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Juror #2 (2024)
Juror #2
I heard about this film a short time before it was released, being directed by Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, Changeling, Richard Jewell) and having an all-star were big reasons I wanted to see it, but I have enjoyed a few courtroom movies in the past as well. Basically, journalist and recovering alcoholic Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) is called up for jury duty on a case concerning the death of Kendall Carter (Francesca Eastwood, Clint's daughter). A year ago, there was a fight between Kendall and her boyfriend, James Sythe (Gabriel Basso), at the bar Rowdy's Hideaway; she was later found dead under a bridge and Sythe was charged with her murder. Hoping to attract voters to become district attorney, with a conviction in this high-profile domestic violence, Faith Killebrew (Toni Collette) takes on the role of case prosecutor. Witnesses confirm Sythe was drunk and disorderly on the night in question and that he followed Kendall after she stormed off. Additionally, the medical examiner (Kurt Yue) testifies that Kendall's injuries could have been caused by a blunt instrument, and an elderly eyewitness (Tom Thon) claims he saw Sythe on the bridge where Kendall's body was found. Justin becomes convinced he may have killed Kendall, because he recalls being at the bar on the night of her death, he nearly relapsed into alcoholism, but he left and hit something with his car. Justin assumed he had hit a deer but could not find it and drove home. Horrified that an innocent man might be convicted, Justin goes to his Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor, Larry Lasker (Kiefer Sutherland), who is a defence attorney, for advice. Larry tells Justin that due to his previous offences of drunk driving, it will not be believed he was sober on the night, and he would be sent to prison. Larry adds that the jury must reach a verdict and that Killebrew will try the case as many times as necessary, so holding out and forcing a mistrial will not save the defendant. Sythe's defence lawyer, Eric Resnick (Chris Messina), is overworked and makes several errors, failing to offer another medical opinion and not raising questions about poor visibility on the night. Following the conclusions of the defence and the prosecution, the twelve jurors are tasked with deciding. Along with Justin, the jury consists of foreperson Denice Aldworth (Leslie Bibb), retired homicide detective Harold (J. K. Simmons), and aggrieved black juror Marcus (Cedric Yarbrough). The other jurors include. Yolanda (Adrienne C. Moore), Keiko (Chikako Fukuyama), Irene (Zele Avradopoulos) and Brody (Drew Scheid). As their discussion begins, most jurors favour a conviction, but resolves to argue for a not-guilty verdict. Harold, at Justin's suggestion, examines the case closely, specifically the eyewitness testimony at the bridge. Another juror confirms there would have been low visibility and a medical student points out that Kendall's injuries suggest that Kendall could have been killed in a hit-and-run accident. The jurors start to agree with this theory, causing Justin to grow worried that he may be identified as the killer. Harold goes against the orders of the court, collecting data on cars that had bodywork following Kendall's death, and his search narrowed it down to fifteen vehicles, including Justin's. When presented with this, Justin strategically has Harold's research revealed to the court and he is removed from the jury. With the jury still deliberating, Killebrew grows conflicted about the case, realising the elderly eyewitness may have falsely identified Sythe at trial. She also visits Sythe in prison who repeats the same testimony he has given numerous times that he and Kendall did fight, and he did not follow her, but he did not kill her. But rather than withdrawing the charge, she takes the vehicle repair records and visits all suspected vehicle owners. Justin's vehicle is on the list, but it is registered in his heavily pregnant wife's name Ally (Zoey Deutch). Killebrew visits Ally who tells her Justin's cover story that he hit a deer. Later, Ally confronts Justin, who confesses he went to the bar that night, he bought a drink but swears he did not consume it, and he insists he hit a deer on another road. She is sceptical, but being pregnant and having previously miscarried, she stays quiet to protect her family. The jury has still not reached a verdict, so it is suggested they visit the scene of the crime at the bar and the bridge where Kendall's body was found. Marcus, the only juror who refuses to change his guilty verdict, has suspicions about why Justin cannot reach a definite verdict. Finally, the jury reaches a majority, although Justin is not in the courtroom when the verdict is given because Ally is giving birth. The verdict for Sythe is guilty and the sentence will be determined in the next few days. Re-examining the vehicle repair documents, Killebrew finds out Ally's husband is Justin, and may have been involved in Kendall's death. Judge Thelma Hollub (Amy Aquino) sentences him to life without parole, and Killebrew sees Justin sitting to watch this. Outside the court, Killebrew sits down with Justin, who vaguely suggests that if someone else accidentally killed Kendall, that person should not warrant harsh punishment. Killebrew argues that with an innocent man convicted, it is no longer an accident. Justin points out that if she were to go after the real killer after pushing so hard for Sythe to be convicted, she would lose her position as DA, and a "good man" would see his life and family destroyed. He mentions Sythe had a history of violence and implores her to leave the case alone. Killebrew is elected DA and Resnick never follows up on the leads found by Harold. Justin meanwhile has managed to sell his car to destroy his connection to the crime. At home, whilst he and Ally are playing with their healthy baby daughter, Justin answers the door and is shocked to see Killebrew, but it is spurious what her reason is. Also starring Hedy Nasser as Courtney, Phil Biedron as Vince, Bria Brimmer as Bailiff Wood, Onix Serrano as Eli, Jason Coviello as Luke, Rebecca Koon as Nellie, and KateLynn E. Newberry as the Hideaway Bartender. Hoult gives an understated but reasonable performance as the eponymous juror, Collette is good being stern, Simmons and Yarbrough give good support as strong jurors, Deutch is alright as the recovering alcoholic's wife, Scheid has moments of comic relief, and Sutherland is rather wasted. It is an interesting drama, seeing all procedures of a court: the jury selection process, the trial, the deliberation, the verdict, and the sentencing. The lead character realising he may be responsible for the crime in question is clever, Eastwood directs with some flair, it is gripping enough, and it is well written and performed, I will agree it could have been more tense and had more twists, but overall, it is a reasonable legal thriller. Worth watching!
Heretic (2024)
Heretic
I can only name a few serious non-comedic roles for the star of Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill (The Remains of the Day, Sirens, Sense and Sensibility, Extreme Measures are the ones that spring to mind); I certainly hadn't seen him in a scary movie before, so I looked forward to this one, written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (A Quiet Place, 65). Basically, Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) are two missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Out on the streets, they fail to gain interest and are ridiculed for trying to hand out the Book of Mormon and spread the word of God. They are scheduled to visit the home of a potential convert, and they lock their bikes to the fence. They meet the reclusive Englishman, Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), and they accept his invitation to enter after being told his wife is inside. Reed tells them his wife is preparing a blueberry pie, and they begin to discuss religion. Reed is cheerful and friendly, but he makes several uncomfortable comments about the Mormon faith and the nature of belief. After Reed steps out of the room, Barnes notices that the smell of blueberry pie is from a candle, and she and Paxton realise the front door is locked and they have no phone signal. Following Reed, they enter his study and falsely claim that they have been called away, but he knows they are lying because the walls are made of metal. Although he is not directly threatening, he proceeds to lecture them on the nature of beliefs and states that all religions are adaptations of one another. He uses the board game Monopoly, the songs "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" by The Hollies and "Creep" by Radiohead, and the Star Wars films as comparisons of adaptations. He claims to have found the one true religion. When the pair tells him they want to leave, Reed tells them they are free to do so whenever they wish but tells them they must do so via the back of the house. Barnes checks her pocket for the bike lock key, but it has somehow ended up in Paxton's coat. While Reed is distracted, Barnes takes a letter opener and tells Paxton to attack with it at the codeword "magic underwear." Reed gives the girls a choice of two doors to go through to exit the house with words written in chalk; one says "Belief" and one says "Disbelief", both directed towards their faith in God. Barnes initially says they should go through the Disbelief door because she is sure that is what Reed wants, but Paxton insists they should not give up their belief, and they both enter the "Belief" door. They find themselves in a basement dungeon, where Reed speaks to them through a speaker and declares he will show them a miracle. Then, a decrepit woman called 'The Prophet' (Elle Young) appears. She eats a poisoned blueberry pie and dies, with Reed claiming that the pair will witness her be resurrected. Meanwhile, Mormon Elder Kennedy (Topher Grace) realises the girls are missing and starts tracking their last known locations, before arriving at Reed's home. The bikes are missing from outside, the girls' screams cannot be heard, and Reed convinces the elder that he has not seen them. After the elder leaves, Reed returns attention to the dungeon, and Paxton notices The Prophet has moved whilst they were distracted calling for help, while Barnes denies this. The Prophet suddenly springs back to life and describes her experiences of the afterlife. Reed comes down to the basement and asks the girls to describe what happened. Barnes rejects The Prophet's description, noting its similarity to textbook hallucinations from near-death experiences. Attempting to distract Reed, Barnes draws his attention away, allowing Paxton to attempt to stab him in the back. However, when Barnes says the codeword, Reed suddenly slashes her throat, claiming she will also come back to life before describing the "butterfly dream" story that questions the distinction between reality and dreams. As Barnes bleeds out, Reed removes a metal object from inside her arm, claiming it is a microchip and that she was an artificial person, and her failure to resurrect proves she was not real, and the world is a simulation. Paxton, however, recognises it was a contraceptive implant and realises that the entire situation had been orchestrated by Reed. She realises that while she and Barnes were distracted, a second woman appeared and hid The Prophet's corpse, before taking her place and delivering the afterlife description as scripted by Reed, and she made an unplanned comment. Paxton is convinced Reed killing Barnes and trying to convince her of a simulated reality was an improvisation to cover the plan going awry. Paxton discovers a trap door hidden on the ground leading to an underground place where the Prophet's corpse was hidden. She travels down the route before Reed catches up to her and promises he will show her the "one true religion." Paxton eventually finds a door locked with the bike locks and uses the key to open it. Entering the room, it is filled with numerous caged women dressed similarly to the Prophet. When Reed enters, she deduces that the "true religion" he speaks of is his desire to control. She stabs Reed in the neck with the letter opener and tries to flee but Reed follows her back upstairs and stabs her in the gut. As the pair bleed out, she begins to pray, infuriating Reed who prepares to finish her off. But Reed is suddenly killed with a plank of wood by Barnes before she finally succumbs to her wounds and dies. With Reed dead, Paxton finds her way outside, using the model of the house in the study as a guide, and she escapes to freedom. Resting in the snow, Paxton momentarily sees a butterfly land on her hand; she had earlier expressed a desire to be reincarnated as a butterfly that appears on the hands of her loved ones. The butterfly suddenly disappears, leaving Paxton questioning her perception of reality. Also starring Julie Lynn Mortensen as Pedestrian, Haylie Hansen as Teenager, Elle McKinnon as Teenager, and Hanna Huffman as Teenager. Grant gives a fantastic performance as the seemingly genial but menacing man with deadpan dark humour and frightening intentions, and Thatcher and East deserve credit for their authentic performances as the evangelist preachers who become trapped. In a similar vibe to Speak No Evil, the characters are polite despite awkward stuff going on, the slow-burner tension builds splendidly, it has a great witty script (especially during the board games comparisons scene), and you are certainly left guessing where it is going and how it will end, overall, it is a worthwhile psychological horror thriller. Very good!
Anora (2024)
Anora
I thought the trailer for this film looked interesting, then I heard about the talk about it being tipped for nominations during Awards Season, having won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, so I was up for it, edited, written, produced, and directed by Sean Baker (Tangerine, The Florida Project). Basically, Anora "Ani" Mikheeva (Mikey Madison) is a young Uzbek American stripper from Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. At her upscale Manhattan strip club, Headquarters, Ani is the only sex worker who speaks Russian, and her boss needs a translator. She is introduced to Ivan "Vanya" Zakharov, the self-indulgent and immature son of a wealthy Russian oligarch. Vanya is studying whilst in America but spends more of his time partying and playing video games. He grows attached to her while paying her to strip for him at the club several times and later hires her to escort at his family's Brooklyn mansion. Vanya's parents pay Vanya's godfather Toros (Karren Karagulian) and henchmen Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov) to keep an eye on him and clean up his messes; Toros sends Following further sexual encounters, Vanya offers to pay Ani $15,000 to stay with him for a week and pose as his girlfriend. Over time, they develop affection and begin a whirlwind romance. Vanya and his entourage fly to Las Vegas where they spend thousands on gambling and clubbing, and Ani cannot get enough of the luxurious lifestyle. Then Vanya asks Ani to marry him; she is initially sceptical, but Vanya insists his love is genuine. She accepts and they elope in a small Vegas wedding chapel. After the wedding, Vanya offhandedly mentions that being married means he could obtain a green card, so he will not have to go home and work for his inattentive father, Nikolai Zakharov (Aleksei Serebryakov). Ani quits her job at the club and stands up to her cynical, spiteful, and perhaps jealous fellow strippers. Ani throws herself into the role of Vanya's devoted wife, but Vanya remains childish and thoughtless. News of the wedding spreads on Russian social media, infuriating Vanya's domineering mother, Galina (Darya Ekamasova). She orders Toros to find the couple and arrange an annulment while the family flies to America. Garnick and Igor are sent by Toros to the mansion to confront Ani and Vanya. The henchmen tell Vanya his parents plan to take him back to Russia, and they enrage Ani by repeatedly calling her a prostitute. Vanya runs away, leaving Ani alone with Garnick and Igor to deal with the fallout. She fights with and injures the two henchmen as they fail to calm her down. Much of Vanya's living room is destroyed in the process, but the men eventually subdue her. When Toros arrives, he insists to Ani that Vanya is immature and that he has no personal assets. He offers her $10,000 if she accepts the annulment but insists that she and Vanya are in love. She reluctantly agrees to help Toros find Vanya in the hope that she can convince them that their relationship is true. Before they start their search, Toros confiscates Ani's wedding ring. Ani, Toros, Garnick, and Igor spend most of the night driving around Brooklyn looking for Vanya. They visit several of his friends around Manhattan and Coney Island asking if they have seen him, and Toros and the henchmen cause havoc when they do not get answers. Eventually, they learn that Vanya has gone on a bender, struggling to cope with the stress, and has visited several nightclubs. They realise he has returned to Ani's former workplace, and they catch him receiving a lap dance from Ani's rival Diamond (Lindsey Normington). She desperately tries to explain the situation to Vanya, but he is too intoxicated to listen. Galina has just landed in New York with Nikolai, but they learn at the courthouse that the wedding cannot be annulled because Ani and Vanya were married in Nevada. Galina orders the group to fly to Las Vegas. Ani introduces herself to Vanya's parents in Russian, wanting to prove herself to them and salvage her marriage to Vanya. But Galina is unimpressed and openly contemptuous towards her. Vanya immediately concedes to his parents, coldly telling Ani that the marriage cannot work. Because she did not sign a prenuptial agreement, Ani threatens to put Vanya through lengthy divorce proceedings, but Galina pledges to destroy her life if she does. Realising Vanya's immaturity and his family's power, Ani backs down and agrees to the annulment. At a legal office, Ani and Vanya sign the papers and the annulment is completed. Igor suggests that Vanya should apologise to Ani, but Galina insists that her son will not apologise to anyone. Before leaving, Ani insults Vanya and Galina for their dysfunction, causing Nikolai to laugh in amusement. Igor takes Ani back to New York to pack up her belongings, but she is allowed to stay in the mansion for one more night. Ani and Igor spend the evening having some genuine conversation, including Igor telling her that it was his birthday the day before. Ani asks peculiar questions to Igor about what he would have done had he been a kidnapper; he insists he would not have raped her, and she implies that she is offended he is not attracted to her. The next morning, Igor drives Ani home and gives her the money Toros promised. Before she leaves, he returns Ani's wedding ring as a token of goodwill. Ani responds by initiating sex with Igor but resists when he tries to kiss her. They momentarily fight, but Ani is overwhelmed and breaks down crying in Igor's arms. Also starring Ivy Wolk as Crystal, Luna Sofía Miranda as Lulu, Alena Gurevich as Klara, Ella Rubin as Vera, Ani's roommate, Paul Weissman as Nick, and Vincent Radwinsky as Jimmy. Madison gives a splendid performance as the feisty quick-witted sex worker, Eidelstein does well as the spoilt rich kid, Borisov stands out as the initially rough but sympathetic henchman, and Karagulian and Ekamasova are good support as the dismissive Russian godfather and mother. It is a film of four parts: the luxury fling and impulsive wedding, the fighting in the mansion (the most hilarious scenes), the search across New York, and the annulment and aftermath, all well scripted, performed and paced. It is essentially an odd but admirable adult fairytale story, perhaps Pretty Woman for a new generation, it cleverly shifts from dramatic character study to screwball laughs, the ending is a little questionable, but overall it is a most watchable romantic comedy-drama. Very good!
