The Suicide Squad (2021)

There's an extra factor at play here, something that makes The Suicide Squad feel like it deserves to be relished more than perhaps any previous superhero movie within the recent selection of DC adventures. Because writer-director James Gunn got this gig after some idiot attempted to lose him work with Marvel/Disney, which temporarily worked, allowing him to deliver this film . . . before returning to Marvel/Disney for the third Guardians Of The Galaxy movie. So thanks to that idiot, with a name I have already forgotten, for allowing us to receive even more fun from Gunn.

The plot is relatively simple. A squad is assembled for a mission that doesn't seem to have much chance for survival. That squad includes Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), Ratcatcher (Daniela Melchior), King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), and one or two others. They wade into the hostile territory of Corto Maltese, where they end up plotting to apprehend an important figure named Thinker (Peter Capaldi).

If there's one word you could use to describe The Suicide Squad it's gleeful. Gunn gleefully throws around bucket-loads of blood and gore, mixing laughs in with the action to provide the most twisted and anarchic superhero film since, well, Super. Strangely enough, that sense of anarchy still manages to feel very calculated and formulaic. The film is wild fun when compared to other movies within this subgenre, but it's not all that surprising when you know the kind of film it is aiming to be, and Gunn makes that pretty clear from the opening sequence (with great use of the song "People Who Died", by the Jim Carroll Band). Thankfully, the set-pieces are entertaining enough to keep your spirits high, and there are also one or two moments that allow viewers to remember that Gunn is good at giving his high-budget fare a good bit of heart and soul.

Robbie remains arguably the most valuable jewel in the crown of this movie universe, and is once again excellent, while Elba makes effortless cool again look . . . effortlessly cool. Cena is a lot of fun in his role, Melchior and Dastmalchian are both wonderful, and Stallone's vocal work is a lot of fun. But it would be very easy to criticise these characters for obvious parallels, considering the direction from Gunn. King Shark may have more words in his vocabulary, but feels quite Groot-ish, and Cena is as humourless as Drax. Consider Harley Quinn as an equal to Rocket, and that just leaves you wondering whether Elba would be Peter Quill or Gamora. It might seem unfair to think of those comparisons while the film is on, but Gunn practically invites them by the fact that he seems to be drawn to the same kind of ragtag bunch of lovable rogues. 

Each main act here has enough inventiveness and energy to blow away that feeling of over-saturation that many film fans have been experiencing lately. Superhero movies aren't going away any time soon, but that's not a problem when we get some more variety from the films being released. And if that variety sometimes comes from focusing on "the villains" then all the better, because I enjoyed this more than I enjoyed Suicide Squad. And I liked Suicide Squad well enough.

8/10

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Mubi Monday: Black Bear (2020)

Warning - I wouldn't consider the following information spoilers, BUT I would advise that it is best to go into Black Bear completely blind. So please do yourself a favour, avoid any reviews of the film until you've seen it for yourself.

The second full feature from writer-director Lawrence Michael Levine, Black Bear starts off feeling like something very familiar - a filmmaker (Aubrey Plaza) is welcomed as a guest into the home of a couple with a strained relationship (played by Christopher Abbott and Sarah Gadon). Snippy conversation turns increasingly sour as tension rises. You've seen moments onscreen that explore that kind of atmosphere before. But then things change. A second part presents the actors given different roles, and viewers are now looking at the actual act of creating a fictional piece akin to what we've just been watching. And this is where things really start to get interesting.

Although I appreciate that I didn't know what Black Bear was going to be about, I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I'd been aware of the structural upheaval that was coming along after the first main section. The constant sense of discomfort and unease had me feeling that the film would become a tiresome experience. Thankfully, the big shift in focus makes everything so much better, including what you've just been watching.

Although they take on different roles within each main story segment, Plaza, Abbott, and Gadon are consistently excellent. Plaza is especially impressive in a role that feels more removed from the kind of thing she's done before (and the casting initially, and cannily, allows her to first embody exactly the sort of thing we've seen her do so often already), and both Abbott and Gadon are happy to play characters with layers of deviousness and unpleasantness to them.

Apparently based on some of Levine's dreams, what you get here is a thought-provoking look at just how far some people go to produce a performance from actors, and how manipulative that process can be. You can equate that with any of the more innocuous moments you may have heard of - such as Wes Craven helping Drew Barrymore to act upset by reminding her of stories of animal cruelty - or you can easily consider onscreen performances that came from much more difficult, and problematic, circumstances. The most egregious example of this, in my view, would be some of the work of Bernardo Bertolucci and Alejandro Jodorowsky - men who have delivered some amazing art, but at what cost to women being directed by them.

A film that works well for the actors, as well as being ABOUT actors, Black Bear also explores gaslighting, consent, and abuse. There are toxic relationships on display, as well as toxic environments. Perhaps it's all a very clear analogy for sexual abuse, or perhaps, even more disturbingly for us film fans, it's a damning indictment of methods that are used far too often on film sets where the person in creative control gets to do whatever he (and it's invariably a male in such cases) damn well pleases.

8/10

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Netflix And Chill: Good Boys (2019)

Jacob Tremblay, Keith L. Williams, and Brady Noon play, respectively, Max, Lucas, and Thor, three young kids who assume they are going to be friends for life. Their friendship is tested when the three of them are invited to a party. It's going to be a kissing party, which should give Max the chance to kiss Brixlee (Millie Davis). First, however, the boys need to learn how to kiss. This leads to a situation in which Max loses the drone that his father told him not to play with, and creates a pair of dangerous enemies in the shape of Hannah (Molly Gordon) and Lily (Midori Francis), two young women who don't appreciate being spied on, and appreciate one of their bags being stolen even less. The boys think the bag will give them leverage as they try to negotiate a deal with the women, but they don't realise that there's a stash of drugs hidden away in there.

Written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, with the latter also making his feature directorial debut here, Good Boys is a lot more fun than you might expect it to be, mainly due to the way the comedy so often stems from the children misunderstanding very adult things, from drugs to sex toys, from porn to feminism. This is much more fun than just watching young boys misbehave. Not that these three are angels, but they’re always trying to stay in the right, even as the situation requires them to move further and further out of their comfort zones. But it is always obvious that these are, as the title states, good boys. 

