For It Is Man's Number

Tuesday 23 April 2024

Abigail (2024)

I am going to have to make a decision here, whether to include some spoilers in this review or not. Although I would normally work hard to avoid spoilers, Abigail has arguably already been spoiled for you if you have seen the trailer or some of the alternate poster designs. I understand why. It makes more sense to draw in the horror crowd it is aimed at, which wouldn’t necessarily happen if it was sold to look like a straightforward crime thriller. So . . . I am going to discuss it as if it is a pretty straightforward crime thriller, but I am assuming that you will all be aware of the fact that it is more than that.

Things start with a kidnapping. Six people work together to snatch a little girl (Abigail, played by Alisha Weir) before driving to an isolated country home where they have to stay holed up for 24 hours. If all goes well then the payday is $50M. All isn’t about to go well though. It turns out that not only is Abigail’s father very rich, but he is also very powerful and dangerous. And Abigail may share a few of his traits.

Written by Stephen Shields and Guy Busick, this is a very smart and funny horror comedy that makes a lot of things very obvious from the opening titles (for those familiar with the music cue). The twists and turns aren’t presented as major rug-pulls, nothing here will surprise fans of the tropes being played with, but they keep being thrown into the plot with a sense of glee, curveball after curveball for our main characters to deal with. With directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett at the helm (directors of the last two Scream movies, as well as the very enjoyable Ready Or Not), everyone going into this should have an idea of what they are getting into. It’s playful, it’s bloody, and it’s a fresh take on some very familiar material.

The cast are all on the same page, happy to fit into their archetypes and just allow themselves to be part of a group that descends into chaos as everything around them starts going wrong. Melissa Barrera is much better here than she was in the Scream movies, making for a great central character to root for, and Dan Stevens is having a whale of a time as the cold-blooded leader of the group. Kevin Durand and Kathryn Newton are much simpler, more sweet-hearted characters (relatively speaking), and both Angus Cloud and William Catlett do well in their respective roles, even if they seem less important to the group than some of the others. Everyone is a bag of clichés, but it doesn’t matter when they are being used in such a fun way. Weir is the star though, and proves more than capable at conveying the many different moods her character goes through during the unraveling of the kidnapping scheme. It is also worth mentioning a couple of excellent cameo turns from Giancarlo Esposito and Matthew Goode.

Unabashedly profane and bloody throughout, Abigail is the most fun I have had with a mainstream American horror movie in a hell of a long time. It’s well-paced, it looks gorgeous throughout (even as the sets become drenched in blood), it’s inventive, and there are numerous easter eggs dotted throughout that can be enjoyed or ignored without changing how you feel about the rest of the film. All in all, it’s a bloody good time for fans of those involved.

8/10

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Monday 22 April 2024

Mubi Monday: Shirley (2020)

While I didn’t hate watching Shirley, a film that is nicely put together around a talented cast who fit well in their roles, I must say that I wasn’t entirely won over by the central conceit, and it made me hanker for the portrayal of Shirley Jackson I enjoyed a bit more in Set Fire To The Stars. That is a bit unfair though, as it isn’t exactly comparing like for like, but I figured I would take a minute to recommend that little gem of a film.

Anyway, this film is based on a book by Susan Scarf Merrell, and it places the famous Shirley Jackson (Elisabeth Moss) and her husband, Stanley (Michael Stuhlbarg), in the middle of a load of drama, both past and present, that allows others to see the strange and damaging co-dependency locking them together in their relationship. Odessa Young and Logan Lerman play Rose and Fred Nemser, a young couple who end up in the Jackson household, and they unwittingly become the latest distractions for two people who seem to constantly struggle to find ways to occupy themselves (when not being creative, intellectually arrogant, or unfaithful).

Directed well enough by Josephine Decker, who has helmed a number of other films I have enjoyed (and one I just couldn’t stand), this uses the script by Sarah Gubbins to sketch out some characters that are then given the time and space to breathe and play around. Making use of real people in a fictional story is a strange balancing act, but it seems to me that this doesn’t do a bad job of using the main premise to examine the relationship between Shirley and Stanley, as well as looking at how they “played” with others. Some elements may be entirely unnecessary, but they still intertwine nicely with the idea of putting the Jacksons under the glare of a bright spotlight while their dynamic is dissected.

Moss is very good in the title role, as she tends to be in almost everything she does nowadays, and she’s unafraid to play her character in a way that shows her actively repelling people. She’s cold and cool, although occasionally moved by anger, and does well to avoid histrionics and tics. Stuhlbarg plays the less likeable of the two, and he also tackles his role without any hint of concern or softness. Lerman does well in a way that has him being the least memorable of the central quartet, but it’s Young who gets to be the heart of the film, playing the observer who becomes drawn further and further into a large and dangerous web. Constantly drawn to the see the creative spark while trying not to be burned, Young delivers an excellent performance, striking just the right balance of naïveté and strength, that helps her to remain much more significant than she is considered by any of the other main characters.

I just wish we didn’t need the fictional framing device here. It feels like there’s a great film to be made about Shirley Jackson, but this isn’t it. It’s very good, but it’s not great, particularly when it comes to the darker side of her life (her mental health, the dysfunctional marriage, and more). Not one I think I will ever revisit, but I would be interested to hear from others who know a bit more about the real Shirley Jackson, and whether that makes you like this film any more or any less.

6/10

Sunday 21 April 2024

Netflix And Chill: Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves (1991)

There are many things to remember about Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, things that help you to forget other aspects of it. You probably remember Alan Rickman stealing most of the movie. You should remember the monster hit song from Bryan Adams. There's the "arrow-cam" shots. And, for better or worse, Kevin Costner in the lead role. You may well remember all of the fun you had with it, intentional or not, but you might forget what a slog it can be at times, the wildly varying quality of the acting, and how it generally fails in any attempt to be a proper swashbuckling action flick for modern audiences.

Both terrible and fantastic in equal measure, Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves is a film I hadn't revisited since owning it on VHS. It's one that kept randomly popping into my head though, especially when discussing Alan Rickman with a work colleague and trying to deliver amusing impressions of his iconic cinematic villain roles. I kept wondering if it was actually any good, particularly when I wasn't too won over by it back when that song had spent months dominating the British music charts.

The plot is secondary to the stars and the set-pieces. Everyone knows a bit about Robin Hood, especially if they have seen the classic Errol Flynn movie, or the animated Disney flick. He robbed from the rich to give to the poor, and he was the enemy of the greedy and conniving Sheriff Of Nottingham (played here by Rickman, of course). He had a band of merry men, and he had some chemistry with a woman named Marian (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio embodying her this time around).

Written by Pen Densham and John Watson, two people with relatively limited experience (their previous film being one I have long wanted to see, Upworld AKA A Gnome Named Gnorm), and directed by Kevin Reynolds, this is a blockbuster that seems to have become successful through sheer force of will. You have to ignore some of the dodgy accents, you have to just grin while groaning at some of the dialogue (especially the lines uttered by Duncan, played by Walter Sparrow, who could just as easily slot into place in a Monty Python film), and you have to be patient during any scenes that fill time in between the stars being stars.

