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 […]

Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2018)

All I knew about the Chinese film, Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2018; the title is appropriated from Eugene O’Neill’s play but has nothing to do with it) was that it had an unbroken shot that went for like an hour (59 minutes to be precise; basically the second half of the movie) and that […]

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 […]

The Drowning Pool (1975)

I was in the mood for some 1970s neo-noir and this fit the bill. Harper was a 1960s private eye flick starring Paul Newman as Lew Harper, a character from a series of Ross Macdonald novels. I saw it awhile back and I remember it intentionally reviving the 1940s Humphrey Bogart PI mould for a […]

The Killer (1989)

I remember first watching The Killer (1989) thanks to SBS Cult Movie night as well as renting a VHS version with a terrible English dub. Reviving the Dragon Dynasty DVD I owned of this Hong Kong action classic directed and written by John Woo, it was a pleasure to revisit. When I was younger, much […]