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Fans of Asian cinema know – and appreciate – that things can get very weird, very quick.  For instance, a standard cop movie can turn into a slapstick zombie sitcom at a moment’s notice.  Which is exactly what happens in  The Blue Jean Monster  (1991), a left-of-center action comedy that pretty much defines Hong Kong’s all-bets-are-off filmmaking aesthetic.  Joe is a gung-ho police officer whose wife is expecting their first child when he’s killed trying to apprehend a gang of bank robbers.  But an electrical jolt revives him, granting superstrength and an immunity to pain as long as he’s  re-charged  every so often.  Hoping to last just long enough to get revenge  and  bring his baby into the world, Joe enlists the aid of a pair of live-in teens to help disguise his condition and track down the bad guys.   Unapologetically goofy and prone to hit below the belt,  The Blue Jean Monster  is pretty uneven when it comes to generating laughs  or  thrills .   A few early scenes of intense vi

Despite staging a comeback in terms of fashion, music and film, the ‘80s had an  anything goes  personality that’s impossible to recreate.  Country music, hair metal and power ballads mingled comfortably together on Top 40 radio, and while no one would ever label the decade as  open minded  there was more wiggle room for films to drift out of their genre.  In the world of Hong Kong cinema, always quick to bend with a new trend, that’s never more obvious than in 1988’s  The Inspector Wears Skirts , the first entry in what would become a four-film series that was a progenitor of the  Girls with Guns  wave of the ‘90s.  After an international incident exposes a need for more women on the force, Hong Kong officials create the SKIRT squad, selecting two dozen female candidates to train under the guidance of Madam Wu (Sibelle Hu) and Madam Law (Cynthia Rothrock).  But their biggest challenge is getting a leg up on their male counterparts, a troupe of goofball misogynists out to prove their p

The Facts of Murder  (1959) is a small miracle of a movie, made with Hitchcockian complexity, matched with Howard Hawks’ feel for dialogue and the emotional resonance of the great Italian Neorealism movement.  If that sort of name-dropping and film school braggadocio is intimidating, don’t bother doing the research.  Peitro Germi’s film doesn’t require vast cinematic knowledge to appreciate. It’s a movie ripe for rediscovery, a genre film that makes it’s Hollywood contemporaries seem almost amateurish. Investigating a simple robbery, Commissioner Ingravalla’s (writer/director/star Peitro Germi) case turns into a complicated murder mystery involving a dead aristocrat, her estranged husband, and a staff full of teenage suspects.  Unlike the ridiculously convoluted (and sometimes  nonsensical ) “giallos” that would rule Italy in the next decade,  The Facts of Murder  adds up to something more.  Not only does that plot make sense, it makes you constantly reassess the suspects with each nar

The American Dream wasn’t exclusive to America.  In post-war Japan, the boom years led to rampant consumerism and a rise in middle class aspirations that usurped traditional ideas of family honor.  In short, it was every salaryman for himself.  And Yuzo Kawashima’s  Elegant Beast  (1962) pulls back the curtains on one family living well above their means…by any means necessary.   The Maeda’s live in a stylish  danchi  housing complex – modern apartment units with all the amenities.  But their lifestyle is supported by their children, Yuko and Hisano, who they’ve coached to become unapologetic grifters.  Things gets dicey however when Hisano’s lover, also his partner in an embezzling scheme, walks away from the relationship with all the money.  After the boss threatens to go public with the crime – and his  own  extramarital affair – the family scrambles to find a new source of income to keep up with the neighbors…even at the neighbor’s expense.   Elegant Beast  is satire at its most cu

When a box set reaches Volume 3 you can assume it has a built-in audience of buyers.  Not to mention the fact that spaghetti western fans have been pretty hard up for new titles lately.  But rest assured, Arrow Video’s four movie set  Savage Guns  has more to offer than just more of the same.  Each title takes the genre down a different path, blending politics, counter-culture and psychedelia for a unique viewing experience. Paolo Bianchini’s  I Want Him Dead  (1968) might be the most straightforward of the bunch, starring Craig Hill as a scruffy-faced stranger out to avenge the murder of his sister, a mission that puts him at odds with an arms dealer looking to extend his profits from the Civil War.  A serious and bloody affair (Hill’s character take a beating in every scene), the performances here are well above the curve, particularly love interest Lea Massari who typically worked in more prestigious projects.  And Bianchini’s wonderful use of landscape ranks right up there with  Th