The script may be fun, but it is lifted by direction that emphasises the importance of the smallest obstacle (that looks large over our diminutive leads, of course). It’s also massively helped by the casting. 

Trembled is very enjoyable as the sweet and innocent Max, watching his life grow more and more chaotic as he simply tries to ensure he can kiss the girl he has a huge crush on. Williams is the star of the show, stealing every scene he is in with a character who is overly sensitive, compared to his friends, and has a very dry delivery for most of his funniest lines. Noon plays the character trying hardest to always look cool, and he is good in that role, really getting some of the best scenes in the third act. Gordon and Francis are great fun as the women who become nemeses, and there is solid support from a number of younger actors putting pressure on the leads in different ways. There’s also a very funny cameo from Stephen Merchant.

All in all, Good Boys is a good time. It delivers a lot of moments that will make you chuckle, and also provides some bigger laughs without having to create any set-pieces that may seem too ridiculous and silly. It helps that the soundtrack is also pretty good. 

 

8/10

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Shudder Saturday: Teddy (2020)

The second feature film to be written and directed by twins Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma, Teddy is, I would say, a slight step up from their enjoyable debut (Willy The 1st, created in collaboration with writer-director Marielle Gautier). I'd easily recommend it to people who have enjoyed films as diverse as Spring, Good Manners, When Animals Dream (arguably the film that this comes closest to), and even something like Border. All of those films have something in common, the ability to show any "monsters" as people who also have feelings, but they use the potential genre framework in different ways. As does Teddy.

Anthony Bajon plays the titular character, a young man living in a French town who seems to have no major plan for his life. He enjoys spending time with his girlfriend, Rebecca (Christine Gautier), and he works at a massage parlour/spa owned by Ghislaine (Noémie Lvovsky). There have been some animal attacks in the area, so savage and bloody that many of the locals suspect it may be a monster at large, and a moment of curiosity leads to Teddy being scratched by . . . something. Will it change him, and will he actually embrace those changes?

Despite the main character being a bit older, this is a coming-of-age story in so many ways. Teddy is at an important junction in his life, and most of the roads he sees around him seem to lead to dead ends. He's not that likeable a character, but not everyone in their early twenties is, especially someone who may be suffering a kind of arrested development in so many ways.

Bajon is good in the lead role, however, all sullen moodiness until he starts to become fascinated by the changes his body starts to experience. He seems to know what this will ultimately lead to, and it's Teddy's willingness to go on the journey that lifts the familiar material slightly. Gautier does well enough in her supporting role, as does Lvovsky. It's particularly interesting that the two most vocal women Teddy interacts with end up prompting him to indulge his more animalistic tendencies.

The Boukherma siblings write and direct brilliantly, happy to let things unfold at a pace that forces viewers to spend time with an unappealing lead character before things really start to get interesting, Paradoxically, the easier it is for Teddy to wallow in a potentially deadly primal force, the more human and sympathetic he becomes. It's like watching a naughty kid suddenly digging up an unexploded mine - you still may resent the behaviour of the youngster, but you don't necessarily want to see it exploded into tiny pieces.

Teddy isn't an easy film to enjoy, certainly not for the first third of the runtime, but it will reward viewers who stick with it. Many people may think that the other films I mentioned in the first paragraph here are far superior, but I happily put this one alongside it. 

8/10

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The Mummy (1999)

Hmmmm, I wonder why I had the urge to revisit this movie series after recently watching Jungle Cruise. Yes, the fact that Jungle Cruise reworked that formula so well put me in mood for some more entertainment in the same vein.

Brendan Fraser stars as Rick O'Connell (feeling for all the world like Rick Dangerous, a late '80s videogame creation based on a very well-known adventure icon). Rick is the daring, reluctant hero in Stephen Sommers' entertaining blockbuster centred around the titular creature of horror infamy and, for those not averse to bombastic fun, it ain't half bad. 

The plot sees Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Omid Djalili and others on their way to the legendary city of the dead, Hamunaptra, to find a significant treasure before anyone else (with the main competition being a party led by the sly Beni, played by Kevin J. O'Connor). And then someone accidentally wakes up Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) and everyone realises that there's more to fear in the desert than just sunstroke. 

There's nothing surprising here, nothing subtle and nothing all that believable but there is a fun action adventure with supernatural elements that should please many movie fans. Will it please fans of the old Universal classics (or even the Hammer versions)? Probably not, though it must be said that there ARE a lot of respectful little nods to past versions of the tale. Sommers directs with a focus on the sheer entertainment side of things, also emphasised in the script that he wrote, from the story worked on with Kevin Jarre and Lloyd Fonvielle.

Fraser and Weisz are two leads who fit perfectly in their roles, both very capable in different ways, and they are thrown from one set-piece to the next, with time spent here and there showing Vosloo's character growing in strength and powers. Nobody has to emote too strongly but everyone does a good enough job of acting beside the various practical and computer effects. We also get the likes of Oded Fehr, Jonathan Hyde and Erick Avari in the cast so there are at least some people on screen to do more than just run and fight stuff.

But never mind the acting anyway, there are booby traps, deadly scarab beetles and, of course, plagues - all rendered nicely enough, even if the pixel count gets uncomfortably high at times. This is a blockbuster,  and it delivers on that score. Maybe not quite the "Indiana Jones" for a new generation, it certainly tries hard with it's mix of thrills, humour and energetic action set-pieces. And the cherry on top is a typically appropriate score from Jerry Goldsmith.

8/10

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12 Hour Shift (2020)

You don't get too many dark comedies about an attempt to steal a kidney from someone, but writer-director Brea Grant is here to change that with 12 Hour Shift.

