Monstrous (2022)

Chris Sivertson has been making movies for just over two decades now. Which you might not realise after watching Monstrous (or reading any past reviews of his work from myself, when I would consistently mis-spell his surname). It's not that this is a bad film. It's a film based around an idea, from writer Carol Chrest, that Sivertson obviously thought was strong enough to carry the whole thing. Sadly, that's not the case.

Christina Ricci stars as Laura, mother to young Cody (Santino Barnard). The two have just moved into a new home, rented from Mr. and Mrs. Langtree (played by Don Durrell and Colleen Camp), and it's quite clear from the earliest scenes that things aren't normal and pleasant. Laura seems to have her daily routine interrupted by strange visions that don't make sense, and she likes to take the edge off her stress with alcohol, while Cody seems to be unable to make any new friends, with the possible exception of someone he claims lives in the lake right beside their home.

That's all I'll write to describe the plot. It's all you need, and it's all the film presents for the majority of the runtime. Chrest is credited with two films to her name, as a writer, and her last film, The Prophet's Game, was over twenty years ago. I haven't seen that one, but the gap in between her two main features helps to explain why Monstrous feels like a debut. Aside from Ricci in the main role and some nice touches throughout (from the costume and makeup to the overall production design), there's nothing here to recommend this to anyone who has already seen more than a dozen movies in their lifetime. Sivertson incorrectly puts his faith in the material, but he saves himself from complete embarrassment by also putting his faith in Ricci.

Acting as a woman who is trying to maintain a facade of exemplary parenting while barely keeping her neuroses from piling up and suffocating her, Ricci is superb. Doing her best interpretation of a typical '50s housewife, albeit one trying to stay as far away as possible from an apparently abusive ex-husband, Ricci is constantly ready to act deferential and politely smile at people around her while she attempts to find the time to repeatedly piece her sanity together. Barnard does well enough as the young boy who may be seeing a bigger picture than his mother can make out, but he might have been able to make a stronger impression if he wasn't the main character who suffers most from Chrest's writing. Durrell doesn't have too much to do, but Camp at least gets to portray someone who is very suspicious and unhelpful, to the point of being someone you suspect may prove to be the straw that breaks the camel's back (and I hope Ricci never accidentally stumbles across this review and resents me for referring to her as anything akin to a camel).

Sivertson is a decent film-maker. I have enjoyed other movies from him, although All Cheerleaders Die is much more fun than I Know Who Killed Me, and I hope to enjoy whatever he delivers in the future. This didn't hit the mark though. The atmosphere doesn't really work, there's a lack of any real tension, and the grand finale doesn't do nearly enough to reward viewers for their patience. Ricci fans will find her performance a big plus. Everyone else should avoid this altogether.

3/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Deadly Games (1982)

Sometimes your instincts steer you right and sometimes they steer you wrong. And sometimes you aren’t quite sure about the end result. That happened to me with Deadly Games, a film released onto shiny disc format that, much like my says of browsing in the video stores, drew me in with an intriguing cover design.

The plot is very simple. A masked killer is picking off women in a small town. He also seems to spend a lot of his time playing a home-made board game that can help direct his urges (I guess). Can Roger (a police officer, played by Sam Groom) and Keegan (Jo Ann Harris) catch the killer before it is too late, and before Keegan suffers the same fate as her sister? And is it anything to do with the strange Billy Owens (Steve Railsback)?

With some gratuitous nudity early on, and a couple of impressive and deadly set-pieces interspersed throughout the runtime, Deadly Games is certainly a film that most slasher movie fans will want to check out at least once. Whether it is worth a repeat viewing, however, is a different matter entirely. There’s something worthwhile here, an attempt to play by the rules while also toying with viewers, but there are also numerous scenes that have characters chatting to one another in a way that feels like it is just being done to pad out the runtime.

Writer-director Scott Mansfield doesn’t have much in his filmography at all, and this was his first film, but he shows a certain degree of competence when it comes to a few of the more memorable moments. There’s a swimming pool scene here that ranks up there alongside the best in the genre, for my money, and it is clear that Mansfield tries to make the most out of what he has available to him. If only Mansfield the writer was as good as Mansfield the director, this could have been a minor classic of the sub-genre.

Harris is a fine leading lady, although she’s weighed down by the weaker performance from Groom. Railsback does just fine, despite the limitations of his role, and certainly adds value to genre fans. Elsewhere, the cast is eclectic enough to include Colleen Camp, Dick Butkus, Denise Galik, Saul Sindell, and many others. Very few people are doing their best work, but most of them are just fine for what the movie is.

A mixed bag of good and bad, with most of the bad coming from the script, what you have here is a lesser slasher movie that has enough curiosity value, and strangeness, to make it worth your time.

