For It Is Man's Number

Monday, 11 July 2022

Mubi Monday: True Things (2021)

Although I cannot claim to be the biggest fan of Tom Burke, I AM a big fan of Ruth Wilson. That is why I was keen to see True Things as soon as I heard about it, considering it sounded like an intense drama focusing on a heady physical connection between Burke and Wilson.

The story is quite simple. Wilson plays Kate, a young woman who works in a benefit office, with all of the stress and moments of abuse that can entail. She has been warned about her excessive amount of sick time, but her life seems to be unsuited to maintaining any sense of normality and order. One day, and in what would seem to be a clear breach of rules, Kate feels an instant attraction to a claimant named Blond (no other name is given for the character, played by Tom Burke) and it soon looks as if she has found the escape she clearly desires.

Adapting the book by Deborah Kay Davies, writers Molly Davies and Harry Wootliff (the latter also sitting in the director’s chair) deliver an engrossing character study that feels painfully believable throughout, yet also manages to avoid being so mired in realism that it turns boring.

A large part of that is due to the central performances. Wilson has never been less than great in anything I have seen her in, and this continues here. Her character is sad, lonely, sick, sometimes nasty as she lashes out defensively, and just desperate to have what so many other people have in their lives. As it looks increasingly likely that her best chance for that is happening, she also becomes more nervous and worried, diving into much deeper water before she is able to get back to the surface and properly breathe again. Burke is the polar opposite. Inconsiderate, confident, unconcerned by where others are at in their lives, but able to turn on a fleeting amount of charm that he knows will be enough to keep his current sexual partner happy to have his company. The character isn’t a million miles away from one or two others that Burke has played recently, and he portrays him with ease (with such ease, in fact, that he should be wary of being stuck with too many of these roles). Hayley Squires does well in her smaller role, playing the kind of good friend who will have fun when it’s the right time to have fun, but will also call out some problematic behaviour.

The style of the film is as you’d expect. This isn’t something you would expect to be full of montages and needle-drops. The camerawork is intimate, and also very rarely static (mimicking the constant agitation of Kate), and everything is done to keep things grounded and keep things focused on the performances. Wootliff knows how to soften the edges of the scenes that feature some raw just between our leads, without making them feel completely neutered, and she always does well in criss-crossing the strands of love and sex to juxtapose the reality (seen by viewers long before it is really seen by Kate) with the romanticised version of events.

While obviously not for those who are seeking out a bit of cinematic spectacle or simple thrills, both things I also enjoy (as you should already know), True Things is a satisfying journey alongside a fascinating character. You root for Kate to really open her eyes, to start doing the right things, for the sake of her own health, and you just hope that the final destination makes all of the turbulence worthwhile. I felt that it was. Others may disagree.

8/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Sunday, 10 July 2022

Netflix And Chill: Incantation (2022)

A 2022 horror film from Taiwan that I hadn't heard about before today, Incantation is one of many films now available to a wide audience that helps to make the case for streaming services being a positive thing for film fans. It's good enough to have eventually found a fanbase, absolutely, but I am pleased to see that it might now be an easy choice for people browsing online for their next slice of thrills and chills.

The focus of the story is Ronan (Tsai Hsuan-yen), a young woman who has been through some troubled times that meant a number of years kept separated from her young daughter, Dodo (Huang Sin-ting). Now reunited, and hoping to move forward to happier times, it's not long until things start getting a bit tense and scary. Dodo keeps claiming to see some invisible being, there are strange sounds and happenings, and Ronan has to eventually accept that her current situation stems from a terrible episode that occurred just before Dodo was born.

Directed by Kevin Ko, who made his feature debut over a decade ago with Invitation Only (a film I haven't seen, but am now curious about) and has directed a film every 2-3 years since then, Incantation is an enjoyably atmospheric work that makes good use of various footage being investigated and presented to the camera in a documentary style. Ronan is sharing her story with viewers, and delivering information that may or may not help others avoid her fate, at certain points asking you/me/anyone to chant, to focus on certain images and ideas, and to generally help increase the power of whatever potential magic might be able to affect the world around us.

Hsuan-yen and Sin-ting are both very good in their roles, with very different reactions to events unfolding around them for obvious reasons. One is very much aware of the dangers around them, and of things playing out in ways they really shouldn't, while the other is an unfazed and typically curious child. Kao Ying-hsuan does fine in his role, Ming, a worker the care system who is convinced that a fraught mother has genuine concerns for the well-being of her daughter, and Sean Lin gets his share of memorable moments as Dom, the father of Dodo. There are a few other cast members, but these people are involved in most of the main moments that lead viewers from one bit of developing dread to the next.

It's a shame that the film runs out of steam during the third act, especially after doing such good work of building the creepiness in the first half of the movie. The script, co-written by Ko and Chang Che-wei, generally works well, and is structured to hold back a few reveals until the finale, but this could have been turned into something truly unmissable if the 110-minute runtime had been trimmed down and the scare count ramped up even further.

Bringing to mind a number of other, slightly better, movies (I kept thinking of the superb Noroi: The Curse and The Grudge), Incantation has some nice ideas, a good share of freaky moments, and imagery that will stay with you for some time after it's all over. I think it might also reward viewers with a number of details that can be picked out during a rewatch.

8/10

Saturday, 9 July 2022

Shudder Saturday: Uncle Sam (1996)

Although it is completely ridiculous, never delivers an ounce of tension, and suffers from a cast of actors who deliver wildly varying quality with their performances, Uncle Sam, a satirical slasher movie directed by William Lustig and written by Larry Cohen, is still something I would recommend to people. Mainly because of those two names behind the camera.

David Fralick is Master Sergeant Sam Harper, a soldier killed in Kuwait when the helicopter he is in is brought down by "friendly fire" (quotation marks used because that is a stupid and paradoxical phrase). His body is delivered home just as everyone is preparing for their 4th July celebrations, but Sam's not as unanimated as he should be. And there are plenty of unpatriotic people he decides to punish once he gets his hands on them. One person who seems very safe is Sam's young nephew, Jody Baker (Christopher Ogden), a young man who values patriotism as one of the best qualities that someone can have.

This wouldn't have taken much to turn into something a lot better than what we end up with. Basically, throw some more blood and gore around onscreen and you'd have a gloriously daft slasher to sit alongside the best of the subgenre. Sadly, it doesn't have an inventive enough selection of deaths, nor does it feel like it has a decent enough bodycount (although there are about ten deaths shown onscreen, few of them have any real impact). Maybe Lustig, who did such great work with limited resources to give audiences the likes of Maniac and the Maniac Cop movies, just couldn't manage to get quite the budget required for his final vision, but he's partially saved by a Cohen script that is sharp and merciless.

