I wasn’t as big of a fan of Audition as some and don’t consider top-tier in the J-horror sub-genre mainly due to the surreal nature of the second half but the performances from the two leads were great.
Waterworld over the course of 20 years has washed away (so to speak) some of the negativity related to its lackluster box office set against its tremendous budget. Watching all these years later, and the long awaited Ulysses Cut no less, I found it to be a really fun apocalyptic action-thriller.
Horror Express for me was a fine film though my interest was mostly for its two leads in Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, sharing the screen again after many roles as Dracula and Van Helsing respectively.
Gosford Park is a strong and finely acted ensemble drama from the king of the ensemble, Robert Altman and even though I don’t consider this his best film, it’s still well done.
The Day of the Jackal is one of my favorite suspense-thrillers from the 1970s, alongside classics like The French Connection and The Conversation, and features a wonderful performance from Edward Fox in the titular role.
The Addiction is anything but perfect but still a unique take on the vampire subgenre with a terrific performance by Lili Taylor as well as Christopher Walken in his small part.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space is a wonderful 1980s deliberate B-movie that has garnered cult status and actually features respectable make-up/costume designs and some genuinely funny moments.
I’m not exactly a fan of westerns in general, only enjoying the more mainstream or obvious like Unforgiven and A Fistful of Dollars, but these two Ringo movies were well produced and lead actor Giuliano Gemma had great charisma.
The Sacha Guitry Four Films were not exactly my forte nor did I have much interest in the subjects or the filmmaker himself, but it’s hard not to appreciate his talents behind and in front of the camera.
No Escape is an all around entertaining film perfect for a Saturday movie night. No, it doesn’t make you think or have any profound performances but the acting isn’t bad with Owen Wilson serving as a fine everyman type of character and Pierce Brosnan in his small part is a lot of fun. This is probably worthy of a rental.
Inferno is an interesting documentary that filmmaker Serge Bromberg attempted to re-create the unfinished Henri-Georges Clouzot 1964 film that was only recently found, though not even the audio track could be found.
The Gruesome Twosome is one weird, and frankly bad, horror movie with some shoddy filmmaking, even by swamp-level budget standards, and the video and audio transfers, despite the best efforts of Arrow, don’t look or sound all that hot.
The Witches is certainly a odd Italian movie for sure but not entirely engaging despite its weirdness and as an anthology, never really found a balance, though it was fun seeing a young Clint Eastwood starring in one of the anthology shorts.
Viva L’Italia is a well made, albeit government-sponsored, biopic on Giuseppe Garbaldi, and shows off strong performances and rich production and costume designs.
The Apartment is a great drama-romance-comedy classic excelling with the performances by Jack Lemmon (at his absolute best IMO) and Shirley MacClaine, set against the sharp script and direction from Billy Wilder.