Netflix And Chill: Trick (2019)

Okay, let me start off this review with some positivity. The whole thing isn't going to be negative, but I think there may be moments when I ramble on a bit and give the impression that I had a terrible time. I did not. Trick is a lot of fun. It's just that it doesn't remain quite fun enough to help you overlook some of the more ridiculous moments, including some pretty big plot points.

The basic story revolves around Detective Mike Denver (Omar Epps), a man determined to catch a killer, believed to be Patrick "Trick" Weaver (Thom Niemann) who embarks on a fatal killing spree every Halloween. He attends a party, spins a knife around, and then starts getting stabby. Detective Denver, and Sheriff Lisa Jayne (Ellen Adair), keeps trying to stay hot on the trail of what may well be a supernatural killer, even if others don't buy into that theory.

Director Patrick Lussier, who once again worked with Todd Farmer on the script, has been delivering horror movies with an emphasis on fun for the past two decades. And they've managed to get a bit better and better after he was done with a number of Dracula films between 2000-2005. Trick may not be as wild as My Bloody Valentine and Drive Angry (especially that one), but it's clear that it's a film based around a fun premise, rather than one intricately plotted to weave between tense set-pieces on the way to a smart and thought-provoking final act. Nope, Lussier and Farmer want a lot of death, an element of mystery to keep the authorities on their toes, and a good mix of gore and silliness. They also throw in one or two death traps that would even make Jigsaw roll his eyes and say things were getting a bit too unbelievable (particularly when one character helps to keep another safe before ensuring they then return to the main target spot that will ensure their splattery demise).

The cast all go along with everything perfectly. Epps is actually deserving of some praise for playing his character as determined and obsessed without going into, for example, the kind of immediate manic and twitchy performance we got from Danny Glover in Saw (he is the first example to spring to mind, due to a few death scenes here, but there are many others). Adair is just as good as the woman working alongside him, casting doubt on some of his theory while continuing to put the work in and follow things wherever they lead. Kristina Reyes is a decent, strong female in her role, Cheryl Winston, a survivor of one killing spree hoping to help stop any others, and Max Miller is fun in the role of Troy, a jock who paints himself as a hero when things didn't quite pan out that way. Others do well, if they don't stand out, but genre fans may enjoy seeing Jamie Kennedy in a small role, and should definitely enjoy a wonderfully grouchy turn from the incomparable genre legend that is Tom Atkins.

I enjoyed a lot of Trick. Unfortunately, the scenes I enjoyed most where the scenes that were supposed to be highlights. They were set-pieces that quickly became ridiculous, taking me out from the viewing experience as I was unable to suspend my disbelief. But then it would get back to some smaller-scale insanity, and I was back on board.

Easier to hate than to love, I hope people give this a watch and simple enjoy it. The end runs a little too long, and has a ridiculous resolution to everything, but it's still worth 100 minutes of your time. Even if it's not a complete treat.

6/10

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Halloween III: Season Of The Witch (1982)

As hard as it is to believe now, there was a time when the Halloween franchise wasn't supposed to stay slavishly tied to boogeyman Michael Myers. It was going to be a series of horror movies all tied to the horror holiday, and this film was the first entry to try something new. Unfortunately, nobody decided to give fans a heads up on the situation, which led to no small amount of confusion and resentment when Halloween III: Season Of The Witch was released back in 1982, making it also the last entry to try something new. The film has, thank goodness, developed a pretty strong fanbase in the intervening years. It may not have the slasher movie fun that the other Halloween movies have, but it's a dark film that mixes sci-fi and horror into one big seasonal treat.

Tom Atkins stars as Daniel Challis, a doctor who ends up investigating the strange death of a man who came into his hospital a few days before Halloween. He heads off, with the daughter of the deceased (Ellie, played by Stacey Nelkin), to the small town of Santa Mira, the place where Silver Shamrock is based. Silver Shamrock is a company that creates Halloween novelties, and it also may be one of the last places that the deceased visited. Run by a man named Cochran (Dan O'Herlihy), Silver Shamrock seems to be up to much more than just making treats for Halloween. The company has some pretty tight security, a strong grip on the town, and a severe way of dealing with anyone who tries to interfere in its affairs.