Angela Bettis plays Mandy, a nurse who likes to use her position to gain access to drugs and other things that might fall into her pockets. She's helping her cousin, Regina (Chloe Farnworth), to deliver a kidney to some dangerous criminals. Unfortunately, Regina is a bit of a liability. She mistakenly leaves the kidney behind, an error that leads to a night of multiple deaths in the hospital as Mandy tries to regain control of the situation while Regina gets more and more desperate in her attempts to procure a kidney. The other staff quickly grow more wary, and there's a prisoner (Jefferson, played by David Arquette) who might cause more problems.

Dark and twisted for almost every minute of its runtime, 12 Hour Shift is the kind of black comedy that will annoy just as many people as it entertains. There are very few characters who are outright likeable, and none of the leads are people that you'd want to be stuck in a crisis with. But Grant is smart enough to make people unlikeable in different ways. Bettis is savvy and ruthless, Farnworth is a bit of an idiot, Nikea Gamby-Turner plays Karen, who has been used to turning a blind eye to the "antics" of Mandy, other staff snap at one another, often with good reason, and there's at least one patient (played by Tom DeTrinis) who is so high maintenance that you might start wishing for him to be the one to lose a kidney.

Bettis is as great as ever in the lead role, someone struggling to keep hold of a situation that becomes increasingly twisted and slippery by the minute. Farnworth gets to have more fun, willing to embark on a murder spree to get what she wants, to hell with the consequences, and the scenes that work best have her manic silliness juxtaposed alongside the eye-rolling of Bettis. Arquette is a lot of fun as the cop-hating killer who might just prove to be a valuable patsy, Gamby-Turner is enjoyably weary and resigned to things playing out however they will, and Kit Williamson does well as a police officer hoping to stop more people from dying. Tara Perry, Brooke Seguin, Taylor Alden, and Missy Stahr Threadgill all do well, part of the supporting cast portraying staff, visitors, and patients, and the aforementioned DeTrinis is amusing enough with his annoying manner.

Admirably getting the tone perfect from start to finish, this is an unabashed triumph for Grant (in what is only her sophomore directorial feature, despite positioning herself near the very top of the tree when it comes to influential film-makers working on the independent horror scene in recent years). I could pick some other blood-soaked dark comedies to compare it to, but that would be unfair. It feels like such an enjoyably unique film that any comparisons would only set prospective viewers up for disappointment.

9/10

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Prime Time: Shadow In The Cloud (2020)

Chloë Grace Moretz stars as a young WWII pilot, named Maude, who "hitches a lift" on a B-17 with a male crew who don't appreciate her presence. She has a bag full of top secret documents, meaning the men have no choice, but it's not long until she is placed in a turret, away from everyone else. As Maude tries to work against the misogyny and mistrust of the men, things are soon complicated. There are some enemy planes nearby that shouldn't be. And there's also the appearance of a gremlin.

I was excited about Shadow In The Cloud ever since I first heard about it. It's a brilliant idea, a simple one that has the potential for so much fun. Unfortunately, not much of that fun is apparent in a film that gets far too silly far too quickly, and also feels horribly cheap for almost every minute of the runtime. 

With a script, by Max Landis, apparently heavily re-written by director Roseanne Liang (after the well-documented allegations against Landis), it's astounding to think how bad this was at the first draft stage, The characters are paper-thin, in a way that damages the film by making it impossible to really care for anyone, the few action beats are implausible and unexciting, and the plot developments are absolutely ridiculous. It's insulting to viewers how badly put together this is. Easy enough to forgive if it was a TV show episode (which is worth noting, as it feels at times very close to an enjoyable episode of "Amazing Stories" that had the same setting), but a horrible endurance test in feature form. It's as if the script is some out-of-date milk that has been spilt on a sunny day and you're forced to sit in the same room with it as a hot sun shines through the windows and makes everything worse and worse.

I can't really fault Moretz though, who does the best job of anyone here. She's not doing anywhere near her best work, but she isn't bad at being a strong lead to root for. That's more down to her being Moretz than the script, however, and nobody else has that advantage. Byron Coll, Callan Mulvey, Taylor John Smith, Beulah Koale, and Nick Robinson make up most of the main airmen, but I couldn't have namechecked any of them just now without the use of IMDb. They don't get any moments to separate themselves from one another, simply being put out by the presence of a woman on their plane, and when the third act allows Moretz to interact with them at closer range it's just too little too late.

I've already seen comments from others who enjoyed this, people who appreciated that it was simply a fun viewing experience for them, so I cannot say that my view is in any way the majority one. You may like it, you may hate it. You're unlikely to love it though. As soon as the end credits ended, I couldn't help but think of everything that was wrong with it. And the more I thought about it, the more I found wrong. Even a small cartoon that kicked things off by explaining what gremlins are. I enjoyed that while it was on. Then I started wondering why they felt the need to include it, considering viewers would either a) know what a gremlin is, or b) simply be informed by the script that a creature was on the plane and trying to damage it. Maybe it was to pad out the runtime, which is at least only 83 minutes. I guess that could have been my review in a more succinct style - terrible, but not overlong.

3/10

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Jungle Cruise (2021)

Look, not every film based on a Disney attraction is going to work. Just see The Haunted Mansion (or don't . . . I didn't hate that film and even I just rated it a 4/10). But the fact that it can work as well as it did with Pirates Of The Caribbean is probably good enough reason for film-makers to see what else they could adapt into a fun movie/franchise. And Jungle Cruise is definitely more in line with the latter than the former. It also has a very similar vibe to Fraser/Weisz The Mummy movies (no bad thing). And benefits from the absolute maelstrom of charisma that is Dwayne Johnson.

Emily Blunt plays Lily Houghton, a daring young woman who is determined to find a fabled tree that has leaves said to be able to cure illnesses. Having upset the proper establishment that doesn't believe in such things, and certainly won't accept such ideas coming from A WOMAN (this is the early 1900s, after all), Lily steals an arrowhead that may help her locate the tree, rushing off on an adventure with her brother, MacGregor (Jack Whitehall). The two get to South America, where they end up hiring a boat captained by Frank Wolff (Johnson). Danger lurks under every ripple of the river water, especially when they are being pursued by an obsessed and amoral German, Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons), who also wants to find the tree. Oh, there are also some undead conquistadors (led by Aguirre, played by Édgar Ramirez) who want a chance to lift the curse placed upon them.

