Red-Barracuda

The discover of a strange giant skull in a Roman archaeological site, leads a group of folks to an immortal giant worm and its snake woman keeper. This British horror-comedy is the work of Ken Russell, a director who could never be accused of being subtle. In this one he adapts Dracula author Bram Stoker's final novel, which by all accounts is very bad indeed. Well, the good news is that its cinematic equivalent is tons of fun.

Russell brings his pleasing over-the-top aesthetic to the table once again. To that end we have psychedelic visions of worm-based Roman decadence and violence, sacrilegious imagery, strange dreams on a jet airliner and an extremely seductive and scantily clad villainess. The latter is played to perfection by Amanda Donohoe, who proves to be the trump card of the entire enterprise. Kitted out in a selection of great outfits, she is the sinister Lady Sylvia Marsh to perfection, with an intoxicating combination of sexiness, humour and sass, all with a delightful English upper-class accent. She plays the clothing-averse vampiresque snake woman who at one point hilariously picks up a hitchhiking boy scout, which needless to say, ends in tears. Acting-wise there are several others putting in good work, such as Hugh Grant, Dynasy's Catherine Oxenberg and future Dr Who Peter Capaldi but there's no question that Donohoe is most certainly the star attraction here.

Russell, of course, brings a lot to the table too and seems mostly in his element when the visuals are at their most provocative and flamboyant. The airplane sequence is a hoot and the Roman flashbacks are full-on, even if the use of green-screen in these is, shall we say, a bit wonky! The film as a whole, definitely doesn't take itself very seriously but it has managed to navigate the tricky path of integrating humour, horror and eroticism very well together. Altogether, there's really quite a lot to like here.

Directed by Milos Forman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) this is a biopic which charts the rise of Hustler Magazine owner Larry Flynt and his subsequent problems with the law. There's some fine acting in this one, with Woody Harrelson doing good work as the title character and maybe even better Courtney Love putting in a pretty fearless performance as his loose-cannon wife Althea Leisure; Larry Flynt himself appears in a cameo as a judge.

As a biopic, there is extremely little about his pre-porn life, which isn't necessarily a bad thing really as it allows us to just cut to the chase and get on with it. For the first half, it's a pretty involving movie which details Flynt's rise to prominence culminating with the assassination attempt on his life. Things do fall a bit flatter in the second half, mainly due to the film basically becoming a courtroom drama, which is not exactly one of the most dynamic genres of cinema. Still, as a whole, this is a good film which showcases a guy who had a somewhat colourful life.

I remember when this one came out. It wasn't long after the phenomenon that was Trainspotting and so, it seemed like an adaption of another Irvine Welsh book would surely be another surefire winner. As it turned out, that wasn't the case at all and Acid House did surprisingly low key business. It did seem to be a bit of a shame, as despite it not exactly being a stellar screen adaption of Welsh's short story collection, it was still kind of a fun movie to watch, with stories about a jakey God turning a waster into a fly, a psychotic neighbour and soul transferral between a newborn baby and a Hibs Casual. Compared to Trainspotting, the accents were definitely harder, the dialogue more authentically regional and there is a lot of battered and rundown locations from various actual parts of Edinburgh. So, I guess it was maybe a bit of a harder sell in some ways - where Trainspotting presented its story with a lot of cinematic verve, with Acid House we are proper wallowing in the scum quite a bit of the run-time.

The Acid House book was something regularly laugh-a-minute stuff and that certainly hasn't translated so well into the film. There is certainly has lashings of black humour but its counterbalanced by an overall grimness, which works against the humour somewhat. The stories chosen were for the most part sensible, with Granton Star Cause and The Acid House being obvious choices for cinematic treatment, A Soft Touch on the other hand seemed a bit of a misguided selection - its acted well and it relatively faithful to the book but its depressing nature just jars alongside the fantastic reality shenanigans of the other two. Overall, this is a film which is simultaneously a good watch and a very unpleasant watch, with the general grottiness being ramped up to almost comedically awful levels. The characters, for the most part, are genuinely appalling too. Things are moderated somewhat, however, by some surreal touches and a pretty effective soundtrack. Its sure to be a film that many will thoroughly dislike and it is often quite a frustrating adaption of a book full of possibilities but, at the end of the day, it still makes for an entertaining watch, even if it might make you feel a bit sick from time to time.