Boyhood (2014)

It's the little things mushed together that make a life. The big things just frame it.

Original letterboxd review

The Survivalist (1987)

The Survivalist: An ode to gun worship and paranoia in a world gone mad.

"The only difference between Vincent and me is he's a high-minded guy. He can afford high ideals and I'm a country boy who can't. I can't even afford reality, and reality's shit!"

There are so many things to love about this film:

• The way the US turns into a lawless country full of murder, mayhem and chaos after a small suitcase nuke is detonated in the arse-end of Siberia. Why?
• How.. slowly... can... the... Presidential... Spokesman... speak?
• The National Guardsman (Marjoe Gortner) in charge of the "sector" is allowed to ride around on a chopped hog. A while later we discover that the National Guard are a bike gang who ride chopped hogs and dirt bikes!
• The hero (Steve Railsback) is so wee and little compared to the testosterone injected walnut sacks normally in films from this period.
• The police hide and do nothing while the city burns.
• Cliff De Young - one of those faces you immediately recognise and say "What do I know him from?"
• Sandra Lea is absolutely awful as Railsback's wife. Really, really bad.
• Inappropriate and ill fitting music.
• Seems to be based on The Survivalist books by Jerry Ahern I read when I was a kid. They just changed the hero's name and he doesn't wear mirror shades.
• Marjoe Gortner's hair.
• Marjoe Gortner is awesome!
• What to do if you ever feel threatened by bikers riding too close: drive, on purpose, over a conveniently placed dirt ramp, roll your truck, then burn to death as it explodes for no reason.
• Why are dozens of men and a helicopter tasked to find Steve Railsback?
• The doctor's hissy fit when he tries to go his own way.
• Cars explode for no reason.

One of my favourite scenes is at 1:14:30. I can't say anything else without giving the whole plot away, but... how the fuck do you think he's going to react you morons! Watch it and you'll see what I mean.

The Survivor is a little slow at times but overall it's great fun with exploding cars, lots of guns, biker soldiers, a likeable cast and Marjoe fucking Gortner!

I've a link to it on my Trash on youtube list if you fancy watching it.

Original letterboxd review

Turkey Shoot (1982)

The world goes to hell in a hand basket, and then...

Malcontents in a futuristic (in the cheapest possible way) totalitarian society are sent to a detainment camp for re-education where they're beaten, whipped, humiliated and, ultimately, hunted for sport a la The Most Dangerous Game. To be honest, the hunters are so incompetent we're just waiting for them to be killed by the equally incompetent prey. While all this is going on we can play a game of spot the B grade actors: we've got Noel "Mouth Full o' Plums" Ferrier. Roger "Mad Max" Ward, Olivia "Mmmm" Hussey, Steve "Crusher" Rackman, Steve "Fucking" Railsback and loads more. A veritable who's who of Mad Max, Harlequin and Crocodile Dundee!

The acting is passable, the dialogue is okay, the effects are fine, and there lies the problem. It's not good enough to be good and not bad enough to be good. It's just sort of in the middle and that's somewhere a B movie should never be. It does have it's moments though, usually involving Alph the wolfman who has a taste for toes.

Decent Ozploitation but not cheesy or bad enough to be a great one.

David Hemmings (Blowup, Barbarella, Deep Red) was executive producer! Why?

Original letterboxd review

Heavy Metal Parking Lot (1986)

A short doc of American kids in a parking lot waiting to see Judas Priest. That's it.

The Year, 1986. the year of false metal and poodle hairdosl. Not saying Priest were hair metal - they weren't and they're not - but everyone else seemed to be. To put things in context, I was watching Public Image Limited in '86. Sure I love metal and was a huge metalhead back in the early 80s, but then the make up and hairspray came in and I looked ridiculous with a perm. So I know the period, I know the music. Will I be offended by Heavy Metal Parking Lot? Bollocks I will!

It's starts with "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" - awesome! Give me "Breaking the Law" as well and I'll walk away happy. So we got lots of bare chests, zebra-stripe shirts, pimp hats, mirror shades, bandanas, tight dresses, shit cars, and some bad, bad hair.

What I want to know is; where's the designated driver?

