Boogeyman 2 (2007)

I can't, in all honesty, say that Boogeyman 2 is a GREAT horror movie. But I can easily say that it's quite a step up from the first movie. In fact, apart from one main connection, you could happily avoid the painful experience of watching the first film and just skip straight to this one.

Danielle Savre plays Laura Porter, a young woman who decides to check into the mental health facility that seemed to do so much good for her brother (Henry, played by Matt Cohen). Laura and Henry were scarred many years ago by a traumatic night that led to the loss of their parents. As Matt heads off to start rebuilding his adult life, Laura puts herself in the hands of Dr. Jessica Ryan (Renee O'Connor) and Dr. Mitchell Allen (Tobin Bell). Unfortunately, it's not long until a number of her fellow patients start dying, and in ways that seem tied to their deepest fears. Is the boogeyman real, or have one of the doctors decided to try more radical methods of treatment?

While the script by Brian Sieve is simply competent, and the direction by Jeff Betancourt is perfectly fine, Boogeyman 2 actually manages to impress with one or two moments of real nastiness. The dressing may be standard, sanitised stuff, but the death scenes here are sometimes wince-inducingly painful, which is all the more surprising considering the blandness of some other aspects of the film. The supporting characters are a mixed bad, and it's hard to care for most of them, the facility always feels like a horror movie set as opposed to a real building (like, for example, those many horror movie hospitals that never have more than one or two staff working in them at night), and the final act revelations will neither surprise nor impress full-time horror fans.

Savre is fine in the lead role, I guess, but it's the supporting cast that provides more fun for movie fans. The appearance of Bell, of course, immediately makes him a prime suspect (due to his prominent role in the Saw franchise), but O'Connor also plays up to the fact that her character could be good or evil, simply because all of the adults disbelieving younger characters with legitimate fears can be viewed as potential baddies in a movie series that has shown how far things can be affected by the fear of fear itself. Then we have Mae Whitman and Johnny Simmons as two patients, the former unable to stop her habit of cutting herself and the latter suffering from OCD relating to hygiene. They both stand out, making the film much more enjoyable than it otherwise would have been. The same, sadly, can't be said for Christine Griffith, Michael Graziadei, Lesli Margherita, or any of the others that I may have already forgotten. Cohen does okay, but he's not onscreen long enough to make much of an impression either way.

If, like me, you never thought of checking out the sequels to the awful Boogeyman then it may be worth reconsidering your stance. You're not missing out on too much if you never watch this movie, but it's an easygoing bit of entertainment if you have 90 minutes to fill and you're in the mood for something undemanding and gory.

5/10

http://www.amazon.com/Triple-Feature-Boogeyman-Barry-Watson/dp/B003UN0752/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1411851034&sr=1-1&keywords=boogeyman

Sugar Hill (1974)

When her boyfriend is murdered by a group of gangsters, the sexy and tough Sugar Hill (Marki Bey) intends to get her revenge. She enlists the help of Mama Maitresse (Zara Cully) and Baron Samedi (Don Pedro Colley), which leads to a number of problematic deaths for the gangsters. It's hard to think of Sugar as being the one responsible, but it's also harder to imagine that there might be zombies, and other voodoo practices, being used as particularly effective dispatchment methods. The deaths certainly stump a cop named Valentine (Richard Lawson), who also seems to carry a torch for Sugar, which is understandable.

Written by Tim Kelly, and directed by Paul Maslansky, Sugar Hill is a bit of a minor classic thanks to the way it successfully straddles both the horror genre and the blaxploitation boom of the '70s. Unlike some other attempts to blend the two (there have been many bad examples, and a few good ones), this gets everything just right in a way that will please fans of both movie types. There may be few actual scares, but each death is a fairly enjoyable set-piece, with viewers getting a real feel for the dread that the potential victims experience. As outlandish as the premise is, Kelly grounds the horror/supernatural elements in a standard blaxploitation environment that feels easily believable, albeit easily believable in a movie world way. Maslansky treats the script as a handy guideline, moving between the darker scenes into the bright, colourful moments that show Sugar going about her daily business.

Bey is great in the title role, touch and sexy and smart. She's someone that you root for, making the movie all the more satisfying as one death leads to another and another, until you know that there's only the head baddie (Robert Quarry) left to be dealt with. Speaking of Quarry, he's a very entertaining villain. Ruthless, cool, and always sending his men along to do work that saves him from getting his hands dirty. Betty Anne Rees makes a great impression as his partner, a woman who may now have lots of disposable income, but wouldn't ever buy a touch of class, even if it was in a half-price sale. Lawson also makes a great impression as the caring cop who just knows that something is wrong with the recent deaths he ends up investigating. Cully is suitably mystical and mysterious as Mama Maitresse, but Colley is the other big draw here, playing Baron Samedi as a powerful, sly, amused, magic man who likes to stay close enough to those who ask for his help and see how things pan out for their victims. He's a man-child, laughing at flies trapped in a spiderweb.

Cool, and also a bit kitsch nowadays, this isn't a film you necessarily want to spend too much time putting a label on. It's fun, first and foremost, and that's the main thing. If you haven't seen it yet, then be sure to bump it up the list of prioritised viewings. I'm glad that I did.

8/10

http://www.amazon.com/Sugar-Hill-1974-Marki-Bey/dp/B000CQCROE/ref=sr_1_3?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1412110707&sr=1-3&keywords=sugar+hill

Witching & Bitching (2013)

If you're unfamiliar with the name Alex de la Iglesia then you may have missed out on some of the most entertaining Spanish movies in the last two decades (and, yes, I am aware of how much competition those movies have). The man has given audiences one near-classic in The Day Of The Beast, one full classic in The Last Circus, and one of the best films that too few people have heard of, Perdita Durango. He also directed Accion Mutante, as well as quite a few others (that I've not seen yet, but am looking forward to getting to at some point).

And this film. Yes, Alex de la Iglesia definitely directed this film. You can tell within the first few scenes, mixing his usual healthy sense of humour with some decidedly twisted material. He also co-wrote the movie with Jorge Guerricaechevarria, and the two men once again decide to run with some entertainingly wild ideas.

Hugo Silva plays Jose, a man whom viewers first get to see dressed up like Jesus. He then takes part in an armed robbery, accompanied by a man made up to look like a toy soldier (Antonio, played by Mario Casas) and his young son. It soon becomes clear that Jose feels he was driven to this act by a sense of desperation, but while the three robbers flee from the police and think about their actions they end up heading towards a village full of witches. It's going to be an eventful night, to say the least.

I expected Witching & Bitching to be a lot of fun, and it was. There were witches, and there was a fair bit of bitching between the main characters. What surprised me, however, was the fact that this also spent a fair bit of time commenting on male emasculation in modern society. The fact that this commentary takes place around characters who often act like complete idiots saves the movie from feeling like a bitter rant against women, but only just. Perhaps I'm being charitable, so consider this fair warning to anyone more incensed by such "battle of the sexes" content.

