Rezensionen von IonicBreezeMachine

Will Derringer (John Cena) is a major action star who managed to parlay his film stardom to become President of the United States. Following a failed joint MI6-CIA mission to take down notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Gradov (Paddy Constantine), Will flies to England on a diplomatic mission to jointly address the media alongside Prime Minister of Britain Sam Clarke (Idris Elba) who takes a dim view of the showmanship and swagger with which Will carries his office. Following media fallout from the two's barely concealed resentment during a press conference, both their Chiefs of Staff suggest Will host Sam on Air Force One en route to the NATO summit in Trieste, Italy. However, when the plane is overtaken by mercenaries working for Gradov Will and Sam barely escape with their lives and are left stranded in Belarus with the world assuming the two are dead. Stranded in unfriendly territory and with no hope of rescue, Will and Sam must now find their way to the Summit as they dodge Gradov's mercenaries and unravel a conspiracy that will shake the global foundation.

Heads of State is the latest event film for Amazon's streaming service Prime Video produced through Amazon MGM Studios. Amazon acquired the package, described by insiders as Air Force One meets Midnight Run, in October of 2020 as a vehicle for Idris Elba and John Cena with Hardcore Henry and Nobody director Ilya Naishuller coming on board as director. With a proven cast, high concept premise, and a director who specializes in stylized highly kinetic action Heads of State is loaded with promise, even if it only partially delivers on that promise.

In many ways, Heads of State feels very much like a throwback to the days of high concept blockbusters where a high concept premise would be built and sold around an established lead's clout. You think back to the 90s with movies where every other leading lady was either Julia Roberts or Sandra Bullock and every other leading man was either Harrison Ford, Bruce Willis, or Mel Gibson and it very much feels like one of those movies from about 20 to 30 years ago that would've come about from that environment. In some ways this does work to the movie's benefit as it is nice to see a movie that isn't overly beholden to burdensome franchise IPs that have long since been exhuasted (creatively if not financially sadly) and for the most part Heads of State does feel quite fun and energized even if I attribute that more to the cast and direction than I do the script. Both John Cena and Idris Elba have good chemistry and comic timing with Cena doing well playing a slightly too happy-go-lucky albeit well-meaning musclehead while Elba is equally good playing an overly uptight but level headed counterpart who scores some good deadpan material in contrast to the more exaggerated style Cena plays with. Despite operating in a larger format than he's used to (and reportedly dealing with reshoots), Naishuller still retains the same playfully violent kinetic charm he cultivated so successfully in Hardcore Henry and Nobody not only with some creatively over the top action beats, but also good placement of the film's soundtrack such as a memorable sequence involving Jack Quaid and the Beastie Boys song Sabotage. Priyanka Chopra Jonas is also good as Noel who serves as a solid straightman/foil to the antics of Will and Sam.

I think the biggest issue that keeps Heads of State from really firing on all cylinders is when it tries to play certain elements for pathos including the central conflict which feels very safe and not all that interesting or provocative. Despite dealing with political figures, Heads of State exists in a weird no man's land where it doesn't actually want to be "too political" in a way that reminded me a bit of that James Garner/Jack Lemmon film My Fellow Americans from 1996 that purposefully sidestepped any real-world political connections, but even that film felt like it took a few more risks than Heads of State even if it had to create an alternate universe of the American political landscape. Naishuller does what he can here but any attempts at playing certain elements seriously just feel very featherweight and only serve to drag down the pacing between the impressive setpieces. The movie also lacks a really good villain as the most prominent one we have in Paddy Considine's Gradov is about as generic as you can make for a movie like this and coupled with a twist villain that the audience will most likely call as soon as they're introduced we really don't have a strong compelling antagonist to face off against our lead characters.

Heads of State is an okay "one-time-watch". While I'd probably recommend checking out Naishuller's prior films like Hardcore Henry or Nobody before this one or even Fight or Flight from earlier this year, there's enough good here that you'll have a good enough time while you're watching it even if it's not quite the sum of its parts.

Detective David Hodges (Joseph Bologna) is one of the top cops in the city earning the nickname "El solo lobo". When two Hispanic fisherman wind up missing after going near the lake, the appearance of human remains suggests an aggressive, large, and violent alligator is the cause. Coordinating with his scientist wife Christine (Dee Wallace) the results of the remains seem to indicate a creature that's been exposed to some kind of pituitary chemical. Hodges attempts to get Mayor Anderson (Bill Daily) to postpone the carnival by the lake to celebrate a major real-estate development deal but under pressure by unscrupulous developer Vincent "Vinnie" Brown (Steve Railsback) Hodges is stonewalled at every opportunity leading to him coordinating efforts with rookie Officer Rich Harmon (Woody Brown) and the mayor's idealistic daughter Sheri (Holly Gagnier) to stop the alligator.

