VOD: Meet Me Next Christmas (dir: Rusty Cundieff, 2024)

"Let fate decide."
 

Netflix kicks off the 2024 holiday season's movies with this good-looking and affable rom-com.  A charged chance encounter at a snowbound airport lounge on Christmas Eve leads to a promise to meet up one year later at a Pentatonix (American vocal harmony group) concert in a year's time, if fate dictates, giving rise to a story that echoes Serendipity and a trek through Christmassy New York for an elusive ticket to the sold-out gig.  The scenes (adverts?) with the actual band are fairly wince-inducing, but the film is saved by very appealing lead performances from Christina Milian and Devale Ellis, and whilst the film veers wildly between different tones - ranging from tear-jerking to uber-camp to typical rom-com set-ups - the lead characters are perhaps a little more rounded than usual for the genre.  Easy on the eyes and ears (plenty of laid-back Christmas tunes) and easy to watch, if you can tolerate the cheesier and more bizarre moments, the charming leads sell the frothy through-story well, all leading to a heartfelt ending that absolutely delivers.   

VOD: Rebel Ridge (dir: Jeremy Saulnier, 2024)

"One mind, any weapon."

Aaron Pierre stars in this Netflix action-thriller that sees a small town's corrupt local police force seizing former Marine Terry's money for a trumped-up misdemeanour, which would have been used to secure bail for his cousin, leading to a one-man battle against the bad guys.  Essentially an extremely subdued 2024 update of Rambo but with minimal action and violence, the film plods along at its relentlessly steady pace and never really delivers on its premise.  Aaron Pierre is capable both in measured ex-marine and  fighter modes, and Don Johnson is solidly unpleasant as the town's chief of police.  The first extended part is a fairly effective slow-burn thriller set-up, with the second half working out why the town became so corrupt and Terry meting out vengeance, but even a late-in-the-day one man versus the entire town/police force face-off fails to lift the film above sincere but plodding.
 

VOD: Bad Boys Ride Or Die (dirs: Adil el Arbi and Bilall Fallah, 2024)

"It's like redneck Jurassic Park in here!"

Following the surprisingly effective (and belated) third Bad Boys movie, this fourth entry sees Marcus and Mike's deceased police captain framed on corruption charges, internal corruption puts the duo on the run, Mike having to make an impossible choice, Marcus making an amazingly rapid recovery from a serious health scare and the remnants of the trustworthy team facing down the bad guys in an abandoned amusement/water park.  Will Smith mostly plays it straight and delivers effectively, Martin Lawrence - especially in the first part - gets saddled with some excruciating comedy lines, and Jacob Scipio (Mike's estranged son) gets a couple of brief but very well-executed fight scenes.  As usual, this neon-soaked film looks terrific - especially in UHD - and the story has potential although the writing is not as sharp as the previous film.  Perhaps reducing the lame attempts at comedy - we get it, they are older now - including the silly end-credits clip - might have made this a stronger entry in the franchise.
 

VOD: Back To Black (dir: Sam Taylor-Johnson, 2024)

"I ain't no f**king Spice Girl!"

With the rise and horrifying fall of the tragic star still relatively fresh, this Amy Winehouse biopic is respectful enough to the point of merely hinting at the sad depth of her troubles.  An excellent cast does its best with some awkward dialogue, with Jack O'Connell giving the standout performance as her cocky but destructive soulmate Blake - here Danny Dyer via Dermot O'Leary - and Lesley Manville touching as her beloved grandmother, whilst Marisa Abela plays Amy with a largely unexpected softness.  The film positions Winehouse as a mix of child-like waif and an old-out-of-time jazz-loving soul as she starts out, both dismissive of, yet utterly dependent on, the feckless men in her life.  Her songwriting is used a a literal record of her life experiences, and the film does a good job of contextualising some of the key numbers.  Camden is used well as her stamping ground backdrop, but Amy's parents remain oddly shadowy figures.  The Shangri-Las are purposefully referenced as evoking the tragic melodrama that became Winehouse's later life, but what maybe should have been sharp and harrowing to watch plays more like a 2000s re-run of The Rose. 
 

VOD: Time Cut (Hannah Macpherson, 2024)

"We're not altering the future, we're just giving it...a little makeover..."

Bearing some similarities to 2023's Totally Killer but filmed first, a miserable teenager jumps back in time twenty years via a mysterious machine in a barn and tries to prevent her sister's murder at the hands of a masked killer.  Whereas Totally Killer was skewed towards daft comedy-horror, Time Cut goes for the YA teen girl emotional tropes - cue 2003 fashion makeover, bonding with the (teen) sister she never knew, Avril Lavigne on the soundtrack and the hilarity of dial-up internet.  It is all rather insipid and low-powered, leaving little impression and with an ending that abandons its own earlier considerations of timelines and paradoxes.  
 

VOD: MadS (dir: David Moreau, 2024)

"What's happened?  Why are you being all weird?"

A young party guy comes across a mysterious injured hysterical young woman by the roadside, but as he takes her to get help it sets in motion a chain of events that sees him steadily losing grip on reality - drugs-fuelled, or an experimental viral pandemic? - in this semi-experimental French psychological thriller/horror.  The story is told in near real-time, with a freeform use of camera (lots of lengthy shots off-tripod) following the characters to create a sense of intimacy and immediacy.  The experimental style with its hallucinatory and nightmarish use of visuals and sound (including a Pink Floyd-ish score) keeps the film veering between interesting and patience-testing, in what may be seen as a post-pandemic response movie.  Where the film falls down is that it reaches a natural conclusion just over half-way through, the remainder veering into familiar territory that is perhaps less interesting and adds very little.

 

VOD: Woman Of The Hour (dir: Anna Kendrick, 2024)

"Everyone's risky."
 