Silva is constantly charming in the lead role, even as his character is displaying such major flaws from the opening scenes. Casas is a lot of fun, and the two men play off each other pretty well. Young Gabriel Angel Delgado is a lot of fun as Sergio, the young lad dragged along by his irresponsible father, and Jaime Ordonez is great as the driver of a cab hijacked by the fleeing criminals. As for the female characters, Carolina Bang is the star of the show. She plays Eva, a young, attractive witch who finds herself distracted by the appearance of Jose. Macarena Gomez is understandably on edge throughout most of the movie, being the ex-wife of Jose, and the mother of Sergio, and she gives a great performance. Terele Pavez and Carmen Maura complete the main cast, with the former acting senile and bemused before trying to attack people with sharp metal dentures, and the latter treating the whole night as one big potential dinner party. Carlos Areces also shows up, in a small but memorable role (and I felt I had to mention him because of his prominence in other movies from De La Iglesia).

Most genre fans will enjoy this a lot. It's quirky, visually stylish, mixes some decent action beats in with the supernatural shenanigans and humour, and the characters are all fun to spend time with. The special effects veer between the impressive and the amusingly clumsy (e.g. some shots of two women scurrying around on a ceiling look like test footage rejected by the Harry Potter movies), but that's the only technical complaint I have. Yet it doesn't come together as it should. Somehow, unlike his other movies, this feels a bit forced. Despite one or two bravura sequences in the final third of the movie, the second half feels like De La Iglesia trying desperately to make a De La Iglesia movie. I much prefer his output when he works harder to make it appear effortless.

7/10

http://www.amazon.com/Witching-Bitching-Pepon-Nieto/dp/B00LTKTINK/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1411769623&sr=1-1&keywords=witching+and+bitching

The Church (1989)

Directed by Michele Soavi, The Church is, allegedly, an official sequel to the Demons movies. I'm not sure who decided that, considering that it bears very little resemblance to those other films, beyond the superficial similarities (e.g. some people in a building, and some demons causing problems).

The plot is much more reminiscent of Prince Of Darkness, dealing with a group of people in a church who are unfortunate enough to witness something truly evil arising. Perhaps. There's a priest (Hugh Quarshie) who might be able to help good triumph over any demonic attack, a couple of scholarly, but not old and dull, folks (Tomas Arana and Barbara Cupisti) who might also be able to help, if they're not too busy making eyes at one another and putting themselves in potential danger, and there's a young girl (Asia Argento) who knows a secret way in and out of the church that might just prove useful at some point.

The strangest thing about The Church is that it feels so dull, despite the fact that so much wonderful imagery is thrown around in the second half of the movie. There's a decent amount of gore, some real nastiness, and an air of sleaziness that fans of Italian horror should enjoy. This is the sort of movie in which you can feel the clammy presence oozing from every dark crevice of the featured building while also feeling the hot, uncomfortable looks that certain characters give to others as they come under the influence of evil.

Quarshie is pretty solid in his role, while Arana and Cupisti both make for decent potential leads until they're somewhat sidelined in the third act. Argento doesn't have to stretch herself, and is just fine, while genre fave Giovanni Lombardo Radice also joins in with the fun, accompanied by Feodor Chaliapin Jr, Antonella Vitale and Robert Caruso, among others.

Soavi's direction is as fluid and stylish as usual, and the screenplay (by Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini, and Soavi, as well as a few other helpers) tries to set everything up seriously, but makes the whole thing just that little bit absurd. The opening sequence alone feels like an outtake from Monty Python And The Holy Grail, and that's before you get to the scenes that show people talking about the history of the church and what discoveries might be made there AKA the laughably clumsy exposition moments.

But there's gore, death, lust, a score that uses Goblin, Philip Glass, Keith Emerson and Fabio Pignatelli, and some memorable imagery. Which is often all you need from these movies.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/Church-Hugh-Quarshie/dp/B000TZJCMS/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1411850939&sr=1-1&keywords=the+church

Theatre Of Blood (1973)

Vincent Price stars as a wronged Shakespearean actor, named Edward Kendal Sheridan Lionheart, in this comedic horror that brilliantly heaps the macabre upon the macabre with every subsequent sequence, and also allows Price to portray a number of roles from many of those classic Shakespeare plays.

It all starts with the death of a critic, a single murder that the police investigate with little idea of the motive. When other critics start to die, however, it quickly becomes clear that all of the people have something in common. They all have their own little clique, and they've all greatly upset (to say the least) an actor they thought had died some time ago. But Lionheart isn't dead, and his flair for the theatrical means that those critics are going to help him realise perhaps his greatest repertory season yet.

Directed by Douglas Hickox, Theatre Of Blood benefits enormously from the fun script by Anthony Greville-Bell and the magnificence of such a great ensemble cast. That's not to take anything away from Hickox, who shows such great judgment in the way he treats the material, leading viewers deeper and deeper into territory that becomes surprisingly unpleasant in tone while also making it all just bearable enough to amuse and horrify in equal measure.

Price is the star of the show, and oh how he shines. He gets to recite many famous lines, dress up as a variety of characters, and simply revel in the inspired lunacy of his character in a way that's infectious whenever he appears onscreen. Diana Rigg is lovely and suspicious in the role of his daughter, a woman who resents all those who she thinks drove her father to his death. And Milo O'Shea and Eric Sykes are both enjoyable enough as two of the main police officers trying to stop more brutal murders on their patch. But it's in the casting of the critics that the film gains more bonus points. Michael Hordern, Robert Morley, Arthur Lowe, Coral Browne, Jack Hawkins, Dennis Price, Harry Andrews, Robert Coote and Ian Hendry all prove to be great entertainment, portraying a bunch of smug, nasty critics who don't seem entirely undeserving of their fates. Hendry is the man who pieces everything together, and helps the police to see just what's going on, but everyone gets at least one great scene apiece.

Price considered this film a personal favourite and it's not hard to see why. He always wanted to stretch his wings a bit more, but was so solidly typecast in the prime of his career that it wasn't to be. This film allowed him to stay within the genre that had won him such a loyal army of fans, while also letting him deliver so many great speeches that he would otherwise not had the chance to perform onscreen. It's a win win situation for the star and his fans, making this a film that you won't want to miss.

9/10

This is the disc I recommend purchasing - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Theatre-Blood-Blu-ray-Vincent-Price/dp/B00IJE1QU2/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1411828432&sr=1-1&keywords=theatre+of+blood

ABCs Of Death 2 (2014)

When The ABCs Of Death was released a couple of years ago I was very excited. Then I watched the film. One or two segments weren't great, but that was alright as they were short enough so I knew that another one would be along in a minute. Then more segments weren't great. And more. And a few more. The film just managed to hit an above-average rating, but it was a real wasted opportunity, in my opinion. Of course, the whole idea behind the movie makes it hard to maintain any consistency - as a variety of directors are given one letter of the alphabet, a set budget, and the creative freedom to do whatever they like.

Thankfully, and somewhat surprisingly, ABCs Of Death 2 manages to well and truly make up for the disappointment of its predecessor. There's still that unavoidable uneven feeling at times, but none of the segments truly stink (in the way that the ironically-named "F for Fart" did, for example). And almost every punchline is either disturbing or hilarious, or both.

Frustratingly, I can't say much more about the film. Part of the fun, as it was the first time around, is trying to figure out what word the directors have gone for. I thought that the first segment, for example, would be called "A for Assassin". It's not.

