The Cannonball Run (1981) – Hal Needham

They don’t make cast-packed comedies like The Cannonball Run anymore. That doesn’t mean it’s all good, but it is damned enjoyable. Hal Needham and Burt Reynolds were coming off Smokey and the Bandit and Hooper, and this road movie was a fun next step. Originally designed as an action film for Steve McQueen, when the…

TIFF24: Ick dir. Joseph Kahn

I had a great time with Kahn’s Detention so was ready to happily slip into his latest effort, Ick. A bit of a combination between Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Blob, Night of the Living Dead and The Faculty, Kahn’s film suggests that there is a lot of fun to be had, but it…

Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969) – Burt Kennedy

James Garner is at his charming best in Support Your Local Sheriff! Jason (Garner) rides into a small gold rush town, which we see spring up through the opening credits after Prudy (Joan Hackett) and her father, Olly Perkins (Harry Morgan) discover gold partway through a funeral – and that should tell you all you…

Magnum P.I. (2023) – The Retrieval, and Run with the Devil

Jin (Bobby Lee) is back in The Retrieval. Written by Gene Hong and Katie Varney, this episode first debuted on 1 November, 2023. Jin comes to T.C. (Stephen Hill) for some help when Jin’s ex-partner Bo (Kirk Fox) is released from prison, and wants his cut from a previous heist to pay for his protection…

Starman (1986) – The Return, and Like Father, Like Son

John Carpenter’s Starman resonated with a lot of people, and it seems that in the 80s spin-off series were happening fairly regular, there was Fame, Fast Times, 9 to 5, and Private Benjamin. There are a number of issues with the series but I was eager to dig into it and see how it stands…

Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare (1968) – Yoshiyuki Kuroda

As much as I loved 100 Monsters, Spook Warfare almost disappointed me as much. It feels like a bit of a goofy film, and I get that this is the point of the series, the same way Godzilla went from a dark film to ‘who is he fighting this time?’ It starts out promisingly enough,…

One Piece: Season 1 – East Blue, Part 2

There is so much to discover on Crunchyroll, and I may have been foolish to dig into something so huge as One Piece right off the bat, but I was intrigued by the concept, and after watching the first few episodes I was hooked. The first half of the season helped set up a lot…