Splash (5 Stars)

At first glance "Splash" looks like a straightforward romantic fantasy; what gives it staying power is how quietly peculiar it is. It drifts between tones, never quite settling, and that sense of imbalance is exactly what has allowed it to gather a cult following over time.

The premise is simple enough. Tom Hanks plays a lonely New Yorker who falls for a woman who happens to be a mermaid, played with detached serenity by Daryl Hannah. Around them, the film builds a world that feels only loosely tethered to reality. Scenes unfold with a kind of dream logic; the mermaid learns English from television, adapts to human life with improbable ease, and the story barely pauses to question any of it.

That refusal to over-explain is central to its cult appeal. Director Ron Howard lets the film slip between romance, farce and something more wistful without drawing firm boundaries. One moment plays like broad comedy, the next carries a surprising emotional weight. Cult films often live in that unstable space; they don't fit neatly into a single genre, and that makes them feel more personal to the audiences who return to them.

There's also the sense of a film caught between identities. Released through Touchstone Pictures, "Splash" sits somewhere between family-friendly fantasy and more adult romantic comedy. That tension gives it an edge; it feels slightly more daring than its premise suggests, yet never loses its softness. For many viewers discovering it on home video, it had the air of something both familiar and faintly subversive.

Its most lasting cultural impact, though, comes from a small, almost throwaway moment. When Hannah's character needs a human name, she chooses "Madison" from a street sign. Hanks' character even remarks on how unusual it sounds as a first name. In 1984 that was true; Madison was primarily a surname, historically meaning "son of Maud".

The film changed that. In the years following its release, "Madison" surged in popularity as a girl's name, particularly in the United States. What began as a joke became a trend; within a decade, the name moved from rarity to mainstream, eventually becoming one of the defining names of its generation. Few films have reshaped everyday culture in such a specific way, and fewer still have done so so casually.

That odd, lingering influence is what defines "Splash" as a cult film. It's not about perfection; the film meanders, and its fantasy is never fully grounded. What it offers instead is a distinct tone, a handful of memorable ideas, and a series of moments that stay with you long after the plot fades. Among them is a single name, lifted from a sign and given a new life, which might be the film's strangest and most enduring legacy.

Success Rate:  + 4.3

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Kill Bill (5 Stars)

Oops I did it again. I went to see "Kill Bill" for a second time in two days. When I bought my tickets it seemed necessary, because it was claimed it would never be released on disc. Quentin Tarantino has  changed his mind, fortunately. But it was still good to see the film again.

One recent change to the complete film that wasn't in the 2011 version shown at the Cannes Film Festival is a 12-minute after-credits scene, called "Kill Bill: The Lost Chapter". It's a fully animated sequence featuring Gogo's sister Yuki. It doesn't really belong to the film, especially not at the end. When I own the film on disc I'll probably watch it separately, not tagged on to the end.

One thing that amused me tonight was the man sitting in the seat next to me. I always respect people who go to the cinema alone, like me, not with their partners or friends. It shows that they take films seriously. This man was different. During the fight scene in the House of Blue Leaves he covered his eyes every time a head or an arm was chopped off. Someone should have warned him that it would be so violent.

Kill Bill (5 Stars)

Finally! I've waited 22 years to see this film. "Kill Bill" was originally released as two films in 2003 and 2004. Quentin Tarantino re-edited the two films into a single film in 2011, but it was only released in Japan. In December 2025 it was finally shown in America at a few select cinemas and minor re-editing. Conflicting statements were made, possibly deliberate misinformation to raise expectations among film fans. First Tarantino said the film would only be shown in cinemas and not be made available for home viewing on disc or streaming. That was depressing. Then it was said that it would be released on Blu-Ray, but not streaming. Ideal! For me, at least. Then I was surprised to see that it was dropped onto Amazon Prime today, without prior announcement.