The first lovely couple to speak? Man: I'm Dave and I'm 20 years old. Woman: Dawn, and I'm 13. Dave then sticks his tongue down the 13 year old's throat. On camera. Next we have drug guy. What drugs are you on? "Yeah, drugs man! Everything". Right. If he was on acid, as implied, there's no way he'd that coherent. Fuck off home to mummy. Next: to a young woman, what would you do if you saw Rob Halford right now? "I'd jump his bones". Well, there's a relationship that'll never happen.

It's easy to take the piss in hindsight, but I've had my share of crappy haircuts. I've had a mullet, mohawk, indie bowl, a Ramones. I even had hair down to the bottom of my shoulder blades. I've worn lace up black jeans, I had a Snake Plisken shirt, red and black striped trousers. I had bandanas. I never had a perm though, Never. Shut up.

This is fucking Wayne's World for real. It's not up there with Decline of Western Civilisation II but it's close and, hey, dead friends do have a use, and Rob Halford has the biggest balls in metal.

Watch it here but be prepared for a shock at around 17:46.

Original letterboxd review

Starred Up (2013)

"You're getting blood on my floor, now fuck off"

Eric is a young offender "starred up" to an adult prison and eager to make his mark rather than keep his head down and do his time.

Possibly the most realistic portrayal of life in a British prison I've seen. It's brutal, shocking and, at times, very moving. Everything about the film seems "right"; the slang and the fact that it's not toned down for an international audience, the down and dirty violence, the procedures, the relationships. Filmed in sequence and in a very straight forward manner, everything seems so immediate and almost documentary like.

I guess if there is one theme to the film it is relationships, how they are built, strengthened, tested and sometimes destroyed in a hothouse environment.

If we lock people away from society in little boxes without access to forms of rehabilitation and therapy, should we be surprised when they become institutionalised and stuck in a vicious circle of violence and increased sentence length. Still it's a lot easier than trying to help.

As far as the realism is concerned, my Dad trained to be a prison officer but quit, not because of the prisoners themselves, but because he couldn't handle the way that the prisoners were treated by some of the guards. Maybe the real thing is not quite as bad as portrayed. I certainly hope not.

Original letterboxd review

Hard Boiled (1992)

From the opening scene of the rain covered, neon lit streets of the city, superimposed over Chow Yun-Fat sweating, drinking a slammer and playing clarinet in a dark jazz club, we can see that this film matches its title perfectly. This is a Hard-Boiled police story in the grand tradition of Harry Callaghan, Popeye Doyle and Frank Bullitt. Everything is black and white, the hero does what needs to be done to save the day and the brass at City Hall don't like it they can swivel. In fact Chow Yun-Fat's character, Tequila Yuen, seems to contain every cop cliché there is: matchstick chewing renegade cop, putting himself in the mind of the killer, eating around dead bodies. That's okay though because he's so damn good at it.

Six minutes in and we know we're safely in the hands of an action master as the first perfectly choreographed gun battle begins in slo-mo, with guns akimbo and bodies flying all over the place. John Woo really is a master at filming gun play and making everything seem so elegant. In his world there is a grim beauty in death.

If there's one fault with the film it's Woo's usual over-reliance on slow-motion. Enough John! Leave it for the fight scenes, we don't need it in a library!

With its synth and jazz-funk score, neon, city streets, the sea, and blue lighting, I'm surprised that Michael Mann hasn't remade this yet.

Woo!

Original letterboxd review

Locke (2014)

Ivan Locke is a man that's used to being in charge, getting things sorted. Ivan is logical, precise. Ivan is in control. Ivan plans against contingencies and he's in his own little metal world where he is king. Even a pregnancy is on a "to-do" list, and it's not even at the top of that list. Ivan pours concrete, and concrete is strong and stable. Above all though, Ivan has honour, honour that can ignore and trample people, but honour none-the-less. Ivan's control starts to slip. Ivan talks to his dead father.

Locke makes great use of widescreen to enhance the size of the interior of the car and occasional shots outside the car interrupt and control any boredom. Beautiful use of lights, reflections and depth of field keep the action centred in the car but to imply a word outside. There is some great slow and steady editing, superimposition, lighting and reflection. The whole film reminds me of driving long distances at night (I have done 24 hour stints a few times). The soundtrack is excellent, non-intrusive and reminds me of Explosions in the Sky.

