Skyscraper (1996)

Skyscraper is Die Hard with boobs. That’s it. Bye.

…Okay, fine. There’s a little more to it than that. Anna Nicole Smith stars as a helicopter pilot who finds herself trapped in a tower overrun by terrorists, forcing her into the role of an unlikely action hero. That’s it. Bye.

Yeah, yeah, joke’s over. Where do I even begin? Perhaps with the film’s star herself, Anna Nicole Smith. An early-’90s Playboy phenomenon, successful model, and by the mid-’90s, a tabloid punchline. Most infamously, she married a near-death oil tycoon. While embroiled in legal battles over his estate, she also landed her first leading movie role in To the Limit, with Skyscraper arriving the following year. So she certainly had her hands full from ’95 onward.

Before jumping into the movie itself, it’s worth taking a look at the production company behind both of those titles. PM Entertainment Group was a staple of ’90s mid-budget direct-to-video action films.

They certainly had a formula, following the famous “7-minute rule.” A stunt, fight, car crash, explosion—something had to be on the screen every seven minutes to keep the pace moving.

Essentially, that’s what Skyscraper is doing, albeit in a budget friendly way. The reason you’re watching this, is for the dumb action. And obviously, to see Anna Nicole’s breasts. It certainly delivers on both counts. Mission accomplished. 

The opening scene takes place in a back alley, and everything is very stock. Exchanging of technology or whatever between bad guys. All ends in a shootout, a rocket launcher, and a car being launched into a semi-truck. Again, cliché? Sure, but who cares. It looks awesome. You even get one of the guys from American Gladiators. Malibu, for the record. 

From there, you are introduced to Anna’s character, Carrie, along with her husband, who will be the other lead we follow. And cue the extended sex scene. For all the things you could say about this movie, you know exactly what they were going for. Same director as To the Limit, btw. We’ll circle back to him in a bit. 

We have to talk about Anna Nicole Smith as an actress. She’s bad. Like, really bad. You know why she’s in the movie. A blind man could see it. But her line delivery is something that truly needs to be witnessed. Therefore, I put together this short clip. How convenient. 

Btw, we never really know why she’s a helicopter pilot. It’s basically just a way to set up an ending with the main bad guy on the roof. Because, of course, this movie ends there. It’s called Skyscraper. Now roll the footage. 

When the terrorists finally arrive at the non-Nakatomi Plaza—but we’ll call it Nakatomi Plaza anyway—this really does turn into Great Value Die Hard. Quite literally. So many of the characters are legit carbon copies of those in the original. Anna Nicole even does the jump-off-the-building bit. The main villain goes completely over the top, as you should in a movie like this. It’s so ridiculously stupid, yet you can’t turn away. Well, maybe you can. Depends on your tolerance for trash. 

Ironically, Skyscraper made it to video in July ‘96, just two months after Anna’s oft-compared counterpart, Pamela Anderson, headlined Barb Wire. I’d much rather watch the latter, but they both kind of exist in the same lane. It’s just one of them swerves a bit, while the other hits a telephone pole.

Oh, and as for its director, Raymond Martino, he once played a gang member in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. No, not during the famous tequila dance sequence—he appears earlier, before Pee-wee visits Madam Ruby.

Hm. Turns out there wasn’t much more to it after all. There’s no basement at the Alamo, and Anna Nicole isn’t John McClane.

THE DOG STARS (2026)

A depressed pilot living in the world after a pandemic wiped out most of humanity wants to fly to investigate a radio signal he occasionally hears on the radio. Things happen.

A first half exploration of life after is actually quite good. Going against everything we see in every other post-apocalyptic film, it survives because it's different, especially since for that early section the film is nicely morally gray (They kill anyone who comes on their land without questioning them).

The problem is that the second half, when the marauders wander, goes off the rails completely. I say completely because the film has issues like the dialog sets out a period of time that well over a decade since the fall but the note we see says it's just 9 years from today, or some things are more decayed than others while some abandoned places look freshly mowed. On the other hand, once the marauders attack things cease to make sense. For example, they don't seem organized and are more there to look cool. Sure, we get a gang of topless skin head from the road company of Road Fury, but they are all perfectly washed and more like zombies of the movies or kids at a rave than people scavenging. And I shouldn't say a word about Junction City but if you don't instantly know what is going on THE DOG STARS must be your first film.

