Riddick (2013)

As I noted after watching The Chronicles of Riddick, I never did get around to watching the sequels to Pitch Black. Number threes have not been doing me any favours lately, but I had a little higher hope for this one, given it was still in the hands of creator David Twohy, and the second […]

極道黒社会 (Gokudô kuroshakai,lit. Yakuza Black Society) [Rainy Dog] (1997)

The first film in Miike’s “Black Society Trilogy”, which I understood to be thematically linked, and I as prepared for (in some way) conceptually by the Dead or Alive trilogy, which reused actors and sort-of reused concepts and themes throughout. Sometimes. In any case, I expected this would not at all be a continuation of […]

RED 2 (2013)

This may well be the least looked-forward-to of the sequels I was going to watch this month. I came for RED because I think my mom asked about it years ago, and I was just curious about an Ellis-based movie. I could tell the film had deviated significantly, so a sequel to it? Well: the […]

RED (2010)

I’ve got more than enough first-in-franchise (or series, or whatever) movies to get me through the month, but at least a few feel weirder to me than others. Certainly, any I’ve never seen before (and this is one) fall into this space, given I don’t know what to expect—not exactly what to expect, anyway. Frank […]

Rituals (1977)

How did I pick this one up? Hell if I remember. Maybe (probably?) it was during a sale at Ronin Flix I caught wind of it, but I really don’t know for certain. I poked Leonard Maltin afterward (despite my awareness that he’s largely pointless to consult for horror post-1969 or so, as he was […]

Rio Bravo (1959)

The movie so good they made it… a bunch of times, really. Allegedly made by Hawks as an answer to High Noon and 3:10 to Yuma, it was not only remade (in some sense) by John Carpenter with Assault on Precinct 13 (which was, itself, remade), but by Hawks himself in Rio Lobo and El […]

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

I last saw this film something like 20 years ago, in high school. It was at the home of a crush, part of a circle of high school theatre folks (including myself, that is), and with a number who were all about the film, its cult following, and the usual talk-back and such. Even with […]

Rescue Dawn (2006)

Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) is a German-born United States Navy pilot, on his first deployment to Laos in 1966, when he’s shot down on his first combat mission. While he survives the crash, he’s captured by local villagers sympathetic to his enemies. He’s offered the chance to leave if he signs a document denouncing the […]

Les rivières pourpres [The Crimson Rivers] (2000)

Why did I buy this movie on DVD 13 years ago? Well, put simply: because I’d bought the sequel a few months earlier. I never did get around to watching it, and discovered the only Blu-ray release were outside North America. This often gets awkward with non-English language films: no subtitles available being a common […]

Rollerball (1975)

I was never certain whether Rollerball was an exploitation movie or an interesting science fiction movie—not that I had seen it, but in understanding whether I wanted to. I picked up a DVD copy from Big Lots some years ago, but managed to snag a Twilight Time limited Blu-ray a while back, only to just […]