Lucy Sat 29/9 CH4 @ 21.00 While muling a new and mysterious drug shipment inside her stomach, a woman undergoes a drastic transformation when it leaks into her blood stream. Luc Besson directs Scarlet Johansson in this bonkers film that has a final 10 minutes which has to be seen to be believed. You'll either love it or hate it but you definitely haven't seen anything like it before. Johansson is solid as always and Morgan Freeman & Min-Sik Choi are always a pleasure. Pat Garret & Billy The Kid Sat 29/9 TCM @ 23.45 The story of the last days and the final interaction between Sheriff Pat Garret and the outlaw William H.Bonney aka Billy the Kid. Sam Peckinpah's take on the famous tale is a masterful watch and when combined with Bob Dylan's soulful music it becomes a poetic and beautiful depiction of the last dying days of the wild west. James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson are sublime and the supporting cast of well known genre faces is amazing. Silverado Sun 30/9 RTE1 @ 01.25 A foursome of mismatched cowboys turns up in a small town run by an evil rancher and set out to set wrong to right. It's your quintessential western set up but it's so much fun and so well done that you can forgive any unoriginality. Superb cast in this. Kevin Costner who always rocks it in this genre, Kevin Kline, Danny Glover and Scott Glenn. A perfect rainy afternoon film that's on at silly o'clock for some reason. Bend It Like Beckham Sun 30/9 CH4 @ 13.25 Football loving Jess is a young Sikh woman who's parents want her to lead a tradition life but she has very different ideas for her future. Gurinder Chadha's comedy drama is a joy even if you have no interest in the sport. It's funny, exciting and gives us a look into a culture that's very rarely depicted on film. Parminder Nagra is a great lead and gets quality back up from Keira Knightley and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. A Reckless Moment Mon 1/10 Film4 @ 11.00 A mother resorts to desperate measures to protect her daughters future and a scoundrel sees her strife as a chance to make himself some money. A nice slice of film noir here, lean, economic, tense, twisty turny and unpredictable. A perfect film to wake your brain up in the morning. Lovely acting too from Joan Bennett and Geraldine Brooks but James Mason steals the show. Requiem For A Dream Mon 1/10 TG4 @ 21.30 Sara, Harry, Marion and Tyrone are 4 people from Coney Island who are all addicted to drugs and we get to see in lovingly realised detail exactly how their addictions tear them apart. A traumatic but a must see watch. The most frightening anti drug film you'll ever see on TV. Amazing acting from Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans, Jared Leto and a phenomenal Ellen Burstyn will pin you to your seat. Be warned, it's very very graphic. Being Evel Knievel Mon 1/10 BBC4 @ 23.30 Evel Knievel will be a familiar name to anyone who grew up in the 70's and the 80's. A stuntman who amazed the world with his death defying feats. This documentary shows us the man behind the stunts. This is an interesting watch but may ruin your childhood memories as it doesn't shy from showing a very unpleasant side of its subject. The archival stunt footage though, oh man, evocative as hell. In A Lonely Place Tues 2/10 Film4 @ 11.00 A screenwriter is accused of murder until his neighbour gives him an alibi. But then she begins to have her own doubts. A cracking slice of film noir. It's smart and suspenseful with a nicely cynical side and full of undertones that were rare for the time. The storyline is compelling and the characters are well formed and realistic. Gloria Grahame and Humphrey Bogart are both fantastic. Well worth recording. Bonnie and Clyde Thur 4/10 TCM @ 23.45 Bonnie's a waitress who gets whisked off her feet by a criminal called Clyde. Before long their exploits have them at the attention of police everywhere. Arthur Penn's crime classic may be 51 years old this year but it still has the power to shock in places. It's still an excellent watch to with super performances from Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. Watch it to see the point old Hollywood gave way to the new. Rogue Fri 5/10 The Horror Channel @ 21.00 A group of tourists on a boat trip in Northern Australia find themselves trapped on a small island when they are attacked by a massive crocodile. And the tide is rising. Of course. A well made and jumpy little thriller made believable by deadly creature effects and a nice cast including Radha Mitchell, Sam Worthington and Michael Vartan. Greg McLean's follow up to Wolf Creek isn't as scary as his debut but its a lot more entertaining. Presumed InnocentFri 5/10 RTE1 @ 23.55 Rusty Sabich is a lawyer who finds himself accused of the very murder he's investigating. The fact he had an affair with the victim stacks the odds of being prosecuted against him. Alan J.Pakula's courtroom thriller is a real old school watch. Intelligent, grown up, compelling and hard to predict. Harrison Ford is fine in a part very different to him usual roles and Raul Julia, Bonnie Bedelia and Greta Scacchi are good in support.