Jungle Cruise works as well as it does thanks to the wonderful interplay between Johnson, Blunt, and Whitehall. All three get a chance to show their comedic chops, and all three get to have at least one moment in which they show the real strength of their characters. Johnson gets to reel off a number of amusingly bad puns (the kind I always enjoy), and he's also a bit of a con artist, while Blunt has an impressively pro-active and savvy approach to her quest, even if she is given extra assistance from Johnson on a couple of occasions. There has been some praise for the fact that Whitehall's character is a young gay man in a Disney movie, but the House Of Mouse yet again make the minimum effort to show that they nowadays realise what a wonderful variety of human beings are out in the world. 

The screenplay throws together Michael Green (who has worked on films such as Logan, Green Lantern, and Murder On The Orient Express) and Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (responsible for writing Cats & Dogs and, ummmm, Bad Santa). That mix ends up yielding a surprisingly cohesive result, with all three men obviously doing their best to please their Disney bosses, helped in developing the theme park ride into a movie idea by John Norville. There are a lot of little details that will please those who have been on the Jungle Cruise ride, the plotting is predictable in a way that doesn't make the adventure any less fun, and it's all just a perfectly-crafted, unabashed, blockbuster to enjoy on the big screen. 

Director Jaume Collet-Serra is generally known for the films that he has directed in the horror and thriller genres (including House Of Wax, Orphan, and The Shallows), but he feels like a great choice to be helming this material, balancing the fun factor with the dark fantasy elements, particularly when the undead conquistadors take the centre stage. It may remain more of a Disney film than a Collet-Serra film, but that is what tends to happen with every Disney movie.

Aside from Johnson, Blunt, and Whitehall, there's a lot of fun to be had with the over-the-top villainy of Plemons, who seems to be having a ball, the nature-harnessing conquistadors, and Paul Giamatti, playing a character who is owed a debt by Frank Wolff that could lead to him taking ownership of Wolff's boat.

The runtime, just over two hours, fairly flies by, there's a decent musical score from James Newton Howard, and the only thing that drags this down is the feeling of "been there, done that" that permeates many of the major story beats. I'd recommend this as superior family entertainment, easily, but I'd also like to think that it doesn't need any sequels or spin-offs that I assume are already being planned.

8/10

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Mubi Monday: Sibyl (2019)

Virginie Efira plays Sybil, a psychotherapist who decides that she wants to pursue her love of writing. She drops all of her patients, hoping to give her full time and attention to her craft, but is then called by Margot (Adèle Exarchopoulos). Margot is a young actress who has had an affair with her latest co-star, Igor (Gaspard Ulliel), a man who happens to be the husband of the director, Mika (Sandra Hüller). Not only has she had that affair, Margot is also pregnant, which means she is contemplating an abortion when she first talks to Sybil. Drawn into this complex and dramatic situation, Sybil starts to incorporate elements of Margot's life into her writing, and she also allows herself the opportunity to creep into a very different world, one in which the line between reality and fiction is as blurred as her own view of the world around her.

A fascinating look at some very interesting ideas, Sybil marries a great script, co-written by director Justine Triet and Arthur Hararai, with a cast all very much capable of doing their best in the roles they have been given. What could have been filtered a number of different ways, the same material could have been a standard melodrama or even a glossy psycho-thriller, has been crafted into a near-flawless character study that has characters often so confused with their own choices and mindsets that viewers take an extra step or two to realise when things are sliding horribly, and inexorably, in the wrong direction for them.

Triet directs with an approach that brings viewers as close as possible to the two main leads (Efira and Exarchopoulos) and has us wanting to protect them from themselves, whether the pain comes from their own actions or the reactions of others. The moments of fantasy feel very easily identified during the earlier scenes, but it becomes harder and harder to figure out what is real and what isn't as we get closer to the very end of the film.

Efira is excellent, as authoritative and poised as she needs to be for many scenes before slowly and surely losing some control, and Exarchopoulos is equally good, portraying someone more naive and more used to delving in and out of scenarios that are complete fantasy. Ulliel does fine in his role, although his role ensures that he's the one main character who is easiest to dislike, or at least not care about, and Hüller excels as the angry director/hurt woman who is in some ways working opposite Sybil for the ability to ultimately control Margot for a short space of time. There are some other people around this selection of characters, and everyone does a good job in their roles, but it's this quartet that remains the focus throughout.

Never shying away from the many feelings that are brought to the surface by the strange circumstances, Sybil manages to be thought-provoking, tense, funny, and erotic, sometimes all at once, and it's a film that makes me want to further explore the careers of everyone involved. And anyone else feeling the same way could do a lot worse than a previous team-up of the director and star, In Bed With Victoria.

9/10

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Netflix And Chill: The Last Mercenary (2021)

The longer his career continues, the easier it is to see Jean-Claude Van Damme as more than deserving of his status among the action heroes of the '80s and '90s. His films always had humorous moments dotted through them, which is something some of the other big names found a bit tougher (Arnie being the one who moved most successfully into comedies, Steven Seagal to this day not wanting anyone to ever see him smile, or be the cause of an inadvertent smile), and he always convinced with the cinematic action.

Having lost his way for a while, with a mix of personal problems and bad judgements marring his filmography for a good ten or twelve years, Van Damme took a big risk with the self-reflexive, and superb, JCVD. It's not been a consistent filmography since that film was released, back in 2008, but it has certainly been one with more hits than misses. And more interesting choices than he was able to make back at the start of his career. He has been involved in some animated films, he has been a villain, and he has played a small supporting part in a strange alien movie. Even his small-screen work, Jean-Claude Van Johnson, proved a hit with those who gave it their time, more comedy inspired by his willingness to poke fun at himself and use his back-catalogue as a source of multiple gags and references. 

