Movie Review – The Bat

The Bat US (1959) Dir. Crane Wilbur “No matter how clever you are, you can’t hide murder.” Yet still they try. All roads lead to the truth eventually; regardless of how careful one has been to cover their tracks or how much they wish it to be true, the perfect crime has yet to be …

Anime Review – ID: Invaded

ID: Invaded (Cert 18) 2 Discs DVD/Blu-ray (Distributor: Manga Entertainment) Running time: 323 minutes approx. Per Wikipedia: “The Id is the instinctual component of personality that is present at birth, and is the source of bodily needs and wants, emotional impulses and desires, especially aggression” In the future, the Mizuhanome System has been developed which …

House By The River

House By The River US (1950) Dir. Fritz Lang Brotherly love. You often hear men in a band, sports team, or entertainment double act proclaim their friendship with another man to be “closer than brothers”. Whilst this might be true that this is a measuring stick of male bonding, as we have seen this isn’t …

The Killing

The Killing US (1956) Dir. Stanley Kubrick “I love it when a plan comes together” The popular catchphrase of Hannibal Smith from the The A-Team was usually uttered to mark the success of another adventure. It was in the planning. If you don’t have that then what do you have? Ex-con Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) …

Beasts Clawing At Straws (Jipuragirado Jabgo Sipeun Jibseungdeul)

Beasts Clawing At Straws (Jipuragirado Jabgo Sipeun Jibseungdeul) Korea (2020) Dir. Kim Young-Hoon Money. If it didn’t exist would the world be a better place? If you think of all the trouble it causes, such as class divide and disparity, greed, envy, debt, perhaps it would make things easier if we had a different system …

Eye For An Eye (Quien a hierro mata)

Eye For An Eye (Quien a hierro mata) Spain (2019) Dir. Paco Plaza Revenge may be sweet or a dish best served cold or whatever epigram you care to apply to it but it is also a very messy scenario to be caught up in, largely through being a two-way street. It is a never-ending …

The Immortal (L’immortale)

The Immortal (L'immortale) Italy (2019) Dir. Marco D'Amore There is a great sketch on the infamous Derek & Clive: Ad Nauseam album about people not putting labels on everyday things leading to mass confusion. I was lured into watching this film by it being a spin-off from Gomorrah, a noted Italian crime film from 2008, loosely …

Always Be With You (Seung joi nei jor yau)

Always Be With You (Seung joi nei jor yau) Hong Kong (2017) Dir. Herman Yau Death, contrary to popular belief, isn’t always the final word - if it was, there wouldn’t be any horror films or tales of the supernatural to spook us out with. So, keep on haunting you spirits, like the one in …

The Whistlers (La Gomera)

The Whistlers (La Gomera) Romania (2019) Dir. Corneliu Porumboiu Remember when Lauren Bacall told Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not that to whistle, “You just put your lips together and blow”? Well, it would appear that it isn’t so simple, according to some countries where techniques differ quite substantially and the whistle has …

Savage (Xue bao)

Savage (Xue bao) China (2018) Dir. Cui Siwei Patience is a virtue but some people run out of it pretty quickly, situation dictating of course. But, if all good things come to those who wait then theoretically so should the bad things, which makes the concept of patience a rather flawed one, doesn’t it? In …