The cinema is my favourite place to go and relax. A warm dark room where you can forget the outside world for a couple of hours and watch a movie. What's not the love. I've a lifetime of memories involving it. Not the just films but the things that happened in the cinema itself. The smells, the sounds, the people, the places. Here's a few of them.
Going to Birr to see Superman 3. The first film I ever saw on the big screen. It's a vague memory as it's around 35 years ago but the combine harvester scene at the start of the film petrified me. Until the Man Of Steel saved the day. We all cheered and shouted. That was it. I was hooked. Seeing Avatar in a massive cinema in Geneva. The film was in English but were both french and german subtitles on the screen. And soon enough I found myself reading the subtitles I couldn't understand instead of watching the film. Plus it was in 3D and a blazing headache soon ensued. Haven't felt the urge to ever watch it again unsurprisingly. Watching Zodiac in a cinema in San Francisco. Wondering did the events on screen happen near where we were sitting watching added a odd frisson of danger to the evening.
Spot the Paddy
Sitting in the royal circle of the Odeon in Leicester Square to watch Shooter. I felt like a traitor to Ireland that day and it cost me £20 for a ticket but it was a damn fine way to watch a film. Plus I could sup a pint of Boddington's in there. Standing up and roaring my support for John James Braddock when he started his comeback against the bad bastard known as Max Baer in Cinderella Man. It happened before I could stop myself and I spent the rest of the film dying of shame planning my escape as the credits rolled. My first time in the Irish Film Institute was to watch What Richard Did. A film that would go on to be my favourite Irish film. If I lived in Dublin I'd never leave the place. No sounds of popcorn being munched. No mobile phone screens in your eyeline. No one talking through out the movie. It's just something else, a place of worship for movie fans.
My first 18 cert film in the cinema was Timecop. I was 15 and myself and my father went to see it in the Savoy in Limerick. We were the only people at the screening. Just us and a load of rats. Yes rats, the screen was swamped with them. Avoiding the bites was more fun than the film. Getting into the Commitments with my parents aged 12. All was well until my teacher came in and sat in front of us. Everytime someone swore my mortified mother sank lower and lower in her chair ensuring she was under the carpet by the end of the film. Seeing Tim Burton's Batman in Alfie Clarke's cinema in Roscrea. A Sunday matinee showing for a crowd of 300+ in a room designed for 150 max. People were sitting everywhere to see the world's greatest detective. Fire regulations didn't matter in 1989 Tipperary.
Sitting in the front row right under the screen to see Michael Collins the night it came out in 1996. I've never been in such a packed screening since. The atmosphere was electric as we watched Ireland's biggest ever movie play out. I remember leaving the film hoping I wouldn't hear an English accent in the crowd. Throwing popcorn at the screen out of sheer frustration during yet another insanely boring monologue in Kill Bill 2. The first installment had been so much fun so how could this one be so boring. How did it go so wrong. Of course I felt like a scumbag as soon as I did it. Walking through the doors of the Prince Charles Cinema in London to watch Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo. I knew I'd walked into a very special place. The film was of course a crazed experience and not one I wish to repeat but just knowing places like the PCC exist would make you smile.
Sitting on the grass in the People's park in Limerick on a balmy summer night and watching Duck Soup by the Marx Brothers play out under the stars. What a spectacular way to see a classic film for the first time. Watching from Dusk Til Dawn in the auditorium in Waterford Institute Of Technology. The film was still banned in 1998 and a smuggled in VHS was about to introduce us all to vampires Tarantino style. It didn't disappoint and a crowd of drunk and bloodthirsty students went wild. Laughing during the horrifying violence at the start of Saving Private Ryan because a classmate who was in the FCA appeared on screen being triaged by Giovanni Ribisi while bright red blood squirted from his neck. The people around us were rather annoyed.
