Movie Review: "Captain Kidd" (1945; United Artists/Cheezy Flicks)

...there's an old saying, about 'truth' being 'stranger then fiction'; often we hear about stories, related to certain historical figures or celebrities, which we'd come to accept as the norm, and yet, when one digs deeper amidst the common pleasantries, one finds that there's a lot more to the story, than originally related. As much as we want ever so much to forever remember and recall the best and most significant deeds and behavior of a famous person, we are also drawn toward the underlining controversy, as far as the true nature of the person...and often times, that 'true nature' isn't hardly what we expected, or perhaps would rather not have known about. And then, there's the opposite side of the matter...a matter which suggests that this historical figure or famous personality has proven to possess a relatively interesting background...but not in Hollywood's terms; and when that happens...well, our fine and fettered Hollywood writers & filmmakers, just can't help but deftly and creatively weave greater interest and intrigue, for the fascinating, albeit less-than-charismatic character...fiction, yes, but fiction deftly woven into fact. It's happened countless times in the magically embellishing realm of Hollywoodland, and such is the case with one of Cheezy Flicks recent additions to their spansive selection of films; indeed, from a historical point of view, one definitely won't come across any new revelations about Captain William Kidd, in the daring pirate adventure excursion from 1945, United Artists' "Captain Kidd", but what the filmmaking powers that be, have come up with, herein...on an anemic shoestring budget, no less...is still a whole heck of a lot of fun to watch...

Movie Review: The Guillotines (We Pictures/Well Go Entertainment)

...being a devoted fan of martial arts cinema...from '70's old-school chop socky...to slick, action-driven, dramatically infused modern period pieces...this viewer often found himself particularly drawn to the quite imaginative, dynamic and exotic, albeit quite deadly weaponry, sometimes even more so than the prerequisite and choreographed hand-to-hand combat, in these films. The more exotic and constructively practical the weapon was, the more this viewer felt compelled to study it's historic use even further, even going as far as to verify whether or not the weapon was genuinely used by ancient warriors past, or was merely the imaginative product of the writers and filmmakers. Such was the case with the dreaded 'xuedizi'...a term literally translating into 'blood dripper', but to fans of chop socky cinema, this device was better known as the 'flying guillotine'. Amazingly enough, ancient history reveals that during the Quig Dynasty, covering a large era of time, from 1644 to 1912, the flying guillotine was indeed reportedly used by skilled Tibetan assassins...a skill which clearly involved amazingly keen and sightful precision (...the movies tend to make use of this weapon, look soooooo easy). The jaw-dropping level of dynamics, with regards to early martial arts films, was invariably raised, with the inclusion of this deadly and gruesome piece of precision weaponry, with the classic 1976 martial arts epic, "Masters of the Flying Guillotine", being the most famous, in featuring the fatal head-chopping tool. As visually compelling as the weapon was, it genuinely surprises most fans of martial arts cinema, that the flying guillotine wasn't utilized more in the movies; that disregard might well have seen long-overdue cessation, with the recent 're-invention' of the fatal bladed weapon, in 2012's visually striking, albeit heavily dramatic, and overly muddled martial arts epic, "The Guillotines"...