My local cinema was only showing the film twice, today and tomorrow. I bought tickets for both days. Then, last Monday, they announced that it would be lengthened to four days, probably because both days were sold out.

The main changed are

1. Oren Ishii's origin story is lengthened.

2. The fight scene in the House of Blue Leaves is in colour throughout, not partially black and white.

One small change that I noticed immediately was that the Klingon proverb was missing from the opening scene. I've read theories why Tarantino edited it out, but I miss it.

The official name of the film is "Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair". Giving it that name makes it sound like two films that have been stitched together. I prefer to call it "Kill Bill", which emphasises that it's a single film that was chopped in two.

Blade Runner (4 Stars)

It's seven years to the day since I last watched "Blade Runner". My blog never forgets. Last time I watched it I was disappointed by the slow, plodding pacing. Watching it today, I appreciated it more. It borrows from film noir, and it has the atmosphere of the classics from the genre. There's action in the film, but the final battle with the replicant Roy fizzles out. Roy describes his life as a tragedy, because he's seen things that nobody else has seen. This reminds me of the things that I experienced in my childhood. I saw places of beauty that no longer exist. I don't have photos, so when I die these places will die with me. It's tragic. 

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Kill Bill (5 Stars)

Today I watched "Kill Bill" with my friend Alex and his girlfriend Anna. It's always a pleasure to watch films in a group of like-minded film fans.

There's nothing I want to add to my previous reviews, apart from a few words about the film's two four-year-old girls.

Nikki, the daughter of Vernita Green aka Copperhead, is played by Ambrosia Kelley, who was seven years old at the time. She appeared in a few television programmes after "Kill Bill", but her acting career fizzled out in 2012. I haven't been able to find out what she's doing now.

B.B., the Bride's daughter, is played by Perla Haney-Jardine. She was five years old at the time. She's had a more successful acting career, including films like "Spider-Man 3" and "Steve Jobs". I hope to see a lot more of her in the future.

As you can see, some child actors have success that continues into adulthood, others don't. An early start in acting isn't an automatic guarantee for a long career. There's no replacement for talent and hard work.

Success Rate:  + 3.6

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Kill Bill (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #15

Even though it was released in two parts, I consider "Kill Bill" to be one film. I've heard discussions whether "Kill Bill Volume One" is better than "Kill Bill Volume Two", but I refuse to compare them. It's just one film. It's perfect as it is.

The story's chronology jumps backwards and forwards, but it's never difficult to understand. The Bride's numbered Kill List tells us what order things are happening, even when a scene isn't explicitly marked as a flashback. I once asked myself the question whether the film would be better if everything were shown in chronological order, and I eventually came to the answer No. Things are ordered just as they should be to tell the best possible story. I'd prefer a single four and a half hour cut as a single film, omitting the recap at the beginning of the second part, where the Bride speaks directly to the camera. That's the only change I'd make. Quentin Tarantino promised a complete cut 15 years ago, and I'm still waiting. I'm sure the film studio has blocked it as financially unviable. I'm hoping that the 4K remastered release will have a single cut, when it's finally released.

I mean a single cut of the official films. I'm not talking about the Japanese version, which has several differences to the international version. It would be interesting to see the two versions side by side, but they'll never be released in a single box set, because a different studio holds the rights to the Japanese version.

Beatrix Kiddo, usually called the Bride, was a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. It's never stated what their aims were. Mercenaries for hire? Probably. Their leader is a man known only as Bill. When she found out she was pregnant, she spontaneously decided to quit, even though Bill was her child's father. She didn't tell him she was leaving, she just went into hiding. She changed her name and fell in love with a record shop owner in El Paso, Texas. Bill located her and took revenge by executing her and everyone else invited to her wedding rehearsal.

From left to right.....

Elle Driver (code name California Mountain Snake).

 Vernita Green (code name Copperhead).

Budd, Bill's brother (code name Sidewinder).

O-Ren Ishii (code name Cottonmouth).

