Reviews

Much kudos has to be given to the constantly proven acting prowess of leads Blunt & Gosling.

They both manage here to bring believable emotion and gravity not even present in the script!.. As if much of the content leading up to each credible close-up has been edited out.

A script, might I remind you, penned by those who brought us the godawful Hobbs & Shaw.

A lightweight romantic thread through a cartoonish plot of cardboard villains laced with the usual crutch of characters using pop culture references as a comic device.

Yes there is some great visual action and impressive stunts, but the film as a whole has the dramatic weight, clever storytelling and brilliant comedy found in fare like Crocodile Dundee 3.

That is not a compliment.

Blunt & Gosling will easily survive this minor blemish in their filmographies so...

If this film is so great as people claim it is, I challenge them to sit through it again!

I mean, within the first couple of minutes a film set supervisor is threatening crew members mortal harm and calling them 'pigs'... Does that really ring true in today's social or political climate, at least that he would remain employed or unlitigated very shortly after?

The trailer at the end of the film may be an intentional reference to Tropic Thunder, but it feels more like a blatant knock-off.

This nicely casted piece of horror entertainment is pretty effective on most levels, and nicely acted by a talented array of mostly recognizable faces.

There are subtle nods to films like Reservoir Dogs, The Usual Suspects, From Dusk Till Dawn that are not too obvious to the casual viewer, which is fine, seeing as many great filmmakers "borrow" moments from other sources (most self-admittedly: Tarantino).

It's very bloody, gory to the point of being impactful without turning your stomach excessively.

The vampire makeup and effects are much better than many I have seen in the last couple of decades.

If you had no previous knowledge of this film's synopsis, it's first real major twist is quite skillfully made unpredicted until it's reveal.

My only qualm here is that the initial kills are so effortlessly and stealthily "executed", it seems a stretch that the remaining cast would not be quickly dispensed with at the same level of ease.

For the first two thirds of this movie, the novel plotting is somewhat marred by the highly amusing misuse of the English language and embarrassing attempts at American cop movie imitation dialogue.

Though the Dutch are supposedly fluent in English, they really should have filmed it in Dutch, then maybe released a dubbed version for those of us too lazy to read subtitles.

Apart from that, it's quite interesting in many ways, though there are some silly moments, such as the main character's nonchalant response to his daughter aiming a loaded gun at his head (..while he's in the bath!!)

Some of these points may tempt some viewers to discontinue watching, which would be a mistake, because the later portion of this film features possibly the greatest, most thrilling speed boat chase in cinema history!

This film manages to be quite effective in the making you jump and clench department and at times lean forward in tension, and the young cast you can tell are on the rise, especially lately Jenna Ortega... yet... There's still that overly self aware fourth wall bending thing where they don't just talk about horror tropes, they're virtually telling us, the audience that they're in a film right now. It's a little bit more in fun this time so you could probably give it credit for injecting some meta humour into the proceedings whereas last time there was very little else at all to the dialogue and you expected them any minute to just turn to camera and lay out the plot in detail to us directly.

This feels more in the world of its characters this time so you can more easily be absorbed and invested in their lives and be in fear for their mortality.

Horror buffs who are aware of the thousands of films and various subgenres are pretty tired of characters spouting super limited knowledge of the most obvious handful of constantly referenced films, and the traditions or cliches you will find in any beginners guide, but I suppose they're just following the tropes the Scream films are known for.

The original makers, though were not just buffs, they wrote and directed many of the films of the golden era of slashers, and the characters talked about films to each other, never to the audience.

This film had the potential of replacing the Jurassic Park franchise by placing its characters in the prehistoric era rather than an ill-advised and badly run facility.

What should have been a high tension cinematic thrill ride with immediate and relentless danger at every possible turn seems to be almost a breeze for these two, who seem to stroll through the most hazardous environment imaginable almost completely unscathed or even bothered by its vast assortment of giant carnivorous beings.

It's very occasional moments of peril are weak imitations of the aforementioned film series.

This film seems more interested in the bond between our main hero and the young girl who reminds him of a long lost daughter.

Quite dull considering its subject matter.

Yes, this film is impressive in its depiction of a creepy and rather convincing, eerily close-to-becoming-reality artificially intelligent doll...

