ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joseph Perry writes for the film websites Gruesome Magazine, The Scariest Things, Horror Fuel, The Good, the Bad and the Verdict and Diabolique Magazine; for the film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope and Drive-In Asylum; and for the pop culture websites When It Was Cool and Uphill Both Ways. He is also one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast and can occasionally be heard as a cohost on Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast.

Official synopsis: We’ve seen them fight, we’ve seen them chill, but in BABY ASSASSINS 3, we see Chisato (Akari Takaishi) and Mahiro (Saori Izawa) at the apex of their skills as they take on a brutally nihilistic freelance killer who aims to take their place atop the assassin food chain. Director Sakamoto Yugo and action director Sonomura Kensuke are back with the most exciting and dangerous chapter in the Baby Assassins saga to date. This time, it’s a fight for their lives.

The Baby Assassins films rawk mightily, with loads of incredible, beautifully choreographed martial arts set pieces and terrific performances by the two leads,  Akari Takaishi as the highly extroverted Chisato and Saori Izawa as the more reticent Mahiro, both working together as a duo of professional killers. Obviously the third entry in the series, Baby Assassins 3 (though formerly titled Baby Assassins: Nice Days) finds writer/director Yugo Sakamoto delivering what may arguably be the most accessible of the trilogy. This is due in part to toning down the more annoying aspects of the characters’ personalities a bit — they are often more sullen and hot-tempered in the previous films — and some of the zaniness that goes along with that. But hey, the series wouldn’t have made it to a third entry if viewers didn’t love their chemistry. 

Though this is certainly the darkest film in the trilogy, not to worry, as plenty of comedy is still in the mix to balance out the proceedings quite effectively. Sôsuke Ikematsu co-stars as unhinged freelance killer-for-hire Kaede Fuyumura, whose target for his 150th kill is the same as the girls’ next assigned job. 

Action director Kensuke Sonomura delivers jaw-dropping fight choreography, including frenetic, mesmerizing set pieces, from close-quarters martial arts inside a tight hallway to wide-open gunplay sequences involving chases down multiple floors. Baby Assassins 3 is worth watching for its action alone, but the performances from Takaishi, Izawa, Ikematsu, and the fine supporting players are all highly commendable as well, and Sakamoto invests the relationship between Chisato and Mahiro with impressive dramatic weight. 

Baby Assassins 3 is an absolute blast. Whereas in many action sequels we can expect the protagonists to survive whatever is thrown their way, making viewers less invested in fight scenes because of predictable outcomes, Sakamoto delivers tension multiple times in this entry as to whether either young woman will live to see Mahiro’s quickly upcoming 21st birthday. Action film devotees, action comedy fans, and Japanese comedy aficionados should consider Baby Assassins 3 a must-see viewing. 

Baby Assassins 3, from Well Go USA, debuts on Digital and Blu-ray on August 26, 2025.

Why does Popeye need revenge?

Along with Popeye the Slayer Man and Shiver Me Timbers, this is what happens when a property goes into the public domain.

ITN also made the Twisted Childhood Universe — Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, its sequel, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare and Bambi: The Reckoning — which reimagine your favorite storybooks as slashers. This is the same thing, with Johnny (Steven Murphy) popping out a bully’s eyes and getting the name Popeye and…man, I can make it through all the Amityville films and the Popeye and Mickey Mouse movies may be the end of me.

Olive (Kelly Rian Sanson) is Popeye’s sister in this, and final girl Tara (Emily Mogilner) kills her and Popeye, dispatching the sailor with a lawnmower because, well, look, I got nothing.

Did director William Stead and writer Harry Boxley ever see a single Popeye cartoon? Ah, Boxley also made Mouse of Horrors and Cinderella’s Curse. It all makes sense now.

Look, I love a slasher. I just want people to consider, if they’re going to take a public domain property and make a movie, maybe they can make something different. But no, Popeye and Mickey Mouse are monstrous death machines, and in 2026, Pluto the dog, Betty Boop and Nancy Drew’s story “The Secret of the Old Clock” will all be killing people too.

You can watch this on Tubi.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joseph Perry writes for the film websites Gruesome Magazine, The Scariest Things, Horror Fuel, The Good, the Bad and the Verdict and Diabolique Magazine; for the film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope and Drive-In Asylum; and for the pop culture websites When It Was Cool and Uphill Both Ways. He is also one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast and can occasionally be heard as a cohost on Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast.

Official synopsis: Graham Chapman stars as happily married Arthur Harris, who becomes suicidal when his wife suddenly up and leaves him. Trying and failing miserably to do the deed himself, when a peculiar handyman (BAFTA-winner Sir David Jason) turns up on his doorstep to offer his services, he enlists the help of this strange stranger to kill him instead, with shockingly hilarious results.

As a decades-long fan of Monty Python’s Flying Circus and the various projects with which the members of its troupe have been involved, I was keen on checking out director Peter Medak’s 1978 feature The Odd Job starring Graham Chapman. Cowritten by Chapman and Bernard McKenna, the film is one of those comedies where you can tell what was meant to be funny, but the humor just doesn’t land successfully enough to garner many actual laughs. 

Although the performances are generally fine — Richard O’Brien as the leather queen henchman of a gangster is a scene stealer — characters are often written or portrayed broadly, or seemingly just there for convenience, whether it be for attempts at laughs or to try to make the plot more absurd. Questions abound, such as why Harris would continue to want to commit suicide when a neighbor in his building attempts to seduce him the very night his wife left him, and why, after Harris’s wife returns home, he doesn’t simply try to let his would-be murderer know that the plan is off.

As a curiosity, The Odd Job is certainly worth a watch, as it is interesting to see what Chapman, McKenna, and Medak were attempting to pull off. Monty Python and Graham Chapman completists will definitely want to give it a look.

Chapman and McKenna were a bit more successful with 1983’s Yellowbeard, which saw Peter Cook join the duo as a co-writer.

Severin Films releases The Odd Job in its worldwide Blu-ray premiere on 25 August 2025, and the film will also be available on digital on Amazon Prime on the same date. The film is now scanned in 2K from director Peter Medak’s personal 35mm print and comes complete with a slew of special features. It’s available to pre-order now at https://severinfilms.co.uk/.