Music

Around 2007 I fell out of love with music.

Around 1993 I fell in love with music.

The first album I ever bought was the soundtrack to Singles. A CD full of the sounds of Seattle. Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Jimi Hendrix, Mother Love Bone, Mudhoney and The Screaming Trees. Within months I was a grunge kid and Soundgarden had become my favourite band with the release of Superunknown. Music became my life. Every penny I could save from my first job gardening in a retirement home run by nuns (bastards all of em) when to the local music shop or to the Sound Cellar on Nassau street during my trips to Dublin. The walls of the room I shared with my brother were plastered with Donington : Monsters of Rock posters and White Zombie posters and pages ripped from Kerrang and Raw (before it went britpop and broke my heart) filled the spaces in between.

My friends were the same too. Music mad. I was introduced to Slayer, Pantera, Megadeth, Morbid Angel, Obituary, Corrosion Of Conformity, Machine Head, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse. All far heavier than I preferred but slowly it all took hold. We sat for hours listening to albums and discuss every aspect of them. We were purists too and would only listen to music created by guitars, bass and drums. Stuff like the Prodigy was looked on with the type of distain that only a 16 year old music snob could muster. In 1996 Slayer brought out an album of punk covers and this drove us to travel back and listen to the Clash and the Sex Pistols. Then a friend's love of hip hop started to rub off on us and we realised it was ok to broaden your horizons and be open to different genres.

College came around and new people and new influences arrived. I fell in love with REM after a listen to New Adventures in Hi-Fi. I became obsessed with them and they came at the right time because Soundgarden had broken up and heroin abuse had destroyed Alice In Chains. It was upsetting seeing your favourite bands imploding and REM provided a new and less likely to self destruct musical outlet. They were also something better than the bland mankiness of Oasis and and Ocean Colour Scene and all the other britpop wank clogging up the radio. Everything they'd ever released as snapped up and yet again they introduced me to a more indie side of music. Frequenting the Roxy nightclub in Waterford was brilliant source of inspiration for new tunes too. It was a dank pit of a club where the words "Top 40" didn't exist.

I started to work and had money. Now I could buy music AND films.  Films had always been an interest but music was still ahead. The internet opened up a whole new world to me. The films I'd only ever read about were available finally. Foreign cinema, Asian crime, French new wave, Italian horror, I overdosed on it all courtesy of DVD's sent from Play247 and CDwow. My cinematic education was beginning but it came at the expense of my musical one. There was only so much time in the day and I decided to devote what I could to film watching. I still bought music regularly but soon that slowed down and it nearly stopped when I got my first Ipod.

My trusty ipod, would have been 14 years old this year if a bottle of club orange hadn't killed it

I realised I didn't have to buy music anymore. I could just pirate it instead. Whole albums became a thing of the past. Now i just downloaded individual songs. Carefully crafted tracklistings didn't matter to me anymore. Music became disposable. I was downloading everything and anything to fill my ipod. The joy of browsing music shops vanished. The excitement of waiting for a new album to be released evaporated when I could get it the week before hand off Kazaa or Limewire. I stopped buying music magazines. The affair was over and I went from buying 50 albums a year down to 1 or 2. In 2012 I bought my last album. Soundgarden's King Animal. It was a bittersweet moment realising that I'd probably bought my last new album ever.

I still listen to music everynow and then but it's always old music, rarely anything past 2000. Nothing new interests me. I don't go see live music because packed venues wreck my head. I miss that buzz of discovering something. But I can't be arsed going for new stuff. So I've decided to delve into the music of an artist who was always around when I was younger but whom I never took any notice of. Prince. I asked Twitter to recommend me an album of his earlier and Twitter came back to me with a resounding roar of "Sign O'The Times." As I'm typing this I'm having my second listen to The Ballad of Dorothy Parker and feeling that little buzz again.

I hope I get back into it. I miss it.

10 films worth watching on TV this week

Mean Streets   Sat   15/9   BBC2 @ 23.40

Charlie is a small time wannabe gangster in New York's Little Italy. But guilt, love and friendships are all conspiring to make life difficult for him. The film that put Martin Scorsese on the map bears little resemblence to his flashier films but it's just as solid as any of them in its own way. Harvey Keitel is a deadly lead but there's huge joy to be had in watching Robert De Niro as the crazy Johnny Boy putting in the performance that made him a superstar.

The Master   Sun   16/9   CH4 @ 00.45

In post war America a naval veteran leads a chaotic and troubled life until a charismatic cult leader takes him under his wing. Paul Thomas Anderson's 2012 drama is not going to be to everyone's taste but stick with it and you'll be mesmerised before long. Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams and the much missed Philip Seymour Hoffman all act out of their skin. The kind of film you'll be thinking about for days after.

Byzantium   Sun   16/9   Film4 @ 22.55

Two women on the run turn up a quiet beach town and it isn't long before their centuries old secret is out and they find themselves in danger again. Neil Jordan directs Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Atherton in this intelligent, well written and pretty bloody horror. Not a film for the squeamish amongst us but if you can stick with it you'll be very satisfied by this unique take on an overcrowded area of the horror genre.

