Tag Archives: movie-review

Classic Film Review: Bronson Brawls and an action auteur is born — Walter Hill’s “Hard Times” (1975)

Posted on December 3, 2024 by Roger Moore

There’s a gentility about “Hard Times,” a bare-knuckle brawling drama set during the Great Depression. It’s a genre piece populated with veteran character actors playing archetypes bound by their own code, playing their parts in a story so pre-ordained that … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? Parole violators don’t stand a chance against “Officer Black Belt”

Posted on December 2, 2024 by Roger Moore

Absurd on its surface and dark hearted to say the least, “Officer Black Belt” is a violent thriller that flirts with being a Korean action comedy. If you can get by the murderers, rapists and many child molesters brought to … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Colombian Road Warriors smuggle gas, and more — “Pimpinero: Blood and Oil”

Posted on December 1, 2024 by Roger Moore

It begins in a “Road Warrior” hellscape, a desert borderland where gasoline is smuggled in a high stakes game of chicken with the authorities of two countries added to the danger of carelessly transporting an explosively flammable substance. We meet … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Spain’s Oscar hopes ride on “Saturn Return (Segundo Premio)” a bio pic of the indie band Los Planetas

Posted on November 30, 2024 by Roger Moore

You don’t have to know the history and love the music of Spanish indie rock icons Los Planetas (“The Planets”) to connect with the new bio-pic about these ’90s fixtures of Spanish “alternative rock.” But it helps. “Saturn Return” is … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: Carney, Tomlin, Killings and a Missing Cat — “The Late Show” (1977)

Posted on November 29, 2024 by Roger Moore

The golden age of film noir — cynical, sinister and shadowy thrillers about crime and the unchanging nature of human criminality — was the 1940s and ’50s, when black and white cinema still ruled. The genre never really went away, … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? Santa’s helpers take it off — “The Merry Gentlemen”

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Roger Moore

Netflix’s conquest of “The Hallmark Holiday Movie” as a genre continues with “The Merry Gentlemen,” a snowy tale of Santa season stripping to save the family bar. These movies follow a fairly strict formula, and this one — scripted by … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Whigham and Coon, a Hitman and his “Victim,” may never get to “Lake George”

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Roger Moore

An ex-con is arm-twisted into solving “a little problem that needs to go away” — a mobster’s ex-girlfriend — in “Lake George,” a dark, dry and funny “hit-man” thriller where the “hit-man” keeps insisting “I don’t do that kind of … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Finnish Metalheads aim for more face-melting on a “Heavier Trip”

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Roger Moore

Well, Hell. Now I’ve got to go back and catch “Heavy Trip,” the Finnish metal band comedy from 2018, the movie that inspired “Heavier Trip.” “Heavy Trip” is on Tubi. Do your homework before catching the sequel in cinemas! It’s … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: Looking for Lean Laughs from “Blithe Spirit” (1945)

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Roger Moore

The shifting sands of editor-turned-director David Lean‘s career took him through early adaptations of Noël Coward scripts, included some definitive adaptations of Charles Dickens and eventually settled on the sweeping epics which is he best known for today — “Bridge … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Kirkland Fan and would-be filmmaker makes the trek to “Sallywood”

Posted on November 23, 2024 by Roger Moore

A film buff meets his Hollywood idol and wins his dream job working for her in “Sallywood,” a lighthearted indie lampoon of show business, showbiz “types” and the indignities of “I used to be famous.” Sally Kirkland got her start … Continue reading →

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