No Retreat, No Surrender (1986)

Martial arts nonsense with the worst Bruce Lee ghost ever. Jason (Kurt McKinney) is a modestly skilled, but overly Bruce Lee obsessed, student at his Dad's (Tomothy D Baker) karate school in LA. When his Dad gets beaten up by gangsters, who include Jean-Claude van Damme, and they decamp to Seattle. There Jason and his friend RJ (JW Falls) gets beaten up by both local thugs and his bitter Dad.

Jason appeals to Bruce Lee at his grave (which is in Seattle of course) for help... and what do you know but the ghost of Bruce (Tai Chung Kim) turns up and starts to train him. Jason turns from being a light weight bum to a super martial artist. Sooner or later Jason will end up fighting van Damme of course...

Often pretty cheesy but with plenty of 1980s cool, even some break dancing. The action is pretty decent and often great. The ghost of Bruce looks nothing at all like the real man, unfortunately there are plenty of photos and posters of the real Bruce in the background of the ghost scenes! The training scenes are interesting though and overall this film is one of the better 1980s US martial arts films. A hit... like one of Bruce's fists.

Voodoo Man (1944)

Enjoyable voodoo nonsense. Dr Marlowe (Bela Lugosi)'s wife died twenty years ago - though she is still intact and not aged somehow. The Doctor is capturing young girls with the help of his strange and motley collection of henchmen including John Carradine and George Zucco. He is trying to transfer the spirit of the living into his dead/not dead wife using voodoo magic.

When Stella (Louise Currie) is the latest victim of Dr Marlowe's evil scheme, young reporter Ralph (Tod Andrews) begins to investigate the strange Doctor, who has a group of young zombie girls in his basement. Unfortunately Ralph's fiance Betty (Wanda McKay) is the next target for Marlowe...

A silly and creepy film, the absurdity of the premise however makes the film pretty amusing. Everything is oddly low-key and slow, Lugosi and Zucco spend most of the film in matching black cloaks - with random occult symbols on them - chanting nonsense.

Pressure Point (1997)

A hilariously strange action film. Sebastian Dellacourt (Don Mogavero) is a government assassin, though doesn't really look much like a CIA killing machine. With his middle age spread and bald spot, he looks like a systems analyst working in local government. 

His mission to kill an ambassador in Chile doesn't go down too well and he ends up in prison after a rather inept snow speeder chase. But he is contacted by his ex-boss Neil Kennedy (Larry Linville) and given a new mission, he just has to escape gaol first. Luckily he seems to be in the easiest "maximum security" prison to escape from in the world.

His new mission is to infiltrate the militia of Arno Taylor (Steve Railsback) who seeks to overthrown the US government by blowing it up...

So this is a fairly low budget action film, the story line is pretty silly and much of the action is fairly generic (not all bad but the dynamite in the microwave is just ridiculous). The nonsense and strangeness makes the film watchable. Not great by any means but enjoyable.

Goodbye Bruce Lee: His Last Game of Death (1975)

Yet another variation of Game of Death and yet another middling Bruceploitation film. "Bruce Li" (Ho Tsung-Tao) is chosen by a producer to help finish Bruce Lee's final film and then we go straight into that film. In truth the film-within-a-film angle is completely pointless. What we do have is a basic story of Bruce getting duped into handling hot money and dragged into a gang fight.

And there are a lot of fights as the two rival gangs both try and get the money off Bruce. Finally the gangs unite and kidnap Bruce's girlfriend Lu (Mung Ping) and take her top of the Tower of Death. Bruce then has to fight the best fighters in the world as climbs the tower floor by floor to save his girl. The "best fighters" are actually pretty terrible and include a samurai who gets dizzy very easily, a boxer who doesn't look he could punch his way out of a paper bag and an "Indian" fighter who wields nunchucks - though doesn't really seem to know what they are. Finally he faces Boss K (Fei Lung) with a whip.

It isn't the worst Bruceploitation film, the story is simple but coherent. The fights range between mediocre to awful but are often pretty funny.

Streamline Express (1935)

A long time before HS2, a fast new monorail with ocean liner levels of luxury (and indeed size) is to make the inaugural trip between New York and California. Aboard are a motley collection of passengers with various back stories including Broadway star Patricia Wallace (Evelyn Venable) who has fled the set to run off to get married. The producer Jimmy Hart (Victor Jory) wants her back to stows away on the train...

Also aboard is blackmailer Gilbert Landon (Sidney Blackmer), he is involved in a love triangle involving John Bradley (Clay Clement) who is caught between his wife Mary (Erin O'Brien-Moore) and apparent new love Elaine Vincent (Esther Ralston)...

A neat but limited little film. The kind of light drama that is usually set in the likes of a posh hotel, but this one was on rails. The comedy is a little hard to come by and mostly involves the drunken passenger. The actual train itself is a lovely bit of Art Deco. Another example of Utopian thinking early in the 1930s before the war drums grew too loud to ignore. Imagine the world which this train and the Transatlantic Tunnel could have existed in, a shame the dream was soon to be shattered.

The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Decades before the famous musical, is this early silent movie adaptation of the story of the disfigured opera lover who yearns for young love. The Phantom (Lon Chaney) is said to haunt the Paris Opera House. However, he is no ghost but a man who lives below the opera house. He forces the famous singer Carlotta (Virginia Pearson) to give up her starring role in the opera in favour of understudy Christine (Mary Philbin) whom the Phantom tutors (and loves). At first Christine is quite happy with her benefactor, despite the fact he lives in an underground dungeon. However when his mask is removed...

Christine is told by Erik (The Phantom) to devote her life to her art and to forget her fiance Raoul (Norman Kerry). However when Christine continues seeing Raoul, The Phantom finds out and makes her his prisoner...

This is a spectacular film, Lon Chaney stealing the show (literally) with his portrayal of the Phantom, a genius but trapped with his disfigurements and loneliness. Though any sympathy must be tempered with the murder and mayhem he unleashes on the opera house including some rather intriguing and gruesome death chambers.

The Atomic Man (1955)

An intriguing sci-fi / crime drama. A man is found floating in the Thames close to death after being shot. Reporter Delaney (Gene Nelson) discovers the man is top nuclear scientist Dr Rayner (Peter Arne). He is conscious but makes little sense. However there a twist... the man can't be Rayner as Doctor Rayner appears to be alive and well at a nuclear lab in London!

The mystery man in hospital is photographed by Rabowski (Faith Domergue) but a strange glow surrounds him in the developed photographs, a radioactive glow. But the Rayner in the lab has no glow. So what is going on and why does the man in hospital answer questions before they are asked? And who is the mysterious Vasquo (Vic Perry)?

A highly enjoyable film, more a crime drama with a little touch of science fiction added on. The crime drama is good. Well structured and coherent, Vasquo making for a good sinister villain. Nelson and Domergue make a nice pair as well. Look out for Charles Hawtrey in a small role.