Wednesday 27 November 2019

TOO OLD TO DIE YOUNG (full review at Screen Realm)

Too Old To Die Young is a crime thriller co-written by Nicolas Winding Refn and comic writer Ed Brukbaker. Directed by Refn it’s streaming in ten episodes on Amazon Prime.

In the aftermath of his partner’s death, Los Angeles police officer Martin Jones (Miles Teller) is promoted to the detective division and simultaneously indebted to local drug dealer Damian (Babs Olusanmokun). He finds himself as both law enforcement and contract killer. Martin’s underage girlfriend Janey (Nell Tiger Free) and her father Theo (William Baldwin) provide him a life outside of work, outside power dynamics and death, although we hesitate to call it ‘normalcy’.

Viggo (John Hawkes) is a retired F.B.I. agent in the employ of crisis counsellor Diana (Jena Malone), dispensing homicidal justice to the perpetrators of abuse, who have exploited loopholes in the legal system.

Jesus (Augusto Aguilera) is the heir to a drug cartel territory. He is grieving for his mother while he learns the family business from his relatives in Mexico, where he meets the beautiful and deadly Yaritza (Cristina Rodlo). 

Too Old To Die Young is the story of how these three sets of lives intersect.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/too-old-to-die-young-review-nicolas-winding-refn-miles-teller-amazon-series/

IMDB: Too Old To Die Young

Tuesday 12 November 2019

JUDY AND PUNCH (full review at Screen Realm)

Judy And Punch is a stylish looking folk tale from director Mirrah Foulkes, outlining a fictional origin tale for the famous British sea side puppet show.

Judy (Mia Wasikowska) and Punch (Damon Herriman) ply their trade as puppeteers in the ramshackle and landlocked town of Seaside (three day’s mule ride from the ocean). Their popular marionette performances are always packed out, yet never quite produce the income they hope for. Convinced of the show’s quality, and of his personal talents, Punch is hopeful that sooner or later talent scouts will see the performance and sign them up for a big city run. Judy wishes for success also, but her view is more realistic, concentrating most of her non-puppetry efforts on taking care of their newborn baby and keeping Punch away from the bottle. Of course, it’s not too long before Punch’s proclivity for alcohol, combined with an ugly temper, cause events to take a dark turn.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/judy-and-punch-movie-review/

IMDB: Judy And Punch

Sunday 20 October 2019

COLOR OUT OF SPACE (full review at Screen Realm)

Color Out Of Space is the new film from Elijah Wood, Daniel Noah and Josh C Waller’s production house, Spectra Vision, which has previously brought us the likes of A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, The Greasy Strangler and last year’s feral rage monster, Mandy. Adapted from a short story of the same name, the apparent personal favourite of legendary horror author Howard Phillips Lovecraft, Color Out Of Space sees the eccentric cult director Richard Stanley team up with a resurgent Nicolas Cage to deliver their take on H.P.’s famous tale of cosmic horror.

Nathan (Nicolas Cage) and Theresa Gardner (Joely Richardson) are living the dream. Having escaped the pressures of city life, they have retreated to their new country pile to enjoy the simple things in life. Together with their children, Lavinia (Madeleine Arthur) and Benny (Brendan Meyer), and hippie squatter Ezra (Tommy Chong) who lives at the bottom of their garden, their lifestyle is more-or-less idyllic. Nathan farms alpacas, Theresa conducts her financial business from her office and the kids want to live somewhere less boring.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/color-out-of-space-movie-review-nicolas-cage/

IMDB: Color Out Of Space

Saturday 19 October 2019

IN THE TALL GRASS (full review at Screen Realm)

In The Tall Grass is the third Netflix feature to be adapted from a story by Stephen King, following on from Gerald’s Game and 1922 which both debuted on the streaming platform.  In The Tall Grass is based on a novella written by the horror legend, in collaboration with his son, Joe Hill, and first published in 2012.

