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 ...

As the capstone of Kinji Fukasaku’s  yakuza  phase,  Hokuriku Proxy War  bears the burden of higher expectations now than at the time of release in 1977, where it was just another torn-from-the-headlines gangster story.  The fact that the director allegedly walked away from the genre after a hit on the man who served as the  inspiration for the main character gives it even  more  cinematic resonance. But the film itself doesn’t veer far from the familiar themes of ambition, loyalty and the futility of violence, this time set against a show-white background of desolate beaches and cramped rural streets. Impatient with his rise through the ranks, Noboru (Hiroki Matsukata) tries to take a violent shortcut to the top.  But his impulsive tendencies get him sent to prison and at the mercy of the larger criminal conglomerates who want Hokuriku for their own. Upon release, Noboru throws down the gauntlet once again, this time with a pl...

For all the claims of homophobia and outright fear mongering laid against  Cruising  (1980), its problems don't lie (entirely) within its admittedly dim view of one particular gay lifestyle.  The flaws in director William Friedkin's film are much less scandalous than that; think script, editing, pacing, etc.  And for all its attempts to shock the audience with hard-R scenes of lubed-up party boys seducing a wide-eyed Al Pacino, the biggest shock, ultimately, is that it lacks the courage of its convictions.   In an attempt to catch the "homo killer," beat cop Steve Burns (Al Pacino) is sent undercover into New York City's underground gay club scene, a hedonistic world of casual sex and kinky fashion.  Initially out of his element, Steve hunts down a few likely suspects while trying to maintain his "straight" relationship to Nancy (Karen Allen) on the side.  But the perils of the job begin to take their toll, pushing Steve to take cha...

With a title like  The Lady Assassin  one would expect Shaw Brothers to put their female stars front and center, but director Tony Lou’s film is a balanced affair that splits its time between rebels and royalty of equal genders.  The studio’s ‘80s output was reliably flashy and this one is no exception. Logic and history take a backseat as  the undercranked action is cut together with no frames spared, colorful combatants leaping, tumbling and soaring through each sequence.  Subtlety be damned, this is Shaw Brothers working the lunch rush, turning tables and cashing checks. Suspecting he’ll passed over as the next emperor in the line of succession, Fourth Brother forges the official decree to put himself on the throne.  But his broken promises to a gang of Han revolutionaries make him a marked man even behind palace walls.  Rushing to exile or assassinate his enemies before the truth can emerge, the new emperor surrounds himsel...

Any way you look at it,  The Cell  (2000) in an odd conglomeration of talent.  The feature directing debut of attempted auteur Tarsem Singh paired with rising stars Jennifer Lopez and Vince Vaughn in a  Seven -inspired sci-fi procedural with showstopping costumes designed by Eiko Ishioka ( Bram Stoker’s Dracula ) and an unsettling score from Howard Shore that echoes his work on the grand-daddy of all modern serial killer films,  The Silence of the Lambs .  All that talent makes for an oddly compelling film…but one that’s never quite as unique as it thinks it is. A social worker turned mind-whisperer, Catherine (Lopez) finds herself electronically inserted into the mind of a schizophrenic (Vincent D’Onofrio) in order to extract the information on his latest victim trapped in a cell that will fill with water in 24 hours.  Peter (Vaughn) is the hand-wringing detective whose only hope is that Catherine can survive the hostile dreamworld his ...

There’s an old screenwriting adage that goes, “You can break every rule except one:   Don’t be boring! ” And no one takes that advice to heart more than the Hong Kong film industry.  Any random sampling of films produced since 1980 will turn up bizarre genre mash-ups, wildly eccentric action franchises and melodramatic love stories that take big swings with absolutely no fear of striking out.  And 2003’s  Running on Karma , a Johnnie To / Wai Ka-fai joint, wastes no time throwing ideas into the cinematic blender to serve up another offbeat dish. Biggie (Andy Lau) is a Buddhist monk turned go-go dancing body-builder (give that a minute to sink in) who is also gifted with the ability to see karmic visions of a person’s past life.  This all comes into play when he helps Lee Fung Yee (Cecilia Cheung), an ambitious cop, solve a murder involving two men with no previous relationship with each other. Biggie’s sixth sense and martial arts skill help ...