The Last Mercenary essentially repeats a lot of the comedy that we've seen Van Damme do before, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. JCVD plays a legendary secret agent named Richard Brumére AKA The Mist. Richard disappeared many years ago, vowing to stay silent in exchange for a deal with the French government that would protect his young son, Archibald. Many years later, Archibald (Samir Decazza) is oblivious to the fact that his ID is also being used by a Scarface-obsessed crook named Simyon (Nassim Lyes). This leads to the government deal breaking down, placing Archibald in a lot of danger, which means Richard has to venture back where he isn't really wanted, or welcome. And he has to figure out the right time to reveal that he is Archibald's father. A plan is hatched, one that utilises the various skillsets of a politician (Alexandre, played by Alban Ivanov), a young woman who is Archibald's friend (Dalila, played by Assa Sylla), and an old colleague (Marguerite, played by Miou-Miou).

Directed by David Charhon, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Ismaël Sy Savané, The Last Mercenary works as well as it does because of how well it uses Van Damme. He may be a couple of decades beyond his prime, but the man can still kick ass. What's more, he has gradually improved as an actor, in terms of both serious moments and the comedy. That's not to say that he's any master of the craft, but this doesn't need him to be. All it needs from Van Damme is for him to be Van Damme, whether that's him showing his kicking power, dancing in a way that will remind everyone of THAT great moment in Kickboxer, or any of the other little jokes and references that just wouldn't work without Van Damme's skillset and legacy. Although things wobble slightly whenever there's an attempt to create a kind of Clouseau/Dreyfus animosity between Richard and Commandant Jouard (Patrick Timsit), that's easy to overlook when you zip quickly to another decent bit of comedy or action, and there are enough scenes here incorporating both. And the big final fight sequence, set in a games room and soundtracked by the funk-tastic tune "Do Ya Wanna Funk?", is a very satisfying way to showcase everything that the film is aiming for.

Apart from our leading man, the rest of the cast are generally quite excellent throughout. Ivanov is asked to play the comedy a bit broader than I would have liked, but he does well in his role, and Decazza is good as the young man ill-prepared to be thrown into a world with so many risks to his wellbeing. Sylla is a real highlight, just emanating charisma throughout every one of her scenes, and Lyes is a lot of fun as the man who doesn't just admire, but wants to BE, Tony Montana. Miou-Miou is a great member of the team, and there are also fun turns from Eric Judor, Djimo, Michel Crémadès, and everyone else involved.

There have been a lot of comedic action thrillers over the past five or six years (with Spy being one of the best) and a lot of them have done a great job of melding the genres together. While The Last Mercenary may not be the best of them, it easily sits alongside them. More for fans of the leading man, and the decade that propelled him to stardom, this is one that I easily recommend to people who probably already know that they're going to have fun with it.

8/10

There are SO many other JCVD movies reviewed here.

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Shudder Saturday: Rot (2019)

Although it's a mix of The Signal (2007), Slither, and any film that has "*insert noun" from hell" as a title, Rot does something a bit more interesting with the idea at the heart of it. It's not entirely successful, mainly due to the cast of characters that you never really feel you get to know, but it deserves credit for trying to do something different. And certainly gets a bonus point for a final sequence that will surprise most viewers.

Kris Alexandrea is Madison, a young woman who breaks up with her boyfriend, Jeff (Johnny Kostrey). Jeff doesn't take things well, especially as he was planning to propose to Madison. Unfortunately, this all coincides with Jeff being on the receiving end of a strange infection, the kind of thing that will help him impact Madison's life by working his way through many of her friends, either converting them to his cause or violently dispatching them.

Written and directed by Andrew Merrill, making his feature debut after working on numerous shorts for a decade or so, Rot is, on the one hand, a simple virus horror. On the other hand, however, it's a smart metaphor for the ways in which relationship break-ups can completely change your life. The different side of someone that you see when they're hurt and lashing out, the ways in which friends often immediately pick a side, either consciously or subconsciously, and the moments that have you feeling as if your recent past has turned into some kind of treacle flooring you keep having to battle through in order to progress towards a new future.

It's a shame that the cast aren't treated better by the script, which has an unfocused and meandering approach to the material, even as things start building towards that out-there finale. Alexandrea often feels like a very passive lead, despite the fact that the first half of the film shows her being pro-active with circumstances that she changes for the better. Kostrey gets the opposite end of the spectrum, although the fact that he seems far too aggressive in so many scenes is sadly spot on for the kind of boyfriend that he's portraying. Many will recognise his bad traits, even before they are amplified and used for more traditional horror moments, and that's another plus for the film, but it leaves Kostrey without any real room to show any other aspect of a main character. Everyone else is too easy to forget until they are involved in confrontations, and a small role for Eileen Dietz is at least enjoyable for the fact that you get to have another film credit for Eileen Dietz.

Although Merrill tries to balance out the horror elements with the exploration of a relationship break-up going from bad to worse, he's not entirely successful. It's a script problem more than anything else though, and he does well to make up for that with some scenes that are so effectively creepy and disturbing, especially considering the fairly low budget. Definitely someone to keep an eye on, and Rot is worth your time, even if it probably won't become a new firm favourite.

6/10

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The November Man (2014)

An action thriller from director Roger Donaldson (who has a lengthy filmography that you could call more eclectic than consistent, but is always worth checking out), The November Man makes perfect use of leading man, Pierce Brosnan, and jumps from one set-piece mixing smarts and violence to the next.

The very basic way to explain this movie is that Brosnan plays a retired CIA agent, named Peter Devereaux, who is called back in to service and ends up protecting Mira Filipova (Olga Kurylenko). A lot of people want Mira dead, and the main person heading up the pursuit is David Mason (Luke Bracey), a young man who was trained by Deveraux.

Based on a book by Bill Granger, The November Man is exactly the kind of movie that it shows itself to be from the very first scenes. The wiser elder agent, the hot-headed youngster, some twists and turns, and Brosnan looking unflappable for most of the runtime. 

The script, by Michael Finch and Karl Gajdusek, is decent enough. About as predictable as this sort of thing can do often be, it at least feels satisfying by the time things all come together in the finale. You’re not supposed to know who is actually going to be a hero and who is going to be a villain, but you can figure it all out at least a few steps ahead of the main characters.

