Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

The surprise return of any archive television – especially presumed-gone-forever episodes of cult TV favourites from the 1950s and 1960s – is always a cause for celebration. Doctor Who fans rejoiced and danced a merry jig (probably) back in 2013 when nine previously-lost episodes were found in Africa and subsequently made available to a salivating public. Fans of The Avengers, the classic espionage/adventure series starring Patrick Macnee, long frustrated by the fact that only two full episodes existed from their show’s first twenty-six episode season, were equally jubilant when, against all reasonable odds, a season one episode came to light in a private film collection in 2016. Recovered by the British television preservation group Kaleidoscope the episode – ‘Tunnel of Fear’ – is now available on DVD at last supported by a host of bonus content.

‘Tunnel of Fear’ is a fascinating flashback to British television production in the very early 1960s and a handy reminder that The Avengers in its embryonic form was a very different series to the fast-paced, high concept and often surreal adventure series it would become as the decade wore on. In this first series Ian Hendry plays Dr David Keel (Hendry had played a vaguely similar role in the short-lived series Police Surgeon which finished its run just a month before The Avengers debuted) whose fiancée is murdered in opening episode ‘Hot Snow’ and whose death is ‘avenged’ by Keel alongside mysterious Government agent John Steed (Macnee). The two form an occasional and often uneasy partnership throughout the series but while Hendry was the nominal star of the show, it gradually became apparent that Macnee’s flashy, witty Steed was the more interesting character with more dramatic potential than the dour and rather straight-laced Keel. ‘Tunnel of Fear’ demonstrates this beautifully. Wounded escaped convict Harry Black (Bate) bursts into Keel’s surgery, claiming he’s been framed for a crime he didn’t commit and begging not to be handed over to the Police. Steed is quickly on the scene and establishes a connection between Black and an espionage case concerning the leaking of top secret Government information which has unlikely links to, of all places, Southend-on-Sea. Black escapes their clutches and heads to Southend and a reunion with his estranged Mum who’s working at the funfair but Keel and Steed aren’t far behind. Steed somehow manages to nab himself a job at a belly-dancing show – cue much racy bottom-slapping and Macnee’s nails-down-a-chalkboard turn as a carnival barker – and the ill-matched pair eventually discover the sinister secrets of the fair’s ghost train.

‘Tunnel of Fear’ is terrific fun and while it’s tonally worlds away from the style of the more outrageous series it would become later in the decade, the seeds of its future are self-evident in Macnee’s lively turn as Steed. Here he’s not the familiar urbane umbrella-and-bowler figure generally associated with The Avengers; here’s he’s depicted as a bit of a wide boy, a chancer and a wheeler-dealer good with a quip and handy with a double bluff. The story itself is mundane espionage stuff, ambitious beyond its resources (the Southend funfair where the action takes place is realised on a handful of cramped studio sets with just one quick filmed London location insert earlier in the episode) and, recorded on videotape, is directed with none of the panache of the later glossier filmed episodes. Stagey and talky, ‘Tunnel of Fear’ is obviously a product of its time, the era when British television was just starting to flex its post-War muscles at the beginning of a decade which would see an explosion of creativity and imagination with The Avengers itself still recognised as one of the trailblazers of the medium. This episode, entirely uncharacteristic of what was to come, is an important and exciting find and fans of The Avengers and cult TV in general are unlikely to be disappointed by the opportunity to dip back into the earliest days of a genuine television legend.

