Prime Time: The Map That Leads To You (2025)

Although The Map That Leads To You is based on a novel by Joseph Monninger, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks. There are attractive leads, romance blossoming after an inauspicious start, and a secret that could make or break the potential future of the relationship. So, yeah, it's a "Nicholas Sparks movie" in all but name, essentially.

Madelyn Cline is Heather, a young woman on a holiday to Europe with her two friends (Connie, played by Sofia Wylie, and Amy, played by Madison Thompson) before she's due to head home, where she will start her career in the world of banking.  She meets Jack (KJ Apa) on a train, and we know he'll become a main character because he's the kind of free spirit who climbs to the overhead luggage racks in order to try sleeping during this part of the journey. Connie ends up getting on with Raef (Orlando Norman), who is a friend of Jack, and it's not long until Heather is won over by Jack's charm. 

Adapted into screenplay form by Vera Herbert and Les Bohem,  two writers who have a decent bit of variety in their respective filmographies, this is very comfortable and predictable stuff. It's aimed squarely at those who want something romantic to watch, presents everything through a filter of glorious sunshine and idealism, and there are enough moments throughout to make you smile in between the manipulative moments that try to make you leak slightly from your eyes.

Cline and Apa are perfectly fine leads, with the latter having the benefit of playing the more fun and livelier of the two characters, and they're matched by Wylie, Thompson, and Norman, all defined by their youthfulness and looks ahead of any really deep characterisation. Josh Lucas has a couple of scenes, required to do nothing more than play the concerned father, and he's not bad either. The locations are the real star though, in specific terms and as a reminder of the beauty of a world that far too few people have the time to truly appreciate, with the exception of that one annual holiday when we often want nothing more than relaxation and some tanning time.

Director Lasse Hallström may not put any unique stamp on things, but he approaches the material with the skill and finesse that he has had throughout his lengthy film career. I would recommend at least half a dozen other movies from him ahead of this one, but none of them would necessarily hit the exact same sweet spot that this hits for those in the mood for glossy romance. Mind you, that's only because I would be unlikely to recommend either Dear John or Safe Haven (both based on, yep, novels by Nicholas Sparks) ahead of the likes of Chocolat, My Life As A Dog, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, and a few others.

This wasn't made for me. The fact that I didn't hate it is more to do with how easygoing I am when I sit down to watch any movie. It was nice to watch with my partner though, considering the many times she has had to sit there and tolerate movies that were much more in my wheelhouse, and sometimes you just want something that can play out while you have snuggles, whether those snuggles are with a partner, with a pet, or with a tub of your favourite ice cream.

5/10

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The Black Demon (2023)

In the same way that no good can come of trying to overlook safety measures to maintain the operational viability of an oil rig in Baja, which is an idea at the heart of this film, no good can come of actually watching The Black Demon. Its a film that doesn’t know whether it wants to be a standard shark movie, an environmentally-conscious thriller, or a film about a curse, with that curse happening to take the form of a shark, and it ends up failing to be any of those things.

Josh Lucas plays the main character, Paul, who is tasked with visiting the aforementioned oil rig and shutting it down. He takes his family with him, a chance for them to get some sunshine and feel more heat off the threatening glances from some angry locals, and everyone eventually ends up on a rig that is being targeted by a big angry shark. If you watch this and figure out a way to care about any of the characters then please let me know.

Director Adrian Grunberg has done a couple of good movies in the past (starting his career as a feature director with the very enjoyable Get The Gringo AKA How I Spent My Summer Vacation). You wouldn’t know it from watching this. While there is a basic degree of technical competence on display, I guess, Grunberg seems content to work with a weak script that is in dire need of people ready to elevate the material. I was unsurprised to find that this was the feature writing debut of Boise Esquerra, working from a story idea by Carlos Cisco. Esquerra seems unsure of what to do, throwing in a number of different plot elements that sit uncomfortably alongside each other like family members who despise one another respectfully attending a funeral service together. There are glances, some shuffling, but no outbursts. The whole thing just feels awkward though, and everyone is relieved when it’s over.

The cast doesn’t help. There are other main people involved, but it mostly rests of the shoulders of Josh Lucas. As much as I don’t mind Lucas, he seems to have built his career on accepting every role handed to him by an agent who hates him. The fact that he cannot do anything to help make this a more bearable film is perhaps a testament to why he has never hit any dizzying heights. He is generally capable, if not overly charismatic, but this is a performance as weak as the script. It’s as if he got to the location and fully realised what film he was making. Fernanda Urrejola plays his wife, she is also not very good (hampered by the script treating her even worse), there are a couple of so-so younger actors as their children, and the only other person I want to namecheck is Julio Cesar Cedillo, the one bright spot in the film, playing a man already on the rig and already well aware of the uncanny abilities of a shark that won’t let people get back to the mainland.