The elderly couple who sat near us during Jackass The Movie. I sat there half laughing and half terrified for them because I assumed they had walked into the wrong film. All fears were allayed when they proceeded to fall around the place laughing for the next 90 mins. They added to our enjoyment of the film immensely. Getting to watch A Fistful Of Dollars on the big screen at the Palas Cinema in Galway. A film I'd seen many times made fresh and exciting again by a restored print and the mindblowing sounds of Ennio Morricone blasting through the speakers. The first time I'd ever seen Clint Eastwood in a western in the cinema was an amazing experience. I was too young when Unforgiven came out! The father and son who sat in front of us at Star Wars : The Force Awakens. The child was 7 or 8 and I got to see him fall in love with Star Wars just like I had when I was his age. It was a very cool moment. What are your favourite cinema going memories?
250 euros. There's a lot you could do with that amount of money. You could go to the cinema 40 times. You could buy 50 pints of porter. 100 bags of chips. Maybe grab a few early Christmas presents. You could pay a months rent if you're lucky enough to live in Limerick or if you're good enough at budgeting and planning in advance you could have a very cheap couple of days away in a city Ryanair fly to. What you shouldn't do with €250 is try to make a movie. You might have romantic notions of making an ultra low budget masterpiece but in reality it just won't work. Paul, Scott and Fionn are 3 friends living in Arklow. Paul (Ryan Hennessy) works in an office, Scott (Ian Adams who also wrote and directed) in a hardware shop and Fionn (Dylan Hanlon) is a thieving little shit who robs all around him to fund his lifestyle of weed, wanking and playstation. When he breaks into the wrong house, the 3 lads finds themselves fearing for their lives and to repay a debt they must delve in a life of crime. The only problem is they are a pack of eejits. It sounds like a fun watch doesn't it. It's not. In fairness it could have been really good. It's a familiar story but with an Irish spin and some of the setpieces are quite funny but it's hamstrung from the beginning with such awful acting that you just won't be able to get past it. That combined with the fact that the 3 lads are genuinely horrible individuals turns this into a watch that's a struggle to get through. I feel really bad complaining about this because I love Irish films and will always support them by paying to see them in the cinema. People put their blood, sweat and tears into this but all that hard work will be overshadowed by some of the worst performances I've ever seen in an Irish production and I've watched a lot of Fair City. I won't point out anyone in particular but all the actors share the blame.
There's good in here though, no doubt about it. Writer and director Ian Adams does a good job on the visual side of things no doubt helped by his time working on the Vikings TV show & Penny Dreadful. A montage of ill prepared robbery is well done and will make you laugh. A session fueled by coke, shots and chips feels like a real lads night out. Aerial views of Arklow give the film the look of a bigger production and an impressively staged toilet brawl feels rough and ready and the ensuing bloody mess shows off some very impressive make up effects. Those same effects make an appearance later up in a scene of violence so numbing in it's viciousness that it feels totally at odds with the fun present earlier in the film. I'm not sure what point Adams is trying to make here. Crime doesn't pay? Or does it? Or is it ok if it's a necessity?? It gives off a confused message and gives the film a confused tone. Are the lads supposed to be likable? Are they supposed to a genuine look at what young lads are like in this day and age? Jesus I hope not because they do some really quite horrible things in their quest. This could have been good. The raw material is there and it looks very polished for such an ultra low budget but a jarring script and dire acting kill it before it has a chance. It's a pity but it's a miracle at the same time that this film was ever even made.
Dublin's own Lenny Abrahamson is turning into a bit of a national treasure. In the space of 6 films (plus TV and shorts) he's become a director who you miss out on at your peril. Adam & Paul was a tragi-comedy masterpiece that showed us the human face of Dublin's heroin scourge. Garage was a stunning look at the effects of rural isolation. What Richard Did was a damning indictment of how privilege protects. Frank was a quirky but very watchable look at mental illness and the Room was an intensely gripping look at the damage and ripple effects caused by male violence. Now along comes The Little Stranger and we get to see Lenny's take on a genre picture with a story adapted from Sarah Water's novel of the same name. In the year of our lord 1948 a doctor called Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson) gets called to a country estate by the name of Hundreds Hall to attend to the new house maid who claims to be in pain. Here he meets the Ayres family. The elderly matriarch Angela who clings to her memories (Charlotte Rampling), son Roddy (Will Poulter) an RAF veteran of World War 2 who was disfigured in a crash and daughter Caroline (Ruth Wilson) who has returned home to help her brother run the estate. Faraday is intrigued by the family and soon finds himself spending a lot of time with them.
