Fun Bar Karaoke (1997)

Pu (Fey Ussawaweth), dreams of her dead mum every night and in those dreams she is building a model house. She is told by fortune tellers that when she finishes the house her dad, who is a bit of a drunk and enjoys karaoke at the seedy Fun Bar Karaoke and young women (especially at the same time), will die...

Her dad is involved with one young lady, unfortunately for him she is a gangster's moll and thus his life is in a spot of peril. He gets used as a punchbag by the hood's men - one of whom Noi (Ray MacDonald) is a ruthless (yet also a bit of a bumbling loser) killer who has the hots for Pu...

So that is the story, its not that bad a film. An interesting story, as with many (all?) Thai films mixed with a dose of superstition. The film has a number of dream sequences that often confuse. Maybe too many dream sequences if we are to be honest.

The print is a bit fuzzy and the sound poor. Its a bit sloppy too, the sound boom appears a few times, one time it nearly hits the actor on the head. How did that pass unnoticed during production?

Peeping Tom (1960)

To say this film is somewhat disturbing would be an understatement. Mark (Carl Boehm) is a film studio worker who has a side line in soft core porn, he also likes to film the look of terror on young women's faces before he kills them...

Mark explains to a potential victim (Anna Massey) how his (mad of course) scientist father filmed him constantly as a child and liked to stimulate fear in him with various props including lizards, filming his reaction. Mark is pretty screwed up and acts incredibly weirdly but then again with his twisted upbringing is it any wonder?

A controversial film to say the least but what made it most shocking was probably the humanisation of the murderer. Mark is as much a victim as the unfortunates he kills, a difficult message to portray back then (even now), the film destroyed the director Michael Powell's career but survives as a testament to intelligent and daring film making.

Dr Pyckle and Mr Pride (1925)

A parody of the well-known Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde story (and an earlier movie version of the story), Dr Pyckle (Stan Laurel) is a scientist who tests a drug on himself to see if it change his personality. It does, it turns him into a Mr Pride who can't stop playing jokes on people...

Dr Pyckle did have higher hopes for this transformation than to someone who steals ice cream and scares ladies with loud noises! It is very funny, once we get to the Mr Pride stage. It is also interesting to see Stan Laurel without Oliver Hardy, we were still a couple of years from their immortal double act. This is quite a different performance in many ways, playing both title roles gave Laurel a lot of scope to show just how versatile he was as a performer.

Mariners of the Sky (1936)

US Navy flyboy hi jinks. A rather contrived plot involving a baby and a bunch of Naval airmen. Tex (Addison Randall) learns that his wife back home is pregnant. Unfortunately by the time his aircraft carrier reaches port he finds out she died in childbirth. His sister-in-law Bernice (Claire Dodd) wants to take the baby away but Tex wants it bought up on the ship (for some unfathomable reason)...

Soon afterwards however Tex is critically injured in a car accident. He pledges his child over to his buddy Red (William Gargan). However Bernice and her lawyer are out to get the baby off him...

There then follows various mayhem which includes a gangster (Paul Fix) stealing the baby and Red stealing a plane. Well everything ends up happily in the end and they all go home for tea, and Red and Bernice get married. There isn't much depth to this film (which is ironic considering it involves the Navy) but it is a reasonable bit of fluff.

God Father (1980)

A fairly enjoyable HK genre romp starring a young Chow Yun Fat. You can probably guess what this film will be like: violence, ropey kung fu with badly matching impact sound dubbing, dubious comedy, overacting and a weird convoluted plot. But of course these are the ingredients of many a classic HK film!

Chow plays a minor card shark / mechanic who tries to tangle with the local hood. Chow thinks he has the magic card skills from his god father, an ex Minor Deity of Gamblers but hes not quite that good. So he ends up owing the Boss thousands of HK$ and gets a good kicking for his cheek. But then his god father calls upon his old mate, a real God of Gamblers and the revenge begins... amid a rather convoluted plot. The Hood ends up in gaol and all the good guys go and visit him to laugh at him. 

Is this film any good? Well its not God Of Gamblers but fairly decent entertainment all the same. Seeing Chow Yun Fat so young is quite entertaining.