Every film critic has a handful of movies that it’s impossible for them to be objective about, films discovered in early adolescence that resonate in some way as to make them simply  perfect  – flaws and all.  For me that list includes Walter Hill’s  The Warriors  (1979), which ran on The Movie Channel non-stop for years during my latchkey era, part of a rotating schedule which included  Dressed to Kill ,  Blow Out  and  Tourist Trap  (whoever was programming that channel deserves a serious pat on the back).  Based on the novel by Sol Yurick, which itself was based on the classical Greek text  Anabasis , Hill’s film is a celebration of 1970’s New York, the urban equivalent of  Mad Max , where street gangs rule the night and honor is as tough to defend as your home turf.   After being framed for the death of Cyrus, a modern-day messiah, the Warriors must make their way from the Bronx all the way back to Coney Island while being chased by every gang in the city.  The journey bounces from

Filtering international politics through the lens of action-movie escapism isn’t exactly rare in Hong Kong cinema.  Current events pop up as plot devices all the time as a means to inspire car chases, gunplay and hand-to-hand-to-foot combat.  But Johnny Mak’s  Long Arm of the Law  (1984) has a bit more on its mind than just getting your pulse racing. Big Tung is the leader of a group of mainlanders – called the Big Circle gang - who sneak into the city to do some crimes; specifically, a jewelry heist set-up by Tai, a shady gangster who uses the new recruits to kill a crooked cop.  Now wanted by the police, the boys are torn between sticking it out in Hong Kong and its tempting consumer-driven lifestyle or hightailing for home with nothing to show for their trouble.   Mak’s film unfolds with a remarkable amount of ambivalence towards its main characters.  The Big Circle gang aren’t exactly traditional protagonists; their smash-and-grab stick-ups result in a score of dead cops and innoce

As physical media uncovers more obscure titles, it also opens up unexpected cinematic borders.  Case in point,  Kill Butterfly Kill  (1983), a Taiwanese rape/revenge/martial arts flick that was part of the wave of  “Black Movies” ushering in action, gangster and related exploitation during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.   Very few of these ever made it out of Taiwan and even fewer received subtitles.  So the Blu-ray premiere courtesy of Neon Eagle Video is quite a coup, and even includes a couple of alternate versions for good measure. In a cut-to-the-chase opening sequence, Donna is laboriously raped by five men in a drunken stupor.  Six years later, she’s ready for revenge, teaming up with a hired assassin to carve her pound of flesh from each of the culprits, now successful figures in various facets of the criminal underworld.  With the element of surprise, her plan seems almost foolproof.  But once the bad guys realize they’re marked men, the hunter becomes the hunted once again.  

A sprawling, overstuffed critique of Hollywood and the American Dream, John Schlesinger’s  The Day of the Locust  (1975) exemplifies and best and worst of ‘70s cinema.  In an era when directors were briefly at the top of the food chain, the result was often an exercise in enthusiastic self-satisfaction with a tendency to look back at the industry’s Golden Age as a well-camouflaged sham on not just the moviegoing public but the industry itself.  Schlesinger’s film, based on a 1939 novel, portrays Hollywoodland as one of the seven levels of hell long overdue for an apocalyptic comeuppance.  Is anyone surprised? Arriving with a silver spoon from Yale’s School of Fine Arts, Tod Hackett (William Atherton) is promptly taken under the wing of Paramount executive Claude Estee (Richard Dysart) who puts him to work designing sets for an upcoming war picture.  He falls hard for Faye Greener (Karen Black), a hard-to-get blonde working as an extra, who just so happens to live in a cheap bungalow ne

After the onslaught of radioactive bugs and dinosaurs ran their course on cinema screens in the early ‘50s, Hammer Films became the new name in horror.  Building their empire off classic copyright-free monster icons like Dracula and the Wolf man, they created a roadmap for other independent producers to follow, producers like Herman Cohen.  His double-bill of  I was a Teenage Werewolf  and  I Was a Teenage Frankenstein  were big profit makers for AIP, enough so that he branched out overseas to concoct  Horrors of the Black Museum  (1959), a kitchen-sink slasher that revels in its sadistic, over-the-top kill sequences. Crime reporter/novelist Edmond Bancroft arrogantly confronts the police – in print and in person – over their inability able to solve a series of gruesome murders, all committed using elaborate tools and techniques found in Scotland Yard’s infamous “Black Museum.”  The museum itself is off-limits to the general public, but Bancroft has created his  own  in a high-tech dun

