Q – The Winged Serpent (1982)

Larry Cohen’s Q – The Winged Serpent (1982) is an entertaining mix of creature feature horror and gritty New York crime drama. A winged serpent – who does not look as realistic as it does on the poster – terrorises New York rooftop bathers, construction workers and window cleaners. Good cast of B-movie regulars like […]

Le Cercle Rouge (1970)

Being a huge fan of the stylish classic Le Samourai, I’ve been very remiss in not seeking more of director Jean-Pierre Melville’s other films. When I saw a DVD copy of Le Cercle Rouge (1970) available for cheap, I snapped it up and settled in. Now if you thought Alain Delon was impeccably handsome in […]

Raising Cain (1993)

John Lithgow running the acting olympics in Raising Cain (1993), doing the most by playing the most characters, both real and/or imagined. Director Brian De Palma’s underrated early ‘90s return to the thriller genre, riffing on Hitchcock and Psycho once again in a story about baby stealing, infidelity and multiple personalities. I’d seen this before […]

F/X2 (1991)

I used to watch F/X2 (1991) so much when I was a teenager, taped off TV on VHS, more than the first one which starred “our” Bryan Brown as a special effects technician caught up in a criminal plot with Brian Dennehy as the cop after him. The sequel is more upbeat and cartoonish with […]

Love And Anarchy (1973)

I’d not heard of Love And Anarchy (1973; Film d’amore e d’anarchia, ovvero: stamattina alle 10, in via dei Fiori, nella nota casa di tolleranza..) until Lewis Rice O’Donnell talked about it. Directed by Lina Wertmüller and set during the 1930s, it’s about a fuzz-faced yokel named Tunin (Giancarlo Giannini) who travels to the city in […]