With a roster of talent that includes Larry Fessenden, those Twisted Twins (Jen and Sylvia Soska), Vincenzo Natali, Bill Plympton, Robert Morgan, Julian Barratt, Julian Gilbey, Juan Nartinez Moreno, Steve Kostanski, Hajime Ohata, Alexandre Bustillo, and many more, this is almost as well-travelled as the first movie. I say almost, however, because there seemed to be a bit of a predominance of British talent involved this time around. Maybe that was just the luck of the draw, maybe it was for financial reasons, or maybe I just noticed the Brits more than the other nationalities involved. Either way, I was pleased to see such good representation from the UK.

Highlights, without giving away any title names, include segments A, B, C, D, J, Q, R, S, T, Y and Z. Yes, I know those letters will mean nothing to you right now. You'll just have to watch the film and find out which ones you agree with me on, if any.

Varied in style - you get some animated shorts, one black and white segment, some that are haunting and sedate, and some that are ramped-up shots of sheer viscera - this is an anthology movie that really does have something for everyone. You'll laugh, you'll wince, you may even be stunned once or twice, and you'll be alphabetically entertained throughout. And it's a perfect viewing choice for the run up to Halloween. Check it out, help it to be a success, and who knows . . . . . . we might just get a third outing that's just as good as this one.

8/10

http://www.amazon.com/ABCs-Death-2-Ian-Virgo/dp/B00O40EEE0/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1412422687&sr=1-2&keywords=abcs+of+death+2

Boogeyman (2005)

Boogeyman is just rubbish. Sometimes I can't be bothered stretching out a review to say what I can just blurt out in one quick sentence. But I've still got some unofficial word count to reach, and you may still want to hear a bit more about it, so I'll kick myself up the backside and think of other things to say about this insipid disappointment.

After a decent prologue, I'll give it that, we then get to move forward by many years. Barry Watson is Tim, the adult version of the child who went through such trauma in the previous scenes. Tim remains seriously affected by that incident from his youth. He doesn't like dark closet spaces, and remains convinced that the boogeyman is a real thing that might just catch him one day. Everyone else spends time trying to convince him of how wrong he is and, of course, it turns out that he's right.

There's a germ of a decent idea here in Boogeyman, a seed in the script (written by Eric Kripke, Juliet Snowden and Stiles White) that is, sadly, given minimal attention and care until it gives up and dies.

Director Stephen Kay can't seem to grasp the technical side of things. He forgets to make his horror film actually scary, and instead throws in some godawful CGI and scenes that show the lead character being all brooding and tense. By the time a few scenes try to impress in the final third it's just a case of too little too late.

Watson isn't a strong leading man either. He's not awful, I guess, but he fares much worse here than he did in the comedy framework of Sorority Boys. Perhaps that's because he's not given much screentime with anyone else, apart from the dodgy CGI. There IS a supporting cast of characters, but they're either not given enough screentime (Skye McCole Bartusiak), aren't that likable (Tory Mussett), or aren't given much to do at all (Emily Deschanel).

Heck, even Darkness Falls was better than this, and I really don't like Darkness Falls that much. The similarities between both movies are obvious, and the two of them make for a depressing checklist of how not to make a modern, mainstream horror movie. Laziness, carelessness and an over-reliance on CGI moments are things to avoid. Unfortunately, nobody is passing that advice along to the many directors out there. Or, if they are, then it's going unheeded.

Boogeyman at least spawned a couple of superior sequels, so there's that minor miracle to be thankful for. And you can watch those movies without having to see this one.

3/10

http://www.amazon.com/Triple-Feature-Boogeyman-Barry-Watson/dp/B003UN0752/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1411769313&sr=1-1&keywords=boogeyman

You know how you can make me feel better for watching this crap? If you share and share then every additional reader helps. Connect through Google or Blogger or any way you can, and rest easy in the knowledge that you've made little ol' me a very happy man.

And/or you could also buy my e-book, that has almost every review I've written over the past 5 years. It's very reasonably priced for the sheer amount of content.

The UK version can be bought here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1395945647&sr=1-3&keywords=movie+guide

And American folks can buy it here - http://www.amazon.com/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395945752&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=TJs+ramshackle+mov

As much as I love the rest of the world, I can't keep up with all of the different links in different territories, but trust me when I say that it should be there on your local Amazon.

Bonus Review: Let's Be Cops (2014)

It's not that hard to make a decent, mainstream comedy. I may not rave about them at every opportunity, but films like We're The Millers and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone are movies that do all that I require from them. They keep me happy, and often chuckling, for the duration. So why do so many movies get it wrong, either relying on the talent/charisma of some leading player who doesn't have the right stuff, or simply misfiring most of the gags? It's a mystery, especially when you get to enjoy a film like Let's Be Cops, a slice of fun that works so well mainly because of a fantastic premise, helped by the chemistry between the two leading men.

Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. star as, respectively, Ryan and Justin. The two men aren't where they want to be in their lives. A blunt, cruel person might even simply refer to them as losers. But things take a turn for the better when they decide to go to a party one evening dressed as cops. They soon realise that a lot of people are looking at them differently, looking at them as if they are real cops. Caught up in the good feeling, the two decide to take things farther than they should, eventually landing themselves in some major hot water when they take on a criminal (James D'Arcy) who isn't afraid to threaten even officers of the law.

I could say that Let's Be Cops is a bit of an easy ride for everyone involved. It just seems impossible to screw up, but that's only something I can think now because it wasn't screwed up. You just need to watch the similar(-ish) Ride Along to see the material being twisted into something inferior for the sake of making it into a star vehicle. This movie isn't a star vehicle, yet Wayans Jr. and Johnson come out of it shining brightly.

The direction from Luke Greenfield, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Nicholas Thomas, is solid. Everything moves from A to B quickly enough, and the only major complaint about the plotting is how predictable things become in the second half. But it's a predictability that, like everything else in the movie, simply enhances the fun. It's a comforting set of twists and turns showing that a plot HAS actually been wrapped around the comedic set-pieces without ever taking too much time away from the laughs.

As much as I'm tempted to, I won't go on and on about the two leading men any more. They're both brilliant, individually and when sharing their many scenes together. Nina Dobrev does as well as can be expected in the role of Josie AKA the love interest for Wayans Jr. It's a potentially thankless part to play, but Dobrev still manages to bring something more to the table than just her attractive looks. D'Arcy is a convincingly cold villain, and always feels like a viable threat, even before things really heat up for our two leads. Rob Riggle and Andy Garcia are both excellent as two very different law enforcement officers, with the former coming along at just the right time to save the movie from any potential lull in proceedings. And I can't forget to mention the scene-stealing turns from Natasha Leggero and Keegan-Michael Key. Leggero plays a woman turned on by the cops who need to use her home as a surveillance point, while Key is a helpful informant who just doesn't know when to keep inappropriate comments to himself.

It's not the most sophisticated comedy you'll ever see, and it's also far from the funniest, but Let's Be Cops proves to be surprisingly effective at mixing some big laughs with characters you end up actually caring about. Which makes it more deserving of your time than at least 80% of the mainstream comedies that have tried to take your money in the last few years.

7/10

http://www.amazon.com/Lets-Cops-Blu-ray-James-DArcy/dp/B00NQH5IBU/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1412116867&sr=1-2&keywords=let%27s+be+cops

Wer (2013)

Directed and written by the men responsible for The Devil Inside - THAT should have been my first warning sign. Possibly full of scenes shot to resemble found footage - THAT should have been my second warning sign. The third warning sign? Well, I guess you could take your pick from any of the moments during the first half hour that start to cause your spidey-sense to tingle.

