avis de Red-Barracuda

This concise doc tells the story of the only supersonic passenger aircraft to date, the legendary Concorde. It seems unbelievable to me that it was 25 years since the fateful accident, where Air Flight France 5290 crashed to earth in a ball of flames shortly after take-off. This went a long way to ending the Concorde era, which had begun in 1975, only to come to and end 28 years later in 2003. The genesis of the plane was unpromising on paper to say the least, as it required Britain and France to work together in tandem - a task that seemed more impossible than the creation of an aeroplane capable of flying faster than sound. Incredibly, after a few bumps on the road, the project bore fruit with a jet liner that was the final word in air-based glamour. Because of the sheer volume of its sonic boom, if was forced into a single air-route between London and New York, over the ocean and far away from towns and cities. This limitation was one of the reasons it was ultimately financially doomed.

The doc includes the thoughts of various people from the designers to the frequent flyers and features an excellent array of old footage. It's informative and alluring in equal measure. It may make you pine for the jet-setting age. So, pour yourself a Martini, sit back and relax and marvel at a (still) unmatched bit of 70's technology.

This low-key documentary centres on a former Soviet era medical facility called the Kuyalnik Sanatorium. In the present day, this brutalist edifice has evolved into a health farm, located near Odesa in southern Ukraine. It finds itself in a state of repair and with a dwindling and aging clientele, reduced somewhat further by the ongoing Russian-Ukraine war.

The film essentially follows several staff and guests around the resort. Its very much of the slice-of-life variety, with nothing too dramatic happening at any point. All that being said, there is an actual air raid, where all the have to assemble in the basement shelter and the war is a constant player on the periphery. Its presence is almost surreal at times, given the laconic goings-on in this strange, isolated building acting as an unusual contrast. The tone of the film is a mix of sadness and wistfulness but also hope. The very fact that this place continues to operate, regardless of the horrendous situation in the region, is somehow encouraging. You want it to survive.

I remember when I was eleven my best friend at school got me to watch this on video. We hardly watched any movies together either, so it sticks in my memory a bit. I must admit, I recall not finding Hysterical all that good, even way back then as a kid. Having just rewatched it for the first time since, I have to conclude that that wasn't a very unfair assessment. Its essentially a spoof of the horror genre in general, with riffs on various films such as The Exorcist, Jaws, The Shining etc. It stars the Hudson Brothers, who I know nothing about out with this movie. Seemingly they were teen idol pop stars in the early 70's and moved into TV comedy sketch territory. This movie was clearly designed to launch them into a film career in the 80's. This plan seems to have epically failed and they subsequently disappeared from cinema immediately afterwards. The story has a writer move to a coastal town to live in a lighthouse and before long discovers that it is the source of a haunting which is plaguing the local town. Two paranormal investigators are brought in to try and sort it out.

Its not really very surprising that the Hudson Brothers failed to ignite after this. While the humour is abundant, its hopelessly delivered and clunky throughout. People mention that the Hudsons were probably trying to emulate the Zucker-Abraham-Zucker team that made Kentucky Fried Movie and Airplane or Mel Brooks who hade made a successful career out of film spoofery but in this film, the Hudson's more closely resemble Britain's Cannon and Ball, who made one unfunny move, The Boys in Blue, and then disappeared from our cinema screens forever more. The jokes here just aren't very good and the Hudson's aren't delivering them very well. There's a surprisingly good support cast on hand and there are some memorable side characters such as a guy on a bike who keeps on telling anyone and everyone that 'they're doomed'. But its slim pickings all round though really. All that being said, despite its poorness, it is a likeable enough endeavour and has a goofy charm of sorts, so its hard to truly dislike.

This one came out in the middle od the ongoing real life Zodiac Killer murders. One of the motivations in making the film lay in an elaborate scheme to catch the killer himself. The idea being that the real Zodiac Killer would simply be unable to resist attending the premiere at San Francisco's RKO Golden Gate Theater. Audience members were given the chance to win a motorbike in a raffle by answering the question "I think the Zodiac kills because ..." but unbeknownst to anyone there was a guy hidden in the raffle slip box comparing the various handwriting with the Zodiac Killer's! Needless to say, this well-intended scheme did not work and the murderer would remain unknown and unpunished.

