'A Quiet Place'
Relatively entertaining, if some what stupid in places, post-apocalypse nonsense that passes 90 mins by harmlessly enough. 'A Quiet Place' centres its story on a family as they survive in a world dominated by creatures that locate their prey by sound. They're swift, brutal and pretty scary. The film, rightly, resists the temptation to explain them, too, and instead drops the viewer into the mix, as we follow the family in their attempts to remain intact and as silent as they can.
This is helped by the fact that the family are made up of people we care for, as their parts are well acted, convincing and they feel real, even when the script has them do stupid things. Special mention goes to deaf actress, Milicent Simmonds, who conveys her character's emotions well, without making a sound and the technique of using absolute silence when she's the focus of attention was a good one, even if it is forgotten about here and there. Elsewhere there's a fine turn by Noah Jupe and the always great Emily Blunt. John Krasinski does well too. Plus, he's shown that he's not too bad behind the camera either.
The "gimmick" of being quiet is very well handled and aids the film immensely. The tension really does get ratcheted up because of it. But, the monsters are kind of irregular in their activities and into the bargain, I was continually perplexed at the notion of where they went to, in their own down time. They couldn't be far away, because we can see that one loud sound can bring them barrelling along in seconds.
I was also slightly irritated that nobody in the family thought of setting up some sort of sound system a couple of hundred yards from the house to distract the monsters, should the shit hit the fan. They have working electricity (with a super quiet generator, I presume???), so it would have been possible to string cable out to a speaker of some description. But, they did have an emergency fireworks system...so...
All in all though, this was quite enjoyable and I'd recommend it. There are at least a couple of well handled, tense, scenes that actually had me very excited. But, one has to keep in mind, that it is a horror movie. So a certain forgiving attitude may have to apply to its more sillier parts and an ending that left a little to be desired.
8/10
'Jurassic Park'
It's hard to believe that this is now 25 years old. A very sobering thought to one who first saw it in the cinema all those years ago, but 'Jurassic Park' - probably Spielberg's last great film - hasn't lost any of its power to entertain. Everyone knows the story, so I'll not rehash it here and besides, it's quite secondary to main point of the film...seeing dinosaurs on the rampage. But, unlike the modern travesties trading under the name Jurassic World, 'Jurassic Park' never ceases to be exciting, even when the dino's are off the screen, which is for an awful lot of the running time.
When they do make an appearance, however, they are as brilliant as they ever were and the tyranosaur's scream is just how you remember it. Piercing and chilling. The CGI and animatronics have aged slightly, but their still more than capable, which is a testament to the late Stan Winston's excellent work. and even if the dinosaur's presented in the film are entirely fictional in nature, they still have to power to awe you.
Acting wise, there's not a lot to write home about. But, everyone does the job they need to and even the trademark Spielbergian kids aren't as irritating as they sometimes are in his movies. In fact they're kind of charming in their own right and they are the centre of the film's most exciting parts, when they're attacked by the T Rex and the Raptors.
All in all, 'Jurassic Park' is still a very fine and exciting film. But unlike its historical cousin, 'Jaws', it does leave me a little bit unfulfilled at the end for a reason that I can't put my finger on.
Unfortunately, the stellar success of 'Jurassic Park' meant that it fathered the inevitable and less than stellar sequels, to which point we have now entered the "reboot" phase with the pretender to the throne 'Jurassic World'. None of the sequels - not even the Spielberg helmed 'The Lost World' - were up to scratch and the modern, rebooted, franchise is even lesser, despite its hideous box office extravagances.
8/10
'Rise of the Footsoldier'
A disjointed serious of events strung together on an "awright geezer, u know wot I mean 'arry" type of narration, where the audience sits through one nasty occurrence after another, all carried out by thoroughly despicable excuses for humanity.
Starting with a brief spell on the terraces and giving a passing mention to the dubious exploits of the Inter City Firm, a gang of West Ham football hooligans from the 80's, we follow East End hardnut, Carlton Leech (Ricci Harnett), as he drags his miserable face from one scene to the next. After several minutes with the ICF, we're whipped off to Leech's time as a bouncer and we're eventually introduced to who should have been the main focus of the film, Pat Tate (Craig Fairbrass), a small time hood with whom Leech forms a dubious relationship. Further along we bump into more thinly sketched thugs, one of which seems to be a big shot (or at least a bigger shot than the rest) Mickey Steele (Billy Murray). Obviously, none of this ends well, but it's the "footsoldier" himself that comes off the least worst. Which is just as well, as he got to write the book on which the film was based.