Becky (Laysla De Oliveira) and Cal Delmuth (Avery Whitted) are driving cross country to an appointment but are forced to stop by the side of the road when pregnant Becky becomes nauseous. Pulling over near an old run-down church, surrounded by towering fields of seemingly endless green grass, they are about to hit the road once more when they hear a cry for help emanating from within the fields.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/in-the-tall-grass-movie-review-netflix-stephen-king/

IMDB: In The Tall Grass

Friday 20 September 2019

FANGORIA X MONSTER FEST 2019 PROGRAM LAUNCH (full article at Screen Realm)


Friday 13th September saw the full Program Launch for Monster Fest 2019. Monster Fest is entering its eighth year and the second year back at Cinema Nova in Carlton.  It is also the second successive year the festival has been sponsored by beloved horror magazine Fangoria. The festival is similar in both scope and programming to London’s long running Fright Fest and this year they both share screenings of, amongst others, Bliss, Satanic Panic, Daniel Isn’t Real and the Rabid remake.

Normally spread over the course of one weekend, the first bit of news is that Monster Fest has expanded and the Melbourne program will be taking place over the course of a full week from Thursday 10 October until Friday 18th October. For horror fiends outside of Victoria, the festival also has selected screenings interstate over the weekend of 31 October to 3 November 2019 and hits up Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Read the full article at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/???https://screenrealm.com/fangoria-x-monster-fest-2019-australias-horror-fiends-are-in-for-creepy-treats/

Monster Fest 2019
http://www.monsterfest.com.au/australia/





Saturday 14 September 2019

MIDSOMMAR (full review at Screen Realm)

Midsommar is the second film from director Ari Aster and the follow up to his highly regarded debut Hereditary. 

After experiencing a tragedy, Dani (Florence Pugh) is invited on a trip to Sweden by her insensitive and toxic boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor). Christian and his friends Josh (Wiliam Jackson Harper) and Mark (Will Poulter) are anthropology students, invited by fellow student Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren) to visit the commune in Hälsingland, where he grew up, and to witness a once-every-ninety-years summer festival.

It doesn’t take long for the visitors to warm up to the HÃ¥rga and their idyllic, welcoming, psychotropic drug friendly commune. But gradually, slowly, almost imperceptibly, things start to feel off. As the festival continues and events become stranger, the relationships between the visitors become more fraught and before long the situation goes awry.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/midsommar-movie-review/

IMDB: Midsommar

Monday 19 August 2019

MASTER OF THE SWORD. AVENGER OF THE TRUTH... AND BLIND AS A BAT: WHY BLIND FURY IS AN ACTION CLASSIC (full article at Diabolique Magazine)

With Rutger Hauer’s recent passing, many reflected on a long and varied career that included memorable bad guys (The Hitcher, Nighthawks), heroic warriors (Ladyhawke) bizarre adverts (Guinness, Lurpak) and post-apocalyptic sports dudes (Salute of the Jugger a.k.a. The Blood Of Heroes). It goes without saying that his iconic role as replicant Roy Batty, in Ridley Scott’s tech-noir potboiler, Blade Runner (1982), is the one he’ll be best remembered for.

But another of Hauer’s films that is well worth revisiting, is an action comedy directed by Phillip Noyce (Rabbit Proof Fence, Patriot Games, Dead Calm), with mediocre critical scores and tucked away in the middle of his filmography. Loosely based around the classic Japanese swordplay serial character Zatoichi, but transposed to modern day U.S.A., Blind Fury’s (1989) gloriously simple plot sees Hauer’s blind swordsman, and that kid off Baywatch, facing off against some drug dealers. So while we’re not debating the quality of Blade Runner, forget all that ‘tears in the rain’ stuff for a moment, because what we really want to see is Rutger Hauer mistake an alligator for a pet dog, ‘accidentally’ thrash a barroom full of tough guys and slice some geezers up with a hidden sword.

Read the full article at Diabolique Magazine:
https://diaboliquemagazine.com/master-of-the-sword-avenger-of-the-truth-blind-as-a-bat-blind-fury-is-an-action-classic/

IMDB: Blind Fury

COME TO DADDY (full review at Screen Realm)

Come to Daddy is the debut feature from Ant Timpson, best known for founding New Zealand’s 48Hours film competition and producing Turbo Kid, The ABCs Of Death, and celebrated cinematic irritant The Greasy Strangler. It screened as part of the 2019 Melbourne International Film Festival.

Come to Daddy begins as a classic estranged father story. We meet Norval Greenwood (Elijah Wood) as he arrives on the doorstep of his father’s remote (and architecturally bold) clifftop pad. Norval is responding to a letter received from his father, suggesting a reconciliation, and pays a visit to the man he has not seen since he was three years old… to say they don’t hit it off is something of an understatement.

