(aka Atomik Circus – Le retour de James Bataille) Luc Besson created a new school of French film when he made The Professional. In fact, there are times when it seems that France no longer makes any films other than extravagant thrillers with more flashy style than substance. Think Diva, The Fifth Element and Crimson […]
Read more "Atomik Circus [The Return of James Battle] (2004)"(aka Invisible Avenger) Sometimes things just don’t work out. Take the case of Tômei ningen: it was Toho’s second science fiction film, a more-or-less adaptation of the famous novel by H.G. Wells (more less than more!) with some moderately impressive effects provided by Eiji Tsuburaya. You’d have expected it to do well at the box-office. And […]
Read more "Tômei ningen [The Invisible Man] (1954)"Some movies just leave you asking what they were thinking. Take The Drifting Classroom, for example. This is a movie which hasn’t been seen much outside of Japan — and I really don’t know how hard they tried to market it here — but it is mostly in English, with burnt-in Japanese subtitles. It is […]
Read more "The Drifting Classroom [Hyôryu kyôshitsu] (1987)"This is an absolutely preposterous movie. I enjoyed it. This is sort of the Indian version of Armageddon, mixed with a heist film, complete with a James Bond-ish villain, enough plot twists and turns for three movies, some thoroughly impossible cartoon physics, a touch of stage magic, a father’s love for his son and anything […]
Read more "Tik Tik Tik (2018)"This is a very, very silly film. I like it. If you asked me what was the best part of all the films Charles Band produced under his Empire Films and Full Moon Features labels, I would be hard pressed to answer. At least at first. But, once I had a chance to think about […]
Read more "Bad Channels (1992)"Back in 1978, a virtually unknown young musician named Jeff Wayne shocked everyone when he released a concept album based on H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. And not just any concept album, but something unprecedented: the one that defined what a concept album was supposed to be. He’d been a producer and had […]
Read more "Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of ‘The War of the Worlds’ (2006)"This is a strange one. To put it mildly. What we have here is a heavy metal sci fi musical Ozploitation film. Not that that really suggests just how strange this film is. We’re talking a decaying near future, a repressive government out to get our hero, a robot, time travel, a sword and sorcery […]
Read more "Sons of Steel (1988)"