Director: Jon S. Baird Starring: James McAvoy, Jamie Bell, Eddie Marsan, Imogen Poots, Gary Lewis, Brian McCardie, Jim Broadbent, Kate Dickie, Shauna Macdonald .UK. 1h 37m
It seems to have taken the british public a while to regain their footing after Trainspotting hit the big screens, the movie became the voice of a generation, but while Welshe’s entire book collection began flying off the shelves it was a while before another book was transformed from paper to screen. There were a few shorts, a couple of TV movies but after such a success and literally acclaim it baffles why there was such a wait. The original book’s atmosphere and 90’s risque narrative seems pale when released 15 into the future.
Director: Giuseppe Vari Starring: Lou Castel, Adolfo Celi, Beba Loncar. Italy. 1h 32m
One of the easily overlooked Giallo/Politizen films which has a storyline which trips over into the Psychotropic realms there’s a ton of sleeze to get through in Vari’s vibrant thriller.
Fashion photographer Carlo (Castel) and hit model girlfriend Olga (Loncar) are rolling in the dunes when Carlo notices a shady encounter, a couple of men start beating a third man unconscious and set fire to him in his car, Carlo catching all these on film, knowing they are onto something big and take the photos to Uncle Fifi, Olgas wheelcharir bound porno director relative, for advice on how to get the most money for the precious photos.
Director: DJ Caruso Starring: Val Kilmer, Vincent D’Onofrio, Adam Goldberg, Lusi Guzman, Doug Hutchison, Peter Sarsfaard, DB Wong, R Lee Ermey, Meat Loaf, Danny Trejo. USA. 1h 43m
Coming from the early 2000’s there’s still a 1990s fever dream running through DJ Caruso drug fueled action thriller, starring Val Kilmer as a lone wolf Danny Parker (AKA Tom Van Allen) who spends his days infiltrating a group of colourful druggies while trying to hatch an elaborate revenge plan against those who wronged him.
Director: Anthony DiBlasi Starring: Juliana Harkavy, Natalie Victoria, J LaRose, Joshua Mikel. USA. 1h 30m
Just when you thought it was safe enough to guard an abandoned prison during the graveyard shift… There’s something about The Last Shift which really resonates with horror fanatics. A simple story which is the ultimate setting for a horror story is amped up with good old fashioned ghostly atmospherics and relies on practical effects, this is what the fans cry out for constantly and when it’s delivered it’s welcomed with open creepy arms!
Jessica (Harkavy) is left to her own devices while guarding a local empty and highly haunted prison during the night shift. and the night becomes a roller coaster of jump scares, poltergeist activity and moving family revelations.
Director: Scott Derrickson Starring: Eric Bana, Edgar Ramirez, Olivia Munn, Chris Coy. USA. 1h 58m Adapted from: Beware the Night – Ralph Sarchie
From the dawning of The Exorcist every possession movie attempts to become the scariest movie ever made, and yet, through the decades there’s a building up of different styles and techniques which seems to flavour the films throughout the decades and sadly Deliver Us From Evil falls into a series of modern tropes while bringing together some brilliant actors who are often underused for a plot which is apparently based on real events.
Backwoods horrors seem to have traveled from the deserts of the southern American into the cold forests of the north, incorporating indigenous folklore along the way. The Silencing tries to keep itself in the here and now, offering a grimy armchair detective mystery with icy drama, some daring thrills and a fathers promise to find his missing daughter at all costs.
Director: Fruit Chan Starring: Jin Zhang, Anderson Silva, Kevin Cheng, Suet Lam .Hong Kong. 1h 25m
The UFC is an absolute goldmine not only does it make super fighters, but it and generally if you can nurture a dynamic Hong Kong action movie with at least one big name you’ll take in cash.. But blend the two poorly and you’ll end up with this disjointed mess, that feels as if the producers knew what they wanted to do, but wrote any bull in to make it happen.
What starts as a really engaging crime thriller following a determined gun happy cop, Officer Kowloon (Jin) who opens the film boiling in a cooking pot, in a seedy backstory restaurant, Lam Suet taunting him as the two compare Dragon tattoos, fortunate that our hero has a better back story featuring an adorable (brightly coloured cgi) Dragon that he met as a child…after the bonding he shoots Lams hand off in a function room and gets suspended, this becomes a trend with Kowloon even while investigating a spate of murders targeting female police officers he manages to fudge the operation, not only letting the only suspect go, but losing his fiancee\fellow officer. Continue reading The Invincible Dragon (2019)→
Director: Philip Noyce Starring: Denzel EWashington, Angelina Jolie, Queen Latifah, Michael Rooker, Luis Guzman, Leland Orser .USA. 1h 48m
Based on The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver
For a film that came after Se7en, half of me wants to commend it for not being a copy of the Fincher masterpiece, however the bar was set and the collector here was only interested in bone not bonus points.
Set against a stereotypical grey city with colour people, Angelia Jolie co-stars as a rookie cop Amelia Donaghy, so dedicated to her job that her vague relationship is cast aside the second it starts to demand her time but she has good reasons to be so dedicated, it’s what she wants to do and pretty soon the most unlikely person in the world is going to spot how great a cop she is. She’s not the average officer, she stops trains with her torch and pays a kid to get her an instant camera to preserve the crime scene, the kid doesn’t run off with her cash and her pictures are just as good as the professionals.. Continue reading The Bone Collector (1999)→
Director: Kathryn Bigelow Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Ron Silver, Clancy Brown, Tom Sizemore . USA. 1h 42m
We always assume that the police force are highly attentive and can sniff out a bad guy a mile away but just like everyone they have moments where they are as vulnerable as you and I, and it’s during one of these moment of vulnerability which catches a rookie cop off guard and leads to a crime wave in New York City.
Jamie Lee stars as Megan, a rookie cop full of pride at her achievements and eager to be a great cop she finds herself suspended on her first day when she blows a low life criminal ( Sizemore) away in a convenient store when he holds the place up, with her high level of enthusiasm she doesn’t remember what happened to the gun she knew he was holding and is suspended for killing an unarmed man. Unbeknownst to New York’s finest the gun is now in the hands of Eugene Hunt (Silver) highly stressed commodities trader who’s slowly become unhinged and is now totally in love with Megan as sees her as a death goddess. Megan, after being taken to the cleaners by the powers that be, headed by Nick Mann (Brown), is soon reinstated when a body turns up with a bullet, with her name carved into it. Continue reading Blue Steel (1991)→
Director: Emilio Miraglia (as Hal Brady). Starring. Henry Silva, Beba Loncar, Keenan Wynn, Carlo Palmucci, Pier Paolo. USA. 1h 33m.
Emilio Miraglia has conjured up a vibrant Italian noir-crime thriller from a story co-written by Massimo De Rita who wrote the debut hit for Miraglia , Assassinsation (1967) which also stars Henry Silver who returns in this follow up as the heavy handed Inspector Sterling, a police inspector whose son has been brutally killed outside the family home in retaliation to his police work. Known for his brilliant Giallo and Poliziottesco movies such as The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (1972) and The Night Evelyn Came out of her Grave (1971), Miraglia’s successes came after these hard hitting Poliziottesco classics. Continue reading Quella carogna dell’ispettore Sterling / Frame Up / Falling Man (1968)→
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