Brosnan is on good form, even if he is reusing the kind of performance he already did so well in the Bond movies and The Thomas Crown Affair (as well as a few others from the past couple of decades). Kurylenko does well as the woman in peril, I always like watching her onscreen, and it’s an added bonus to watch one era of Bond work with another era of Bond girl. Bracey is also good in his role, being tough and determined to “win” at all costs, but also still weighed down by his connection to Brosnan’s character. Bill Smitrovich, Will Payton, and Lazar Ristovski all do their part in the main plot, playing various authority figures making life difficult for the lead.

Ultimately a bit too similar to a number of better movies, The November Man is still one that I would recommend to people wanting a bit of action couched in a plot attempting to pretend it is a bit smarter than it really is. It’s paced well, Donaldson directs with enough skill and confidence, there are some decent set-pieces, it doesn’t overstay its welcome, and Brosnan is effortlessly cool throughout.

7/10

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Bombshell (2019)

A film about the eventual, and long overdue, downfall of Roger Ailes, the man at the very top of the ladder at the Fox News HQ for many years, Bombshell plays out with some very interesting points that don’t just target the abuser at the heart of the story. It is also about toxic work environments and the repercussions of not taking a stand sooner, although that is a lot easier said than done (for many reasons).

Nicole Kidman is Gretchen Carlson, a presenter at Fox News who knows her days are numbered. She is too old now, apparently, and has taken a stance on certain subjects that has angered Ailes (John Lithgow). Once she is fired, Carlson decided to sue Ailes, bringing up his problematic (to put it mildly) behaviour with the female staff. Many employees rally round Ailes, showing a unified front, but there’s a notable silence from one of the top channel stars, Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron). While all this is going on, Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie) has just started her employment with the company, and soon finds out exactly how she is supposed to act around certain people. 

Written by Charles Randolph, who was also a co-writer on The Big Short screenplay, the first thing you may notice about Bombshell is . . . how similar it is to The Big Short. The character played by Theron introduces viewers to the situation, and the world shown, by breaking the fourth wall, and there are some tangents that rapidly and clearly explain how the company structure works, and what the main policies were.

Director Jay Roach makes life easy for himself by casting well, all treated perfectly by the hair and makeup people, and doing well by the script. Everything moves along well enough, but certain lines of dialogue and individual moments are given the time and space needed to really sink in.

Theron, Kidman, and Robbie are all excellent, playing women at very different levels within the very sexist structure of Fox News, as dictated by Ailes, whether their position is to do with age, experience, savvy, or all of those things. Lithgow is excellent in his role, bullish and arrogant, and very often completely repugnant, even before the level of his abuse of his position is made apparent. The supporting cast includes some great performers, such as Allison Janney, Kate McKinnon, Connie Britton, Liv Hewson, Rob Delaney, and Mark Duplass. Not everyone works though. Richard Kind, for example, doesn’t feel close enough to Rudy Giuliani (although my view has maybe been tainted by seeing how far I think Giuliani has fallen in recent years). Generally, however, the cast feel like a good fit.

The people to blame for abuse are abusers, and Bombshell doesn’t lose sight of that fact. But it also shows the importance of speaking up against those who are abusing power, despite the potential consequences. Because someone has to lead the way, someone has to try their hardest, if only to help warn others, and Bombshell is as much about the need to act and speak out, even if things thankfully didn’t go as far as you worried they would, as it is about Ailes and the power that had him thinking he could act however he wanted. 

7/10

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Prime Time: Jolt (2021)

I saw the trailer for Jolt and I was immediately interested. But I was also wary. It looked like another riff on John Wick, but this time starting Kate Beckinsale in the main role. That seemed good enough to me. It turned out that it wasn’t.

With a voiceover explaining things to us, we meet a young girl named Lindy. Lindy has a condition that means she absolutely loses control of her temper when she sees anyone doing wrong. Young Lindy grows up to be Kate Beckinsale, a woman still trying to figure out how to live with her condition. The latest solution is a vest that delivers electric shocks to her system when she presses a button. It makes life harder. It certainly makes it a lot tougher to date people, and she may not make it through her first date with Justin (Jai Courtney). Justin is special though, so they end up managing more than one date. Then tragedy strikes, which means Lindy needs to embrace her rage and exact some revenge. A couple of cops (played by Bobby Cannavale and Laverne Cox) want to stop her from creating a large bodycount, and her therapist (Dr. Munchkin, played by Stanley Tucci) doesn’t want any small amount of progress completely undone.

Jolt has a decent helping of humour alongside every moment of violence. The main character has been let down by people at every turn, which adds to the inability to cure her condition, and that leads to moments that have her happily ignoring her therapy while she punches and kicks people who thoroughly deserve it.

Directed competently enough by Tanya Wexler, I guess, the problems with Jolt lie mainly with the script, from first-timer Scott Wascha. Wascha keeps the tone consistent throughout, ensuring that there’s always a sense of fun throughout, but a) the main concept is flawed, and b) the pacing is just a bit off, even if it clocks in at roundabout the ninety minute mark, which is a pleasant surprise nowadays. Having Lindy control herself with the use of the electric vest, except in the moments when she doesn’t want to stay calm, isn’t the way to set the ball rolling. What should have happened was something that would forcibly propel the character violently throughout a plot that could then have Beckinsale battling baddies while trying harder not to hurt innocent bystanders. Imagine if, for example, Lindsay had an early fight with someone that led to her being thrown against a fuseboard, electrocuted, and having the vest then malfunctioning while fused to her muscles/skin. Way more fun could be had there, and that is the first idea I came up with while watching the film play out.

Beckinsale is a solid lead, and she can do the physical stuff well, and the other big plus here is Tucci. Cannavale and Cox both do fine, although the former feels like he’s been used as a strong supporting player so often recently that his roles all seem to blend into one another (even if he is sometimes a villain and sometimes a nice guy). David Bradley is good fun in his few onscreen moments, and Courtney benefits from the fact that he’s not in the movie all that long. He’s not my favourite actor, by far, but does okay here.

