First up the 1989 horror film Warlock. It was written by David Twohy and directed by Steve Miner. Twohy would go on to write and direct the Riddick series and Alien 3. Julian Sands is an evil wizard who lives in 1691 Boston. He's been captured by Richard E Grant and awaits killing after a trail. That's a big mistake, the court should have dragged him from the court and chopped him up in the street. Julian manages to escape into the future and the magical whoosh pulls Richard along. Julian crashes through the window of a house that has Lori Singer and and a guy, who's dies soon after we meet him, living there. Richard shows up after Julian has gone and teams up with Lori to go after Julian. The evil warlock is after the three parts of the Grand Grimoire so he can destroy creation with a magical word. What a dick, huh. Richard and Lori stumble along and eventually save the world. I thought it was alright, I'd seen it back in 1992 and remember liking it more than I did this time. There are two more sequels and all are in a single set. I considered buying one but after seeing the movie again, I probably won't bother. Maybe if it was cheap, say a fiver.
Our second movie was the 1944 action fantasy Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves. It's got a screenplay by Edmund L Hartmann that doesn't follow the original story very much. Arthur Lubin is the director, he's later direct 131 episodes, out of 145, of Mister Ed. He directed The Incredible Mr Limpet and the first 6 of the Francis the Talking Mule movies. He's had plenty of work over the years and usually does an OK job, here he's kind of weak. The movie has a nice look to it but it drags along. We all enjoyed Andy Devine as the prince's protector. I watched the 1940 Alexander Korda film The Thief Of Bagdad recently and that was a more entertaining film.
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