While the bodies start to pile up and the threat eventually becomes clear to those who are left alive, Uncle Sam is ultimately about three main things. It's about patriotism, what that means to different people and how it is used (wielded) by some. It's about war, about training someone up to kill in a certain environment and then expecting them to just go back to a normal life when they are no longer of service. And it's about looking beyond the uniform. I have always insisted that I cannot go along with the kind of blanket praise that some people love to give to certain groups of people (mainly soldiers and police officers). I like to praise individuals, and it's because they are the ones doing the good work, which they may have found a way to do without the relevant uniform on. To be perfectly blunt, a piece of shit can still be a piece of shit while wearing combat gear. Critics may say this is just a copy of Maniac Cop, which had some very similar themes running through it, but it feels like a very different beast, perhaps because Cohen has decided that hammering home the point he is making is more important than being subtle. It's definitely not subtle.

Ogden is okay as the annoying child at the centre of this, acting in many scenes with his mother (played by Leslie Neale) and his aunt (played by Anne Tremko). Neale and Tremko are both better than the child they are acting alongside, as you might expect, but Ogden overdoes things in a way that helps to underline the heavy-handed script. Fralick is fun in the role of zombie Sam, and Isaac Hayes is wonderful in the role of a fellow veteran, Sgt. Jed Crowley. Other familiar faces in the cast include P. J. Soles, Timothy Bottoms, and Robert Forster, with the latter being a very welcome highlight in his small role.

I can see why people wouldn't like this, and I can easily understand anyone hating it, but I liked this more than I expected to. The rough 'n' ready feel of the whole thing adds to the charm, and I think the way in which the commentary weaves from underpinning the material to being pushed front and centre is a pleasingly ballsy move from Cohen and Lustig. Feel free to like or loathe it at your leisure, but I think it's a nice little slice of . . . independence cinema.

6/10

Friday, 8 July 2022

After Midnight (1989)

One of many films perhaps better left as a fond memory than one to search out and rewatch, After Midnight is a slick horror anthology movie, written and directed by Jim and Ken Wheat, that frames three tales in the kind of wraparound that is both enjoyable and predictable, considering how it stems back to what is arguably the granddaddy of horror anthology movies (you know the one I mean).

Things begin with Allison (Jillian McWhirter) having a bad feeling about things. She explains this to her friend, Cheryl (Pamela Adlon), but is unable to be much more specific. Her nerves don’t look to settles down any when she sits down for a class called “Psychology Of Fear”, presented in an unorthodox manner by Professor Edward Derek (Ramy Zada). The Professor is so unorthodox that he is soon told off for his teaching methods, which leads to him inviting a number of students to his home for some late-night tales of terror. That allows viewers to see “The Old Dark House”, “A Night On The Town”, and “All Night Operator”. And, as those tales are being told, a disgruntled student (Russ, played by Ed Monaghan) plans to give the Professor one extra scare.

As with any horror anthology movie, there is an uneven mix here, and different people will have a different favourite. I personally think it is all downhill after the wonderful punchline of “The Old Dark House”, the tale of a young couple who end up wandering through the titular building after they have a tyre blow out on the long drive home. Some people may prefer the tension of the girls being chased by vicious dogs in “A Night On The Town”. And “All Night Operator” tries to tap into that When A Stranger Calls ability to raise goosebumps. It’s the scenes bookending the film that stay consistently stronger than any other tale though, with moments of enjoyable insanity that feel less cosy or safe than anything in the other stories.

Although the writing and direction aren’t terrible, both leave something to be desired. The big problem is pacing. This is a 90-minute movie that feels overlong. Shaving down each individual story and fitting in an extra little stinger would have helped massively, especially when in “A Night On The Town” (reduce it to one girl alone, and cut to the chase - no pun intended - even quicker). I would have also liked to see some more excuses for some fun gore gags. This feels like a TV movie for most of the runtime, which is disappointing.

The acting is perfectly fine, and each story usually has one or two familiar faces to catch your eye. Zada is a lot of fun as the Professor, moving easily from the professional to the possibly unhinged, depending on how strenuously he is trying to make a point about fear. McWhirter has to look uneasy for most of her screentime, which she does, and Monaghan is good value as the young man fairly reasonably upset by the teaching methods of the Professor. Mark McClure and Nadine Van der Velde do good work as they wander around “The Old Dark House”, Penelope Sudrow (well-known to horror fans for being given her “big break in TV” by Freddy Krueger) is the most recognisable member of the group being chased in “A Night On The Town”, and Marg Helgenberger is as good as ever in her role, the phone operator having trouble with a nuisance caller, to say the least.

There’s enough here to make After Midnight worth your time, not least a final few minutes that wonderfully move the dial from zero to insanity at breakneck speed. It’s no classic, but it’s an earnest attempt to add a worthwhile horror anthology to the subgenre. I will always have a soft spot for it. I just might never rewatch it again.

6/10

Thursday, 7 July 2022

The Ghost Ship (1943)

I promise you that, despite the wild news cycle we are currently going through here in the UK, the timing of this review, concerning a movie that shows an unfit leader who clings to his power while becoming more and more obviously dangerous to those around him, is completely coincidental. I enjoyed this film last week, days before the current, joyous, political bloodbath that should end with Boris Johnson no longer being Prime Minister.

It’s very appropriate that this is a film I have to review by starting off with talk of coincidental similarities elsewhere, because it is the film that was hidden away for many years due to a plagiarism lawsuit that was lost by a devastated Val Lewton, the producer on this. Nobody who was aware of the full facts of the case, and who knew of the fertile imagination and creativity of Lewton, ever saw the lawsuit result as fair, but that is beside the point. The end result was a huge blow for Lewton, and it meant The Ghost Ship was kept away from viewers for a few decades.

Clocking in at just under the 70-minute mark, this is the story of 3rd Officer Tom Merriman (Russell Wade), a newcomer to a ship helmed by Captain Stone (Richard Dix). Stone seems nice and friendly enough, initially, but it soon becomes clear that he has some bad habits. He always has an excuse to avoid responsibility, he never wants to admit when he is in the wrong, and he deems himself able to decide the ultimate fate of anyone working under him. Merriman realises all of this a bit too late, after a death that he doesn’t think is as accidental as it could seem, but his attempt to confront the Captain don’t go well. Nobody else is privy to the information that Merriman has, making him seem more illogical and unhinged as he grows more desperate to make people see the truth.

Based around a ship set that was available for use, this tale, credited to Leo Mittler for the story and Donald Henderson Clarke for the screenplay, is another superb slice of commentary-smuggling entertainment that Lewton was excelling at during this time. Pushing back against the expectations of the movie title, as usual, what could have been a standard chiller is instead crafted as an intriguing character study, showing the damaging effects of too much power being conferred upon one individual, and the way in which a bad situation is compounded by people being silent/complicit while they try to make the most of their own circumstances.

Director Mark Robson, given a chance to step up after his editing work on Cat People, has a good grasp on the material. Okay, it isn’t all shadows and scares, but there is still a growing aura of menace as our hero tries to share uncomfortable truths in a situation that becomes increasingly dangerous for him.

