Saul Swimmer directs Freddie Mercury, John Deacon and Brian May in this concert movie where the footage is digitally restored to IMAX format.

Sweat, dry ice and dorks in the audience. The first concert movie I have watched in a while where it takes a lot more imagination to feel like you were there. The track selection ain’t great either. 1981 and nothing from Flash Gordon?! Pah! Freddie is still a star.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Queen Live At Wembley Stadium (1986)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin

Sidney Lumet directs Faye Dunaway, William Holden and Peter Finch in this drama about a news anchor who announces his suicide on air and the corporate executives who try to exploit the ratings bump from his outbursts.

Easily the most literary and outwardly intelligent film in my personal Top 100 favourite movies, Network isn’t something you just pop on for a fun watch. It is scabrous, angry and complexly verbose. The dialogue is heavy. Jargon fuelled, high minded, purposely dense. By the second act pretty much every other scene is show-stopping monologue. Why shouldn’t cinema interrogate modern angst without concessions to base entertainment? Paddy Chayefsky’s script is an all timer. There isn’t a genuine moment of levity in it. The actors chew it up. Every performance is note perfect rage or domination. God, I love it. Sure, Network looks alien next to my 99 other genre picks and classy confections but fuck me that power is undiminished after nearly fifty years. Especially in the virtuoso first half which is just an hour of flawless cinematic mastery.

10

Perfect Double Bill: The China Syndrome (1979)

Leigh Whannell directs Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner and Sam Jaeger in this horror where a man revisits his abandoned family farm… a remote place where something vicious stalks the night.

This new release has come out to an iffy response even though it is quite a clever update on the 1941 original. The slow burn body horror transformation reminds of Cronenberg’s The Fly and the lycanthrope vision POV is unnerving. There are a couple of decent small scale set pieces that seem inspired by the Spielberg directed Jurassic Park movies. I’m not a massive fan of either Abbott or Garner and the tiny ensemble probably would benefit from a few extra faces of fodder. The first half is drab long way around emotional stuff. Things don’t become cheerier when the monster is unloosed but Whannell should be praised for his straight faced approach. Dark, practical and uneasy, this Wolf Man is worth a gamble.

6

Perfect Double Bill: The Invisible Man (2020)

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Peter Newbrook directs Robert Stephens, Robert Powell and Jane Lapotaire in this period chiller where an English country squire called Sir Hugo Cunningham searches for immortality by literally ‘bottling up’ the Spirit of the Dead, or Asphyx.

Like the best Hammer this is creepy yet creaky, quaint yet unique. A Tale Of The Unexpected that goes the route less travelled. The sequences where the squirmy Asphyx rod puppet is trapped in beams of light contains obvious trickery and genuine tension. Not very scary but a memorable curio.

6

Perfect Double Bill: The Skull (1965)

Stephen Hopkins directs Emilio Estevez, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Denis Leary in this thriller where four yuppies find themselves on the run in Chicago gangland after witnessing a murder.

Trashy chase movie that never reaches its potential. Is Denis Leary a convincing baddie? Why is the warehouse district of Chicago quite so post-apocalyptic? Do we really want Emilio doing his best impression of his Dad? Why are the lighting choice so expressionistic if this is supposed to be a gritty urban thriller? If Jeremy Piven is going to play the role coked out of his bonce then why not let his character enjoy a line or a bump? Yes, the Predator theme music cooks but it is pretty glaring when borrowed here. Speaking of soundtracks… the CD album tied to this movie saw a dozen mash-ups between rock acts and hip hop artists. That experiment probably towers over the movie itself. Though I have a soft spot for it. It scratched an itch. One more set piece or another main character death and we’d be onto a winner.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Trespass (1992)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin

Delbert Mann directs Rock Hudson, Doris Day and Tony Randall in this romantic comedy where rival advertising executives declare war on each other over a non-existent product which leads to one posing as a scientist to seduce the other.

Mad Men was never like this!

5

Perfect Double Bill: Pillow Talk (1959)

Andrei Tarkovsky directs Nikolay Burlyaev, Valentin Zubkov and Evgeniy Zharikov in this Soviet war movie told from the perspective of a young scout who the officers try to shield from death.

Tarkovsky’s first is one of his most accessible. Almost the antithesis of Come And See in that this tries to avoid the horrors of war. No battle sequences or heroics are depicted. This all takes place in the inbetween and downtime. Yet the endless threat of death is there, just not the dehumanisation. Simple yet less brutal. The ending is a gut punch in many ways. The perfect black and white cinematography by Vadim Yusov is ethereal. He conjures up wonderful poetic moments in darkness and mists.

7

Perfect Double Bill: The Sacrifice (1986)

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Bill Gunn directs Duane Jones, Marlene Clark and himself in this supernatural drama where after being stabbed with an ancient, germ-infested knife, a doctor’s assistant finds himself with an insatiable desire for blood.

As a serious black horror movie from an artistically motivated voice Ganja & Hess’ historical significance can not be disputed. As a vampire film from somebody who clearly had no interest in making a genre movie… as a coherent plot by somebody who might not know or care how to tell a story… as a piece of filmmaking collated from establishing and pick up shots with looping dubbed over them… it is all a bit shite. Isn’t it? Sorry to be one of those “white critics” but groundbreaking doesn’t excuse amateur hour bafflement. Interminable.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Blacula (1972)

Mark A.Z. Dippé directs Michael Jai White, John Leguizamo and Martin Sheen in this comic book adaptation where an elite mercenary is killed, but comes back from Hell as a reluctant soldier of the Devil.

The lawless 90s splurged out this abomination that mashes up Tim Burton’s Batman with Brandon Lee’s The Crow to create maybe one of the ugliest films that ever got a wide release. The opening credits are a digital grotesquerie where the names are unreadable and I’m sure everyone involved is slightly relieved by this opening gate snafu. Top billed John Leguizamo aims to be Nicholson’s Joker but his Clown is just a grating fart joke machine. The action occasionally kicks the whole thing to life but it lacks context within the grab bag plotting. A hot steaming mess.

3

Perfect Double Bill: The Crow (1994)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin

Guy Hamilton directs Angela Lansbury, Elizabeth Taylor and Edward Fox in this Agatha Christie mystery where Miss Marple helps her nephew solve a country house murder involving a visiting Hollywood film production.

Not the most ambitious production ever staged but the ensemble is genuinely mind boggling. Rock Hudson! Kim Novak! Geraldine Chaplin! Tony Curtis! No lines / baby faced Pierce Brosnan! Matinee stodgy has never been so dazzling. Or catty…

6

Perfect Double Bill: Witness For The Prosecution (1957)