Review Category: Movie

Review: Beyond the Black Rainbow / Cert: TBC / Director: Panos Cosmatos / Screenplay: Panos Cosmatos / Starring: Eva Allan, Michael Rogers, Scott Hylands, Marilyn Norry / UK Release Date: TBC

When you think about the directorial debuts of some of our greatest auteurs, you think of some of the best style exercises that cinema has to offer. Two examples of this are Darren Aronofsky’s Pi and David Lynch’s Eraserhead, and we think it’s fair to say neither of which had the most compelling of plots yet the style overwhelmed the audience and they served as calling cards for what these directors would go on to do. Now there is director Panos Cosmatos and his debut Beyond the Black Rainbow, a fascinating and equally infuriating exercise in style over substance that demands to be seen at least once.

Set in 1983, a handy infomercial informs us that we are about to enter the Arboria Institute, a mental home/cult retreat. Here we find patient Elena (Allan) who appears to have psychic powers, being treated by Barry Nyle (Rogers) who seems to be the only doctor left at the facility. Elena cannot seem to escape due to some pyramid shaped piece of technology that keeps her abilities in check. That’s about it for the plot; and yet this is stretched out to two hours because the pace is SLOW, anyone not used to the more considered pace of Kubrick, Lynch or Malick is likely to walk out. Even if you do fall under its spell and become hypnotised by its style, it’s likely the pace will still test you to your limits.

Beyond the Black Rainbow is the cinematic equivalent of a Rorschach test (almost literally at one point), Cosmatos presents you with a barrage of imagery which you are trusted to interpret and process. Is the film about the failed dream of the 1960s? When a legion of LSD enthusiasts preaching peace and love dreamt a dream that never came and were twisted by the drugs and bitterness? It could be and the last thirty minutes when the film becomes more conventional could be the clue to that interpretation. Dr. Nyle emerges from a disguise in a truly stunning sequence when all new age pretence is removed to reveal the twisted monster in hiding. There again the whole thing could be just empty, it could mean nothing at all and just be the doodling of a Cronenberg fanatic. The imagery is the important thing here, and what Cosmatos has accomplished is pretty astounding. You truly believe you are watching a sci-fi movie from the early ‘80s and the use of colour is frankly amazing.

This film is a cinematic trip well worth taking; it’s not an easy, breezy Saturday night viewing experience but if you feel open to it and enlightened enough in your viewing habits then it may just be one of the most rewarding experiences you’ll have this year.

Expected Rating: 9 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: Seven Psychopaths / Cert: TBC / Director: Martin McDonagh / Screenplay: Martin McDonagh / Staring: Colin Farrell, Christopher Walken, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Abbie Cornish, Olga Kurylenko, Harry Dean Stanton, Tom Waits / US Release Date: October 26th / UK Release Date: TBC

After his much lauded and surprisingly brilliant feature debut In Bruges,  writer/director Martin McDonagh delivers a clever, funny, violent satire about violence in films. It mixes elements of and references to Tarantino, Peckinpah and even Malick, and has much in common with Get Shorty, Short Cuts and Bowfinger. Witty dialogue, dark moments, fast paced action, shoot outs and the framework for a bloody revenge film are set in motion and just as you’re about ready to settle in for the usual proceedings McDonagh shifts gears and heads in a different direction.

Marty (Farrell) is writing the screenplay for Seven Psychopaths but is struggling for inspiration as he is aiming to incorporate a psychopath who doesn’t believe in violence and make it all about peace and love. Marty’s friend Billy Bickle (Rockwell who does an amusing De Niro impression) is in the dognapping business with his long-time associate Hans (Walken) and when they steal a Shih Tzu from gangster Charlie Costello (Harrelson) things spiral into gun toting madness.