Wade is a decent lead, essentially coming across as a stand-up guy who will only rock the boat (no pun intended) when he feels it is absolutely necessary. His performance is nicely settled in a happy medium, being neither too passive nor too hysterical as he constantly weighs up the fluid dynamics of each interaction he has, with Stone and the other crew members. Dix is excellent, lending his character a real shade of the monstrous, barely hiding his true character at the start of the film while unabashedly showing everything horrid about him during a third act that escalated things beautifully. Many supporting cast members do good work (including Edith Barrett, Lawrence Tierney, Ben Bard, the “mute” Skelton Knaggs, and the musical Sir Lancelot), but the other real standout is Edmund Glover, playing a radio operator who knows just about enough to suspect Merriman may be telling the truth. Glover is allowed to be a fun presence during the first half and a potential ally throughout the second half.

Things may seem to get a little bit silly during the final act, and it’s a shame that some characters don’t get to make more of an impression, but there’s little else to fault here. Unless you go into it wanting an actual ghost ship. In fact, it’s almost comforting knowing that people will eventually restrain and remove a leader who has gone mad and will do anything to maintain their position of power. Don’t you think?

8/10

Wednesday, 6 July 2022

Prime Time: X The Man With The X-Ray Eyes (1963)

It all starts with an eye. One giant, floating eye. Perhaps placed in shot just to stretch out the opening credits, as we know that director Roger Corman is happy to use every trick in the book to pad out the runtime of a feature, this eye holds your attention for a sequence that seems to go on just a bit too long.

That works out well though, because this film doesn’t take long to get to the main thrust of the plot. After experimenting on a monkey that dies, and then enjoying a smoke with a colleague (cigarettes lit by a casually-held Bunsen burner), Dr. James Xavier (Ray Milland) feels that there is no time to waste as he splashes his new, potentially wondrous, eye drops into his eyes. As expected, they give him x-ray vision, which can surely help him to, ummmm, read paperwork covered by other paperwork, as well as potentially saving the lives of patients. One bit of terrible luck, however, and James has to flee his life, settling in to life as a carnival worker, overseen by Crane (Don Rickles). The potential miracle of x-ray vision is sold as a novelty, a trick to impress the crowds, and it isn’t long until James realises he needs to go somewhere else to make the best use of his “superpower”. He need to go to Las Vegas.

Fairly brisk and fun throughout, X The Man With The X-Ray Eyes now feels far too tame and lacking in visual flourishes that would help play up the core idea. Remake this nowadays, with some top-notch practical effects and intermittent 3-D to better display what the main character is seeing, and I reckon you could have a good time.

Not that this is bad. It just feels a bit too “fast and loose” when it could have better mixed the fun moments with a sense of growing unease and tension. The script, by Robert Dillon and Ray Russell, gets the science mumbo jumbo out of the way quickly, all the better to focus on the journey of a man who looks set to destroy himself in the quest to help others. It all starts from a point of arrogance, of course, and Dr. Xavier is a mild flavour of Dr. Frankenstein mixed with Dr. Jack Griffin (aka The Invisible Man), so viewers are able to both root for him and enjoy watching him suffer from the consequences of his own actions.

Corman directs with his usual efficiency, although it has to be said that the film only feels padded out in two main moments: that opening sequence, and a carefully edited scene showing our main character seeing everyone around him naked while they are dancing at a party. Otherwise, the direction feels nicely in tune with a script that zips along between three or four different set-pieces.

Milland is fine in the lead role, his eyes covered up for most of the runtime as he keeps trying to adjust to his increasing ability. He doesn’t try too hard to gain any sympathy, playing his character as someone diving headlong into an opportunity that most of us would be at least slightly tempted by. Diana Van Der Vlis is pleasant enough as a friendly colleague, and possible ally, named Dr. Diane Fairfax. But the standout is Rickles, stealing the movie in the few scenes that feature him (although it is also nice to see yet another turn from Corman “totem” Dick Miller, playing a carnival audience member who assumes the x-ray trickery is being done with the usual fakery and cheats).

This is a decent little ‘69s flick that doesn’t outstay its welcome. The better moments more than make up for the stumbles (and, it must be said, the sequence in Vegas ends up being a big stumble), and there’s a final moment that remains surprisingly impressive. Worth putting in your eyes.

6/10

Tuesday, 5 July 2022

New Jack City (1991)

A film I somehow missed when it was first released, despite hearing a lot of good talk about it, New Jack City constantly kept being held back from the top of my prioritised viewing list by many other movies. That’s a shame, because this is a great movie, energetic and entertaining throughout, with a nicely stacked cast.

It’s the tale of a drug dealer/crimelord, named Nino (Wesley Snipes), who seems to remain far too many steps ahead of the law. He rose to his position thanks to the introduction of crack cocaine into the drug market. Addicts die, threats die, competitors die, but Nino just keeps on trucking, much to the frustration of a special task force that has been assembled to bring him down. Headed up by Detective Stone (Mario Van Peebles), the two men most likely to get some kind of victory over Nino are Appleton (Ice-T) and Peretti (Judd Nelson). They are willing to do whatever it takes, even helping an addict (Pookie, played by Chris Rock) clean and asking him to do some undercover work for them.

Written by Thomas Lee Wright and Barry Michael Cooper, New Jack City dances beautifully between some moments of realistic violence, some very pertinent points on the changing face of modern crime and those in charge, and pure visceral cinema. All of the characters feel slightly larger than life, but that helps to underline the idea of the way territories have been redrawn and reformed. And there is snappy dialogue throughout that reveals extra information about choices made by the main characters.

The champ of delivering that snappy dialogue is Snipes, who gives what could well be his best ever performance, all confidence and no heart. Having said that, Snipes has so many great performances tucked away in his filmography that it’s tough to pick out a clear favourite. He owns every minute of his screentime here though, and it’s a good job. His character needs that charisma and presence to be at all believable, even while being so enjoyably over the top. Ice-T and Nelson have to bicker at one another in standard “cops who may not like one another, but will look out for one another” mode, and they do well with what they’re given, especially when delivering some more melodramatic moments in the finale. Then there’s Rock, delivering a fantastic performance as an itchy and desperate junkie who is given a big second chance at life. Bill Nunn and Bill Cobbs are as good as ever, Allen Payne does perfectly okay, although he is the weakest of the main players, and there are many others worth keeping an eye out for, from Michael Michele and Vanessa Williams to Russell Wong and Anthony DeSando, as well as Fab 5 Freddy, Flavor Flav, and more.

Although he has a supporting role, Van Peebles also gives himself the much more important job of directing this thing. Helped by the casting, and the soundtrack (this has an amazing soundtrack), he delivers a film that I would easily rank alongside many of the top crime films of the 1990s. It’s arguable that making something more grounded, and grittier, would have been a better approach, but this is a slickly-packaged bit of entertainment that is also a call for change. Van Peebles, with the script he is working from, gives viewers a sugar-coated pill, but you can still easily taste the sour centre.

It may not seem as worthy as a film like Boyz N The Hood (released in the same year), or Menace II Society (which came along a couple of years later), but it is just as deserving of your time, even if it takes a very different approach to the social issues being explored.