'Rise of the footsoldier' never seems completely coherent and makes the viewer confused as to who they are watching and why, too often. It's also littered with people that appear far more interesting than the lead and makes you feel that a film following them would have been more satisfactory, even though they are (as previously mentioned) thinly sketched. Maybe that's because the likes of Craig Fairbrass or Billy Murray just have a better presence than Ricci Harnett and when they on screen, they steal the limelight every time. NOTE: The second sequel actually does centre of Pat Tate.
The curiously named 'Rise of the Footsoldier' trundles on to its interminable ending, with which the film opened, and makes its 2 hours and 15 minutes feel like days. There's a shorter version of the film floating around too, but I get the impression that that would be all the more disjointed, as the long version feels like its skipping out on a lot, as it is. But, none of it is interesting enough for me to lament that or to check out the other two film's in the series.
It's not all terrible, though, and there's a certain watchability to the explosive violence that these repugnant animals engage in. But there's not an ounce of humanity in any of the people on the screen. So, whereas a film like 'Nil By Mouth', may show horrific brutality too, it's carried out by people who still feel like people (albeit people you wouldn't want to be around). The characters in 'Rise of the Footsoldier' are simply one note all the way through the film and they lose their control over the slightest of things, all of the time, to the point where the whole exercise just becomes exhausting.
4/10
'The Meg'
Yet another in the long line of poor shark movies, seeking to try and leech something from 'Jaws'. But, just like every single shark movie after Spielberg's masterpiece, from 1976's 'Mako: The Jaws of Death' to 2018's 'The Meg', it fails miserably to capture anything from the 1975 film.
Based on the 20 year old novel by Steve Alten, 'The Meg' - shorthand for Megalodon, the prehistoric forebear of the Great White - stars likeable Brit actionman, Jason Statham as Jonas Taylor, a deep sea rescue diver (as only Hollywood would imagine), who has been lamenting an, ostensibly, failed rescue attempt on a submarine that had been rammed by an unknown object. Jonas' subsequent ramblings about a "creature" gets him marginalised and he disappears into a drunken funk somewhere in Thailand.
Years later at the bottom of the Pacific ocean, near the Marianas Trench, a state of the art research facility, Mana One, is in the middle of an expedition to penetrate a cold layer that is believed to conceal a deeper level to the trench as theorised by Dr. Zhang (Winston Chao). The expedition, led by Zhang's daughter Suyin (Li Bingbing), proves successful and it finds that deeper level. Unfortunately, the sub that is penetrating the cold layer is attacked...by "something" and gets disabled. Thus Jonas Taylor has to be brought in to put a rescue into effect, which he's persuaded to do because his ex is on board the Marianas Trench sub. Further misfortune leads to the rescue enabling an thermal escape route for a giant shark to swim to the upper levels of the Pacific. This behoves Statham to spend the rest of the movie basically diving into the water to save people or combat the megalodon, as it makes its way to Sanya Bay to dine on Chinese food.
On the surface, 'The Meg' sounds like it could be a fun and silly popcorn shark movie. But, it tries to take itself just a bit too seriously. It's characters and story aren't as serious as 'Jaws', but they're still far too po-faced for the ridiculous story involved here.
Another problem is that it's almost bloodless, which is a real let down. A film like this should be, literally, dripping in gore, and I believe that the director, Jon Turteltaub, has said that the original film was more so. But, 'The Meg' has been turned in as a neutered PG-13 movie, emasculated as to achieve a maximum-bums-on-seats goal. Further and more cynically, the film is aimed at raking in the Yuan, by involving a number of Chinese faces and setting a portion of its running time in Sanya Bay.
The ultimate nail in The Meg's coffin, though, is that its CGI sharks (all of em) are only just about a level or two above the average Sharknado movie. The shark(s) never feels like it's sharing the same space as the people, or other objects, on the screen and it's always disappointing when the shark actually makes its appearance. Unlike Bruce, in 'Jaws', who keeps his horrific demeanour even when he breaks the surface of the water, the megalodon in 'The Meg' falls apart when it shows too much of its hand and coupled with the lack of guts in the movie makes for a pretty empty experience.
So, 'The Meg' ends up being not spectacular enough to be a summer blockbuster (al la 'Jaws) and not dumb enough to be entertaining trash.
3/10
'Southern Comfort'
Walter Hill's, at the time, terribly unappreciated film, sees a bunch of idiot weekend warriors of the National Guard, traipse around the swamps of Louisiana as they're chased and picked off, one-by-one, by pissed off Cajuns.
