With each & every performance DIANE KEATON took my breath away… she was the epitome of a MOVIE GREAT, a wonderfully funny, sweet & endearing actress that captured the screen and our imagination in so many incredible movies… she was one of the best that I have ever seen with terrific performances in films such as Annie Hall, Manhattan, Marvin’s Room, Something’s Gotta Give, Baby Boom, Father or the Bride and of course The Godfather…
Sometimes you get to watch a movie on the big screen and it just blows your mind and Paul Thomas Anderson’s ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER is one such movie… the pace is electric, the humor is dark & relevant, the road chase towards the back end of the film is unlike anything you will see on the big screen, and the narrative really makes you think and talk about ICE, refugees, revolutionaries and the fucked up white supremacists of the world… you also get to watch THREE titans of the screen produce three remarkable & captivating performances in one picture and if the words Semen Demon, Jungle Pussy & LockJaw don’t tickle your inner Tarantino there’s no hope for you ! ★★★★★
Louis Mandylor’s PRISONER OF WAR is an old-school actioner that delivers in sentiment, revels in it’s fight choreography, has a whole bunch of compelling characters & WOW those scenes between Scott Adkins RAF Wright & Peter Shinkoda the proud yet brutal Colonel are EXPLOSIVE !! A bit like Chuck Norris in Vietnam back in the 80s with Missing in Action, it’s great to see War Movies mix with Martial Arts and if done the right way the combination can be dynamite, hats off to Mandylor & Adkins SUPERB ★★★★
Jeeeez what a film… YADANG: THE SNITCH is everything I love about Korean movies… the premise is OUTRAGEOUS, the flighting and action scenes are INSANE and there are many moments of humor that you know you shouldn’t be laughing at but you do anyways… THIS is one Grizzly, Nasty and Unflinching action packed movie with a STAND-OUT performance by Kang Ha-Neul that will have you on the edge of your seat throughout !! ★★★★
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, Barefoot in the Park & All the President’s Men are my favourite Redford movies but he was fabulous in pretty much everything he was in, whether that be on the screen or behind it directing the likes of Ordinary People & The Legend of Bagger Vance, I mean what was not to admire about this great American… he had the works… his dashing good looks, enormous talent, an advocate for the environment and of course not forgetting he was the grand daddy of independent film creating the Sundance Film Festival… as I type this I look around my movie collection and smile knowing that I will still be entertained and inspired… RIP
Sadly it’s time for us all to say goodbye to another screen legend… the extraordinary cockney Terence Henry Stamp… with a career that spanned the decades appearing in such gems as Modesty Blaise, The Collector, Superman II, The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Young Guns, The Limey, Valkyrie, Last Night in Soho and so many more… what a damn fine actor he was !!
“As a boy, I believed I could make myself invisible. I’m not sure I ever could, but I certainly had the ability to pass unnoticed.” Terence Stamp
Director : Zach Cregger
Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Benedict Wong, Amy Madigan & Alden Ehrenreich
From Zach Cregger the helmer of Barbarian comes WEAPONS a picture that is truly unlike anything you’ll see in the cinema this year… it’s mysterious, unsettling, fresh & original yet tainted with a darkness of peak Shyamalan… if the narrative that involves young children vanishing from a school doesn’t make you feel unnerved then what happens next to some of the citizens in this small community surely will… there’s so many “Kevin” hands to mouth moments throughout Weapons but I particularly loved the convenience store scenes, Gladys visiting Marcus at home and my throat tightened when Justine came across the house with newspaper cuttings covering the windows… the witch hunt, the paranoia, the dark & moody suburbian streets, the cop chase & even the utterly insane moments of dark humor are all captured magnificently by Seiple’s all consuming camera work & Cregger’s direction and fucked up script ★★★★★
Director : Camille Griffin – Cast Includes : Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Roman Griffin Davis, Annabelle Wallis, Lily-Rose Depp, Sope Dirisu, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Lucy Punch and Rufus Jones
SOMETIMES you have to get into the festive spirit and dip your toes into a movie treat sprinkled with dark humor, christmas decor, children & friends and then slowly watch as it all implodes with impending helplessness and agonising dispair : Camille Griffin’s SILENT NIGHT is a real gem, it’s not your normal Christmas affair more of an examination of us humans and how some would react to the crazy scenario that this group of family and friends finds themselves in… with swirls of Melancholia mixed with The Mist I really found it facinating and rather upsetting in what transpires in the country home of Nell and Simon played delightfully by Knightley and Goode, who both appear to be good parents trying to do what’s right… Silent Night has a magnificent cast all of which turn in good performances, such as Annabelle Wallis who always makes me smile with her boundless energy taking on the role of Sandra, mum to the rather eccentric Kitty, the fastly growing talent of Lily-Rose Depp who’s character Sophie has other things on her mind and the impressive JoJo Rabbit star Roman Griffin Davis who delivers yet another unnerving turn as Art the son of Nell and Simon who keeps questioning as the night goes on… I would certainly class Silent Night as a horror film as it tackles fear brilliantly, especially when you throw into the mix the children and as the film progresses you can’t help but get caught up in it’s nervous & frightening drive : I LOVED the chaotic last 10 minutes of the film, admiring how Simon stays calm as the twins want the same amount of coke and then that final shot was just WOW and how about that scene when Art runs away and comes across an abandoned car and I so enjoyed watching Sandra purr over James throughout… SILENT NIGHT is a movie executed with a passion and thought provoking precision by a director making her feature debut from a story she had written… it’s one that I just connected with right from the off and has now been added it to my rather long list of annual December rewatches ★★★★½