Costner isn't the best choice for the main role, but he somehow does enough to show why he gained his movie star status. The film belongs to Rickman, thankfully, but not at the expense of our hero, who benefits from his more laidback style being juxtaposed against the brilliant pantomime villain. Mastrantonio does a decent job in a role that tries to balance out the strength of the character with the need to have her in peril, and there's a lot of fun to be had with Morgan Freeman, Nick Brimble, and Mike McShane, the latter two playing Little John and Friar Tuck, respectively. Christian Slater stands out for being miscast in the role of Will Scarlett, but he tries, Michael Wincott is a very good Guy Of Gisborne, and you also get screentime for Geraldine McEwan, Brian Blessed, and a couple of star cameos.

Despite the flaws, and an overly earnest approach to many scenes is one of them, it's easy to see why many can love this. It's a fantastic blockbuster that seems to fall in line with what Costner loves to do: old-fashioned entertainment with just the right blend of drama, romance, and spectacle. You can sneer at it if you like, and I'm sure many do, but it makes up for being a bit of a mess by trying hard at every turn to be a hugely entertaining mess. I may not have loved it back when it was first released, but I cannot help having a soft spot for it now.

8/10

Saturday 20 April 2024

Shudder Saturday: The Third Saturday In October Part V (2022)

Bear with me, this opening paragraph may seem slightly complicated. Having watched The Third Saturday In October last week, and left underwhelmed by it, I decided to watch The Third Saturday In October Part V this week. I also, as per the advice of a producer who commented on my review last week, made time to watch this film before rewatching the first film, because that's the recommended viewing order. There are no other instalments in this series, both films simply being presented as rediscovered slasher movies from a long-forgotten series, and Part V is supposed to be watched before the first film, apparently. I must be missing the main joke/commentary, despite having now watched both films in the way they were supposedly intended to be watched.

The plot is simple, as you might expect. A bunch of people are all together in a house that is targeted by an infamous killer (named Harding). People get naked, people irritate one another, everything plays out while they remain mostly oblivious of the danger that they're in until they see a bloody and mutilated corpse in their immediate vicinity.

I hate to seem like I'm being rude to writer-director Jay Burleson, but I'm not sure I would have given the other/previous/second film a watch if I'd started with this one. It's very generic stuff, albeit with enough self-aware humour to let you know that it's not trying to establish itself as a modern classic, and even lacks the commitment to the aesthetic and atmosphere that infuses the other film. This is supposed to be set in the 1990s, but it never really locks that vibe in, sadly. Fair play to Burleson for making great use of his budget and resources, but both films needed to be considerably tightened up and fine-tuned at the writing stage, especially if viewers were supposed to get the most from watching them in a double-bill.

The cast don't do a bad job, but I would be lying if I said that anyone stood out to me by the time the end credits rolled (except for young Poppy Cunningham doing great work as PJ). Taylor Smith is a fun douchebag, Bart Hyatt and Tom Hagale have a couple of fun scenes, and Kansas Bowling, Autumn Jaide, Parker Love Bowling, and Devan Katherine are all decent final girl contenders.

I can appreciate some of what I think is being done here, a later slasher movie sequel that has tried to move with the times while also still delivering exactly what the fanbase wants from it, but it's not done as effectively as it could be. Perhaps Burleson will eventually give us a Part IX, set in space, and then he'll really be on to something, or a Part XIII, pitting Harding against some other unstoppable killer, because every main slasher movie series is equally about what new trend it incorporates as it is about what it tries to keep unchanged. Heck, I'd even appreciated a Part VIII in this series that shows Harding being able to make use of dial-up internet in order to start rebuilding himself from however he was destroyed at the end of Part VII, where he was torn apart by the many ghosts of his previous victims while a nu-metal soundtrack played out as he staggered around in an abandoned church. I'm not saying it's easy to turn those ideas into a script, and subsequently get a full movie made. I'm just saying that the main premise has the potential to lead to so much more.

4/10

Friday 19 April 2024

Broken Arrow (1996)

When you think about watching Broken Arrow you might think about the fact that it isn’t the best film from anyone involved. It isn’t director John Woo’s best film. Both John Travolta and Christian Slater have starred in a number of better films. Even writer Graham Yost peaked a couple of years before this (having worked on the brilliant Speed). It’s a film destined to be overshadowed by so many others, and yet I tend to get the urge to revisit it every few years.

Travolta and Slater play Deakins and Hale, respectively. They are two pilots who find themselves battling against one another when one puts in motion a plan to steal some nuclear weapons. Terry Carmichael (Samantha Mathis) is a young park ranger who finds herself in the middle of a very dangerous situation, and it isn’t long until we get slow-motion moments, two-handed gunplay, and inventive action sequences that showcase a fantastic variety of stuntwork and gags.

As much as I enjoy Hard Target, the first American feature from Woo, it feels very much like a Van Damme movie that John Woo directed. Which is what it is. Broken Arrow, however, feels like a John Woo movie that could have started anyone in the main roles, but benefits from both Travolta and Slater upping their game to work with such a great action director. I hope that clarifies why I have always enjoyed this film a bit more than the enjoyable Van Damme flick.

The script may not be the best work that Yost has ever done, but he puts all of the pieces in place and gives some great dialogue to the main characters (one line even famously leading to the name of the kingdom of the now-disgraced Harry Knowles, “Ain’t It Cool News”). What it lacks in smarts and plausibility, it more than makes up for in action movie witticisms and simple fun, which is an approach supported by Woo’s enjoyable direction.

Travolta steals a few scenes, but both he and Slater fit well in their roles, and both seem equally capable at doing whatever their characters are required to do. Mathis is weaker, but it’s hard to figure out whether that is down to her performance or the fact that her character feels like a last-minute addition to the whole thing. Thankfully, the supporting cast includes Bob Gunton, Frank Whaley, and the always brilliant and captivating Delroy Lindo, each one of these familiar faces getting at least one great little moment to remind you of why you enjoy them onscreen.

Well-paced, with a fantastic set-piece just over the halfway point that remains awesome and impressive nowadays, and with a third act that really pulls out all of the stops, this remains a top-tier action film. You can really sense Woo feeling gleeful as he plays around with this huge toy set. It is also worth mentioning the score by Hans Zimmer, featuring a guitar refrain performed by Duane Eddy, which is so good that it was re-used and recycled in a number of different works.

I love this film, ever since I first watched, and rewatched, the trailer while it played at a cinema too far away from me to access. Everyone involved may have done better work elsewhere, but they all work together brilliantly here to deliver something hugely entertaining and enjoyable.

8/10

Thursday 18 April 2024

Invasion Of Astro-Monster (1965)

Right, someone should have really kicked my butt years ago to get me making my way through all of the Godzilla films. Each new favourite seems to be equaled by another new favourite lately, and I am just loving it.

