Prime Time: Drugstore June (2024)

Whenever movie fans look back over a year just gone by, it's a chance to catch up on all of the overlooked titles that seem to appear in the lists of recommendations from others. Most of those will be things that you were at least aware of - a blockbuster you missed at the cinema, a horror that wasn't showing anywhere near you, or a worthy drama that you just didn't have the energy for - but some fine films remain surprisingly overlooked. Drugstore June is one of those films. I am especially surprised, considering how I view this and Babes (which I have yet to review here) to be up there with some of the best comedy films in recent years.

Esther Povitsky is June, a young woman who ends up with a surprising sense of purpose when the pharmacy that she works in is robbed. June thinks that she has the skills to solve the crime, but she's barely got the skills to remain aware of how she affects other people around her. Or so it seems. The plot winds from one bizarre encounter to the next, including a running storyline about June refusing to let her ex, Davey (Haley Joel Osment), move on from their relationship, but there's always a focus on June trying to finally achieve something that isn't just tied to her usual interests.

I wanted to see Drugstore June since I first saw a trailer that made me consistently chuckle. If you check that out and enjoy it, rest assured that it almost perfectly represents the film that you're going to get. June is a comedic creation to rival the very best, and Povitsky is genuinely brilliant in the role. The fact that she can be so unrelentingly . . . June while somehow not making you want to always throw her into a very deep ocean (although you may well feel that way sometimes, especially in the first act) is a testament to the writing and performance.

Director Nicholaus Goossen helped to work on the screenplay with Povitsky, and it's clear that both of them have a solid grasp of the vibe and character. There are a few neo-noir tropes played with here, to great effect, but the personality of June overshadows everything else going on around her, whether she's trying to get a perfect pic for her Instagram or exaggerating her status as an online influencer to anyone who has a conversation with her. The film couldn't work if that was all she was though, and the satisfaction really comes from seeing just the tiniest amount of growth, in both her detective skills and her maturity.

Povitsky is a star. Although I've not taken note of her in anything else she's done before this, I'll now be keeping an eye on everything else that she's doing. Her turn here is pitched perfectly in between the monstrously narcissistic and the sweetly naive, and it's hard to imagine anyone else getting the balance so right. Bill Lee is amusing, playing June's boss, someone who seems to have a great deal of patience and optimism . . . or maybe just a complete inability to find anyone else to hire in her place, and both Beverly D'Angelo and James Remar are entertainingly exasperated parents. Brandon Wardell is an irritating brother, Al Madrigal and Jackie Sandler are the two detectives trying to do their job properly, despite encountering the whirlwind that is June, and there are fun cameos from Matt Walsh, Bill Burr, and Bhad Bhabie. Osment is also very good in his small role, and Miranda Cosgrove incurs the wrath of our lead by simply being Osment's new partner.

I admit that I might be heaping a bit too much praise on this, trying to do my bit to tip the scales in favour of something so sorely neglected when it came and went last year without anyone really taking note of it, but I also know that I could happily watch this on a loop for an entire day and keep finding different little moments and lines of dialogue to laugh at. It's brilliant, and, in my opinion, should have appeared on numerous lists mentioning the very best films of 2024.

9/10

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Violent Night (2022)

Take a good handful of Bad Santa, add some Home Alone, and then mix in an overflowing bowl full of Die Hard (as well as Die Hard 2: Die Harder) and you get Violent Night. If that sounds like a great time at the movies for you, and I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t, then you are bound to enjoy this. Maybe not from the first scenes though.

David Harbour plays Santa Claus. Not someone who thinks they are Santa Claus. Not a Santa Claus wannabe. He IS the man in the big red suit. He even has the reindeer, the magic to get up and down chimneys, a a sack that magically fills with gifts for children. And, of course, the infamous “naughty or nice” list. He’s grown jaded though, so many kids nowadays just seem to want videogames or cash for Christmas. Young Trudy (Leah Brady) is a rare exception. All she wants for Christmas is for her parents (Jason, played by Alex Hassell, and Linda, played by Alexis Louder) to repair their relationship. Jason is working on that, but it may involve finally standing up to his rich and powerful mother (Gertrude, played by Beverly D’Angelo). Gertrude is so rich and powerful that the planned family Christmas gathering is interrupted by a group of armed robbers (headed up by John Leguizamo’s “Scrooge”) who plan an efficient and ruthless redistribution of her millions. They didn’t account for one thing though. Santa Claus is in the house, and he’s about to go to town on all of them.

Director Tommy Wirkola has been delivering excellent movies now for some time, and many horror fans have been a fan of his work since the wonderfully bonkers Dead Snow movies, so it’s no surprise to find that this is funny and gory throughout. That is what Wirkola does so well. What is a bit of a surprise, although he has some experience in the genre, is just how good the action beats are. This is a film that stays perfectly balanced between the fantastical and bone-breaking reality. The cast all nail the tone of the whole thing, and they’re helped by a script that improves greatly once you realise that it’s not being coy about the central concept.

Writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller previously served up the Sonic movies (as well as sharpening their candy canes with 12 Deadly Days for TV), and they grow in confidence once they have set everyone and everything in place. The first scenes featuring Harbour felt a bit odd to me, as I wasn’t entirely sure how we were meant to view his interpretation of Santa, but things then move along nicely, with sharp dialogue and plot construction, to get us all where we want to be . . . watching a film that is pleasingly unabashed about it being a Santa-centric Die Hard. The references and gags come thick and fast, and the fights are well-staged and impressively creative, but nothing is done in a way that feels too smug or self-indulgent. 

Harbour is a surprisingly brilliant Santa, allowed to be sweet and loving one minute, capable of deadly violence the next. He doesn’t look ripped, but certainly looks capable of handling himself (especially when he has the right weapon to hand). Leguizamo is just as brilliant as the main villain, able to be the standard baddie that we need, but also able to deliver a standard Christmas movie tale of seasonal tragedy with a straight face that stops that moment being as ridiculous as it could be. Brady is a sweet youngster, and gets more involved in the action while the third act plays out, Hassell and Louder are decent, D’Angelo is a canny bit of casting, of course, and the other person I need to mention is Cam Gigandet, comfortably giving me the best Mark Wahlberg parody since Andy Samberg (no accent, but it’s obvious from his very first line that he’s definitely written as “a Mark Wahlberg” type). Edi Patterson is also fun, playing the scheming sister of Hassell’s character, and there is fun to be had with the variety of evil henchmen, including a sociopath played by Brendan Fletcher and the oblivous-of-the-pain-they-have-coming characters played by André Eriksen and Mitra Suri.

You also get a score and soundtrack that works perfectly alongside the blood-spattered snowy visuals, and some super-cheesy one-liners that work because, well, you just have to admire the commitment to the concept. I am not sure if people will view this as a new holiday classic, but I know some might. I will certainly be aiming to add it to the roster of other films I like to watch during this time of year.

8/10

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The House Bunny (2008)

Anna Faris stars in this light comedy, one that you may already be predisposed to love or hate, depending on how you feel when you see the Happy Madison logo pop up at the start. Faris is as good as ever, but it's a shame that the movie isn't better, despite a pretty great cast supporting her.

Faris is Shelley Darlingson, a Playboy bunny who ends up having to leave the Playboy mansion. She has nowhere to live, and no skills that seem relevant to any other aspect of modern life, but that doesn't matter when she chances upon a sorority house in need of a house mother. Well, they need a lot more than that. The girls are down in the dumps, they're unpopular, and can't see any way to turn things around They will lose their house if they don't get at least 30 pledges and also improve their standing in a few other ways. Shelley may not know much, but she does know how to give the girls a makeover, and may be able to help them achieve their goals.

Director Fred Wolf goes through the motions here. There's a montage or two, some lively pop tunes, and everything is light and colourful. The script by Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith is predictable, not that funny, and often requires more suspension of disbelief than I could muster. I don't mind the ridiculous premise, but I did get irritated when a main character who wasn't supposed to have two cents to her name suddenly had enough for shopping trips, makeovers and an extravagant theme party.

I'd dismiss this as unwatchable nonsense if it wasn't for the cast, all trying to do their best with the material. Faris has been elevating weak comedies for over a decade now, but it's good to see her working with a cast all trying equally hard. Christopher McDonald and Beverly D'Angelo are the two veterans making things hard for the sorority house, Hugh Hefner has an amusing cameo, and Sarah Wright and Rachel Specter are the popular girls in a nearby sorority house who look down their noses at the main characters. Colin Hanks is fine, if a bit bland, as Oliver, a man who Shelley ends up taking a shine to, and Tyson Ritter is given the thankless role of a shallow, potential love interest for Emma Stone's character.

Oh, did I just mention Emma Stone? Yes I did. She's another big bonus here. Her comedic talent is well utilised, especially in the first half that allows her to go "full dork". Kat Dennings is another one of the main ladies, and she's also good fun, while Katharine McPhee, Rumer Willis, and Dana Goodman also stand out, for a variety of reasons.

I can't, despite the game cast, class this as a good movie. It's not. But it does just enough to make it worth a watch, especially if you're in the mood for something simple, light, and full of pretty women.

5/10

http://www.amazon.com/The-House-Bunny-Anna-Faris/dp/B0018CNNV2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1402725342&sr=8-2&keywords=the+house+bunny

One day I hope to be a bunny. Or buy one (the pet kind). Or just pretend to be Hugh Hefner in a very nice dressing gown. So please feel free to remember me whenever you're visiting Amazon and see my book there.

