Director: Russell Mulcahy Starring: Christopher Lambert, Robert Joy, David Cronenberg, Leland Orser .USA. 1h 48m
With a recognisable cast and no budget, there’s a clear distinction between Resurrection and the movies it’s imitating, but despite its imilations it’s still a fun watch, but one which could have been extraordinarily gruesome and chilling if put in the right hands.
Christopher Lambert and Leland Orser team up as a bmovie Mills and Somerset as they hunt a deranged killer who’s emabring on a pet project to construct the body of christ, much like John Doe in Se7en this twisted mastermind is incredibly intelligent and masterfully deviant. There’s a huge strive to match the dark oppressing cityscape that Se7en is based in, but having the main officer, John Prudhomme (Lambert) painted as a superstitious cajun there’s a lot of hoops to jump through for a mainstream audience.
Director: Sean Foley Starring: Julian Barratt, Simon Farnaby, Essie Davis, Steve Coogan, Richard Cabe, Andrea Riseborough, Russell Tovey, David Schofield, Harriet Walter, Simon Callow, Kenneth Branner. UK. 1h 29m
When your indie retro styled Brit Flick has major stars like Andrea Riseborough, Kenneth Brannagh and Simon Callow playing minor little cameos then you’d assume you’ve hit the big time or at least have an idea so crazy it might just work!? Mindhorn is a triumph of British comedy, starring Julian Barratt, who’s made us all laugh in comedy shows like The Mighty Boosh but has also astounded fans in solid trippy dramas like A Field In England, but let’s face it, if you don’t laugh at he antics in the Ben Wheatly classic then you’d end up in an asylum. But in this ridiocusly production he takes the lead and delivers an outstanding performance as a dated washed up actor who is called in by Isle of White police to help them fight a devious criminal.
It’s the truth time!
There has always been a strong comedy troupe, about that one guy who won’t let go of the past, He’s the chap in the corner of the pub, talking about his old band and possibility of being a Rockstar, but he just missed a great opportunity, all of this is maximised in Mindhorn. Julian Barrat plays the role of a hasbeen actor, who once had the role of a lifetime the lead in a hit TV show where he is a blend of 6 million dollar man and James bond, but today he’s washed up, he can’t get a role, drinks too much, no one takes him seriously and he still wears his retro 70’s clothing and a ridiculous mishmashed toupe.
“This isn’t the Bronx, this is the Isle of Man!”
Mindhorn is totally pathetic but he truly believes in himself as his tv character and with the chance to live that lifestyle again he jumps at the opportunity but fails miserably at every hurdle, the man can’t even make a phone call without wrecking the room. As a blend of Mr Magoo and Inspector Clouseau he’s a tornado of antics but at least he’s hysterically funny for the audience otherwise this would be jarring. Any hero who wakes up part naked on a police officer’s desk, half naked and high on pills having to explain drawing a pair of tits on someone’s land rover, is worth a few minutes of your attention, am i right?
If you’re a fan of the Boosh and subversive British humour then this can’t be missed, let your hair down and don’t take life too seriously, alongside the cast and have a super funny night even is Barret does wear black face for part of the film, i doubt anyone will be triggered due to the circumstances.
TLDR:
Mindhorn (2016) Indie British Comedy starring Julian Barratt as a washed up actor who can't drop his vintage detective character, after getting caught up in a live police investigation he manages to fall further from grace. Laugh out loud comedy gold. pic.twitter.com/VkIelunwXD
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: DenShon Hardy Starring: Sean A Kaufman,Tiffany Brown-Tavarez, Alan Bendich, Stan J Adams. USA. 1h 33m
There a lot of question marks hanging over the heads of everyone involved in DeShon Hardy’s paranormal horror that follows a curious Pastor, Jonathan Stokes (Kaufman), when his fellow clergymen Bishop Taylor (Bendich) is on his deathbed, he reveals an interesting concept that the spirits that are released during an exorcism simply follow the priest back to their church and wait to follow their parishioners home to haunt them and thus spread like an occult disease. Continue reading Dwellers The Curse of Pastor Stokes (2020)→
Director: Brett Ratner Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes . USA. 2h 4m
There comes a time when every movie is going to be remade, no matter how cult or classic the original is. But did we really need this remake of the near perfect Michael Mann gusty thriller Manhunter (1986), Originally Brian Cox played the flesh eating doctor, but while his take on the now iconic doctor; is different from Hopkins laid back soft talker, Cox’s interpretation is very apt for the direction of Mann’s psychological dog fighting style. Is the Hopkins trademark on the character so powerful that he gets to shoulder his way through to complete his trilogy. Well, Dino De Laurentiis, producer of both Manhunter and Red Dragon and effectively the Lecter copyright holder, has decreed it. So Anthony Hopkins returns, for the final time, because after this he vowed never to play the role again and it’s not surprising as the task was given to Brett Ratner to facilitate, a director who can handle a fast paced popcorn action flick but really struggled with this type of deep psychological and powerfully cerebral thriller. If only this was an equally horrific sentimental comedy, like The Family Man, where Ratner would feel more at home. Continue reading Red Dragon (2002)→
Irish stud, Andrew Scott stars in this muted drama that hinges on a community that is constantly turning a blind eye to some of the most horrific events that could happen behind closed doors.
