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AKB48Fan rated To Sir, with Love (1967)

 To Sir, with Love (1967) 8/10

4 years ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Big Movie Watch List of 2021 list

Mark Thackeray is an engineer turned teacher at an East End school in London. The school administration is virtually non-existent and the students a bunch of noisy and unruly teenagers completely out of control. His first confrontation with the students does not go well but slowly and surely his methods begin to work on the students. Sidney Poitier is at his finest as the teacher who grapples with the multitude of problems that each day brings. The characters in the schoolroom played by a young cast give great support as their cruel attitudes towards their teacher melt into respectful admiration. This movie is highly recommended for those contemplating school teaching as a career. Only a brave person could face a class like the one shown, but if and when the class is tamed and brought to a respectful conclusion, the love shown towards their teacher is brilliant. It's just nice to Thackeray's back-to-basics approach winning over and transforming a rather motley group of class seniors by graduation time. Highly recommended.

4 years ago

AKB48Fan rated Murders in the Rue Morgue

 Murders in the Rue Morgue 5/10

4 years ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Big Movie Watch List of 2021 list

In Paris, in the beginning of the Twentieth Century, Cesar Charron owns a theater at the Rue Morgue where he performs the play “Murders in the Rue Morgue” with his wife Madeleine Charron, who has dreadful nightmares. When there are several murders by acid of people connected to Cesar, the prime suspect of Inspector Vidocq would be Cesar’s former partner Rene Marot. This loose adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story is nothing special. It has shades of Phantom of the Opera combined into the mix, with Herbert Lom playing a masked madman going around murdering various members of the cast. There are some effective creepy dream sequences, a sinister dwarf and a Grand Guignol theatre setting. Jason Robards is very dull and wooden in his performance. I was expecting better out of this movie but in the end it's just an average gothic horror.

4 years ago

AKB48Fan voted for list

Watched in 2021 (631 movies items)

4 years ago

AKB48Fan added 3 items to their collection

4 years ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Big Movie Watch List of 2021 list

A woman attempts to escape her domestic problems by fleeing to New York in search of her father. She finds him, and also new problems, some friendship, a romance, and an unexpected career as pro-boxer, to make ends meet. Brother and sister team Frank and Margi Clarke scored a surprise hit in 1985 with Letter to Brezhnev which they respectively wrote and starred in. However lightning failed to strike twice for this 1991 follow up which marked brother Frank's directorial debut. The key problems (aside from the limp direction and preening central performance) is the fact that the script and storyline is pretty weak and when the movie attempts to tug at the heartstrings it doesn't sit easily with the broad comedy around it. The boxing scenes are rather pathetic. It's like they've watched Rocky IV too much and attempted to copy some of it. The movie is notable for the debut of a very young Stephen Graham and also British female wrestler Klondyke Kate aka Jane Porter. Watch it at your peril.

4 years ago

AKB48Fan voted for list

Future Noir FIlms (35 movies items)

4 years ago

AKB48Fan voted for list

Film Diary 2021 (210 movies items)

4 years ago

AKB48Fan rated Cairo Road

 Cairo Road 4/10

4 years ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Big Movie Watch List of 2021 list

A police chief stationed in Egypt sets out to crack down on drug traffickers along the frontiers. With his assistant, he attempts to block the smugglers’ passage along the notorious Cairo Road route into the country. This is an exotically located British crime melodrama which is sadly lacking in any real excitement and it is the cast and the Egypt locations that partly compensate for the creakiness of the thriller and the woodenness of the production. Laurence Harvey at the start of his career and Eric Portman take the leading roles and make this movie more bearable. This movie had the potential to be an exciting thriller but it's a big disappointment in the end.

4 years ago

AKB48Fan rated Only When I Larf

 Only When I Larf 6/10

4 years ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Big Movie Watch List of 2021 list

Three con artists try to fool an African militant by selling him a bogus shipment of arms. Things go awry however, when the three have plotted to double-cross each other in trying to take the money. This is an enjoyable light hearted caper movie that has everyone donning disguises and playing multiple characters as part of their elaborate con games. The trio playing the main roles are Richard Attenborough, Alexandra Stewart and David Hemmings. The actors invest a lot of nuance into their thin characters, which puts it a step above most movies of this genre that just focus on the heist plot, but the movie never goes beyond the fun of a life of crime. The speedy, precise pre-credit con is particularly well executed. I thought it was an entertaining movie and well worth watching.