Special Features: Archive TV interviews with Hendry and Macnee / Interview with Big Finish writer John Dorney / Reconstructions/Surviving scripts

THE AVENGERS – TUNNEL OF FEAR / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: DON LEAVER / SCREENPLAY: JOHN KRUSE / STARRING: IAN HENDRY, PATRICK MACNEE, INGRID HAFNER,ANTHONY BATE, JOHN SALEW / RELEASE DATE: APRIL 9TH

This wretched, sleazy and thoroughly grubby little film marked the debut (and, indeed, only) feature film appearance by Tiny Tim, a curious ukulele player/singer (possessed of an extraordinary if not especially aesthetically pleasing falsetto/vibrato vocal style which delivered him a chart hit with ‘Tiptoe Through the Tulips’ in 1968) who enjoyed a brief period of freak show popularity in the late 1960s and into the 1970s. His career was well into its inevitable decline by the time Bill Lehane approached him in 1986 and offered him a leading role in his upcoming micro-budget horror film. Blood Harvest surfaced in 1987 on the back of the craze for vile and often misogynistic slasher movies and it remains an ugly, clumsy, voyeuristic example of a genre which often struggled for critical acclaim and appreciation.

The IMDb entry for this mess of a movie describes Blood Harvest with a perfunctory “In a small town, people are being murdered by having their throats cut” which probably tells you all you need to know – possibly more – about this shoddy train-wreck. In broader terms, Jill (Salcheck, appalling) returns to her rural homestead to find that the house is defaced with graffiti and her parents are missing, her bank supervisor father having invoked the ire of the local farming community whose properties he’s foreclosed upon. Jill’s not exactly made to feel welcome and her only admirer appears to be “Marvellous Mervo” (Tiny Tim), the local simpleton who spends his time wearing a shabby clown outfit and who has a habit of appearing in windows and fixing his rictus grin on the unwary and undeserving. As Jill starts to rekindle her relationship with ex-boyfriend Scott (Krause, later of TV’s Six Feet Under), her friends start to disappear, dragged into a nearby barn, hung upside down, their throats sliced open.

Blood Harvest is as uncomfortably close to unwatchable as we’re prepared to get and apart from its mercifully brief running time (it’s over and done with in under ninety minutes which is still roughly ninety minutes too long) we’re hard pressed to think of one redeeming feature to justify the ordeal of watching it. The acting is uniformly pitiful and Tiny Tim’s performance is almost painfully, cruelly inept. Rebane’s direction is shambolically flat and unimaginative (would that his script was as accomplished) and his camera only seems to come alive (in a predatory sense) in the grim and tacky sequences in which Jill’s clothes fall off and in one scene where the mysterious murderer (Who can it be? Who gives a damn?) drugs her, straps her to a bed and takes photographs of her near-naked body.

88 Films have done their best to make a silk purse out of this dead sow’s ear and lavished more care and attention on the disc’s presentation than the feature itself could ever deserve. The picture is bright and colourful but shot through with grain and flicker so while Blood Harvest itself might never have looked better it’s still the same shameful, artless crock it was when it sank without trace on its original release. No good can come of taking a chance on this one; avoid like a Tiny Tim Anthology CD boxset.

Special Features: Tiny Tim in Niagara Falls 1987 / Behind the scenes material / On set interview footage / Wrap Party performance footage / Alternative opening sequence / Reverse sleeve

BLOOD HARVEST / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: BILL REBANE / STARRING: TINY TIM, ITONIA SALCHECK, DEAN WEST, PETER KRAUSE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The Attack on Titan series proves the point that you can make even the most ridiculous idea and make it all dark and serious. The Attack on Titan series is a pseudo flintlock fantasy world which takes place in a vaguely German like country. Mankind is under siege and lives in a massive walled city, with the upper classes living in the thickest wall in the centre, with thinner walled bits of the city protecting the peasants. The Roar of Awakening is the third ‘movie’ instalment of the series.

The threat everyone is hiding from are giant man-baby monsters with grotesque heads that walk like toddlers and eat people whole. These are the titular ‘Titans’. It’s utterly daft and the animated TV show and accompanying comic books are hugely popular across the world, especially in their native Japan.

The main protagonist is a chap called Eren, who shouts a lot and hates Titans. He works with a team of scouts who swing around on gas-powered grappling hooks smacking the monsters in their weak spots with huge swords. The show concentrates on the slow collapse of civilisation and the hidden mystery of the titan’s origins. Roar ramps up the conspiracy and paranoia, but it’s mostly lots of characters jabbering on at each other about nothing until another fight scene happens.

