Mini-Review: Minor yet still massive Bergman film that could be categorized as his thriller (much in the same way that Vargtimmen was his horror movie). The full colored opening sequence bears a resemblance to the gialli of Bava, but the film quickly descends into his usual murk of terrible and ugly relationship forensics (this is a good thing), complete with a dream sequence and lengthy conversations consisting of things that need badly to be said, but phrased in the nastiest, most harmful way possible.

Mini-Review: Surpisingly effective adaptation remarkable for the time in which it was made in two aspects: First, one is so accustomed to the gung ho tone of the avanlanche of war films to come out of Hollywood during and after WWII that it is easy to forget that there were impassioned pacifist front liners long before the love generation. Second, AQotWF is mostly free of the leaden tendencies of most early talkies and it handles the shifts from philosophical rumination to action admirably.

Mini-Review: Imagine Reefer Madness remade by Troma and you're about halfway to fathoming the pure insanity that is Blood Freak. With a pace that would make even Ed Wood yawn and effects that would make even H.G. Lewis go "Oh, COME ON!!!", this is one of the most transcendently idiotic pictures ever made (Silent Night Deadly Night 2 notwithstanding). Watch it with someone you loathe.

Mini-Review: Manages to effectively pull off the minimalism Hill was aiming for with Driver. In a way Refns method is close to that of Melville, in that the material itself is grounded in pulpy, American gangster movies, but he gives it a uniquely European twist. Not to say that this is particularly Melvillesque. Its pacing and tension have more in common with, say, Kobayashi & Kurosawas samurai films and the westerns they helped spawn (The Great Silence, for instance). A sweet blend of brutality and beauty.

Mini-Review: If you're capable of reading this, The Last Legion will not appeal to you.