As Marty and Billy come up with ideas for the psychopaths their imagination is played out in stories full of sick characters (such as the Quaker killer out for revenge, or the serial killer couple who murder other serial killers), the dark and funny skits integrated into the narrative cleverly rather than standing alone. Farrell is spot on in the role of a writer on the edge struggling with issues of integrity and alongside Rockwell who portrays the obnoxious voice of the studio system they work extremely well off each other, arguing their points with vehemence and humour. Add in the deadpan brilliance of Walken and you have a spectacular trio of actors breaking down the pyscho killer film and arguing the case for more refreshing and original films. The strong screenplay comments on the film industry in such a clever way there is no time spent interrupting the entertainment playing out on screen.

The supporting roles are just as rich as the leads with Waits playing a bunny loving psycho who delivers a brief history of some of the serial killers portrayed in film. He references The Town that Dreaded Sundown and Zodiac in some scenes that deliver comical comeuppance. Woody Harrelson’s character addresses the violence in gangster films, and poor female roles are addressed with the lack of outstanding traits given to the women players in the film.

Seven Psychopaths is full of colourful characters and noteworthy performances that plays the film industry at its own game by proving a clever film can also be extremely entertaining.

Expected Rating: 8 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: Marvel One Shot – Item 47 / Director: Louis D’Esposito / Screenplay: Eric Pearson / Starring: Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Bradford, Maximiliano Hernandez, Titus Welliver / Release Date: September 17th

There are people in this world that are born to be achieve greatness. They are brave. They are strong. They are heroes. And then… there’s everyone else. ITEM 47, the short film from Marvel Studios that acts as a companion piece to last summer’s Avengers Assemble, explores the dividing line between the likes of Iron Man and Captain America and the remarkably unremarkable common man. Directed by Avengers producers Louis D’Esposito, ITEM 47 is a rare glimpse into the mess that’s left behind when the Avengers call it a day.

The film is set immediately after the events of Avengers Assemble, with New York City having seen better days and the eponymous team having left a rubble-strewn disaster area in its wake. Though S.H.I.E.L.D. has done its best to clear the city of any stray alien technology, one item, a exceedingly powerful gun, was left behind. The opening scenes shows a young couple, Claire (Caplan) and Benny (Bradford), sitting in their car, engaged in a vague argument about the ethics of what they’re about to do. Caplan’s character is decidedly more gung ho than Bradford’s, who seems to be dragging his cold feet behind her unbridled enthusiasm. Claire wins out in the end, convincing Benny to carpe diem as opportunities such as the one afforded to them are few and far between. As the couple intrepidly yank down their ski masks (Claire’s is a cheerful shade of strawberry pink), Benny reaches for the Chitauri gun they’ve found amongst the debris on the streets of New York.

Here is where screenwriter Eric Pearson draws the line between superheroes and mere mortals. Heroes, when presented with great power, opt for the path of great responsibility. As much as we might like to think otherwise, if put into a similar situation, the rest of us would probably take a page from Claire and Benny’s book and rob a bank. Why single-handedly battle the forces of evil in brightly colored skintight spandex when you can get rich quick? The young couple manages to leave a cookie crumb trail of busted bank vaults in their wake before S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, hot on their heels in pursuit of the missing Chitauri tech, catch up to them.

This Marvel One-Shot finds its strength in its honest humor and a sentimental shout-out to everyone’s favorite fallen S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Phil Coulson, will likely tug at a few heartstrings. So far, audiences have seen little of S.H.I.E.L.D. beyond Nick Fury’s sphere of influence and in just a handful of minutes, ITEM 47 manages to flesh out the organization to provide a picture of a group of people who have been recruited to the job because they are the best and brightest, if not necessarily the most noble.

ITEM 47 will be included on the Avengers Assemble Blu-ray which will be released on September 17th.

Review: ParaNorman / Cert: PG / Director: Chris Butler, Sam Fell / Screenplay: Chris Butler / Starring: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin / Release Date: September 14th

Judging by the box office returns of the last few stop-motion animated features, it seems that it’s a dying art that’s being abandoned along with 2D in favour of flashy, smooth CG animation. This is a great shame because with each new stop motion feature that comes along it’s surprising how fluid and how inventive the process is getting. However, based on what we see in ParaNorman, stop-motion can compete alongside anything Pixar can bring us, but also has an earthy, organic feel that is notably absent from CG.