The movie itself is a very low budget affair which includes several real details of the case, with taking several large liberties as well. It's a combination of true crime with an exploitation film. It must have been relatively salacious for its time, with graphic - yet unconvincing - depictions of some of the murders and so it operates like an early slasher film in the second half of the movie, once the killer's identity is revealed (I did say it took liberties!) and follows him around killing various people. It has to be said that it does have a certain scuzzy charm though and it does get better as it goes along.

A Mexican bandit hooks up with an Irish revolutionary, with the idea that this explosives expert will help him rob a major bank. In the event, despite having no interest in the revolution, the bandit winds up inadvertently becoming a hero of the cause.

This Zapata western definitely feels like it is the forgotten Sergio Leone movie. Its much less known than his 60's westerns and his final epic gangster movie in the 80's. In truth, its not that surprising that this one is less heralded. Don't get me wrong, it's a good film in certain ways but - for me at least - it doesn't hold together as well as those other films. Like a lot of Leone films, this one also has an epic run-time but in this case it doesn't feel like its justified, with a story that isn't all that great. Rod Steiger and James Coburn are reasonable enough in the leads but their characters aren't especially sympathetic, with Steiger's Mexican bandit, Juan Miranda, beginning the story with the rape of a woman, which is played almost for laughs! Ennio Morricone, the genius of Italian soundtracks, is once again on hand with a memorable score, except this time it is perhaps more bizarre than entirely effective. Leone does direct some sequences well, with some impressive extended dialogue free sequences and some explosive action scenes, while it looks good overall as well. So, in the final analysis, this is a good film with strong directorial moments but overall, it doesn't hit the mark as effectively as other Leone's.

There hasn't exactly been a plethora of great films in this giallo genre over the past 25 years and I was always aware of this one being regarded as something of a standout. My previous attempt to watch it epically failed when the DVD arrived in Italian language only! Anyway, I finally have caught this well-regarded thriller. Its story revolves around a serial killer who is chopping parts of his victim's body off and is replacing them with doll parts. A very troubled police detective takes on the case. Oh, and could it all be linked to a burning orphanage?

The story was co-written by regular Dario Argento collaborator Franco Ferrini and, what with its crazed murder methodology, it firmly places itself within the giallo realm, even if the style of the movie is updated to its era with the odd bit of shaky-cam and a gloomy, washed-out colour world which resembled the American thriller Se7en somewhat. It's a combination which basically works though, with the modernised feel not at odds with the giallo content. The visual style and pleasingly bonkers doll-related details were all good and there were some well executed strange dream-like flashbacks adding further texture to proceedings too. On the more negative side of the fence, it is essentially a police procedural film and not a more typical amateur sleuth entry, so the story can sometimes get bogged down with too much police work, while it definitely also felt like it probably ran 15mins too long. But, on the whole, this one certainly is worthy of its reputation as one of the best latter day giallo productions.

Russ Meyer made this mondo documentary off the back of shooting Fanny Hill in Germany. It was the first of his two 60's shockumentaries about strippers and for my money at least, a superior watching experience to Mondo Topless. This one has Meyer travelling around various western European countries, such as France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Italy. He investigates boob-related aspects of each of these countries. Where this one worked better as a film for me compared to Mondo Topless, was that the whole travelogue structure was kind of enjoyable in and of itself, with us getting a view of various places in early 60's continental Europe, which works fairly well now in a time-capsule sense. The erotic content had its moments too, even if it all does get somewhat repetitive after a while. Meyer's eye for a well-composed shot is evidenced throughout the entire runtime too. So, on-the-whole, this one was a bit better than I was expecting really.