Wer is an attempt to deliver a werewolf movie to the i-phone generation. It mixes faux-news footage with other recordings, while also using a standard shooting style that's so wobbly and irritating it may just as well be found footage. In fact, that stylistic choice is one of the biggest things working against the movie. Well, that and the fact that the leads are pretty annoying. Oh, and also that the story plays out predictably, with a reliance on occasional jump scares and a disappointing lack of anything to make it a truly memorable werewolf movie.

A.J. Cook plays Kate Moore, a lawyer who is defending a man named Talan Gwynek (Brian Scott O'Connor) against murder charges. The murder was a particularly vicious one, hard to believe that it was committed by a human being at all, and it seems that Gwynek was arrested on the flimsiest of circumstantial evidence. The leading officer on the case, Klaus Pistor (Sebastian Roche), is convinced that they've got their man. Is Gwynek an ill man who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or is he capable of such a feral attack?

William Brent Bell needs to be stopped. He seems to be a man allowed to direct movies on the basis that executives don't think movies need actual direction nowadays. Oh no, not at all. This is the marvellous age of movies made on HD cameras and even smartphones. Just point in the direction of your protagonists and forget about anything else.

But that's not how it works, so why can't someone tell Bell that. This particular story isn't told through found footage, not entirely anyway, so why he insists on using that aesthetic for every scene is a stylistic choice that shows, in my opinion, his severe limitations as a film director. The script, which he co-wrote with Matthew Peterman, is also lacking some major amount of polish, but it doesn't help that the cast deliver their lines with little to no enthusiasm, with the sole exception of Roche, who makes the whole experience a bit more bearable.

Cook is poor, Simon Quarterman is worse, Vik Sahay is on a par with Quarterman, and those are the three characters that viewers have to spend most of their time with. Quarterman plays an expert who is helping on the case, and also an ex-partner of Cook, while Sahay is some kind of PR guru that all great lawyers must have. O'Connor isn't bad in the role of Gwynek, mainly thanks to his physical performance.

One or two scenes save the film from being completely unwatchable, but even those scenes are almost spoiled by some horribly inept CGI gore that wouldn't look out of place in a console game. That's a shame because there's some computer work elsewhere that enhances moments of slight physical transformation, decent work that hints at how impressive this material could have been, in more capable hands.

Some people will still find this enjoyable enough. I am hoping to never have to see it again, and I'll be very apprehensive when about to watch any future movies from William Brent Bell.

4/10

http://www.amazon.com/WER-J-Cook/dp/B00LM4A21A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1411734877&sr=8-2&keywords=wer

Don't Look Now (1973)

Don't Look Now has always been THAT film for me. A much-loved classic that I just don't get. Yet, unlike some other movies that I disagree with people on, this is a film that contains many individual aspects that impress me. It just, somehow, doesn't come together in a way that makes it the modern classic many others view it as.

Most people are familiar with the plot, and many will already know the ending, but I'll still try to keep things as spoiler-free as possible. Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie play John and Laura Baxter, a couple who spend the majority of the movie in shock and prolonged mourning after the sudden death of their young daughter, Christine. In Venice, because that's where John's work has taken them, they start to experience some strange visions, perhaps portents or perhaps messages from the spirit of Christine.

Based on a story by Daphne Du Maurier, Don't Look Now may have a decent script by Alan Scott and Chris Bryant, but it's very much a film with the fingerprints of director Nicolas Roeg all over it. That's unsurprising, considering what a unique and daring artist Roeg is. All of his movies tend to benefit from masterful editing, unflinching observation of people in bad situations, and scenes that mix grit and darkness with a strange beauty. All of these things are present and correct here.

The editing, in particular, needs to be mentioned again while praising the many plus points that the movie has. One of the most famous sex scenes in cinema history is contained in this film, and it's made all the more brilliant because of the intercutting between the actual lovemaking and the afterglow present in the characters as we watch them getting ready for an evening out. The same technique is used in other sequences, always allowing the events unfolding onscreen to have a bit more impact, thanks to the juxtaposition of imagery and/or excess of visual stimuli being put forward for the viewer.

Sutherland and Christie are both good enough in their lead roles, with the latter being the more believable and enjoyable of the two. Sutherland is saddled with more of the histrionics, and I won't blame him for some of the problems with the script (his overreaction to certain events, for example). Hilary Mason and Clelia Matania certainly spice up the proceedings, playing two elderly sisters who could have wandered straight in from any Lucio Fulci movie. There are many other supporting players, including Massimo Serato, Renato Scarpa and Adelina Perio, but few make much of an impression (except the latter).

See? I can't put my finger on too much that I really want to criticise. The film manages to capture a sense of grief and loss that practically emanates from every frame, and at the same time it reminds viewers of how much worse a situation can seem when you're in a foreign country without the language knowledge required to understand most conversations. And there's another great score from Pino Donaggio. It's a very good film, in many ways, but then it just has so much that doesn't feel either relevant, effective or tense, including a number of scenes in the final third. While it may be unfair to label it in such a way, it has never fully worked for me as a horror movie. I've never found it to be all that atmospheric or unnerving.

Certainly worth your time, and you may well find yourself agreeing with the many people who LOVE it. But it will never be one of my favourites.

7/10

Get this version, for the best picture and sound (to my knowledge) - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dont-Look-Now-Special-Blu-ray/dp/B004EMS034/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1411735005&sr=1-2&keywords=don%27t+look+now

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014)

Part of the popular horror franchise, but also one that COULD be watched by those who have yet to see the other instalments, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones deserves bonus points for actually delivering more than just one or two jump scares punctuating scenes of interminable boredom. There's a lot to be said for subtlety and understatement in the horror genre, but there's also a feeling that sometimes the Paranormal Activity series is slightly taking the piss.

Andrew Jacobs is Jesse, a young man who has recently graduated high school. He then decides to move forward in life by investigating the apartment of the neighbour who used to live below him. She was murdered, and her apartment is full of videotapes, weird markings, and stuff that looks like it could be used in spellcasting. Jesse then decides to try out a spell, joined by his friends, Hector (Jorge Diaz) and Marisol (Gabrielle Walsh). It turns out that attempting to cast spells that deal with temporal doorways and evil isn't the best thing to do. Jesse begins to change. It seems like fun at first, but soon starts to become worrying, and potentially dangerous.

Written and directed by Christopher Landon, with a number of elements that eventually tie into the concept created and developed by Oren Peli (of course), this is an enjoyable sequel that gets to have its cake and eat it. It's not strictly confined by the story developed in the other Paranormal Activity movies, it's not having to follow the template that requires most of the activity to be frustratingly inactive, and it allows viewers to spend time with some entirely new characters, who are all much better company than any of the previous potential victims.

Jacobs is good in the lead role, easy to like and tag along with even while he's being pretty foolish. Diaz and Walsh both prove to be equally capable supporting players, and Renee Victor, Noemi Gonzalez and David Saucedo do well in smaller roles.

The special effects are, for the most part, pretty well done. They're all the more impressive because they're actually used to create quite a few entertaining moments onscreen. Yes, the previous movies have used CGI, and they've had some decent sequences, but none of them feel as if they managed to embrace the true potential of the format in the way that this movie does.

