I remember one thing and one thing only about the 1959 version of Jules Verne’s classic novel. I saw in on TV years ago when I was a kid and my sole recollection is being very disturbed by a scene where the baddie is found to have killed and eaten another character’s pet duck. We…
First Blood
Whilst I intensely dislike the jingoistic and increasingly ridiculous sequels, I have a soft spot for Sly Stallone’s original Rambo movie (before he became an indestructible one-man army). Here, he is portrayed more as a vulnerable and disturbed Vietnam veteran – not so much fighting to try rewrite the result of the Vietnam war as…
Exorcist II : The Heretic
When it comes to discussing terrible sequels to great movies, Exorcist II is invariably at the front of the conversation. It’s a movie which manages to throw out just about everything which made the original so compelling. Linda Blair returns as a teenage Regan, and Max Von Sydow plays a young Father Merrin in a…
Mishima
I must admit I fell asleep in the cinema during Mishima, which is probably rather unfair on Paul Schrader’s movie. Maybe it was a long day, maybe I wasn’t in the mood for subtitles, but I did find it rather dull at the time (hence the snooze). Mishima is the bizarre true story of a…
Le Mans
I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen this iconic Steve McQueen movie. If I have, I remember nothing of it. McQueen was a renowned petrol-head, and having done many of his own driving stunts in Bullitt, having him star in a movie about the famous 24-hour race seems like a natural fit. For added realism,…
Dumbo
“I be done seen about everything when I see an elephant fly.” Dumbo is, I think, one of the most charming of the classic Walt Disney animations. The movie was produced on a relatively low budget after the financial failures of the expensive Pinocchio and Fantasia. Its a brisk 64 minute fable of a baby…
The Parallax View
The Parallax View is possibly the most paranoid of a small wave of paranoid thrillers from the 70s. Several of these (including Klute and All The President’s Men) were also directed by Alan J Pakula. Here, Warren Beatty stars as a crusading journalist who comes to realise that all witnesses a political assassination are steadily…
Psycho II
I recall Psycho II being a better movie than it had any right to be. Whilst the idea of making a sequel to arguably Hitchcock’s most famous movie might seem like sacrilege, Psycho II was more than the abject cash-in that might have been expected. I remember the shift from black and white to colour in…
Cool Hand Luke
“What we have here is a failure to communicate….” These are the last words spoken by Paul Newman’s Luke, a fiercely disruptive convict, whom the authorities are determined to crush in 1967’s classic prison drama. Unbroken to the last, he parodies the exact words spoken to him by the warden before being shot. Cool Hand…
The Final Conflict
The Final Conflict was the concluding chapter in The Omen trilogy (well, it was until someone had the bright idea to flog a dead horse with Omen IV…) I always found it a poor fit with the previous two movies, the basic premise being that the Devil’s son Damien is now a grown adult, intent…