Silent cinema had a lot of  firsts …many of which we’ll never see since 75% of the productions are completely lost.  So even if 1918’s  Stella Maris , starring Mary Pickford, isn’t the first example of an actor playing a dual role in a film, it’s certainly the most polished early example on record!   Pickford first appears as the title character, a paralyzed young girl kept safe from the world’s problems by her wealthy relatives and wooed by a dashing suitor, John Risca.  Risca however is saddled with an alcoholic wife who makes his life miserable.  Not quite as miserable as their new adopted daughter, Unity (also played by Pickford), whom she beats senseless, winding up in prison for three years.  Risca’s life takes a turn for the better, taking Unity under his wing and strengthening his bond with Stella Maris, who is finally able to walk after a successful operation.  But after the three years are up, Risca’s wife returns and everyone’s happy ending is put on hold…indefinitely.   Wit

Messiah of Evil  (1974) exists in that rare sub-genre: the counter-culture horror movie.  Typically more philosophical than overtly frightening, the films utilize a dream-logic that mirrors the experience of a bad acid trip.  But directors Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz also incorporate some visually dramatic set-pieces proving their commercial aspirations were just as genuine as their psychedelic inspirations. Arriving in Point Dune to reconnect with her artist father, Arletty gets the cold shoulder from residents who seem to be keeping his location a secret.  Meanwhile another trio of eccentric travelers have stirred up trouble by asking questions about the town’s supernatural history involving an incident of mass hysteria that dates back over 100 years.  Now it seems that a “dark stranger” is returning to finish what he started…and Point Dune is just a test case for global apocalypse.   There’s a lot to “unpack” in  Messiah of Evil , including cosmic horror, cannibalism and a raging

If the French New Wave was about upending genre conventions, it’s subsequent iteration – New French Cinema – was more likely to incorporate those same conventions into something more polished but equally anti-establishment.  Alain Cavalier’s 1962 film,  Le Combat dans L’ile , takes elements from film noir, romantic melodrama and political critique to craft a complex debut that’s cinematic grandstanding in the best possible way.  Clément (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Romy Schneider) are a married couple at odds over their lifestyle.  A former actress, Anne longs for excitement and romance, but, unbeknownst to her, Clément is living a double life as a political extremist.  When an assassination attempt goes wrong, the couple escape to the country home of an old friend, Paul (Henri Serre), who agrees to hide Anne while her husband goes on the run.  Romance blossoms unexpectedly and just as Paul and Anne are beginning to start a new life, Clément returns to claim what’s rightfully his

The appeal of most no-budget filmmaking is its blissful ignorance of professional techniques.  After all, these movies are a labor of love made by people who have more enthusiasm than experience.  But every once in a while, an obscurity pops up that proves an exception to the rule.   The Wrong Door , eventually released in 1990 thanks to a collaboration with Film Threat Video Guide, is a shot on Super 8 suspense effort produced by a team of Midwest film school grads who come awfully  close to matching the polished output of their inspirations. Ted has a radio drama project due in 24 hours, but he can’t say no to a quick singing telegram gig even if it involves a silly Jester costume.  While on the job he knocks on the wrong apartment, interrupting an argument that later leads to a woman’s death.  Regretting his cowardice, Ted gets a second chance when the body winds up in the backseat of his car.  Now in possession of a vital piece of evidence and pursued by the murderer, Ted (still in

Later in his career Roger Corman would admit that the posters designed for his B-movies were nothing but a tease, often created before a script was even written.  The films were a poor – but enjoyable – substitute for whatever was promised in print.  The same thing could be said of the Frank Frazetta  Conan  paperback covers that reinvigorated interest in Robert E. Howard’s famous barbarian. And, if we’re being honest, it applies to Roger Vadim’s  Barbarella  (1968), which features one of the most iconic movie posters in film history….but only meets its audience halfway.  Based on the French comic strip by Jean-Claude Forest, Jane Fonda plays the title character, a sexpot secret agent tasked with returning a renegade scientist, Duran Duran, to the planet Earth before his secret weapon destroys the stability of the galaxy.  Sleeping her way into the resistance led by the bumbling Dildano (David Hemmings), Barbarella charms herself out of many a dangerous situation before leading a revol

Universal was particularly keen on the direct-to-video sequel.  Any semi-successful property in the ‘90s was turned into an unlikely franchise including  Bring It On  (6 sequels),  American Pie  (5 sequels),  Dragonheart  (4 sequels) and even  Darkman  (2 sequels).   Tremors  (1990), the surprisingly successful creature feature with a cast seemingly chosen at random from a lottery ping pong ball machine, is currently up to six sequels as well with Michael Gross as gung-ho survivalist Burt Gummer starring in every single one of them.  Full disclosure, I thought I had skipped them all.  But I had a vague memory of watching – and enjoying –  Tremors 2: Aftershocks  (1996) at some point.  An opinion happily confirmed upon viewing Arrow Video’s new 4K Ultra HD limited edition! Dead broke after the fame and fortune of becoming a celebrity monster hunter, Earl Bassett (Fred Ward) is tempted to step back into the ring when an oil company in Mexico hires him to solve their “graboid” problem at

