Movie Log: Alphabetical

Here’s my movie log organized by title for those of you who like alphabets.

Die Screaming Marianne

6/10
Maianne is a young dancer who knows the account number of her dead mother’s Swiss bank account and her... more

Disciples of the 36th Chamber

7/10
The third film in the 36th Chambers series changes the tone to comedy (apparently the second sequel is also a parody, but I... more

District 9

8/10
A good well-paced sci-fi action movie. Didn’t quite live up to the the hype and is mostly noteworthy because... more

Django

7/10
There was so much mud in this movie it made me uncomfortable. C’mon guys, wipe you feet before you... more

Doctor Strange

6/10
The main story arc feels like a zillion other movies. What makes this one enjoyable is the dazzling array... more

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

7/10
There’s no escaping these superhero movies. I was trapped in rural America with two hours to kill and this... more

Dolemite Is My Name

6/10
Entertaining but hollow biopic about the early days of Rudy Ray More as played by Eddie Murphy. It’s hard to... more

Dolls

4/10
Stuart Gordan further assures us that Re-animator was a fluke. Bad acting, bad story, and horrible music. There is... more

Don’t Look Now

4/10
Don’t Look Now is known mostly for Donald Sutherland’s naked gyrations. I was more impressed with his hobbit-y mop of... more

Don’t Torture a Duckling

8/10
Early thriller by Lucio Fulci. Moves along pretty well , but the story is predictable with some laughably misplaced... more

Dr. Caligari

7/10
I wasn’t exactly sold on this movie. Most of it comes across as a sophomore art project with cheap... more

Dr. Goldfoot & The Girl Bombs

3/10
Mario Bava at his absolute worst. There is so much lost in translation and editing that this is barely... more

Dracula 3-D

3/10
I have finally gotten around to watching Dario Argento’s most recent movie’his 3-D take on the Dracula story. Everything... more

Drag Me to Hell

8/10
As a horror director, Sam Raimi is best known for the oft quoted but overrated Army of Darkness and the much... more

Dragon Gate Inn

8/10
Looking back over the string of martial arts films that I have viewed over the past few months, I’d... more

The Dragon Missile

7/10
Like The Flying Guillotine, the title here refers to a deadly decapitation weapon. The dragon missile is two boomerang swords that... more

Dredd

7/10
There are hints of The Terminator (the first one) and Robocop in this but it doesn’t quite rise to... more

Dressed to Kill

7/10
I don’t think I get Brian Depalma yet. The whole time I was watching this I was thinking about... more

Drunken Master

6/10
Nowhere near as good as the sequel.

The Duke of Burgundy

7/10
The only reason I knew that this movie existed was a YouTube review of the soundtrack by Sean Rowley. The music is... more

Dune [2021]

8/10
Slow but true to the book, which, admit it, wasn’t the most exciting of reads—those first 100 pages are... more

Dune: Part 2

8/10
It’s big, loud, and brown. Like the number in the name.

Edge of Tomorrow

8/10
This Tom Cruise action film is basically Groundhog’s Day meets Starship Troopers. Since Groundhog’s Day there must have been half-a-dozen rip-offs on various TV... more

The Editor

6/10
A horror-comedy that takes aim at lampooning Italian giallo and horror films. It never quite nails the comedy part... more

El Orfanato (The Orphanage)

8/10
Very good ghost story from the producers of Pan’s Labyrynth.

Enchanted

4/10
Mildly Entertaining Disney faire

Entertainment

4/10
I’m sorry to report, but the Neil Hamburger movie isn’t that good. It’s not a movie about the Neil... more

Escape from New York

7/10
Another gaping hole from my 80s cinema to-do list. The premise is extremely cheesy and the execution isn’t much... more

Escape from the Bronx

4/10
A no-budget Italian ripoff of Escape from New York. Apparently, this is the sequel to Bronx Warriors so maybe... more

Esther and the King

5/10
Epic Biblical story which was partially directed by Mario Bava. Joan Collins is a bride to be who is... more

The Etruscan Kills Again

5/10
An alcoholic archeologist (aren’t they all?) is at the center of this murder mystery that jumps from scene to... more

Everything Everywhere All at Once

8/10
I was really excited to see this movie and so my viewing suffered from raised expectations. I liked it... more

