Movieline Online

The last 20 years or so have been very kind to the reputation of Lucio Fulci.  Once dismissed as an artless, exploitive, misogynistic gorehound, his catalog has been embraced by boutique video labels, proving at least  one  thing:  he's certainly not artless.  And  Don't Torture a Duckling  (1972) is a rare bird indeed, both within Fulci's oeuvre and the  giallo  genre as a whole.  A killer is at large in a rural Italian village, stalking only young boys and leaving their lifeless - but unmolested - bodies for the authorities and press and discover. The suspects pile up quickly:  Patrizia (Barbara Bouchet), an urban outsider and sexual tease....Maciara (Florinda Balkan), a wandering witch doctor...and Guiseppe, the village idiot always teased by the local kids.  Andrea (Tomas Milian) is a reporter who, in true  giallo  fashion, suspects the cops are missing vital clues and begins to search for...

By the time you reach a certain age you remember where you were when important world events happened: the fall of the Berlin Wall, the attack on 9/11, Samuel L. Jackson being torn apart by genetically-enhanced Mako sharks.  It might not have changed the world, but in the annals of pop-culture “jump scare” history,  that scene  in director Renny Harlin’s ridiculously entertaining killer shark movie,  Deep Blue Sea  (1999) has lingered longer than the film itself.  But as a pre-fab popcorn flick, it holds up well against the self-important blockbusters that Hollywood embraced after the turn of the millenium. In pursuit of a cure for Alzheimer’s, a team of scientists increase the brain size in a trio of maneaters to the point where the sharks can strategize against their captors.  And when a hurricane traps them all in a lab sixty feet underwater, the humans are going to need every bit of brain power they can to survive. Made up of equ...

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. But boutique label Visual Vengeance doesn’t even bother to make a distinction.  Their curated collection of SOV and homemade genre cinema makes no apologies for bad taste or low budgets, but it’s a guaranteed good time.  And the two latest additions to their growing library keep the  anything-goes  aesthetic alive with a DIY martial arts epic and schlocky prehistoric sex spoof. 1984’s  Furious  is an early showcase for the Rhee Brothers (Simon and Phillip) who would go on to star in the  Best of the Best  franchise. As choreographers  and  performers the duo put on quite a show, but it’s nothing compared to the bizarre plot unfolding around them.  On a quest to avenge the death of his sister, Simon (Simon Rhee) is lured into a series of deadly confrontations by his former instructor Master Chan (Phillip Rhee) to collect pieces of a mystic amulet.  Each boss battle p...

Endings are tough.  Just ask Stephen King; even after 65 novels he’s yet to come with one that works.  So pity the poor low-budget filmmaker who has to stick the landing on their very first try.   Daddy  (2023) is a dark comedy from writing-directing duo Neal Kelley and Jono Sherman set in a near future in which parenthood must be licensed for both men and women. Steering away from sci-fi and towards more grounded satire, the film charts an amusingly grim course through male politics and paranoia.  Arriving at their isolated retreat, the four prospective fathers are surprised to find their government appointed monitor is a no-show.  As the conspiracy theories start to fester, the arrival of Ally – an attractive woman stranded overnight – sends the gang headfirst down rabbit holes of delusional psychosis.  Is this all part of the test?  Who can be trusted?  And, most importantly, what would a  real ...

In the crowded field of crime thrillers,   The Cat   (Die Katze) stands out for its cerebral, slow-burn approach. While films like   Heat   and   Dog Day Afternoon   defined the era with explosive set pieces and intense character dynamics, Dominik Graf’s   The Cat   opts for restraint—sometimes a cinematic turn-on, but just as often empty foreplay. The premise is undeniably intriguing. Probek (Götz George), a supposed criminal mastermind, commands an entire bank heist from afar with the calm efficiency of a chess grandmaster. He’s smooth, manipulative, and frustratingly untouchable by the police—a character cut from the same cloth as Michael Mann’s coldly calculating criminals. But Probek is a breed apart from his American counterparts. His emotional cruelty is a carry-over from a different era, echoing the stubborn ‘70s aesthetic when criminals truly lacked compassion and the cops chasing them were blue-collar slobs.  In that sense,...

While prison flicks are usually credited as the most  masculine  movie genre, the hitman subgenre certainly gives them a run for their money. Living a typically monastic existence with a personality leaning towards the autistic spectrum, these hired guns (they’re almost overwhelmingly guys) are the anonymous ideal of the modern male archetype, their particular set of skills disguised behind an everyman façade. Authors like Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake cemented such anti-heroes into the American iconography but their appeal transcends international borders.  Just take a look at the one-two punch of  A Certain Killer  and  A Killer’s Key , both produced in Japan in 1967, both as calculatingly cool as ever almost 60 years later. In  A Certain Killer  we’re introduced to Shiozawa (Raizo Ichikawa), an unassuming bar owner who moonlights as a professional killer. But his uncomplicated life is thrown into disarray by two accomplices who convin...

Japanese culture has a rich history of witches, wizards and warriors to draw upon, so it wouldn’t seem necessary to pilfer from Hollywood to create a vibrant fantasy world of their own.  But pilfer they do in 1983’s  Legend of the Eight Samurai , tossing in elements of  Star Wars ,  Raiders of the Lost Ark  and a dash of  Clash of the Titans  to craft an oddly endearing bit of made-up mythological adventure. Hunted by an incestuous clan of supernatural bad guys, Princess Shizu (Hiroko Yakushimaru) picks up seven protectors (including Sonny Chiba) to defend herself and reclaim her stolen kingdom.  Along the way they battle giant flying insects and snakes – and  each other  - in a nearly suicidal attempt to fulfill the ancient prophecy.  The wild card is Shinbei (Hiroyuki Sanada), an opportunistic drifter who must choose between his evil lineage or his true love for the Princess. Directed by legendary yakuza specialist ...