There’s nothing more to say. This has a poor opening sequence, something trying to be tense and atmospheric that fails completely, a dull middle section, full of laughably cliché moments, and a finale that I wanted over and done with as quickly as possible, because I just wanted the thing to end. It makes the mistake of treating the sillier plot elements with seriousness and treating the serious elements with an overdone earnestness that simply doesn’t work. AND the shark is disappointing, not bad enough to be hilarious and not good enough to be impressive and memorable. Others might be more forgiving of this, especially when compared to the hundreds of dire shark movies out there, but this should have been much better than it is. It had the potential to be decent, which makes the disappointing end result all the more infuriating.

3/10

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She Dies Tomorrow (2020)

A film that would make up a perfect companion piece to the excellent Pontypool, She Dies Tomorrow is a film all about an infectious idea that renders people quite unable to go about their day to day business as they used to.

Kate Lyn Sheil plays Amy, a woman who becomes convinced that she is going to die tomorrow. She doesn't seem alarmed by that knowledge. It won't necessarily be a terrible thing, especially if she can put her plan in place to have her remains turned into a leather jacket. As Amy passes her foresight along to Jane (Jane Adams), Jane becomes equally convinced that she will also die tomorrow. As does everyone who becomes a part of this chain of communication.

Written and directed by Amy Seimetz, this is a small and effective drama that constantly darts in and out of the horror genre, and it's a film that explores a few various aspects of humanity in surprisingly effective ways, be it depression that can plunge anyone into a dark abyss, leaving them falling/floating like Alice heading into Wonderland, or the general aversion that most of us have when it comes to discussing our own mortality. It also features moments in which people are having a very real existential crisis, at the very least, while others try to criticise them for it or ask them to stop bringing down the mood of the room.

Sheil and Adams are both very good, spending a lot of the film in a bit of a daze, while everyone else appearing alongside them does work on a par with them, many quickly transforming during scenes that show them talking to a character until they themselves are afflicted with the same knowledge about their own time left on the planet. The supporting cast members worth highlighting are Katie Aselton, Chris Messina, Tunde Adebimpe, Jennifer Kim, and Josh Lucas, although you also have screentime for Adam Wingard, Michelle Rodriguez, and a number of others who are all poised to have their frame of mind radically altered.

This may not maintain any sense of creeping dread that appears in a few main scenes, and it may lack some real chills and scares, but it's an interesting film, thanks mainly to the main idea showing the reactions from various people seemingly forced to face their own mortality. If you go into it knowing what to expect, it's something aiming more for an atmosphere of helplessness and confusion rather than pure horror, then you should be able to appreciate everything that it does well, as opposed to watching it with any preconceptions that lead to you criticising it for what it's not trying to do.

Seimetz is best known for her acting work over the past couple of decades, but she's been doing some solid work behind the camera, in TV and film, for almost as long as she's been in front of the camera. And I hope she continues to make interesting choices like this.

7/10

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The Forever Purge (2021)

I've generally been a fan of The Purge movies, although it's quite telling that I can't really remember anything that happened in The First Purge (I'll have to rewatch it some day, but I cannot bring myself to do it just yet). The films have always been most fun when they blend the thrills and tension with unsubtle commentary on the class/wealth divide in America.

The Forever Purge, as the title suggests, depicts a world in which some people don’t want to leave the crime and killing to just one night a year. Emboldened by their activities, and finding others like themselves, a group of violent racists want to keep the ball rolling as they see a chance to purify America into their vision of a supreme nation.

Once again written by James DeMonaco, this time it is Everardo Gout directing. Gout does well when it comes to making the most of the budget, something this film series has generally done well with in every instalment, and he films the few small set-pieces well enough. The main problems come from DeMonaco’s script. More on that in a little while.

Cast-wise, the main characters are played by Ana de la Reguera, Tenoch Huerta, and Josh Lucas, none of the characters really stand out, certainly not for the right reasons. Every main character here is absolutely defined by their race and class, or their unpalatable attitude to people of different races and classes. And you have Will Patton being as good as he usually is, which makes it more annoying that he is onscreen for a mere few minutes of the screentime.