Unfortunately, Landon seems to lose his nerve, or perhaps just remembers that he needs to deliver a product consistent with the branding, in the third act of the film, which goes for the usual tricks that we've now seen so many times in found footage movies. Night vision? Check. Sudden movement towards the camera accompanied by a loud noise? Check. Vision being obscured by decor? Check. All signs of a writer-director working on a movie that will get him a . . . . . check.

I wouldn't say that this is going to win over any new fans - the brand name either attracts or repels film fans by now anyway - but it ends up, surprisingly, being one of the best instalments of a franchise that just might end up having some life left in it yet.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/Paranormal-Activity-Unrated-Blu-ray-Digital/dp/B00HRCBGRA/ref=sr_1_3?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1408896491&sr=1-3&keywords=paranormal+activity+the+marked+ones

Sci-Fi September: Jodorowsky's Dune (2014)

Alejandro Jodorowsky's movie adaptation of Dune is a gorgeous film, full of big names, big ideas, and some of the best visuals that you've ever seen in cinema. It is also unmade, more's the pity. But that hasn't stopped it from being hugely influential, and almost mythic in status, as is shown in this documentary, directed by Frank Pavich.

Focusing on Jodorowsky himself, naturally, this fascinating feature also gains input from Nicolas Winding Refn, Richard Stanley, Michel Seydoux, H. R. Giger, Dan O'Bannon and many others, either in talking head format or thanks to snippets taken from archive material. Some people are discussing their own view on the movie that never was, while many discuss how the pieces were put in place to get the creative talent involved that Jodorowsky felt he needed for his vision.

As bittersweet an experience as any film fan could have, Jodorowsky's Dune is partially about a great movie that studios were too wary of dealing with, partially about the impact it made on the sci-fi genre, despite never being completed, and partially about Jodorowsky's enduring passion for stories and art. Whether he's describing the way in which he wanted every main planet to be scored by a different band, discussing a meeting with Salvador Dali, or showing the book, full of storyboards and designs, that was created to show how the film would be made, he's a man who doesn't seem to have been brought low by the whole experience. There's regret there, of course, but there's also a deserved love of all that stemmed from this one project.

Using the aforementioned book of storyboards and designs, this doc really brings Jodorowsky's vision to life in a way that also highlights the hard work and skill brought to the table by all of the major talent assembled by the director; H. R. Giger, Moebius and Chris Foss being the main artists.

Even if you don't think you're that interested in an unmade version of Dune, even if you're unfamiliar with Jodorowsky (although you SHOULD be), then I still recommend this to all lovers of film. Hearing the man talk of how he wooed Orson Welles, hearing of the training that he put his son (Brontis Jodorowsky) through, and hearing his love for art and artists in almost everything he says makes this a worthwhile viewing. In fact, it's worthwhile simply to hear him say: "I was raping Frank Herbert! But with love.”

And, for anyone still doubting the legacy of this unmade movie by the time the documentary is almost finished, there's a selection of clips from major blockbusters, showing a clear timeline from this one "failure" to a huge number of cinematic successes throughout the years. Help celebrate that fact by allowing this title to share shelf space with the other movies that owe it so much.

9/10

Feel free to check out the main website for the film here - http://jodorowskysdune.com/index.html

http://www.amazon.com/Jodorowskys-Dune-Blu-ray-Alejandro-Jodorowsky/dp/B00J5LXMTG/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1411295893&sr=1-2&keywords=jodorowsky%27s+dune

Sci-Fi September: Dune (1984)

I was taken to see Dune when it was first released in cinemas. I was about 8 or 9. My mother and her partner, I assume, thought that this was going to be the next Star Wars. I can't remember every minute of the experience, but I can sum it all up in one word. Boredom.

Revisiting it now, about 30 years later, I can sum it up in two words. Interesting failure. It's still boring in places, but the visual style does keep it worth at least one viewing and there's something enjoyable about watching something so gloriously messy.

I'd attempt to explain the dense plot if I thought I could. Let's face it, the film itself has an opening narration from a young Virginia Madsen that tries to explain a hell of a lot to viewers in the space of a few minutes so I don't think a few sentences here will do any better. Let me just say that the whole movie is a bit like Dallas in space, with a magical spice replacing oil, Kyle MacLachlan as a Bobby Ewing figure (albeit one with the potential to become much more powerful than anyone else around him), and Gordon Sumner (AKA Sting) appears in a metal codpiece at one point, just to haunt your nightmares for years.

I really couldn't begin to run through the entire cast of characters and their relationships to one another. This is one dense film. MacLachlan is the lead, he's the character you get to stick closest to throughout the entire movie. His parents, played by Jurgen Prochnow and Francesca Annis, also play a large part in the proceedings. And then there's a love interest in the shape of Sean Young. The main villain is a boil-covered, rancid Baron, played by Kenneth McMillan (it's worth checking around for other articles that make the case for Dune being one of the most homophobic movies of the decade, based on that character alone).

Adapting the mammoth novel by Frank Herbert would have been no easy task, but David Lynch seemed to think he was up to it. Sadly, he wasn't. He does much better in the role of director, mainly thanks to the impressive visuals of the movie that he allows to take centre stage, but that clunky screenplay is the wobbly foundation that sets this sci-fi house of cards tumbling.

The performances often don't help either, with MacLachlan just not impressive enough in the lead role. He's an actor with a very particular style, one that works in the right roles (Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks spring to mind) and really doesn't in the wrong ones, as we see here. Sting is another weak link, and the least said about Alicia Witt's turn the better, although I don't hold that against her (she was only 9, it was her first movie role, and Lynch seems to have helped in creating the performance he required). McMillan is a lot of fun as the repellent Baron, and there's fun to be had in the performances from great names such as Patrick Stewart, Jose Ferrer, Dean Stockwell, Max Von Sydow, Siân Phillips, and Everett McGill.

There's an enjoyable soundtrack from Toto, with a decent contribution from Brian Eno, some impressive creatures from the great Carlo Rambaldi, and a few darker sequences that hint at a very different approach to the material that Lynch may have been more comfortable with. None of these things, sadly, can make up for the many problems that drag the movie down.

But at least it inspired Fatboy Slim to sample the line: "walk without rhythm, and we won't attract the worm" - allowing me to end with THIS music video

5/10

http://www.amazon.com/Dune-Blu-ray-Kyle-MacLachlan/dp/B00371QQ0M/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1411739580&sr=1-2&keywords=dune

Sci-Fi September: Things To Come (1936)

Directed by William Cameron Menzies, Things To Come is a sci-fi movie that's often forgotten when the major touchstone movies of the genre are discussed, despite being arguably just as important and influential as any other title that you could mention.

Written by H. G. Wells, who adapted his own novel into screenplay form, this is a compressed history of an imagined future. Things to come, of course. It's a film that shows the impact of a long, devastating, world war before going on to show society being rebuilt. People are, however, mistrustful in the aftermath of the war, which makes progress slower than it could be. And there's always the worry that the advancement of the human race will lead to the potential for another war.

Things To Come is a film that I first saw while in my early twenties. My love of film was already established, but not quite to the point that it is now. I would try to watch a variety of genres, try to sample some world cinema, and also try to watch movies from different ages of cinema. But I had to do so with films that would help make the journey as smooth as possible (as opposed to now, when I can happily sit down and watch anything and everything). This was a film that had a reputation for being ahead of its time, for holding up as an interesting piece of work with impressive visual style and design throughout.  That reputation was/is well deserved.

