RESURRECTION (full review at Screen Realm)

Resurrection is a psychological thriller from director Andrew Semans. It deals with dark themes, including the impact of resurfacing trauma, as a woman is haunted by a presence from her past.

Margaret (Rebecca Hall) is strong, confident and successful in her career. She juggles her responsibilities as single parent to her daughter Abbie (Grace Kaufman), has a demanding job in medicine, and enjoys a commitment-free relationship with her colleague Peter (Michael Esper). She’s fit and healthy and in control, living life completely on her own terms.

While at a work conference, Margaret spots a man from her past in the audience, causing her to flee in terror, breaking down in tears once she arrives home. As the week goes on she spots the man, David (Tim Roth), more and more frequently, but always in public places and never approaching her directly.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:

https://screenrealm.com/resurrection-movie-review-rebecca-hall-tim-roth/

IMDB: Resurrection

RESURRECTION MOVIE INTERVIEW: DIRECTOR-WRITER ANDREW SEMANS ON REBECCA HALL THRILLER

I had an enlightening chat with director Andrew Semans about his excellent psychological thriller, RESURRECTION, starring Rebecca Hall and Tim Roth. The interview is up now at Screen Realm and the movie is released on digital platforms on 30 November.

It also features an unexpected cameo from my cat, Charlie, at 7:58 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lXLW6z-_I4

The full Screen Realm piece is here:

https://screenrealm.com/resurrection-movie-interview-director-writer-andrew-semans-rebecca-hall/

PHIL TIPPETT INTERVIEW | MAKING THE STOP-MOTION EPIC MAD GOD

Back in July I interviewed the legendary Phil Tippett about his derange, stop-motion animation movie MAD GOD.

You can watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18tHatZftm4

And the full Screen Realm piece is here:

https://screenrealm.com/phil-tippett-interview-mad-god/

MAD GOD TRAILER

The trailer for MAD GOD on Shudder Australia / New Zealan has quotes from such luminaries as Guillermo del Toro, Kathleen Kennedy and… me!! 

This was a surreal, but very cool thing to wake up to back in June.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jas8OABbn0Y

THE GUEST (full article at The Guardian Australia)

Having made their director-writer team mark with the home invasion thriller You’re Next, Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett followed it up with the frantic action-sci-fi hybrid, The Guest. Kicking off as a mysterious thriller, The Guest feels like a movie you forgot to rent during the early 90s, a glorious throwback to medium-budget action flicks that, in another lifetime, could have been made by Cannon Films.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/nov/09/the-guest-is-a-glorious-throwback-to-medium-budget-action-flicks

IMDB: The Guest

IT FOLLOWS (full article at The Guardian Australia)

The central idea of It Follows is simplicity itself: a creature stalking you slowly, relentlessly, with no obvious motive other than to ‘get’ you. It feels like the basis of a playground game. Yet combined with the deadly consequences, and executed to heart racing perfection by writer / director David Robert Mitchell, It Follows is one hundred minutes of heebie-jeebie inducing tension. 

Jay (Maika Monroe) goes on a seemingly pleasant date with her new boyfriend, Hugh (Jake Weary), but after having sex discovers she is being stalked by a terrifying and homicidal entity. There are a set of rules imparted to Jay, that if she can follow, might just keep her alive. 

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/oct/26/the-best-horror-films-of-the-21st-century-you-cant-go-past-it-follows

IMDB: It Follows

BUNNY AND THE BULL (full article at The Guardian Australia)

Director Paul King and writer and actor Simon Farnaby are bringing us a new look at Roald Dahl’s beloved confectioner in Wonka next year, having already delighted the entire world with their stewardship of the Paddington Cinematic Universe. But there’s another movie in their catalogue that’s worth watching: 2009’s Bunny and the Bull, a bittersweet travelogue told with imaginative visual flair and a lot of heart.

Stephen (Edward Hogg) lives alone in his London flat, unable to venture outside due to a past traumatic experience. He spends his days meticulously cataloguing and hoarding his possessions. After ordering a takeaway one night, Stephen’s memory is jogged and he recalls a trip to Europe with his best friend, Bunny, played by Farnaby.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/oct/12/bunny-and-the-bull-an-underrated-comedy-from-the-minds-behind-the-mighty-boosh-and-paddington

IMDB: Bunny And The Bull

PROJECT WOLF HUNTING (full review at Screen Realm)

Project Wolf Hunting is a genre switching action / horror blitz from South Korean director Kim Hong-sun. It’s bloody and visceral and over the top, but sadly, lacks focus and outstays it’s welcome by the end.