The plot this time around concerns some spacemen who find alien life on Planet X. These aliens are humanoid, and have to shelter whenever the surface of their planet is being attacked by King Ghidorah. Knowing how he was defeated before, the aliens would like to “borrow” Godzilla and Rodan, only requiring them until Ghidorah is no longer a threat to them. That’s the starting point anyway, but there may be another reason for wanting access to the kaiju residing on our planet.

We’re back in the safe and capable hands of director Ishirô Honda here, working once again with writer Shin’ichi Sekizawa, and the end result is as much fun as you could hope for. Okay, some may prefer these movies to feel a bit more tense, the large scale of the threat somehow makes it all seem less likely to end badly for the main characters, but this is well-paced and full of unexpected delights, whether it is seeing Godzilla and Rodan airlifted through space or watching Godzilla shuffle around in front of Ghidorah like a fleet-footed boxer.

Akira Takarada and Nick Adams play the two astronauts who encounter alien life on a far planet (located on the other side of Jupiter), and the two men do a decent job of looking bemused while remaining determined to do whatever is in the best interest of humanity. Yoshio Tsuchiya is the apparent leader of Planet X, a role he plays well enough as he is viewed with suspicion, eventually accepted, and then in charge of the grand plan that relies on controlling the kaiju. Jun Tazaki is the requisite scientist, and Kumi Mizuno does a great job as the lovely, but perhaps untrustworthy, Namikawa.

The effects displaying the moments of destruction are perfectly fine, neither the best nor the worst seen in these movies, but this works as well as it does because of the personality of the creatures. Following on from the depictions we saw in the last movie, a slight softening of Godzilla and Rodan to make them more acceptable reluctant “heroes”, this underlines why so many of us film fans will always maintain a soft spot for the performers in the rubber suits who brought these creatures to life.

Perhaps it will slide down my rankings as I continue to make my way through the main Godzilla movie series, but I am happy, for now anyway, to rate Invasion Of Astro-Monster as another fantastic monster mash.

8/10

Wednesday 17 April 2024

Prime Time: Ricky Stanicky (2024)

I saw the trailer for Ricky Stanicky a couple of months ago and I wasn’t happy. First of all, it looked dire. Second, I knew I would still eventually watch it. And so here we are, but was it as dire as the trailer made it out to be?

After a childhood incident that requires some quick creativity, three friends realise how much they can help themselves by making use of an imaginary friend, named Ricky Stanicky. Ricky can be blamed for many misadventures, he can be used to get out of other obligations, and life is just better with him available. That is, of course, until things are complicated by people wanting to meet Ricky. With the alternative option (coming clean after many years) not really an option at all, our main characters hire an adult entertainer/actor (John Cena) they met in Atlantic City.

Starring Zak Efron, Andrew Santino, and Jermaine Fowler as the friends who keep the secret of Ricky Stanicky between them, this is a fairly enjoyable and predictable comedy that would have really benefited from pushing into much more outrageous and bawdier territory (which people might have expected from director Peter Farrelly, although he has certainly settled in to helming much mellower fare over the past decade). I enjoyed the leads well enough, but there should have been someone else on the mix, someone to help add laughs and elevate every scene. Santino is clearly positioned here as the most comedic of the cast, setting aside Cena for the moment, but he just isn’t good enough.

I am surprised that this doesn’t feel like a bigger mess though, considering at least half a dozen writers were responsible for the screenplay. While it lacks any big laughs, and even skimps on the milder chuckles, it works well for most of the runtime due to the potential of the premise. There’s also a very enjoyable second act that shows “Ricky” stealing the show and living up to his legendary reputation.

Efron has always been someone I enjoy seeing onscreen, and he is fine here as the man who desperately hopes to get through a busy time without being caught out for his many lies. Santino is okay, but not as funny as he should be, and the same can be said of Fowler, who is given a plot strand that never feels fully developed, making you wonder why it was included anyway. Lex Scott Davis and Anja Savcic have a few good moments, playing the partners of Efron and Santino, respectively, and William H. Macy is fun as their boss (accompanied in one or two scenes by Jane Badler, playing his wife). Cena is the star though, given another chance to showcase his comedy chops, and he tries hard to make up for the weaknesses elsewhere in the script, whether oozing confidence and knowledge about subjects that Ricky should be fluent in or being shown performing his act onstage as “Rock-Hard Rod”. He’s certainly game to give anything a go, and I appreciate how well he transitioned from one incarnation of his personality to the next, sensing an opportunity to turn Ricky into his big break.

The enthusiasm and talent of Cena isn’t enough though. This isn’t a good movie, although it also isn’t the horrible car crash I thought it might be. It’s just average. I was moderately entertained while it was on, but I am never going to revisit it. At least it doesn’t end in a way that seems to set up any sequel opportunities. There should only ever be one Ricky Stanicky.

5/10

Tuesday 16 April 2024

13 Ghosts (1960)

While I will mention the plot and the cast, while I will do my best to review 13 Ghosts in the same way I would review any other movie, a William Castle is a slightly different beast. The director was renowned for his gimmicks and showmanship, and it is important to bear that in mind when watching the films that best exemplify that (although it is good to remember that he also helmed a number of films that were a bit less sensational). 13 Ghosts was sold to people with the lure of Illusion-O and I will be getting back to that shortly.

Cyrus Zorba (Donald Woods) isn’t doing well. He is struggling to earn enough money to stop people from entering his family home, upsetting his wife (Hilda, played by Rosemary DeCamp), and taking away their furniture. Things look up when he inherits a house, one that may relieve the tension for his wife, daughter (Medea, played by Jo Morrow), and young son (Buck, played by Charles Herbert). The fact that the house is supposed to be haunted by numerous spirits is surely nonsense, right? Well, fortunately, there are also some special goggles that help people to see some of the spirits around them.

While not on a par with his best movies (which both starred Vincent Price in two truly marvelous roles), 13 Ghosts is a fun time. I would have loved to have seen this in the cinema with the full Illusion-O experience. Patrons were apparently given a ghost viewer for the film, which allowed you to see or avoid the spooks, depending on whether you looked through the blue or red portion of the apparatus. It’s a simple way to filter the main image, and also allows Castle to present a number of phantoms that don’t have to stand up to very close scrutiny.

The script, written by Robb White (who collaborated with Castle many times), is disappointingly weak, but we know that it’s just a series of steps to move from one ghost to the next, perhaps even counting as we see each apparition. It lacks the wit and energy of other Castle movies, arguably hampered by the need to incorporate the USP throughout.

Thankfully, there’s a surprisingly enjoyable cast. Both Woods and DeCamp may be a bit weak, but they are often kept to one side as we spend time with Herbert (who manages to just avoid being too irritating as he happily seeks out the secrets of the house) and Morrow (who, to use a very well-worn phrase, positively lights up the screen). There’s also a good turn from Martin Milner, playing the lawyer who seems to be helping the family get things sorted, and a fun little role for Margaret Hamilton, with the most famous witch in cinema playing a housekeeper viewed as . . . a witch by young Buck.

