British war film Aces High, from 1976, is an airborne version of 1920s play Journey’s End. The story once again centres on a week in the lives and (mostly) deaths of a First World War battalion, with the action moved from the trenches to the skies. The cast is a veritable who’s who of…
Night Moves
I don’t remember a whole lot about Arthur Penn’s noirish 1975 thriller Night Moves, other than when I saw it on TV years ago in the 80s, the station had somehow screwed up adjusting the aspect ratio – hence the boom mic was flapping about in shot for about half the scenes. Talk about distracting!…
The Gauntlet
The Gauntlet is not one of Clint’s best efforts, but it comes with a fantastic poster illustration by renowned fantasy artist Frank Frazetta. Frazetta is often referred to as the “Godfather of fantasy art”, and was one of the most renowned illustrators of the 20th century. Much of the time he worked in the sword…
Manhattan
Its not very fashionable to plug Woody Allen these days, for entirely understandable reasons. (Quite apart from most of his recent efforts being awful). But its worth remembering back in the day he did deliver a number of classics, not least 1979’s Manhattan. Its a romantic comedy, but also a love letter to Allen’s beloved…
Romancing The Stone / Jewel of the Nile
Romancing The Stone turned out to be a very pleasant surprise for me. I got sent to review it for my student paper and went in with zero advance knowledge and low expectations. It turned out to be a remarkably entertaining movie, with great chemistry between leads Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. This was also…
Quadrophenia
My friend Andrew who is a huge Who fan has been asking me blog about this poster, as he also owns a copy. This is the UK “Quad”(!) I think I got this for free from a bookshop window display back when the movie came out. It was damaged badly at one edge and I…
Monsters From An Unknown Planet / Godzilla
I was never much of a Godzilla geek, although I do remember watching some of the old, badly dubbed Japanese originals on afternoon TV as a kid. The kick out of watching these films inevitably came from seeing the regular wanton destruction of Tokyo model sets by men in rubber suits. It was interesting also…
Twins of Evil / Hands of the Ripper
This double bill poster is for two of the more memorable latter-day Hammer horrors. Twins of Evil had Peter Cushing and twin lesbian vampire sisters to recommend it, but skimming through it again recently on You Tube it all looks rather cheap and style-free. I’ve not seen Hands of the Ripper in years but…
Zardoz / The Final Programme
These are two of the weirdest movies to come out of the UK in the 70s. I’m posting the Zardoz UK quad in memory of the late, great Sir Sean Connery, although in all honesty this is probably not the movie for which he would most like to be remembered! Zardoz was a sci-fi movie…
Crimes of Passion
This film is cinematic Marmite – you either love it or hate it. I am in the former camp, although quite what that says about me I don’t know. I remember going to see this while at university, with my friend John. We both really enjoyed it, to the point that he recommended it highly…