Pearce’s Film Reviews

224 Films have been rated or reviewed by Pearce.

Showgirls (1995): It's funny how people were all over Verhoeven's use of tackiness as satire & subversion in his macho sci–fi action movies, but as soon as he turned to female–led movies like this and Basic Instinct it was taken at face value.
Female Yakuza Tale (Yasagure anego den: sôkatsu rinchi) (1973): From the director of movies like Shogun's Joy of Torture and Inferno of Torture, so you know it's classy. None of the style of the first movie.
Cell, The (2000): Best watched with the isolated score turned on so you can enjoy the incredible visuals & soundtrack without getting distracted by the dreadful script & acting.
Score (1973): One of the few movies in this genre to be both funny and sexy, sometimes simultaneously. I saw it in mixed company and everyone had a good time.
Lickerish Quartet, The (1970): Amazing soundtrack.
Naked Lunch (1992): Funny and some great parts, but I cannot give more than three stars to a movie which takes a classic of queer literature and puts a heterosexual love story at the centre.
Sex and Fury (Furyô anego den: Inoshika Ochô) (1973): Extremely stylish – the nude swordfight at the start is a stunner – but it meanders after a while and the subplot with Christina Lindberg isn't terrible interesting.
Existenz (1998): I think of this as Videodrome 3 as along with Naked Lunch, it follows the same structure. All three movies have very similar abrupt endings too!
Crimes of the Future (2022): I love it when Cronenberg lets his weird sense of humour off the leash – most notable Naked Lunch, eXistenZ and here. Kristen Stewart and Don McKellar are especially funny.; DVD $29.95 | Blu-Ray $34.95
Dracula - Pages From A Virgin's Diary (2002): One of the more interesting Dracula movies, this abandons the cliches and finds an interesting new structure. Staging Lucy's blood transfusion as a gang rape was astonishing and lays bare some unintentional subtext from the book.

Main menu

Section navigation menu

Pearce’s Film Reviews