Cowboys And Aliens   Mon   17/9   TG4 @ 21.30

The frontier town of Absolution is ruled by fear but it's populace and the people who hold them down must come together to face off against a threat from the skies. Yes it's sounds utterly ridiculous and tbh it is but it's also an entertaining and gritty western and one that despite it's subject matter feels pleasingly old fashioned. Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, Olivia Wild and Sam Rockwell all add to the fun.

Crimson Peak   Mon   17/9   Film4 @ 22.45

After a horrible tragedy, Edith finds herself living a new life in an old mansion with her new beau. Strange occurrences have followed Edith her whole life though. A gorgeous gothic tale from the mind of Guillermo Del Toro. Scary in places, gruesome in others and atmospheric as hell. It's just great. Record it and keep it for Halloween. Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston and Charlie Hunnam all deliver the goods.

Ravenous   Tues   18/9   The Horror Channel @ 02.35

In the 19th century a frostbitten stranger turns up at an army fort claiming to be the only survivor of a wagon train that got lost in the mountains. Antonia Bird's darkly comic horror thriller is a ferociously enjoyable watch but it might be too much for some. There's a superb cast too. Robert Carlyle as the stranger is brilliant and Guy Pearce, Jeremy Davies and John Spencer are all on first rate form.

Mechanic : Resurrection   Thur   20/9   Film4 @ 21.00

What time is it? Why it's Statham O'Clock. The Mechanic is back and this time he has to carry out three tasks in a globe trotting mission to save the life of the woman he loves. Take no notice of the reviews of this one, it's good craic, yes it's silly as hell but it's also inventive, crunchy and very satisfying. Statham does his thing well and Tommy Lee Jones as one of his marks is fun. What more do you need?

Christine   Fri   21/9   The Horror Channel @ 21.00

Awkward and bullied Arnie leads a miserable existence but everything changes when he buys a Plymouth Fury that he names Christine. Things don't change for the best though. This John Carpenter adaption of the Stephen King novel is one of the better films made from his books. It's a fun watch and one where you'll probably end up rooting for the bad....guy. The always cool Harry Dean Stanton is the only really recognisable face here.

Nurse Betty   Fri   21/9   RTE1 @ 23.55

After witnessing a murder, Betty suffers a mental breakdown and decides to travel across America to meet a soap opera actor she's certain she has a connection with. Neil La Bute's film is an unusual watch, mixing comedy with psychological drama and lacing proceedings with a dash of bloody carnage. Renee Zellweger is excellent as Betty and gets fine support from Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock and Greg Kinnear.

The Predator

The only good scene in the film

In 1987 action film nirvana was attained with the release of the Arnold Schwarzenegger starring Predator. It's slightly dated now but it's still brilliant fun. There's been 4 follow ups to it so far, each of very varying quality. Predator 2 was a good gory laugh. Alien Vs Predator sucked. Alien Vs Predator : Requiem was quite possibly the worst film of 2007 and the last one was Predators which was fun but forgettable fluff. 8 years later we get the release of The Predator written and directed by Shane Black who wrote the original 31 years ago. How does it compare to the original?? Not very favourably at all as it happens. 

Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook) is an army sniper on a mission in Mexico when he witnesses a spaceship crashing and it's inhabitant killing his comrades. He's nabbed by U.S. government agents who want to discredit him and keep the discovery secret so they can do their own research on the alien being. But something else was chasing the spaceship to Earth on a mission of it's own and now it's up to McKenna and a bunch of ex soldiers to take on the extraterrestrial threat and defend his family.

I really wanted to like this. I'd heard a lot of negative things but was still optimistic as the 1987 film was badly received at the time too. But nope. It's not a good film and is downright shoddy in places. Yes, it has a couple of cool moments but in between you'll be cringing at humour Roy Chubby Brown would turn down for being too low brow and racking your brain trying to understand some of the onscreen happenings and certain leaps of logic made by the characters. Some horribly shot action scenes don't help matters either. Bad writing is very evident but most of the blame for this comes from post production troubles that saw the entire climax of the film reshot and whole chunks of plot cut away but it also seems they snipped away any moments not absolutely crucial to the story. There's no connective tissue between scenes. Things just happen with no explanation and at times director Shane Black seems to realise this but thinks that throwing more and more gore at the screen will cover up the gaping plot holes. It doesn't. Give me scene setting moment or a small explanation of something over a triple decapitation anyday.

If you've just come for the blood and guts you'd probably be pleased. It's definitely the most brutal film of the series and a battle in a government facility in the first half of the film is a real highlight but it's all downhill from there. It's just a big ol' pile of meh. Characters you don't give a shit about fighting an alien being that you'll actually want to win. All the people in this blend into one, no one person is properly defined. One smokes a lot, one is a woman, one tells jokes, one has Tourette syndrome (this is predictably mined for humour in a way that will leave you watching from behind your hands), one is a father and one is a kid who supposedly is autistic but that aspect seems to disappear halfway through the film. No one matters. I wanted the Predator's pet dog to have a happier ending than any of these people. Yes, it has a pet dog. Two in fact.