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

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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.

The Sentinel (1977)

If Michael Winner was anyone else he'd surely have a bit more recognition from people. But he's Michael Winner. He's the annoying windbag who went from directing movies to critiquing restaurants and telling people in the most patronising manner to "calm down, dear" while advertising insurance. And he had the cheek to do that after "glorifying" vigilante justice with a the first few Death Wish movies. Here's the thing that's easy to forget. Death Wish was a very good film. As was The Mechanic. And The Jokers. The Sentinel is an unfairly neglected horror that manages to throw in some real mystery, real shocks and some great performances. Unfortunately for those who hate him, it was developed into a screenplay (based on the Jeffrey Konvitz novel) by Michael Winner, produced by Jeffrey Konvitz and Michael Winner and directed, of course, by Michael Winner.

The Sentinel is all about a beautiful young woman who moves into an apartment and then starts to worry about her sanity as she starts to see stranger and stranger things happening around her, things involving her strange and creepy neighbours. Maybe it's all tied in to the old man who lives upstairs, the one that she never sees out and about because he never goes out and about. He seems to just sit there, gazing out of his window, like some kind of sentinel.

The script and direction don't really seem to be all that spectacular here but as the movie builds towards a fantastic and horrific climax it becomes easier to see that, in fact, everything is almost perfectly crafted. The film has a real sense of mystery and develops the plot beautifully. Even if you remain a step ahead of the film, it's a pleasure to see how every detail is revealed and how the unreal horror continues to pile up in a surprisingly realistic manner.

Another pleasure here is the cast. Winner managed to get himself a superb cast here, with some big names even in small roles. There's a fleeting appearance by Jeff Goldblum before he became a well-known actor, Christopher Walken gets a bit more screentime but was also in the very early days of his career and then you also get to see Ava Gardner, Beverly D'Angelo, Burgess Meredith, Eli Wallach, John Carradine, Jose Ferrer, Martin Balsam, Sylvia Miles, William Hickey and Jerry Orbach. Each and every one is a great actor, with Burgess Meredith being one of the very best. Then there's Chris Sarandon in a main role, doing an okay job, and the beautiful Christina Raines playing Alison Parker, the beautiful young woman. Heck, Tom Berenger even appears in the last minute or so for perhaps the smallest role of his career.

There was (and, indeed, still is . . . . I suppose) quite a controversy regarding the decision made by Winner to use people with real deformities during a scene in which "denizens of Hell" appear but, for some reason, I didn't find this bothersome. Perhaps I should have, and future viewers have been forewarned, but I didn't. In fact, that sequence felt as strange and disturbing as the rest of the movie, which meant that it felt as if it belonged right where it was.

I really like The Sentinel and I encourage others to at least check it out. It might be fashionable to automatically dislike and mock any Michael Winner movies but it's a lot more enjoyable to give them a chance and maybe even be entertained by them.

8/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Sentinel-DVD-Chris-Sarandon/dp/B00149XOVI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1350167969&sr=8-2

Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay (2008)

Just like the first Harold & Kumar movie, this has grown on me since my first viewing. It just hasn't grown on me all that much. I think it's pretty funny in places, sure, but it's not as good as the first film by quite a margin.

Despite the title, the plot doesn't actually revolve around our two leads (once again played by John Cho and Kal Penn) escaping from Guantanamo Bay. Oh, that actually does happen but it happens for only a few minutes. The rest of the movie consists of the boys staying ahead of the zealous law enforcement official (Rob Corddry) who believes them to be terrorist scum. And that's really all you need to know.

Following on immediately from the events of the first movie, the direction is this time handled by writers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, there's plenty here that will entertain fans of the original. It's just a shame that most of it is recycled from the first film with the whole thing having an longer runtime and lesser gag ratio.

Some moments still stand out: Neil Patrick Harris is hilarious once again, Christopher Meloni returns to play a Grand Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan, an attempt to draw information out of Harold and Kumar's parents allows Ed Helms to have some fun and Rob Corddry is almost always funny when onscreen (something that can't be said of most of his other movie roles).

While the script isn't as sharp this time around and while the concept may feel like they've already slightly outstayed their welcome, the movie is raised up by yet another great collection of actors all joining in with the fun, even for the smallest of cameo roles. As well as our leads, NPH, Corddry, Helms and Meloni we get David Krumholtz and Eddie Kaye Thomas returning, Roger Bart is good fun, Beverly D'Angelo is always a pleasure to see onscreen (is there anyone who grew up in the 80s who didn't have a crush on her as Ellen Griswold?) and James Adomian shows a lighter side to George W. Bush.

The sad fact is that this makes some mistakes common to most sequels but, thankfully, it also still has enough to keep things watchable and amusing. Just.

6/10.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Harold-Kumar-Escape-Guantanamo-Bay/dp/B001B8CBPC