His father (Stephen McHattie) is annoyed, belligerent and frequently drunk. Norval is understandably uncomfortable and matters are compounded when he is caught in a lie, trying to impress his Dad. It doesn’t take long for events to come to a head

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/come-to-daddy-movie-review-elijah-wood/
IMDB: Come To Daddy

Tuesday 23 July 2019

HARD BOILED: WHY JOHN WOO'S MASTERPIECE IS STILL THE GREATEST ACTION MOVIE OF ALL TIME (full article at Diabolique Magazine)

While the 1980s might generally be considered the heyday of the action movie, or at least the decade with the biggest wealth of nostalgia attached to it, the 1990s was an equal, arguably better decade for high octane, high concept celluloid. Action classics were hitting us left, right and centre and these films were made all the better for their unspoken but collectively loose regard for believability...

...John Woo’s prolificacy from the mid-80s onwards made his name synonymous with slow motion action, double gun wielding protagonists and a lot of agitated, flappy birds. He delivered several outright classics in the form of A Better Tomorrow (1986), Bullet In The Head (1990) and The Killer (1989) before his undoubted masterpiece, and the subject of this particular love letter, Hard Boiled (1992).

Hard Boiled a.k.a God of Guns a.k.a. Ruthless Super-Cop, sees tough, play-by-his-own-rules cop, Inspector ‘Tequila’ Yuen (Chow Yun Fat) on the trail of underworld gun runners led by the evil Johnny Wong (Anthony Wong). Unbeknownst to Tequila, one of Johnny Wong’s lieutenants, Alan (Tony Chiu-Wai Leung), is an undercover cop who has infiltrated the gang to such a degree that he behaves exactly as a genuine gang member. Justifying homicide in the service of a greater good. Not only that, but Alan’s undercover operation is being run in total secrecy by Tequila’s own boss, Superintendent Pang (played by real life ex-policeman Philp Chan).

Read the full article at Diabolique Magazine:
https://diaboliquemagazine.com/hard-boiled-why-john-woos-masterpiece-is-still-the-greatest-action-movie-of-all-time/

IMDB: Hard Boiled

Wednesday 17 July 2019

POINT BLANK (full review at Screen Realm)

Point Blank is a Netflix produced crime thriller from director Joe Lynch and a remake of the French thriller A Bout Portent, by Fred Cavayé.

The story sees emergency room nurse, Paul (Anthony Mackie) tending to unnamed man brought in to the hospital with injuries sustained from a car accident. It transpires that the man is Abe Guevara (Frank Grillo), who is wanted by police in connection to the assassination of a district attorney. While Abe is under police guard, Paul’s pregnant wife, Taryn (Teyonah Parris), is abducted by Abe’s brother, Mateo (Christian Cooke), who gives Paul an ultimatum. Free Abe from the hospital or his wife will be killed.

With no choice but to do as he is asked, Paul takes Abe on the run, with two seasoned cops, Lewis (Marcia Gay Harden - The Mist, Miller’s Crossing) and Masterson (Boris McGiver – House Of Cards) in their tail. The story leads us down a winding path of corruption and duplicity.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/point-blank-movie-review-frank-grillo-anthony-mackie-netflix/

IMDB: Point Blank

Monday 15 July 2019

BUBBA HO-TEP (Issue #55 of Scream Horror Magazine)


Okay so here’s some cool news. I’ve written a piece on one of my all time favourite movies, Don Coscarelli's BUBBA HO-TEP,  for Scream Magazine. It’s also the first time my writing has appeared in print so that’s pretty exciting. The magazine is July / August issue #55, and is available in the UK in places like WH Smiths. For the Rest of the World you can get it on the internets or try your trusty comic shop.

Sunday 14 July 2019

SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME (full review at Screen Realm)

Spider-Man: Far From Home is the sequel to 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming and the second official Spider-Man movie since Marvel and Sony agreed to collaborate and bring their beloved wall crawler into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s also the first Marvel movie since Avengers: Endgame and as such, it must broach those events in what is essentially now a post-Avengers universe. Therefore, while you can enjoy Far From Home without prior knowledge, it goes without saying that if you’ve seen Endgame first, you’ll get a bit more out of it.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/spider-man-far-from-home-movie-review/

IMDB: Spider-Man: Far From Home

Friday 26 April 2019

STAR TREK DISCOVERY SEASON 2 (full review at Screen Realm)

Star Trek Discovery returns for its second season, streaming internationally on Netflix, with fourteen episodes comprising the second season. Unlike season one, there is no mid-season break so it allows a single consistent arc to run throughout, avoiding the sectional feel of the debut series. With Discovery being a co-production with CBS in the US, new episodes drop weekly, which might seem old fashioned in these days of binge watch TV, but it seems wholly appropriate for Discovery as it echoes the weekly episodic format of the iconic originals.

