horror express (1973)

aka Pánico en el Transiberiano. Panic in the Trans-Siberian Train.
It's 1906 and Professor Saxton (Christopher Lee) is travelling on the trans Siberian express with a fossil he has discovered in the frozen wastes of Manchuria. A fossil he hopes to prove is the Missing Link. But whilst boarding a Russian monk gives him the sign of the evil eye, saying it is cursed. He then bumps into an acquaintance, Dr. Well (Peter Cushing) who is intreged as to what is in the box, and willing to find out by any means necessary. As the train speeds through the frozen wastelands violent deaths start occurring as the reanimated humanoid attacks all that get in its way.
A cult favourite featuring two horror greats in Cushing and Lee, and enhanced by the cameo apprearance of Telly Sevalas as a Cossack leader. If into horror in any way be prepared for an hour and a half of claustrophobia and paranoia.

hercules (1958)

aka Le Fatiche di Ercole.
Or should I say Hercules and the golden fleece, as it's really a retelling of the classic story from his point of view. With the odd lion and bull wrestling, and a meeting with the Amazonians, thrown in, before Jason defeats a dragon (looking like a clumsy T-rex) and obtains the fleece.
This is the film that made Steve Reeves a star and spawned the sword and sandal genre. It's an enjoyable take on the myth, though it has it's problems with pacing and falls a little flat at times, but it's generally entertaining and looks good courtesy of some fine cinematography by Mario Bava.

a swingin' summer (1965)

A typical 60's beach party movie featuring a 'we'll put it on right here' plot. Some clean cut American teens open up a nightclub by a lakeside summer vacation spot and put on some groups for the kids. Includes performances by the Righteous Brothers, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Jody Miller, Donnie Brooks, The Rip Chords and introducing Raquel Welch, in her film debut, playing a glasses wearing bookworm who learns to loosen up and sings "Ready to Groove" in her own inimitable style!
A great example of the genre, with some fab 60's sounds topped off by Raquel Welsh. What more could a red blooded teen in the 60's want, entertaining fluff and well stuffed bikini's go-go dancing to surf music!

hercules unchained (1959)

aka Ercole e la regina di Lidia. Hercules and the Queen of Lydia. Hercules and the Queen of Sheba
Hercules returns to Thebes on an important mission, but on drinking from an enchanted spring he loses his memory. He then falls under he spell of Queen Omphale of Lydia. Ulysses comes to his rescue, trying to help him regain his memory. Can he overcome his amnesia before the political tension in Thebes explodes into civil war?
Though the middle section where Hercules gets amnesia slows the pace of the film, cinematographer Mario Bava provides a good looking and light hearted action adventure, a fine way to waste 90 minutes if you like watching oiled up musclemen fighting off tigers, other oiled up musclemen and most importantly servent girls! If you have to watch only one peplum, then this would be a good one.

hercules and the tyrants of babylon (1964)

aka Ercole contro i tiranni di Babilonia.

"Employing an army to destroy one man? I've never heard anything so foolish."
Hercules takes on the three tyrants ruling Babylonia, to free their slaves and the captured Queen of the Helenes, Asparia. There follows much political intrigue and some throwing of rocks!
A run of the mill peplum with Rock Stevens (Peter Lupus) in the role of Hercules. Unfortunately he has none of the charisma of Steve Reeves or Mark Forest, but Helga Line and Anna Maria Polani make up for such dificiencies as eye candy. By no means an essential watch unless you are a peplum completist.

doa (1980)

Documentary that chronicles the life and times of the original punk movement in it's death throws at the time. Featuring many of the movers and shakers and more importantly lots of the audience, giving a great feel for the look and attitudes of the times. Concert footage is featured alongside interviews both pro and anti the movement, styles and music. All overlaid with fascinating footage of everyday London scenes, revealing the mundane greyness of existence at the time.
Highlights include the Sex Pistols falling apart on their USA tour and Terry Sylvester, who vents about his council estate dole life, a life going nowhere fast, as he tries to put together a disastrous band. Low light is watching Sid and Nancy literally falling apart before our eyes.
If you want to see and hear the real punk movement, then this is it, as far as London was concerned anyway. Raw, grim and amateurish. The interviews say so much more than the stars ever could and the music is left to speak for itself. A must see to understand the life and times, but inessential if you are not into the music or late 70's London.