Yes, the films ending is very good, but it's not enough to overcome the weak and cliche third plus before it.

After the film I did what apparently several of my writer friends did and that was look to see how close to the book the film is. The basic plot is the same however, based on my reading on line they altered some bits and pieces, in particular by amping up the action sequences and adding most of the cliche turns that annoyed me. Apparently, Ridley Scott didn't trust the material and broke it to have three action set pieces.

To be fair, I don't hate the film, but I wish the filmmakers had trusted the material and didn't fuck it up. The low-key post-apocalyptic take is brilliant on its own terms.

It's worth seeing at some point, but there is zero reason to see it in IMAX. They are only running it that way to scam you out of extra money/

Runa Simi (2025) opens Friday

This is a lovely story that will get you misty. The film follows Fernando Valencia who wants to translate The Lion King into Quechua which is considered the language of the Incas. He is striving to both keep the language alive and to make the native speakers feel part of the large world.

You are going to fall into this film from the first frames. As we watch Valencia working on dubbing a scene from The Lion King you end up charmed. Once we are charmed we will follow him any where and we do as we watch him working to keep Quechua language alive. By the time the end comes and we are watching the dubbed film we are misty.

I love this film. I love that the film shows us a story that we probably never considered before. Yes we all know about dialects and other languages, but what exactly does it mean not to speak one of the major languages?  How does that affect your interaction with the world and ourselves?

This is exactly the sort of gem that is the reason I say yes to every film at Tribeca – I get to be the first to spread the word on a wondrous discovery.

If you love great docs and stories you haven’t seen before then see RUNA SIMI.

Boorman and the Devil (2025) opens Friday

This is hands down one of the best films on film you will ever see.

This is a look at the making and the unmaking of THE HERETIC, the sequel to the THE EXORCIST. Its a film that talks to most of the players who are still alive. Its lays out very clearly how what was hoped to be something different turned into something that was a mess.

I loved this film. I love how the film shows us how the film was made with best intentions but  how things happening that were outside the control of the production, such as the death of Lee J Cobb before shooting, and Boorman's five week illness, forced rewrites. The rewrites, especially after Borman went down, radically altered what the film was. It's an eye opening look at how movies are made.

What makes this film so much fun are the interviews. Everyone is frank. Nothing seems to be held back, with the result we seem to be a co-conspirator.

What I like about the film is that while it will make you appreciate the pieces of the film, it's rather clear from the film that the HERETIC isn't a good film. So many films on film try to sell you a bill a goods concerning a bad film, that isn't the case here.

I can not recommend this film high enough.

Seriously this film is at the top of the film on film list.

I have issues with COLONY (2026) NYAFF 2026 Fantasia 2026 (spoilers)

I went to the opening night of this year's NYAFF and it was a crazy night with speeches and such as the North American premiere of Yeon Sang-ho's COLONY hit the screen two months before it hits American theaters. 

The audience ate it up. The people around me were audibly reacting and talking to the screen. I was trying to figure out how few horror films they had seen because this was nothing we hadn't seen before, elsewhere and better.

The plot of the film has a madman getting multiple levels of revenege on those who wronged him by using a drug that  turns people into mindless, fast moving beasts that act as being with a hive mind like insects or certain forms of fungi. He thinks that this will make the world a better place since it will make every one unable to say the wrong thing and miscommunicate. What it really does is turn everyone into crazed monsters who move together in an ooze.

I walked out out of Lincoln Center saying very bad things about the film. I stand by every criticism I said. Hell, a lot of what I said makes up this piece.  At the same time I kind of do retract calling it a turdball and one of the the worst films of the year. It isn't. As my brother said, its not a bad film, so much as one with nothing we really haven't seen before. There are sequences such as the monkeys, that are wonderful, except they are tied together by a cliche filled script that makes no sense. We've basically seen this most of this before before, or if not before, it's only because the turns are so contrived that no competent screenwriter would actually try to use them. By Yeong's amazing standard, this film a mess. Frankly, it's his least film.

The problems here are many. There are so many that I just sat there getting pulled out of the film again and again. 

