Sean Connery, Michelle Pfeiffer, Roy Scheider, James Fox, John Mahoney, and J.T. Walsh star in the cinematic adaptation of John Le Carre’s novel, The Russia House. Written for the screen by Tom Stoppard, the film was the first, big Western film to be shot on location in the Soviet Union. Featuring a gorgeous score by…
Tag: american
TAD 2022: The Lair dir. by Neil Marshall
Neil Marshall brings us another bad-ass woman named Sinclair with his latest effort The Lair. Marshall’s films have been much loved by After Dark audiences having previously delivered such solid fare as The Descent, Doomsday (the other Sinclair), Dog Soldiers. Pairing with his lead actress Charlotte Kirk, they penned the script that sees the true…
Mission: Impossible (1970) -Butterfly, and Decoy
Phelps (Peter Graves) and his IMF team (with Willy (Peter Lupus) back) head to Japan in Butterfly. Written by Eric Bercovici and Jerrold L. Ludwig from a story by Sheldon Stark, it first aired on 31 October, 1970. There’s some uncomfortable things that go on in this episode as the characters pose as various Japanese…
Uncommon Valor (1983) – Ted Kotcheff
Before Chuck Norris and Sylvester Stallone did it, while it was still a bit of a taboo subject for American society, Gene Hackman, to the strains of a James Horner score gathered to him Robert Stack, Patrick Swayze, Harold Sylvester, Fred Ward, Tim Thomerson, Randall Cobb, Reb Brown and Kwan Hi Lim to his side,…
Win, Lose or Die (1989) – John Gardner
John Gardner’s eighth 007 novel is on the book shelf this week, and honestly, as much as I have been enjoying his take on James Bond, I think this may be my favourite one so far. Bond finds himself facing off against a terrorist organisation known as BAST who have plans to infiltrate a Russian/American/British…
Constantine (2005) – Francis Lawrence
Keanu Reeves takes on the role of DC’s Vertigo Comics character of John Constantine aka Hellblazer in the next title to be featured in DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies as I traverse its visions of hell. Constantine was originally written as a UK character but was changed to American to make it more bankable…
The Mutations (1974) – Jack Cardiff
DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies continues to bring me atomic mutations. This offering is a little odd, and features some recognisable actors in a rather bad film called The Mutations, but also known as The Freakmaker. Donald Pleasance plays Professor Nolter, a scientist who is fascinated by the combination of animal and plant as…
Foreign Correspondent (1940) – Alfred Hitchcock
It’s not often that I come across an Alfred Hitchcock film that I haven’t seen, but Philip Kemp’s Movies book, but Foreign Correspondent was one of them. I was completely delighted with this one, and loved how the story played out as an American reporter heads to Europe and the UK to investigate the brewing…
For Your Eyes Only (1960) – Ian Fleming
This week’s 007 book, as I continue to make my way through the series, is a collection of short stories, a number of which either have names that would be used for the film series, and are filled with familiar names and sequences as we dig into different moments in the life of James Bond….
Diamonds Are Forever (1956) – Ian Fleming
The fourth James Bond adventure by Ian Fleming is on my book shelf this week, and I dug into it eagerly. Despite some troubling moments of racism, 007’s literary adventure in this book is damned enjoyable, and you can see a number of themes and locales survived the jump to the big screen with Sean…
The Mind Reels 