This is the final Lone Wolf and Cub film, although I get the feeling it wasn't intended as such, as it has no conclusive wrap-up ending at all. In this one, the evil character Retsudo sends his lethal daughter and three resurrected dead warriors after our heroes. Its possible that this may be the least impressive of the films from this series, albeit it's a relative point given that the standard is pretty remarkable overall for a movie series which knocked out six movies in (very) quick succession. For whatever its worth, this one felt like it had less build-up and was perhaps a bit messier story-wise overall. Nevertheless, it still displays plenty of the kinds of things we love about these films such as insane, stylised bloody violence, mass attacks and odd-ball characters. There're ninjas hidden in walls, the baby cart equipped with a gatling gun and the surreal idea of undead warriors 'swimming' through the earth. Tomisaburo Wakayama once again is splendid in the title role and the sequences in the snow did give this one a distinct feel from the others. Amusingly a lot of this is soundtracked to music which wouldn't have been out-of-place in a mid-70's American action movie, with some improbable wah-wah guitar action soundtracking scenes of samurai swedging. All-in-all, while it's a lesser entry in the series, it's still sure to satisfy fans of chambara films.

This film seems to have a pretty bad reputation but I can't really concur with this assessment. Sure, its daft and limited in some ways but its also rather entertaining throughout, or at least that's what I thought. It follows the very specific idea from the original movie of genre-mashing a crime film with a vampire horror flick. In this one, five criminals travel to Mexico to rob a bank but in true Dusk Till Dawn tradition, vampires enter the fray and complicate matters somewhat.

This one begins with a fun film-within-a-film sequence starring b-movie legend Bruce Campbell and super-hot Beverley Hills 90210 babe, Tiffany Amber-Thiessen. As nice as this opening is, you sort of wish those two might stick around for the rest of the movie, rather than get violently obliterated within the first couple of minutes! In the event, we have the likes of Robert Patrick and Bo Svenson putting in decent turns. While the characters on offer are very standard, they are also well defined enough to be more than serviceable. But the film works best as a bit of genre-mashing fun, with the requisite crime and vampire elements awkwardly combining once again! Also, it seems like quite a few folks seemed to have an issue with the plethora of silly POV shots that punctuate the whole movie, such as shots from inside mouths and gaping wounds or a fan-cam - I personally found all this nonsense, rather entertaining, which is what I would say of this movie as a whole. A silly but fun sequel to a film which was pretty ridiculous in the first place.

The third entry in the 'Lone Wolf and Cub' series finds Ogami Itto - ex chief executioner of the Shogunate (once more splendidly played by Tomisaburô Wakayama) - on a road trip full to the brim with bloody violence. Like before, Ogami is hired to kill, while simultaneously the target of hired killers himself. In this one, he saves a prostitute from a deadly fate and is then hired by the female boss of the brothel to eliminate an undesirable individual.

This entry continues the excellence of this samurai series, with great cinematography, interesting characters and well choreographed martial arts violence, typified by a grand finale where Ogami takes on a mini army of assassins all by himself. While this one has its share of blood fountains, the level of visceral violence is down a notch from the previous two entries in the series. There's a bit more about honour and the samurai code underpinning events. But all that being said, this one still certainly delivers the particular brand of beautifully well-orchestrated mayhem that 'Lone Wolf and Cub' has justifiable become famous for.

I recall when this one came out it held the world record I think for the longest gap between sequels. It seems pretty clear that this was finally made in 1983 to cash in on the early 80's craze for slasher movies but the 23 year gap inadvertently works in the film's favour, in that is gives a realistic premise for Norman Bates being released after a long incarceration. The story positions Norman as a vulnerable, mentally ill man trying to readjust while another series of murders start in and around the old motel.

You're always going to have your work seriously cut out by making a sequel to an established all-time classic movie but it does have to be said that Psycho II rises to this challenge far better than most people could have reasonable expected. Its got a decent story-line with twists and turns that don't break the test tube, Anthony Perkins is very good once again as the central character, there's some fine camera-work in places, a pleasing injection of 80's-style slasher violence added to the mix here and there and some genuinely unnerving scary moments occurring in the Bates residence. If I had to criticise it would be to say that I didn't really care for the idea of opening with the classic shower scene from the first movie - removing that scene from its original context seems cinematically criminal. On a less egregious note, the pacing flounders a bit at times, with the movie feeling like it might be slightly too stretched out. But these are minor grumbles in the grand scheme of things, as Psycho II is overall one of the very best slasher films from its day and an intelligent and very well made film overall.