Based on real events, this unsettling Netflix drama sees Anna Kenrick directing and starring as a struggling Hollywood actress in the 1970s, who goes on a TV dating show and is matched with a photographer who also happens to be a serial killer.  Kendrick impresses in the lead role as always, and her direction is clear and offers some nice touches.  The thriller aspect of the film plays well, even if the set-up is rather unsubtle.  It has a straightforward three-act structure: backstory, the TV show, and a third act which is possibly the most interesting as it becomes largely a two-hander and a shift into an unexpected resolution.  The film offers little beyond its basic central concept, but it is well delivered and the sombre and bittersweet coda has a real shocking impact.

VOD: Hundreds Of Beavers (dir: Mike Cheslik, 2024)

"!"

In possibly THE cult hit of recent times, truly fuelled by festivals and word-of-mouth, applejack Jean (a cider-maker) sees his orchard and business destroyed by beavers, so he sets out into the snowy wilderness to get revenge, finds a love interest and becomes a fur trapper to impress her father.  Fusing lo-fi animation and greenscreen with live action, it is a relentless stream of very silly sight and sound gags, many of which are laugh-out-loud funny.  The silliness is compounded by having the beavers and other animals played by people wearing childishly exaggerated costumes, as the beavers and nature inflict a barrage of slapstick indignities on our hapless protagonist who can never catch a break.  The film bowls along without dialogue, accompanied by a whimsical silent-movie-styled score.  The first act is probably the funniest, and the second act drags a little, but all credit to Ryland Brickson Cole Tews's clowning skills and  to all involved for keeping up the madness and inventiveness right to the end.

Hundreds Of Beavers is every bit as utterly daft and entertaining as its reputation suggests. 
 

VOD: Margaux (dir: Steven C. Miller, 2024)

"Ow!  So much ow!  Babe!"

In this high-concept hi-tech thriller, spring break in a luxury smart house for a group of box-ticking college friends turns into a battle for survival when the home's next-generation AI turns against them.  The film looks pretty and glossy, the connected/online/learning-AI gimmick is used purposefully, and the Final Destination-lite kills are adequate enough, in spite of the occasional low-end CGI.  

The film makes a point about how society blindly accepts AI, but surprisingly it says little more than 1973's classic Demon Seed.  The plot generally bears little scrutiny, especially when it descends into third act silliness, but there is plenty going on with a couple of twists on the usual formula.
 

VOD: The Sadness (dir: Rob Jabbaz, 2021)

"This is your new life..."

Championed by Damien Leone (of Terrifier fame), this Taiwanese film sees a photogenic and likeable young couple (well played by Berant Zhu and Regina Lei) facing a mutating viral pandemic that turns people into depraved killers.  After a gentle opening, it does not take long for the full-on gory mayhem to start, like an extreme Tom Savini let loose on the 28 Days/Weeks Later series.  The film is deliberately unpleasant and over-the-top violent to watch, shot through with an unsettlingly sombre and bleak tone.  The set pieces are executed well, notably an early claustrophobic subway train carriage massacre.  This is a simple and efficient example of the sub-genre, making its point about mankind's primal urges in a clear and unsubtle manner.  The third act runs out of steam and the ending is downbeat, but overall The Sadness is one of the stronger entries in the virus/zombie arena. 

 

VOD: Late Night With The Devil (dirs: Colin and Cameron Cairnes, 204)

"I'm very excited for you to see it unfold before your very eyes!"

The BBC's infamous Ghostwatch had a poltergeist invading a TV studio during a live broadcast. Late Night With The Devil sees a failing late-night American chat show (Night Owls With Jack Delroy) and its tragic host in a desperate bid for ratings glory during Sweeps Week with a Halloween episode that conjures a demon.  After a nicely-crafted prologue that sets out the characters and the show's story well, the legendary episode is played out in full, complete with 1970s stylings, mise-en-scene and (pre-widescreen) TV format presentation all recreated faithfully and convincingly, although the black-and-white widescreen in-studio footage during the commercial breaks jars a little. It is all driven by a very watchable and well-judged performance by David Dastmalchian, aided capably by the studio guests, a psychic, a sceptic, a parapsychologist and her charge, a strange girl survivor of a satanic cult who is (allegedly) possessed by a demon (tying in with the 1970s obsession with The Exorcist).  It perhaps loses a little credibility towards the end with its Halloween III nod, over-the-top effects and the host's stylised unravelling grip on reality, but at its heart, the film has a simple and somewhat slight conceit that is delivered well overall.

 

VOD: Natty Knocks (dir: Dwight Little, 2023)

"What's a payphone?"

This seemingly by-the-numbers low-budget horror-thriller has a lot of the genre trapping in play - small town, Halloween Eve, burning a 1970s 'witch', present day son taking revenge on the children/grandchildren of the persecutors - mixed with fan-pleasing stunt casting of Bill Moseley, Danielle Harris, Robert Englund and director Dwight (H.) Little.  In spite of its genre familiarity, there is an effort made to make the story reasonably grounded, with divorcing parents and the effect on children, possible domestic abuse and 'teens' who actually talk like real teenagers.  It feels like there is a lot going on its lean running time, there is a subtle atmospheric music score throughout by Misha Segal, and whilst the movie offers nothing that is really scary, it is quite interesting to see how the story plays out and how all the elements (just about) come together.
 

VOD: It's What's Inside (dir: Greg Jardin, 2024)

"What the f**k?  Is this real?"

The psychological thriller gets a real modern twist, as a group of social-media-savvy college friends reunite at a lavish mansion for a wedding, and one of them - a tech pioneer - brings along a machine for a 'game' that enables them to swap bodies and to guess which person inhabits which body.  Not only does jealousy, deception and using other friends' bodies for sex make for a delicious dramatic mix, but a game-changing moment creates a serious life-changing dilemma for the gang.  Its rapid-fire dialogue and content demands attention in order to follow what is going on once the bodyswapping starts, and the initial shallowness of these vapidly-anonymous characters - exposed by the emptiness of their talk and lives - gives way to revealing their selfishness and self-centred needs.  The playful musical soundtrack is fun, and the energetic cast sells the nonsense for all they are worth.  The film might have benfitted from spending a bit more time with the characters before the bodyswapping starts, and the mid-section certainly is rather confusing, but it is nevertheless an interesting take on the body-swap conceit.  
 