Raymond Massey does well in the nominal lead role, and there are similarly solid performances from Edward Chapman, Ralph Richardson (who plays a character that I guess you could equate with The Governor from The Walking Dead . . . . . . . . sort of), Margaretta Scott, and Cedric Hardwicke, among others.

But, while the performances are all well and good, this isn't a film that you watch mainly for the acting. Made and released in the '30s, this is a movie that seemed to eerily prefigure a few 21st century problems, such as another major war and a powerful individual motivating people to conquer others in possession of valuable fuel. Even the first few minutes of the movie, showing Massey shrugging off talk of an upcoming war as he enjoys time with friends and family, serves as a timely reminder to those watching current world events (from here in the UK we currently watch trouble unfolding in Syria, Russia, Iraq, and the constant tensions that seem to arise from North Korea). Don't forget how far things can go, and just how powerful the technology is nowadays.

Although it doesn't seem as influential today as many other sci-fi movies from the earlier years of cinema, Things To Come certainly remains an experience that should be enjoyed by cinephiles. It shows that science fiction sometimes bleeds into science fact, which is slightly unnerving when you think of how many of these movies show things going horribly wrong for us meddling humans. Of course, that's still not dissuaded the many of us who are impatiently awaiting the day when we can all travel around by either jetpacks or hoverboards.

9/10

http://www.amazon.com/Things-Come-Blu-ray-Raymond-Massey/dp/B00BX49BAC/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1411314211&sr=1-2&keywords=things+to+come

Sci-Fi September: It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958)

It! The Terror From Beyond Space is a film that I'm often surprised isn't known by more people. Because it is, essentially, the 1950s version for Alien. Seriously, it pretty much provides a template that Dan O'Bannon and Ridley Scott tweaked to perfection to create their seminal sci-fi horror movie.

A spaceship has been sent to Mars, to find out what happened to the crew of a previous spaceship that landed there some time ago. Nine people are dead, and the only survivor (Col. Edward Carruthers, played by Marshall Thompson) immediately becomes the main suspect. He proclaims his innocence, of course, but nobody is willing to believe that some dangerous alien lifeform managed to get on board and kill everyone. Which is unfortunate, because that dangerous alien lifeform has managed to get on board their ship and is once again aiming to kill everyone.

I'm sure that nobody watched this back in 1958 and realised just how influential it would end up becoming, but that's not to say that the film isn't a little gem. I love it, thanks to the great pace and lean plotting, and think that many other fans of sci-fi horror will also find the whole thing immensely entertaining. It is, however, nothing special when you look at the component parts.

Director Edward L. Cahn has an extensive filmography of over 100 films, yet none of them stand out as classics. This one comes the closest, although I am saying that without having seen eany of his other movies, so there's a chance that he's an overlooked talent responsible for many other great movies. Writer Jerome Bixby may be a name more familiar to fans of this fare (having also written some for The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, the story that served as the basis for Fantastic Voyage, and also The Man From Earth), but I doubt he would be a major selling point either.

The cast are all capable enough, with Thompson managing to play his role without overdoing the nerves that his character would be suffering from, and Shirley Patterson, Kim Spalding, Ann Doran, Dabbs Greer, Paul Langton and others onscreen do just fine, despite one or two being underserved by the script.

But this is a creature feature, first and foremost. The main beastie may not be up there with the xenomorph from the film it would influence most, but it's an enjoyably mean, scary suit being worn by performer Ray Corrigan. Not the kind of thing to impress modern cinema audiences, it nonetheless retains a charm and presence that so many computer-generated creations tend to lack in this day and age.

Taken for what it is, this is just a delight. Taken as the film that led to the Alien franchise, it's downright essential viewing, in my opinion.

8/10

http://www.amazon.com/Monster-Challenged-Terror-Midnite-Feature/dp/B0007R4T26/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1411313997&sr=1-1&keywords=it+the+terror+from+beyond+space

You know what you can do if you liked this review, or any of the other reviews here at For It Is Man's Number? If you share and share then every additional reader helps. Connect through Google or Blogger or any way you can, and rest easy in the knowledge that you've made little ol' me a very happy man.

And/or you could also buy my e-book, that has almost every review I've written over the past 5 years. It's very reasonably priced for the sheer amount of content.

The UK version can be bought here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1395945647&sr=1-3&keywords=movie+guide

And American folks can buy it here - http://www.amazon.com/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395945752&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=TJs+ramshackle+mov

As much as I love the rest of the world, I can't keep up with all of the different links in different territories, but trust me when I say that it should be there on your local Amazon.

Sci-Fi September: Metropolis (1927)

Metropolis is one of many movies that you can show to someone who doesn't believe that cinema from the early 20th century is worth spending time on. It's black and white, it's a silent film, and it's from Germany. It's also one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made, and easily remains essential viewing for anyone interested in either the genre, or just cinema in general.

The plot concerns a world in which the fancy lives of those living in brightly-lit tower blocks is made possible by a mass of overworked, tired workers who sweat and toil through shifts that require them to grapple with the machinery keeping everything in order. One young man (Gustav Fröhlich) defies his father (Alfred Abel) and ventures down into the depths to see just what is happening with his own eyes. He witnesses the hardship, and experiences no small amount of physical pain, but he also finds his heart swelling at the sight of a young woman (Maria, played by Brigitte Helm). It soon becomes clear that Maria is a dangerous woman, inspiring many to think of a life other than the one they have become so used to. A plan is hatched to replace her with a robot, a creation that will give the working masses bad advice until they grow to despise her, possibly causing themselves some damage in the process. But will the plan succeed?

Directed by Fritz Lang, who created at least two absolute masterpieces of cinema when he made this and M, I can't stress just how magnificent this movie is. Highly influential, as many of the movies from the German expressionism movement were, and as vital and outright entertaining today as it was when first released, almost 90 years ago. Thea von Harbou (Lang's wife) did the bulk of the work on the script, adapting a novel she wrote expressly to see it made into a film. To make the first feature-length science fiction film may have seemed like a major task, but you wouldn't think that when seeing just how much Lang and Harbou decided to pack into every scene.

It's hard to compare the performances to those that we're used to nowadays. Remember that everything had to be exaggerated in the early days of cinema. The lack of any speech, apart from the written title cards, required everyone to be much more expressive. Yet, although it's a very different style to the natural performances that occupy so many modern movies, everyone deserves praise for a job well done. Helm, in particular, has moments of eye-rolling lunacy, but she has many other times when she conveys a sweetness and purity that makes her position among the workers an easy one to believe in. Fröhlich is a likable lead, Abel does solid work as the father who makes plans that he knows his son would hate, and Rudolf Klein-Rogge is a lot of fun as a stereotypical "mad scientist". Theodor Loos, Fritz Rasp and Erwin Biswanger offer some good support, playing three very different characters who help or hinder Fröhlich in his underground adventure.

Oh well, I'm almost at the end of this review and I look back at what I've just written, only to wince at how futile those paragraphs seem. Read up on the movie elsewhere, and find out from better minds than my own about the history and importance of this movie. Run through a checklist of films that it has influenced, or has been referenced in. Check out various editions of the film, including the version with a soundtrack selection overseen by Giorgio Moroder. I'll be happy if this review has inspired you to give the movie a viewing. But I'll be equally happy if I've simply inspired you to read a bit more about it, browsing until you read something by a better writer who subsequently inspires you to give the movie a viewing.

