Saturday, 30 May 2015

San Andreas [D-BOX 3D]


We only watched this because Charlotte lobbied hard that a movie about an earthquake was the perfect opportunity to try the D-BOX seats at the cinema down the road.
D-BOX seats move, shake and vibrate in response to what's happening on screen and whilst they didn't make the 3D any less shit, or the acting any less cardboard, or the FX any less like video game cut scenes, or the storyline any more plausible, or the ending any less painful to endure, they did chuck you about when the earthquakes kick off and that was a lot of fun. Well, for the first thirty minutes, got a bit wearing toward the end.

The Duke Of Burgundy

 
A perfect recreation of the cinema of Jess Franco is given a few delicious twists of perspective in order to examine the subtle differences between love, dependence, control and domination.
Also has a fantastic running joke about piss.
 

Thursday, 28 May 2015

Tomorrowland: A World Beyond


A teenager in her twenties gets largely forgotten about in a deeply awkward love story until it's revealed that she's special because her keen mind can conjure up ideas like 'Let's blow it up!'.
Charlotte was left confused as to why all the characters clearly had a Dad, but none appeared to have a Mum.
Answer that Hollywood.

Come Out And Play


Mexican shot for shot reproduction of the superior Who Can Kill A Child? demonstrating that America isn't the only country that feels the need to punt out unecessary remakes.

Wednesday, 27 May 2015

Tetsuo: The Bullet Man

 
20 minutes of scant story, 50 minutes of hyper-edited, shaky-cam close ups of scrap metal and small explosions. Barely a movie.
 

Monday, 25 May 2015

Wake Wood

 
Takes a string of cheap looking cliches and manages to twist them into a peculiarly effective amalgam of Pet Sematary and The Wicker Man.
 

Saturday, 23 May 2015

Mad Max: Fury Road [IMAX 3D]

 
A superbly nuanced dystopia allows the unfettered visual lunacy to tell a far deeper story than you might expect as it casually shreds your retinas.
 

Friday, 15 May 2015

The Game

 
Parenthood is the privilege of being able to observe somebody at first hand as they experience an endless series of firsts.
This was Charlotte's first David Fincher and her face at the end was a remarkable sight indeed.
 

Thursday, 14 May 2015

Unfriended [Cybernatural]

 
Another movie set entirely on a laptop screen because what we really need is a subgenre of found footage movies. Let's just stop now, thanks.
 

Sunday, 3 May 2015

I, Robot

 
AKA Bride Of Ultron.
These days it's not unusual for Hollywood blockbusters to raise bigger questions, surprisingly though for a film about robots and morality the biggest question here is 'What the fuck is Shia LaBeouf doing in this?'
 

Sunday, 26 April 2015

Avengers: Age Of Ultron [IMAX 3D]


Marvel sequel meaning a larger cast have to find reasons to be in the story whilst they try to stop an even bigger thing from falling out of the sky, all freckled with moments so awesome they defy description.
I now fully expect the third one to have a cast of a thousand superheroes appearing in 10 second plot points as they try to stop a planet landing on the planet whilst intermittent shards of light melt my eyeballs.

Saturday, 25 April 2015

Seventh Moon

 
Amy Smart gets driven into the Chinese wilderness whereupon supernatural forces reduce her dialogue down to 'What was that?', 'I love you' and 'Motherfucker'.

Saturday, 4 April 2015

Furious 7


In which the nonsense continues to escalate at a bewildering rate as a bunch of multi-millionaires play ever more insane variants of 'What's The Silliest Thing We Can Do With A Car?'
Unfortunately for a racing based series the director clearly relishes filming fistfights far more than car chases which makes this the perfect installment to introduce Jason Statham, a man I would quite happily watch punch his way through an old people's home and not feel bad about it.
Diesel's level of inflation must surely now be seriously testing his valves, The Rock this time round looks like a bizarre conglomeration of Easter eggs and most unbelievably of all Paul Walker's departure is handled sensitively.
All of which is overshadowed by Charlotte's brilliant description of Michelle Rodriguez as 'That lady who always looks like she's looking at something she doesn't like, even when she's happy'.

Friday, 3 April 2015

We Are What We Are [2013 Remake]

 
The brash, hysterical chaos of the original is stripped away in favour of an incessant downbeat tone and an ending that appears to suggest it's not the eating of human flesh that's the real issue here, more how it's cooked and presented.

Monday, 30 March 2015

Tokyo Tribe

 
Live-action manga hip-hop musical from a man who is snapping at Miike's heels for blistering levels of gleeful insanity.