1 movie for each year of my life

TV movie dramatisation of infamous suspected murderess Lizzie Borden who in the early part of the 20th century had allegedly killed her parents with an axe

This was a bit dark and gory for a TV movie and lead actress Christina Ricci looked eerie and beautiful - I was surprised how damn fine she looks nowadays

I like how it shifted from almost straightforward horror to court room drama

I found it interesting as I had NO idea about Lizzie Borden other than the name and that she supposedly killed people

The worst part is the soundtrack --- the most invasive and inappropriate ever ... seriously out of place

Worth your time but would have been better as a cinema release as it could have been more unrestrained

A John Pilger Documentary about the treatment of Aborigines in Australia in recent times.Of course its the age old story of natives having right to land and therefore the resources and big business shafting democracy to get rid of those irritants by any means possible.

A film to make you angry about the injustice and for a change we see Pilger slightly lose it- I am surprised he can resist punching the exploiters and blatant liars in the face

I like how Pilgers tried and tested method of letting Govt scumbags dig their own graves on camera works well here - Are these people so fucking narcissistic or psychopathic they can feel absolutely NO shame?

Anyway great docu though I wish Pilger would tone down the sentimentality a notch...though its hard to knock a film which exposes an organization set up to help the Aborigines but spent 10 times the amount on surveillance than aid...and a gobsmacking section on the Australian govts blatant "aborigines are pedophiles" big lie

Quite cool soundtrack too which was a surprise

A man who has developed a process for entering peoples memories is called upon to enter the mind of a drug addict accused of murder and is trapped there when the process goes wrong

Imagine a low budget mix of Inception, The Cell, and Minority Report but not as interesting. A good idea with no real pay-off - shame

A young boy James Furlong discovers by accident that he can kill living things that come close to him and decides to run away. Years later he meets a girl Mae who is dying of cancer

I really wanted to like this film much more than its results -theres nothing overly wrong with it but there seems to have been a lot of potential wasted - I just cannot quite pinpoint why its not as good as its premise

Allie a daughter of two professors of medieval history moves to a new school Avalon High and discovers that the class jock Will is the reincarnation of King Arthur and befriends the geeky Miles and discover there is a plot to destroy Will/Arthur.

This was a Disney Tv Movie so you can expect the usual stuff - high production values, good looking boys and girls - even the nerdy Miles is good looking! Cheesy almost to the extreme but fast paced - I nearly LOL-ed hard when the schools football team the Knights were scheduled to play against the Dragons. The great thing about films aimed towards kids is they normally have things happening to keep their attention - Adult filmmakers should take note. One predictable twist and one so left field it can only make sense in a Disney movie

Good lightweight feelgood fun though I wonder if there are solid clues for the second twist

A group of teens help an injured/sick girl who they believe went missing years ago when they visited a funfair

I really dont know how to rate this one. Some parts are almost bordering on genius but its largely incomprehensible with the worst acting I have seen for a long time. The acting is pretty poor overall as the cast are predominately young. Some parts are wonderfully surreal or creepy and it is quite clever

Watch and you may enjoy it or hate it - this is a WTF type movie...Its possible this film IS genius OR crap. The jurys out for me

Towards the end of World War 2 a group of German patriots in the military attempt to kill Hitler and stage a coup so that they can surrender to the Allied forces to save further devastation.

I was very surprised about this as I tend to dislike War films - I suppose this one is very different. Apart from the absurdity of having English and Americans play Germans this was fast paced and really enjoyable. As its based on a true story we KNOW the attempted coup is going to fail so it becomes a tragedy played out really well

Good enough to rate as a must see IMHO. I can only guess that people were expecting some epic battle with mass destruction but its more of a small scale low key thriller film. A great war film with hardly a shot fired - Who would have guessed that!

BBC TV Movie where Holmes is suspected of murder and given 7 days to prove his innocence and calls upon the help of his gang of children The Baker Street Irregulars

This lost my attention on and off but had a few things to keep me hanging in there. maybe it was the different angle! Concentrating on other characters rather than Holmes. The acting is average at best, its quite dopey and the twist with the Chinese boy was just a bit pointless. It does have some modern things which kind of knock the immersion into the period and the story. Better than Spielbergs Young Sherlock Holmes BS some years back...well what isnt?