From the opening scenes of this one it was made abundantly clear that this is no ordinary sport, as we watch brutal fights in which guys get their heads well and truly pummelled, with blood everywhere! Welcome to the world of mixed martial arts fighting, a sport I hadn't even heard of before a very kind fellow IMDb user sent me a copy of this doc. The film is a behind-the-scenes look at the sport but primarily follows champion fighter Mark Kerr as he prepares for a tournament, suffers a near fatal overdose of painkillers and endures relationship problems. Its a film which injects some vulnerability into a sport which for most must be purely about brute force and violence. The story arc isn't necessarily the most dramatic, its more like a slice-of-life but its a pretty interesting subject none-the-less.

This fun documentary works mainly as a bit of nostalgia for people of a certain age (me!). It focuses on the Children's Department of the BBC and how it produced a disproportionate number of well-remembered and interesting programmes between the mid 60's to the mid 80's. The narrative suggests that the advent of ITV kickstarted this, with the BBC being forced to up their game to compete and ended with the introduction of the satellite stations, when the corporation could no longer compete financially. Whatever the case, in the years in question, the BBC certainly did put out a good amount of memorable telly, both internal productions and more odd-ball foreign imports, such as The Magic Roundabout and The Singing Ringing Tree. The historical context is definitely interesting but at the end of the day, this doc really works best as a concise reminder of many shows we experienced in our infancy and there is sure to be one or two that jog dormant memories. All-in-all, a quality slice of TV history.

A conman and his young accomplice - who may or may not be father and daughter - travel around the mid-west during the Great Depression, trying out various illicit money-making schemes.

This Peter Bogdanovich movie is a product of the New Hollywood era. Like his earlier effort, The Last Picture Show, this one shares the specific black and white period drama presentation. Its in effect a road movie, where the characters are the driving force. Ryan O'Neal illustrates his screen charisma here and he has - perhaps unsurprisingly - great chemistry with Tatum O'Neal, who is his actual daughter after all! The latter puts in one of the great child acting performances out there, with a fair amount of depth and humour. Madeline Kahn pitches up memorably too in the role of Ryan's overbearing female suitor. The acting is all very good and the period detail and monochrome cinematography an ideal accompaniment. And even if it feels like the story sags a bit somewhere in the middle, its still an all-round good movie and certainly shows just how reliable Bogdanovich was as a director up to this point in his career.

Island of Lost Souls (1932) was one of the more controversial horror movies of the 30's. It was made pre-Hays Code and was regarded as quite shocking and perverse for its time. Fast forward 45 years later and U. S. independent studio AIP stepped in and remade this film. In the event, it not only was not shocking at all by 70's standards but was also somewhat bigger budget and classier than AIP films generally were. Its cast certainly gave some clues that this one had money behind it, with Burt Lancaster as Dr Moreau, Michael York as shipwreck survivor Andrew Braddock, Barbara Carrera as the love interest and Nigel Davenport a bit of cynical mercenary muscle. The story is basically the same, albeit, it massively cuts to the chase with this one and just gets on with it without any pre-island messing about whatsoever, with York's character shipwrecked on a remote island at the turn of the century; an island, more to the point, where genetic experiments are carried out by the doctor of the title, turning people into animal hybrids - humanimals!

This one benefits from great on-location tropical sets and fun Planet of the Apes style make-up effects for the humanimals. The cast all acquit themselves well too, even if Lancaster's Moreau is a little less perverse than Charles Laughton's original interpretation in Island of Lost Souls. Its overall a fine bit of period-set sci-fi, which has enough production value about it to ensure it gets the job done with something to spare. If you enjoyed this one then 1979's Island of the Fish Men could be worth checking out as well - it's a slightly sillier Italian riff on this kind of thing, which also manages to include a nice tropical backdrop and half-decent cast.

