Rewatching this (in a theater this time) I'm just struck by how much of this movie is Kati Outinen's face. I don't think I've ever seen a movie that is more carried by a single actor. And she's doing it here in a performance where she gets precious little dialogue and almost no action. I don't know how many film actors there have ever been who could do what she does here. The final sequence remains one of the greatest things I've ever seen in a movie.

Movies Double Danger (1938) D: Lew Landers. S: Preston Foster, Whitney Bourne, Donald Meek, Cecil Kellaway, Samuel S. Hinds. Inoffensive but mostly charmless B picture about police commissioner Hinds inviting his two prime suspects for “The Gentleman,” a renowned jewel thief, to his suburban estate for the weekend. Foster and Bourne are the suspects and ostensible romantic leads. Simultaneously too busy and not busy enough during its hour-long runtime. The opening social engineering heist is…

My wife and I are watching the tenth season of Shetland (and looking forward to the eleventh, while mourning the recently announced departure of lead actress Alison O’Donnell), and I was delighted to see that one of the characters, a craggy and mysterious poet named Ed Tulloch, runs a pub called The Watergaw. After the show I read her the Hugh MacDiarmid poem of that name (which I’ve loved for over half a century now), and then I thought I’d investigate the word, which turns out to be not only…

I sure have watched this back in the day. But I couldn’t remember much. And I certainly did not see the uncut version. Anyhow, this was suspenseful and sexy and psycho with a great story. Reminded me quite a bit of Hitchcock. And it has just the right amount humour. Loved all the car chases. And Sharon Stone’s character and acting is just perfect.👍 Recommended!

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is … Continue reading →

Follows the Jackass crew as they perform their final series of dangerous stunts and pranks, marking the end of the franchise. Last? Probably. Best? Not even close. With a mix of old footage, some previously unaired, and a few new skits and some rehashes, it shows how much the guys and us have aged. While pulling some laughs here and there, the classic gags are still the best, pretty much the best part was the closing credits with a montage of good skits from back in the day. Still gets three…

Last week’s blog post was about my visit to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham. I found there was more to share that could be fitted into one post, so this is part 2 of my account. It has come to my notice, thanks to a sharp-eyed reader that I did not include the photo of my entry into the ‘Pictorial’ section of the competition. Please accept my apologies. Here is ‘Lapwings at Pegwell Bay’: ‘Lapwings at Pegwell Bay’ by Amanda Jane Ogden I have added the missing photo to last week’s…

The terror of AI has come to comedy. There are a dozen shows this year about the threat that technology poses to the way we live, laugh, and love. In this case, AI stands for Austrian Imperialism and the fight is for Switzerland's independence. Well, sort of. It gets a bit lost in an endless stream of rambly diversions. There's a fine line between surrealist comedy and utter nonsense. If you like seeing a man getting the audience to sing to a magical (albeit potentially traitorous) hat,…

A classic string board appears in A Building Full of Cats 2 (Devcats, 2025). ▲ A Building Full of Cats 2 (Devcats, 2025) From contributor Sam Wigard.

Review by Sandre the Giant Released: 12th January 2026 The newest EP from atmospheric funeral doom project Man of Sorrows was actually released all the way back in January, but I missed it then because I get a hundred emails a day. But, in my sweaty, heat enraged state of mind recently I have been looking for something to cool the synapses and what better than Brazilian funeral doom designed for winter? ‘Inexistence in Existence’ is out now self released, and deals with how we conflate our…

Michael Keaton was probably one of my earliest crushes, mainly thanks to Johnny Dangerously. Recently, he

Roddy McDowall in Evil Under the Sun (1982) Vitals Roddy McDowall as Rex Brewster, flamboyant gossip columnist Adriatic Sea, Summer 1939 Film: Evil Under the Sun Release Date: March 5, 1982 Director: Guy Hamilton Costume Designer: Anthony Powell WARNING! Spoilers ahead! Background Having returned from my own beach vacation this weekend, today’s post draws from a summery classic that was some of the earliest inspiration on my interest in men’s style: Guy Hamilton’s 1982 adaptation of the Agatha…

Joe and Angela’s marriage is on thin ice. When they invite their enigmatic upstairs neighbors for a dinner party, the night spirals into unexpected places. The story is based on a play that’s been turned into movie several times in different countries, but this got the great performances of Edward Norton and Penelope Cruz, while Olivia Wilde plays perfectly the over-stressed woman, and Seth Rogen is very funny. Quirky funny comedy that’s both predictable and unpredictable at the same time. Four…

Feeling blue after the end of Heartstopper A scene from the webcomic and the show side-by-side, featuring the protagonists Nick and Charlie, and Nick’s dog Nellie. Ever since discovering the show, I’ve been hooked on the comics as well. Last night, we watched the final movie in the Heartstopper series that has been my comfort show since 2022, Heartstopper Forever. It was released in July 2026 already, but I was postponing watching it, because, frankly, I wasn’t ready for it to be over. I’m…

