A few reviews

Mona Best And The Beatles - 2026 - UK

Mona Best And The Beatles - 2026 - 6/10

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Pete was attending college, until his mother bought a building and installed a music club in the basement.
The Casbah Club.
Pete then decided he wanted to be a musician. And began drumming.
Eventually joining an up and coming trio who had trouble retaining drummers: John, Paul and George.
The Beatles are the backbeat of this docudrama, yet the focus is on Pete, mother Mona, and driver, manager Neil Aspinal and his swirling relationship with all concerned.
Sound mix varies. Otherwise, this may intrigue fans of the Fab Four.
 
Steve - 2025 - UK

Steve - 2025 - 7/10

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There’s more to this life than you see, than you can imagine.
Eventually, things always have a way of turning.
Steve is headmaster for a school for those who used to be deemed Young Offenders.
Troubled lads, late teens. Too much anger and testosterone.
The government wants to close these schools, so BBC sends out a crew.
Do the boys play nice? Feign politeness for the camera?
From the getgo, everyone is in your face and frothing.
Know your tolerance.
 
Amandaland - 2025 - UK

Amandaland - 2025 - 6/10

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Recovering from a divorce, Amanda and her two children, relocate to an untrendy neighborhood.
A wannabee influencer, her brand, Senuous, is a nonstarter.
Vain, vapid, supercilious, she is pretentious, and ruthlessly mocked.
Of course, you know these types. They are coworkers or, worse, relatives.
This gets funnier as it goes along, and one grows familiar with the characters.
Similar to Julia Davis fare (Nighty Night, Camping) albeit less savage, less sleazy.
 
Pick-Up - 1933 - USA

Pick-Up - 1933 - 6/10

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Mary is handed $5.00, then released from the penitentiary.
In the big city, she’s soon down to pennies, when a cabbie takes pity on her.
Harry lets her crash in his apartment, which she soon spruces up.
They make a good team, with a bright future, except –
She neglects to tell him about a tiny detail … her husband … still in the slammer.
Racy Pre-Code (tame now) deals with suicide, premarital sex, crime.
Raft & Sidney star, plus a treat to see Charles Middleton as a good guy.
 
Jason And The Argonauts - 1963 - UK

Jason And The Argonauts - 1963 - 7/10

Jason is sent of a bit of a fool’s errand by an unrecognized enemy.
Bring back the Golden Fleece. A sheepskin? No matter.
Jason assembles a team including Hercules … and some other guys.

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Bare bones of this wonderful Saturday adventure classic.
Intrigue, combat, death, gods, goddesses, jaw dropping effects.

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Stop-motion effects still hold up, and remain startling.
Herrmann and Harryhausen both fabulous.
CGI, what’s that?
 
Un Chant d'Amour - 1950 - France

Un Chant d'Amour - 1950 - 6/10

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Two convicts, separated by thick concrete, communicate and ignore.
A voyeuristic guard spies on both, more so as there is a homoerotic vibe.
Part experimental, part fantasy, part judgmental.
Prude alert, male nudity abounds.
 
Murder By The Lake - 2016 - Germany

Murder By The Lake - 2016 - 6/10
AKA - Die Toten vom Bodensee

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Deaths on the Austria / Germany force two police departments to work together.
Male German, female Austrian. Both, as we find out, tote baggage.
Three mysteries from the first year are solid, if soon unimaginative.
A simmering Celtic curse, rabies outbreak, promiscuous teacher.
Biggest issue is the reliance on the defective detective concept.
Say, for instance, your home is burgled.
Do you want to hear the cop talk about his financial woes or his partner’s cocaine habit?
The misfit officer is a bankrupt crutch used by untalented writers. Replace them.
 
The Year Of The Plague - 1979 - Mexico

The Year Of The Plague - 1979 - 5/10
AKA - El Año de la Peste

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It begins with a man sick on the subway, followed by doctors with suspicions.
Soon enough, medical types attempt to sound a public alert.
And are thwarted by politicians, the wealthy, and the ruling class who suppress.
Mexican contagion-fest takes way too long to ramp up, and is talky for too long.
Final half hour pretty good: public chaos, armed police, human sacrifice, mass graves, and bodies dropping like the city was sprayed with a can of Raid.
Despite script by Gabriel García Márquez, this ultimately disappoints.
English subs = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3369232
 
Attack Of The Robots - 1966 - France

Attack Of The Robots - 1966 - 5/10
AKA - Cartes sur Table

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Dark skinned humanoids openly assassinate leaders and dignitaries.
Besides the skin, a dead giveaway is their special spectacles.
Though predating either, they resemble Autons and Cybernauts.
Interpol contacts retired agent, Al Pereira.
Pereira, a frequent alter-ego of Jess Franco, is played by Eddie Constantine for laughs.
Power struggle between Interpol, Chinese agents, and the evil controllers.
Two-fisted spoof of spy flicks and late Krimi is mindless fluff.
English subs = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3369231
 
