With any discussion on the best movies of Charles Bronson’s career it’s likely that many of the same titles will pop up: “Once Upon a Time in the West”, “The Magnificent Seven”, “The Great Escape”, “The Dirty Dozen”, “Death Wish”. I’m doubting that “The Stone Killer” gets mentioned much in those conversations. But what can I say, after 50 years it remains one of my favorites out of Bronson’s many crime genre forays.

“The Stone Killer” was one of six Bronson collaborations with director Michael Winner. It fell in between 1972’s “The Mechanic” and 1974’s “Death Wish”. Written for the screen by Gerald Wilson, the film is a loose adaptation of John Gardner’s 1969 novel “A Complete State of Death”. It’s one of several notably violent cop movies that came in the wake of the successful “Dirty Harry”. But this isn’t just another clone of that popular Clint Eastwood vehicle. If anything, it more closely resembles the poliziotteschi subgenre of crime movies that were popular in Italy at the time.

In Spanish Harlem, an 18-year-old is wanted for shooting and wounding a police officer during a liquor store robbery. He runs into an old apartment building as police officers gather outside. Detective Lou Torrey (Bronson) arrives and immediately goes in after him, chasing the suspect upstairs and out on a fire escape. The young man pulls a gun and Torrey shoots him dead. We’re quickly told that it’s the third teenager shot and killed by the New York Police Department in four weeks. This latest death leads to the Mayor receiving a flood of new complaints from angry citizens.

Quickly branded a “gun-happy cop” by the local media, Lou is forced to turn in his gun and badge. Frustrated with it all, he leaves New York and heads to Los Angeles where he takes an LAPD detective position offered by his old friend and new captain Les Daniels (Norman Fell). Paired with a racist partner named Mathews (Ralph Waite), Lou nabs a drug peddler named Armitage (Eddie Firestone) who’s wanted on a murder charge in New York. Lou is tasked with escorting Armitage back to New York to stand trial. But after arriving, Armitage is gunned down in the airport parking lot by a drive-by shooter.

As Lou starts investigating Armitage’s murder he finds clues pointing to it being a mob hit. Meanwhile, a New York mafia boss named Al Vescari (Martin Balsam) begins planning an ambitious serious of assassinations. His targets are fellow dons across the nation. It’s his long-awaited revenge for “The Night of Sicilian Vespers” – a mythologized mass killing of mob bosses orchestrated by Charles “Lucky” Luciano in 1931. Needless to say Don Vescari holds a grudge.

Don Vescari’s grand plan involves hiring Vietnam vets to carry out the killings rather than the using mob guys (hence the movie’s title). Lou begins connecting dots leading to a combustible third act where the mystery and police procedural elements give way to more action. Winner let’s loose with a couple of well executed set pieces that fit right in Bronson’s wheelhouse. It all leads to a fitting payoff that’s more than your predictable run-of-the-mill finish.

There are several great faces scattered throughout the movie and you can’t help but make some fun connections. Among the best is seeing John Ritter in an early role. He and Norman Fell were only a few years away from starring together in the extremely popular sitcom “Three’s Company”. And it’s a hoot seeing Ralph Waite, the righteous patriarch in the wholesome family series “The Waltons” play such a despicable louse.

But Bronson is the clear star of the show. While “The Stone Killer” doesn’t get much attention when it comes to his movies, he delivers a strong and well-rounded performance. Both Winner’s direction and Wilson’s script gives the tough-as-leather Bronson material that feeds his strengths. He doesn’t have a ton of dialogue, but he doesn’t need it either. Bronson has always been an actor who can carry a movie with his formidable presence. That’s certainly the case here.

VERDICT – 4 STARS

Full disclosure: I have no vested interest in the Saw franchise. I haven’t seen all the movies so I can’t tell you how the tenth installment, “Saw X” stacks up against the previous films. But I’ve seen enough of them to know what’s going on. And despite not liking the 2021 spin-off “Spiral”, the trailer for “Saw X” was enough to convince me to give it a shot. Color me surprised.

