Reviews

"SCALA"...Doc on the legendary much missed London repertory/cult Cinema is fun, lively, heartfelt, nostalgic & packed with entertaining tales & reminiscences (& cool movie clips). Good interviews too (thank God for the blu-ray extra ones). Essential for Cult movie fans, esp ex-Scala punters like myself. Main criticism is the short shrift given to the Events. Especially as the last thing hosted there before it closed (last day "King Kong" showing aside) was the fabulous 'Full Contact with a Killer' Chow-Yun-Fat festival (with the lovely man himself as guest of honour), a GREAT moment in my life, but it gets no mention.

Nor do they mention the 'Film Extremes' festivals that were personally my main time spent there.

In fact an afternoon screening of "Cafe Flesh" was my only (I think) visit to 'The Scala' that wasn't an Event/Festival.

A sad lack of live footage of the mural covered Cafe/Dealer room too, another solid memory of my time there.

It also calls "A Clockwork Orange" banned & hints that's why they got into trouble for showing a 'pirate' print. But it wasn't 'banned', Kubrick withdrew it from distribution in Britain himself after much hassle over its supposed effect on crime. But Kubrick didn't do anything to help The Scala himself over this costly trial & should've got a bit of criticism here, but there's nothing (not a surprise really).

And of course, it just too short to cover such a long period of time at such a fascinating place. But, in general, it's very good, lots of fun (with genuinely emotional moments) & a real gift for fans. Great memories from a great time.

Get that blu-ray!

At least this once fine franchise now has a (meh) ending. Tired, stupid, annoying. Only 1 great gunfight (a GLORIOUS top down, exploding shotgun shells, massacre) & 1 good hand-to-hand fight (with an unrecognisable #ScottAdkins), the rest of the action's dull, repetitive, silliness. #KeanuReeves (effective in the other 3 films) here gives a truly appalling performance. He sounds like his batteries are running out, every....word....is....emotionless. His opening scene might THE worst acting seen in cinema history...& he only says "Yeah"!

. Where once Wick dodged damage by using his skills to not get hit (& we could genuinely see how he avoided it), now he just brushes off 'Superman' level damage (it's so ridiculous it gets genuinely annoying...from plummeting off buildings, to getting hit by multiple speeding cars, to smashing down 100's of stone steps) that makes EVERY fight pointless (who cares if he gets punched, when bone crushing falls literally do no damage)? Assassins suddenly either don't bother to shoot or punch him when they have a chance, or simply can't hit him even if when he's standing still! But who cares anyway right, when he's now seemingly made of Adamantium!?

. And why tediously rehash "Rogue One" by making #DonnieYen blind again? Worse, it just adds to the annoying stupidity. That a blind swordsman could hear his enemy move, or feel the air moving when a sword strikes, makes (a fantastical) sense. But how does a blind man dodge getting shot by multiple gunmen standing 20-30 feet away? Can he 'hear' the direction a gun is pointing? What utter nonsense. In fact he's so not effected by being blind...why make him blind?!

. There's also a sorry lack of links to the other 3 films. You could watch this & fully understand most of it. Bar Fishburne, Reddick & McShane no characters return & even the shocking betrayal by #IanMcShane in "3" (including shooting Wick off a building) is completely ignored by the plot AND Wick! He's just back to being a friend & ally again as if nothing happened. Hell, even the damn dog gets ignored!

. The fact is if "3" had a better final 3rd with a satisfying ending we would've had a truly great action franchise trilogy. As it is the entire bloated finale & garbage non-ending of "3" seemed to doom the franchise UNLESS a (money-grabbing) "4" could perform a miracle...But as we know, miracles rarely happen.

Best just stick with "1" then now.

"THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK".

Prepare to be mostly disappointed sadly.

Some nice nods to the show (inc a fun reconstruction of a story Tony tells Melfi, & a redo of a young Tony memory), younger Sil is great & spot on, especially his walk (& yes...we learn a secret), younger Pussy & Paulie are wasted (& Paulie isn't much like Paulie), younger Livia is pretty accurate (with shades of Carmela at times, maybe intentional), younger Junior is pretty good (with a wonderful expletive nod to the show).