Forty seven criminals, arrested in the Philippines, are to be transported back to South Korea by boat. They are loaded aboard a cargo ship - The Frontier Titan – with twenty detectives and a two person medical team.

Of course, things don’t go as planned and the crooks are quickly sprung by gang members posing as the ship’s crew. As the cops and criminals wage a pitched battle across the boat, something is awoken in the bowels of the ship and Project Wolf Hunting shifts from bloody action movie to super bloody horror film.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:

https://screenrealm.com/project-wolf-hunting-movie-review/

IMDB: Project Wolf Hunting

THE UNTAMED (La Región Salvaje) (full article at The Guardian Australia)

Amat Escalante’s The Untamed, aka La Región Salvaje (The Wild Region), is an unusual blend of social realism and Lovecraftian tentacle horror that sounds almost absurd when surmised aloud. Yet it is a unique movie, both original and compelling, which you certainly won’t forget it in a hurry.

Alejandra (Ruth Ramos) is trapped in an unhappy marriage to Ángel (Jesús Meza), who is angry and bad tempered and, as it turns out, having an affair with her brother Fabián (Eden Villavicencio). Fabián is wracked with guilt for betraying his sister, while Ángel’s self-loathing boils over with increasingly nasty displays of homophobia and aggression.

In the countryside, just outside of town, an older couple is keeping an extra-terrestrial creature in their barn. Verónica (Simone Bucio) visits the barn to have sex with the creature (yes, you read that correctly, I said you won’t forget this film). However, the alien becomes increasingly violent and in their most recent encounter Verónica is badly injured.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/sep/28/alien-tentacle-sex-meets-social-realism-the-untamed-is-truly-original

IMDB: The Untamed

THE FLY (full article at The Guardian Australia)

Throw a rock at David Cronenberg’s back catalogue and you’re going to hit something dark, nauseating and probably a bit deviant. His latest movie, Crimes of the Future, is just the same, arriving in Australian cinemas almost exactly 36 years after the release of his icky body horror classic The Fly.

Proving itself an exception to the commonly held belief that all remakes are inferior, The Fly is a tight 96 minutes of vomit-soaked bedlam, as Jeff Goldblum inadvertently mutates himself into an ill-tempered insect. On its deeper level, you might want to ponder The Fly as a disease allegory, or perhaps a stern warning against scientific hubris – or maybe you’re just a sick puppy who wants to see a bloke’s hand dissolve in acidic fly puke. They’re all fine reasons to revisit the film which, for my money, is Cronenberg’s best.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/aug/31/the-fly-96-minutes-of-grotesque-vomit-soaked-bedlam-and-david-cronenbergs-best-film

IMDB: The Fly

WRITERS VICTORIA - FLASH FICTION APRIL 2022

 As with the last two years, April marked the Writer’s Victoria daily Flash Fiction Challenge. The purpose is to write a 30 word short story, based on the daily prompt and once again it was good fun with the Twitter writing community being as inventive and supportive as ever. This year, I did not manage a story every day. COVID-19 threw a spanner in the works, which was not fun. But I was also working on a longer short story, two pieces of other writing and my day job at the same time, which meant a few days got missed. On the final day, for the first time since I started doing this in 2020, I flat out could not think of an idea! 

All the daily winners can be found at the Writers Victoria website here:

https://writersvictoria.org.au/flash-fiction-2022/

Collected here, are my entries for this year’s contest. Twenty three tales of spiralling doom, unrelenting morbidity and deviant science. Where lycanthrope dentists run amok, where interstellar capitalism ruins lives (just like real capitalism); where Necromancers forget their instructions and Santa is a litigious bastard.  So prepare yourself, traveller. Open your mind to the strange and the weird. Cross the cosmic threshold and feast on the twisted, corrupted wonders inside…

HINT – 1 April 2022

With hindsight, I ignored the hints: no appointments on a full moon, suspicious allergy to silver, killed all those sheep. I just never thought my dentist could be a werewolf.

PYRITE – 2 April 2022

As instructed, I gripped the lumpen nugget of pyrite, focussed on my energy centres and closed my eyes tight. When I opened them, he’d stolen my tent… and my dog.

