Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Sister Street Fighter - Movie Review

Sister Street Fighter - Sue Shiomi
Sister Street Fighter - Sue Shiomi

One of the many wonderful things about the Pub-D-Hub channel is big selection of movies it offers. I was surfing through the Action/Adventure section and saw the movie Sister Street Fighter.

It features the 18 year old gymnast and martial artist Sue Shiomi. She plays Tina Long, a martial arts expert who agrees to go undercover for the Hong Kong police.  I don't recall seeing another action movie from the 1970's that features a woman in this type tough and heroic role. You can't help but cheer her on as she defeats the over-the-top bad guys. The print on Pub-D-Hub has a running time of 1h 20m and cuts short some of the the most violent and explicit scenes in the movie. I'm not complaining, I was grateful.

While I am not a big fan of this type of film I enjoyed Sister Street Fighter. Sometimes I was amazed by the stunts, sometimes I laughed till I cried (ie. the bad guy with the nunchucks and the awful hairdo). If you just can't get enough of this movie there is a boxed set with all three SSF movies.

Jamaica Inn - Movie Review

Jamaica Inn - Movie
Jamaica Inn - Hitchcock



Last night we watched the movie Jamaica Inn via our Roku and the Pub-D-Hub channel. The print on Pub-D-Hub is quite good with decent sound quality. This 1939 film has a great cast including Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara, who appears in her first major film role.

The first part of the movie is a bit dark and dirty, and most of the characters are unlikable pirates and cut throats who live on the stormy Cornish cost of England. However, the second half of the picture moves more swiftly with characters to root for, as hidden identities are revealed.

While not known as one of Alfred Hitchcock's best films I think it's worth watching. Fans of Hitchcock will cite the behind the screen meddling done by co-producer Charles Laughton as likely the cause of the films uneven tone and sense of suspense. Laughton demanded many changes to the script and played the character of squire Pengallan as he wished. Still, time has proven Charles Laughton right for insistence that Hitchcock cast Maureen O'Hara, in-spite of her lackluster screen test.