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The Lion King (2019)

Plot: After the murder of his father, young lion cub Simba (Donald Glover) runs away from the pride to a life of isolation. But years of rule by his evil uncle Scar (Chiwetel Ejiofor) leaves their lands in ruin, and he has to come back and claim the throne.

Review: When Disney announced a ‘live action’ remake of the Lion King, there was a lot of concern about how it would work. And with all CGI animals and (mostly) different voices, the magic is lost.

Part of the success of the cartoon exactly 25 years before was that the animals were allowed anthropomorphic features; they were given human characteristics in their animal faces, and it worked. Now using CGI, the animators are caught between a rock and a hard place; do that to these creatures, and you’re looking at the stuff of nightmares. So instead we get option B, to present the creatures as they look, and the end result is flat. Bereft of that emotion, it’s harder to relate to them and their characters, even without everybody changing voices.

But it’s more than just the character animation; the whole film feels flat. It doesn’t do anything new or interesting with the story; it adds some new minor characters which don’t really add anything, but any changes it makes from the original you feel are forced upon it. There are certain moments which don’t work with the style, so changes are only made because they have to be. Otherwise it’s a straight retelling, and that’s disappointing.

With Disney’s insistence of remaking its animated films, you would think a degree of common sense would be used; these animals needed to be more Rocket Racoon than the flat, listless models they are. Hopefully they’ll learn their lesson by the time they get around to Robin Hood, but the box office suggests otherwise.

#Film #Film Review #Film Reviews #Movies #Movie Reviews #The Lion King #Disney #Jon Favreau #Chiwetel Ejiofor #John Oliver #James Earl Jones #John Kani #Alfre Woodard #Florence Kasumba #Seth Rogen #Billy Eichner #Donald Glover #Beyonce

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From Beyond (1986)

Plot: Two scientists build a machine that allows people to see other dimensions; but in doing so, they discover horrible creatures lurking beyond perceptible reality. And when it’s discovered, people want the machine for their own ends.

Review: Made by the team behind, and cast of, Re-Animator, From Beyond was set to be the second in a series of Lovecraft adaptations, all adapted and acted by the same group of people.

To say that idea was dead in the water after this one was an understatement; all it left was a mutilated corpse of the idea. When you compare the two it’s incredible; Re-Animator probably had a smaller budget, yet it makes more out of what it has - a lot more. From Beyond has more special effects created by camera effects than practical ones, and it shows; it never feels as real, and its horrors never feel as tangible. But even without the comparisons, the film struggles to stand on its own merits.

Lead Jeffrey Combs fails to stand out at all; he is so bland, he might as well be wallpaper. Barbara Crampton doesn’t stand out at all, apart from when she’s forced into S&M gear for the most cackhanded of reasons. Ted Sorel, ostensibly the villain of the piece, chews scenery like no other, and it’s remarkable that he becomes more believable once some of him is hidden behind creature make-up. And Ken Foree feels like a non-entity as Crampton’s assistant, only there to make up the numbers and sell the idea of the creatures being deadly.

It never lives up to it’s billing, either as a Lovecraft adaptation or a project from the team behind Re-Animator, disappointing fans of either or both. And having bungled the shot at redemption that was a Re-Animator sequel, perhaps it’s for the best that series didn’t come to fruition.

#Film #Film Review #Film Reviews #Movies #Movie Reviews #From Beyond #Stuart Gordon #Jeffrey Combs #Barbara Crampton #Ted Sorel #Ken Foree

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The Purge: Anarchy (2014)

Plot: Once a year, for one night, all crime is legal. Sergeant (Frank Grillo) is out on the streets for an unknown reason, when he comes across some people in need of help. Unable to turn away, he ends up in the thick of the action.

Review: The original Purge film was a great idea hamstrung by lack of budget; confining events to one house always left a sense of promise unfulfilled. The follow-up has a bigger budget, and puts us in the centre of the action.