GLOW – 3 April 2022

Our interstellar visitors stepped from their glowing spacecraft, and were immediately electrocuted in the light evening drizzle. Apparently, beings of pure light and energy do not react well to water.

FORTUNE – 4 April 2022

Earth soil is worth an absolute fortune on Klebmar. Goddamn space millipedes keep digging it up to sell on Space eBay. All I can do is leave ‘em bad feedback.

IDOL – 5 April 2022

The pentagram was drawn, the candles lit and the sacrificial blood spilled across the transdimensional portal. We were awaiting The Traveller, when we realised… Trevor forgot to bring the idol.

INTERMITTENT – 6 April 2022

Space Slug control need not be unpleasant. My advice? Lean into it. Initially, loss of free thought will be intermittent, but soon enough your mind will go ‘full gastropod’

BRIGHT – 7 April 2022

Earth-17 underwent Planetary Relocation because their Sun was (apparently) “too bright.” They were re-orbited around a gas giant, but immediately complained it was “too stinky.” Rich people are never happy.

MOON – 8 April 2022

“Dry your tears Timmy. Remember, when you look up at that moon tomorrow, even though I’m not here I’ll be doing the same thing… right before I blow it up.”

PERCEIVE – 9 April 2022

“Despite my name, bone fide invisibility is patently impossible. I simply ‘persuade’ your brain you can’t see me. And Marketing just felt ‘The Unperceived Man’ wouldn’t test well.”

TWINKLE – 10 April 2022

Your honour, counsel agrees my client’s eyes ‘twinkle’ delightfully. However, his belly does not shake ‘like a bowl full of jelly’ and we will be seeking damages to that effect.

SEQUIN – 11 April 2022

The Fancy Killer, who terrorised the city for months, was finally apprehended when a single sequin from his bedazzled strangling gloves, was found in the gullet of his final victim

SHIMMER – 12 April 2022

The lake shimmered in the afternoon sun. Family picnics buzzed with spring optimism. Birds sang. Children laughed. Until the bloated, toothless corpse of an unidentified state witness breached the surface.

ALTAR – 13 April 2022

Most other cults spend all their money on expensive altars, forgetting you can’t summon a Goat Lord on an empty stomach. That’s why we always budget well for apocalypse catering.

HORIZON – 14 April 2022

We were stationed near that black hole, which we couldn’t see, because no light escapes. It took us two months to realise the event horizon was in the opposite direction.

SUBDUED – 15 April 2022

He thought Bigfoot was subdued, but he never got the full three count. He surprised him with a double suplex, pinned him and Bigfoot was crowned World Sasquatch Wrestling Champion

OASIS – 16 April 2022

Human brains are succulent. Of the billion minds we have subsumed, they are an oasis. My larva thirst. They will find water here. Humanity’s parched consciousness scattered to the void 

DAPPLE – 17 April 2022

As his face became dappled with the fluorescent buboes of the Martian Plague, there was nothing left to do other than admire the terrifying beauty of a toxic universe. 

BLINK – 19 April 2022

On your first day as an interstellar zookeeper you must establish dominance. Stare the creatures down. Blink first and you’re liable to get your throat torn out by Space Gerbils

HOPE – 23 April 2022

They said you can’t put a price on hope. But we wrote an algorithm to simulate hope in robots and it sold quite nicely. The price of hope is $99.95

SPARKLE – 25 April 2022

The Fancy Killer got the chair but crime scenes across the city continued to sparkle. His valet continued his work. Turns out, for once, the butler actually did it.

SOFT  – 27 April 2022

He went soft in his later years. Acquiring a conscience. Muttering regrets about making people cry. But we never forgot. He was the most thrilling Evil Hypnotist in the business.

FLASH  – 28 April 2022

Weirdly, I felt the strike first, then I hit the ground, THEN I heard the thunder. Also weird: the smell of your own flash fried skin is kind of chicken-y.

EYE  – 29 April 2022

Interviewer: Mr Cyclops, what would you say is your biggest weakness?

Mr Cyclops: Most people assume it’s having one eye, but actually, I can’t do maths without a calculator.

Missed Days

18 April 2022

WAVER – 20 April 2022

GOLD – 21 April 2022

SCINTILLATE – 22 April 2022

INKLING – 24 April 2022

NEON  – 26 April 2022

GLIMMER – 30 April 2022

EX MACHINA (full article at The Guardian Australia)

Alex Garland’s new movie, Men, is due for release in June and if you’re intrigued by the mysterious
trailer, or you enjoyed either his acclaimed TV series Devs, or the sci-fi horror of Annihilation, then Garland’s directorial debut Ex Machina is well worth investigating. 

Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) wins a competition at his workplace to visit the home of the company’s reclusive CEO, Nathan (Oscar Isaac). Caleb travels to his vast and remote Norwegian estate and upon arrival discovers the contest was a smokescreen.

Identified as a gifted employee, Caleb has been summoned to work on Nathan’s latest project: an artificial intelligence named Ava (Alicia Vikander). It is Caleb’s job to administer the Turing Test (named after its creator, mathematician Alan Turing), to determine whether Ava has consciousness. If the tester cannot determine if the subject is machine or human, then the test is passed. 

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/may/03/ex-machina-when-you-see-this-sci-fi-thriller-youll-never-stop-thinking-about-it

IMDB: Ex Machina

THE WITCH (full article at The Guardian Australia)

Robert Eggers’ new movie, The Northman, arrives in Australian cinemas this week. In order to get prepped for this bloody tale of Viking vengeance, check out his unsettling horror debut The Witch: a folk horror movie that does not rely on gore to terrify the audience, but instead gradually worms its way under your skin to slowly unnerve you. It’s not the plunge from the top of the rollercoaster but a slow drive down a dark, country lane.

Set in 1630, a Puritan settler family are banished from their New England village after a heated religious argument in the colony. Isolated theologically and physically, patriarch William (Ralph Ineson) moves to the edge of a vast, dense forest with his family: wife Katherine (Kate Dickie) and their children Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw), twins Mercy and Jonas (Ellie Grainger and Lucas Dawson), and infant Samuel. But nature is unforgiving and the family’s crops fail. Suddenly, while under Thomasin’s care, baby Samuel disappears, stolen by a witch who dwells within the forest.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/apr/20/the-witch-robert-eggers-folk-horror-debut-worms-its-way-under-your-skin

IMDB: The Witch

THE BIG SCORE - FURIOUS FICTION - AUSTRALIAN WRITERS' CENTRE - MARCH 2022

This is my March 2022 entry for the Australian Writers’ Centres Furious Fiction contest. It didn’t do anything in the contest, but I don’t really care about that. What’s important is that I found a stupid idea and wrote something I’m really pleased with. 

In addition to the 500 word maximum and a three day window to write it, the rules for March: 

·         Your story must include a character that commits a crime.

·         Your story must include some kind of DOOR being opened.

·         Your story must include the words CHALK, TALK and FORK.

It’s 8pm and I’m parked opposite a warehouse on the bad side of a bad city. It’s a bad environment, squared. The rain is beating out some crazy jazz on my rooftop and I’m washing down antacid tablets with stale coffee. I got a peptic ulcer and a telephoto lens for company.

Name’s Frank Chisel. I got an ex-wife, a shitty mortgage and half-pint of Jack Daniels stashed in my glove box. I got a badge and a gun and the right to use deadly force if I catch you with over 50kgs of Dutch Creams. That’s right, I’m a P.I. - Potato Inspector.

Governor Patterson got elected on a ‘tough on crime’ platform. Every archaic law gets enforced, everywhere. Excessive potato possession began in WA, but blighted the whole country.  Agricultural Syndicates ruin lives and strangle cities.  I’m flying solo tonight. My partner, Jenkins, is in the hospital. Took a bullet busting up an illegal Farmer’s Market. Three days off his retirement. That poor bastard.

Warehouse roller door slides up with a noise barely audible over the downpour. Dark blue hatchback idles down the driveway. Lotta trunk space. chalk it up to experience, but that’s an immediate red flag. A kid exits the car – he’s a skinny beatnik with a mangy beard - and I spot all the evidence I need to stop and search. In the corner, almost hidden by the door… a fuckin’ wheelbarrow.

I hit the gas and put my sled between the kid and the road. Roller door snaps shut. He’s got nowhere to go. Kid’s cocky and thinks my XL waistband means I’m all lard, but a couple of friendly one-twos dissuades him of that notion. Kid flops to the ground and surrenders his keys and I pop the trunk. A hatchback full of illicit tubers. I grab my fork, cut a piece and taste. It’s good shit.

“This is uncut Australian Pontiac. Know what that means?”

Kid looks up from the floor. Cracked ribs starting to hurt. Cracked pride hurting him more, he says nothing.

