Author: A.J. Hakari

Sci-FiWestern

Moon Zero Two (1969)

A.J. Hakari
Moon Zero Two (1969)

Produced by none other than the good folks at Hammer, this rootin’, tootin’ space opera delivered exactly what it promised: a western set among the stars, complete with shootouts and mustache-twirling baddies. This is an amusing little trifle, but it hasn’t aged that gracefully, with viewers more likely to glean ironic chuckles from it than genuine pleasure.

“Ride a rocket Texas-style! Have a shoot-out in Moon City! Find a new frontier and a new kind of pioneer. But watch out for deadly moon maidens. It’s the first Moon ‘Western’.”
  PRESS PLAY ►

ActionSci-Fi
Sci-Fi

Tobor the Great (1954)

A.J. Hakari

A.J. Hakari reviews Tobor the Great (1954), directed by Lee Sholem.

If The Day the Earth Stood Still were all about getting Gort to work, it’d probably look a little something like Tobor the Great. For all of its talk about space exploration, artificial intelligence, and even psychic phenomena (yep, the robot’s telepathic, too), the film retains a personal edge, a smallness that makes its huge ideas a bit easier to relate to and digest.

“Gee, Tobor, you’re wonderful!” PRESS PLAY ►

Horror

Here Comes the Devil (2012)

A.J. Hakari

A.J. Hakari reviews Here Comes the Devil (2012), directed by Adrian Garcia Bogliano.

The phrase “Well, that escalated quickly” came to mind a couple times during Here Comes the Devil. This Mexican-made chiller isn’t afraid to immediately show what a nasty piece of work it is, assuring from the outset that the “killer kids” premise one might assume from all the poster art is but a falsehood.

“Something’s wrong with our kids.” PRESS PLAY ►

Sci-Fi

War of the Gargantuas (1966)

A.J. Hakari

Our newest contributor A.J. Hakari reviews War of the Gargantuas (1966), directed by Ishiro Honda.

Of all the kaiju-related media I’ve ingested throughout my life, War of the Gargantuas is one of the more “Excuse me, what?”-inducing entries I’ve come across. For every weary genre trope to be found in this 1966 monster smackdown, it embraces some other element of insanity that livens things up in a flash. This is a movie that takes you from eye-rolling lows to jaw-dropping heights, peppering the proceedings with enough abject craziness to at the very least keep you wondering what direction will be the next one taken. I won’t lie and say it’s not an uneven ride, but when it comes to giving kaiju fans the destruction and bombastic brawling they crave, War of the Gargantuas doesn’t disappoint. PRESS PLAY ►