Happy Birthday to Me (1981)
Happy Birthday to Me
I found this whodunnit style 80s scary movie, a spawn from the success of Halloween and Friday the 13th, it has a recognised poster of a bloke killed by a shish kebab through the mouth. Although it wasn't rated well, I watched it, directed by J. Lee Thompson (Ice Cold in Alex, Cape Fear, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Death Wish 4: The Crackdown). Basically, at Crawford Academy, Virginia "Ginny" Wainwright (Melissa Sue Anderson) is a pretty and popular high school senior, part of an elite clique of the most privileged and popular students. Each night, the "Top Ten" group meets at the local pub the Silent Woman Tavern. One night, on the way to the tavern, Bernadette O'Hara (Lesleh Donaldson) is attacked in her car by an unseen assailant. She tries to catch the killer off-guard and to her help, before running into someone unseen that she recognises and begs for help, but the person slashes her neck with a straight razor. The Top Ten becomes concerned when Bernadette does not show up. Upon leaving, the group play a game of chicken with their cars as the nearby drawbridge is raising. Ginny is distraught as the car she is in barely clears the bridge and survives the crash. Ginny runs home, stopping at her mother's grave at the nearby cemetery. At her home, Top Ten member Etienne Vercures (Michel-René Labelle), breaks into Ginny's room and steals her underwear. At school, Bernadette is still nowhere to be seen. Ginny, who is plagued by repressed memories, visits her on-call psychiatrist, Dr. David Faraday (Glenn Ford). In the past, she underwent an experimental brain tissue restoration procedure after surviving a harrowing accident. As Ginny tries to resume her normal life, her fellow Top Ten members are murdered in vicious and violent ways. Etienne is strangled and mangled when his scarf gets tangled in his running motorcycle wheels. Greg is exercising in his home gym when the unseen assailant wearing black gloves crushes him with heavy lighting weights. Ann and Ginny go to the house of nerdy Top Ten member Alfred Morris (Jack Blum) who has been acting odd lately. They discover he is an elaborate prosthetic make-up artist with a creepy realistic replica of Bernadette's head. One night, Alfred, who fancies Ginny, follows her to her mother's grave. She retaliates by stabbing him with a pair of garden shears. Ginny's 18th birthday is approaching, and her father Hal (Lawrence Dane) leaves for a business trip. After a school dance, Ginny invites Steve Maxwell (Matt Craven) to her house and prepares shish kebabs. While the two are drinking wine and smoking marijuana by the fireplace, Ginny feeds Steve with the kebab, before violently shoving the skewer down his throat, killing him. Ann Thomerson (Tracey E. Bregman) arrives at Ginny's house the following morning and finds Ginny taking a shower. In the shower, Ginny has a flashback of her mother's death. Her socialite mother Estelle (Sharon Acker) invited the Top Ten to Ginny's birthday four years ago, but they did not attend as they were attending a party Ann was holding instead. Humiliated, her mother was driving drunk to the Thomasons' house with Ginny but was denied entry by Mr. Thomason's gatekeeper (Murray Westgate). Enraged and upset, Ginny's mother attempted to drive across the rising drawbridge, causing their car to fall into the water. Ginny's mother drowned, pinned beneath the steering wheel, but Ginny managed to swim to safety. In the present, Ginny is paranoid that she may be murdering her friends during several blackouts. She confronts Dr. Faraday over the procedure she underwent, he is evasive, and she murders him with a fireplace poker. Mr. Wainright returns home during a thunderstorm for Ginny's birthday and finds blood in Ginny's bedroom. He is hysterical and runs into the yard where he finds one of Ginny's friends, Amelia (Lisa Langlois), standing shocked, clutching a wrapped gift. In the cemetery, he discovers his late wife's grave was robbed, with Dr. Faraday's corpse lying beside it. Mr. Wainright notices the lights on at the family's guest cottage. Inside, he finds the bodies of all the murdered Top Ten seated at a table alongside the corpse of his wife. Ginny then enters the room with a birthday cake, singing "Happy Birthday" to herself, seeming to have lost her mind. Ginny's father cries, and she suddenly slashes his throat. He dies without noticing another girl seated at the table with her head down, which appears to be Ginny. The seated Ginny wakes, and the murderous Ginny yells at her for ruining her party (four years ago). Suddenly the two Ginnys struggle and the other girl is revealed to be Ann, wearing an elaborate latex mask, probably made by Alfred, to disguise herself as Ginny. Ann rants and raves that her father had an affair with Ginny's mother, and it destroyed her family. Ann reveals that she and Ginny are half-sisters and blames her for everything that has happened. Ginny manages to wrestle the knife from Ann and stabs her to death. As she stands over Ann's corpse holding the knife covered in blood, a police officer enters the cottage and says, "What have you done?". Also starring Frances Hyland as Mrs. Patterson, Lenore Zann as Maggie, David Eisner as Rudi, Earl Pennington as Lieutenant Tracy, Jérôme Tiberghien as Professor Heregard, and Maurice Podbrey as Dr. Feinblum. It may have inventive gory deaths (for the time) and a gnarly head surgery scene, but the complicated plot is confusing and stupid, it isn't scary, thrilling or engaging, and the final twist with the killer reveal is just ludicrous, a fairly rubbish slasher horror. Adequate!
The Stuff (1985)
The Stuff
The title is a bit naff, but the poster for this 80s movie certainly got my attention; I found it available on Amazon Prime with my Shudder subscription, so I decided to try it. Basically, in Georgia, an Old Miner (Harry Bellaver) discovers a white cream-like substance bubbling out of the ground; he and another Miner (Peter Hock) eat the substance and find it delicious. Sometime later, this addictive and sweet substance is being marketed and sold to the public in containers like ice cream, it is called "The Stuff". Despite nobody knowing what it is or how it is made, The Stuff becomes a nationwide taste sensation. One night, a young boy named Jason (Scott Bloom) sees The Stuff moving, seemingly alive, in the fridge freezer. His family are unconvinced and dismisses him, and they continue to eat The Stuff and nothing else. Later, Jason trashes a supermarket of stock and displays of The Stuff, and he is arrested for vandalism. The Stuff continues growing in popularity with many becoming obsessed with it. The leaders of a failing ice cream company hire former FBI agent turned industrial saboteur, David "Mo" Rutherford (Michael Moriarty), to find out exactly what The Stuff is and eradicate it. Rutherford meets with junk food mogul Charles W. "Chocolate Chip Charlie" Hobbs (Garrett Morris), who has lost control of his company and lives in poverty. Rutherford and Hobbs go to the town post office and find the owner (James Dixon), who regularly ate The Stuff, is dead. Rutherford and Hobbs then find that The Stuff is actually a living, parasitic, extra-terrestrial organism that gradually takes over the brains of those who eat it and mutates them into zombie-like creatures. The bodies eventually burst out with more ooze and leave nothing but empty husks behind. But they find that The Stuff's weakness is fire; Mo manages to escape a trap set by The Stuff and zombies by using fire. Jason realises his family have been changed by the addictive effects of The Stuff; he tries to trick them he is eating it by swapping a container with shaving cream, but they are not fooled, and he runs away before they can catch him. After encountering Rutherford, Jason wants to help him eradicate The Stuff. They are joined by Nicole (Andrea Marcovicci), an advertising executive, and Rutherford's lover. Jason, entering a container truck at The Stuff factory, gets himself trapped but Rutherford saves him before the ooze covers him. The trio infiltrate the distribution plant, finding that the substance is simply being extracted from the ground with no processing. They manage to destroy the lake full of The Stuff with explosives. Meanwhile, retired soldier Colonel Malcolm Grommett Spears (Paul Sorvino) teams up with the trio and leads a troop in battling the zombies and transmitting a civil defence message for Americans. However, before they can broadcast the warning, a mass of The Stuff bursts out of a zombified Charlie's throat. Nicole and Jason are cornered by the ooze in a recording booth, but Rutherford electrocutes and burns it. Colonel Spears speaks on the live broadcast, warning people not to eat The Stuff, and for all stores and distributors not to supply it, explaining the consequences of it. The Stuff's popularity quickly plummets as the public rallies to destroy all supplies. With the crisis seemingly averted, Rutherford, Nicole, Jason, and the Colonel are hailed as national heroes. Later, Rutherford visits Mr. Fletcher (Patrick O'Neal), head of The Stuff Company, who is in a meeting with Mr. Evans (Alexander Scourby), the ice cream mogul who hired Rutherford. Fletcher tells Rutherford that the destruction of the mine has not hurt his business since The Stuff exists in many areas, but Rutherford swears to rid the world of its existence. Fletcher reveals he and Evans are working together. They are planning to introduce a new product, "The Taste", a mixture of 88% ice cream and 12% The Stuff, supposedly enough to eliminate its negative effects but that will still cause cravings for it. An undaunted Rutherford brings in Jason, carrying a box full of The Stuff containers. He holds both moguls at gunpoint and forces them to consume the product, punishing them for destroying hundreds of lives with the product. As they eat, Rutherford says, "Are you eating it, or is it eating you?" After they finish, Rutherford and Jason leave them as police vehicles approach. Meanwhile, criminals are seen smuggling containers of The Stuff to sell on the black market. Also starring Danny Aiello as Vickers, Russell Nype as Richards, Gene O'Neill as the Scientist, Colette Blonigan as Jason's Mother, Robert Frank Telfer as Jason's Father, Brian Bloom as Jason's Brother, Ann Dane as the Hostess, Rutanya Alda as the Psychologist, and David Snell as the Doctor, with early appearances by Patrick Dempsey and Mira Sorvino (Paul's daughter) as extras. It is an odd but interesting alternative monster movie, where a popular dessert turns people into mindless menaces and then they fall apart and secrete it, it works well as a poke at American consumerism and advertising, and it has some memorable scenes of rooms filling with goo and characters killed with stretched jaws and oozing, slightly lame but a reasonable satirical science-fiction horror. Worth watching!
Venom: The Last Dance (2024)
Venom: The Last Dance
The original film in the Marvel/Spider-Man spinoff series was okay, and the sequel Let There Be Carnage was better, I hoped this conclusion to the trilogy would be good, the directorial debut of screenwriter Kelly Marcel (Saving Mr. Banks, Fifty Shades of Grey, Cruella). Basically, in Mexico, former investigative journalist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and the Venom (also Hardy) symbiote are still on the run after their recent battle with Carnage. Whilst drunk in a bar, they see on television the news of Patrick Mulligan's death and that Eddie is the prime suspect. Following an encounter and Venom devouring a group of criminals, they are forced to set out to New York City to try and clear Eddie's name. Meanwhile, unknown to them, a group of creatures called Xenophages have been sent by Knull (Andy Serkis), the creator of the symbiotes, across the universe, seeking a Codex. One of the Xenophage creatures has reached Earth and has begun tracking Eddie and Venom. Elsewhere, Area 51 is to be decommissioned and is being used for the capture and study of other symbiotes that have fallen to Earth. Military soldier Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor), whose attention has been caught by the recent events, is overseeing Imperium, a government operation at the site. Detective Patrick Mulligan (Stephen Graham), who survived his encounter with Carnage, has been captured after being left for dead by another symbiote. He is bonded with one of many contained symbiotes and questioned by Imperium researchers Dr. Teddy Payne (Juno Temple) and Sadie Christmas (Clark Backo). The scientists want to learn about the symbiotes' purpose on Earth before Strickland can bring Venom down. Venom has attached himself and Eddie onto a plane bound for New York City. During the flight, they are attacked by the Xenophage tracking them and are forced to drop off into the desert. Venom explains to Eddie that Xenophages were unleashed by Knull to retrieve the Codex, which can be used to free Knull from the prison the symbiotes trapped him in long ago. The Codex is forged when a symbiote resurrects its host, and because Venom revived Eddie once before, he carries it. The Xenophage can only detect the Codex when Venom is fully formed, overtaking Eddie's body. To speed up their journey, Venom takes over the body of a horse, and "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen plays. Strickland and his team ambush them, but they evade the soldiers and the Xenophage pursuing them. Following this chase, Eddie meets Martin Moon (Rhys Ifans) and his family, his wife Nova (Alanna Ubach), teenage daughter Echo (Hala Finley) and son Leaf (Dash McCloud). They are a family of travelling hippie and alien enthusiasts, who offer him a free ride to Las Vegas on their way to Area 51. Meanwhile, Mulligan's new symbiote informs Strickland of Knull's intentions with the Codex, which can only be destroyed if either Eddie or Venom dies. Arriving in Las Vegas, Eddie disguises himself with a tuxedo to enter a casino and Venom gets addicted to gambling. They run into Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu), who is on vacation, and she and Venom dance to the A*Teens version of "Dancing Queen". This allows the Xenophage to track and ambush them again. Strickland's team arrives, separates Venom from Eddie, and takes them to Area 51 where Eddie sees Mulligan. Sadie frees Venom, who re-bonds with Eddie after Strickland shoots him. This attracts the Xenophage to the base, killing Mulligan, and the creature signals to Knull that the Codex has been found. To fight off the Xenophages, Venom releases the other confined symbiotes which bond with Sadie and other hosts. The symbiotes are overwhelmed as more Xenophages are sent through portals to Earth. Realising he must sacrifice himself to destroy the Codex and save the universe, Venom merges with the Xenophages, leads them into acid tanks, and bids Eddie farewell before ejecting him. A mortally wounded Strickland detonates several grenades to combine with the acid and destroy the creatures. Payne saves Sadie from the explosion by bonding with a symbiote while Eddie falls unconscious as the base burns. Eddie later wakes up in a hospital, where he is informed that his criminal record has been expunged, following his actions with Venom at Area 51, under the condition of keeping it all a secret. Arriving in New York City, Eddie gazes at the Statue of Liberty while remembering Venom. In a mid-credits scene, Knull vows to escape and take over the universe. In a post-credits scene, a panicked bartender (Cristo Fernández) escapes the burned remains of Area 51, and a cockroach crawls beside a broken vial that previously contained a sample of the Venom symbiote. Also starring Jared Abrahamson as Captain Forrest, Reid Scott as Dr. Dan Lewis, Ivo Nandi as Javier, Jacob Tomuri as the Tuxedo Guy, Brooke Carter as Young Paine, and Martin McDougall as the General. Hardy as both the fugitive reporter and the snarly being in his body does a good job, Ejiofor as the commander and Temple as the boffin are fine, Ifans as a hippie is odd, but Graham and Serkis do almost nothing at all. The warped buddy movie format is relatively good, but the plot about a mysterious device in the lead character's body is non-sensical, it could have been more family-friendly if it weren't for the dark material, bad language, and violence. There are some mildly exciting chases, fights and explosions, the CGI special effects are great, and the singalong in the campervan to David Bowie's "Space Oddity" is fun, and the "Dancing Queen" ABBA remix dance is alright, but the mixed tone and flimsiness make this is disappointing closure that is likely to spawn further sequels, a slightly silly superhero fantasy action horror. Okay!
