The Pope's Exorcist (2023)

Like everyone, my mood can decide how I respond to a movie. Catch me on a good day and I may be receptive and kind. Catch me on a bad day and the film may have to work a lot harder to get me to warm to it. The Pope’s Exorcist caught me on a very good day. That is the only way I can explain why I enjoyed it so much.

Russell Crowe, going all out with his Italian accent, plays Father Gabriel Amorth, the titular character. He can battle demons whenever the need arises, but he can also spot other problems, and deal with them accordingly. When a family starts to have a serious problem, in the shape of the youngest member being possessed by a demon who demands an encounter with Father Amorth, the stage is set for the kind of epic battle of wills that can only end when souls are completely saved. Or completely damned.

Directed by Julius Avery (who did the excellent Overlord and the not-so-excellent Samaritan), this is everything you think it is going to be, a slick horror movie with dollops of CGI used to show demon activity, a BIG performance from Crowe, and lots of moments that feel highly derivative.

Writers Michael Petroni, Evan Spiliotopolous, and others who helped form the main story, are aware that their central character comes with a whole load of horror movie baggage (it won’t take anyone long to find out why he is such a notable figure in the horror genre), and they don’t shy away from moments that will feel familiar to anyone with a moderate interest in the genre. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the script leans heavily into the familiar, using a lot of standard horror movie moments as a background that highlights the humour and personality of the central character, and that proves to be a surprisingly good approach.

Crowe is a lot of fun here, keeping a twinkle in his eye and a wry grin on his face right up until the second that things get intense and dangerous. He seems to be having a blast, and his amusement and energy are infectious. Alex Essoe, Peter Desouza-Feighoney, and Laurel Marsden are the family members who end up trying to fend off a demonic onslaught, with both Essoe and Marsden doing great work while Desouza-Feighoney seems to have been picked for his suitability with the practical and digital effects. Daniel Zovatto is your typical inexperienced “assistant”, aka the young priest to fight alongside the old priest, and he’s fine, but bonus points go to whoever decided to cast Franco Nero as his Holiness himself, the Pope. He isn’t onscreen often, but he appears just often enough to raise a smile.

I rolled my eyes when The Pope’s Exorcist began, and I rolled my eyes with every new “revelation”. But I was also smiling as I rolled my eyes. And, maybe because I was in a very good mood, I soon realised that I was rolling my eyes a bit less and smiling a bit more, despite the standard CGI tricks and the hugely predictable third act. I enjoyed this. I would watch it again. I would also definitely watch any sequel based around Crowe’s portrayal of this character.

7/10

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Django (1966)

Django is a name that has towered over the Western genre for many years before Quentin Tarantino decided to take it and put it to the masses with the fantastic Django Unchained. I'm sure that many people will now seek out the older movies thanks to the major homage from Tarantino and that can only be a good thing, especially when the film holds up as such fine, influential, entertainment.

Django (Franco Nero), the titular hero, is a gunslinger who walks around dragging a coffin behind him. This, as you can imagine, makes for some strong imagery. In the first moments of the movie he guns down some men who are attempting to punish a woman named Maria (Loredana Nusciak). It turns out that Maria is a prostitute who has been caught in between a rock and a hard place, in the shape of Major Jackson (Eduardo Fajardo) and General Hugo Rodriguez (Jose Bodalo), two enemies who have been ruining a town caught up in the midst of their ongoing battles.

It may not have been the first of its kind, but it's hard to argue against the fact that Django is the most important and influential Western of its time. It certainly spawned enough sequels (both official and unofficial) and imitators, as did the classic Leone Westerns from the same period. Film fans can enjoy the movie, but they can also take great pleasure in spotting every moment and scene that has since been homaged in other movies (and not just by Tarantino).

Franco Nero is great in the main role, every bit as cool and mesmerising as Eastwood ever was. It's no wonder that to many people he will always be the character, despite how many others have played him, or variations of him. Loredana Nusciak is a suitably appealing damsel in distress, Angel Alvarez is great as the bartender who wants to keep his life as well as his bar and Eduardo Fajardo and Jose Bodalo are entertaining potential villains, depending on how they deal with Django.

Behind the scenes, Sergio Corbucci is the man responsible for this enduring creation. Not only did he direct the film, but he also wrote the screenplay with his brother, Bruno Corbucci, and a few other helpful scribes. Then there's Luic Bacalov, the man responsible for the superb score, who also deserves a fair bit of praise and Enzo Barboni does a good job with the cinematography. Ruggero Deodato fans will probably already know that he was an assistant director on the movie and it's certainly a worthy entry in his filmography even if he's not getting the biggest credit.

While it was never the most obscure movie, it's good to know that more and more people will discover this film after yet another cinematic love letter from Tarantino (love or hate his work, he does his best to point people towards the movies that he's always loved). Django isn't a great spaghetti Western, it's not a great movie for its time, it's not something to be viewed just as a hugely influential work of art. Django is a great movie, period.

9/10

There have been some criticisms of the Bluray release so fans may just want to opt for the DVD here until the film gets the treatment it so deserves - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Django-Newly-Re-mastered-Region-DVD/dp/B00ABH20HI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1361482202&sr=8-2