This time we’re following Frank Grillo, as his character - identified only by his military rank - stalks the streets while death and destruction happens all around him. However when he sees people in help, he can’t just walk away, and so he ends up picking up mother and daughter Eva (Carmen Ejogo) and Cali Sanchez (Zoë Soul), and couple Shane (Zach Gilford) and Liz (Kiele Sanchez). Together, but following his instructions, they attempt to survive the night.

Expanding the world and giving a sense of perspective really helps the film, while giving it a social context helps make it feel part of a real world. The rich kidnap or buy-off people to ‘hunt’, while being closeted away themselves; the underground movement fighting back; and the normal people caught in the middle, who can either seek revenge for their petty ends, or try to avoid the crazies who might want to hurt, rape, or kill them. So while the story and action aren’t brilliant, this already feels more like the Purge that we needed to see, rather than the enclosed world of the first film.

Ultimately The Purge: Anarchy was unlikely to trouble the award ceremonies, but it is a key component of an on-screen universe which could have died a painful death had it not delivered.

#Film #Film Review #Film Reviews #Movies #Movie Reviews #The Purge #The Purge: Anarchy #James DeMonaco #Frank Grillo #Carmen Ejogo #Zoë Soul #Zach Gilford #Kiele Sanchez

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The Purge (2013)

Plot: The Purge is an annual event where crime is legal across the U.S. for 12 hours. James (Ethan Hawke) and Mary (Lena Headey) lock their doors, activate their heavy duty security system, and settle in for the night with their kids. But when their son lets in a man on the run, their safehouse becomes their prison.

Review: The Purge is a interesting idea, which posits one central question; if all crime was legal for one night a year, what would you do?

In the case of James (Hawke), it’s go into business selling high security systems, then barricade yourself and your family behind one and let everybody else get on with it. However his young son, Charlie (Max Burkholder), lets in somebody who is on the run, while daughter Zoey (Adelaide Kane) has her boyfriend in her room, and he’s intent on getting even with Dad. Against this backdrop, a seemingly charming man comes to the door and asks for the man given shelter to be given over to them - it turns out they are a bunch of weird cultists, intent of murder.

The Idea of the Purge is interesting, but without much budget to work with and events being confined to one house, it’s not one we really get much chance to explore. Hawke always seems to pick projects with an interesting premise - see Predestination, or Gattaca - but here he is too confined to make a difference, doomed to wonder hallways in the dark while people try to kill him. Headey, who we know to be more than capable of dishing out dark and menacing, becomes relegated to almost a background character until the end, when her character caves rather than fights. And we simply can’t get invested enough in anyone else.

You leave with the sense that there is a good movie to be made here, but this isn’t it. However it was a surprise success, which of course, meant sequels.

#Film #Film Review #Film Reviews #Movies #Movie Reviews #The Purge #James DeMonaco #Ethan Hawke #Lena Headey #Adelaide Kane #Max Burkholder #Edwin Hodge #Rhys Wakefield #Tony Oller

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XX (2017)

Plot: Four horror shorts from female directors, with a female-centric approach. “The Box” sees a family waste away through not eating; “The Birthday Party” sees a woman attempt to hide her husbands body so her daughters birthday isn’t ruined; “Don’t Fall” sees four campers fall victim of a werewolf curse; and “Her Only Living Son” sees a mother fight for custody of her anti-Christ son with the father, the actual devil.

Review: XX is a project where female directors set out to prove they can do just as well, if not better, than their male counterparts. And they succeed - they are just a unoriginal, dull, and boring as their male counterparts.

There are four segments, linked via an unconnected yet creepy stop-motion. The first, The Box, sees a woman taking the subway home with her two children. One looks inside a box carried by a stranger, and stops eating. He then shares it with his elder sister and father who both stop eating, wasting away to nothing. Even for a short it’s too slight to be properly horrific. Then there is The Birthday Party - more of a black comedy than anything, fronted by the always good Melanie Lynskey, but again, nothing really new or horrifying.

Don’t Fall is just four stoners - two male, two female - on a camping trip, when one of the women becomes a werewolf. The results are predictable, and the short listless. And finally Her Only Living Son, which seems to be inspired by Rosemary’s Baby and the hundred-and-one copies. When her teenage son starts turning into a literal demon, she faces a fight to keep him on the straight and narrow. The linking vignettes are literally the creepiest thing here, but with no plot or point to them, they become just more background noise.

