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

January 2019 Film List

Death Bed – the bed that eats

Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Taxidermia

Mon Oncle

The Omen

Screamers – the douchbags of fishmen island

Bodybags

Quatermass and the Pit

The Monster

October 2018 Film List

X the man with X-ray eyes

True grit

Incredible melting man

Ghostbusters

*Let sleeping corpses lie 6/10

Don’t blink

Doom

Screamers

Brighton Rock

The Most Dangerous Game – Chess

First things first what’s the attraction to Chess? The King of Games…Well first it’s one of the oldest games known to man, it’s technical and shows a lot of character of the person playing.  As soon as you see a chess game set up in the movie you know there is a mental war going on. The cunning tactics that you need to lure a person into a trap, the poker face antics that are played until the final moments are all time which a director can really hit the message home that he’s playing for keeps, the characters are so high class and sophisticated if you’ve not picked up on a think or two then you’d better start taking notes.

There is usually a battle of minds, more than a battle of brawn, someone is up to an evil plan, so check the finer details and see if you can out play the director, and the most devastating move, death, usually this battle will result in some death in some way or in some scenes it will be played by death.

There has been a long lasting kinship between chess and cinema, often seen as the thinking man’s game it’s often used to display character and intelligence. Here’s a list of a few films that have some kind of chess connection.

 

01.Pawn sacrifice (2014)

The film that inspired this list. I am not a chess player myself, I struggle with draughts but I was really interested with this film, it had an usual atmosphere and based on real events, it was a chance to learn something and be entertained. Tobey Maguire, stars as Bobby Fischer, who battled against the soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber). The film is as concentrated about the game as it the characters and tells a thrilling but tragic life story, filled with mental health issues and the US vs USSR cold war and how any event between the two countries was considered a  full on war.  9/10

Spotlight – Lance Henriksen

Aliens (1986)

The sequel to the groundbreaking sci fi movie Alien (1979) introduced another face to the world of androids, instead of the killer bot in the original film, instead James Cameron created a more likable synthetic human names Bishop and sensitivly acted by Henriksen. Previously the android has been devious and acted purely on the greedy actions of the Company but in order to win over audiences and the main character Ripley, a whole new approach had to be taken. Henriksen applied his smaller frame and softer nature to the role and I think it worked really well, he walked on eggshells around those who feared and distrusted him and at no point did he really give an indication of selling out, he briefly appears in follow up films and I think is one of the solid characters from the Alien franchise, and one of a few films with co star Bill Paxton.

Gangster Land (2017)

Director: Timothy Woodward Jr.
Starring: Milo Gibson, Sean Faris, Jason Patric, Mark Rolston, Peter Facinelli, Jamie-Lynn Sigler USA 1h 28m

Every now and again we have a revival of the glorification of the prohibition era, usually involving Al Capone and other characters popular because if his notoriety, 2018 kicked off with Gangster Land, an underpowered translation of the induction of “Machine Gun” Jack McGrun a one time amateur boxer who quickly climbed the ranks as Capone’s second in command.

Bright (2017)

D: David Ayer
S: Will Smith, Joel Edgerton. Noomi Rapace  USA. 1h 57m

Described as the worst movie of 2017, I had to check this out, maybe it was a PR stunt but it worked, it got me looking and I was pleasantly surprised, while constantly looking for the loopholes, terrible acting and a story that I couldn’t understand I found the opposite and was a bit more confused about why this is was coined as being so bad when I was tempted to watch it again….

Not quite realising how long the film was going to be, as a lot of current films are getting shorter for the attention span of the masses, this is a bit of an marathon, being just shy of 2 hours, but it does use all that time quite wisely while being a sort of fantasy rip off of Alien Nation (1988). Instead of aliens descending upon us, this is an alternative reality where Orc’s, Elves and other mythical beings exist. Daryl Ward (Smith) is a know it all police officer who’s been teamed up with a pariah Nick Jakoby (Edgerton) who’s an “unblooded” Orc, we learn that this makes him a bit of a hipster, who’s from a long line of other hipsters who basically don’t kill, this gives him a bum status with all the other Orcs but the humans refuse to accept him as Orcs are famed for having accepting the “darker” more evil path as part of their nature so they can’t be trusted, in the locker rooms men boast about being Orc slayers.

10 of my unpopular movie opinions Vol.1

 

01.Comedy Generally Sucks 

I try not to exclude any genres but I really can’t stick popular comedy films, I guess I just don’t have a funny bone…  no, wait that’s not true at all, follow me on Twitter and find out!! I get a lot of humour from the films I watch I just never feel the need to just sit down and laugh, I prefer to be unsettled. It takes all sorts I suppose, the exception to the rule is Hot Rod (2007) this is something I can sit down and watch with glee about once a year.

 

02.There has never been a decent Batman Film 

just shoot me now! I kinda enjoyed the Tim Burton film, I was about 9 and it was exciting to see all the flashy shit but when I bothered to look back on the film only a few years after its release it was so terrible.. and everything that has come after it has been total crap. I adore the comics, and the animated show was quite fun, but I just can’t visualise a physical batman. I have tried to watch a number of them but I’ve not rated any of them higher than a 3.

03.We need more REAL effects

CGI has it’s place but it’s so typical and boring and can really date a film, it’s guaranteed that within a year or two the film is going to look sloppy. I really admire the craftsmanship and imagination the goes into making real effects, the wonders from Tom Savini and Rick Baker really made an important feature in cinema, it does seem that this era is over but every not and again someone does revive this timeless method over the use of their pooter and it’s brilliant.

04.Budget doesn’t matter 

I get riled up when people rely on the budget of a film for its watchability. There are so many films which cost millions which were total chump and vice versa, it’s one of the dumbest reasons to not like a film. I really admire films like Primer (2004) and Bellflower (2011)  strangely both lofi scifi but they cost less than the catering for a bigger budget film and are deeply moving and amazing tales.

05.Blu Rays are pointless 

I don’t even want to go into my hatred for gay rays. I own one and for some reason it came with the DVD, why the hell I would want both I dunno but I have both.. (the film is Salo, defiantly not something to need to see with any more clarity). I feel the jump from DVD to digital with overstep Gayray, it’s just another use to spend more money like 3D movies and how minidisc was supposed to be the next new format and well we went digital.. I won’t be replacing any of my 3000 films with gay ray.. heck I’m buying more VHS!

06.Cinema experience is overrated 

I do love going to the movies but I prefer to watch them at home, in comfortable clothes, with cheap food, all the booze I can handle, company I approve of and no one telling me to shush or getting offended by my classy farts…

07.2001 a Space Odyssey is sooooo boring.. 

I didn’t want this to get down to films but there are a range of movies and directors that you are expected to worship otherwise you can’t be taken seriously. But 2001, for me.. was so boring.. I really enjoyed the sentinel story it’s loosely based on but this was crap… wait it’s not crap it’s just not thrilling.. not for me..

08.I don’t get hung up about watching  movies on YouTube

 I don’t upload them but I do watch them from time to time, I have a vhs copy of Turkey shoot but there is a HD version on YouTube!! Now and again instead of searching through 3000+dvd’s I do log on and watch it, I don’t feel like a criminal, although technically I am. I’ve watched a few things on there, especially some hard to find films from the Soviet Union. And schit that isn’t on DVD yet,  ultimately it’s evil and somehow it’s funding terrorism (that’s so LOL) but I really don’t see it destroying the film industry completely I still buy a LOT of movies and spend a fortune at the cinema. I’m not a total scumbag but I don’t lose sleep over this.

09.We need MORE black and white movies

 I really don’t discriminate when it comes to movies, (ignore point 01), I like to encompass all of cinema and that includes *old* movies and black and white films, now when I say old I’m talking 1920s and when I mean black and white I mean black and white.. you get me. It’s something often overlooked by younger audiences who can barely cope with a movie without CGI, but I’ve see some impressive new films with CGI that are 90% black at white at least.. and the older films can be equally as thrilling.. turn the colour off and usually lose seats at the cinema,

 

10.The Oscars can bite my ass

I don’t care.. I really don’t..

 

Rampage – Capital Punishment /Rampage You End Now(2014)

Director: Uwe Boll
Starring. Brendan Fletcher, Lochlyn Munro, Mike Dopud, Michaela Mann Canada/Germany/USA. 1h 33m.

Straight after his first rampage in Oregon, Bill Williamson (Fletcher), vanishes off the grid but the actions and message is received loud and clear and his fan base is growing online. He uses the money from his previous heist to fund a new one venture to really get his message home, a second chapter, another rampage and this time he’s coming back for the media. After purchasing weapons and building bombs he shaves his head, sets his house on fire and drives to Washington where he unpacks, burns his car, breaks into a new station, killing security staff and a few employees, he gathers up their number one (asshole) anchorman (Munro) and gathers his hostages in the basement.

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