Unfortunately, nobody really gets a chance to do any decent work, hampered by the shallow characterisations and clumsy dialogue. What could have been a decent expansion of the movie world ends up weak and implausible, from the relations between the different characters to the way we are supposed to believe that gun-toting Americans would band together and help protect people from other gun-toting Americans. Sorry to say it, but recent events have shown what the general public, not just Americans by the way, will put up with if it keeps themselves safe and comfortable. 

None of this would be as hard to accept if the moments of vicious nastiness were more impactful, but they aren’t. What should have been a bleak and bloody adventure ends up as just a tame fantasy, limping along to an ending that feels like a groan-inducing punchline. Maybe they should be ready to call the next movie, as there IS going to be a next movie, The Final Purge.

4/10

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Netflix And Chill: Session 9 (2001)

I'm not going to draw this out, Session 9 remains one of my favourite horror movies released in the past two decades, and one of my favourite horror movies of all time. Making the most of one main location, the Danvers State Mental Hospital, it is an impressive psychological horror that just keeps diving darker and darker, all the way to one of the most disturbing endings of all time.

Gordon Fleming (Peter Mullan) is the boss of a crew who have been hired to remove asbestos from an abandoned hospital. He needed the gig badly, and so made sure to match any other one while promising to get the job finished in a week. This puts extra pressure on him and his crew, but there's a massive bonus in it for them if all goes well. Phil (David Caruso) is his second-in-command, basically, there's Mike (Stephen Gevedon) and Hank (Josh Lucas), the latter individual now in a relationship with Phil's ex, and Jeff (Brendan Sexton III), Gordon's nephew. Tensions build as the work is carried out, and you get to hear spooky tapes being played by Mike, who spends some of his break times listening to the psychiatric sessions he discovered in one of the many abandoned rooms. Gordon also has domestic problems on his mind, but maybe all will be well if they can get the job done in one week.

The more I think about it, the less I can think to criticise about Session 9. Director Brad Anderson (and I'd argue that this film, despite not making a massive impact when first released, helped him step up a level, in terms of exposure, after it was embraced by genre fans) puts everything together with an expert touch, working from a great script co-written by himself and Gevedon. It may be making use of a location, but a) it doesn't feel like that is all it has going for it, and b) it's a damn fine location for a horror movie.

Mullan is as great as he always is in the lead role, and he can convey a real mix of emotions underlining all of the building horror as everything becomes clearer during the final moments. Caruso has rarely been better, doing a great job as a blue-collar worker trying to earn a good payday while helping a friend through a tough time. Lucas puts in another turn that allows him to be a bit of a douchebag, and Brendan Sexton III walks a fine line between annoying youngster and vulnerable kid, particularly as his severe nyctophobia plays into the plot. I'm not too familiar with Gevedon, but he does just fine, although his strength seems to lie in the writing side of things.

Despite the moments that feel like standard horror tropes (when people start to go missing, when everyone splits up to search for someone, etc), this is, like the central location itself, an atmospheric and dark building that creaks and groans while sitting on some very solid foundations. All of the exposition, and it is a film that threads a LOT of exposition throughout, feels natural as it is conveyed between different characters, the geography of the site is clear enough to follow everything, and the character development is never warped for the sake of the scares.

Do yourself a favour and watch this one ASAP. You won't regret it. If you do, well, I can't help it if you have bad taste.

10/10

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Ford V Ferrari (2019)

A contender that never really seemed to have a chance in the awards season, Ford V Ferrari came to cinema screens with a small amount of fanfare, but no real way to sell it to anyone other than fans of stars Matt Damon and Christian Bale (and, yes, I went into this film thinking one played Ford and one played Ferrari). That's a shame, because this turns out to be one of the more enjoyable films put forward in various award categories over the past year. It's easy to see why others edged ahead in pretty much every category, and it's easy to dismiss it as a formulaic movie that takes no risks, but that shouldn't take away from the fact that the film deserves to receive a bit more praise than it got (from the response I have seen to it anyway).

Matt Damon is Carroll Shelby, the man who ends up tasked with designing a car for Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) capable of beating the almighty Ferrari cars that have dominated the Le Mans racing event for many years. The car is only part of the solution though. What's also required is a driver who knows exactly how to get the most out of the machine. That's where Ken Miles (Christian Bale) comes in. But Ken is a racer who doesn't necessarily fit the image that Ford may want to put out there as the winning driver to get results that will also lead to more car sales.

Director James Mangold has a good foundation to work with here, with a smart and sharp script hammered into shape by Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, and Jason Keller, and his quality cast. He also shows a great understanding of how to use the technology at his disposal to best display the intensity of the racing moments without making it all feel like a CGI showcase.