When we heard Shane Black was directing this it was a reason to be optimistic. After all he wrote the first film and look how well that turned out. Since then he's made Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Iron Man 3, two very entertaining films which were funny and exciting, attributes you'd hope he'd bring to The Predator. But he's left no mark of himself on this film apart from his trademark kid character. It could have been written and directed by anyone. A fine cast is wasted too. Thomas Jane, Sterling K. Brown, Olivia Munn, Keegan Michael Key, Yvonne Strahovski amongst others are all there to fill up the screen but get nothing interesting to do. Jake Busey turns up early in the film with the same surname as his father Gary had in the second film but does nothing. And Boyd Halbrook in the lead is definitely no Arnie and one scene of him doing something very traumatic in front of his son and then joking about it will leave a bad taste in your mouth.

A few moments will make you smile; the callbacks to the original film that fans will notice peppered around the place are fun but other than those and one well lit lab massacre nothing hits the spot. The ending is left very open for a sequel too but based on this it does not deserve it. It's a real disappointment. Some things are just best left in the past and this franchise needs it's spine ripped out now.

Marvel's Spider-Man : The Game

Are you, like seemingly half the planet, a fan of the Marvel films? If so you need the Spider-Man game in your life fast. It's fucking amazing.

New York is under siege. Crime kingpin Wilson Fisk has been taken down by Spider-man but a power vacuum created by his absence brings all the city's goons out looking for bite of the big apple. Street gangs, petty criminals and some pretty serious superbaddies are out in force. Not only are they on the rampage but a mysterious government agency wants martial law to take effect in the city too. The only person who can stop them is Peter Parker, his girlfriend Mary Jane and a young man who's life has been changed by the crime wave called Miles Morales.

There's no origin story here. You're dropped straight into the middle of everything. Peter Parker as Spider-Man is taking on the notorious crime boss Wilson Fisk and you learn as you fight. It's a brilliant way to open the game. Once the first battle is over you have the entire island of Manhattan as your playground. It's up to you what you want to do and if you've been lucky enough to have been to Manhattan your jaw will drop at what you get to swing through. Want to climb to the top of the new World Trade Centre or the Empire State Building to survey your kingdom? Work away. Feel like swinging through the canyons of Fifth Avenue? Or the posh streets of the upper east side? Or the rainbow flag festooned Christopher street? Go for it. Want to traverse Central park from Strawberry Fields to the Guggenheim? Chinatown, Greenwich, Harlem, the East Village, Alphabet City, Hell's Kitchen, the Highline, it's all there and it's all for you.It's a stunning recreation of the best city in the world and you'll spend countless hours exploring before you do anything else.

Of course it's not just a recreation of Manhattan, it's also full of stuff to do, scumbags to fight and puzzles to solve. At any given minute you'll be taking on hordes of escaped Riker's Island prisoners or swinging through clouds of pollution to collect samples to analyse in order to solve the city's health problems. You might find yourself chasing a pigeon who's just robbed your valuable USB stick through Union square park or taking on a courtyard full of chemically enhanced bikers. There's a mindboggling amount of stuff to do. You can of course lash straight into the story but it's really worth your while exploring and building up your experience so that when the really bad guys appear later on you'll be prepared for them. 

Side missions give you tokens you can use to upgrade your suit, your gadgets and your fighting skills. Taking on these missions first gives you a real feel for the city and the controls. In no time at all you'll be swinging across Times Square and feeling giddy as a baba on Christmas morning. The controls are nice and simple too btw. Swinging is just a matter of holding down R2 and moving the left analog stick. Fighting is nearly all done the the square button and getting the timing right. It's all very intuitive. Once you know what you're doing you'll feel a full on adrenaline rush as you swing the length of the city and there's a lot of satisfaction to be gained from just perching on the side of a building and stealthily capturing bad guys one by one with a shot of your web.

Great voice acting and motion capture work bring all the characters to life in the games many cut scenes (these scenes are genuinely worth watching by the way, don't skip them). Peter Parker was always one of the more likable superheroes because, powers aside, he had a backstory that was relatable to a lot of people. His story here is excellent and builds to some genuinely emotional moments between himself, Mary Jane, Miles and of course Aunt May. It's a rare game that will give you the feels but this one does in spades. It's that backbone of emotion that will keep you playing the game long after you've grown used to the graphics. It's a video game story where you'll really care about how it all ends. Plus not only do you get to play as Peter but there's a couple of missions where you get to play as MJ and Miles too. These missions give you an insight into how these characters think with a lot more depth than the movies have so far. Fans of Mary Jane will especially enjoy her character.