There are good moments throughout this, even if you can see the strings moving things around onscreen, and the very last scenes are as devious and entertaining as they are predictable. I probably won’t revisit this one, apart from time I will spend checking out the wonderful wealth of bonus features on the blu-ray I own, but I enjoyed watching it while it was on. I have yet to see any William Castle film that I actively dislike. I hope things stay that way as I finally explore his other feature that I have had on my “to watch” pile for far too long.

6/10

Monday 15 April 2024

Mubi Monday: Yannick (2023)

Writer-director Quentin Dupieux has been doing great work for some time now, using the medium of film to have lots of fun and probe at the boundaries between audience and artist. Often using some wonderfully surreal premises, he is an acquired taste I have tended to always enjoy.

The starting point for Yannick is a stage play. Our lead character, the titular Yannick (Raphaël Quenard) is unhappy with it. He has travelled to see it, made it the centrepiece of his day off from work, and it is not distracting him from his own issues. We know this when he stands up to inform the three stage actors of this. One thing leads to another, and eventually leads to Yannick holding the actors and audience hostage as they work together to improve the play and give everyone a much better experience.

Clocking in at just over an hour in length (67 minutes is the full runtime, which includes credits), Yannick is a smart and intelligent look at the relationship between, yes, the audience and the artist. Dupieux is looking at a different facet of that relationship though, and I couldn’t help but view this as an exploration of the many recent incidents we have seen where fandoms turn toxic. Being a fan of something, or even just wanting to be a fan of something that doesn’t live up to your expectations and/or standards, doesn’t entitle you to attempt any kind of hostile takeover. Feedback and collaboration are both important, but it should all be for the right reasons, and at the right time. That might just be me though, and it is a stance not necessarily supported by the third act of this film, which may show Dupieux simply underlining how creators shouldn’t be averse to contributions from those with different viewpoints.

Wherever he lands on the issue, Dupieux does a great job of presenting a scenario that gives viewers plenty to chew on. Feeling very much like a play itself, the film benefits from the short runtime, being so densely packed with great dialogue and ideas, as much as it benefits from the casting.

While Pio Marmaï, Blanche Gardin, and Sébastien Chassagne are all very good in their roles, the actors in the play who are frustrated, angered, and scared at various times throughout the process of reworking their material, Quenard does a fantastic job of making his character feel unpredictable, and potentially dangerous, without ever seeming despicable. I recently enjoyed Quenard’s performance in Junkyard Dog, but this very different role has shown me that he is someone I definitely want to see as a lead in more movies.

Typically playful and thought-provoking, Yannick is another excellent work from Dupieux that will easily please fans of his style. It might even work well as a starting point for those who have yet to explore his filmography (the dialogue and dynamic crystallizing his main themes in a way that is more digestible than it is in some of his other films). Highly recommended, but mainly to people who will already have at least some inkling of what Dupieux likes to do.

8/10

Sunday 14 April 2024

Netflix And Chill: Scoop (2024)

I didn't really have any interest in this project when I heard it was coming, but then I heard about the cast. For me, Andrew (and I won't refer to him by any title, considering the fact that he keeps trying to weasel back into royal duties he was supposed to be removed from) is someone who was, at the very least, guilty of something that made him pay out a considerable sum of money to settle a sexual abuse lawsuit with Virginia Giuffre, the young woman pictured alongside him in the photograph that would prove to be the major contributing factor to the fall from grace that he keeps trying to return from. I couldn't even watch the full interview, the clips I saw were just too cringe-inducing for me. But seeing how it all played out in a drama featuring performances from Gillian Anderson, Rufus Sewell, Billie Piper, and Keeley Hawes? Yeah, I became convinced that I might actually enjoy watching this.

And I did. There's not much to say in terms of a plot description here. This is based on the book by Samantha McAlister (played onscreen by Piper), the woman who arranged a number of great interviews for the BBC, and it shows how things all came together in time to provide us with one of the most incredible interviews of the last few decades. Sewell plays Andrew, Anderson is well-known BBC presenter Emily Maitlis, and Hawes plays Amanda Thirsk, an adviser to Andrew who ends up being convinced that a frank and full interview might just be the thing to end all of the speculation and rumours about him.

There's only so much you can do with this to make it engrossing entertainment, considering most people will watch this with the knowledge of what was shown on TV. Although there's fun to be had from seeing Andrew being given enough rope with which to hang himself, all without breaking a sweat, it's arguably more interesting to see the tension and dynamics behind the scenes of the BBC, with equal attempts made to deliver relevant news content while simultaneously keeping an eye of the guests and conversation pieces that help to maintain decent viewing figures. The arguments that Sam McAlister has with her colleagues are reflections of how many members of the public have viewed the BBC in recent years (especially when they have so many guest appearances from the likes of Nigel Farage, for example, or try to spin old news into something a bit fresher), and her pivotal role allows viewers to feel like they are being guided around the environment by someone who recognises the flaws of the place, but still believes in how much good can be done there.

Written by Peter Moffat and Geoff Bussetil, and directed by Philip Martin, everyone here has the mix of experience that you'd expect, with nobody standing out for being awful or great. They are all competent and dependable pairs of hands, in my view, and they have excellent source material to work with (and, yes, I immediately bought McAlister's book, "Scoops", after seeing this). They also do themselves a massive favour by casting the leads pretty perfectly.

Although they have arguably the hardest jobs to do onscreen, both Anderson and Sewell are excellent in their roles, both capturing mannerisms and an essence of the famous people that they're portraying. Sewell is helped by a great make up team, while Anderson is helped equally by the fact that she's Gillian Anderson, although the make up team and costume designers also give her some assistance. Piper is equally good, in a different way. She shows the tenacity and daring that it took to get, and hold, the exclusive interview opportunity, as well as how hard she had to keep fighting to stay involved with the whole process. As for Hawes, it's odd to see her character become more and more sympathetic as she struggles to handle a situation that shouldn't really be within her job description. I wouldn't ever say that the real Amanda Thirsk wanted to help Andrew self-destruct on TV, but there's some hint of relief mixed in with the astonishment of what she ends up seeing and hearing during the interview. Maybe just a thankfulness that, one way or another, a certain chapter is over, even if it leads to a whole new mess for others to swarm in and deal with.

I won't rush to rewatch this, and I still can't bring myself to watch the original Newsnight interview (which the BBC have cannily started promoting again on their BBC iPlayer platform), but it's a well-crafted piece of work, acted perfectly by a bunch of people I tend to really enjoy watching onscreen. It's not going to rock your world, but it's a solid bit of entertainment that serves as a timely reminder of why Andrew should remain away from any public duties, and why he should have been completely cut off from the rest of the royal family by now. Maybe if he'd done something truly terrible, like fall in love with someone who wasn't 100% white (please note the sarcasm), then he would have been more strongly punished.

7/10

Saturday 13 April 2024

Shudder Saturday: The Third Saturday In October (2022)

We have known for some time that nostalgia is a powerful tool when it comes to marketing and selling, and that has been a major part of many recent movie releases, from big blockbusters to the legacy sequels, and many horror movies that seem intent on recapturing that feeling you had when you went home with a videotape that contained some extra-nasty and traumatizing content. Sometimes that nostalgia takes the form of the kind of extreme splatter and practical effects that have been diluted and phased out by modern practices. Sometimes that nostalgia is presented via the entire aesthetic of a piece. The Third Saturday In October falls into the latter category.