Sofie Fatale wasn't a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, but she was trained by Bill, and she was present at the El Paso massacre as a witness.

The Bride (code name Black Mamba) survived the massacre and lay in a coma for four years. When she woke up the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad had broken up, so she had to search for the former members. She set out to take revenge on the four assassins and Bill himself. She spared Sofie's life, merely cutting off her arms.

The Bride was also carrying out revenge for the death of her child, but she discovers that the baby was born while she was in a coma. The girl called B.B. is living with her father.

The Bride becomes the Mother. And they all lived happily ever after.

Success Rate:  + 3.6

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Clan of the Cave Bear (3 Stars)

Amazon Friday #6

I'm starting to wonder whether I should bother to number my Amazon Friday films. The order in which I watch them has no significance. Added to that, I almost made a mistake today by calling this film the fifth. I corrected it before publishing the post, but it would have been humiliating.

I've wanted to watch this film for sometime. It stars Daryl Hannah, one of the world's most beautiful actresses, which is reason enough to watch it. It was made in 1985, and it's based on a children's book by Jean Marie Auel. However, the film has been adapted for adult audiences. It has a few scenes that aren't suitable for children.

The film deals with the meeting of two pre-historic races, the Neanderthals and the Cro-Magnons. The Neanderthals are now extinct, and the Cro-Magnons are the ancestors of modern day man. The Cro-Magnons seem to be a new race in the film. We only see two Cro-Magnons: Ayla and her mother.

In the opening scene a woman dies in an earthquake, leaving her five-year-old daughter Ayla alone. Ayla is injured by a lion and almost dies, when she's discovered by a tribe of Neanderthals. They don't want to help her because she looks strange – Ayla has blond hair – but the tribe's healer, Iza, adopts Ayla as her daughter.

Over the years, as Ayla grows to adulthood, she's accepted as one of the tribe, but Broud, the son of the tribe's leader, hates her because she's different. He repeatedly rapes her, which is interesting in itself. He hates her, but he lusts for her. Rape is performed as an act of aggression in order to humiliate his victim. The others in the tribe know about it, and sometimes he even rapes her while they're watching, but they allow it. In those days men were allowed to do whatever they wanted with women.

Ayla is different to the tribe in more ways than one. The blond hair is what's most apparent, but she's also more intelligent than them, and she's a skilled hunter. The latter causes her to be cast out of the tribe. Women aren't allowed to hunt; their job is to cook, have babies and be raped.

The film has some good ideas, but ultimately I was disappointed. It can easily be applied to today's society. It shows racism and sexism, admittedly in an exaggerated form, but the principles still apply today. I was disappointed to see that Ayla didn't take revenge. She hated what Broud did to her, but she accepted it. I would have liked to see more of a twentieth century attitude. But the biggest problem was the dialogue. The whole film is in grunts, with some words repeated often enough for the viewer to guess what they mean. In cases where it might be too difficult to understand, there's a narrator explaining what's happening in voiceover. That's horrible! They should have recorded the dialogue in English and got rid of the narrator.

The film was a box office flop. In 2015 a television series based on the adventures of Ayla was planned, but it never got past the pilot. That's a shame. The story itself has promise. It just needs to be better made.

Success Rate:  - 9.0

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Kill Bill (5 Stars)

This is doubtlessly one of the best films ever made. Whenever I watch it it stuns me. I just watched the two parts back to back in a four hour session, which is the best way to enjoy it. In Japan a slightly different cut was released as a single film. I don't know why this version still isn't available in the rest of the world.

I watched the first part in the cinema in October 2003. Like all fans, I couldn't wait to see the second part. The UK release date was 23rd April 2004. About a week before this date my friend Pete told me he had bought it on DVD for £2 (approximately $2.75) from a nearby video store which was well known for its under-the-counter offers. He invited us to his apartment to watch it.

