Mubi Monday: Knife + Heart (2018)

AKA The Crow, The Cock & The Shiny Blade (but not really, although that could easily have been a real alternate title for this).

Knife + Heart is a proper giallo film, which should delight fans of the genre. It's not an exercise in style, although it is stylish. It's not a deconstruction of the tropes, although it flips things around by having victims that are almost entirely male. It's not playing anything for laughs, or meta moments, although it has a wonderful sense of playfulness, thanks to the setting.

It's Paris. It's 1979. Anne Parèze is a director of gay porn films. She's also struggling to deal with a separation from her partner, and editor, Loïs (Kate Moran). And things get a lot worse when a killer starts targeting a number of the men that she works with. Who is it? What is his motivation? Will anything stop Anne from making her movies?

The second feature film from director Yann Gonzalez, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Cristiano Mangione, this is a near-perfect example of how to rework a familiar checklist of genre staples within a framework that manages to be familiar and enjoyably subversive at the same time. The impressive audio and visual work helps immensely, because we all know that the better gialli were more concerned with style and set-pieces than anything pesky like plausibility or logic, but arguably the biggest plus point here is that everything is played completely straight (no pun intended).

The cast all do well in their roles. Paradis seems made for this central role, she could have stepped out of any 1970s film in this mould, but she's given strong support from Moran, Nicholas Maury (as Archibald, her main co-worker/cohort), Khaled Alouach (one of the stars of the film within a film, his character utilising that trope of being someone who strongly resembles someone else), and Pierre Pirol, who brings a surprising heart to a role that could have easily been clumsy or comedic (he's "the golden mouth" brought in to help stars . . . get ready to perform).

A heady mix of sexuality, mental health issues, and stylish and bloody deaths, Knife + Heart is the kind of movie I would love to see more of. You will know whether or not it is for you within the first 10-15 minutes, which features an absolutely stunning opening murder. It feels authentic without having to point out every little detail and act smug about everything it is getting right (a fault that we have all seen occur in some other movies), and I believe that you could show this to someone, claiming it was a previously lost film that has now been rediscovered, and they would believe you.

Remove seven points from my rating if you're a homophobe, but also then remove yourself from this page. Many thanks.

8/10

There's A disc available here, but more options should be available in a few months.

Netflix And Chill: Climax (2018)

There are two directors I continue to watch films from, despite sometimes hating their output. One is Lars von Trier. The other is Gaspar Noé. The former has made movies in his past that were good enough for me to always hope he one day returns to that level of greatness. The latter, well, he has a habit of making films I dislike, grudgingly admire, and eventually warm to. Climax is his latest assault on the senses of cinephiles, and it may well be his best work yet.

The main premise is simple. A French dance troupe, led by Selva (Sofia Boutella), get together for a few days in an isolated location to create a memorable routine. At the end of a long day, they all unwind with a small party. There's a DJ spinning tunes, and plenty of sangria. Unfortunately, someone has spiked the sangria with LSD. This leads to a hell of a bad trip for many of the dancers, to put it mildly, and death will visit some of them before the party ends.

Largely improvised, and made in a way that was relatively quick and cheap, Climax is an impressive journey from sheer joy to outright terror. And it's very surprising to find Noé in a slightly restrained mode. Never the most subtle director, or the most overly concerned with the comfort of viewers, Noé seems to finally realise that he can upset and unnerve people without having to show every nasty little detail onscreen. But fans of his work need not be alarmed, this doesn't make the content here any less effective. Once Climax starts hurtling off the rails of sanity, it's an unstoppable juggernaut thrashing through a terrain of dread and distress.

It's also a gorgeous film. Seriously, the framing of certain moments, the flowing camerawork and the extended take that makes up most of the second half of the movie. It's a directorial trademark, of course, but works better here than it has in most of Noé's other movies, and I have to namecheck regular collaborator Benoît Debie for the luscious, perhaps even ever-so-slightly seductive, cinematography.

Although some individuals do stand out in certain scenes, and Boutella stands out as the performer with the most acting experience (as far as I'm aware), this is a group collaboration from start to finish. That includes a superb dance sequence in the opening act, the various conversations that take part between people as they relax during the party, and also any scenes featuring the dancers dancing, fighting, or fucking one another. The physicality is impressive throughout, and everyone involved should be praised for their commitment to the project, and their faith in Noé.

The other big thing to praise here is the fantastic soundtrack. Unrelenting for most of the runtime, it  helps to both lighten and darken the scenes (depending on what part of what song is playing). Those featured include Daft Punk, Gary Numan, Patrick Hernandez, M/A/R/R/S, Aphex Twin, Soft Cell, and a few more, so you can at least have happy ears while your eyes are being made to suffer.

8/10

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Shudder Saturday: The Host (2006)

The Host is a monster movie, first and foremost, but it's also yet another film from Bong Joon-ho (who co-wrote the film with Baek Chul-hyun) that allows the director to comment on a number of different societal issues.

Things start with a couple of American military people dumping chemical that will pollute the Han River. This leads to a change in that environment, as the fish die off and something else starts growing and living there. Some years later, that creature comes out of the water, attacking a crowd of people before heading off again with a couple of captured "snacks", one of them being young Hyun-seo (played by Go Ah-sung). She is the daughter of Park Gang-du, who sets out to rescue her, with help from his sister, his brother, and his own father. But that rescue plan is hampered by the fact that many people are being quarantined by the military, due to the fact that the creature is also the host of a deadly virus.

On the one hand, and in glorious fashion, The Host delivers the monster movie goods that you want to see. It isn't constant, with the set-pieces wisely spaced out throughout the 2-hour runtime, but you get enough to keep you entertained if you're just wanting to see a giant, dangerous, creature cause some mayhem. On the other hand. The Host delivers an interesting, and arguably scarier, look at how vulnerable people can be when society gets to any point that leads to military intervention. The finale not only delivers what is expected from this type of thing, it also shows the start of what could easily be described as a revolution.

Kang-ho is absolutely superb in the lead role, moving from pathetic and unmotivated sleepyhead to strong and determined fighter, but this is a film with no weak link in the chain. Ah-sung is also excellent as the brave young girl, Bae Doona and Park Hae-il are both good as Kang-ho's siblings, and Byun Hee-bong is the patriarch of the family unit. Lee Dong-ho also does well, playing a homeless boy who ends up caught in the lair of the creature alongside Ah-sung.

Although the performances help a lot, this is a film you will either love or hate thanks to the script and direction. The tonal changes may jar initially, especially in a scene that shows people seemingly desperate to display their grief more "impressively" than others alongside them, but it soon settles down, with many sequences mixing things up in a much smoother way. You get the thrills, the moments of emotion, and a lot of black comedy throughout.

This isn't a film to offer to anyone who is wanting to dip their toes into creature feature waters. If they want to dive into the whole sub-genre then it is probably worth starting back in the 1950s and working forward from there. If they want to have some kaiju fun then there are so many others to choose from. But when they have enjoyed a number of more typical entries, that is when you can drop this one on them. They may not fall in love with it initially but give it time, this is a film that has become a firm favourite for a lot of people who love creature features.

