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Ice Station Zebra (1968)
Usually disparaged as a dull and top-heavy misfire, John Sturges’ Ice Station Zebra can still prove a pleasurable film for those who can adjust to its particular brand of slow-burn...
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Extraction II (2023)
Sam Hargrave’s Extraction was the sort of movie that once would have been a lock to debut on the big screen, and would have been seen to best effect there, but instead came along as ideal streaming...
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Wait Until Dark (1967)
A genuinely exciting, nimbly mounted thriller, Terence Young’s Wait Until Dark is one of those movies that gives being based on a stage play a good name, and also one that anticipates where the...
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The Message (1976)
aka Mohammed, Messenger of God Moustapha Akkad’s The Message holds the truly arresting claim to being possibly the most viewed film in history, and the film’s mere existence is worth remarking on....
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
Here there be spoilers…With the strong feeling pervading the current cinema scene that the superhero movie epoch is, if not yet on life support, then certainly tailing off, perhaps likely to persist...
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Glory (1989)
Recounting the true story of the formation of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry regiment, the first fully regular African-American fighting force deployed the Union Army during the American Civil War,...
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The Furies (1950)
The Furies sits at a crossroads in director Anthony Mann’s career, as well as marking the sunset of the great Walter Huston’s. Mann had already signalled his shift from noir films to Westerns as his...
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The Razor’s Edge (1946)
W. Somerset Maugham’s novel The Razor’s Edge is a work of literature at once classical in style and narrative, much as one would expect from that author who held aloof from most modernist show, but...
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Gold (1974)
Peter R. Hunt’s Gold comes at you with all the flashy, bristling paraphernalia of the very 1970s-style, based-on-the-bestselling-novel blockbuster it so shamelessly wants to be. There’s Roger Moore,...
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Halloween Horror Hype 2023
That subtle chill in the air, the breath of dark tidings at dusk, the shiver that runs up your back – yes, it’s getting to be that time of year, friends. This Island Rod and its sister site Film...
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The Magician (1926)
Rex Ingram’s The Magician is a cinema relic replete with potent and fascinating elements, and even if the film as a whole doesn’t quite cohere into a total classic, it’s hard to ignore its...
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Halloween Horror 2023 Links
Links for each piece for Halloween Horror 2023, progressively updated here as they appear:1. The Magician (1926) at This Island Rod2. The Black Cat (1934) at Film Freedonia3. La Llorona (1933) at This...
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La Llorona (1933)
Part of the unique texture and attraction of Mexican folklore lies in its peculiarly tragic and melancholy mystique, welling from a worldview borne of civilisations crashing together, of conquest...
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Hellraiser (1987)
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser has proven a work of modern horror filmmaking with a lasting legacy. It’s also perhaps the only notable work of horror cinema directed by a major genre writer (pace fans of...
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Mill of the Stone Women (Il Mulino delle Donne di Petra, 1960)
A small gem from the first great Italian horror wave, sparked by Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava’s I Vampiri (1956), and which developed in counterpoint to the emergence of the Hammer style in...
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A Haunting In Venice (2023)
The year is 1947: Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) has moved to the canal-veined city of Venice and entirely given up detective work. He’s even hired a former local cop, Portfoglio (Riccardo...
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God Is A Bullet (2023)
Nick Cassavetes’ God Is A Bullet feels like a labour at once abandoned in a huff and unleashed with impunity, operating according to some damaged inner ear of aesthetic concept, gritty,...
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The Marvels (2023)
It seems already likely that Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels will be remembered as the movie that marked a decisive downturn in the fortunes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, if not quite its crunching...
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Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
Despite all the plaudits the series has gained in recent years, I’ve long found the Mission: Impossible films only sufficient as chewing gum for the eyes. It’s been a franchise whose most salient...
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Confessions Of A Film Freak and Collected Writing of 2023
Well, the remaining hours of 2023 are rapidly dwindling and soon the whole sorry year will shuffle off on its unlamented way. But, as usual, I have taken my stock of the year’s cinema in in my annual...
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