Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

Three Films and Six Van Dammes: The JCVD Dual Role Routine

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Tom Jolliffe looks back at Jean-Claude Van Damme’s dual role films… Who doesn’t love an action star? Oi, put your hands down now! Still, for us that do, we all have our favourites. Occasionally there were rivalries and camps. You could be an Arnold Schwarzenegger kid or a Sylvester Stallone kid. Maybe you were secretly […]

30 Years On: Steven Seagal in Marked For Death

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Tom Jolliffe looks back at one of Steven Seagal’s early works, as Marked For Death turns 30… After breaking out with Above The Law, a lot was expected among action fans for what would follow from Steven Seagal. It would take a couple of years waiting until the next one, but 1990 saw two Seagal […]

A Double Hit of Luc Besson Assassin Films: Nikita and Leon

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Tom Jolliffe double bills Luc Besson’s Nikita and Leon…  Think back to the 90’s. A transitional time for action films. It was also an era that saw a French director hit it big in Hollywood. Then think about the best assassin films of the decade. Chances are when piling up candidates, you’re likely to have […]

Has Showgirls actually become kind of good?

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Tom Jolliffe takes a look back at Showgirls, once universally derided and considered one of the worst films ever… but is it actually misunderstood? Upon its release in 1995, Paul Verhoeven’s trashy spectacular, Showgirls was obliterated by critics. It was a lavish, Vegas set tale with plenty of excess dismissed as vacuous, grimy and seedy. […]

The Battle for Vampire Superiority: The Lost Boys vs. Near Dark

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Tom Jolliffe presides over a showdown between the cult 1987 vampire flicks The Lost Boys and Near Dark… The vampire has sucked his merry way through cinema history, from the silent era, to the R-Patz era. We’ve seen many incarnations, many genres, from Christopher Lee to angsty teens, from horror to camp comedy. Perhaps the […]

Nikita vs Anna: When Luc Besson Retraced His Steps

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Tom Jolliffe looks back at the film which broke Luc Besson out to the world, and his more recent and pale imitator, Anna… Cinema is almost bereft of an original idea these days. There are very few that arrive which feel like something unique, and even then, the smart-arses among us might start pinpointing similarities […]

A Beginner’s Guide To Andrei Tarkovsky

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Tom Jolliffe continues our series of director beginner’s guides with Andrei Tarkovsky… Some directors have an important impact on cinema. It doesn’t always tie in with box office results, or widespread audience appeal. If you’re in the States or the UK, chances are your predominant cinematic experience revolves around American or British films. As far […]

8 Essential Feel-Good British Underdog Movies

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Classic underdog stories with loveable losers searching for a rare win in life are a staple of British cinema. Here are eight essentials…  British cinema is full of great and inspiring underdog stories, occasionally based on true stories, about loveable good-hearted losers who happen upon one big moment to succeed in life. Even if it’s […]

MTV Generation-Era Comedies That Need New Sequels

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Happy Gilmore 2 is on the way, but what other MTV generation-era comedies deserve revisiting? Here’s ten… Adam Sandler’s about to take to the fairways again with the triumphant return of Happy Gilmore. The slacker-turned-unorthodox golf pro lit up the screens in the mid-90s and got into a fistfight with Bob Barker. It was a […]

Movie Review – The Last Kumite (2024)

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The Last Kumite,2024. Directed by Ross W. Clarkson. Starring Mathis Landwehr, Matthias Hues, Kurt McKinney, Billy Blanks, Cynthia Rothrock, Michel Qissi, Abdul Qissi, David Kurzhal, Kira Kortenbach, Mona Moula and Mike Derudder. SYNOPSIS Michael Rivers, a skilled martial artist is forced to fight in an illegal fighting tournament in order to save his daughter. Along […]