Director : Jason Reitman – Cast Includes : Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, Mckenna Grace
Has it really been 32yrs since Ivan Reitman’s Ghostbusters II hit the screen? and why didn’t someone ask Jason to get behind the camera and film Afterlife earlier, boy how I’ve missed this supernatural franchise… : GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE is MAGNIFICENT… the humor, those kids, the music, the cameos and those little mashmallow folk gave me goosebumps and the memories I hold dear from those classic 80s movies came flooding back… as I sat watching the film from my favorite seat in my local cinema I could feel my heart pound like a jack hammer, my legs tapping with excitment and my mouth in the smile position right the way throughout as the nostalgia and the film’s energy swept over me like a ghost performing a flyby… I felt the way Reitman handled the opening ten minutes was vital for the direction of the movie and for me it was PERFECTION… although we don’t see his face we know it’s Egon, the chase scene with the ghosts, the trap not working and inside the farmhouse the crossover from old to new just felt so right… on-top of that Afterlife has such a likeable, fresh looking cast led by the front by the formidable 15yr old Mckenna Grace who steals EVERY scene she’s part of with her witt, her mannerisms and the action scene’s she embraces such as when she boards the Ecto-1 and takes the gun seat in her stride, she’s crazy good for someone so young, Paul Rudd once again delivers his charm with the scenes in the local Wallmart facing off against the Mini-Pufts and demon dog being one of the many highlights and what can I say about Logan Kim who makes his movie debut playing podcast, what a talent reminding me so much of Vern in Stand By Me this kid is going places… : unlike Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters back in 2016, which by he way was lots of fun AFTERLIFE is a game changer, sticking more to the original two in sentiment and style and as a fan it’s EVERYTHING that I hoped for and so much MORE !! ps…there’s also a couple of after credit scenes so don’t leave your seat early ★★★★★
Director : Colin West – Cast Includes : Sylvie Mix, Justin Rose, Quinn Armstrong
Colin West‘s directorial debut DOUBLE WALKER came out of the blue… I’d not even seen any promotional work for this movie, not heard of the filmmaker or indeed it’s thrilling young star either… I know this may sound rather morbid but I do love the revenge genre, somebody has been wronged in someway and punishment must be handed out, and you know the really great thing about Double Walker is that it’s refreshingly original, a bizzare mix of intrigue, weirdness (in a good way) and horror, all this combined allowing you to escape into it’s delicious twisty plot watching the perpetrators get their comeuppance one by one until the story unfolds and everything makes perfect (well sort of) sense towards it’s finale… Sylvie Mix wrote the story and she also plays the lead role, her screen presence is alluring and although her character rarely speaks her actions are enough to carry the film, grabbing your attention from that very first moment she appears in the woods to those mysterious scenes in the town of Fairview… the writing is clever, I loved the mood and the way Sylvie’s character is dressed in mostly white almost angelic, the darkness that consumes each & every character and the blood that’s spills… Double Walker comes highly recommended, it’s a slow burning chiller that I throughly enjoyed and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for it’s director and star ★★★½
Director : Jeymes Samuel – Cast Includes : Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Zazie Beetz, Regina King
I fucking love The Bullitts aka: Jeymes Samuel he’s one talent dude and his latest The Harder They Fall is a breath of fresh air in the Western genre, and although the film’s a fictional piece, its characters are based on real cowboys, real lawmen and real outlaws of the American West around the 19th-century…. with a cast bursting at the seams I found this film to be simply MAGNIFICENT… a stylish, well worked western that contains an interesting storyline, a whole bunch of fun characters to sink your teeth into and root for including Lakeith Stanfield’s gunman Cherokee Bill and my favorite Danielle Deadwyler’s Cuffee a saloon hand turned outlaw and a killer soundtrack that matches each and every scene with great panache… some of the gunfights are violent and bloody, the colors used in the saloons are sumptuous, the camera angles, shadows in the dirt and overall photography by DP Mihai Mălaimare Jr are quite irresistible, another top notch performance by one of my favorite actors Jonathan Majors and the showdown between Stagecoach Mary and Trudy is off the charts GOOD… so if your looking for just over 2hrs of pure western escapism then The Harder They Fall will fit the bill perfectly : IT’S BRILLIANT ★★★★½