Evil Dead (2013)

6/10
This was a movie that did not need to be made. That said, it’s reasonably entertaining but not at... more

Evil Dead Trap

7/10
Japanese horror that draws almost note for note from Italian gore-maestro Lucio Fulci–synthy score, gratuitous eye gag, sound f/x... more

Ex Machina

9/10
Fresh off of just seeing the new Blade Runner here’s another film dealing with the artificial intelligence. Only, this one is... more

Excalibur

6/10
I’m not quite sure why this movie was so popular when it came out. I remember hearing that they... more

Execution Squad

6/10
A roving band of vigilantes are killing criminals left and right while the police try to track down a... more

Executioners from Shaolin

7/10
A Shaolin monk on the run vows to avenge the death of a friend and, over the course of... more

Exorcism

6/10
The Paul Naschy Collection II went on sale and, of course, I had to get it. I’m starting off... more

The Eye (Gin gwai)

6/10
Mediocre ghost story in which bursts of sped-up film and of quick cuts are a lame substitute for real... more

Eyeball

7/10
Umberto Lenzi directs this post-Baker giallo about a group of tourists in Barcelona who are killed off one-by-one by... more

Fearless Fuzz

6/10
This has all the markings of a standard Itallian poliziotteschi, but the first third of the movie plays as... more

Feast

6/10
Limited budget and bad acting. Not as funny as it should have been and not very scary at all.

Fellini’s Casanova

7/10
Donald Sutherland is miscast as the titular Casanova in this beautiful looking interpretation of that story. Every colorful frame... more

Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion

8/10
I guess fantastical prison movies have been a thing in Japan since long before Story of Ricky. This one is... more

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable

5/10
A huge drop in quality for this the third Scorpion movie. Much of the visual flair is gone and... more

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Grudge Song

6/10
The final installment in the Scorpion series is much more straightforward than the previous movies. From what I can... more

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41

7/10
The second film in this series has the same visual flair of the first. This entry is a pretty... more

The Fifth Cord

6/10
The two big positives of this giallo are: a creepy, abstract Morricone score and lots of wonderfully composed shots... more

Fight Back to School

4/10
Stephen Chow could not save this tone deaf action/comedy. Made in the late eighties, there are maybe two or... more

The Five Days of Milan

6/10
Dario Argento’s political farce. Has many funny moments, but is very confusing if you don’t know the history of... more

The Five Deadly Venoms

7/10
Master is worried that his five former students are too powerful and may do evil so he sends his... more

Five Dolls for an August Moon

6/10
A Bava play on the And then There Were None theme.

Five Fingers of Death

8/10
A rather brutal kung-fu flick centered around competing schools in the lead up to a fighting competition. Lot of... more

Five Man Army

3/10
Dario Argento wrote this boring Italian Western. Featuring a non-exciting action sequence of a man running for five minutes... more

Five Shaolin Masters

4/10
I just bought another Shaw Brothers box set and am watching the films in chronological order. This one has... more

Flightplan

6/10
Lame third act really ruins this otherwise tight thriller.

Flower Drum Song

6/10
A musical with no memorable musical numbers. There are a couple of nice dreamy dance moments. I think the... more

Flushed Away

6/10
So-so animated feature from Ardmann. Much of the humor falls flat.

The Flying Guillotine

7/10
A reasonably good martial arts movie that borrows a lot of its plot structure directly from The One-Armed Swordsman. The... more

Flying Guillotine 2

8/10
The head severing basket on a chain is back and is as ridiculous as ever. When we last left off, our... more

The Fog

8/10
Had not seen this one before. John Carpenter certainly knew his stuff. There’s barely a movie here but it... more

For Your Height Only

8/10
Incredibly bad movie that has to be seen to be believed. Has plenty of dull moments but it more... more

Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion

7/10
Italian thriller from the early 70s. Beautiful colors and photography and an excellent Morricone score. Not the most complicated... more

The Force Awakens

9/10
An excellent and worthy sequel to the original series of films. It’s probably better than Return of the Jedi or at... more

Four Flies on Gray Velvet

7/10
I probably would have like this better if the sound was in tact. The story and mystery is obvious,... more

Four Riders

8/10
Not all Shaw Brothers martial arts movies take place in ancient China. Four Riders is set in Seoul during the weeks... more

Four Times That Night

7/10
Strange Bava sex comedy based on Rashomon.