9/10

Monday, 4 July 2022

Mubi Monday: The General (1998)

Directed by the great John Boorman (who has also given us a number of not so great movies, but his wins far exceed his losses), The General tells the story of the life of Martin Cahill, an Irish criminal who spent a long time avoiding and frustrating the Garda throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. The fact that he is played here by Brendan Gleeson ensures that viewers are unlikely to hate him.

Things start off well enough. After being in and out of trouble from a young age, Cahill is shown steadfastly refusing to move from a site that has been scheduled for demolition. His reasoning? He wants a better choice of alternative accommodation, and he gets it. Good for him. But we soon see the other side of Cahill, the man happy to rob, threaten, and beat anyone he views as a target. He will depositing thousands of pounds into a bank account and then visit a local police station to have an alibi while his cronies rob the bank and get his money right back to him. He will wave guns under the noses of people, he will plant bombs to potentially kill professional witnesses, and he will even nail someone to a snooker table if he thinks they have been skimming profit from him. Meanwhile, his home life is a non-traditional, but happy, set-up with Frances (Maria Doyle Kennedy) and her sister, Tina (Angeline Ball), as well as the children he has fathered with each of them.

Although black and white when it was shown in cinemas, I saw it presented a visual palette so muted that it often seemed as if it was in black and white anyway, but the occasional patches of colour managed to catch the eye (particularly the aforementioned snooker table). Not being utilised for any big “wow” moments, the cinematography and colour (or lack of colour) simply keep viewers more easily in the time and place alongside the characters.

Boorman, adapting the book by Paul Williams, as well as including a reference to the time he himself was robbed by Cahill (a gold record stolen from his home), does a decent enough job at showing the criminal operation, as well as showing the continuing efforts of the police trying to get their man. Where he falls down is in the tone of the film, making Cahill a loveable rogue for most of the runtime, instead of the callous and opportunistic criminal that he was. I am all for any kind of “Robin Hood” character, but that’s not what we see here, although maybe those romanticising his life want to see him that way.

Gleeson surely relished this role, a perfect fit for him and one of his best lead roles (which is saying something). Whatever problems I may have with the material, Gleeson is faultless. He’s given great support from Kennedy and Ball, who are both allowed to feel like more than just “daft wee wimmen”, and there are good performances from Adrian Dunbar and Sean McCginley, as crooks, and Jon Voight, as the main cop butting heads with Cahill. Yes, Voight’s accent is far from perfect, but it’s surprisingly not all that bad for most of his scenes. Not bad at all.

It’s really hard to rate this. There were so many moments I really enjoyed, partly BECAUSE Boorman and Gleeson work hard to keep Cahill such a cheeky charmer, but the moments that troubled me, moments of violence and nastiness that were moved past all too quickly, helped to build up a bitter taste that I couldn’t rinse away, even hours after the film had finished. Maybe many people view Cahill the way that Boorman depicts him, and maybe I would be feeling different if this was some Scottish criminal I had grown up knowing, and viewed as a bad person who also did some good things, but the film errs in maintaining an apparent lack of judgement.

As a film, it works brilliantly. As a film about Cahill, it doesn’t do so well.

7/10

Sunday, 3 July 2022

Netflix And Chill: The Rite (2011)

You would think that Anthony Hopkins would be well-suited to the role of a priest who can conduct exorcisms in a firm, and seemingly non-traditional, manner. In a way, didn't he already play just that kind of role, and superbly, when he took on the famous character of Van Helsing? So The Rite, a handsomely-mounted horror/drama about a younger priest full of doubt (Michael Kovak, played by Colin O'Donoghue) learning much from a stoic elder (Father Lucas Trevant, played by Hopkins), would seem to be an easy winner. Sadly, that is not the case.

Based on, possibly very loosely, on a book of the same name by Matt Biaglo, this is a "true story" that ticks almost every exorcism movie cliché off the list, and that's always a tricky proposition. Because if you're going to do that, especially if you're pairing up an older priest with a younger priest who is starting to doubt his faith, then you need to be pretty bloody special. Because there's one movie that casts a hell of a long shadow over all of these movies.

All of the characters are sketched out and put in place quickly enough. Michael feels like someone it is easy to root for, and we see plenty of backstory involving his relationship with his father (Rutger Hauer). He is asked to go to Rome to attend a course in exorcism, which will either help him to find his faith once more or convince him that his journey on this particular path is at an end. Father Trevant is a force of nature, and a bit of an expert in exorcisms (of course), and remains convinced that he always does whatever is necessary to save any tortured souls. And Angeline (Alice Braga) is someone else attending the course, which means she can have conversations with Michael as he continues to feel doubt over any other sensation.

It's no surprise to look through the filmography of screenwriter Michael Petroni and see that nothing stands out, with the exception of the wonderful, and disappointingly underseen, The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys. Petroni has, for most of the past two decades, been specialising in writing films seemingly destined to be forgotten. And this is coming from someone who quite liked The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader.

Director Mikael Håfström has a slightly better success rate, especially around this time (1408 was a few years before this and Escape Plan was just after), but this feels like a movie where his hands were tied. It is an exorcism movie for a mainstream audience, meaning the horror element is never really satisfying and it is all far too safe and predictable.

Hopkins is the highlight, and selling the movie on his presence alone is no bad thing. Hauer is also very good in his much smaller role, and it's a shame that he isn't used to much greater effect. Braga, through no fault of her own, feels completely superfluous, an addition for the sake of having a female character who isn't just a possible victim of possession. The weakest cast member is O'Donoghue though, who just doesn't feel very convincing at any point. I wouldn't say he was actually bad, but he certainly feels as if he's been miscast, unable to sell viewers on him being a doubtful priest OR a worthwhile leading man. Ciarán Hinds and Toby Jones have very small roles, but I will mention them as the other main positives in a film in need of all the help it can get.

Easily the worst of the mainstream exorcism/possession movies from the last few decades, this is eminently forgettable and unworthy of your time. In the same way that multiplying two negatives leads to a positive, it turns out that numerous wrongs can add up to a rite.

3/10

Saturday, 2 July 2022

Shudder Saturday: Crystal Eyes (2017)

If you're going to try and give audiences a modern giallo then more power to you. There's still plenty of entertainment to be wrung from the subgenre yet, and you can help yourself a bit more by setting everything in the past (Crystal Eyes) is set in the mid-1980s. But if you're going to deliver a movie that riffs on the likes of Blood And Black Lace, as well as the best of Dario Argento, then you'd better be absolutely sure of what you're doing.

Alexis Carpenter (Camila Pizzo) is a beautiful, but toxic, model who dies at the start of this movie. Then we move forward by a year. There will be new models chosen to honour her on some anniversary issues of a fashion magazine, but that might not ever come to fruition if a masked killer gets their way. And that's all you really need to know.

Co-written and co-directed by Ezequiel Endelman and Leandro Montejano, this is a slasher movie that gets some things right, only to upset the balance when the creators seem unable to move out of the shadows cast by the artists who have so obviously influenced them. The kills are very disappointing, the third act isn't ever as mad as it feels like it should be, and the general flow of the whole thing is sadly stuttering and stumbling from start to finish. It does, however, keep the focus on a cast that is almost entirely female, allowing them to portray characters that can be both potential aggressors and victims, and that helps the film to stay a short distance away from so many other giallo flicks.