4 years ago

AKB48Fan rated Danger Route

 Danger Route 4/10

4 years ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Big Movie Watch List of 2021 list

Jonas Wilde, a British secret agent licensed to kill, wants to resign from his murderous work, but his superiors pressure him into taking on a new assignment-the assassination of a defecting Soviet scientist. In the course of the dangerous mission, he discovers a mole has infiltrated British intelligence. A sub-par James Bond like movie with a dour secret agent as the hero. The movie takes ages to get going with 45 mins gone before any action takes place. Even then there's no wild shootouts, crazy car chases, or mad geniuses determined to take over the world. At least Amicus went against the grain to all the other 007 copycats. The problem with this is it makes the spy game out to be a dirty, unattractive profession that is anything but fun or adventurous. There's also almost no humour in the story whatsoever and no high-tech gadgets to get Wilde out of trouble. Richard Johnson (who does look a little like a young Sean Connery) plays Wilde as a surly, cynical man who wants nothing more than to get out of his "business" once and for all. There is a good supporting cast in Diana Dors, Sylvia Syms and Gordon Jackson. No wonder this movie is largely forgotten as it's not an exciting spy thriller.

4 years ago

AKB48Fan rated Percy's Progress

 Percy's Progress 2/10

4 years ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Big Movie Watch List of 2021 list

Percy, the man with the world’s first penis transplant, discovers that his sexual services are needed when all the of the world's men go impotent after an environmental disaster. The sequel to the 1970 movie Percy. It is an abysmal movie in which all copies of it should be burned. It shows what a rut the British movie industry was in the mid 70's. The movie's humour, a predictably endless series of double-entendres, is generally tedious but at least it doesn't pretend it's anything other than a bawdy sex comedy. Replacing Hywel Bennett as Percy in this movie is Leigh Lawson who is rather bland in the lead role. Harry H Corbett must have been desperate for work to play the British Prime Minister here. He is terrible in the role. Other performers include Barry Humphries (as Dame Edna Everage), Ronald Fraser, Denholm Elliott and even Bernard Lee. There is nothing particularly funny about this movie one bit. It is just dross all the way through. All in all, a total waste of time.

4 years ago

AKB48Fan voted for list

Red Sails (20 beauty items)

4 years ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Big Movie Watch List of 2021 list

A group of people led by a bounty hunter are trying to escape across the wastelands to a safe haven called Neon City after a solar disaster that has decimated the Earth. This has been called by some people as being an updated sci-fi version of John Wayne’s Stagecoach. It's more like one of those 80's post-apocalyptic Mad Max like movies that were being made left, right and centre at the time. The story is basically a group of people being attacked every so often by mutants called Skins as they make their way across some wastelands. The action scenes are OK but a lot of the movie is about the interpersonal relationships between all of the characters on the journey. Michael Ironside plays a good guy for a change. The rest of the characters are a collection of movie stereotypes but it was nice seeing Juliet Landau in a role before she would achieve fame as Druscilla in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. I would say in the end that this is a rather mediocre entry to the post-apocalyptic genre. It meanders without much of a plot, and rather sparse action sequences, but it still provides a little bit of enjoyment to be watchable for some.

4 years ago

AKB48Fan added 2 items to their collection

4 years ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Big Movie Watch List of 2021 list

In 17th century England, Lord Whitman wages unending war on what he sees as the ever-present scourge of witchcraft, and many local villagers have suffered at his hands. But one victim uses her occult powers to curse his family, enlisting unknowing help from one of the household. A bit of a misleading title for this movie as there is no banshee at all in the story. It should have been changed to the more appropriate Cry Of The Howling Wolf. I think the film-makers probably just decided it was just too good a title to pass up. If you're expecting another Witchfinder General movie then you're going to be disappointed. It may have Vincent Price as an evil magistrate who is after witches and there is some cruelty against women seen but it is not as brutal as WG. The story isn't that bad - fairly basic but entertaining enough. There is some horror but not enough in my opinion. Overall, it's an enjoyable example of classic horror that fans of the genre should enjoy. It's not brilliant, but it has its moments and anything with Vincent Price is worth the price of seeing isn't it.