Ultimately, you owe it to yourself to see this movie.

10/10

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Metropolis-Alfred-Abel/dp/B0040QYROA/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1411313860&sr=1-1&keywords=metropolis

Sci-Fi September: Silent Running (1972)

One of a handful of movies directed by special effects whizz Doug Trumbull, Silent Running is an impressive, influential sci-fi movie that gives viewers an unlikely eco-friendly message in the outer space setting.

Bruce Dern plays Freeman Lowell, an astronaut who has made it his personal mission to look after the botanical areas on the large spaceship that he's living on. The other crew members don't really care for, or respect, his lifestyle choice, but they leave him to it. Well, that all looks set to change when orders are received to destroy the greenery and head back home. It's an order, unsurprisingly, that Lowell doesn't want to obey. But how far will he go to preserve a small patch of nature?

Written by Deric Washburn, Michael Cimino and Steven Bochco, Silent Running is a very optimistic, almost naive, film for the time in which it was made. That's what makes it such a pleasure to watch, yet also such a chore at times. The motivation of the lead character is a bit hard to stay on board with, but you have to admire the fact that everyone involved with the movie keeps the focus on the perceived purity and nobility of his thinking.

Dern is fantastic as Lowell. He's a sweet, frustrated man, best in the company of silent plants and vegetation than the company of his human colleagues. While Cliff Potts, Jesse Vint and Ron Rifkin all share the screen with him for a while, and give solid performances, the other main characters aren't human at all. They are the robots that Lowell uses to help him in his daily duties - Huey, Louie and Dewey. Okay, people were inside the costumes (casings?) but you'll be thinking of them just as robots for every moment that they're onscreen. They feel like real creations, with just enough personality to make you also care for them.

Trumbull directs capably enough, but there are flaws that you can't help thinking may have been minimised/removed by a more experienced hand on the tiller. Despite running for just under 90 minutes it feels overlong in places. Then there are the soundtrack choices, with a couple of songs performed by Joan Baez taking away from the effectiveness of the visuals by making everything feel ever so hippy dippy in a way far too easily mocked (for those so inclined).

This is sci-fi at its sweetest. It's a film that uses the sterile, cold setting of space to remind people of how valuable the natural resources so abundant on Earth really are. Exploring space is all well and good, but let's also look after our home planet in the meantime. That's the main lesson here. Well, apart from the reminder that Bruce Dern is always well worth watching.

7/10

THIS is the disc to get, if you can play it - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silent-Running-Masters-Cinema-Blu-ray/dp/B005DE1G2Y/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1411306864&sr=1-2&keywords=silent+running

Sci-Fi September: 12:01 (1993)

Lazy movie reviewing 101 (not for the first time either) - 12:01 is, essentially, Groundhog Day given a thriller makeover. It also adds an actual explanation for the time loop that the lead character finds himself in, which is one of the plus points in a movie that has a lot of good and bad elements for viewers to deal with.

Jonathan Silverman is Barry Thomas, a fairly insignificant young man who works in an office. He admires the beautiful Lisa Fredericks (Helen Slater) from afar, and does his best to get closer to her throughout the course of one fateful day. That day doesn't end well for Lisa. In fact, it ends really, REALLY badly. Which isn't actually too bad because it turns out that Barry will wake up the next morning and find that it's the previous day all over again. That gives him a chance to get close to Lisa again, figure out what's going on, and stop her day ending so badly. IF he can convince anyone that he's not going completely mad.

Directed by Jack Sholder (you may not recognise his name, but if you're a genre fan then you've probably seen at least one of his movies), this is a potential gem of a movie dragged down by a mixed cast and the fact that it was made for TV. I'm not being unfairly down on TV movies, don't misunderstand me. I'm just pointing out that some TV movies FEEL like TV movies, and this is one of those.

Based on a short story by Richard Lupoff, the script was crafted into its final form by Jonathan Heap and Philip Morton, and it does a decent enough job of quickly setting up the many touchstones that Barry will use to keep track of his time loop. It's just a shame that a number of moments feel, necessarily, a bit rushed and hard to believe. I'm not on about the general premise, but more the way in which Barry engineers his day to get closer to Lisa on a number of occasions.

It doesn't help that Silverman just isn't all that good in the lead role. He's not exactly useless, it's just that he's not that special. His attempts at charm and humour never feel all that charming or amusing, leading to that disbelief I mentioned whenever he gets closer to the woman he's taken such a shine to. Slater has never been that great an actress, from my limited exposure to her work, and continues to stay at a level of decidedly average here. Martin Landau and Jeremy Piven, however, are both on hand to help save the day. They may be playing vastly different characters, but both men help lift up the movie whenever they're onscreen. Nicolas Surovy, Robin Bartlett and Glenn Morshower also do pretty well, although they have much less screentime.

While the film is full of little touches that drag it down, the central premise is enough to keep it above-average. The science, despite being pure hokum (from what I can tell), is sketched out well enough, the pacing is brisk enough, and the third act should please all but the grouchiest of viewers.

6/10

Ouch, a bit pricey but here it is - http://www.amazon.com/12-01-Helen-Slater/dp/B000BZN1NM/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1411246772&sr=1-1&keywords=12+01

Sci-Fi September: Electric Dreams (1984)

Ahhhhhhhhhh, Electric Dreams, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

If this movie was any more '80s then it would be delivered to every household with a set of deelyboppers, a SodaStream machine, and some legwarmers. The focus of the story is that technological wonder, a household PC, there's a small role for Maxwell Caulfield, the soundtrack features Culture Club and Phil Oakey, and Virginia Madsen has that whole '80s look working against her - as everyone else in the '80s did.

The plot is quite simple, and also quite beautiful once you get past all of the cheesy trappings. A young man (Lenny von Dohlen) gets a home PC and starts setting it up to improve his life. He does this by becoming a technical whizz in mere moments, despite knowing very little about the latest technology at the start of the movie, and then manages to balls it all up by spilling some liquid all over his new toy. The PC isn't destroyed, but it is changed. It's now different from other computers. It's more advanced, and also more curious about emotions, and even love. The fact that the new neighbour (Madsen) is an attractive young woman who plays the cello, resulting in a fantastic musical moment mixing the classical sound with a synthesised accompaniment, results in the computer getting some ideas way above its station. Well, you don't always act rationally when you're in love.

Written by the brilliantly-named Rusty Lemorande and directed by Steve Barron, this is a film that sacrifices any sense of reality in favour of movie magic. The fact that it makes this clear from almost the very beginning, probably at the time when the lead character becomes a PC expert in seconds, means that viewers can decide whether to go along with it or not. I went along with it, and am glad I did. There's plenty I could pick apart here, but it's a film that I've always had a soft spot for. Perhaps it's because I saw it back when it was first released, and will therefore always have some nostalgic affection for it, but there's enough fun to be had for those in the mood for light entertainment.

Von Dohlen isn't an ideal leading man, but he has moments when his bumbling schtick works well enough. Madsen, on the other hand, shows that she always had that star quality. She's very easy to like, and even manages to keep viewers onside as things get more and more unbelievable. Caulfield puts in another wonderful little turn, despite the fact that he's underused, and fans of Miriam Margolyes will not want to blink if they want to see her in the role of "Ticket Girl". And the main voice of the computer? It's Bud Cort. Bonus points.