9/10

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

Child's Play (2019)

Much like the killer doll at the centre of it all, there's something about Child's Play that is just a bit off from the very first scenes. I am never automatically against remakes, but this one just seemed like a pretty bad idea, and one that was being churned out for the wrong reasons. Whether you like them or not, the original movie series was still growing under the watchful eye of Don Mancini. All seems to be going ahead with the TV show idea, which I hope comes out soon enough for me to be able to forget all about this attempt to reboot a fresh money-maker.

As you may have already surmised, I didn't like Child's Play. It's a film that doesn't ever make the right decisions at any point, treating viewers as if they will all be situated perfectly within the teen age bracket that it is aiming for (and I know some teens who won't be impressed either).

It all starts with a disgruntled factory worker removing safety protocols from a toy doll before then committing suicide. One thing leads to another, and that doll (a Buddi who decides to name himself Chucky, voiced by Mark Hamill) ends up being owned by young Andy Barclay (Gabriel Bateman). Andy lives with his mother (Karen, played by Aubrey Plaza), it's a new home for them, there's a man on the scene, there's a police detective who is often in the building as he visits his mother, and a few other characters that are supposed to be worth watching. Chucky starts killing, all for the sake of his friendship with Andy, and his ability to be linked to various apps makes him a lot more dangerous.

I am not familiar with the previous film by director Lars Klevberg, or writer Tyler Burton Smith, but it seems, rightly or wrongly, that they were picked here as a couple of people who would toe the line and give the studio what was expected. I am assuming an awful lot here, and may be being very unfair, but it's hard to see anything here that represents a unique vision or talent. If that was the case, it would be easier to believe that Klevberg and/or Smith were chosen because someone had seen something prominent in their work that they thought could work well with the  Child's Play concept.

Here are the things that work in this movie. The music, another great bit of work by Bear McCreary (who has been on top form recently). The casting of Mark Hamill in the vital voice role of Chucky. The first major human murder scene.

Almost everything else fails. Take, for example, the fact that a character is slightly hearing-impaired. This is all well and good if it is for representation. It isn't though. It's mentioned once or twice in a way that makes us think it will be very important later in the movie, and then isn't used in any way that feels necessary. Take a scene in which Chucky uses an app to terrorise and kill someone. Except he doesn't. The big set-piece ends with our knife-wielding doll . . . wielding a knife. One death scene has a character jumping up to stand on a desk that has a bloody circular saw on it. The relationship between mother and son never feels real, unlike the original film, there aren't any actual scares (although, to be fair, the film does provide a couple of amusing moments, which prove that it occasionally works as the black comedy it is trying to be), and the third act staggers from one horribly ill-conceived moment to the next.

Bateman is okay as Andy, Plaza is as underused as she so often is in more mainstream fare, and Smith is the best character in the movie. Nobody stinks up the place, not even the other younger cast members who work alongside Bateman in the strand of the film that plays out a scenario building up the whole "the kids will save everyone" vibe, but there's also nobody good enough to help distract from the many shortcomings of the film.

Horror movies can be fun, they can be dumb, they can be sheer entertainment without having to be anything else. But there have to be certain things done right to allow film-makers to get away with that. It can be hard to put a finger on the things that have the opposite effect, sometimes it's just an overwhelming feeling of laziness, sometimes it's a lack of logic that breaks the rules set out within the movie universe, but this film has enough of them to spoil your enjoyment. Well, it has enough to spoil my enjoyment. Others have had fun with it.

4/10

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

Life Of The Party (2018)

The pizza had arrived, I was settling into the position I wanted to stay in for the evening, and I browsed the many selections available to me for my next viewing choice. And that's when I saw Life Of The Party, a film that I wasn't sure I would like but was sure I would at least be moderately amused by, at least occasionally. It turns out that this was much better than I expected it to be.

I am continually surprised by the constant dismissal of Melissa McCarthy, who has the starring role here. People seem to want to label her as a comic actor who does no more than "act fat and loud". I don't/won't take the time and space to make my full argument against that accusation, and I may have mentioned it in a previous review (and may well mention it in a future review), but it's just rubbish. She has shown more range in her comedic roles than many of her male peers, and that doesn't mean that I dislike them either (I still enjoy comedies starring Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, and even Adam Sandler, despite everyone telling me I am wrong for doing so).

In this movie, McCarthy plays Deanna, a doting mother who drops her daughter (Maddie, played by Molly Gordon) at university for her final year. As she heads away with her husband (Dan, played by Matt Walsh), he drops the bombshell that he wants a divorce. He has started a relationship with a new woman. This upheaval leads to Deanna returning to university to complete the degree she sacrificed many years ago. She immediately bonds with some of her daughter's friends, learns to relax and party, and even lands herself an attentive younger lover (Jack, played by Luke Benward).

What I thought I was going to get with Life Of The Party was a comedy in which McCarthy would spend a lot of time embarrassing her daugher, a number of scenes in which she got carried away reclaiming her lost youth, and then a finale that would see lessons learned and bonds reformed. What I got was something much better than that. Yes, there are a few moments in the early scenes that show a young woman being embarrassed by her mother, and McCarthy takes things too far once or twice, but it's a much more balanced, a much sweeter, film than it could have been.

Ben Falcone (AKA Mr McCarthy) directs, and he and McCarthy also co-wrote the script together. There's nothing here to single out as a stunning achievement in cinema, and nothing that will prove too surprising once the film settles in to exactly what it wants to be, but it's a very enjoyable time that provides a lot of little chuckles in between some big laughs. Okay, the third act may feel like it blends together a number of '80s teen movie moments . . . so what?

McCarthy is warm and witty in her role, transforming believably as she becomes more and more confident in the new path she is taking through life. Gordon is very good as her understanding daughter, and there's a lot of fun to be had with Gillian Jacobs, Adria Arjona, and Jessie Ennis as the main friends. Benward is likeable as a smitten young man, Heidi Gardner is a roommate who rarely seems to leave her room, and Chris Parnell is a pun-loving teacher. Oh, and Maya Rudolph is a comedy goddess . . . I mean . . . she is hilarious as the long-time friend who enjoys living vicariously through the exploits of McCarthy. You also get great little turns from Walsh, Julie Bowen, Jacki Weaver, and Stephen Root, among others, as well as a cheesy celebrity cameo to enjoy.

I doubt this will convert anyone who doesn't enjoy the screen presence of McCarthy. Everyone else can relax and allow themselves to be entertained for 100 minutes (approximately).

7/10

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

Prime Time: Where Do We Go From Here? (2015)

The feature debut from writer-director John McPhail, after a few years working on a variety of well-received shorts, Where Do We Go From Here? is a perfectly fine distraction, but to try and give it too much praise, simply because I really like McPhail (both for his work on Anna And The Apocalypse and for his personality and sense of humour), would be doing both of us a disservice. This is good. It's not great. And I suspect that some will hate it.

