Posts

The Chessmen of Mars (Barsoom #5) (1922)

-
Image
by Edgar Rice Burroughs Princess Tara of Helium is swept up by a sudden storm and deposited near the isolated city of Manator, where she’s captured and made the human stake in a lethal, live-action game of Jetan (Martian chess).  Gahan of Gathol goes after her, disguises himself among enemies, and has to win the game to secure both her freedom and her affection.  This installment keeps the “lone warrior chases the missing princess” structure that Burroughs used in the previous installment.  The storm-capture-rescue plot is replicated so faithfully that an experienced reader can see most of the turns ahead of time.  Still, there are highlights like Manator’s Jetan spectacle and the genuinely alien menace of the Kaldanes, who push the series toward higher-concept sci-fi/horror instead of yet another round of warring tribes.  Tara also helps; she’s more proactive than Dejah Thoris tends to be, relying on her own judgment and a concealed dagger rather than simply wa...
Post a Comment
Read more

Death Squad (The Executioner #2) (1969)

-
Image
by Don Pendleton Mack Bolan heads to California with a Mafia contract on his head, where he recruits a small “death squad” to hit the Los Angeles family as both police and mob killers close in on him.  This second installment of Don Pendleton’s seminal men’s adventure series shifts away from lone 70s revenge thriller toward more of a Dirty Dozen vibe.  Don Pendleton There are entertaining stretches from the Mafia’s point of view in which they get increasingly frazzled and short-tempered as the siege tightens.  The frantic efforts of the police to respond to a threat they can’t quite locate, always a step behind, gives a cat-and-mouse feel to the action.  Unfortunately, the new team never fully comes alive.  They are less like characters than a set of interchangeable “skills,” and I had trouble keeping straight who was who; functionally, they operate as a single partner to Bolan rather than distinct presences with their own personalities.  "Death Wand" (Gree...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ranked: The 1960s

-
Image
    A ranking of all the films released during the 1960s that have been reviewed on my blog. #38 Becket (1964) 2259 https://thericochetreviewer.blogspot.com/2021/07/becket-1964.html #37 Splendor in the Grass (1961) 2048 https://thericochetreviewer.blogspot.com/2022/11/splendor-in-grass-1961.html #36 Matango (AKA Attack of the Mushroom People) (1963) 1995 https://thericochetreviewer.blogspot.com/2020/11/matango-1963.html #35 Cat Ballou (1965) 1832 https://thericochetreviewer.blogspot.com/2021/07/cat-ballou-1965.html #34 Band of Outsiders (1964) 1460 https://thericochetreviewer.blogspot.com/2021/02/band-of-outsiders-1964.html #33 The Endless Summer (1966) 1449 https://thericochetreviewer.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-endless-summer-1966.html #32 The Leopard (1963) 1089 https://thericochetreviewer.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-leopard-1963.html #31 Black Sabbath (1963) 1074 https://thericochetreviewer.blogspot.com/2021/09/black-sabbath-1963.html #30 The Last Man on Earth (1964) 1054 https:...
Post a Comment
Read more