As a niche within a niche, silent films are certainly a hard sell for modern audiences.  Even Turner Classic Movies can only spare a couple hours a week in their schedule on late Sunday nights.  Perhaps because silents are positioned as something to be appreciated rather than enjoyed, dry history lessons held back by their crude technical limitations.  But the newly restored  Charley Chase   at Hal Roach: The Late Silents 1927  proves silent  comedy  was anything but.  A “do-it-all” comedian, Chases’ on camera persona relied less on slapstick than farcical domestic situations.  Unlike Chaplin’s  tramp  character, Charley often played a put-upon everyman just trying to catch a break.  The first two shorts in the set are a prime example:  There Ain’t No Santa Claus  follows his character’s attempt to hide the purchase of a Christmas gift for his wife from his rent-hungry landlord…while...

A fairly early film in the career of Seijun Suzuki, 1958’s  Underworld Beauty  never drifts far from the Hollywood noir entries that inspired it.  But as the Japanese director’s first film shot in widescreen, there’s some historical significance in watching what he does with his new toy.  Whether it’s a shadowy sewer, gaudy dance club or cramped office space, Suzuki seems to intuitively know just where his camera should be at all times…even with all that extra space to play with! After release from prison, Miyamoto (Michitaro Mizushima) heads straight for the cache of stolen diamonds that put him there in the first place.  But his intentions are honorable: selling the goods and passing on the proceeds to his pal Mihara who was crippled on the job.  But Oyane (Shinsuke Ashida), who planned the heist, has an agenda of his own.  And so does his artistic-minded underling…and pretty much everyone else in the gang! So when the diamon...

How long do you give a movie to grab your attention?  The curse of the streaming era is that a better option is possibly only click away (full disclosure: I give most blind watches about 10 minutes leeway). But it doesn’t take a full-blown  Bond  action sequence to do the job, just a subtle creative flourish that hints at more inventiveness to come.  Director Peter Fleischmann’s 1975 film  Weak Spot  begins with the suicide of a suspect who leaps to his death from a fourth-story window, filmed with no cuts and a clever off-camera body swap to sell the illusion. For a cinephile, that’s a solid indicator that you’re in good hands the rest of the way. In a nameless country on the mediterranean, Georgis (Ugo Tognazzi) is picked up by the secret service and shuffled from one interrogator to another after being accused of playing a role in a subversive plot.  With no evidence, the Investigator (Michel Piccoli) takes part in an elaborate road-t...

Our culture’s fascination with  true crime  stories didn’t begin with  Dateline .  Even before the media began exploiting them in print you can be sure tales of murder, infidelity and abnormal sexual practices made up a large percentage of social gossip.  So Teruo Ishii’s  Love & Crime  (1969) is really just giving the people what they want: a four-part anthology mostly focused on “poison women” whose predilection for greed and wanton lust made them short-lived media sensations in Japan. Things kick off with  the Toyokaku Inn Incident , involving Kunie Munakata, the first women sentenced to death since the second world war, who seduced her employer, murdered his wife, then finished the job by killing him  as well  to take control of a profitable tourist spot.  Ishii stages each murder with the gruesome enthusiasm of an E.C. comic book come to life, full of bloody axes, rotten corpses and peek-a-boo nudity. It’s hi...

History is always more interesting with kung fu.  Imagine the college prep scores if only our founding fathers defeated the British with double-bladed scimitars and fighting staffs.  Now that would get the students’ attention!  And so will  Horrible History , the new two-disc set from Eureka that collects four historical epics by legendary Shaw Brothers director Chang Cheh. By the mid-‘70s something like 80% of the studio’s output was martial arts flicks. With that sort of demand, the genre understandably began to seep into  other  types of films as well.   Marco Polo  (1975) reimagines the famous merchant’s adventures in China to include fighting alongside the local provinces against the brutal Kublai Khan.  Polo himself (played by peplum star Richard Harrison) takes a backseat in his own story to four blood brothers sworn to avenge their fallen comrade.  An absolute blast from beginning to end, Chang’s sta...

The films of Ingmar Bergman might be better known for their emotional angst and spiritual turmoil than any supernatural overtones.  But there’s an unmistakable horror element imbedded in his visual style.  And it’s from this that  Incubus , director Leslie Stevens’ nearly-lost 1966 oddity, takes it cue.  Filmed entirely in Esperanto, a  universal  language created at the turn of the 20 th  century, and starring William Shatner, this folk-horror fable feels like a cross between  The Outer Limits  and a European art film. Living a quiet life with his sister, Marc (Shatner) is a modest war hero who becomes a victim of love at first sight with Kia (Allyson Ames), a blonde beauty who tempts him with sexual and moral indiscretions.  But Marc is a victim in more ways than one.  Kia is actually a succubus, luring greedy and vain men to their death as a sacrifice to the dark lord.  However, Marc’s inherent ...

