Ice Station Zebra - 1968 - USA

Ice Station Zebra - 1968 - 6/10

 
Big cast, slow-moving twaddle  
After a satellite crashes in the Arctic, a US submarine is dispatched to rescue a British contingent there.
Soviet MiG fighters are also enroute.  Rescue?  Please.  The satellite is an early spy satellite.
The effects are impressive, lots of model work.
The story drags, characters are too muddled, there is little tension for a thriller.
At two and a half hours, a cut of thirty minutes would have helped.
Based on an Alistair MacLean novel, although not as popular as other film adaptations.

The Last Voyage - 1960 - USA

The Last Voyage - 1960 - 6/10

 
Ocean liner disaster flick slots somewhere between A Night To Remember (1958) and Titanic (1997).
Robert Stack leads a sizable cast, although Woody Strode steals the movie as the engine stoker.
An aging vessel, on its final Pacific crossing, suffers and explosion and begins to leak.
Stack’s wife is trapped between steel, and the waters rise closer.
The narrative shifts between crew and passengers in rapid paced Hollywood adventure.
George Sanders quite good as the captain who refuses to accept events.
Predictable, although not as hammy as the highfalutin nonsense in 1997.

Wild Reeds - 1994 - France

Wild Reeds - 1994 - 7/10
AKA - Les Roseaux Sauvages

 
Coming of age * film of three (perhaps four) students
Cramming for their baccalauréat, exploring (questioning) their sexuality, worrying about their futures.
A constant background presence is France’s ongoing war with Algeria, and the upcoming, mandatory service.
Held my interest throughout, and I generally dislike films with children or young adults.
These are intelligent, and either intellectual or self-aware.
* Coming of age?  I know adults in their 60’s who are still adolescents.  Many never grow up.

Stop Nyqvist - 2022 - Finland

Stop Nyqvist - 2022 - 6/10
AKA - Pysäyttäkää Nyqvist

 
Heads at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs want a patsy to blame for their own blunders.
Foolish intern Nyqvist is pushed to the head a newly founded secret service.
Thing is, Nyqvist is motivated and earnest.  A go-getter.
Hoping to impress his Finnish bosses, he sinks a sub!
International crisis #1.  Then he realizes he has a highly proficient assassin on his team.
Later, two assassins!
A Swedish hitman arrives to whack our hero.
Eight part series spoofs espionage thrillers, though I confess some Finland references eluded me.

Shanghai Fortress - 2019 - China

Shanghai Fortress - 2019 - 5/10
AKA - 上海堡垒

 
I suppose this fulfills lesser ambitions.
A Chinese spaceship brings back a self-replicating energy source, Xianteng.
Coal, gas, oil, all replaced and humanity experiences an new Renaissance.
Until Alien invaders arrive, seeking Xianteng, and laying waste the planet.
Of major cities, only Shanghai holds out, but for how long?
Wild SciFi actioner will be high octane java juice for fans of Transformers, Independence Day, Matrix Revolutions.
Plenty of major CGI conflicts, interspersed with unrequited romance storylines.

The Princess Comes Across - 1936 - USA

The Princess Comes Across - 1936 - 6/10

 
On the trans-Atlantic liner, Mammoth, a blackmailer shakes down a bandleader and a Swedish princess.
Then he is found dead.  By the princess, who is a fraud.  While the bandleader has a prison record.
What else?  An escaped murderer is a stowaway, on a vessel with five police inspectors.
Most of the comedy is from Lombard who does not overplay her silly schtick. Instead, she channels Garbo.
MacMurray shows a tougher edge, which suits him, and feeds the mystery angle.
Excellent old-fashioned whodunit, superbly shot, especially complicated shadow scenes.

Defending Your Life - 1991 - USA

Defending Your Life - 1991 - 7/10

 
That’s the way it goes sometimes.  One moment you’re rolling easy down Life’s Highway, the next moment you’re dead and in Judgment City.
Say where?  Daniel is in the waiting zone, where he will be deemed eligible to ascent to Heaven, or back to Earth.
Hit and miss Albert Brooks comedy is one of his best, with plenty of jokes and compelling concepts.
Meryl Streep, especially luminous and likeable here, is an enlightened soul, all but predestined.
Brooks, on the other hand, is one of us.  A schlub.

The Scarecrow Of Romney Marsh - 1963 - UK

The Scarecrow Of Romney Marsh - 1963 - 6/10

 
The right Reverend Syn, minister by day, rebel leader by night.
Pre-Colonial Revolution, the English needs recruits.  If none volunteer, they are impressed.
Meaning, forcibly enlisted.
Opposing them are the masked Scarecrow and his renegade team.
What ensues is high adventure, plenty of action (no bloodshed), and a series of cat n mouse chases.
Patrick McGoohan dominates throughout and is unforgettable, both as the enlightened minister to his village, and as the rather frightening Scarecrow.
Warning:  The official DVD / BluRay is ridiculously overpriced!

