Italian Connection / Hired to Kill / La mala ordina (1972)

Director: Fernando Di Leo.
Starring. Henry Silva,Woody Strode, Adolfo Celi, Mario Adorf , Luciana Paluzzi Italy. 1h 35m.

Following on from Caliber 9, De Leo hits back with another violent manhunt movie.

After a shipment of drugs vanishes a rather charming syndicate boss Corso (Cyril Cusack) settles down two confidants and describes the mood for them, David (Silva) and Frank (Strodey) listen patiently while they are given clear instructions to travel to Italy, where they are to act as American as possible in order to gain the attention of their target, both men speak the language fluently and are more than capable of finding the man suspected of being responsible for the missing drugs and making him suffer. A local assistant, Eva will be waiting on them hand and foot and aiding their mission but the blundering idiot they are sent after might not be quite as useless as everyone suspects.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

Director: J.A. Bayona

Starring : Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall, Daniella Pineda, James Cromwell, Toby Jones, Justice Smith. USA. 2h 9m.

So once again we learn how dangerous dinosaurs are, and that includes mutant dinosaurs.. Because the old school variety just aren’t as scary as we thought… Jurassic World introduced a slightly different take on the “let’s make a theme park with dinosaurs”, Chris Pratt became a new lead with a group of modified raptors including his darling Blue. But the sentiment is quickly launched out the window for a fast paced non heel breaking action flick. All that pent up emotionalism returns in this even quicker paced often silly sequel.

Opening with a group of mercenaries trying to collect dinosaur bones to build more beasts, as their island is destroyed by a volcano, they are soon despatched by a few lose dinosaurs. A montage follows the world is divided, let the dinosaurs die or do they have a right to life and should we save them? Claire Dearing  (Dallas Howard) is determined to save as many as she can, after hooking up with Owen they are summoned to the mansion of Benjamin Lockwood (Cromwell), who was there when the first dino’s were extracted and with the help of his associate Eli Mills (Spall) they have set up a sanctuary. All Claire and Owen have to do it fly to the island, gather as many dinosaurs as possible and get them back to the sanctuary. Claire and Owen do their “thing” without their feelings get in the way too much.

Mad Max (1979)

Director: George Miller
Starring: Mel Gibson, Hugh Keays-Bryn, Joanne Samuel, Steve Bisley, Tim Burns, Roger Ward, Geoff Parry. Australia. 1h 35m

Let me just start this off with a short introduction to explain that I absolutely live for this film and can’t even come close to express my obsession with it with mere words, I’m going to try and remain as calm as possible while writing this short review as I feel I need to put something on my blog but there will be a Post Discussion where I’ll get into much more details and pour my heart out even more..

This bleak dystopian thriller stars Mel Gibson as “Mad” Max Rockastansky, a seasoned police officer who prefers to work alone but begins to fear that he’s becoming as crazy as the people he hunts down in high speed chases across the Australian desert roads.

Commando (1985)

Director: Mark L Lester W: Jeph Loeb P: Joel Silver
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rae Dawn Chong, Dan Hedaya, Vernon Wells, David Patrick Kelly, Bill Duke, Bill Paxton. 1h 30m. USA.

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a retired  United States Special Forces Colonel John Matrix doing this best to raise his daughter Jenny (Alyssa Milano), the two live in a secluded cabin in the hills. One by one his old team are assassinated by unknown mercenaries in violent and unsuspected ways. When his ex commander visits to warn him; they are met by same mercenaries who kill the men posted to protect the family and kidnap Jenny. John is presented with a task from a ruthless south american dictator who needs him to carry out a political assassination in Val Verde, reluctantly he accepts in order to protect his daughter. But john has other plans..After killing his entourage his escapes the plane to the remote island, thus giving him 18 hours until they realise he’s escaped and thus to find and rescue this daughter. Following the vertically challenged Sully (Kelly) he teams up with reluctant Cindy (Chong) and eventually the two work together to locate the missing girl.

Terminator (1984)

 D: James Cameron W: James Cameron P: John Daly, Gale Anne Hurd C: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn. 1h 47m. USA.

This timeless science fiction classic from James Cameron amounts to the perfect combination of the modern fear of a robotic apocalypse and time travel. Since the H G Wells novella published in 1895 The Time Machine the unlimited possibilities of time travel and its effects have been fully explored and probed but never with such sharp violence and ultimate bad ass villain.
It is a remorseless on screen adaptation of good vs evil but it’s an evil that we created in our attempts to play god, which see’s a modern heroine in develop from a fragile waitress into a tough bitch making bombs, dressing wounds and learning some awesome kill skills.

Tank 432 (2015)

Director: Nick Gillespie. Writer : Nick Gillespie.
Starring. Gordon Kennedy, Michael Smiley, Rupert Evans,  UK. 1h 28m.

