Sleepy Hollow (USA, 1999) - ?/10
Watched the first 10 minutes, then fast forwarded to the end. Too bad of a film to waste 2 hours on. Seen it in its entirety about 10 years ago.
- dvd / R2
The Hills Have Eyes (USA, 1977) – 6/10
Craven’s effective survival horror slightly weakened by unoriginal characters.
- dvd / FI
Laitakaupungin valot (Finland, 2006) – 4/10
Sometimes stylish, sometimes only awkward.
- TV
Phase IV (USA, 1974) – 7/10
Intelligent ants attack may sound like a B-film plot but this sci-fi horror is actually quite intelligent and moody. The US / UK pg rating is misleading. There’s little graphic violence, but the atmosphere can be compared to films like Alien and The Thing.
- TV
Milano calibro 9 (Italy, 1972) – 7/10
Di Leo’s opening episode in the Milano trilogy follows a criminal who is released from prison after 4 years. His old boss believes he stole 300 000 dollars from the gang, the man himself tells he was set up by someone. An intense thriller which however suffers from some unneeded supporting characters. The detectives only appear to be in the film because of Di Leo’s will to go political. The main story however works, and the last 15 minutes is terrific.
- dvd / Raro
La mala ordina (Italy, 1972) – 6/10
Mario Adorf, who played a supporting part in Milano calibro 9, takes the lead in the follow up. He plays a pimp who gets the entire underworld after him without even knowing the reason. Again Di Leo’s supporting characters slow the film down (the famous assassin duo Henry Silva & Woody Strode ultimately has little to do in the film), but Adorf is good as a man who is forced to become a killer against his own wish.
- dvd / Raro
Il boss (Italy, 1973) – 7/10
The final part in Di Leo’s Milano trilogy stars Henry Silva as a gun for hire in a world where loyalty doesn’t exist. The soundtrack is terrific, as you’d expect. Di Leo based the film on Peter McCurtin’s book but threw in references to real life events and persons which caused some problems with the censors… and made the director afraid for his life for years.
- dvd / Raro
Killer vs Killers (Italy, 1985) – 4/10
Di Leo’s last film feels like straight to video flick… which is exactly what it became after it was denied the access to Italian screens. Poor first third, followed by decently entertaining last 50 minutes.
- dvd / Raro
Almost Human (Italy, 1974) – 2/10
Milano violenta by Umberto Lenzi. You can’t blame the director for glorifying the world of crime as Lenzi’s trio of anti-heroes are nothing but sadistic cowards. Unfortunately there’s very little to get a hold of in this nihilistic vision. The acting, directing and soundtrack (by Morricone) are hardly anything special, and the only point the film is attempting to make is to tell that the world is a dark place. That’s not quite enough to carry over 100 minutes.
- dvd / R1