The background of Villa Rides is more interesting than the film itself. It was a late-60s studio Western that was definitely trying to capitalise on the success of Spaghetti Westerns at that time, and especially the subgenre of the ‘Zapata Western’: films that used the Mexican revolution as their backdrop. It’s safe to say that … Continue reading Villa Rides – Blu-Ray Review →

B.J. Novak delivers his feature directorial debut in Vengeance, which was one of the most pleasant surprises when I was cramming in 2022 releases at the end of the year. I never watched the US version of The Office or much of Novak's other TV work, so I only really knew him from his turn … Continue reading Vengeance – Blu-Ray Review →

Babylon Berlin is now on its fourth season, and probably has one or two seasons left. Given the budget of the series and the time it takes to make, we probably won't see another season until 2024 at the earliest. The plan is to end the series around the time of the Nazi seizure of power, … Continue reading Babylon Berlin: Season 4 – DVD Review →

The Dunwich Horror is a loose adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s 1929 short story of the same name, which was first published in Weird Tales. The film is kind of a spin-off of from Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe cycle of films: Corman served as executive producer here, and also directed The Haunted Palace, which was sold as a Poe … Continue reading The Dunwich Horror – Blu-Ray Review →

Big Time Gambling Boss is considered by many to be one of the finest films made during the classic era of the Yakuza film. The film is actually the fourth in a series of ten Bakuchi-uchi films, all released by Toei studios. As far as I can tell, these films are only thematically linked, and there … Continue reading Big Time Gambling Boss – Blu-Ray Review →