We watched it with Pete and his friend Bob. It was nasty. It was a DVD that had been recorded in a cinema. The picture was dark, and the the voices of the people in the audience frequently drowned out the film. The volume was so low that it was difficult to hear even when the television set was cranked up to maximum. Added to this, Pete and Bob were talking all the way through the film. At the end I still didn't understand everything that had happened.

Never again!

Lucy Liu will cut off the head of anyone who watches pirate DVDs.

Chiaki Kuriyama agrees.

So does Julie Dreyfus.

This is probably Quentin Tarantino's best film, but it's difficult for me to decide. I always prefer whichever film of his I watched last.

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Blade Runner (3 Stars)

After 35 years a sequel to "Blade Runner" has finally been made. It's planned to be released in the cinemas next month. That's a good enough excuse for me to rewatch the original film for the first time in 20 years.

I only vaguely remembered the film, more the images than the plot. I saw it on television and had no wish to buy it on DVD, which is a sign that I didn't enjoy it much, but I could no longer remember why. I know that many people consider it to be the greatest science fiction film ever made, so I thought it would be worth investing a few Euros in the Blu-ray edition of the Final Cut. This was first released in 2007, so it's not the version that I previously saw, but I assume that this is the best version, since the director Ridley Scott was personally involved in the re-editing.

In the far distant future – 2019 !!! – the colonisation of other planets has begun. Artificial humans, called replicants, have been sent to these planets to make them habitable before humans arrive, and to act as slave labour when humans arrive. The replicants are identical to humans in all ways, except for greater intelligence and physical strength, and a complete lack of emotion. They're created as fully developed adults. The artificial intelligence of the replicants sometimes results in a development of emotions, so they've been built with a four year life span. It's illegal for replicants to visit the Earth.

Harrison Ford plays Rick Deckard, an ex-policeman whose job was to hunt down replicants on Earth who are either fleeing slavery or trying to find ways to extend their lives. The arrival of four extremely dangerous replicants causes his former boss to beg him to take up his job again.

After watching it again, I can see why it didn't appeal to me. The special effects, especially the futuristic views of Los Angeles, look cheap. The project was too adventurous for the technical possibilities of 1982. I can see that "Blade Runner" influenced "The Fifth Element", which succeeded visually due to the superior computer graphics available in 1997.

I don't like the fact that the whole film takes place at night. There's no justification for this in the plot itself.

The story is far too slow and plods from scene to scene. This would be acceptable if the film were building up to something, but even the final showdown is slow. The final conversation between Rick and the replicant Roy reminds me of the confrontation between Captain Willard and Colonel Kurtz in "Apocalypse Now", but it's not as deep. That's probably what I dislike most about "Blade Runner". There's a constant feeling of depth in meaning, but when you look closer it's just an illusion.

I honestly don't see what's so special about the film, but I'm prepared to discuss it with my readers. Please leave comments.

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Kill Bill (5 Stars)

In the past I reviewed "Kill Bill, Vol 1" and "Kill Bill, Vol 2" separately. I shan't do that any more. Even though they appeared in the cinema separately, a year apart, it's only one film. Quentin Tarantino originally intended it to be released as a four hour film, but the film studios didn't go along with this. In 2008 Quentin promised a four-hour single film version would be released on DVD "soon", with certain changes to make it more similar to the versions released in Japan, but now it's 2013 and there's still nothing. My guess is that he's still arguing with the studios.

This is a film that I have to keep watching. Sheer genius!

Kill Bill, Vol 2 (5 Stars)

A lot of people I've spoken to were disappointed with the second volume of the Kill Bill films after watching the first. I think I understand the reason why. "Kill Bill, Vol 1" attracted a lot of interest from martial arts fans who weren't necessarily fans of Quentin Tarantino. They were drawn to the action scenes, in particular those that took place in Japan at the end of the first film. In comparison, the second film is low key. For those expecting a big climax the final showdown between the Bride and Bill probably seems flat. Let's just say that they don't get it. Whatever action there may or may not be in Tarantino's films, the real battles are fought with words. If you doubt this, look at the conversation between Col. Landa and the farmer at the beginning of "Inglourious Basterds". The Nazi colonel's words cut and thrust sharper than any knife.