The issues begin with the infected. They attack and bite people and cause the disease to spread but they don't do anything else. Its not like they are hungry, they just attack and infect. They don't, in movie zombie fashion, eat people. They actually don't do anything they shamble around until they are required to run fast. And  they spew this mucus crap that covers everything  to a ridiculous degree... But we never really see them spew it, we just see them covered in it. Even if its a result of the vomiting, they can only vomit so much and the stuff is everywhere and fungi needs something to feed on so how does it get everywhere? And I do mean everywhere. The monsters twist and turn in this herky jery motion  but why? It looks good but... why? They say the infected can use the infection like nerves, but what the bodies do would break them. The film also is full of pronouncements that are just pulled out of people's asses. For example the infection has just started and a scientist says that the infection kills the brain but no one has time to do an autopsy. If the people are going to be a hive mind why do they go animalistic? Why go homicidal? Granted there is no real time to explain anything but there pronouncements that it must be so, so we believe... they would have been so much better not saying anything.

I know its a movie but there is only so much you can ask me to believe. Raymond Chandler said that you can only ask an audience to believe one thing that doesn't make sense, perhaps two. If you do more than that the narrative collapses. Here everything makes you wonder what were they thinking. Everything is designed to look good or produce an audience reaction, but the truth is if you stop to think about any of them they make zero sense.  Even things like the speed of infection, its instantaneous, no disease moves that fast through the body. 

The absolute biggest problem with the infection is why does the disease turn everyone but the infected bad guy into mindless beast? There is zero explanation - and there should be - that is the absolute one thing that needed to be explained. Its infered that he has/or is an antidote (that's another whole level of illogic I'll not get into), but if thats the case how does he join/take over the hive mind since the film says it has to be the first person who is infected? If he wants to make humanity better why is he making people animalistic, especially since he has to control them and because he wants people to understand each other? We never find out because any Bond villain like ranting takes the ideas farther and farther in to and out of left field.

Every god damn thing is foreshadowed to a ridicuolus degree. If it isn't foreshadowed then there will be a cliched turn. I don't think I didn't see early on every major turn, that wan't out of left field, when it was set up at the start. The only things that aren't foreshadowed are some turns they need to make the film work, the most obvious being the resent of the hive mind so that they could be defeated. Why does it happen? No clue, but if it didn't happen exactly then the infected couldn't be defeated because they couldn't push the big bad into the fire. The one foreshadowing thing that didn't payoff and probably will if there is a sequel, is the retention of self which we see when the broken sister turns to look at her dead/turned brother and has an emotion.

But there are other things that make no sense. The people trapped in the restruant manage to survive by just sitting in the dark and then out of nowhere the sign pops on- why not turn it off? (more to the point-how did it get turned on?) Inretrospect you have to wonder how it is that the the woman's ex, who knows the CEO and who says that he wants to meet her, would end up really delivering the invitation from the mad man when it should have been coming from the CEO. Why are the two women who solve everything the wife and ex of one of the characters? Its ridiculous to the nth degree.

One of the other things I never saw coming and which I NEVER FREAKING BELIEVED FOR A MOMENT is the most amazingly stupid move I have ever seen in any horror film ever - almost no one ever picks up a weapon. Two or three people pick up things but the 14 other people don't. You're being hunted by monsters and you are in a camping store- or anywhere and you pick up nothing to protect yourself. Really? THESE PEOPLE DESERVE TO DIE. Even stupid kids in slaher films will pick something up if they can... not these people. They go through rooms and rooms of places and they never pick up anything----even if you argue that they don't see anything to use to fight back, THEY GO INTO A KITCHEN AND THE DON'T PICK UP KNIVES!?! What in the holy hell!?! And the cop, who has a gun, never does anything with it until he wants to shoot someone in the leg as a decoy. 

This isn't to say that there aren't some great moments, there are, there are great bits, again the monkeys, the infected blocking the passage, some of the attacks. But moments can't make a feature when they are tied together by a plot that just has things happen to keep things going until the run time happens.