“Means, you’re growing ‘em. Not importing ‘em. You’re looking at a big stretch. Sing it now, or forever hold your peace.”

Gotta hand it to him, kid’s still got fire in his eyes. He invites me to do something biblical with my mother and my fists politely decline. Kid spits a mouthful of teeth onto the pavement. He ain’t talking.

I slam the hatchback – equal parts frustration and intimidation tactic - when something falls from the underside. A small, green cylindrical object rolls slowly across the floor and comes to rest perfectly between the two of us. I look at the seemingly innocuous vegetable and then back at the kid… the fire in his eyes has just gone out. A wry smile grips the corner of my mouth. I pop another antacid and grab my radio.

“It’s Chisel – get me the Chief. This case just blew wide open. You better get the Zucchini Squad down here, right now.”

 

GOOD TIME (full article at The Guardian Australia)

With Robert Pattinson’s Batman currently impressing on the big screen, what better reason to look back at the role which The Batman director Matt Reeves credits as the catalyst for his casting. The Safdie brothers’ 2017 film Good Time is a tense, nervy, caffeine jolt of a crime thriller, which sees Pattinson in top form as a small-time crook, trying to save his brother over the course of 24 agonising hours.

Connie Nikas (Pattinson) and his developmentally disabled brother Nick (co-director, Benny Safdie) rob a bank in New York but bungle the getaway. Nick is arrested while Connie manages to flee the scene. In a darkly amusing piece of irony, Connie attempts to bail his brother using the very same robbery proceeds they just stole. It’s not enough to spring Nick, so Connie scrambles to find $10,000 in a single night, as events spiral rapidly out of his control.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/apr/06/youll-have-a-bad-time-watching-good-time-but-youll-never-feel-so-alive

IMDB: Good Time

BULL (full review at Screen Realm)

Bull (Neil Maskell) is a top enforcer in a criminal gang. A brutal and merciless thug on the streets, yet a caring and doting father at home. His boss, Norm (David Hayman), also happens to be his father-in-law. So when Bull’s relationship with his wife turns sour, both his livelihood and well-being are put at risk. A dispute over custody of Bull’s son turns nasty and he is attacked and left for dead. Ten years later, Bull returns home to exact bloody vengeance on those who betrayed him.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:

https://www.screenrealm.com/bull-movie-review-neil-maskell/

IMDB: Bull

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (full review at Screen Realm)

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, known collectively as Daniels, follow up their previous feature - the strange and bittersweet oddity Swiss Army Man – with the strange and bittersweet oddity Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) runs a laundromat with her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) but they are on the brink of divorce. She is rushed off her feet planning a party for father Gong Gong (James Hong) and preparing for an audit at the tax office. On the way to the meeting with the auditor, Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis), Evelyn is approached by Waymond from another dimension, known as Alpha Waymond. 

He reveals the Alpha Dimension possesses technology enabling them access to all other dimensions, and all other possible versions of oneself. This technology, known as Verse Jumping, allows the jumper to absorb the skills and knowledge of their alternate dimension counterpart. Unfortunately, there is an evil Verse Jumper called Jobu Tupaki who is intent on destroying the multiverse and Evelyn is the only one who can stop it. 

Read the full review at Screen Realm:

https://www.screenrealm.com/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-movie-review/

IMDB: Everything Everywhere All At Once

HELLBENDER (full review at Screen Realm)

Hellbender is an indie horror from directing / writing / acting family Zelda Adams, John Adams and Toby Poser.

Izzy (Zelda Adams) and her mother (Lulu Adams) live in a remote forest some distance from the nearest town. Izzy is home-schooled and, for fun, they play in a band together – Hellbender. Her mother is over-protective, not letting Izzy go to town or school or have any friends. So Izzy spends her days hiking and exploring the large acreage of their property, while her mother runs to town for supplies, forages in the woods… and practices witchcraft.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:

https://www.screenrealm.com/hellbender-movie-review-shudder-horror/

IMDB: Hellbender

DRIVE MY CAR (DORAIBU MAI KÂ) (full review at Screen Realm)

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car is a thoughtful and enigmatic character drama, based on a short story by celebrated author Haruki Murakami.

Yûsuke (Hidetoshi Nishijima) is a successful theatre director, married to TV executive Oto (Reika Kirishima), they share a complex, creative relationship together. One afternoon Yûsuke returns home unexpectedly and discovers Oto having an affair with a young actor, Kōji (Masaki Okada), but he does not say word.