Ray Liotta is good, but he's used VERY strangely & a (weirdly forced) surprise about him was totally ruined by the trailer!

Dickie is okay, good at times, but mostly unlikeable & unappealing as a character. And yes, we learn the truth about Dickie's fate... Now the real disappointments;

There was little point in the 60's stuff being so long, bar 1 big event, the Race Riots were too long & (that 1 big event aside again) totally pointless (we pandering here?).

Michael Gandolfini is sadly poor. He can't really act, lacks charisma & his speech is weird & slurred.

There's very little sign of Tony Soprano in his performance & there's not even any real arc for the character (there's a nice Melfi foreshadowing involving a Guidance Councillor though).

Johnny Boy is sidelined & does very little.

Janice is wasted too.

And it all lacks focus, drive & energy. And simply isn't that entertaining.

The biggest problem though is a massive chunk of the film is spent on Harold, an up & coming Black Gangster who means zero to the audience. We're here to see the World & characters of "The Sopranos", this ain't it.

Why is an entire sequence spent on Black Power beat-poetry? What's with the final credits scene?

Are BLM a big part of "The Sopranos" audience?

We want "The Sopranos", this ain't it.

So overall...A letdown.

Good moments (some nice if brief action/violence too), a few nice backstory reveals, & character moments. But so much wasted time & potential. Most of those backstory moments we were hoping for...just aren't here.

I sure wish that time had been spent on, you know, things to actually do with "The Sopranos"!

Harold is easily the second lead character.

Find me one fan who heard about this film and was hoping the 2nd lead was a non-Mafia, non-Italian, NON-"SOPRANOS", Black Gangster character who gets a good 3rd of the running time devoted to his backstory & rise to power (& Black Radical Beat-Poetry!) You'll find not a single one.

But most won't have the guts to call foul.

"DRIVE"

Want to see the film that Michael Mann should have made between "Thief" and "Manhunter" instead of the mess that was "The Keep"? Well here it is.

After the triumph of "Bronson", and the at least interesting and delightfully brutal "Valhalla Rising", Nicholas Winding Refn delivers this astonishing modern 80's throwback that delivers absolutely everything you could hope for.

Anyone who has seen "Thief" will recognise the night time cityscape stylistic flourishes and cool, smooth take on the old 'honourable man on the wrong side of the law' plot and anyone who has seen "Manhunter" will recognise the laid back, dream-like, constantly backed by ethereal synth, dialogue exchanges. Exchanges made so compelling, even when dialogue is minimal, by the acting and that perfect synth accompaniment, that the slowish build-up becomes a dramatic triumph in of itself. So much is owed to, and hinges on, this score and its use.

The modern but throwback electro songs and 'Tangerine Dream" style original score by Cliff Martinez (and pink, neon, silk on steel, title graphic and opening credits) all scream prime era Michael Mann too. This is not only a stunning movie in it's own, 21st century, right but the best Michael Mann film not made by Michael Mann in 16 years.

That's not to say that Refn's own mastery of the art is not in evidence, or to say that it is anything but (well perhaps along with Gasper Noe) Refn's own lashings of astonishingly brutal and graphic violence on display that superbly punctuate this, what he himself has called, urban fairytale. Nor is it without note that this is very much another Refn study of a singular, driven, coldly brutal at times, man living in an unforgiving world. But, and despite traces of Melville and 70's U.S. crime films, at its heart "Drive" is without doubt the offspring of 80's Michael Mann.

Ryan Gosling gives a fascinating, multi-layed, performance of a fascinating, multi-layered character (known only as Driver) who is the chivalrous knight one moment, and the gore drenched barbarian the next. One can not exist without the other in this man's world...not if the pure princess and her innocent child are to be saved.

The support cast is also superb with an almost unrecognisable (who stole his eyebrows?!) Albert Brooks as a measured but ruthless crime boss, Bryan Cranston as Driver's friend, Ron Pearlman as a thick-headed, uncompromising heavy and Carey Mulligan does a beautiful job as the barely reachable purity in Driver's life, who belongs to another.