If the point is to promote female directors, you first have to make sure you enlist some worth promoting. There is very little here to redeem this collection in any way, and there are probably many more female led horror projects worth of support.

#Film #Film Review #Film Reviews #Movies #Movie Reviews #XX #Roxanne Benjamin #Karyn Kusama #St Vincent #Annie Clark #Jovanka Vuckovic #Natalie Brown #Jonathan Watton #Melanie Lynskey

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The Little Hours (2017)

Plot: Nuns Alessandra (Alison Brie), Ginerva (Kate Micucci), and Fernanda (Aubrey Plaza) are emotionally unstable and generally horrible to be around. Then Massetto (Dave Franco) arrives, pretending to be a deaf and mute handyman to escape the law, and things only get stranger.

Review: Adapted from / loosely spoofing both the book The Decameron, and the film of the same name from the early 1970′s, The Little Hours is one of those films not many people might have bothered with were it not for Netflix.

Unfortunately while it may offer the chance to pump thousands of hours of entertainment into you home for a relatively small price each month, that does mean that its libraries are filled with the likes of this. It’s got a relatively big name cast - Brie, Micucci, Plaza, and Franco are joined by John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon, and a number of other semi-famous faces which have been funny in other things, but fall flat here. Part of it may be that the dialogue is mostly improvised, with actors only aware of how the scene has to pan out - a technique which can be hit and miss at the best of times.

So we get one of America’s most annoying actors, Dave Franco (still not the most annoying Franco, however), who is possibly only in this because he’s married to Brie (poor her). He’s on the run after sleeping with the local Lords wife, when Reilly’s priest takes pity on him and stashes him away as the convent handyman. Told that he is deaf and mute, the Nuns react differently to him than they do other people - until something is obviously wrong. It’s a bit of a mess, without a clear direction, and an obvious belief that if something strange is happening then it must be funny.

It’s a disappointment, especially to those who have seen Brie’s engaging role in GLOW, or Plaza’s darkly-comic turns in half a dozen films. If only somebody had put the time and effort into a decent script, it might not have been a waste of time.

#Film #Film Reviews #Film Review #Movies #Movie Reviews #The Little Hours #Jeff Baena #Alison Brie #Kate Micucci #Aubrey Plaza #Dave Franco #John C. Reilly #Molly Shannon #Fred Armisen #Jemima Kirke #Nick Offerman #Lauren Weedman #Paul Reiser

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Toy Story 4 (2019)

Plot: The toys new owner, Bonnie, makes a new friend at school - literally - when she uses some odds and ends to make Forky (Tony Hale). With Bonnie starting to leave him behind, Woody (Tom Hanks) tries to pass along everything he knows, before a chance meeting leaves him questioning his place in the world.

Review: Toy Story's one and two are definitely kids films, while three felt as much for grown-ups as it did children; four gives up the pretense all together, and seems aimed mostly at those who grew up watching the original.

It’s still a got a Universal rating, and will still pull in tons of merchandising money, but they film itself has moments which are surely meant for the slightly older crowd to catch. There are some truly WTF moments of humour, and the premise of Woody being left by the wayside in favour of others will strike a chord with some people. However the film seems to be confused as to it’s overall aim. While one and three had a point to what they wanted to accomplish, and two seemed like a pasted together cash cow, four doesn’t have a clear objective with anybody but Woody.

His relationship with Buzz, the core of the first two films, gets pushed even more to the back-burner, this time in favour of exploring his relationship with Bo Peep - a figurine who was given away by Andy’s parents years ago, but who comes back into his life by way of a road trip and a convenient antiques shop. This is where the villain of the piece comes in - a doll with a broken voice box who just wants to be loved by a kid. You sense there is some kind of point to bringing a spork to life, the doll that wants Woody’s voice box, and giving Woody some big decisions to make - but it’s not really executed well.

So there are still some good moments, still some laughs, and it doesn’t feel as soulless as the second one, but it doesn’t hit the heights that the series is capable of. However it’s hard to see them continuing the series after an ending such as this.

