Son of Kong (1933 - B/W) - A pale imitation of the film it was rushed out to follow. Kiko's cute, but barely's on screen. Slight.
The Ghost Goes West (1935- B/W) - Intermittently toe-curling and charming ode to Scottish blarney. Too genteel.
Ghosts On The Loose (1943 -B/W) - I don't get the East Side Kids. Lots of "black drama school" acting from Sunshine Sammy Morrison. Weird to see Ava Gardner in a Monogram cheapie.
Ministry Of Fear (1944 - B/W) - Some neat, ambitious blitz effects
and Lang layouts, but the whole world is terribly unconvincing.
Scarlet
Street (1944 - B/W) - Not a big noir fan. It is well-made for a noir,
but a lot of the noir details put me off. Edward G. Robinson is good, as
always, and Joan Bennett is memorable, but Dan Duryea is annoying.
The
Spiral Staircase (1946 - B/W) - The suspense is well-done, but I find
it sentimental and kind of wearing. By having a mute heroine should be
suspenseful, but it makes it oddly schmaltzy. A kind of
noir-tearjerker. Even Elsa Lanchester seems lost. Plus the victims seem
interchangeable. And the kills vague.
The Red House (1947 - B/W) - Supposed horror-mystery with Edward G. Robinson. Feels like Li'l Abner, Rory Calhoun looking like Abner. Murky rural overaged teen noir.
The Red Shoes (1948) - It looks nice, but it doesn't do anything for me. And the contemporary setting makes it feel weirder. It shouldn't be contemporary.
Berlin Express (1948 - B/W) - For once filmed on location, but not much railway action, and typical noir - Robert Ryan gazing forlornly, both gormless and tough through the darkened lights of a cabaret suite.
The Queen of Spades (1949 - B/W) - Powell/Pressburger-esque Pushkin adap. Overlong, but the projection-heavy ending works. Slightly too genteel for me.
The
Man From Planet X (1951 - B/W) - The most unconvincing Scottish people
ever including Sally Field's mam versus a unique looking but peaceful
yet misunderstood alien. Amiable Noirnsense.
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954) - It looks
lovely, but it isn't fantastic enough. It is a bunch of middle aged men
(the love interest is a seal) fighting on some nice sets. Even Mason
underplays it. Mysterious Island is so much better, though.
Invasion
of the Body Snatchers (1956 - B/W) - Not quite my thing, but well-made
compared to most US SF. But it is rote. Scenes even resemble It Came
From Outer Space.
Return of Dracula (1958 - B/W) - Francis Lederer is imposing especially in the European-set opening, but is styled to look like a fiftysomething Scouse teddy boy. And Dracula amongst limp 50s Pleasantville sitcomland is an interesting but flawed notion. Odd colour insert of blood dripping. Lederer, stifled by the mediocre surroundings is good, and had a more quality outing as Drac in Night Gallery, where the Count is portrayed as a Nazi-fighting grandad.
It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958 - B/W) - Typical B-movie nonsense, semi-amateurish idiocy made for monster kids that nonetheless inspired Alien.
Caltiki (1959 - B/W) - Muddled imitation of muddled Americana. Weird Mexican elements.
The Angry Red Planet (1959) - Typical 60s SF. Planet shots dyed red to avoid the model shots from looking too shonky. Lots of talk in a hospital room-like rocketship bridge.
Horror of Spider Island (1960 - B/W) - It's a sex film, really. Nothing more.
Village of the Damned (1960 - B/W) - Laughable for all the wrong reasons. Richard Vernon looks as old at 35 as well he ever did.
The Giant of Metropolis (1961) - Hopeless but tatty lost world peplum.
Orlak, El Inferno De Frankenstein (1961 - B/W) - Black and white Frankenstein film from Mexico. Uninteresting. Hunchbacked monster with a false head that looks like a Casper mask.
Reptilicus (1961) - Weirdly Tales from Europe-ish Scandinavian monster movie. The titular monster is a funky puppet, but it's hopeless. The same team's Journey To The Seventh Planet (1961) is also pretty ordinary. Despite clearly using medieval sets and having a princess figure.
Creation Of The Humanoids (1962) - It feels like a not-very-good episode of Out of the Unknown. In colour. All shot on one set.
The
Manchurian Candidate (1962 - B/W) - It's a mash. I find Laurence Harvey
stiff, Sinatra's less of an actor than he is a singer, and the thriller
element seems shoehorned. There's nice elements of Condon, e.g. the bed
jacket transvestitism, but aside from that, it feels too straightened.