Poignant drama, multi layered characters, simple but clever plotting, excellent (and excellently utilised) synth soundtrack, gorgeous cinematography, crisp nighttime city dreamscapes, exciting and unapologetically cool car sequences, superb acting and truly brutal and gory action are the gift to the audience...and the pitch perfect 80's/Michael Mann thriller stylings are the its wrappings, all brilliantly crafted by writer Hossein Amini and director Nicholas Winding Refn.

One of the best films of the decade at the very least and an essential purchase.

How did director John "Twins of Evil" Hough sink to this dull, ponderous, by the numbers, 80's American horror fluff? Oh dear!

The last 15 minutes picks up and opens up a suitably macabre world, but there is nothing here really. Low gore, rushed deaths and ending, tired direction, overly slow build-up, annoying acting (Michael J. Pollard is only slightly less awful than he was in "Sleepaway Camp 3"), slumming thesps (Rod Steiger and Yvonne De Carlo, though at least Steiger has a better wig this time than he did in "The Kindred").

All in all it's just a passionless splodge of smelly blandness thrown at your TV screen, that was actually a good signpost to the (mostly) awful decade to come as far as American horror films went.

"Above the Law" is full of cheese of course (with a classic, "He's just trying to do his job, stupid Chief!", suspension scene) but a very lean and trim Seagal is in fine action form and yet again he plays a delightfully cold blooded character who blows away bad guys without a second's thought. You have to love it when he disarms a bunch of guys and then shoots one of them dead anyway when he walks towards him saying "he can't drop us all". Blam! One dead unarmed bad guy! That's justice! Seagal style!

Seagal is okay in the acting stakes but nothing great (with yet again too many sappy morality speeches), Henry Silva chews the scenery all to hell as the lead villain (in a film packed with villains), Pam Grier looks foxy and a very curly haired Michael Rooker has one line of dialogue in a bar scene!

Not as fun as, or quite as violent as, "Out for Justice" but still an enjoyable no-nonsense bit of bone snapping action.

The 'R' print (the only one available i think) is certainly trimmed though where a hand is chopped off and when Nico is being beaten by Silva.

Vastly underrated film that took a stupid amount of flak when first released.

Sure we have plot holes and it's very fantasy-land in it's attitude to so called 'underground' porn, but it's still an extremely good, brutal watch. Even the slightly censored version (which is the only one around it seems) delivers the strong content.

The final 3rd is especially hard hitting, the killers motive (at last) expertly handled with no psychobabble motivations on display.

Nic Cage does a good job while Phoenix, Gandolfini and Stormare steal the show.

Default "Ong-Bak" - Takes it's time doing much in the first half hour, but after that it's full on all the way! The fact that there is no wire work here is what amazes. Stunning acrobatics that are a joy to watch EVEN BEFORE you get to the bone shattering fights. Here blows really look like they thud home with as much venom as they are supposed to be having. Tony Jaa is like prime era Jackie Chan and then some.

Some good and likable characters help the drama (although Thai as a language does come across as overly shrill and sing-songy at times, especially the girl in it!) and it mixes light comedy with high emotion perfectly.

You could have done with not seeing almost every stunt 2 or 3 times though as that does take you out of the unfolding events and screams out "hey" you're watching a clever movie! Good isn't it"! Golden era Hong Kong action films sometimes (esp Jackie Chan films) repeat a SPECIFIC stunt again, but normally at the end of a sequence or during a natural break. "Ong-Bak" repeated too many during the main stunt/foot chase sequence that was an ongoing, uninterrupted event. As such the constant 'winding back' of the action grated a bit.

BUT the stunts were astonishing and amazingly skillful, the fights were jaw- dropping in their skill and thudding power and the finale really delivered the bone smashing (literally...the arm and leg breaks were as painful as hell) fight action and high drama. No idea what the original score was like, but the new HKL score was very good and bombastic, but still retaining an ethnic flavour.

Damn fine martial arts viewing on a great UK disc.