It all starts with a scroll that explains the title. Not that the title needed more explanation, but maybe that is just me thinking that way. Anyway, an unrepentant killer is executed by the state, with only a couple of people turning up to witness the event. As this is a throwback to some old-school slasher fun, however, death is only a minor inconvenience in the journey of this killer. He is soon out to hack up unsuspecting victims, but there’s also time for people to goof around and start getting horny.

Having helmed a number of shorts and features throughout the past decade, he actually seems to have released his first film back in 2010, writer-director Jay Burleson uses the premise and concept here to show off how well he can commit to the grimy and endearingly crude replication of a special VHS horror find. It’s just a shame that he cannot do as well with the script and pacing, leading to the first two thirds of the film feeling like a bit of a slog.

Things are helped by the music and cinematography though, with compliments to Kevin Wooten and Chris Hilleke, respectively, for their work. This is definitely a case of some great audio and visual work in dire need of a much better framework to flesh out.

When it comes to the acting, you might say that everyone is in line with the material, but that’s not entirely correct. Some get to be a bit quirky and fun, such as Darius Willis in the role of Ricky Dean Logan, a character who insists on referring to the woman accompanying him on his hunt for a killer by her full name of Vicki Newton every time he speaks to her. K. J. Baker is a decent enough co-lead as the aforementioned Vicki Newton, but Lew Temple, Richard Garner, Libby Blake, Dre Bravo, Allison Shrum, and everyone else in the cast feels a bit underused or out of place. And Antonio Woodruff, in the role of the killer, Harding, is disappointingly blank throughout, playing a slasher so devoid of personality that they may as well have just put some kind of sports mask on his face and leaned further into the Friday The 13th vibe.

I have read some reviews of this that mention it is meant to be watched AFTER The Third Saturday In October Part V, but other reviews seemed to suggest that it didn't matter too much. There are no other instalments in between the two films, which adds to the fun of the main idea, so I will get to that one eventually (maybe even by next week), and I will try to figure out how the connections would work if the films were watched in reverse order. Who knows . . . maybe I will find elements there that help me to appreciate this a bit more. I am doubtful, but it could happen.

5/10

Friday 12 April 2024

Next Goal Wins (2023)

Presenting a fictionalised version of a story already presented to us in a documentary of the same name (a documentary I am now very keen to see), this is the story of the American Samoa football team and their attempt to turn their fortunes around after a brutal 31-0 defeat in the qualifying rounds for the 2002 World Cup.

Michael Fassbender is our lead, a washed up coach named Thomas Rongen. Rongen isn’t really known for his ability to shape winners. He is known for losing his temper. All that matters is that the American Samoa team feel like they are being given a shot though, even if the odds are majorly stacked against them. Rongen has to get used to the local way of life, and he has to get used to the idea that one of his better players (Jaiyah, played by Kaimana) is in a state of transition that everyone else accepts and appreciates.

I rattled off a quick bit of praise for this on social media as soon as the end credits had rolled, commenting on how much I enjoyed it and how it seemed to come along at a time when director Taika Waititi had/has fallen out of favour. To be clear here, whether or not you like this film doesn’t necessarily depend on your personal feelings about the Waititi, but this is, for me, a film that retains most of what I like about Waititi’s work without having too much of the baggage that now proves to be a bit irritating. For better or worse, he has become a celebrity director, which may explain why his cameo here feels like one of the weaker moments.

Overall, however, Waititi directs with his usual skill at handling the kind of gentle humour, weaving together predictable plot strands on the way to a third act where lessons are learned, obstacles are overcome, and viewers will be ready to smile, whatever the result of the final game of footie. The script, co-written by Waititi and Iain Morris, is everything you expect, although there’s the bonus of a real winning charm derived from the warmth and easygoing nature, and optimism, of the American Samoan people. The stakes aren’t too high either, which is pleasingly atypical, with the team still quite happy to celebrate their journey as they strive to score just one goal to show that they can.

Fassbender is very good in his main role, majorly grumpy and resentful of his lot in life as he hurtles to what we all hope will be a transformative experience. Kaimana is a delight, adding an important element to the team and the team spirit, her presence highlighting the focus on happiness and gratitude. Both Oscar Kightley and David Fane are great as individuals struggling to keep the football team as a viable entity, the former involved in a great little running joke that shows how many different hats he wears in his daily life, and Beulah Koale, Uli Latukefu, and the other main players get to have numerous memorable moments as they train hard to hopefully achieve a bit of on-pitch redemption. There are also small roles for the likes of Elisabeth Moss, Will Arnett, Rhys Darby, and Rachel House.

I really enjoyed this, but it’s something we’ve seen done in similar ways many times before. Think of any feelgood sports comedy drama and you will already know what to expect. It’s still worth a watch though, especially if you just want something easy to watch that will have you smiling throughout.

7/10

Thursday 11 April 2024

Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster (1964)

There’s no reason for me to be cagey about this film. It was the most fun I had this week with my clothes on. It’s a new favourite kaiju movie, but I am starting to worry that I will be saying that for every film I am belatedly discovering for the first time. I cannot imagine fans of these movies disliking this though. It is quite simply, to use the proper cinematic term, absolutely awesome.

Bear with me as I rush through the main plot points, which are quite ridiculous. A meteor hits the Earth. A princess, being guarded by a detective, seemingly dies in a plane crash, but then returns while seemingly possessed by the spirit of a Venusian prophet. The mighty Ghidorah is due to rise up and cause some stress for humans, to put it mildly, but there is a chance that Godzilla and Rodan could work together and overpower this mutual enemy . . . if they can be persuaded that Ghidorah IS an enemy. That persuasion comes from a young Mothra, with translations offered to the audience by the fairy twins (once again played by Emi and Yumi Itô).

If that all sounds pretty bonkers then, trust me, it is. It is also hilarious and entertaining, particularly during one key scene in the third act that is the kaiju equivalent of kids being talked into moodily doing some housework. As is so often the case, none of the human characters make much of an impression, although the oddness of the tale helps them a bit, but this is all about the monster madness, which is delivered with gusto in the finale.

Director Ishirô Honda is working again with writer Shin’ichi Sekizawa, and both seem to make the most of the silly premise, adding plenty of humour throughout to let viewers know that it’s fine to grin and chuckle your way through this one. And grin and chuckle you surely will.

The effects seem a bit cheaper and more crude than some of the previous stuff we have seen, but that just adds to the feeling that this has been made with an emphasis on the daffy fun.

I will mention Yôsuke Natsuki, Yuriko Hoshi, Hiroshi Koizumi, and Akiko Wakabayashi here. They all do fine in their roles, the latter particularly enjoyable as the aforementioned princess (who, let’s not forget, appears to become possessed by a prophetic Venusian), but they are, as expected, secondary to the monsters. And when the monsters are onscreen, well, the humans are quickly forgotten.

