The port city of San Francisco serves as the backdrop for this noir thriller that features Eli Wallach as a homicidal criminal on the trail of a heroin shipment from Hong Kong he’s expected to collect and deliver. Each shipment has been stowed in statuettes, dolls, and other such trinkets, all in the hands of…
Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire (2019) – Stephen Cognetti
Found footage can be hit or miss. To attempt a trilogy what works solely with that sub-genre is pretty ambitious, and I think, for the most part, writer/director Stephen Cognetti pulls it off. And if you watch all three films in close succession, as I have, they flow a lot better, and he wraps everything…
M*A*S*H (1980) – Letters, Cementing Relationships, and Father’s Day
Dennis Koenig pens Letters, which is a bit of a vignette show, that first aired on 24 November, 1980. In the midst of a huge rainstorm that is bringing down camp spirits, Hawkeye (Alan Alda) gets a slew of letters from his hometown of Crabapple Cove, Maine. One of the schoolteachers there has had her…
National Treasure (2004) – Jon Turteltaub
Sometimes you just want fluff. And honestly, who doesn’t like the idea of a secret history shrouded in clues and mysteries all around in the everyday, and the history of a country? Like an inoffensive version of The Da Vinci Code, the first National Treasure is a solid popcorn film, meant to entertain and not…
The Prisoner (1968) – The Girl Who Was Death, Once Upon a Time, and Fall Out
Number Six (Patrick McGoohan) is back to being a superspy in swinging London, as he matches wits with a deadly female assassin, Sonia (Justine Lord), who is looking to off him, and protect her slightly crazed father, Schnipps (Kenneth Griffith), who is planning on destroying London and establishing him as its new Napoleon-esque leader. All…
Mission: Impossible (1970) – The Amateur, and Hunted
Hey look! Sam Elliott is back as Doug (yay!). And Anthony Zerbe returns as a guest star (yet again) in The Amateur. Written by Ed Adamson, this episode first aired on 14 November, 1970. Working undercover in an East European country, the IMF team have unexpected trouble when a bar owner, Eric Schilling (Zerbe) with…
The Final Girl Support Group (2021) – Grady Hendrix
I’ve been a fan of Grady Hendrix’s writing since I first discovered the vhs looking cover of My Best Friend’s Exorcism. Since then, I hunted down anything he’d written before and after that (two last titles to read and I’m caught up) so I dug eagerly into The Final Girl Support Group. A Final Girl…
The Prisoner (1967) – Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, and Living in Harmony
We’re giving a teaser before the opening credits, which are shortened, and doesn’t introduce us to Number Two (Clifford Evans), instead we’re launched into a very bizarre, story involving mind-swapping in Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling. Written by Vincent Tilsley, this episode first went out on the Beeb on 22 December, 1967. Number…
5 Against the House (1955) – Phil Karlson
The stunning Kim Novak joins Guy Madison, Brian Keith, Alvy Moore, and Kerwin Matthews in this noir thriller, 5 Against the House. Once again, this was a film I hadn’t heard of, but rather enjoyed it as I settled in for it. A group of Korean war vets are getting the most out of the…
Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel (2018) – Stephen Cognetti
Y’know what? I’m not gonna lie. I had a pretty good time with the first film, Hell House LLC, so I figured I would dive into the sequels – I mean it’s the same writer/director through all of them, so we know that no matter how they play out, this is Cognetti’s story the whole…