After an extended opening montage sequence showing the life of our main character, James (Tyler Collins), the main plot begins to unfold. James works at a care home for the elderly. It's managed by the uncaring Miss Thompson (Maryam Hamidi) and the residents don't get to live their lives as fully as they might want to. James finds his days brightened up when a new nurse, Jen (Lucy-Jane Quinlan), starts to work in the home. He takes an immediate shine to her. And Jen could be an essential presence when James helps to plan a non-sanctioned trip with residents Joan (Alison Peebles), Malcolm (Richard Addison), and Nancy (Deirdre Murray).

I was impressed by the first ten minutes of Where Do We Go From Here? It's a sequence that shows us the ups and downs of a life almost as effectively as Up (which is a high water mark for such things). Once that was out of the way, the film settled down into what it really was, which is a sweet little comedy drama hoping to make viewers smile as it stitches together various character moments with an overstuffed soundtrack (featuring a number of songs written and performed by Collins).

If you have ever watched a soap opera and enjoyed a certain plot strand that has provided some light relief to the more serious moments then you may get a familiar feeling from watching this. That's what it feels like, the comedic strand of a soap opera run with the other stuff edited out. I know that isn't exactly high praise, but I don't mean it to be damning either.

McPhail does great work in putting everything together, and that's a remarkable achievement in itself (considering the low budget that I assume he was working with). Everything looks and sounds crisp and clean. It's a shame that the script takes no risks, and is missing a better balance of the comedic and the effective (a scene in which Nancy reminisces about her husband leads on to a sad scene in which she doesn't recognise his name when it is mentioned to her).

The cast don't do a bad job. Collins is, for the most part, a convincing Scottish lead (only infrequently slipping with the accent) and he's easy to like in the role of the awkward and sweet James. Quinlan is perhaps a bit more believable as Jen, working in a job that she doesn't love, although there's never enough work done to show her coming around to liking James. Hamidi is an amusingly over the top villain, and Peebles, Addison, and Murray are all wonderful as the elderly residents with plenty of life and fight left in them yet, despite what some others may think.

I enjoyed this but I won't be rushing to rewatch it, or recommending it to many others. And I'm happy to see McPhail continuing to develop his talents in projects that seem to better suit his ambition.

5/10

Prime members can see the movie here.
Americans can see the movie here.

Destination Wedding (2018)

Written and directed by Victor Levin, Destination Wedding is a film that heavily relies on the charms of the leads. Thankfully, those leads are Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder, two people I enjoy seeing in movies, and the script definitely plays to their strengths, with the former being rather level-headed and stoic while the latter appears more neurotic and . . . flighty (there's a better word, I realise that, but my brain is refusing to let me find it just now).

The basic plot sees Lindsay (Ryder) and Frank (Reeves), after a first encounter that doesn't set them on a path to friendship, realising that they are on the way to the same destination wedding. Frank's brother is the groom, and he used to date Lindsay at one point. The two don't really want to be there, and the film shows them complaining about many of the scheduled activities while rather obviously developing an affection for one another.

There's no getting around the fact that this is about as slight as movies get. I noted down some of the supporting cast members (such as D. Rosh Wright, Greg Lucey, DJ Dallenbach, and Ted Dubost) but that was just out of sheer politeness. This is a rom-com that boasts the opportunity to hang out with two fun leads and pretend that we're all far too cynical and smart to be swayed by any nonsensical notions of romance, until notions of romance come up.

The thing is, you see, that was more than enough to keep me very happy from start to finish. I am not sure of how many other people will enjoy this as much as I did but I can only ever give my own reaction. This was wonderful. I laughed a lot more at Destination Wedding than I did at numerous major comedy releases over the past few years, and a lot of that is simply down to the performances of the leads.

That's not to take away from the work by Levin, who directs capably and provides a script full of wonderful exchanges. Pare down a couple of scenes and this could easily be a play, because the focus is always on the dialogue and the performances, with two people making the kind of jaded observations that most of us have made, at one time or another, while attending a wedding or party. You either know too much about some of the people involved or you don't know nearly enough. Both levels of information change your viewpoint of the proceedings, allowing you to feel slightly removed from things as you consider what goes on when the balloons are not in place and the confetti has been vacuumed up.

Your enjoyment of the movie, however, will depend on how much you enjoy Reeves and Ryder, who both give effortlessly wonderful turns. Both have returned to a state of being generally adored by everyone so I don't see many disliking this. Although the alternative title could have easily been Keanu & Winona Go To A Wedding.

It's funny, it's fun, and it's just under 90 minutes. An easy choice to make when you're looking for something to watch this evening.

8/10

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

Mubi Monday: Holiday (2018)

I had no clue what Holiday was about when I started watching it. When it ended, I wondered what others had made of it. It was something that impressed me, despite some scenes of unpleasantness that would make it an uncomfortable watch for many viewers. I rarely check out other reviews before writing my own, simply because I don't want to end up subconsciously repeating what others have already said, but it didn't take me long to see that my positive reaction to the film seemed to be in the minority. A lot of people rated this a harsh 1/10, with many decrying it as empty, criticising a pivotal scene of sexual violence, and generally warning other people to stay away from it.

I encourage people to check it out. It's far from empty, considering what it has to say about power dynamics in the central, highly dysfunctional, relationship and the way it sketches the character of a young woman who is only one step removed from many young women around the world, despite the network of criminals that she is connected to.

Victoria Carmen Sonne is that young woman, Sascha. She is given lots of expensive treats, and a good lifestyle, by a drug dealer named Michael (Lai Yde). But, in return, Sascha acts like Michael's girlfriend, although their relationship status seems like more of a business one than anything truly personal and connected. Things become strained when Sascha befriends two holidaymakers named Thomas (Thijs Römer) and Frederik (Michiel de Jong).

An astonishingly accomplished directorial feature debut for Isabella Eklöf, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Johanne Algren, Holiday is a film that uses sunshine, sea breezes, and some of the finer things in life to help make the more troubling aspects easier to accept and digest. Although opinions on movies are completely subjective, of course, I am bewildered by people who have watched this and come away from it thinking that it has nothing to say.

Although the supporting cast are all very good, and Yde deserves some praise for being a truly loathsome character who shows no remorse for any of his actions, it's Sonne who carries almost all of the scenes, whether she is being actively involved or passive (occasionally by choice, sometimes not). She loves to project an image to people she doesn't know, be it about her happiness or relationship status, or her bank balance. And that is all it is. At least, that is all it seems to be. Because Sonne has an air of happiness throughout most of the film, which is hard to accept when you see how precariously she hangs on to the better aspects of her life, and all by putting up with moments of abuse and dehumanisation. She's the kind of woman who would try on expensive dresses in stores to take selfies and post them on social media, claiming them as new purchases. Her life is a gossamer fabric, but arguably the other important point the film looks at is just how complicit she is in maintaining the whole facade, for the benefits that it provides. If that may sound like victim-blaming, it is not the intention. Anyone who watches the film will know what I am on about by the time it gets to the surprisingly tense, and unexpected, finale.