All this week on NBC's You Don't Say!, it's the battle of the doctors, as Dr. Joyce Brothers takes on Dr. Frank Baxter. Who is Dr. Frank Baxter? Well, in 1965 you would have recognized him. According to the always-reliable Wikipedia, "Baxter is best remembered for his appearances from 1956–1962 as 'Dr. Research' in The Bell Laboratory Science Series of television specials. These films became a staple in American classrooms from the 1960s through the 1980s. The Bell series combined scientific…

With most theatre creatives and critics decamped to Edinburgh for the Festival, August used to be a rather barren month for new openings in London, but with rising costs and overwhelming amounts of choice in Scotland, for those remaining in the capital over the next three weeks there are great new shows to look forward […]

I missed the pre- and post-interval scenes while grabbing snacks—Max was smart enough to stay behind and catch what I skipped. Now I need to rewatch those parts! Marina Mall Inox should seriously consider opening more refreshment counters or speeding up their service. The concession queue was so slow that I missed key moments of the film. Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) | 🔗 IMDb | A forgotten Peter Parker lives alone as a full-time Spider-Man until mounting pressure triggers a dangerous change…

I visited the allotment at the weekend, with a bit of time to spare so decided to tackle the plan to make a brassica cage to keep the pigeons off my sprouts and broccoli. Before picture here of the sculpture created by pigeons last year: Beautiful but not conducive to meeting our Christmas dinner requirements. Anyway, I had a plan to reuse a whole lot of metal rods and connectors from a deceased grow house. Yesterday was the day. Here is the ‘after pic, showing the netting over the new cage.…

After a week in Japan, with stories new and old, it’s time for a change of destination in our Women in Translation Month travels as we head off to Germany. It’s the 1960s, and the economy is booming, meaning there are plenty of opportunities for those new to the country, including recent arrivals from across the German-German border. Yet things aren’t always rosy in ‘the promised land’, and for one young girl in particular, as we’ll see, life in the west isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. *****…

Antony Szmierek Flight Simulator Following on from his distinctive and cinematic piece, Chalk, featured on BlackPlastic in March, British electronic producer Antony Szmierek is back with new single Flight Simulator. Szmierek was working as an English teacher at a college for children with developmental needs as his combination of spoken word and cinematic electronic production took off. Initial success led to him collecting the 6Music Artist of the Year award for 2023 following his EP, Poems to…

Yes Man (2008)

New York is a graveyard of former theater houses, and in recent years these vacant venues have been repurposed into retail shops, boutique hotels, a workout studio, and even a Starbucks. So why not a one-time dramatic stock and vaudeville theater transformed into a church? A Pentecostal Christian congregation currently occupies what was once the Mount Morris Theatre, a three-story brick, white granite, and terra cotta beauty on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 116th Street. Originally constructed…

One of my all-time favorite films, CRIME WAVE (1954), has just been released on Blu-ray by the Warner Archive Collection.I first reviewed CRIME WAVE here in 2013. I have rewatched it regularly over the years, most recently at the 2024 Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival.I love everything about this film, which centers on a reformed ex-con named Steve Lacey (Gene Nelson).Lacey now has a pretty wife, Ellen (Phyllis Kirk) and a job as an aircraft mechanic. That all goes awry when a pair of criminals…

🍿 22 Jump Street (2014) was even better than its predecessor, with the best credit sequence in recent memory. I do hope they don’t skip medical school.

★★★★★ I remembered The Prestige was good. I’d forotten just how good a movie it is. By now we’re all used to Christopher Nolan playing with time and narrative structure, and he uses it to great effect here not just for thematic connections, but narrative twists and revelations as the two rival magicians undermine each other on multiple levels. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale are both charismatic enough that you want to cheer them on, and cruel enough that you want them both to lose. And even…

Watch that coffee, stewardess!! Evidently, Jane Wyman didn't watch Flight from Ashiya otherwise she would have known not to bring coffee into the cockpit! Oh wait, that movie wasn't released until thirteen years after this film, I guess she is excused. Three Guys Named Mike is exactly what you would expect from such a title - one woman debating about the three men in her life all named Mike. One of them is played by the always dependable Howard Keel (right). From the Archives is our latest…

Local boxer beats his wife until she runs into the arms of an adoring Chinese shopkeeper. Multiple gossipy spies get involved, jealousy ensues, everyone dies. Nice story but the titles doing too much heavy lifting; they hadn’t invented cinematography yet. Lillian Gish (who I just watched yesterday in Night of the Hunter) lives a dismal life here. A weak tree with branches for no birds, good for nothin’ in this old world, I spent half of the movie thinking she should jump into the river.…

Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew return in a domestic comedy about a man who stays out all night playing poker, worrying his wife. His friends try to cover for him via telegram but end up making things even worse! Home Media Availability: Released on Bluray by Kino Lorber. The Bro Code I think it’s safe […]

Real animals in this one, and oh that cyclops design, that makes up for a lot. And there’s a lot to make up for: three hours of battle scenes and whinging about the downfall of respectful society. Bunch of excellent actors and the Nolan bombast and the seat-rattling IMAX beat us into submission. MVPs: Cyclops, Travis Scott, the murderous giants, Elliot Page, Leguizamo, Pattinson, Agamemnon’s armor, Samantha Morton, the raven.