(aka, GoShogun: The Time Stranger) There’s weird, then there’s Japanese Anime weird. And if you want proof you need look no further than GoShogun: The Time Étranger: here we have a children’s bright and colorful Giant robot television series, much in the vein of Voltron, which was adapted four years after the series ran into […]
Read more "Sengoku machine GoShogun: toki no ihôjin [GoShogun: The Time Étranger] (1985)"Look, it’s a Hong Kong thing. Either you accept it for what it is, or you go off and watch something safe, like a Hallmark Christmas Movie or a SyFy network original “vs.” giant monster movie. Both of which are distinctively American in the same way that HK Chopsockey comedies are so very Hong Kong, […]
Read more "Zui jia pai dang 2: Da xian shen tong [Mad Mission Part 2: Aces Go Places] (1983)"I’m going to tell you something you already know: A Quiet Place Part II is not as good as the first film. It is hardly a surprise. After all, the first film was a tour de force, the sort of film few mainstream directors try to make anymore. John Krasinski set several major challenges for […]
Read more "A Quiet Place Part II (2020)"(aka Invasion) I’ve wanted to see this one for a long time. Much to my surprise, though, it didn’t disappoint me. Let’s face it: the Russian blockbuster, Attraction, caught me off guard. I expected an Arrival mockbuster and instead got something extraordinary. But we all know that sequels rarely measure up to the original. Nor […]
Read more "Vtorzhenie [Attraction 2: Invasion] (2020)"There is an iron rule of sequels which few movies — or movie series — manage to escape: Each new sequel is worse than the one before. Yes, I know there are exceptions — and even a few, like The Road Warrior which are better than the original. But that certainly isn’t true of the […]
Read more "God Raiga vs King Ohga (2021)"(aka Peninsula) For one reason or another I never reviewed Train to Busan on this site. It’s not that I don’t think it belongs here: Train to Busan was one of the best “Fast Zombie” movies out there, a wild ride most of which takes place aboard a moving train. I just never got around to […]
Read more "Bando [Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula] (2020)"You have to admire someone who tries this hard. Back in 2005, with Steven Spielberg hard at work on his version of the classic H.G. Wells Novel, Timothy Hines made his own three-hour adaptation of the book which was (supposedly) the most accurate version ever made and which contained nearly every scene in the book. […]
Read more "War of the Worlds the True Story (2012)"“Seth Ickerman” — who is really the French directing duo, Raphaël Hernandez and Savitri Joly-Gonfard — first came to my attention with the “trailer” for a film called “Ickerman,” which featured a dazzling combination of a high-tech future, a touch of Film Noir, and a lot of movie nostalgia. I still hope they will get […]
Read more "Blood Machines (2019)"I’ll confess. I’ve avoided this film for a long time. After all, it was a sequel — and what’s more, a sequel made by Full Moon Features. Neither of those facts is exactly encouraging. Trancers actually came out under the Empire Pictures Banner, before Charles Band’s first production company went bankrupt. I suppose that’s why […]
Read more "Trancers II (1991)"It’s always a bad sign when someone makes the sequel to a minor film almost a decade later. I quite liked the original Philadelphia Experiment: it wasn’t one of the great SF films of the Eighties — and there were quite a few of those — but it was actually quite good in a lesser film […]
Read more "Philadelphia Experiment II (1993)"
rivets on the poster 