FILM: Terrifier 3 (dir: Damien Leone, 2023)

"You're disgusting!"

Happy Christmas!  With a mid-October cinema release slot, Damien Leone's third entry in the Terrifier series makes an obligatory nod to Halloween (when the first two movies took place) but is mostly set in the days before Christmas whilst moving forward five years, enabling the film-maker to juxtapose Art the Clown's bizarre atrocities with warm, cosy and familiar Christmas holiday settings, which the film does to good effect.  The film wears its genre inspirations well, from 80s slasher franchises and Italian nightmare horrors to 2000s torture porn, and the film looks good on the big screen/widescreen, perhaps more interesting cinematically than the second film if not as tight narratively (and a shoehorned in mystical backstory that makes the Thorn storyline from Halloween 6 look plausible).  The sound design and physical/make-up effects teams obviously had a ball, with sound effects foregrounded unpleasantly and gore effects that push the film to its limits, particularly the 'shower scene' from the trailer and the very lively finale showdown.  Particular credit should be given to David Howard Thornton as Art The Clown, who gives another excellent performance of precise mime that makes the character work better than a lot of horror villains, with most of the other characters doing a decent melodramatic job of chewing the furniture.  The Terrifier films are (definitely) not elevated horror but heightened horror, and as provocative indie slasher films, they deliver effectively enough.   

 

VOD: Kill (dir: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat, 2024)

"He's killing everyone!"

Indian commercial cinema has come a long way in recent years, and this hit action thriller will delight fans of the John Wick series.  Here, an army commando (an impressive feature debut by Lakshya) attempts to rescue his beloved (Tanya Mariktala) from an arranged marriage whilst travelling by overnight train to New Delhi.  After this brief and simple set-up, our hero has to contend with a ruthless gang of bandits, a runaway train and a very unpleasant lead villain (Raghav Juyal).  Lakshya commands the screen with smooth moviestar charisma and easy physical fighting skills, proving to be the film's main asset.  The film almost seems to come to a conclusion forty-five minutes in - when the title screen finally appears! - but it simply paves the way for an extraordinary relentless revenge-fuelled and even harsher second half, with significant losses on both sides.  There are obvious echoes of recent hits like Bullet Train and Train To Busan (without zombies), but the smartly-filmed and well-edited claustrophobic confines of the carriages and corridors emphasise the danger and physicality of the situation.   Given its title, the film certainly does not hold back on the violence - there are lots of stabbings in this film - but Kill has real drive, energy and a pulpy feel that make it a must-see for action/thriller fans.

 

VOD: The Boy And The Heron (dir: Hayao Miyazaki, 2024)

"How could you do something so cruel?"

After his mother dies in a dramatic hospital fire opening to this long-gestating movie, young Mahito relocates to the countryside with his industrialist father and his pregnant new wife, where a mystical heron guides the boy on a fantastical spiritual journey.  This gentle and contemplative film wanders along at a steady pace, with simple but beautiful animation, the charming and elegiac music score by Joe Hisaishi that contributes much to the feel of the film, and the starry English dub works fine. Like the best of Miyazaki/Ghibli, it offers real imagination on the screen with hints of bigger issues not too far away (war, mortality, family, philosophy and the journey of life),  Quirky characters give flavour to the often tranquil moments, from the comedically malevolent heron to the elderly retainers on the country estate.  The film is full of story and visual ideas, perhaps a shade too long but a delight nonetheless.
 

VOD: The Strangers Chapter 1 (dir: Renny Harlin, 2024)

"Why are you doing this to us?"

The Strangers perhaps relied more on claustrophobia and cinematic technique rather than a strongly-developed story, and this largely redundant thriller prequel offers more of the same but less effectively, as a young couple on a trip stop to eat in a small backwoods town, develop car trouble and have to stay in a remote woodland AirBnB, only for the familiar masked home invader trio to show up. Cue weirdly-behaving townsfolk, lots of shots of backlit trees at night and Moonlight Sonata, and a lot of this film feels very familiar both generically and touchstones from the original movie.  It plods along and is adequately (if unexcitingly) executed, delivering everything you would expect and nothing more, with even the 'shock' mid-credits scene being utterly predictable.  With the threat of a 'To Be Continued' screen, as two further entries to make this a new trilogy were filmed alongside this one, the world is hardly likely to be holding its breath for their release.
 

VOD: Sting (dir: Kiah Roache-Turner, 2024)

"I'm much too drunk for this...!"

With France offering Infested and the Arachnophobia remake on the way, Australian production Sting offers the arrival of a space-spider in a meteor shower during an ice storm which is 'adopted' by a emotionally-isolated girl, but it grows rapidly and terrorises the pets and residents of a New York apartment building.   The slow first act sets up the central family's dynamic well if in a somewhat dull manner, but the interest level picks up a little as the evolving spider becomes more voracious and graduates from attacking animals to the humans.  Sting is made competently and acted adequately, although the whole film is perhaps too slow-moving for its own good and does nothing really new within its genre confines, right down to the very final shot/reveal.
 

VOD: Infested (a.k.a. Vermines) (dir: Sebastien Vanicek, 2024)

"What are you doing with a glass?  Just hit it!"

