The Hot Rock (1972)

A highly enjoyable early 70s heist movie that goes on and on.

Dortmunder (Robert Redford) is recruited by his brother-in-law Kelp (George Segal) to steal a diamond from a museum, a commission by Dr Amusa (Moses Gunn), an official from an African country. The heist, which involves a staged fake car crash, goes well. The diamond is stolen... but one of the gang members Greenburg (Paul Sand) is arrested... and he was the one with the loot.

Dortmunder and Kelp manage to bust Greenburg out of the gaol, they then discover that he hid the diamond at the police station when he was arrested! So, they have to raid the police station too. Dortmunder starts to feel that the diamond is cursed but he is going to get it if its the last thing he does...

Fairly far fetched but good fun, very cool in an early 70s California way too. If you like complicated and intricate heists in movies then you'll like this as you get them multiple times in this one!

Riders of the Purple Sage (1925)

A classic silent era Western, based on the famous Zane Grey novel.

Jim Carson (Tom Mix) rides to the rescue when his sister (Beatrice Burnham) and her daughter is kidnapped by some bad dudes on the order of the evil Lew Walters (Warner Oland). Jim saves his sister, then he links up with rancher Jane (Mabel Ballin) in her fight against some cattle rustlers called the Riders of the Purple Sage. Behind their crooked antics secretly is Walters, who is posing as a judge...

This has all you need for a top quality Western, a great hero, a great villain, superb scenery and lots and lots of action.

Spanking the Monkey (1994)

A rather dark film about a rather inappropriate relationship.

Ray (Jeremy Davies) comes home from MIT to care for his mother Susan (Alberta Watson) who has broken her leg. Mum is lonely and rather manipulative and Dad (Benjamin Hendrickson) is away from home as a salesman. He doesn't get on with Susan or Ray in any case and is a rather unpleasant individual. 

Caring for his mum, and seeing her naked, leads Ray to start having sexual thoughts about her. Unfortunately, she shares these thoughts and they begin a relationship putting him in competition with the old man...

Despite the taboo subject the film has some quite offbeat humour. All of the characters have flaws in different ways, apart from Ray perhaps. An interesting watch and a competent independent film.

Thrashin' (1986)

Classic 1980s youth gang action on four wheels, four wheels of a skateboard that is!

Corey (Josh Brolin) is a young hotshot skateboarder who arrives in LA with his crew to compete with the best. They immediately come into conflict with a bunch of skateboarding punks led by Hook (Robert Rusler). Corey is going to take part in a downhill race and grab all the glory and money. Hook has other ideas of course. Things get complicated when Corey meets Chrissy (Pamela Gidley) and they fall in love. Complicated because Chrissy is Hook's kid sister...

This is a fairly formulaic teen drama with the usual tale of challenge, set backs and eventual redemption. The film is often quite silly but is cool (especially if you are nostalgic for the 1980s) and fun. The skateboarding is realistic (and includes many accidents!)

Look out for the young unknown band who appear in an early scene. They were pretty good, i wonder what happened to them. They called them the Red Hot Chili Peppers i believe...

The Wild Women of Wongo (1958)

A very strange film, that somehow could only have been made in the 1950s.

Some time in the distant past, the jungle village of Wongo apparently has a problem, all the men are ugly and all the women beautiful. So beautiful in fact they look like they just came out of a salon instead of living in the prehistoric jungle and worshipping an alligator god. Then a young man called Engor (Johnny Walsh) from another village arrives asking for help against some wild men. Apparently in his village all the men are handsome hunks and the women ugly!

The daughter of the king of Wongo (Jean Hawkshaw) decides she doesn't want to marry a local ugly man and instead she wants the handsome guy from elsewhere. After disrespecting the alligator god (a prop which looks it was bought in a zoo souvenir shop) she and a group of other Wongo girls head off to hunt... guys.

Its a truly terrible film to be sure though the sheer camp makes it compelling. The actors look good in their designer animal skin swimwear though recite their lines like they are under duress. A parrot appears throughout the film making random squawks, certainly not annoying at all!