Equal Impact (1995)

Grubby and violent martial arts action. Twin brothers Dave (Joe Gates) and Josh (Jay Gates) are tough but clean tae kwan do fighters drawn into the world of gangland crime and counterfeit money. The gangsters led by Moss (Joe Estevez) are mostly cardboard bad guys except for Bobby (Krist Gerine) who knows a bit about the martial arts himself.

Luckily there is also Ray (Robert Z'dar) who at least looks like a tough guy. After several fights in alleyways and parking lots, torture scenes and some driving around, the scene is set for a final showdown in a warehouse (of course)...

The film isn't that bad though could have done with being edited. It is rather drawn out with a number of awkward pauses. The story line is pretty generic and obvious but the fight scenes are good - even if slightly ruined by the rather mismatched soundtrack which sounds like a CD of lift music on random play.

The Fatal Glass of Beer (1933)

An enjoyable comedy short from W.C. Fields. A parody of Yukon melodramas where Fields plays a long suffering gold prospector in the frozen wastes. He gets hit in the face with snow a lot and his dog sled team are rather mismatched. His son Chester (George Chandler), a good for nothing who went off to the city and ended up in prison, finally comes home after finishing his sentence...

And that's it really. It is a pretty funny film that packs a lot of gags (verbal and sight) into a short running time. Highlights include the dog in the sled team who is too short to reach the ground and the high kicking Salvation Army girl.

Gun Girls (1957)

Fairly shoddy exploitation film about "teenage" girls (lets be honest they all look like they left their teenage years a long time ago) who commit crimes. Dora (Jacqueline Park) has fallen in with a bad crowd and has formed a criminal partnership with Teddy (Jeanne Ferguson). After knocking a few chumps over the heads and stealing their watches, the girls decide they need to move up a crime level and get some guns from the local fence, Joe (Timothy Farrell).

Joe meanwhile has a plan to steal the payroll at a warehouse using information gleaned from his inside gal (in more ways than one) Joy (Eve Brent). Everything doesn't go according to plan with various double crossing and criminal ineptitude. Naturally the film has to show that crime doesn't pay...

A rough film that was made on a (low) budget. Often shamelessly exploitative (when the girls get their guns, for example the camera makes a point of showing them hiding the guns up their skirts). Enjoyable enough melodrama but nothing more.

Isle of Forgotten Sins (1943)

A South Seas adventure. The owner of a brothel, Marge (Gale Sondergaard) gets mixed with two treasure hunting adventurers Mike (John Carradine) and Jack (Frank Fenton) who have the sort of "friendly" rivalry which usually results in awkward brawls. They call a truce to seek treasure.

The treasure is gold which Carruthers (Sidney Toler) has hidden away after faking the sinking of his ship. He has, in fact, tricked Mike and Jack into raising the sunken treasure for him, and then take it from them. Meanwhile a tropical storm is approaching and threatening to destroy the island...

Its an amiable enough though unexceptional film which drags at times. As the film was pretty low budget most of the "diving" scenes are obviously models. Seeing Sidney Toler not playing Charlie Chan is of course quite novel and probably the best part of the film. The final fights and the deadly storm are both pretty ridiculous. However, treated in the right way the film is enjoyable fluff.

Son of Hercules in the Land of Darkness (1964)

Sword and sandal nonsense as the son of Hercules, Argolese (Dan Vadis) saves beautiful princess Telca (Spela Rozin) from a lion and then goes on a quest to kill a rather ropey dragon in order to win Telca's hand from her father King Tedaeo (Ugo Sasso) - the King is hard to please obviously.

Argolese completes this task but when he gets back to the village he finds everything has been burned to the ground and everyone now prisoners of the evil Demulus - except the rather annoying Babar (Jon Simons) who becomes Argolese's companion / comic relief.

Argolese goes to the secret mountain lair of the Demulus, ending up captured himself after various violent antics in endless similar looking dungeons. He defeats elephants in an epic test and saves the life of the Demulus Queen Ella (Carla Calo). Argolese joins the Demulus (though Telca and the others remain slaves). Then the evil Melissa (Marie Flore) slays Ella to take over as Queen for herself...

So it is a lot of campy fun, if not very coherent. Argolese is suitably buff and has ample opportunities to show his strength throwing rocks and hauling chains. Melissa plays a good role, gorgeous and evil.

The Bermuda Triangle (1978)

An awful movie, though the awfulness makes it strangely compelling. A small boat is sailing into the mysterious Bermuda Triangle (we get a little historical vignette about some of the ships and aircraft that have gone missing over the years) with Edward (John Huston) leading a team of stereotypes looking for the ruins of an ancient city, maybe Atlantis.

Strange happenings begin to befall the crew after a strange doll is found floating in the sea. Weird lights at night and a bizarre parrot attack. Then when the divers go down to explore some ruins there is a sudden sea quake and various columns collapse on them...

The film has many problems, and is rather long with far too much meaningless padding. Few of the characters are fleshed out or matter in any way though Peter (Carlos East), the alcoholic ex-surgeon is amusingly bitter and dark. The film also includes some pointless shark murder. Maybe it was because they were out acting most of the humans?

Charlie Chan at the Olympics (1937)

Another pleasing Charlie Chan romp. An experimental new guidance system for unmanned aeroplanes is stolen by foreign agents, Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) tracks the system to the Olympics in Berlin where the system is to be sold to the highest bidder. With Number 1 son (Lee Chan) in the US swimming team, Chan heads over to Berlin on the Hindenburg...

As usual there are plenty of suspects and red herrings for Chan to sort through in Berlin with the help of the German police in the form of Strasser (Frederik Vodeding). Chan son's life also ends up in peril as the film becomes more a spy adventure than a crime drama.

A good Charlie Chan film that is certainly is worth watching especially for actual footage of the 1936 Olympics. It is also interesting for showing Nazi Germany in a fairly neutral light, of course a couple of years later all that would change.