If these films keep being as good as this then I will just kick myself harder for not watching many of them years before now. Part of me hopes they are wildly inconsistent, but part of me is absolutely gleeful at the prospect of more features that are as much fun as this one.

9/10

Wednesday 10 April 2024

Prime Time: Soul Survivors (2001)

I saw Soul Survivors when it first came out, when it hit the VHS rental market anyway, and I hated it. Even as a much younger horror movie fan, I saw it as something dull and tired. I never thought of it as a film I should revisit, but recently decided I should give it a second chance. After all, maybe I would respond more positively to it after years spent developing a tolerance for many bad movies. And writer-director Stephen Carpenter has been involved with other projects that I enjoy (including the wonderful Kindred). Damn me and my optimism. If anything, this was worse than I remembered.

I genuinely despair at the thought of even relating the plot here. A group of mopey young people just mope around, get into a car accident, and spend a lot more time moping around. This might not have been so bad if the cast didn’t include the lesser Affleck, the lesser Wilson, and the lesser Slayer, as well as a soundtrack and aesthetic that pretty much beats you over the head with how turn-of-the-21st-century it is.

If you wanted to be generous about Soul Survivors, not that I do, then you could accept the fact that it’s a very tame horror movie for teens who want to try out their first horror movie. It’s not scary, not gory, and the characters are almost all impossible to care about, but it’s a paddling pool for people to dip their toes into before they put on the water wings and start learning to swim, if they don’t mind the water temperature.

I don’t know what Carpenter was thinking though. He was either hampered by a studio wanting him to make the blandest and most predictable film possible, or he forgot every other movie made in the history of cinema and figured that he was making something cool and entertaining for teen viewers. There are episodes of “Goosebumps” and “Are You Afraid Of The Dark?” scarier than this. Not to deride those shows. I just mention those as their target demographic skews much younger.

The cast really don’t help at all. If I forget to mention anyone here then please know that it is because I forgot about them while the movie was playing. Melissa Sagemiller is the lead, and there’s probably a good reason why she hasn’t (as far as I’m aware) been front and centre of too many, or any, other major releases. She had a run of a few movies, her small amount of good luck was used up, and she’s now seen more often in various TV roles. Eliza Dushku, who was given the prime spot on the poster, has fared slightly better, with a couple of better movies under her belt, but I have never been a big fan of her presence. Luke Wilson purses his lips and looks sad-eyed, which is no stretch, Casey Affleck keeps appearing throughout the film (and I tend to hate him, but also, dammit, love some of his best performances . . . of which this is very much not one), and Wes Bentley is just about the only highlight, overpowering the weak script and direction with his essential Wes Bentleyness (aka the menacing doppelgänger of Donnie Darko).

Some people out there will still have a soft spot for this, if only for the soundtrack, but I implore those people to leave this dead and buried, where it belongs. I can easily recommend them at least half a dozen movies that cover very similar territory in a much better way. When it comes to mainstream horror movies aimed at a teen audience, this is about as bad as you can get. Absolutely atrocious from start to finish, and please feel free to give me a slap if I ever start to wonder if I was too harsh on it.

2/10

Tuesday 9 April 2024

Dune: Part Two (2024)

The film that fans of Dune: Part One were forced to wait an extra five months to see in cinemas, that delay seems to have done nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of those eager for more visually gorgeous sci-fi on the big screen. It certainly gave me time to FINALLY watch the first instalment and join those who were eagerly awaiting the concluding part of the tale. Except, and I feel it’s important to say this somewhere in this review, this isn’t really a conclusion to the tale. It’s another lengthy chapter, and I was disappointed as the end credits rolled after an ending that didn’t feel like a proper ending. It might be in line with the source material, and there is certainly more to come from Denis Villeneuve working in this world, but that didn’t help me when I was underwhelmed by the way in which things just started to move towards the next part of the epic tale.

I will give a brief, and very poor, summary of the plot. After the events of the first film, Paul Atreides (Tinothée Chalamet) and his pregnant mother, Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), are living with the desert-dwelling Fremen on the planet of Arrakis. Powerful people still want to destroy the Fremen, all to control the spice and become even more powerful, but Paul may well be the secret weapon that helps to end the ongoing battles. Or he may well cause even more destruction and bloodshed. There are strong bonds forged, and broken, there is a prophecy that many start to doubt, and there is a need to learn how to walk without rhythm in order to stay safe from the giant sandworms.

Although a visual feast from start to finish, as well as an aural feast too (thanks to Hans Zimmer and everyone working in the sound department), Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts have once again done a magnificent job of compressing an epic tome into a digestible and entertaining movie. It has a slightly different tone from part one, mainly due to the fact that we are witnessing Paul exploring his true potential, but it’s often the equal of the first film.

The cast are perfect, as many of them already proved last time around. Both Chalamet and Ferguson get to be a bit stronger and meaner this time, which is an interesting change to their characters, Javier Bardem has a bit more fun in his role, and Zendaya gets to do a lot more than just be some mysterious woman in a vision. Christopher Walken and Florence Pugh are sorely underused, as is the wonderful Léa Seydoux, while the likes of Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, and Josh Brolin are given just time to stay involved in the ongoing plotting and scheming until Austin Butler comes onscreen and threatens to steal the entire movie away from everyone.

I have less to say about this than I had to say about Dune: Part One, but only because it is so perfectly in line with the groundwork set out a few years ago. Villeneuve is arguably one of the best directors around when it comes to creating an entire world in which to immerse viewers (imagine the worlds we could see if he ever worked alongside Guillermo del Toro), and this is incredible stuff. It’s grandiose, it seems to emanate dry heat from every frame, and the prospect of getting to spend more time in this world is the silver lining to the small cloud that is that non-ending.

Much like the spice featured at the heart of the tale, this is pure and powerful stuff. And that’s without even mentioning how depressingly it parallels events in our reality that have been ongoing for decades.

8/10

Monday 8 April 2024

Mubi Monday: Results (2015)

It is easy to view gym life as quite a cult. Those who work there tend to be positive and full of motivational mantras, and those who end up responding well to the lifestyle end up acting like someone who has been recently converted to some kind of new religion. I don’t say this with malice. I speak from experience, and that experience is ongoing as I try to remain committed to my own gym and fitness schedule. Results is a movie that has fun with this idea, especially in the way it presents two fitness instructors with two very different ways of viewing life.

Kevin Corrigan plays Danny, a man who wants to get into shape. He wanders into a gym and chats to Trevor (Guy Pearce), who ends up pairing him up with a trainer named Kat (Cobie Smulders). It turns out that Danny is quite rich. It also turns out that he finds Kat attractive. Furthermore, Trevor also has a thing for Kat. What follows is a constant clash of differing attitudes as every one of these three main protagonists is somehow helped by the others to correct their path through life.