This was possibly a pilot film (spread over 2 nights) hoping to lead to a series

A stage magician (Edward Norton)from a poor background tries to use his tricks to steal away a Prince's fiance (Jessica Biel) who was his childhood sweetheart

This is very similar to The Prestige but I think its tighter and works much better - better acting and more subtle. At least with this film we dont have to put up with cor blimey guv daft accents. The ending isnt that great but does not blow it completely

Great film - a must see

IMDB was showing this as 2005 release - possibly this date difference is due to the differences in worldwide release - OK for me this is a 2005 film

Well its Pokemon and its a kid thing and my daughter really enjoyed this. For an adult it was okay but nothing more than that

In the 1960s a man Dick Proenneke built his own log cabin in the wilderness and lived there for over 30 years. This documentary uses footage he shot showing his first year there

Inspiring stuff yet part of me remains a bit cynical as there are a few continuity errors which I allow for some dramatising and the fact that he DID have a lot of useful equipment with him - the worst being using plastic sheeting to help build the roof.Throughout the doc i was wondering "Where is he sleeping while building his log cabin?" and that was never answered. Also he seemed very prepared and it would be interesting to see another doc from that angle.
Still this was interesting stuff and is possibly as close to nature you can really hope to achieve nowadays

Two actresses sharing an apartment in Tokyo are the final 2 candidates for a lead role in a film. During the night before a decision is made as to which one will get the role their differences come to a fore and tensions rise to violent and murderous levels

This relatively short film (Just over a hour!) was pretty good. It was funny in places and anyone who has experienced a bad apartment share can relate to the pettiness that just gets out of control. The ending is OTT but has a strange moral for a twist. I liked the start where voice overs showed what each character was thinking despite what were they saying. Some parts were a bit disturbing

Solid entertainment

a disturbed man , an excellent Ralph Fiennes flashes back to the incidents that made him that way

Well this is another serious Cronenberg movie which is a bit of a non event apart from Fiennes on great form mumbling is way through with the edge of sanity just out of reach

Not really recommended for the general public but ok for Cronenberg completionists

A cartoonist Stu Miley (Brendan Fraser) who ends up in a coma whilst on a promotion of his character Monkeybone has to fight to regain consciousness in a nightmare coma world while his alter ego causes trouble with his girlfriend (Bridget Fonda) and others in the real world

Truly bizarre and wonderful in equal measures of good and bad- Just imagine a more trippy version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Visually great in some places - Just watch the dog nightmare scene

Good fun and fast paced throughout - This probably would have been hailed as a classic if Spielberg, Tim Burton or Terry Gilliam had made it. Yeah its cheesy and the humour is dopey but its so far off kilter in places its definitely above average on that alone. Had me saying WTF in several places

Despite being rated low its worth a shot - trust me

The story of a mute woman who works as a mix of prostitute and ferry woman for fishermen using a lake for fishing and fucking, and her weird relationship with some of the people there

This just felt a little too weird to be relatable to but strangely interesting throughout - This has the most inventive use of fish hooks I have seen in a movie

A little too abstract/distant and deliberately arty for my liking specially the end which for a westerner was laughable

Not that good so only take a chance if very curious - a shame as writer/director Ki-duk Kim made Pieta and Moebius which I highly recommend

Gage Sullivan (Shannen Doherty,who looks the same as she did in the 80s) a paparazzi photographer starts to be stalked after she takes photos of a celebrity. With the help of her sister and a private protector she tries to catch the stalker

Apart from the TV movie feel and look this was a fast paced and convoluted thriller with an impossible amount of twists and turns BUT like all these types of films it does not bear any close examination of the plausibility. Funnily a film like The Usual Suspects will be lauded as a classic while this will be unknown. But of course thats not really the point as the ride was pretty damn cool in this film

100 minutes well spent on a perfect candy floss movie which keeps you on your toes throughout

Based on a Jack Finney story a man Scotty buys an old desk dating back to the Civil War era and upon finding a secret compartment with a letter from its original owner, from that time, Elizabeth, begins writing to her and falls in love with while his upcoming marriage is put in doubt

This was well done and very well done and features my favourite actress Jennifer Jason Leigh but theres something preventing it becoming a classic - possibly the friction/deadness in Scottys relationship with his girlfriend as its not really explored at all...also maybe the ending is a bit too...nice and may have been better played as a tragedy