The Apprentice (2024)
The Apprentice
I saw the trailer for this biopic movie (the title referencing the TV show that made Donald Trump famous, released during the upcoming election of Trump vs. Kamala Harris), I couldn't help but be curious to see his beginnings in the 1970s and 1980s. Basically, in 1973, young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) meets contentious lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) at an exclusive New York City restaurant. Trump, the son of real-estate mogul Fred Trump (Insomnia's Martin Donovan), complains that the federal government is investigating his father for discrimination against African American tenants. Cohn offers to help and blackmails the lead prosecutor with photos of him committing adultery. Following this, despite evidence of racial discrimination, the prosecutor settles the case. Trump celebrates and continues to spend time with Cohn, seeing him as a better mentor than his father. Cohn buys Trump a new wardrobe and teaches him to use the media to his advantage. Cohn then teaches Trump his "three rules": always attack, never admit wrongdoing, and always claim victory, even if defeated. Trump attends an extravagant Cohn party, and he walks in on Cohn having sex with other men; Cohn being gay is an open secret. Trump wants to transform the derelict midtown Commodore Hotel, near Grand Central Terminal, into a new luxury hotel. Cohn, who has access to several incriminating audiotapes of officials, helps Trump avoid millions in tax for the project which causes public outrage. Trump goes ahead with the build without Fred's permission, with whom he has a tense relationship. Trump establishes himself with the media as a successful mogul following the development of the luxurious Trump Tower, belittling Fred's smaller achievements. Over time, the name Trump becomes synonymous with many other products and services. Trump meets Czech model Ivana Zelnickova (Maria Bakalova), pays for her expenses, and pursues her to Aspen, Colorado, where she is modelling. He asks her on a date, although she already has a boyfriend, but she eventually breaks up with him and goes on to marry Trump. Cohn goes against numerous rules, morals, and the truth to assist Trump's success, presenting himself as a guardian of the American spirit. During the presidency of Ronald Reagan, Trump says America needs to be stronger and more respected by foreign nations. Trump and his lobbyist Roger Stone (Mark Rendall) approve of one of Reagan's slogans, "Let's Make America Great Again". Against Cohn's advice, Trump proceeds with reckless real estate developments such as the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, which later loses money. Trump's older brother, Freddy, or Fred Jr. (Charlie Carrick) is an airline pilot with TWA; Fred is ashamed of him, considering him to be "a bus driver with wings". Freddy spirals into alcoholism, losing his career while the Trump family distances themselves from his self-destruction. Trump tries to help him, but Freddy eventually dies, devastating the family. Trump's mother, Mary Anne (Catherine McNally), is heartbroken, and her husband's dementia worsens. Trump tries to manipulate his father, during his illness, to gain control of the family inheritance to pay off mounting debts. Meanwhile, Ivana becomes an influential figure with her input in The Trump Organization, and they have children together. However, Trump grows resentful of Ivana overshadowing his success. One night, feeling insulted by her, he tells her he is no longer attracted to her, they have an aggressive argument, and he sexually assaults her. Later, wanting to control his increasing weight, Trump becomes addicted to amphetamines, which his doctor discourages, they also discuss his baldness. Meanwhile, Trump has a difficult relationship with the new mayor, Ed Koch (Ian D. Clark). While facing removal from his practice, Cohn contracts AIDS but publicly denies it. Cohn asks Trump to put his lover Russell Eldridge (Ben Sullivan), who also develops AIDS, up in his hotel. Trump eventually throws Russell out, claiming that guests complained, and refuses to approach Cohn. On the street, Cohn berates Trump, calling him an ungrateful fraud. After Russell dies, Trump takes Cohn to Florida and celebrates his birthday. Trump gifts Cohn with branded cufflinks he claims contain real diamonds, but Ivana informs Cohn during dinner that they are zirconium knockoffs. When the cake arrives, Cohn weeps and excuses himself from the table. After Cohn dies from his illness, Trump undergoes surgery, having liposuction and scalp reduction. He meets with Tony Schwartz (Eoin Duffy) who will become the ghostwriter for his autobiography. Trump compares business to making artwork, and the title of his book becomes "The Art of the Deal". During his talk with the writer, Trump claims and quotes Cohn's three rules as his own. Trump details his greatness, talks about the genetic superiority of winners, and muses about becoming President; it ends with the New York skyline in Trump's eyes. Also starring Ben Sullivan as Russell Eldridge, Jason Blicker as George Steinbrenner, Joe Pingue as Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, Bruce Beaton as Andy Warhol, Tom Barnett as Rupert Murdoch, Stuart Hughes as Mike Wallace, Frank Moore as Judge Edward Neaher, Ben Ball as Robert Trump, Iona Rose MacKay as Mary Trump, Samantha Espie as Elizabeth Trump, Matt Baram as Dr. Steven Hoefflin, and Emily Mitchell as Ivanka Trump. Stan is impressive with his spot-on interpretation of Trump, from his body language to his speech patterns, Bakalova is terrific as his wife, Donovan is good support as Trump's father, but Strong steals the show with his intense outspoken performance as the callous lawyer. It is an interesting story of a socially awkward chancer who became a tabloid celebrity, along with the mentorship and up-and-down relationship with the man who made him the immoral narcissistic bully we know him as today. It has a good pace as it covers key points in Trump's business career and personal life, along with Cohn's, with clever use of archive footage from interviews and other media of the period. It is fair to say it skims over things a little in places but it is unafraid to display corruption and illegal activities of Trump and Cohn. Trump himself has dismissed this film, but that is to be expected from him; as for me, although I cannot stand Trump, this is a worthwhile and interesting biographical drama. Good!
Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)
Some Kind of Wonderful
I found this film on one of IMDb's Top 250 lists, it was rated well and had a good cast, so I was looking forward to it, written and produced by John Hughes (The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Home Alone, Beethoven), directed by Howard Deutch (Pretty in Pink, Getting Even with Dad, My Best Friend's Girl). Basically, at a public high school in the San Fernando Valley, young mechanic, and aspiring artist Keith Nelson (Eric Stoltz) is best friends with tomboy drummer Watts (Mary Stuart Masterson). Keith's father, Cliff (Beverly Hills Cop's John Ashton), is obsessed with sending him to college for business; he wants him to be the first in their family to do so. Keith is infatuated with Amanda Jones (Back of the Future's Lea Thompson), one of the most popular girls in school, and he spends much of his time drawing her. She is dating the spoiled and selfish Hardy Jenns (Craig Sheffer), who lives in a wealthy neighbourhood. Amanda is not wealthy, she lives in the same working-class district as Watts and Keith, and she borrows her fashionable clothes from her friends. Hardy treats Amanda awfully and is fooling around with another girl. Watts is dismissive of Keith's crush, saying that he and Amanda are too different. Hearing that Amanda will be in detention for the foreseeable future, Keith gets himself in trouble to spend time with her. However, she gets out of detention, leaving him stuck with the school bullies and troublemakers, eventually making friends with skinhead delinquent Duncan (Elias Koteas). When Amanda breaks up with Hardy, Keith asks her out. She accepts mainly to spite Hardy who plots to cause trouble for Keith. Meanwhile, Watts sees them together and realises she loves Keith as more than just a friend. She pretends to fancy another boy to try and make Keith jealous and tries to discourage him from being with Amanda, but fails. Keith's popularity around school increases as word spreads of him dating Amanda, whereas Amanda's popularity quickly declines. As part of his plot for revenge, Hardy invites Keith and Amanda to a party. But Keith's sister Laura (Maddie Corman) finds out Hardy has planned to have him beaten up. Keith wrongly believes Amanda is a part of the scheme and decides to go to the party anyway and face Hardy. Amanda's wealthy and popular "friends" start to shun her for leaving Hardy, and Keith makes plans for the perfect date to prove his worth to Amanda. Joined by Watts, he uses his college money to buy a pair of diamond earrings, rent an expensive car, and take Amanda to a posh restaurant. Watts tells him that she will appreciate a good kisser; she pretends to teach him to kiss so she can fulfil her desire, but he is still oblivious to her attraction to him. When Cliff discovers the college fund has been emptied, he is angry, but Keith stands up to his father and ultimately convinces him to respect his right to make his own decisions. On the date night, Keith picks up Amanda, with Watts serving as their chauffeur. They go to an expensive restaurant, but during the evening they have an argument. Keith then takes Amanda to an art museum and shows her a painting he did of her. He gives her the earrings, and they kiss while Watts watches them from a distance. Finally, they go to Hardy's party. Keith is about to get beaten by Hardy's friends, but they are stopped by Duncan and his friends from detention. Hardy tries to talk his way out of the predicament, exposing himself as a coward in front of the party guests. Keith is amused and stands up to Hardy, while Amanda slaps him twice. After they leave the party, Watts apologises to Amanda. As Watts walks away, she is in tears; Amanda suddenly realises she and Keith have feelings for each other. Amanda returns the earrings to Keith and urges him to go after Watts. Keith, realising that he is in love with his best friend, says goodbye to Amanda. He catches up to Watts and they kiss. He then gives her the earrings which delights her. Keith and Watts walk away together contemplating their future. Also starring Molly Hagan as Shayne, Jane Elliot as Carol Nelson, Candace Cameron Bure as Cindy Nelson, Chynna Phillips as Mia, Scott Coffey as Ray, Carmine Caridi as the Museum Guard, and Lee Garlington as Mrs. Albright. Stoltz is good-looking and likeable, Masterson is delightful as the lovesick best friend, and Thompson is good as the adored glamorous girl. Apparently, this is a rehash of Hughes' movie Pretty in Pink; the story of a bloke who can't choose which girl to go out with is scripted well, with the right amount of humour and genuinely touching stuff, a perfect teen movie of its time, an enjoyable romantic drama. Very good!
Hellraiser (2022)
Hellraiser
The original 1987 film, based on the book by Clive Barker, is a classic; Doug Bradley played Pinhead in seven further sequels with mixed to negative results, Stephan Smith Collins failed to take over the role in Revelations, as did Paul T. Taylor in Judgment. Barker (who directed the original) returned for this reboot, the eleventh entry in the overall franchise, and with a new take, while staying faithful to the sadomasochistic tone, directed by David Bruckner (V/H/S, The Ritual). Basically, hedonistic millionaire investor, art collector and socialite Roland Voight (Goran Visnjic) is hosting a lavish orgy at his mansion. During the evening, he forces homeless sex worker Joseph "Joey" Coscuna (Kit Clarke) to solve a mysterious mechanical puzzle box. Solving it, it springs a blade that cuts Joey's hand, and a portal to another dimension is opened. Joey is killed by several chains flying out, hooks piercing his skin, and he is ripped apart. Six years later, recovering drug addict Riley McKendry (Odessa A'zion) lives with her estranged brother Matt (Brandon Flynn), his boyfriend Colin (Adam Faison), and their roommate Nora (Aoife Hinds). Riley and her boyfriend Trevor (Drew Starkey) find the puzzle box in an abandoned storage warehouse. Returning home late, Matt accuses Riley of relapsing, and they argue. At an empty park, Riley solves the puzzle box but avoids being cut by the blade. The Cenobites, a group of mutilated humanoids, appear and demand another sacrifice. Matt, feeling guilty about their strained relationship, finds Riley incapacitated and inadvertently cuts himself on the box while trying to wake her up. He goes to a nearby restroom to clean his wound but then experiences a headache. Outside, Riley notices the box changing shapes before she hears Matt screaming and finds he is missing after entering the bathroom. Believing the box caused Matt's disappearance, Riley and Trevor track down Voight's former lawyer Serena Menaker (Hiam Abbass) at an assisted living facility. Having concealed it in the warehouse, Menaker tries to confiscate the box from Riley but is cut by its blade and she is abducted by the Cenobites. Visiting Voight's abandoned mansion, Riley discovers from his journals that the configurations require six victims to be marked for sacrifice by its blade. On completion, the holder receives a "gift" from Leviathan, the entity that rules over Hell. Riley sees an apparition of Matt and is horrified to see he has been flayed (stripped of his skin). Colin, Trevor and Nora arrive in Trevor's van to take Riley home. While Riley explains what she witnessed to Colin, Nora activates a switch in the bar that opens a secret passage. Trevor inadvertently shuts the door, trapping her inside the passage, and as he tries to rescue her, the mutilated Voight, hiding behind the walls, stabs her with the box. The group escapes the mansion and tries to get help, but Nora is abducted by the Cenobites. Nora is taunted, tortured, and fatally skinned in a decrepit hallway by the Cenobite leader, the Priest aka Pinhead (Jamie Clayton). Whilst in the van, Riley sees a reflection of Nora's torture in the rearview mirror, causing them to crash. Leaving the van, the Priest appears and offers Riley to exchange Matt for two sacrifices. She refuses the offer but is ordered to sacrifice either two people or herself. Another Cenobite, the Chatterer (Jason Liles), injures Trevor, but Riley solves the next configuration and uses the box blade to stab the Chatterer, who is ripped apart as the next sacrifice. The trio retreats to the mansion, realising the steel doors can stop the Cenobites from entering. Leaving Trevor to rest, Riley and Colin plan to trap the Asphyx (Zachary Hing), another Cenobite, as the last sacrifice, but she drops the box. Voight appears, picks it up, and stabs Colin, revealing that he sought "sensation" after completing all his sacrifices. Instead, a contraption attached to Voight's back randomly twists his nerve endings. Voight completes the final configuration and the Cenobites are trapped; he is trying to ask Leviathan to free him. While Leviathan appears above the mansion, Riley retrieves the box, unlocks the steel doors, and rescues Colin from torture by stabbing Trevor, who becomes the final sacrifice. Meanwhile, the Priest warns Voight that his reward can only be exchanged and not revoked. Voight accepts her offer of "power" and is released from his contraption and heals, but Leviathan immediately impales him with a large chain and drags him away. With the sacrifices completed, the Cenobites offer to resurrect Matt. Riley declines, realising their gifts will bring pain, and decides to accept Matt's death. After the Cenobites praise her for choosing the Lament Configuration, feeling regret with brief suffering, they vanish, and the box returns to its original form. As the duo leaves the mansion, Colin talks to Riley about her choice. Meanwhile, inside Leviathan's realm, Voight is brutally transformed into a new Cenobite. Also starring Yinka Olorunnife as the Weeper, Selina Lo as the Gasp, Gorica Regodic as the Mother, and Vukasin Jovanovic as the Masque. Clayton as a female version of Pinhead is relatively interesting, A'zion lacks commitment as the lead, and Visnjic could have been on longer. The Cenobites changed to female characters (most of them) only sort of works, the gore, torture and violence are not imaginative, and it should be scarier, I would just stick to the original, this is it is just another dull and pointless horror. Adequate!