This is because Attack on Titan: The Roar of Awakening is a compressed and re-edited version of season two of the TV series. The editing makes for some interesting scenes; dramatic freeze frame with some dialogue over the top is used quite a bit in order to stitch the narrative into something vaguely understandable. The result is action scene after action scene, with lots of dramatic music, shouting, violence and the more shouting. The animation really shines at these points, with some great cinematic scenes of huge monsters punching normal sized people. Then eating them.

The problem is that if you didn’t know any about the series going in, well this is part three in an ongoing series; this is going to make no sense. It’s hard to really understand what this is for. Fans of Attack on Titan will want to five the full series a watch, rather than this butchered shorthand. At two-hours, it’s a heck of a long recap.

Silly, stupid, shouty stuff for hardcore fans.

ATTACK ON TITAN THE ROAR OF AWAKENING / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: MASASHI KOIZUKA / SCREENPLAY: HAJIME ISAYAMA, YASUKO KOBAYASHI / STARRING: YÛKI KAJI, YUI ISHIKAWA, MARINA INOUE / RELEASE DATE: TBC

This might have been inspired by A Nightmare on Elm Street, dealing as it does with a ghost who haunts a young man’s dreams, but actually what Slaughterhouse Rock desperately wants to be is An American Werewolf in London; it even has a scene in which the rather worse-for-wear recently-departed harangue our hero so that they can all move on into the next life.

Released in the UK as Hell Island, this is also notable for giving a 45-year-old Toni ‘Hey Mickey!’ Basil a late-period acting role, as well as including Playboy Playmate Hope Marie Carlton among its cast (yes, for obvious reasons); they both acquit themselves perfectly reasonably, if not distinctively, in a film which starts well enough but rather loses its way once it reaches its destination.

That destination being Alcatraz; Nicholas Celozzi’s college student Alex is having a series of terrible nightmares – including one which at one point levitates him above his bed in an effect which can only be described as “1988 in a nutshell” – which seem to centre around the ex-prison. When teacher Carolyn Harding (Denton), who already harbours an obsession with the occult, turns up at his shared house during an incident, she decides the only solution is to confront his demon then and there and Alex, along with his brother, two mates and a couple of girlfriends, borrow a fishing boat and make their way to the infamous island.

The first half-hour is actually rather good in a sub-Porky’s kind of way; the repartee between the students is mostly believable and Dimitri Logothetis even throws in some interesting directorial choices, showing a willingness to produce something half-decent on a trifling b-movie budget. We can only assume that time on the island was at a premium, because the latter hour sadly squanders a lot of the goodwill built up by this point.

That said, there are all sorts of pleasures still to be had, such as the sight of Ms Basil giving her best shape-throwing non-dancing during a rock-spell designed to separate Alex’s spirit from his body, and the soundtrack by Devo – while hardly enhancing any creepiness that might be found among the cheap prosthetics and dingy photography, is certainly one for ‘80s fans to savour. This might not be scary, and might not add up to a great deal of sense, but at least it’s entertaining.

It also comes in a brand new 4k transfer straight from the negative, so what thrills there are to be had now look better than they probably ever have. This set is a little extras light, but it’s a commendable Blu-ray issue that will have great appeal to fans of a certain kind of kitsch horror fun.

Special Features: Jim Harper interview / Trailer

SLAUGHTERHOUSE ROCK (aka HELL ISLAND, 1988) / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: DIMITRI LOGOTHETIS / SCREENPLAY: SANDRA WILLARD, NORA GOODMAN / STARRING: TONI BASIL, NICHOLAS CELOZZI, TOM REILLY, DONNA DENTON, HOPE MARIE CARLTON, TAMMY HYLER, STEVEN BRIAN SMITH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

The Suicide Squad are pretty edgy, right? How do you make a crack team of professional criminals, murderers and bastards even edgier? You slap on a Grindhouse aesthetic and kill someone off every five minutes, if Hell to Pay is anything to go by.