Yeon Sang-ho's films are not always perfect but he's never made a film that feels like some one was apeing his style and those of other filmmakers. Never before has he made film where you knew exactly what was going to happen and where every twist is spelled out before being thrown back at us if the most amazing thing ever. Worse this is his first film where we don't get people on screen but simply pieces to move around and kill. This is the first time I ever watched one of his films or series and thought of fifteen other filmmakers who would have done it better

Frankly if this wasn't Sang-ho's film and just some Hollywood hack I'd be impressed but this beneath him. It feels like a money grab and move to set up a (badly thought out) new franchise (the infected moves at the end) away from the Busan series (This isn't the Busan/Peninsula/Seoul Station world). I'm glad my planned interview fell through because I would have had to ask him about his poor and lazy choices.

I am glad I saw it because it means there is no reason to see it again.

 a huge disappointment 

Match Monde (2026) Big Bad Film Festival

High schooler  gets rescued by a guy on the street when he is attacked and beaten up as part of the use of an app that sets up street fights. The idea is that if you win you get money. Soon things begin to spiral out of control.

Based on a manga this is a film you are going to love ot hate. Put me in the middle. While I like the characters, a lot of this didn't work for me. Don't get me wrong what is here is good, the trouble is that it's good the first time.... and maybe the second time. The problem is there is a samesness to what is happening here. The set ups feel similar as do the fights. If you look at how they are choreographed they seem to follow a similar flow. That may have worked if the way the sequences were staged was better. You can feel how the sequences were put together.

To be fair, I know part of the reason I wasn't as high on this film as I should have been except that I had watched all of the Big Bad Film Festival shorts and several of the shorts echoed the fights in this film.  Some of the shorts played better for me.

Is the film bad? No, but it just didn't work for me.

Brief thoughts on Bloodstained Ivory (2025)

A young man freezes during his senior recital putting his future as a pianist in jeopardy. He then begins to spiral out of control as he tries to prepare himself for a second attempt.

This is a good little thriller that is a perfectly fine passer of time. The cast is good and script is fine. If  I am not being more enthusiastic it's because the film is a bit too long for the conventional telling.  The film is not bad but we've been here before and the first rate cast can't quite lift this up past  being solidly good.

Definitely worth seeing if you run across it, it isn't something you need to search out.

Over/Under (2022) is finally getting a UK VOD release 8/24 and a US one 8/25

Violet and Stella  are inseparable nine year-olds having the best summer of their lives. When summer ends the pair head back to their lives. Over the next few years life, puberty and the world come calling and trying to change them and break their friendship.

This is a beautiful and lyrical film that has a great deal to say about growing up. It’s a film that has a wonderful eye that reveals what it’s like being a kid.  Granted the lyricism makes it less the literal truth, but it does give everything the polish that our memory will give events. Kudos to writer/director Sophia Silver and her co-writer Sianni Rosenstock for taking the closeness of their lifelong friendship and turning it into movie magic.

Kudos also to Emajean Bullock and Anastasia Veronica Lee as the two leads. Not only do they give wonderful performances but they possess the rarest of things, a natural chemistry that isn’t fake. Watching the early sections of the film I thought the characters, and the actresses were sisters. There is something bonded between them that is rare.

I really like OVER/UNDER a great deal.  It’s a gem of a film that is definitely worth a look.

A brief expression of my pained disappoint about Last House (2026)

A mysterious rain traps a family in their house for five years.

Great looking, well acted film has one of the worst scripts in ages. This film makes freaking sense.

Seriously this film makes no sense. I mean a family is trapped in a house for five years? Spin living in your house for five years in your head and figure out what you see makes any sense, especially in a house in a wet world full of dampness. After that nothing else makes sense.

I so wanted to stop watching but I wanted to see if the pulled it out. They didn't.

Yea the monsters were cool, even if what they were doing made no sense, but that wasn't enough.

When the film ended I reached for my phone to call my brother to say don't watch , only you have the phone ring. It was my brother saying not to watch the film.

Avoid this film.

Fight Against Evil 3 (2026) Big Bad Film Festival

I have not seen either of the earlier films thats not that problem since the film is basically just the story of a cop returning home for his wedding ending up trying to protect a girl he met on the flight from humnan traffickers.