Before starting in on season two it is worth noting there are four short films that sit in between the two series. They work as nice stand-alone mini episodes, but also become relevant to the series overall.

The first episode, Runaway, features Ensign Tilly (Mary Wiseman) and an alien stowaway and serves as some significant backstory for the later episodes of the season.

The second episode, Calypso is of note because it is written by the brilliant Michael Chabon, author of such wonderful novels as The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union and Wonder Boys. He is a writer on the upcoming Picard series and this short film serves as a nice testing ground for his immersion in the Star Trek Universe.

The third short, The Brightest Star, involves Saru’s backstory on his homeworld of Kaminar and ties in to the episode The Sound of Thunder. Finally, the best of the short films is Escape Artist and sees the return of Rainn Wilson in the role he was born to play, as Harcourt Fenton (Harry) Mudd. Wilson also directs the episode and at 15 minutes long, it is a short, light hearted Star Trek episode that is played to absolute perfection.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/star-trek-discovery-season-2-review/

IMDB: Star Trek Discovery

Wednesday 24 April 2019

TRIPLE THREAT (full review at Screen Realm)

For action movie fans, Jesse V Johnson’s Triple Threat must be one of the most anticipated movies of the year. It assembles a dream cast of the best movie fighters and action flick tough guys currently working - Iko Uwais (The Raid, The Night Comes For Us), Tony Jaa (Ong Bak, Warrior King), Tiger Hu Chen (Kung Fu Man, Man Of Tai Chi), Michael Jai White (Spawn, Undisputed 2, Dragged Across Concrete) and prolific action movie dynamo Scott Adkins (the Undisputed franchise, The Debt Collector, Doctor Strange). It divides them into good guys and bad guys and pits them against each other. Simples. Triple Threat is basically Ocean’s Eleven for fight movie connoisseurs and direct-to-video action fiends.
   
Triple Threat kicks off with a mercenary team on a jungle incursion, attacking a heavily guarded compound. The film gives a solid tip of the hat to the opening of Predator as the team uses its bloody, unsubtle M.O. to extract mysterious prisoner, Collins (Scott Adkins). Meanwhile, left for dead in the jungle, Jaka (Iko Uwais) vows revenge on the mercenaries who destroyed his life in the process. Back in the city, the mercenary team is revealed to be a criminal gang, hired to assassinate Xiao Xian (Celina Jade) a rich philanthropist dedicated to using her considerable inheritance to wiping out crime and corruption. Jaka teams up with ex-gang members Payu (Tony Jaa) and Long Fei (Tiger Hu Chen) to stop them. Cue several double crosses, some kinetic fisticuffs, and a lot of guns blazing.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/triple-threat-movie-review-adkins-uwais-jaa-jai-white/

IMDB: Triple Threat

Monday 22 April 2019

HELLBOY (full review at Screen Realm)

Neil Marshall’s fifth movie, Hellboy, is not so much a reboot of the franchise popularised by Guillermo Del Toro’s two movies, as it is a more faithful adaptation of Mike Mignola’s popular comic series.

Hellboy (David Harbour), reluctant steward of Armageddon, plies his trade working for his father Professor Trevor Bruttenholm (Ian McShane) at the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defence (B.P.R.D.), protecting the world from monstrous and ancient threats. While out on a routine mission to hunt some giants, the B.P.R.D. learns that ancient witch Nimue a.k.a. The Blood Queen (Milla Jovovitch) has risen from the grave, intent on bringing about a deadly plague to wipe out humanity and bring forth the apocalypse. After which the ancient monsters of the Earth will rise to reclaim it under her rule. Hellboy must team up with telekinetic Alice Monaghan (Saha Lane) and the secretive, Captain Daimio (Daniel Dae Kim) to stop her.