ParaNorman is set in the small town of Blithe Hollow, where town pariah Norman Babcock can see and communicate with dead people and animals and is treated like a freak by his family and classmates. Norman’s estranged uncle, who is also an outcast, informs him that he must take up his mantle to perform an annual ritual that protects the town from an old curse. The uncle snuffs it and Norman fluffs the ritual leading to the release of seven ghouls and a vengeful spirit connected to the town’s dark past. Norman has to team up with people who don’t like him very much, or don’t trust he isn’t deranged, to save the town and prove his worth. Meanwhile the townsfolk are in a lather over the zombie plague that has been unleashed and are looking for someone to blame with Norman being the easiest target.

The animation here is stunning; each character is really well designed and all have a slightly off kilter detail about them. It’s not just the characters though, it’s the way the world works around them, the light that shines through Norman’s ears as the sun goes down or the fact that there is a brilliant car chase which defies normal stop-motion protocols. From the very beginning, with a nice riff on the grindhouse film openings that have become so commonplace, it’s clear that the makers have a major affection for this stuff as well as a love of the craft. The mid-section is madcap laughs and scares along the lines of ‘80s classics The Goonies and The Monster Squad.

Too often films aimed at kids with dark subject matter pull their punches but there is none of that here. The humour on display is frequently hilarious and likely to fly over most kid’s heads. The film isn’t quite as surreal as Laika’s previous film Coraline and never really becomes the stop-motion zombie apocalypse some may have hoped for but ParaNorman is exceptional entertainment that has something for adults, kids and all the Normans as well.

Expected Rating: 8 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: Sightseers / Cert: 18 / Director: Ben Wheatley / Screenplay: Steve Oram, Alice Lowe / Starring: Alice Lowe, Steve Oram, Eileen Davis / Release Date: November 30th

With director Ben Wheatley’s body of work headed for cult status he’s a filmmaker whose output you cannot afford to miss, and with Sightseers he delivers yet again with a dark concept dominated by caustic characters.

Taking the brutal elements from Kill List with some gruesome and gory deaths, and featuring characters delivering smart dialogue as in his first feature film, Down Terrace, Wheatley has directed a sharp, standout film. For the first time Wheatley has not had a hand in the screenplay, with Steve Oram and Alice Lowe, who star in the film, writing a funny script full of macabre moments and hilarious one liners.

Chris (Oram) is a staunch advocate for green living who cannot abide litterbugs and society’s declining standards. Tina (Lowe) has been kept on a short leash by her controlling, bitter mother (played perfectly by Eileen Davis) who she lives with in a naïve bubble of a world. Tina and Chris go on a caravanning holiday around England’s green and pleasant land discovering the things that made this country great and setting the world to rights with their twisted ideology.

Oram and Lowe have been working on the characters of Chris and Tina for several years now and it really shows as their idiosyncratic ways give them depth and their interaction is naturalistic. The characters themselves pique interest from the start. Tina, a dog obsessed, knitted knicker wearing, potpourri enthusiast is hiding a terrible secret. When Chris declares Tina as his muse and takes her on a sexual odyssey their weird ways play out in cruel, comic fashion.

The soundtrack fits in superbly well with the psychotic tendencies of the couple who carry on a killing spree of those who make them irate. You will never listen to Tainted Love in the same way again as it bookends the film, first with the 1981 Soft Cell version and ending with the original recording by Gloria Jones. Along with Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s The Power of Love the mood of the early ‘80s recession is prevalent and it coincides with the frustration of the current economic climate.

Sightseers comments on the snap judgements we make of people and their upbringing and looks at what would happen if we simply eradicated that which we didn’t like or agree with. Envy and greed is at the heart of this sick love story and it’s all delivered with buckets of humour. With the location shooting, references to our heritage and the mounting tension indicative of the current mood, this is a smart British film made for our times.