Hellraiser: Judgment (2018)
Hellraiser: Judgment
Doug Bradley refused to appear in the previous entry because of its rushed production, Stephan Smith Collins failed to make an impression as Pinhead, so for the next sequel they once again replaced the actor playing the iconic villain, but I had low expectations. Basically, in a parallel dimension resembling Hell, Cenobite leader Pinhead (Paul T. Taylor) and the Auditor (Gary J. Tunnicliffe, also writing and directing) of the Stygian Inquisition are discussing how to adapt their methods of harvesting souls. Advancing human technology is making the Configurations, the gateways to hell, obsolete. Local criminal Karl Watkins (Jeff Fenter) is seen in the realm being punished for his sins; three topless women with skinless faces (Andi Leah Powers, Mary Kathryn Bryant, and Valerie Sharp) are the Jury, seen making judgments from consuming the victim's bodily fluids (saliva and fat I think). Following the judgment, Watkins is sliced up by a figure wearing a gas mask. Meanwhile, on Earth, detective brothers the Carters, Sean (Damon Carney) and David (Randy Wayne), and detective Christine Egerton (Alexandra Harris) are investigating a series of murders. The murders of the serial killer known as the Preceptor are based on the Ten Commandments. A connection with one of the victims leads the detectives to Watkins (Jeff Fenter), who went missing near an abandoned house. Sean goes to the house and loses consciousness, waking up in the Stygian Inquisition's domain in hell. The Inquisition prepares to hand down a verdict on Sean, but the Assessor (John Gulager) who eats a document about his sins chokes and vomits blood, and the three topless women react violently also. Then the angel Jophiel (Helena Grace Donald) intervenes and tells them to release him. Sean escapes the realm with a stolen puzzle box, and the Auditor requests Pinhead's guidance. Sean and his brother return to search the house, finding no trace of hell or the Inquisition. That night, Sean is haunted by visions of the Cenobites and the inhabitants of hell, who promise "judgment and redemption" to anyone who opens the box. Sean and Christine go to the coroner's office and find that one of the Preceptor's victims has a cell phone with their body, recording her final location with its GPS. They find the Preceptor's hideout, where Sean incapacitates Christine and reveals himself as the killer. David deduces that his brother is the Preceptor and meets with the coroner to find the building. Upon arrival, Sean disarms David and reveals that he has his wife Alison (Rheagan Wallace) as a hostage and that she has been having an affair. At gunpoint, he forces David and Alison to solve the box, opening a gateway to the other dimension. Sean tries to offer Alison and David to take his place as souls to be collected. Pinhead tells him they will be dealt with for opening the box, but a separate faction of hell wants his soul, and there will be no deal. The Auditor appears, telling Sean the Inquisition has found him guilty of his sins. Jophiel intervenes again and protests to Pinhead and the Auditor that Sean must remain on Earth to instil fear into sinners according to Heaven's plan. Pinhead arranges for Christine to kill Sean, and spitefully dispatches Jophiel. As punishment, Pinhead is expelled from hell by God who forces him to walk the earth as a mortal man. In a post-credits scene, in Germany, a group of Mormon missionaries approach a house, and The Auditor answers and invites them in. Also starring A Nightmare on Elm Street's Heather Langenkamp as the Landlady, Mike Jay Regan as the Chatterer, and Grace Montie as Crystal Lanning. Taylor again is no substitute for Bradley as the lead villain, Tunnicliffe as a new antagonist is only okay, and the other cast members are hardly worth mentioning. There is almost no plot, and I didn't get the police procedural stuff, it is just another excuse to see people being tortured and killed, only some gory moments got my attention, but it is just another dull and pointless horror. Pretty poor!
Hellraiser: Revelations (2011)
Hellraiser: Revelations
Doug Bradley played the iconic Pinhead for eight films, but he refused to return for this ninth entry in the franchise because of its rushed production (shot in two weeks); although I had a feeling it would be terrible, I was intrigued to see a new actor playing the character. Basically, the Mexican authorities have returned the belongings of friends Nico Bradley (Jay Gillespie) and Steven Craven (Nick Eversman) who ran away from home to their parents. Among their belongings is a video recording of the pair who filmed themselves engaging in several days' worth of partying and finding a mystical puzzle box. This footage is their final documented moments before they disappeared. A year later, the families of the two missing boys have gathered for dinner. Tensions rise when Steven's sister and Nico's girlfriend, Emma (Tracey Fairaway), expresses frustration that things have not been resolved. She demands that her mother Sarah (Devon Sorvari), who has been obsessively watching it in private, should show them the contents of Steven's videotape. Later, Emma looks at the tape, which shows Steven and Nico meeting a girl, a Mexican prostitute, in a bar. A flashback reveals that Nico had sex with the girl in the bar's restroom before murdering her for an unknown reason. Nico threatened to implicate Steven in the killing to force him to continue their "vacation" together. Nico later receives the puzzle box from a Vagrant (Dan Buran), offering it to experience a new kind of sensual pleasure. Looking through Steven's belongings, Emma finds and recognises the puzzle box from the video. When she tries to manipulate it, Steven suddenly reappears covered in blood. The families try to get Steven to a hospital, but they become stranded; Steven warns that the "Cenobites" are coming. Emma fiddles with the puzzle box again, causing intense sexual arousal. Emma tries to seduce Nico's father, Peter (Sebastien Roberts) and then has a deeply intimate conversation with Steven in his room and they kiss. But as Steven caresses her, Emma has a vision of chains and mutilated bodies. Soon after, Peter is killed by the same vagrant. Steven then goes downstairs, grabs a shotgun, and shoots his father before holding the others in the house at gunpoint. Another flashback reveals that Nico solved the puzzle box, opening a portal to the realm of the Cenobites: extra-dimensional sadomasochists led by Pinhead (Stephan Smith Collins, voiced by Fred Tatasciore). Steven flees, but Nico is taken by the Cenobites to be subjected to extreme torture and mutilation. Later, while having rough sex with a prostitute, Nico communicates with Steven through the puzzle box and convinces him to kill the prostitute to allow him to escape from hell, emerging skinless and emaciated. Steven later kills several more prostitutes, using their blood to regenerate Nico, but he is unable to regrow his skin. When Steven finally hesitates to help him, Nico kills Steven and takes his skin. In his dying moments, Steven uses the puzzle box to contact the Cenobites and become one of them to get revenge. The "Steven" holding the families hostage is actually Nico wearing Steven's skin and taunting them. He reveals that a reason he and Steven ran away from home was because they discovered Steven's father Ross (Steven Brand) and Nico's mother were having an adulterous affair with each other. He demands that Emma solve the puzzle box, wanting the Cenobites to take her in his place, thus preserving his freedom. Emma opens the portal and summons the Cenobites, including Steven, who kill Nico's mother for speaking out of turn. Nico tries to bargain for his life with Emma's, and while Pinhead knows that Emma has a dark sexual desire that he admires, he refuses and chooses to reclaim Nico for further experiments. As Nico is taken away, Emma's father shoots and kills him in a dying act of revenge. Displeased at having lost a victim, the Cenobites take Emma's mother as Nico's replacement. Her father apologises and then dies in Emma's arms. Left alone, Emma reaches for the puzzle box. Also starring Sanny van Heteren as Kate Bradley, Jolene Andersen as the Female Cenobite, Camelia Dee as the Street Walker, and Sue Ann Pien as Pseudo the Hooker. The plot is limited because it mainly takes place in one room, with only fleeting scenes of other locations, the cast is wasted with a stupid script full of cliched dialogue, and Collins is no substitute for Bradley, only the tiniest moments of gore and torture got my attention, but otherwise it is a rubbish, boring and pointless horror. Pretty poor!
The Snowman and the Snowdog (2012)
The Snowman and the Snowdog
The Snowman, based on the children's book by Raymond Briggs, is one of the most popular repeating cartoons on Channel 4. To mark the 30th anniversary of the channel and the original animation, this sequel was released. Basically, a little boy and his mother have moved into their new home, the same home as the boy from the original film. Over time, their dog has grown old and eventually it passes away, which upsets the boy. On a snowy day, the boy finds a hidden hat and scarf beneath the floorboards, along with a photo of the original boy and his built snowman. He decides to use the snow to build the same snowman from the picture, along with a snowdog with ears made from socks. That night, the boy is surprised when the Snowman comes to life, along with the Snowdog. The Snowman and Snowdog take the boy, flying into the air, to the North Pole. There they encounter other snowpeople and animals who live in the cold, and they all compete in a skiing race. Before leaving, Father Christmas gives the Snowman a dog collar. After returning home, the boy is sad saying goodbye to his new friends. The Snowman gives the boy the dog collar to place around the Snowdog's neck. This magically transforms the Snowdog into a real dog, "Socks", which makes the boy really happy. It ends sadly when, the following morning, the boy and his new dog Socks go outside and find the Snowman has dissolved. The animation has the same quality as the original 1982 film, the story is predictable but nice, especially the transformation scene at the end, and the new sond, "Light the Night" by Andy Burrows (from Razorlight) is lright, all in all, it is a worthwhile animated Christmas fantasy short. Very good!
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip (2015)
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip
The original movie was annoying, The Squeakquel was only slightly less annoying, and the third Chipwrecked returned to being annoying, I wanted to finish the franchise, but I was sure it was going to be the same result, directed by Walt Becker (Van Wilder: Party Liaison, Wild Hogs). Basically, the Chipmunks - Alvin (Justin Long), Simon (Matthew Gray Gubler), and Theodore (Jesse McCartney), along with the Chipettes - Brittany (Christina Applegate), Jeanette (Anna Faris), and Eleanor (Razzie winning Kaley Cuoco, also for The Wedding Singer), have moved to a new house with their guardian David 'Dave' Seville (Razzie nominated Jason Lee). The Chipmunks set up a surprise birthday party that also serves as a good luck party for the Chipettes who are scheduled to be guest judges on American Idol. But Simon is dismayed when Alvin invites many guests and hires celebrity entertainment, including LMFAO star Redfoo (as himself). Dave is dissatisfied after returning home but agrees to take them mini golfing. There, the Chipmunks meet Samantha (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), who Dave has been dating for a few months. The Chipmunks are welcoming towards Samantha, but her son Miles (Josh Green) physically torments the trio. Later, the Chipmunks find an engagement ring in Dave's shopping bag and assume that he is going to propose to Samantha. Horrified that Dave and Samantha getting married would make Miles their stepbrother, they unsuccessfully try to steal the ring. While the Chipmunks' singing career is on hiatus, Dave is producing a record for rising pop artist Ashley Grey (Bella Thorne) in Miami. Dave brings Samantha along with him, while the Chipmunks and Miles stay together, and neighbour Ms. Price (Jennifer Coolidge) agrees to peek in on them. The Chipmunks tell Miles about the engagement ring, and he agrees to join them travelling to Miami to sabotage the supposed marriage proposal. The Chipmunks drug three squirrels and dress them up in their clothes from stuffed toys to fool Ms. Price. They travel on a plane, but Theodore lets out a monkey and several other animals from storage on the flight, leading to an emergency landing in Austin, Texas. They encounter frustrated unscrupulous Air Marshal James Suggs (Tony Hale) who hates the Chipmunks because her girlfriend dumped him at Christmas for being their biggest fan at the time and blowing his chance to become an FBI agent. The Chipmunks are put on the No-Fly List by Suggs as revenge. On the journey, the Chipmunks perform at a bar after the original act has not turned up. They are caught by Suggs, so Alvin starts a bar fight so they can escape. They get into a cab, but the driver (Mark Jeffrey Miller) ejects them for not having money. They spend the night under an old tree, where Miles reveals that his father left him when he was young, causing the four to bond and see each other differently. They raise money busking to take a bus to New Orleans and perform at a Mardi Gras parade. Dave spots the Chipmunks when the parade gets broadcast on live television. Suggs tries to catch the Chipmunks during the parade, but he gets drunk on moonshine. Dave and Samantha find Miles and the Chipmunks at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and punish them for sneaking out and not responding to their many calls and texts. With the Chipmunks now on the No-Fly List, Dave must drive them. When they arrive in Miami, Alvin reveals that he stole the ring from the box, thus sabotaging a proposal. However, since Miles has grown to like the Chipmunks during their trip, he is upset that they are celebrating over this. Miles is crossing the road wearing headphones, and the Chipmunks save him when he is nearly hit by a car. After saving his life, Miles makes amends with the Chipmunks, and they agree to give the ring back. During the dinner, Suggs catches up with the Chipmunks, but they trap him in an elevator. Miles and the Chipmunks return the ring to Dave, saying they accept Samantha and Miles into the family. But Dave reveals the ring was meant for his friend Barry (My Name Is Earl's Eddie Steeples), who was proposing to his girlfriend, Alice (Maxie McClintock). The proposal is ruined, and Dave berates the Chipmunks. As one final apology, they perform a new song for Dave at the launch party with the help of the Chipettes, Ashley and Miles. Also, the ring is returned to Barry, he proposes again, and she accepts. After forgiving them, Dave officially adopts the Chipmunks as his sons. But returning home, he is angered once again finding the squirrels have destroyed the house. Meanwhile, Suggs is freed from the elevator and tries to relax by the pool, only for security guards to carry him out as he is not a hotel guest. Also starring Uzo Aduba as TSA Officer, John Waters as John the First-Class Passenger, and Laura Marano as the Hotel Babysitter. The animated animals are relatively cute and funny in moments, Lee is alright, Green is likeable enough, and Hale laps up being the panto villain. The soundtrack of songs is mixed, including "Baby Got Back", "Uptown Funk", and "Total Eclipse of the Heart", but the squeaky voices become irritating, it is full of immature behaviour and predictable jokes, only the young viewers may find it entertaining, I hope this is the last we've seen of the tiresome furballs, it is a silly live-action/animated jukebox musical adventure comedy. It was nominated the Razzie for Worst Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel. Adequate!
