Heat (1986)

Not to be confused with the cops-and-robbers epic starring DeNiro and Pacino, Heat (1986) is based on a novel written by William Goldman, Oscar-winning screenwriter of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid and The Princess Bride. I remember reading about it in his book, Adventures In The Screen Trade, and how the film adaptation went […]

Drunken Angel (1948)

Past Movie Squad reviewer Paul Grace wrote a recommendation of Drunken Angel (1948) for an old issue of the VHS Tracking zine. Directed by Akira Kurosawa, I only realised after I had watched it that it was his first collaboration with actor Toshiro Mifune. While he’s always been a handsome, attractive man to me, Mifune […]

A Week’s Vacation (1980)

Sunday afternoon dread when the working week beckons. This is a feeling that A Week’s Vacation (1980; aka A Week Of Holidays aka Une semaine de vacances) is about, yet it also works as a soothing balm for such an emotion. The second film I’ve watched by French director Bertrand Tavernier, A Week’s Vacation is […]

Replicant (2001)

Journeying further into the world of direct-to-video Jean-Claude Van Damme releases from the late 1990s and early 2000s brings me to watching Replicant (2001) for the first time. Released in the waning years of Van Damme’s box office popularity, where his movies were coming out on DVD rather than cinema screens, I had heard some […]

Where Is The Friend’s Home? (1987)

After seeing one or two Abbas Kiarostami directed films, friends had recommended the Koker Trilogy – not an official trilogy but three films shot in the Iranian village of Koker. Where Is The Friend’s Home? (1987; Khane-ye dust kojast) was added to Mubi recently and I was very keen to see it. Whenever I see […]