When on a remote island community a corpse is discovered completely devoid of bone, the local police constable (Sam Kydd) calls in Dr. Landers (Eddie Bryne) who is at a loss to explain. He goes to the mainland to see Dr. Stanley (Peter Cushing) a pathologist. Stanley and Landers go to David West (Edward Judd) who is an expert on bone disease. Intrigued by the bizarre symptoms, West's girlfriend Toni Merril (Carole Gray) follow Landers back to the island.

They discover that well-known cancer specialist Dr. Philips has been doing experiments on the island. They discover Philips and his colleagues' dead, the bodies boneless.

As the Doctors search through Philip's notes they discover he was trying to create a living organism to attack cancer cells, but something went wrong and he ended up creating a silicone based creature that lives off animal bone. These creatures, which Stanley names 'Silicates', are roaming the island......

Made by obscure British company 'Planet Productions' this great little flick was produced by Richard Gordon who also gave us the cult favourite `Fiend Without a Face'. With the expert hand of Hammer Director Terence Fisher at the helm, Gordon has produced a similarly grotesque set of creatures to terrorize his high-class cast. True the 'Silicates' are rather funny looking, like huge rubber cow pats with a vacuum cleaner attachments that they use to grab their victims with, and suffer from the old zombie problem of moving very slowly, but they make for a wonderful sight gliding along in search of food and the manner of death they deal out is so horrible (having your bones dissolved and sucked out while alive) that damaging humour is kept at bay. There are some great attack sequences as various cast members are digested with nicely disgusting slurping sounds by the creatures whom during one sequence even drop out of the trees! More fun is had when they divide and what looks like a gallon of watery tinned spaghetti flows out! They are a bizarre and wonderfully entertaining creation.

The cast is in top form with Peter Cushing in particular giving us a delightful turn as the pathologist with a welcome streak of gentle humour. It's a role that only Cushing could play with this amount of laid back ease and he is a joy to watch. Edward Judd is nicely stoic and handles his scenes with Cushing well, showing he was a much under-used actor. Carole Grays character is the only weak link, as she is strictly the cliché woman in peril sort who is given little to do. Thankfully her love interest scenes with Judd are few and short.

The island atmosphere is captured well and Fisher makes what would normally be a tranquil setting a place of lurking menace. He also takes the viewer by surprise with his treatment of some of the characters, never letting his audience get too complacent in the expectations.

Add to all this a lean and never wasted running time, a suitably manic and funky soundtrack composition plus a typically cynical '60s epilogue and you have a film that should be much more widely known and available.

Planet Productions' also made `Night of the Big Heat', once again with Cushing and Directed by Fisher but this time throwing Christopher Lee into the mix as well and both these films, although `Island of Terror' is very much superior, both are worth tracking down. In these days where the UK only makes small scale independent, and normally U.S influenced horror films this movie reminds us that Britain once produced some unique and delightfully entertaining genre pieces.

Great fun!

By 1987 Hong Kong had given the world such films as Sammo Hung's `Encounters of the Spooky Kind' Chow Yun Fat in John Woo's iconic `A Better Tomorrow', `Zu Warriors' and the classic `Mr Vampire'. Jackie Chan was having international success on video, but it was with `A Chinese Ghost Story' that HK cinema had its first real crossover theatrical hit in the West for many years.

Western filmgoers had never seen anything like it. It was a film that took various ingredients that HK cinema had used for years (flying swordsman, wildly choreographed martial arts and the supernatural) and blended them to create a film that was unique in its look, feel and execution. Forget the poor and unnecessary sequels it spawned, this is the original and best.

Director Siu-Tung Ching (still best known as an Action Choreographer on such films as Woo's `A Better Tomorrow 2'/'The Killer') has, under the watchful eye of legendary Producer Tsui Hark, created a masterpiece of Fantasy/Horror cinema. And with such an expert crew at his disposal (no less than 6 Martial Arts Coordinators) the chances of the film being anything but wonderful would be unthinkable.