Its only real drawback is that all its most impressive aspects are showcased in multiple previews, reviews and TV or online spots, leaving not much left to surprise the viewer. The storyline pretty much plays by beats that are not that difficult to predict. Still, this will be less an issue over time when all the relentless hype and spoiling dies down.

This has definite narrative similarities more to the Child's Play remake, rather than the original... with touches of Annabelle, Hal 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey (and the many, mainly low-rent imitations) and also The Bad Seed.

This quite refreshingly avoids bloodthirsty gore effects in favour of unsettling tension and the well-executed blend of human performance, prosthetics, animatronics and voiceover acting that make up the M3GAN character on screen.

It's the eyes that seem to linger the most in the memory that leaves an impression to make this an effective little thriller.

This movie gets high marks for its style & look, a nice creepy turn by Ralph Fiennes, and a fantastic, engaging, revelatory performance by Anya Taylor-Joy.

As for the story, well.. in all honesty, it seems (to me at least) that Mark Mylod wants his cake & eat it too (I only just realised what I did there).

He wants to deliver an allegorical but narrative driven thriller, but at the same time, skirt logical outcomes by presenting surreal twists that just don't make any sense at all.

This kind of storytelling has been masterfully executed by filmmakers like Luis Bunuel, Peter Greenaway and other auteurs, but somehow this doesn't quite fit that mould.

This feels more like it had the workings of a classy reitration of the film "The Last Supper", but takes short cuts across any narrative sense to arrive at moments that seem to have been deliberately shoehorned in because they were early artistic visions that Mylod, Reiss & Tracy just failed to connect logically to the story... such as the fact that for some unexplained reason, the entire cast just all of a sudden give in to their fate, and passively endure immolation.. within minutes of all having tried desperately to claw their way out of there.

This tendency to just ignore sense in the guise of artistic license is not just somewhat pretentious but a little patronising.

All that said, this film feels like a blend of recent classy horror gems like Ready Or Not and the stylishly shocking Midsommar.

This is one of those gems I didn't know I loved until a good hour in, at which point I was overcome with a rush of excitement.... Niftyness. In spades.

I was thinking for about the first 20 minutes, that "this Is too random, gimmicky and needlessly odd", and not in a David Lynch, Wes Anderson, Coen Brothers kind of way, but in a "let's-seem-clever by having every character, utterance and action be eccentric" for purely pretentious pseudo-cryptic reasons.

Then as things started to form a cohesive fuller view, knocking out all my former assumptions I then soon thought "okay, but this just isn't as filmic or cinematic as "Knives Out" which is a keeper that will stand the test of time.. Then... the sauce!!!!!!

That's when my mind leapt out from me and continued to get pounded into submission right to and including during the closing credits, with its accompanying music, which proves there is an ocean of difference between on-the-nose and perfection. I haven't been so excited to have had the rug completely pulled from under me since 'Last Night In Soho'.

Chef's kiss... with special sauce on it.

There are some pretty decent visuals, cinematography, set design and uses of sound, among other things, but what begins as a relatively engrossing (but fairly standard) serial killer tale of an unhinged hallucinating chap with an owl-demon imaginary friend who lures an unsuspecting associate (after some pretty glaring red flags) to a house in the woods, then becomes a meditation on the inner psyche of a very disturbed individual for the remaining hour or so.

At first quite striking, it wears out its welcome when it dawns on you the plot has pretty much come to a screeching halt

He and his victims are not the only ones who suffer. There's the viewer too.

This film, almost entirely overshadowed by rumours of on-set feuds & general drama, is actually quite a stylish affair that harkens back to the filmmaking styles of Sci-Fi of the late 60's through the late 70's (Fahrenheit 451, The Slaughterhouse Five, The Stepford Wives) and bares resemblance to themes explored in The Truman Show, The Matrix, with sequences uncannily similar to moments from Edward Scissorhands, Black Swan and even Mad Max: Fury Road... plus unmistakeable nods to synchronised swimming sequences from Busby Berkeley's 'Gold Diggers' series.

Don't hold any of these things against director Olivia Wilde though... Every director from Tarantino, Scorsese, Kubrick, Kurosawa, Godard, and especially DePalma has proudly admitted to and even boasted of stealing shots and moments from other films.. it's actually a tradition and those who say they don't are generally lying.

Once all secrets are revealed though, there's a lack of ambiguity to mine from upon repeat viewing. Apart from some stellar visual moments, the acting here is top notch, mostly from Florence, Olivia, Chris and most surprisingly, Harry Styles. Nice cars too.