Sent by Amanda Waller to retrieve a mystic card once held by Doctor Fate, the Suicide Squad face off against a rival team of supervillains who are after the card for their own purposes. Team mainstays Deadshot, Harley Quinn and Captain Boomerang are all present and correct, the squad rounded off with newcomers Bronze Tiger, Killer Frost and Copperhead. If you get Slipknot (you know, the rope guy from 2016’s Suicide Squad) vibes from a few of them, that’s because Hell to Pay goes all in on the B-list cannon fodder. Boomerang should be glad he has tenure.

As with most Suicide Squad stories, there’s a childishness to its excesses, even (especially) as heads explode and the competing criminals inflict all manner of violence upon one another. Thankfully, the breakneck pace of the storytelling prevents this from being too tiresome, leaping from set piece to set piece. Rather the comic book silliness of this than the faux-grittiness of the live-action movie or the squad’s last animated outing, Escape From Arkham. Even Harley Quinn isn’t too annoying, surprisingly underutilised in a story which has nothing for her to really do.

Christian Slater’s Deadshot gets the meat of the story, and the action, gamely playing out an arc which Will Smith already worked to the full. After the far superior Gotham by Gaslight and Batman vs Two-Face, this is something of a return to bad form for DC’s animated division, but it’s not a complete waste either. There’s a good variation of villains, the animation is functionally decent, and the finale is amusingly horrible, making the most of the criminals’ duplicitousness in a way that Ayer’s movie somehow never did. But if you thought the infamous ‘this is Katana’ bit was dumb… hoo boy, wait until you get a load of the maguffin behind this one.

Hell to Pay is slapdash trash with a last-minute Grindhouse sheen, splattered with gore and barely adolescent attitude. At least this one is trying to have fun with it though. After two overtly ‘gritty’ and ‘realistic’ outings, it’s nice to see the Suicide Squad get to embrace their comic-book origins. Even if they have slathered it in cinematic Grindhouse affectations.

SUICIDE SQUAD: HELL TO PAY / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: SAM LIU / SCREENPLAY: ALAN BURNETT / STARRING: CHRISTIAN SLATER, TARA STRONG, LIAM MCINTYRE, VANESSA WILLIAMS, BILLY BROWN, GREG GRUNBERG / RELEASE DATE: MARCH 27TH (US), APRIL 16TH (UK)

Films involving dogs can be especially memorable and to a certain generation of children, the climax of Martin Rosen’s Watership Down (1978) to this day remains one of the most shocking, alongside many adults’ memories first seeing the graveyard attack on Gregory Peck and David Warner by German Shepherds in The Omen (1976).

Dogs, originally released in 1976 and then subsequently on VHS under the alternate title of Slaughter, is a movie that emerged to capitalise on the immense success of the first modern blockbuster, Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975).

It’s a man-vs-nature affair which belongs alongside the likes of Joe Dante’s Piranha (1978) and John Bud Cardos’ Kingdom Of The Spiders (1977), a precursor of Arachnophobia (1990) and one of William Shatner’s best non-Kirk movies.

David McCallum plays Harlan Thompson, the head of the Biology Department at a Southern California University, who is informed of local attacks on cattle in the countryside nearby by a local rancher. Upon examination of the carcasses, Thompson senses that the attackers could be a pack of dogs, as the bites on the bodies are of various sizes.

Before long, however, inexplicable impromptu attacks by the pet canines of the local residents begin to accelerate, prompting an air of terror and dread amongst not only the townspeople but also the college students in the school, heading towards the inevitable confrontation between Mankind and its’ best friend….

Like other horror films released around the time, Dogs certainly would be one that would make for a blood-thirsty remake under the guidance of Alexandre Aja, who has directed two very competent blood-soaked affairs with the likes of The Hills Have Eyes in 2006 and the wonderfully tacky Piranha in 3D in 2010, which prompted a 2012 sequel, Piranha 3DD.

