House of Bamboo (1955)

A tough and taut crime drama in early postwar Japan.

Dawson (Robert Ryan) runs a tough crime syndicate in 1950s Japan, even stealing weapons from a military train. Eddie (Robert Stack) is a US Army investigator who goes undercover as a two-bit hoodlum who has come over to Tokyo to try his luck. He links up with Mariko (Shirley Yamaguchi), the girl of an ex-gang member who Dawson had shot, and manages to get into Dawson's group.

He needs to find evidence and catch Dawson on the job, knowing that the boss has inside men in the police, this does not prove to be that easy though. Can Eddie stop Dawson before his cover is blown?

A lovely period piece set in a Japan just starting to emerge from the postwar rebuild. The film is tense with hard boiled leads and a superb final confrontation in a fair ground. Not quite a Noir (its in colour for a start) but definitely has that feel.

GoldenEye (1995)

A new Bond and a good reboot with Pierce Brosnan now in possession of the Walther PPK.

Years before 007 and 006 raid and destroy a Soviet secret weapon factory, though 006 (Sean Bean) doesn't make it out alive. Now the Soviet Union has collapsed, but the top secret space weapon system GoldenEye is still in operation... until it is stolen by Ourumov (Gottfried John) and the rather psychotic Xenia (Famke Janssen). GoldenEye can destroy electronic systems. Now the GoldenEye is being readied to attack London and destroy the world financial system.

Along with Natalya (Izabella Scorupco), the only survivor of the raid on the GoldenEye base, Bond must discover who is really behind the plot to steal the weapon. The identity of whom is a surprise even to James...

A slightly harder and more serious Bond than the films of the 1980s, a very good return to form. The action scenes, especially the tank car chase in St Petersburg are pretty spectacular, but Bond still has his quips.

The Perils of Pauline (Serial) (1933)

This shares a title with the famous serial which more or less started the genre, 1914's The Perils of Pauline but little else. This is, though, a pretty decent little set of cliffhangers.

Professor Hargrave (James Durkin) and his daughter Pauline (Evelyn Knapp) are in Indo-China during a time of revolution, Hargrave is working on a deadly gas which in the wrong hands would be a terrible weapon. Evil Dr Bashan (John Davidson) has those "wrong hands". With Bashan in pursuit, the Hargraves along with Robert (Craig Reynolds) seek out an ivory disc with the formula written on it...

The serial starts out strongly with a good budget and good use of newsreel footage though gets a bit stuck in the middle during an overlong stay in the Indonesian jungle (which for some reason, due to re-used sets, includes an Ancient Egyptian temple!) The climax in the US is a return to form though the ending is rather sudden.

This fulfils the brief for a perfectly acceptable movie serial, good cliffhangers, re-use of whatever sets and costumes were available and ridiculous plot lines (complete with a superbly evil baddie). Excellent entertainment.

Carry on Behind (1975)

While not the best Carry On film (and certainly recycling quite a bit from earlier films especially Carry on Camping), this is still a very funny entry. Indeed, the last good Carry On film in many ways.

Professor Crump (Kenneth Williams) has organised an archaeological dig looking for Roman ruins with Professor Vooshka (Elke Sommers). Their dig happens to be next to a rather low-rent camp site owned by Major Leep (Kenneth Connor) with odd-job man Henry (Peter Butterworth) always after a few quid. Amongst the camp site visitors are Ernie (Jack Douglas) and Fred (Windsor Davies) who are on a "fishing" trip, though as their wives are not with them, and as this is a Carry On film, we know what they are looking to "catch"! Arthur (Bernard Bresslaw) and his wife Linda (Patsy Rowlands) are also there, unfortunately for Arthur so is his mother-in-law (Joan Sims) and her potty-mouthed mynah bird!

The film lacks much in the way of plot, the dig and the camp site gradually falls into chaos and ruin, especially after a lot of rain. The comedy situations are very funny though. Many of the jokes are so obvious an Eagle could see them coming, you'll still laugh though.

Rogue of the Rio Grande (1930)

Not without some appeal but largely a bit of a run-of-the-mill Western.

El Malo (José Bohr) robs the bank of a small town. However, El Malo is a Robin Hood figure who gives the stolen pesos to the poor of the town. El Malo manages to evade capture but falls for the charms of the cantina singer Carmita (Myrna Loy). El Malo then witnesses the robbery of a stagecoach by real outlaws using his name, their leader turns out to be the mayor (Gene Morgan) of the town...

This is a fairly standard and unsurprising Western though has some music thanks to Carmita (but not that good) and is played light, with bad guys stopped by sitting on cactuses rather than bullets. An early talkie with typical sound issues including awkward dialogue at times. It is probably most interesting for being early in the careers of both Bohr and Loy who went onto much bigger and better things either side of the Rio Grande.

Bullet to Beijing (1995)

It is the end of the Cold War, and Harry Palmer is out of a job!

Retired by MI5, Palmer (Michael Caine) is recruited by a Russian called Alexei (Michael Gambon) to stop the North Koreans getting ahold of a biological weapon that could kill millions. Palmer is helped by Nikolai (Jason Connery) in a rather confusing mix involving former operatives (from both sides) and the Russian mafia.

Much of the film takes place on a Russian train to Beijing, though Palmer and Nikolai end up marooned in Siberia and have to get back to their train by various forms of transport in some kind of bizarre Top Gear-like sequence. There are various double crosses made, the trip to Beijing seems rather pointless in the end as they head straight back to Moscow by plane. By now, though, Palmer knows there is more to this than a weapon, and Alexei can't be trusted...

It doesn't make a huge amount of sense (and can't really be compared to real Harry Palmer films based on actual Len Deighton books) but makes the most of post-Soviet Russia for all sorts of crumbling Soviet nonsense including rusty old Aeroflot airliners and a car chase with Ladas! All highly enjoyable if you like that sort of thing!

Rats: Night of Terror (1984)

One of a number of Italian Mad Max rip-offs, though this time the gang of raggedy marauders from the bad lands, in their beat up old vehicles, have to face... rats?

The group, led by Kurt (Ottaviano Dell'Acqua), arrive at a mysterious abandoned town that seems to be only inhabited by rats. They discover an underground science base with fresh food and flashy light bleepy tech. However, then the rats start to attack. In various gruesome ways too, the gang desperately battle for survival with their guns, tankettes and flamethrowers. Unfortunately as the gang seem to collectively have less brain cells than bullets the rats outwit them time and time again. Help is on the way, well they think anyway...

This really is a strange film, the gang really are inept. Characters like Deus (Tony Lombardo) and Duke (Henry Luciani) are pretty one dimensional and wouldn't last five minutes against the New Barbarians for example. Video (Gianni Franco) provides some moments of really strange humour. Violent, rather nasty and pretty weird.