In this French spider movie, the residents of a brutalist gloomy suburban apartment block face off against a growing invasion of poisonous spiders as they are put into quarantine after young bug-collector Kaleb acquires a desert spider that escapes and multiplies.  Unusually for the genre, the film has a gritty urban setting and a mostly young adult cast, led by a committed performance from Theo Christine.  The very active use of camera works well in some of the action scenes, whilst in others it merely looks jumbled and not aided by streams of dull dialogue and a persistently dark mise-en-scene, especially in the final act that resorts to a lot of shouting in near-darkness.  There is a genuine attempt to move away from typical Hollywood style in order to show how supposedly ordinary people would react in this situation, with its limited effects work used sparingly but purposefully and effectively.  The film is moderately interesting if underlit and occasionally over-melodramatic take on the bug/invasion movie. 
 

VOD: Inside Out 2 (dir: Kelsey Mann, 2024)

"It's not about who Riley is.  It's about who she needs to be."

Any worries about this sequel to the beloved Disney/Pixar hit are dispelled quickly with a punchy and captivating opening scene that places the viewer quickly back into the familiar interior/exterior world of Riley, now a teenager (thirteen years old), with the onset of puberty ("People, it's the apocalypse!") setting up an interior renovation and introducing a new set of characters/emotions.  The new emotions are good value, as they consign the originals to The Vault, from which they have to escape and find Riley's Sense Of Self, driving the movie forward and giving room for new ideas.  Andrea Datzman provides a beautiful yet unobtrusive music score, and the whole film is necessarily more layered and detailed that the original, if perhaps lacking a little in the emotional highs by comparison but providing an entertaining and energic romp that follows the first film well.
 

VOD: In A Violent Nature (dir: Chris Nash, 2024)

"Did you really think this was gonna work?"
"What?"
"This whole thing that you're doing."
"I don't know. It's worth a try, isn't it?"

This notorious indie slasher/horror gets straight down to business with the removal of a cursed amulet from a derelict woodland fire lookout, which brings about the resurrection of masked killer Johnny, who goes after a group of campers.  The USP here is that the film largely follows this classic set-up through the point of view of the killer - imagine a camera literally following behind a Jason or a Michael Myers.   The film eschews a music soundtrack and uses lengthy and unusual shots for the genre (such as bird's-eye and extra long shots), which emphasise the isolation and immediacy of the lurking danger, together with the claustrophobic feel generated by Academy ratio.  Johnny's slow, steady trudging through the woods has a hypnotic menace (that some will find repetitively dull), observing the victims just out of their sight plays well, and a couple of the kills are realised spectacularly on-screen with unpleasant relish.  The film does tread a very fine line between being a 2024 homage to the masked-killer-in-the-woods story and an interesting experiment in re-presenting the classic slasher genre, with the latter just about winning.     .
 

VOD: Apartment 7A (dir: Natalie Erika James, 2024)

"The neighbours here are awfully friendly."

Attempting a prequel to a stone-cold classic is always a risky business, as this mid-1960s set story takes on a very minor character from the original Rosemary's Baby and delivers not always successfully.  A young female dancer/singer suffers a terrible injury during a stage performance, and after subsequent humiliating failed auditions is taken in by a quirky elderly couple who offer her an apartment in their building for free, but as her health and success rises, the residents have another (familiar) fate in store for her.  The film tries hard to recreate the 60s style and unnerving tone of the original (with the occasional American Horror Story vibe thrown in for today's audience) but frequently it falls short, and apart from the showbiz theatre thread, it offers little that is interestingly new.  Although not a remake as such, the film still clings to the original film for dear life, so today's audience seeing it fresh might get more from it.
 

VOD: Killer Heat (dir: Philippe Lacote, 2024)

"I am Greek."
"My dog is more Greek than you are."

Amazon/MGM's Greek-set thriller - from a Jo Nesbo story - finds Levi (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) as a dissolute ex-pat PI hired to investigate the death of the son of a wealthy shipping/crime family in a suspicious free-climbing accident, hired by the weary sister-in-law Penelope (Shailene Woodley) to probe the death further and coming up against her husband, the surviving unpleasant twin brother Elias (Richard Madden).  The three usually strong lead actors surprisingly struggle to inject life into their characters in the bland by-the-numbers story and dialogue they are given, not helped by Gordon-Levitt's dour gumshoe-lite voiceover and the overall flat pacing.  Not even the (oddly unsunny) locations make up for this rather dull tale.  Even the finale reveal is heavily-signposted and comes as no surprise as the very limited scope of the story offers no other real place it could go.

 

VOD: Tarot (dirs: Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg, 2024)

"Does anyone else feel like this is a bad idea?"

A group of college students rent an isolated mansion to celebrate a birthday, discover a creepy old hand-made set of tarot cards in the basement, break the rule of using some else's tarot deck and subsequently find their readings coming true in excruciatingly literal fashion with Final Destination-style deaths ensuing.  The actors attempt to inject some youthful energy into their rather dumb roles, and presumably these characters are environmentally-conscious, as there is little evidence that they can operate a light switch, making the whole film a murky slog to watch.  With such a mindnumbingly simple and insulting premise and story, Tarot generates very little more than a frequent rolling of the eyes.
 

VOD: The Last Breath (dir: Joachim Heden, 2024)

"Don't drink and dive, buddy - it's dangerous!"

As the underwater/shark movie revival continues, The Last Breath starts off with a brief Jaws-like World War II-set attack off the Virgin Islands and the sinking of a battleship, before shifting to modern-day explorers finding the sunken wreck; cue a group of blandly stereotypical old college friends diving to the boat and being picked off one-by-one by sharks and injuries...and that is about it.  The underwater work - and there is plenty of it - is solid enough if repetitive, dialogue is relentlessly dreary, but the film does manage to present some quite interesting survival dilemmas and choices for the characters.  However, with the first attack coming halfway through the movie and brief/swift jeopardy sequences, endless slowly swimming murky ship corridors is mostly not very gripping.  You will not win any prizes for working out who will survive to the end in this below-average genre entry.

 

VOD: Monkey Man (dir: Dev Patel, 2024)

CELEBRATING 15 YEARS OF THIS BLOG!

"In the great tapestry of life, just one small ember can burn down everything."

