Do or die (2003) (3 Stars)

This film takes place in the near future in an unnamed city. It's filmed in Toronto, and care is taken not to show any famous landmarks, but people who live in the city may recognise it.

An illness called the Blight has struck mankind. About half of the world's population is infected. Those who are infected age rapidly and die within a few weeks, unless they have an injection every day for the rest of their lives. The film's main character is Ruth Hennessey, whose husband Jack is murdered in the opening scenes. Jack Hennessey worked for Grantine, the world's largest company, the only company that makes serums for the injections. Jack has discovered that there is a cure for the Blight that Grantine is keeping secret.

As low budget made-for-television movies go it's okay. The action scenes are reasonably well acted. The film's premise is hard to understand. It's clearly stated that the Blight is non-contagious, it can only be transmitted from parents to children, but if that's the case how did half the human race get infected in the first place? I admit that I watched the film because it starred Guylain St-Onge in one of her few film roles before she died of cancer at the age of 39. In her television roles, such as "Earth Final Conflict" and "La Femme Nikita", she oozes sexuality. In this film she's less exciting, but still attractive.

Guylain St-Onge
November 5, 1965 – March 3, 2005

One Way Out (3 Stars)

This is a Canadian made-for-television psychological thriller. It stars James Belushi as a successful homicide detective. His career is successful, at least. His personal life is a shambles, but isn't that the standard cliche for all top detectives in films and television series? He lives alone, and he spends too much time gambling. Gambling and losing. The owners of the club to which he owes $150,000 blackmail him. They will erase his debts on condition that he coaches one of their customers to commit the perfect murder.

Films like this are difficult to rate. It's not a bad story. The plot twists were unexpected and made me gasp. I enjoyed the film, but it's not something that I'd want to watch a second time. My usual criterion for judging films is that I call a film "good" (4 stars) if I think I can watch it at least three times. I call a film "great" (5 stars) if I think I can watch it more than three times. That's just my personal system, of course. I know that many people never like to watch any film more than once, but to me they aren't real film fans. Nevertheless, I have to ask myself in cases like "One way out" whether I'm being fair. It cost me less than a pound, and it was worth the money. James Belushi is a competent actor who carries the film effectively. In some scenes he looks like Bill Murray, while in other scenes he looks uncannily like James Gandolfini.

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On an unrelated subject, I'd like to give thanks to my readers, both my regular readers and my sporadic visitors. As far as reader numbers go, September 2013 was my most successful month ever. 3269 readers. Okay, I know that might not sound like much. It's only 108 visitors a day, less than 5 visitors an hour, but I'm still glad that people are taking an interest in what I write. If I wanted really big numbers I'd offer torrents and other forms of illegal downloads. I think I'm doing quite well for a site that offers reviews only.

As usual, most of my readers are from the USA. This month the UK comes a close second. Russia is always in the top three. The rest vary from month to month. I usually have more readers from Pakistan, France and Canada. Maybe next month they'll be back.

Whether you're a regular reader or someone who's only just discovered this blog, I'd like to ask you to comment on my posts. Leave your opinions on the films I review, and give me suggestions what you would like me to write about in the future. Most of all, I just want to hear from other film fans, whatever your tastes may be.