Tom Jolliffe takes a look at the bizarre Japanese body horror Tetsuo: The Iron Man… Cinema is full of the bizarre. From rockets being launched into the eye of the man on the moon, to Arnold Schwarzenegger getting pregnant, the beauty of film is that it can offer up a doorway, of almost limitless imagination. […]
Revisiting Klute: An Overlooked Masterpiece of Paranoia Cinema
Tom Jolliffe looks back at Alan J. Pakula’s Klute, an essential piece of 70’s paranoia cinema… Over the course of cinema history, there have been a number of great thrillers that amped up the tension and levels of paranoia. In American cinema, a prolific era was the 1970s. Deep into cold war paranoia, espionage and […]
Cynthia Rothrock: The First Lady of International Action
Tom Jolliffe takes a look at the career of action heroine Cynthia Rothrock… Western stars who have managed to break China and Hong Kong successfully are a rare breed. In fact there’s probably only one person who has found success as a major action star in China, as well as in the west. Some have […]
Pentathlon: The Best Olympics Movie You Never Saw
With the Olympics in full swing, Tom Jolliffe looks back at a forgotten Olympics themed movie, Pentathlon… The Olympics are well underway. Gold medals are flying around and national pride for respective nations is at a high. Whether it’s the expected medals glut for Olympic heavy hitters like China, Japan and the USA, or first […]
Ten Essential Gambling Films
Tom Jolliffe puts his chips on ten essential gambling films… The money goes down. You’ve placed your bets. Now it’s time for the nitty gritty. Win or lose. If you win, do you quit while you’re ahead or go again? Cinema has long held a fascination with gambling across its many forms, but the predominant […]
Masters of the Universe: Revelation – The biggest fan revolt since The Last Jedi?
Tom Jolliffe takes a look at Kevin Smith’s much anticipated Masters of the Universe: Revelation and the fan furore it has sparked… He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was a rite of passage for my generation. A campy, colourful, just ever so slightly shoddily constructed animated series with the all good hero, He-Man, fighting […]
Taika Waititi and Flash Gordon? Perfection
Tom Jolliffe on Taika Waititi’s upcoming live action Flash Gordon movie… Sam J. Jones and Timothy Dalton are chained up in a prison and it seems like doom is certain. Dalton (as Prince Barin) turns to Earthling football hero, Flash and asks, “tell me again about this Houdini…” It’s one of many irreverent gags throughout […]
Why John Wick 4 will be the action event of 2022
Tom Jolliffe looks ahead to John Wick: Chapter 4, with a cast that is shaping up beautifully… With three films under his belt, John Wick shows no signs of hanging up his gun-fu weaponry, or retiring from judo throwing his way through hordes of enemies. The Keanu Reeves star vehicle, which boosted his appeal like […]
Dave Bautista May Become the Man of the Moment
Tom Jolliffe looks at Dave Bautista’s rise from being another wrestler-turned-actor to cultivating an impressive and varied CV… There has long been an assumption, that wrestlers turned actors are missing a key ingredient when it comes to their new craft. To be an actor, it always helps if you can act. Whilst Hulk Hogan’s short […]
Is Nicolas Cage the most interesting actor in the business right now?
Tom Jolliffe looks at the eclectic work of Nic Cage and his recent resurgence. Is there anyone more interesting to watch right now? Nicolas Cage started his career in earnest. He progressed through a series of bit player roles, initially as Nicolas Coppola. A few of these roles, in Rumble Fish, Peggy Sue Got Married […]