Panic In Year Zero (1962 - B/W) - Ray Milland goes on an uninteresting family holiday, and and watch as LA is nuked. Features O.Z. Whitehead, who then moved to Dublin, and became a Rentayank for RTE.
The Awful Dr. Orloff (1962 - B/W) - It's Franco, so it's as sloppy yet oddly focused as one expects. Weird, sporadic London setting.
Lord
of the Flies (1963 - B/W) - Peter Brook's intimate style ruins the
Puerto Rico scenery, making it look like a set. And the boys'
dubbed-sounding voices rankles. Feels like a reality show more than a
movie.
Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse (1963) - Yeah, it's a typical krimi. Very stagnant, despite the fun design at times. Fails to capture Britain.
The Birds (1963) - Hitchcock too busy mooning over Tippi Hedren to try to make an interesting film.
Black Sabbath (1963) - Huh... At least, it looks nice.
Evil of Frankenstein (1964) - Hammer want to be Universal, and make this tatty schlocker.
The Time Travellers (1964) - Typical AIP fluff, a valiant but ultimately nonsensical attempt to do George Pal territory on a budget. The ending is neat, though.
Frankenstein Meets The Space-Monster (1965 - B/W) - This is what I imagine alien public television is like.
Planet Of The Vampires (1965) - Despite's Bava style, I guess I find Alien a pretty uninteresting idea. But it has some nice composition. Norma Bengell bears quite a resemblance to the young Judy Cornwell.
Village of the Giants (1965) - Our secret fear is to be menaced by a giant Beau Bridges. More Bert I. Gordon grot. Basically just a teen beach movie with gigantism.
Kill Baby Kill (1966) - Beautifully shot, but still nonsense.
Sedmi Kontinent (1966) - Weird agitprop dystopia from Yugoslavia about a world of children that baffles adults. Apt considering the film itself.
They Came From Outer Space (1967) - Weird to see Bernard Kay given star billing while Michael Gough isn't. Dull, flat, Doctor Who-ish in a bad way, but interesting to have an Asian co-lead in Zia Mohyeddin.
Twisted Nerve (1968) - Distasteful and quite silly, but I did cheer when Robin Parkinson appeared. I did once steal a toy smurf from a shop when I was 12. Weirdly set in 1970. To show Marty is odd, they have him read Marvel comics. How times change. Interesting having an Asian character in the action, and making him a doctor, which is both obvious and yet accurate, for late 60s Britain. Timothy West at least is solid.
That Cold Day In The Park (1969) - Nice views of 60s Vancouver, but aside, Altman nonsense where a twink gets silly with Sandy Dennis.
The Monitors (1969) - Watching this odd sci-fi spoof, with lots of random stock footage and Avery Schreiber and Keenan Wynn, I asked myself, "is that Dean Stockwell? No, is it? No, it isn't. Yes, no, yes!" It's his brother, Guy. Hippyish nonsense. Featuring Alan and the entire Arkin family and Stubby Kaye as himself, in the second-weirdest appearance he ever made in a sci-fi thing (nothing will ever beat his appearance in Doctor Who). And an early role from Peter Boyle. This is very much in the same bracket as The Producers, being a countercultural satire made outside the studio system, but by mainstream comedic folk.
Santo and the Treasure of Dracula (1969 - B/W) - Nonsensical. I can't take a middle-aged pot bellied bloke in a mask and rolo neck, even fighting Dracula.
Santo and Blue Demon Vs Frankenstein (1973) - Again utter melodramatic codswallop on the personal lives of fat men in masks mixed in with unenthusiastic sci-fi codswallop.
Gas-s-s-s (1970) - Typical AIP youth rally. glossy but irritating.
The
Vampire Doll (1970)/Lake of Dracula (1971) - Toho's first two Draculas.
Both are fairly standard. The former has some nice Knealey bits, and a
nice twist, but the second despite Mori Kishida's powerful Dracula, is a
cop-out, but they do have nice visuals. But fairly standard, and mostly
unremarkable.