As well as those artists already mentioned in the paragraph above, fans of electronic music will be delighted to hear that Giorgio Moroder contributes a few pieces to the soundtrack. The highlight is a scene that I've already mentioned, but there are other moments to tickle the eardrums of his many fans.

Think of it as a time capsule from the decade that taste forgot. Or think of it as an oft-forgotten forerunner to Her. But do think of it when deciding upon what to watch some time, even if it's just the once.

7/10

With amazing special features like, ummmm, interactive menu and scene access, Region 2 is your only option at the moment - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Electric-Dreams-DVD-Virginia-Madsen/dp/B001QXZ81G/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1411246123&sr=1-1&keywords=electric+dreams

Sci-Fi September: RoboCop (2014)

Despite my love for the original movie, and my worry at the sanitisation of the material in an attempt to reach a wider audience, I was willing to give this new version of RoboCop a shot, I really was. Let's be honest, despite the intense violence of the original movie, the main character was eventually watered down and repackaged for kids anyway, in everything from TV shows to action figures to computer games. Yes, I have fond memories of that side-scrolling shooter that I played on my chunky little ZX Spectrum, and I'm sure many others of my generation have similar recollections.

Anyway, here's the thing, RoboCop starts off quite well. It's taking a different tack from the original movie, deciding to focus more on the idea of free will than the struggle between man and machine parts, although that also plays a big part in the film. Joel Kinnaman is the main character, Officer Murphy. He is seriously injured when he gets too close to some major criminals, and OCP gain permission from his wife (Abbie Cornish) to give him a second chance to live, albeit in a robotic shell that will house the small remains of his organic body. Gary Oldman is the doctor in charge of the project, Michael Keaton is the man looking for a return on his invested money, and Jackie Earle Haley simply seems intent on appearing in as many piss-poor remakes as possible.

Jose Padilha is a great director, he has some titles that are well worth checking out, but I won't list his filmography here. Unfortunately, you wouldn't know that from his work here. He's saddled with a lame script by Joshua Zetumer, Edward Neumeier, and Michael Miner, but that's not really an excuse for how badly he starts to fumble and drop the ball after the first 20-30 minutes. A sequence showing RoboCop going through an evaluation test, accompanied by a Focus song, Hocus Pocus, holds up as the first major low. It's bloodless, unexciting, messy, and far too similar to just watching a videogame, albeit one far more advanced than my ZX Spectrum games. And most of the scenes that come along afterwards just stick to that level.

Kinnaman is far too bland in the lead role, unfortunately, and Cornish is stuck with the same motivation for 80% of the movie - to get near her husband and feel that he's still the man she knew and loved for so long. Thankfully, there are other performances that help to make the whole thing bearable. Samuel L. Jackson is a lot of fun as an opinionated TV presenter, Jay Baruchel is enjoyable in a small role, and Haley actually does his best with the character he's given. But it's Keaton and Oldman who are the undoubted highlights, with the former able to rise above shallow characterisation simply thanks to his natural charisma, and the latter benefitting from the fact that he has the best character in the whole film. He may do what he's told by Keaton, but it's always clear that he struggles with his own urge to help his fellow man.

As everything meanders to an unexciting, and entirely predictable, finale it's all too easy to start agreeing with the many people who cursed the movie before it was even released. Many expected the worst, due to the rating and redesign of the central character. They got it. We all got it. This is a stinker. So bad that I wouldn't even recommend buying it for a dollar.

3/10

http://www.amazon.com/Robocop-Blu-ray-Joel-Kinnaman/dp/B00JL6L4WC/ref=sr_1_3?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1411245934&sr=1-3&keywords=robocop

Sci-Fi September: Blade Runner (1982)

It's maybe not best for me to start my review of Blade Runner by declaring that I don't think it's a perfect movie, and don't rate it as the best sci-fi movie of all time. It's probably worse to declare that it MIGHT not even make my personal Top 10 Sci-Fi Movie list. It might, but it might not. Yet that doesn't stop me from praising the film as an amazing piece of cinema. It immerses viewers in a world that feels so realistic you can almost feel the near-constant rain dripping on your head.

Harrison Ford stars as Rick Deckard, a blade runner who must find and execute four runaway replicants. Replicants are humanoid robots, with some of the latest models being so advanced that they're getting harder and harder to differentiate from real people. The nominal leader of these runaways is Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), a replicant who has spent a lot of time considering his life and what he has been privileged to see throughout the universe. The movie focuses on Deckard as he does his detective work, yet it also allows plenty of time for all of the main characters to ponder just what makes humans so unique in their efforts to live a long, fruitful life.

Based on a novel by Philip K. Dick (entitled "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?"), this is sci-fi used in a way to look at our own humanity. In a world in which humans can, essentially, be built, it looks at what, if any, differences there are between life and artificial life. The script, written mainly by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, spends as much time piecing together the motivations and fears of the various central characters as it does on the standard detective aspect of the tale.

The fact that all of these ideas and moments are set in a world so detailed and realistic is due, in no small part, to director Ridley Scott, who seemed intent on delivering a cerebral, beautiful, modern classic to cinema audiences. The visuals are often sublime, the soundtrack (famously created by Vangelis) is a delight for the ears, and the central performances don't ever give any sign of the famous troubles that plagued the production; let's just say that it was a baptism by fire for Scott working on his first major American operation.

Ford is great in yet another iconic role, and he must look back on his career as one amazing stroke of good luck after another, considering how many movies that he starred in didn't seem destined for greatness. He's suitably world-weary, cynical, and also able to empathise with anyone who just wants left alone to live their life in peace. Hauer may have a lot less screentime, but he makes a lasting impression, mainly thanks to his last scene opposite Ford. Sean Young also makes a lasting impression, playing Rachael, a young woman who doesn't realise exactly what her background is. Brion James, Joanna Cassidy, and Daryl Hannah all do well as the other replicants on the loose, M. Emmet Walsh has an enjoyable small role, and Edward James Olmos breathes down Harrison Ford's neck at the most inconvenient moments. There's also a superb, moving performance from William Sanderson (the second-best in the movie, behind Hauer), playing a "toymaker" who seems to empathise more than most with the creations that he's had a very small role in helping to build.

Books have been written about Blade Runner. Well, if they haven't then they should be (but I'm pretty sure they have). It's layered, it's full of many wonderful little touches, the tech on display feels very grounded in reality, it ruminates on science and the possibility of human souls by finely mixing the two, and much more. My main problem with it, the only reason that I don't rate it as the perfect sci-fi movie so many others see, is that there are scenes that bring the whole thing grinding to a halt. Scenes that feel unnecessary in the grand scheme of things, especially when they get in the way of the momentum that is being built by the strong central strand. Of course, the fact that there are (at least) five different versions of the movie to choose from nowadays probably serves as a reminder of just how many options Scott made available to himself as he tried to capture what he'd envisioned in his mind.

Despite not quite rating it as highly as other fans, I still recommend that everyone gives this a viewing at least once. It's iconic, it's cool, and it's almost fully deserving of the reputation it has.

9/10

http://www.amazon.com/Blade-Runner-Anniversary-Collectors-Blu-ray/dp/B008M4MB8K/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1411245021&sr=1-2&keywords=blade+runner

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