The Street Fighter's Last Revenge (1979)

I didn't enjoy the Mission: Impossible-esque silliness that popped up from time to time, making the Takuma Tsurugi character seem almost like some kind of wannabe super-spy, but when Chiba leads with his deadly fists it makes Tsurugi feels authentic again. Along the way he has run-ins with a martial artist whose skills are greater than the Streetlighter's own, and another whose skills are lesser - both of them cause him problems. In addition, there's some double-crossing, a corrupt politician, and a small item that everyone with something to lose (or gain) is desperate to get their hands on.

3 ace cards out of 5

Sheba, Baby (1975)

Private Detective Sheba Shayne (Pam Grier) answers the call to help out her father, a loan company owner who's getting leaned on by rich heavies who want his honest business permanently closed. Armed with a pistol and a pair of ass-kicking boots Sheba goes in blazing, to do what the police won't.
It's Pam in another tough-talking Blaxploitation flick, doing what she did in most of the others that are named after the title lady. With more outfit changes than necessary, she once again looks the part.
The biggest flaw is the editing, which, if tightened, could've helped patch over the lazy timing and acting, and may even have heightened the weak finale.
My favourite part was perhaps Christopher Joy as Walker, the comedy houndstooth-suited, feather-in-the-hat wearing street hustler.

2½ shotgun redecorations of of 5

Napping Princess: The Story of the Unknown Me (2017)

Sometimes when Kokone sleeps she dreams of a fairy-tale kingdom named Heartland, a place whose relationship with the real world is based on the genre's fanciful rules. When her immediate family is in danger Kokone draws strength from the other realm, but Heartland is under threat, too.
You could accuse Napping Princess of lacking originality, given that is has a Ghibli-esque female protagonist, a story that could've been a younger-audience vehicle for the late Satoshi Kon, a pace that feels almost like Mamoru Hosoda's, and there's some giant creature action that's reminiscent of Hideaki Anno's most famous work, but despite all of that it occupies its own space.
It reveals itself slowly, allowing each of the simple threads time to breathe comfortably. But when it's time to prove it or lose it, it does provide some welcome warm fuzzies, which is something to celebrate.

3 hearts united out of 5

The Crow: Salvation (2000)

The third Crow movie doesn't suck quite as much as its predecessor, but it's still a waste of precious time. The story has twenty-one-year-old antihero Alex (Eric Mabius), who's sent to the electric chair on a trumped-up murder charge, return from the grave to clear his name and find the real killer.
The film-makers had the good sense to abandon the weird piss-smog of City of Angels (1996), but it's still not something I'll want to watch twice.
On a side note, I burned my finger on an oven dish the same day that I watched the movie; my frantic rush toward the cold water tap (aka faucet) was more dramatically satisfying than anything onscreen had been.

1 bird's eye view out of 5

The Band / Artist Collection

Mini reviews of a filmed live performance by a band or artist OR a collection of their music videos on shiny disc. There's no scripted musicals, films about music culture or genres, etc, or biopics of musicians.

Clicking the existing Music label will retrieve most of what's listed below, but an A-Z is more direct and enables you to avoid the stuff that you don't like.

From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter (1999)

A direct-to-video prequel that takes the bloodsucking action back to a wild (Mexican) west setting. Various peoples from different walks of life, including an outlaw gang, a newly married couple, and an author with a fondness for the bottle all find themselves at a saloon in the ass-hole of nowhere, a place of many vices that opens it doors from dusk till dawn.
Someone was far too enthusiastic with the orange lighting effects, but overall it's a fun, if overlong, genre-mashing romp. I'm probably in a minority with regards what I type next, but I enjoyed it more than the first film. What that means is I only had to stop myself once from turning it off, whereas it was four times with the first one. I love that the IMDB cast and crew listing has entries for 'Snake Girl' and 'Wedding Dress Whore'- looks good on a CV!

2 boot blades out of 5

Free Enterprise (1998)

For some people turning thirty is a worrying prospect. It's certainly the case for writer Mark (Eric McCormack), who equates his fast-approaching three decades milestone with some kind of cut-off point, à la Logan's Run (1976). He and fellow film fan Robert (Rafer Weigel), who learned most of what he knows about life and love from watching Captain Kirk on Star Trek TOS, struggle with the ups and downs of romance amid a midlife crisis situation.
Knowledge of Trek and film culture in general will increase your enjoyment of the story, which, when stripped of its fandom appeal, is a pretty standard tale of two men getting a timely kick up the ass, with added Shatner.

2½ human adventures out of 5

Django, Prepare a Coffin (1968)

aka Viva Django

Dir. Ferdinando Baldi's film was set to have original Django Franco Nero return to the role, but then Nero went to Hollywood and the job went instead to Italian-born Terence Hill, who did a mighty fine job at filling in.
It's a story of multiple betrayals and, not surprisingly, some stolen gold. Ambushed and left for dead, Django bides his time until a deserved payback can be extracted. When it arrives it's not as bloody nor as good as the original, but it at least respects it and the music (by Gianfranco + Giampiero Reverberi) is top class. If the ADR had been up to the same standard, the unfortunate tension-killing lack of atmosphere elsewhere might've been avoided.

2½ walking dead men out of 5

She and Her Cat (1999)

To give it its full title, She and Her Cat: Their Standing Points (i.e. viewpoints) is an early short (5 mins) B+W anime from Dir. Makoto Shinkai. The animation is simplistic, but it's certainly not hurried and it suits the aesthetic.
It begins in springtime, then moves through the subsequent seasons to end in winter. There's a voice-over from the perspective of a male cat, commenting on his relationship with the young woman whose house he shares. It's a sweet, thoughtful and often poetic slice of observation that provides a glimpse into one example of the process by which two souls can come together.

3½ pensive stares out of 5

Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie (2015)

It's not stated on the box art, but Dir. Kazuya Nomura's film is a continuation of the Arise version of GitS and a sequel to the Pyrophoric Cult episode(s).
Set in the year 2029, it begins with a hostage situation that doesn't quite go to plan and the assassination of a very public figure. Working independently of Public Security Section 9, Motoko and her team investigate further.
The plot is complicated. If I understood it correctly, it boils down to progress in cyberization and how that relates to what's termed the "Third World". Various parties want to push the advent of new tech, while others want to halt it. In the middle are the profiteers, individuals or corporations who care only about personal agendas or bottom line profits. Repeat viewings may change my opinion, but right now I feel like there were a number of unresolved issues in The New Movie's script that make the Arise reboot feel still unfinished.

3 things to do afterwards out of 5

From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999)

A direct-to-video sequel staring Robert Patrick as Buck. He and his criminal cohorts plan to rob a Mexican bank, but they run into some bats along the way; not your regular garden-variety kind of bats - they're the Titty Twister kind.
In one scene the gang criticise a film on TV for its low quality and lack of memorable characters, when they themselves are that very thing in the movie they're starring in. I took it as a knowing, self-referential nod to its own failings, but it may have been just dumb luck. Elsewhere, references to better films and frequent use of odd perspectives made me think more than once that FDTD2 was probably more fun to make than it was for me to watch.

1½ peculiar POVs out of 5

The 5th Wave (2016)

The YA genre has some wonderful qualities, and Miss Moretz is good at what she does, usually, but 5th Wave is a showcase for neither of those things. It's post-apocalyptic YA sci-fi nonsense that caused in me some kind of movie-response brain-freeze. The part of me that registers and rejects utter bullshit was firing like a fourth of July parade, but like a fool I stuck it out.
The film does eventually answer the burning question that discerning viewers will want answered, but the pay-off isn't worth the time it takes to get there. Then, just five minutes afterwards it drops a second surprise 'plot-twist' that almost ended me. To add insult to injury, it seems to be part one of a longer story. If I'd known that prior to watching, I'd not have wasted my time on it.

1½ switches flicked out of 5

The Midnight Movies Collection

When theatres opened their doors in the small hours the night-people gathered: insomniacs; sun-dodgers; loners; stoners; thrill-seekers and intellectuals in search of something creatively stimulating, challenging or boundary-pushing. Collectively, folks bored with mainstream productions.
In response the venues served up B-Movies; schlocky sci-fi and horror; foreign and home-grown exploitation, sexploitation, and blaxploitation; art house, avant-garde and the just plain weird. The venues became places where like-minded people could discover stuff that bypassed most people's radar.
It's classed as a genre by many folks, but I prefer to think of it as an umbrella term that's able to accommodate many different genres. Some examples:

Voices of a Distant Star (2003)

What VoaDS lacks in length it more than makes up for in content, specifically emotional content. It squeezes more lyrical beauty into its 25 minute running time than many full-length features can manage.
It's the story of Japanese high-school students Mikako and Noboru, distanced from each other but never far from one another's thoughts. Unfortunately, the gulf between them isn't just geographical, it's also temporal.
The character designs aren't as good as Dir. Makoto Shinkai's subsequent works, but the achingly beautiful backgrounds that he's known for are firmly in place, and the heartfelt simplicity that underpins everything else is as strong in its infancy as it ever became in later years. It's exquisite.

5 long-distance texts out of 5

The Crow: City of Angels (1996)

Sarah (the youth from the original film now grown, played by Mia Kirshner) inexplicably dreams of Ashe Corven (Vincent Perez), a victim of the city's nasty stock types, a man who seeks justice for himself and one other.
The Crow: CoA is a stupid movie with an ugly aesthetic. A pervasive yellow smog covers everything much of the time. Perhaps it was an attempt to give the city a miasmic, otherworldly feeling? I don't know, but it feels instead like there's a tank of cloudy piss situated between the viewer and their screen. It's dumb, but is perhaps the least of the movie's problems. Situations often make no sense and/or have little in common with the whole. The antagonists are woeful. The S+M people are ridiculous. And, for some reason, seeing the resurrected Ashe on a Ducati made me wholesale lose my shit.

1 exploding treetop out of 5