There is one issue with the film and that is that Hardy's Welsh accent is a little, shall we say, "It Ain't Half Hot Mum". Why did he have to be Welsh? Why not English? At least Hardy can do that accent.

Locke poses two questions: are the sins of the father revisited in the son and, most importantly, can you exert control over a inherently chaotic system.

Original letterboxd review

The Last House on Dead End Street (1973)

A nasty, dirty, cheaply made grindhouse exploitation flick with arthouse pretensions and a hallucinatory finale in which Johnny Ramone makes snuff films by luring various beardy and hippy types to an abandoned house. There are issues with camera wobble, focus, dubbing, soundtrack hiss, stock quality, negative scratches and degradation, framing, and excessive voice-overs but this just adds to it's grimy 42nd Street feel. Get down in the gutter with Johnny and suffer baby.

Original letterboxd review

Snowpiercer (2013)

"We control the engine, we control the world. All past revolutions have failed because we couldn't take the engine"

A film about revolution, its cost and above all how we must never allow ourselves to be in the position where revolt is the only option left. Unfortunately, it seems the world is heading further in that direction with each coming day. Fight for your rights now and don't let government and corporations gradually remove or dilute them until we have only one option left. Do not accept the status quo. The workers are the engine.

Snowpiercer has some beautifully and imaginatively filmed action sequences that have just enough "shaky-cam" to add momentum, vital in this film as everything is above forward movement. The middle-eight is well placed allowing us to reflect on the frenetic first half of the film and anticipate the second.

The cast; Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell (supplying much needed, but light, comic relief that actually works for once), the beautiful Kang-ho Song, Octavia Spencer, Ah-sung Ko are all outstanding. Shit the entire cast are great. But special credit must go to Swinton who creates a sycophantic monster with echoes of Margaret Thatcher, Mary Whitehouse and Vivienne Westwood (Westwood's always been distastefully enamoured with the nobility and the rich), and if one line sums up this film it's Tilda Swinton's character crying "it's not me!". It's never me. It's never my fault. Someone else made me do it.

SNowpiercer also carries sub-themes of innocence and how we must protect it from corruption, the use of narcotics and religion in the subjugation of the masses, and how hate, power and revenge can blind and corrupt.

A great film that I know I'll come back to time and time again.

As a parting note, Oxfam recently reported that the wealthiest one per cent possesses about half of the world’s wealth. It looks like we're already on the train.

Original letterboxd review

Starcrash (1978)

Luigi Cozzi brings us a Star Wars “inspired” sci-fi movie. Notice the word "cheap" wasn't in that sentence. One of the many weird things about Star Crash is how Cozzi spent $4 million on this film and still managed to make such a mess of it. Star Wars itself only cost $11 million and Under the Skin was recently filmed for a meagre $8 million.

The incredibly badly delivered opening dialogue sets our expectations right at the start. From the spaceships made from cardboard boxes and toilet rolls to the terrible editing that destroys whatever plot there was. Starcrash is a veritable galaxy of inept, cheesy goodness. And the dialogue. Oh, the dialogue: "Scan it with our computer waves", "Imperial Battleship, halt the flow of time!", "Destroy the floating spaceship approaching us".

Here’s some highlights:

• Joe Spinell channelling Ming the Merciless.
• Stella Star? really?
• During the prison scene everyone, except Ms Star, wears brown rags. Stella meanwhile sports a lovely pleather bikini.
• Akton, the navigator, looks like Barry Manilow with a bubble perm.
• What the hell was Christopher Plummer thinking?
• This film has some of the worst stop-motion animation I've ever seen.
• TV kung-fu!

Luigi Cozzi really was the master of cheap-ass remakes of big budget blockbusters (see my review of Contamination), and you either love him or loathe him. Personally, I think the world would be a much sadder place without his great big steaming piles of crap.

Intrepid space warriors can watch it here.

Original letterboxd review

The Last Stand (2013)

Tonight I wanted dumb. Something nice and simple with big guns. Tonight I watched The Last Stand. It's big, stupid, has holes you could drive a truck through. More importantly it has big guns and Arnie going back to basics. Obviously based on Rio Bravo, The Last Stand was way more fun than I anticipated and laugh out loud funny in several places. After 45 years in the business you'd think that Schwarzenegger would have learned at the the rudiments of acting, but no he still staggers through his lines like a drunken sumo wrestler, and I'm okay with that, as long as he delivers movies like this one. Did I mention the big guns?