The Wild Robot (2024)
The Wild Robot
I liked the look of this film from the one or two trailers I had seen, it struck me as the kind of thing that may receive nominations during Awards Season as well, so I went to see it on the big screen, directed by Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon, The Call of the Wild). Basically, during a storm, a Universal Dynamics cargo ship loses six all-purpose ROZZUM robots wash up on an island uninhabited by humans. Only one of the robots survives the crash and is accidentally activated by the local wildlife. ROZZUM Unit 7134, or "Roz" (Lupita Nyong'o), tries to advertise her services to the animals but only succeeds in terrifying them and injuring herself. Even after spending several days learning and translating the languages of the animals, she still cannot find anyone who needs help to give her a purpose to function. She decides to signal her manufacturers to retrieve her but gets chased by grizzly bear Thorn (Mark Hamill). While fleeing, she accidentally crushes a goose nest, killing the mother and leaving only one egg remaining. A hungry red fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal) tries to eat the egg, but Roz defends it. The egg hatches, the runt gosling imprints itself onto her, believing she is his mother, and he damages her transponder, meaning she cannot signal to return to her factory. A mother opossum Pinktail (Catherine O'Hara), who has many children obsessed with death, instructs Roz to feed the gosling, teach it to swim and ensure it can fly before the winter migration. Fink realises he can benefit from Roz to gain food supplies and he helps her construct a shelter. Fink helps Roz to name the gosling Brightbill (Boone Storm) and the three begin cohabiting. Several months later, Brightbill (Kit Connor) has grown and learns to swim from Roz and Fink teaching him. Brightbill tries to bond with the island's other geese, who mock him for his size and his relationship with the "monster" that killed his family. Angry at learning the truth and having it kept from him, Brightbill scorns and disowns Roz and leaves. Roz returns to the crash site to learn more about her purpose. Activating another ROZZUM unit, she learns about her original purpose and replaces her transponder. She decides not to give up on Brightbill; she gains the help of the peregrine falcon Thunderbolt (Ving Rhames) to teach Brightbill to fly. Returning to the goose flock, she meets their elderly leader Longneck (Bill Nighy) who gives her advice. Brightbill masters flying just as the geese prepare to migrate, and he departs with them. Distraught at Brightbill's absence and with no purpose, Roz reactivates her transponder to signal for a transporter to return her to the factory. Although she chooses to shut off the signal, it does reach Universal Dynamics headquarters. The geese are forced to shelter during a thunderstorm. They enter a greenhouse at Universal Dynamics headquarters, where RECO (Remote Command and Control) robots are hostile and attack them. Longneck orders Brightbill, the only goose not scared of the robots, to lead the flock to safety. Longneck sacrifices himself, getting shot by a robot's laser and saving Brightbill. Roz almost shuts down before a severe snowstorm stops her after she finds Fink hiding in their shelter. She rescues many animals from the snow, causing her battery levels to drop. Before Roz powers down, she and Fink urge the prey and predators to stop fighting with each other until spring. Thorn agrees to the truce, and the others comply. Roz reawakens months later to find the animals have kept their peace with each other, and the geese return, hailing Brightbill as a hero. A Universal Dynamics dropship crewed by retrieval robot Vontra (Stephanie Hsu) arrives to recover Roz. She initially complies but gets off after hearing from Fink that Brightbill is looking for her. Vontra sends an army of RECOs after Roz, but she and the animals band together to fend them off. Vontra detonates the destroyed RECOs, allowing her to capture Roz, and causing a forest fire. Brightbill leads the geese to attack the drop ship while the other animals extinguish the fire, but he finds that Vontra has already cut Roz's power and wiped her memories. However, Roz's systems are reactivated and restored by her love for Brightbill, and the two destroy Vontra and escape the dropship before it explodes. Although victorious, Roz decides to leave the island to protect her animal friends from future attacks. She promises them that her manufacturers cannot take away her sentience and that she will find a way to return. Months later, Roz is working in a greenhouse at Universal Dynamics headquarters and appears to have been reset to factory settings. Brightbill sneaks in and approaches Roz, who reveals she still has her memories and the two embrace. Also starring Matt Berry as Paddler the neurotic beaver, Dee Bradley Baker as Raccoons / Squirrels / Badgers, Collin Erker as the Skunk, and Randy Thom as RECOs. Nyong'o is splendid as the naïve robot, Pascal is likeable as the mischievous fox, Hsu is good as the seemingly friendly but nasty robot, and Berry gets some funny moments as the easily annoyed beaver. The story of a machine learning to adapt to its hostile surroundings and becoming an adoptive parent is charming, it takes inspiration from The Iron Giant, the third act is unnecessarily action-packed and a bit much, but overall it is a sweet, colourful, beautiful and enjoyable computer-animation science-fiction survival adventure. Very good!
Transformers One (2024)
Transformers One
First came the Hasbro toys, then there was the cartoon TV series and its spinoff movie, and then there was the Michael Bay live-action movies, this latest in the popular franchise is a reboot and prequel going back to original animation roots, directed by Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4). Basically, Cybertron is a planet inhabited by sentient robots fuelled by a substance called Energon. Most inhabitants are fitted with transformation cogs, devices that allow them to transform into vehicles. In the city of Iacon, Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth), a mining robot without a cog, sneaks into an archive. He finds and watches a documentary on the Primes, the first Cybertronians made directly by their creator Primus. Orion is caught by security guards, but his best friend D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry) bails him out. During an Energon mining excavation where Orion and D-16 work, a cave-in occurs, and fellow miner Jazz (Evan Michael Lee) is trapped. While Orion and D-16 save Jazz, their overseer, Darkwing (Isaac C. Singleton Jr.), blames the incident on their superior, Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson), and she is demoted. Cybertron's leader, Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm), returns from an expedition to the planet's surface, claiming to have been fighting against invading Quintesson aliens. Sentinel organises a Big Race Event to celebrate his victory. Orion longs to enter the race to prove themselves as more than miners. He and D-16 sneak into a viewing point and use jet packs to race themselves; they initially gain an advantage against their competitors but ultimately lose. Sentinel meets with them; he praises them and promises to reward them for inadvertently boosting mining morale. But Darkwing intervenes and dumps the two into garbage incineration beneath the city, where they meet the eccentric B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key). Among the junk, they discover a chip containing a distress message from Alpha Trion, one of the Primes, with details of the missing Matrix of Leadership, a powerful artefact. Orion convinces D-16 and B-127 to travel with him to the surface using the signal coordinates. Elita catches them and initially wants to report them to regain her position, but they persuade her to join them as they hitchhike onto a cargo train to the surface. The four eventually find the corpses of the Primes in a cave, along with a deactivated Alpha Trion (Laurence Fishburne). Upon reactivation, Trion reveals that Sentinel betrayed the Primes and has secretly been working for the Quintessons, giving them supplies of Energon regularly in exchange for letting him rule Cybertron. It is also revealed that the miners had their cogs removed to keep them subservient. Trion provides the group with cogs, returning their powers, and allowing them to transform; they practise their abilities on their journey back to the city. They are also given a chip carrying evidence of Sentinel's treason. Sentinel and his forces then arrive, capturing and killing Trion. Evading their pursuers, the team travels back to Iacon to expose Sentinel. But they are captured by the High Guard, former warbots of the Primes rebelling against Sentinel. Orion grows concerned by D-16's increasing aggression since learning the truth about Sentinel; D-16 takes command of the warbots by defeating their leader, Starscream (Steve Buscemi). Sentinel's forces then find them, and in the ensuing battle, D-16, B-127, and half the High Guard are captured while the evidence chip containing Sentinel's betrayal is destroyed. Orion, encouraged by Elita, rallies the remaining High Guard members and returns to Iacon to rescue their comrades. Once there, Orion convinces the miners to rebel while Elita broadcasts the memory recordings of Airachnid (Vanessa Liguori), the lieutenant of Sentinel, to expose him throughout the city. After defeating Sentinel, however, Orion and D-16 argue over whether to execute him, resulting in D-16 accidentally shooting his friend. He is initially horrified but ultimately lets Orion fall to his death. D-16 renames himself "Megatron", he kills Sentinel and commands the High Guard to destroy Iacon. The spirits of Primus and the Primes bestow Orion with the Matrix of Leadership, reviving him as "Optimus Prime". Returning to the city, Optimus defeats Megatron before exiling him and the High Guard. The Matrix is used to restore all the miners' cogs and Cybertron's dried-up Energon reserves. Optimus christens his followers as Autobots and sends a warning message to the Quintessons to stay away. Meanwhile, Megatron renames the High Guard into the Decepticons and declares war on Optimus. Also starring Jon Bailey as Soundwave, Jason Konopisos-Alvarez as Shockwave, and James Remar as Zeta Prime. Hemsworth, Johansson, Key, and Hamm all provide suitable for the characters, the animation resembling the original television show is a good choice, it works well as an origins story, it might be slightly predictable but it is exciting and funny at the right moments, certainly something for all the family, an enjoyable computer-animated science-fiction action. Transformers (action figures) was number 17 on 100 Greatest Toys, and (TV series) was number 37 on The 100 Greatest Cartoons. Good!
The Transformers: The Movie (1986)
Transformers: The Movie
During the success of the Hasbro toys, and long before the Michael Bay live-action movies, there was this 1980s cartoon feature film spinoff from the popular cartoon television series which was not rated well by critics. Basically, in the year 2005, Cybertron, the home planet of the Autobots, has been conquered by the evil Decepticons. Operating from Cybertron's two moons, the heroic Autobots are preparing a counter-offensive. Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), leader of the Autobots, sends a shuttle to Autobot City on Earth for supplies. The Decepticons discover this plan, they kill several Autobots and hijack the ship. Hot Rod (Judd Nelson) is fishing with Daniel Witwicky (David Mendenhall) on Earth in Autobot City when the hijacked shuttle is spotted, and a battle breaks out. Optimus arrives with reinforcements and fights with Megatron (Frank Welker), leader of the Decepticons. Both are mortally wounded, forcing the Decepticons to retreat to space in Astrotrain (Jack Angel). Optimus passes the Matrix of Leadership, a powerful artefact, to Ultra Magnus (Robert Stack). Before dying, Megatron tells Ultra Magnus that its power will light the Autobots' darkest hour. To conserve fuel, the Decepticons' treacherous second-in-command Starscream (Christopher Collins) orders the jettison of wounded members, including Megatron who is abandoned. Drifting in space, the wounded Decepticons are found by the sentient planet Unicron (Orson Welles, in one of his final roles) who consumes other worlds. Unicron offers Megatron a new body in exchange for destroying the Matrix, which has the power to destroy Unicron. Megatron reluctantly agrees and becomes Galvatron (Leonard Nimoy), while the other jettisoned Decepticons are converted into his new troops. On Cybertron, the Decepticons are carrying out the coronation of Starscream as the new leader. This is disrupted by Galvatron who kills Starscream. The moons of Cybertron are consumed by Unicron, including the secret bases with Autobots and Spike Witwicky (Corey Burton), Daniel's father. Galvatron retakes command of the Decepticons and leads his forces to seek out Ultra Magnus at the ruined Autobot City. The surviving Autobots escape in separate shuttles which are shot down by the Decepticons and crash on different planets. Hot Rod and Kup (Lionel Stander) are taken prisoner by the Quintessons, tyrants who hold informal courts and execute prisoners by feeding them to the Sharkticons. Hot Rod and Kup learn of Unicron from Kranix (Norman Alden), a lone survivor of Lithone, one of the planets devoured by Unicron. After Kranix is executed, Hot Rod and Kup escape, aided by the Dinobots Wheelie (Frank Welker), a small Autobot who helps them find an escape ship. The other Autobots land on the Planet of Junk, where they are attacked by the native Junkions led by Wreck-Gar (Eric Idle), who then hide from Galvatron's arriving forces. Ultra Magnus secures the remaining Autobots but fails to release the power of the Matrix. Magnus is destroyed by Galvatron, who seizes the Matrix, which he intends to use to control Unicron. The arriving Autobots from Quintesson led by Hot Rod befriend Wreck-Gar and the Junkions, who in return rebuilds Ultra Magnus. The Autobots and the Junkions realise that Galvatron now has the Matrix, and they fly to Cybertron. Galvatron attempts to threaten Unicron, but like Ultra Magnus, cannot activate the Matrix. In response, Unicron transforms into a colossal robot and takes Cybertron apart. When Galvatron attacks him, Unicron swallows him and the Matrix whole. The Autobots arrive while Unicron continues to battle Decepticons, Junkions, and other defenders of Cybertron. Daniel saves his father from Unicron's digestive system, and several Autobots are rescued by the group. Galvatron tries to form an alliance with Hot Rod, but Unicron forces him to attack. Hot Rod is almost killed but recovers and activates the Matrix, becoming Rodimus Prime (Judd Nelson), the new Autobot leader. Rodimus tosses Galvatron into space and uses the Matrix's power to destroy Unicron, then escapes with the other Autobots. With the Decepticons in disarray, the Autobots celebrate the end of the war and the retaking of their home planet, while Unicron's severed head orbits Cybertron. Also starring Peter Cullen as Ironhide, Susan Blu as Arcee, Frank Welker as Soundwave / Rumble / Frenzy / Ravage, Neil Ross as Bonecrusher / Hook / Springer / Slag, Scatman Crothers as Jazz, Dan Gilvezan as Bumblebee, Don Messick as Scavenger, Gregg Berger as Grimlock, Paul Eiding as Perceptor, Buster Jones as Blaster, John Moschitta Jr. As Blurr, Arthur Burghardt as Devastator, and Victor Caroli as the Narrator. The voices of Nimoy, Nelson, Welles, and regular Cullen are all fine, and vehicles and machines mutating into robots are alright. The problem is the animation is patchy, the plot is messy, the dialogue is cheesy with some unnecessary bad language, and the soundtrack heavy metal music by Stan Bush and "Weird Al" Yankovic in many scenes is confusing and awful, even the recognisable theme song is ruined, overall, it is a rubbish animated science-fiction action. Transformers (action figures) was number 17 on 100 Greatest Toys, and (TV series) was number 37 on The 100 Greatest Cartoons. Pretty poor!