#Film #Film Review #Film Reviews #Movies #Movie Reviews #Toy Story 4 #Josh Cooley #Tom Hanks #Tim Allen #Annie Potts #Tony Hale #Keegan-Michael Key #Madeleine McGraw #Christina Hendricks #Jordan Peele #Keanu Reeves #Ally Maki #Jay Hernandez #Lori Alan #Joan Cusack #Bonnie Hunt #Wallace Shawn #John Ratzenberger #Blake Clark #Carl Weathers #Don Rickles

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Hush (2016)

Plot: Maddie (Kate Siegel) is a deaf author living in a remote cabin. But when a masked man turns up and starts terrorising her, she faces a fight for her life.

Review: It would be fair to say that a deaf girl facing a home invasion by an unknown assailant might be an interesting (and inclusive) idea for a horror movie. However Hush is virtual non-entity of a film.

It’s a very small cast. In addition to our heroine, we have her masked tormentor (John Gallagher Jr), boyfriend John (Michael Trucco), and her next door neighbour. But the fact is that the last two are very slight roles whose only purpose is to establish our psychopath as such, and build him as a physical threat. It’s actually quite a straightforward movie that way; everybody has a purpose and a role, but there’s actually no attempt to disguise any of it. The only question remaining is who is going to be the sole survivor - Maddie or the masked man?

What that does mean is a drawn out game of cat and mouse with the kind of decisions from both you only ever get is these kind of Hollywood movies. There is no real suspense to the film, and no real reason to care; clocking in at just an hour and twenty, it fails to do much of anything in terms of building up characters. It really is just a fight to the finish between some random guy and the protagonist, who hasn’t been developed enough for people to care about.

Ultimately it’s another thriller that doesn’t seem to care - or even know - that you have to be given reason to care that the horrible things are happening to somebody beyond the fact that they are horrible.

#Film #Film Review #Film Reviews #Movies #Movie Reviews #Hush #Mike Flanagan #Kate Siegel #John Gallagher Jr. #Michael Trucco #Samantha Sloyan #Emma Graves

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Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Plot: Following the events of Endgame and the death of his mentor, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr), Peter Parker (Tom Holland) decides to use a class trip to Europe to relax, unwind, and romance MJ (Zendaya). However his summer holiday soon gets hijacked by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and another chance to save the world.

Review: In the official end to the ‘Infinity Saga’, Spider-Man returns in the his fifth MCU outing, the first sequel in the third Spider-Man series since the millennium.

To be fair, that is nearly twenty years at this point. But if we’re talking fair, Far From Home should not have received all the hype it seems to have been getting. It has been billed as the best Spider-Man movie so far, but that’s not a very high bar to clear when everything is taken into account. And Far From Home is going to be very polarizing, for two key reasons; the mid-credits scene and the post-credits scene. But first things first; our hero heads off for his summer vacation after a few brief scenes which give us a look at how life is happening after the multiple Snaps - now horribly called ‘the blip’. Using a word such as ‘blip’ seems to lack respect for a catastrophe that saw half of all life in the universe disappear for five years.

So Peter has designs on MJ (who didn’t see that coming), but there is a romantic rival, while Fury decides that Spider-Man is the best man to help Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) take down the Elementals. Except - spoiler alert for anybody who has no clue who Mysterio is - they’re a fake villain that the real villain, Mysterio, has created to make himself look good. There are allegories here for fake news and public perception but the film lacks the depth to fully explore them, until the two credits scenes which change the whole perspective of the movie and suddenly make those themes very relevant.

The first half of the movie is better, with the finale seeming to lack a clear focus and idea of how to wrap up the story, other than alluding to Parker as the second coming of Stark. And then the credits scenes, which need to have a tangible follow up and soon, otherwise it will seem Marvel have started doing shocking for the sake of shocking.

