No Way Out (1950) is an excellent film that starred Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier who died today. It was Poitier’s film debut. It was released on DVD in 2006 as part of the Fox Film Noir series. It’s an excellent film and not well known today.
Category: Film
New York Ninja
The story of how New York Ninja was made is better than the film. In 1984, John Liu directed and starred in New York Ninja but the film was never finished. The reels ultimately wound up with Vinegar Syndrome, an independent label that does a great job of reissuing old films on discs. The reels didn’t have audio, there were no credits or cast list. They tried to contact iu but he wasn’t interested in doing anything with it.
Vinegar Syndrome edited the film into a coherent story and got actors to record the new script. It sounds like the dubbed movies from the old days. The film was released in theaters and on Blu-ray in 2021. The disc package is excellent.
The film is an entertaining revenge story and it’s great to see New York. Here’s a screenshot of the Ninja roller skating! I grew up in Manhattan and we did lots of roller skating.
Tweets on the best James Bond movies
Don Winslow is an excellent novelist. His list of favorite James Bond films inspired some good replies. I added mine. I just finished watching the Bond 50 box set and have now seen all of the official Bond films. I only saw three in theaters: Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, and Spectre. I felt so grown up seeing Thunderball at age 11 or 12.
James Bond Ranked: Every 007 Movie, From Most To Least Profitable
How do you watch Buster Keaton films?
These two tweets present opposite points of view
Stevens argues for free versions which would draw in more viewers
Kehr argues for better quality versions made by people who invested time and money to make them. The discs from Cohen Media Group (from Lobster Films restorations) are excellent.
It’s a tough call but I side with Kehr.
The 10 best films I watched in 2021
I didn’t go to any theaters. I saw all of these on Blu-ray or Netflix. These are not all new films – they were new to me. I have posted separately on some of them.
- Beasts Clawing at Straws
- Synchonic
- Candyman (2021)
- Giants and Toys
- Zappa
- Werewolves Within
- Massacre at Central High
- Gunpowder Milkshake
- Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes
- No Time to Die
- Beasts Clawing at Straws – This South Korean film is an extremely clever crime drama. The longer you watch, the more you understand how the characters fit together and why they’re chasing the bag of money at the center of the film.
- Sychronic – The most recent and best indie from directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. It explores time travel. Time has been a focus for them before in their prior film The Endless.
- Candyman – I watched both the original Candyman (1992) and the new one this year. The new one is a worthy successor to the fine horror film. This Candyman, co-written by Jordan Peele, reminds me of his films Get Out and Us. They all function as horror films and explorations of America’s racist past and present.
- Giants and Toys – This 1958 Japanese film is a sharp satire on capitalism.
- Zappa – I saw him perform with the Mothers of Invention in 1969 and 1970. This film explores Zappa’s entire career with many interviews and rare footage of this great artist.
- Werewolves Within – Josh Rubens has made a film that is both a horror film and comedy. It’s a step forward from his fine debut Scare Me with a wider range of characters.
- Massace at Central High – This 1976 horror film is about how a new student stands up to high school bullies. Once they’re free of the bullies, the oppressed students (the nerd, the fat kid, etc,) show they are no better.
- Gunpowder Milkshake – This Netflix film was directed by Navot Papushado, the co-director of the Israeli film Big Bad Wolves. This one isn’t as good but there’s lots of action with not much depth.
- Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes – Another film that plays with time. This Japanese film explores what happens when you can see two minutes into the future. It’s funny and clearly got the most of its low budget.
- No Time to Die – I had only seen a few James Bond films before that last several months. Now I have seen 21 of the 25. They are great escapism for this pandemic era. You are taken to a different time and many exotic places. This is one of the better ones. Daniel Craig is my second favorite Bond (after Sean Connery).
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (202) will appeal to anyone who liked OneCut of the Dead. This is another very low-budget Japanese film. It plays with the concept of what would happen if you could see two minutes into the future. It’s on Blu-ray and DVD from Terracotta. It’s very clever and funny and well worth seeing.
Massacre at Central High
I recently watched Massacre at Central High (1976) in the outstanding Blu-ray/DVD package from Synapse.
This is a unique low-budget horror film about high school students. A new student at Central High finds that the school is run by bullies, one of whom is an old friend. He challenges the bullies who cause him to have a crippling accident. He takes revenge but finds that the oppressed students (the fat kid, the nerd, the pot smokers) are no better now that they are no longer intimidated. There are no adults in the film until the end which is at a high school dance.
Synapse includes a long extra with new interviews of actors and others involved with the film.
Memories of Radio City Music Hall
I grew up in Manhattan until I was 10 (1953-64). My aunt would take my sister and me to Radio City once or twice a year to see movies and the Rockettes. I saw Disney movies there and know I saw 101 Dalmations when it was new. The last film I saw there was Charade.
Nicholas Cage keeps making bizarre movies
I recently watched Pig and Prisoners of the Ghostland. They’re right there with other recent Cage films like Mandy.
7/4/22: The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is Cage’s latest strange film. He plays a character based on himself. A rich guy has accumulated Cage memorabilia – my favorite item was the chainsaw from Mandy.
One Cut of the Dead in Hollywood
One Cut of the Dead is a very funny low-budget Japanese zombie movie. It’s about people making a zombie movie who are attacked by zombies. You see the final film and the behind the scenes action.
There are two sequels:
One Cut of the Dead Spin Off: in Hollywood was made for TV and is on the Terracotta Blu-Ray One Cut of the Dead: Hollywood edition.
One Cut of the Dead Mission: Remote is on YouTube
Sad! 