Shifting from comedy to an escalating series of action sequences FIGHT AGAINST EVIL 3 delivers. Beginning with a fight around a van the sequences amp up until its the final fight involing broken glass. I was delighted. In ana age where many fights seem like retreads, this film doesn't copy. Its also a film where you don't feel the fights are being assembled in the editing room, the sequences feel organic and happening right in front of us. (I say that because I recently saw one film from Japan where the sequences were great if you ignored the editing made it clear it was a series of shot and something happened before us.

I loved this film. While I am usually wary of series I don't know, it's always a delight when I discover one that makes me want to track down the other films. This film made me wants me to go find the first two. (for the record the this is the first film in the series that was released to theaters, and I can understand why.

While the film is not high art, it is truly entertaining. 

If you can get a ticket to see the film at the Big Bad Film Festival, do so.

Recommended.

Blood Shine (2025) opens today

Brighton West, a horror film director ends up trapped at the house of Clara, a strange young woman looking for salvation.

This is a deeply distrubing  film that is going to work for some people and not work for others. I say that because a large portion of the film involves two people doing uncomfortable things to each other in the name of finding god. It kind of travels close to torture porn, but at the same time it's reaching for a bit more than just violence so it stays out of the rut.

Allowing that this kind of travels down the weird cult, seenmingly misguided follower path the film is, on its own terms largely very good. Emily Bennett and David Call sell the story enough that we push aside the inherent problems we might have with the story.

For me the problem with the film is the opening sequence is so good, that it makes the rest of the film unnecessary (I am haunted by an anguished scream). Those first 20 minutes are near perfect that the effort to expand them and to fill in details kind of lessens everything. We don't need more because the shock that we feel as we yelp "what the hell was that!?!" is lost when we find out.

I loved the first twenty minutes. I liked the remaining 80. 

HANABI aka Fire Flower (2026) Locarno 2026 NYFF 2026

Buy a ticket and take this ride because you need to see this film and you need to see it big and in a darkened room/theater.

Ana Vaz uses Yoko Hasuke’s essay “Journal of a Radioactive Brain” as the narrative thread to link up ten years of images and thoughts looking at the state of the world and particularly Japan in the wake of the Fukishima disaster. It is film that ponders life facing an invisible danger.

Moving light years forward from her first film IT'S NIGHT IN AMERICA Vaz as made a meditative film that you get lost in.  One part essay, one part diary, one part experiment, one part travelogue the film's weaving of sound and image takes us not only into Japan but also into Vaz's head space.  This is very much how one person sees the world. 

Days after first sitting down to watch the film I find I am haunted by it. I am haunted not so much by what I saw or heard but what I felt. Watching the film in a darkened room I left my body and went somewhere. I felt things that I hadn't before. I was forced to consider life in a new way.

This is cinematic magic.

It is also a film more about emotion than words so  this piece is going to be much briefer than I would like simple because what I want to share with you are the sensations of watching the film, but they exist in a place without words so I can't share them

I will say that the images on a big screen are trippy. We get a fantastic sense of place. If you want to get lost and travel without leaving your seat see this film. Please see it as big as possible with as few distractions as possible,

I am not going to lie, this film isn't for everyone. Its not a big action film. There is a long beautiful sun set  that is allowed to just happen which may not work for some people despite being beautiful. You have to work with it and go with it. If you can't do that, stay away.

If you want to take a cinematic trip, buy a ticket and go for a ride.

Brief thoughts on Wings of Dread (2026) Big Bad Film Festival

Cop on the way home ends up in the middle of  a highjacking.

In a word where action films out of China have been overwhelmed by the need to include propaganda it's nice to see one that isn't crushed by it. It's a nice film with good characters, solid action and a hard edge that remains to the end.

I'm not going to say a great deal on the film. A large part of the reason is that I simply enjoyed the hell out of the film. I liked it so much that when it was done  I didn't want review it. Instead I just wanted to watch it again. 

Is this high art? No but it is something that just delighted me. Some time just being able to say that about a film is more important than saying clever things.

The truth of the matter, this is exactly the sort of film that I return to The Big Bad FIlm Festival to see. I say that because every year they run great films that become te sort of friend that you put on over and over just because they fit like a glove. WINGS OF DREAD fits.

See this film this weekend.