Back in '83/'84 there were a plethora of sword and sorcery b-movies being made to cash-in on the success of Conan. Needless to say, the Italians got very involved with this and many of their prominent genre directors chipped in with an offering of their own. To that end, the goremeister general himself Lucio Fulci knocked out Conquest. The basis of its story is put forward with a scene on a beach where the dialogue is so inaudible that you are left with no alternative than to just assume that what we are about to see has some point. What in boils down to is a wimpy hero with a magic bow, who teams up with a Conanesque barbarian to battle an evil topless sorceress and her wolf-men minions! To be fair, that really is all you need to know because I don't think coherence was a prominent consideration with this one and, like other movies of its category, it essentially boils down to a journey punctuated regularly with encounters with all manner of ridiculous events. This basic template has ensured that the 80's sword and sorcery movies are one of the most reliably entertaining - they're hardly ever great exactly but their format means they tend to avoid (too much) tedium.

Conquest is both typical and distinctive of its genre. Typical in that the story, characters and setting is thoroughly ten-a-penny but distinctive in that Fulci has made some unusual choices. For one, the look is atypical, with constant foggy landscapes and what can only be described as VaselineVision - while I do commend the attempt to create a fantasy world with this, I am still not convinced it's a very good idea. The second Fulci factor in this one, is the graphic violence, which is WAY more full-on than these films usually go - the highlight of this involves a cavegirl being literally ripped in half, with her entrails poring out! Fulci also delivers unusual moments such as zombies in a swamp and a great underwater scene where dolphins save a chained-up man! The film deviates from usual rules in other ways too, with our heroes nonchalantly and completely unnecessarily killing a poor schmuck minding his own business and then laughing about it, while there is also a finale which involves the death of a major character which was somewhat pleasingly surprising. You've also got regular S&S barbarian girl Sabrina Siani in this one as the sorceress. She spends the whole runtime topless in a g-string and gold-mask, which may sound good on paper but she is such a looker, you kind or wonder why she was stuck having to hide her coupon the whole film! Unfortunately, aside from Sabrina, this was very much too much of a sausage-fest for my liking, with a couple of especially uninteresting male characters leading the charge - they should definitely have swapped one of them out for a hot barbarian girl! Finally, it would be remiss to not acknowledge that this one also benefits from sporting a nice moody synth score from legendary Goblin, Claudio Simonetti.

Overall, this one is definitely required viewing if you appreciate the salacious Conan rip-offs of the 80's and it certainly differentiates itself from the pack in several ways, even if it is(pleasingly) more of the same from this sub-genre.

The discover of a strange giant skull in a Roman archaeological site, leads a group of folks to an immortal giant worm and its snake woman keeper. This British horror-comedy is the work of Ken Russell, a director who could never be accused of being subtle. In this one he adapts Dracula author Bram Stoker's final novel, which by all accounts is very bad indeed. Well, the good news is that its cinematic equivalent is tons of fun.

Russell brings his pleasing over-the-top aesthetic to the table once again. To that end we have psychedelic visions of worm-based Roman decadence and violence, sacrilegious imagery, strange dreams on a jet airliner and an extremely seductive and scantily clad villainess. The latter is played to perfection by Amanda Donohoe, who proves to be the trump card of the entire enterprise. Kitted out in a selection of great outfits, she is the sinister Lady Sylvia Marsh to perfection, with an intoxicating combination of sexiness, humour and sass, all with a delightful English upper-class accent. She plays the clothing-averse vampiresque snake woman who at one point hilariously picks up a hitchhiking boy scout, which needless to say, ends in tears. Acting-wise there are several others putting in good work, such as Hugh Grant, Dynasy's Catherine Oxenberg and future Dr Who Peter Capaldi but there's no question that Donohoe is most certainly the star attraction here.

Russell, of course, brings a lot to the table too and seems mostly in his element when the visuals are at their most provocative and flamboyant. The airplane sequence is a hoot and the Roman flashbacks are full-on, even if the use of green-screen in these is, shall we say, a bit wonky! The film as a whole, definitely doesn't take itself very seriously but it has managed to navigate the tricky path of integrating humour, horror and eroticism very well together. Altogether, there's really quite a lot to like here.