Dev Patel plays The Kid, the titular fighter-for-pay Monkey Man, who infiltrates the ranks of a criminal organisation on a revenge trip that goes badly wrong and finds himself the one who is hunted.  The film takes its time to build the world  and that of Monkey Man that fuses a gritty India-set contemporary tale with a well-laid backstory, modern-day politics, spirituality and mythology very deftly.  Whereas the first act delivers pure action, a more contemplative second act gives the film depth that pays off well in the bruising finale. Visceral action/fight sequences and a fast-cut car chase at times feel a little John Wick via John Woo (which is not a criticism!), but Dev Patel's directorial debut (as well as acting and co-writing here) is bold, rich, stylish and vibrant, his on-screen performance as committed and nuanced as ever, all delivering an extremely watchable slice of very smart action-thriller entertainment. 

 

VOD: The Union (dir: Julian Farino, 2024)

"Don't let the pretty face fool you. I'm from the street!"
"Yeah? Which street is that? Sesame Street?"

Mike (Mark Wahlberg) is an ordinary construction worker who gets pulled unconvincingly into the world of glossy cartoon espionage via an encounter with an old girlfriend Roxanne (Halle Berry) in this typically silly Netflix actioner.  Wahlberg finds a sense of everyman resignation that comes across well, whilst Berry is adequate but never feels like a good fit for the role.  The saving graces in the supporting performances are the mighty J.K.Simmons as the spy gang's leader and Lorraine Bracco as Mike's mother.  The London setting used for most of the film is used well, with a couple of picturesque European locations used to bookend it.  The Union is an efficient and functional lightweight actioner that may convince younger viewers but no-one else.

 

VOD: Boy Kills World (dir: Moritz Mohr, 2024)

"Some things are hard to forget."

Boy Kills World is one of those movies that has cult status written all over it.  With his family killed when he was a child in an annual ritual societal event, The Culling, Boy is taken in and trained by a shaman and trained as an assassin, and as a mute/deaf adult he takes his bloody revenge.  The film hearkens back to the hard-boiled Asian action fight-fest movies that influenced Tarantino.  The insane action and violence displayed on screen is leavened by a strange cheesiness, largely created by Boy's inner-voice narration that mimics a videogame character, some darkly comic moments, a contrapuntally whimsical soundtrack and a Hunger Games-styled exaggerated ruling dynasty.  As the adult Boy, Bill Skarsgard - in the physical shape of his life - convinces as the purposeful killing machine and successfully engages without using speech.  The blood-soaked one-on-one final act showdown is relentlessly brutal, and overall Boy Kills World is a peculiar little film that works satisfactorily on its own terms within its own videogame-styled surreal little world.  Look out for the brief but interestingly-played end-of-credits scene.

 

VOD: Unicorns (dirs: Sally El Hosaini and James Krishna Floyd, 2024)

"Everything comes at a price.  It just depends what price you are willing to pay."

Opposites attract as down-to-earth single father mechanic Luke (Ben Hardy) takes on a night-time driving job and finds himself falling unexpectedly for an Asian drag artist Aysha (Jason Patel) in this gritty but romantic British love story.  It is generally a thoughtfully-crafted and well-written film, with the clashing cultural and sexual identities - together with the slow-burn developing central relationship - handled in a gentle but honest and open manner, balancing humour, drama and emotions well.  Ben Hardy displays his usual excellent level of character work and detail in his grounded performance, paired with a rounded and nicely-judged loquacious performance by Jason Patel.  As events take a more melodramatic turn in the final act, it may have benefitted from a simpler focus on the burgeoning relationship, but overall this is a small, intimate and sincere movie.
 

FILM: Alien Romulus (dir: Fede Alvarez, 2024)

"You guys are insane!"

Having taken on one major cult franchise with 2013's Evil Dead, Fede Alvarez goes a similar route here with this so-called 'interquel' (i.e. set between the original Alien and Aliens): fan-pleasing to a fault, faithful callbacks and smart modern upgrades.  Here, a group of young people escape from a Weyland-Yutani mining colony for a distant planet, but they need cryotubes from a decommissioned space research station, and their presence triggers a chain of events they could not have imagined...even if the fans know what to expect.  It is faithful to the original, but it is also clearly aware of the prequels/sequels.  There is plenty going on, with lots of jeopardy along the way, and any worries about the possible YA-Alien direction are dispelled quickly in this gritty, sweary and violent world.  In fact, the youngish cast does a good job with selling the material, notably Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson (Rye Lane), Archie Renaux and Isabela Merced.  Alvarez's pereference for physical effects pays off handsomely, and there is plenty of sci-fi eye candy through, from the lived-in aesthetic of the sets to the epic space vistas.  One surprise major callback to the original film (that plays a surprisingly significant part here) is handled well and has been kept very quiet.  The finale has everything but the kitchen sink thrown at it, and an attempt to fuse an element of the wider mythology with - of all things - Alien Resurrection is both bewildering and possibly a step too far.  Overall, Romulus is a lively, bold and back-to-basics sci-fi thriller that mostly delivers well. 
 

VOD: Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes (dir: Wes Ball, 2024)

"You gotta stop thinking about the way things were, and start thinking about the way things are."

Wes Ball takes the directorial reins of this kick-off for a new Apes trilogy, with the story picking up generations after the time of Caesar (but with his legacy still being felt), following a young male ape Noa as he crosses paths with a seemingly-feral human girl Mae in his quest to find and rescue his family from a gang of ape raiders.  Part coming-of-age tale, part-exploration of the apes' ideologies and continuation of the man vs apes saga, sound storytelling is realised through an extraordinary fusion of seamless FX technology, effective character-building and a dollop of genuine emotion.  The film is beautifully shot and scored throughout, led by an excellent mo-cap performance by Owen Teague as Noa.  There is a deliberate contrast between the dynamic action set-pieces and the stillness and near-silence of the scenes that display how nature has overtaken civilisation that almost wallows in the melancholy of what man has lost. Not only does the film tell the central story of Noa's journey well, but it also offers an interesting third act challenge and sets up future films.  The big set-pieces undoubtedly deliver, but it is perhaps the more reflective nature of this particular film in the series that scores highly.   
 

