Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 7th, 2011
A good friend of mine and I have had long-standing difference of opinion about Black Sabbath. He has no interest in anything post-Ozzy. I continued to buy Sabbath albums though all the band’s different incarnations, and while some releases did, I confess, require a greater degree of loyalty than others, the Ronnie James Dio studio albums (Heaven & Hell, Mob Rules, Dehumanizer) have always been favorites of mine.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 6th, 2011
World War II has just ended, and the recently discharged Robert De Niro hits New York on the prowl for sex. He runs up against WAC Liza Minnelli, and the more she resists his advances, the more determined he becomes. There is more: he is a saxophonist, and she (of course) is a singer). So begins a tempestuous relationship between two artists whose enormous talents and equally enormous personalities mean they can neither live with nor without each other.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 24th, 2011
The second version of Cornell Woolrich’s novel “Waltz Into Darkness” (previously filmed as François Truffaut’s Mississippi Mermaid), this is a decidedly steamier version, especially here, in its unrated form.
Cuban plantation owner Antonio Banderas advertises for a wife, and the woman who answers his ad is, he believes, plain but pure. Who shows up, however, is the beautiful but duplicitous Angelina Jolie, who has larceny rather than matrimony on her mind. Her scam runs smoothly at first … but she hasn’t counted on the depth of Banderas’ obsession with her.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by David Annandale on June 13th, 2011
When the ambassador husband of Lady Elena Hamilton (Anita Rinaldi) is kidnapped by pirates, and she receives no help from the authorities, she decides to rescue him herself. To this end, she recruits the roguish Captain Thomas Butler (Carlo De Palma), and together they put together an eccentric band of misfits for the mission.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by David Annandale on June 13th, 2011
Pierfancesco Campanella (who also wrote the film) stars as a university psych grad student working on his doctorate. He embarks on some radical research by shooting up, and the next thing we know, he's killing his mother by depriving her of drugs, poking a baby with a needle, and generally behaving rather badly. He winds up at a rich man's residence, hooks up with his spoiled daughter, and the two embark on a picaresque journey of debauchery and murder.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by David Annandale on June 13th, 2011
Sigh. Another day, another misleading title. Let's get one thing straight right off the bat. This is NOT a sequel to Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust. It isn't even an imitator. It isn't even fiction (at least, it isn't meant to be). It's original title is “Nuova Guinea, l'isola dei cannibali” (“New Guinea: Island of Cannibals”), and it's a 1974 mondo movie, purporting to feature footage shot for the benefit of Queen Elizabeth on the occasion of her visit to the island, so she would have a better idea of the culture she was encountering. Whatever. In any event, this is a film made five years prior to the movie its title suggests it is following, and doesn't actually have any cannibals, as such, in it.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 13th, 2011
Jean-Hugues Anglade plays Zorg (yup, that's his name), a handyman living in a beach-front house, scribbling away quietly in his spare time. Not so quiet is his tempestuous affair with Betty (Béatrice Dalle in her debut), whose passions overwhelm both of them. First, she moves in on him with no warning. Then, when she discovers his writing, she decides they must move to Paris so he can have a career as a writer. To make sure Zorg complies, she burns his house to the ground. Once in Paris, her plans for him fall apart, and so, bit by bit, does she.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 6th, 2011
A mother locks her child in a closet so she can have an uninterrupted tryst with her lover. But the couple is rudely interrupted after all, as they are bludgeoned to death. Ten years later, a group of friends arrive at the deserted house to party down. After doing so for a fair bit of running time, they then fall prey to a hulking masked maniac, who not only has the titular hammer, but also has all sorts of supernatural powers.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 6th, 2011
Looking for a something a bit different for you gangster flick fix? Then look no further than this box set of gritty, thematically linked Italian crime pictures from director Fernando Di Leo. Things don't get much more delightfully 70s than this.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 19th, 2011
During the Korean War, a platoon led by Laurence Harvey and Frank Sinatra is captured and sent off to Manchuria. Here the men are brainwashed into believing that Harvey saved them all in an incredible feat of heroism (which he did not) and that he’s a loveable guy (which he isn’t).The unfortunate Harvey is programmed to become a remote-control assassin. Back in the States, Sinatra is plagued by nightmare memories of the experience, and gradually comes to believe that something … really did happen.
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