Gotti (2018)

Director: Kevin Connolly
Starring: John Travolta, Kelly Preston, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Spencer Lofranco, William DeMeo .USA. 1h 50m

The gangsters paradise seems to have had its heyday with bold releases such as Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995), the amazing rag to riches backstories, garnished with riches and savage beatings really enthralled audiences, I was one of many who assumed that this release might just make the holy trinity of awesomeness, but who was I kidding, John Travolta as the Teflon Don!? I want to say that this abysmal movie is The Room (2003) of mobster movies but the room is so bad it’s good, it has some charm and is incredibly memorable where as this crumpled lackluster effort is easily forgettable and it pains me to have to write a review.

Warlock 2 – the Armageddon (1993)

Director: Anthony Hickox

Starring: Julian Sands, Paula Marshall, Chris Young, R G Armstrong . USA . 1h 38m

Warlock (1988) was an amazing film, with a host of rich histories and wonderful effects which became the dawn of a gripping new evil villain with charm and tons of sex appeal; while this film really broke the horror fantasy world apart, it’s sequel, while being a bit more soppy and sentimental, did deliver some gruesome body horror for it’s delightful bad guy, acted by the amazing Julian Sands but without a fiesty hero originally played by Richard E Grant, the film lost some of it’s edge for a more whimsical teen duo who think they can outsmart the Warlock.

The original Warlock film started in the dark ages in Britain, but the keyword for Warlock 2 is Druids and magical stones, an aspect which would make most horrors laughable but Hickox managed to rein back the wands and fairy dust for a touch of the macabre.

Howls (2011)

Director: Jamie Tracey.
Starring. J.J Gallo, Nick Smyth, Jamie  Traey. Canada. 1h 15m.

A muted drama with a dark undercurrent.  A group of guys are spending time together chilling in a cabin located in the Canadian wilderness, when the dog gets lose, all three guys head out to track her down but while the roam around the the forest they soon realise that they are being stalked.

For the most part of the film Paul (Gallo) and George (Smyth) search for the dog, there is a third friend who’s with them for a short while but he returns to the cabin early on and from what I understand this character is the Director Jamie Tracey?  The two guys have many a heart to heart while getting lost in the woods. With their friendship in question they pull apart and soon club together for safety, finally realising how much they mean to each other, but this bromance is in question when they notice something is tracking them, a dark figure looming vaguely in the background, “was that a bear?”. With limited ammunition and only the one rifle between them they do their best to make it back to the cabin alive.

Black Mountainside (2014)

Director: Nick Szostakiwkyj
Starring: Shane Twerdun, Michael Dickson, Carl Toftfelt, Marc Anthony Williams, Andrew Moxham, Timothy Lyle, Steve Bradley. Canada. 1h  39m

Like a creepy love letter to John Carpenter’s; The Thing (1982) from a methed out HP Lovecraft, Black Mountain assembles a dark story the slowly gets more sinister until a bleak but strong ending.

Much like the thing, there are a small crew working in harsh icy conditions of Northern Canada, but this team are a group of archaeologists who uncover an ancient structure and some artifacts which date around the last ice age, perplexed by the date of the objects and in wonderment of the people who crafted them, the men continue to investigate and study the pieces but their presence spook the native members of the crew who quickly abandon them then their communications fail and their supplies are cut off, but this is the least of their problems.

Truth or Dare (2018)

Director: Jeff Wadlow
Starring:  Lucy Hale, Tyler Posey, Violett Beane. USA. 1h  40m

WOW…

*sigh* I’m not sure where to start..

I thought that after a flood of Final Destination and Saw films I thought we all fully understood the whole idea of a consciousness wanting to play game with us, but for some reason this rehash of the previous spends 80% of it’s run time trying to explain the painfully obvious to us.

First you play the game, then the game plays you.

Opening with a disheveled girl freaking out at a gas station, and randomly setting a woman on fire, the film beings a slow introduction to the highly annoying teen crew.

Winchester (2018)

Director: The Spierig Brothers
Starring: Helen Mirren, Jason Clarke, Sarah Snook, Eamon Farren . USA . 1h 39m

The mysteries of the Winchester house have been documented for years and while this movie is based on the facts of a true story it manages to make something mysterious and creepy very mundane and pointless experiment.