Expected Rating: 7 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: Looper / Cert: 15 / Director: Rian Johnson / Screenplay: Rian Johnson / Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Piper Perabo, Jeff Daniels, Paul Dano, Garret Dillahunt, Tracie Thoms / Release Date: September 28th

In this high concept sci-fi thriller the principal players are both the same character (Joe), with Joseph Gordon-Levitt taking the role of his younger self and Bruce Willis playing the older and wiser version. Writer/Director Rian Johnson takes the concept of time travel, mixes it with a film noir feel and adds a gangster style narrative that leaps and bounds in unexpected directions.

In the future, when criminals want to dispose of people they send them 30 years back to the past with a time limit on their lives. Loopers (hit-men) are assigned to take out the future garbage when their time is up, the twist being they have to face themselves and pull the trigger. Each mark appears out of the blue in a specific time and location with their face covered for the Loopers to kill and close the loop.  If you are not strong enough to end your older self the punishment is severe.

When older Joe overpowers his younger self he sets a deadly, race against the clock game in motion with a storyline that pits the two against each other and introduces a mother and child into their violent head-to-head. Older Joe is intent on staying alive for the sake of a loved one and when he’s given the opportunity to end the infamous assassin called ‘The Rainmaker’, whose death he believes will allow him to make it back to his reality, he sets out to murder him at a young age. This of course, brings The Terminator to mind – time travel to alter the future and stop atrocities – but to reveal any more would be to ruin the film.

Looper looks tremendous throughout as it moves location and time. Young Joe’s world is one of overindulgence in drugs (taken through the eye in droplet form), fast cars and women. The final act of the film, where a face- off between the two Joes occurs in a desolate Kansas field, is timeless in appearance compared to the noir metropolis that Joe inhabits. There are hints of Dark City also, with the henchmen who pluck their victims away from their existence wearing similar attire to the mysterious Strangers.

The dialogue is comparable in style to Johnson’s breakthrough film Brick, with some great, humourours one-liners throughout. The performances are all top notch with Gordon-Levitt perfecting Willis’ mannerisms and Willis adding a much needed tenderness to the well-drawn character of Joe. Special mention goes to child actor Pierce Gagnon who delivers sweetness and sinister in equal measure.

You’ll want to go back and watch it again to pick it apart, and a second viewing should be well rewarded.  The strength of Looper lies in its intricacy, ambition and the questions it poses about a predetermined path. Johnson wraps it all up nicely in a darkly imagined, blue tinted world. “Loop closed baby.”

Expected Rating: 8 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: The Watch / Cert: 15 / Director: Akiva Schaffer / Screenplay: Jared Stern, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg / Starring: Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, Richard Ayoade / Release Date: Out Now

Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn team up again for sci-fi comedy The Watch, this time joined by new blood Jonah Hill and the UK’s own Richard Ayoade of IT Crowd and Mighty Boosh fame. Stiller plays neighbourhood stalwart Evan, a well-meaning Costco manager who escapes his boredom and failure to fulfil his wife’s needs by starting local clubs. After one of his employees is brutally murdered, he proposes a neighbourhood watch that is joined by three neighbourhood men, party-loving Bob (Vaughn), psychotic Franklin (Hill) and geeky Jamarcus (Ayoade).

They quickly become a local joke as they spend their nights drinking beer and haphazardly curbing small-time mischief, until they realise an alien invasion is imminent and they must up their game. It’s a simple premise good enough for a comedy, with a couple of sub-plots thrown in to keep the film going.

As expected with this kind of film, there are many quotable lines where the comedy mainly derives from, and a few moments of slapstick and gore. While it’s not the most intelligent of comedies it is standard popcorn fare and delivers to sensible expectations, although the film is directed by The Lonely Island’s Akiva Chaffer (who cameos with his comedy troupe) and co-written by Seth Rogen, so a knowledgeable comedy fan might be expecting a lot more funny.

