Review Category: Movie

A modern piece of Mexican standoff/bag-of-money cinema, The Last Stop in Yuma County immediately recalls the works of the Coen Brothers and Quentin Tarantino.

When a petrol station in the middle of nowhere runs out of gas, a cast of gun-toting gangsters and not-so-innocent civilians find themselves stuck in a nearby diner together. The tight, suspenseful script starts slow but ramps from suspense to action, with a few twists to keep the audience on their toes. When the jukebox plays and the slow motion starts just as the tension is at its highest, there’s nowhere you’d rather be than glued to the screen, waiting to exhale.

Unfortunately, Last Stop lacks the colour and the spark of those early works in the same genre. Rather than the frightening blue hues and personal camera of Blood Simple or the rock n’ roll zip of the set design in Pulp Fiction, director Francis Galluppi keeps a modern, static look to the whole thing. The washed-out digital desert of Yuma County lacks the personality of those films made on celluloid. This fun mix of clichés and archetypes never really has a strong viewpoint on itself. Although the script’s multiple facets of suspense are a great ride, you won’t walk away with a character as distinct as M. Emmet Walsh’s Blood Simple detective or even Billy Bob Thornton’s brother character in A Simple Plan. There’s no personality or heart in the filmmaking except what has been brought in from other movies. Viewers will be able to tell it is Galluppi’s first feature, as the main talent he’s brought to the film is forgery.

Director Wes (Maze Runner) Ball picks up the mantle from Matt Reeves as he and screenwriter Josh Friedman find a new story to tell in the Planet of the Apes saga, which, some might argue, came full circle at the end of 2017’s War of the Planet of the Apes with Caesar leading his liberated brothers into the Promised Land where they could fulfil their destiny as the new rulers of the planet Earth. The 21st-century Apes films have been one of the great triumphs of modern genre cinema, made with passion, dedication, and a determination to treat this franchise with the care and attention it deserves. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a new chapter in this ongoing story, and comparisons to its three predecessors are, frankly, unnecessary as they told a story in and of themselves but for those with any concerns about quality decline, you’ll be pleased to hear that this is a film that proudly stands shoulder-to-shoulder alongside Rise, Dawn, and War. This is a terrific entry into the ongoing series, a film with a real dramatic heft full of well-crafted characters and boasting next-level visual effects.

Several generations after the events of War, Caesar’s ancestor Noa (Owen Teague) is living a peaceful life amongst the Eagle clan. The mute remains of humanity are now little more than scavengers. Noa soon crosses paths firstly with talking human Nova/Mae (The Witcher’s Freya Allan) and then Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), a tyrannical ape who has twisted and corrupted Caesar’s teachings and is determined to access human secrets hidden behind a sealed bunker near the sea so he can impose his will across the whole world. Noa’s encounter with and curiosity about Nova/Mae brings Noa and the entire Eagle clan under the control of Proximus and his gorilla thugs. What lies behind the bunker, and what power can it bestow upon whoever breaches its metal doors?

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes isn’t just a wham-bam action/adventure film – this is a film with heart and soul, the story of characters who want to live in peace but who can’t because even in a society where humans are the underdogs,  human traits such as violence and ambition and a craving for power are never far from the surface. Of course, we don’t yet feel as close to Noa at this point in the story as we did to Caesar early on in Rise, but there’s never any doubt of his bloodline as he strives to do all he can to protect his people and his loved ones.

Once again, we’re in a rich, lush post-human world where the past is never far away. Many scenes feature images of what went before – the great rusted hulks of sea vessels, overgrown cityscapes in the distance, an abandoned baseball ground, and even a few visual nods to 1968’s Planet of the Apes, the film that started it all. The ape ‘motion capture’, so brilliantly realised by Andy Serkis (now credited as an adviser), is pretty much photorealistic. These new apes are capable of a fuller and broader range of physical movement displaying emotions that weren’t quite achievable in the previous trilogy, But now, more than ever, these apes look like real, living creatures and the effects are quite literally breath-taking. There’s a little less action here than we’re used to, but rest assured there are few pulse-racing sequences here and there and a suitably adrenalized climax which brings this particular story to a satisfying end for now – with the caveat of the sinister foreshadowing of battles and conflicts yet to come.

Breathe easy, then. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes does not betray the history of what’s gone before.  It’s a magnificent, intelligent achievement, and if we’ve any criticism, it might be that the first half-hour is slightly sluggish – this is a new ape world full of new characters, and the film takes its time introducing them all – and it could probably have benefitted from losing 10 or 15 minutes from its nearly 150 minute running time. But in the end, this is a far better film than it has any right to be or than we might have expected it to be, and the story of the Planet of the Apes remains a peerless shining beacon in sci-fi cinema.

KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES is in cinemas all across the planet of humans now.

 

It’s unlikely that there was a massive clamour for a 21st-century reboot of The Fall Guy, an affable but largely forgotten 1980s TV series starring Lee (Six Million Dollar Man) Majors as stunt performer Colt Seavers. But Hollywood is never minded to allow even the most unlikely and unrecognisable franchise to rest in peace, so here it comes again, exhumed and dusted down for a modern audience. Ryan Gosling takes on the role of Seavers in a film that’s largely unconnected to even the broad spirit of the series that inspired it. Gosling’s Colt is the stunt double for egotistical action actor Tom Rider (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). He finds himself press-ganged back into service following a nasty on-set accident by pushy producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham), only to find that his ex-squeeze Jodey Moreno (Emily Blunt) has, miraculously, been promoted from junior camera operator to the director of a multi-million dollar sci-fi epic entitled Metalstorm and starring Tom Rider. Their blossoming relationship fell apart after his accident, and she really doesn’t want him on her set. When Tom goes missing after getting involved in drugs, Gail asks Colt to track him down before the film is compromised or, worse, canned. Colt reluctantly agrees, and the film kicks into high gear with a number of fight scenes, stunning practical stunt sequences, and a plot that involves duplicity, double-crossing, and a few good gags.