Count Yorga, Vampire (1970)/The Return of
Count Yorga (1972) - Not a fan of these. Robert Quarry doesn't have the
magnetic presence of Christopher Lee or William Marshall. He comes
across as a slightly camp, sinister clergyman, rather than a long-lived
immortal scourge. The rest of the cast aren't much cop either (even
Michael Murphy). The sequel isn't great, but at least it feels more like
a proper film. It has a better cast. And George Macready (only in this
as a family favour, his son being the producer) as Professor Rightstat
is a nice character, Ingrid Pitt appears on the telly, and the absence
of Yorga in party photos is a nice touch, plus there's a fun quicksand
death. But they're not good. It's like a boring Dark Shadows knock-off.
Blacula (which uses the same footage) is a better take on the same.
Love at First Bite (-1979), another AIP film and not even their first "modern Dracula comedy" (Old Dracula in 1975) does it so much better, maybe because it knows it is ridiculous. And little touches like Renfield, with Arte Johnson's performance, and surely, Richard Benjamin's lovably useless Van Helsing is a parody of the ineffectual heroes who lost against Yorga.
The
Omega Man (1971) - It's decent, the soundtrack's great, but Rosalind
Cash doesn't bounce off Heston as required. And the LA setting actually
works.
Soylent Green (1973) - The opening montage declining the
fall of mankind is great, but it feels too false, very TV-ish. It may
have worked better as a TV anthology episode. And the euthanisation
sequence is brilliant.
Venom (1971) - It's beautifully
shot by Pete Walker's regular DP, but this rare British horror about a
German spider-lady is nonsense. It's very Eurotrash, but performed by
middling UK TV actors, and it lacks excitement.
Someone
Behind The Door (1971) - Depressing Dover-set thriller with Charles
Bronson, Jill Ireland and Anthony Perkins. Slow, Clemensian and quite
Canadian, but not in a good way. For added faux-Britishness, the theme
is Dvorak's theme to the Hovis ad. Which just makes one think of Bronson
riding a bike up a hill and giving Bill Maynard a loaf.
Quest For Love (1971) - Soppy romance, despite nice cameo from Laurence Naismith.
Lizard In A Woman's Skin (1971 - A load of nonsense, per usual from Lucio Fulci. Why is there a creepy puppet swan? I know the Italian censors thought the dogs with open guts were real, but they look like puppets from the Harry Hill Show. Stanley Baker looks like he's smoking spliffs, thinking, "Wait till I get the cheque after this?" The WPC outfits don't look right. Basil Dignam and Crossroads star Tony Adams have sizeable but uncredited roles.
Assault (1971) - Produced by Peter Rogers and scored by Eric Rogers, this is basically Carry On Giallo, with the perviness played for creepiness, for once. Anthony Ainley and an obvious wig are the baddie, who gets electrocuted by cartoon lightning in comical fashion. Astonishing cast, including giallo vet Suzy Kendall, Frank Finlay, Tony Beckley, Freddie Jones, Allan Cuthbertson, and pre fame turns by Lesley Anne Down,James Cosmo and David Essex looking nice in leather.
The Night of the Devils (1972) - Gianni Garko stars in this sloppy piece of Italian-Yugoslavian haunted village rabbish.
Silent Running (1972) - All I remember was the robots, Bruce Dern on his own being silly in a garden centre in space, and Joan Baez. The thing about it is it is not like other sci-fi films. It's very much an experimental, personal drama. Dern is completely convincing as an eco-warrior, to the point you really don't want to be spend this much time with him.
Slaughterhouse
Five (1972) - A bemusing selection of mostly inconsistent imagery. The
wartime stuff is good, solid, war movie, but Michael Sacks' performance
is odd, and the post-war stuff is indulgent and nonsensical.
Scream, Blacula, Scream (1973) - Blacula A.D. 1973. William Marshall sounds even more like Christopher Lee here. But having Blacula against more black youths wastes the character. A more interesting idea would have been having him amongst white high society. And the blampire (?) makeup is ridiculous. The hand of Yorga director Bob Kelljan is apparent. Pam Grier is good, and the voodoo element's fun, but it's a sequel too far.
Lemora (1973) - One of those dreamy but kind of pervy horrors about young girls and their sexuality being linked to fantasy.
The
Pyx (1973) - Dreary multilingual nonsense. Terribly made, despite Karen
Black and Christopher Plummer in a bad wig, it's about how a prostitute
in Montreal gets sacrificed. Slow.
Flesh For Frankenstein (1973)/Blood for Dracula (1974) - They look good, but they're sex farces with nice soundtracks and nice 70s art-porn photography. Though the end of Flesh is fun.
The Crazies (1973) - Like Dawn of the Dead (1979), overrated and confused.