Pizzo is excellent, but disappointingly underused, as Alexis. The other main leads are played by Anahí Politi, Erika Boveri, and Silvia Montanari, with the latter being the best of the three, playing the editor of the fashion magazine setting up the tribute to Alexis. Nacho Joshas and Diego Benedetto are the two male cast members, both having their memorable moments when they become involved in the killings. Sadly, nobody else really stands out. That's mainly down to Endelman and Montejano, who just want to move from one weak set-piece to the next (although the imagery of this particular killer works well) without fleshing out any more of the supporting players.

Falling somewhere in between being too derivative and dull and being too overly concerned with the artistry of the visuals, Crystal Eyes just doesn't have a feeling of film-makers committed to, or in love with, the type of film that it ultimately wants to be. You can pick many other modern gialli ahead of this one, with my personal recommendation for those wanting something that manages to be both traditional and very modern being the excellent Knife + Heart.

5/10

Friday, 1 July 2022

Freaked (1993)

Alex Winter is a douchebag. Not in real life. In real life, he seems to be one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet. But in Freaked he is a massive douchebag, and also the main character.

He plays Ricky Coogan, a celebrity who is about to accept a huge payday to promote something that isn’t really that good for people. He gets first-hand experience of just how bad it can be when the crazy Elijah C. Skuggs (Randy Quaid) uses it to turn Ricky into a horrible freak, after making him witness the splicing of his friend (Ernie, played by Michael Stoyanov) and a young woman (Julie, played by Megan Ward) into one conjoined individual. All three are then thrown in alongside past victims of Skuggs, including the likes of Sockhead (voices by Bobcat Goldthwait), the Bearded Lady (Mr. T), Ortiz the Dogboy (Keanu Reeves), and a few others. Will Ricky and co. ever be able to free themselves, and reverse the effects of the mad freakmaker, or will they just have to learn to live with their new bodies?

As well as having a central role onscreen, Winter also co-directs here (alongside Tom Stern) and helped to write the script (with Stern and Tim Burns). Everyone behind the camera does a great job to deliver something very funny and wildly imaginative on a budget that probably wouldn’t cover the wardrobe costs on a Bill & Ted movie (and they aren’t exactly megabudget blockbusters). It would be easy to give all of the praise to Winter, who seems to have helped things along by making use of every connection and favour that he could (ensuring a number of fun cameos dotted throughout), but no individual makes a film alone, and everyone who worked on this deserves to get their share of kudos.

The practical effects are wonderful throughout, whether they are making people look as wild and weird as possible or just creating an extra visual gag (the cowboy, played by John Hawkes, is wonderful), and Kevin Kiner provides an enjoyable and appropriate musical score.

The performances are generally over the top, but that doesn’t mean they’re bad. Staying in line with the whacky sensibility of the material, everyone feels just right in their roles. Winter is a lot of fun, Stoyanov and Ward work well together, and Quaid keeps things lively with his demented “ringmaster” turn. As well as the people already mentioned in the collection of freaks, Derek McGrath does great work in the role of Worm, Jeff Kahn is Nosey, and Lee Arenberg is The Eternal Flame (another character complemented by an effect that allows for the gag to keep working). There are others, all doing well, but I decided not to go through the whole cast here. Oh, I should also mention Alex Zuckerman though, who plays a young Coogan fan/stalker named Stuey Gluck.

Still not as well-known as it should be, as far as I am concerned anyway, Freaked is the kind of film destined to retain a relatively small, but very loyal, fanbase over the years. I am happy to count myself as a member of that fanbase, and I would love to see more people discover this little comedy gem, especially if it involves some kind of anniversary disc release that allowed fans to own it with a few nice supplementary features.

8/10

Thursday, 30 June 2022

Zone Troopers (1985)

Another film from the 1980s that I didn’t get to see back when I was constantly being drawn to the VHS box art (an alien figure replicating the Uncle Sam “we want you” iconography), Zone Troopers is a title I have always had a lot of affection for. But now I have actually seen the film, which means my level of affection for it isn’t what it used to be.

It is WWII and a number of American soldiers in Italy get themselves involved in a skirmish that involves both the Nazis and some alien visitors. The Nazis want to make use of alien technology to help them win the war, but the Americans just want to get out of the area alive.

The first film directed by Danny Bilson, co-written by himself and Paul De Meo (and the duo also wrote the scripts for Trancers and The Eliminators at about this time), Zone Troopers is a fun idea that is hampered by the low budget, and a lack of creativity to compensate for that low budget.

One or two moments stand out. There’s a nice bit of production design showcasing a crashed spaceship that at least adds a bit of vibrant colour to the film, the third act has a set-piece that makes up for the dodgy special effects with a child-like glee and enthusiasm, and the very end of the film features a “punchline” that feels quite sweet. That is about all I can praise though. The script is pretty weak, there is never a proper feeling of the time and place, and you would get more authenticity if you stumbled across a group of LARPers conducting a war-based campaign on their designated special Sunday.

The cast help a bit. Tim Thomerson has a lead role, playing Sarge, so it has that going for it, and Timothy Van Patten is fine as someone sharing a lot of the screentime with him, playing a soldier imaginatively named Joey. Art LaFleur and Biff Manard make up the rest of the core group, both doing well enough in roles that don’t exactly ask for complexity and nuance.

Overall, I was really hoping to like this more. Part of that is to do with me having yearned to see it for over three decades. Part of that is to do with the premise having the potential to be so much more fun. I didn’t hate it, and I will definitely rewatch it at some point (when I may end up enjoying it more without the weight of my own expectation working against it), but it’s not one I highly recommend, even to fans of sci-fi b-movies.

4/10

Wednesday, 29 June 2022

Prime Time: Whipped (2000)

I like many movies from the ‘90s and ‘00s, and I have always been a big fan of Amanda Peet, so a viewing of Whipped was long overdue. I will say right now . . . If you can find any other movie from the year 2000 that feels more like a movie from the year 2000 then I will eat the massively baggy jeans that I used to wear throughout the 1990s.

Written and directed by Peter M. Cohen, what you have here is the tale of three men who consider themselves as players, or wannabe players. Brad (Brian Van Holt) is smarmy, cocky, and selfish. He also has a job that deals with the stock market. He is what you would think of when you think of some douchebag named Brad, or even Chad. Zeke (Zorie Barber) is similar, but his persona also incorporates the sensitive soul of an art lover. Jonathan (Jonathan Abrahams) tries to match his friends, but he isn’t made of quite the same stuff. So he masturbates. A lot. And then there’s Eric (Judah Domke), the married man who wants to continue to find vicarious thrills through the related exploits of his friends. These men are all challenged when three of them end up dating the seemingly perfect Mia (Amanda Peet).

Based much more on dialogue than action, and with characters often taking time to speak directly to the camera as they discuss their various life experiences and dating techniques, Whipped cannot do enough to make you forget that it’s a low-budget character piece. It doesn’t help that only one of the characters is likeable, and it isn’t one of the male characters, so spending time with them is more of a chore than a pleasant distraction.