VOD: Challengers (dir: Luca Guadagnino, 2024)

"This is getting brutal."

In this sporty love-triangle, Zendaya plays Tashi, an ex-tennis pro who has coached her husband (Mike Faist) to success but who is going through a crisis of confidence, and fate puts them in the path of his former doubles partner and love rival for Tashi (Josh O'Connor).  Trying to cover and fuse the tennis and relationships elements is handled well, with an effective balance struck between the signature delicacy and intimacy of Guadagnino's films and the urgency of the tennis play scenes.  Both composition and editing are used to create meaning frequently to very satisfying effect.  The deliberate sexualisation and objectification of the players is used here very purposefully - their bodies are weapons both on-court and off.  Zendaya proves to be very accomplished in a proper adult role, O'Connor is as detailed and charismatic as ever, and lesser-known Faist displays an interesting stillness in his performance.  The overall feel of the movie may be a bit leisurely and the abrupt time-hopping can get a little irritating, but this study of inter-relationships within the trio is certainly interesting to watch and well-played by the leads.
 

VOD: Imaginary (dir: Jeff Wadlow, 2024)

"I mean, none of this even makes sense!"

After a murky and confusing opening that sees a woman being terrorised by a creature in the dark, a young children's writer moves back into her childhood home with her husband and stepchildren (cute kid and antagonistic teen) only to find that her now-angry childhood imaginary friend has abandonment issues and latches onto the little girl.  There are lots of ideas in play and a number of elements that have genuine potential, but they never quite gel and engage, and unfortunately the film's low budget did not seem to furnish lighting and script editing.  It is a very dreary film to watch, with little happening of any consequence, a runaround-in-the-dark third act and a general air of disinterest in what is essentially another dull and undercooked Blumhouse stick-a-family-in-a-house cheapies.  
 

VOD: Elvis (dir: Baz Luhrmann, 2022)

"All showmen are snowmen."

This sprawling, time-hopping musical biopic focuses on the close but difficult long-standing relationship between Elvis (Austin Butler) and his manager Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), the man who launched and guided his career for better and worse, from Elvis's spiritual musical awakening as a boy to the remarkable comeback special and the sadness of the declining final years.  The film swings wildly between inventively-edited montages to melodramatically-written soap opera, with less of a focus on the music that might have been hoped for.  In spite of a relentless feel of being glossily manufactured similar to Bohemian Rhapsody, the first half particularly does a good job of conveying Presley's roots in R&B and soul/gospel music (together with the tensions it created in 50s segregated USA) that pays off in his reinvention in later years.  This is unquestionably an excellent showcase for Austin Butler's talent, but as Parker this film has one of Tom Hanks's less convincing performances.  This film is interesting as it follows some of the machinations and decision-making that led to the inconsistencies in Elvis's career and legacy, but the man himself feels a bit short-changed by the movie. 
 

VOD: The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare (dir: Guy Ritchie)

"Sounds like stealth mode's over."

Based very loosely on some actual World War II escapades, Guy Ritchie's latest action caper follows a group of quirky elite soldiers sent behind enemy lines on an unofficial mission to disrupt U-Boat supplies.  The lead cast is a likeable enough bunch - Henry Cavill, Alan Ritchson, Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, Henry Golding and Alex Pettyfer are all good fun - but the whole affair seems rather leisurely and stilted in delivery.  It is enthusiastically violent from the outset with a high body count, the location work is scenically pretty, and the film delivers a couple of decent set pieces.  Overall, this is an adequate, very-male-dominated lightweight romp that is just about saved by its cast. 
 

VOD: Living (dir: Oliver Hermanus, 2022)

"Not too much fun and laughter.  Rather like church."

Living arrives with quite a pedigree - based on a Kurosawa film, co-written by Kazuo Ishiguro and immaculately (period) costumed by Sandy Powell - and delivers beautifully.  Bill Nighy plays Mr Williams, a rigid and repressed County hall bureaucrat in the 1950s facing a huge personal crisis and learning how to finally live a little.  The whole film is mounted exquisitely through its old-style presentation nods and featuring Nighy at his gently heartbreaking best, aided by strong supporting performances from Aimee Lou Wood as his young woman co-wprker who helps him on his journey and Alex Sharp as the callow office newbie.  This is a quiet, simple tale told beautifully, shot through with wistful melancholy and a powerful message that everyone has the capacity to change and embrace life.
 

VOD: 11/11/11 (dir: Keith Allan, 2024)

"How much more of this are we supposed to take?"

After a promising opening leaving party massacre, the film follows a professor, his wife and their uncommunicative son as they unknowingly move into the same house, soon followed by mysterious accidents and conspiracy theory claiming that the end is nigh on 11/11/11 - the date their son conveniently turns eleven years old.  The scene is thus set for this simplistically-written and somewhat leaden-paced thriller/horror that rapidly turns into a minibudget suburban take on The Omen.  With foreshadowing delivered with the subtlety of flying mallets, a mind-boggling array of sub-par performances and a music soundtrack that meanders along purposelessly simply because it feels it has to be there, it all leads to an utterly bizarre third act and all amounts to very little.
 

FILM: Deadpool & Wolverine (dir: Shawn Levy, 2024)

"Let's give the people what they've come for."