Vampyres (1974) _ Forgot to log this earlier in the year, that and The Day The Fish Came Out (1967). Both dull.
The Doll Squad (1974) - Sub TV proto Charlie's Angels by
Ted V. Mikels. Though also a precursor of Andy Sidaris' canon. Lots of
roughly staged action, and scenes clearly shot in Mikels' castle.
Bug (1975) - William Castle's hick Phase IV. Jeannot Szwarc directs it with no joy and energy.
The Giant Spider Invasion (1975) - Only the title and the end register.
Rollerball (1975) - I find it cold, it find it silly. Ralph Richardson is fun, but it feels it should be more fun, but it wants to be The Prisoner.
Shivers (1975)/Rabid (1977)/Scanners (1980) - I find Cronenberg's horror output ruinously cold.
DOGS (1976) = Lots of slow-motion dogs. Not threatening in the slightest. Davy McCallum looks boggled.
Embryo (1976) - Odd, rather grotty little film, Rock Hudson grows Barbara Carrera out of a jar. She ages prematurely, becomes a genius, has sex with Rock, and has his baby in her dying hours. Odd, not very good, slow, would work better as a TV anthology segment.
Futureworld (1976) - Liked the control room bits in the first film. Well, here's a whole film of them. Action directed in a flat style that makes you not realise it is action. Yul Brynner appears only in a sex fantasy. Medievalworld feels even cheaper. Early CGI, though. Terrible, though.
Logan's Run (1976) - It's quite laboured, it's watchable but confused. York and Agutter don't know what accents to use, Peter Ustinov as the old man is silly, doing a very false "I'm an old American" voice.
Damnation Alley (1977) - Something comforting about a big budget 70s sci-fi film, even if it is utterly hopeless.
Day Of The Animals (1977) - Utterly hopeless, but not much entertaining. Leslie Nielsen, the Georges, Michael Ansara, Ruth Roman and 24 year old Bobby Porter as a pre-teen get lost in the woods and argue.
Mighty Peking Man (1977) - It's wonderfully cheesy Hong Kong fantasy-adventure cinema. King Kong via Green Mansions. The sets are interesting recreations of jungle settings.Evelyn Kraft a memorable heroine as Samantha. More memorable and assured than the average Japanese kaiju. Has an attack on HK-TVB TVC, during a light ent pop show. Headcanon - the British Army who turn up at the end are UNIT. At the end, it becomes almost like King Kong meets Noble House, with a giant ape shattering British colonial architecture. The end is basically, "Don't trust the Brits!". Some people think at the end, Samantha gets killed, but her legs twitch in the final shot. So she clearly didn't.
Eaten
Alive (1977) - A fervent dream of an exploitation film. A weird
almost-Hollywood break for Tobe Hooper, a group of ageing stars in a
regional exploitation idea confined to the dreamlike environs of a
strangely lit Hollywood soundstage.
Alucarda
(1977) - With OTT dubbing, odd characters such as a ginger gypsy and a
uniquely Mexican feel, this is basically Carmilla as a telenovela. Then,
it devolves into someone's Baccara-in-a-convent crucifixion sex
fantasy.
Demon Seed (1977) - Glossy but icky.
Wizards (1977) - Bakshi's never been my cuppa. This just feels all over the place.
The Fury (1978) -- De Palma's gubbins. Could have been fun if a less artsy hack was involved. Tries too hard to be Carrie II. It could have been great fun if a Franklin J. Schaffner or J. Lee Thompson was involved. Or Michael Winner. Why does the already aged Kirk Douglas go dressed as an old man? Nice soundtrack, per most De Palma. But even the climactic explosion of John Cassevetes is better than I remembered.
Absolution (1978) - Hmm. Like a lot of boarding school stories, kind of ruined by the fact the boys are sometimes clearly anything but. Andrew Keir looks younger here, than he did ten years earlier in Quatermass and the Pit. A load of nonsense. Burton does good gurning. The end is fun, freeze-framing on Burton's maddened face. Future comedy overlord Jon Plowman pops up, just before starting his career. Brian Glover is in too small a role, but he's fun. Billy Connolly's song is fun.
The Cat and The Canary (1978) - Better made
and consistently toned than its goofy precursors, though so leisurely
that it becomes hard to follow. There is no plot. There is no action.
Just people wandering about. Edward Fox is surprisingly reined in.
Beatrix Lehmann should have done more films. She steals this, her last.