Obviously not a film for everyone, this is a challenging and thought-provoking piece of work. It's especially relevant nowadays, in a world that sees both the ongoing abuse of many women going unchecked and unpunished, and a world in which reality is warped by a lens of social media.

8/10

Holiday is currently available on MUBI.

Netflix And Chill: Shaft (2019)

You know the name. Shaft is the cool cat that we've been digging since he first appeared in cinemas back in the early 1970s. Richard Roundtree played the role, and memorably. A reworking of the bad mother (shut your mouth . . . but I'm talkin' 'bout Shaft) appeared in 2000, with Samuel L. Jackson taking on the main role. And now we have a film that features both of those actors playing the role, although the former isn't onscreen for long, while introducing a new member to the family (played by Jessie T. Usher).

Usher is JJ Shaft, a young man who hasn't seen his father in many years. That's because his mother (Maya, played by Regina Hall) decided to leave, in order to keep her son safe from the kind of trouble that his father would attract. But when JJ needs help to investigate the death of a good friend, he ends up tracking down his father, John Shaft (Jackson). Bones are broken, bullets fly, women start to find the danger arousing, and Shaft and Shaft Jr hurtle towards a grand finale that will require the help of someone equally capable. Grandpa AKA John Shaft, Sr (Roundtree).

Shaft is an enjoyable comedy, with some decent action beats that don't skimp on the gunfire and bloodshed, but that is something that will upset a lot of fans. It's not something that bothered me, however, mainly because the main incarnations of the character that we have seen before were rarely the butt of any jokes. Usher plays a man brought up in a very different world, and with a very different attitude, but the secret to getting things done is usually adding on a bit of that patented Shaft badassery. And it's fair enough to highlight the fact that the classic traits of the character wouldn't necessarily be as appreciated today as they have been in previous decades (although they're only really unappreciated here by other people who have not spent a decent amount of time in Shaft's world).

Kenya Barris and Alex Barnow have put together a decent script, allowing the leads to have some very entertaining moments together, and peppering many scenes with dialogue that both works for the characters and also proves amusing enough. It feels like a good pairing, with Barris having a few more movies under his belt and Barnow having a decent selection of TV shows under his.

As just mentioned, Jackson and Usher work well together. The former is his usual persona, Usher spends a lot of the movie playing catch up (although he does have one or two tricks up his sleeve, and has more skill than is immediately apparent). Roundtree still has his full serving of charisma, which makes his limited screentime all the more frustrating. The villains are decent enough, and Titus Welliver delivers a great little turn as The Man, the immediate boss to JJ who doesn't ever give him an opportunity to reach his full potential. The ladies may be sidelined for a lot of the runtime, but that doesn't stop both Hall and Alexandra Shipp (playing Sasha, a good friend to JJ) doing their best with what they're given. Both manage to stand out in a fill overflowing with testosterone, as does Luna Lauren Velez, in the role of a potential lead/criminal named Bennie Rodriguez.

Director Tim Story keeps everything moving nicely. This is a 110-minute movie that whizzes by. There's a great soundtrack (although it's missing one classic cut), some entertaining set-pieces, and a central investigation with a couple of twists and turns, despite the fact that most viewers will be able to point to at least one of the main villains within their first few scenes. And Shaft is still also very much Shaft. As is Shaft. JJ, on the other hand, well, he needs a lot of work. But he might be able to find his own Shaftiness by the time the end rolls around.

There are already mixed reviews appearing for this, and just as many advising viewers to stay away. Don't listen to The Man. Give it a watch and make your own mind up.

7/10

Get yourself a funky soundtrack here.
Americans can get a Roundtree triple-bill here.

Shudder Saturday: Dark Water (2002)

Every horror fan of a certain age knows that we were delivered numerous treats between the late '90s to the mid-2000s, thanks to the release of a number of titles that would be labelled J-horror (Ring, Ju-On: The Grudge, The Eye*, etc). This golden period, as I like to view it anyway, has had a ripple effect that continues to this day. Whether considering the careers of some of the main directors to get more notice here, whether looking at some of the tricks used by Hollywood to scare moviegoers, or whether you're just visiting some of the movies that you missed during their initial release, the J-horror explosion remains a positive influence on the horror genre.

Which brings me to Dark Water, another film from director Hideo Nakata (who was placed at the forefront of the Asian horror movies making waves at this time, thanks to his success as the director of Ring). It is a film that was praised when it first came out, as I recall, and then quickly faded away. I think it was viewed by some as a decent, but ultimately, disappointing horror movie that held little of the power that imbued a film like Ring. An American remake (because few of the hits from this time would avoid the American remake machine) failed to do more than underline this feeling for many.

The thing is . . . Dark Water doesn't have the power of Ring. It will disappoint horror movie fans who are seeking the next thing to deliver one major memorable moment. But Dark Water has a different power. It's a quietly creepy film that proves even more effective because it doesn't go for the easy scares. It instead decides to show how the bonds between parent and child can so often be unbreakable, even if things appear very different from other points of view.

Hitomi Kuroki plays Yoshimi Matsubara, a mother who is going through a divorce from her husband. She has one young daughter, Ikuko (played by Rio Kanno), and is struggling to balance her wellbeing with her new situation, which involves a new place to live, looking for employment again, and the ongoing legal wrangling. Things really aren't helped by the damp patch on the ceiling of her new apartment, a flooded area that constantly drips and seems unhealthy, it's a problem that doesn't look likely to be resolved any time soon.

Another horror adapted from the work of Kôji Suzuki (who also wrote the source material for Ring), director Nakata seems to find a better way into the material with this outing. He makes a more incisive and effective film, in terms of the complete experience, by focusing on the drama without pinning everything around a few great set-pieces. He's helped immensely by the screenplay, by Ken'ichi Suzuki and Yoshihiro Nakamura, which explores the main theme in a mature way that refuses to rush towards the finale, and refuses to recycle a lot of the genre tropes that could have turned this into a more standard horror tale.

Kuroki and Kanno are both fantastic in their roles, working well both together and individually in every scene. Kuroki is the seasoned professional, and it shows, but Kanno arguably deserves a bit more praise for doing so well in her first feature role. There are also numerous solid supporting performances, but the focus remains on the mother and daughter relationship at all times.

I know that many may think of this as hyperbole, I do, but it's worth reappraising Ring (still a great, iconic, film) as the forerunner to many movies that would surpass it. Dark Water is just one of the films that does that. It has a feeling of sadness throughout, and sometimes dread, and the final scenes are among the most quietly moving in horror. You can feel free to disagree, but I urge you to (re)watch the movie before you make up your mind on it.

*NOT a Japanese film but, like many other Chinese and South Korean movies from this period, it was grouped with the others to make the stronger case for just how much good stuff we were getting outwith mainstream American and British territories.

9/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy that same disc here.