Written and directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, with uncredited input from John Carpenter and Nigel Kneale (the latter had his name removed from the credits after seeing his initial story idea made into something much darker and gorier), this is a nasty slice of paranoia that just about manages to keep things tense and entertaining enough to allow viewers to forgive some ridiculousness in the third act.

Atkins does what he does best, so there are no problems with his performance in the lead role, Nelkin is a cute female companion, and O'Herlihy is wonderfully devilish in the role of Cochran. He's charming when in public, but soon reveals his true face when safe behind closed doors. Wendy Wessberg also makes a good impression in her small role, playing a colleague who ends up doing some extra investigatory work for Atkins. Nancy Kyes (who appeared in the first two Halloween movies, under the name Nancy Loomis) has a fun cameo role, playing the wife of Atkins, and Jamie Lee Curtis has an uncredited vocal cameo that fans should keep their ears open for.

The score, credited to John Carpenter and Alan Howarth, is absolutely superb, almost on a par with the iconic score created for the first film in the series, and there's a jingle for Silver Shamrock that will irritate and entertain you in equal measure.

 In case you forgot how it goes . . . . . . . . . . . . . here it is.

Superior horror fare that ended up suffering due to the fact it was released as a Halloween movie, this is well worth a revisit and reappraisal if you've not already given it another chance since it was initially released.

9/10

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Lethal Weapon (1987)

Does Lethal Weapon NEED any introduction? I really don't think so. THE buddy cop movie by which all others ended up being measured, this was the film to put Danny Glover and Mel Gibson together with highly entertaining, and explosive, results.

I'll briefly surmise the plot. Mel plays Martin Riggs, a suicidal cop who lives for his job. Danny Glover is Roger Murtaugh, a 50-year-old cop who just wants to keep doing his job well while avoiding any of the downsides of the job, like bullet wounds or premature death. The two men are partnered up together, and it's not long until the case that they're working on places both of them in great danger.

With solid direction from Richard Donner, despite a flurried final fight sequence, and a cracking script from Shane Black, Lethal Weapon is everything that you should love about '80s action movies. All of the cliches are in place, although they weren't necessarily cliches when the movie was released, and every element is added to the movie without any hint of shame. The saxophone popping up all over the soundtrack, the troubled hero, the moment at which it all becomes personal, the mad villainous henchman played by Gary Busey. Admittedly, that last part isn't a cliche. It's just a masterstroke.

After attaining iconic status with his leading role in the Mad Max movies, Gibson finds himself in the enviable position of being able to have fun with another character quickly embraced by, and absorbed into, the pop culture of the time. Glover is in the same position, thankfully, as both men have their fair share of great moments. Lethal Weapon benefits from a central pairing so perfect that one man cannot shine without the other. But it's not JUST all about the men, oh no. It may seem that way, yet Traci Wolfe and Darlene Love also get to make a great impression as, respectively, Mrs Trish Murtaugh and daughter Rianne. Mary Ellen Trainor also pops up as a psychologist, a character she would reprise in the sequels, and she'd even gain an actual name in the third movie. Tom Atkins appears briefly, lending some Atkins greatness to the proceedings, Mitch Ryan is a bad man, and Busey is the REAL, and more entertaining, bad man. Well, he's the one who thinks himself capable of facing off against Gibson's character, which makes him highly dangerous.

Full of great moments, that are deservedly remembered with fondness, and great characters, Lethal Weapon endures, despite the fluffiness of Gibson's oh-so-eighties hair and the potential to teeter into all-out ridiculousness, because of the chemistry between everyone onscreen, be it Riggs and Murtaugh, the goodies and the baddies, or even the warmth between Murtaugh and his loving family. A classic of the genre.

