Cyborg Cop II (1994)

Jack Ryan (David Bradley) is that underused movie trope: the maverick cop who doesn't play by the rules. During a long (very long) shootout during a drug bust his partner is killed by crazed drug boss Starkraven (Morgan Hunter). Starkraven is captured and sentenced to death row... but is instead sent to a secret base where he is turned into a cyborg...

Starkraven and some other cyborgs are intended as super warriors who will always be under control of the authorities, many fail safe measures are in place to make sure they can never turn on their masters. Naturally Starkraven escapes in minutes and releases his (small) army of cyborgs to conquer the world. Ryan meanwhile is tracking down what happened Starkraven and with the help of Federal agent Liz (Jill Pierce) and a lot of heavy firepower the stage is set for a showdown...

There is rather a lot of violence in this film. To be honest a bit too much. The opening scene in the drug raid seems to go on forever. The film has lots of plot holes and obviously isn't filmed in the US despite the setting (some of the accents of the supporting actors are hilariously bad). It makes little sense but is fine mindless fun.

The Pharmacist (1933)

A good W.C. Fields comedy short. In this he plays a pharmacist who has to contend with customers who play checkers instead of buying something, a daughter who eats a canary bird (Marjorie Kane) and another daughter (Lorena Carr) who is hanging out with someone called Cuthbert (Grady Sutton) a name he really dislikes for some reason.

Fields main method of coping with this is mixing regular martinis. It is all pretty funny especially the customer who rants about stamps.

Ator: the Fighting Eagle (1982)

For every Conan there were dozens are cheap rip-offs and here we have Ator, an Italian example and not bad at all if you take it for the nonsense it is. The Spider God rules cruelly over the land but prophecy says that the son of a hero called Ator will defeat the Spider God and his chief priest Dakkar. When that son is born the mysterious Griba (Edward Purdom) spirits him away before Dakkar's soldiers, who wear a lot of horns and unconvincing armour, can kill him.

Ator (Miles O'Keeffe) is given to a couple of peasants who raise him as their own son alongside their actual daughter Sunya (Ritza Brown). Ator, who somehow seems to have found a magic hairspray tree, falls in love with Sunya and wants to marry her despite thinking she is his sister (actually he doesn't think there is anything wrong with this). Luckily his parents reveal that they arn't brother and sister after all so incest outrage averted. Unfortunately Dakkar's troops kidnap Sunya (for some unexplained reason) on the wedding day...

Ator finds Griba who tells him his destiny to kill the Spider God. He meets up with a beautiful thief (in skimpy armour) Roon (Sabrina Siani) and they begin a quest across the land to finally achieve their destinies (in Roon's case to loot the Spider God's treasure)...

Despite the rather odd incest note and some ridiculous costumes the film holds together as a decent - if cheap - sword and sorcery film. Naturally the Spider God when he is finally revealed is ridiculous but you would be disappointed if he looked anything other than a cheap rubber prop lets face it.

A cute little bear cub is shown throughout the film, as it probably does the best acting in the film it holds the film together.

Mystery Files (1996)

Andy Hui is that 90s phenomenon, a slacker: all comics, baseball caps, laid back and skint. So skint in fact he and his sister Vivian Lai head to the mainland to help their cousin Edmond Leung solve a murder. Andy is a genius you see, like Columbo, who knows the murderer almost before the murder has taken place. In the first case an abusive husband is found dead, his wife's lover is suspected by Edmond but Andy uncovers the truth. Vivian looks cute but doesn't really add much except act girly and scream at all the right moments.

As Andy and Edmond are celebrating the solving of the case in a KTV bar another murder takes place there (how lucky!) And they begin to solve this one too, which is mixed up with the red herring of some ghostly supernaturalness...

To celebrate his reward money Andy packs Vivian off to HK and goes on a Malaysian cruise instead, there he fancies some singers but then finds out they are ladyboys. Yeah hes a slacker. Another murder takes place on the boat, and what has Ada Choi got to do with it? One thing for sure death seems to follow Andy, its definitely safer to keep away from him...

Enjoyable enough murder mystery(s), a bit contrived and low-budget but decent fun anyway. Its worth it alone for one of Vivian Lai's few forays into film. The film would probably work better as a mini series as its really three separate stories only linked by some of the same actors but enjoyable all the same.

Sabotage (1936)

An excellent tale of intrigue and suspense from Alfred Hitchcock. Cinema owner Karl Verloc (Oskar Homolka) has plunged London into a blackout but he has much more in store for the capital...

Verloc is to plant a bomb, however the police in the form of undercover detective Ted (John Loder) - who makes a rather unconvincing grocer - is already watching the cinema and onto existence of a plot (not that they know what it is). Verloc's wife (Sylvia Sidney) and her young brother Stevie (Desmond Tester) are unaware that kindly Mr Verloc is really a terrorist though when Ted's cover is blown it is too late for the tragedy which engulfs both of them...

Tense and atmospheric, this film delivers and also is a wonderful look at 1930s London: tubes, trams and pavements of street vendors selling nonsense. Look out for a young Charles Hawtrey in a cameo talking about turtles!