It also doesn’t help that writer-director Cohen also clearly loved Swingers and decided he could make something just as good. He is far off the mark, but makes his own incompetence much more obvious by constantly reminding you that Swingers exists, is a MUCH better film, and should be something you decide to rewatch instead of sticking with this.

There are moments to enjoy though. An opening sequence sets up the characters with a good bit of humour that allows viewers to laugh AT them. There’s also a very smart little sequence that feels like the typical “guys chatting to one another while playing basketball” moment, a trope brilliantly skewered by the fact that all of the characters here are absolutely terrible at playing the game. Whether it is a clumsy metaphor or another way to undermine the words of the characters with their actions, it works. Sadly, no other scenes in the movie are that clever.

Jokes are set up at random, with punchlines that just don’t work, characters become harder and harder to believe in as real people, bad attitudes don’t really change, and that all means that the film also lacks the sexy cool that it wanted to have (something that Swingers has in spades).

Peet almost makes this worthwhile, portraying another beautiful woman who can hold her own with the men around her, but her male co-stars, suffering both from the writing and their own performances (with Domke, in particular, standing out as someone who answered a call for a very different movie), drag things back down at every turn.

Oh, and as if this review wasn’t enough to put you off, let me warn you that this is another movie that tries to gain some goodwill at the very end by throwing in a number of outtakes. None of them are funny. None.

3/10

Tuesday, 28 June 2022

The Kindred (1987)

I understand that people who know me through various social media connections may already be fed up of me going on about The Kindred, but I am going to spend some more time on it. Because it deserves it. Whatever people think of the quality of the film itself, this was something I had been wanting to see for about 35 years, all thanks (as so often happened) to a lurid and tempting VHS cover.

While his scientist mother (Kim Hunter) is dying, John Hollins (David Allen Brooks) is surprised by the news that he apparently has a half brother. Even more surprising, he is supposed to destroy this individual, named Anthony. Heading back to the old homestead with some firm friends to help him, John starts to piece together exactly what his mother meant. It is all to do with a load of illegal experiments, resulting in the creation of a life that really shouldn’t exist.

Co-written and co-directed by Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow, The Kindred is, especially in the first half, a clumsy and clunky piece of work. It often tries to be creepy and suspenseful while most viewers will be waiting for whatever wild practical effects are surely due to come along in time for the third act. In fairness, however, those practical effects DO come along, kudos to the team for them, and they are given plenty of screentime to ensure that nobody feels short-changed.

Although The Kindred is gloopy horror fun, most will be unsurprised to find that it is far from a showcase for great acting. Brooks is decidedly average in the lead role, outshone in any scenes that he shares with either Talia Balsam (who plays his girlfriend) or Amanda Pays (who plays a woman so happy to help our hero that she might just have a secret agenda). Peter Frechette is defined by the fact that he is trying to no longer be a smoker, and he’s stuck being the most annoying of the main group members, while Timothy Gibbs and Julia Montgomery have lesser, but also less annoying, parts to play. Hunter may not be onscreen for long, but she’s not the only established star to be involved. Rod Steiger is enjoyably over the top as another scientist who values results over ethics, and every scene that features him is a barmy delight, either thanks to his performance or the special effects around him.

Despite the runtime not being overlong, the pacing could be tightened up slightly. The special effects, as wonderful as they are, vary wildly in quality. And the score by David Newman feels like it should have been much more bombastic. But these are relatively minor criticisms, especially when you think of the many other horror films from this time that ended up being much less satisfying.

The Kindred almost comes close to delivering on the promise sold on that VHS artwork, and almost coming close is a damn sight better than many other horror movies manage. I am sorry that it took me over three decades to see it, but I am also glad that something I had given up hope of ever seeing turned out to be part of a very special viewing experience, one that kept a grin on my face for the duration.

7/10

Monday, 27 June 2022

Mubi Monday: Sunset Song (2015)

England has a fine literary heritage, from Shakespeare to the Brontë sisters, from Dickens to Jane Austen, and on and on the list goes, including the likes of Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Agatha Christie, John Le Carré, Clive Barker, etc, etc. Scotland has a similarly rich variety, both historically and right here and now, from Sir Walter Scott to Robert Burns, from Rankin to Rowling, Iain Banks (with or without the middle initial), Christopher Brookmyre, and many more. Unfortunately, one celebrated writer of Scottish fiction is/was Lewis Grassic Gibbon, writer of A Scots Quair, a trilogy of takes set in the North East of Scotland. Sunset Song is the first part of that trilogy, and it’s about as bleak and dull as just about anything I have ever encountered in my life. While forced to read it in high school, I once threw the book across an empty classroom in disdain, looking on in horror as it lifted upwards and knocked a glass lightshade loose, the whole thing coming down and smashing to pieces on the floor. I somehow managed to clean it up and hide the evidence, and I am only sharing this confession here as it is arguably the most interesting thing I can say about the story.

I am sure you can imagine how much I was looking forward to the film, directed and adapted into screenplay form by Terence Davies (someone who has directed other films I have very much enjoyed).

Agyness Deyn plays Chris Guthrie, a young woman loving a hard life on a Scottish farm in the early 1900s. She has a stern father (Peter Mullan) for a while, but things really seem to look up for her when she starts to receive the attention of Ewan Tavendale (played by Kevin Guthrie). But the fact that this is Sunset Song means that happiness cannot last for long. The only things that last are aching joints and muscles from hard work on the land. Och aye, ye can be sure o’ that.

It’s all nicely put together, from the script to the horribly overcast visual palette, and the cast do excellent work, particularly Deyn in the central role, giving a performance that marks her out as a formidable talent. Unfortunately, Sunset Song cannot overcome the biggest problem it has, which is the fact that it is Sunset Song. Viewed by many as an essential Scottish text, the story is so mired in an essence of noble misery, while also taking the time to wear down the strong female lead into a passive victim, that it is something I would much rather see consigned to the dustbin of history. Maybe some of the Scottish vocabulary has a pleasing ring to it, there is that, and there would seem to be a number of uncomfortable truths at the heart of things, but the messages delivered throughout never sat right with me, mainly because it all seems to be inextricably interwoven with some horribly inappropriate sense of duty and pride.

Art isn’t always just a window that we look into. It is often a mirror, and the reflection can show your baggage, it can show you a snarl while so many others are smiling. My review of Sunset Song isn’t JUST about the movie, but very few movie reviews are just about the movie. It just so happens that this work has much more attached to it, for me, and I am now at an age when I can better define the problems I have always had with the material. They are problems that the film also has, because Davies adapted the source material so well. Maybe there isn’t a way to make it into anything more palatable for me, or maybe I will return to the source material and find myself able to see a bit more in it than I ever did before. I highly doubt it, but maybe.

4/10

Sunday, 26 June 2022

Netflix And Chill: The Man From Toronto (2022)

Kevin Hart plays a typical Kevin Hart type in this action comedy from the director of The Hitman’s Bodyguard. All you need to know right now is that this film isn’t even as good as The Hitman’s Bodyguard, which wasn’t any kind of modern classic itself.