I'm not sure what I'd call this film. It's not horror but it's more than a drama. A psychological drama with creepy undertones? Ya, i think that would cover the bases. The other thing I'd call it is a right good watch. It's up there the best films Lenny has made and I've a feeling it's a story that will grow and grow with repeated viewings especially when you know the ending and can keep an eye out for things. It's subtle stuff which is welcome in an era when other chillers like The Nun are happy to beat you around the head for 90 minutes. It's always a good sign when a film can creep you out during daytime scenes when nothing is happening. When you get that insidious rumbling of dread and that goosebumpy feeling for reasons you can't quite discern. It's something that will stay in your head. But the downside is it might be too sedate for some. Don't go into this expecting a Conjuring film cos you ain't going to get it. It's an ambiguous watch. You're never quite sure whats's to blame for the onscreen goings on and Abrahamson and writer Lucinda Coxon use the story and the trappings of the genre to comment on things like the class systems, the psychological effects of isolation and of living in the past, toxic masculinity, PTSD, repression and the damage jealousy caan do to a psyche. Scary movies have always been looked down upon but the people who scoff always manage to miss the bucket load of subtext crammed into the best of them. The ending of the film answers some questions but not all of them ensuring you have something to ruminate on afterwards. Did he? Who was "you"? The acorn caused it??
The performances are top of the range all round. Everyone acting in that clipped, emotionally distant manner so beloved of post war Britain until circumstance and barely contained repression cause them to lash out. Domhnall Gleeson is as good as he's ever been as the doctor who's genteel exterior and pleasant bedside manner hides a rather dark want. Ruth Wilson as Caroline is excellent as a woman who knows she's given up on any chance of a happy life to look after her brother. The sadness behind her smiles plain to see but at the same time a delighted dance between her and friend provides the film with a sliver of much needed joy. Will Poulter puts in a fine showing as a man ruined by war but sadly he's absent for most of the film. I wish we'd got to see more of him because he's turned into such an interesting character. From the little bastard in Son Of Rambow to Detroit to this. This trio and a fine showing from Charlotte Rampling all help ground the film in it's later moments and keep us interested in it's smore intospective ones. Go see this if you're sick of the bombast of modern day horror, if you long for something more sedate, a bit more elegant than your usual chillers. Go see it if you want to enjoy an Irish actor and an Irish director operating at the top of their game. Go see it if you just want something different. It's worth it.
Alfred Hitchcock is probably the most influential director ever. His fingerprints can be seen all over 20th and 21st century storytelling. From the books of Patricia Highsmith to the films of Brian De Palma, David Fincher and of late, Steven Soderbergh. I never expected Paul Feig to start channeling him though. The fella who directed the masterful trio of Spy, Bridesmaids and The Heat has now turned his hand to the thriller genre and not surprisingly he's made a pretty good job of it. Quiet and timid Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) is a constantly apologetic single mother who fills her time by being a PTA over achiever in her son's school and posting video blogs of her cookery. Her extra curricular activities alienate the other school parents making her lonely so of course she jumps at the chance of friendship with the glamorous and mysterious Emily (Blake Lively) when it arises. Before she knows it's it she's in the midst of a dysfunctional relationship that grows even stranger when one day Emily vanishes off the face of the earth. I enjoyed this. It's Gillian Flynn meets Hitchcock but sprinkled with a liberal dash of humour and it's every bit as fun as that sounds. The trailers for it sold it as a straight mystery drama but a very entertaining performance from Anna Kendrick as an initially mousy woman forced out of her shell turns it into something quite different. It's twisty and turny and a couple of late reveals may force a guffaw out of you but it never cheats and everything that happens happens for a reason. It's a film that brazenly wears it's influences on it's sleeve. A shout out to a french horror/thriller classic set in a school feels a bit too on the nose but a blonde femme fatale, some weird family relationships and unresolved familial traumas all pop up, all the tropes that have been the ingredients of all film noirs and classic thrillers over the years. I'm not saying this film compares to those classics but it's always a joy seeing these genre staples getting a fresh roll out.