This film is more chronological than the first film, but within the chronology it relies on flashbacks. In the first film she battles with Oren-Ishii and Vernita Green. In the second she battles with Budd, Elle Driver and Bill. We also see the Bride's training with the old master Pai Mei.

Click here to view the trailer. It's another poor quality trailer that shows too much of the film.

Kill Bill, Vol 1 (5 Stars)

Even though I love this film, it's a difficult film to describe. It's an homage to the Chinese and Japanese fighting films of the 1970's and 1980's, even down to the fake Shaw Brothers logo at the beginning. The film is told in a non-linear way, a style already developed by Quentin Tarantino in "Pulp Fiction". This works well. It puts the action scenes at the beginning and end of the film, and the slow events (that happened first, chronologically) in the middle.

The film is about a hit squad of assassins, the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. Uma Thurman plays the assassin codenamed Black Mamba. On the day of her wedding she is killed by the other squad members. Or at least, they think she's dead. The police find her alive, and she lies in a coma for four years. When she wakes up she goes on a mission to kill the other members of the squad, and then go on to kill the squad's leader, Bill. Her mission takes her around the world, and there are dazzling sword and martial arts battles. The whole film is made surreal by the soundtrack, which would be more typical for a spaghetti western.

Brilliance, sheer brilliance. Check out the trailer, which includes spoilers of things we don't find out until the second film. Strange trailer.

I just read through this review, and I don't feel happy with it. Maybe I'll write more next time. To make up for it I've added the photo of Gogo Yubari, played by stunningly beautiful Chiaki Kuriyama. 17-year-old schoolgirls never looked so hot.

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (4 Stars)

The original version of this film, made in 1958, is hailed as a cult classic. Unfortunately I've never seen it. I only know this version, which was made in 1993. From what I've been told it keeps close to the original. The film is even set in the 1950's, not in the present date. The main improvement is in the more realistic special effects, and of course it's in colour. For me this is the film that I will always associate with the name of Daryl Hannah.

Daryl plays Nancy Archer, a rich woman who is the co-owner of her father's company. She is being used by both her father and her husband. By a stroke of luck she encounters a flying saucer which shines a ray on her that makes her very tall. The film is called "50 foot woman", but she looks bigger. She then has the chance to get revenge on the men in her life. This is an amusing feminist fantasy. And I hope I can get my hands on the original version soon.

Incidentally, let me add something to make my American readers jealous. I bought this DVD a week ago. I saw it on sale for £0.99, approx $1.54, and grabbed it straight away. Brand new, still factory sealed. I thought I'd got a great deal, but yesterday I checked and the price is £0.27 now, only 42 cents. At prices like that, why rent? Buy it, and if you don't like it throw it in the trash. It's great to live in England.

Splash (4½ Stars)

This 1986 film is a modern day fairy tale. It has something for all the family, so it's become a film that's often been shown on television for the last 25 years. All my readers must have seen it unless they've been living in an Amish community till now.

The plot is simple. An 8-year-old boy falls off a boat and is rescued by a mermaid. 20 years later he falls into the sea again, and he's rescued by the same mermaid. They fall in love, and after a few problems they live happily ever after. It's a lovely story that can touch the hearts of adults and children alike.

This was one of the first films for both Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah, and the first leading role for both of them. That's where the similarity ends. Tom Hanks has gone on to become one of the world's most successful actors. Daryl Hannah has starred in many films since then, but "Splash" is still the biggest film of her career, and she's a relatively unknown actress. She played an important role in "Kill Bill" in 2003, but I doubt many cinemagoers took notice or even remember her name. She seems destined to obscurity.