A few reviews . . (film or TV) — Page 193

Aontas - 2025 - 7/10

Clever, perhaps too clever, Irish heist flick.
The target, an impoverished credit union in a dying town.
Things start to go wrong from the onset.
Figured it out? Wait for the flashback to upset that.
Followed by another, messing with your next guess.
Backwards chronology means you better not be multitasking.
Unless you speak and know Irish, subtitles essential.
English subs = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3369650

Double Agents - 1959 - 6/10
AKA - La Nuit des Espions

German spies in WWII England have worked out the coastal defenses.
A female agent is dispatched to meet her male counterpart in Occupied France.
Thing is, the Brits learned and have tried to replace one agent or both.
No one knows if this was successful, however, not even the agents.
Both are wary, distrustful and armed.
Slow boil thriller simmers along, boosted by chemistry between Hossein and Vlady.

The Revenge Club - 2025 - 6/10

Or the divorced survivors club, working through their pain.
Still stung by their exes, a few desire petty revenge.
Members team together, and payback turns lethal.
Mystery thriller relies on deniability and obfuscation.
Plausibility stretches razor thin, although you might be guessing until he conclusion.

Good Morning … And Goodbye! - 1967 - 5/10

Barnyard Gothic finds Boland, rich and influential, with no more wick in his stick.
While wife Angel is a lust driven nymph of the ancient school, fleshly and indifferent.
A FFFF type, she drains a hunky construction worker, seduces her daughter’s boyfriend.
Boland, remember Boland, encounters a pagan elemental (Haji) who restores his mojo.
Despite overripe narration and juicy female lines, this Russ Meyer twaddle is mildly titillating, often boring.
Alaina Capri, one of Meyer’s powerful man-eaters, devours the camera.

The Devil Went Down To Islington - 2023 - 5/10

No matter how drunk you are, don’t sign any parchment from a guy with horns.
Sure. Money, gorgeous girls, all the good luck you can handle.
Until midnight of whenever. In this case, the end of the Halloween weekend.
More comedy than horror, but most of the jokes are flat.
The story seems regurgitated from dozens of better films.
Many of the cast seem amateur city.

Thirst - 1979 - 6/10

Kate is kidnapped from her home, whisked to a faraway retreat.
A farm of sorts, run by modern vampires, with lethargic meals lolling about.
Turns out Kate is long, long descendant of Elizabeth Bathory.
And the enclave wants to turn her taste from red wine to blood.
Film not quite horror, but a psychological thriller.
Shirley Cameron is the best thing here, as the sinister, malicious psychiatrist.
All others = sleepwalkers.

Saipan - 2025 - 7/10

Bristling retelling of Ireland’s travails in the 2002 World Cup.
The team is to acclimate to heat and humidity in Saipan.
Fourth rate hotel has faulty air-conditioning. Meals are sandwiches.
The training field is hard and rock strewn. No matter. There are no balls to practice with.
Despite team captain Roy Keane’s bitter complaints, the coach does little to help the squad.
Oh, he sends plays to play golf or go one boat rides.
Told from Keane’s point of view, this is an infuriating watch.

Crime Of The Century - 1933 - 6/10

Fun little Pre-Code finds a psychiatrist reporting a murder he is about to commit.
While police dismiss the notion, they send a man to guard.
And when the lights go out? Sure enough.
Suspects? You must be kidding. Every single character.
Two-thirds in, proceedings stop, and viewers are allotted one minute to figure out who-done-it.

Between The Lines - 1977 - 6/10

Staff meeting at Boston’s local newsrag, Back Bay Mainline.
Stories pitched, circulation numbers discussed, ad revenue, squabbles.
The paper is struggling, and there are internal rumors of a buyout.
Main focus is on personalities and male-female relationships.
Very much a prescient time capsule of the late 70’s.
Capturing the last flickers of idealism, showing the approaching greed of the 80’s.

Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust - 2024 - 5/10

Schirkoa, home of “Safety - Sanity - Sanctity.”
Anonymity provides all that. Thus, citizens wear paper bags – always.
Walking, at work, in cafes and bars, in brothels (seeing is believing).
The world is a cross between Kafka and Orwell. The look is wobbly animation.
Nonconforming settlements are Anomalies, patterned annoyingly after Zion (Matrix).
Interesting for awhile, grows preachy, waddling like a rubber legged duck.

Ley Lines - 1999 - 6/10
AKA - Nihon Kuroshakai // 日本黒社会

Three Chinese, living in a Japanese village, hop a train to Tokyo.
Where they are eaten alive by the big city.
The friendly prostitute robs them; soon they are selling Toluene on the streets.

Beatings, porn, a local Triad boss, an eternal money shortfall.
Maybe if they leave, say Brazil.

Miike film explores the dirtiest underbelly of modern Japan.
Also the travails of outsiders, in this case migrant Chinese.

The Housemaid - 2025 - 6/10

Millie, on parole, desperately needs the job.
Hence, she endures all manner of mistreatment from Nina.
Who issues commands, changes her mind, goes into volcanic meltdowns.
Rich housewife Nina is unstable and dangerous. And understands privilege.
Husband Andrew, however, is sympathetic and a stud.
Throwback to the 90’s erotic thrillers is a fiendishly plotted gem.
Gears shift throughout and I would suggest those curious to go in cold.