Both Pearce and Smulders are great fun here, butting heads in a way that you know is just distracting them from a chance to see their relationship potential. Pearce has to be almost constantly optimistic and positive throughout, while Smulders enjoys being a bit more confrontational and carefree. Corrigan is an actor I have loved seeing in supporting roles for years, and his excellent turn here makes me wish he had many more people willing to give him this amount of screentime. Giovanni Ribisi is good fun in a small role, a partying lawyer, and Anthony Michael Hall feels as if he is channeling Dolph Lundgren whenever he appears onscreen as a kettlebell guru named Grigory.

Written and directed by Andrew Bujalski, who has helmed at least three gems in the last decade or so, Results is a well-constructed comedy drama that stays enjoyable throughout, even in the scenes that hint at darker or more cringe-inducing options. This is as much to do with the performances as it is to do with the script, but Bujalski clearly has a talent for dialogue and characterization that attracts some great actors to his projects. It is also worth noting that this isn’t a film making fun of those who enjoy fitness or gym life. It is saying that there is no one easy “fix” for any of us, whether in the gym or just in life, but nobody is mocked here for trying to better themselves, even while they struggle. As anyone who has been trying to get fit for a decent amount of time can tell you, you can learn just as much from failures as you can learn from success.

There might be some people who would have preferred this to be a sharper film, a meaner one, but I think Bujalski has judged it perfectly. It’s a typical look at some characters trying to sort out their problems and create a decent future for themselves. They just all happen to be connected by their ongoing attempts to develop healthy bodies and healthy minds.

8/10

Sunday 7 April 2024

Netflix And Chill: Emily The Criminal (2022)

Although I like her onscreen presence, and although she tends to pick a variety of interesting projects, Aubrey Plaza being in a movie isn't ever a guarantee that I will enjoy it. That seems to be changing though, especially in the movies that also have her serving in some kind of producer role, and Emily The Criminal is one of her best roles yet.

A feature debut from writer-director John Patton Ford, this is the tale of a young woman who struggles to get a decent break in life. She is weighed down by mistakes in her past, including a felony charge and a whole lot of student loan debt, but she knows that the current system is making things much harder than they need to be. Eventually offered the chance to make a quick $200 in a credit card scam, Emily sees a way to massively improve her life. The scam is overseen by Youcef (Theo Rossi), who ends up teaching Emily more and more ways to improve her profit-making opportunities. But with greater reward comes greater risks, of course.

While I went into this expecting a decent little character study, from the title and the marketing of the movie, I soon realised that it was interested in offering a bit more than that. Emily The Criminal IS all about Emily, and her new-found talent for some criminal activities, but it's also a reminder of just how badly the system works against people who struggle and sweat through years to make up for the ongoing repercussions of past mistakes. Although it won't happen to everyone, many people will have made one or two mistakes in their youth that lands them in trouble with the police, and even more people will end up in some kind of debt (planned or unplanned) at least once. Emily The Criminal shows how hard it is to move away from those things, especially in a society that has now seemingly stacked the odds in favour of employers who want to make use of unpaid interns, employees trapped by the need to keep working all hours of the day to make the most of their low wage, and the apparently blissful move towards a "gig economy". That last part was meant to be completely sarcastic, by the way.

Ford packs a lot of great little moments into the 97-minute runtime, whether it's showing us Emily attending a job interview being conducted by someone trying to blindside her with information about her past, the tense transactions where Emily wants her fraud to go undetected until she is away from the shop/seller/buyer, or a fantastic exchange between our lead and a powerful employer (Gina Gershon) who thinks she is doing someone a huge favour by offering them, well, something that isn't a huge favour.

Plaza is excellent in her role, adding a tooughness and determination to her usual constant eye-rolling at the awfulness of the world and people around her. It's arguably the best role she's had in a long time, and she sinks her teeth into it with vigour. Rossi is also great in the role of Youcef, a young man who ends up running a successful crime scene without having to be the typically brutal and unfeeling crime boss. The real sense of menace comes from Youcef's partner/cousin, Khalil, and Jonathan Avigdori does very well with that character. Gershon tries hard to steal her one scene, and it's a great back and forth with Plaza there, and there is also excellent support from Megalyn Echikunwoke (a friend, arguably), Bernardo Badillo (a colleague who leads Emily to her new "career opportunity"), as well as Craig Stark, Sarah Allyn Bauer, and everyone else helping to make the onscreen world feel busier and more realistic than it actually is.

I'm not sure if this will win over anyone yet to come around to Plaza, she's an acquired taste and some just won't ever take to the various shades of her standard onscreen persona, but it's certainly a film that I recommend everyone makes time for. Some will view it as a justification of criminals committing crimes. I view it as a condemnation of a society that doesn't do anything more than give lip service to the ideas of rehabilitation, self-care, and self-improvement.

9/10

Saturday 6 April 2024

Shudder Saturday: Mute Witness (1995)

A film that seems to have been beloved by genre fans over the past few decades, Mute Witness has long been on my viewing list. It wasn't always easy to get hold of though, a situation that has now completely changed, thanks to the fact that it can be found on streaming, as well as on a shiny disc release from Arrow Video. Maybe, just maybe, that easier availability will see people slightly re-appraising the film, and perhaps no longer viewing it as some lost classic.

The plot is quite simple. Marina Zudina (billed here under a slghtly different spelling of her surname, Sudina) plays Billy, a mute makeup artist working on a Moscow film set who ends up witnessing the making of a snuff film one evening. This leads to her being pursued by various members of a far-reaching criminal network, some who may also be in the police force, and the only people that may be able to help her are her sister, Karen (Fay Ripley), and Karen's boyfriend, Andy (Evan Rochards).

Written and directed by Anthony Waller, who followed this up with, ummmmm, An American Werewolf In Paris, this is a decent idea turned into a decidedly okay movie, but it's far from a classic blend of tension and darkness, although one or two moments (including the witness of the main murder) come close to brilliance. Things aren't helped by the fact that the cast has a couple of familiar British faces dropped into the middle of the Russian setting (Ripley being the main one, but there's also a jarring cameo from the wonderful Alec Guinness that feels exactly like the massive favour it clearly was), amplifying the feeling that most of the Russian players came directly from "Rent-A-Russian-Heavy Inc."

Zudina is good in the lead role, expressive and easy to root for, but she's only equalled by Oleg Yankovskiy (also credited with a different spelling of a surname, Jankowski), playing a man named Larsen who is enjoyably difficult to gauge for most of his screentime. Is he actually good, and able to help our lead, or is he yet another member of the crime ring? Ripley and Richards try their best, hampered by a script that wants to put them in peril while also keeping them generally safe enough to get to the third act, and most of the other cast members are suitably menacing, whether that's done deliberately or not.

While I appreciate that this was obviously put together with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, it's a shame that no one aspect of it feels as good as it could be. From the acting to the cinematography, from the music to the production design, you can almost feel the desperation to simply get the film made permeating every frame. While everyone involved can be proud of having actually completed a decent movie, I'm not surprised by the fact that I recognise so few of the names in the cast and crew (although it's worth noting that many have remained working in Russia, a cinematic region I cannot claim to be overly familiar with).