"My honour is not for sale", indeed!

Original letterboxd review

Savage Sisters (1974)

A-Team crossed with Charlies Angels, and Wanda the Wicked Warden with a pop funk soundtrack straight out of Quincy. You know the score.

Starts like it's based on the Cuban revolution what with the revolutionary leader being named Ernesto (Work it out you t-shirt wearing hipsters!) and the government forces using M16s and receiving money from the US, which is way too serious - what the fuck's going on? Then we're into familiar exploitation territory when our heroines are locked up in a prison camp with female guards. Whew! What follows includes some light and hilarious S&M, a John Wayne Bobbitt moment, TV style Karate, sexploitation, casual racism, great dialogue and some really funny scenes.

There are several "what the fuck!" moments that had me in stitches and I loved Vic Diaz as One-Eye and, of course, Sid Haig hamming it up as Malavasi.

Thanks for the recommendation James.

Watch it here

Original letterboxd review

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

A film whose reputation is built on two things. One: the short and completely batshit crazy performance by Desiree Gould as Aunt Martha. Two: the final twist ending. Does the film offer more than just these two scenes?

Unusually Camp Arawak really does look like I imagine an American summer camp to look like. For one, unlike many of the other camp slashers, it's full of kids, and I mean kids, not twelve 20 somethings acting like 16 year-olds.

The kills are telegraphed in advance so we know what's going to happen and anticipate the action. They are however efficient, imaginative and of high quality.

Some of the campiest (excuse the pun) camp outfits ever seen in a slasher. We've got muscle shirts, crop-tops, tight satin shorts, denim cut-offs, fishnet t-shirts. The whole film is is chock full of homoerotic scenes and the sexual politics, although incredibly fucked up in one particular scene, can also be quite interesting (macho males dressing and acting like the very people they hate and deride). There's also some great proto-mullets.

Worst thing: the open mouthed madness at the end. It's hard to discuss this without a MAJOR spoiler but if they'd shown a little vulnerability instead of insanity a huge problem that a lot of people have with the film would have been fixed.

So is the film better than just the two things? Most definitely yes. It's well paced, the acting is okay for the most part, the killings are superb. Sleepaway Camp is a great addition to the summer camp slasher film sub-genre.

Best thing: Felicia Rose's stare, She really is terrific and I can see why she's so popular at horror conventions.

Original letterboxd review

Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966)

Wikipedia reports that Manos is "widely recognized to be one of the worst films ever made". It's also one of the most wonderfully trashy films ever made.

Every scene and every cut is four times longer than it should be to fill time. Everything, and I mean everything is fucked in this film; the editing, framing, shot choice, acting, set decoration, dialogue, film stock, colour, sound, structure, everything except the mighty Torgo and the pretty good post-bop jazz score is fucked. And then there's the slapping. What the hell is it with the slapping. Everyone is slapping everyone else. It's a slapfest! I loved it.

Favourite moment: Torgo's death by slapping and rubbing.

Watch it here

Original letterboxd review

Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977)

Why is there an empty shed with fucking great big bed in it? Why is there a man in a box behind an Aubrey Beardsley painting? Why did the couple walk to the arse-end of nowhere with a candle in their pocket? Why did the food dissolve into a bath of fizzy coke? Why does a bed snore? Why is the blond girl pulling a Jan Brady? Why is there a girl lying in a coffin with a gold book in her hands? What is that continuous oscilloscope noise? Why does Jan Brady frighten the bed? Why is the bed filled with piss and blood? Why a bed getting turned on by a half-dressed Jan Brady? Why did Jan's mirror break for no reason? Why does Jan get served bugs in her dream? Why is Jan bleeding from her toes? Why is Serrano's Piss Christ in this film? Why do red flowers appear outside the shed and why is there a skull in the roots? Why does the bed now have a stomach upset? Why, if you bring a small picnic do you have a huge jar of gherkins? Why is there an old woman reading about "Oral Lesbians"? What does the Tropic of Cancer have to do with anything? Why did they try to shoot the bed? Why are they reading a blank book? Will that woman ever stop groaning? Why does the other woman not care that her friend was just eaten by a fucking bed? Why is there an eyeball rolling down the bed? Why is there a naked woman and a man with no hands in a magical funeral pyre? And finally, why is a fucking piece of furniture eating people?