Regardless of my own personal history with it, the Saw series clearly has a following. It has grossed over $1 billion at the box office and usually against relatively modest production budgets. It’s no wonder Lionsgate has kept the franchise going.

Director Kevin Greutert (“Saw VI” and “Saw 3D”) returns to helm the latest which is said to be a direct sequel to the original 2004 “Saw” and a prequel to 2005’s “Saw II”. Tobin Bell (now 81-years-old) is back as John Kramer, the ruthlessly principled killer known as “Jigsaw”. I’m not well versed enough to fully understand how this fits in the Saw timeline, but the movie opens with John Kramer finding out he has terminal brain cancer. John struggles with his grim prognosis and even joins a cancer support group to help him cope.

John learns about The Pederson Project, a radical experimental cancer treatment in Norway developed by Dr. Finn Pederson. It touts a success rate of over 90% but the doctor has been forced into hiding by the big drug companies. John reaches out and is contacted big the doctor’s daughter Cecilia (Synnøve Macody Lund). She’s taking her father’s treatment on the road for trials and schedules John for a procedure in Mexico City for a small fee of $250,000.

Unexpectedly, a large chunk of the film plays like a thoughtful drama, following John as he’s forced to reckon with his fate and later as he finds hope after thinking all was lost. Not only does this add some interesting layers to the John Kramer character, but it offers Tobin Bell a chance to extend himself as an actor. He gives a subtly rich performance with some surprising emotional depth.

But don’t worry Saw fans, Greutert and co-writers Peter Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg know what you come to a Saw movie for. I won’t spoil how, but John’s new lease on life is shattered after he finds himself the victim of a heartless con (boy did they pick the wrong guy). With the help of his young apprentice Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith), John begins rounding up everyone involved and forcing them to play a new round of cleverly designed and gruesomely gory games.

“Saw X” runs a little long and it has a few slow patches. But Greutert and company tell a tight and well-structured story built firmly around a riveting Tobin Bell performance. He’s grizzled and pitiless; still driven by his warped moral code. Yet he also brings a human pulse to both John Kramer and the movie as a whole. Bell is crucial to the film’s success.

But again, franchise die-hards need not worry. Greutert still delivers the gag-worthy gore they demand including what might be the craziest scene involving a pile of intestines you’ll ever see on screen (sorry, I couldn’t resist mentioning it). It’s still very much a Saw movie although one that makes a little more sense of the bloody carnage and chaos the franchise is known for. And that makes “Saw X” a welcomed surprise. “Saw X” is in theaters now.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

Having a cracking concept can be a hard thing to live up to. Case in point – “Simulant”, a science-fiction thriller built around a slightly familiar yet generally intriguing premise. It’s an entertaining enough feature film, but one that has a tough time maintaining the kind of energy and tension it wants. Not all of its pieces fit together and it lacks a few key ingredients to make it stand out. Still, a solid cast and an impressive production value help overcome its handful of noticeable limitations.

Director April Mullen, working from a script by Ryan Christopher Churchill, does a good job creating and developing a not-so-distant future where technology has advanced but humanity’s fallibility still leaves its mark. It’s a world where humans co-exist with humanoid creations called simulants. The early generation models are obviously synthetic and are relegated to mere service work. But the newer models as so realistic they’re virtually indistinguishable from humans.

Concerned over a growing autonomy among the newer model simulants, ACE (Artificial-Intelligence Compliance Enforcement) was formed to ensure simulants followed their programming (mainly to never harm humans and to obey their human owners). Among ACE’s most dogged agents is Kessler (Sam Worthington) who is driven by a personal tragedy to prove that simulants are ignoring their programming and pose a serious threat. He believes a simulant named Esmé (Alicia Sanz) and her relationship with the mysterious Casey (Simu Liu) is key to uncovering the truth.