Marching Powder - 2025 - UK

Marching Powder - 2025 - 6/10

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After being arrested for fighting, Jack is given a short leash. Six weeks to straighten his life.
He’s 45, still brawling, addicted to cocaine, poor husband, worse father, sponge.
Acid humor throughout, yet this satire of yob culture has been done too often.
Dyer could do this in his sleep, at times it looked like he was.
Bristling dialogue enliven this.
No matter any sort of ending, his time seems numbered.
English subs = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3369230
 
Grave Torture - 2024 - Indonesia

Grave Torture - 2024 - 6/10
AKA - Siksa Kubar

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After their parents are killed in a suicide bombing, Adil and Sita are sent to an ultra-religious school.
Where they are threatened, bullied, coerced, abused.
Years later, Sita slowly builds her vengeance.
On those responsible, and the religion underpinning society.
“… someone has to prove that religions intimidate people.”
Slow boil thriller from Joko Anwar waits until the final act to veer into full bore Horror.
Sita is a remorseless fury, damaging perceived enemies and innocents in her path.
Ending might have been meant for cultural authorities.
English subs = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3369229
 
I, Claudius - 1976 - UK

I, Claudius - 1976 - 8/10

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Spellbinding adaptation of Robert Graves novel, itself a distillation of Suetonius’ scurrilous accounting.
Long study of Claudius from his birth, agonizing childhood, ascension to the throne, murder.
Adultery, assassination, betrayals, vengeance, back-stabbing, this encapsulated the swath of human treachery.
Derek Jacobi, as the stammering, perceived fool is one of many pitch-perfect actors.
Brian Blessed as the boisterous Augustus, and Siân Philips as the venomous Livia.
Likewise John Hurt as the insane Caligula, and Patrick Stewart as the conniving Sejanus.
The budget on this was low, and the look lacks the polished gloss of later productions.
Nonetheless, this remains an astounding journey of political intrigue and murderous ambition.
 
Shiny, Shiny Bright New Hole In My Heart - 2006 - UK

Shiny, Shiny Bright New Hole In My Heart - 2006 - 6/10

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Nathalie is a professional shopping advisor.
Her taste is impeccable; her clients are beyond affluent.
Envy, perhaps the contagion of being amidst such luxury, begin a slow grip.
Husband Jeremy is a doctor, so the credit card has a high limit.
Until spending brings more joy than mere ownership.
“Shopping addiction” which to me is another manifestation of the big empty.
Never enough, no matter how much, never enough. Their souls are empty.
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3369652
 
Crime Without Passion - 1934 - USA

Crime Without Passion - 1934 - 6/10

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Lee Gentry is the rare sort: an unscrupulous attorney.
Who gets clients acquitted by trickery, chicanery, outright dishonesty.
Sheesh, the sort of lawyer who will make you lose faith in the courts.
Meanwhile, relationship troubles.
He wants to dump passionate Carmen for a blonde iceberg.
Claude Rains delicious as the conniving cheat, while 17-year-old Margo is dazzling.
Strange Pre-Code, nevertheless.
 
Cat’s Cradle - 1959 - USA

Cat’s Cradle - 1959 - 6/10

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Staccato cut film of firelight, sunlight, glimpsed females and a cat.
Unsure what the creator is trying to communicate.
Of course, this could be from the feline point of view.
Any one who lives with cats, however, will say they are far more patient.
Bracing short, furiously edited, not for all tastes.
 
Natural Born Killers - 1994 - USA

Natural Born Killers - 1994 - 7/10

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Oliver Stone’s freewheeling satire on America’s glorification of violence.
Hero worship of serial killers, mass murderers, cult leaders.
By genius of casting, Woody Harrelson is cast as the unstoppable, Juliet Lewis his match.
Violence is blood soaked, and pulls no punches about America’s comfort with killing.
Should this get a remake, a script might include tolerance of pedophiles and rape.
Along with media doing anything for ratings, toss in “influencers” doing likewise.
Director’s commentary is essential for aspiring filmmakers, as Stone is nonstop with information.
 
Hanzo The Razor: Sword Of Justice - 1973 - Japan

Hanzo The Razor: Sword Of Justice - 1973 - 6/10
AKA - Goyôkiba // 御用牙

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Introducing law enforcement’s most innovative interrogator.
Hanzo is a righteous Edo officer, incorruptible, in pursuit of a prison escapee.
He tracks him by employing various S&M techniques on females who know “something”.
Oh, and his Razor nickname has to do with his terrifying schlong.
Nudity, torture, geysers of blood, misogyny, and a funky Blaxploitation soundtrack.
A wild film that would be surpassed by the sequel, The Snare.
 
Three Kings - 1999 - USA

Three Kings - 1999 - 6/10

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Following the conclusion of one of the Gulf Wars, three Army soldiers learn of stolen gold.
Before one can say, “Finders keepers” they are fleeing across the desert terrain.
Dodging insurgents, corrupted colleagues, journalists, refugees, and the elite Republican Guard.
Bitter comedy that holds up less and less as history repeats endlessly in that region.
I remain unsure / unconvinced of the script credit.
 
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