The film is let down slightly by a couple of obvious twists but all the main guys put in good performances and mix well.  There is an impressive list of co-stars too, including Billy Crudup as Evan’s creepy new neighbour, R Lee Ermey playing a retired colonel (what else?), Rosemarie DeWitt as Evan’s wife and Will Forte as the hopeless local sergeant.

A Men In Black for the Judd Apatow generation.

Expected Rating: 7 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Movie Review: The Ghastly Love of Johnny X / Cert: TBC / Director: Paul Bunnel / Screenplay: Paul Bunnell / Starring: Will Keenan, Creed Batton, De Anna Joy Brooks, Reggie Bannister / Official Site: johnnyxmovie.com / Release Date: TBC / 

Like the Irish short comedy from 1998 by Edna Hughes, Flying Saucer Rock ‘n Roll, writer/director Paul Bunnell has captured the heart and soul of the ‘50s in a fun-filled, satirical, musical, sci-fi romp in The Ghastly Love of Johnny X.

Bad boy Johnny X (Will Keenan, who you could tell had a lot of fun in this role) and his outlaw gang of misfits known as the Ghastly Ones are exiled to planet Earth by the Grand Inquisitor (legendary screen great Kevin McCarthy in his final performance). It’s here that Johnny X searches for his ex-girlfriend, Bliss (De Anna Joy Brooks in an outstanding performance) who jilted him and stole the Resurrection Suit that can control the actions of anyone – living or dead.

Bliss, in need of an ally, seduces reluctant soda jerk Chip (Les Williams) to help her and the chase is on when they encounter his uncle, a sleazy show promoter named King Clayton (Reggie Bannister), late night TV talk show host Cousin Quilty (Paul Williams in a hilarious role) and the twisted but ailing rock and roll legend, Mickey O’Flynn, the Man With the Grin (brilliantly portrayed by Creed Bratton) who is a cross between Elvis and Roy Orbison – or an older version of Eddie Van Halen depending on your viewpoint.

The musical numbers are outstanding with one that takes place in a diner with the ensemble cast; Bliss seducing Chip at a drive in Movie Theater with “These Lips Never Lie” and a run down stage where Creed Bratton performs a get-up-and-dance song, “Big Green, Bug-Eyed Monster.”

Acting is first rate all around and cinematography is top notch by Francisco Bulgarelli. The soundtrack by Ego Plum is also very memorable and lively.

The Ghastly Love of Johnny X is a terrific homage to all the ’50s sci-fi movies we know and love.

Expected Rating: 8 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: The Possession / Cert: 15 / Director: Ole Bornedal / Screenplay: Juliet Snowden, Stiles White / Starring: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kyra Sedgwick, Natasha Calis, Madison Davenport / Release Date: Out Now

Any horror movie that concerns itself with demonic possession and exorcism rituals is always going to find itself on shaky ground because William Friedkin’s seminal The Exorcist is absolutely the daddy of them all and still casts a long shadow nearly forty years on. But such is the audience’s enduring fascination with spirits and possession and all things deeply unholy it’s hardly surprising that filmmakers are constantly on the look-out for variations on a theme in their attempts to scare the living crap out of us.

So here we have The Possession and an example of the truth (or the true legend) being stranger than fiction. It’s a fairly routine story; Emily (Calis) acquires an old wooden box engraved with Hebrew inscriptions and her divorced parents Clyde (Morgan) and Stephanie (Sedgwick) soon become concerned when the girl starts to behave strangely, obsessing over the box and telling tales of her ‘friend’ who lives inside it. Emily’s erratic behaviour intensifies alarmingly and Clyde takes the box to his old university professor who identifies it as a ‘Dybbuk’ box, used to imprison dangerous demons which feeds on the life of their victim before eventually becoming one with them. Routine stuff for a modern horror movie – and The Possession, despite a few queasy scares and some nice demonic imagery – doesn’t really take us anywhere we’ve not gone before. What’s most interesting about the film is its connection to real life ‘dybbuk’ boxes and a news story from 2001 about just such a box which found its way to the United States and eventually turned up on eBay – pretty much a guarantee of ‘negative feedback’, we’d have thought.