When a young boy, Tyler Zeigler, goes missing in a sleepy fictional backwoods town of Harburgh, Pennsylvania, a former steel town that has seen brighter days. A local garbage truck driver and single father, Donny (Scott), plays detective, embarking on a precarious and obsessive investigation. Donald Devlin isn’t like all the other people in his town, and it’s kinda hard to pin point exactly what his ailment is, autism is top of my list but I’ve never quite seen a detective like him, Monk (2004-2009) had OCD along with a range of fears and phobias, Poirot was also OCD and it seems these afflictions help the perception of these amazing individuals, Donald is a special Samaritan, for the most part it’s easy to understand his concerns but every now and again he comes swinging from left field and does something really random as he attempts to grasp the world around him.
Director: Dan O’Bannon. Starring. John Terry, Jane Sibbett, Chris Sarandon, Robert Romanus. USA. 1h m. Based on: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward : HP Lovecraft
I didn’t know this was based on Lovecraft’s writings before watching because I do very little research about movies as I know I’m going to watch them to find out if I like them anyway.. But it takes about 15 or so minutes before that heady sense of Lovecraftian crazy logic and dark magic seeps through this straight to video horror movie.
Starting like any modern detective story, the film opens with a rich and forgotten wife Clare Ward (Sibbett) pleading for help from a private detective John March (Terry) to investigate the worrying mysterious behaviour of her husband Charles Dexter Ward (Sarandon). Through a series of conversations the backstory is revealed, Charles has recently isolated himself in the families carriage house, after doing extensive family history research he discovers an ancestor, Joseph Curwen, to whom he bears an uncanny resemblance. Continue reading The Resurrected (1991)→
Director: Mark Lambert Bristol. Starring. David Carradine, Darren E Burrows, Michael Bowen, Joe Unger USA. 1h 31m
The offbeat style of this movie is incredibly alluring, as a possessive and unhinged FBI detective (Carradine) is tracking down a deranged psychopath but he might have bigger demons than the killer!? Eventually the story morphs into something very different as regular cop gets involved and the film takes on a documentary style, but despite being blasted from all directions this highly strange movie was on a duo disc with Satan’s Little Helper (2004) and if you’ve seen and enjoyed that, then there’s a chance you’ll get into this too.
Carradine’s character, Louis Dehoven, is brilliant, and possibly a requisite of his actual mentality at the time, but the Special Agent is tormented by demons who give him insights when he performs rituals with corpses and through self flagellation he gets clues for his case, there’s no real solid evidence that he’s anyway connected with the FBI as he claims but he’s certainly out for the killer. Continue reading Killer X (1999)→
Director: Bong Joon-ho Starring: Kim Hye-ja, Won Bin, Jin GooSouth Korea. 2h 8m
This very daring South Korean movie is both alarming and fascinating, with what seems like an extremely simple premise, a young man; with marginal intelligence is accused of murdering a local girl. it’s an open and shut case, as an item with his name is found near the body and an eye witness places him at the scene of the crime. But his ever doting mother turns into a dynamic Miss Marple and tries to unravel the case and prove her some innocence. So here we have it he’s either innocent or guilty, sure either prove his Innocence or find evidence to prove his guilt, it can’t be any simpler than that?
If this film was made for the American audience, this would indeed be the narrative, and any deviation would result in an uproar, the audiences would be frenzied, but this is a South Korean movie and a film by Bong Joon-ho the creative genius behind Host (2006) and unusual creature feature about a toxic waste squid like beast that managed to terrorize a small community; dragging one young victim away causing her family members to tackle it for her return as the authorities would not help or listen to them. In a similar stance, Mother shows that blood ties are strong and the state cannot be trusted to get the job done.Continue reading 마더; RR: Madeo / Mother (2009)→
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