Meanwhile a wealthy artist named Faye (Jordana Brewster) and her dutiful husband Evan (Robbie Amell) live a comfortable and seemingly loving life together. But they have a not-so-well-concealed secret (revealed within the first 30 minutes) that eventually connects them with Casey and Kessler. From there the story slowly morphs into a somewhat lukewarm mystery that opens up some interesting questions without ever offering any thought-provoking answers.

Yet Mullen and Churchill keep their audience involved even if the rather ambiguous payoff doesn’t exactly blow our socks off. There are some crafty ideas and even occasional glimmers of brilliance. But it shows its cards early and everything afterwards plays out pretty much the way we expect. Even worse, the stakes never feel as high as they’re meant to. So even though the movie does a good job holding our attention, we never feel the gravity of anything. That’s the biggest weight holding this solid but underwhelming effort down. “Simulant” is now available on VOD and streaming on Hulu.

VERDICT – 2.5 STARS

It should go without saying, but with a title like “Slotherhouse” audiences should know exactly what kind of movie they’re in for. The filmmakers aren’t hiding anything. They’re giddily conscious of the kind of movie they’re making. And it’s that brazen (and utterly delightful) self-awareness that makes this unapologetically silly horror-comedy work way more than it should.

Directed by Matthew Goodhue and written for the screen by Bradley Fowler, “Slotherhouse” brings back memories from the 1980s when perusing the sizable horror section at our local video rental store became a weekly ritual. The colorful VHS boxes for countless B-movie horror flicks just like “Slotherhouse” lined the shelves and I can’t tell you how many I watched (some multiple times over). So there’s a natural draw that makes movies like this hard for me to resist.

“Slotherhouse” borrows from all kinds of movies from the horror and teen comedy genres and it does so with a twinkle in its eye. One of the things that makes it so funny is that everyone plays it straight which actually makes the film’s utterly bonkers premise stand out even more. Think about it – a killer sloth carving up college girls at a sorority house pretty much speaks for itself.

Whether they’re attacked by natural predators or hunted by human invaders, life can be tough for the notoriously slow-moving and easy-going tree sloths in the rain forests of Panama. Take the one we see in the opening scene (a hilariously obvious puppet that coos like a human baby). She’s minding her own business in her natural habitat before being tranquilized and nabbed by a poacher. She ends up in the hands of a slimy trader (Stefan Kapicic) who illegally buys and sells wild animals in the United States. But here’s the thing, this isn’t your run-of-the-mill tree sloth.

Meanwhile Emily (Lisa Ambalavanar) and her best friend Madison (Olivia Rouyre) are preparing for their senior year at college. But rather than thinking about classes, graduation, and her future, Emily is more concerned with her pitiful social media follower count and with impressing her sorority sisters. Soon she’s butting heads with the popular and profoundly obnoxious Brianna (Sydney Craven), the resident mean girl with a gaggle of acolytes who do her bidding.

I’ll skip the details, but Emily’s obsession with being popular leads to her “acquiring” the sloth, naming it Alpha, and introducing it as the new sorority house mascot. What could possibly wrong? Well for starters, remember that bit about this not being your run-of-the-mill sloth? That’s something the girls of Sigma Lambda Theta violently and often hilariously learn that the hard way.

To no surprise there are numerous things in the story that make no sense at all. Characters routinely make dumb choices, gaping plot holes abound, obvious questions never get answered. But to be fair, measuring the logic of a movie like this seems utterly pointless. And that gets to the comedy side. A big part of the fun I had with “Slotherhouse” was laughing at these glaring “issues”. The filmmakers know what they’re doing and getting that kind of audience interaction is exactly what they want.

All of that said, “Slotherhouse” does have its faults which no amount of over-the-top absurdity can cover. While there is plenty of fun to be found throughout the movie, it has to really stretch itself to fill 93 minutes. It ends up spending too much time on sorority girl drama which frankly isn’t that interesting. Also (and I don’t say this often) the movie is hampered by its PG-13 rating. So much of the potentially good stuff happens off screen. I can only imagine how ridiculously gonzo this thing could have gotten if the film had really went for it.