The Possession is the latest from Sam Raimi’s Ghost House imprimatur and in many ways it comes from the same gene pool as 2009’s Drag Me To Hell but with nothing like that movie’s intensity. It’s a familiar story well told with a tight script, compelling and absorbing performances (Calis is especially good and provides the movie’s main shivers) and yet it never allows itself to cross the line into the truly grotesque or terrifying. Bornedal’s unshowy direction is competent enough but there are a couple of beats which aren’t as clear as they might be – the fate of one or two characters seems to have gotten muddied or lost in the edit – but the story’s own box of tricks is pretty much empty well before the credits roll and even the ‘surprise’ ending can’t breathe new life into a film which ultimately reminds us of too many other, probably much better, movies.

The Possession is, however, a pleasingly simple, old-fashioned horror film – there’s not much bloodshed and a refreshing lack of swearing – but it tries to get by with scare tactics we’ve seen before once too often. If you box clever (I’m so sorry) and keep a lid (and again) on your expectations you’ll find it’s a decent enough effort which won’t unhinge you but will, at least, pass the time until the inevitable tide of Halloween horrors is visited upon us.

Expecting rating: 6 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Movie Review: Total Recall / Cert: 12A / Director: Len Wiseman / Screenplay: Kurt Wimmer, Mark Bomback / Starring: Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, Bryan Cranston / Release Date: Out Now

In a grey, drizzly future which looks suspiciously like Amsterdam’s Red Light district, a bored factory worker heads to a place called ‘Total Rekall’, where they promise to implant exciting (but fake) memories deep in his mind. “Ooh,” says this factory worker, who looks a lot like Colin Farrell, “I’ll have the plot of Total Recall please.” 

And so Colin Farrell gets to be Arnold Schwarzenegger for the day, replaying the plot of Total Recall as dictated by someone who only saw the first half. Len Wiseman’s re-imagining (a term that itself sounds like a line from a Philip K. Dick story) purports to be an adaptation of the story We Remember it for You Wholesale rather than a remake of the 1990s sci-fi classic, but frankly, they’re fooling no one. Throughout the first half, whole scenes are repeated almost verbatim. Only this time with added lens flare. There’s a lot of lens flare in the future, even in Douglas Quaid’s apartment, which has as much of it going on as the bridge of the starship Enterprise.

The first half is more or less the same as Verhoeven’s version, complete with the various twists and turns therein. Where it differs is in what has been left out later on. There’s no Mars, no mutants and, sadly, no space suffocation scenes. The 12A rating means that nobody’s eyeballs at any point pop out of their skulls. Not once does Colin Farrell pull an enormous pulsating tracking device from his nose (although the removal of his ‘hand phone’ looks reasonably painful). The violence has been toned down massively, with Quaid obliterating masses of iPhone lookalike androids instead of any human threat.

And yet, against all odds, Total Recall is a lot of fun. Its depiction of an overcrowded future looks great. The film has a number of nifty gadgets at its disposal (bondage guns, oh my!) while its scenes set upon ‘The Fall’ are very well played. In a beefed up role as Quaid’s she-Terminator wife, Kate Beckinsale steals the show. As she doles out kicking after kicking to Colin Farrell and Jessica Biel, her impressive physicality from Underworld comes in handy. Farrell doesn’t have Arnie’s blunt force charisma, but he’s a sympathetic lead. While Jessica Biel’s love interest feels perfunctory, it’s Bryan Cranston who disappoints the most. Given very little to work with, his critical high from Breaking Bad seems so very far away. There’s not even any reason for him to be there, given the amount of underlings he has at his disposal.

Total Recall is an entertaining sci-fi thriller with excellent visuals and solid action scenes. It’s a very pleasant surprise and entirely watchable, reminiscent of other sci-fi blockbusters such as I, Robot and Minority Report. It’s immediately, harmlessly forgettable, which, for a film called Total Recall, is delightfully ironic.

Expected Rating: 5/10

Actual Rating: