After murdering a crooked lawyer to the strains of a bubblegum-pop song, stone-cold government assassin Zero Woman (played by Mai Taichira) adopts a "stray dog" of a street hustler, a combination boyfriend and pet who hides a deadly secret. Taichira is more expressive than other Zero Women, at times even cheerful, but is still ready to lose her clothes for numerous showers and sex scenes. More muddled than previous Zero Woman films, this one abruptly changes direction from the investigation of a double agent in the government to a cross-dressing serial killer. Yet this sleek, low-budget video production has its charms beyond the expected boobs and bullets: the empty, artfully austere apartments Zero Woman inhabits (an echo of the film's inspiration, La Femme Nikita), the impulsive loyalty she invests in fleeting friends, and an emotional ferocity that takes over the unusually affecting climax. More than in any other film, Zero Woman here becomes a tragic figure, trapped in a prison known as Zero Division, doomed to the life of a killer, under the thumb of a bored boss who informs her "You aren't the first and you won't be the last. " He was right: this was Taichira's only appearance as Zero Woman. -Sean Axmaker.

Mickey Spillane plays his own creation, street-thug-turned-PI Mike Hammer, in this 1963 adaptation of his novel. The film opens with Hammer on the downside of a years-long bender, scooped out of the gutter by a bitter cop intent on prying information from a dying man. Inspired to clean up his act by the secrets he hears, Hammer hits the streets on a personal crusade to find the love of his life. Future Bond girl Shirley Earton costars as a glamorous society widow who goes slumming with Hammer. Spillane, who brings the grace of a trained monkey and the sex appeal of a Bronx cheer to the role, is less a stoic, tarnished street knight than a street bum at a cocktail party, but it works for the working-class pug. The low-budget production is a rare black-and-white CinemaScope picture, rough and messy but lacking the raw edge and gritty look of more accomplished crime pictures. B-movie veteran Roy Rowland directs with a lazy pace and a prosaic style that drags until he takes his camera to streets of New York City. The definitive Hammer remains Ralph Meeker in Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly, but Spillane makes a respectable runner-up. -Sean Axmaker It's outrageous good fun! Writer Mickey Spillane stars as his hard-boiled private detective Mike Hammer in this action-packed murder mystery. After seven years on a drunken binge over the disappearance of Velda, his former secretary, Hammer is picked up out of the gutter by the police and dropped smack-dab in the middle of a political bombshell where every lead seems to end in murder. [+]

Of all the Sherlock Holmes tales written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles (one of the four novels) remains the best-known. Adding a dash of the supernatural to the Great Detective's adventures, it is certainly one of the most dramatic-and an obvious target for screen interpretation. Prior to Jeremy Brett's indelibly making the role his own to modern TV audiences, Ian Richardson made for a suitably incisive and enthusiastic Holmes in this enjoyable 1983 adaptation. The much-filmed tale finds Holmes and Watson drawn in to the mysterious curse afflicting the well-heeled Baskerville dynasty. Is a monster stalking the heir to the Baskerville fortune, or is the culprit a far from demonic force? As Holmes, Richardson is blessed with the avian features that, like Basil Rathbone's or Peter Cushing's, effectively capture Sidney Paget's original likeness. Though Holmes's more antisocial facets are dispensed with, Richardson is engaging in such a well-explored role, recalling the razor-sharp wit and intelligence of Rathbone. Attracting a distinguished British cast (Brian Blessed, Denholm Elliot, Martin Shaw) and decent production values (though with a few Hammer Horror moments), this will not disappoint fans of Victorian literature's finest detective, nor those in search of a classic, chilling thriller. -Danny Graydon.