Anyway this is worth your time

Childhood friends Holden and Banky are comic book artists and their relationship gets thrown in jeopardy when one of them falls for Alyssa a fellow comic book artist who is a lesbian

Well this film had some problems...Its largely some dumb wish fulfilment of writer/director Kevin Smith...a female comic book artist for starters...a lesbian who turns straight because she meets the right man...the oh so witty dialogue spouted by every character which is essentially the same voice - Smith's and the trowelling on of the "drama"....BUT apart from those criticisms its funny in places with a few LOL moments and some chuckles so it basically did its job as a comedy

Violet a girlfriend of a mobster Caesar seduces Corky a lesbian working in their apartment block and hatch a plan to steal money from her boyfriend.

This is an earlier film of The Matrix makers and is pretty good, nicely shot, suspenseful and quite brutally violent in places...You have to get past Jennifer Tilly's voice and the cartoon-like mobsters and lesbians though

A geeky looking and behaving girl Dawn is perpetually bullied at school and practically ignored by her parents and her siblings

This started great and was just plain nasty as we see what life is like for the picked-upon girl...BUT it just turns a bit directionless and ends up really going nowhere

Interesting to watch but dont expect anything classic or ground-breaking

This film has been floating around the periphery of my consciousnes for ages and now I got the chance to see it...and its a bit crap to be honest. I knew my streak of watching good flicks would not last! - Its hardly surprising that Quentin Tarantino likes this movie as it does EVERYTHING bad that he copies - inept action,people trying to be cool rather than realistic, a quirky soundtrack plus some BS weird romance - it does have its moments but if you want romance watch Il Mare if you want some police drama watch practically any Korean movie - this falls between two stools and doesnt have the energy to pull it off - my attention wandered a lot during this film

For a far better Asian movie involving crime and a romance watch Pained

A French accountant in China in the 1960s becomes involved with a diva-esque Chinese Opera singer and falls in love with her however she is more than she seems.

This is very un-Cronenberg slowburning with a workable seeable twist which is tragic, disturbing and romantic in equal measures

Great film and IMHO Cronenbergs BEST non body horror flick far superior to A History Of Violence which was ho hum tbh .The moral of the film and life - be careful who you fall in love with

In Italy after Word War 1 a fighter pilot who has been transformed into a pig makes his life as a bounty hunter shooting down air pirates

Immensely enjoyable Studio Ghibli animated film which somehow manages to pull off this absurd plot

In the 1950s 14 year old Danni falls for next door neighbour Cort at the same time as her older sister Marie.

Well done film with the first major performance by Reese Witherspoon as Danni. Apart from a few incidents theres no real drama here - still a nice pleasant watch and the cars look just great

Its a bit stupid that the story makes Reese be "ugly" compared to her sister when there is minimal difference and in fact Reese is slightly better looking

Quigley a sharpshooter cowboy takes work for a ranch baron in Australia, after arriving he quickly finds out things are not what they seem

I thought this was largely enjoyable and kind of different for a western. Its a genre I typically avoid but its well shot, lead actor Tom Selleck is well cast and uses a lot of his easy charm, the on location scenery is great and female lead Laura San Giacomo is kind of cute as a crazy woman Cora. Its a bit cliched but its an enjoyable ride and what more can you want really?

I was genuinely surprised how well it kept my attention for a genre I just dont really like at all. Its also funny to see the two leads standing together as Tom Selleck is HUGE compared to Laura

A German family are bored with everyday suburban life and decide they want to move to Australia ...or do they?

Very slow and boring with 10 minutes of plot spread over 100 minutes - Meant to be disturbing and directed by Micahel Haneke of Funny Games fame which I liked a LOT but this is just crap

Intellectuals will have you believe this film is deep and meaningful but it isnt - Want to see a better film about escaping the rat race? --- watch Into The Wild or Lost In America. Want to see a better film about suicide --- Watch Norikos Dinner Table. I normally care about spoilers but this film is a waste of your time ...AVOID it

Anyone rating this film above average is certifiably crazy...even average is pushing it!