All these questions and more will be answered by watching Death Bed: The Bed that Eats!

A well made piece of surreal horror exotica. I wish Jean Rollin could have made films this good.

Thanks to Daria for suggesting this and fucking with my Ch'i. Outstanding!

Watch it here

Original letterboxd review

The Prophecy (1995)

Any film with Elias Koteas in it has to be worth watching, and this also contains the king of psychopathy Christopher Walken!

I honestly can't remember watching this before, which is odd as it's typical of the films I would rent on VHS in the mid-nineties.

The premise is that the Archangel Gabriel, leader of a faction of breakaway angels, comes to earth hunting for the soul of an evil man so that he can win a heavenly war that will forever stop humans from reaching salvation. Only one man can stop him, an ex-novitiate cop who has lost his faith.

Okay, so the first thing we notice is that angels have long hair, sniff and lick the dead, and like perching on things. A bit like hippie cats; and just like cats they enjoy tormenting their prey, tearing at them and throwing them around before, finally, destroying them.

There are some rather heavy-handed parallels with racism. Gabriel refering to humans as monkeys. Thinking that his government (god), is placing them above his kind. Looking even deeper this could be a metaphor for the battle between the civil rights movement in America and the white power groups. Going further back, the Union and Confederate sides in the American Civil War. On the other hand it could just be a rather fun horror movie with a religious theme.

One interesting idea; can an angel (Gabriel) from one religion have dominion over a follower (Mary and her family) of another? If not then surely "god" is not omnipotent? If so then there can be no other god.

Some decent practical effects are used sparingly to highlight rather than dominate the story.

If you like your horror films to be subtle and with a large dash of religion, metaphor and allegory, this'll be right up your street.

So, what have we learned? Angels are nasty, psychotic, petty, pieces of shit. Viggo tries to out-crazy Walken and nearly succeeds. Elias Koteas is still one of the coolest men to walk the earth.

Original letterboxd review

World War Z (2013)

I've not gone out of my way to watch World War Z. I like my zombie films with blood, guts and a little humour on the side. I don't want romantic zombie movies. I don't want 15 cert zombie movies. I don't want A-list actor zombie movies. I want my zombie movies from Italy or Pennsylvania. And I want brains! But wait a minute, this is the "unrated" version! Woo hoo!

The film starts with the beautiful and happy Pitt family sitting down to a peaceful breakfast. Hey, you do need a full stomach if the dead are about the walk the earth.

A quick question. Does your average American eat pancakes for breakfast? This is something I've always wanted to know. I'd assume that most people would just throw down a bowl of cereal and a coffee then run out the door. So, I guess the Pitt family's pre-infestation breakfast of pancakes is cinematic shorthand for "Hey, this is your average, loving, post-nuclear, terrorist aware, American family"? Honestly, I'm really not taking the piss out our American cousins; I really am curious. I just have a glass of grapefruit juice. I used to have a cup of coffee. Instant. I love a cup of freshly ground coffee, but found that it played havoc with my, shall we say "internal workings" that early in the morning. Oh and I mix a little water with the grapefruit juice so I goes down a little easier as sometimes it can be a little thick. Definitely no pancakes. Who has the time? I'd have to get up at least 30 minutes earlier, get everyone else up - and I think they'd complain about getting up at 5:45am - just for pancakes and bacon. I think they'd kill me. Which brings us to bacon. Over here we mostly eat smoked, back bacon (I think our Canadian brothers and sisters eat the same), but the US family seems to eat, what we call "streaky" bacon. Less meat, more fat. Is it difficult to get decent back bacon in the States or do people really prefer the taste of streaky? Well, I suppose you can fit more in the pan as it's narrower than back bacon. Notice I say "narrower", this is to differentiate between the width of the bacon slice and the thickness. Thickness is probably the most important element to a good slice of bacon. I like to get ours from the local butcher. It's dry smoke cured, thick cut back bacon. Sometimes we get an end cut which is as thick as a piece of gammon steak. Gorgeous! Bacon, however, we eat in the evening, if I fancy a rest from cooking a fancy meal. Bacon, sausages (from the same butcher), chips or sometimes hasselback potatoes, tomatoes and brown (never tomato) sauce. This is known as a "Full English Breakfast", and yes, we have it for dinner. So, Our family all sit down together, in the evening, for a full cooked breakfast. The exact opposite from the Pitt family. Does that make us weird? Would we fail a zombie apocalypse because we eat our bacon in the evening and just a cup of grapefruit juice in the morning. Is this why Pitt succeeds? He has a belly full of pancakes and bacon to give him the fuel to fight the zombie horde! Anyway, the question still stands. Do Americans really eat bacon and pancakes together for breakfast?