Best when it is allowing the main character to revel in delivering painful justice to people who deserve it, Jolt is an easy way to kill an hour and a half. The fights are okay, the thin storyline moves well enough from one set-piece to the next, and the third act is as predictable as any slick action thriller you have ever seen. I’d watch a sequel to this, but I would also hope that lessons are learned and the sequel makes significant improvements on the foundations laid down here.

6/10

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Werewolves Within (2021)

A lot of people had mentioned Werewolves Within over the past few weeks so I was keen to see it. I like werewolf movies, I like a good comedy horror, I figured this would be an easy one for me to enjoy. It turned out not to be as easy as I first thought. I didn't actively dislike this film at any point, the main cast members are too likeable or fun to keep that from happening, but it wasn't ever that good. It's not that funny, and the lycanthropy is barely a part of the film. It's as if far too many people have still to discover the superb Game Of Werewolves. Or even the more recent The Wolf Of Snow Hollow.

But let's focus on this film anyway, which is the one I am reviewing today. Sam Richardson plays Finn Wheeler, a forest ranger who has been posted to the small town of Beaverfield. The town is currently divided by the people who support a pipeline being proposed by a local businessman and those against it. Meeting a postal worker, Cecily (played by Milana Vayntrub), Finn gets to accompany her on her round as she introduces him to the various residents. It's not long until a dangerous secret is revealed, and Finn is tasked with trying to keep people calm and find out what is damaging generators and looking to potentially kill people. The signs all point to a werewolf, but there's a chance that it is just one of the more eccentric locals having dived headlong into murderous madness.

Richardson and Vayntrub are both excellent in their roles here. The former has already stolen a few scenes in a couple of movies from the past year or so, the latter isn't someone I can say I have spotted in any other movies, but I'll look forward to seeing her in more after enjoying her work here. Everyone else does great work, even if I'm not going to namecheck them all here. Definite highlights include Catherine Curtin as Jeanine Sherman, the woman who owns the hotel that Finn is staying at, Wayne Duvall as the businessman, Sam Parker, and Glenn Fleshler as the gun-toting, unfriendly, Emerson.

Written by Mishna Wolff, making her feature-writing debut with a videogame adaptation that certainly doesn't feel constrained by that remit (although I am not familiar with the actual game itself), Werewolves Within is generally an amiable experience. That's about all I can say about it. The direction from Josh Ruben, who also gave horror fans the much-liked Scare Me (liked by a group of people that would not include me among them), does everything required without ever taking the material up a notch. None of the comedy is mined for bigger laughs, none of the few horror moments are made as horrific as they could be, and I found it impossible to ever really care about the mystery element. The majority of the film may be trying to create a The Beast Must Die guessing game, but what's the point in crafting that kind of curio piece if you don't even provide an updated "werewolf break"? 

Maybe people enjoy this more when they also have the game as a reference point, so feel free to add a point or two if you fall into that category, but I kept waiting for this to deliver something . . . more. It's pleasant enough for the duration, and doesn't run too long, but it's a shame that it wasn't tweaked to increase the comedy, the frights, or both. Still one to recommend, tentatively, thanks to the sterling work of everyone in the cast.

6/10

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Mubi Monday: Nadia, Butterfly (2020)

As Mark Kermode, eminent UK film critic and long-running champion of The Exorcist, is prone to tell/remind us, in his view, Jaws is a classic film that isn’t about the shark. I tend to slightly disagree, but I absolutely get his main point. I mention his point now because sport movies are rarely about sport. They can be about so many other things, simply using the sport setting to ground a number of relatable life lessons. Nadia, Butterfly is a film about swimming, but it’s not really about swimming. I will come back to this very soon.

Katerine Savard, a young woman who really is a superb competitive swimmer in real life, plays Nadia, a young woman who has decided to bring her competitive swimming career to an end. She has a rough plan for what she wants to do next, and the announcement about her retirement just before a big team relay event has a number of people questioning her on her future. Nadia’s first immediate part of her new life, however, is just to have some fun.

Written and directed by Pascal Plante, Nadia, Butterfly is a film that ultimately explores a mindset that can work in so many different environments. Dedicating yourself to any pursuit requires making difficult decisions sometimes, and sacrifice (be it time, money, etc). But suddenly removing that one thing from your life can also leave you feeling a bit lost, wondering what to do with your new freedom and the extra time available to you.

Savard is very good in the main role, seeming to enjoy a role that asks her to portray someone not too far removed from herself. She certainly has much more screen presence than many other sporting personalities I have seen in movie roles, and maybe she can keep edging a little further and further out of her depth if she keeps up the acting career (pun intended). The supporting cast all do well, with the standout being Ariane Mainville, playing a friend named Marie-Pierre, her character showing how others may be seismically affected by such a change in direction from someone they have known and worked with in one specific part of their life for so long.

A film about swimming that isn’t at all about swimming, Nadia, Butterfly is an interesting and unique way to present a number of familiar situations and quandaries to viewers. I look forward to seeing more from Plante, and I also hope to see a bit more in the acting world from Savard. Even if she doesn't take every role based on how much time her character spends in a swimming pool.

8/10

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Netflix And Chill: Blood Red Sky (2021)

A rather simple action horror movie premise is turned into yet another film that misses the mark after promising so much. It’s not bad, but it’s just a bit too long and a bit less bloody and vicious than I wanted it to be.

Peri Baumeister plays Nadja, an ill woman who is travelling on a plane with her young child, Elias (Carl Anton Koch). Nadja and Elias, and most of the other plane passengers, have their flight seriously disrupted when the plane is taken over by terrorists. A lot of people are due to die, but the terrorists haven’t counted on a very problematic passenger. Because the “illness” affecting Nadja also makes her a formidable force when she decides that she needs to stand up and fight back to keep her son safe.

Directed by Peter Thorwarth, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Stefan Holtz, Blood Red Sky has a great central premise, and it works well with it. Nadja taking on the terrorists, and surprising them with her strength and violence, is good for a few decent moments, but when things settle down slightly the film quickly feels like it is deflating, which isn’t good to notice just before the halfway point. The action and bloodshed is depicted well enough, although more of both would have been welcomed. 