A vampire-like alien must continue research on humans while he is dying of some blood disease or something

Possibly the ultimate in bad and cult movies. Its fast, stupid and has tits...plus the lowest budget imaginable

3 more cheesy horror stories and a wraparound animated story in the vein of the old EC comics written by Stephen King and George Romero in this follow up to Creepshow

Like all anthologies the quality varies but the 2nd story The Raft has some tense moments

Worth a watch but do not expect anything original

A young classical guitar playing prodigy Eugene, Ralph Macchio of Karate Kid fame, has a real interest in playing the Blues and upon researching a lost song of Blues legend Robert Johnson helps a former fellow Bluesman , Joe Seneca, go to a place in the heart of Blues country to get him to teach the song

This is pretty good chalk and cheese buddy movie with a mix of a road movie - Apart from the OTT guitar duel at the end which seems out of place IMHO this is well worth your time

A great Blues soundtrack of course

A man Zac who has been working as a scientist for an energy project wakes up one day to find the rest of humankind to have vanished

This was an interesting low budget New Zealand film

A bit directionless and of course a low budget means little in the way of visual excitement though the idea is good

available in full on Youtube but with Spanish(?) subtitles

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgAloKY4_Jg

Kim Kinnison is chosen by a dying Lensman to relay a message to the command of a huge space fleet to help win an alien war

This is weird to say the least with Asians making a US space opera from the 1920s but in the 1980s with a trippy 1960s feel. Loosely based on EE Doc Smiths classic scifi books

Pretty good but the similarity to Star Wars and Green lantern is so readily apparent - ironic as they "stole" ideas from the lensman stories in the first place...really a case of scifi eating itself

Letdown by some daft music

During World War 2 a German platoon comandeers a keep in Romania and unleashes an evil force

God what an erratic movie switching from great to godawful and back again within minutes. A great idea - lets show that evil can come in shades and that the typical "bad guys" the Germans can be relatively good...BUT the sets look like sets apart from a few great shots, the sound effects are great though the soundtrack by Tangerine Dream is utterly out of place - Did they think this film was Blade Runner??? - the effects are cheesy - and its all a fucking mess . oh lets throw in some shagging scene - the whole thing is like some elongated music video

So much potential wasted

Wren a young woman chases after Eric a singer in a punk band played by real life punk/rock star Richard Hell while using Paul a struggling artist and anyone else she can use along the way

The first film by Susan Seidelmen who made Desparately Seeking Susan...this is pretty good but hard to relate to the lead who is just one of the most parasitic women in film history...hard to be sympathetic . However it IS a good portrayal of life at the bottom and has a nice just desserts/poetic justice type of ending

Eternally unemployed young man Mick has to decide whether to join the armed forces like his best friend or try to get a job as a mechanic

Though shot in black and white, naturalistically this is quite intriguing

Nothing exciting really happens which I guess IS the point

A prostitute (Nancy Allen) witnesses the murder of a frustrated housewife (Angie Dickinson) killed by a blonde woman wearing sunglassses...Later the murdered woman's son helps the hooker track down the killer

Apart from the first 30 minutes this is watchable and trashy. It just seemed an excuse to show tits and...vag. Very nice to see Nancy Allen in lingerie but this film is messy at best with writer/director Brian DePalma throwing all sorts of BS into the mix

Ultimately this is trashy quirky and laughable in places...but highly watchable and possibly a "bad film which is soooo bad that its actually good"

After their friend has problem with his car on a trip a group of friends try to get help at a nearby stop...there they meet a man who is in charge of a mannequin/waxworks museum

This is really the Americans doing a campy fun Hammer type of horror movie. The action is dopey and erratic ranging from the laughable and stupid to just plain weird and creepy. Overall its a fun film to watch

Full film on Youtube - no telling how long that will last

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNdanpN9INI

Martial arts film star Billy Lo (Bruce Lee) resists the influence of the mob and in order to protect himself and his girlfriend he fakes his own death

A messy but watchable film cobbled together from film clips before star Bruce Lee died.Apart from the end fight scenes and just the weird idea of continuing a movie with obvious replacements...its pretty lame

Kind of surreal in places

A woman with her second husband and her son moves back into a house where her first husband, a drug addict, had committed suicide

In places this was damn creepy - something about the kid they used and the way it gets increasingly disturbed

Enjoyable but I hate the old horrors where blood looks like red paint and the music is jarring - other than that this is a worthwhile film

