VOD: Nobody Sleeps In The Woods Tonight 2 (dir: Bartosz M. Kowlaski, 2021)

"Do you understand any of this?"

Kowlaski follows up his hit Polish Netflix slasher film with this speedy sequel that very much sticks to the horror genre but veers off into an unexpectedly different direction.  Picking up the morning after the first film's events in a rundown backwater police station where the killers and the Final Girl are locked in the cells... and an unexpected (and inexplicable) initiating event starts another night of carnage. It tries very hard to be cool and funny, but the sequel somewhat lacks the knowing energy of the original film.  The first half-hour is fairly turgid set-up, the second act contains some signature lively gore-gags, but the third act then goes into very unexpected territory that is quite interesting if rather odd.  The uneven script, stop-start pacing and often lacklustre performances mean that Nobody Sleeps...2 is not a wholly successful film by any means, but it does at least try to do something a little different from the generic tropes of the first film.
 

VOD: Fast & Furious 9 (dir: Justin Lin, 2021)

"Well, that was new."

By this point there seems little for a new Fast & Furious film to do other than entertain its fans and deliver on spectacle, and this ninth entry delivers well on both counts.  Drawing on the whole saga for plot points and returning characters (pleasingly, even the unnecessarily-reviled Tokyo Drift!), the film is slick, formulaic and repetitive, even down to the use of camera, but storytelling here is much more coherent and effective than in the previous movie.  The three big set pieces offer breath-holding moments, the outer-space sequence is as daft as it sounded when first rumoured, and notably the women are given a bit more to do this time, with the welcome return of Jordana Brewster to the main action.  The core concept of family is still to the fore, and the addition of John Cena as Toretto's long-lost brother works appropriately (with one great smackdown between the two brothers) although at times he seems a little underpowered as the big threat.  Whilst nowhere neat the best of the series, Fast & Furious 9 is a solid, well-written and fan-pleasing slice of big action entertainment, a welcome return to form after Number 8 and sets up the two-film finale in a positive way.
 

VOD: Pokemon Detective Pikachu (dir: Rob Letterman, 2019)

"All I hear are consonants, and all I see are nipples!"

This bizarre mish-mash actually works fairly well.  By placing the action in a vaguely contemporary live-action setting (with very effective world-building in which Pokemon and humans co-exist), using classic detective/buddy movie tropes to give effective structure and some heft, plus giving Pikachu a very lively and wonderfully snarky characterisation all work together to create an unexpectedly entertaining and off-beat film.  Ryan Reynolds gives a great voice-only performance as the titular Pokemon character, which balances a less-than-convincing performance by Justice Smith as the bereaved son out to find out the truth about what happened to his detective father.  It is well-made and entertaining lightweight nonsense that is far better than would be expected.

 

VOD: The Manor (dir: Axelle Carolyn, 2021)

"Fighting nature always comes at a cost."

Wrapped up in horror film trappings comes this somewhat dreary treatise on how society views and treats its senior citizens.  Without doubt, its highlight is the appearance of the majestic Barbara Hershey as an elderly dancer who finds herself having to move to a creepy residential home.  Playing nicely against a pleasing performance by Nicholas Alexander as her teenage grandson, Hershey dominates the film and elevates the unsurprising material, with an unremarkable and slightly silly not-hard-to-join-the-dots central mystery.  There are some occasionally creepy moments, but the dawdling pace makes the film neither scary enough as a horror nor angry enough about its core subject matter.

 

VOD: Freaky (dir: Christopher Landon, 2021)

"Welcome to Tragic-stan!"

From its red-tinged Universal opening ident, retro horror score and genre-classics riffing (and that's just the opening sequence), the cheeky high-concept premise - Freaky Friday meets Friday The 13th - hits the ground running in terms of establishing a fun and self-aware tone that is a full-blooded and very entertaining ride.  Landon hits the same enjoyable balance of comedy and horror seen in his Happy Death Day films (and especially the first of the two movies), with some sharp writing - there are some very funny gags in here - and clear sense of what works well in the genre.  The film is gifted with two extremely well-played and entertaining performances by Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton as the two body-swapped leads, and the subsidiary characters (such as Millie's two best friends and her mother) are unusually well-written.  The comedy and horror genres are notoriously difficult to mix, but Freaky works extremely well and it is good fun to watch,
 

VOD: There's Someone Inside Your House (dir: Patrick Brice, 2021)

"Now I wanna die!"