The bad guys are all present and correct of course. The Rhino, Electro, Shocker, Kingpin, Vulture, Scorpion, Norman Osborne and a couple of others who's appearance I don't want to ruin. Daily Bugle editor and Spider-Man hater J.Jonah Jameson appears in podcasts you hear throughout the game shouting invective and general Spider hate. His rants provide the game with some hilarious moments and all the podcasts are saved so can be listened to over and over. The fights between Spidey and the bad guys are tough but the difficulty is pitched just right so that you learn from your mistakes and you'll generally get through everything just before you start pulling your hair out. The same goes for the puzzles you have to solve in your work and play. Things do get harder as you move up but there's no horrible difficulty spikes that can easily ruin a game like this.

It's an excellent game and easily the most enjoyable one I've played this year. A good game should put a smile on your face and this one will in spades. Plus if you are a Marvel fan you'll have a good time spotting all the easter eggs too. There's tonnes of them in there referencing both the films and the TV series. The only downside of the game is it's only available on the PS4 but if you've been umming and ahhing about buying one it's worth it for this game alone.

Final Score

"They think we're fucking around?" "What do we do?" "We show them we're not fucking around!"

"Police?" "No." "How do you know?" "Police don't leave dead bodies in toilet cubicles."

"I find it hard to trust someone who brings C4 to a fuckin' soccer game."

Just some of the treats in store for you if you decide to watch this.

Michael Knox is an ex soldier with a past that haunts him. While treating the daughter of an ex-comrade to a West Ham game at Upton Park he finds himself entangled in a web of danger that threatens not only the lives of the people he loves but also the crowds in the football stadium and the stability of an entire country.

Final Score is a blisteringly stupid film filled with awful dialogue, terrible acting, some seriously bad special effects, massive lapses of logic and it also steals entire plotlines from both Die Hard and Sudden Death. But you know what?? Somehow it works and turns into an entertaining whole. A very unoriginal whole of course. While watching this you'll be tempted to check the nearest calendar and make sure you haven't somehow fallen through a Jerry Bruckheimer created wormhole back to 1997. The only thing giving it a modern feel are the actors and smartphones. You could just imagine a non bald Bruce Willis in the lead, with Rutger Hauer and Jurgen Prochnow and very little story changed. It's all very reminiscent of that fun time in action movies before plot or depth mattered, when the only important thing was hitting the bad guy harder than he hit you.

There's plenty here that will make you roll your eyes. Fights taking place in front of crowds who don't take one bit of notice. Huge gun battles atop of stands and no one inside batting an eyelid. The fact that an entire football stadium's security seems to consist of one nervous comedy Asian dude. The cringingly bad crowbarred in swearing and dialogue that will make your eyes spin. Oh and the worst teenage actress in England. Happily the badness is diluted by moments of such glorious silliness that you'll end up smiling and laughing despite yourself. A motorbike chase played out to the sounds of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, a brutal kitchen fight scene containing the hardest headbutt ever captured on film and a very unexpected Tarzan moment that tops a crescendo of craziness. Add in a very British sense of humour and one self deprecating joke that will send the righteous bearded goys of twitter into a frenzy and you have yourself a fun watch. Just try not to think too much during it, just let it wash over you.

Dave Batuista as Knox is not bad at all in his part. A wrestler turned actor who's actually capable of displaying emotion in between deep frying bad guy's faces off. The action stuff comes naturally to him of course and he looks far more comfortable breaking bones than chatting about hotdogs. Ray Stevenson as the big bad looks suitably menacing even though his Russian accent is about as convincing as mine and Pierce Brosnan turns up as a man hiding from his past but doesn't do much bar rock a dignified beard. Amit Shah and Lara Peake round out the cast but the less said about them the better. Their acting...eh.....it's not good. Let's leave it at that. The fact the a lot of the movie was actually filmed at Upton park helps paper over a lot of cracks created by the shoddier ingredients. The stadium was due to be demolished so this gave the filmmakers a unique opportunity to treat it like a playground and it gives the whole thing a big budget sheen. Despite the OTT antics on display filming at a genuine location and not in front of a green screen kind of grounds the whole thing in some semblance of reality. Some.

A fun watch if you are willing to overlook a lot of ropey moments and whole swathes of story that makes no sense. 

The Nun

James Wan directed The Conjuring in 2013. It was a fine horror story full of likable characters and performances and one that was surprisingly subdued, well for the most part, for a modern horror. It was grand. No one expected it to be the start of a cinematic universe (god I hate that term) but it made a lot of money and that's how Hollywood works these days. The Conjuring 2 and Annabelle 1 & 2 all followed. Bear with me for a second and I'll explain the time line. The Conjuring came first and then the first Annabelle film which was a prequel to it. Then The Conjuring 2 arrived followed by the second Annabelle film which was a prequel to the first Annabelle film (?!) and now we have The Nun which is a spin off from The Conjuring 2 but is set before ALL the others. I think. Right? Jesus it's confusing. Ok, The Nun. Hmmmm. Directed by Corin Hardy who made the solid Irish set horror The Hallow in 2015.

