Movie review - "Android" (1982) ***

 Roger Corman helped finance but didn't want to distribute. I can see why, it lacks nudity, pace and gore he would've liked, but it's a shame. This is smart, well acted, made by people who care. A little lackadasical. I think Corman would've preferred the main android to be female - there is a female but she doesn't come in until the end. Also Don Keith Appor maybe isn't handsome enough for a leading man. Good actor though. I really liked Brie Howard.

Klaus Kinski adds some class. Really solid movie. 

Movie review - Fast#9 - "F9" (2019) ***

 Slick, fast, Justin Ling directed. This is the one where they go into outerspace. That's sort of tossed away - it's very easy. Lucas Black is back, briefly. Er... yay? I do like the continuity.

The key plot has Vin Diesel clashing with brother John Cena. This does give it some emotional undercurrent. They do try to give Jordana Breswter something to do. They do try.

Big and loud. Feels tired. Han coming back is... um, yeah, yay? Natalie Emmanuel is given stuff to do but isn't much. Michelle Rodriguez and Charlize Theron needed to be given more to do. Helen Mirren is fun.

Look, there's a lot going on. 

TV review - "Playhouse 90 - For Whom the Bell Tolls" (1958) ***

 Hemingway's novel adapts quite well to the small screen because you can focus on relationships and use close ups - Jason Robards and Maria Schell (the earth moves! quite frank!), Maureen Stapleton and Eli Wallach, Stapleton and Roberts, Wallach and Robarts.

Very serious in that style. Intense.  

Movie review - "Ronin" (1997) ***1/2

 Not a huge hit but much admired - slick script, John Frankenheimer in fine form, a genuine "look", European action movie, with some stars in excellent form: Robert de Niro before these parts became caricatures, Nathsha McEllrone so beautiful and perfect for the world, Jean Reno, Sean Bean. Jonathan Pryce maybe not a scary villain.

I enjoy these cramped European action movies. 

Movie review - "Wrong is Right" (1982) **1/2

 Charles McGarry was a spy novelist in the 1970s - this is one of his books which got a satirical treatment from Richard Brooks, not known as king of comedy but full of outrage and spirit.

Connery is a swashbuckling journalist who  gets involved in some terrorists who steal nukes. The guts of the story is a procedural - who killed Katherine Ross - but the movie is mostly done in a Strangelove style that doesn't quite work. Brooks displayed little flair for comedy in his career. 

Connery commits - it's the sort of movie you can imagine he enjoyed making because it's so random. George Grizzard is the president, Leslie Nielsen a nutbag politician, Robert Conrad a nutbag general, John Saxon a nutbag CIA op, Hardy Kruger an arms seller, Rosalind Cash the vice president, Jennifer Jason Leigh as a girl in a reality TV show who wants to kill her parents.

The movie takes a big swing though. Not dumb. Would've been better played straight I think though.

TV review - "Playhouse 90 The Last Tycoon" (1957) ***1/2

 F Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished novel at one stage meant for Humphrey Bogart and Bacall but he died so they wound up with Jack Palance and Lee Remick. Palance's performance is fascinating - intense, empathetic, strong.

Support cast is amazing - Peter Lorre as a burnt out director, Keenan Wynn is an exec, achingly pretty Lee Remick is a nubile thing hot for Palance (shock).

Story ambles and kind of ends - I think he dies at the end. But then the novel was unfinished. Has that late 50s TV seriousness. 

Movie review - "Forbidden World" (1982) **1/2 (re-watching)

 Enjoyable trashy Alien knock off with Jesse Vint as a stud pilot, June Chadwick hamming it up perfectly, Dawn Dunlap having a nude sauna which I'm assuming was written by Jim Wynorski, decent pacing and violence, production values high.