The Inquest of Pilot Pirx (1978) - Interesting, competent Soviet SF, especially the weird soundtrack not unlike Ubaldo Continiello's work on Last Cannibal World.
Laserblast (1978) - Utter rubbish improved by the cool alien stop-motion creatures.
Goldengirl (1979) - 90 minutes of TV-level propaganda for the doomed Moscow Olympics. James Coburn wonders where his career went. Curt Jurgens would rather sing.
Quintet (1979) - Paul Newman and an international cast including David Langton play silly games in the ice. Dreadful Altman attempt at genre.
Supersonic Man (1979) - With New York location shooting, this Spanish Superman imitation looks quite expensive, but lacks excitement and seems focused on goofball laughs including a comic interlude with someone who looks like Shughie McFee off Crossroads. With a silly space-dog joke at the end, it's closer to The Spaceman and King Arthur than a proper superhero ride.
Agency (1980) - Advertising thriller with Robert Mitchum looking fat in a wig, and Lee Majors. Typical cold, frigid, flat TV movie-ish Canadian tax shelter product. Has a Planet of the Apes knockoff serial. And some funky music.
The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980) - Like One Of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing, but less funny yet probably less racist. Truly awful self-indulgence from a nearly dead Sellers. Helen Mirren is mooned over. Clive Dunn wears a silly hat. Nice to see John Sharp in a large role, though odd that he doesn't get starring credit, while Stratford Johns does.
Nightmare City (1980) - Umberto Lenzi imitation of Romero, artless but polished, manages to capture Romero's style quite neatly, down to Madrid locations that resemble Pittsburgh.
Chain Reaction (1980) - Action packed but cold and unendearing atomic thriller. Feels Friedkin-ish.
Galaxina (1980) - It looks surprisingly expensive, as good as Battle Beyond the Stars, which is a real compliment. Then again, Dean Cundey is DP. But it is utterly laughless. And poor Dorothy Stratten. But I kind of liked it.
Hangar 18 (1980) - Bland Sunn Classics conspiracy folderol.
Scared to Death (1980) - Featuring a Sarah Jane Smith in the Hand of Fear cosplayer, this dopey fan-made horror is an early crack at doing Alien in the suburbs. Nice Syngenor, though.
My
Bloody Valentine (1981) - The film spends too much time with the
interchangeable Culchie hoser juveniles, because the stuff with the
older characters, especially Don Francks as the Chief is, for a slasher,
genuinely well done. Creepy little knobbly bits like dogs eating hearts
are better than uninteresting slasher fodder.
Dr. Jekyll and the Women (1981) - Odd, erotic, soft-focus, random arrant nonsense. Only Patrick Magee seems to be of place in a Victorian London full of American accents. Interestingly, Udo Kier only plays Jekyll, with Gerard Zalcberg as a hulking yet oddly androgynous Hyde. He looks like a female friend of mine, disturbingly. Sounds like a cartoon, with dialogue like, "I'm going to break you in two, you decrepit hag!". Udo Kier seems to be styled to look like Tony Aitken.
Piranha II - The Spawning (1981) - Jim Cameron's always been a hack to the point Phil Hardy's the Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction Movies presumes him to be an Italian exploitation vet under a faux-American name. I know Ovidio Assonitis did most of it, but you'd never know the director of this unremarkable Love Boat-esque knockoff had even started off with Corman. Per usual for an Italian pic, the Stelvio Cipriani soundtrack is lovely.
The
Survivor (1981) - Rather slow, repetitive, nonsensical Robert Powell
vehicle based on the James Herbert novel, set in a Commonwealth
nowhereland. It begins great, and goes downhill from there.Dimly lit,
too. Ralph Cotterill an interesting baddie.
Wolfen (1981) - I like the weird CSO-ish wolf's eye shots, but Finney is a ridiculous choice as lead, with his headband, ill-fitting hairstyle and Ken Barlow accent. The whole Indian/wolf thing is a bit problematic. The idea that Native Americans are wolves in human form is a bit odd. I know it is rooted in myth, but it's put in slightly the wrong emphasis. Gregory Hines is silly, too. Slow and bloated.
A Dangerous Summer (1982) - Forgettable Australian arsonsploiter with James Mason and Tom Skerritt.
Q (1982) - The monster stuff is fun, but it otherwise feels indulgent, Cohen letting Michael Moriarty improvise, and it becomes irritating. Nice winged serpent, not much Q.