Romania. 1952. A priest, Father Burke and a trainee nun, Irene, arrive at Cârța Monastery to investigate strange occurrences after a nun takes her own life. Their guide is a young French Canadian man called Frenchie who found the body and who is hesitant to return to the scene. The villagers in the small town below the monastery are so scared of the place that they don't even say it's name and once the trio arrive at the doors they realise exactly why the place inspires such fear.

Scary nuns are nothing new. Powell & Pressberger were scaring us with one in the Black Narcissus back in the forties. in 1979 Anita Ekberg was a Killer Nun with a habit ( get it!! habit....sorry) of syringing peoples eyes. Vanessa Redgrave freaked us out a long time ago as a bride of Christ diddling herself with the charred femur of her executed lover in The Devils. Even the Chicago based Penguin of the Blues Brothers gave us the fear. The scary nun of this film isn't a patch on any one them. TBH, it doesn't deserve to share a paragraph with them. You see, The Nun is bad. It fails miserably at being a horror by not being scary in the slightest, it's riddled with plotholes and dead ends, it leans way too heavily on the jump scare/loud noise cliches of modern horror and to top it off it manages to make its 96 minute running time feel about twice that. All that said it's still better than the Annabelle entries mentioned above but that's damning it with very faint praise.

Taissa Farmiga as Irene and Demián Bichir as Father Burke are the only really good thing about it all. They genuinely try their best and play the whole thing completely straight, Irene the wide eyed innocent who telegraphs her entire storyline early on and Burke as the gruff, seen it all priest who will get the job done. Two fine actors who really deserve better than this. Other moments only entertain because they bring to mind better scenes from better films. A moment of subterranean trauma comes directly from Lucio Fulci's City Of The Living Dead and Wes Craven's The Serpent And The Rainbow, an early carriage ride through the woods tips it's hat to many, many similar scenes in Hammer horror movies, bloody visions throughout the film would feel right at home in Event Horizon and so on. The entire yarn is really just a collection of things a seasoned horror fan will spot right away. It brings nothing new to the table. Nothing. One intriguing aside about damage done during World War 2 suggests we might be looking at a storyline about evil not always being supernatural but nothing comes of it and it's a pity because it might have added a much needed bit of depth.

It's just another cynical money making exercise, a way to pad out a franchise that shouldn't really exist. It kind of ties in with The Conjuring 2 but there's no substance to it at all and to add insult to injury it ends in such a way that there will have to be a sequel. A sequel to a prequel to a sequel *head explodes*. And of course it follows the franchise rules that say each successive entry must be on a bigger scale, must be louder, must have more CGI. This might share dna with The Conjuring but one scene involving shotguns, histrionic screaming, whirlpools and famous bodily fluids shows just how much that dna has been tainted by the need to turn everything up to 11. Give me a few creaky floorboards or a dark shadow any day. The words subtlety and suggestion mean nothing here. 

It's not good. And it will make a tonne of money. And like a fuckin eejit, I'll be here moaning about The Nun 2 : Nun Harder sometime in the future. Go see Black 47 instead. 

12 films worth watching on TV this week

Mambo Kings   Sat   8/9   TG4 @ 22.35

After a spot of bother in Cuban, two brothers leg it to America in the hopes of reviving their musical careers under the bright lights of New York City. Not exactly a deep film but electrifying music and two great performances from Antonio Banderas and the underrated Armande Assante bring a story to life and fill it with vitality. Plus it's also good to see a story about Latin Americans that isn't about criminality.

Drive   Sat   8/9   BBC2 @ 23.00

Ryan Gosling plays a Hollywood stunt driver who's second job is as a getaway driver for criminals. When he tries to take a step back from crime he finds out just how highly valued his skills are. A very watchable blend of style and violence that might be a bit too rough for some but if you can stick with it you'll be sucked in fast. The cast including Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston and Oscar Isaac all do first rate work.

Mr Smith Goes To Washington   Sun   9/9   TCM @ 10.20

Naivety and idealism clashes with corruption and cynicism in this 1939 classic which sees a wide eyed scout master elected into government. Controversial in its day for portraying bent politicians and pretty quaint to modern eyes but there's just something very charming and  likable about this. Most of that is of course down to yet another winning  performance from James Stewart. Jean Arthur & Claude Rains are excellent in back up.

Killing Them Softly   Sun   9/9   Film4 @ 23.10

Brad Pitt stars in this compelling & bluntly cynical thriller as a hitman brought in by the local mafia to deal with a robbery at a card game. Dark, gritty and blackly funny, this is a gangster film by way of Ken Loach not Martin Scorsese. There's no glamourisation of mob life here. Pitt is brilliant in the lead and James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta and Richard Jenkins lend superb support. All this and it has one of the best all time final lines of dialogue in film

9/11   Mon   10/9   RTE2 @ 00.35

17 years ago lower Manhattan was decimated in a terrorist attack and 2 brothers making a documentary about rookie firefighters documented it all. This is their footage. A genuinely terrifying and very upsetting watch about a moment in history imprinted on the mind of everyone alive that day that somehow becomes a testament to the sheer spirit of New Yorkers.