6/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

The House With A Clock In Its Walls (2018)

IF you don't mind his presence in films, Jack Black has spent the past 10-15 years steadily building up a great selection of family-friendly adventure films. Okay, I'm the only one who enjoyed Gulliver's Travels but most people seemed to enjoy the Kung Fu Panda movies, School Of Rock, Goosebumps, and Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle. And here's another to add to the list, a film full of magical delights that is an unexpected directorial effort from Eli Roth (a man more well-known for his gory horror movies and twisted thrillers).

Owen Vaccaro plays Lewis Barnavelt, a young boy who ends up going to stay with his eccentric Uncle Jonathan (Black) after his parents die in a car crash. Uncle Jonathan lives in a very strange house, is himself a very strange individual, and has a good friend in the shape of the very strange Florence Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett). There's a lot of magic being bandied around, and Lewis wants to learn how to use it as soon as he sees it happening, and that clock in the walls, a device placed there by a warlock for reasons unknown. But it's counting down to something, and that something can't be good.

Based on a John Bellairs book that was first published in the early 1970s, The House With A Clock In Its Walls manages to feel surprisingly fresh and fun, despite not being entirely dissimilar to so many other movies we have seen aimed at children in the post-Potter entertainment years. A large part of that is to do with the cast but it's equally down to the surprisingly spot-on handling of the material by Roth, working from a script by Eric Kripke. This is not a film concerned with mystery and personal discovery, it's a film about magic. Young Lewis finds out about it quite quickly, making it a very normal part of his life for most of the movie, and the fun and thrills come from that magic being used, and from a third act that culminates with the final ticking and tocking of the clock.

Black is as energetic and amusing as he usually is (IF you like him, those who don't will want to find some other viewing choice), and Vaccaro is perfectly likeable in his main role, but it's always a lot of fun to see Blanchett in a lighter role, and she's her usual wonderful presence here. You also get Lorenza Izzo in a small, but important, role, and Renee Elise Goldsberry and Kyle MacLachlan as the two main characters who want to be there when the clock finishes the countdown. Colleen Camp is a neighbour who witnesses some odd stuff going on, Sunny Suljic play a boy who befriends Lewis, but may just be using him, and there's an array of enjoyable CGI creations that have fun personalities of their own (the best being a pet armchair that acts like an excitable puppy).

You can probably already guess the main problem that the film has. It's just too similar to so many others that we've seen over the past decade or so. The fantastical elements don't quite go as far as they could, it lacks some tension, and the grand finale feels more like an afterthought. There are also some toilet humour gags that don't feel in line with the rest of the film, just a couple of them but they're in there. These things aren't enough to spoil the whole movie, they just drag it down slightly.

Roth will always have his detractors, no matter what genre he tries his hand at, as will Black, so that also provides a lot of people with more reasons to give this a miss. I think it's worth your time though, especially if you have children at just the right age for it (probably between 6-14 being the optimum demographic . . . or anyone with the same mental age as me).

7/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share 

Smokey And The Bandit 3 (1983)

It's a shame when people just can't leave things be and end up diluting something that was, if not great, at least very enjoyable. At this time of writing there have been 3 cinema releases with the Smokey & The Bandit name attached and a number of TV movies (that I haven't been brave enough to track down and endure yet). But things should have been left alone after the first two movies.

This third outing decides to focus on Sheriff Buford T. Justice (once again played by Jackie Gleason) and his son (once again played by Mike Henry). The sheriff is due to retire but finds that the relaxation and lack of challenge doesn't really suit him so he ends up accepting a challenge from Big Enos and Little Enos (Pat McCormick and Paul Williams returning) that involves getting from A to B within a certain time limit. There's $250, 000 to be won but if the sheriff loses he has to hand over his beloved badge. Of course, as soon as the sheriff sets off on his journey the dirty tricks begin.

Directed by Dick Lowry, and written by Stuart Birnbaum and David Dashey, this movie just lacks any of the charm of the first two movies and really becomes nothing more than a few car chase sequences with little to no real reason for them and with the premise that unfolds I don't blame anyone who watches the movie and actually feels cheated. Because it IS a cheat. Okay, detractors of the first two movies may easily dismiss those as nothing more than a few cas chase sequences with little to no real reason for them either but I'd argue that those movies had a little bit more going on beneath the surface. Well, the second film certainly did. And there was real warmth and affection there. Sadly, this film feels like the cynical cash-in it so clearly is.

Jackie Gleason is enjoyable enough once more, as is Mike Henry, but nobody else really fares all that well. The antics of Big Enos and Little Enos seem pointless and irritating, Jerry Reed returns but you can't help feeling that he should have stayed away from this outing. And Burt Reynolds makes a very brief appearance, most of it in flashback form. Colleen Camp is an enjoyable female presence, it's a shame she didn't get better material to work with.

If you love the first two then you may feel the urge to see this one but I ask you to battle that urge and hold on to the first two movies as THE definitive adventures of Smokey & The Bandit.

4/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews