Last Seen Alive (2022)

Sometimes you don’t realise how good a mediocre Liam Neeson action thriller can be until you see one that hasn’t been crafted around Liam Neeson. Last Seen Alive is one such movie, which could easily have been subtitled Taken 4: Taken The Piss.

Gerard Butler plays Will Spann, a man in danger of potentially losing his wife, Lisa (Jaimie Alexander), until they stop at a gas station and he . . . loses his wife. Desperate to figure out what has happened, and with other people viewing him with suspicion (they were about to have some time apart), Butler follows the one lead he has with the tenacity of a police dog. 

The second collaboration between writer Marc Frydman and director Brian Goodman (their first being Black Butterfly), this doesn’t have me hoping beyond hope that they work together again any time soon. Last Seen Alive is a full retread of things we have seen done so much better over the years, with any extra sense of real threat or danger offset by the growing realisation that absolutely nothing here is unpredictable. It’s pointless, and lacking any feeling of actual entertainment, but the only real threat is the threat to Butler’s career.

Speaking of our leading man, he is not helped by the cinematography and make up here, looking even older and more tired than usual. His hybrid accent, which could easily have been explained away in one comment, also doesn’t help, and I say that as someone always wanting to see a fellow Scotsman do well. The film rests entirely on Butler’s shoulders, but he also s hampered by the script, which makes his character seem quite stupid, plots everything out in a careless and lazy manner, and doesn’t even throw in the tropes we so often see in this type of thing (personally, I would have welcomed some extra cheese). Russell Hornsby is the cop on the case, and I have enjoyed his work since I used to watch Grimm, doing the kind of conscientious  police work he could do in his sleep nowadays. Alexander is, understandably, not on screen all that much, although viewers are also “treated” to flashbacks that show marital trouble. Ethan Embry and Michael Irby have a couple of solid supporting roles, with the former being the highlight of the whole film.

I cannot stress to you enough just how bad this is, and how much I was rooting for it to improve at every turn. Butler has charisma, but you wouldn’t know it from his performance here. The same goes for Alexander. If it wasn’t for Hornsby and Embry then this would be unwatchable. As it is, it is a tiresome and dull waste of your time. Don’t be suckered into watching it just because you like the lead actor. He has been paid already, and he probably wants to forget about this as quickly as any of us.

2/10

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Netflix And Chill: Blindspotting (2018)

Blindspotting is an incredible film. There's no point in trying to keep you waiting to hear my view on it. Because I'd like everyone to rush off and watch it immediately, before or after reading this review. It's not really thought-provoking, sadly, but simply underlines the huge problem of systemic racism that doesn't seem to be getting any better (particularly in the USA, but it's not a uniquely American issue).

Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal (who also wrote the movie) star as, respectively, Collin and Miles. Collin is just finishing up his probation, after serving some jail time, and he wants to get that out of the way. One night, while driving home, he is shaken up when he sees a man chased down by a police officer and shot. This serves as a timely reminder of just how slippery the slope is for someone like himself, now a black man with a felony on his record, and how he would most likely suffer much worse consequences for his actions than Miles, who is hot-headed and problematic, but less likely to be shot by officers thanks to his white skin.

The first, and only, feature directed by Carlos López Estrada (I'll be very surprised if things stay that way), Blindspotting works as a great piece of entertainment throughout, but it also maintains an added layer to it that lends weight to every moment and builds tension in a number of ways that allow viewers to also consider their own blindspots (whether they are intentional or not). Much like a certain scene in Get Out, this is a film that has extra tension when it wouldn't necessarily play out that way with a white protagonist, and it's those moments, as much as the incredible finale, that make you realise just how often you might be choosing to ignore the reality that others around you are very much living through.

As well as their sterling work on the script, Diggs and Casal are perfect in the lead roles. Diggs is very easy to like, and he's not painted as an angel, despite the fact that his friend is the one who causes the most trouble. Casal, for his part, has enough charisma and energy to make his character much more tolerable than he otherwise would have been. Get the wrong actor in that role and the whole film is unbalanced. Janina Gavankar does well in the role of Val, someone Collin may have some kind of relationship with, depending on how he moves forward in his life and what she can see in him when it is being clouded by mistakes and misplaced loyalty, and Jasmine Cephas Jones is equally good as Ashley, the partner of Casal's character. Ethan Embry appears for a small, but pivotal, role, and you also get a fine little turn from Ziggy Baitinger, a sweet child actor involved in a couple of sobering moments, and cameos from Wayne Knight and Leland Orser.

On the one hand, it can be quite saddening that a film like this has to be made, and even more saddening that it probably won't reach those that need to see it the most (including the people who feel the need to reply to "black lives matter" with the tiresome "all lives matter", which is on a par with replying to tales of sexual abuse and harassment with a reminder that it is "not all men"). On the other hand, this is an incredible, intelligent, effective way to get across an important message.

9/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.

Cheap Thrills (2013)

Pat Healy is Craig, a man having a very bad day. When he decides to drown his sorrows in a bar he meets up with Vince (Ethan Embry), an old friend. It's not long until the two men meet Colin (David Koechner) and Violet (Sara Paxton). Colin, as a treat for Violet on her birthday, decides to offer money in exchange for challenge accepted by Craig and/or Vince. It starts off as a bit of fun, but soon gets darker and more dangerous. Craig and Vince end up seriously competing against one another, their bonds of friendship weakening as the money on offer for each task goes up and up.

Director E. L. Katz does well here, especially considering that it's his first time in the director's chair. The movie is a small, intimate one, but also keeps reminding viewers of the wider world that's still out there, a world that Craig and Vince will have to face after humiliating themselves for cash. Whenever it seems as if the movie might need to pause and take a breath, it doesn't. Oh no, this just keeps on rolling once the nastiness gets underway.

Trent Haaga and David Chirchirillo are the writers of the script, and the two deserve no small amount of credit for giving Katz such great material to work with. Haaga, in particular, has been working in this vein for a number of years, often walking a fine line in his movies between potential horror and dark, dark comedy (and fans of the Saw franchise should check out his fantastic film, Chop).

But neither the script nor the direction would be enough to make this a great movie if the cast weren't up to the job, and thank goodness that they are. Both Healy and Embry somehow manage to stay likable throughout, even as greed starts to overshadow the better aspects of their personalities, while Koechner is a fantastic mix of benevolence and manipulation. Sara Paxton may have the least to do, out of the four main characters, but she's fine in her role, and her character is just as important to the whole dynamic, whether she's an onlooker or sometimes even a part of a challenge.

The bottom line - Cheap Thrills is a great little movie. It's not entirely dissimilar to a number of other movies that have been released over the past few years, but it does have enough going for it, thanks mainly to all of the main characterisations, to make it one of the better recent ruminations on human nature being polluted by greed. Give it a go. I bet you enjoy it.

8/10

http://www.amazon.com/Cheap-Thrills-Ethan-Embry/dp/B00IXYMXY6/ref=sr_1_4?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1395529842&sr=1-4&keywords=cheap+thrills

Don't forget, every copy of my book sold gets a few pounds in my pocket, and gets you a good read (if I say so myself).

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.

All I Want For Christmas (1991)

While it's obviously intended to be a fun, diverting bit of family entertainment with a sprinkling of magic that helps everyone keep a smile on their face while the end credits roll, All I Want For Christmas instead ends up being one of the more annoying movies to hang such a slight premise on the sagging branches of a small, tired, skinny Christmas tree.

The plot concerns two annoying children (played by Ethan Randall, better known nowadays by the name Ethan Embry, and Thora Birch) who just want their parents to get back together. The girl played by Birch, the younger of the two children, decides to ask Santa (Leslie Nielsen), but her brother knows that it's up to them to make their Christmas wish come true. And so they set a plan in motion, a plan that they hope will reunite their parents and allow them all to live happily ever after. It involves rodents, deceit and ditching their mother's new boyfriend (played by Kevin Nealon).

This is a tough one to watch, mainly because Randall and Birch are two of the most horribly smug children to appear onscreen. Birch has the excuse of being young and precocious, when this was made, but Randall just seems to go out of his way to be irritating while not doing very much at all. The fact that the movie also features the most horrendous, and slightly disturbing, rendition of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is the icing on the cake.

Director Robert Lieberman makes no attempt to cover up the flaws in the script, by Robert Lieberman and Thom Eberhardt, and subsequently leaves everyone out to dry as the movie slogs towards a predictable, flat finale (that COULD have been enjoyable and/or moving if the leads had been slightly likable).

Leslie Nielsen has fun with his small amount of screentime, Nealon is amusingly easy to want out of the picture, and Harley Jane Kozak and Jamey Sheridan are okay as the separated parents that the kids want back together, but it's poor Lauren Bacall who suffers the greatest indignity, taking part in that aforementioned musical moment alongside Birch while being sorely underused throughout the rest of the movie. Andrea Martin doesn't do too badly, as a potential love interest named Olivia, but it's far too difficult to see why she would be attracted to Randall's smug demeanour.

Not one that I'd recommend, unless you enjoy being annoyed to the point of distraction by lead characters.

3/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/All-Want-For-Christmas-DVD/dp/B0002W10RS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386012124&sr=8-1&keywords=all+i+want+for+christmas