Black Mountain Poets   Tues   11/9   Film4 @ 01.55

When their life of crime goes sideways two sisters go on the run and find themselves in the wilds of Wales hiding out in a place they could never have imagined. A place that could be very beneficial to them. Alice Lowe and Dolly Wells are very entertaining in this interesting and underseen British comedy that is on at a ridiculous time for some reason. Full of beautiful scenery too.

Key Largo   Tues   11/9   TCM @ 17.15

Crime drama par excellence time. A war veteran arrives in the Florida Keys to visit the family of a dead comrade and finds that all is not well in the hotel they run. John Huston's 1948 thriller is an absolute cracker of a watch. Tense as hell, action packed stuff that's full of the superstars of the era including Humphrey Bogart as the lead, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore and the always fantastic Edward G.Robinson.

Handsome Devil   Wed   12/9   RTE1 @ 21.35

Ned sticks out like a sore thumb at his new school due to his lack of interest in sports and it isn't until he gets a new room-mate that things start going right for him. John Butler's coming of age film is a lovely watch, heartbreaking in places and hilarious in others. A fine Irish cast brings it all together too, with Moe Dunford, Andrew Scott, Fionn O'Shea and others all putting in a splendid shift.

Lockout   Wed   12/9   Film4 @ 23.10

Snow has been accused of treason and his only way out is to rescue the daughter of the President. Of course she's trapped onboard a space prison and of course that prison is in the midst of a riot. Yes, it sounds idiotic and yes it sounds like a rip off of Escape From New York but it's also an extremely enjoyable watch. Guy Pearce is a fun lead but Joseph Gilgun as the prisoner in charge steals the show.

The Sessions   Thur   13/9   CH4 @ 01.00

A man trapped in an iron lung feels he is missing out on living to his fullest so hires a therapist to help him out with one of life's important rites of passage. Very brave performances from Helen Hunt & John Hawkes carry a very affecting story. This is about a side of life with disability that most of us thankfully never have to think about. Frank, uplifting and upsetting but you'll be glad you watched it.

Starship Troopers   Fri   14/9   Syfy @ 22.00

Giant insects from outer space are threatening Earth. So Earth decides to send its best and brightest to threaten them back. Paul Verhoevens sci-fi spectacular may sound stupid but it's actually a very clever satire of fascism as well as being a deadly action film. 20 years on and the special effects are still amazing too. The cast is fun with Neil Patrick Harris and Clancy Brown being the standouts.

Still Alice   Fri   14/9   RTE1 @ 23.55

Alice has been forgetting things lately and when it starts affecting her job she decides to get herself checked out. The diagnosis is a life changer for herself and her family. An undeniably tough watch but a magnificent performance from Julianne Moore and strong support from Alec Baldwin and Kirsten Stewart raise this high above the usual films of this type and save it from mawkishness and sentimentality.

American Animals

This is not based on a true story.

This is                      a true story.

3 young men idle restlessly in a library. A 4th sits behind the wheel of a car running outside. Old age makeup and fake beards hide their youthful faces. Furtive sweaty glances are thrown around the room. The tension is palpable. They are about to steal something very expensive. They are working off a half arsed plan. Their entire future is at stake.

Spencer Reinhard was a new art student at Transylvania University in Kentucky in 2003. During orientation he was given a tour of the campus and shown a collection of priceless books stored in the school's library. His lunatic best friend Warren Lipka decides that stealing these books will liven things up for himself and bring a bit of a spark back into the apathetic Spencer's life. 

Everyone has that one friend, the one who can talk you into doing anything, no matter who stupid it is or how dangerous. The person that adds the spice to a group. The one you want to live up to no matter how badly hurt you'll get. Warren Lipka was one such person and he's one of the main reasons why American Animals is so entertaining. A character you'll love to hate but one that will keep you glued to the screen. He's the polar opposite of Spencer. A young man on the verge of an existential crisis. The character that gives the films it's soul. This energy and sensitivity combined turns American Animals into a compelling morality tale, in places almost a comedy but still a film that will rattle you with its nail chewing tension and it's depressing take on the state of the psyches of today's youth. 

It sounds like a straightforward watch but it has enough uniqueness and quirks to make it stand out from the already crowded heist movie genre. The docudrama format helps. Slotted in throughout are asides from the real people involved, their recollections jarring with each other constantly and at times they even share the screen with their cinematic counterparts and argue about how things really went down. Hair, scarves, times, places, everything is confused and you aren't sure who or what to believe and in an era of #fakenews it makes a 15 year old story feel very topical indeed. Then when you add euro-horror maestro Udo Kier into the mix in a cameo as a Dutch fence or Donovan's truly unsettling classic 60's song 'Hurdygurdy man' things really start feeling nicely off-kilter.