girl in the headlines (1963)

aka The Model Girl Murder Case. The Model Murder Case.
Police investigate the murder of a fashion model in 60's London. Initially suspicion falls on television star David Dane (James Villiers), who lives upstairs and seems to have something to hide. As investigations continue they unveil the girl's dissolute live, (featuring illegal activities for the times including abortion and gay clubs), which contrasts with the mundaine lives of the detectives families.
Ian Hendry and Ronald Fraser nicely underplay their parts as they piece together the crime. The inanities of the detectives family lives adds an interesting grounding to the would be film noir and glamourous nightlife of the suspects. Proving not everything in the 60's was a kitchen sink drama, most lived rather uninteresting lives! To some this may make for a dull premise for a film, to me it adds another level. A good film, that makes for interesting if not essential viewing.

battle royale II: requiem (2003)

aka Batoru rowaiaru II: Rekuiemu. Battle Royale 2: Revenge. Battle Royale II.
Three years on from "Battle Royale," and the world is in even more turmoil. The government is determined to track down a terrorist group and their leader Shuya who is hellbent on destroying the government. So in order to do so they kidnap and force a class of school children to try and do what they have failed to do, and all in a 72 hour period or they will all die themselves. Obvious really!
Yet more social satire in this follow up to the successful Battle Royale, unfortunately the director died on the first day and was replaced by his son, who fails to show any of his fathers finese. The action is well directed but the movie ends up confused, with too many characters and too many plot holes to live up to the previous installment.

psycho a go go (1965)

aka Echo of Terror. Psycho a Go-Go. The Man with the Synthetic Brain.
A jewelry heist goes wrong and the 'glass' ends up in a child's doll. The thugs then track down and terrorise the family in an attempt to recover the diamonds. The mother turns out to be a nightclub singer, which gives the excuse to show her singing some of her tunes.
A real c movie happening, chock full of hep cat slang and featuring some swinging go go dancers. The film was attempt to launch Tacey Robbins singing career, which it patently failed to do. Once it leaves the night spot it becomes a long winded chase film. A snappy 30 minute short is padded out to a barely passable 70 minutes. One to watch for all the wrong reasons, the bad direction, weird inappropriate cutaways and the implausible plot.

hell is a city (1960)

Inspector Martineau (Stanley Baker) is a hardened detective with the Manchester police force on the trail of John Starling, a ruthless criminal who has recently escaped from prison. A prison that Martineau had put him in and is determined to put him back into. But is Matrineau's dedication to work at the expense of his personal life?
A classic British noir featuring a taut script, mean and moody direction, some great location filming in Manchester and the great and the good of British acting talent.

spaceways (1953)

"The perfect murder, with no inconvenient bodies lying about."
Britain's space race team of scientists are hampered by a spy in their midst, and relationship problems within the team and their wives. Oh and the presence of glamorous female scientist Lisa Frank (Eva Bartok). It comes to a head when one of the team disappears along with the wife of another. Have they run off together, or has the jilted husband murdered them and smuggled the bodies onto a satellite?
The film promises much, (especially if you look at the poster), but delivers pretty little, it features much exposition, and very little in the way of space. A curio showing Hammer's ambitions to reach beyond the standard crime drama, but still very much earthbound. Two years later they again returned to the theme of space, this time with much more effect. A curio rather than a must see.

