Author Archives: David

Review: The Avenging Eagle AKA: Long xie shi san ying; Cold Blooded Eagles (Hong Kong 1978)

Posted on April 18, 2018 by David

Avenging Eagle is solid old school kung fu from the Shaw Brothers. It’s no pinnacle of the genre – there really isn’t that much to distinguish it from most Shaw martial arts films – but a good cast, baroque weaponry, … Continue reading →

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Review: Justice League (USA 2017)

Posted on April 6, 2018 by David

Why did I even watch this? Masochism? Completism? I truly loathed Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (a movie as turgid as its name), and the execrable Suicide Squad, and had very low expectations for this Frankenstein’s … Continue reading →

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Review: Cold Hell aka Die Hölle (Austria/Germany 2017)

Posted on March 15, 2018 by David

Cold Hell is a nasty little treat. I was expecting a thriller, but not a full-blown modern giallo. Cold Hell revels in the lurid sexualized violence and the neon washes and shadows of the best of Dario Argento and Sergio … Continue reading →

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Sridevi, Bollywood Queen, Passes Away at 54

Posted on February 24, 2018 by David

Playing everything from the ingenue in Kamal Haasan’s giallo-esque thriller Sigappu Rojakkal (1978), to a whip-wielding bandit queen in Sherni (1988), to a bewitching snake spirit in the supernatural romance/horror Nagina (1986), Sridevi has long laid claim to my heart as … Continue reading →

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Review: Face Behind the Mask (Hong Kong 1974)

Posted on February 23, 2018 by David

Chen Chi-hwa’s Face Behind the Mask is a solid piece of wu xia entertainment. It’s not revolutionary, and it really doesn’t do anything that hasn’t been done before. However, all the elements come together nicely to create a quick-paced piece … Continue reading →

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Review: Before We Vanish (Japan 2017)

Posted on February 2, 2018 by David

Before We Vanish is a return to a rarely-seen side of Kiyoshi Kurosawa – a puckish, tongue-in-cheek take on the atmospheric horror that is the master’s stock-in-trade. Though he’s much better known for his deadly serious supernatural horror like Kairo … Continue reading →

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Review: Everybody Wants Some!! (USA 2016)

Posted on January 24, 2018 by David

I’m not a Richard Linklater fanboy by any stretch of the imagination, and Everybody Wants Some is slight even by his standards, but damned if this wasn’t one of the most purely enjoyable films I’ve seen in years.

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Review: Ten Violent Women (USA 1982)

Posted on January 10, 2018 by David

I happened to watch a while back, and then was surprised to see that notorious grindhouse director Ted V. Mikels had just recently passed away. I wish this could be a better epigraph, but it’s a pretty terrible movie – … Continue reading →

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Review: Doctor Strange (USA 2016)

Posted on December 21, 2017 by David

Not to damn Doctor Strange with faint praise, but the film definitely reaches the upper echelons of Marvel movies, hitting that entertaining and workmanlike sweet spot while not quite ever achieving cinematic brilliance. Doctor Strange is, as has been widely … Continue reading →

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Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (Spain/Italy 1974)

Posted on November 16, 2017 by David

This Spanish/Italian co-production is surprisingly smart for its era, mingling straight-up Romero-esque zombie action with the anti-authoritarian paranoia and ecological concerns of The Crazies or Grapes of Death.

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