I saw a preview for this by accident trying to find details for the less than imaginative sci fi flick The Tank (2017), I am unsure how my mother knew about it and that I was totally oblivious, but these things do happen and thankfully she had the film on DVD and after seeing that Ben Wheatley had his fingers in this sticky pie so I got stuck in.

Kong: Skull Island (2017)

Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston, John Goodman, Brie Larson, John C Reilly, Toby Kebbell, Corey Hawkins. USA. 1h48m.

When I first heard about this film I was shaking my head crying about Another remake, but I still headed out to see it, just because I wanted to have a sofa to myself at the new local Empire Cinema,so I booked those two seats baby!

So it’s not a remake but it is a remake, yet again we’re discovering Kong but he’s not King anymore, in the same was that Spider man is not just a spider man he’s the AMAZING Spiderman, so now that King Kong had been downgraded and a slightly different persona and his tastes for blondes has been abandoned.

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

La Weekend July 2017 – 3

Oh dear it was a bit of a crappy movie weekend, I had a lot of new stuff to see but I panned most it all for crappy stuff as I spent most of the weekend painting and being a general douchbag. So after watching hours of rubbish on YouTube I eventually got around to some TV movies.. yeah I know I say I don’t watch it and I don’t, unless there is a movie on..

Passenger 57 (1992) – I used adore this movie when I was a teen, mostly due to the hot 90’s hair action going on, but it was one of the more talked about action films (on the playground)..  John Cutter (Westley Snipes) is a former police officer and now has the pleasure of escorting a terrorist Charles Rane (Bruce Payne) on his flight to the FBI, somehow, he takes over the plane and the two men have to physically and mentally psych each other out. It’s a bit laughable now but I think it will always hold a special place in my heart, but it’s nowhere near as awesome as New Jack City.. It was possibly one of the last films Rane did while he was still semi hot. and Tom Sizemore was on his verge of slipping into a drug coma. All said and done I think I found Con Air more re watchable and that’s saying a lot… 5/10

Last Nights Movies 05.07.2017

*The Belko Experiment (2016)

D: Greg McLean S: John Gallagher Jr, Tony Goldwyn, 1h 29m Thriller/Action (USA)

I remember when the trailer popped up on my Youtube feed, it (obviously) made the film look amazing, but I was highly intrigued, who wouldn’t be, the premise is en point, an office on shutdown and suddenly respectable people are thrown into an animalist situation, it has so many classic elements that could be played on, from JG Ballard’s Highrise, Cabin in the woods, Operation Endgame, Lord of the Flies, Wedlock, Running Man and a thousand more books and films that deal with tense social nightmares. It’s not BRILLIANT and it could have been so much more. The broad outline is an office block is locked down, unknown forces have taken over control and surveillance, the staff are tasked to kill X amount of people of X people will be killed, they think it’s hoax until a couple of heads explode, they soon realise that the chips inserted into the necks are bombs, eventually a hierarchy is formed and the place becomes bedlam until a fairly disappointing ending..

There are a lot of errors and some blindingly obviously facts are totally ignored and I guess the creators just assumed we would all turn a blind eye, after all it’s only a movie. The character development was a bit shoddy, relying on some really dated stereotypes to keep the film flowing, the pothead being the most noticeable. The numbers of people seemed terribly wrong, they mentioned only a few hundred at most, my office is a third of the size of theirs and we have over a 1000 staff!?!? The blood and gore look brilliant but there just isn’t enough of it.It was enjoyable enough to try and get through only to find out the mystery but I don’t think I need to go back again..

RATING 4/10

After the excitement of Belko I went back to a golden oldie…

Incubo Sulla Città contaminata/Nightmare City (1980)

D:Umberto Lenzi S: Hugo Stiglitz Laura Trotter, 1h30m Scifi/Horror (ITALY)

I feel this movie is often underrated,the beginning of the 80’s was a period when horror and sci fi was changing, and a lot films were obviously made in the 70’s and released early on in the 80’s but with a thick layer of hippy antics about them, this is one of those films. but if you looked at it as a 70’s film then suddenly it’s not so bad.. Hugo Stiglitz plays a TV news anchor who witnessed the collapse of civilization as the city becomes overrun with mindless hungry assholes. The movie feels different from the Zombie films of it’s time, the message is much more political, and the director has clearly requested that this isn’t categorised as a Zombie film, and if you follow his advice and think about it in terms of a “Radiation Sickness Movie” then it makes more sense and the message of anti-nuclear anti-war is pretty clear.

It is a pretty blood thirsty survivor film, it’s quick pace and unlimited amounts of ammo make it quite “fun” but there is a constant danger and reminder that humanity is on it’s way into hell.. I really like the how much ground this news guy covers, sadly while trying to save the people (mostly women) that he chances upon, he just can’t seem to manage, but his arsenal (left over army weapons mostly) is vast!!! it really does play out like a survivor game.

RATING 6/10