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfuCHpY_tOE

A woman recounts the time when her family were detained at a prison camp along with other Japanese Americans following the attack on Pearl Harbour

This was a unique TV movie broaching a rather taboo subject for Americans. The pacing was great and the content was intelligent and diverse. Touching and funny in places. The only drawback imho was the acting which at times was a bit dodgy

A must-see film because of the content

A scientist who has created a useful parasite finds out that this also makes the recipient obsessed with sex and a craving to reproduce

This is early David Cronenberg stuff but has all his body horror trademarks and could be seen as a prequel to Videodrome. It starts well but descends quickly becoming quite laughable really - its really hard to take a parasite which looks like a mix of a turd, slug and penis seriously and its more like a dopey 1950s creature feature

It has its moments and is watchable almost throughout and the ending as shades of Salo and every modern zombie flick

Most of the women are great looking specially horror babe Barbara Steele

If you want to see a pervy sex zombie flick this is perfect otherwise its just a slightly warped horror flick about sex and a Cronenberg curio

Available in full on youtube - god knows for how long though!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfglzsgahSA

when an attempted robbery goes wrong 3 criminals take hostage a woman, and a man who is caring for a baby boy

Italian horror director Mario Bava strays into thriller territory and its quite a nasty affair - though most of the violence is tame the threat of violence is always there

Nicely paced and amazingly set almost entirely within a car

Worth watching once you get past the dated soundtrack and visuals

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCKt9LoFDBM

A group of small time crooks lead by Charley Varrick (Walter Matthau) rob a tiny bank and quickly realise they have stolen money meant for laundering by the Mafia

This kept my attention throughout with Matthau being an extremely watchable and likeable actor...this is part of the films drawback as well because its hard to view him as a killer and a ladykiller. The ending is a bit lame but overall a neat obscure thriller

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ8l-nt2Lxk

A man Michael who drifts from job to job meets a wealthy girl Ellie and his life is altered when she is killed in an accident

This was an Agatha Christie story but more in the mould of a psychological horror than a whodunnit

Good stuff and dare I say it a better story than The Usual Suspects

www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-J9t1BW43c

A young couple who have recently moved to a small farmhouse in the countryside become under seige when they upset the locals

I am surprised I have never seen this flick as it has the reputation of a strong rape scene and a brutal home invasion type flick. Thats kind of misleading, the rape is handled quite well and starts off as more of a reluctant act... the home invasion part is misleading too as we find out the reason for the couple being beseiged and its different from expectations

A good, gripping well made film with interesting yet unlikeable characters

The ending kind of sucks though...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXkqGVfm1mo

A black clad man must kill the 4 masters in a desert after he visits a village whose inhabitants have been massacred

Truly bizarre yet visually interesting western mixing eastern philosophy and surreality

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Uqb4Jy0GTg

A group of left wingers try to hold a peaceful demonstration against nuclear missiles and the local authorities try to disrupt the demo. An investigation is held once one of the left wingers is killed in an incident and another is hospitalised

After a slow first 30 minutes this film really picks up and becomes very gripping as we want to see justice done and the cover ups exposed

Probably one of the 20 best movies ever made simply because its openly political, questions authority and its certainly a must-see film

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHB28qfsV2w

Bizarre.A weird mix of interesting dream like cartoon stuff, political commentary and complete tedious nonsense as we follow "Beatles rip-offs" The Monkees doing god knows what. A few groovy tunes of psychedelia specially Porpoise Song

A WTF type of movie which probably makes sense if you are on drugs

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDB66UeIZrM

A rich frigid but otherwise happily married woman starts a double life as an upmarket prostitute

Interesting and fairly unique story with some dream sequences. It was probably considered shocking in the 60s

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKXLtgDPTc4

A man has his death faked and has cosmetic surgery to make him look like a new person to restart his life

A weird intro and the film content is quite bizarre but I enjoyed this. The ending is surprisingly horrific

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzQS3auR8_g

Private detective Lemmy Caution visits the strange city of Alphaville on an unnamed planet where creativity and emotion have been outlawed

Well I was looking forward to this - I like scifi and surreal stuff and can endure slow films...BUT it was a snooze-fest most of the time. It was well shot and kind of weird but too pretentious...Oh and having everything look like 1960s France was laughable

Interesting idea just poorly executed imho

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE_sjuYvd0o