Kendrick owns the film. An early scene where she bluntly relates a brutal past trauma will have you empathizing with her straight away. She also has great comic timing and one tense moment of her trapped in a piece of clothing that most certainly does not belong to her will make you laugh and squirm. She sells her part in a way that you are never quite sure what direction the story is about to take and more than once you'll find yourself tripping over an assumption you've already made about her. Her blog is used throughout the film as a narrative and framing device and while it does actually serve a genuine purpose come the end of the film it feels a bit annoying when the action cuts back to her speaking into her webcam and it does at times make the film feel a bit episodic. Blake Lively plays a fun part too but it's harder to talk about her part without spoiling anything. She brings a nice edge to the story though and carries herself well when the twists and turns veer towards the sillier side of things. And believe me they do. This is Paul Feig's 5th film with women in the lead and I hope he keeps making them. Spy and The Heat rocked. Bridesmaid was great craic. Ghostbusters was messy but more of it hit the spot than didn't. A Simple Favour is like that too. Some of it doesn't work but enough does that you'll enjoy yourself. One thing it does really well is building a believable relationship between the leads and in that it's similar to his other movies. It feels genuine and not forced like a lot of quick film friendships tend to. The two are chalk and cheese and one moment of Emily telling Stephanie to stop saying sorry all the time will definitely ring a bell with certain watchers. The shittier sides of friendships crop up too, one side putting everything in, spilling their guts and the other not really caring or happy to just take. Just like real life sadly. It's easy to tell the story was written by a woman. It's adapted by Jessica Sharzer from the book of the same title by Darcey Bell. It's always good when a story takes the time to build it's characters and their complexities up before horsing a wrecking ball at them. A film that's a bit messy and overly confusing in parts but a great showing from Anna Kendrick will win you over. Definitely worth a watch.
It's getting to that time of the year when my movie thoughts turn to the horror side of things. These days I'm all about the atmosphere and the chills of a more sedate type of scary movie but there's always something to be said for a brilliantly gory death scene. Below are 10 of my faves. They are not for the faint of heart and yes they are a bit mainstream but you have to take what you get with youtube. Oh and no CGI is involved at all. Dracula : Prince Of Darkness Count Dracula has been dusted by Abraham Van Helsing and the only way back is blood. It's always blood. And as usual courtesy of an eejit wandering around where he shouldn't be wandering. A disgustingly effective moment and a surprisingly nasty one for the time period. Day Of The Dead The most deserved death on the list is one of the more spectacular ones too. A group of survivors are hiding from the zombies above in an underground bunker and bastard Captain Rhodes treats them like muck. It of course all backfires on him when the bunker is invaded. He goes out in style though courtesy of FX impressario Tom Savini Paura Nella Citta Dei Morte Vivante ( City Of The Living Dead) John Morghen. The whipping boy of Italian exploitation cinema buys the farm in this still excruciating moment of gore from director Lucio Fulci and make up master Giannetti De Rossi. Robocop The list doesn't have to be all horror of course as this brutally entertaining moment from Robocop will attest to. Scumbag Emile gets his just desserts and Robo doesn't even lay a finger on him. A fave moment of all kids of the 80's. Society The most fucked up orgy you'll ever see comes courtesy of director Brian Yuzna and make up maniac Screaming Mad George. This one will take your breath away when we find out what exactly the rich and famous of Beverly Hills get up to behind closed doors.
Friday The 13th part 4 Jason Vorhees gets his head bisected by one of the two Corey's. It doesn't take off course and he's returned 7 times and counting since. Looks sore though. Company Of Wolves Neil Jordan's take on old werewolf stories takes a far more visceral route than similarly themed movies when it came to the transformation scenes. Yeeesh. Deadly Friend Very much one of the lesser Wes Craven film's but that doesn't mean it's all bad. Fans of The Goonies will love seeing that happens to Anne Ramsay. And yes, that is the original Buffy The Vampire Slayer playing ball. Zombi 2 (Zombie Flesh Eaters) Everyone goes for the eyeball bit from this Luico Fulci classic but this death scene has it all. The build up, the maggots, the music, the horrified fool not running away, the splat and then the revenge. Scanners
Never try to compete with Darryl Revok. Especially when he looks like Michael Ironside. Still an amazing scene 38 years later. No CGI will ever beat this scene from David Cronenberg's classic. What moment's would you pick?
