brute Force, but there is still a lot I liked here. Tom Tully plays a prison warden who genuinely cares for the prisoners and wants to […]

I am not much of a fan of Nicholas Cage, at least not of most of his work since The Rock.  To me, he transitioned at that point from being an unusual, though serious, actor to become a scenery-devouring ham.  I find it annoying so many are fans of his least grounded performances, especially his […]

1966’s The Witch is the last of the four titles I watched in Arrow Video’s blu-ray box set Gothic Fantastico: Four Italian Tales of Terror.  Two of the movies were duds, while Lady Morgan’s Vengeance was shockingly good.  The Witch is probably the second best, though at some distance behind Vengeance. The plot concerns Richard […]

1978’s The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of the most dire comedies I have seen.  This broad farce is little more than a series of sketches, most of which have only the most tangential of connections to the characters of Holmes and Watson.  Peter Cook and Dudley Moore play those legendary figures here, ending […]

There is a surprisingly wide variety of bad sci-fi movies made in the 1950’s.  I imagine these on a spectrum ranging from cheap cash-grab to the curiously personal trainwrecks made by Ed Wood.  While everything superficial about 1956’s Fire Maidens of Outer Space suggests the former, I was left with the impression this is somehow […]

I have seen a great many movies that start out strong, only to faceplant in the first act and never recover.  Then there’s the films that never really reach their potential until the third act.  1946’s Temptation is the only feature I can recall seeing which has a stellar second act bookended by subpar material.  […]

I don’t know much about the Welsh, and it was only upon seeing 1949’s A Run for Your Money that I realized they don’t seem to be represented on film very often.  Newspapers of the time said the Welsh were not happy with how they are portrayed here, and I can understand that. If they […]

I know there are horrible problems around the world today, just as there are at any other time.  Even so, I am insistent we live in a golden age.  Just the fact that previously lost film The Ghoul could be available in pristine condition on blu-ray gives me hope for the future. This 1933 UK […]

This is an odd duck.  This 1995 anime is a triptych of seemingly unrelated stores from Katsuhiro Ôtomo, the author of Akira (and who was also supervising director on the film version). The first story is extremely similar to Solaris (either version) and that’s not a bad thing.  In the far future, what is essentially […]

For those made curious by the title, the particular Street of Chance in this 1942 noir is Tillary Street.  That’s where Burgess Meredith comes close to getting pulverized by concrete falling from a building demolition.  When he comes to, he tells a policeman he is Frank Thompson.  And yet, he has a cigarette case in […]

1961’s Man-Trap is later than what is what is usually regarded as the prime era of film noir.  Something else which distinguishes it from most is it was made by one of the most major of the major studios.  When you have a noir made by Paramount, you know you’re going to have a bigger […]