| Abigail (2024) | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Amateur | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Armour of God II: Operation Condor | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Barry Lyndon (Criterion Collection) | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Batman Ninja | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Better Tomorrow | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Comments | Directed by John Woo | ||||||||
| Better Tomorrow II | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Comments | Directed by John Woo | ||||||||
| Better Tomorrow III | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Comments | Not directed by John Woo | ||||||||
| Beyond the Gates of Hell | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Bohachi Bushido: Code of the Forgotten Eight | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Comments | Japanese exploitation film adapting a manga from the creators of Lone Wolf & Cub. | ||||||||
| Bonjour Tristesse | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Cafe Flesh | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Comments | Normally we don’t cover adult films here – but this film, a post-apocalyptic science fiction film (directed by Stephen Sayadian as “Rinse Dream”) with explicit sexual scenes, has enough going on in its narrative outside of the sex (borrowing elements from ’80s avant-garde theater, plus political satire of the new wave of nuclear dread in the 80s) to make it worth consideration. Also, Rob Zombie sampled this film on “More Human Than Human”. | ||||||||
| Clueless | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Crime Story | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Earthquake | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Fallout | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Game Trilogy (Arrow) | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Comments | Includes The Most Dangerous Game, The Killing Game, and The Execution Game | ||||||||
| Grave of the Fireflies | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Comments | The darkest film to come out of Studio Ghibli, directed by Isao Takahata and released in a double feature with My Neighbor Totoro, showing two orphaned children dealing with the horrors of US firebombing campaigns on Tokyo during the Second World War. | ||||||||
| Hard Time Bus | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Hell of a Summer | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Hercules vs The Barbarians (1964) | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| His Double Life | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| In a Violent Nature | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Independent Lens: Matter of Mind | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Juliet and Romeo | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Karate Kid: Legends | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Legend of Ochi | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Let’s Start a Cult | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Lethal Weapon | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Life at Stake (1955) | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Little Things | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Lovers Lane (Arrow) | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Murdoch Mysteries | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| NOVA: Revolutionary War Weapons | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Orlando | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Patience | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Perfect Insider | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Comments | Very involved science-fiction Locked Room murder mystery anime. | ||||||||
| Pretty Thing | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Rosario | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Rule of Jenny Pen | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| SEE | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Shadow Force | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Shrouds | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Silent Scream | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Simon Schama: The Holocaust, 80 Years On | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Sinners | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord’s Army was a Human | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Comments | One of those Isekai anime where the title clearly explains the concept. | ||||||||
| Subway | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Sugar Hill | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Comments | Blaxploitation film (in the more traditional sense – African-American leading cast but with a White director and writer), about a Black woman who runs a nightclub who ends up calling upon the power of voodoo to help avenge her husband’s death at the hands of the mafia. | ||||||||
| Unholy Trinity | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
| Watch the Skies | |||||||||
| Amazon | |||||||||
Finally, the picks of the week. Alex says, “I recommend that, if you’re in the right head space for it, you see Grave of the Fireflies once. I don’t know if I’d recommend someone buy a copy to own though. Otherwise, I’d recommend getting Sugar Hill – it’s an incredibly solid horror film in general, with a cast that is tremendously underappreciated.” Blaine says, “of the titles I’ve seen, Clueless is probably the strongest. In fact, when I met Wallace Shawn, I brought about 15 titles I own that he’s in and asked him to sign the one that meant the most to him, and he chose Clueless above The Princess Bride, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, or a wide variety of Pixar titles, and we spent several minutes talking about it.”
The funny thing about Armour of God 2 is actually Operation Condor 1, and the first Armour of God is released as Operation Condor 2 in other markets… either way, it’s classic Jackie Chan and well worth the watch.
Barry Lyndon is very good but is one of those movies I never plan on seeing again.
We all know how good the Fallout TV show was (;
I’m curious about Orlando (I did enjoy the book).
I guess I can watch Sinners… it’s not my thing but everyone said it was amazing…
Abigail was good (not great). I think they could have leaned more into the comedy but the cast was solid. They clearly want a sequel, but the titular vampire’s actress is going to age quickly. Not sure what they were thinking.
Clueless is timeless (in its way). I still maintain more filmmakers should take this approach to classics (see also: 10 Things I Hate About You).
I started Fallout, enjoyed it, then realized Season Two would be a long way off. So, I stopped and will restart it when Season Two drops.
Grave of the Fireflies has been spoiled for me, so I don’t think I can take it. It’s on my list, but like Alex said “headspace”.
I usually give Anime crap for their goofy titles, but I gotta confess, “Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord’s Army was a Human” made me chuckle and has me kind of interested.
I’ll probably catch Sinners at some point. Lots of buzz and I do want to support a filmmaker willing to go outside the studio system.
Sinners is definitely worth seeing, brilliantly directed and especially suited to the big screen, and very well acted. I recommend it despite the excessive and unnecessary endings/epilogues. One or perhaps two would have sufficed. In that sense, it demonstrates (IMO), the good things about allowing an artist to create (most of the movie) and the dubious things (pick an ending). YMMV.