Although Bale is as good as you would expect in the main role, he's a man with a very singular purpose. He knows cars, he wants to win races, he doesn't care for whatever else may be happening around him, in terms of the business and PR side. Damon gets to have a bit more fun, knowing when to play the game with people and when to do whatever it takes to protect the man who he knows is the best fit for the car. The supporting cast is also full of treats, from Letts as Ford, to Jon Bernthal as the vice president of Ford, to Caitriona Balfe as Mollie Miles, the supportive wife of Ken. Josh Lucas gets to be the kind of arrogant douchebag that seems to be the highlighted role type at the top of his CV, and he does it so well, and Ray McKinnon is Phil Remington, a team engineer who is also adverse to all of the games being played off the track, his only aim being to help Miles and Shelby make their case with the fastest lap times.

There may be few surprises for those who were already familiar with this tale (I wasn't, I have no knowledge of the history of racecar driving), but there's enough added, in terms of the character development and little fun details, to definitely make this worth the time of even those who think they know the story too well to find it tense or entertaining. Mangold uses a lot of tried and tested tricks to make sure that it is a complete, and completely enjoyable, cinematic experience.

8/10

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Poseidon (2006)

A remake of a movie that remains my favourite disaster movie of all time (The Poseidon Adventure), Poseidon would seem to be a movie not really worth bothering about. How could it ever hope to top the fantastic original? Well, let's just cut to the chase here, it doesn't. It does, however, make for a decent bit of entertainment in its own right, thanks to a decent cast and solid direction from Wolfgang Petersen, who is no stranger to drama in submerged vessels (as viewers of the magnificent Das Boot will agree).

This adaptation may take place almost a quarter of a century after the original movie, but there's very little different in the overall premise. That's unsurprising, the main premise is so good that it needs no tinkering. A large and lovely cruise ship, the Poseidon, is hit by a freak wave out in the middle of the ocean and a group of people decide that their best bet for survival is to get to the bottom of the ship, which is now the part of the vessel now lying ABOVE the water. So the folk start to climb up and up on a perilous journey, doing their best to stay ahead of rising water levels, avoid explosions and fires and keep their footing as they move higher.

As you might expect, there are a number of scenes in Poseidon that are all about spectacle. Thankfully, the special effects are so well done that the moments of spectacle are really . . . . . . . . spectacular. Seriously, the visuals are consistently impressive, which is kind of a minimum requirement now for the big-budget disaster movies.

Special effects aren't everything though, as almost everyone would agree. The focus of the movie sways between the destruction of Poseidon and the perilous journey of the characters, which is why it's a good job that the various cast members all do well in their roles.

Kurt Russell and Josh Lucas are the two leaders of the group, men with different styles who have the same inner strength and strong will. Russell's character has added motivation as he also does his best to keep his daughter (Emmy Rossum) and her young fella (Mike Vogel) safe. Jacinda Barrett plays a woman whose main concern is her young son (played by Jimmy Bennett), Mia Maestro plays a stowaway and Richard Dreyfuss is the oldest member of the group. There are also small roles for Freddy Rodriguez and Andre Braugher. Oh, and Kevin Dillon goes over the top as the asshole of the group. I guess I should also warn anyone who dislikes the singing voice of Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson, they will roll their eyes as she entertains the cruise ship passengers during the opening scenes of the movie.

The script by Mark Protosevich (working from the novel by Paul Gallico, with some nods to the 1972 film) is perfectly serviceable. This kind of film has very few surprises, therefore the script isn't exactly full of great twists, turns and character reveals. It sketches out the relationships, it goes for the easy moments of emotional manipulation and it moves the survivors from one problem on to the next. For me, that makes the script just fine for a disaster movie.

Everything - script, cast, special effects - is brought together masterfully by director Petersen, who paces things perfectly and keeps the camera moving around in a way that never lets viewers forget how much worse the whole situation is getting for every minute that the ship is capsized.

I really didn't expect to enjoy Poseidon as much as I did. My love for the original movie is so great, I just didn't expect to see around that mental block. The fact that I ended up thinking about buying this as soon as the end credits started rolling is testament to what a pleasant surprise it was.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Poseidon-Blu-ray-Region-Free-Russell/dp/B002U5741G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1369089887&sr=8-2&keywords=poseidon

J. Edgar (2011)

Written by Dustin Lance Black and directed by Clint Eastwood, J. Edgar is the biopic of J. Edgar Hoover and it's a pretty decent film. The sad thing is, however, that it could have been a great film. It seems that Eastwood is content with sitting on his laurels lately instead of delivering the quality of movies that he was giving to audiences not more than five years ago.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays the main character, starting the movie made up as an old man. It's an important time in his life, time to think back over everything that he's done and to get his memoirs written and as he tells his story to a young man typing everything out the audience gets to see many episodes from his life. They may not all be true interpretations of events, sometimes J. Edgar Hoover would say whatever would place him in the best light, but they all add up to paint a picture of the man who started off with great ideas and ended up with great, many would say too much, power. As Mulder might put it he "put the eye in FBI."