Space Raiders (1983) - Horribly lit one-set Star Wars imitation about a young boy on board a space pirate ship with Vince Edwards, made by Corman to reuse sets and costumes and footage from the superior Battle Beyond the Stars. It needs a script by John Sayles. Even though a few background details seem accidentally brilliant - space diners with red check covers and "Patsy Clone" advertised on a poster.
Timerider (1982) - Silly, unsubtle time travelling motorcyclist western with Fred Ward.
The New Barbarians (1983) - Bloke in a sheepskin jacket in a quarry fights gay barbarians. Castellari on autopilot for this not unimaginative but weak apocalyptic potboiler.
Spacehunter - Adventures In The Forbidden Zone (1983) - Like the above, but Canadian on a bigger budget and long. And not fun at all. Lots of perving over 14 year old Molly Ringwald. Not much space.
Stryker (1983) - Like the above, but no space, and Filipino. And even worse.
The Last Battle (1983) - Depressing, uppity Gallic arthouse apocalyptica shot like a perfume ad by Luc Besson.
Firestarter (1984) - Hmm. It lacks something. David Keith isn't great, Drew Barrymore is remarkably assured, Freddie Jones can't do an American accent, George C. Scott is brilliantly sinister but ridiculous in the role of a Native American bunty-man, the cinematography and Tangerine Dream soundtrack make it feel like an Aussie horror produced by Antony I. Ginnane, but it lacks energy and excitement. It's far too long. It dawdles. A better director, Michael Winner, Larry Cohen, anyone might have given some well-needed identity. Although I don't know if John Carpenter would have done it right...
The Brother from Another Planet (1984) - Sayles doesn't know if he's in genre-mode or drama mode. Joe Morton looks like Felix Dexter, and while he is a suitably alien figure, and the steel-band music perfect, Sayles doesn't seem to be that interested in him to keep the whole film going, and it doesn't have the buzz of Sayles' genre scripts. It flops about, not know where it goes, like the title character. Nice soundtrack and casual-font titles.Some bits, the music-montages feel like they come from a better, more professional film.
Repo Man (1984) - The sort of Californian punky low-budget SF that Alex Cox used to harp on about on Moviedrome, that I never liked. The difference is this was actually made by Alex Cox.
The Quiet Earth (1985) - A MAJOR DISCOVERY. BRILLIANT PERFORMANCE FROM BRUNO LAWRENCE.
Creator (1985) - Bland dramedy with Peter O'Toole doing mad scientist.
Dead
End Drive-In (1986) - Brian Trenchard Smith makes the thing look great,
but the thirty five year old Ned Manning is possibly one of the oldest
and oldest looking teenagers in film. He's almost a post apocalyptic
Timothy Lumsden. The world though feels convincing. But the plot is
weak, and the cast aren't great.
Blue Velvet (1986) - A load of darkly lit, slow, confusing, all-over-the-place nonsense. At least, Wilmington looks nice. I know it is David Lynch, so I shouldn't be moaning about how it doesn't make sense, but it feels random, swirling between a nightmare and a bland teen drama.
The Blob (1988) - The thing is the effects are great, but miring it in 80s teen movie hell kills it for me.
Amsterdamned (1988) - The bits on the canals have some nice humour. But aside, it's like a bad episode of Derrick. The look of the killer is interesting, though.
Miracle Mile (1989) - The power in the story is seeing how it works.
Bloodmoon (1990) - Veteran British cameraman Alec Mills directs this Fanta ad esque Aussie slasher featuring an absurdly fruity Leon Lissek as headmaster, but little else. One can detect that this is the style Mills used for his work on Press Gang, rather than on the Bonds.
Evil
Ed (1995) - Swedish horror, dubbed with American accents. Has American
producers who read Halliwell's. Is sleazy, full of PJ and Duncan types.
Only the Fat Gremlins provides light relief. This gore-comedy isn't my
forte, bar the work of Peter Jackson, obviously.
METROPOLIS
(2001) - I do not get anime, but I really wanted to see this as a kid.
Anime dubbing style annoys me. None of the voices sound like real
people. Too exaggerated. This is overstylised, based on a comic by Osamu
Tezuka based on the film. Little survives of Lang.
Hard
To Be A God (2017 - B/W) - Starts off promisingly, but drops the
mock-doc edge for a piece of "arty" post-Soviet Jabberwockyesque
techno-medievalist nonsense.
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