Yet I sit her typing this review with a smile on my face, remembered the incredibly silly and laugh-out-loud moments scattered all throughout this truly wacky concoction. Goodhue and Fowler definitely succeed in putting together a preposterous genre cocktail, custom-made for a late-night viewing in a dark theater with an all-in crowd. It makes for a pretty good evening at home on the couch as well. “Slotherhouse” opens September 19th in select theaters and on VOD.

VERDICT – 3 STARS

Filmmakers have looked at the Jewish Holocaust from a variety of angles. Different films that examined it through the eyes of children. Some have focused on specific regions. Others have highlighted individuals who went to great lengths to help the Jews. A well done movie on the subject always has a strong effect on me. Not solely because of the horrific events or troubling images recreated on screen. It’s the fact that they deal with a very real and devastating time in human history. The Nazi slaughter of six million Jews marks one of the world’s darkest times. But it’s also a period that should never be forgotten and thoughtful movies can help ensure that we remember.

Several movies have done a superb job responsibly depicting the Holocaust. Among the very best is Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List”. Released 30 years ago, it has had the strongest impact on me personally. I recently revisited the film after putting it off for many years. That’s because it’s not an easy movie to watch. It features some of the most realistic and graphic depictions of Nazi violence towards Jews and doesn’t shy away from presenting it in crushing detail. From their initial relocation to Krakow’s Jewish Ghetto to their brutal and deadly time spent in the Nazi extermination camps, we see the Jews experience cruelty and brutality made all the more disturbing by its roots in reality.

The Jewish plight is brilliantly and cleverly realized through the true story of Oskar Schindler. Schindler (brilliantly played by Liam Neeson) is a German businessman who arrives in occupied Krakow in hopes of making a load of money exploiting the war. At first Schindler is a self-absorbed, money-hungry man who quickly finds acceptance by kissing up to an assortment of high-ranking German SS officers. Through bribes and his Nazi Party membership, Schindler obtains several contracts to make metal pots and pans for the German soldiers in the field.

To secure even more money for himself Schindler brings in a Jewish workforce whose labor is considerably cheaper than the local Catholic Poles. To keep his fledgling company up and going he hires Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley), an accomplished Jewish accountant and highly regarded member of the Jewish community. It’s through this key relationship that Schindler’s perceptions begin to change.

Coinciding with the arrival of SS Officer Amon Goeth (a truly sinister Ralph Fiennes) to the Plaszow concentration camp, the Germans raid and empty the Krakow Ghetto, slaughtering hundreds of Jews in the streets and shipping the rest to the camp. As Schindler witnesses the atrocities he’s deeply troubled and an internal conflict forms between his desire for a money-making business and his growing affection for his Jewish workers. He’s tempted to take his money and leave the city. Instead he sets out to use his fortune to save his workers and as many other Jews as he can. But to do so he’ll have to get close to high-ranking Nazi’s like Goeth which is no easy task.

The story of Oskar Schindler and his personal transformation is quite powerful. Neeson’s Schindler is a confident and looming opportunist. Even Spielberg’s camera makes him stand head and shoulders above so many of the people he encounters. Particularly stirring is the relationship between Schindler and Stern. Initially the two are strictly business with neither liking or trusting the other. But as mentioned it’s their growing friendship that plays a pivotal role in Schindler’s transformation. Neeson and Kingsley are terrific together.

Then there’s Fiennes and his stunning work as Goeth, a sick and twisted personification of evil. While Schindler finds ways to manipulate Goeth, his inherent wickedness is ever-present and manifested through some of the movie’s more disturbing scenes. What makes the character more terrifying is that Spielberg doesn’t stray too far away in his portrayal of the real Amon Goeth. He was a sadistic cold-hearted murderer who is killed countless Jews himself, not counting the thousands he ordered to be executed. Several scenes emphasize Goeth’s savage tendencies including his sick penchant for sniping Jewish workers from the terrace of his château overlooking the camp.

