Silent Trigger (1996)

A surprisingly good action film.

A sniper (Dolph Lundgren) and his spotter (Gina Bellman) are on a secret mission to kill a foreign politician but their mission fails when Dolph hesitates and they are on the run. We will continue to see their escape in flashback throughout the rest of the film. But we next see a half-finished skyscraper. Dolph infiltrates the guarded site while Gina goes in while pretending to be an IT support engineer.   

Dolph and Gina are on a new sniping mission but have a few hours to set things up. However, there are complications including the coke fiend and sex addict guard O'Hara (Christopher Heyerdahl) who is after Gina's body. Dolph is also a target himself by the unnamed secret agency, Gina has been tasked to kill him but if she fails then the agency has a plan B...

This isn't a mindless action film, although when there is action it is good and pretty bloody. What the film does have is a lot of character building and reflection by Dolph on his dangerous and ultimately doomed lifestyle. Excellent and engaging.

1984 (1956)

The George Orwell classic, remember Big Brother is watching you.

In a future dystopia, Britain is now ruled by a totalitarian regime which ruthlessly controls it's citizens via propaganda, rewritten histories and facts and endless lies (backed up by secret police and torture if that doesn't work!) Winston Smith (Edmond O'Brien) is a low level functionary of the regime whose job is to rewrite history to reflect the "truth" which Big Brother wants. However, in a land where love is forbidden (unless it is for Big Brother) he rebels by falling in love with fellow regime officer Julia (Jan Sterling).

The pair maintain their secret affair away from the prying eyes of Big Brother, they also get recruited by high ranking official O'Connor (Michael Redgrave) who apparently is part of an underground resistance. Unfortunately, this is a lie too, Winston and Julia are arrested and end up being brutally tortured and reconditioned. What will happen when they meet again?

A bleak and brutal tale, a crushing and cruel tale always under the watchful eye of Big Brother. It couldn't come true of course, well it hasn't yet anyway. 

Quiet Please: Murder (1942)

An enjoyable crime caper involving murder and valuable books.

Jim Fleg (George Sanders) steals a valuable book from the library after killing the guard. He has copies of the book made and sells these via his accomplice Myra (Gail Patrick). Private detective Hal (Richard Denning) is investigating the case, he encounters Myra who falls in love with him but she still leads him into Fleg's trap at the library! 

This film has an interesting plot involving stolen valuable books, naturally as its war time the valuables are wanted by the Nazis to help them after they lose the war and need to flee! The relationship between Hal and Myra (and indeed Fleg and Myra too) is a roller coaster with Noir undertones. The war time setting adds interest to the film, including the plot device of an air raid black out. A good film.

Ninja Strike Force (1988)

Another Godfrey Ho cut and paste martial arts film mixing an older Asian film with new ninja footage. 

Gordon (Richard Harrison) is a ninja who discovers that his master (Edowan Bersma) owns an ancient sword which bestows great power. However, that doesn't stop the evil Black Ninja from killing the master and taking the sword! Gordon vows to avenge his master, first though he must warn the leader of the five ninja clans and warn them not to be killed by the Black Ninja else he will become unstoppable...

Meanwhile we also have a rather tedious older Taiwanese film starring Eagle Lee which has been added to pad the film out, clever editing giving the veneer of the characters of the two films interacting. 

Unfortunately while some of the films of this type like Ninja Terminator actually end up being pretty good, Ninja Strike Force doesn't really work. The ninjas having headbands which have "ninja" written on them really doesn't scream quality and the older film is a bit boring. The modern ninja fighting footage is campy but fun making the film watchable but not much more.

Sing Sing Nights (1934)

An interesting premise, let down by a somewhat patchy execution.

When famous war reporter Cooper (Conway Teale) is found shot dead, no less than three men claim they carried out the murder! Cooper's body indeed does have three bullets in it but which man was the first to fire (and thus the actual murderer). All three men are found guilty but Professor Varney (Ferdinand Gottschalk) heads to prison with a lie detector to try and find out who is the true murderer.

Trude (Hardie Albright), McCaigh (Jameson Thomas) and Krenwicz (George Baxter) take turns to explain why they hated Cooper enough to kill him. Cooper's facade as a respected journalist is soon stripped away as he is revealed to be a cheat, a womaniser and a crook. Varney has the results of the lie detector test, and he has two pardons to hand out...

This film has a great (if slightly suspect in legal terms) plot though the film is rather poorly made at times. However, the story flows well and has some decent suspense.