Smile 2 (2024)
Smile 2
Some critics were slightly harsh about the original movie being cliched, I personally thought it was an effective scary movie with a format like The Ring (a curse that kills in seven days); I was excited when I saw the trailers for a sequel. Basically, six days after witnessing Rose Cotter's suicide, ex-police detective Joel (Kyle Gallner) tries to pass the Smile Entity's curse onto a pair of criminals, intending to kill one and make the other his witness. This confrontation becomes a shootout; Joel kills one of the criminals, but the intended witness dies from his injuries. Then Joel finds drug dealer Lewis Fregoli (Lukas Gage) has inadvertently witnessed the event, inheriting the curse. Joel is regretful of what has happened; he flees from approaching criminals but is fatally run over and severed by a pickup truck. In New York City, Grammy winning pop star Skye Riley (Aladdin's Naomi Scott) is preparing for her comeback tour. She appears on The Drew Barrymore Show to talk about her struggle with substance abuse and the car crash she survived which killed her boyfriend, actor Paul Hudson (Ray Nicholson); she was left with a large scar on her chest. Despite constant supervision from her mother and manager Elizabeth (Rosemarie DeWitt) and assistant Joshua (Miles Gutierrez-Riley), she is secretly addicted to Vicodin for back pain. She sneaks out to buy additional drugs from Lewis, her former school friend. She finds him in a manic state, and he almost attacks her; she assumes he is high on drugs, and he tells her he has been seeing and experiencing crazy things. Moments later, Lewis screams in terror and sees something she cannot; he displays a menacing smile and commits suicide, smashing his own face in with a weight plate. She is traumatised but does not call the emergency services because of the drugs at the scene, and she flees. Soon, the curse manifests as Skye experiences physical and auditory hallucinations, including people eerily smiling at her. On the opening night of the tour, she panics seeing a message from an unknown number telling her that they saw her at Lewis's apartment. She is also terrified by seeing Lewis's corpse behind her in the mirror. Desperate for help and comfort, she decides to follow previous advice from her mother and contacts her estranged ex-best friend Gemma (Dylan Gelula), who she has not spoken to in almost a year. Gemma shows up at her hotel, disturbed by Skye's erratic behaviour after a terrifying vision. Eventually Skye calms and confesses what happened at Lewis's place; Gemma agrees to stay with her that night and they reconcile. At a fan signing and photo session, Skye is approached by a crazed fan named Alfredo (Iván Carlo) who is dragged away by security; Skye is shaken but determined to carry on. Then she is approached by a little girl wearing braces (Mila Falkof) who says nothing and continually smiles at her. Skye has been invited to speak at a charity event, initiated by music executive Darius (Raúl Castillo). The teleprompter stalls and Skye is forced to give an embarrassing impromptu speech until the stall is revealed to be a hallucination. Then when it works again, Skye begins introducing the next speaker, and the audience is shocked when she speaks the name Paul Hudson. She then sees a smiling Paul begin to approach her. In a panic, she lashes out, accidentally injuring an elderly patron onstage and causing bad publicity. When Skye receives another message from the unknown number, the texter is aware of what is happening and that she is in danger, and she arranges to meet them in a bar. Former nurse Morris (Peter Jacobson) has been tracking the entity because it killed his brother, who possessed killed himself with a crowbar. He explains that the curse passes to anyone who witnesses the victim's death, and he has tracked it back from eight victims, all of whom have died within a week. Morris theorises the parasitic entity cannot be passed without a host and that (temporarily) killing the current host will stop it. He suggests stopping Skye's heart and then resuscitating her to break the curse. She is horrified at the idea, and she flees after being recognised by bar patrons. At her apartment, the entity appears as all her backup dancers, smiling and surrounding her. The entity attacks her and leaves her with a concussion. A flashback reveals that Skye and Paul had a bitter drug-fuelled argument while he was driving; she caused the accident by turning the wheel and they crashed into a tree off-road, killing him. Skye wakes at a wellness retreat and has a bitter argument with her mother concerning the tour. She watches in horror as her mother is revealed to be the entity, smiling, and stabbing herself in the face. Skye then realises she is covered in blood and was possessed into killing her mother. Skye runs out of the room, grabs a security guard's gun and escapes the wellness retreat. She reunites with Gemma outside, with Skye carjacking her own private driver, and Gemma drives them away. Skye tells Gemma to drive to a location determined by Morris for the resuscitation procedure. Moments later, the real Gemma calls Skye, revealing the entity has been impersonating her the entire time. Skye wakes herself up from her trance, waking dazed and confused behind the wheel. Skye meets Morris at an abandoned Pizza Hut restaurant, where they plan to use the walk-in freezer to slow the process and prevent permanent brain damage. Morris gives her the syringe with the solution to slow her heart rate and steps out of the room. The entity appears again, appearing as Skye's past self, and attacks her again. Desperate, Skye injects herself with the syringe, but the entity mocks her, revealing she's still hallucinating. Skye suddenly finds herself on stage at her tour's opening night at Madison Square Garden. She sees Joshua, Darius, and a still-alive Elizabeth in the audience along with thousands of happy screaming fans. Unseen by others, the entity reveals its true form to Skye as a skinless, semi-humanoid monstrosity with multiple pairs of nested smiles. The monster forces its way into her body by crawling through her mouth. To the audience, she appears to choke and collapse. Then Skye stands up, possessed and smiling eerily, which is projected on the big screens. The audience watches in horror as Skye brutally stabs herself in the eye with her microphone, passing the curse to the thousands of horrified spectators. Also starring Zebedee Row as Alexi, Roberts Jekabsons as Yev, Sean Stolzen as Maksim, Drew Barrymore as herself, and Trevor Newlin as the Monstrosity. Scott gives a compelling performance as the singer going through both the pressures of stardom and the nasty apparitions, the story cleverly weaves the themes of drug use with the demonic visions, the eerie atmosphere is effective, the jump scares are well done, the violent moments are suitably grisly, and the pop song and dance routines every so often are catchy. I will admit the ending was a bit uneven and adds questions as to what will happen in a third movie, but overall, this is a worthwhile psychological supernatural horror. Good!
The Outrun (2024)
The Outrun
I watched trailers for this film a few times before its release, and I was up for a movie with the actress from Hanna, Brooklyn, and Lady Bird; I recognised it was a film about alcohol addiction, so it is possibly one that could be nominated during Awards Season. Basically, the story is told in a non-linear order. Rona (Saoirse Ronan) is a young Irish woman recently out of rehabilitation following a decade of alcoholism treatment. Wanting to help clear her mind and remain sober, she returns to the family home on the Orkney Islands in Scotland. Her English parents, Andrew (Stephen Dillane), who is bipolar, and Annie (Saskia Reeves), who is religious, have been separated for a long time. Staying with them alternately, Rona helps her father on his farm and meets her mother's religious friends. Flashbacks show Rona during her student years in London, where she was a biology graduate. She often went clubbing and had a relationship with her boyfriend Daynin (Paapa Essiedu). However, Rona's drinking turns to alcoholism, causing problems in her relationship, and unintentional injury. Eventually, Daynin cannot cope with her behaviour and leaves her. One night, Rona is attacked while drunk. Soon afterwards, she enters rehab and completes a 90-day sober program. Back on the Orkneys, Rona struggles to connect with others. Rona decides to return to London, but on the ferry, she has an overwhelming urge to drink and abandons her plan to leave. She finds work with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds which involves a systematic search for the rare bird the corn crake, listening for its distinctive call. One day, visiting her father, Rona finds him in a non-responsive state. On the side she finds his abandoned wineglass and dips her finger in the red wine to taste, leading to a brief relapse. Soon afterwards, Rona gets a job with the RSPB on the remote Papa Westray island, home to a tiny community. Living by herself, she connects with some of the other islanders and attends Alcoholics Anonymous. She still struggles to avoid the temptation to drink and tries swimming in the cold water. A fellow alcoholic who runs the grocery store assures her that he has been sober for several years and that it does become easier. During a windy winter on Papa Westray, she develops an interest in seaweed biology and her mother is pleased she is becoming healthier. As she prepares to depart that spring, Rona hears the call of a corn crake for the first time and laughs in delight. Also starring Lauren Lyle as Julie, Naomi Wirthner as Amanda, EastEnders' Nabil Elouahabi as Samir, Tony Hamilton-Croft as Gary, Conrad Williamson as Jack, and Seamus Dillane as James the Barman. Ronan gives a terrific raw performance as the girl trying to control her demons and her tempestuous nature. It is a simple enough story of addiction, although the backwards and forwards storytelling can be slightly confusing at times. However, it is good not to slip into drastic melodrama, the emotional moments are controlled and realistic, and the sights of the island (apparently this is the first major film set in the Orkneys) make for great viewing, a worthwhile drama. Good!
Terrifier 3 (2024)
Terrifier 3
The first Terrifier was a gory cult hit with limited screenings, the second was a bigger hit mostly through streaming and again limited screenings, this third entry was properly released in various cinemas and with another increased budget. It was receiving notoriety, including being banned in France (the first time for a film since Saw III in 2006) and with reports of audience reactions, including vomiting and walkouts, so I had to see it, written and directed by Damien Leone (All Hallows' Eve). Basically, it opens with a man in a festive red suit entering the home of a family while a little girl named Juliet (Luciana VanDette) sneaks downstairs. The man goes upstairs with an axe; the sounds of the girl's brother Timmy (Kellen Raffaelo) being slaughtered are heard. The man then goes into the parents' bedroom; wife/mother Jennifer (Krsy Fox) wakes in terror finding Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton), dressed as Santa Claus dismembering her husband Mark (Alex Ross). After hacking her as well, Art goes downstairs to have cookies and milk, does some washing up, and finds Juliet hiding in a cupboard (he presumably kills her as well). Five years earlier, Art's decapitated corpse is reanimated and goes to the mental asylum where survivor Victoria Heyes (Samantha Scaffidi) has just given birth to his head. They kill a nurse and a guard before fleeing to an abandoned house to hide out. After restoring Art's head, Victoria slashes her arm to drain her blood into a bathtub while Art sits in a rocking chair beside an upstairs window. In the present, Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) has been released from a psychiatric hospital. She goes to stay with her aunt Jessica (Margaret Anne Florence) and her husband Greg (Bryce Johnson), along with their daughter Gabbie (Antonella Rose), who idolises Sienna but has no knowledge of events. Despite going through treatment for trauma, Sienna is still haunted by visions of her deceased friends. Meanwhile, she has become estranged from her younger brother Jonathan (Elliott Fullam) who is starting college and wants to move on with his life. At the abandoned house, demolition workers Dennis (Jon Abrahams) and Jackson (Michael Genet) stumble upon the bodies of Art and Victoria who are woken from their slumber. They kill the two workers and venture off on another killing spree. At a bar, Santa Claus impersonator Charles "Charlie" Johnson (Daniel Roebuck) is having a drink. Art enters and drinks with him and patron Smokey (Clint Howard), but Charlie and bar owner Eddie (Bradley Stryker) are angered by his inappropriate behaviour. Art murders Eddie and Smokey, shooting them with a gun, and he knocks Charlie unconscious. When Charlie wakes, he finds himself tied to a chair; Art steals his Santa Claus costume, and then sprays him with a canister containing liquid nitrogen, freezing his face and limbs, shattering them with a hammer and killing him; he sticks a carrot in his smashed face like a snowman's nose. Sienna and Jessica go Christmas shopping together at the mall, and Sienna is shaken seeing a figure dressed in a Santa suit wearing a mask waving at her. Art goes to the department store Santa's Grotto, impersonating the mall Santa, passing soft toys to the children but unsettling the gathered parents. After being escorted away by security, and after the return of the real mall Santa (Chip Carriere), a boy opens a box, triggering a bomb inside, and the explosion kills several bystanders. Sienna tells her relatives what she witnessed before the bombing, but they do not believe her, assuming she is having a mental episode. Sienna visits Jonathan at his university, where she meets Jonathan's dorm roommate Cole (Mason Mecartea) and his girlfriend Mia (Alexa Blair Robertson), who hosts a true crime podcast. Mia is obsessed with the Miles County Massacre and pressures Sienna and Jonathan to participate in an interview about the murderer. Sienna angrily refuses and berates Mia for not considering the feelings of victims of the crimes. Sienna tells Jonathan about the masked man she saw and thinks Art is still alive. They learn that demons can be reborn through a host, like Victoria, and there are angels opposite to these demons. Sienna tells Jonathan she plans to return to the Terrifier attraction at the abandoned fairground to retrieve the sword gifted to her by her father Michael (Jason Patric). Flashbacks reveal that Michael, a comic book illustrator, created an angel warrior character for young Sienna (Luciana Elisa Quinonez). At Jonathan's university, Cole and Mia are having sex in the showers. Art arrives and kills them with a chainsaw, mutilating Cole's backside and private parts, and severing Mia's limbs and face. Sienna learns about the killings on the news and panics. She insists on calling Jonathan and Greg agrees to go and pick him up. Sienna falls asleep and dreams about the angels crafting her angel warrior costume. She wakes to find Art and Victoria have invaded her home, and Art knocks her out with a mallet. When Sienna regains consciousness, she sees Greg's naked corpse bloodied and pinned to the wall and Jess tied up in a chair across from her. Victoria shows them a skinned head being consumed by rats, claiming it is Gabbie. Victoria then kills Jess by hammering a tube down her throat, forcing rats to scurry in with a blowtorch. Art suddenly enters with Gabbie as a hostage, and Victoria reveals to Sienna that the head is, in fact, Jonathan's. Victoria places a crown of thorns on Sienna's head and tries to possess Sienna but she is strong enough to resist this. Victoria prepares to kill Sienna and Gabbie before a wrapped present is pointed out resting under the Christmas tree. Despite her hands being smashed, Sienna manages to open the gift; she stabs Victoria with its contents, her father's sword. Sienna decapitates Victoria, who disintegrates. Art attacks Sienna with his chainsaw, but with her blade, she gains the upper hand and stabs him in the back. Victoria's blood burns through the floor and opens a portal to Hell. Gabbie falls and holds onto the edge, and Sienna leaves Art behind to save her. She holds her sword by the sharp edges to let Gabbie grab the handle to pull her up, but she cannot save Gabbie, and she falls into the abyss along with the sword. Sienna initially weeps while Art flees through a window. But Sienna is perplexed to see her lacerated hands healing, and she vows to find and rescue Gabbie. It ends with Art boarding a bus out of town. Also starring Chris Jericho as Burke the orderly, Tom Savini as a bystander, Stephen Cofield Jr. As Officer Evans, Phil Falcone as Tom the Bus Driver, Andrew Hollinger as the department store Elf, Robert Catalano as the Photographer, and Corinne Kelly as the Bag Lady. Thornton is still sinister as the insane black-and-white circus performer who is silent and often smiley throughout his various murders, Scaffidi as his facially disfigured sidekick is equally nasty, and LaVera remains a feisty cosplayer heroine. This is easily the most extreme, brutal, stomach-churning, gross, and blood-soaked of the trilogy so far with its barrage of gory violence, I squirmed frequently as characters are mutilated, torn apart, and hacked up by the antagonist, who has become a cultural icon of the genre. The festive setting adds a little something to it, there are touches of humour in amongst the slaughter, the atmosphere and tension are still spot on, and it feels like a throwback to the days of the "video nasties", I'm confident the fourth entry will only be bloodier, this is a most watchable Christmas slasher horror. Good!
