Reviews

A simple story ; Lone Wolf, the Shoguns assassin ; he crosses the Shogun - a big no no apparently. His missus pays the price. Our man and his son with the funky hair then set off to walk the earth, kicking Samuirai ass every 10 minutes or so, with style of course.

Now this may sound a bit lightweight, but the story isn't the strongest aspect of this movie. In short, I can only describe this as a piece of artwork. Every scene is beautiful (albeit a little dark and grainy) and the psychedelic soundtrack and weird fx give us a trippy, thumping, sythesizer treat to accompany the visual splendour from start to finish.

The gore is over-the-top to a slightly comic effect, and the combat sound effects are all you could hope for from a film of this genre. "Kerthwang!", "Ching", "Crunch" etc etc. Fantastic. Nasty weapons, fancy leaping moves and plenty of day-glo claret.

All the characters are wacky and interesting. Some menacing, some plain daft and some just not as they seem.... I don't think however there's many Oscar winners amongst 'em :-)

A totally engaging title, I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys both the analysis of the production as well as the basic entertainment value of a movie. To be fair, it does play in some ways like a low budget title ; but that lack of budget is in complete contrast to the extra amount of effort put in.

Always better than high budget, low effort. See Kevin Costner for details.

8/10 from me.

I enjoy the old classic horrors. Low budgets, questionable acting, cheesey effects etc. I spit on your grave, or Day of the Woman as the US print is known is a classic of the genre. Imagine my exitement when I stumbled upon a copy of "Family and Honor" (UK title) in a bargain bucket at the local video shop.

The initial exitement of the find was the only pleasure this film gave me. I viewed it once, with much use of fast-forward ; and in the words of Mr Gump, "that's about all I want to say about that..."

An abomination of a film. No gore. No story. No point.

Such a dark, ironic and uncomfortably funny string of events plus a large helping of bizarre, paranoid and unpredictable characters have never before been forged into one story.

The film follows Paul Hacket (Griffin Dunne) on a date from hell, where from square one it all goes horribly wrong. As we move on, the mood winds up into a frenzied nightmare as this poor mans' plight goes from bad to worse. "All I want to do is go home" he says, running for his life from an angry mob.

The story isn't complex, which you may think could bore, but the characters are so delightfully wacky that you can't help but be transfixed.

We've all had bad days when we've said "Phew! What a nightmare!" - well forget it, until you've taken half the knocks this guy does, you've had but a walk in the park.

Don't just rent this movie - buy it.

A delight indeed, albeit a little dated now. 8 years ago, this was one of those movies I watched every day almost (along with the Breakfast Club) - hey, I was 19. It deals with what the main character calls his "move into manhood" and centres around Dexter Fletchers character and his "love", Ione Skye.

Martin Amis' novel of the same title is fairly faithfully painted onto the screen, though with tweaks to bring us from the 60's novel to the 80's movie (i.e. less drugs and sex!).

For a British movie, a top cast, excellent acting, memorable script, unusual and racy direction...8/10 today, 10/10 when I was 19!

As a fan of zombie flicks, I'm sure I've seen them all. The sad thing is that although wonderful, most are now looking a bit worn, low budget and in many ways, comical (Flesh Eaters / Dawn / Creeping Flesh).

Night of the Living Dead 1990 is one exception.

A remake of the '68 classic, Romero's special effects man Tom Savini this time takes direction, and does so well.

The movie is largely set in a large spooky house. The characters converge from various places, all seeking refuge from the flesh-eating zombies.

The human vs zombie flavour is always there with the marauding presence of the zombies outside and to crank up the tension, a human vs human element provides a threat inside - with the argumentative and cowardly "Cooper" and authoritative "Ben" frequently coming to blows.

Special effects are top-notch as you'd expect from effects supremo Savini 9/10.

Performances of all are believable and crisp 8.4/10.

Gore factor, could be more - 7/10.

Overall 8.8/10.

A worthy beer & pizza movie for anyone, a 100% must-see for zombie fans.

The first of this classic trilogy. To compare all three would be a mistake however. Whilst the plot and characters flow through the sequels, the tone of ED1 is quite unique.

Unlike 2 and 3, The Evil Dead 1 cares not for laughs, instead delivering a gritty, no budget, daringly crafted shock-fest. Shot on 16mm by a group of college kids, the direction and mood keeps you gripped in a way that modern horror rarely does. Sam Riami clearly thought hard about each and every sequence he shot - some work well, some less well, but his efforts overall pay off.

It's the kind of movie that will make your girlfriend do the old pillow over the eyes trick. Of course, you've seen it a thousand times before, so remember to casually laugh as she jumps at the scary bits.

Incidentally - this was the first movie to inspire a computer game - get out that old ZX Spectrum and kill some demonically possessed friends!