The editing by the amazingly prolific David Wu (who wrote/directed `The Bride With White Hair 2' and edited such classic titles as `A Better Tomorrow 1/2/3', `Hardboiled' and the cult hit `The Club') is quite simply a work of genius. His crafting of the perfectly choreographed high flying, tree climbing sword fights makes them some of the best HK cinema has ever created. Fast moving, outlandish but never confusing they are, even today, the pinnacle of their art.

The crew of cinematographers have also done miracles. This is a film where every shot is an expertly crafted painting. Where wonderful blue tinged night sequences, shrouded in an ever-present ghostly fog, are the breathtaking platform for our story to unfold. It's a film where everything is used to weave a dreamlike beauty. Even the silken robes and dresses worn by Hsiao Tsing become living parts of the movie, whether in romantic sequences or battle scenes the ever present silk flows across the screen. Even a simple scene where Hsiao Tsing changes robes is turned into a thing of fluttering beauty as every skill on the set combines to create a most memorable scene from such a simple act. The sets are also amazing, giving an other worldly sense to the forests, and the temple and harshness to the scorched, flag filled wasteland of hell for the amazing finale. The production design by Zhongwen Xi deserves the highest praise.

Another major factor to the films success is the music by Romeo Diaz and James Wong. Hong Kong films have given us some fantastic music and songs that have added so much to the success of a sequence, but on `A Chinese Ghost Story' the music is, quite simply, vital. From the opening song onwards the music becomes as important as the characters.

The score is a perfect mixture of modern and traditional instruments. Drums, bells and guitars pound away over the action sequences to great effect, but it's in the slower, achingly romantic pieces that it comes into it's own. Here; flutes, strings and female choral effects create what are possibly the finest pieces of music heard in an HK film. Add to this the female vocal, stunningly beautiful song that plays over Tsau-shen's and Hsiao Tsing's love making, (nothing is ever seen, but the effect is wonderful. This is lovingly innocent movie romance) and you have a shining example of the power a film's music can have.

And we of course have the acting talent. Leslie Cheung (`A Better Tomorrow 1 & 2' and a very popular singer) is outstanding as the innocent tax collector. His work in the (thankfully mild) comic sequences is never over the top and his scenes with Joey Wang are played with just the right amount of passion and innocence.

Joey Wang (who would later be mostly relegated to support roles in films like the Chow Yun Fat/Andy Lau classic "God of Gamblers") has never looked more radiant than how she does here. She is the epitome of ethereal beauty. Her portrayal of the tragic Hsiao Tsing is stunning. She shows her characters sadness at what she has become and what she is made to do, but also gives off a subtle eroticism in the scenes where she is luring the men to their gruesome deaths. Veteran actor Wu Ma (`Mr. Vampire', `Swordsman') is great fun as the wise, brave, but ever so grumpy, Yen. He treads a fine line between the eccentric and the annoying with practised ease. And what so easily could have been a character that could have harmed the film is actually wonderfully entertaining and memorable.

But what about the monsters and beasties?, I hear you cry. Well they range from the rather crude but fun stop motion/animatronic zombies that inhabit the temple (resulting in a great running gag with constantly thwarted attempts to munch on the amusingly unsuspecting Tsau-shen), to the rather cheesy but surprisingly effective Lord Black. Complete with an arsenal of vicious flying heads, and quite outstanding wire work. Most of which has, to this day, never been topped.

But the most outstanding effect and creation is the tree spirit's killer tongue. We first encounter this thing with an `Evil Dead' style rushing camera effect as it powers down its victims throats to deliver a lethal French kiss that turns the victims into zombiefied husks. But later it's shown in all its crazy glory. It can grow so big and long that it shoots through the forest after prey, rips apart trees, wraps itself around buildings and coils it's slimy length around people before picking them up and throwing them against tree trunks!! It can even split open to reveal a fang filled mouth! It's an outrageous idea that given the deeply romantic main plot shouldn't work. But it does, to fantastic and unforgettable effect.

So what all this adds up to is a classic example of Hong Kong movie making. A true team effort that has given us a truly ground breaking movie. It's a film packed with wit, invention, action, monsters, martial arts, ghosts, fantastic ideas, lush visuals, beautiful music, and most important to it's enduring charm, one of cinemas most moving romances.