Category: Movies

The Movie Journal: May 2026

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I watched 47 movies in May. 38 of them were new to me. 20 of them were made before I was born. The theme for the month was Mysteries in May but I dropped that pretty quick.

Early in the month I went to make a post – I think a review of some mystery I’d just watched. It took me a long while to write it. The right words wouldn’t come. I came to it in fits and starts. I’d write a paragraph and then go do something else. Took me a couple of days to get it all down, and even then it wasn’t quite right. Then I lost it. I accidentally deleted the post, and it was gone.

That was disheartening. The post itself wasn’t that important. It wasn’t for Cinema Sentries or anything. Just a silly review on a silly site. But it was mine, and it was lost. I’m pretty perpetually on that edge, teetering between chucking this site into the sea or keeping it up because it’s fun, and that kind of threw me overboard for a bit.

Right around that time I saw the news that Google was completely changing how they do search by relying almost entirely on AI and no longer linking to sites like they’ve always done. That would kill what little search traffic I get.

I stopped writing for a bit and decided to watch whatever I wanted to watch without concern over this month’s theme. Obviously, I decided to keep writing.I’m not sure what I’d do with myself without this blog, but the theme never came back. I might be done with themes. At least until October rolls around again. I like the idea of themes, but they are difficult to keep up with.

Anyway, that’s why I didn’t watch a lot of mysteries.

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In the most watched actors race, Spencer Tracy bumps up into second place with six films watched. Marcel Bozzufi, Robert Ryan, and Lino Ventura enter into the list, all tied for fourth place alongside Elisabeth Sladen, Mads Mikkelsen, and Lalla Ward. Lino and Marcel both come from my recent reviews of some French thrillers.  I hope to see Lino some more this year as he’s become one of my favorites.

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In the most watched directors category, Raoul Walsh, John Sturges, and Jacques Tourneur all launched themselves into second place with three films each. Tourneur has three films on the Criterion Channel as part of their director’s series, and I jumped right into those.

Here’s the entire list. What did you watch last month?

Vertigo For A Killer (1970) ***1/2
I Love Boosters (2026) ****
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) ****
The Big Hit (1998) **
Cleopatra Jones (1973) ***1/2
McQ (1974) ***1/2
Berlin Express (1948) ***1/2
Whistle (2025) **1/2
Birds of Prey (1968) ****
Dark Shadows (1944) **1/2
Follow Me Quietly (1949) ***1/2
House of Strangers (1949) ***
The Blue Lamp (1950) ***1/2
When Worlds Collide (1951) ***1/2
Bad Boys (1995) ***
Doctor Who: Mawdryn Undead (1983) ****
God’s Pocket (2014) ***
The Marseille Contract (1974) ***1/2
Bewitched (1981) **
Best Wishes to All (2023) ***
The Angry River (1971) ****
Kill Me Again (1989) ****
Desk Set (1957) ****
Spaceballs (1987) ***
The Sheep Detectives (2026) ***1/2
Civil War (2024) ****
Homicide (1991) ****
Doctor Who: Enlightenment (1983) ****
The Crazies (1973) ***1/2
They Will Kill You (2026) ****
The Punisher: One Last Kill (2026) ***
Rider on the Rain (1970) ****
Anaconda (1997) ***
Deep Blue Sea (1999) ***
Doctor Who: The Brain of Morbius (1976) ****
Bend of the River (1952) ****
Born to Kill (1947) ***
Twins of Evil (1971) ***1/2
Eye of the Devil (1966) ***
Freakscene: The Story of Dinosaur Jr. (2021) ***
Clerks (1994) **
Persuasion (1995) ****
Point Break (1991) ****
Against All Odds (1984) ***
Out of the Past (1947) ****1/2
Drop (2025) ***1/2
Down River (2025) **1/2

We Bury the Dead (2025)

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I love me a good zombie movie. We Bury the Dead is a very good, if not particularly original, zombie movie. Daisy Ridley stars as a woman who goes to Australia, where some kind of massive bioweapon was released, killing almost everyone but leaving a few in a zombie-like state. She’s there to help with the cleanup but also to find her husband, who she hopes is still alive (even if he is a zombie). It is a pretty slow-moving film, but I dug it. You can read my full review at Cinema Sentries.