Considering the subject matter, this is a surprisingly dull movie at times. Various episodes do, of course, provide some excitement, but when it comes to the central character it does seem as if the script, and in turn Eastwood, is content to just barely scratch the surface. Perhaps he didn't want to upset those who are now working in the house that Hoover built.

It's a shame that the script and direction are so unimaginative and unexciting because the cast all do well and have the potential to do better. DiCaprio, in particular, is excellent in the main role. His performance isn't unlike the performance he gave in The Aviator, especially as Hoover becomes more and more driven and paranoid. Naomi Watts is fine as Helen Gandy, the woman he takes on as his secretary and also the one person he seems to trust completely. Armie Hammer is superb as Clyde Tolson, the man who may or may not have been Hoover's lover, but was certainly a close, dear friend and colleague. Then we have Judi Dench, who may not be in the movie for all that long, but does her usual great work as the mother who casts a long shadow over Hoover's life. Small, but enjoyable, turns from Josh Lucas, Dermot Mulroney, Stephen Root and Denis O'Hare help keep boredom at bay, but only just.

J. Edgar is certainly not a bad movie, in my opinion, but it feels like a wasted opportunity for almost all of its two-hour plus run-time even though it has enough interesting elements throughout to make it worth at least a one-time watch - the look at Hoover's self-aggrandising version of events, the rumours about his sexuality, the film even takes one moment to hint at the alleged cross dressing. I don't think many people will love it, but some people may like it a bit more than I did.

6/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/J-Edgar-Triple-Blu-ray-Region/dp/B005RYA5XQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361915312&sr=8-1

American Psycho (2000)

Based on the fantastic book by Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho is, to be perfectly honest, an astonishingly great movie that's boosted by a mesmerising central performance by Christian Bale and a script that lines up memorable scene after memorable scene. In all seriousness, I was very tempted to turn this review into nothing more than a selection of excerpts from the script. The scene involving the lead character explaining his love of Hue Lewis & The News is rightly regarded as a classic, mixing humour and insanity in equal measure and leading to a jaw-droppingly superb punchline.

The 80s, a decade of bad taste and excessive wealth. The rise and rise of the yuppie. The accessories and the lifestyle accoutrements became essential to many, a way to show your identity through prestigious brand names and expensive fashions. And those with the richest and easiest lifestyles all seemed to be doing the same job which was, well, something to do with money that other mere mortals never quite understood. In fact, it often didn't seem like work at all as these people went to "business lunch" after "business lunch". American Psycho looks at all of this with a cold and accurate eye for detail. Everything is brought to our attention by the behaviour of the psychopathic Patrick Bateman (Bale).

A great big middle finger raised to the rise and rise of materialism and the erasing of individual personalities, and their morals, in the workplace, American Psycho is hilarious from start to finish if you have the right sense of humour to enjoy the pitch black material. It's also equally, and impressively, disturbing from start to finish.

 Director Mary Harron (who adapted the novel to screenpla form with Guinevere Turner) deserves a lot of credit for getting the tone just right and following through with every brave decision made in getting the source material onscreen but just as much praise can be heaped upon a flawless cast. Christian Bale takes the lead role by the scruff of the neck and becomes Bateman. Perhaps this is most appropriate because the character views himself as nothing in the first place (a shell to be inhabited by whichever performance best suits, perhaps?). Despite such a strong lead performance, nobody in a supporting role ever feels completely overshadowed because the material is so good and the performers are most definitely able to rise to the occasion. Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Jared Leto, Reese Witherspoon, Samantha Mathis, Chloe Sevigny, Willem Dafoe, Cara Seymour, I could just list everyone involved to give them their due but, instead, I encourage you to just watch the movie and enjoy every single piece of acting onscreen.

Whether he's discussing the greats of 80s pop, worrying about new business cards, telling people how he has to rush off to return some videotapes or considering feeding a cat to an ATM, Patrick Bateman is a character you enjoy watching even as you alternately cringe, recoil and laugh at his actions. The movie is defined by him in the same way that he is defined by his perceived status. It's also essential viewing.

10/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/American-Psycho-DVD-Christian-Bale/dp/B00004WZWB