Directed by Milos Forman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) this is a biopic which charts the rise of Hustler Magazine owner Larry Flynt and his subsequent problems with the law. There's some fine acting in this one, with Woody Harrelson doing good work as the title character and maybe even better Courtney Love putting in a pretty fearless performance as his loose-cannon wife Althea Leisure; Larry Flynt himself appears in a cameo as a judge.

As a biopic, there is extremely little about his pre-porn life, which isn't necessarily a bad thing really as it allows us to just cut to the chase and get on with it. For the first half, it's a pretty involving movie which details Flynt's rise to prominence culminating with the assassination attempt on his life. Things do fall a bit flatter in the second half, mainly due to the film basically becoming a courtroom drama, which is not exactly one of the most dynamic genres of cinema. Still, as a whole, this is a good film which showcases a guy who had a somewhat colourful life.

I remember when this one came out. It wasn't long after the phenomenon that was Trainspotting and so, it seemed like an adaption of another Irvine Welsh book would surely be another surefire winner. As it turned out, that wasn't the case at all and Acid House did surprisingly low key business. It did seem to be a bit of a shame, as despite it not exactly being a stellar screen adaption of Welsh's short story collection, it was still kind of a fun movie to watch, with stories about a jakey God turning a waster into a fly, a psychotic neighbour and soul transferral between a newborn baby and a Hibs Casual. Compared to Trainspotting, the accents were definitely harder, the dialogue more authentically regional and there is a lot of battered and rundown locations from various actual parts of Edinburgh. So, I guess it was maybe a bit of a harder sell in some ways - where Trainspotting presented its story with a lot of cinematic verve, with Acid House we are proper wallowing in the scum quite a bit of the run-time.

The Acid House book was something regularly laugh-a-minute stuff and that certainly hasn't translated so well into the film. There is certainly has lashings of black humour but its counterbalanced by an overall grimness, which works against the humour somewhat. The stories chosen were for the most part sensible, with Granton Star Cause and The Acid House being obvious choices for cinematic treatment, A Soft Touch on the other hand seemed a bit of a misguided selection - its acted well and it relatively faithful to the book but its depressing nature just jars alongside the fantastic reality shenanigans of the other two. Overall, this is a film which is simultaneously a good watch and a very unpleasant watch, with the general grottiness being ramped up to almost comedically awful levels. The characters, for the most part, are genuinely appalling too. Things are moderated somewhat, however, by some surreal touches and a pretty effective soundtrack. Its sure to be a film that many will thoroughly dislike and it is often quite a frustrating adaption of a book full of possibilities but, at the end of the day, it still makes for an entertaining watch, even if it might make you feel a bit sick from time to time.

This Mexican surrealist film is the feature debut of Alejandro Jodorowsky, the director of the later midnight classics, El Topo and The Holy Mountain. This one, he shot at weekends on a much lower budget. It premiered at the 1968 Acapulco Film Festival and was met with outrage, resulting in a bit of a riot seemingly, leading to it being banned in Mexico. Like his other movies, its fairly plotless. The basic story has the two title characters set off on a quest to find the mythical city of Tar. Needless to say, they frequently encounter bizarre characters and situations along the way - it's the anarchic, sacrilegious and wild imagery that this film is really about. It plays out sort of like a road movie fuelled by LSD - along the way we encounter many bizarre sights such as, a man playing a burning piano, orgiastic mud wallowers, (actual) blood sipping, transvestites, the deadly use of bowling balls and an iconic scene where the title characters cover themselves in ink and write each other's names over the walls and each other's bodies. There's a whole lot of other weird things that go on too. It can get a bit boring at times but, on the whole, there is just so much wild imagination at play here that it would be churlish to not be at least a little bit impressed.