This film is much more than it appears on initial inspection.

Though much of its geniusly constructed content is apparent upon completion of first viewing, there is much more there on reflection... and more again on further contemplation. What we have here is at first a perfectly cast and stellarly performed high tension cat and mouse horror thriller, beginning with a similar romantic charm to leave you unwisely settled that was so well placed in "Fresh" (the horror film, not the urban drama of a young drug runner).

This movie manages to be a tense entertaining thriller with not so cryptic commentary on the rise of misogynistic him-too culture and the everyday hazards and dangers faced by females not only in the world at large but within their own homes & workplaces... But none of these messages are ever beating you over the head, they are just shown to be out loud facts of reality, meaning that you never feel like you're watching a 'message' movie but a gritty thrilling ride, with the social and political undertones that all the most significant horror classics share.

This very creepy film, which while being very effectively filmed, paced, lit and scored, has one other major asset.. it's cast, primarily Sosie Bacon.

This proves once again when you populate your film with actors who can convincingly portray utter fear and terror (among a stunning array of other varying emotions) those feelings in turn transfer to the viewer and every effort pays off immensely.

Generally in countless folkloric horror yarns, we are saddled with blasé youths who ride the plot with the same level of intent and interest as if discussing rules & moves in some kind of interactive gaming chat. This movie managed to unsettle me even though there were idiots in the theatre behind me who would not stop talking. The only minor issue with this film (which may not really be important) is there is no real explanation as the the origin or purpose of the smile 'curse'.. unless I missed something (I was being distracted after all).

Keen observers may recognise the first smiling victim as Aussie TV soap actor Caitlin Stasey who starred alongside Margot Robbie in the popular long running show 'Neighbours'.

This movie reeks of someone who has put together every idea, theme, concept they've ever had and poured them all into one movie.. but mostly a dark revenge saga meets an Evil Dead style action horror.. To be fair that's pretty much the modus operandi of most of the early Grindhouse/exploitation era of films which were generally cauldrons of crazy clashing ideas, outrageous exploitation, infused with some kind of social message.. but I digress.. The real confusion here is that the imprisoned drugged out criminals & lowlifes look, act and growl like zombies.. which is never actually explained. All that said it is mildly entertaining, if unintentionally camp and amusing.. though I have no proof that wasn't their actual intent.

This ill-advised attempt to revive the Clerks universe comes dead on arrival.

Though Clerks II was a pale comparison of the original film, it still had some memorable and outrageously hilarious moments.

Smith's great skill of seamlessly blending edgy envelope-pushing humour and genuine emotion perfectly balanced in films like Chasing Amy or Zack & Miri Make A Porno has now devolved into bargain basement laughs and old crying men with hormonal imbalances. One minute he's dredging back into the well of previously worn material, the next we're subjected to cringe-inducing tears-with-snot sentimentality. Also, somehow they've connected Satanism with constant embarrassing cosplay outfits... We're also expected to buy into the fact that they're making the film Clerks with every character as themselves like they're not all 30 years older.

This umpteen trillionth entry into the found footage ghost hunter genre is a refreshingly clever and fun spin that proves that when in the right hands it can be entertaining.

Our main hero is a hilariously goofy daredevil streamer with the most inventive & amusing alternate words and phrases to substitute profanity to avoid de-monetization, and who manages to be brave and cowardly simultaneously.

Long before any scares, he is entertaining enough to hold your attention all on his own.. Then.. the film becomes unnervingly terrifying and without dispensing with the laughs and with some impressively effective and original, creative props and effects. This comes pretty close to Sam Raimi or Adam Green territory.

The only thing keeping my rating from being higher is that the story itself is pretty simple, straightforward and familiar, but like I said when it's done right you see there is actually value in the concept that up until now has been pretty much left untapped.

Extremely gory but utterly compelling and perfectly acted Aussie tale of two childhood friends reunited for one's hen night (Australian for bachelorette party). This one does a perfect job of tackling and lampooning gen-z culture and issues such as bullying and the stigma faced by sufferers of mental health issues (though some sensitive viewers might see differently). This film, though confrontingly gruesome, might be thoroughly disturbing and depressing if not for the constant tongue in cheek overtones to remind you that you are watching a satirical (if extreme) work of horror fiction meant to entertain rather than traumatise.