I don’t even have the energy to relate the plot, as tired and overdone as it is, but here is the very basic outline. Teddy (Hart) ends up somewhere with people who mistakenly assume he is the very dangerous, and skilled, Man From Toronto (Woody Harrelson). Because he ends up involved in a job that has two or there main objectives, authorities want Teddy to keep up the pretence, to lure out The Man, while The Man ends up also wanting Teddy to keep up the pretence, for some convoluted reason to do with maintaining consistent identity from the first part of the job. Teddy just wants to stay alive long enough to make things up to his long-suffering wife, Lori (Jasmine Mathews). And blah blah blah blah blah.

This is a prime example of what happens when you marry a weak script (from Robbie Fox and Chris Bremner) to a weak director, fail to have main cast members who are charismatic enough to distract from the many negative aspects of the film, and think that viewers will be kept amused by action set-pieces that complement the physicality of the actors with an excessive amount of CGI (the effects often far from top quality work, it has to be said). As much as I disliked The Hitman’s Bodyguard, and the sequel, I was able to enjoy some moments thanks to the casting of Reynolds and Jackson. Hart and Harrelson aren’t the right fit for the roles they are given here.

There is nothing in the script that feels at all real, in terms of the movie world it is presenting. The Man From Toronto is supposed to be a mystery figure, yet a lot is known about him and he doesn’t exactly hide his identity, or even try to be subtle. Teddy isn’t ever developed as a character who really aims to change by the time the end credits roll (in fact, it could be argued that he doesn’t change at all from the start to the finish). And as for the mission at the heart of everything? Think about it for more than two seconds and you will see how ridiculous it is for anyone to be letting Teddy take the central role.

I guess those who like to see Hart doing his usual schtick will find some laughs here, and Harrelson isn’t terrible (he just doesn’t quite work in the role, due to a mix of the writing and his casting), but the supporting cast generally do better with much less screentime. Mathews is a pleasant presence, Kaley Cuoco is fun in the role of her friend, and Pierson Fode keeps things lively whenever he appears, playing The Man From Miami.

The final extended fight sequence has a number of fun moments, but is also dragged down by too much time spent cramming in camerawork flourishes and CGI, and you may start to realise just how few and far between the laughs were when you get to an end scene that is supposed to provide some extra chuckles, but doesn't. I'm not going to say that this is entirely laugh-free, and Hart fans will rush to strongly disagree with me, but it's disappointingly miserable with any jokes that actually work. Can we maybe encourage director Patrick Hughes to move away from trying to make comedies, he's just not very good at it.

3/10

Saturday, 25 June 2022

Shudder Saturday: Revealer (2022)

A simple tale of the apocalypse, or maybe it would be more accurate to call it the rapture, Revealer starts off pretty strong, with a fun script, some decent visuals, and a cool soundtrack. Sadly, it starts to go downhill once it leans into the horror elements, although the two main leads help to make it less painful than it otherwise might be.

Caito Aase plays Angie, a young woman who makes her money dancing various sexy dances in a peepshow booth. And she often has to walk by a group and of fervent protesters on her way to work, headed up by the deeply prurient and offended Sally (Shaina Schrooten). Which makes things really awkward when Angie and Sally are trapped together as the world starts to seemingly come to an end.

Directed by Luke Boyce, who also worked with writers Michael Moreci and Tim Seeley in getting his vision onscreen, this is a decent attempt to make a low-budget horror comedy that focuses on a very small aspect of things going to hell (literally?) on a grand scale. It’s just a shame that the fun and potential inventiveness of the main premise is soon cast aside in favour of a fairly dull selection of shots that have our leads walking along one passageway after another.

Aase is very good in her role, a fun, strong, smart woman who isn’t weighed down by too many prejudices or hang-ups. Her character is genuinely great too, which makes me wish that she was given a better framework, to reward viewers and Aase herself. Schrooten is okay, but she is stuck playing someone who feels like a bit of a cartoon (she’s a young Maude Flanders, with a bit less empathy for those not sharing her mindset). At least the leads help one another in their many shared scenes, but it’s always obvious just who is the better of the two. Bishop Stevens has a couple of fun moments in the role of Ray, the man at the front counter of the peepshow establishment, but this is, for the most part, a two-hander with Aase and Schrooten.

As the end credits rolled, I was feeling in a mood to be kind to Revealer. It had a number of things I enjoyed in the mix. Then I remembered how much of it missed the mark. A great start, with some comedic dialogue and moments that really work, gives way to something that becomes less and less interesting as it winds towards a finale that will leave most people non-plussed. The comedy stops working, the horror side of things never really works at all, and nothing can distract from the obvious limitations that could have been turned into a strength.

There are definitely people involved in this that I want to keep track of (Aase, Boyce, composer Alex Cuervo, and whoever else contributed to the soundtrack), but I cannot recommend this to many people, and I certainly can’t ever imagine wanting to rewatch it.

5/10

Friday, 24 June 2022

Last Radio Call (2022)

It’s good to stumble across a very good film that you haven’t heard anyone else mention, especially when it is a horror film that seems to have been unnoticed by the majority of the horror community, but that also means that you have to be careful. Temper your positive reaction, your enthusiasm about something you want to champion, with some smelling salts that stop you from diving head-first into the standard waters of hyperbole that make up 90% of the internet.

This is me saying that I really enjoyed Last Radio Call, but I am aware that part of that enjoyment may stem from the surprise factor. It was something I hadn’t heard of before this week, and I decided to take a roll of the dice on it.

Written and directed by Isaac Rodriguez, developed and expanded from the idea he utilised in a 2-minute short a few years ago entitled The Cop Cam (I believe), this is presented as a blend of documentary fare and found footage, and it marks Rodriguez out as someone horror fans should definitely be keeping an eye on.

Sarah Froelich plays Sarah Serling, a woman who wants to find out exactly what happened on the last night her husband, a police officer named David Serling (Jason Scarbrough), was seen alive. He and his partner, Giles Ali (Ali Akhafaji) had entered an abandoned building to investigate, but only the partner came back out. Some kind of cover-up is suspected, and Sarah thinks that hiring a documentary crew to tell the tale will help put all the pieces together and encourage some people to be more honest.

With decent performances from everyone involved, the documentary format allowing for a way to avoid giving people headaches for most of the runtime, and a third act that really delivers the horror goods (even if it is very reminiscent of a certain modern “found footage” classic), Last Radio Call should easily please anyone seeking out some thrills and chills. It also helps that the relatively brief runtime, about 75 minutes, stops it from outstaying its welcome.

Ironically, because it is often refreshing to find a horror movie that isn’t trying to be the next big franchise, this is material that I would happily watch being reworked and expanded further. There are definite sequel possibilities here, and I would certainly be keen to see them. As long as Rodriguez keeps sight of the effective scares and atmosphere he gets so right here.