Predominantly a love letter to the often taken-for-granted art of the stuntman, The Fall Guy is a flawed but fun first salvo in 2024’s summer blockbuster season. A slightly sluggish first act leads into the action-packed meat of a film that’s powered by the irresistible on-screen chemistry between Gosling and Blunt and let down only slightly by a script that’s weaker than it ought to be thanks to glib dialogue that tries to be funny but ends up slightly tiresome. But The Fall Guy picks up momentum as it goes along in the wake of some genuinely terrific set pieces (a sequence on the water in the shadow of the Sydney Opera House is stunning). If, ultimately, the whole thing feels as if it’s less than the sum of its parts, it’s kept alive by vivid, lively performances from the leads and muscular action. Stick around for nostalgic cameos mid-credits.

Finding a Tarot deck in the basement of their holiday rental home, a group of friends ignore their better instincts (clearly, no one here has seen The Evil Dead) and settle down to have their fortunes read by hippy Haley (Harriet Slater). But in doing so, they break the sacred rule of Tarot – don’t fuck with cursed card games.

One by one, the group’s fortunes come true as they are stalked by a sinister entity determined to punish them for their transgressions. Can Haley and her friends figure out how to undo the curse before it comes for them all?

Based on the 1992 novel by Nicholas Adams, this supernatural horror film follows in the footsteps of the Final Destination series, setting up a series of gnarly scenarios with which to whittle its cast down to the final few. This number includes Avantika (the Mean Girls musical) and Spider-Man’s friend, Jacob Batalon, alongside former Sally Hardesty, Olwen Fouéré (the sole adult in this thing, and bringing a much-needed touch of class).

While Batalon and Avantika’s star power shines through, they’re forced to play second fiddle to leaden former lovers Haley and Grant (Adain Bradley), whose weak performances are made even more unfortunate in that they’re expected to do all of the emotional and thematic heavy lifting.

In its tone and none-too-gory action, Tarot feels like a throwback to early 2000s horror, featuring a cast of pretty young college students snappily bickering their way through a Scooby-Doo mystery. Writer and director team Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg structure the film well, and the visuals look good, too – including a number of unsettling monster designs and a beautifully designed Tarot deck. The scares are all much of a muchness (eerie silence followed by loud noise, followed by something terrifying jumping at the camera at great speed), but there is some fun to be had in predicting where the next horrific death is going to come from. They’re heavily telegraphed, sure, but slickly done – and scenes featuring Jacob Batalon in an elevator and Avantika in a box are a chilling highlight.

Haven’t been paying attention? That’s not a problem either, as the dumbed-down script handily recaps each character’s fortune prior to every big set piece while characters speak in concentrated exposition, ensuring that there are few surprises to be had.

Tarot is too well-constructed to be a complete waste of time, but also too tame and predictable to live up to whatever potential the idea may have had. It’s a functional spook ’em up but isn’t playing with the full deck.

TAROT is out in UK cinemas now.

If you, a teenage boy, had the opportunity to choose your own inner monologue, chances are that you too would probably go for something that sounds a little like H. Jon Benjamin, of Bob’s Burgers and Archer fame. In the universe of Boy Kills World, this is the voice of the beat ’em up that Boy (Nicholas Crovetti, later Bill Skarsgård) played as a child.

When his mother and sister are executed by the fascist regime of Hilda Van Der Koy (Famke Janssen), said Boy is rescued and adopted by the mysterious Shaman (Yayan Ruhian), who trains him as an instrument of revenge, turning the child into the ultimate weapon. Left deaf and mute as a result of a transformative mutilation, Boy picks out his own inner monologue – and one which just so happens to sound exactly like Bob Belcher. Striking out on his own, Boy sets about taking down the Van Der Koy corporation, one mini-boss at a time.

Benjamin’s voiceover is either the film’s strongest asset or its biggest problem, depending on how one feels about smart-arse narrators talking all over a perfectly good story (Deadpool has a lot to answer for). It’s an original hook to an otherwise familiar story of revenge in a grim dystopian world (think Gamer meets The Hunger Games), but it’s also immediately grating and undermines both the fight choreography and Skarsgård’s performance. A lot is going on, between the incessant narration and the visions of his young sister (Quinn Copeland) Boy encounters on his journey. There’s also a whole family of villains to beat (Sharlto Copley, Michelle Dockery, Brett Galman), a mysterious helmeted henchwoman (Jessica Rothe) and a mob of hired muscle to pummel through (including a couple of cartoon cereal mascots!) before he can get anywhere near Hilda. The performances are nutty but accomplished, with Galman and Rothe giving particularly good value as the slick executioner and the tired propagandist, respectively. Only Janssen feels out of place, given less texture than the other characters, and unable to match the others in terms of energy or menace.

Boy Kills World wears its video game influences on its sleeve, playing out like a demented cross between Tekken and a Far Cry sequel; meanwhile, the action is bloody and inventive, recalling the ultraviolent Indonesian cinema of The Raid, The Night Comes For Us, and Headshot. Featuring some truly astounding violence – and the most heinous use of a cheese grater since Evil Dead Rise – its action chops are up there with the best of its (many) influences, climaxing in a bone-crunching, flinch-inducing final beatdown that makes up for the headache it took to get there.

BOY KILLS WORLD is in UK cinemas now