'Deliverance' comparisons aside, Hill's film operates on its own merits and is a great example of a good film that couldn't find its audience in 1981. Part of this is down to its Vietnamesque trappings, which nobody - especially in America - wanted to see at the time. But, over the years, its become more liked and draws generally favourable opinions from most viewers.
Lead by a couple of serviceable performances from Keith Carradine and the late Powers Boothe, Southern Comfort's nine man squad features familiar nobodies, like Peter Coyote, Fred Ward, Alan Autry and Brion James as a lump of unlikeable targets, full of foul mouthed bravado and indiscipline. Against these clowns are some faceless Cajuns, who have been wronged, foolishly, by the squadies and whom decide to take matters into their own hands and get revenge. It's fairly straighforward, but plays out in a very tense and pleasing manner, leading to a great stand off at a friendly Cajun village where we're treated to an exciting showdown, soundtracked to the tune of 'Parlez Nous oire'.
Aside from some very minor missteps here and there - a character's breakdown isn't terribly convincing and there's a bit of a silly knife fight - 'Southern Comfort' is a genuinely great picture of its type. A real "man's" picture - if I can use that term - of the type that's just not made any more and one that uses a very interesting background of Louisiana Cajuns, which I've no doubt are the barest of sketches of those people, but it's absorbing nonetheless. Walter Hill's actors, too, are put through the mill and endure some pretty nasty conditions, slogging through damp swamps and it all feels very real, which is a boon to the authentic atmosphere and allows viewer by in to be easily attained.
9/10
'Deliverance'
The Spiritual cousin of 'Southern Comfort' (even though Walter Hill would hit you in the mouth for saying that) 'Deliverance', unlike Hill's movie, was a huge hit in 1972 and a very important film for John Boorman and its stars. One of the few films that Burt Reynolds counts as "a good one he's been in", 'Deliverance' was based on James Dickey's novel and concerns itself with a disastrous canoe trip down the fictional (and soon to be dammed) Cahulawassee river in Georgia.
The naive city boys, Ed (John Voight) and Bobby (Ned Beatty) come afoul of some mountain folk, who wish to...er...have their way with them. Coming to the rescue, but not before Bobby is assaulted by one of the hillbilly's (a brilliant and disturbing Bill McKinney), Lewis (Burt Reynolds) kills Bobby's assailant, but the other neerdowell escapes into the woods. Lewis, Ed, Bobby and Drew (Ronny Cox) then have to decide on how to proceed. Do they own up, or bury the body, which is soon to be covered by dam water.
'Deliverance' is rightly considered a classic of cinema and its pivotal scene still retains a certain shocking power, even though it's quite tame by today's standards. All the stars do their jobs admirably, including their own stunts, and even the non-actors hold their own. Boorman's direction is fine, if it's without flair or signature, and the backdrop of Appalachian terror remains unnerving.
Hard to believe that there would be people out there that haven't seen this film, but if you haven't, it's worth your time.
9/10
'Who Dares Wins'
1982 British film about the SAS, that takes its genesis and main cues from the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege and stars the late Lewis Collins from TV's 'The Professionals', in an effort to break out of the small screen.
A favourite of mine when I was a kid, but today, I see it as a rather stupid film that doesn't really add up, even if it's relatively enjoyable small scale cinema. It's full of cliched lefty "terrorists", of the type that exist only in certain minds, who's demands are so ridiculous it really does beggar belief and a TV version of the SAS, who are all macho nitwits, with shouty mouths.
Judy Davis, who's great, despite the general silliness of her character, is the unhinged Frankie Leith, leader of a group called "The People's Lobby", who wish to see the end of the nuclear arms race. To meet this aim, they want a bomb dropped on Holy Loch in Scotland, with the inhabitants evacuated, of course. Peter Skellen (Collins) is tasked with infiltrating this band as a man on the inside, to be there when the SAS are finally dispatched.
It's all very silly and won't live up to too much critical analysis. But, it has a certain old school British film charm, that's absent from movies produced there nowadays. In many ways, it feels much like 1978's, 'The Wild Geese', which was produced by the same guy, Euan Lloyd, and was another childhood favourite of mine. 'The Wild Geese', though, tends to retain a bit more believability, if I can use that word.
With the action limited to the last 20 minutes, much of 'Who Dares Wins', concerns itself with Skellen's penetration of the "The People's Lobby" and...ahem...Frankie Leith and their attempts to surveil and vet him. So, people expecting a shoot out every half hour may be disappointed. But, when the action does arrive, it plays out pleasingly enough, if in a very brief sequence.
6/10
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Originally Posted by MinionZombie
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