The thing about ‘70s exploitation movies is they could get away with pretty much anything as long as there was the requisite amount of boobs, blood or action.  Which led to a whole lot of films that didn’t just  break  the mold, they never bothered to conform in the first place. This burst of creativity might have been luck, thievery or a complete accident but the result is the same: movies sold to the lowest common denominator that often wind up being more interesting than the mainstream titles they were competing against. Cheerleaders Wild Weekend  (1979) involves a bus full of precocious teenage girls hijacked on its way to the state championship by a trio of ex-professional football players. Demanding two million dollars as ransom, the bad guys are sorely tempted to take advantage of their hostages, all from rival schools. But when the girls realize that teamwork is the only way out of the situation, they hatch a plan to get home… and  get some payback....

The master shot is a lost art.  Back in the ‘50s, when movies were competing with the rise of television, audiences were treated to vast landscapes and artfully composed scenes utilizing every inch of the widescreen frame…while most directors  today  don’t have the patience to sit on one shot for more than three seconds.  So watching  Yokohama BJ Blues  (1981), a noir-styled throwback made up almost exclusively of long takes, long lenses and lengthy exchanges of hardboiled dialogue, is like slowing down your cinematic pulse to a rhythm from another era. BJ himself (Yusaku Matsuda) is a part-time blues singer who moonlights as a private investigator to pay the bills. But when his best friend is murdered, the case becomes a personal vendetta to find the murderer, rekindle an old flame and rescue a client’s son who’s fallen in with the wrong crowd.  In true noir fashion, the good guys and bad guys aren’t so clear cut and BJ must play all th...

Example #242 in movies that sound too crazy to exist:   Men of War , starring Dolph Lundren as “Nick the Swede” who, with his team of misfit soldiers, invades a small island in Thailand to  persuade  the natives to sign away their mineral rights. Add in a cartoonish rival merc villain, alluring native girls plus a canoe full of ammunition and you’ve got a familiar recipe for a forgettable direct-to-video mid-90’s action entry.  Only this  Seven Samurai  rehash happens to be written by Oscar-nominated screenwriter John Sayles. Haunted by his past but addicted to the excitement, Nick (Lundgren) decides to get back into the game when his old mentor recommends him for a new gig.  After recruiting his team and adding a new member along the way (Catherine Bell of  JAG ), the realization hits that he’s fighting for the wrong side. Outnumbered and outgunned, Nick and the natives make one last stand to protect their island paradise from the ...

In the films of Abel Ferrara, there are hunters and there is prey.  And his best work follows characters in transition between the two. 1995’s  The Addiction  is what some might call an unconventional vampire movie.  Although it adheres to two of the most familiar conventions - an aversion to sunlight and a thirst for human blood – Ferrara’s undead are also beset by philosophical questions of free will and other existential crises. It seems immortality raises the stakes on what makes life worth living in general. Kathy (Lili Taylor) is on the cusp of completing her doctoral thesis in philosophy at NYU when she is bitten on the neck by a seductive stranger (Annabella Sciorra).  Suddenly her scholarly obsession with death becomes a physical reality as she wanders the streets searching for victims  and  some sort of meaning in her new undead existence.  Schooled by a vampire elder (Christopher Walken), Kathy comes to an educationa...

The Last Video Store  (2023) knows its audience.  It’s a film for cinema nerds and nostalgia junkies.  A film for people who know the difference between  Cannibal Holocaust  and  Cannibal Apocalypse .  For people who treasure their Blu-ray slipcovers and movie tie-in fast food glassware. But most of all it’s for people who are self-aware enough to know that their celluloid obsessions aren’t above being made fun of now and again. After returning a bizarre VHS tape to a back-alley video store, Nyla (Yaayaa Adams) and store-owner Kevin (Kevin Martin) are beset by aliens, serial killers and actions stars come to life via an inexplicable NTSC portal.  Kevin’s knowledge of trash cinema comes in handy as the duo must find a way to disconnect this  Videonomicon  before they’re trapped forever in B movie hell!   The concept isn’t exactly unique.  Terror brought forth from our televisions has been a staple since...