Although its heart and jugular are in the right place, and throughout the film there are sequences and moments that with a little more thought and attention could have turned this into another Jaws, Dogs suffers from sloppy editing and expectation which renders the key moments more silly than shocking.

Part of the problem is that the mix of breeds in the film, rather than the single breed focus of a film like The Omen, makes the dogs seem more playful than pernicious. The packaging also suggests that the film is going to be a bit more gnawing at the hearts and minds of the audience. The tagline ‘Don’t Pet Them, Fear Them’, for example, suggests a greater expectation of dread than what is actually presented here.

There is still a lot of appeal in this release. Fans of Linda Gray will have some joy in watching her brief appearance in this – and she does feature in a memorable scene – made before her success as Sue-Ellen Ewing in Dallas and fans of the original Hills Have Eyes will glimpse Russ Grieve as Homer, who played the head of the Carter Family in the classic 1977 film.

Another motivation for owning this Blu-ray release is not just for the film, but also for the extras on show, which include a mini-documentary on American Cinema Releasing, who were responsible for other key indie films of the period.

Disappointing, but worth a look.

DOGS (1976) / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: BURT BRINCKERHOFF / SCREENPLAY: O’BRIAN TOMALIN / STARRING: DAVID MCCALLUM, SANDRA MCCABE, GEORGE WYNER, LINDA GRAY / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Vampire movies have been done to death so much that even describing them as ‘done to death’ has become a bit of cliché. Redwood is, in theory, a movie about lurking bloodsuckers that don’t do well in sunlight; but it certainly isn’t a boring old vampire movie. 

Musician Josh (Mike Beckingham) is recovering from cancer, and his partner Beth (Medici actress Tatjana Inez Nardone) is doing her best at being a loving and supportive partner.. On the advice of Josh’s sleazy manager, the two are taking a refreshing camping holiday out amongst the redwood trees in an isolated woodland. Nordone and Beckingham pull off a strong performance as a young couple who’ve been through rough times. For the first half of the movie this is a tale of two people who are hiding something from each other going through some progressively more and more spooky woods.

Tom Paton’s previous movie, Pandorica, did a lot with very little; starting slow and then turning in to a helter-skelter race as the protagonists ran to avoid stronger and more powerful forces. Redwood does something similar. This is a vampire flick, but not in the Lost Boys or Twilight vein. Paton’s monsters are screaming wood dwelling cannibals, their mere presence is enough to provide scare after scare. Part Descent, part Wolf Creek, and part stylistic music video, Paton uses camera cunning and practical effects to make this low budget horror feature look unique and striking. The location itself is easily one of the stars; beautiful, brooding and haunted.

Nicholas Brendon puts in a strong turn as a twitchy and almost psychotic forest ranger. Better known to genre fans as ‘the guy who played Xander in Buffy’, the former Scooby Gang member is a clever bit of casting. It’s a short if knowing performance; a nice nod to gentler horror stories. The main cast easily outshine him, however. Beckingham is especially notable and certainly one to watch out for in future movies.

Redwood is a horror movie that has been lurking for a while – enjoying a strong buzz as it’s moved from film festival to festival – but until recently has been a bit too elusive for the average horror fan to find. It’s good to see it unleashed into the wild via DVD, and we suspect this will swiftly become something of a cult classic thanks to the fast pacing, amazing acting and cameo appearance of a faded icon of horror. Certainly one to add to your collection.

REDWOOD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: TOM PATON / STARRING: MIKE BECKINGHAM, TATJANA INEZ NARDONE, NICHOLAS BRENDON / RELEASE DATE: MARCH 26TH

With its scenic English setting, writer/director Charlie Steeds’ Escape from Cannibal Farm might read as folk-horror, but with a focus on feuding families and isolated country-dwellers, it ultimately feels far more American in its sensibilities. Imagine The Texas Chain Saw Massacre but with the bleakness of British films like Eden Lake.