Any worries that this third movie in the the Deadpool franchise might have been Disney-fied following its acquisition of Fox are dispelled very quickly with a bloody, sweary, funny, irreverent and brutal opening scene that sets the tone for the whole movie. The actual story - the TVA (of TV's Loki) is on a mission to eradicate Deadpool's corrupted timeline, which Deadpool can only save by teaming up with a Wolverine from the multiverse - feels a little slight at first, but it builds nicely as the film goes along, aided by a good (if slightly underused) and effective turn by Emma Corrin as another bald-headed Brit villain of the piece.  What is particularly enjoyable is that this is not a Deadpool-with-occasional-appearances-by-Wolverine movie; Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman share the screen for most of the running time, their bickering and banter frequently very amusing and both play their characters successfully to the hilt, with Deadpool here possibly even more campily silly to play against a very full-blooded Wolverine.  Diehard genre fans will have a field day with the unexpected references, cameos and callbacks, some of which are joyfully surprising, and multiverse storylines/the MCU/Fox/Disney all get a good kicking.  All the familiar elements are present, and as always, not every joke lands but the hit-rate is high.  There is a real sense that this is film has been written and made for the fans (rather than a wider audience) to have a good time, and there is no question that it delivers plenty on that front.  The compilation that plays alongside the end credits is a delightful love-letter to the franchises, and the scene at the very end of the credits is a funny pay-off worth waiting for.

 

FILM: Twisters (dir: Lee Isaac Chung, 2024)

"It's old, but it's field-tested."

Nearly thirty years after the original film, Twisters sees the return of the good old-fashioned Summer blockbuster disaster-movie, and very welcome it is too.  It follows the template of the first film quite closely (sparring male and female lead protagonists, lulls between the big special effects events) but with notable upgrades along the way, from basic ideas such as drones and social media to more distinctive elements such as character shading and motivations.  The film opens with a blistering sequence in which Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) leads a group of university students on a disastrous field project; cut to five years later, and she is a New York meteorologist, persuaded by an old friend to give a week for a new tornado 3D-mapping project in stricken Oklahoma, where she locks horns with cocky self-proclaimed 'tornado wrangler' YouTuber Tyler (Glen Powell).  Edgar-Jones is very good indeed in this big action role, Powell is confident as uses his on-screen star-power well, and the actors are given more to do between set pieces this time round.  Whilst the 1996 film's original ground-breaking CGI effects still hold up reasonably well, here they are more nuanced and used to give some more immersive perspectives, with the final two events being spectacular indeed.  If you are familiar with Twister then a lot of this energetic new film will feel comfortably familiar, but for the new generation watching, Twisters will, um, blow them away.
 

VOD: Immaculate (dir: Michael Mohan, 2024)

"Death is a part of everyday life here."

Sharing some similarities with The First Omen, here the excellent Sydney Sweeney - also the driving force behind getting the film made - plays Sister Cecelia, a young devout American nun who travels to a convent in rural Italy but - as a virgin - soon finds herself inexplicably pregnant: immaculate conception, or something more sinister?  Effectively structured through the   trimesters, Cecelia's journey becomes more visceral and unpleasant as truths are revealed.  The film is directed and edited with care and precision with good construction and visual flow, under-lit (sometimes a little too much) to create a gloomy and claustrophobic feel.  Close-Ups and Extreme Close-Ups abound, with a soundtrack that mixes modern sinister synths with old-school Euro-score stylings, giving an overall feel of classic Italian horror/thriller films mixed with more modern genre elements.  Likewise, Sweeney's central performance is focused and very well controlled, conveying an effective mix of naiveté and religious purpose that is slowly broken down.   The full-on third act leads to a provocative and interesting ending.
 

VOD: Madame Web (dir: S.J. Clarkson, 2024)

"What are you doing?  I don't... I don't understand!"

After a heavily-pregnant scientist's expedition to The Amazon to find a supercharged spider ends in tragedy, thirty years later her daughter is a New York paramedic, whose uncanny ability to see the future kicks in after a work accident and she starts to experience flashes of immediate future events, leading to finding herself looking after a trio of very bland and underwritten girls who figure in the future of a very one-dimensional villain.  The film suffers from an  underwhelming script, delivered by the seldom-convincing Dakota Johnson and an underplaying Adam Scott.  With the exception of a mid-point underground train sequence that is executed quite effectively, the whole film comes across as silly, uninteresting and somewhat dull, as entire scenes crawl by like the equivalent of cinematic tumbleweed.  Just as critical and box-office reception suggests, Madame Web is very much the D-List of superpower movies.

  
 

VOD: Beverly Hills Cop - Axel F (dir: Mark Molloy, 2024)

"I'm chasing bad guys with Axel Foley!  Hell yeah!"

The stars finally aligned at Netflix for this long-gestating legacy sequel that sees an older and slightly wiser Axel Foley colliding with 80s/90s action tropes for a daft but reasonably entertaining ride.  Starting with a couple of mindless vehicular action sequences and necessary fan-favourite character revisits, the film perks up with the arrival of a slightly-underused Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a modern-day detective and Taylour Paige as Foley's estranged lawyer daughter.  Nostalgia fans should not worry, as the film is totally unafraid to mine its past, to the extent that The Heat Is On and Faltermeyer's Axel F theme both appear in the first five minutes.  The fractious relationship between Foley and his daughter works well, with Murphy faring much better with his recent mature-actor persona rather than resorting to his old-school comedy schtick (which does occasionally intrude). The actual police story is perfunctory and almost irrelevant, and the relatively low-key action set pieces are a little underwhelming, but seeing Axel Foley in action once again is the real draw here, a little more subdued but still just about entertaining enough.  
 

VOD: The Iron Claw (dir: Sean Durkin, 2024)

"We loved our father...and we loved wrestling."

This sprawling drama is based on the true story of the close-knot Von Erich brothers, professional wrestlers in the late 70s/early 80s, following in their ambitious father's footsteps until the alleged 'family curse' of repeated tragedies begins to strike.  Leading the way is an impressively measured performance by Zac Efron, here scarily bewigged and bulked up looking like a He-man action figure, with further excellent turns by Jeremy Allen White and Harris Dickson in particular, but the whole ensemble is very committed and credible. The film does quite a good job of exploring the artifice and industry behind professional wrestling, but first and foremost this is a film about family, which it conveys very well, and when tragedy inevitably hits, it hits hard, making the third act particularly relentlessly and unbearably sad.  This is a deceptively slight but very sincerely performed tale that is easy to watch and takes the viewer on a rather unexpected and emotional journey.