the frighteners (1996)

aka Robert Zemeckis Presents: The Frighteners.
Frank Bannister (Michael J Fox) is a broken man since he was blamed for his wife's death. He's given up his architectural practice and is now a psychic, using a couple of friendly ghosts to con people into spending money on phony exorcisms. In the course of one of these cons he meets Lucy, whose husband dies mysteriously. Then others start dieing and it's up to Frank to stop a deranged killer from beyond the grave.
This was Jackson's first big budget, effects laden film, and he pulled out all the stops to impress. The plot is inventive, with the usual horror narrow escapes, twists and turns. A personal favourite of mine, I know it's not the best film in the world, but it is peppered with some great characters, especially Jeffrey Coombs fantastically deranged performance as a shell-shocked undercover detective, who has witnessed one too many occult happenings.

the national health (1973)

The life of a rundown and chronically decaying Victorian National Health Service Hospital ward, it's patients, and the doctors and nurses, that work there, are juxtaposed with the life of an fictional hospital soap opera. An allegory of the very blackest humour.
The contrast between the real and the fantasy world is seamlessly achieved. Making use of the same actors in both, gives extra power to the contrasting lives and situations. Jim Dale reveals himself to be a fine actor, giving his parts an extra dimension due to his Carry On past. The rest of the cast is packed out with the great and the good of British character actors, from Colin Blakely to Bob Hoskins. A little known film that deserves a wider audience.

assignment redhead (1956)

In Allied Occupied Berlin some passengers wait to catch a flight to London. One takes the photo of a woman with a Major Scammel. She objects to being photographed and reveals her name as Hedy Bergner, a singer on her way to London. Once in London another of the passengers, a Major Keen, is asked by MI5 to question the rest in an attempt to try and flush out the mastermind behind a gang supplying black market passports. Things then start to heat up when the photographer is found dead and so is the real Major Scammel.
A run of the mill quota quickie, made quickly and cheaply, (and you can tell), that has just enough to it to entertain for the 80 minute duration, but no more.

a majority of one (1961)

A Jewish widow (Rosalind Russell) and a Japanese businessman (Alex Guinness) widower meet on a cruise liner to Yokohama. Their initial prickliness turns to friendship. Unfortunately her son-in-law is traveling to Japan to become a trade ambassador and believes that she is being used by Alex and warns her off. This causes the usual confusion until it comes to a head, but eventually they come back together in this gentle love story. Both learning tolerance, kindness and forgiveness.
Based on a hit Broadway play this is a very stagy reproduction, with a hideously miscast Alex Guinness as a Japanese businessman. Oh those were the days when you could get well respected actors to do such things. Otherwise it is entertaining, though long winded, clash of Japanese and Jewish American cultures.

battle royale (2000)

Japan in the near future is a police state, and in economic turmoil. To maintain control the government comes up with a reality show called Battle Royale. It features a randomly selected class of students who are taken to a deserted island. Each is given a randomly selected weapon, then sent off to kill each other, in whatever way they like. The only rule is that they only have three days to do so or they all die, via an explosive collar that they all have attached to their throats.
As the film ticks down it marks the death toll, whilst examining the classmates complex emotions and how they are coping. Some decide to team up, whilst others quickly reveal their psychotic sides. Will they all succumb to a feral survival of the fittest existence, or will someone find a way to trick the authorities and escape the island?
A gruesome, gorey and violent film, that entertains pretentions of political allegory, examining the Japanese mindset of 'zero sum' diplomacy. A philosophy that only one person can win, that dominated Japanese pre-war politics. Watch it for the politics or for the pure viceral thrills of a fine explotation gorefest. Either or it's entertaining.

brotherhood of the wolf (2001)

aka Le pacte des loups.

It's 1765 and a wolf like beast is terrorising a mountainous region of France. When the Beast of Gevaudan comes to the attention of the King he sends the Chevalier de Fronsac, a biologist, explorer and philosopher to look into the mystery. What he finds is ignorance, bigotry and a conspiracy. Who or what is this beast and what is it hidding? The Chevalier aims to get to the bottom of it all, aided by his companion Mani, an Mohawk Iroquois from New-France (Canada).
A wonderfully realised film, very loosely based on real events from the period, and taking a mighty big leap in it's explanation. Stylishly produced, using all the tricks in the book to entertain with martial arts sequences and an engrossing plot.