The Wet Pit Below - 2047 - R'lyeh

The Wet Pit Below - 2047 - 4/10

Clara and Fred, along with Sue and Butch, are driving cross country.
They plan to make it BIG in Hollywood.  Major film, indie film, TV or porn.
While Clara and Fred milk the snake enroute, Sue and Butch trail in the second car.
Less groping and stroking from this couple, who serve to narrate proceedings.
In Arkansas, a repo man seizes one vehicle, so they detour off the main route to avoid another seizure.

 
Where their vehicle breaks down in the abandoned hamlet called America’s Dream.
Clara and Fred (cousins or siblings?) find a cobwebbed house with clean sheets.
Meanwhile, Sue and Butch explore the basement, finding a damp stone pit with ladder rungs.
Descending – for five padded minutes! – only to find a second well, and where their incessant talking rouses the dreaming deity below.

 
Dread Cthulhu!
Who does not like its naptime disturbed.  Worse, is infuriated that it is in Arkansas.
Grade-D sleazy mess from the Pepper Brothers has dismal production values, repetitive Casio score, and what can only be called “experimental” camera work.
Acting talent?  Please!  Although Clara (Misty Moss?) is easy on the eyes and noisily enthusiastic.
For Cthulhu completists who think they’ve seen it all, a shoddy Cthulhu porno.

Da Killa - 2002 - USA

Da Killa - 2002 - 6/10

Early on, a Juju priest concocts a devil’s blend and infuses a hefty bag of reefer.
Why?  Who knows?  Perhaps his fetish doll knows.  For the doll sees all.
The narrative shifts to Leroy, over-stressed at home, hurrying to work.
Where, street-side, he costumes up and advertises for the local vacuum store.

 
Life, for Leroy as for many of us, quickly sours.
He is fired, turns to crime, drinks, gambles, cheats with women.
Then gets ahold of that tainted weed, which turns him into a fiend.
What follows is a murderous rampage.

 
Despite being an ultra-low budget production, this is a lot of fun.
Many of the sequences are laugh out loud funny.
Almost everything occurs in the Como neighborhood of Fort Worth.
The cast seem to have been recruited on-site.
Music, a blend of hip-hop and synth, is great, although dialogue is often indecipherable.
Somewhere, Rudy Ray Moore is laughing his ass off.

Talk To Me - 2022 - Australia

Talk To Me - 2022 - 7/10

 
Horror outing, a variation on the Ouija board, is more than a little depressing.
Mia and friends play “talk to the hand” game.
In this case, the hand (ceramic or stone) is a portal to the afterlife.
And all the sadness, resentment or hatred that may lurk there.
Nevertheless, youth is fearless.
Mia, however, is profoundly damaged.  Emotionally bereft, grieving without release.
She is also a jinx, a pariah, infecting others in her circle.

ThirTEEN Terrors - 2014 - Thailand

ThirTEEN Terrors - 2014 - 6/10  
AKA - Phuean Hian.. Rongrian Lon

 
When she drops a book, the student looks into her desk and sees the head.
Seeing the head means she is cursed to die!
Thirteen stories set in the high school realm.
Pranks gone bad, casual curses that turn deadly, bullying.
Actors are youthful, most are OK with primal emotions.
Jump scares predominate, sometimes the director belabors a point.

 
A favorite episode is set in Dance class, where the girls are anxious about the mannequin.
The doll does seem to get around a bit.
And why, oh why, oh why, do students break into school at night?
Viewers with long memories will recognize the sly nod to classic Twilight Zone.

From Dusk Til Dawn - 1996 - USA

From Dusk Til Dawn - 1996 - 6/10

 
Following a botched robbery, the Gecko brothers race towards Mexico.
With them, hostages.
So where do they hide?  Titty Twister truckstop, a lair of vampires.
Horror actioner is off the charts mayhem.
Bullets, buckets of blood, a frightening beautiful Salma Hayek.
Add Clooney for the females, Tarantino for his fanclub.
Runs outta steam late, dissipating the energy and mayhem.

Frankenstein - 1910 - USA

Frankenstein - 1910 - 6/10

 
The good doctor discovers the secret of Life, which grows similar to a mushroom farm.
Too much time is spent of the creation, and  Herr Frankenstein’s jubilant reactions.
Earliest version of Shelley’s novel is still worth a watch.
The creature, dressed in rags, is more agile than later tellings (and closer to the original).
Camera work very static, but the story moves along.
Library Of Congress offered a recent restoration, still battered, but better than others..
https://slate.com/culture/2018/11/frankenstein-1910-restored-library-of-congress-edison.html