To tell you the truth, I wrote the above before watching the film, assuming it would be crap. Then I could say "whatever you think of the review at least it's more interesting then the movie". Well, I was wrong. It's not your classic zombie movie however. It's an overly long, coincidence packed, flashy disaster movie with zombies in it and it's really good fun.

Fun coincidence(?) to look out for: Peter Capaldi plays a doctor at a WHO facility near Cardiff!

Original letterboxd review

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

I was a big Tom Clancy fan until he wrote that awful, hate filled, bag of shit, Teeth of the Tiger, which I loathed so much I actually put it in the recycling bin rather than let anyone else read it. The previous Jack Ryan films were a bit of a mixed bag but were ok, not great but ok. So now we have a reboot, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. The title reminds me of one of those teen spy films there was a spate of a few years back: Stormbreaker, Agent Cody Banks, you get the idea.

We start off with Ryan's back story, which is accurate and told pretty well which then shifts into the main storyline which seems to be based loosely on the book Debt of Honor, which I really enjoyed. So far, so good. But what could have been a decent espionage thriller turns into your basic heist movie when they totally ignore the interesting parts of the narrative and instead focus on breaking & entering, James Bond gadgets, car chases and shoot-outs. The rest is crammed into the last twenty minutes in such a complete mess of exposition that we have no idea what the fuck is going on. But that doesn't matter 'cause Ryan's now in hot pursuit on a fucking motorbike.

Instead of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy we get Die Hard with a history degree. Jack Ryan was a desk jockey not Jason fucking Bourne! I'm really fucking annoyed right now.

Kenneth Branagh directed this? Really?

Original letterboxd review

Eye Contact (2014)

The beauty and possible danger of the night. We start to feel worried for the subject. The paranoia. The loneliness. Shifts into something more sinister... or is it? I've walked home at night behind a woman and can imagine how they must feel with a strange man behind them, seemingly dogging their foot steps. But then eye contact is made and we're back to stalking territory again. Is it infatuation? Does it matter? Then we feel a palpable sense of dread as the stalking continues. The streets are narrower, poorly lit. The pace increases and the stalking becomes a terrifying chase.

For once out of focus shaky cam works. I really enjoyed this one. Total atmospheric immersion. Well done Eli!

Original letterboxd review

Hide and Go Seek (2014)

Great camera work and some really nice framing. Eli, did you know a black dog is a portent of doom or death? Sinister undertones in such a beautiful place. Not sure about the masks. Do they symbolise some sort of afterlife? Did the girls die in the woods? Did the second die searching for the first? Again, a beautifully shot, atmospheric short that suggests themes without trying to cram a plot into such a short time span.

Original letterboxd review

Reflections (2014)

This short has a little more narrative than Eli's usual shorts. There's a really nice close tracking shot at the beginning, following the woman through the field. I thought I'd finish with how the film made me feel throughout. Happiness. Fun. Carefree. Love. Fade into. Tension. Fear. Fade into. Nostalgia. Ritual washing. Mental instability.

Original letterboxd review

Pixels (2015)

A young girls decent into drug abuse after seeking help from that font of all knowledge, the internet. As the girl finds out, the drugs on't work, they just make it worse. Great use of Google (other search engines are available) to give narrative. A short film about the dangers of relying on armchair doctors and psychiatrists via the internet rather than the real people who care about you. Parents take note, talk with your kids every now and then. Great work Eli.

Original letterboxd review

The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)

Maybe not one of the top drawer Ealing comedies but it's very close. The simple plot involves a bank clerk joining two criminals and a neighbour in stealing a large amount of gold bullion and then smuggling the gold to France, for laundering, in the shape of Eiffel Tower souvenirs. Of course nothing goes to plan and high-jinx ensue. A very low rooftop chase in a police exhibition is one of the many highlights.

Original letterboxd review