Film Reviews

Rate This Movie SYNOPSIS: A semi-biographical account of Yip Man, the first martial arts master to teach the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun REVIEW: When I was asked to review “Ip Man”, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. Having watched the film a couple of times over the past year, I still can’t contain how much I actually love …

Rate This Movie SYNOPSIS: When a mysterious groupie joins legendary cursed band, “The Dark Knights”, a series of unexplained murders derails their comeback tour.   REVIEW: When I think of Mark L. Lester, I expect a film to revel in excess. Maybe excessive violence, excessive, nudity, or excessively bad dialogue and one-liners. I haven’t followed his career since 1991 when …

SYNOPSIS: The Los Angeles punk music scene circa 1980 is the focus of this film. With Alice Bag Band, Black Flag, Catholic Discipline, Circle Jerks, Fear, Germs, and X.

SYNOPSIS: Supermodel Arina is doing a photo shoot for a new lipstick when she is attacked by a crazed fan. Officer Gotoda comes to her rescue and quickly subdues the young man. Arina’s sister Keiko, who is also her manager, heaps praise on the brave policeman; Arina, still shaken, gives him the lipstick sample from the shoot as a token …

Rate This Movie (aka Jigoku kôshien ) SYNOPSIS: Battlefield Baseball is a tough game–it doesn’t end until all the members on the opposing team are dead. In this game the Gedo High team is composed of blue-faced zombies, and their opponents on the Seido High team know they don’t have a chance at beating them unless they can bring back …

Rate This Movie SYNOPSIS: This Christmas everyone will believe in Santa Claus. Too bad we literally better not pout, or cry, or shout. Because this year Santa really is coming to town &  he ain’t bringing any bags filed with toys. You better watch out indeed….. REVIEW: It seems like The Black Saint has seen about 50 movies this week alone. …

Rate This Movie (aka Sympathy for Lady Vengeance) SYNOPSIS: The final installment of director Chan Wook Park’s revenge trilogy (preceded by Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy) chronicles the efforts of Lee Geum-ja (Yeong-ae Lee) — known to her cellmates as “the kind Ms. Geum-ja” — to track down the man who betrayed her. Taking the rap for her accomplice …

SYNOPSIS: While marketed as a sequel to Shogun’s Sadism: The Joys of Torture, The Joys of Torture 2 is neither directed by Teruo Ishii and does not seem to be an official sequel. However it is set, as is the former, during the Japanese Edo era and takes its inspiration from the horrific and grotesque forms of torture used during …

Rate This Movie SYNOPSIS: Italian horror director Lucio Fulci’s mind is his own worst nightmare in this graphically gory fright fest that gained a cult following thanks to an initial ban in the United Kingdom and one of the highest body counts in European cinema. In the midst of completing his latest masterpiece, Fulci is gripped by horrifying specters from …

SYNOPSIS: The twenty-four year-old aspirant actress Ginette Cazonni goes to an audition with the underground director Alex Scerba and they have one night stand. Ginette finds one earring identical to the one that belongs to her friend Marzia Foster that has been missing for three days on the stage and keeps it with her. Alex invites Ginette to go to …

Rate This MovieSYNOPSIS: “A group of gold thieves pull off a heist and flee into the snowy wilderness, only to be pursued by a horrible spider-like monster.” REVIEW: I have for your enlightenment a message film from the Corman Brothers, with the grammatically challenging title of Beast From Haunted Cave (1959). Made in 1959, its message is Crime Does Not …

Rate This MovieSYNOPSIS: “This remarkable little film is a wonderful homage to the talents of the late Paul Chubb, who for once was able to showcase his ability as the lead in a feature film. He’s private detective Dirk Trent, a collector of cigarette butts, a ‘smooth’ ladies man, a wearer of bad suits, and he’s convinced there’s more to …

Rate This Movie SYNOPSIS: While on a camping trip deep in the woods, a group of college students encounters a mysterious creature that tricks them by emitting hallucination-inducing sound waves and luring them to their deaths. Taking refuge in a remote farmhouse, the survivors band together and soon realize they must come up with a plan to kill the horrifying …

SYNOPSIS: A teenager stumbles upon an alien weapon, which transform him into a grotesque killer. REVIEW: Laserblast alluded me for many years. This sci-fi horror film of 1978 believe it or not was on the cusp of cutting edge. Or so I thought. I distinctly remember seeing the advert when it arrived thinking, this “might be” very cool cinema. Boy …

Rate This Movie SYNOPSIS: Some teenagers walk around with a chip on their shoulder: Light Yagami, the alienated hero of the macabre fantasy-adventure Death Note (2006) has a Shinigami (god of death) named Ryuk hovering over his shoulder. Although he’s one of the top-ranked high school students in Japan, Light is repulsed by the lack of justice he sees in …