Time Out for Murder (1938)

An enjoyable and breezy crime drama.

The first of the short Roving Reporter series, bank runner Johnny Martin (Robert Kellard) is accused of murdering Peggy Norton (Ruth Hussey). Reporter Barney Callaghan (Michael Whalan), photographer Snapper (Chick Chandler) and bill collector Margie Ross (Gloria Stuart) - who is dragged along - set out to try and prove Martin is innocent. Indeed suspicion seems to point to gangster Dutch Moran (Douglas Fowley) but one problem is that he is a pal of Barney...

This is a typical 1930s crime drama involving reporters, who of course give plenty of wise cracks and cheek the police. There is plenty of story squeezed in, sometimes light but also a bit of action too - even a car chase! One of the most interesting things about the film is the 1930s speaking clock, which is performed by a live speaker. A highly enjoyable film.

The Black Hole (1979)

Epic science-fiction mixed with a touch of the macabre.

A space mission led by Captain Holland (Robert Forster) encounters a ship thought lost on the edge of a black hole but somehow resisting the massive gravitational forces. After Holland's ship is damaged they land on the mysterious ship and encounter menacing robots as they are taken to Dr Reinhardt (Maximilian Schell). He tells Holland and his crew that he is the only survivor of the original crew. He built an army of robots to replace them and now plans to fly his ship into the black hole and discover the ultimate secret of the universe...

Holland and his team - which includes Anthony Perkins, Yvette Mimeux, Ernest Borgnine but the jolly robot VINCENT (Roddy MacDowall) - soon discover everything is not as it seems. Reinhardt's crew of "robots" are something much darker, and his chief robot Maximilian silent, evil and deadly...

This is a spectacular film with superb sets which really give a sense of scale. The science fiction is fixed with some dark religious imagery. There is also a lot of action, though Reinhardt's robots obviously went to the same shooting school as Imperial stormtroopers. The story can be a bit simplistic and slow at times but the film is a great watch and highly underrated.

Futuresport (1998)

It is the future (2025 to be exact), the big geo-political questions of the age seem to be decided through a rather ropey looking "future" sport.

Hawaii wants to cede from the USA, a group of separatists gate crash the final of Futuresport, which has apparently replaced other sports like basketball to become the most popular in the world. 

Hot shot player Tre (Dean Cain) takes time out from an interview with his ex Alex (Vanessa Williams) to chase the separatists away with a ball. However, later he decides the best way to solve the Hawaii problem is to hold another game of Futuresport between a US and a Hawaiian team, the winner gets the country! Unfortunately for Tre, his opponents are street smart and led by the game's creator Fixx (Wesley Snipes)...

A strange film though the plot has some interesting if odd aspects to it. The world building is interesting and makes the most of a limited budget though this TV movie has many flaws. The game Futuresport itself is a bit of a dud though with it's odd mix of hockey, handball and skateboarding and has a placeholder for a name. The execution is pretty patchy but the film is not that bad. Just not that good either.

Daughter of the Tong (1939)

A middling crime B-movie that does the job... more or less.

FBI agent Dickson (Grant Withers) goes undercover to infiltrate the gang led by the Chinese gangster Carney (Evelyn Brent). Whilst successful, he stumbles upon a plot to extort money from Jerry Morgan (Dave O'Brien) and helps Morgan's sister Marion (Dorothy Short) as well as bring the weight of the authorities down on Carney's gang...

To be honest it is not a bad film though the low budget shows with the limited sets and repetitive action. The action is pretty average, in many fights it looks like the same punches are re-shown to pad the film out, a problem especially when the thrown punch obviously misses! 

The film is pretty run of the mill and doesn't have much not seen elsewhere many times. It is a decent watch but not much more though Carney is an interesting character which more could have been made of. The use of the Chinese Tongs might give the film a bit of novelty though only one character is actually Chinese!

The Thundering Ninja (1987)

Incredible martial arts nonsense as the CIA take on a ninja crime organisation.

Plans for a ballistic missile are wanted by the ninjas (quite why is unknown) led by Pedro Ernyes. However, despite ambushing some suits, the ninjas are still to get their hands on the plans. CIA agent, and ninja, Sydney (Stuart Smith) employs his investigator (Wang Yin) to find out who is behind the ninja's plans. The investigator's son (Jimmy Wang) is part of the ninja's support gang and gets into many fights. Finally, Sydney foils the ninja plans to get the plans and prepares for a showdown with the boss...

This film is one of those 1980s ninja epics which employed much footage from another, earlier, film to pad it out. The scenes with Jimmy Wang and Wang Yin comes from the 1970s Taiwanese film The Criminal. The footage is heavily doctored and re-dubbed to try and fit in with the ninja plot. It doesn't quite work though as in all of these mash-ups as the actors from the two films of course never meet (though they do "speak" over the telephone!)

This is a fun film though, completely crazy. The ninja action is incredibly over the top, just as it should be. It shouldn't work, but somehow it does.