Hellboy 2 : The Golden ArmySat 22/9 ITV2 @ 21.15 When a pact between humanity and mythical creatures is broken, chaos threatens to reign and it's up to Hellboy and his buddies to sort things out. You don't have to have seen the first film to enjoy this brilliantly put together bit of escapism. Guillermo Del Toro's comic book film so full of imagination and action that you just won't want it to finish. Ron Perlman as Hellboy rocks and Selma Blair, John Hurt & Doug Jones give superb backup. The Skin I Live In Sun 23/9 BBC2 @ 00.20 A widowed doctor, obsessed with his work, develops and experiments on his new creation with the help of an unwilling subject. Pedro Almodóvar's unique take on horror is a stunner of a film, very dark, creepy and gripping. Antonio Banderas and Elena Anayas give career best performances too. It's a graphic movie and not for the faint of heart and will offend some people though. Be warned.
Suffragette Sun 23/9 CH4 @ 18.40 The story of the suffragette movement in early 20th century Britain and the hardships they faced in the pursuit of rights that women should have had all along. A rage inducing, angering, moving and stressful film but one that should be watched. A fantastic cast led by Anne-Marie Duff, Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter makes the whole thing barrel along too. The Nice Guys Sun 23/9 RTE2 @ 21.30 The death of a porn star and the case of a missing woman bring two very different private investigators together in 1970's Los Angeles. Shane Black's 2016 film is overlong and muddled but it is a funny and surprisingly violent watch held together by two solid performances from Ryan Golsing and Russell Crowe who work very well together. Catch Me If You Can Mon 24/9 TG4 @ 21.30 The story of Frank Abagnale, a teenager who conned his way around the world. Leonardo DiCaprio is cracking fun in the lead role and Tom Hanks is solid as always as the FBI agent tasked with catching him. Throw in Christopher Walken in super form as Frank's Da as the icing on the cake A sorely underrated film from Steven Spielberg that's extremely entertaining but with a dark cautionary edge. Martha Marcy May Marlene Tues 25/9 Film4 @ 01.20 Martha is a troubled woman woman struggling to rejoin society and re-adjust to a normal life after leaving a cult that abused her physically and psychologically. A haunting and troubling watch that's tough going but ultimately rewarding. Elizabeth Olsen gives a performance that will stay with you for a long time and John Hawkes & Sarah Paulson are great as always in supporting roles. The Searchers Tues 25/9 TCM @ 13.25 John Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a man searching for years for his niece who has been kidnapped by a Comanche war party. But what are his intentions? A gorgeous looking and highly influential western (one shot of Wayne framed by a doorway has been homaged in dozens of films and shows), well acted by all especially Wayne and Vera Miles. One of the finest, most thoughtful westerns ever made Tale Of Tales Wed 26/9 Film4 @ 23.00 3 interweaving fairytales that tell the stories of an angry queen, strange siblings and royal obsessions. This is quite a bit removed from the fairy stories we heard growing up but it's easily as fascinating, disturbing, compelling and horrifying as the best of them. Oh and it's definitely not for kids. Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel and John C.Reilly head a well acted and beautiful looking movie. Enough Said Thur 27/9 Film4 @ 19.10 Eva is dreading the thought of her daughter going to college but then she meets both an interesting fella and a new friend through work. Little does she know both of them share a past. This is a joy of a film, warm and funny and filled with people who feel genuinely real. Julia Louis Dreyfus and the late James Gandolfini are both excellent as the leads and the always reliable Catherine Keener offers fine support. Sudden Death Fri 28/9 ITV4 @ 23.45 Darren McCord is a security guard working in an ice hockey rink and a man haunted by his past. When a game night is taken over by terrorists he has a chance to redeem himself. A very enjoyable watch that manages to hit all the action beats you'd expect while simultaneously ripping the piss out of the genre. Jean Claude Van Damme is fun in the lead and Powers Boothe is a deadly boo hiss bad guy. Little Miss Sunshine Fri 28/9 RTE1 @ 23.55 A delight of a film about a troubled family driving across America so their daughter can take part in one of those godawfully creepy American child beauty pageants. There's a great cast in this with an adorable Abigail Breslin in the lead and Toni Collette on fire as her mother. Both Alan Arkin (so much fun) & Steve Carell (playing very much against type) as family members tagging along for the ride steal the film though.
