Sharky’s Machine (1981)

Sharky’s Machine (1981) has a great opening sequence of Burt Reynolds looking gruff, striding through fog on a train track to the sounds of Randy Crawford’s ‘Street Life’ (later used on the soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown). Directed by Reynolds himself, this is adapted from a William Diehl novel and works as a 1980s […]

Fallen Angels (1995)

I hadn’t seen Wong Kar-Wai’s Fallen Angels (1995), I don’t think, since seeing it on SBS as a teenager. I loved it then, but only seemed to remember the opening section with the cool hitman (Leon Lai) wielding two hand guns, like an arty version of a Hong Kong action movie, and his handler (Michelle […]

Cat Chaser (1989)

Cat Chaser (1989) is an adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel and is directed by Abel Ferrara. However, it is a film that he disowns and sits low in critical reflections of his filmography. From interviews I’ve read (the Hidden Films article about it is insightful), it was a troubled production with stars Peter Weller […]

Body Snatchers (1993)

Merging my horror movie viewing in the lead up to Halloween with my on-going retrospective of director Abel Ferrara’s filmography this year, I thought I would revisit Body Snatchers (1993), his sci-fi horror film for Warner Brothers. If it wasn’t for the later box office bomb of the Nicole Kidman starring The Invasion, this was […]

Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning (2012)

Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning (2012) might be a sequel but it’s also a resetting. Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren are the game pieces but the board has changed (even Andrei Arlovski from the previous sequel is another refashioned game piece). After making an impressively gritty, muscular action film out of a DTV franchise […]