4 years ago

AKB48Fan rated Crescendo

 Crescendo 6/10

4 years ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Big Movie Watch List of 2021 list

An innocent project transforms into a perilous nightmare when researcher Susan Roberts arrives in France in search of information on a deceased composer. She contacts his widow whose mental deterioration, precipitated by the death of her husband, manifests itself in psychotic dementia. This Hammer production isn't that fondly remembered with many saying it's rather dull but I quite liked it. It's Stephanie Powers' turn in this movie to stumble through the freak mansion which here is presided over by the Joan Crawford lite matriarch and her two sons. The story has been copied from other movies and the viewer will be able to piece things together way before the supposedly surprising climactic revelations. One problem with the movie is the pace - it takes a good hour before things pick up. Stephanie Powers looks great but she's not the best performer in the movie. That belongs to Jane Lapotaire as the creepy/sexy French maid. If you give the movie some time, it does eventually grow on you. I can see how it has become one of Hammer's most obscure movies.

4 years ago

AKB48Fan rated Creature from Black Lake

 Creature from Black Lake 4/10

4 years ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Big Movie Watch List of 2021 list

Two young men from a university head to the Louisiana swamps to prove the existence of a Bigfoot-type creature. Totally cashing-in on the unexpected success of the much superior Legend of Boggy Creek and boy does it show. Nothing wrong with that of course and the movie does separate itself by being a more straight laced movie as opposed to a drama/documentary. You still get that Southern atmosphere, swamp locations, cautious and scared townsfolk and shots of the creature lurking about in the shadows with a terrifying roar. However, I don't think it's that frightening compared to Boggy Creek and the acting from the cast isn't great either. It might scare young kids perhaps. Below average stuff.

4 years ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Big Movie Watch List of 2021 list

Coy “Cannonball” Buckman and his blazing red Pontiac enter the Trans-America Grand Prix, an underground road race spanning the continent in which there are no rules, no speed limits and no heed for the law. This is a well made and colourfully filmed race movie, with plenty of chases, pile-ups, fights, and fiery crashes to enjoy (if that’s your thing), as well as some some get-back-at-the-cops action. It's not a comedy movie like The Cannonball Run. The competitors in this race will do anything to win even murder the opposition if they have do. The movie has a rather basic, simple story without a ton on its mind, but the characters all have a lot of charm and prevent there from ever being a dull moment. David Carradine takes the lead role and sleepwalks through the movie. His martial arts fights look lazy. There are a load of cameo roles from the likes of Sylvester Stallone, Martin Scorsese (both playing a couple of Mafia thugs devouring Kentucky Fried Chicken!) and Roger Corman. In the end, it's worth giving it a whirl if you enjoy 70's era car movies.

4 years ago

AKB48Fan added 2 items to their collection

4 years ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Big Movie Watch List of 2021 list

An alien slave crash-lands in New York City while being pursued by two Men in Black bounty hunters. His attempt to find a place for himself on Earth parallels that of the immigrant experience. John Sayles's quirky sci-fi drama is about a mute three-toed alien who lands in Ellis Island and goes on to explore the neighbourhood of Harlem. It's got the feel of a 70's blaxploitation movie to it but it's actually more of a hangout movie, a snapshot of Harlem at the time and the characters that inhabit it. There's not much of a plot really, with the alien putting his extraterrestrial healing powers to use by getting a job fixing old arcade machines and gradually learning about human ways. It sounds pretty uneventful, and in a way it is, but there's just something that is kind of magical about it that I can't quite put my finger on. Joe Morton is brilliant as the expressive mute along with the oddball characters he meets. A very enjoyable movie to watch.

4 years ago