#Film #Film Review #Film Reviews #Movies #Movie Reviews #Spider-Man: Far From Home #Spoilers #Jon Watts #Tom Holland #Zendaya #Jake Gyllenhaal #Jon Favreau #Samuel L. Jackson #Marisa Tomei #Jacob Batalon #Tony Revolori #Angourie Rice #Remy Hii #Martin Starr #J. B. Smoove #Cobie Smulders

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Toy Story 3 (2010)

Plot: Andy is off to college, and the toys are worried about what’s going to happen to them. Unlikely to go with him, they know it’s either the attic or the trash - until they end up at the Sunnyside daycare centre.

Review: Having only had a four year gap between the original film and the sequel, it’s an incredible eleven years between two and three in the Toy Story franchise. And it’s time that has not gone to waste.

It’s not just the improvement in computer animation, or any of the other technological advancements which make this a vast improvement on the previous sequel. Simply put, then is a reason for a Toy Story 3 beyond simply needing a sequel; there is a point to the plot, and after a film where not a lot actually happened, there is actual character development here. What makes the film so interesting is the premise; Andy’s toys are still in a chest in his room and haven’t been played with for years, and now he’s off to college. While he puts them ready to be put up in the attic, his mom mistakes them for trash, and the offended toys make a break for it and end up in a box for a local day care facility.

It’s only once there that they find out it’s run by a nasty peace of fur called Lotso, a bear who was lost (and replaced) by his owner, and now feels rejected by kids in general. The film as a whole has a theme of loss and moving on, of not being able to go back but carrying on, which will resonate with adults as much as the kids will enjoy the story itself. Lots of people who grew up with the original will now find themselves as adults, and this film is made as much for them as the new generation of kids who went to see it.

While there are a lot of children's films which are loud, senseless nonsense, Toy Story’s one and three have cut through that to deliver something more. If the people behind the films are left to their own devices, rather than needing to churn them out for the money, it’s all for the betterment of the films.

#Film #Film Review #Film Reviews #Movies #Movie Reviews #Toy Story 3 #Lee Unkrich #Tom Hanks #Tim Allen #Joan Cusack #Ned Beatty #Don Rickles #Michael Keaton #Wallace Shawn #John Ratzenberger #Estelle Harris #John Morris #Jody Benson #Emily Hahn #Laurie Metcalf

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Toy Story 2 (1999)

Plot: Woody (Tom Hanks) is stolen by a toy collector with a view to selling him to a foreign museum; Buzz (Tim Allen) and the rest of the toys set out to rescue him before Andy gets back from camp.

Review: Just four years after the original Toy Story comes its first sequel, where the roles are reversed - this time it’s Buzz who has to come to the aid of Woody after he is lost.

Yet it feels more like everybody is spinning their wheels waiting in vain for inspiration to strike, and producing this when it doesn't. While there felt a grander point to the first film (and later the third too), Toy Story 2 just kind of plods along as a movie. Not especially good, but nothing bad - the filler in between the good tracks you really want to listen to. It introduces new supporting characters in Jessie (Joan Cusack) and Woody’s horse Bullseye, but it doesn’t do anything incredibly memorable with them.

Ultimately it’s all rather predictable, as we can see all along what the end result will be. It’s even telegraphed that Kelsey Grammer’s ‘Stinky Pete the Prospector’ will be the villain of the piece, beyond just the fact that Grammer voices him. The whole film just feels a little on the dull side, sandwiched between the much better 1 and 3. Even the new voice cast are uninspired; Cusack is fine as Jessie, but Wayne Knight is an uninteresting choice as the toy collector, Al. Thankfully the original cast all return to carry on their characters.

It’s not lazy by any stretch - the animation is as good, if not better than anything of it’s time, and you can’t say they have made a poor film. But when stacked up against the others, it inevitably seems the poorer.

#Film #Film Review #Film Reviews #Movies #Movie Reviews #Toy Story 2 #John Lasseter #Tim Allen #Tom Hanks #Joan Cusack #Kelsey Grammer #Don Rickles #Jim Varney #Wallace Shawn #John Ratzenberger #Annie Potts #Wayne Knight #Laurie Metcalf #Jodi Benson

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Avengers: Endgame (Extended Edition) (2019)

Plot: In the wake of Thanos’ victory, the Avengers struggle to move on and accept their friends are gone. But then they finally get a chance to put things right.