Happy Death Day 2U (2019)

I really enjoyed the timeloop slasher shenanigans of Happy Death Day so I knew I would be keen to see a sequel. My enthusiasm for it was not at all diminished when I heard that it takes things in a surprisingly different direction from the first film, focusing on more comedy than thrills, and I think that most people should be aware of that before the film begins. Because this IS a very different beast from its predecessor, despite early scenes trying to pretend otherwise (for all of ten minutes).

Tree (Jessica Rothe) is delighted to have finally reached the day after her birthday, the day that she was stuck in for the duration of the first movie, waking up every morning in a bed in the dorm room of Carter (Israel Broussard).  Unfortunately, the same problem is now affecting Carter's roommate, Ryan (Phi Vu). But there's every chance that it has something to do with the science project that he has been working on with Samar (Suraj Sharma) and Andrea (Sarah Yarkin). And it's not just time that has been pushed out of whack, there are parallel universes to also consider.

As well as all of the returning faces in front of the camera, Christopher Landon is back in the director's chair, and also gives himself the writing duties this time around. There's not as much needed this time around when it comes to establishing the visual signposts, and Landon uses the freedom to get things moving along as quickly as possible, removing the tension and upping the quirkiness and the comedy. It's a bold choice, and not an entirely successful one, for reasons that I'll get to after the next paragraph (see, I DO plan what I write sometimes).

All of the leads do great work, with Rothe and Broussard once again proving a great pairing to anchor the main events. Vu is immediately likeable as soon as he is pushed front and centre, while Sharma and Yarkin get a nice selection of scene-stealing lines and moments between them. Steve Zissis is the stereotypical angry dean who gets in the way of things, and he is fun in that role, while Ruby Modine, Rachel Matthews, and Charles Aitken all seem to enjoy portraying their characters with a bit of a twist, compared to how we viewed them the first time around.

I quite enjoyed the comedy of Happy Death Day 2U (there's a death montage that is one of the most enjoyably twisted and amusing things I have seen in a "teen movie" in years). I didn't even mind the more dramatic moments, forced as they were, when Tree was once again struggling to deal with the loss of her mother. I could have done without that particular strand, and I think the film would have been better without it, but it's perfectly fine, for what it is. So it's a shame there's so little tension this time around, the little that is there dissipates by the time we get to the third act. And it's an even greater shame that more intriguing possibilities teased in the earlier scenes are then just dropped for the rest of the film. Those are the two main failings of the film, major enough to at least drag this just below the bar set by the first film.

If you ensure that you have calibrated your expectations before pressing play, Happy Death Day 2U is fun. It's just easy to see ways in which it could have been so much better.

6/10

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

The Kid Who Would Be King (2019)

Writer-director Joe Cornish has, with his two features, gone out of his way to provide entertainment that touches on some great genre history while also staying very much its own thing. Indeed, comparing his movies to others can end up doing them a disservice, and give people preconceptions that I am sure he would prefer you not to have. That's how it was with Attack The Block, and that is how it now is with The Kid Who Would Be King.

It's all about a young boy named Alex (Louis Ashbourne Serkis) who ends up pulling a sword out of a stone. That sword is obviously Excalibur, making Alex the leader that is needed to stop our world being taken over by forces of darkness (led by Morgana, played by Rebecca Ferguson). Alex needs to convince others of his leadership suitability. He has one very loyal friend (Bedders, played by Dean Chaumoo), and there's a strange new boy at school who is actually Merlin (Angus Imrie), but the three of them aren't enough to defeat the approaching baddies.

First off, I think it is very important to emphasise what this movie isn't. It's not a hilarious comedy (although it IS funny). And it's not aimed at older viewers. That doesn't mean that older viewers cannot be entertained by it, as I was. It just means that the best audience for this would be kids aged, at a guess, between 8 and 13, when they can still enjoy the fantastical elements, perhaps even believing in some of the onscreen magic, yet also appreciate the dramatic strands that serve a number of life lessons for the main characters to learn and grow from.

Now let's pin down what the movie IS. What Joe Cornish has delivered here is a movie not unlike the live-action Disney movies from the '70s and '80s. It's a more polished, and slightly less childish, effort than most of those adventures, but it's absolutely branching off from that particular cinematic family tree.

The script and direction from Cornish keeps everything in line with his ultimate aim, this is a film with the kids front and centre for about 85% of the runtime. They are the ones who know about the impending danger, they are the ones who hope to stop it. This is not a place for adults, and the rules of the battles allow for them to be handily "set aside" during the major set-pieces.

Serkis is excellent as young Alex, a boy who seizes the reworked mythology in a way that shows him hoping it will provide an answer to one major question in his life (connected to his father). Chaumoo is equally good as Bedders, and Imrie adds a vital energy and humour whenever he appears onscreen (the older version of his character is portrayed by a relative newcomer named Patrick Stewart, who also seems quite good at this acting lark). Tom Taylor and Rhianna Doris play characters who are initially antagonistic towards our hero, and they do decent work. Their journey may not ring as true as the journeys of the other characters, this is where the script slips up slightly, but Taylor and Doris do all that is asked of them. Last, but by no means least, you have two very different women making an impression in very different ways. Ferguson is an impressively determined and menacing villain, and Denise Gough is the concerned mother of Alex, doing her best to support her son while also trying to stop him from being consumed by what she thinks is a fantasy story that he has taken far too much to heart.

As long as you know what Cornish is aiming for, this has everything you could want from a piece of family entertainment. It updates a classic tale without attempting to include all of the latest trends and pop culture references, and that makes it feel both old-fashioned, in a pleasing way, and also quite refreshing. Cornish is two for two now, and I am very much looking forward to whatever he gives us next.

7/10

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

Prime Time: Mousehunt (1997)

There are some movies that you form a surprisingly strong attachment to. I'm not on about those films regarded as absolute classics. I'm not on about those films that you saw at the cinema and were immediately blown away by. I'm on about the kind of films that don't get talked about too often, yet you used to own, on either VHS or shiny disc, haven't seen in a while, and then immediately fall immediately in love with (again) when you revisit them after a gap of many years.

Mousehunt is one of those movies for me. When I clicked on the "start watching" button, I immediately remembered how many times I had watched the thing when I bought it on VHS. I could recite almost every line, and I never tired of it. I was like a child with a beloved Disney favourite.

But what's it all about? I'll tell you, although the title sums it up adequately.

Two brothers, Ernie Smuntz (Nathan Lane) and Lars Smuntz (Lee Evans) come together to claim their inheritance after the death of their father (Rudolph Smuntz, played by William Hickey). The inheritance comes to a seemingly paltry amount. There are some old cigars, a string factory that doesn't look likely to become a big money-maker, and an old house. Amazingly, the house turns out to have been the work of a very famous architect. It is a "lost" masterpiece. Determined to renovate the house and sell it for a life-changing amount of money, the brothers get to work. And that's when they start to become frustrated by an extra, unwanted, house guest. A mouse. But this mouse is smarter than most.

