Film Reviews · Backpex

Title	Overview		Toggle columns Title Overview
The Arrival of Wang	Chinese-language interpreter Gaia is called up out of the blue by the Italian authorities with an urgent and confidential translation assignment. She is whisked away to a secret underground location and ushered into a pitch-black room where she is asked to interpret the harsh interrogation of a mysterious presence, the eponymous Mr. Wang.
The Pool	Two families go camping illegally in a forest, and set up their tents near a beautiful pond, far away from the daily hubbub. However, they soon discover that the pond contains a mysterious force, which will not allow them to leave. Rot and decay strike, and madness follows.
Yellowstone Kelly	A fur-trapper named Kelly, who once saved the life of a Sioux chief, is allowed to set his traps in Sioux territory during the late 1870s. Reluctantly he takes on a tenderfoot assistant named Anse and together they give shelter to a runaway Arapaho woman. Tensions develop when Anse falls in love with this woman and when the Sioux chief arrives with his warriors to re-claim her.
Bulldog Drummond at Bay	Bulldog Drummond goes up against foreign agents trying to steal plans for a top-secret aircraft.
An Act of War	Battling insomnia and undiagnosed PTSD, a war veteran works nights as a projectionist at a decrepit theater. While struggling to adapt to civilian life, he soon finds himself tangled in an inescapable web of seduction, addiction, and violence.
The Great McGinty	Told in flashback, Depression-era bum Dan McGinty is recruited by the city's political machine to help with vote fraud. His great aptitude for this brings rapid promotion from "the boss," who finally decides he'd be ideal as a new, nominally "reform" mayor; but this candidacy requires marriage. His in-name-only marriage to honest Catherine proves the beginning of the end for dishonest Dan...
The Sword in the Stone	Wart is a young boy who aspires to be a knight's squire. On a hunting trip he falls in on Merlin, a powerful but amnesiac wizard who has plans for him beyond mere squiredom. He starts by trying to give him an education, believing that once one has an education, one can go anywhere. Needless to say, it doesn't quite work out that way.
Into the Woods	A collection of fairy tale characters head into the woods, and soon learn that fairy tales don't end at "happily ever after." This rendition of Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning musical was recorded on the stage with an all-star Broadway cast.
Thunder Road	Jimmy Arnaud eulogizes his mother.
Love Finds Andy Hardy	A 1938 romantic comedy film which tells the story of a teenage boy who becomes entangled with three different girls all at the same time.
Bride of Chucky	Chucky hooks up with another murderous doll, the bridal gown-clad Tiffany, for a Route 66 murder spree with their unwitting hosts.
The Reckless Moment	After discovering the dead body of Bea Harper's lover, Bea's mother Lucia hides the body under the assumption that it was her daughter who killed the man.
London Boulevard	A parolee battles a gangster for the affections of a reclusive movie star.
The Adventures of the Electronic	Professor Gromov constructs a robot called Electronic, which looks exactly like Sergey Syroezhkibn, a 6-grader from one of Odessa (USSR) schools. The robot also acts a lot like a human, and its dream is to become a real man. Electronic escapes from the professor's lab and accidentally meets Sergey, his prototype. Meanwhile, a gang lead by Stump is trying to kidnap Electronic to make him steal pictures from museums. For this purpose they send their hitman Urrie.
National Lampoon's Gold Diggers	National Lampoon's Gold Diggers is a black comedy about two losers in their twenties, Calvin Menhoffer (Will Friedle) and Leonard Smallwood (Chris Owen), who are out to get the good life without working for it. The two young men try to rob two 70-year-old sisters, Betty Mundt (Renee Taylor) and Doris Mundt (Louise Lasser). The two sisters beat the two young men up, and send them to jail. The ladies drop the charges, and invite the jailbirds to their Beverly Hills mansion. Cal gets an idea that they could marry the women for their money and live the good life. Hopefully, they will only live 6-months and at most one-year. It turns out that Betty and Doris are broke, and they have come up with a plan to marry the boys, kill them, and collect the life insurance money. After several unsuccessful murder attempts on each other, they join forces to rob Betty and Doris's rich uncle

The Arrival of Wang

Chinese-language interpreter Gaia is called up out of the blue by the Italian authorities with an urgent and confidential translation assignment. She is whisked away to a secret underground location and ushered into a pitch-black room where she is asked to interpret the harsh interrogation of a mysterious presence, the eponymous Mr. Wang.

The Pool

Two families go camping illegally in a forest, and set up their tents near a beautiful pond, far away from the daily hubbub. However, they soon discover that the pond contains a mysterious force, which will not allow them to leave. Rot and decay strike, and madness follows.

Yellowstone Kelly

A fur-trapper named Kelly, who once saved the life of a Sioux chief, is allowed to set his traps in Sioux territory during the late 1870s. Reluctantly he takes on a tenderfoot assistant named Anse and together they give shelter to a runaway Arapaho woman. Tensions develop when Anse falls in love with this woman and when the Sioux chief arrives with his warriors to re-claim her.

Bulldog Drummond at Bay

Bulldog Drummond goes up against foreign agents trying to steal plans for a top-secret aircraft.

An Act of War

Battling insomnia and undiagnosed PTSD, a war veteran works nights as a projectionist at a decrepit theater. While struggling to adapt to civilian life, he soon finds himself tangled in an inescapable web of seduction, addiction, and violence.

The Great McGinty

Told in flashback, Depression-era bum Dan McGinty is recruited by the city's political machine to help with vote fraud. His great aptitude for this brings rapid promotion from "the boss," who finally decides he'd be ideal as a new, nominally "reform" mayor; but this candidacy requires marriage. His in-name-only marriage to honest Catherine proves the beginning of the end for dishonest Dan...

The Sword in the Stone

Wart is a young boy who aspires to be a knight's squire. On a hunting trip he falls in on Merlin, a powerful but amnesiac wizard who has plans for him beyond mere squiredom. He starts by trying to give him an education, believing that once one has an education, one can go anywhere. Needless to say, it doesn't quite work out that way.

Into the Woods

A collection of fairy tale characters head into the woods, and soon learn that fairy tales don't end at "happily ever after." This rendition of Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning musical was recorded on the stage with an all-star Broadway cast.

Thunder Road

Jimmy Arnaud eulogizes his mother.

Love Finds Andy Hardy

A 1938 romantic comedy film which tells the story of a teenage boy who becomes entangled with three different girls all at the same time.

Bride of Chucky

Chucky hooks up with another murderous doll, the bridal gown-clad Tiffany, for a Route 66 murder spree with their unwitting hosts.

The Reckless Moment

After discovering the dead body of Bea Harper's lover, Bea's mother Lucia hides the body under the assumption that it was her daughter who killed the man.

London Boulevard

A parolee battles a gangster for the affections of a reclusive movie star.

The Adventures of the Electronic

Professor Gromov constructs a robot called Electronic, which looks exactly like Sergey Syroezhkibn, a 6-grader from one of Odessa (USSR) schools. The robot also acts a lot like a human, and its dream is to become a real man. Electronic escapes from the professor's lab and accidentally meets Sergey, his prototype. Meanwhile, a gang lead by Stump is trying to kidnap Electronic to make him steal pictures from museums. For this purpose they send their hitman Urrie.

National Lampoon's Gold Diggers

National Lampoon's Gold Diggers is a black comedy about two losers in their twenties, Calvin Menhoffer (Will Friedle) and Leonard Smallwood (Chris Owen), who are out to get the good life without working for it. The two young men try to rob two 70-year-old sisters, Betty Mundt (Renee Taylor) and Doris Mundt (Louise Lasser). The two sisters beat the two young men up, and send them to jail. The ladies drop the charges, and invite the jailbirds to their Beverly Hills mansion. Cal gets an idea that they could marry the women for their money and live the good life. Hopefully, they will only live 6-months and at most one-year. It turns out that Betty and Doris are broke, and they have come up with a plan to marry the boys, kill them, and collect the life insurance money. After several unsuccessful murder attempts on each other, they join forces to rob Betty and Doris's rich uncle