Lone Wolf And Cub: Baby Cart In Peril (1972)

With the Criterion Collection boxset of Lone Wolf And Cub beckoning me back on the demon path to hell, it was time to continue with the fourth entry, Baby Cart In Peril (1972). Being in the back half of the series, there were definitely sequences where I was like, this feels familiar, have they done […]

Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)

Clive Barker’s Hellraiser is obviously a horror classic, and it was something I only experienced for the first time during last year’s Halloween. With a horror icon in Pinhead (Doug Bradley), whatever dated effects are to be found in there are made up for by the film’s perverse, sadomasochistic fervour; this wasn’t just a slasher, […]

Lone Wolf And Cub: Baby Cart To Hades (1972)

There’s something about Tomisaburo Wakayama’s portly stature and sullen demeanour as Ogami Itto, the wandering ronin, at the centre of the Lone Wolf And Cub series. A highly skilled and almost invincible assassin, Wakayama grounds everything with his grumpy stoicism and physicality, particularly in the face of enemy hordes and gushing blood sprays. Or in […]

Drunken Master II (1994)

Over the closing credits of Drunken Master II (1994; aka The Legend Of Drunken Master), as tradition with a lot of Jackie Chan movies, we see out-takes of the stunts and action sequences. And it helpfully confirms that Jackie Chan did indeed throw himself onto an actual bed of fiery coals in the factory climax, […]

Psycho II (1983)

Now this is a legacy sequel! Psycho II (1983) was actually a box office hit, from what I’ve read, and exists nicely at this cross-section of eras and influences: obviously 1960s Hitchcock, but also 1970s Network TV Mystery Of The Week and 1980s Slasher Sequels. While an unnecessary sequel to a genre-defining classic twenty years […]