This comedy works as well as it does because it benefits from a number of people doing work that is up there with their very best stuff. I can't think of anything from writer Adam Rifkin that tops this, so it's his absolute high point, and director Gore Verbinski may have a number of other films that could be considered better, but very few of them are as much fun.

As for the stars, both Lane and Evan are comic actors I have enjoyed in a variety of roles. They work perfectly here, playing to their strengths, with the former getting the best lines and the latter allowed to go over the top with the physical gags. If the film only involved those two actors and the mouse then I would have been happy, but there are more people joining in the fun. Maury Chaykin is the man most interested in bidding for the house, Vicki Lewis is the ex-wife of Evans, and has a couple of great scenes with him, and Christopher Walken almost steals the film away from everybody with his wonderful turn as Caesar, the exterminator called in when other plans to get rid of the mouse have failed.

There are at least half a dozen magnificent set-pieces, a delightfully playful score by Alan Silvestri, a mouse so cute that it tucks itself into a little "bed" when about to go to sleep, and a great energy throughout that builds and builds towards a frenetic and hilarious grand finale. Some may think I have rated this too highly. I would urge those people to revisit the movie and come back to me with any major criticisms. It's a near-perfect comedy that works for almost every member of the family.

9/10

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Overboard (2018)

I tend to like Anna Faris. She's always amused me and I get the feeling that she never takes her success for granted. In fact, like many other actors, she seems to spend most of her time worried about being found out as an impostor. I remember hearing her say some years ago that Overboard (1987) was her favourite movie of all time, which made the news that it was being remade just slightly more bearable when I knew she was bagging one of the main roles. Unfortunately, nothing else here really works, and it certainly doesn't get anywhere near the sheer fun nature of the original.

Eugenio Derbez is the rich, rude, person this time around. He plays Leonardo Montenegro, and ends up overboard in the first act, of course. Faris is Kate Sullivan, a single mother struggling to make ends meet. Her only encounter with Leonardo ended in disaster, as he not only refused to pay her for her time but also threw her cleaning equipment into the water. Which helps to motivate Kate when the news displays Leonardo as someone who has washed ashore with no memory of who he is. She is now going to make him a hard-working husband and father, just long enough for her to feel she has been given what she is owed. Well...maybe a bit more.

Based on the original script by Leslie Dixon, this update cannot do enough to maintain enough laughs while also staying self-aware enough to acknowledge the problematic nature of the main premise. Bob Fisher and Rob Greenberg, who also directs, don't help. If it was anyone other than Faris in one of the main roles then this would have been unwatchable. As it is, it meanders along from start to finish, sprinkling occasional amusing lines in between moments that show the two leads finding a "surprising" connection that will have to be broken in time for the big finale.

It's no surprise to see that Greenberg has a filmography full of various TV projects. Overboard certainly feels like a TV movie that somehow managed to sneak into cinemas, the material so flat and lacklustre that it can't even be saved by supporting turns from Swoosie Kurtz and Eva Longoria (who are, frankly, standouts in a supporting cast that is missing a required injection of personality, although John Hannah also does a decent job).

But the biggest lack of personality is felt whenever Derbez is onscreen. I didn't think I was overly familiar with the filmography of Derbez but it turns out that I have seen a number of films that have had him there, in supporting roles, and I have just never registered him. I was going to be charitable and consider the fact that Derbez wasn't used to comedy but it appears that most of his movie roles have been in comedies, making it more bewildering that he isn't any better here. He's lucky to be working alongside Faris, who carries the whole movie along the track and over the finish line, thanks to her sheer force of will and personality. And the child actors all do well too, I shouldn't forget about them.

This was always going to be a difficult film to remake, especially at a time when it is much more difficult to overlook the many egregious behaviours and stereotypes that are often seen in romantic comedies, but there's no excuse for delivering something THIS bland.

3/10

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

Mubi Monday: Booksmart (2019)

Booksmart is a fun film, full of energy, that easily sits alongside a number of other teen comedies from the past few decades. Unlike many of those, it was directed and written by women, and also features two wonderful female lead characters (played by Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever).

The set-up is quite simple. Molly (Feldstein) and Amy (Dever) have made a number of sacrifices as they aim to get the grades required for their favoured colleges. But Molly hears a number of people talking about their future plans, which leads her to the realisation that a lot of people had the same aim, they just managed to maintain a better life-work balance throughout high school. Determined to use their last night to make up for years of missing out, Molly and Amy set out to find the location of the hottest party being attended by everyone else in their school year. And so begins a night that will see the young women test their limits, test some drugs, and test their friendship.

Although very much female-centric, Booksmart works brilliantly because it is very much focused on the teen experience, the years spent under intense pressure to please so many people (peers, parents, teachers) before you learn that it's best to just please yourself. Molly and Amy start the movie thinking that they have to live their lives a certain way, which becomes less and less true as they become more comfortable just being themselves.

The script, written by Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel, and Katie Silberman, is arguably the best work that any of them have done. It's smart, full of scenes that have an honesty at the heart of them, and very funny. And one sequence involving a pair of Barbie dolls is hilariously surreal in a way that recalls the anarchic silliness of Better Off Dead... (an '80s teen movie that remains woefully underseen).

Olivia Wilde does a great job in her feature directorial debut. She has a number of shorts to her credit, and has obviously been able to observe the film-making process during her many acting jobs, but this is an accomplished and assured first feature, undoubtedly helped by her industry connections (it's hard to imagine the likes of her partner, Jason Sudeikis, or Will Forte and Lisa Kudrow taking on supporting roles otherwise, although you could also argue that a good enough script would have won them over).

Feldstein and Dever are great in their roles, with the former bringing more of the energy into most scenes while the latter is having a more difficult time adjusting to a new level of social interaction and self-identity. Molly Gordon does great work in her small role, Skyler Gisondo and Billie Lourd are wonderfully over the top as two rich kids who find it easy to buy company, but not so easy to make real friends, and Diana Silvers has a couple of very funny scenes as a partygoer who ends up seeing Dever in a more vulnerable state than either would have wanted, and Jessica Williams gets to play a supercool teacher who is rooting for our leads throughout.

Although this is typically rambunctious stuff on the surface, Booksmart excels, like all of the best teen movies, because there's a lot more to it. And a large part of it is truth. As silly as many moments seem, it also nails the maelstrom of feelings that can rush through any teenager's mind every time a major decision has to be made. That decision could be about higher education, or it could about what to wear to a party. It could be about love or lust, or it could be about how far you go to support a friend. Every one is just as important as the other. Well, that is how it feels at the time. Booksmart nails that feeling, and more.

9/10

The movie will be available here.
Americans can get it here.

Netflix And Chill: Redcon-1 (2018)

I have said it before, and will say it again. There's nothing like a good zombie movie. And, unfortunately, Redcon-1 is nothing like a good zombie movie. I'm not sure if that's really so bad, we see at least a dozen bad zombie movies churned out every year, but it feels a bit worse than some others because, well, it seems to think that it is a good movie. It wants to be a smart horror that recalls the likes of 28 Days Later..., which is a bold move, but it falls down in a number of ways.

