I Come in Peace (dir. Craig R. Baxley, 1990) Dolph Lundgren is Jack Caine, a Houston police detective who doesn’t play by the rules or do much to hide his Swedish accent. His partner, while conducting an undercover sting, was killed by criminals, who were themselves slaughtered by an unknown assailant. Caine is paired with … Continue reading I Come in Peace (1990)

Invasion U.S.A. (dir. Joseph Zito, 1985) Christmas in Florida somehow manages to get worse when a joint Soviet/Cuban guerilla force unleashes havoc in the streets. Ex-CIA operative Matt Hunter (Chuck Norris), who has had previous encounters with the Russian leader Mikhail Rostov (Richard Lynch), is the person best equipped to deal with these invaders. As … Continue reading Invasion U.S.A. (1985)

Dead End (dir. Jean-Baptiste Andrea and Fabrice Canepa, 2003) Have you seen or read No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre? Well, Jean-Baptiste Andrea and Fabrice Canepa almost certainly have. Sartre had his characters trapped in a finely furnished room, creating hell for themselves for sins committed during their earthly lives. Here, an American family is trapped … Continue reading Dead End (2003)

The Minus Man (dir. Hampton Fancher, 1999) The last time that anyone has thought The Minus Man in the twenty years since its release was when the AV Club published an article about its trailer. There are some notes about the movie, but the emphasis is on its unusual advertisement, one which is in some … Continue reading The Minus Man (1999)

Naked City: A Killer Christmas (dir. Peter Bogdanovich, 1998) The Naked City (1948) is an essential film noir. Directed by Jules Dassin, the film follows the police investigation of a murder in New York City in quasi-documentary fashion. Cinematographer William H. Daniels and editor Paul Weatherwax both earned an Academy Awards for their work. The … Continue reading Naked City: A Killer Christmas (1998)

Black Christmas (dir. Bob Clark, 1974) It’s Christmas break for a Canadian university. The sisters of sorority house are being harassed by obscene phone calls from an anonymous man. Later than night, one of them is suffocated by a mystery killer, who then hides the body in the attic in the first of a series … Continue reading Black Christmas (1974)

Silent Night, Bloody Night (dir. Theodore Gershuny, 1972) I do not care for Andy Warhol. I find his work vapid, empty, and worst of all boring. Some may counter that that’s the point of something like Empire. Those people can go get fucked for all I care, because I have done my due diligence. I … Continue reading Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972)

Home for the Holidays (dir. John Llewelynn Moxley, 1972) Benjamin Morgan (Walter Brennan) lost his wife to suicide several years prior, leading to a rift between him and his four daughters Frederica (Jessica Walter), Christine (Sally Field), Alex (Eleanor Parker), and Joanna (Jill Haworth). In the interim, Benjamin has remarried to a woman named Elizabeth … Continue reading Home for the Holidays (1972)

Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (dir. Curtis Harrington, 1971) I remember reading years ago this idea that the supposed ‘witches’ that were hunted in Early Modern Europe were by-and-large older women, living alone and suffering from dementia. It lacks the grandeur of either their persecutors’ delusions or of the witch-cult hypothesis that framed them as relics … Continue reading Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1971)

Blade Runner 2049 (dir. Denis Villeneuve, 2017) What has changed in the thirty years between the end of Blade Runner and the beginning of Blade Runner 2049? The details are thinly sketched in the sequel proper and across several shorts that have become standard operating procedure for any project involving Ridley Scott. The Tyrell Corporation … Continue reading Blade Runner 2049