Tokyo Burst: Crime City (2026) plays the Big Bad FIlm Festival this weekend

Loosely connected to the Korean Round Up Series it follow a Japanese cop who gets hooked up with a Korean cop in order to take down some bad guys.

I'm sorry if that is really vague but the truth is there are way too many characters and way too much going on to worry about the details of the plot. In other words, yes, I got lost. 

What matters here is the action, and there are copious amounts of it, all of it incredibly brutal and ugly. Body parts drop to the floor and blood flies. People get hurt badly. The fights are such that they make you verbally react.  Watching the film I was wided eyed and slack jawed.

While watching this film I was struck by how much more powerful the fights are short sequences  then in something like the recent THE FURIOUS where the battle goes on for two hours. Watching the frightening beauty of the fights here I was struck by the power of the fights. Not because of the brutality but because the filmmakers wrapped them up in plot and characters that give them weight.  People get hurt, even the main characters. While things are sided so we know they will ultimately come out on top, we also know they will get their asses kicked and have to stop for a bit. The use of short sequences  keeps us on our toes since we don't know what is going to happen. With a long sequence or a film that is all action, we know that nothing bad can happen  for X amount of time. Here that isn't the case. They get hurt and they feel it. This may sound like a digression, but the truth is its an explanation of why this film resonates so strongly and stays in our heads.

TOKYO BURST is full of great action and funny one liners. It is very recommended.

Aurora (2026) Holly Shorts

An astronaut sent into space to find the source of a signal runs into a tragedy.

If you love great looking science fiction films you must see this film. This film has images that surpass the vast majority of what Hollywood has turned out in the last decade. You will want to see this film big and then some.

This is a deeply moving meditation on life and death. Rooted in director Angad Aulakh’s Punjabi heritage and Sikh faith the film forces those of us raised in a different culture to view the universe differently. I don't fully understand everything on an intellectual level but visceraly this film hit me like a tone of bricks. Not following typical Western paths the film instead forces us to rethink and reconsider life and death.

I don't know what exactly all of it means but I want to watch it a couple more times to ride the wave and figure it out.

An absolute must see.

Highly recommended. This may end up on your best of the year list.

The CRIME HUNTER films: BULLETS OF RAGE, BULLETS OF BETRAYAL, and KILLING BULLET are playing The Big Bad Film Festval

If you want a sure-fire night at the big Bad Film Festival go to the screening of CRIME HUNTER  BULLETS OF RAGE, BRIME HUNTER BULLETS OF BETRAYAL and CRIME HUNTER KILLING BULLET. Three direct to video films from Japan, but set in America, specifically Little Tokyo, they are as bat shit crazy as they come. They are gritty, ugly, over the top funny both intentionally and unintentionally, and jaw droppingly WTF.  

If you miss the 1980’s grindhouse these films are for you

Actually, if you just want balls to the wall insane crime drama with lots of killing this is for you.

These films demand to be seen- and seen with a rowdy audience. If you are going to Big Bad you will love these films 50 times more.

And don’t worry each film runs just over an hour so the whole evening will be about four hours. (I did it in that amount of time including pottie breaks)

You’ll notice I’m not talking about the plot. That’s partly intentional (and partly because I had to wait a week to write the films up) The truth is the plots don’t matter. The films are all about hitting bad guys, shooting guns, and cracking wise.  The plots are largely disposable and are simply there to push the action forward. There is a certain amount of repetetion. Not that you’ll care. Everything is basic.

What you will care about is how much fun these films are. They are blood soaked and bruising. They are incredibly WTF with a weird mix of English and Japanese wandering though them. The films are set in America, but no America that ever existed. It’s a crime ridden hell hole full of eternally wet streets and neon. It’s wild to see how the filmmakers saw America. They are films you talk to and about. You won’t riff the films but you will have a one-sided conversation asking the films what they are doing and why.

I can only imagine what these films will be like at the Big Bad screening because I’m guessing there will be running commentary and conversation.  If you want a passive cinema experience go see something else. I say that because it is simply impossible to watch these films and keep your mouth shut.

I love these films.

This is old school grindhouse cinema at it’s finest.

I can not recommend these films enough to lovers of action and exploitation cinema. These films are like manna from heaven

If you can get to the Big Bad Film Festival- you must go.

