Hard Boiled (1992)

Considering how much I loved The Killer as a teenager, I can’t believe it took me this long to see Hard Boiled (1992), which was the action classic every one said it was, maybe the height of director John Woo’s craft. Well, I still can’t get over Woo thinking “How can I raise the stakes […]

A Lizard In A Woman’s Skin (1971)

Exploring further the world of giallo – 1970s-era Italian thrillers with plenty of eroticism, style and violence – I watched Lucio Fulci’s A Lizard In A Woman’s Skin (1971; Una lucertola con la pelle di donna), a title that is more of a metaphor than a creature feature thing. Bored glamorous Carol (Florinda Bolkan) is […]

Stormy Monday (1988)

Acquired this from Arrow Video on Blu-Ray a whim and I really dug it. Stormy Monday (1988) is only 95 minutes long but it moves slow, luxuriating in the neo-noir atmosphere it creates in Newcastle, England. Wet streets, neon signs and dime-store archetypes. Oh, and the quartet of lead actors are all looking incredibly foxy, […]

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 […]