It's rare to get to see a full on 18 certificate action film in the cinema these days. Things have changed a lot since the 80's and 90's when nearly every big action flick had that little red 18 cert symbol on their posters. The vast majority of films in this genre are aimed at teenage audiences now, their stories and action beats softened to make them family friendly affairs. Hearing Mile 22 was going to be for an adult audience was a genuine surprise. It's just a pity an adult certificate doesn't guarantee a quality watch. A batch of highly radioactive caesium is missing and an elite CIA black ops team lead by James Silva (Mark Wahlberg, terrible) is in Indonesia looking for it. A police officer called Li Noor (Iko Uwais, wasted) rocks up to the gates of the embassy claiming to know it's whereabouts and will only share the information if he can get safe passage to the U.S. Silva and his team now have to move Noor the 22 miles to their extraction point but all hell is about to rain down around them. This might have been a better film had Mark Wahlberg died in the opening scenes. I enjoy the chap but he's such an annoying fucker here that he'll put you off the film even before the terrible action scenes and awful dialogue will. He shouts at everyone and he's a prick to everyone and when he isn't shouting and LOVING the sound of his own voice he turns the smug dial up to 90 which will make you despise him. He's a horrible character and quite why he and writer/director Peter Berg decided to play him like this is baffling. Is it a sly take on how the world perceives America? The loud bully boy sticking its nose in everywhere? A commentary on how taking a government job turns you into a merciless soulless bollix with no room in your life for anything but your job? It would be nice to think this film has the depth and layers to do this but no, it's just a 90 minute action film with a very unlikeable lead.
The action....hmmm. Yes yes it's all very violent and very crunchy but it's not very good and the film's unique selling point is frittered away. Iko Uwais as Li Noor is an amazing martial artist but he's wasted here in his first big English language role. He gets a couple of cool moments but they are so badly shot and so rapidly edited that you don't get any real sense of what a force to be reckoned with he actually is. The star of The Raid franchise deserves better than this. In a perfect world the film would have disposed of Wahlberg in a pre-credits shock moment leaving the next 90 minutes to consist of Iko Uwais decimating people as he strolled to a plane. But instead we get overedited bursts of gunfire interspersed with a bit of hand to hand combat where people we don't give a fig about take on a faceless and never ending swarms of bad guys. It's all done at such a dizzying pace that you'll never be bored but at the same time you'll be a bit baffled because the reason for the dizzying pace is never quite explained. It just has to happen!! This is the latest Peter Berg/Mark Wahlberg collaboration about people who take their jobs very very seriously and it's easily the least of them. Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon and Patriot's Day were all based on true stories so at least had a reason to exist even if they weren't particularly good. Mile 22 seemed to exist to justify an ending that both sets up a sequel and thinks it's far cleverer than it is. It's the kind of ending that makes you retroactively rethink the entire movie but not in a "OH WOW" kind of a way. No its more of a "Wait, what?? None of this makes any sense" kind of a moment. Berg has deigned to include women in his film this time but in roles that come to nothing. Lauren Cohen of Walking Dead fame tries vainly to bring a bit of heart to the film as a team member concerned about her family life but in the end she just turns into a Wahlberg mini-me and Ronda Roussey's most memorable moment is telling someone to fuck off. Seriously. This film wants so badly to be the start of a franchise but it doesn't deserve to be. It's the kind of film you'll have forgotten a few days after you watched it. It offers nothing new, there's nothing to hook you in and the stuff you think it will do well is just badly filmed and hard to see. Don't bother. Go to the ploughing championships instead.
Some actors just get a perfect start to their career. David Strathairn's first role was in John Sayles' Return Of The Secaucus 7 and he never looked back. His is a rare acting career that started in film without TV or theatre beforehand. Those came later. A very recognisable character actor who rarely snags a main role but always steals the screen. And one so skillful that when he does get head billing he also gets nominated for every acting award going including Oscar himself. He has the head of doctor/judge/lawyer and not surprisingly plays them often but his most interesting roles are the ones where he takes a different tact. David might be better known than most of the actors in this series but he's still an actor you rarely see mentioned. He was one of the infamous Chicago Red Sox players banned forever after the mafia scandal of 1919 and he was used by Carmela Soprano for selfish purposes. He played a CIA director on the hunt for amnesiac super assassins and a navy admiral on the hunt for a gigantic city destroying Japanese nuclear lizard. Memorably took on the NSA as a visually impaired hacker and was great as a senator angered by bondage pics of Bettie Page. Played both scumbag criminals in John Grisham adaptions and scumbag fathers in Stephen King adaptions. He's been emasculated by Kevin Bacon in the wild and been John Sayle's muse turning up in no less than seven of his films. He's faced off against both Crockett & Tubbs and the Equalizer. Been a colonel in charge of a Memphis Belle led bombing mission in nazi Germany and been in charge of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during World War 2. I was about to say he's done everything except a western but nope, there's one in there too. In fact the only thing he hasn't done is lower his standards over the years. A glimpse through his careershows nothing but quality viewing. Good man. Long may he grace our screen with his presence.