Review: When Infinty War came out, it blew people away, and I reviewed it twice; once spoiler-free, then again later with a huge amount of spoilers. Endgame didn’t get that treatment because it was sadly underwhelming.

However its recent re-release, in an effort to top Avatar for the highest grossing movie ever, means we get an opportunity for a spoiler review after all. And while the production values and certain moments mean it isn’t a complete waste of time, it’s the plot and character that let the film down. For a start, we get a five year time jump, during which there are a number of massive character moments missed; Banner (Mark Ruffalo) combines himself with the Hulk to create one entity, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) sinks into depression, piles on weight and virtually abdicates as King of Asgard, and more. Yet thanks to a newly-resized Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), The Avengers get a chance to set things right, and set out to do it - sort-of.

Their idea of ‘sorting it out’ is to bring everybody back who was snapped away - five years later. That doesn’t really fix things, and in many cases might make it worse, as people have continued to live their lives for five years. And they do it for a self-serving reason - Tony doesn’t want to lose his daughter. But what about the people who weren’t snapped, but died as a result? The passengers in a plane that lost its pilots, for example? There are no answers on screen, and if you have to explain it after the fact then you didn’t do a good enough job communicating your ideas. The Avengers have the power to use the Infinity stones to go back before the Snap, ambush Thanos on Xandar when he tries to sack it, and prevent the snap from ever happening - but they don’t.

But that’s just one glaring issue in a film full of them. It’s great to see Captain America (Chris Evans) wield Mjolnir, but the way he abandons the team to travel back and return to Peggy in the past is completely out of character. They argue at times about who is to wield their gauntlet, but Rocket (Bradley Cooper) should have a solution - if the Guardians can share the power of one Infinity stone between them, why can’t the Avengers share them all? Their efforts to make time travel ‘more realistic’ are annoying - just do it the Hollywood way and stop trying to be to clever. And the all-female Avengers line-up during the final battle is incongruous, because in a battle that big, for those few women to be all in the same place at the same time is contrived. And they’re trying to get the new gauntlet to Wasp at her van to send it back in time, yet she comes back for the line-up. If she can make it back no problem, just give her the gauntlet!.

Ultimately the movie tries to do too much in too little time, missing too much - Peter Quill’s return to Earth just one massive moment glossed over, while Captain Marvel is only used as a deus ex machina. It leaves plot holes, such as Nebula leaving with enough particles for one round trip, only to bring herself and Thanos’ ship back separately. The whole MCU has been building towards Tony’s heroic sacrifice, but in the end it feels like there are other options. And in trying to be too clever and juggle too many pieces, rather than give us something a bit more conventional and easier to plot out, the Russo brothers prove out of their depth. OK on it’s own, but as a finale to a twenty-plus series of movies, it’s underwhelming.

#Film #Film Review #Movies #Movie Reviews #Avengers: Endgame #Spoilers #Anthony Russo #Joe Russo #Robert Downey Jr #Chris Evans #Mark Ruffalo #Chris Hemsworth #Scarlett Johansson #Jeremy Renner #Don Cheadle #Paul Rudd #Bradley Cooper #Josh Brolin #Benedict Cumberbatch #Chadwick Boseman #Brie Larson #Tom Holland #Karen Gillan #Zoe Saldana #Evangeline Lilly #Tessa Thompson #Rene Russo #Elizabeth Olsen #Anthony Mackie #Sebastian Stan

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Little Evil (2017)

Plot: Gary (Adam Scott) just married the love of his life, Samantha (Evangeline Lilly). However when he is forced into close quarters with her son, he discovers Lucas (Owen Atlas) may just be the Antichrist.

Review: Part Damian from The Omen, part Angus Young from AC/DC, little Lucas (Atlas) and his death glares are the stars of this black comedy from Netflix.

Things pick up not long after Gary (Scott) and Samantha (Lilly) tie the knot. He hasn’t had much chance to bond with Lucas before the big day, and with the day itself disrupted by a freak twister, he has other things on his mind afterwards. But that twister is only the first weird occurrence surrounding the child, and Gary soon comes to the conclusion that Lucas is the Antichrist, and he’s the only one who can stop him. However there are other interested parties who want to shape the lads future, and not always in a positive way.