Kids these days are told they are perfect, special, capable of anything. It's a positive, forward way to think but it has the downside of creating narcissists who can't cope when things don't go their way. They fall into a pit of ennui or become raging egotists and only something big is enough to move them. Cross that with a generation who've grown up compulsively consuming media and you get a group who think they've got what it takes to pull off what they've seen in the movies. An early scene sees our two leads binge watching heist films like Rififi, Thief, The Driver, The Thomas Crown Affair, Asphalt Jungle and Reservoir Dogs. Warren sees himself in the black and white world of Sterling Hayden's crime drama, quotes the Matrix and even uses the colour coded system of Dogs which inevitably leads to arguments over the use of Mr Pink cos young men and pink = lots of insecurity. Unlike Reservoir Dogs though here we actually see the heist take place and it's a masterpiece of nauseous tension and Murphy's Law.

Our own Barry Keoghan as Spencer is the heart of the movie and once again he shows he has the chops to do anything. He's not an Irish lad playing an American. He becomes American. The tortured teenage artist we've seen in a 1000 other American films. If you hadn't seen him before you'd never think he started off as the little bastard machine gunning cats in Love/Hate. Evan Peters as Warren is electric. Totally believable as the absolute bullshitter we've all experienced who has the gift to make people believe they are capable of anything. When he's onscreen you want to throttle him, but you also kind of want to hang out with him just to see what kind of fun he could make happen. Blake Jenner and  Jared Abrahamson play two fellow students roped into the robbery but appear too late in the film to make much of an impact. One's a shouter and one's a worrier, their character's aren't developed much beyond that and it's the film's one failing.

An unusual film but one really worth seeing. A story nearly too stupid to be true filled with details that sound made up (Transylvania University..seriously!) but one that proves the old maxim to be true once again: Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. It's also funnier and more disturbing.

Burt Reynolds RIP

It was sad to hear of Burt Reynolds passing yesterday. An actor out of the spotlight lately but he was the man back in the day. One of those effortlessly cool actors who could do it all. Ladies man. Bingo. Action hero. Done. Comedian. Definitely. Serious stuff. Sure, when he wanted to. The type of person who should be annoying because they are good at everything but there was just something so very likable about him. His self deprecation maybe? It's hard not to take to people who are willing to take the piss out of themselves. It's a fine virtue to have. Plus he rocked a wicked moustache.

People older than 30 will remember him the best. Making Buford T Justice look like a fool during his bootleg beer runs to Georgia. Inspiring children all over the world to become aspiring CB radio enthuasiasts and shout "10-4 good buddy" as they ran around. Tearing up Kansas with Clint in City Heat. Pulling off one of the all time best car stunts in Hooper when his red Pontiac just misses being crushed by a falling chimney tower ( a stunt that would never be done today). Saving Jon Voight from a horrific fate in Deliverance by racing to the rescue and skewering sadistic hillbilly's with arrows. The venal and corrupt Avery Carrington from Grand Theft Auto : Vice City, one of the more entertaining characters of the series. The lead of the terrible but very entertaining Cannonball run and Earl the shifty sheriff in love with Mona in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Films that were a staple of TV in the 80's and 90's but sadly never seem to appear any more.

His comeback in the late 90's went awry. He was fantastic in Boogie Nights and even snagged an Oscar nomination but behind the scenes strife and egotism made sure he never took full advantage of his reinvigorated career and so was on a downhill slope from there. He worked right up until his death but never managed to take flight again. It was a pity. He was far more likable and charismatic than most of Hollywood's power players today. More willing to take risks and to take the piss out of his self image. His last job was in Quentin Tarantino's upcoming Once Upon A Time In Hollywood but sadly his heart gave out before he could film his scenes. What could have been eh?

So long Bandit. You'll be missed. You always made everything that little more interesting. Keep on truckin'.

Black 47

In the years between 1845 and 1849 our country was decimated by famine. We lost 2 million people, a quarter of our population, half of them emigrating and half dying of starvation and disease. It's a subject every Irish person is taught about from a young age. It's in our blood. We're seeped in passed down memories of it. We wear it on our souls. In our names. It could be argued strongly that it was genocide but what it definitely was, was a tragedy on a massive scale. Huge swathes of our history, populace and culture were lost, rotted away, shipped off, never to be seen or heard again. Tomes have been written about it all. How it started, who was to blame (England), it's long lasting after effects. Every aspect of it. But there's never been a film made about it. It was too raw a nerve. Until now. Black 47 is a revenge thriller/western set during an Gorta Mór and it's really worth a watch.

Martin Feeney (James Frecheville) has come home from the war to Connemara and stumbles across a scene of devastation. His family is gone and his homestead is in ruins. What he sees enrages him and he sets out to get revenge on the English landlords evicting starving people from their homes and selling the grain from their mouths and the Irish who have turned on their own. When his actions gain notoriety an ex-soldier called Hannah (Hugo Weaving) who once fought beside him is sent to hunt him down.