Anyway, to sum it all up, Mute Witness is good, but I don't think it came close to being great. Ironically enough, I'm bemused by how much time people have spent talking this one up since the mid-'90s.

6/10

Friday 5 April 2024

Mean Girls (2024)

Maybe it is my brain refusing to accept the passage of time, maybe it is the idea that turning Mean Girls into a musical isn’t a very good idea (although this was already a stage show before being turned into this film), but I was not looking forward to seeing this. The cast of the original movie were all so perfect, the script was consistently brilliant, and it hasn’t exactly faded away into irrelevance since it first hit our screens. Despite my major misgivings, and an extra Spidey-sense tingle when they advertised this without letting people know it was a musical, I tried to stay open-minded. I needn’t have bothered. This is pretty dire.

Angourie Rice plays Cady Heron, a teenage girl who ends up experiencing the ups and downs of high school when she finally gets a chance to attend one after time spent being home-schooled by her mother (Jenna Fischer) while they lived in Africa. Cady struggles, but is soon befriended by Janis (Aul’i’ Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey). After Janis and Damian explain the school cliques to Cady, and then see her unexpectedly befriended by “the plastics”, they come up with a plan to destabilize and break down the established heirarchy. It all relies on taking down the top mean girl, Regina George (Reneé Rapp), and her two main confidants (Karen, played by Avantika, and Gretchen, played by Bebe Wood).

With Tina Fey still in charge of the writing, having adapted Rosalind Wiseman’s book for the original movie and then worked on the musical, it’s impossible to call this a completely laugh-free zone. Unfortunately, the funniest lines are the lines that worked so well in the first film, and were arguably all delivered better by that original cast (with no offence intended to the players here).

Married co-directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. feel locked in by the script, and they aren’t helped by the weak selection of songs, all of which lack energy and creative staging. The production design, wardrobe choices, etc. all work very well, but the script and direction stumble in between each one of the unwelcome songs.

The cast try hard, and it is because of them that I kept willing this to improve before the ending rolled along. Rice is a decent lead, although she does better with the wide-eyed innocence than she does in the third act of the film, and Rapp is such a great Regina that a better film around her would show her to be equal to the Regina played by Rachel McAdams. Fey and Tim Meadows reprise their roles, but somehow don’t do quite as well, Fischer is sweet in her few scenes, and Busy Philipps is fun as the wannabe-cool mom this time around. Sadly, the rest of the cast have to settle for being lesser replacements for their original counterparts. Cravalho, Spivey, Avantika, and Wood are all good. They just aren’t as good as those who made the roles their own the first time around. The same can be said of Christopher Briney (playing the young man who catches Cady’s eye) and Mahi Alam (head of the mathletes).

If you love the original Mean Girls then I don’t imagine you will love this. If you have yet to see it then I don’t imaging you will love this. It is hard to think of who will get the most from it, especially when the original film is just so much better, and isn’t punctuated by unmemorable and unnecessary songs.

3/10

Thursday 4 April 2024

Gamera, The Giant Monster (1965)

When it comes to giant monsters that have caused havoc throughout various Japanese movies, Godzilla will always be at the very top of the charts. There are a number of strong contenders for the number two spot though. I love Mothra, for example, and one or two others have sizeable fanbases, but Gamera is surely the one that comes closest to dethroning Big G as the monster king. It is another great creation, a giant turtle, and has, in my limited experience, been served well by a number of consistently great movies through the years.

This first film featuring the giant flying turtle (because that is what Gamera is, and I like to think of it as a distant cousin of The Great A’Tuin) sees the giant beast being rudely awakened by a burst of atomic energy and subsequently watched with awe and trepidation as scientists hatch a plan to get rid of them. That’s about it, in the simplest terms, although it is worth noting that the plan will make use of more energy resources, and there’s also a young boy who just loves turtles.

Directed by Noriaki Yuasa, and it is worth noting that this is not a Toho Studio production (Gamera came to us courtesy of Daiei Film), this is absolutely on par with any other kaiju film you can think of. The practical work is very enjoyable, the small handful of human characters are pretty insignificant in comparison to the titular creature, and the finale is a wonderful use of movie science that stretches plausibility while feeling absolutely viable in this onscreen world. Writer Niisan Takahashi has the kind of extensive filmography that many Japanese writers have, but Gamera is the creation that provides him with a proper legacy, and this is an excellent first outing for the monster.

As for the cast, Eiji Funakoshi is perfectly fine as the main scientist of the film, but it’s young Yoshiro Uchida who almost steals the film, his character feeling a connection to Gamera that allows him to remain unafraid while everyone else panics and evacuates any potential target areas. That’s all I need to say, especially when we all know who the real star is.

I have already seen a couple of the later Gamera movies, films from a different era with even more impressive tricks and effects onscreen, so maybe that has given me a slight bias, but this is a very enjoyable debut for what I would say is the second-best kaiju in Japanese cinema.

8/10

Wednesday 3 April 2024

Prime Time: Reality (2023)

With a script crafted from FBI transcript of the featured incident, Reality is an impressive directorial debut from Tina Satter that features a performance from Sydney Sweeney that is so good that I finally see why she is having such a hot moment right now.

Sweeney plays Reality Winner, a young woman who works for the NSA. There's something not quite right on the fateful day that we viewers get to "meet" her though, as soon becomes obvious when she's approached by FBI agents (Garrick and Taylor, played respectively by Josh Hamilton and Marchánt Davis) outside her home. They seem to think that Reality may have something to do with a major story, confirmed by a classified document, that has been leaked to the press.

I suspect that many people are more familiar with this story than I was, especially if you live in the USA and keep abreast of major political debates and news coverage. I didn't know what this was all about, and I didn't have any idea about the outcome, so a lot of the film felt to me like some kind of potential Kafka-esque nightmare scenario. The FBI agents were just as unnerving in their pleasantness as they would have been with a more aggressive and forceful approach, and I wasn't even sure if people were presenting themselves honestly to the perplexed and nervous Reality.

Although it may seem strange to say it, considering how the dialogue is lifted directly from another source, the script, co-written by Satter and James Paul Dallas, maintains an air of authenticity throughout, punctuating the ongoing conversation with subtle changes in the focus of the characters and a deliberate highlighting of any words and phrases that have been redacted. What could have been a dry and dull conversation piece is turned into a very tense and thought-provoking examination of patriotism, freedom, different ideas of what constitutes duty, and the rigidity of certain practices and protocols.

Sweeney is fantastic in the main role, portraying a character used to remaining calm in difficult circumstances, due to her military background and, perhaps, her role in the NSA. She's never less than completely believable in the role, and manages to have viewers on her side without any overdone manipulation or overt appeals for sympathy. Both Hamilton and Davis are equally good, although it's the former who spends more time in direct conversation with Sweeney's character, and Benny Elledge adds some extra menace as another agent identified as Unknown Male.

Not a film I will rush to rewatch, and not one I think anyone else will rush to rewatch either, but Reality is something that everyone should see once. It's a story that everyone should know. Especially people like me, who actually missed it all when it was a leading conversation piece in various news outlets.

8/10