Blade Of The Immortal (2017)

Blade Of The Immortal (2017; Mugen no jūnin) is a two and a half hour samurai action epic with supernatural undertones and ghoulish flashes of humour and violence befitting the reputation of its director, Takashi Miike (his 100th film as director). It’s about a masterless samurai, Manji (played by Takuya Kimura, wonderfully surly) cursed with […]

Mohawk (2017)

Mohawk (2017) is a low budget 90-minute historical-drama-action-horror-thriller set in America during the War of 1812. Two members of the Mohawk tribe – Okwaho (Kaniehtiio Horn) and Calvin Two-Rivers (Justin Rain) – and their British ally (Eamon Ferren, the only recognisable face here from Twin Peaks: The Return) try to push for the Mohawk tribe […]

Death Rides A Horse (1967)

The spaghetti western, Death Rides A Horse (1967; Da uomo a uomo), starts off with a gold-robbing gang who brutalises and murders a whole family. Except for the sole surviving boy who grows up to be John Phillip Law out for revenge. His path crosses with cowboy Lee Van Cleef, recently released from prison with […]

Doberman Cop (1977)

Aside from being referenced in True Romance and starring in Kill Bill Vol. 1, I’d not actually seen any Sonny Chiba films. So I took a chance on Doberman Cop (1977; Doberman Deka), which is based on a manga, and has Chiba playing a cop from Okinawa, trying to solve the murder of a young […]

Le Marginal (1982)

I discovered Ennio Morricone’s main theme for Le Marginal (1982) recently on a Best Of – that piece of music is awesome, with its disco-bass and dramatic strings. So I thought I’d track down and watch the movie it belonged to, a French super-cop crime thriller in the tradition of Bullitt, Dirty Harry, every cop […]