The story concerns the Harver family who embark on a trip to the middle of nowhere for a camping holiday. Family tensions run high as Jessica (Kate Marie Davies) introduces her mother and siblings to her boyfriend, Kurt (Joe Street), whilst everybody clashes with Wesley (Toby Wynn-Davies), the mother’s new overbearing and controlling pantomime-level villain of a partner.

During their first night in the country, they’re assaulted by an unknown entity who sets their tent on fire. This prompts them to seek help at a nearby farm where they’re attacked, caged and informed that they’ll be harvested for meat.

The film does an admirable job of handling an obviously low budget. It’s consistently professional with surprisingly nice and frequently inventive visuals. The only real giveaway as to the lack of funds is the quality of acting. The cast range from passable to awful.

The primary antagonist, Hunt Hansen, is portrayed by Barrington De La Roche who, to be fair, certainly looks the part. He gives a great performance in the film’s opening scene set to music and featuring no dialogue. Sadly, he doesn’t do so well once he opens his mouth to deliver not only speech, but a number of extended monologues. It’s a shame because a truly captivating performance in this role would have significantly elevated the film. Horror films tend to live and die on the quality of their villain, after all.

Peter Cosgrove portrays another of the bad guys and, in doing so, inexplicably adopts the voice of Papa Lazarou from The League of Gentlemen. Truly, vocal work is not this film’s forte, but thankfully the majority of the other villains are of the mute-man-with-a-chainsaw variety so it works.

The cast portraying the family are a lot better. They often struggle to sell the “witty banter” in the script, but they’re good enough that you’re able to empathise with them once they start getting killed, which is all a film like this really needs.

Some iffy dialogue aside, there are some nice moments of characterisation and gags dotted around and the whole piece is solidly structured and well thought-through. It also deserves a special shout-out for managing to remove the characters’ mobile phones from the equation in a way that feels completely organic.

For all of its flaws, the film is a legitimately engaging horror thriller with some genuine tension. You’ll certainly find yourself rooting for the characters to escape. Low-budget, derivative British horror movies are ten-a-penny but this one manages to stand above the crowd; largely thanks to its most striking element which is how much care and effort seems to have been put into making it.

ESCAPE FROM CANNIBAL FARM / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: CHARLIE STEEDS / STARRING: KATE DAVIES-SPEAK, BARRINGTON DE LA ROCHE, JOE STREET, TOBY WYNN-DAVIES, PETER COSGROVE / RELEASE DATE: MARCH 26TH

With Superman now dead following the conclusion of 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, a new threat rises to threaten the very existence of the planet and reality itself. As the god-like Steppenwolf and his swarm of eerie Parademons desperately try to hunt down three magical motherboxes that can tear humanity apart, it’s down to some of DC’s most famed heroes to band together to fight the good fight and save the day. Will they get the job done, which heroes are up for the task at hand, and just how badly can you botch the CGI removal of a moustache?

First things first, the cover art and promotional material for this release all feature a certain Last Son of Krypton standing loud and proud with the rest of the Justice League, instantly making you aware that *shock horror* Superman’s death isn’t exactly a permanent arrangement. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s look at the other heroes who’ll be around for Supes’ grandstanding return. Firstly, there’s Ben Affleck’s Batman and Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. These two come up with the initial idea to form a team of superheroes to help protect the world, in turn recruiting Jason Momoa’s Aquaman, Ezra Miller’s Flash, and Ray Fisher’s Cyborg. With the group amassed, the fight is on as our heroes do their best to stop the uber-powerful Steppenwolf. Of course, this ‘big bad’ is no push over, meaning the ballsy call is made to resurrect the fallen Man of Steel to help in the Justice League’s fight.