The Thief of Bagdad (1924)

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I feel like every time I talk about silent films, I note that I still struggle with watching them. I guess it is an evergreen statement because I keep watching them, and I keep having a difficult time with them. The Thief of Bagdad is a classic filled with stunning visuals and a spectacle-filled story. But I’d be lying if I didn’t have to keep focusing my attention on it because my mind kept wandering off. Still, it is a great movie, and you can read my review here.

Death Ship (1980)

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Death Ship is one of those movies that kept showing up in my feeds. Every time I went looking for a horror movie to watch, there it was. It looked fun, but I kept putting it off. Then the Blu-ray landed in my lap, and here we are. It isn’t a particularly good movie, and for a movie about Nazi ghosts on a death ship, it is rather dull for its first half, but things do pick up, and it becomes pretty fun in its back half. And it has George Kennedy in it, and that’s never a bad thing. You can read my full review over at Cinema Sentries.

Kill Me Again (1989)

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Kill Me Again is an overlooked neo-noir gem. Val Kilmer stars as a down-on-his-luck private eye (is there any other kind?) who is hired by a sexy femme fatale (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer) to kill her.  Well, not really kill her, but make it look like somebody did and thus keep her abusive boyfriend from looking for her. 

Naturally, she is lying, and things get complicated in lots of interesting ways. It is by no means a perfect film, but it is a very good one, and it is nice to see it on Blu-ray. You can read my full review here.

The Angry River (1971)

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I talk a lot about Shaw Brothers Studio in these pages, but there was another Hong Kong studio that was knocking out kung fu movies around the same time – Golden Harvest. I tend to think of them as second-rate to Shaw Brothers, and that isn’t really fair. They made some good movies, and Shaw Brothers made some atrocious ones.  I’ve just seen more Shaw Brothers films so I think that makes me lean more towards them.

The Angry River was Golden Harvest’ very first film, and it’s a good one. It is also the debut film of Angela Mao, who would become a big deal in Hong Kong cinema. 88 Films just released it on Blu-ray, and you can read my review at Cinema Sentries.

Malfeasance: Four Films By Yves Boisset

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I love discovering new movies, new actors, and new directors. There is something wonderful about watching a film and finding a new artist to follow. Back in April I got a set of films from French director Yves Boisset. I’d never heard of him, but I dove into the films and really liked him. Now I’ll be seeking him out. That’s kind of awesome. You can read my review of the set at Cinema Sentries.

Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins…(1985)

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I’m fascinated with franchises that never really took off. Like a movie gets made, and the studio expects there will be sequels and spin-offs, but the first film bombs, and so nothing comes of it. Remo Williams is titled The Adventure Begins…but it also ended there because the film bombed and there wasn’t a sequel.

That’s too bad, too, because this film is a lot of fun. Fred Ward stars as Remo Williams, who actually isn’t Remo Williams but a NYC police officer who gets into a scrape and has his face and name changed to Remo Williams to help out a super secret government agency. He’s like James Bond but dumber and less cool.  Which pretty much sums up the film.  You can read my full review at Cinema Sentries.

Confessions of a Police Captain (1971)

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Radiance Films continues to put out fantastic sets of really good, and rather obscure films from all over the universe. I seem to be watching a lot of their releases of 1970s-era Italian films, and I’m loving it.

Confessions of a Police Captain is a gritty tale of murder, corruption, and a man who wants to change things.  Martin Balsam is a corrupt cop who does something bad, and Franco Nero is the prosecutor trying to make things right. It is a great film and this is a great release from Radiance.  You can read my full review at Cinema Sentries.