By now it’s unlikely you will not be aware of the critical lambasting Hellboy has taken over the past week or so since its release. It has copped flack from all sides and while some of the criticisms are valid (particularly in regard to the quality of the CGI), the fact of the matter is that it’s just not that bad. Mike Mignola’s stories have always been dark, and Neil Marshall’s movies have always violent. Basing the film on a story that involves a nasty medieval plague and a lot of swordplay suits Marshall’s sensibilities down to the ground. So what we get is a dark, violent, very weird take on a dark, violent and very weird character. Yes it has flaws, but not enough to mark it as the disaster it’s been heralded as.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:

IMDB: Hellboy

Monday 15 April 2019

THE CURSE OF THE WEEPING WOMAN aka THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA (full review at Screen Realm)

The Curse of the Weeping Woman (a.k.a. The Curse of La Llorona in the US) is the first feature from director Michael Chaves, and is the sixth entry in the Conjuring Universe.

James Wan’s The Conjuring was a surprisingly decent horror movie that cropped up back in 2013 to deliver some solid scares and genuine creeps, before descending into a bit of a stock monster runaround. It had some nicely effective sequences early on, and if not quite up to the hype it received, was nevertheless pretty good value for a mainstream MA15 horror flick. And lo, it spawned the inevitable sequel and several spinoffs (the Annabelle movies and The Nun, for those of you keeping track).

Which brings us to The Curse of the Weeping Woman. Set in 1970s Los Angeles, recently widowed Anna (Linda Cardellini) is trying to balance the pressures of raising her two children with the responsibilities of her job as a social worker. When a case she is working on ends in tragedy, Anna encounters the legend of La Llorona, a weeping ghost of Mexican folklore who kills children. La Llorona is a spectral apparition capable of interacting with the living world in a number of rather nasty ways. Naturally, the spook becomes attached to the kids and Anna must enlist the help of rogue ex-priest Rafael (Raymond Cruz) to stop the ghostly weeping woman.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/the-curse-of-the-weeping-woman-la-llorona-movie-review/

IMDB: The Curse Of La Llorona

Tuesday 9 April 2019

BURNING (BEONING) (full review at Screen Realm)

Burning is the sixth movie from Korean director Lee Chang-dong. It’s based on the short story Barn Burning by renowned Japanese author Haruki Murakami and taken from his short fiction collection, The Elephant Vanishes.

While out in the city one afternoon, Lee Jong-su (Ahi-in Yoo) bumps into childhood friend Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo) and the two quickly re-connect. When Hae-mi announces she is off travelling to Africa for several weeks, she asks him to look after her cat, Boil. When Hae-mi arrives home Lee Jong-su goes to pick her up from the airport, only to find she has met someone while travelling - the rich and sophisticated Ben (Steven Yeun). The exact nature of their relationship is not immediately clear to Lee Jong-su and so the three hang out together and gradually become friendly in what initially seems to be a strange love / friendship triangle.

Burning is one of those movies where if you know too much going in, your enjoyment will be sorely diminished. So it’s advisable to avoid the trailers because there is lot to unpack in terms of this plot and these characters that will no doubt generate much post-movie discussion.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/burning-movie-review-south-korea/

IMDB: Burning

Tuesday 2 April 2019

LOVE, DEATH AND ROBOTS (full review at Screen Realm)

Love, Death and Robots is an eighteen part (mostly) animated series streaming on Netflix, brought to us by executive producers David Fincher and Deadpool director Tim Miller. With their long gestating collaboration on Heavy Metal seemingly having run aground, Love, Death and Robots is the logical extension of ideas that would undoubtedly feel right at home on the pages of the legendary science fiction and fantasy magazine.

Love, Death and Robots is an anthology series with each self-contained episode showcasing both a brand new story and animation style. Although comparisons will be drawn, inevitably, to recent Netflix hit, Black Mirror, and obvious anthology heavyweights The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, it’s really only the surface level where Love, Death and Robots has anything in common. It does not feel obliged, as so many other genre anthologies are, to provide us with a twist. The shorts have, simply, a beginning, a middle and an end so if anything, Love, Death and Robots feels like it has more in common with literary anthologies than anything visual. Each episode is so distinct in its own right, as to liken it to a book of short stories. Which makes further sense when we realise sixteen of the episodes are indeed adapted from short fiction, with episodes based on tales from science fiction authors Alastair Reynolds, Peter F. Hamilton and Bubba Ho-Tep author Joe Lansdale.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/love-death-and-robots-review-netflix/

IMDB: Love, Death And Robots

Friday 29 March 2019

VELVET BUZZSAW (full review at Screen Realm)

Velvet Buzzsaw is Dan Gilroy’s third directorial effort and sees him reuniting with Nightcrawler alumni Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo. Nightcrawler was a seedy, darkly comic delight, as Gyllenhaal trawled the streets of L.A. in search of salacious traffic accident material, with a script that spun his moral compass as if exposed to magnetism. In between, Gilroy wrote and directed Roman J. Israel, Esq. (with Denzel Washington) and co-wrote the screenplay for the hugely enjoyable Kong: Skull Island. So with such a diverse and enjoyable pedigree, it’s fair to say expectations were high for Velvet Buzzsaw’s Netflix debut.