To say the prelude to Justice League was a troubled path is an understatement. With Warner Brothers’ DC Extended Universe having struggled to hit anything remotely like a homerun with three of the ensemble’s four predecessors – Wonder Woman being the exception – the water was only further muddied by Joss Whedon being brought in to oversee extensive reshoots after Zack Snyder had to step back from the film due to the tragic passing of his daughter. On a general level, it’s clear to see Whedon’s influence at times, with some of the more light-hearted moments having the Buffy creator’s fingerprints all over them.

For many, the very future of the DCEU was hanging on the success of Justice League, meaning this was a huge, huge movie for Warners. The logic was, if this bombed then question marks would be placed over the huge amount of DC-driven pictures already in development at the WB. Maybe it was because of the negative buzz that surrounded the film way before it even hit the silver screen, maybe it was a lowering of expectations due to Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Suicide Squad, but regardless your humble scribe didn’t find Justice League to be all that bad at all. Was it great? No, not a chance, but it wasn’t as awful as some may have you believe.

In terms of positives, each of the core cast of heroes wear their roles like a second skin; Affleck is a brutal, unrelenting and intense Caped Crusader, even if there is maybe a little too much humour thrown Batman’s way; Gadot continues the hugely impressive work of Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman in making her Diana truly feel like an epic figure for the ages; Momoa swaggers and broods majestically as a grittier version of Aquaman than many Golden and Silver Age comic book fans will be familiar with; Miller’s Scarlet Speedster often threatens to steal the show as the awkward, bumbling Barry Allen who is still finding his feet in the hero game; and Ray Fisher’s Cyborg is actually quite the compelling character for the most part, even if we still can’t take Vic Stone as anything more than a Teen Titan, dammit! Then there’s Henry Cavill’s Kal-El.

At the third attempt, Cavill’s Superman actually feels like Superman. While Cavill himself has always been a good fit for the role, Man of Steel and Batman v Superman seemed to forget some of the very fundamentals that make this iconic pop culture figure tick and mark him out as a true symbol of hope. Here, despite being absent for the majority of the film, the Big Blue Boy Scout steals the show when he inevitably rises like the proverbial Phoenix.

So, if all of those boxes are ticked off, why isn’t Justice League the outright hit that longtime comic books fans were hoping for? For starters, Steppenwolf is a dire villain, looking like he’s been pulled straight out of one of those ropey CGI-heavy movies of the 2000s. Ciaran Hinds is tasked with voicing the character and providing mo-cap for the rogue, but no matter how good a performance Hinds put in, his hands were ultimately tied. Sure, Steppenwolf is more-or-less a foot-in-the-door for Darkseid to make his presence known in a future film, but that’s no excuse for making him such an awful, lame villain here. And even then, there are moments when he is positioned as a hugely powerful force of nature. Yet when it comes down to it, he sucks. Absolutely sucks. As in,  ‘Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2‘ sucks. As in ‘Whiplash in Iron Man 2’ sucks. As in ‘Abomination in The Incredible Hulk’ sucks. You get the idea. The Parademons, though? They’re actually quite sinister and impressive upon initially showing up, although they soon become merely generic fodder for our band of merry men (and ‘wonder’ woman) to swat their way through.

In terms of the narrative of the film, too, that feels awfully paint-by-numbers. Yes, many highly acclaimed Marvel efforts of recent years similarly follow a predictable formula, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe makes the most of what’s at their disposal to add depth and intrigue to their stories. Even if you ultimately know what’s going to happen, they do enough to plant the seeds that have you still questioning how things are going to play out. With Justice League, it’s formulaic, sluggish, and bogged down by a subpar villain for the most part.

As touched upon earlier, however, it’s not the total dud that many have labelled it. There are enough positives to take away from the film to mean it’s not a complete stinker – most notably the characterisation of its core heroes and for finally giving audiences a Superman that feels far more in tune with what the Boy Scout should be – and Justice League just about ranks above the majority of its predecessors in the DCEU. That’s not exactly saying much, of course, with Wonder Woman the only film able to hold its head up high where the greater DCEU is concerned.