9/10

http://www.amazon.com/Lethal-Weapon-Collection-Blu-ray/dp/B0079KGAOY/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1405112139&sr=1-2&keywords=lethal+weapon

Drive Angry (2011)

Beginning with Nicolas Cage literally driving out of hell, Drive Angry is not a film that you will ever find described by the word "subtle". In fact, it's perhaps best summed up by the scene in which Cage shoots a lot of bad guys while swigging on a bottle of bourbon and having sex with a naked blonde. It's a scene that should be laughably bad, yet it plays out as a sequence that's hugely entertaining. It's still laughable, but in a good way.

What's the plot anyway? Cage plays a man named Milton, a runaway from hell who is being followed by The Accountant (William Fichtner). Milton is determined to stop a baby being sacrificed by Jonah King (Billy Burke), a cult leader who wants to make hell on earth. And on his quest to stop Jonah he ends up gaining a companion in the shapely . . . . . . . . shape of Amber Heard (playing a character named Piper). David Morse appears for a few minutes, Tom Atkins also gets to make an appearance, and Christa Campbell makes quite an impression with her limited screentime, but everyone takes a back seat to the feeling of excess, the CGI effects bandied around to enhance the 3D experience, and Cage going for yet another whacky turn.

I have to take a moment here to mention the one thing that bugs me most about Drive Angry. It's a little thing, yet it sits in my mind and flashes like a big, neon sign. The character played by Amber Heard is, as is made clear quite early on, someone who is both tough and has a strong urge to always do right by people. Her actions, words and general attitude show this. So the fact that the film-makers choose to show her holding a cigarette for one scene, about an hour or so into the movie, just doesn't make any sense. It's as if they thought she'd definitely smoke to make her more obviously tough, and then that decision was reversed at the last moment. Keep your eyes peeled. She holds a cigarette. When next shown, she's still holding it. And then she throws it to the ground, at no point actually smoking the damn thing.

Anyway, ranting aside, the rest of the movie does exactly what it should do. It entertains without ever getting close to any sign of intelligence. The performances from most of the main players are deliriously over the top. Cage is, of course, no stranger to this type of thing, Fichtner has a number of scene-stealing moments, and Burke simply tries to match them (although he can't). Heard is a good addition, mainly because I think she's always a good addition, Atkins is The Atkins, and Morse reminds viewers that not everyone in such a raucous movie has to turn everything up to 11.

Patrick Lussier is the director of this madness, and he also co-wrote the script with Todd Farmer (who gave himself a couple of great moments onscreen, too). I guess the script went something like this: Nic Cage drives, oooohhh Amber Heard, Fichtner is cool, Nic Cage drives some more . . . . . . or sits beside Amber Heard in a car, guns, guns, guns, boobies, boobies and guns and blood and booze, Cage drives again (note to self - he HAS to drive angry, otherwise the title makes us look stupid), Fichtner is cool again, ATKINS, more driving in the angriest way possible, etc. etc.

It's easy to mock this because it's not a good film. Yet, it's pretty great in the way it so unashamedly lays all of its cards on the table from the very beginning and then delivers one ridiculous set-piece after another en route to the grand finale. There are even some RAWK songs on the soundtrack that sound like parodies, somehow just adding to the appeal of the whole thing.

If Trey Parker and Matt Stone ever made an action movie (a non-puppet action movie) then I'd imagine that the end result would be Drive Angry. As difficult as it may be to believe, I mean that as a compliment.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Angry-Blu-ray-Nicolas-Cage/dp/B004EPYZOY/ref=sr_1_3?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1404503971&sr=1-3&keywords=drive+angry

Night Of The Creeps (1986)

The 80s were good for Fred Dekker, the writer-director behind both this movie and, the much-loved, The Monster Squad. Those two movies garnered him a loyal fan-base for life, and rightly so.

