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 […]

A Colt Is My Passport (1967)

Watching Japanese 1960s crime flicks (particularly those produced by Nikkatsu Corporation) is always an insight into how much Quentin Tarantino has ripped off them off (also Jim Jarmusch when he makes hitman movies, and I tend to think of Jarmusch a bit more just because there’s a certain level of economy shared). Then again, A […]

Blastfighter (1984)

One golden rule about Italian genre flicks if you can’t get Franco Nero as the lead, then get a guy who looks him. Maurizio Merli was busy, so for the motion picture titled Blastfighter (1984) Michael Sopkiw steps in with an effective moustache, playing the role of “Tiger” Sharp, an ex-cop released from prison for […]

Un Flic (1972)

Grey buildings standing imposingly on a French coastline. An incoming storm whips the ocean and rain washes over deserted streets. A car moves slowly with four men in trench-coats and hats. They stop on a street corner and through the mist is a bank with its lights on, just about to close for the day, […]

The Hidden (1987)

Somewhere between The Thing and The Terminator lies… The Hidden (1987). I have a strong memory of the VHS in my local video store being adorned with a “Recommended” sticker, which always jumped out at me, particularly for movies that I’d never heard of or felt had received a cinema release, and getting that extra […]