Dieter Dengler is another typical subject for a Werner Herzog documentary, i.e. He is a man with an obsession, and that was to fly. Dieter was a child of World War 2 and grew up in the poverty of post-war Germany, which seemingly included eating wallpaper. He immigrated to the USA as a young man and joined the air force. He winded up being sent to the Vietnam War and was shot down over Laos on his first flight, resulting in him being captured by the Viet Cong. He went through various traumas here but winded up dramatically escaping.

Its quite a story this one and like other Herzog films, the protagonist is slightly strange, I mean the very fact we have a German fighting for the Americans in Vietnam is a pretty odd set-up to begin with! The details of Dieter's imprisonment and escape are pretty compelling in their horror and it is a crazy story overall, with his improbable escape giving it a sort of Hollywood ending (it was made into a movie after all). The focus is squarely on the personal, with little in the way of politics or considerations of the rights or wrongs of the war. I think the unbelievable slow-motion footage of the American bombing raids gives some point of alternative consideration though, given that Dieter was a pilot in the air force causing this horrendous carnage. So, you have a film which allows you to both marvel at one man's escape from a hostile enemy, while at the same time see the utter destruction the people on his side were inflicting on the very people who captured him. Its an interesting dynamic and another fascinating character study from Herzog.

This BBC teleplay, written by genre specialist Nigel Kneale has garnered an impressive reputation over the years. Like a lot of the most well-remembered BBC horror, it was initially released as a Christmas ghost story, despite not having any actual festive element. It concerns a group of scientists who purchase a large old Victorian building to be used as a research facility. It turns out the building has a long history of hauntings and exorcisms and almost immediately a ghostly presence is seen and felt. This leads the scientists to wonder if a ghost is in fact a recording stored within stone and so they set about trying to capture this using scientific methods.

The connection between science and the supernatural is the basis for this one. And it does benefit from an eeriness which many of the BBC teleplays of this era seemed to be good at capturing. I have seen this a couple of times now and I can't help feeling a little disappointed though, given the film's reputation, as while it does have some effective atmospheric moments and some interesting horror moments, it also had a few pacing problems and was often a little too shouty and stagey for its own good at times. Worth a watch if you appreciate old BBC horror though.

Familiarity of the original Flash Gordon serials would probably help in fully understanding this one as a spoof. All that being said, the humour in this superhero sex comedy is so basic, I daresay it doesn't really matter very much. After all, this one features one-eyed creatures known as Penisaurauses, rapist robots, a planet called Porno, characters called Dr Flexi Jerkoff and Emperor Wang, an Amazonian lesbian cult, power pasties and a spaceship shaped like a penis. Sophisticated humour this clearly is not. The story has Earth is being bombarded with sex rays from the planet Porno - Flesh Gordon travels there to save the day.

Seemingly there were several hardcore sex scenes shot for this which were removed just before release, which I think we can be thankful for as that would have been sure to have made this daft film worse. In the event its a film which provides enough dumb humour to ensure its simultaneously moronic and quite charming, its chock full of bad acting and, despite copious nudity, is entirely unerotic. It does have to be said though, that there are a couple of stop-motion sequences which were actually rather well done, which indicate that there was a half-decent budget invested in this one. Its overall quite good fun.

This is a pretty solid overview of Jimi Hendrix, which details his life, music and impact. A selection of famous and semi-famous folks give their opinions on the great man along the way. It also states early on that this is going to be narrated by Slash but oddly I can't recall any narration!

Like a lot of people from the classic rock era, it is pretty amazing to think that their time in the spotlight was so brief, given their massive ongoing impact. In Hendrix's case it was a mere four years - I mean from the point-of-view of today, that just takes us back to the pandemic! Things moved so much faster back in the years when rock music was still in its infancy and new musical ideas were being born every other week. Hendrix was clearly a giant in the realm of guitar playing, specifically rock guitar playing and this doc tries its best to illustrate this. There's a bit more of a focus on technical matters than you might normally expect in a music-doc but obviously, given Hendrix's guitar god like status, I guess it makes sense in this case. This stuff can be a bit dry for the more casual viewer such as myself but its more than compensated for by the music clips and details about his life. Worth a watch for those interested in the 60's music scene.