The Long Good Friday (1980)

An unmistakably British gangster film set in London in the 1970s. It stars Bob Hoskins as Harold Shand, a city crime boss who's hoping to get a foothold in legitimate property development. To achieve his goal Harold seeks aid from the American Mafia, but, for reasons that he's not clear on, at the same time a faceless enemy is attempting to put an end to him and his entire venture.
It may be a minority opinion, seeing as how Dir. John Mackenzie's film is widely regarded as a classic of the genre, but I honestly didn't like it very much. What deserves praise regardless of personal feelings is Bob Hoskins' powerhouse performance, surely one of his best; and Francis Monkman's occasionally unusual but upfront score ought to get a mention, too.

3 big acorns out of 5

Stargate SG-1: Children of the Gods (1997)

A feature-length Pilot for a TV series that continues the story of the Stargate (1994) movie. Set approximately one year later, the Stargate program at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex has been shut down, with just a handful of guards watching over it. But when a previously unseen Goa'uld 'God' is encountered, the wheel spins again and the team must return to Abydos.
Some significant but excellent recasting means we lose Kurt Russell but gain Richard Dean Anderson (aka MacGyver), who makes the role his own. The other new team members are equally as good in their roles.
All in all, despite new writers and a lower budget the Pilot expands upon the original premise and is arguably even better than the parent feature film.

4 stomach worms out of 5

Cherry 2000 (1987)

A well-off Sam Treadwell (David Andrews) hires a soft-voiced but ballsy tracker (Melanie Griffith) to escort him into an outlying restricted zone. It's a dangerous excursion into a post-apocalyptic lawless wasteland, but Sam does it for love - the love of his Cherry 2000, an android companion (sex doll).
One of the film's strengths is its shot-on-location nature, utilising the natural lightning of the environment, because when shooting sci-fi on a budget you need all the help you can get to make it believable. The story's soft-core undertones are played knowingly, which is another way of saying it's self-aware cheese, but it at least tries to be better than the sum of its parts.

2 serene outlooks out of 5

Satoshi Kon Collection

The image used above is representative of just a small part of the public persona that Kon allowed people to see. I picked it in part because it expresses how I feel a world without people like him having left footprints in would be, and also because it's from Perfect Blue (1997), which was my introduction to his world and the film that gained him recognition in the West.
The other side of the public Kon was an explosion of colour and unfettered creativity that saw him explore many of the same themes repeatedly but never in an uneventful or over-familiar way. He was a dreamer of beautiful things and terrifying things and things that were simultaneously both.

Films on In a Nutshell:
01. World Apartment Horror (1991)
02. Memories (1995)
03. Perfect Blue (1997)
04. Millennium Actress (2001)
05. Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
06. Paprika (2006)
07. Ani-Kuri 15 (2008)

Manga on Nut Ink:
01. Tropic of the Sea (2013)
02. OPUS (2014)
03. Dream Fossil (2015)

NOTE: Kon also made a thirteen-episode anime television series called Paranoia Agent (2004). It's unlikely that I'll ever get to post about it on the TV blog, but I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys the director's films.

Vantage Point (2008)

A twisty thriller set in Spain during a political summit concerned with creating an international alliance to tackle America's war on terrorism. It's of such importance that the US president (William Hurt) is making an appearance, making himself a visible target for the people he's there to protest against.
The singular event is replayed many times from the perspective of various attendees, the 'vantage' points of the title. Initially it's exciting and adds a level of intrigue but the overuse and highlighting of too many damn coincidences turns it around until it becomes an exercise in endurance. Likewise, the editing, effectively adding tension at the start, starts to annoy over time. The ridiculous car chase is where I gave up caring about any of it.

2½ phone calls out of 5

Princess from the Moon (1987)

Dir. Kon Ichikawa's filmed version of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (aka The Tale of Princess Kaguya), a 10th-Century Japanese fairy tale, stars Toshirô Mifune as a struggling woodcutter who finds a mysterious baby in a bamboo forest. When the girl, named Kaya (Yasuko Sawaguchi), grows to adulthood her beauty draws suitors, but her unknown origins complicate her life.
Amid the changing fortunes of her parents, Kaya's story explores the nature of desire and love. The acting is decent, but the onscreen action rarely feels like it's happening in an ancient era (it's set sometime around 790 AD). While not Ichikawa's best work, it's a colourful version of the story, nonetheless.

2½ cradle pieces out of 5

This is Supermarionation (2014)

A perfect companion to Filmed in Supermarionation (2014), it's over four hours of puppet mastery (see comments section for full list of episodes). It's not presented in chronological order, but rather arranged like a themed night of viewing, replete with related TV adverts, most of which are for ice lollies or breakfast cereal. Stay for it all and you'll experience drama, action, impossible flights of science fiction fancy and spy-themed intrigue, on land sea and in air.
My only major criticism is that not all of the included episodes serve as the best starting place for newcomers to their respective worlds (e.g. The Secret Service episode doesn't explain why Father Stanley Unwin is pint-sized).

4 international rescues out of 5

Filmed in Supermarionation (2014)

A documentary about the people and processes through which a team of talented creators and puppeteers created the puppetry style that became known as Supermarionation. (Nothing to do with an Italian plumber, it's a portmanteau of the words super, marionette and animation.)
Most famous for the Thunderbirds TV series (1965-66), the team's story begins in 1957, making television commercials. Directed by Stephen la Riviere (but presented by Parker and Lady Penelope) it's a fascinating look into the undertaking and an enlightening journey into the minds of its most well-known members, including interviews with Gerry and Sylvia Anderson.
It's a standard talking heads doc, but is made with genuine love for the medium, and as such is a must-watch for any fan of the genre.

3½ strings attached out of 5

Hamburger Hill (1987)

It's standard procedure in War movies to use the men's downtime between skirmishes to concentrate on characterisation, so that when conflict breaks out we can compare and contrast how the individuals perform under pressure. It's the same in Hamburger Hill, but there's something in the film that makes those scenes seem better than most of the others that I've seen. And the violence when war breaks out, sometimes sudden and unexpected, is bloody and brutal, showing the horror of war without reservation. (It was based on an actual event, the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division assault on 'Hill 937'.)
It got overshadowed by Oliver Stone's Platoon (1986), which was also set in Vietnam, but I'd pick Hill over Platoon any day of the week.

4 sacks of mud out of 5

Take a Hard Ride (1975)

It's surely no coincidence that Lee Van Cleef is clad in dark colours in a lot of Westerns - it suits his persona to a tee. In Take a Hard Ride he's a determined bounty hunter on the trail of Fred Williamson and Jim Brown, two men who've formed an uneasy alliance in order to transport a $86,000 payroll through dangerous territory, back to its current legal Ranch owner.
Dir. Antonio Margheriti's cheap and quick approach to film-making makes everything feel a little schizophrenic at times, as does Goldsmith's score, but the part Spaghetti and part Hollywood blend is different enough from works with similar themes to make it all worthwhile. The great cast is another plus; Jim Kelly features, too, he says very little but leaves an impression.

3 snakes in a bag out of 5