Prey (2022)

Prey (2022) Director: Dan Trachtenberg Starring: Amber Midthunder, Dane DiLiegro, Dakota Beavers, Michelle Thrush, Julian Black Antelope, Stormee Kipp .USA. 1h 39m

Generally I never get sucked in by the hype for new movies, after all the hype train is designed to get bums on seats and money in pockets, you’ll be 10 seconds into the movie and realize you’ve been tricked again! touch! I think a lot of hype is blown up by kids who either haven’t seen the “original ” or previous movies who find everything all shiny and new, but these old eyes have seen this all before.. But despite this I went into Prey with an open mind and was ultimately pleasantly surprised but there was a mess to trawl through first.

Marie Antoinette (2006)

Marie Antoinette (2006) Director:Sofia Coppola
Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Rip Torn, Steve Coogan, Shirley Henderson, Marianne Faithful .USA, France, Japan. 2h 3m

A lot of cake was eaten in Sofia Coppola’s punktastic retelling of the life and downfall of Marie Antoninette. From her teen marriage to the King of France and their bizarre and lavish life together, offset to a brilliant pop punk soundtrack, there’s probably just enough to get help you through a GCSE but there’s very little accurate history involved but lots of analogies to just how much of a pop princess Marie was for the age.

The Damned United (2009)

Director: Tom Hooper
Starring:Brian Clough, Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Jim Broadbent, Henry Goodman, Colm Meaney. UK. 1h 37m

This is a classic example of a movie, that despite its inaccuracies, and a niche target audience, is so well made and superbly acted that it is just an amazing film that is easy to love. I’m not into football so I couldn’t fathom how historically accurate the movie is but in fairness the larger more prominent moments of the film are documented and if you’re prepared you can watch some of the tv interviews alongside the movie and they are almost frame for frame.

Much of the movie rests on the shoulders of the lead Michael Sheens’ amazing ability to mimic other mortal humans, while he doesn’t physically look like Clough, it’s so easy to believe it’s the man who possessed Sheen’s body. The movie isn’t intended to be a documentary but some of the dramatisation has rubbed a few characters up the wrong way, and lawsuits were filed.

Green Knight (2021)

Director: David Lowery
Starring:Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Barry Keoghan, Sean Harris, Joel Edgerton, Ralph Ineson, Sarita Choudhury, Kate Dickie .USA/Canada. 2h 5m

With everyone and the dog wanting to reboot classical literature and and give it some kind of modern twist, we can be thankful that David Lowery didn’t take easy route of , yet another, King Arthur retelling, as I find it hard to find anything that comes close to John Boorman‘s glittery Excalibur (1981) Instead Lowery casts his poetic eye over an equally aged text that, for some reason, is more enchanting but remains lesser known. The adaptation of the 14th century chivalric romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight into film has masterfully crafted into one of the more memorable films of the year.

Censor (2021)

Director: Prano Bailey-Bond Starring: Niamh Algar, Nicholas Burns, Adrian Schiffler, Guillaume Delause, Richard Glover, Michael Smiley, UK. 1h 24m

An unfaltering, visually stunning movie outlining the effects of censorship and suppression on the persona and a precise documentation of the departmentalisation of one’s repressed memories. If you’ve had the privilege of seeing Prano’s short movie, Nasty then you’ll be prepared for the vivid colours, the frantic style of her curious retrowave tales. Nasty is a perfect introduction to her love of tracking, video culture and a warped perception of reality taking over her characters.

Don’t Press Play

The Man With the Iron Heart (2017)

AKA HHhH AKA Killing Heydrich

Director: Cédric Jimenez
Starring:  Jason Clarke, Rosamund Pike, Jack O’Connell, Jack Reynor, Stephen Graham .UK. 2h 

World War II has a host of characters that will be eternally admired and despised, routinely Hollywood steps in to honour the brave hero’s with a rendition of their stories, just lately we’ve been finding more names of brave men who rose up to fight the evil tyrants of the SS. Hopefully these reminders will help remind future generations of the price of freedom!?

There seemed to be a race to release a homage to operation Anthropoid, this particular movie, with a working title of HHhH (Himmlers Hirn heißt Heydrich),  was put on hold and renamed to make way for a film released in  2016 which took the converted and obvious title of “Anthropoid” , starring Cilian Murphy but is this really the poor relation to the saga? Poor, no but an alternative perspective.. just maybe. Both cover the basics of the 1942 plot by Czech resistance who sent two young recruits from London to Prague to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, the ruthless psychopath who came up with an evil plan known as the Final Solution. 

Chicago Massacre: Richard Speck (2007)

Director: Michael Feifer
Starring: Corin Nemec, Andrew Divoff, Tony Todd, Debbie Rochon  .USA. 1h 32m

This was Michael Feifer’s first, bold attempt to retell the bloody history of a serial killer. Chicago Massacre follows the childhood and killing spree of one of America’s most deranged individuals, Richard Speck. This debut saw Feifer pair up with Corin Nemec, playing the lead role of a prominent killer. A year later the two would reunite for Bundy: A Legacy of Evil (2008). This could have continued with Nemec playing Gacy, Gein and even Kemper if the duo had the desire but it seems this is all we’re getting folks!?

It feels that the movie was conceived with a lot of promise, a couple of well known names were thrown into the mix, Todd and Divoff , who seemed eager to help as law enforcement officers trying to understand and track a man who single handedly slaughtered a number of women in july 1966, but their acting expertise is often overshadowed by the need to show Speck not killing people, they could have been the B Movie versions of Somerset and Mills, however the focus is on Speck and not the people tracking him, although their scenes are quite special, but always seem like some kind of pensive Film Noir. 

300 (2006)

Director : Zack Snyder
Starring : Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, David Wenham, Vincent Regan, Michael Fassbender, Andrew Plevan, Andrew Tiernan, Rodrigo Santoro . USA | Canada | Bulgaria | Australia. 1h 57m

 

 

Out of all of the graphic novels and comics I’ve read over the years, this was surprisingly one I never considered to be a good candidate for a film adaptation. While I stand divided on if it should have been created, I’m forever blown away by every aspect 300, even with all the campy parodies and piss takes, for me, at least it’s still a rocking stylised story of ultimate bravery and sacrifice, but with so many of the pages from the novel coming to life periodically throughout the action, it seems I was wrong and 300 was made for the big screen.

Amundsen (2019)

Director: Espen Sandberg
Starring:Pal Sverre Hagen, Christian Rubeck, Katherine Waterston, Trond Espen Seim .Norway/UK. 2h 5m

Every explorer deserves some kind of detailed recognition of their sacrifices for their “art” and this sentimental epic really touches on the sacrifices made by Roald Amundsen, the first man to arrive at the South Pole.

From a historical perspective there’s a lot missing and a few facts that have been replaced by nurtured cinematography rather than being 100% factual, however the overall sentiment and gratitude from director Espen Sandberg is firmly stamped on every scene.

13th Warrior (1999)

Director: John McTiernan
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Vladimir Kullich, Dennis Storhoi, Omar Sharif, Richard Bremmer, Tony Curran, Clive Russell, Sven Wollter .USA. 1h 43m
Based on Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton

John McTiernan’s fantasy romp from the middle east to the icy hills of Scandanaiva is a bit of a guilty pleasure, the 1999 action adventure often falls apart with random acts but plot holes it’s still something to switch off and allow it to entertain you, then you’ll get on just fine, if you’re a thinker or armchair historian then this might just drive you nuts with its playful manipulation and I just can’t get over someone learning a language fluently in a couple of days..