Here's a summary of the plot. Stop me if you have heard this before. There's been an outbreak of zombieitis. Soldiers, headed up by Captain Marcus Stanton (Oris Erhuero), are sent to find a scientist who may have a cure. The zombies are smarter than some other zombies we have seen over the years, but not smart enough to completely usurp the human race. You also get roving gangs of people who enjoy fighting and killing, and generally causing a bit of a ruckus, and there's a young girl who may have a better immune system than most, when it comes to this particular medical problem anyway.

Director Chee Keong Cheung has other films to his credit, but the last thing he directed was a decade ago, and that perhaps explains why he forgets a lot of the basics here. Because there's very little here that is executed with energy and style. You get some gore occasionally, and some of it is decent enough, but gore loses any impact when there's nothing else to grab your attention (despite what the more hardcore gorehounds may tell you).

The script, co-written by Cheung, Steve Horvath, and actor Mark Strange, is a mess. Characters are rapidly introduced to put them in a queue of people who will help check off the list of "50 zombie movie clichés", there's no tension, even in sequences that have the zombie menace overpowering a number of humans in their midst, and the dialogue makes the whole thing feel like a spoof.

Poor Erhuero, he tries his best but just can't do enough to lift up everyone, and everything else, around him. He's the best thing here, by some margin, but the film tries hard to make him look bad. At least he is someone you remember once the end credits have rolled, unlike the aforementioned Strange, Goodale, or even Katarina Leigh Waters. Or the little girl who plays . . . the little girl (I didn't jot her name down and I'll be damned if I am about to rewatch this crap just to get one name right).

Strange choices abound, from the editing to the soundtrack, the jarring jumps in tone, and the immediate changes in characters who are required to become brave/heroic/troubled as soon as some zombie dentures get too close to them. Even the pacing is off, with this thing clocking in at just under two hours, and the whole thing drags, despite there being an action scene thrown in every 10-15 minutes.

There are worse zombie movies out there. There always will be. But that doesn't make this one any better. It tries to have a little bit of polish but, as the old saying goes, you can't polish a turd.

3/10

There's a disc here if you want to waste some money.
Americans can buy the same disc here.

Shudder Saturday: Holy Ghost People (2013)

Holy Ghost People is a film that I really wanted to like more. It's got a lot going for it, yet there's a sense of overfamiliarity that made it all feel a bit stale and unnecessary. Perhaps it will work better for people who haven't seen other movies in a slightly similar vein (from Winter's Bone to White Lightnin' to something like The Sacrament).

Directed by Mitchell Altieri, who is working once again with writer Phil Flores and actor Joe Egender, as well as some others who have had a hand in his previous movies (The Hamiltons and The Violent Kind probably being the best known originals, although the April Fool's Day remake is also on their CV), Holy Ghost People is certainly a further move away from the others movies he has made. It isn't a fun romp a la The Nightwatchmen, nor is it a grim bit of nastiness a la The Hamiltons.

Emma Greenwell plays Charlotte, a young woman who wants to find her missing sister, who seems to have vanished since joining a church community. Charlotte hires an ex-military man, Wayne (Brendan McCarthy), to help her and the two of them quickly get inside the community, attempting to make discreet enquiries while under the watchful eyes of other church members, as well as the charismatic leader, Bill (Egender).

It's a shame to criticise this movie too much, considering that it is generally well made and technically sound. It's not a bad movie, not by any means, but it's hard to figure out exactly what it wants to say. Because there must be something being said, considering that it doesn't work as more simplistic entertainment. Altieri could have chosen a number of roads to go down here, from outright horror to a down 'n' dirty action adventure, but decided to keep things quite grounded and low-key. It feels like a very collaborative final product, with the script being written by Altieri, Flores, Egender, and Kevin Artigue, and that is a good thing for the sense of realism, but doesn't help anything that isn't performance-based.

All three of the main cast members mentioned do excellent work, with Egender particularly effective in a role that requires someone who can mix charm and menace in equal measure. Greenwell and McCarthy are both easy to root for, and believably vulnerable at times, and they are the ones we watch, even in the scenes that push forward a few of the main supporting players (who are few and far between).

Although I usually say this about much stranger movies, Holy Ghost People is a film I just can't quite put my finger on. I am not sure who else will enjoy it, or how anyone else I know will react to it (love, hate, indifference). I am still fully processing it in my own mind. My final rating for the movie increased by the time I got to this final paragraph. Which says it all, I guess. This is a film that at least deserves your time. Whether you end up liking it or not is a different matter entirely.

6/10

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

Glass (2019).

Okay, there's no way for me to discuss my biggest problem with Glass without it seeming slightly spoilery so I would ask you to stop reading this review now if you have yet to see the film. I still dislike spoilers, and I am not one of those people who thinks it is okay to spoil movies for other peopler if it is a movie that I personally disliked (and I did dislike this), but I was rooting for Glass to win me over for about 3/4 of the runtime. Then the finale locked all of the pieces into place, and that's where it lost me. Because after giving us a great, unique, superhero origin tale with Unbreakable, M. Night Shyamalan decided to make Split a surprise supervillain origin tale connected to that movie. It wasn't as good as Unbreakable but the cast helped to make it work and the ending had a lot of people (including myself) quite excited. So you have one origin story, another origin story, and then M. Night Shyamalan squanders the opportunity to make something truly memorable by cheekily turning this third entry in what is now a trilogy into . . . a third origin story. Yep, that's really what this is. And that may please Shyamalan, but it's less likely to please those who expected something more.

Here's the basic story. David Dunn (Bruce Willis) now patrols the streets and tries to seek out, and stop, criminals. He is helped by his son, Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark returning to the role that last saw him acting onscreen as a child), and all is going well until he bumps into the dangerous multiple personalities of the character, Kevin/Dennis/Hedwig/etc, played by James McAvoy (let's just call him Kevin from now on). Caught in the middle of a fight, David and Kevin are locked up in a mental health institution, where another notable patient is Elijah Price (AKA Mr Glass, Samuel L. Jackson). Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) wants to convince them that the ideas they have in their heads, the notions that they have superpowers, are merely delusions, potentially dangerous ones. The doctor may soon find herself out of her depth.

Shyamalan still has talent. That's what perhaps remains the most frustrating thing about him, the biggest obstacle to his success is himself. Of course, I am saying this without knowing the general majority opinion on this movie (which, for all I know, could be loved by many people). But his good points are as obvious as his failings. The guy does well with plotting, the look and feel of his films, and I'd argue that he is often also very good at being able to get the pacing just right. Shyamalan rarely makes films that hurtle from start to finish, but he shoots the quieter, slower, moments so well that they are still engrossing in between any more exciting sequences. He also tends to get great work from composers, and the score here by West Dylan Thordson is no exception.

