The Great Air Mystery (Serial) (1935)

A superb follow-up serial continuing the adventures of daredevil aviator Tailspin Tommy.

Tommy (Clarke Williams) and Skeeter (Noah Beery Jr) head to Nazil in Latin America to help Betty Lou (Jean Rogers) and Inez Casmetto (Delphine Drew) with the setting up of infrastructure for oil extraction in country. 

However, Inez's father Manuel (Herbert Heywood) and Raymore (Matthew Betz) are two unscrupulous businessmen who want that oil wealth for themselves and concoct a series of schemes to stop Tommy and Skeeter with the help of his rogue squadron of fighters. Luckily, a mysterious aviator in a condor painted plane is often on hand to help Tommy out.

This is a great serial with a lot of amazing aerial stunts (including a crashing airship in episode 1). The serial is based on a comic strip (indeed the original Tailspin Tommy serial from 1934 was the first serial to be based on a comic strip. 

Michael Shayne: Private Detective (1940)

The first of a series of Michael Shayne films starring Lloyd Nolan in the lead role of the tough private detective who is often short of cash.

Indeed, Shayne is literally having his office stripped bare by debt collectors when he is engaged by Brighton (Clarence Kolb) to keep an eye on his daughter Phyllis (Marjorie Weaver), who is overly fond of a flutter. Shayne manages to get her away from the clutches of a crook. 

When that crook is found dead in Phyllis' car, Shayne has to work fast to clear the girl but he ends up being put in the frame himself by the police chief Painter (Donald MacBride). Shayne works with Phyllis and keen amateur detective Aunt Olivia (Elizabeth Patterson) to find the real culprit...

A fine crime B-movie with the usual fast changing action and maybe a little too much plot squeezed into the movie length. Nolan is an excellent Michael Shayne with the right amount of good humoured toughness and wise cracks.

Xtro (1982)

A grisly and incredibly bloody 1980s video nasty, this certainly is science-fiction horror.

Several years ago Sam (Philip Sayers) was abducted by aliens to the horror of his little son Tony (Simon Nash). Now... something has returned to Earth. A horrific looking alien that kills an innocent couple, rapes and impregnates a woman, who then dies giving birth to... Sam!

Sam returns to his family, which is a bit awkward as his wife Rachel (Bernice Stegers) has moved on, though Tony is delighted. But is Sam quite the same as before, and how is he affecting Tony (for the worse...)

After an incredibly gory start, the film does bog down a bit in the middle act as it turns into a bit of a domestic drama (with added menace). A low budget is used well, some of the scenes look amazing. It doesn't really make a lot of sense but with a film like this it probably doesn't matter too much.

Charlie Chan in Honolulu (1938)

After the sad death of Warner Oland, Sidney Toler takes over the Charlie Chan character, the first of many films he would make in the series.

While Charlie Chan awaits the arrival of his first grand child, a call comes in about a murder that has taken place on a cargo ship. Number 1 son Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung) takes the call and decides to take the case himself. He discovers the case of a murdered man on the ship, a number of suspicious characters, a hold full of circus animals and some missing cash! Luckily, Charlie Chan turns up to save his son from being thrown overboard and he takes over the case. One complication being the rather mysterious character Dr Cardigan (George Zucco) who is acting quite suspiciously and has a live brain in a suitcase!

A great entry in the Charlie Chan series, Sidney Toler bringing some new energy to the role. The kitchen sink was thrown at the film, quite why we needed subplots involving mad science brains in jars and escaped lions is unknown. It does not spoil the film though, its superb.

A.P.E.X. (1994)

Low budget maybe but the ambition and imagination factor is pretty high.

We are in the future (2073) and mankind is sending probes back through time (quite why we don't know especially as it ends up being so dangerous). Scientist Sinclair (Richard Keats) sends a probe robot though to 1973 where it encounters a couple in a caravan and immediately trouble begins. Sinclair goes through time to make sure the robot self-distructs... but when he returns to 2073 he finds everything has changed.

2073 is now a post-apocalypse wasteland where killer robots slaughter the battered remnants of mankind. Sinclair, despite being now in a changed timeline, remembers his old timeline and seeks out his old lab to see if he can restore the timeline and see his beloved wife Natasha (Lisa Ann Russell) again.

An interesting film. Although it is rather cheap and the special effects a bit average (though the robots look good), this film isn't that bad. It has some good ideas and does a decent job to make the most of what it has to try and carry them out. The plots has some holes, but it seems so does time.