Baumeister does well in the lead role, whether playing her character weak or strong, and Koch is very good as her son. The terrorists are generic baddies, with the only two standing out being Dominic Purcell and Alexander Scheer, but that is more to do with the actors than the material. Kais Setti is good as a fellow passenger. Farid, who quickly realises how the situation is twisting and turning and tries to help Nadja as much as he can.

The biggest problem here is the pacing. The big reveal in the first act isn’t any major surprise, especially if you have seen any of the marketing material for the film, and the initial enjoyment of the tables being turned soon fades to impatience, waiting to see if any set-pieces make full use of the main plot points. They don’t, and that means you end up watching the film play out while thinking of all the ways it could have done better, which makes the film seem even worse than it is.

Not really that bad, thanks to the idea at the heart of it, Blood Red Sky just doesn’t manage to feel like the fun action horror it could be. That should have been easy enough, especially when you see the moments that it gets right, but it just falls short of the mark. Above average, but this easily could have been good/great.

6/10

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Shudder Saturday: Sadistic Intentions (2018)

Like so many other people nowadays, I can often spend more time deciding what to watch on various streaming services than actually watching the movies. Thankfully, I saw that Sadistic Intentions had a main role for Jeremy Gardner. I have mentioned my love of Gardner before, a number of times, so nobody should really be surprised that his inclusion made me feel safe in deciding to give this a watch.

The main premise is simple enough, initially. A young man (Kevin, played by Michael Patrick Nicholson) sets things up so that he can get two people stuck at a fairly remote house. One of those people is Stu (Gardner), a musician ready to enjoy a noisy jam session. The other is Chloe (Taylor Zaudtke), a young woman who has been lured there by the promise of a good deal on some weed. Although two people are in the house, and one person is waiting to make their appearance, it's Chloe who seems to be in the most danger, and the one most oblivious to the fact that she's being toyed with.

Written and directed by Eric Pennycoff, his feature debut after writing and directing a few shorts, Sadistic Intentions is an enjoyable, if familiar, journey through some dark comedy and twisted moments. Gardner and Zaudtke work well together, and the first half really delivers some surprisingly uplifting and sweet moments as you see their two characters learn about one another and seem to find some unexpected connection. It's a shame that the second half goes off in the direction that it does. Although it's still fun entertainment, it also undermines the good stuff that was already developed.

The best thing that Pennycoff did was assemble the right cast. This is essentially a three-hander, and with only two of those three onscreen for most of the first half. Nicholson is a lot of fun when he finally appears, but the performances of Gardner and Zaudtke are the strong foundation of the whole thing. They work with a script that seems custom-made for them, and I'm not sure how much, if any, of the final product was a more collaborative experience than most movies, and they keep you on their side, sort of, even when things start falling apart.

If you're looking for the obvious signs of independent movie-making then they're all here. Pennycoff doesn't hide them away. All set mainly at one location. A film based more on dialogue than any spectacle. Attempts to use formulaic material and give them a bit of a twist. The presence of Gardner (at this point, I'm considering him the younger Larry Fessenden of the film world, and Fessenden also has a tiny role here). But I'd rather someone had faith in their material than tried to cover it up with distractions, or extra bells and whistles costing money that could be better spent elsewhere. Pennycoff has that faith in the script and performances, and he's right to have it. This may not be one that you remember years down the line, but it's a good time while it's on, and Pennycoff is someone well worth keeping an eye on.

7/10

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Greed (2019)

Another collaboration between writer-director Michael Winterbottom, also helped here by Sean Gray, and star Steve Coogan, Greed is a fictionalised look at the life of someone not a million miles away from high street business mogul Philip Green. While it is not up there with their best work (24 Hour Party People is a tough one to beat), Greed is a smart and funny way to deride the rules and tricks in place to allow capitalism to thrive, as well as a comment on the high cost of cheap “fast fashion”.

Coogan plays Sir Richard “Greedy” McCreadie, a businessman looking to have a memorable birthday party for his upcoming 60th. He wants famous guests in attendance, an extravagant Roman theme, and time with the slightly awkward journalist (played by David Mitchell) who has been hired to write his memoir. Unfortunately, the planned celebrations are soured by the fact that Sir Richard seems to be losing his popularity, due to being hauled in front of some politicians to answer questions about his business practices, and the Greek beach party setting being made into a temporary home by some Syrian refugees.

Showing key points in the life of someone who decided early on that money was the best idol to worship, Greed uses a non-linear structure to highlight the ways in which bad behaviour are rewarded by those who can strong-arm their way further and further up the business ladder. Negotiations shown here aren’t subtle and considerate of the various supplier issues, but rather the bullish haggling of someone who believes all that matters is getting stock for their shops at the lowest possible price.

Coogan delivers a great performance, defined by his tan and shiny teeth, and equally defined by his need to overcompensate after dragging himself to a position of great power and wealth. Shirley Henderson, not very far removed from Coogan in age, plays his mother, and does an excellent job of showing the attitude and strength that would be passed along to her son, just as some of those values are then passed along to the next generation (with Asa Butterfield getting the best moments in that regard). Mitchell is perfectly cast, Isla Fisher is a lot of fun as McCreadie’s ex-wife, who stays a good friend to him, and Dinita Gohil is the embodiment of someone with a life affected by the repercussions of the immorality of such rampant capitalism. 

The script is solid, although it definitely allows Coogan to stay within a comfort zone of playing someone full of arrogance (so I am not sure how much was on the page and how much, as usual, was brought to life by allowing Coogan to improvise), and Winterbottom does his best to fill every scene with little moments that show how ridiculous people are when they consistently need to show off wealth that they have spent their entire lives pursuing.

You may not enjoy the film at times, which just proves that you are not as slavishly worshiping at the altar of capitalism as the main character, but it is definitely worth your time, and some information provided at the very end of the film allows for viewers to ponder what they might do differently in an effort to try and make the world just a slightly better place for people who are trapped in poverty. No matter what the rich and powerful tell us, trickle down economics just keeps seeming to trickle up, and Greed illustrates that perfectly.

8/10

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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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