A Different Man (2024)
A Different Man
I found out about this film online somewhere and instantly recognised the British star of Under the Skin, then I found out that the leading actor was in prosthetic makeup to look like he has the same facial disability, I was curious what this film would have to offer. Basically, in New York City, Edward Lemuel (Captain America: The Winter Soldier's Sebastian Stan) is a reclusive man and struggling actor with the facial condition neurofibromatosis. He lives alone in his apartment which has a damaged leaking ceiling and a bearded neighbour a few doors away who acts strangely and later hangs himself. Aspiring playwright Ingrid Vold (Renate Reinsve) moves into the apartment next door and befriends Edward. One day, she meets Ingrid who aids him when he cuts his hand and gives him an unused typewriter. As they get to know each other he is too nervous to tell her about his feelings for her because he believes she will reject him. During a medical examination, Edward is informed about an experimental medical treatment to cure him of his condition. The scientists start by creating a wearable mask cast of his original face as a reference for his progress and as a memento for his change. He receives an injection that will slowly cause his non-cancerous tumours to peel from his face. Over time, the tumours are painfully shed, leaving behind good skin and revealing a "normal" face in the mirror. He avoids being seen by Ingrid, and when scientist Dr. Flexner (Malachi Weir) comes to visit him, he assumes the identity of "Guy Moratz" and claims that Edward has killed himself. Feeling comfortable going out, he goes to a bar he previously visited to see public reactions to his new face and finds himself able to socialise. Sometime later, "Guy" has become a wealthy and successful real estate agent, with his face on cardboard cut-outs advertising the company. One day, he discovers that Ingrid is producing a play off-Broadway titled Edward, a Beauty and the Beast kind of story based on Edward's life. He originally auditions as a secondary character with a normal face but then returns wearing the mask of his original face. Ingrid is unsure of casting an actor without facial disfigurement, but he says he is suitable for the role and gives convincing a moving performance. Edward and Ingrid begin a relationship, and she remains unaware of his true identity. One night, whilst having sex, she asks him to wear the mask, but she cannot take their lovemaking seriously. During rehearsals, Edward is critical about the ending of the play, with the lead character committing suicide. She agrees and rewrites it to have a more positive ending and to make the character more sympathetic, but the changing script only causes him problems. One day, they are visited by Oswald (Adam Pearson), an English man with neurofibromatosis who has taken an interest in the play. Edward is stunned to see a man with his former affliction and confused by his outgoing demeanour. The confident and charismatic Oswald quickly befriends the cast and crew and joins them to give advice on the leading character based on his own experiences. Ingrid and Oswald grow closer, and after Edward is unable to remember his lines, she decides to recast Oswald in the lead role. The play is a success, and Oswald's performance receives rave reviews. Edward spends some time with Oswald who is charismatic and popular; they go to a karaoke bar and he is confident to get onstage and sing in front of a crowd. Edward's mental state begins to deteriorate because he is confused as to why Oswald seems to have a better life than he does despite his facial disfigurement, and he later begins stalking Oswald. Edward has a breakdown and decides to wear his mask during a house viewing, but he disturbs the customers with his outlandish behaviour, and he is fired from the estate agents. Then he flips out, storming the stage during a performance of the play, physically attacking Oswald and berating him for taking his life. During the fight, part of the set is damaged and falls on Edward, breaking his legs and arms. While recovering from his injuries, he moves back into his former apartment next to Ingrid. She is now living with Oswald, and they are making plans to adapt the play into a feature film. They have a meeting regarding the film with Hollywood star Michael Shannon (as himself). One day, Edward's physical therapist speaks about Oswald behind his back and expresses disgust about his face. An angered Edward stabs the therapist to death and is sent to prison for murder. Years later, following his release, an older Edward once again encounters Oswald. They go to dinner together; Oswald and Ingrid are married and have become a highly successful creative duo. They talk about planning their retirement to a commune in Canada, which may or may not be a nudist colony. A waiter arrives to take their orders, but a visibly nervous Edward struggles to choose from the menu. Oswald jokes that Edward hasn't changed a bit. Also starring C. Mason Wells as Carl, Owen Kline as Nick, Charlie Korsmo as Ron Belcher, Patrick Wang as a director, Mark Geller as Ragged Man, John Keating as Dr. Varno, Corey R. Taylor as Luther, David Joseph Regelmann as Dr. Jewell, Nina White as Dr. Trutz, Cornelius Horgan as the Bartender, Peter D. Straus as the Abraham Lincoln performer. Stan gives an interesting performance as the man who is no happier after changing his face, Reinsve does alright as the woman who admires him with his disfigurement, unknowingly without, and then moves on with another man with it, and Pearson (who has neurofibromatosis in real life) almost steals the show with his supporting but winning, charming, and funny performance as the man who perplexes the lead character. The science-fiction element is fine, the change of the lead character's physical identity and later sane personality works well, it has great special effects makeup, and it does make good points about social prejudice regarding disability, it is dark and uncomfortable sometimes, but it is ambitious and artistic, an interesting black comedy psychological thriller. Good!
In America (2002)
In America
I happened upon this film when it was broadcast on television some years ago, I remembered the scene for a long time, so I was glad when I finally got the opportunity to watch the full feature, directed by Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father, Brothers). Basically, set in 1982, the Sullivan family, husband/father Johnny (Paddy Considine), wife/mother Sarah (Oscar nominated Samantha Morton) and their daughters Christy (Sarah Bolger) and Ariel (Emma Bolger), have moved from Ireland via Canada to the United States (they are illegal immigrants). The family settles in New York City, in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, in a rundown apartment building occupied by drug addicts, transvestites, and a reclusive Nigerian artist/photographer named Mateo Kuamey (Oscar nominated Djimon Hounsou). The death of five-year-old son Frankie, who fell down the stairs and later discovered a fatal brain tumour, still hangs over the family. The devout Roman Catholic Johnny, who is trying to continue a career in acting, has lost the ability to express and feel true emotions, affecting his relationship with his family. Christy believes she has been granted three wishes by her dead brother, and she waits for the right moment to use them when the family is in desperate circumstances. While Johnny unsuccessfully auditions for any role he can get on stage, Sarah gets a job in the local ice cream parlour to support the family. Despite their poverty, exploring the American culture and the closeness of the family gives them the energy to make the most of what they have. Christy often chronicles with a cherished camcorder. As money runs low, there is a heatwave; Johnny finds an abandoned air conditioner which he buys an adapter plug to try and get working but it causes a power cut. The family dip into savings to go to the cinema to see ET the Extra-Terrestrial where they can enjoy air conditioning and the movie. The family later go to a carnival where they find a ball and bucket target game to win an ET cuddly toy. Johnny squanders large sums of their much-needed money to get seven balls in the bucket to win the toy, and after Christy makes a wish to Frankie, he successfully wins the toy and their money back. As the summer heat continues, tensions rise between Johnny and Sarah, but they talk things through and make love. Their financial and emotional strain is made more difficult when Sarah discovers she is pregnant. Eventually, Johnny finds work as a cab driver to improve their income for the baby and to help pay for the girls' Catholic school tuition. On Halloween, Christy and Ariel dress up and go trick-or-treating in the neighbourhood and the apartment building. The girls knock on Mateo's door, he is initially angry but slowly warms to them. Johnny is reticent about the somewhat imposing and forbidding man, but Sarah agrees the girls can invite Mateo to dinner. They learn that Mateo is a sad and lonely man because he is dying of AIDS. They spend more time with their new friend, including a snowball fight during the winter. Later, Mateo falls down the apartment building's flight of stairs and is knocked unconscious. Christy tries to resuscitate him using CPR, but the other residents warn her that he is HIV-positive and discourage her. While Mateo's condition continues to deteriorate, Sarah's fetus develops; doctors warn her that she or the child could during labour, but she is determined to go ahead with it. The baby is born prematurely and in poor health, needing a blood transfusion, making Johnny and Sarah nervous about the baby's survival chances. This is combined with the skyrocketing hospital bills to be paid following the baby's delivery. While recovering in the hospital, Sarah has a brief nervous breakdown, blaming Johnny for Frankie's death and tearfully berating him. After calming her down, Johnny and Sarah agree to the blood transfusion but insist they are reluctant to use hospital blood banks as this was the source of Mateo's contraction of HIV. Shortly, it is discovered that Christy has a compatible blood type to donate. Mateo's death coincides with the first healthy movements of the infant following a blood transfusion from Christy. After the successful operation, Johnny is startled to find that the astronomical hospital bill has already been paid. The fee was settled by Mateo before he died because he had a large trust fund he never spent. Johnny and Sarah give the newborn baby girl, Sarah (Molly Glynn), the middle name of Mateo in gratitude and to honour his memory. Following the baby's birth and the death of Mateo, Johnny is finally able to overcome his lack of emotion and put his grieving for Frankie to rest. Later, he gets a break by getting a small role in A Chorus Line on Broadway. The film ends with the Sullivan family holding a baby shower with many of the apartment building tenants present to celebrate, and Christy and the rest of her family look at the Moon looking out for Mateo in the night sky. Also starring Ciaran Cronin as Frankie, Merrina Millsapp as Marina, Guy Carleton as the Man at the Carnival, Adrian Martinez as the Shopkeeper, Bob Gallico as the Theatre Director, Jason Killalee as the Assistant Theatre Director, and Des Bishop as the Stockbroker in the Taxi. Morton (who has short hair following her role in Minority Report) gives a great performance as the struggling mum who tries to stay positive, Considine is good as the emotionless dad, Hounsou is interesting as the reclusive neighbour who opens up to and becomes friendly, and the real-life Bolger sisters are fantastic as the children. It is a splendid semi-autobiographical story from the point-of-view of a child with strong messages about hope, faith and love, there are the dark moments that make it gritty, but they do not overshadow an overall feeling of childhood wonder and exploration, a satisfactory mostly heart-warming drama. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay for Jim Sheridan and his daughters Naomi and Kirsten. Very good!
Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)
Joker: Folie à Deux
Released the same year that DC Comics was celebrating the 85th anniversary of Batman, this sequel (translated "madness for two") was originally unplanned, with the original film being a standalone. There was much speculation about the format (with song and dance numbers) and the introduction of the lead character's sidekick and girlfriend, and it was receiving mixed to negative reviews but I was always going to see it, directed by Todd Phillips (Road Trip, The Hangover, War Dogs). Basically, it opens with a Looney Tunes style cartoon, where the Joker fights his own shadow who tries to impersonate him at a red-carpet event for his own TV show. The shadow takes his place to perform a singing number before abandoning the Joker onstage and three policemen arrive and beat him. At Arkham State Hospital, Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is in custody awaiting trial for the crimes he committed two years ago, specifically five counts of murder. His lawyer, Maryanne Stewart (Catherine Keener), plans to argue that Arthur has dissociative identity disorder and that the "Joker", his secondary personality, is responsible for the crimes. The guards of the hospital, led by the abusive Jackie Sullivan (Brendan Gleeson), take advantage of Arthur, bribing him with cigarettes to tell jokes. For his good behaviour and to increase his chances, Arthur is taken to the B ward where there is a music therapy session. There, he meets another patient, Harleen "Lee" Quinzel (Lady Gaga) who recognises him on television and admires him for killing TV chat show host Murray Franklin. Lee confides to Arthur that she grew up in the same neighbourhood he did, had an abusive father who died in a car crash and was committed after burning down her parents' apartment building. Arthur confesses to her that he actually killed six people; he killed his mother smothering her in hospital. In B war, during a film screening of The Band Wagon, Lee starts a fire. She and Arthur are caught trying to escape, and Arthur is placed in solitary confinement. Lee visits him to tell him she is being released to avoid his influence. She promises to attend his trial, and after painting his face with makeup they have sex. Arthur is interviewed by television personality Paddy Meyers (Steve Coogan) as part of his defence campaign. During the interview, Arthur sings to Lee through the television screen, deepening her love for him. On the day of the trial, Assistant District Attorney Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey) calls witnesses who dismiss Arthur's claims of insanity. During a break, Maryanne reveals that Lee has been lying to him; she was a psychiatry student who grew up in the Upper West Side, and her father is a doctor and is alive. Furthermore, she voluntarily committed herself and checked herself out, and she never burned down an apartment building. Lee visits him and he confronts her about her lies, she confesses that she wanted to get closer to him. She then tells him that she is pregnant and has moved into his old apartment building wanting to make a home for them. At the trial the next day, Arthur's former neighbour Sophie Dumond (Zazie Beetz), whom Arthur had an obsessive crush on (he previously fantasised them in a relationship), is called to give her testimony. Arthur has become unsatisfied with Maryanne's defence representation; he dismisses and informs Judge Herman Rothwax (Bill Smitrovich) that he wants to defend himself. As the case reaches its final stages, Arthur chooses to don his Joker makeup and costume. Arthur's former co-worker Gary Puddles (Celebrity Juice's Leigh Gill) is brought to the stand. Gary details Arthur killing their colleague, admitting that he has been terrified ever since, and cries because Arthur was the only person who treated him well. Arthur, visibly affected by Gary's testimony, offers no defence, but he mocks the Arkham guards and indicates that they abuse him. Returning to Arkham, he is taken by Sullivan and two guards to the showers and brutally assaulted before being dragged to his cell partially naked. Arthur's fellow inmate and friend Ricky Meline (Jacob Lofland) verbally confronts the guards, resulting in Jackie strangling him to death. During his closing argument in court the following day, a devastated Arthur renounces his Joker persona, taking full responsibility for his actions. Lee is enraged and storms out, and the jury finds Arthur guilty of first-degree murder. But while the foreman (Angela D. Watson) is reading the verdict, a car bomb explodes outside the courthouse, destroying the building. Several people are killed, and many others injured, including Dent who has the left side of his face heavily scarred (becoming Two-Face). Arthur wakes and stumbles out of the building, and two followers dressed as clowns help him to escape. Eventually, Arthur gets out of the car and runs from the followers. Arthur wanders through Gotham City and encounters Lee outside his old apartment, but she rejects him for renouncing his Joker persona. As she leaves, the police surround Arthur, and he allows them to apprehend and return him to Arkham. The next day, Arthur is informed he has a visitor (we never see who it is); he is approached by a young inmate (Connor Storrie) who asks to tell him a joke he has been working on. The "punchline" is the inmate repeatedly stabbing Arthur in the abdomen. As Arthur bleeds to death, his assailant carves a smile on his own face while laughing hysterically. Arthur imagines himself and Lee onstage for a showtune before he dies. Also starring Ken Leung as Dr. Victor Liu, Sharon Washington as social worker Debra Kane, Alfred Rubin Thompson as Ernie Bullock, Gregg Daniel as the Music Teacher, June Carryl as Dr. Louise Beatty, and Martin Kildare as the News Anchor. Phoenix (who deservedly won the Oscar for the predecessor) is good as the self-pitying former comedian turned criminal, Lady Gaga is interesting as his equally kooky love interest (Harley Quinn), they have great chemistry whilst smitten and singing together, Gleeson offers interesting support as the dodgy Irish guard, Coogan is slightly annoying and pointless, Gill has a memorable scene, and Keener, Lawtey and Beetz are fine. The songs performed by Phoenix and Lady Gaga (all related to happiness, smiling, laughing, love and entertainment) include "Get Happy", "For Once in My Life", "If My Friends Could See Me Now", "When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles with You)", "That's Entertainment", "To Love Somebody", "They Long to Be (Close to You)", and "Gonna Build a Mountain", and the soundtrack includes "What the World Needs Now Is Love" by Nick Cave, "When the Saints Go Marching In", "Dancing in the Moonlight" by King Harvest, "My Life" by Billy Joel, and "That's Life" by Frank Sinatra. As with the previous film, it is dark and overly depressing, but the well-put-together song and dance routines (imaginations in the minds of the leads) add a little comic relief, the court case stuff is gripping enough, and there are no complaints about the performances or vocals of the lead stars. The problem is, the film is too odd and just doesn't work as well as it could have, if it weren't for the two leads, some small gripping moments and some of the songs it would be complete rubbish; I can understand why there is so much negativity about it, I wanted to enjoy it but I just couldn't quite, a disappointing jukebox musical psychological thriller. Adequate!
