Abigail Leslie Is Back In Town - 1974 - USA

Abigail Leslie Is Back In Town - 1974 - 5/10

 
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Abigail is back in backwater fishing village, Baypoint.
If she had a wanton reputation before, now she’s raunchy with a mission.
Boink and dive all her friends, frenemies, boyfriends, girlfriends, whoever and whenever.
Softcore exploitation (look hard and specifics are soft) has an awful lot of walking and talking.
Sad to say, this is Dullsville.
Attractive cast includes Sonny Landham, who would regret these choices when he ran for governor.

Coma - 1978 - USA

Coma - 1978 - 6/10

 
Patients beware of Operating Room 8, unless you have a death wish.
Pity the whole staff isn’t in on this, since all it takes is one do-gooder to spoil the scam.
We’re talking body parts, organ harvesting, and none of that grave robbing skullduggery.
Very good thriller, especially for those with upcoming surgery.
Major or minor surgery.  Plus, who are those folks behind the masks?
Geneviève Bujold drives this as the out of her depth medico, digging for answers.

Our Man Flint - 1966 - USA

Our Man Flint - 1966 - 6/10

 
Likely overdue, following the 1960’s spy craze of Bond, UNCLE, Harry Palmer, etc …
Derek Flint, agent for Z.O.W.I.E., must take down runaway scientists, demanding world peace.
Gadget, a tricked out cigarette lighter.
Parody of spy genre all the way, would have likely been a goofy dud (like the Helm films) had it not been for the magnetism of James Coburn.
He exudes coo and panache throughout, even during the most absurd moments.
Great viewing when I was a kid, still funny.

Murder By Numbers - 2002 - USA

Murder By Numbers - 2002 - 6/10

 
Hard turn for Sandra Bullock, as troubled police officer, headstrong and unlikable.
Rich boys murder for kicks, and plant evidence on a patsy.
The female detective weighs evidence against intuition.
Good police procedural, yet better as a character study.
Bullock had done dark parts before, but she really nails this one.
Likely opened doors for acclaimed dramatic roles.

Once Upon A Time In The Midlands - 2002 - UK

Once Upon A Time In The Midlands - 2002 - 6/10

 
On live telly, Dek proposes to Shirley, who says no.
To the immense relief of her ex, Jimmy, holed up in Glasgow.
Who decides, following a robbery of a truck full of clowns (don’t ask), he will win Shirley back.
Never underestimate the emotional power of the old flame.
Peculiar British Rom-Com straddles crime, comedy, romance and kitchen drama.
Indeed, it is wishy-washy about Shirley’s heart, and the merits of the bachelors.   
Too many minor, purposeless characters in what feels like a half-finished movie.
Not a bad flick, just pales next to a hundred other Rom-Coms.

The World’s Greatest Sinner - 1962 - USA

The World’s Greatest Sinner - 1962 - 6/10

 
Insurance salesman Clarence, bored and disillusioned, gets himself fired.
High on the vast potential of life, Clarence decides to write a book - and - enter politics.
The book is more a pamphlet on ultimate self-improvement.
From ordinary folk to super-humans to being gods.
Swelling followers are soon chanting, “We are gods, we are gods” while destroying things.
Clarence, by the way, has renamed himself to simply – God.
And, being a god, proceeds to violate taboos, especially sexual.
Bizarre film best viewed as inspired Outsider Art.
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3359935

Reilly, Ace Of Spies - 1983 - UK

Reilly, Ace Of Spies - 1983 - 7/10

 
Before Ian Fleming envisioned 007, there was the actual, British agent extraordinaire.
Sam Neill shot to fame as the womanizing, double-dealing, articulate agent.
Most of the timeline runs from 1904–1924.  Arms deals, wars, espionage, sabotage.
Adversaries include Basil Zaharoff (the Merchant of Death), Felix Dzerzhinsky and Stalin,
Excellent production values, especially for television of this period.
At 12 episodes, this also breathes a bit.
Based on a real individual, exploits dodgy, yet stands with the finest spy films.

Affliction - 1997 - USA

Affliction - 1997 - 7/10

 
Wade, small town sheriff, senses a fatal hunting accident might not be so accidental.
Investigating, however cautiously, is nigh impossible in such a hamlet.
Add that Wade’s mother has been found dead (freezing) in her own home.
Next room, Dad sits drunk.  At least he won’t beat her any longer.
Although there are the two boys, Wade and his brother, both abused since childhood.
Less a mystery than a harrowing character study or tortured lives.
Difficult and painful cinema.
I once listened to a Q&A with director Paul Schrader: Casting Coburn was a coup, as they needed someone who would seem physically imposing to Nolte.