Pompous art critic Morf Vandewalt’s (Jake Gyllenhaal) endorsements are highly sought after. He is a man with the power to make or break artists in the Los Angeles art world. So when Morph’s girlfriend Josephina (Zawe Ashton) comes to the aid of a dying man, Vetril Dease (Alan Mandell), and discovers a huge amount of artwork in his apartment, she shows it to Morph and her boss Rhodora Haze (Rene Russo) believing she has discovered a massive unknown talent. With the weight of Morph’s influence and Rhodora’s gallery behind it, Dease’s work sets the art world alight and becomes a huge success. Shortly after this success however, the owners of the paintings start to die under mysterious circumstances.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/velvet-buzzsaw-movie-review-netflix/

IMDB: Velvet Buzzsaw

DREAM HOME (full article at Diabolique Magazine)

Home ownership is not a new subject for the movies. In horror, for example, the haunted house is one of the most well established and popular sub-genres. But there are precious few movies about the horror of actually buying a house. Most likely because people carping on about house prices is deathly boring to anyone in their right mind. However, Pang Ho-Cheung’s Dream Home (Wai dor lei ah yut ho, 2010) avoids the supernatural staples and fusty evening news economics and opts instead for a far more realistic and terrifying approach - the prospect of never owning a home at all. The slow build anxiety of being in your early 30s with family pressures, a lousy social life and a shit job, pressure cooking inside you until something has to blow. And in Dream Home’s case that’s Cheng Lai-sheung (Josie Ho) quietly blowing her stack and going on a bloody rampage.

Read the full article at Diabolique Magazine:
https://diaboliquemagazine.com/open-for-inspection-the-property-horror-of-dream-home/

IMDB: Dream Home

Wednesday 30 January 2019

POLAR (full review at Screen Realm)

Netflix’s new action movie, Polar, is based on Victor Santos’ webcomic and graphic novel of the same name. Polar tells the story of professional contract killer Duncan Visla (Mads Mikkelsen) a.k.a. The Black Kaiser, who is fourteen days off retirement. Once retired, his pension will cost his former employer Mr Blut (Matt Lucas), $8 million, unless Blut’s gang of assassins kill Duncan first, to become the default beneficiary.

Polar is the first of two frosty Mads Mikkelsen movies this year, with Joe Penna’s superb tale of sub-zero survival, Arctic, set for release in February. Do not confuse the two however, as Arctic is a sublime high tension nailbiter, while Polar is… most definitely not.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/polar-movie-review-netflix-mads-mikkelsen/
IMDB: Polar

Monday 7 January 2019

2018 REVIEW

























Top 12 Movies of 2018

1. Mandy
Cosmatos and Cage proved a perfect match with a berserk tale of grief and revenge. Visually spectacular and continuing Cosmatos’ obsession with grotesque villains, outlandish weaponry and the 1980s. While it won’t be for everyone, Mandy has a bit more plot to chew on than Beyond The Black Rainbow and it rewards repeat viewing with its striking visuals and unsettling atmosphere.

2. Brawl in Cell Block 99
Released globally in 2017 but only making it to Australia in 2018, S. Craig Zahler’s swaggering prison flick stunned with its 70s anti-hero stylings, tough guy dialogue and unflinching brutality. It’s the perfect follow up to Bone Tomahawk, and utterly riveting in the slow build toward inevitable cataclysm. It’s also far, far better than its disappointing successor Dragged Across Concrete which got festival screenings this year.

3.  A Quiet Place
It takes considerable skill to create tension in a horror movie, but it’s another level of skill entirely to sustain that tension for the entire duration of a film. A Quiet Place demonstrates this ability with an almost implausible ease, creating a genuine nail biter around a simple yet irresistible concept, exceeding the hype in the process.

