Sir Roger Moore, RIP at 89

Posted on May 23, 2017 by David

I don’t think anyone can argue that Roger Moore was the best Bond – Sean Connery was too indelible in the role and Daniel Craig has been giving him a run for his money (though he is too frequently let down by his scripts). And I don’t think anyone can argue he was in the best Bond films (Goldfinger, Casino Royale, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and From Russia with Love are just so damn good, despite the greatness of ). But when I was a kid, growing up in the ‘80s, Roger Moore was my Bond. Continue reading →

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Review: Crocodile Fury (Hong Kong/Indonesia 1988)

Posted on May 16, 2017 by David

Easily the most entertaining Godfrey Ho movie I’ve ever seen, Crocodile Fury is an almost non-stop parade of ludicrous reptilian carnage, interrupted only for nonsensical interludes with hopping vampires. The crocodile special effects in particular are mind-blowing. The crocs on display look like they were built out of papier-mâché by an artist who had never seen an actual crocodile. Continue reading →

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Review: The Treasure Hunters (Hong Kong 1981)

Posted on May 11, 2017 by David

Certainly not one of Shaw Brothers’ best, this wacky kung fu comedy stars Alexander Fu Sheng and his brother Chang Chen Peng as petty crooks out to steal a big treasure. Everybody does their usual schtick – Fu Sheng is an obnoxious loudmouth, Gordon Liu has a big supporting role as a bald fighting monk, and Wang Lung as always plays the heavy. Continue reading →

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Review: Gamer (USA 2009)

Posted on May 9, 2017 by David

I was hoping for the insane highs of Crank 2, but this Neveldine/Taylor joint was a little too bland. The central metaphor – with Gerard Butler as a convict put under the control of rich gamer geeks and forced to fight for his life in a live action roleplaying game called Society (other characters, including Butler’s wife, played by Amber Valletta, seem to mostly play day-glo ravers and strippers) is utterly confused and the mechanics of the game never make any sense at all. Continue reading →

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Review: Train to Busan (South Korea 2016)

Posted on May 7, 2017 by David

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Holy shit, THAT is how you do a zombie movie! I’m not usually a fan of fast zombies, but this mash-up of 28 Days Later’s panicky plague and Snowpiercer’s “class war on a train” is great fun, wasting little time before getting into the insanity of a massive zombie uprising, which our protagonists survive only by virtue of being on an overnight bullet train when the breakout occurs. Continue reading →

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Review:  Hercules, Samson and Ulysses (Italy 1964)

Posted on May 2, 2017 by David

This middling peplum is an adequate representative of the genre, mostly of interest due to the biblical connection.  Kirk Morris (aka Adriano Bellini) plays Hercules this time around, right in the middle of his lengthy series as the character, following on from Steve Reeves’s successful run. Continue reading →

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Review: Captain America: Civil War (USA 2016)

Posted on April 27, 2017 by David

Entertaining enough, for a lumbering behemoth that had to service over a dozen major characters and advance multiple plot threads. Continue reading →

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Review: Live and Let Die (UK 1973)

Posted on April 25, 2017 by David

Is it damning to praise Live and Let Die for not being as racist as it could have been (even though it’s still pretty damn racist) because its racism seems to come from a place of profound ignorance rather than active hatefulness?  The film is a smash-up of the Bond and Blaxploitation genres, bringing in ringers like the always great Yaphet Kotto, Gloria Hendry (from Black Belt Jones and Black Caesar), and Julius Harris (so amazing as Big Papa in Hell Up in Harlem), and pitting them against Roger Moore as the lighter, sillier Bond. Continue reading →

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Review: Witching and Bitching (Spain 2013)

Posted on April 20, 2017 by David

Man, I wanted to like this – I generally enjoy Alex de la Iglesia movies, and I like what he’s doing for genre – but this black comedy about a bunch of idiot criminals who wander into a town full of witches was an unpleasant chore. Rampantly misogynistic in a way that never gets tweaked, full of tedious and unpleasant characters and irredeemable ugliness. Continue reading →

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Review:  Dragon Lord (Hong Kong 1982)

Posted on April 18, 2017 by David

Within the two years after Dragon Lord’s release, Chan would enter into his golden age with the quadruple punch of Project A, Winners and Sinners, Wheels on Meals, and Police Story, catapulting him into superstardom and cementing his reputation as one of the greatest action stars of all time.  But Dragon Lord finds Chan in a transitional period, having established his comedic persona in counterpoint to the more serious Bruce Lee and Shaw Bros film of the previous decade but still trying to move beyond low budget period pieces. Continue reading →

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