Happy 45th anniversary to Dino De Laurentiis’ campy motion picture, ‘Flash Gordon’. Released this week in 1980. #flashgordon #dinodelaurentiis #queen #mingthemerciless #samjjones #maxvonsydow #mikehodges

Happy birthday to Michael Caine, who happens to be the protagonist of tonight's movie!

#NowWatching Get Carter (Mike Hodges, 1971)

#BoTD #MichaelCaine #MikeHodges #cinemastodon #film #FilmFriday

Damien: Omen II (1978) Review

Let he who hath wisdom count the number of the film, for it is the number of a sequel and that number is two. Unlike many of its horror sequel contemporari

What The Craggus Saw
Tonight I saw Black Rainbow, a 80s film about a spiritual medium in urban-decay Florida who predicts a series of deaths in a manner that is very inconvenient to the boss of the local evil nuclear company. It's a good film and well worth watching if you either love Tom Hulse or have any interest in ghosts (I would tick both of those boxes!) Gerry Fisher's wonderful cinematography makes imaginative use of festive greens and reds, with Hulse's journalist character dressed like a particularly sombre elf. He's terrific in the film, and Roxanna Arquette is also decent, though she struggles to deliver some of the more clunky didactic passages where the film's social themes are stated in a much too open manner. This failure of Hodges (who also wrote the script) to allow the viewer to come to the underlying messages on their own seriously damages the film's vibe of mystery, though it does recover by the end.

I was also interested by what the author of the linked review has to say about the portrayal of Southern black churches, and how they would normally never allow a medium of that kind to perform. I obviously know nothing about it, but the use of gospel choirs to create emotion is a trope that pisses me off, especially when there are once again no significant black characters, just nice singing folk in robes who are rolled on and off as needed.

The film does drag in the middle, mainly as it seems to hover somewhat ineffectually between the interpersonal relationships of the three main characters (the journalist, the medium and her exploitative father) and the union politics stuff. But the first third and the end third are terrific, and I loved the eerie ending, which was pure Southern Gothic but still unexpected.

#80sFilms #HorrorFilms #Occult #TomHulse #MikeHodges #RosannaArquette

https://cinemasentries.com/black-rainbow-blu-ray-review-a-spiritual-thriller/
Black Rainbow Blu-ray Review: A Spiritual Thriller - Cinema Sentries

Mike Hodges oft-neglected thriller about a fake medium who gets real powers works best when it focuses on the relationships between the characters.

Cinema Sentries
Happy anniversary to Dino De Laurentiis’ campy motion picture, ‘Flash Gordon’. Released this week in 1980. #flashgordon #dinodelaurentiis #queen #mingthemerciless #samjjones #maxvonsydow #mikehodges
Croupier (1998)

Movies young and old, from fright flicks to cracking comedies, from the latest blockbusters to the rarest cult treats.

Flash Gordon (1980)
#Topol #MikeHodges
Flash Gordon (film) - Wikipedia

Directed by (the fired) #MikeHodges and #DonTaylor, and featuring another marvellously malevolent #JerryGoldsmith score, 20th Century Fox released the excellent sequel Damien: Omen II in U.S. cinemas #OnThisDay, in 1978.

#DamienOmen2 #TheOmen #Damien #SixSixSix #HailSatan #Occult #Antichrist #Satan #SatanicCinema #HorrorMovies

2/2

Tonight's film:
#GetCarter (1971, dir. #MikeHodges, 112 min.), an all-time best UK film, wherein #MichaelCaine plays a London gangster gone north to investigate his brother's death, uncovering corruption crime & sleaze amid gritty evocative eerie 1970s Newcastle...just staggering