There are some mis-steps here and there, with the actual structure of the film a bit clumsy and forced as we move further away from the straightforward documentary style and more into the visceral scares, but I found that I didn’t mind some inconsistency while I was being kept on edge by the impressively nightmarish visuals that make up the grand finale. Whether you like or dislike this, it’s hard to deny that Rodriguez does well to make the most of all of his resources.

Feel free to adjust my rating down slightly if you think I am still factoring in the “pleasant surprise” aspect of this one.

8/10

Thursday, 23 June 2022

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (2022)

As many of you already know, Marvel have been setting up the multiverse for a little while now. And here we are, once again showing the possibilities and the dangers of the multiverse.

It all starts with an action sequence that shows Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) dying while trying to help a young woman, America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez). America can jump from from one multiverse realm to the next, but doesn’t know how her power works, and she eventually ends up in what seems to be our world, where she is saved from a giant monster by . . . Doctor Stephen Strange, assisted by Wong (Benedict Wong). Powerful forces seem intent on destroying America, which leads to Doctor Strange asking for the help of Wanda Maximoff aka The Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) . . . which actually ends up making everything worse. An ancient text could provide the key to fixing the whole situation, but that might need some more travelling between universes.

With the kaleidoscopic imagery throughout, elements of celestial horror, a nice line in macabre humour, and an inevitable Bruce Campbell cameo, Sam Raimi fans should be delighted by his return to directing superhero fare. The material, revolving around a quest for an ancient book that may save or damn mankind, feels like a natural fit, and there are a couple of genuinely glorious moments in the third act that show just how much Raimi was allowed to retain his Raimi essence. I can easily say that I enjoyed this more as a blockbuster Raimi movie than as a superhero movie.

The screenplay, written by Michael Waldron, does a good job of explaining the situations, characters, and rules without bringing everything to a grinding halt. Waldron has experience with multiverse-based entertainment, having been a writer on both Loki and Rick & Morty, and he excels when it comes to clarifying concepts that are then complemented by Raimi’s directorial decisions. He also does well while exploring an aspect that was kept out of a lot of the advertising on the lead up to the release of the film, something I won’t spoil here, and I was pleased to find that this was another Marvel movie that opted to question decisions made by main characters over the years, and to muse over who gets to decide what is ultimately good and bad.

Everyone does well in their main roles, with some people (mainly Cumberbatch, Olsen, and Rachel McAdams, once again playing the lovely, and beloved, Christine) clearly having some fun portraying multiple versions of their characters. And Cumberbatch can do the magic-creating finger/hand movements in his sleep by now, surely. Gomez is a great new addition to the cinematic roster of Marvel main characters we have had so far, playing her character with a lovely mix of sadness, strength, and sass, and Wong has been one of the best supporting players in any of the MCU movies since his first appearance (although there are a number of actors who would deserve to be in contention alongside him). Chiwetel Ejiofor also needs to be mentioned here, with his character, Baron Mordo, being used in a way that allows him to do more than just be another potential enemy of Strange.

I’ve saved my main criticisms until the end though, because this is far from perfect. Some scenes are just too overstuffed, some of the dialogue, already embraced by a large part of the fanbase, is too hokey and trying too hard to become instantly quotable, and it’s easy to say that this isn’t the best recent multiverse movie release (which would be Everything Everywhere All At Once). It’s not even the best recent Marvel multiverse movie release though, with Spider-Man: No Way Home proving to be a much more satisfying end product. The reason? Cameos.

Yeah, let’s end this review by talking about cameos. Not Bruce Campbell. He is welcome in every Sam Raimi movie. And Spider-Man: No Way Home showed just how enjoyable the right cameos could be. Unfortunately, Marvel haven’t realised what they got so right there, cameos that allow them to work some interesting story strands together from their recent history into something that felt much more satisfying, and like closure for many, and go back to making the mistake of using cameos as obvious set up for whatever path they want to lay ahead. One major character aside, someone seen in the recent animated “What If?” show, all of these cameos made me roll my eyes and wish that I didn’t recognise any of the faces onscreen. It’s irritating, feeling like a way to tease people or test reactions to potential future (re)casting. And it sadly makes up what feels like a decent portion of the middle of the movie.

None of the negatives are enough to stop this from being a good time. There’s enough money and talent here that it would seem almost impossible to make something truly awful. But, as the film itself shows us, there are infinite possibilities.

7/10

Wednesday, 22 June 2022

Prime Time: The Addams Family 2 (2021)

As much as everyone seemed ready to dismiss, and even hate, the recent animated The Addams Family movie, I was still happy to give it my time. I enjoy macabre humour, even (especially?) in animated form. I was happy enough with the voice cast. And I am a fan of the main characters. It ended up being absolutely fine, but not something I would revisit ahead of some of the live-action adventures. I had forgotten that a sequel was made though, leading to a pleasant surprise when I saw that it was already available online.

The plot is enjoyably simple, and enjoyably all about the bond of family in a way that both embraces and pushes aside the traditional “blood is thicker than water” idea. Having done her usual great work at a science show, “improving” Uncle Fester (Nick Kroll) with some serum created from an octopus, Wednesday Addams (Chloe Grace Moretz) gets herself noticed by the successful scientist named Cyrus Strange (Bill Hader). Not only has he noticed her, he claims that she is actually HIS daughter, having been switched around in the hospital. Gomez (Oscar Isaac) and Morticia (Charlize Theron) strongly deny this, of course, but things don’t look good, and even an impromptu family holiday may not help out things right.

Unsurprisingly not quite as good as the first movie, this is a sequel that hits a lot of expected points. They have to create a crisis for the central characters, removing them from the comfort of their home environment helps, and it all feels a bit more contrived, and a bit less necessary than the previous film, which was hardly all that necessary anyway.

What is a surprise is the fact that it took about four directors and four writers to get this crafted into a feature. That is eight people in total. EIGHT. To deliver something that, while far from offensively bad, is a very obvious and safe bit of work.

It’s a good job that the voice cast are still a big plus, with Theron and Isaac both arguably as good in the lead roles as anyone could be. Helped by the obvious, but enjoyable, lines of dialogue that allow them to deride the normal world around them while loving one another, and their family, with an amusingly unrestrained approach, both feel completely in line with how we have known the characters over the years. Moretz also does very well in the role of Wednesday, dour and dangerous, especially to her brother, Pugsley (voiced this time by Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton, and no, I also have no idea why he decided to insert an incomplete Spice Girls song title into his name). Nick Kroll is amusing enough as Uncle Fester, Bette Midler is wonderful in her cameo role (playing Granny), and director Conrad Vernon has fun portraying Lurch. Hader is always welcome in any movie, and is especially fun when it comes to voice work, so his character is another plus, and it helps that one of his assistants is voiced by the instantly recognisable Wallace Shawn.

The animation is fine, there’s at least one ridiculous use of a familiar pop song, and Wednesday Addams is pushed into a teen beauty pageant at one point, for reasons vital to the plot (of course). This is a step down from the previous film, but it’s still not bad, although it is worth noting that any entertainment that mixes kid-friendly material with some dark humour is usually okay by me.

6/10