Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Scream and Scream Again 1970

  ★★½ Watched 21 Mar 2025

  “You don’t believe in breaking things gently, do you?”

  An injured runner trapped in a sinister hospital… a senior member of an authoritarian Nazi-like regime rising up the ranks leaving dead colleagues in his wake… the police investigating the brutal rape and murder of a young girl, but discovering an assailant with supernatural capabilities… how could they be connected?

  Intriguingly-structured sci-fi/horror/thriller feels (at least for for first hour) like three random episodes of TV’s “The Avengers” edited together (sans Steed…

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  Torture Garden 1967

  ★★½ Watched 21 Mar 2025

  “I promised you horror, and I intend to keep my promise…”

  Four people accept Dr. Diabolo’s sinister invitation to have their futures foretold at his “Torture Garden” carnival sideshow, including the money-grabbing nephew of a rich old man who falls foul of a supernatural cat, an actress determined to reach the top whatever the cost, a female journalist who finds herself in romantic rivalry with a piano (best not to ask), and an overly acquisitive collector of Edgar Allen Poe…

Popular reviews

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  It Snows in Benidorm 2020

  ★ Watched 23 Dec 2020

  Both slow-paced and overlong to no effect, this film fails to convince as either a missing person thriller, innocent abroad drama, opposites attract romance or fish out of water comedy... Spall is wasted in a role seemingly written to be annoying, though Choudhury gives good smoulder, but quite why Pedro Almodovar lent his name to this as a producer is a mystery greater than any within the movie itself... avoid.

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  Two Hours to Kill 1966

  ★★★½ Watched 16 Apr 2023

  "Would you like a honey candy?"

  Terrific, unassuming French thriller, set almost entirely within the train station of a small French town dreading the next attack by vicious serial killer the "Satyr." Taking place essentially in real time, a cop (or is he?) on his way back to Paris misses his train, and while waiting for the next train two hours later (hence the name!) takes the opportunity to start quizzing the waiting passengers to see if they might have…