When Worlds Collide - 1951 - USA

When Worlds Collide - 1951 - 6/10

 
Rogue star is heading Earth’s way.  Destruction imminent.
Yet, the star has an orbiting planet, perhaps humanity can hop there.
Governments of the world ignore the looming disaster.
Luckily, ka-zillionaire types subsidize rocket building … just like today!
Who gets to go?  Who decides?  And how will the teeming hordes react?
Old school SciFi (based on a 1930’s Pulp novel) has moments here and there.
Drama and melodrama retard the pace and thrust, however.

Great Expectations - 2013 - UK

Great Expectations - 2013 - 7/10

 
Young boy Pip, barely more than an urchin, aids an escaped convict.
The man does not forget, even after the wiles of Miss Havisham torture the lad.
Pip has aspirations, expectations, far above his social level.
Heady condensation of Dickens’ novel, and stylized to boot.
Saturated in Gothic, most this unrolls like a walking nightmare.
Characters from the deep past resemble cadavers, while cobwebs are everywhere.
Although we read this in grade school, this is not a children’s story.
Adult Pip, reliving his youth, the stuff of nightmares.
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3359934

Cave Of The Living Dead - 1964 - Yugoslavia

Cave Of The Living Dead - 1964 - 5/10
AKA - Der Fluch der Grünen Augen

After death number six, Interpol sends agent Dorin to a small village.
While all the slain women show neck punctures, the local doctor marks heart failure.
Villagers disdain strangers, yet live in fear of the grotto area, as well as the castle.
And – the titled professor who has taken it over.

 
Superstition be damned, Dorin soon finds a cross more effective than a pistol.
Not to mention the local gypsy fortune teller, more attuned than the doctor.

 
Routine storyline from Yugoslavia, with assorted character types, easy to differentiate.
The photography, sharp black and white, deep shadows, cutting and angles, is first rate.
Locations from cave corridors to castle interiors are sheer Gothic, and look authentic.
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3359933

Sinners - 2025 - USA

Sinners - 2025 - 7/10

 
Brothers Smoke and Stack return from Chicago with loads of ill-gotten money.
They buy an old mill, intending to transform it into a juke joint.
Cousin Sammie, a budding bluesmith, is enlisted to help with musical entertainment.
Sammie’s playing is a siren call, however, for wild revelry, and for evil.
Setting, time and place are wonderfully done.  1930’s Mississippi, flatlands of cotton, scorching heat.
The joint is a success.  Rowdy, seething, sweaty, until it attracts another element.
A hard turn enters.  Bloodletting along with a shared hive sensibility.

Your Past Is Showing - 1957 - UK

Your Past Is Showing - 1957 - 6/10

 
He publishes a monthly tabloid, you see?
Nothing but dirt and the juicy stuff.
Unless the “profiles” pay £10,000 to quash the issue.
Oh, please, don’t call it blackmail.  That’s so … squalid.
Terry Thomas, Peter Sellers, Peggy Mount, Shirley Eaton.
Broad comedy gathers momentum until it bores full throttle into screwball,
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3359854

Ward - 1973 - Yugoslavia

Ward - 1973 - 6/10
AKA - Štićenik

 
Young man Mihael, on the run in a bleak countryside, seeks refuge in an asylum.
Steadily pursuing is a man in a black cape.
Mihael begs for, and is granted, shelter, where his paranoia and violence escalates.
The mysterious hunter could be a guardian, could be Death.
Yugoslavian film mixes supernatural hints in obscured mystery.
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subscene/155246

The Keeper Of Lost Causes - 2013 - Denmark

The Keeper Of Lost Causes - 2013 - 7/10
AKA - Kvinden i buret (The woman in the cage)

 
Mørck doesn’t wait for backup, and he and crew are ambushed.
He survives and is demoted to the basement, sorting and marking cold cases as closed.
Department Q is a dead end, although Mørck is assigned a motivated assistant, Assad.
One case surfaces, a young politico who supposedly committed suicide on a ferry.
Very much a hard core procedural, as the men interview, dig, unearth and irritate.
Taut thriller, followed by two films and a copy-cat TV series.

Kiss Me Monster - 1969 - Spain

Kiss Me Monster - 1969 - 5/10
AKA - Küss mich, Monster

 
Relaxing after adventures, the Red Lips are interrupted by a dying messenger.
Something about Doctor Beltran, which, well, he’s dead, let’s dump his body.
Soon enough they are recruited, coerced, hired to locate Beltran’s missing invention.
Perhaps in Abilene, or out on a remote island.
There are five (at least) different factions after this, which adds confusion.
The plot is already scatter-brained.
Spoof of Euro-Spy movies is gauche and awkward, not so funny.