Yûsuke loves to drive his car, a red Saab, and run lines on his way to work. Oto records scenes onto cassette for him to play against. It is during one of these rehearsals when Yûsuke is involved in a small accident. Although unharmed, at the hospital Yûsuke learns he has glaucoma and will lose his sight in one eye. Not long after the crash a tragic event disrupts their life forever.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:

https://www.screenrealm.com/drive-my-car-movie-review/

IMDB: Drive My Car

PALM SPRINGS (full article at The Guardian Australia)

Palm Springs, in the words of Andy Samberg’s character, Nyles, is “one of those infinite time loop situations you might’ve heard about”. Which serves as the baseline for a hugely enjoyable, feel-good romantic comedy that incorporates a compelling science fiction element and a nice bit of existential dread to stop things getting too sentimental.

Nyles and Sarah (Cristin Milioti) meet at a wedding in Palm Springs. After an eventful reception, Sarah follows Nyles into a cave in the desert where she steps into a glowing red light, only to awake once again, on the morning of the ceremony. It becomes clear that an earthquake opened up a fissure in space/time, and in entering the cave the pair became caught in time loop, doomed to repeat the day of the wedding forever.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/feb/04/palm-springs-feel-good-infinite-time-loop-romcom-serves-side-order-of-existential-dread

IMDB:
Palm Springs

NINJA SHADOW OF A TEAR aka NINJA 2 (full article at The Guardian Australia)

If you’ve blitzed through Cobra Kai and it’s left you hankering for yet more fight-based, 80s throwback drama, consider checking out the work of prolific action movie star Scott Adkins in the truly excellent Ninja Shadow of a Tear (AKA Ninja 2).

Ninja Shadow of a Tear is the weirdly titled sequel to 2009’s rather more simplistic Ninja. But it works well as a self-contained entity, ditching any remaining story threads from the first film within the first 10 minutes so you can comfortably watch them in reverse order and kick your evening off with the better one.

Casey Bowman (Adkins) returns home one night to find his wife Namiko (Mika Hijii) has been brutally slain by an unknown assailant with a unique but deadly weapon. Casey accepts an offer from his friend Nakabara (Kane Kosugi) to stay at his dojo in Bangkok in an attempt to find peace. But Casey’s grief continues to manifest in self-destructive behaviour, losing his temper in a sparring session and drunkenly starting a massive bar fight.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/jan/31/ninja-shadow-of-a-tear-scott-adkins-kicks-butt-in-enjoyably-knuckleheaded-revenge-rampage

IMDB: Ninja Shadow Of A Tear

2021 REVIEW

According to Letterboxd I watched 301 movies in 2021, although that figure does include short films and a couple of TV series, which are a bit of a cheat. Nevertheless, it was a lot. Yet I still managed to miss seeing a bunch of things I suspect might’ve made the end of year cut, like The French Dispatch, Spider-Man No Way Home, Coda, Candyman and Licorice Pizza. Anyway, here are my 2021 favourites.

Top 10 Movies of 2021

1. Dune 

Denis Villeneuve’s reverent vision of Frank Herbert’s masterpiece was rich in detail and stunning to look at. It was everything I wanted from an adaptation of my all-time favourite book. 

2. Nine Days

Edson Oda’s otherwordly debut really struck a chord. In asking us to resist the temptation to see only the bad in life, it argues ‘simple pleasures’ are a misnomer because experiencing them is meaningful. Simultaneously uplifting and sad without ever becoming saccharine, it’s a truly unique, engaging and often beautiful existential drama.

3. The Suicide Squad

Although it’s half an hour too long and basically The Expendables with monsters, The Suicide Squad was genuinely funny, gloriously foul and thoroughly enjoyable. A great surprise and I liked it a lot.

4. Pig

Cage Ragers will be disappointed that Pig contains none of the wackiness that might be assumed from its synopsis: a hermit truffle hunter tracks the thieves who stole his pig. Instead, it’s a melancholy indie about a broken man and the unusual world of fine dining. Pig’s slow unfold is very worthwhile and Cage is expertly restrained.

5.  Mad God 

I’m still not entirely sure what to say about Phil Tippet’s inventive, stunning, utterly deranged stop-motion nightmare. An animated atrocity, three decades in the making, consisting of a threadbare plot and an eyeful of wretched, disturbed imagery. Truly, a horror movie in every sense. You have never seen a film like it.

