Movie Log 2006: #1-2

Finally got around to watching Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare on 1/1. During the Film Festival I saw and blogged about a movie called The Great Yokai War. The IMDB claims it was a remake of this Spook Warfare thing, (which shares a Japanese title, Yokai Daisensho) but the plots were quite different. In Spook Warfare, some humans enlist the help of yokai, traditional Japanese spirits, to defeat a Babylonian vampire (yeah, don't ask). Basically it answered the question of what would have happened had Sid and Marty Krofft been born on the Pacific Rim.

Then the other night we watched Odd Man Out (1947). During a botched robbery, a well-known IRA figure (James Mason) kills someone, is wounded, and is separated from his accomplices. He's then sought by the cops, his partners, and his girlfriend, as well as any number of locals who want him for their own ends. It had me until the third act, when it introduced a tediously over-the-top painter character. At that point it probably lost more of my goodwill than was necessary.
Of note to geeks: the bartender is played by William Hartnell, who would later go on to become the first Dr. Who. This was apparently remade in the '60s, this time with Sidney Poitier as a black militant. Sounds horrific.