4. You Were Never Really Here
Lynne Ramsay’s grubby revenge picture is by turns, ugly and beautiful.  Very little violence is actually seen, yet such is Ramsay’s skill here, you walk out thinking you’ve seen far more brutality than you have. Joaquin Phoenix is fantastic as hired muscle on the trail of a missing girl and it’s another cracking entry in the resurgence of revenge movies over the last few years.

5. Euthanizer (Armomurhaaja)
Precisely as downbeat as you think movie about a pet euthanizer will be. Billed as a black comedy, it’s a classic case of a marketing department not knowing what to do with a film that does not sit comfortably within an established category. Yes, there is humour here, but it’s also a dark drama about bullying, loneliness and cruelty. Euthanizer wants us to consider our relationship with animals and asks some uncomfortable questions within that.  When you think it’s gone as dark as it will go, it goes darker, but it never feels exploitative.  However, Euthanizer is confronting, and I don’t recommend it if you’re feeling a bit fragile, but it’s still an excellent movie that deserves to find its audience in 2019.

6. The Night Comes For Us
Pure, distilled action insanity. Timo Tjahjanto belted out an inventive, brutal, action classic-in-waiting. If you pine for the days when John Woo was delivering stylishly violent set piece after set piece then look no further.  The Night Comes For Us is an action masterpiece and yeah I’m saying it, it’s better than The Raid.

7. The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs
The Coen Brothers’ western anthology comprises six unrelated frontier tales that nicely encapsulate everything that’s great about their filmography.  The deft comedy, the dark violence and the sublime dialogue - there is no one who writes dialogue better than the Coens on top form. The stories range from weird, to sinister, to idiosyncratic musical numbers, and yet they remind me of Ethan Coen’s short story anthology, Gates Of Eden, as much as anything. After the disappointment of Hail, Caesar!, The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs is a very welcome return to form.

8. American Animals
An innovatively told crime story concerning the attempted heist of valuable art books from a university library in 2004. Using actors and talking head footage of the people involved, American Animals succeeds in its unenviable task of mashing together drama and documentary, resulting in a hugely satisfying true crime film and cautionary tale against letting wild ideas get out of hand.

9. Ant-Man and the Wasp

A really great, fun sequel that doesn’t get too bogged down in the ongoing Avengers / MCU storyline and really benefits because of it. Ant-Man and the Wasp exists within that larger story, but has plenty of space to just do it’s own thing – which is more of the same fun capering we came to expect from the first movie. Ant-Man and the Wasp is also aided by its excellent cast, with great actors in smaller roles, including the surprising but very welcome addition of Hugh from The Detectorists (Divian Ladwa) as a truth serum wielding henchman. Great fun.

10. Arctic
Stranded on the Arctic tundra after his plane goes down, Mads Mikkelsen acts almost the entire movie on his own, in Joe Penna’s riveting wilderness survival tale. Another film that really manages to apply tension, but in an entirely different way from a horror movie.  It really puts you through the ringer.

11. Let The Corpses Tan
Cattet and Forzani’s most accessible movie is a sun bleached, leather creaking, speedometer cranking crime yarn that whittles down the numbers with double cross after double cross. A seedy peek at holiday resort euro-crime, that makes you feel hot and sweaty just from watching it.

12. Overlord
Overlord is not brain science, but then it never claims to be. What it does claim, is to pit a small band of Allied soldiers against a bunch monsters and evil nazi bastards, in the basement of a creepy old church. It’s silly and gory and historically ambivalent. But it delivers.


Honourable mentions


Suspiria
Still trying to formulate an opinion on this. It was waaay too long but there’s something about it that’s stuck with me, and I will definitely revisit it.

Paddington 2

Lacking the sheer surprise of the first movie, but a joyful heartwarmer nonetheless. Utterly impossible to dislike.

Isle Of Dogs

Wes Anderson’s futuristic,  Japanese, canine caper. Wonderfully animated and just the right amount of ‘strange’ to keep things interesting.

Mom and Dad

Another rampage movie from Crank co-director, Brian Taylor, with Nic Cage and Selma Blair trying to kill their kids. The best part is Cage listening to Reagan Youth in his basement!


Worst
Three Bilboards Outside Ebbing Missouri
Yeah that’s right, I was that one person that didn’t like it. I did not find the dark humour remotely amusing and there was a mean streak running throughout that left a bad taste. McDormand and the rest were great of course, but they couldn’t save this ugly movie.