Change Your Image
sonicred007
Reviews
The Honey Killer (2011)
Femme fatale in the sun
Cracking contained thriller/dark comedy in a cool, stunning location and featuring the most beautiful assassin this side of the med
Kill List (2011)
Dead Mans Shoes meets Wickerman - Brit magic
Few films drive you on to the very end hoping just to the find out what the hell is going on. I may have been seeing stars by the time I got round to seeing this beauty at Frightfest 2011, but I think the way it rose above the typical horror flicks, is testimony to its brilliance. Shot almost documentary style at the start, domestic life is made to look very real. The dialogue between the main characters is so so sharp and natural it makes your heart sing. Lead characters are played by Neil Maskell and Michael Smiley. They are two former snipers who have served in Iraq; now they're guns for hire. Their banter alone is worth the cinema ticket. Freeflowing, funny, warm and spiked with human emotions scarred by past actions. Short on funds they take on one last job ... it quickly gets out of hand. If you thought the ordinary world of these characters was entertaining. Just wait until the story steams in act II and beyond. There's continual references to a terrible, bloody job in Prague that's never resolved. This isn't a flaw uncovered - it's a great bit of layering that only serves to enhance your emotional response to the film's climax. Less is more is the mantra for this film and it's great to be treated like an adult throughout by the film maker. Loved it. A real cinematic treat. UK film viewers should lend it their support.
Jeepers Creepers (2001)
Great horror tale with lots of scares
One for the genre heads ... this is pure horror with a beast of unknown origins and a provenance explained during the movie. Leave your plausibility hat at home - it'll only ruin the escapist pleasures of it. I particularly liked the repetitive use of the Jeepers Creepers theme tune ... gets scarier every time you hear it. Dialogue is sharp and simple lampooning of rural cops/people is avoided - creating a real world you can believe in while fearing the monster in the dark. Why it's chasing the brother and sister hero combo we're never quite sure? Somewhere between the urban legends of the vanishing hitchhiker and missing boyfriend. Loved it
Teeth (2007)
Cracking Horror Debut
Teeth is remarkable for two reasons. Firstly, it throws a big custard pie at religion. Secondly, it throws another big custard pie in the face of US high school clichés. Much of this horror plays out like a classic US indie flick - all angst and understated lighting. The lead character has taken a pledge to remain chaste until marriage and adheres strictly to this code. Goaded by the others who think her prudish and worshipped by other religious zealots she is quickly established as a hero and anti-hero to different clans. Confused by her own sexual awakenings she discovers via being raped that she has something else in her vagina when the boy who is attacking her recoils in terror minus his penis. And so the film goes: sometimes for laughs and sometimes for terror. The doctor who examines her is particularly despicable and deserves to lose fingers. The ending is where it's at - alone in a car with a toothless old redneck who helped her escape. Only like all the other boys he just wants her sex. Now she knows what to do; there's nothing to fear anymore .... certainly with her vaginal dentures she is the one to be feared in a sexual attack. Only in her case it'd be a perverse sense of self-defence.
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006)
I struggled with this ... but ending is OK
I struggled for most of this film; the archetypes were cliché ridden empty vessels. If Mandy uses her beauty to attract attention that's a hell of a long game and a pointless objective. Why was being an orphan relevant to this script? Why was being beautiful such a distraction for a whole school? Why was the dowdy aunt even in this film? Why did the edgy male in the gang show us he could fire a gun at a clay pigeon? Why do whippets and drugs have a five minute high in this film? Why do I care about any of the characters? Too much of this film is subjective; some shots are excellent and stylised but the content leaves a lot to be desired; some of the gore is well done; in the q & a on the DVD the lead actress talks about awkwardness in Mandy Lane's character as she took her clothes off to join the group in a lake - I saw a classic playboy disrobe shot of a pretty girl. So much potential was overlooked in the script from a very good premise.
Hard Men (1996)
There's much better brit gangster films out there
Here's an OK film with some good scenes, but an atrocious story. Everything you need to know is established in 15 minutes and when they step back from it to create the gangsters they end up too wooden and sentimental to be believable. Pockets of imagination are squashed with regularity. Other brit gangster films are much better! Frankie Fraser, a real gangster, is included to give the film some authenticity, but he only succeeds in hamming up the scenes he appears in. The protoganist gets a call during a hold up that involves listening to his new born daughter gurgle at him. Cue a confirmed ex-gangster trying to then break free from the shackles of crime. Frankie Fraser says the son I never had; humour among thieves nonsense and his two partners after displaying strong affections for each other gladly accept to do the hit on him... only he susses and here's the only twist worth mentioning. It even ends with redemption too. Everyone dies except him and he's goes to costs del crime and becomes a free man. Phew!
Crocodile (2000)
load of nonsense
I've probably wasted even more time on this movie, writing this comment up, than has already been blown watching the stupid retched thing.
Nobody can act. the story is fruitless and the gore is not even half decent. Still I sat there hoping against hope that something would make me like this film for the most minute details. Alas nothing came and the film went. It's months since a I watched and I still abused of some sense by the quality of this film. a classic in genre DVD only releases. Stick a name on you think you can trust; sell it cheaply in a high street chainstore and hey presto - it sells to horror chumps like me.
Avoid this Tobe Hooper associated product at all costs
The Crew (2008)
nihilistic and brilliant
The Crew goes where many British gangster flicks tends to skirt around. It's an adaptation of Kevin Sampson's novel Outlaws (he wrote the screenplay too), and really shows off an attention to detail that paints a graphic and nihilistic picture of gangster life. It plays on moral bankruptcy rather than trying to spin out pithy one liners and any pretence of cool.
Nothing good happens to anyone; violence and lust doesn't make people happy, poetic justice slips through when you least expect and some neat twists give it a decent narrative that is a lot smarter than the usual brit gangster flic.
Bodes well for Awaydays!