In terms of extras, the ample featurettes give a nice glimpse at what went on behind closed doors for Justice League, and the deleted scenes give us a look at the famed black Superman suit that was rumoured to appear in the film.

All in all, Justice League is still not the smash hit that Warner Brothers were hoping for from their DC Extended Universe, yet it is a movie that does have some impressive moving parts to it if you’re able to go in with an open mind and modest expectations. Really, we should be expecting a lot, lot more from the cinematic coming together of such staples of comic book lore, but given what’s gone before it, the fact that Justice League isn’t a total stinker is strangely seen as some sort of victory.

Special Features: Ten featurettes / Deleted scenes

JUSTICE LEAGUE / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR: ZACK SNYDER / SCREENPLAY: CHRIS TERRIO, JOSS WHEDON, ZACK SNYDER / STARRING: BEN AFFLECK, GAL GADOT, JASON MOMOA, EZRA MILLER, RAY FISHER, CIARAN HINDS, HENRY CAVILL / RELEASE DATE: MARCH 26TH

Nearly a century on from their prime in both vaudeville theatre and the big-screen, comedy legends The Marx Brothers remain among the most loved and influential of  comic teams. Alongside Laurel & Hardy, Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin and The Three Stooges, pretty much all contemporary fun has had their roots from there.

 

Arrow have now put together a three-disc Blu-Ray Special Edition release consisting of the quintet of films they did through Paramount at the outset of the talkies, The Cocoanuts (1929), Animal Crackers (1930), Monkey Business (1931), Horse Feathers (1932) and Duck Soup (1933).

 

If you are getting your first taste of their work, we would suggest starting with Duck Soup working back chronologically. Most of the older generation like this writer discovered them on early screenings on Channel 4 and via late-night tapings on BBC2 in the early 1980s and Duck Soup is the best place to start.

 

Effectively the films were cinematic extensions of their stage shows (indeed, their classic MGM film A Night At The Opera was road-showed on stage and the best of the gags found their way into the final product, notably this example’s stateroom scene) and the height of the humour reached it’s peak in this collection in the final two films, which eliminated much of the musical numbers in favour of the pure comedy for which the brothers were known for.

 

Viewed today, some of the gags might go over your head, particularly in the first three films, but even from The Cocoanuts, it is clear that the films truly come to life when Groucho, Harpo and Chico are on screen, The fourth brother, Zeppo, seemed to play second fiddle and was portrayed as the romantic interest in the likes of Horse Feathers. The first three films do represent a chemistry in progress as they made a transition from stage to screen.

 

Duck Soup remains the most consistently funny of the films, as topical as ever with it’s satirical analysis of a new Government in the fictional country of Freedonia, with society widow Mrs Teasdale (straight and unfazed Margaret Dumont, who allegedly never could be made to laugh during the Marx mayhem) financing a crisis hit Cabinet, a backdrop to the various physical comedy moments.

 

Combining Groucho’s mixture of daft and deft puns, with Chico and Harpo’s overlapping interaction, it is also the most cinematic of their accomplishments over the four-year period, with one of the all-time physical comedy classic moments in the mirror scene.

 

On reflection, the comedy might feel a little jaded and stale today at times, given the context of the stories and films which are very much from the early twentieth century. However that does not diminish their overall contribution to film history. As watchable as always.

 

THE 4 MARX BROTHERS AT PARAMOUNT 1929 – 1933 / CERT: PG / DIRECTORS: ROBERT FLOREY, JOSEPH SAINTLEY, VICTOR HEERMAN, NORMAN Z. MCLEOD, LEO MCCAREY / SCREENPLAY: MORRIE RYSKIND, BERT KALMER, HARRY RUBY, GEORGE S. KAUFMAN, S. J. PERELMAN, WILL B. JOHNSTONE, ARTHUR SHEEKMAN, NAT PERRIN / STARRING: GROUCHO MARX, HARPO MARX, CHICO MARX, ZEPPO MARX / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW