101 Films
Blu-Ray Review: Deathsport
Roger Corman was never a man to pass up the opportunity to jump on a bandwagon. So, when Deathrace 2000, which he produced, became a huge hit (relatively speaking) in 1975, he decided to cash-in on it. Deathsport was the first of a number of proposed sequels, but its failure and difficult shoot put an …
Blu-Ray Review: A Boy and His Dog
Don Johnson was one of the coolest actors of his generation. During the 1980s, he became a cultural icon thanks to the role of Crocket in Miami Vice. Whilst he’s gone on to make a number of films and TV shows, nothing has really come close to matching its success. However, he seems to have …
Blu-Ray Review: Deathstalker & Deathstalker 2
Although the genre has remained popular in science fiction literature and spawned a smattering of adaptations, The 1980s was the decade when sword and sorcery films really came into the fore. After missing out on producing Conan the Barbarian, Roger Corman was determined to make his own version. While filming a number of productions on …
Blu-Ray Review: Treasure of the Ninja
The ninja or shinobi have formed part of Japanese legend and folklore for hundreds of years. These mercenaries or ‘assassins for hire’ have managed to obtain an aura of mystery and are often viewed as almost supernatural beings. With special powers and abilities forming much of this myth. This was transplanted into film, across Asia, …
Blu-Ray Review: Crazy Mama
The name Jonathan Demme will be well known to many film fans, largely for his work on Silence of the Lambs and, to a lesser extent, the Oscar-winning Philadelphia. They might be slightly surprised to discover that he’s gone on to make almost twenty feature films. There’s a bigger shock in store when you take …
Blu-ray Review: Caged Heat
While Orange is the New Black brought the female prison drama to the mainstream, it’s an area of interest which has proved popular across decades, for good and ill. Indeed, in the 1970s there were a raft of exploitation/sexploitation films centred around incarcerated females. These movies were usually ultra-violent with a ‘fuck you’ attitude; often …
Blu-Ray Review: Johnny Mnemonic
The twenty-first century was meant to be an exciting place. A world full of unimaginable possibilities. Of mind-blowing technological and medical advancements. Flying cars and talking animals. An era of limitless opportunities but one where danger lurks around every corner. Where every vice or fetish can be sated. According to science fiction writers, anyway. The …
Blu-ray Review: The Scare Film Archives Volume 1: Drug Stories!
The American Genre Film Archive (AGFA) is a non-profit organisation whose mission is to preserve the legacy of genre movies through collection, conservation, and distribution. Located in Austin, Texas and founded it 2009, it benefits from having a number of high-profile advisors from within the industry. With an archive containing over six thousand film prints, …
Blu-Ray Review – Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th
The late 1970s and 1980s was the era of the mega horror franchises. Innovations in filmmaking techniques and technologies, not to mention the growing turbulence within the world, made it a fertile time for genre cinema to flourish. Huge series sprung up, which weren’t just big box office hits but also gained avid (often rabid) …
Blu-Ray Review: Snowtown
Much of Australia is arid, inhospitable and entirely unforgiving country. Twenty percent desert, the majority of the central belt is uninhabitable and yields little or no rewards. It’s this climate which seems to have honed much of its national cinema. A certain no-nonsense brutality and muscularity which dominates the likes of Animal Kingdom, Wake in …