6. The Green Knight

Arthouse medieval fantasy sees Dev Patel off in search of an Arthurian Swamp Thing. I thought this looked fantastic, was kind of pretentious (in a good way) and I dig its big weirdo energy.

7. Love and Monsters

Although a 2020 movie for most of the world, this didn’t see an Australian release until it hit Netflix in April. Love and Monsters’ giant bug apocalypse and great big heart transcended its simple quest plotline, and it was a heck of a lot of fun.

8. You Cannot Kill David Arquette

A little unsure about the release dates for this documentary as it was sent to us for review this year as a digital release but I have a feeling it was already streaming on Stan. Nevertheless, this was a highly entertaining documentary about David Arquette’s return to the wrestling ring and his search for redemption. Proving You Cannot Kill David Arquette… but you can beat him to a bloody pulp!  

9. Kate 

In fairness, I’m sure Kate isn’t ending up in a lot of ‘Best Of’ lists, but I really had a surprisingly good time with this tale of a poisoned assassin racing against the clock to exact bloody revenge. Although it shamelessly steals from bozo-action masterpiece, Crank, I really didn’t care that much because it felt more like homage than theft. Kate is a solid slice of genre revenge / action and frankly, I could watch Mary Elizabeth Winstead kick peoples’ ass all day long.

10.  Don’t Breathe 2

The last half hour of Don’t Breathe 2 is so heroically berserk, that it takes an average home invasion thriller and catapults it into the stratosphere. You can’t help but sit back and tip your hat to a film that suddenly decides to detach itself from any delusions of believability. It’s kind of stupid, but I really enjoyed it.

2021 Vision: favourite first time watches

Possessor (2020)

Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbott head up a great cast in this trippy, hyper-violent piece of sci-fi horror. An irresistible concept - corporate assassins ‘possessing’ the innocent in order to carry out hits – and some impressive visuals make Possessor well worth is reputation and, for my money, one of the best horror movies of the 2000s.

Tigers Are Not Afraid [Vuelven] (2017)

Melding fantasy elements with real life horror and a Devil’s Backbone vibe, Tigers Are Not Afraid is part supernatural horror, part drug war drama and I liked it lot. 

Samurai Cop (1991)

I’m always wary of anything that’s been cretinously dubbed ‘so bad it’s good’, but there is so much to unpack in Samurai Cop: spectacular dialogue, bizarre reaction shots, weird ADR / dubbing voices,  double entendres that don’t work,  Robert Z’Dar hiding inside a hospital trolley, some truly inept gun fights,  a weird woollen lion’s head, a foot chase undermined by a neighbourhood dog running along the fence line, a stuntman’s wig falling off, and… finally…  a Gerald Okamura love scene that you cannot ever unsee! Samurai Cop delivers!

Scanner Cop 1 & 2 (1994/1995)

What if you took David Cronenberg’s Scanners and shoehorned it into an action cop movie? The Scanner Cop movies assure us that this is a great idea and you know what? They’re right, because there’s loads of great gore and gloopy practical effects; the best photofit ID scene in cinema history; and in Scanner Cop 2, the villain cranks everything up to eleven, takes a bath in the middle of the movie for no reason! Absolutely bonkers, in all the best ways.

Nemesis (1992)

Sitting somewhere between Hardware, The Terminator and Blade Runner, Nemesis has great practical effects, Brion James doing a terrible German accent and a marvellously po-faced turn from Oliver Gruner. It has a ridiculously vague plot - some data has been stolen! - and it slipped under my radar for years. But it’s a total banger.

Worst of 2020

Willy’s Wonderland works better as an idea, than as a film you actually have to sit down and watch, besides Tammy And The T-Rex already did the whole animatronic gore thing and it was a lot stupider and a lot more fun. 

I really loved Kong Skull Island a hell of a lot, so it was painful to discover how abjectly dreadful Godzilla vs Kong is. There were too many characters, an endless succession of pulled-from-thin-air plot exposition (was it written by a child?) and some unforgivably dull monster fighting. Also I’m no computer expert, but even I know you can’t download a rock!

Monster Hunter did everything wrong: from its terrible console CGI, to putting Ron Perlman in a laughable wig and dragging his dignity through the mud. And that’s before we even ask what the point of having Tony Jaa in your movie is, if all his fight scenes are so close in and edited so tightly that they are completely incomprehensible? Or point out how many better movies Monster Hunter stole its ideas from (hint: it’s loads).