“Schindler’s List” was a technical achievement. Spielberg’s choice to shoot in black-and-white along with the hand-held camerawork and strategically set wide-angled shots adds to the authenticity and at times has a near documentary feel. The movie is also helped by being filmed on or near the locations of the actual events. Spielberg’s desire for realism really pays off and the locations were a big part of it. But that same desire for realism also made filming difficult for the director. It’s been said he cried repeatedly during the filming and there were certain scenes he literally couldn’t watch.

“Schindler’s List” is a great movie yet understandably hard to watch. It’s disturbing and emotionally draining. But it’s also a film of immense power and deep sincerity. It’s a visually stunning work that forces us to deal these horrific historical events. It’s also a story of a man’s incredible transformation. The movie has stood the test of time in large part thanks to Spielberg’s personal connection. It seeps into every facet of the film, moving us, informing us, and reminding us of a time we should never forget and of events we should never repeat.

VERDICT – 5 STARS

If ever there was a cinematic poster child for B-movie schlock it would have to be 2013’s disaster comedy “Sharknado”. First airing ten years ago on the Syfy channel, this utterly shameless, gleefully self-aware, and proudly mindless concoction has gone from made-for-television dreck to a full-blown cult classic that has spawned a total of five sequels and three spin-offs. Who saw that kind of success coming?

Now independent film distributor The Asylum is celebrating the movie’s 10th Anniversary with an all new 4K remastered version of “Sharknado” that features new visual effects and never-before-scene footage. Better yet, they’re bringing it to over 500 big screens across the country for a special two-night engagement. Talk about a movie custom-made for a late-night screening with an energized crowd.

As for the story, it is unbelievably silly and completely implausible in every possible way. Everyone involved in the film knows it and that’s a big part of what makes it entertaining. Yet there is an illusion of seriousness that actually makes it even funnier than it naturally is by concept alone. Director Anthony C. Ferrante and screenwriter Thunder Levin throw all sorts of ingredients together and end up with something you can’t help but enjoy.

How’s this for a wild weather anomaly – twenty miles off the coast of Mexico a massive waterspout forms and begins sucking sharks out of the ocean. Somehow it turns into a dangerous hurricane (I think) and quickly heads up the coast towards California. Now in case you’re tempted to delve into the science of such an anomaly, don’t. Remember, the name of the movie is “Sharknado” so looking for logic is missing the point. Just know the movie attributes it all to global warming and then quickly moves on.

Fin Shepard (Ian Ziering) is an ex-professional surfer who now owns a restaurant and bar on the Santa Monica Pier. With the killer hurricane bearing down on the shore, Fin, his best chum Baz (Jaason Simmons), his loyal barmaid Nova (Cassie Scerbo), and a handsy local lush named George (the late John Heard) flee the pier and head inland. But floodwaters full of frenzied man-eating sharks is soon rushing into the city. Yikes.

Fin and his crew head to Beverly Hills (a funny little in-joke for fans of the 90210 zip code) to warn his ex-wife April (Tara Reid), their daughter Claudia (Aubrey Peeples), and April’s jerk of a boyfriend Collin (Christopher Wolfe). But in a snap the storm is on top of them, bringing not only the floodwaters but sharks to their posh, upscale neighborhood. To make matters worse, three enormous waterspouts hit downtown Los Angeles sucking up more sharks and slinging them across the city.

So yes, it’s remarkably silly but Ferrante, Levin, and (as mentioned) the entire cast is completely aware of it. And the story’s goofiness is only accentuated by everything surrounding it – the hilariously bad one-liners, the stilted overly dramatic performances, the cheap special effects and gobs of glaringly fake gore. You’ll find yourself giggling at nearly every facet of this bonkers creation.

But again, that’s pretty much the point. “Sharknado” is the epitome of “so bad it’s good”. Maybe not good enough to watch again and again, but plenty good enough to do what it sets out to do – entertain in its own offbeat cockamamie way. Don’t overthink it. Just have fun laughing at it. It certainly has fun laughing at itself. “Skarknado 10th Anniversary Edition” will be in select theaters August 15th and 16th.

VERDICT – 3 STARS