This film is as generic as its title.  Based upon a YA novel and with some heavyweight horror producers behind it, no cliché is left unturned in this by-the-numbers Netflix slasher, in which a bunch of suspiciously-old-looking teenagers are picked off one-by-one by a killer who reveals their 'secrets' and wears a mask to look like each victim as they are killed.  Enlivened by some surprisingly bloody and mean-spirited kills, the character scenes in between are something of a slow and turgid trudge, and the film does little beyond what is set up in the slickly efficient opening scene.  The themes are simplistic, and the red herring and identity of the killer are hard to miss, making There's Someone Inside Your House a slick if rather unsurprising commercial young-teen horror movie.
 

VOD: Black As Night (dir: Maritte Lee Go, 2021)

"Obviously, it won't ever happen again."

An Amazon Original, this equivalent to an old-style TV movie from Blumhouse's television arm delivers vampires in New Orleans but not very successfully.  Neither the writing nor the performances are particularly strong, with a script often stating the painfully obvious seemingly for people who have never heard of vampires but also throwing in the occasional jarring pop-reference ("I'm not Buffy...!").  It is also concerning and distasteful that a 2021 movie should choose to dress up its young teenage girl protagonists as hookers in order to gain entry to the vampires' lair.  The New Orleans setting is probably the best thing on offer here.  
 

VOD: Nowhere Special (dir: Uberto Pasolini, 2021)

"I will always be with you."

Nowhere Special is something quite special.  It is a very grounded, gentle and charming film that tells the story of a mid-30s single parent who, with only months to live, tries to find a suitable adoptive family for his three-years-old son.  It works  superbly at its most simple in its portrayal of the father-son relationship, such as the scenes of the father showing the world to his little boy, but it always tinged with the sadness of knowing that he will not see his child grow up.  James Norton gives what is easily one of his very best performances showing great sensitivity and attention to detail, and his on-screen relationship with little Daniel Lamont is a delight to watch and feels totally honest.  Emotionally powerful and both uplifting and heartbreaking, Nowhere Special is extremely accomplished, uncluttered in its simplicity and powerful in its realisation and storytelling.

VOD: Free Guy (dir: Shawn Levy, 2021)

"I've got a best friend, I've got a goldfish, and I work at the bank.  What more could a guy want?"

Baudrillard would have a field day with this smart and funny blockbuster.  They Live meets Groundhog Day and The Truman Show in this lively tale of a mild-mannered NPC (Non-Playable Character) who becomes aware that his ordered life is part of a violent videogame.  The film is surprisingly successful on all levels: the in-game world, the real world, the romance and as a metaphor for our everyday humdrum lives.  Ryan Reynolds walks just the right side of his usual quirky/smug line, Jodie Comer is effective in her first major movie role, the Disney buy-up enables a couple of fun surprise gags, and Taika Waititi's energy lights up every scene in which he appears.  Free Guy is well-crafted, energetic and very entertaining.

 

VOD: Monster Hunter (dir: Paul W.S. Anderson, 2021)

"This isn't right - none of it."

For Monster Hunter, director Anderson revisits his love of the Alien and Predator franchises, throws in bits of Pitch Black, Tremors and Starship Troopers, and the result is pretty much what you would expect and little else for a video-game adaptation creature-feature that throws a hardened troop of soldiers into another dimension to face off against huge CGI beasties.  Milla Jojovich swaps Resident Evil zombies for the huge unwordly creatures here with her usual energy and commitment, but apart from the spectacular location shooting, the overall outcome here is very much efficient and mildly engaging.

 

VOD: Infinite (dir: Antoine Fuqua, 2021)

"What does it all add up to?"

This adequate if unremarkable run-of-the-mill sci-fi actioner at best comes across as a cut-price Christopher Nolan, with certain reincarnated people aware of their pasts split into two factions, one group determined to end the world and the other and using their skills and experiences to defeat them.  With a lot of running around and plot silliness, at least there is an effectively dark tone overall with the cast taking it fairly seriously, led by an earnestly reliable Mark Wahlberg.