Reviews
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CASTLE FALLS Review: The Latest Lundgren/Adkins Potboiler Is A Feasible Actioner To Hold Fans Over
Published November 29, 2021: I can’t fully imagine the struggle actor Scott Adkins must have faced at one point trying to branch out as something more than an action figure to the genre moviegoing masses. For this, I’ve always hoped he would become more actor-centric than anything, but it’s especially nice to know that his next (and even bigger) break isn’t too far off in Hollywood.
HELL HATH NO FURY Review: Bloody World War Two Combat From Director Jesse V. Johnson
In the waning days of World War Two, a small group of American soldiers, led by the cunning Major Maitland, are heading to a forgotten graveyard in the French countryside. With them is Marie, recently freed from a Nazi prison but still labeled a German sympathizer by her fellow French countrymen. Maitland and his men pulled her from an angry mob due to assurances that she would lead them to a cache of stolen Nazi gold that was left hidden by her and her former lover, a member of Hitler’s elite guard named “Von Bruckner.” What none of them realize is that Von Bruckner is abandoning Germany’s losing war effort; with plans to head overseas with his loyal followers. So, he is also making his way to that same graveyard in hopes of retrieving the gold and when he arrives with his squad it will set off a bloody and explosive free-for-all that will prove to be as brutal as any conflict they experienced during the war. This is the deceptively simple setup for director Jesse V. Johnson’s new film, HELL HATH NO FURY.
ONE SHOT Review: Unrelenting Military Action From Scott Adkins
Action star Scott Adkins and director James Nunn are two individuals who don’t let the labels of the film industry define them or the work they produce. Both have been frustratingly relegated to a tier in the movie-making system where the only way to get a film project approved is if it can be completed quickly and with a modest budget. Many, when faced with these circumstances, cut corners and lower their ambitions, content just to get something locked in before moving on to the next “for hire” gig. Nunn and Adkins are a different breed though. When faced with these limitations, both men have always strived, through thoughtful preparation and an intense work ethic, to make the highest quality film possible every time they have the opportunity. So, it’s not surprising that when the two have collaborated in the past that their combined efforts have delivered strong results. Admittedly, both of their previous films together, GREEN STREET HOOLIGANS: UNDERGROUND (aka GREEN STREET 3) and ELIMINATORS, are not the most well-known of either of their filmographies. They are however well-crafted films that show neither man is content with just getting everything completed on time and under budget. Nunn and Adkins want to raise the bar for what is possible with lower-budget action films. With their latest collaboration, ONE SHOT, they have done just that.
HERE TO STAY And WHO IS LISTENING: Sheffield’s Latest Shorts Full of Chills and Spooky Vibes!
It is said that at this time of year, the veil between our realm and the spiritual world thins, making it easier for spirits to contact the living. Whether or not you believe the concept, it makes for a great background for some spooky films that deal with death and the afterlife.
THE SPINE OF NIGHT Review: Animated Cosmic Horror In A Savage Age
After finishing THE SPINE OF NIGHT, I was struck by a feeling that I had just witnessed a lost relic of my youth. Something that should have been passed to me on a VHS with a hand-written label by a friend, after a lengthy session of “Dungeons & Dragons”, along with a dog-eared horror paperback in exchange for trading them a bootleg copy of Ralph Bakshi’s FIRE & ICE and the latest copy of “Heavy Metal” magazine. Only to take the tape home and watch it immediately on my tiny bedroom television over and over again until the next week’s tabletop game session where the cycle of trades would continue until every one of my friends had their minds melted by this beautiful piece of animated pulp weirdness.
UNIVERSAL CLASSIC MONSTERS: ICONS OF HORROR COLLECTION Doles Out The Spooky This Month On 4K, Blu-Ray And Digital
I am one of those people who believes that “spooky season” begins September 1st so now that we are in October, it’s basically Halloween. And what better way to celebrate Halloween than to treat yourself with the Universal Classic Monsters Icons of Horror Collection?
NEW YORK NINJA Review: Ninja Stars, Roller Skates & Plutonium, Oh My!
Oh boy, how do I even start this? Well, I’ll give it a try.
SOUTH OF HEAVEN Review – A South Texas Tale Of Revenge.
SOUTH OF HEAVEN was not the original title for the latest film from Israeli writer/director Aharon Keshales. It’s not unusual for films to go through title changes during production but I was struck by a curiosity- wondering how a clever enough title like “Till Death” became the more somber “South of Heaven.” Why choose that phrase for a new title? When I researched the phrase the only thing that consistently popped up was a song, I was passingly familiar with by the metal band Slayer. Stranger connections in pop culture have occurred before, I suppose. So, I thought about this song I had not heard since my young and angry days and how it may add to the understanding of this southern-fried piece of neo-noir from one half of the filmmaking team behind the mean-spirited, yet darkly comic, thriller BIG BAD WOLVES.
“VIDEO NASTY” – Movie Review: V/H/S/94 (2021)
Just in time for the Halloween season is the latest found footage film, ‘V/H/S/94’ derived from the acclaimed original ‘V/H/S’ from 2012. The release of this first V/H/S was somewhat of a watershed moment in horror; given that the found footage subgenre was being replicated with far too much enthusiastic frequency, the quality of the output was mixed. With its convincing video tape aesthetic, the original boasted some truly exceptional talents such as Adam Wingard, Ti West and David Buckner and unsurprisingly spawned several sequels of varying quality. At its core these were anthology films, with the inclusion ‘found footage’ as a signature narrative device.
PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND Review: Trapped in The Subjectiveness Of Art
In a 2016 documentary about his life and creative process, there is a scene where filmmaker Sion Sono shows a barely completed painting, that he had been working on for months, to the crew filming him and asks dispassionately if they think it’s good art or not. The off-camera interviewer, clearly confused by the sudden and direct question sputters out that he doesn’t know. Sono sharply responds that it doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad and that it only matters if it expresses emotion. He then chucks the large canvas across the room with as much care as one throws a soiled tissue into the trash. This peculiar moment reveals a lot about how Sono views his work and it’s all I could think about after I watched his latest directorial effort, the post-apocalyptic “East meets West” mashup, PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND.
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