The cast are quite good, but Atlas steals most of the scenes he’s in, with Scott a hapless patsy and Lilly a sweet, loving mother. There is a strong supporting cast too, with Clancy Brown as a preacher, Tyler Labine as their wedding cameraman, and Sally Field taking an interest as social services. The best parts aside from Lucas demented turn come in the shape of Gary’s support group; Al (Bridget Everett), Larry (Donald Faison), Victor (Kyle Bornheimer) and Wayne (Chris D’Elia) provide some of the funniest moments - D’Elia’s impotent anger at his stepsons antics during their first support group meeting is worth watching for just by itself. 

The film itself is a little formulaic, and a bit cliche. You won’t be surprised by the plot, or its resolution, as it doesn’t really present anything new. But what it does, it does well, for the most part.

#Film #Film Review #Film Reviews #Movies #Movie Reviews #Little Evil #Netflix #Eli Craig #Evangeline Lilly #Adam Scott #Owen Atlas #Clancy Brown #Sally Field #Tyler Labine #Bridget Everett #Donald Faison #Kyle Bornheimer #Chris D'Elia #Chip Zien #Brad Williams

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Brightburn (2019)

Plot: An alien spaceship crash lands by an American farmhouse, and the husband and wife who live there find a baby inside. Unable to have children of their own, they raise him, until he hits puberty and begins to develop superpowers.

Review: What If? has been a fertile ground for comic book stories down the years. What if Superman had landed in Russia. What if Peter Parker and Mary-Jane Watson had a daughter?

Brightburn is essentially “What if Superman were evil?”. The idea of a teenage boy with all the same powers, but bent on conquering Earth rather than defending it? It’s an interesting idea, and one that is explored here. However Brightburn isn’t an easy movie to watch. Although it relies on jump scares once or twice, overall it revels in a deeply sinister feeling which permeates throughout, even before Brandon (Jackson A. Dunn) discovers his heritage and starts on his path of death and destruction. But by presenting us with his polar opposite, the writers, director, and cast show a deeper understanding of Superman than Zack Snyder ever did.

Dunn is the best thing about this movie; not only does he convey superbly the level of vitriol and malevolence perfect for the character, he plays the psychopath brilliantly, no more so than when he sits down with the school psychiatrist. His parents are played by Elizabeth Banks and David Denman, however Mom is a bit cliche, while Dad is the better role. It shares a lot in common with A Quiet Place, in that the story and ideas are interesting, but there are missteps along the way which prevent it from achieving more; if you’re up against a super-powered being, it might be a good idea to stab them in one fluid motion, not in an over-exaggerated, easy-to-stop wind-up style.

Brightburn has received a mixed reaction in a lot of quarters, but it’s hard to see why. The idea is interesting, the film itself good for the budget. It’s hard to know what to think coming out, but once you process what you’ve seen it’s actually quite good.

#Film #Film Review #Film Reviews #Movies #Movie Reviews #Brightburn #David Yarovesky #Jackson A Dunn #Elizabeth Banks #David Denman #Jennifer Holland #Matt Jones #Meredith Hagner #Gregory Alan Williams #Steve Agee #Michael Rooker

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The Funhouse Massacre (2015)

Plot: Six psychopaths escape from a forgotten mental institution and move into the local funfair, relaunching it and murdering the visitors.

Review: B-movies, Grindhouse, cult movies; whatever you call them, they aren’t getting any better.

Funhouse Massacre is meant to be more of a horror-comedy, but doesn’t really do anything to spoof, send up, or mock the movies it seems to be aiming at, instead falling into many of the same traps. The most egregious of these is a sin of many modern horror movies; killing off all of its main cast, while leaving the villains (or some of them) alive. While it’s sequel bait, it’s very frustrating for the viewer; what is the point of getting behind the protagonists journey when it’s likely to end in a swift death?