Brief thoughts on the Big Bad Film Festival Shorts

I’m not going to do a full-on review of all of the Big Bad Film Festival shorts. It is not because they are bad, but so many of them are so short that I don’t want to give them one or two words. They films are wonderfully made. Some of them look spectacular compared to many recent big budget features. All of them were made with love.  While I love some more than others, I actually liked every single one of them.

If you can go to the screenings of the shorts, do so because they are all good.

I do want to say that all of the films longer than five minutes try to do something with their plots. The shorter films tend to be a set up that leads to a fight and a punch line.(no pun intended)

While I am not going to review all the films, I do want to point a couple out because they stood out from the very solid crowd.

KNUCKLES is a character driven film about a man trying to protect a woman. It’s a solid drama with action.

LOST IN SPICE is an amusing film about a man trying to impress the woman of his dreams by eating spicy food. It’s an amusing tale.

CHECK, PLEASE is a funny film about two guys trying to get the restaurant tab.

HAPPY COOKING is a horror action cannibal film. It’s a trip, and not for the squeamish.

Remember, while those films stood out, every other film delighted me.

By a ticket and enjoy

Universal Soldier Day of Reckoning (2012) plays Big Bad Film Festival this weekend

With this film playing THE BIG BAD FILM FESTIVAL this weekend here is a repost of my review from when the film was originally released 14 years ago:

Okay- why the hell isn't this getting talked up? I knew the film was out there but it wasn't until Peter Gutierrez talked it up on Twitter that I really sat up and took notice. With an opening that is disturbing and disorienting and a sense of real danger with every violent act, people die horribly and even the good guys have terrible things happen to them, this is a kick ass horror/action/science fiction film that is one of the better films of 2012.

The plot of the film has John waking up from a coma, the result of a home invasion that has left his wife and daughter dead. As John tries to piece together what happened he runs into the now rogue Universal Soldiers who are being lead by a now Messianic like Luc Deveraux, Jean Claude Van Damme, the man who killed his family.

Mean, nasty, ugly in it's violence, the film very much reminded me of the cold distant and deeply disturbing early films of David Cronenberg. It also had tinges of Beyond the Black Rainbow and other head trip films...including one about a trip up a river in Vietnam

And that I think is the problem with the film, at least in the mind of most people who are seeing it (I believe the IMDB rating is around 5), the film is nominally set up, and marketed as a revenge story, about a man trying to find out what happened to his family, instead the film is a long trip down a rabbit hole where reality is completely questioned and the nature of the entire film series that lead up to it is called (wonderfully) into question. I know it doesn't help that top billed Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren have essentially supporting roles (though ones that require their force of personality for the film to work)

I really like this film. It's desire to change the rules and upset the apple cart of everything that went before impressed the hell out of me... as did the stunning action sequences and it's refuse not to shy away from the violence and it's cost.

Assuming you are willing to take the film on it's own terms I highly recommend this film.

Brief thoughts on To Use a Mountain (2026)

This is a deeply troubling film, about the problem of nuclear waste. Where do you put it? Sure you can bury it but what if something happens? What of the people down wind or who live on top of or near the storage facility.

I’m not going to say a great deal about this film, because you just need to see it. This is one of the best films I’ve seen on the problems of nuclear waste. It balances the need to explain both the human cost and the scientific issues of nuclear power and the waste it creates. It’s a film that manages to be emotionally moving while never over doing with the gloom and doom of the danger.

I went into the film expecting something rather straight forward.  I thought it would be a a lot of science and hand wringing but the truth is the film is much more. It gently grabs us and pulls us in so that we are forced to engage with the subject and not yes it to death.

This is a gem of a film and is recommended.

Paper Flowers (2024) opens Friday

This is the true story of Shalin Shah who joins the Peace Corps in order to do good, only to find that he has a nasty form of cancer. In the time he has left he explores what it means to be alive and what we owe to each other.

Good but by the numbers tale designed to fill its audience with feelies and make them see the wonders of the world. I don't mean to sound snarky, but the cast and craft of the film are so good that I really wish that the script didn't hit all of the expected notes.

Despite my kvetching, which comes from a place of love, this is worth tracking down and seeing.