Reviews

Les Espions

At a provincial asylum, a down-at-heel doctor agrees to shelter an anonymous patient for the US government; soon his village is swarming with international spies, all trying to discover the new inmate's identity. This minor but hugely odd 1957 effort from Henri-Georges Clouzot has none of the suspense, nor the thrills, of his incredible Wages Of Fear or Les Diaboliques, but the atmosphere is strangely compelling.

Gonga

Woad-caked, ultra-heavy rock from the West Country

Minotaur Shock – Rinse

Genteel Bristolian electronica

Erykah Badu – Worldwide Underground

R&B's hippie queen trances out

Rock City

First-time CD release for pre-Big Star band recordings

The Sonics – Psycho-Sonic

Legendary Pacific Northwesterners go ape in the garage

Madness – The Singles Box Vol 1

First dozen replica 45s from "The Prince" to "Cardiac Arrest"

Dead End

Smart, shocking B-movie thrills

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Utterly predictable slapstick-laden festive fare as Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) prepares to spend an old-fashioned non-stop domestic disaster of a Christmas with his extended family (including Randy Quaid and an extremely young Juliette Lewis). If you'd like to see Mr Chase being hit repeatedly over the head, this could be the movie for you.

Cool World

From 1992, good guy Brad Pitt and bad guy Gabriel Byrne are transported to another dimension (which just happens to be a Ralph Bakshi cartoon) where they vie for the affections of an animated version of Kim Basinger. It's Roger Rabbit without the jokes: dumb, dull, dire, and a criminal waste of money.
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