The Cat Creeps - 1946 - USA

The Cat Creeps - 1946 - 5/10

 
The senator is up for reelection, but a scandal from 15 years previously has surfaced.
Which reporter should the daily rag send?  Why, the lout engaged to the politician’s daughter.
No sooner do you cry, “Anchors away!” when six scheming shipmates climb a boat for a island.
Ashore, the tub is torched – and then the dying starts.
Cheapie B-film about murder and missing $200K.
Says something when Noah Berry headlines, and he was the only face I recognized.

Real Women Have Curves - 2002 - USA

Real Women Have Curves - 2002 - 7/10

 
Strained mother / daughter relationship.
Ana, recent high school graduate longs for college, despite financial limitations.
Her mother belittles her weight, trashes her dreams, urges her to marry and make babies.
Ana gets work at the garment factory – yet nothing ever pleases her mother.
Points throughout on body image, the burden of family, bullying.
Heady emotional roller coaster.
Self image, self worth.

Woman On The Run - 1950 - USA

Woman On The Run - 1950 - 7/10
 

“Your husband just witnessed a murder, only now he’s taken a powder.”
“Just like him, always running away.”
“I want you to answer a few questions about your husband.”
“I haven’t the faintest idea.”
The soured marriage, on the rocks after a handful of years.
The husband saw killing, the murderer now stalks him, while the wife refuses to help.
Nonetheless, the police stick to her like glue, while a reporter, looking for an exclusive, helps her.
Terrific Noir, once considered lost, set all over San Francisco.
Dialogue is razors and barbed wire, and the mystery packed with twists.

Those Glory, Glory Days - 1983 - UK

Those Glory, Glory Days - 1983 - 6/10

 
Julia and her girlfriends are fanatical Hotspur supporters.
Follow the team on radio, attend the matches, even the away games.
And 1961 was a glory year for Tottenham.
Acquiring tickets for the FA Cup became an absolute must!
Warm, slice of life circa of England, on the cusp of the Invasion and Swinging London.
One of the lengths: Julie wrote the team her crippled granddad was about to die and wanted tickets.
“Omigod!”  my bride gasped,  “I was trying to get Beatles tickets and wrote that my dad had died.”
“Did you score free seats?”  I asked.
‘No, there were probably thousands of girls who used the same lie.”

Predator: Killer Of Killers - 2025 - USA

Predator: Killer Of Killers - 2025 - 5/10

 
Our quarry include a Viking warrior queen, a samurai / ninja duo, hotshot WWII teenager.
The Japanese section is fairly wordless and hews close to chambara.
Contrast this with our heroic teen, who suffers diarrhea of the mouth.
Truly, he is an annoying jabber jaw.
Action and style is straight up anime, energetic but nothing new.  Perhaps a bit retro.
Throughout there are homages / fan-service / plagiarism of dozens of films.
A decent way to waste an hour, although one wishes producers possessed a wider imagination.

The Sisters Of Gion - 1936 - Japan

The Sisters Of Gion - 1936 - 6/10
AKA - Gion no Shimai // 祇園の姉妹

 
Two sisters still work as geishas, but the era has ended and patrons are dying off.
Or going bankrupt, which has happened to one sister’s benefactor.
His wife and daughter move away, and he opts to live off his unemployed geisha.
Sister Omocha, far more mercenary, shoves the old man out.
Then schemes and hustles to obtain a luxurious kimono, and wealthy sugar daddies.
“The way men treat us, it’s best we take as much from them as we can.”
I actually rooted for the cynical Omocha more than the soft-hearted Umekichi.

Suspense - 1913 - USA

Suspense - 1913 - 6/10

 
“I am leaving without  notice.  No servant will stay in this lonesome place.”
After she departs, the homeless vagrant approaches the house.
Inside, a young mother and infant.
Pioneering film has sharp editing, excellent camera angles.
Also, early use of tri-screen.
Good mix of tension with hectic car sequences.

Daylight - 1996 - USA

Daylight - 1996 - 5/10

 
Explosion in the Hudson Tunnel traps a disparate bunch of innocents, malcontents, complainers and pompous.
Enter ex-rescue guy (Stallone), whom no one listens to.
With so many trapped characters, one can safely predict a lot of meals.
Disagree with our hero?  Go off on your own?  Bicker?
Yes, prepare the body bags accordingly.
Formulaic action / disaster flick, best for insomniacs or Stallone fanatics.
Sly, by the way, looks old in this, or simply haggard.

Accidental Stars - 2023 - USA

Accidental Stars - 2023 - 5/10

 
Nerissa struggles with a private acting lesson.
Then her mentor inquires if this existence, her existence, is real.
Thrown off script, she is flummoxed, then fearful of a wrong answer.
Surreal Horror short, ripe with imagery, bitter best for imposters.
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3359588