A graduate of Asian Cultural Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland; wrote his MA thesis on Yoshishige Yoshida's body of work. His favourite directors include Melville, Kobayashi, Antonioni, Bresson, Leone. More of a cinematic scavenger than a vertiable cineaste. A bit of a film omnivore, though predominantly interested in the movies made in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. He is known on the SWDb as Mickey13.
Beyond the Rising Moon aka Outerworld (1987) – Director: Philip J. Cook – 8/10 (excellent)Whoever was responsible for putting this thing together must truly dig the genre, as this has to be one of the nerdiest sci-fi outings I have ever come across as well as a true work of love, […]
Deathline aka Redline (1997) – Director: Tibor Takács – 4/10 (passable/mediocre)Unique as its locations and grimy interiors prove, there is not much else to recommend about the movie, which fails to satisfy in terms of technical execution, characterization and the subject matter; one could uncontroversially call it a dead-on standard […]
The Banker (1989) – Director: William Webb – 3/10 (very mediocre/bad)The work constitutes a confused thriller significantly hampered by its stillborn attempt to encompass and detail too high a number of subplots and topics within its modest scope: the narrative essentially trifurcates in portraying routine police work, killer’s activities and […]
Shadowzone (1990) – Director: J.S. Cardone – 3/10 (very mediocre/bad) Appealing as it may seem at a glance, the sci-fi outing simply proves too impaired by its technical defects and poor production values all around. These deficiencies manifest themselves most painfully in its sordid, tawdry sets certain parts of which […]
Midnight Killer (1986) (orig. Morirai a mezzanotte) – Director: Lamberto Bava – 6/10 (good)One could argue Midnight Killer essentially constitutes a budget version of Dario Argento’s Tenebre: though it is nowhere as visually sophisticated as the original, most of its elements ultimately coalesce into a perfectly serviceable and adequate whole. […]
Screamers (1995)] / Director: Christian Duguay – 7/10 (very good) – While it is kind of hard to deny that some of the film’s content feels rather cheesy, especially towards the end and in the course of its denouement, most of that is pretty much negated by the fairly sturdy […]
Deep Space (1988) – Director: Fred Olen Ray – 2/10 (very bad)This is basically a low-budgeted rip-off of The Thing (1982), The Blob (1988) and Alien (1979), but without any finesse or sophistication exhibited by these classics. From the very get-go, the motion picture bears all the hallmarks of cheap […]
Shocking Dark (1989) (orig. Terminator 2) – Director: Bruno Mattei – 1/10 (atrocious)The feature would have come out way more agreeable had it not set out to unabashedly copy Aliens and The Terminator in the first place, paying subtle homage to Cameron’s films instead; the flick goes so far as […]
The Witches Mountain (1973) (orig. El monte de las brujas) – Director: Raúl Artigot – 3/10 (very mediocre/bad)Though the work apparently undertakes to set up the right mood by introducing multiple longueurs and by applying certain ellyptical gambits, evidently essaying to emphasize the supernatural nature of its tale, the said […]
Danger Route (1967) – Director: Seth Holt – 6/10 (good)The motion picture represents more of a John Le Carre style spy thriller, eschewing the jubilant, playful disposition of the James Bond rip-offs of the era and thereby, opting for the more cynical approach instead. The film is executed in a […]