“The Equalizer 2” came out in 2018, and while this isn’t exactly a review of the film, it had me thinking about the often odd behaviour of bad guys in action flicks. (Disclaimer: my comments are based solely on what seems logical and not on any knowledge of military or secret agent tactics and training).…
When I saw the previous Alien film, “Prometheus” I did not like it, the main reason being that characters who were allegedly professionals acted in very unprofessional ways to advance the plot. It was poor writing, basically. But surely, I said to myself, they wouldn’t make that mistake twice, would they? Yeah, they would. (Warning:…
“Night of the Eagle” is based on a story by Fritz Leiber, and the screenplay was written by Fritz Leiber, Richard Matheson and two others. It concerns a university professor who is a sceptic, dismissing all superstition and insisting everything can be explained rationally. When he discovers his wife has been practising magic for years,…
“The Taking of Pelham 123” is an action crime drama directed by Joseph Sargent, who seems to have mainly done television directing. Maybe that would have been useful as he would have been used to working on a low budget and making everything very tight and with minimal expense. It means that this film manages…
“Triangle” is a supernatural thriller, and follows Jess (Melissa George), a single mother of a disabled son, who accepts an invitation to go sailing with a friend and his other friends. After running into trouble at sea, they come across a huge steam ship and board it, only to find it (apparently) deserted. Characters are…
This film, directed by Gore Verbinski and starring Dane Dehaan and Jason Isaacs, has been labelled a horror movie. I didn’t really see it as such, and I would call it a fantasy/mystery. It’s also weird and quite atmospheric. Dehaan plays a young business executive called Lockhart, who is ordered by his company to go…
Never mind the Hallmark movies, if you want a great Christmas film, you can’t go wrong with this. Starring Cary Grant, David Niven and Loretta Young, “The Bishop’s Wife” involves Bishop Henry Brougham (David Niven) who becomes obsessed with the idea of building a cathedral. This needs funds, and his main donor is a self-absorbed…
On the face of it, there’s nothing much to it. The run time is under half an hour, the animation is shoddy, and the voice actors mostly inexperienced. The plot is rudimentary at best. And yet … there’s something about Charlie Brown and his friends that appeals to people all over the world. They inhabit…
This film was released in 1950, and directed by the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. Ostensibly a murder mystery, it relates the tale of a samurai who has been found dead, his wife raped, and the enquiry into how this happened. The whole story is told in flashback. The framing device is that of three…
Take cold war fears of nuclear annihilation, and add in an intelligent super-computer gone amuk, and you have ”Colossus: The Forbin Project”. This was certainly not the first time a computer taking over had been depicted on film – both “2001 A Space Odyssey” and “Alphaville” predate this, for example. The idea also appeared in…