Night Shift - 2020 - 6/10

Day seven for Jessie, assistant in the “End Of The World” – AKA the Morgue.
A religious skeptic, Jessie works with the deeply religious Dr. Alex.
Corpses arrive throughout, where they exhale, twitch, often move.
Owing to a massive storm, Jessie has been working nonstop 24 hours.
Her exhaustion gives rise to hallucinations, or are they?
Possibly too slow boil for many, and religious overtones, the dominion of Death, may be off putting.
For fans of Revelation, the Blood Moon (Book Of Joel), and the Fourth Horseman.

The film Lean On Me is a fantastic film that is both hard to watch and incredibly poignant. A must see and a grand time to be had.

The Mystery Of Charles Dickens - 2000 - 7/10

Simon Callow’s flamboyant one-man play, encompassing the writer, as well as key characters.
The bitterness of youth, disappointment with relations, the glare of fame.
One who for lived for the spotlight, even as it devoured him.
Script by Dickens authority, Peter Ackroyd, this is a glorious tour de force.
Essential for fans of theatre, the writer, Victorian London.

The Head: S03 - 2024 - 6/10

Third season, and supposedly the finale. We shall see.
After previous calamities and deaths, one would think folks would know better.
Sorry, pumpkin, events swing to an abandoned installation in the Sahara.
The climate continues to warm, and researchers hope the magic algae will save humanity.
Human guinea pigs this time around, clueless of the history of carnage.
Until … as ever … the dying starts.
With a dovetail to S01, this stitches the narratives by the conclusion.
Still, never underestimate the greed of producers or bankruptcy of creative elements.
S01 = The Antarctic, S02 = Pacific, S03 = Sahara. S04 would be, where, Outer Space?

Nightshift - 1981 - 6/10

The stifling ennui of the graveyard shift at The Portobello Hotel.
Complaints, intrusions, overheard conversations, silence, more silence.
I worked a hotel night shift for a cycle of seasons.
This compresses a week of sundry activity into an hour.
Mostly, the job was numbing boredom, punctuated with some alcoholic’s emergency.
Should appeal to fans of Ligotti or Samuels.
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3369653

Murder In Strasbourg - 2016 - 6/10
AKA - Meurtres à Strasbourg

The white wine pours from the vat with a red tint.
Because there is a body inside. Oh no!
The Gendarmes arrive, and, wouldn’t you know it, the female cop and male doctor have a history.
Compounding matters, back when he avoided commitment and scampered off, she married his father.
Amidst bickering and recriminations, there’s another corpse.
Followed by a third. Scenery is best thing in this one.
Family matriarch’s twisted manipulation sets an ugly low bar.

Mermaid Legend - 1984 - 6/10
AKA - Ningyo Densetsu // 人魚伝説

Like most in the fishing village, the couple does not want to sell out to the amusement park.
None know that is just a front for a proposed nuclear reactor.
Migiwa is a deepwater albacore diver, husband Keisuke her topside lifeline.
So, when he is murdered, she almost murdered then framed, she wants answers.
Behind it all is corporate greed.
Idyllic first act shifts to murder mystery, then bloodbath.
A tasty gem; surprised this is not better known.
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3369651

The tv series Love On The Spectrum is a fantastic show! Heartwarming and endearing and it provides hope and wisdom. I can’t wait for the next seasons. A must see!

Lake Nowhere - 2014 - 5/10

Three couples and a spare disembark at the cabin by the forlorn lake.
Where they are observed … by a guy who appears to be auditioning for Sasquatch.
Alcohol, weed, implied canoodling, and a little barking dog.
Homage / pastiche to 80’s Slashers suffers from a trope of “airing on late nite TV.”
Nudity, awkwardly excised, seconds of commercials, tape offtrack.
Part Slasher, part zombie. Males, to a soul, overact.
Good concept, missteps during execution.

Minoes - 2001 - 6/10
AKA - Miss Minoes

Curiosity killed – make that, altered the cat.
After a barrel of illegal waste spills, Minoes the cat drinks it.
Turning into a female human, with a taste for fish and aversion to dogs.
Behind the waste, however, is the town’s most influential man.
Minoes and her league of feline family scurry forth to topple.
Pretty good family fare. Performed nicely everywhere save for the States (atrocious dubbing).

The Man On The Eiffel Tower - 1949 - 6/10

Inspector Miagret and the #1 suspect in a stabbing, the impoverished knife sharpener.
The slain was rich, the heir impatient with two grasping females on either arm.
Then there is the pompous intellectual, Life’s failure, who taunts the Gendarmes.
Scrappy, minor Noir features flashy turns by Charles Laughton and Franchot Tone.
In addition to beautiful Paris locations (must have been dazzling at the time).
The color has deteriorated badly into a sepia tone.

Pride And Prejudice - 1995 - 8/10

THE adaptation that Janeites rally around.
The Netherfield estate is to be let by the young Mr. Bingley, a single gentleman of good fortune.
Young Bennet sisters are in a tizzy, hopes mix with delusion.
Only Elizabeth and Jane, the two eldest, check themselves.
This has version has unsparing production values, and an extended run time that breathes.
Genuine chemistry between leads Ehre and Firth fueled this intensely.
The emotional restraint is faithful to Austen, and a contrast to cathartic outbursts of other attempts.

Peter Hujar’s Day - 2025 - 7/10

Taken from the interview transcript between photographer Hujar and writer Rosenkrantz.
She was planning a project akin to “what artists do all day.”
Here, Hujar reflects on his day. A shoot with Ginsberg, chatting with other photographers, writers.
Commercial jobs, if he could land them, especially if they paid.
Most of this occurs in an apartment, or a few rooftop shots.
Enthralling throughout, although there is plenty of name-dropping amidst a mid-70’s New York.
English subs = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3369820