Flavours of the Month: January 2020...

Rebooted snootchie bootchies, a murder mystery on the brink of the 20th Century, and gunplay in a shifting brutalist concrete world are just some of what's been setting the tone of my January 2020...

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Do Or Die (Andy Sidaris, 1991) Review

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“I have entrusted the power of death to others. I hope it wasn't a mistake.” The sixth entry in the twelve-strong 'L.E.T.H.A.L. Ladies' series finds two of The Agency's top women hunted in a deadly game of revenge and honour as a villainous crime lord seeks to settle the score and notch up a win for the bad guys. But can he compete against brawn, beauty, brains, and a walking stick rocket launcher?...

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Flavours of the Month: December 2019...

A trip in time to sixty-nine, the deadliest of confessions, and touring the weirder side of life are just some of what's been setting the tone of my December 2019...

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The Suspicious Death of a Minor (Sergio Martino, 1975) Blu-Ray Review

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“There's one death too many in this story.” The top two names associated with giallo cinema are that of its creator Mario Bava (Blood and Black Lace) and that of its master Dario Argento (Deep Red), but another director whose name should be closely associated with those two is Sergio Martino (The Mountain of the Cannibal God). In the first half of the 1970s, Martino, along with frequent collaborating screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi (Almost Human), produced a slew of all-time greats in the feverish onslaught of Italian murder mysteries: The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh (1971), The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (1971), All The Colours of the Dark (1972), Your Vice Is A Locked Room and Only I Have The Key (1972), and Torso (1973).

That's quite an impressive resume in itself, in careers that spanned 66 directorial efforts from Martino and 123 writing credits for Gastaldi. However, there is another gialli that was produced during their time working together, but one which has flown somewhat under the radar while the aforementioned titles have taken the lion's share of viewers' attention: 1975's The Suspicious Death of a Minor. Crafted with Martino's eye for style and Gastaldi's acerbic storytelling, it arrived at a time when the giallo (lurid tales of sex and death) was beginning to cool off and the poliziotteschi (gritty urban crime thrillers) were attracting audiences with rough 'n' tumble rogue cops tackling the sort of criminal conspiracies that were happening everyday beyond the cinema's doorstep...

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Flavours of the Month: November 2019...

Holistic investigations, comic book anti-heroes, and a trip to an alternative 1961 are just some of what's been setting the tone of my November 2019...

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