Remakes rarely work. They nearly always miss out on the magic that made the original sing. For every one that turns out well there's two that are awful. For Scarface there's a Halloween and a Robocop. For It there's a Total Recall and The Mummy. For Magnificent Seven there's a Chips and a (sweet jesus) Baywatch. Superfly is a remake of the 1972 blaxploitation film Super Fly and it falls into the awful category with ease. Nothing about it works. Youngblood Priest is an Atlanta based drug dealer who wants out of the life before he's killed or is forced to kill. To do this he wants to make one last massive deal, big enough to never have to worry about money again. But in order to get his hands on that much product he has to go around his usual supplier and this stirs up a whole mess of trouble involving cartels and corrupt cops. On top of that he has to deal with a rival crew called Snow Patrol (yep) who want to take his piece of the business. The best blaxploitation films rose from the aftermath of the 1960's civil rights movements. Enpowered by the movement and raging about the deaths of it's most prominent faces like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King they sought to show the African American experience in a way that had never been shown on film before. There was a righteous anger to them, a fierce desire to burn away the cinematic caricatures created of them. Shaft, Super Fly, Foxy Brown, Black Caesar, Coffy and so on. They succeeded because they were actually about something, they had something so say about Black people's place in America or lackthereof. 2018's Superfly remake has nothing to say apart from money is good. It's become a film for Trump's America. It glorifies things the earlier films had railed against. It's an exercise in style over substance. The best thing about it is Youngblood Priest's hair. It's a grand head of hair in fairness but it won't carry you through 116 minutes.
This is a terrible film. It's cheap and shoddy looking, filled with terrible acting from both unknown and more established performers and it's cliched as hell and predictable too. It's the kind of film that turns up on ITV4 at 2 o'clock in the morning where the only people who would take anything from it are chronic insomniacs looking for nudity and violence. In a time where Moonlight won best picture, Black Panther broke down cinematic barriers worldwide and Blackkklansman took potshots at Hollywood's depiction of Black people it's a shame to see Black cinema still heading in this direction. I know as a White man its definitely not for me to judge things like this but this kind of depiction isn't good for anyone. The regressive attitudes towards woman depicted in the original Superfly are still present and correct too. They exist to please Youngblood or to die so he can suffer. It's always a pity when a remake carries forwards the worst aspects of the era the original was made in. Just when you think all is lost one plot strand about police violence seems like it might have something interesting to say but it just fades away in a blizzard of dollar bills, strippers and glorified gunplay. This film could have been a perfect vehicle to rail against misogyny, sexism and institutionalised violence but nope, slow motion kicks to the face look cooler.... Ron O'Neal who played Youngblood Priest in the original Super Fly wasn't a particularly good actor but the man had presence to burn and he was believable in the part of the hypocritical man who saw himself as a hero while treating his girlfrend like muck and sampling his own wares. In this 2018 remake Youngblood Priest is played by Trevor Jackson, a man without an ounce of charisma or depth and when you don't give a shit about the lead of a film you're on a hiding to nothing straight away. He's the smoothest man in Atlanta, has two women he pleasures into the ground in a scene that wouldn't feel out of place in one of those ubiquitous erotic thrillers that used to turn up late at night on sky movie, he's the most respected criminal in the city, a martial arts master who's almost supernaturally fast and an absolute crackshot with a gun. With a good actor you could nearly get away with this but here you'll just scoff at everything he does. He's just not remotely credible as a human being. Better known actors like Jason Mitchell and Michael K. Williams appear but don't even try. Both have put in immense work in TV's The Wire and The Chi and Mitchell was fantastic as Eazy-E in Straight Outta Compton so watching them both sleepwalk through this is frustrating. I won't even mention the people playing Snow Patrol because it.......nope.....it hurts too much. It's shit. Don't bother watching it. It's offensive, it's dull, it just sucks. How it got a cinema release is beyond me. Films 100 times better than this bypass the cinema every week but somehow this tripe gets booked? I'm baffled. It's a film destined for the €1.50 shelf in Dealz.