Foxy Brown

8/10
This is the first film I am watching in my Pam Grier film fest and it’s a good one.... more

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed

6/10
After a gruesome and exciting start, this film loses steam fast. Peter Cushing never comes off as creepy and... more

Free Fire

7/10
This was a movie that I really wanted to see. It’s directed by Ben Wheatley, who made the gangster-hybrid... more

The French Sex Murders

7/10
Mediocre giallo from Dick Randall and Mondo Macabro. UPDATE: This one really grows on you when you realize how... more

Frenzy

9/10
Hitchcock does giallo! Nice character development and twisted humor.

Friday Foster

4/10
You know you are in trouble when the most convincing performance in your film is by Isaac from The Love... more

From Up On Poppy Hill

7/10
A cartoon drama from Studio Ghibli about a teenage girl who misses her dead father and raises signal flags for... more

Frozen II

6/10
This is an animated movie about an ice princess who occasionally sings Broadway numbers. The overall message here is... more

Furie

6/10
Vietnamese martial arts picture about a female kung-fu loan collector whose daughter is kidnapped and taken to Shanghai. There... more

Gamer

5/10
I can’t believe this is not a SciFi Channel movie. It’s okay, I guess, but the film tries too... more

Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion

6/10
Another passable giant monster movie from Japan. The its predecessor there is absolutely nothing interesting about the human characters... more

Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris

7/10
The third Gamera reboot film is the best of the three. It actually takes some time to establish some... more

Gamera: Guardian of the Universe

6/10
I wanted to watch a somewhat “modern” take on a Japanese giant monster movie. This was okay. The effects... more

Gangs of New York

6/10
I appreciated the 19th Century art direction, especially the hats, but it was way too long for such a... more

Gaslight

9/10
The 1944 classic is apparently the second film version of the play Gaslight. This version takes its time establishing... more

Gaslight [1940]

8/10
After watching the famous version from a few years later, I wanted to see this, the first adaptation of... more

Gattaca

7/10
Slow moving sci-fi ala Brave New World. The DNA distopia idea isn’t very interesting, but a decent formula mystery.

Get Carter

7/10
Still not sure what I think of this. A brutal character study of an anti-hero with a confusing plot.

Get Lamp

8/10
Get Lamp is a documentary about text adventure games from Jason Scott, the director of BBS: The Documentary. Both of these... more

The Ghost Galleon

4/10
The third film in the Blind Dead series features the return of the terrifying cheap skeleton hand prop. A couple of models... more

Giallo

8/10
Giallo isn’t quite the return to form I wanted from Dario Argento, but it’s a much better movie than the... more

The Giant of Marathon

7/10
The Amazon prime version of this movie looks like crap. I watched it anyways as part of my Mario... more

The Girl in Room 2A

7/10
This Dick Randall produced giallo is, as one would expect, a complete mess. The plot seems to unfold randomly... more

The Girl Who Knew Too Much

8/10
Lighthearted giallo with great B&W photography.

God of Cookery

6/10
Stephen Chow is an arrogant T.V. chef who is dethroned and must cook his way back to the top.... more

Godzilla [2014]

7/10
Well, like everyone else who saw this movie, I think the first quarter is very good, mostly because Brian... more

Godzilla Minus One

8/10
Yes, it’s a very good Godzilla movie but it’s not quite the revelation that many reviewers are making it... more

Golden Swallow

8/10
Of all the films in this DVD set, this one features the best fight choreography. I guess it’s a... more

The Gorgon

6/10
My Halloween movie this year was The Gorgon from the Icons of Horror: Hammer Films DVD. I think I am coming to the... more

Gorilla Gang

8/10
So far, this is the wildest Krimi film I’ve seen. Despite the title, there isn’t as much gorilla crime... more

Grand Slam

7/10
Grand Slam is a reasonably amusing heist film with the usual tropes of assembling of the team, a complicated heist,... more

Grave of the Fireflies

7/10
This classic Studio Ghibli cartoon is about the horrors of war. But it’s really more about the horrors of... more