Slasher cinema is all too often seen as a mainstay of the 1980s but the fact is that, come the turn of a new decade, plenty of fresh teen-kill titles were being produced and few are more ferocious than HAPPY HELL NIGHT! One of the trendsetting terror titles in bridging the gap between the grindhouse excess of the eighties and the VHS-era insanity of the early nineties, HAPPY HELL NIGHT is a fright-flick that has the cinematic quality of a highbrow hack and stab slice and dicer and the fast-paced sex 'n' violence sensibility of a video cassette cut 'em up. Released in 1992 to appreciative audiences who believed the bloodshed of the FRIDAY THE 13TH era had long since passed, this is a claustrophobic tale of supernatural stabbings in an old deserted asylum - and when some youngsters begin bothering this dusty place of the past they are understandably upset to find out that it houses a hysterical lunatic that does not intend to retire his limb-lopping ambitions anytime soon! Rarely seen in a quality deserving of its colourful carnage, and featuring the thespian talents of Sam Rockwell (MOON/ IRON MAN 2), HAPPY HELL NIGHT has finally been unleashed in the UK from 88 Films in a plasma-perfect HD restoration!
A politician's campaign manager (Speakman) discovers that the candidate (Shatner) is a front for a military organization plotting a political overthrow of the government. In trying to expose the candidate's right-wing activities he puts himself and his family in danger of being killed.
An Ant's Life
Director Robert Wise chose to film Robert McKenna's award-winning novel The Sand Pebbles as his follow-up to the success of The Sound of Music. Shot in Taiwan and Hong Kong, the film combines historical sweep and intimate human drama in several parallel stories, all revolving around US Navy machinist's mate Jake Holman (Steve McQueen), a skilful but fiercely independent sailor who joins the "sand pebble" crew of the USS San Pablo, a Navy gunboat patrolling the Yangtze River on the eve of the Chinese revolution in 1926. The San Pablo's inexperienced captain (Richard Crenna) obsessively defends the Navy's mission-however unnecessary or unwanted--to protect American missionaries and businessmen, blind to the more dangerous implications of American involvement with China's opposing political factions. Holman is a defiant voice of humanity in this clash between outmoded values and inevitable change; his final line of dialogue ("What the hell happened?") is a tragic summation of misguided policy, expressing the film's criticism of the Vietnam War. Rather than preach, however, Wise lets McKenna's potent drama emerge from finely drawn relationships: between Holman and a young American teacher (19-year-old Candice Bergen, in her second film); between Holman and the Chinese "coolie" (Mako), whose heart-breaking fate transcends all issues of racial or political difference; and between crewmate "Frenchy" Burgoyne (Richard Attenborough) and the Chinese woman he's sworn to love and protect at all costs. Combined with the film's colourful supporting cast, adventurous scope, and climactic battle scenes, these personal dynamics bring substance and spirit to a complex story of good intentions gone awry. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
Fear not good citizens of New York City! There's a new superhero defending the boroughs from evil - Sgt Kabukiman whose flaming chopsticks platform shoes and deadly razor - sharp prop parasol strike fear into the heart of evildoers. Your typical Troma gag-fest liberally festooned with cheesy wire kung-fu fights flying bodily fluids and more.
Who says armed robbery can't be civilised? Charismatic thief Bobby Comfort (Marsters) escapes from prison clears himself of all charges and returns to a new life he finds unsatisfying. Although he is devoted to his wife and daughter his old life comes calling both figuratively and literally in the form of ideas man Sammy Nalo (Cassini). With the help of Bobby's old partner they begin robbing swanky New York hotels while Comfort's second cousin and bumbling cop Phil P
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