On the flipside, he often creates scripts that seem designed to showcase how good he is with his words and ideas (as good as he views himself, anyway), and he often builds his movies around one major idea or twist. That's all well and good when everything works, as happened with his solid run of four movies spread out around the turn of this century, but not so good otherwise. He's a gambler who continues to bet big with the hope that the last card turned over will be the one to give him the unbeatable hand. That card isn't always drawn, leaving him with a large investment on the table and nothing good enough to lay down at the end.

The cast all do well here, with McAvoy arguably getting to play around even more than he did in Split (and he's the best person onscreen). Willis at least looks present for a number of his scenes, which is more than can be said for many of his other performances in recent years, and Jackson clearly loves the chance to reprise the role of Price. Paulson is fine as the doctor, Anya Taylor-Joy (who was so good in Split) continues to prove herself as an intriguing and excellent screen presence, and it's nice to see Clark as the boy still trying to look after his "superdad".

Breaking everything down to their basic elements, Glass is not a bad film. There are a number of good moments throughout, the script is serviceable, it often looks great, and a couple of the leads are giving it their all. It just fails to come together by the end, and it fails in such a way that genuinely sours the films that came before it, which surely couldn't have been Shyamalan's intention. That failure is enough to drag it down by some margin, and I almost considered going even lower with my final rating.

5/10

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

Men In Black: International (2019)

None of the trailers made me want to see this latest Men In Black movie. The stars didn't do anything for me either. As much as I like both Hemsworth and both Thompsons, they just didn't feel like they could do enough to stop me from missing Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones (or even Josh Brolin). And then I started to hear more and more negative comments from people who had seen it. Yet I ended up at my local cinema to see it, despite all of these marks against it.

And I'm glad. Men In Black: International is another fun sci-fi comedy in the series. I have enjoyed all of these movies, even the oft-maligned second one, and am glad to spend some more time in this world. It's a fun place, often overflowing with imagination and wonderful little touches, and one that consistently works well running parallel to the everyday world around us.

This time around, the MIB are facing a danger from a species known as The Hive, who can take on the identity of other people once they have access to their DNA. There's also an incredibly powerful weapon to be kept in safe hands, all of this while Tessa Thompson (as M) tries to learn on the job during her probationary period with Chris Hemsworth (H). M is a bit of a natural in her new role, H is a top agent who appears to be getting more and more reckless and slapdash on each mission, able to coast along on former glory and the protection of his mentor, Liam Neeson (playing T). You also have Emma Thompson as Agent O, the head of MIB, Rebecca Ferguson as an arms dealer who used to date Hemsworth, Rafe Spall as Agent C, determined to bring down those he sees as playing too fast and loose with the rules, and Kumail Nanjiani as the voice of a small alien named Pawny.

Look, there are other ways I would have liked to see this play out. Other directions for the series that seemed so ridiculous that they also seemed more intriguing (that Jump Street crossover could have been great). The two biggest strikes against MIBI (as none of the cool kids are calling it) are the fact that a) it plays everything a bit too safe and b) it's not Men In Black.

Director F. Gary Gray has a filmography full of solid outings, but very few of them are amazing. He's a dependable pair of hands (in fact, from 2000 onwards you could view him as an African American version of Ron Howard, with the exception of the grim violence in Law Abiding Citizen). He does fine here, once again not really stamping any identity on the proceedings. That's fine though, this film is MIB-branded, and it at least feels consistent with the others in terms of the look, sound, and score.

The biggest problem comes from the script, by Matt Holloway and Art Marcum. Not only do they forget to include enough decent laughs, although there's a lot of fun to be had in the interplay between most of the main characters, but they flag up a couple of major plot developments with the structuring of the movie, starting everything off with a couple of big scenes that you just know are going to become relevant again in the third act. And isn't "pulling a David Ayer" (as I am calling it now, you'll know what I mean when you see it) already a worn out plot beat?

It's a good job that the script is being delivered by a charismatic cast. Hemsworth and Thompson still work well together (although they had a lot more fun with their last main pairing, Thor Ragnarok), Emma Thompson is a treat as the exasperated and wise boss, and Rafe Spall is admirably happy to be the "bad guy" who knows that something is going on, despite being unable to pinpoint exactly what. Neeson doesn't do much, but he does it with his usual stoic manner, and Ferguson makes a great impression with her one main scene, complemented by some interesting VFX work. Nanjiani has the perfect voice for his character, which is very cute and will most definitely please younger viewers.

As a completist, I would have probably picked this up for my own collection at some point anyway. So I'm glad that it's not as bad as some have made it out to be. It's just a shame that there isn't more packed in here, in terms of one-liners and memorable set-pieces. I came out of the cinema with a smile on my face but no great moments to single out as highlights.

6/10

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

Prime Time: Exposed (2016)

A film that was chopped and changed during the journey from script to screen, Exposed feels very much like what it is. Okay, almost EVERY film goes through a number of changes from script to screen but it's obvious that some are messed around with more than others. The different plot elements here are so badly mashed together that any attempt to provide a satisfying finale is undone by viewers realising how clumsily the main points are being made.

On the one hand, there's a young woman (Isabel, played by Ana de Armas) who is going through a pretty bad time of things. She's also a person of interest in an investigation being conducted by Detective Galban (Keanu Reeves) into the death of his partner. Unfortunately, that investigation may turn up a few details that people would like to stay covered up, and Isabel may be too busy trying to deal with recent events to be of any help. She has seen things that don't seem to belong to this world, has started to help a young girl (Elisa, played by Venus Ariel) who needs protection, and is also pregnant via some immaculate conception.

Written and directed by Gee Malik Linton (who changed his name for the directorial credit), Exposed is a mind-muddling mess, it really is. Nothing works, despite De Armas trying her best in a role that she is certainly capable of playing. The drama doesn't engage or affect viewers, the thriller side of things isn't thrilling, and you're left with a squidgy pan of flour and yeast that nobody has managed to turn into an edible loaf of bread.

This is, apparently, all the fault of the studio. Some people have managed to see the alternate cut of this (the version that was envisioned by Linton before the studios took it and chopped it up and made it unrecognisable). That is known as Daughter Of God and, if it ever becomes widely available, I'll check it out and see how it compares.

But, for now, this is what we're stuck with. It's atrocious. Reeves suffers the most, being given a role that should suit him (he's played cops who are heroic and/or shady a number of times) but with no feeling that he's in the same movie as De Armas. Remember when certain film-makers or studios would take movies and recut them with other movies to make a new title that they would then serve up to us, despite the way the end result would never quite fit together in any cohesive way? That's how this feels. On the one hand, you have Reeves, Christopher McDonald, and Mira Sorvino in a police procedural flick, and on the other hand you have De Armas. It's embarrassing.

There ARE one or two decent moments, scenes that move from reality to something strange and supernatural so smoothly that they manage to impress (an early scene with De Armas watching someone else in a subway station is excellent), but it's a real struggle to remember the few highlights once the film is over. In fact, it's probably as difficult as it was for the main actors to remember what kind of film they were starring in.

3/10

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