Director : Ridley Scott – Cast Includes : Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer
I know I’m banging the same drum here… but why on earth somebody would rather wait for physical media or stream this movie than visit their local cinema and watch the latest picture by one of our greatest ever filmmakers on the big screen is beyond me… from the moment I was seated till the end credits two and a half GRIPPING hours later THE LAST DUEL proved to be yet another Ridley epic, with Dariusz Wolski‘s cinematography shot in Irleand and France on the grandest & grimmest of scales, battle scenes that pull no punches and that felt realistic & unpleasent in their delivery, it’s incredibly true story written for the screen by Nicole Holofcener, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon is cruel and relevant and delivered in three absorbing chapters each from a different character’s perspective ending the movie with the continuation of those opening five minutes and to top it all off the The Last Duel has some of the finest acting by an ensemble put to screen this year… : MAGNIFICENT ★★★★★
Director : David Gordon Green – Cast Includes : Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak
David Gordon Green‘s Halloween back in 2018 finished with Michael Myers trapped in a burning basement in Laurie Strode’s house, HALLOWEEN KILLS follows on directly after those events… the gasps, the laughter and the uncomfortable silence is why this movie is a must watch on the big screen… Halloween Kills is a real chaotic, unforgiving, relentless and NASTY AS HELL horror movie that pays homage to Carpenter’s original by building on the Haddonfield ethos, creating this timely reminder of the consequence of a witch-hunt whilst also managing to keep the films tension bubbling to boiling point : unlike previous outings in the franchise out the window goes this subtle, stalking killing machine that lurked in the shadows, in Halloween Kills you can almost feel the anger, & pain behind his torn up mask as he uses someone’s back as a pin cushion plunging knife after knife into their flesh for the sheer joy of it, I just felt there was something different, more evil than I had seen previously… the writing was on point too with Green’s narrative not all about Laurie dealing with her demons but more of a collective with Tommy, Karen and Allyson more in the firing line… the return of Kyle Richards as Lindsey & Nancy Stephens as Marion is not only a great touch, bringing both actors back from the 78′ original but it also worked well in the overall storyline and my eye’s lit up like a Birthday morning when Jim Cummings came on screen playing officer Pete McCabe in an early well worked flashback : for me Halloween Kills is the best Michael Myers outing since 1978’s Halloween & it’s underrated sequel Halloween II, it’s a film that suits the big screen arena but BE WARNED this film is not for the squeamish, with each death the next is more fierce and it’s R rating is a true indication of it’s horror : BLOODY AWESOME ★★★★½
Director : Christopher Alender – Cast Includes : Brigitte Kali Canales, Andrea Cortés
I must confess I’d not heard of filmmaker Christopher Alender before watching this movie, his only other feature was back in 1999 called Memorial Day a horror film I’d not come across but after watching his latest I will certainly be tracking this down, he’s a director I hope to see more of in the future… armed with a devilishly good score by composer Ben Lovett who also worked on Jim Cummings awesome werewolf movie The Wolf of Snow Hollow I really found THE OLD WAYS a creepy, atmospheric ghost story with unsettling scenes of demonic rituals including a snake extraction, haunting scenes of candles burning out, animal teeth and that poor rat… the lightening and makeup felt authentic and the main girl who played Cristina, Fear the Walking Dead’s Brigitte Kali Canales delivers a strong performance : WELL WORTH A WATCH ★★★½
Director : Brandon Christensen – Cast Includes : Sarah Canning, Osric Chau, Gracie Gillam
Recently watched SUPERHOST a new horror film written & directed by Stillborn filmmaker Brandon Christensen… and what an absolute blast I had watching this infectious slice of low budget horror : if like me you like your rental house, unhinged misery kinda sub-genre with a plot that’s relevant, utterly bonkers and a cast that’s on point then you have to see this one… Sarah Canning (The Vampire Diaries) & Osric Chau (The Flash) are both terrific but it’s the crazy energy of Gracie Gillam that really wins the day : TOP NOTCH ★★★½
Director : Ryan Kruger – Cast Includes : Gary Green, Chanelle de Jager, Brett Williams
I’m not quite sure where to start with FRIED BARRY the directorial debut of South African filmmaker Ryan Kruger… and I don’t even think the guy who wrote the story James C. Williamson knew either… from it’s alien abuction, sex fueled Greasy Strangler vibe to it’s drug tripping, chainsaw killing Cuckoo’s Nest insanity Fried Barry is a stomach churning, chaotic slice of weird that needs a sequel and I’m here waiting for it… sometimes you just have to sit back and admire a filmmaker & his cast especially actor Gary Green who plays Barry for being brave and creating something wildly original, dark & squeamish and so far out : this is MY KIND OF INSANE BLISS watch it if you DARE !! ★★★★
GET READY… on JANUARY 14th the phones will start ringing, the doors will unlock, the knives will plunge, guts will spill and Sidney Prescott will return home to Woodsboro where a new series of killings are taking place… from Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett the directors of V/H/S and Ready or Not comes the latest chapter in one of the greatest horror franchises… SCREAM
absolutebadasses 