 

VOD: Bob Marley - One Love (dir: Reinaldo Marcus Green, 2024)

"Sometimes the messenger has to become the message."

Set against the Jamaican political unrest and violence of the mid-70s, this focused music biopic follows that key period of Marley's decision to hold a peace concert, the subsequent move to London to record the Exodus album, his popularity explosion and European tour, and ultimately his return home and the cancer that took his life prematurely.  Kingsley Ben-Adir creates a charismatic and sympathetic portrayal of a principled man devoted to family, faith and music that mostly comes across as very easy-going and likeable, with very strong support from the excellent Lashana Lynch as his wife Rita.  The film wavers between glossy biopic and the very real physical and physiological threats that Marley faced, and overall it is a slick, beautifully shot but curiously emotionally flat retelling of events. 
 

FILM: A Quiet Place Day One (dir: Michael Sarnoski, 2024)

REVIEW No. 1,650!

"I'm gonna clap for that."

Any concerns that this high-quality franchise could maintain and survive without Krasinski and Blunt on screen are dispelled quickly by Lupita Nyong'o playing new central character Samira, a terminal cancer patient whose hospice chooses an unfortunate day to undertake a trip to New York City, just when the aliens from the first two films mount their invasion.  All the attributes of the previous films are delivered but in the context of a significantly bigger scale (that is well-realised for its budget), yet maintaining the focus on an actress of the extraordinary calibre of Nyong'o means that it can continue the intimate experience of the previous films, as she convinces the viewer of every moment she goes through.  Dangerous noises, from a ring pull to an emergency generator kicking in, make the viewer flinch every time as the tense use of silence works so well once again.  There are some creative shots and scenarios drawn from the basic premise - even a couple of moments of Idiot Plot are excusable by their execution - and the devastated city backgrounds and the creature effects are very well presented.  Overall, the shift to the big city works well, making this prequel compelling and well-executed as part of the series and in its own right. 

 

VOD: Norwegian Dream (dir: Liev Igor Devold, 2023)

"Haven't you ever wanted to be someone else?"

This sombre Norwegian drama follows young Polish worker Robert as he relocates to a bleak Norwegian fishing port to work at a salmon processing factory in order to support his family, where he falls awkwardly for the boss's son.  The film does not shy away from the harsh working/living conditions, which eventually lead to divisive strike action as a stark comment on emigrant workers and the conditions they face.  Shot in semi-documentary style, mostly in grey wintry Scandinavian half-light, the film is carried by a focused and committed central performance by Hubert Milkowski, and whilst there are a lot of big issues being juggled - displacement, homophobia, workers' rights, familial responsibility - the film tells its story effectively and sympathetically. 
 

VOD: Baghead (dir: Alberto Corredor, 2023)

"What's it like?"
"A bit creepy, to be honest."

In this low-budget British horror, expanded from a short film, a young woman returns to her estranged father's somewhat grim-looking pub following his grisly demise, only to find that she has unwittingly taken custody of a supernatural creature that lives locked away in the cellar - the titular and literal Baghead - which she must not let out.  With the arrival of her best friend, plus a grieving husband willing to pay to see the creature in order to contact his dead wife, the film is awash with eerily ominous synth sounds, sudden extreme close-ups and plenty of very slow walking in the dark.  Based around two classic genre premises - the creature in the basement plus a set of rules (delivered via VHS tape!) that are subsequently systematically broken - the film is perhaps a little slow overall, but it is suitably atmospheric and has enough ideas to keep it moving along.
 

VOD: Inheritance a.k.a. Spadek (dir: Sylwester Jakimov, 2024)

"What won't people do for money, huh?"
 

Netflix Poland's smaller-scale answer to the recent Agatha Christie popularity finds disparate and estranged members of a family gathering for a will reading at a remote snowy mansion, who then find themselves competing in a series of games and puzzles in order to claim the inheritance, with plenty of twists and red herrings along the way.  The film quickly establishes a  kind of deft and daft energy which it maintains very well right to the very end, playing like a Scooby Doo version of Knives Out: light, breezy and somewhat silly with a very game cast.  If you are looking for a lightweight bit of fun viewing, this film delivers.

VOD: Trigger Warning (dir; Mouly Surya, 2024)

"I'm just trying to wrap my head around all of this."

This time it is Jessica Alba's turn to do the Netflix mature-woman-with-special-skills action/revenge routine, as the no-holds-barred soldier returns to her desert hometown on the death of her miner/bar-owner father and takes on a local crimewave, alongside a military weapons sales conspiracy and the local senator re-election campaign.  Alba is a s reliable as ever, but the whole enterprise feels lethargic and very low-key to watch as she tries to piece together what is going on, accompanied by an irritating broodingly-ominous music score that rarely leads anywhere, especially in the very drawn out and barely-lit third act and silly final.  
 

VOD: Maybe Baby a.k.a. Bytte Bytte Baby (dir: Barbara Topsoe-Rothenborg, 2023)

"The cake is in the oven!"
 

In this Danish comedy, successful middle-aged power couple and an alternative-living younger couple cross paths at a fertility clinic, but when both women fall pregnant, an 'administrative error' means that the eggs were mixed up and they are carrying each other's baby.  As class, values and personalities clash inevitably, all four players in the two main couples play the comedy well, led by the wonderful and indomitable Mille Dinesen (TV's Rita).  The film does briefly address issues such as age, pregnancy and the workplace and nature vs. nurture, but for the most part this is a pleasantly engaging comedy with a lot of good lines (mostly at the expense of men) that is delivered well.