Peter Weir’s name isn’t mentioned near enough in the pantheon of great directors.  Perhaps because he was never much of a self-promotor.  His transition from Australian New Wave icon to Hollywood workhorse was accomplished with a minimum of compromises.  In short, he still made films  his  way, no matter in which country he was making them.  Take  Witness  for example, the 6 th  highest grossing film of 1985, which manages to look and feel more like Ingmar Bergman than Steven Spielberg.  It’s an outlier, like most of Weir’s work, and an exception that proves the rule of mainstream success. On a rare trip away from his Amish farm, young Samuel (Lukas Haas) is witness to a murder in the bathroom of a Philadelphia train station.  He and his mother, Rachel (Kelly McGillis) are taken under the protection of detective John Book (Harrison Ford) whose suspicions of a police conspiracy are soon proved correct.  Taking shelter in a Pennsylvania Amish community, Book attempts to keep his key witn

At the height of the pay cable softcore renaissance, Showtime went out and hired the director of one of the most memorable sex scenes in cinema history to craft a highbrow version of their usual smut.  The result was  Full Body Massage  (1995), a Nicolas Roeg joint that found the auteur responsible for Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie’s celebrated coital encounter in  Don’t Look Now  staging a cerebral mind-fuck between Mimi Rogers and Bryan Brown.  It’s one of the more inexplicable career moves for all involved…but not without its merits.  Nina (Mimi Rogers) is a successful art dealer who likes to keep her life on schedule.  But things get out of whack when Fitch (Bryan Brown) shows up for her weekly massage rather than her usual boy toy.  A world-traveler with a philosophical bent, Fitch pushes Nina’s buttons while he kneads her muscles, resulting in lengthy conversations about marriage, professions and the meaning of life.   In an interview Rogers described the film as  My Dinne

The central appeal of a  caper  film isn’t so much the caper itself but the planning that goes into it.  So kudos to writer-director Ron Winston for crafting a film that’s all about setting the stage, with the courage to draw the curtain during the main event.   The Gamblers  (1970) success depends sleight of hand and misdirection, not only for its characters but the audience as well; to make you look the fool, but applaud its technique all the same.  While aboard a cruise of the Adriatic rival gamblers hatches a scheme to fleece a foreign businessman during a rigged game of poker.  Rooney (Don Gordon) has a fail-safe system while Cozzier and Broadfoot (Pierre Olaf and Kenneth Griffith respectively) have access to the mark, including his history as a recovering compulsive gambler.  The wild card is Candace (Suzy Kendall), a beautiful tourist who inserts herself into the plot at the most inopportune moments.  Their plan relies on false identities, casual coincidences and a good amount o

Some spaghetti westerns are innovative genre trailblazers, others thinly disguised political statements and still more career rebirths for foreign actors looking to kickstart their career.  And then there are films like  A Bullet for Sandoval  (1969) which exists for the same reason  most  international co-productions of the era exist:  to turn a profit.  That’s not a petty criticism;  every  film is designed to turn a profit.  Some just disguise the fact better than others. Labeled a deserter for attempting to reach his dying lover in Mexico, Corporal John Warner (George Hilton) arrives too late.  Her domineering father, Pedro Sandoval (Ernest Borgnine), ejects Warner – and his bastard offspring – from the property, forcing him to wander nearby villages looking for sustenance to keep his infant son alive.  Turned away again because of the threat of cholera, the death of Warner’s child turns him into a vengeful outlaw, killing those responsible and saving Sandoval’s retribution for las

Deadgirl  is the sort of movie that keeps you wondering, “Will it  really  go there?”  Necrophilia isn’t exactly new to the horror genre.  It was a staple of Italian gothics as far back as the ‘60s and subsequent decades gave birth to a slew of underground ( Nekromantik ) and prestige projects ( Crash ) that mixed sex with death in exploitive and artistic ways.  But co-directors Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel’s 2008 film is equally unique:  a zombie coming-of-age story that blends hormones and horror to shocking affect.   Rickie and JT stumble upon what they initially believe is a female corpse strapped to a gurney in the basement of an abandoned asylum.  But this  corpse  is actually one of the undead, immune to gunshots and the usual methods of destruction.  Sexually opportunistic, JT turns her into his sex slave, eventually inviting other high school outcasts to participate as well.  Despite JT’s arguments that his victim isn’t even human anymore, Rickie takes the moral high ground