In Cyborg, we get a glimpse of two notable careers at their very earliest stages. After all, Jean Claude van Damme had just starred in his first lead role in Bloodsport, while its director, Albert Pyun was just coming off his first (and, as it turned out, greatest) success, The Sword and the Sorcerer. Ironically, […]
Read more "Cyborg (1989)"I never had the slightest doubt, when I first learned about Trava: Fist Planet, that I would have to watch this short anime OVA. . Or that I would have to watch it soon. After all, this was a dry run, a warm-up — or, if you would, a test drive — for what would […]
Read more "Trava: Fist Planet (2003)"There is no need to guess what this one is about. After all, they made it very clear on the cover. Mind you, as Lady Battle Cop came out in the early days of Japanese V-Cinema, it was a VHS cover and not a DVD case. It shows a figure in a shiny metal suit, […]
Read more "Onna batoru koppu [Lady Battle Cop] (1990)"For no particular reason, H.P. Lovecraft’s classic story, At the Mountains of Madness, kept crossing my desk this past week. Admittedly, I’ve been on a Lovecraft kick for a while, but this legendary short story turned up again and again, thanks to several unexpected developments. The biggest one came when Guillermo del Toro released an […]
Read more "H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness (A fan made production)"This is a dark, somber — and perhaps somewhat prescient — short film about a new Artificial Intelligence program. I haven’t been able to find out too much about The Terminal Game. It reminds me of some of the darker and more serious British TV shows from the era with rather subdued lighting and a […]
Read more "The Terminal Game (1982)"(aka, H.P. Lovecraft’s The Deep Ones) At first glance, you’d be excused for thinking, “what the heck does that have to do with H.P. Lovecraft?” After all, rather than a gloomy New England town, surrounded by gloom and fog, we have instead a bright and sunny exclusive seaside community, with a couple renting the most […]
Read more "The Deep Ones (2020)"Oh, what a lovely little film. I have become far more appreciative these days of simple little films, the kinds of movies which dare to paint their stories on a limited canvas, where good writing is more important than spectacle or frenetic action, or digital wizardry. And that certainly describes the films written by Makoto […]
Read more "Ribâ, nagarenaide yo [River] (2023)"Back in 1977, East Anglia TV ran a strange and sinister little documentary, detailing their investigation into the disappearance of a number of important scientists. Their search led them deeper and deeper into what looked like a sinister government conspiracy, complete with similar disappearances around the world, hints of connections to NASA, the moonflights, and […]
Read more "Alternative 3 (1977)"I have to confess that my first reaction to Alienoid: The Return to the Future was that I wished I had rewatched the original Alienoid first. This wasn’t exactly a surprise as it was part two of what was in a reality one big movie that had been released into the theaters in two separate […]
Read more "Oegye+in 2bu [Alienoid: The Return to the Future] (2024)"Well, that wasn’t what I expected. I suppose you could blame the title, or the basic plot synopsis: the whole notion of your typical Soviet Era evil Capitalist going into business reducing the atmosphere to tiny solid balls so he can get rich off of the ensuing ecological disaster sounds so goofy and silly that […]
Read more "Prodavetz vozdukha [The Seller of Air] (1967)"
rivets on the poster 