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The Visitor

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In the annals of WTF film history, few films make a more vivid impression than The Visitor (1978), an Italian-produced horror-sci-fi oddity that manages to rip off movies as disparate as The Omen, The Exorcist, Close Encounters , The Fury and the psychedelic oeuvre of Alejandro Jodorowsky. Add in an all-star cast of old Hollywood icons, some Chariots of the Gods mythology and a child actor with a southern accent as thick as a plate full of chicken ‘n waffles and you’ve got one must-see hot-mess of a movie! Pursuing the progeny of an evil alien entity, Jerzy (John Huston) finds his next target in the heart of Atlanta. Katy (Paige Conner) is a bad-seed with a bad attitude, using her telekinetic powers to torture her mother (Joanne Nail), housekeeper (Shely Winters) and the cop (Glenn Ford) investing a shooting at her birthday party. Her prospective stepdad (Lance Henriksen) coddles this behavior at the behest of a mysterious cabal (led by Mel Ferrer) determined to utilize Katy’s powe...
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Westworld 4K UHD

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While he’s better known as one of the most popular novelists of the past two decades, the late Michael Crichton was a small entertainment industry unto himself. His accomplishments include literary successes like The Andromeda Strain and Congo , director of the hit mid-70s medical thriller Coma , and the producer behind TV’s longtime juggernaut ER . But it’s Jurassic Park that bestowed upon him the same sort of immortality as his genetically-cloned dinosaur creations. As all-encompassing as the book and film became to worldwide popular culture, it was really just a second draft of one of Crichton’s earlier ideas, which he also directed in 1973: Westworld . Delos is the amusement park of the future. Visitors, paying $1000 per night, arrive via hovercraft and are shuttled off to the world of their choice - Medieval World, Roman World or West World – to enjoy a completely authentic experience. This is made possible through high-tech robots indistinguishable from actual human bein...
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American Yakuza

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American Yakuza (1993) was probably destined to slip through the cracks. Marketed as a “mafia vs yakuza” thriller, first time director Frank Cappello’s film feels more like it was a holdover from the Miami Vice era with its internecine gangland warfare, undercover operatives and unmotivated mood lighting. All that’s missing is a Phil Collins drum solo and a couple of commercial breaks. But, taken as a whole, the film is a plain-spoken bit of mid-‘90s direct-to-video action fare, much like its plain-spoken star: Viggo Mortensen. Ingratiating himself with the second-in-command, Nick (Mortensen) manages to work his way into the inner circle of the L.A. yakuza who are at war with the Campanela family, homegrown mafia regulars. While he attempts to lower the temperature between both factions, Nick finds himself torn between loyalty towards his new employers and his official job as a federal agent. Add in an exotic love-interest and some agency meddling and Nick is forced to choose bet...
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Knock Off

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Jean-Claude Van Damme’s career arc is more interesting than all the other action-hero also-rans combined, particularly his ongoing flirtation with the Hong Kong film industry. First teaming up with John Woo for the gloriously overblown Hard Target , the muscles from Brussels proceed to work with Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark, giving both directors a chance to bring their signature style to North American screens. 1998’s Knock Off , his second film with Tsui, is a briskly paced cops and robbers story set in the world of counterfeit merchandising with just enough HK action ingenuity to qualify as legit. Marcus Ray (Van Damme) is a street-smart straight shooter whose business parter, Tommy (Rob Schneider) turns out to be an undercover CIA agent playing him for connections. But they both get duped by Russian counterfeiters using knock-offs to smuggle microbombs into the U.S. as part of an extortion scheme. That leaves Marcus on the hook to clear his name and avenge his adopted Hong Kong fami...
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Frightmare

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Modern horror – which critics typically mark with the release of Psycho – made most classic horror stars obsolete overnight. Actors like Christopher Lee and Vincent Price, with their capes, fangs and wizard wands, were suddenly passe. And it took a good ten years before they became trendy again as part of a “retro” resurgence by monster kids. 1981’s Frightmare (aka The Horror Star) tries to pound a square peg into a round hole by making the iconic – but invented – cult actor Conrad Radzoff into a vengeful spirit who can still bring his A-game. Staging his funeral as the final act in a storied career, Radzoff (Ferdinand Mayne) leaves a series of video messages for anyone that disturbs his resting place. That doesn’t stop the members of the local horror film society from stealing the corpse to stage one big farewell party at their creepy old house. Radzoff’s revenge involves plenty of severed body parts, spontaneous human combustion and every fog machine available in southern Cali...
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Under Siege 4K Ultra HD

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While Schwarzenegger and Stallone took up two spots on the Mt. Rushmore of ‘80s action movies and Bruce Willis was paying off the third in installments, there were plenty of hopefuls competing for that fourth-place finish. While studs like Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme worked on their applications, every once in a while a studio would give them a shot at the big time. Such is the case with Steven Seagal and Under Siege (1992), an unapologetic Die Hard knock-off that built upon the actor’s growing popularity. Casey Ryback (Seagal) is a decorated veteran riding out his naval career as a cook aboard the USS Missouri when the ship is hijacked by a gang of weapons merchants led by Strannix (Tommy Lee Jones), a bitter ex-CIA contractor with a longstanding grudge. Escaping the crew headcount, Ryback teams up with Miss July 1988 (Erika Eleniak) to thwart the terrorists plans from the inside with government officials debate their options – including killing everyone aboard – to pr...
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Splendid Outing

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A double-whammy critique of Korea’s patriarchal society and political repression, 1978’s Splendid Outing also fits comfortably in the “psychotic women” genre that includes paranoid mysteries like Rebecca and Repulsion . Director Kim Soo-yong adeptly keeps his audience guessing which half of his film is real and which is imagined as he drags his lead character from the boardroom to the bedroom of an abusive captor intent on keep her as a replacement for his runaway wife. Gong Do-hee (or President Gong to her business partners) is a respected widow who rose to the rank of chairwoman in her husband’s absence. But on a day trip to escape her busy schedule, she finds herself kidnapped and sold off to a fishmonger on an isolated island. After being raped, beaten and forced to care for the man’s crippled daughter, Do-hee starts to accept her fate. But a sympathetic doctor inspires her to makes one last attempt to return to her former life. Eventually, Splendid Outing does come clean a...
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