Django Unchained (2012)

I don't know if Tarantino is going to quit directing cool films after his last one, but he is still one of the geniuses around, completing a full career based on successful remakes and individual spectacular gems that made the world of cinema more interesting. No exceptions for 'Django' as well. Here we can find a slave, Django, being released by the bounty hunter, Dr. King Schultz. Soon they cooperate and search for Django's beloved wife, Broomhilda, in order to save her from slavery and confront her temporarily boss, Calvin, who organizes the famous Mandingo fight tournament. You can find some references to the old classic 'Jango' films of the sixties and enjoy the same opening music theme from great Sergio Leone. The performances are astonishing and the script is working as you can have both drama, fun and action at the full package as only Tarantino knows to deliver.

Terminus (2007)

Terminus (Latin for "boundary stone") is a dark comedy about the self-destructive nature of the human mind and the dangers of urban isolation. In this film, a colossus made of concrete pilings follows a lonely man throughout the city tormenting him as he goes about his daily life on the subway, at the doctor's office, and elsewhere. All the while, a strong, foreboding sense of mental anxiety builds as the man is ultimately driven to extreme ends.

Zombie ja Kummitusjuna aka Zombie and the Ghost Train (1991)

This is a great work of Finnish director Mika Kaurismäki. A black comedy where the realistic sequence and the good performances, even from amateurs musicians get into the point. Antti "Zombie" is a young man, lost and insecure, spending his days drinking and being lazy. After being a hobo at the streets of Istanbul, he decides to return back to Helsinki. But he is immediately forced to join the army. He finds a way to be discharged and goes back home. His father has health problems so Zombie tries unsuccessfully to find a work and a proper way to live. His friend Harri hires him as a roadie for his band "Harry and the Mulefukkers" then gives him a chance as a bass player. His girl-friend Marjo has taken up with a hairdresser but comes back to Zombie. But Antii can't afford all this situation and returns to the old bad habits even if they will cost everything to him. A sad story of a man who couldn't stand anywhere and the attempt of his environment to take care of him ineffectively. The end is just amazing.

 

Black Dynamite (2009)

Imagine a film that is going to be a cult on the next years. A film where the main hero can really dig it, kick asses and be also a sex symbol. In black version. This is Black Dynamite, a successful pimp, born and raised on the streets. He is the law and he cares everyone to know about that. Someday his brother, Jimmy, falls dead due to the dope addiction as Dynamite thinks about. Dynamite with his friend Bullhorn and the team of Black Panthers investigate places and people in order to find the real purposes of  Jimmy's death. The list of opponents is crazy including the Chinese Triangle, the Italian Mafia, various pimps and gangsters. Get ready for supreme action and excellent funky soundtrack, lots of sexy women and a martial arts expert serving the justice as well. Plus hit is the President Nixon as a lunatic motherfucker playing the nunchucks in a battle of life and death. Entertainment at its best.

Yôkai daisensô aka Yokai monsters Spook warfare (1968)

I still haven't understand if this film is the sequel of '100 monsters' as various sources from the internet describe it in alternate ways. It is still a great production from ADV, in a series of Japanese children's movies created in the 1960s. Two tomb raiders accidentally wake up the Babylonian demon, Daimon who flies up to Asia and especially Japan during the Middle Ages. He arrives at Izu magisterial palace and capture the souls of the local Lord and his stewards, Saheji. Lord's daughter, Ohie, with the help of her guard, Shipanhiro, try to figure out what happens and their people's behavior has changed. The local ghosts are the only ones who know what is truly going on and try to confront Daimon. Enjoy marvelous Kappa, the water imp, and a variety of spirits based on Japanese folklore and traditional art. The first film in a series that inspired the recent Great Yokai War. Directed by a veteran of the Zatoichi series and the excellent samurai/horror/kaiju film, Daimajin.

 

The day of the Triffids (1962)

Tom Godwin is a marine biologist living at a small island with his wife, Karen, working on lab experiments. Bill Masen is a captain who wakes up at an abandoned hospital after a successful surgery on his eyes. Things have changed and millions of people have became blind due to a phenomenon of meteors falling on earth. And this is not the only problem as the meteors have turned Triffids, some experimental plants into mutated aliens that grow up and threat the human kind as well. Bill finds an orphan who was traveling alone and together they pass to France. They meet madam Durant there, an elegant lady who uses her house as a camp to save people. Will all these people survive through the chaos that space objects have caused? An interesting science fiction film from the 60s, not quite a fully-fledged classic but a serious proposal for the audience of that era.

Quella villa accanto al cimitero aka The house by the cemetery (1981)

Boyle family have to move in a small town and rent a house near a cemetery. Bob Boyle has to investigate the terrible crime and suicide of an ex colleague. The real estate office seems to know something about Boyle's new place. A dark secret that is kept well. At the past centuries, another family with unexpected end have been living there. The father, Dr. Freudstei, was a surgeon who killed his wife and then disappeared. The problem for Boyle family starts when they start listening and feeling of weird phenomena as screams from the basement and things moving around. There is an enigma sharing the same house and the results will be catastrophically. Lucio Fulci directs another Italian horror film and tries hard for a good attempt to give us the appropriate creeps. Lots of blood and corpses are around and a frightened child who yells all the time.

O Cangaceiro (1953)

Let's have a sense of latin cinema experience. O Cangaceiro describes the life of a bunch of bandits in Brazil where leader Capitan Galdino Ferreira commands and executes everyone who looks as a menace to him. Teodoro is his old friend and a loyal comrade until he meets Olivia, a beautiful teacher. Galdino has kidnapped her in order to ask for ransom from the government. Teo starts having feelings for Olivia and takes her away from the camp. So Galdino has to find the traitor and punish him as well. An interesting film from South America that won the prize for Adventure film in Cannes festival. Great cultural songs that present another era at a place ruined from civil war and actual performances from the cast. Not the typical western action gem but a good attempt to show the traditional and difficult life at the valleys of Brazil.

Videodrome (1983)

This is the third time I have seen David Cronenberg's classic gem. A mixture of thriller, surreal and painful horror film. Max Renn is the president of CICIC tv, based in Toronto, Canada. He is cynical, sex maniac and arrogant. He looks for new ideas to promote his channel in a better way. Harlan. a technician who works for Max, shows him a strange program, Videodrome, that he has found through intercepting the tv satellites. It is plotless and shows some guys in uniforms torture a woman to death. Max is being interested on that and tries to find more information. As he is guest to another show, he meets Nicki, a masochist beautiful woman. At this show, there is another eccentric guest, Professor O'Blivion, a pop culture analyst and philosopher who will only appear on television if his image is broadcast into the studio, onto a television, from a remote location. Nicky is addicted to pain and Max shows her Videodrome. She responses sexually and Max likes it. All these characters are involved to a surreal trip of madness and fear through Videodrome.

Blacula (1972)

Back from the holiday. I hope you all had a good time. Here I have a review for the famous blaxploitation thriller film 'Blacula'. We find Prince Mamuwalde and his wife, Luva, being guests at the tower of Count Dracula. But they don't expect to be slaved by the evil monster. Mamuwalde is being also transformed into a vampire, cursed to be immortal and thirsty for blood. He appears back at the 1970s continuing his travel through time as he meets again a woman who looks like exactly as Luva. His heart is full again with love and he wants to live with her. But her brother in law, doctor Gordon Thomas alongside with Police chief, Jack Peters, know his secret and they are ready to confront Blacula and his army of vampires. There are some holes at the script but also some good gags. Funk soundtrack mixed with  haunted classical music gives fun to the complete action.