Night Of The Creeps is all about little, parasitic aliens that take over human bodies and turn them into deadly zombies. This is a big pain in the backside for Chris (Jason Lively), who is finally getting a chance to woo Cynthia (Jill Whitlow), a girl he has fallen in love with. With gruff Detective Cameron (Tom Atkins) trying to figure out what's going on as bodies start to, apparently, wander off on their own it's not long until the living have to band together to keep the living dead at bay.

A cross between '50s sci-fi B-movie, teen comedy and zombie flick, Night Of The Creeps really does remain a hugely enjoyable little film that should be seen and appreciated by as many genre fans as possible. A lot of the movie may be wish-fulfilment stuff usually delivered by John Hughes back in the '80s, but that doesn't detract from the overall enjoyment.

Tom Atkins has never been more fun (his "thrill me" answering of the telephone just one small, enjoyable nuance from a selection of many), the rest of the young stars are good enough (Steve Marshall as the best buddy, J.C., strikes just the right balance between confident and irritating) and Jill Whitlow's character is easy enough to grow fond of, making the lengths that Chris will go to to keep her safe all the more believable. Allan Kayser is an easy-to-hate douchebag named Brad, and there's also a nice little Dick Miller cameo for fans to watch out for.

With a sharp script, many wonderful, individual moments and pacing that perfectly delivers a number of little, eerie moments before building up to an all-out battle of a finale, the movie delivers just the right mix of fun, thrills and overall entertainment. Fans of sci-fi and horror will enjoy the fact that all of the main characters are named after the likes of Raimi, Carpenter, Cronenberg, etc and the more eagle-eyed viewers should easily spot a piece of graffiti exclaiming "GO MONSTER SQUAD".

It's not perfect though, by any means. What are the main flaws? Well, there aren't many scenes that are actually tense, even when things are supposed to be getting that way, and the last ten minutes or so are a bit of a let-down compared to the fun had beforehand. Despite those things, this remains the best parasitic, zombie-creating, alien horror comedy ever made. Yep, it's still better than Slither.

8/10

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Escape From New York (1981)

This sleek, cool, sci-fi thriller from John Carpenter is the film that really seemed to cement the working relationship between the director and actor Kurt Russell. The two consistently brought out the best in one another throughout the 1980s and this is when it all kicked off (the Elvis biopic was good but also far removed from the rest of the work that they would do together).

Russell has a ball playing Snake Plissken, one of the coolest, grizzled anti-heroes ever to be put on film. He’s asked to rescue the President Of The United States after a flight is hijacked and he reluctantly agrees, not caring at all about the fate of the POTUS but won over by the thought of a full pardon. You see, Snake is a criminal and it will take a criminal to rescue the President because the President is being held in a prison by a bunch of degenerates who want out. The prison is New York itself, walled up many years ago and made inescapable – it’s the place where criminals go to rot.

Escape From New York is just as enjoyable to watch today as it was when it was released back in 1981. It doesn’t matter that the wild future depicted onscreen is now some years behind us (1997), it only matters that this is Carpenter at the top of his game with his favourite actor in the lead role and a supporting cast of top notch character actors: Tom Atkins, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, George ‘Buck’ Flower, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau and Donald Pleasence.

The script, written by Carpenter and Nick Castle, is lean and cool throughout, with Plissken being more a man of action than words. The direction and cinematography is as great as you'd expect from Carpenter during this period in his career, with typically gorgeous work from Dean Cundey, and there's yet another of those classic synth scores accompanying the action - created by the director and Alan Howarth.

It may have been Carpenter's biggest budget at the time but the movie remains a great one to study for those wantting to learn about wringing the most from every dollar. Superb matte paintings, "wire-frame" images of a city created by white tape on a black model, a production design department making numerous trips to garbage landfill sites to scavenge junk they could use for props, every trick in the book was used to ensure that the money is onscreen and that the movie matches the vision of its director.

9/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Escape-New-York-DVD/dp/B0002JK73Y/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1352469724&sr=8-3