The widow of William Wirt Winchester, Sarah (Mirren) went into overdrive at the sudden death of her husband, trying several times to connect with him through spirituality she eventually started to make continuous alterations to their mansion in San Jose using the $20 million dollars inheritance and profits from the Winchester company.

Sarah’s not only working through her grief but she is feeling intense guilt for being part of the gum problem, her husbands guns were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and due to her erratic behaviour, the Winchester company send in a doctor to assess her sanity, Eric Price (Clarke) who’s a drug dependant doctor mourning the suicide of his wife, but he agrees to take on the job and becomes a resident at the home. Sarah is obviously weary of the man but as she’s totally sane, but just having to deal with spirits on a daily basis, she cleans up his act and allows him to proceed with his observations.

Last Night’s Movies 07.08.2017

 

The Bridge (2006) – I love ducofilms, although I don’t fully understand them, are they documentaries or are they films? Do they ever appear in the cinema? Generally I find them on DVD in bargain bins, this one I had been chasing down for years! I knew it was about the a bridge of suicides and it’s one of those things I find highly interesting (yep sick puppy here). It’s just one of those aspects of (life and) death that is rarely subject to an unbiased film. It’s a combination of bridge surveillance and interviews with the family and friends of various jumpers/ it’s actually quite eerie how seeing all these random people talking about absent friends and their only connection is through death. The major criticism is that the filmmakers filmed the bridge for an entire year, capturing every suicide and at no point did they tell the victims (?) families that they had the footage and we’re going to use it in the film. I can see how this could really fuck people up but if you distance yourself from it, it’s a deeply upsetting and poignant aspect of the film. 7/10

Last Nights Movies 02.08.2017

Another crazy night but I didn’t have to babysit my sister and got down to some hardcore painting so I didn’t watch anything new but I had to watch a particular movie again, as there was a puzzling element to it but I think I’ve cracked it now, but I won’t reveal that spoiler until the Post Discussion and that will come after the full review.. but for now here’s a mini insight into my second viewing of…

Let Me Make you a Martyr (2016)

Last Nights Movies 02-08-2017

Quiet Earth (1985) – I love lone man movies, I think we’ve all dreamt of being the only person around, but only for a little while. The fantasy often turns into a horror situation, either there is a threat like Omega Man or something goes terribly wrong as with an episode of  The Twilight Zone where Burgess Meredith gets his dream future of a world alone with his books, only for it to be suddenly taken away by a tragic and simple accident. But in this New Zealand 80’s Sci fi film a scientist finds himself seemingly the last person alive on this planet, searching for survivors and finding nothing he nearly turns to suicide until he stumbles on two more survivors, a ravishing woman and a Maori called Api, the trio team up and roam New Zealand trying to make sense of their situation. It’s one of those post-apocalyptic films that doesn’t fit neatly into the genre, maybe because it’s based on a 1950’s novel and a close contender with The world, the Flesh and the Devil (so close it’s almost a remake).  Rightfully it has cult status as it intelligently probed the drama involved in the situation, it helps having a scientist as the main character rather than a average tough guy, there’s no brute force and ignorance here, it’s all about the science and brilliant ideas, the ending is breath-taking and opens up so many more ideas, not something we see much these days it’s either zombies or zombies 9/10

La Weekend August 1

 

District 9 (2009) – I was flabbergasted when I realised just how much this film was hated, I got my copy for free when I asked if anyone has seen it, people were giving it away.. so I was a bit dubious about watching it, but I was hooked within seconds.. it’s a mockumentary look at a group of alien (workers) who have go stuck in South Africa. The effects are brilliant, both the alien technology and “Prons” design look and “feel” impressive. Obviously the setting is key, the messages are deep an poignant. The film is elevated by the amazing and life changing performance from ?? who plays Vikers he goes through every emotion and reacts in non Hollywood’s way, giving a more interesting and diverse story. Personally I find it so attuned and turned on, I was really hoping for a sequel, but I guess I’ll have to sit quite tight. [REVIEW]10/10