It doesn’t help that our villains seem to be knock-offs of other characters, some maybe even real life killers. It’s hard to even care who Hardly Quinn (above), her mute Bane-alike killer friend, or any of the others are - they’re just there to help up the body count. And we even get a late plot twist with the local sheriff being related to a couple of them, but it doesn’t work as it’s shoe-horned in, and it doesn’t work as a joke because it doesn’t say anything funny (or even interesting) about things like that happening in horror movie third acts.

It’s not funny, it has nothing new or interesting to say, and it falls into every trap in the modern horror movie playbook while failing to even parody them. A complete and utter waste of time.

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This Is The End (2013)

Plot: Seth Rogen (Seth Rogen) and Jay Baruchel (Jay Baruchel) go to a massive party at the home of James Franco (James Franco). However just as the party is getting into top gear, the rapture happens.

Review: There have been a number of comedies come through Hollywood studios down the years which have seen a number of high-profile names make films so self-indulgent that they are only funny to them and their inner circle.

This Is The End probably falls just the right side of the line on that score. While it was obviously made becasue Rogen, director Evan Goldberg, and his friends Baruchel, Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and Danny McBride find it funny, it does actually succeed in being funny in its own right. It’s not one of the all-time great comedies, but it makes people laugh. The level of stupidity walks a fine line between irritating and humorous, but again, they manage to find just the right spot to not annoy the viewer.

It has to be said that the main cast are a mixed bunch. McBride and Robinson are funny throughout, but others less so. Rogen manages to just be Seth Rogen again, while it feels Baruchel may have bought some real-life baggage on set with him. Hill manages a few funny lines, before improving after he drops his over the top nice guy act, while Franco, as always, remains creepy. It’s the cameos that make the film. Emma Watson threatening them with an axe and stealing their survival supplies; Michael Cera being as un-Cera as possible doing drugs and spanking Rihanna; and Channing Tatum as - well, that would spoil the joke.

If they had put a little more effort into pleasing the audience rather than themselves, they could have made a really good comedy. As it is, This Is The End is a humorous way to pass a couple of hours, but it’s not going to wow or amaze anybody.

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X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019)

Plot: When the X-Men are dispatched into space to help with a space shuttle incident, Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) is possessed by a powerful entity. When she can no longer control her powers and becomes a deadly threat, the X-Men are torn between killing her and saving her, while an alien presence tries to use her for their own ends.

Review: There has been a lot of quite heavy-handed criticism of Dark Phoenix, the last in the current series of X-Men movies. But having watched it, it’s not quite that bad.

It’s still bad of course; very bad. But it’s not historically (or hysterically) bad. It’s not exactly Sharknado bad, or League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen bad. It’s drab, boring, and poor, but it’s not quite Hellboy reboot bad. At least then it would provide a lot of material. But maybe the reviews have been unkind because of other factors; maybe because this is the last X-Men film under the Fox banner, before their inevitable rebooting under the MCU umbrella. Maybe people are trying to scorch the Earth so that the MCU version will be hailed like a prodigal son.

Of course there are criticisms of it. The timeline takes another hammering as McAvoy and Fassbender are once again Xavier and Magneto, but as the film is set in 1992, we’re now just eight years before they’re meant to be Stewart and McKellan. They look awfully good for people in their fifties (at least). Turner isn’t as wooden as you might expect her to be, but still isn’t very engaging or sympathetic. And with so many X-Men on board, some big names are reduced to bit-parts (Storm), before an action sequence on a train that looks like it was inspired by the same storyboards as Deadpool 2′s mutant transport.

So it’s bad, but it’s not memorably bad; it’s dull and listless, but it’s not career ending. And when you hit the box-ticking line about making the name X-Women instead, it makes you glad Kevin Feige is going to get his hands on them - even without Hugh Jackman.

#Film #Film Review #Film Reviews #Movies #Movie Reviews #X-Men: Dark Phoenix #X-Men #Dark Phoenix #Simon Kinberg #James McAvoy #Michael Fassbender #Jennifer Lawrence #Nicholas Hoult #Sophie Turner #Tye Sheridan #Alexandra Shipp #Evan Peters #Kodi Smit-Mcphee #Jessica Chastain