Movieline Online

With a flood of classic film premieres and upgrades on the market, even the most affluent collector is likely wondering which title is a  must-own  and which is a  wait-for-later .  Specifically, a number of obscure Japanese yakuza films have finally seen the light of day outside their home country. And at first glance, 1969’s  Japan Organized Crime Boss  looks like just another in a long line of almost-serialized releases by yakuza specialists Toei studios.  But despite adhering closely to the gangster-film formula, director Kinji Fukasaku leans hard on a stoic performance by Koji Tsuruta to create another essential chapter in the yakuza playbook.   Sorry, there’s no skipping this one!   Fresh out of prison, Tsukamoto (Tsuruta) inherits a clan that has been nearly swallowed up by the ambitious Danno Organization, using its members in a proxy war to take over all of Yokohama.  Swearing a vow to his fallen boss, Tsukamoto pulls out of the agreement, making himself a target for nearly ev

Kung fu and training montages go together like Rocky and Apollo Creed.  It’s an almost essential part of the master-student formula that studios like Shaw Brothers perfected.  So, it’s kinda shocking that it took until 1979 for a movie to actually be called  Kung Fu Instructor , dispensing with the deadly venoms and iron fists that usually took title precedence.   Channeling some of that old   Yojimbo   tension, a village rivalry split along clan lines is disrupted by the arrival of a legendary teacher, Wong Yang (Ti Lung).     Initially accepting a position to train the evil Mong clan, Yang soon realizes they’re not worthy of his knowledge.     So he takes a young go-getter from the Chow clan under his wing in an attempt to even the odds.     But in a battle of two against dozens, it’ll take some serious training montages to come out on top.   Produced with the usual Shaw Brothers style and scope camerawork, director Sun Chung takes a classic approach to the set design and shot select

Physical media is on a roll, no doubt about it.  With the major studios licensing out niche and cult movie to smaller companies, no title is off-limits for a 4K upgrade.  Exhibit A is  Elvira: Mistress of the Dark  (1988), the "you-had-to-there" big screen debut of Cassandra Peterson's horror host known for her double Ds and double entendres. After inheriting a spooky house, complete with a shape shifting poodle and book of spells, Elvira would like nothing better than to sell it all off and make her Vegas debut.  But a rich warlock relative wants the book of spells for his own evil purposes and the townsfolk (led by  Ferris Bueller's  Edie McClurg) want her burned at the stake.  Meanwhile, every horny teenager in town competes to get a look at what's (barely) hiding under that skin-tight dress.   A pay-cable staple that provided a PG-rated cinematic blow-up doll for pubescent boys,  Elvira: Mistress of the Dark  has nothing to offer anyone in the Internet era bes

Political films can be challenge to dissect.  Political films from another  country , with nearly five decades in-between, even more so.  But  Slap the Monster on Page One  (1972), despite being steeped in the social chaos of Italy’s “years of lead,” has become in many ways  more  relevant than it was at the time of release, mixing murder, conspiracy and press bias that not only  reports  on elections but proudly influences them. Gian Maria Volonté is cast as the ultimate anti-hero, Bizanti, editor of  Il Giornale  whose conservative readership the nation counts upon for fair and balanced coverage…or in simpler terms:  Fake News.  With several parties up at arms about the next election, Bizanti uses every opportunity to throw support behind his silent political partner (played with slimy zeal by John Steiner).  Even the unconnected rape and murder of a young student is played up for voter appeal, with a convenient culprit on display to satisfy the call for blood.  So when one reporter

Sci-fi and horror films from the late ‘50s were considered disposable trash at the time of the release.  But now, 60 years later…well, they’re  still  trash but with nostalgic appeal and some flashes of ingenuity that make them essential viewing for those with an affinity for the genre.  No matter how bland the actors, how hokey the monster or how illogical the script, there’s always a moment or two that make it all worthwhile.   Night of the Blood Beast  (1958) and  Attack of the Giant Leaches  (1959) are products of the Roger and Gene Corman movie making machine.  And while neither of them rank as full-blown classics, they’re both fast-moving, old-fashioned drive-in fare that give their all for 60 short minutes. Blood Beast  stirs together the plot of  The Thing  and  The Quatermass Experiment  to come up with the story of a returned astronaut who brings back a misshapen moss monster that traps a group of scientists at a remote mountain laboratory.  The twist?  The astronaut is also 

Horror and experimental films share a lot of the same DNA.  But their fans rarely swim in the same circles.  The intentionally obtuse work of filmmakers like Stan Brakhage and Kenneth Anger isn’t designed for mass consumption, yet their ability to break through cinematic barriers to produce stylistic, transgressive and often disturbing personal visions is  exactly  what horror movies have in mind.  The two genres rarely overlap entirely in a traditional Venn diagram (except maybe in the case of David Lynch), but  Dogra Magra , the 1988 adaptation of an influential early Japanese novel, is a good example of the successes and failures when they do. An amnesiac patient, Ichiro, is bounced between two doctors who both postulate the same theory on his mental state:  genetic memory has triggered him to murder his fiancé on their wedding day in a supernatural attempt to complete an ancient family scroll.  But with no memory of his actions  or  his true identity, Ichiro must solve the mystery