This was tough stuff but I really really liked it. It's not exactly an enjoyable film as you can imagine but it had me hooked straight away. We never make films like this so this was something I've been looking forward to for months. And thankfully it didn't disappoint at all. The cast is superb, the accents are thankfully flawless, the story is gripping and the bursts of bloody action will make your knuckles white. It looks great too, the drab bleached out cinematography showing the decay, the desolation, the rot and the drawn faces perfectly but never hiding the stark beauty of our countryside. 

It's an Irish story through and through. With a lot of genre films you could take the story and transplant it anywhere but not this one. It packs in so many cultural touchstones that it could only be set here. Taking the soup is a phrase you'd never again use in a jeering way after this. The use of the Irish language is done perfectly too. Interweaved into the dialogue in a way that would get your heart pumping especially when used in defiance against oppressors. I never thought hearing the language I despised in school would make me proud.

It's not the action film promised in the trailers but the brief flurries of it work because you're genuinely caught up in the story and you empathise with the lead character. James Frecheville as Feeney does fine work and thankfully he nails the accent and the Irish language. If you didn't know anything about him you'd be surprised to find out he's from Australia. His character and his stoicness bring to mind the lead character of film I've seen this one compared to the most; The Outlaw Josey Wales. It has a similar story alright but the tone and feel of it is a lot darker. There's been arguments online that this isn't a western. Nonsense. It's a man on horseback out for revenge against evil land owners. A storyline that's been a staple of the genre since day dot. Plus it's set in the West of Ireland. And the icing on the cake is the lead character's name. Martin Feeney. Also the name of arguably the most important director of Western movies, John Ford, originally John Martin Feeney. So there.

Speaking of darkness, it's not a black and white affair either. Yes, there's a clear good guy and bad guys but the shades of gray in between surprised me and add plenty of depth to a story that could be accused of being a bit thin. We like to blame the English for it all but some of our own played a part too. Moe Dunford is particularly nasty in a small part of an Irish enforcer who doesn't realise he's an English puppet while Stephen Rea as Coneelly the translator has fun as a man playing both sides and Barry Keoghan as a British soldier has an affecting moment when he realises that he isn't on the side of the angels as he'd been taught. Hannah is played by Hugo Weaving. It's probably the most traditional role in the film but he does well as he slowly throws off the murderous image we'd had of him at the start of the film and becomes human. A quiet moment between the leads in the dark of Connemara countryside is a nice respite from the chaos.

The downside. There's always one. The opening third is gripping in it's immediate rawness and the finish is a cracker but the middle section feels a bit static at times and I felt like it was due to director Lance Daly's decision to hold back on depicting the grimmer aspects of Feeney's revenge. We see the build up and the aftermath but at the climactic moments the scene cuts away to the group chasing him. It feels like we're missing out the release of the tension that gets built up, a much needed catharsis after the horrors of the first third of the film. It's a small thing that annoyed me but that might just be my bloodthirsty and patriotic side showing. 

Go see this. It's getting a massive release this weekend and looks fantastic on the big screen. Equal parts history lesson and revenge fantasy and blended together it makes for a heady watch. Director Daly and writers Pierce Ryan and PJ Dillon have created something to be really proud of. It's going to sit proudly beside on my western shelf when it gets released on blu-ray.

Probably best to avoid talking to anyone English for 24 hrs or so after viewing though.

A perfect pairing of sound & vision. The Princess Bride : Inigo Montoya's Revenge Story

Inigo, Fezzik and Vizzini have just kidnapped Buttercup; a woman being forced to marry Prince Humperdinck of Florin. Their intention is to start a war but a masked stranger following them has no intention of letting that happen. He follows them across the sea to the cliffs of Insanity and at the top him and Inigo face off against each other. 

But first they have a chat.



A combination of Mark Knopfler's gorgeous score and Mandy Patinkin's dulcet tones help us realise there's far more to Inigo than meets the eye. He's not just the one note brigand we've assumed but rather a man forced into a life he hadn't planned in order to achieve a greater good. The way he talks about his Da and his love for him makes us realise that the soul of the film doesn't lie with Wesley and Buttercup but with Inigo's search for justice.

A funny, touching and brilliantly realised moment. With great music.

Previous pairings

American Honey
Snake In The Eagle's Shadow
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
The Untouchables
Airplane!
Dazed And Confused  
Kickboxer                                  
Grosse Point Blank
Mean Streets
Watership Down
Casablanca
Zodiac
Jackie Brown
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
Deliverance
The Omen
Copland
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
The Mission
Before Sunset
Carlito's Way
A Knight's Tale
Platoon
Before Sunrise
Rushmore
An American Werewolf In London
Dazed And Confused
Boogie Nights
Raging Bull
Almost Famous
Once Upon A Time In The West
Goodfellas

Last Of The Mohicans