Saucy!: Secrets of the British Sex Comedy (2024)
Saucy!: Secrets of the British Sex Comedy
In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, the British sex comedy was one of the most prominent and successful genres at the cinemas, and I was most interested to see this documentary exploring them. It was the sexual revolution in 1960s London that started to change attitudes in Great Britain towards sex, and although pornography was illegal, it did not stop British filmmakers from introducing this popular trend of films. Adult entertainment in films was mostly controlled by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification), with film censor John Trevelyan at the helm, "protecting the public" (mostly the conservative and upper class) from depravity and corruption. Any films containing high amounts of sex or nudity were considered exploitation films, often given the X certificate (16 or over). There was a farce comedy play that mocked the "attitudes" of the time titled No Sex Please We're British. It was the Carry On films that for years entertained cinemagoers with its seaside postcard innuendo style comedy. The first mainstream film to feature nudism was the George Harrison Marks documentary Naked As Nature Intended (1961). The first exploitation film ever made for mainstream audiences was School for Sex (1969), with the "cool version" released for those easily offended, and the "hot version" released for those looking for more adult content. The term "the man in the mac" was coined throughout the period, used to describe cinemagoers (especially businessmen) who entered screenings of films containing adult content, whilst wearing mackintosh coats so that they could (presumably) do things under their coats. Soon, several independent studios were started in Wardour Street, Soho to produce more sex comedies. In 1970, the BBFC added the AA certificate (not suitable for children under 14), while the X certificate was increased to 18. The British sex comedies produced often contained female stereotypes and cliches and very few gay characters. There were some critics that loathed these films, and activist Mary Whitehouse certainly criticised them for being pornographic, but audience numbers soared and made them financial successes, with Come Play with Me (1973) playing for 4 years in the same venue. The sex comedy that is the one that really started the trend and became a major success, with its high amount of nudity, sex scenes and smutty style, was Confessions of a Window Cleaner (1974). It was the combination of British comedy stars of the time, beautiful and buxom ladies taking their clothes off and becoming icons, and silly sauciness in the slapstick scenes and written in the script that made these high grossing box office hits. Eventually though the films concentrated more on the sex and nudity than jokes and actually trying to make audiences laugh as well; the later Carry On films are examples of films like these becoming unfunny and depraved. It is fair to say that this genre of films would not be made in the modern woke times we live in, but for the time they were adored and can be admired to an extent. The documentary also detailed the increase in adult magazines, the career and tragic death of sex comedy and adult star Mary Millington, the VHS tapes/home video market ruining the cinema industry, and questions if we should feel guilty about watching these films now? The sex comedies discussed, mentioned (including in text), and pictured in the two-part programme included (in alphabetical order): Adventures of a Taxi Driver (1976), Adventures of a Private Eye (1977), Adventures of a Plumber's Mate (1978), The Amorous Milkman (1975), Au Pair Girls (1972), Can You Keep It Up for a Week? (1975), Carry On Girls (1973), Carry On Behind (1975), Carry On Emmanuelle (1978), Come Play with Me (1977), Cool It Carol! (1970), Emmanuelle in Soho (1981), Eskimo Nell (1975), For Men Only (1967), Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (1968), I'm Not Feeling Myself Tonight! (1976), Keep It Up, Jack (1974), Keep It Up Downstairs (1976), Mary Millington's True Blue Confessions (1980), The Playbirds (1978), Queen of the Blues (1979), Secrets of a Door-to-Door Salesman (1973), Secrets of Sex (1970), Sex Clinic (1971), Sex Farm (also known as Frustrated Wives) (1974), Sex Freaks (1974), The Sex Thief (1973), The Sexplorer (1975), School for Sex (1969), The Stud (1978), Take an Easy Ride (1979), That's Carry On (1977), The Ups and Downs of a Handyman (1976), Virgin Witch 1972), What's Good for the Goose (1969), and The Wife Swappers (1970). With contributions from Robin Askwith, Michael Armstrong (screenwriter), Nicola Austine (8mm film model), Alexandra Dane, Larry Dann, Greg Dark (assistant director), Ben Dover (ex-porn star and producer), Prudence Drage, Linzi Drew, Sally Faulkner, Angela Grant, Linda Hayden, Val Hennessey (journalist), Diane Keen, Sue Longhurst, Charles Marriott (cinematographer and son of Hazel Adair), Judy Matheson, Penny Meredith, Christopher Neil, Francoise Pascal (actress and producer), Susan Quilter (Mary Millington's cousin), George Richardson (glamour photographer), Willy Roe (director), Ken Rowles (director), Susie Silvey, Peter Sinclair (cinematographer), Gay Soper, Lacey Starr (porn producer), David Sullivan (producer/entrepreneur), Estella Tincknell (associate producer in film and culture), Oliver Tobias, Pete Walker (filmmaker), Allan Warren (celebrity photographer), and Robert Young (director). Very good!
Megalopolis (2024)
Megalopolis
Legendary director Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, Bram Stoker's Dracula) has not made a high-profile film for over two decades, only the silly Robin Williams movie Jack and the terrific courtroom drama The Rainmaker are the last two to spring to my mind. This was a passion project for Coppola that started back in 1977, but lack of funding from several box office flops, and inevitable world events held off filming for decades, unhappy with the studio system Coppola decided to fund the project himself, I hoped this £120 million budget movie would be his comeback to his former glory. Basically, in an alternate present-day United States of America, in the city of New Rome, architect Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver), the Chairman of the Design Authority, has invented the revolutionary bio-adaptive building material Megalon. Cesar also has the ability to stop time, and his driver and assistant Fundi Romaine (Laurence Fishburne) narrates the story. He publicly announces he has designed a futuristic utopian city called Megalopolis. But the mayor, Franklyn Cicero (Breaking Bad's Giancarlo Esposito), opposes the plans and leads a smear campaign against Cesar. Financial news TV presenter Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza) gets closer to Cesar during his campaign, and they begin an affair. Sometime later, Cesar's wife is killed, and her body mysteriously disappears, most likely orchestrated by Cicero. Later, Wow Platinum leaves Cesar to marry the wealthy elderly bank CEO and Cesar's uncle, Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight), who often embarrasses himself publicly. Cicero's well-read daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) is fascinated by Cesar's visions for the city's future but is divided by loyalty toward her father. She initially distrusts Cesar when they get acquainted and spies on him, but soon develops feelings for him. Julia eventually reveals that she is immune to his ability to stop time. Cesar and Julia form a partnership for the Megalopolis project. At a lavish and decadent wedding reception for Wow Platinum and Crassus, Cesar takes drugs backstage. Crassus's depraved and flamboyant nephew Clodio Pulcher (Shia LaBeouf) often makes a show of himself in public, especially when trying to seduce various women. Clodio sabotages the reception by implicating Cesar in a sex scandal involving teenage pop star Vesta Sweetwater (Grace VanderWaal) whose virginal image is damaged. Cesar is arrested but ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing and released, while Vesta continues her career after adopting a new rebellious and sexually charged persona. Cesar and Julia begin a romantic relationship; he reveals the arrest has lost him his ability to stop time but finds that he and Julia can still stop time together. In space, the Soviet Union satellite Carthage falls out of orbit, crashing into and destroying much of the city. Cesar seizes the opportunity and begins constructing Megalopolis, despite Cicero's opposition. In a press conference, he urges the people to debate about society and asks them to consider that a better world is possible. Cesar is delighted to learn that Julia is pregnant, while Cicero is horrified. Cicero asks Cesar to leave Julia, offering him information about what happened to Teresa, but Cesar refuses. Clodio stirs things up with fascist persuasion and power of speech, causing both Cesar and Cicero to lose popularity. Wow Platinum convinces Clodio to help her take control of Crassus's fortune, freezing Cesar's bank accounts in the process. Cesar is wounded in an assassination attempt but uses Megalon to heal. Clodio leads protests against Cesar and Cicero that become riots, and Cicero flees to a secret underground bunker. Crassus is forced to step down as bank CEO by the board of directors and supposedly suffers a stroke. Wow Platinum cares for him and makes her plan to finish him for good. For Crassus's sickness is a ruse, he plots to regain control; he attacks Wow and Clodio with a bow and arrow, killing Platinum and wounding Clodio. Confronting protestors at Megalopolis, Cesar gives an impassioned speech about the future and wins the crowd over. The gathered mob turns against Clodio, tying him in harnesses and hanging him upside down above the ground. Crassus pledges to use his wealth to support the construction of Megalopolis. Sometime later, the construction of Megalopolis is completed, with moving walkways and spherical orbs to transport people around the city. Cicero holds Cesar and Julia's baby daughter, Sunny Hope, to a gathered audience, promising to work together with Cesar to continue building a better future. On New Year's Eve, Cesar stops time once more, but only his daughter seems unaffected. Also starring Jason Schwartzman as Jason Zanderz (a member of Cicero's entourage), Poor Things' Kathryn Hunter as Teresa Cicero (Cicero's wife), Dustin Hoffman as Nush Berman (Cicero's fixer), Rocky's Talia Shire as Constance Crassus Catilina (Cesar's mother), Chloe Fineman as Clodia Pulcher, James Remar as Charles Cothope, D. B. Sweeney as Commissioner Stanley Hart, Isabelle Kusman as Claudine Pulcher, and Balthazar Getty as Aram Kazanjian. Driver gives his dullest ever performance, Esposito is reasonable being the lead character's fierce rival, Emmanuel does fine as the daughter of the nemesis, Plaza is alright as the kooky reporter, LeBeouf is the Caligula type character who is an annoying prick (which I surprisingly found sort of funny), Voight as an old fool isn't far off his own reputation, Fishburne just speaks eloquently while Hoffman doesn't do anything(!). Coppola made this "ambitious" film his way on his terms, he hoped to recreate a film like Fritz Lang's Metropolis, with a modern story inspired by the fall of the Roman Empire, about a character clearing city blocks to create a new utopia, and Coppola allowed the actors freedom to improvise. The result is this overlong, confusing, bloated, indulgent, pretentious, dull, and utterly awful nonsense! The script (if there even is one) is full of incoherent rambling with silly Shakespearean, philosophising and political jargon. All the acting talent is wasted with many unlikeable characters and performances, and it feels like things are just being thrown around. The special effects are squandered, the costumed ancient Rome-themed sequences are pointless, the plot is all over the place, and it is so long that over halfway through I was constantly looking at my watch just wanting it to finish! It is no wonder it is the biggest box office flop of recent years for a movie costing over $100 million; don't waste your time with this stupidity, it is a rubbish and utterly boring epic science-fiction drama. Pretty poor!
Never Let Go (2024)
Never Let Go
The Oscar winning star of Monster's Ball, Die Another Day, and the X-Men series has had a mixed career for the last two decades (especially disasters like Catwoman, New's Years Eve, and Movie 43), the trailer for this scary movie looked intriguing and I hoped it would work for her, co-produced by Shawn Levy, produced and directed by Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes, Piranha, Horns, Crawl). Basically, a woman, known only as Momma (Halle Berry, also producing) and her two young children Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) and Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins) live in a cabin in a large remote forest. According to Momma, the world was destroyed by a supernatural force known as "The Evil", leaving them as the only survivors. Momma is haunted by visions of supernatural entities that her sons cannot see but believe are real. To prevent the Evil from touching and possessing them, the family must have ropes tied whenever they leave the house, connecting them back to the building. The family only leave to forage and hunt for food. Momma and the boys also chant a daily prayer to give thanks to the house for keeping them safe from the Evil. One day while out foraging, Samuel and Nolan get into an argument, and Nolan steps on Samuel's rope, causing Samuel to get disconnected from his rope and he falls and breaks his ankle. Nolan unties himself to try and help Samuel before they are rescued by Momma. The Evil appears to her in the form of her deceased mother (Kathryn Kirkpatrick), although her children do not see it. Over time, Nolan has started disbelieving his mother's claims, questioning Samuel what he saw, but Samuel dismisses his suspicions. The family are forced to use up a large amount of their stockpiled food during a brutal winter. The cold conditions and lack of sunlight result in them being unable to grow or hunt any new food. Meanwhile, Momma's visions intensify, as she sees visions of her husband and the boys' Poppa (William Catlett), whom she killed, along with their Grandma and Grandpa (Georges Gracieuse). She also has frightening visions of a possessed and mutilated Nolan. Sensing discontent from her sons, Momma tells them about her life before the world ended, in the city with them when they were younger. She then shows them an old Polaroid camera and two photographs she kept, one of herself as a teenager, and one of herself and her two sons. Momma tells them there is one photo remaining in the camera, and they should wait until the right moment to use it. Now fully out of food and forced to eat tree bark, Momma tells them that the meat of Koda, the family dog, is the only thing that will sustain them. Nolan is horrified that she is considering killing the dog and storms out, exclaiming that he hates her and believes that they are not alone. Momma takes the dog into the greenhouse to kill him, although she contemplates changing her mind. But Nolan cuts Momma's rope and locks her inside the greenhouse, hoping she will see the Evil is not real. Instead, Momma encounters the Evil in the form of her mother; Nolan is horrified when she sees his mother kill herself, slitting her own throat with a knife. Samuel finds Nolan holding their dying mother in his arms and blames his brother for her death. As the brothers continue to starve alone, Samuel's behaviour becomes more erratic and threatening. Using the extra length of rope from his mother, Nolan travels further out of the woods. He finds an empty road and calls out for help. Returning to the house, he encounters a Hiker (Matthew Kevin Anderson) who heard his shouting. The hiker becomes concerned for Nolan and approaches, offering him food and to take him to safety. But Samuel appears and threatens the stranger with a crossbow. Although Nolan and the hiker try to calm the situation, Samuel shoots the hiker. Nolan follows the hiker who has fallen to the ground and has called 911 on his smartphone, but he cannot speak due to blood loss. Nolan takes the hiker's backpack filled with food. Nolan tries to convince Samuel that the stranger was trying to help them and offers him the food he has found, but Samuel refuses to listen, believing that he was the Evil trying to get in their heads. That night, a young girl (Cadence Compton) arrives at the property looking for her father, the hiker they encountered and finds Samuel in the greenhouse. Noticing that Samuel has her father's torch, and seeing Momma's body on the ground, she flees. Samuel chases her, and she is revealed to be the Evil, and it manages to touch him. Back at the house, Samuel, now seemingly possessed and exhibiting the same erratic behaviour as Momma, tries to kill Nolan. Samuel sets the curtains alight, causing a fire to spread through the cabin, while Nolan is confronted by the Evil in the form of Momma. Nolan gets into a small crawlspace with his Momma to shelter them from the fire. The Evil sheds Momma's skin to reveal a snake-like creature that dissipates as Nolan hugs it. The fire burns the house down and Samuel takes the last photo with the Polaroid. A rescue helicopter arrives with paramedics carrying Nolan from the house on a stretcher and away to safety. As he is flown away, Nolan sees Samuel by his side who has been rescued as well. The helicopter reaches civilisation, revealing that Momma was lying all along. But the last Polaroid photograph taken reveals that the Evil is touching Samuel on his shoulder. Nolan hears Samuel whisper to him, "She loves me more", revealing that he may still be possessed. Also starring Christin Park as the Medic and Stephanie Lavigne as The Evil. Berry does a good job as the overly protective if highly paranoid mother, and young stars Daggs and Jenkins give terrific performances as her children who have differing opinions of their circumstances. The setup is interesting, having to stay connected to the house via the ropes, and the cabin in the woods location is familiar, but it is not executed well. What could have been a good story of paranoia or a fight against nasty forces in the woods is muddled together and reduced to something lacking grit, I wanted it to be scarier, better scripted, and more committed in its plot, the final twist could mean a follow-up but I don't think they should bother, it is not complete rubbish, it is just a below average disappointing survival horror thriller. Okay!