Alligator II: The Mutation is a belated "in name only" to the 1980 film Alligator which despite being acknowledged as a Jaws knock-off did earn some modest critical praise and become a minor box office hit attributed to John Sayles slightly self-effacing script and Lewis Teague's tight direction. Aside from producer Brandon Chase, Alligator II has no ties to the initial film in either character or event continuity. While information on how or why this movie came about is very scant (my usual resources of old Cinefantastiques failed me and keep in mind they had info on old Troma movies and a $40,000 Texas Chainsaw Massacre rip-off called Lunch Meat shot guerrilla style in the California hills), Chase was most likely motivated by the boom of home media and video rental stores where producing inexpensive sequels to modest hits was a good business decision as not only did it coast on the good will of the first film, but would also re-invigorate interest in the first film because consumers would think "if they made a sequel, the first one must've been good.". Alligator II: The Mutation isn't nearly as good as its predecessor, but it's not an outright embarrassment either as it does retain some charms of the original one even if they're lacking in the craft, care, and novelty of the first film.

In terms of matching the quirky characterizations of the original film, Alligator II honestly does a decent job in that department. Featuring character-actor Joseph Bologna (whom I know best for his lead in underrated disaster spoof The Big Bus and voicing Dan Turpin in Superman The Animated Series) as the quirky lone wolf detective Hodges and E. T. And The Howling star Dee Wallace as his supportive but intelligent scientist wife it's a pretty clear attempt at recapturing the dynamic between Robert Forster and Robin Riker (it does almost make me wonder if these were supposed to be the same characters but rewritten to be more standalone) and there are some good moments between them even if writer Curt Allen feels like he is trying to copy John Sayles' style of writing without having that same level of polish. As with the prior film, Alligator II features a similar dynamic between a corrupt mayor and industrial magnate (who also builds real-estate on the same places he pollutes so a very short sighted industrial magnate.....which now that I think about maybe sadly accurate) and while they're not carbon copies of the characters from the first film, Steve Railsback gives a not particularly good performance that is scenery chewing ridiculousness that may not be great acting, but it's not boring. The special effects on the titular Alligator are unfortunately a step down as the gator is often shown in scenes for a great length of time that showcase how slow and cumbersome it is and the filmmakers actually supplement the film by using footage from the first Alligator because it looks so much better. To the film's credit they do have some ideas like having the Alligator develop mutations like increased resilience to firearms and explosives, but the budget really doesn't allow for as many standout moments like when the gator burst through the street in the first film.

If Alligator was a B-movie featuring A-level effort, Alligator II: The Mutation is a C-Movie feature B+-level effort. It's pretty clear the team was given a directive by Brandon Chase to just remake the first film with a few minor differences and despite not having the proper resources in place that do a decent job of capturing the quirky tone and socioeconomic satire of the original even if it does feel like someone wearing a role they're only partially comfortable with because they're essentially tracing someone's work while changing only a few details. There's honestly some decent things to appreciate so long as you can forgive the technical shortcomings and other shortcuts that unfortunately come with territory.

In a Missouri City, homicide Detective David Madison (Robert Forster) is investigating several cases of dismembered limbs showing up in spillways and water treatment centers suggesting violent deaths in and around the sewer system. Still carrying the stigma of losing his partner when he was a St. Louis cop, Madison pairs with hot shot young officer Jim Kelly (Perry Lang) and the two enter the sewers to investigate only to find an abnormally large alligator is the culprit and claims Officer Kelly's life. As Madison barely escapes with his life, his stories are dismissed by his superiors as job related stress until an overly ambitious reporter tries to get his next scoop and photographs the monster before being ripped to shreds by it. Now with the support of the Department to find and stop the alligator, Madison pairs with herpetologist Dr. Marisa Kendall (Robin Riker) with the two discovering chemicals in samples of dog corpses the alligator has been feeding on that may explain the alligator's size and ability to survive in the sewers and points to the local Slade Pharmaceuticals as responsible for unleashing this creature on the public.

Alligator is a 1980 horror film from B-movie producer Brandon Chase. Initially announced in 1976, Chase was inspired to make the film after the success of his film The Giant Spider Invasion and wanted to produce a film based on the urban legend of alligators in the sewers. Lewis Teague was hired to direct and upon his suggestion John Sayles with whom he'd worked on Lady in Red was hired to rewrite the screenplay which both Sayles and Teague described as terrible and nonsensical. Faced with many special effects issues that had befallen similar Jaws-like films (including Jaws) such as a decaying gator animatronic provided by Chase that had to be rebuilt only to require two ex-NFL players to manipulate the frame to promotional issues as Chase had scored a lucrative TV deal for the film and no longer cared how it did in theaters leading to Teague arranging promotions himself including screening the film for Vincent Canby whose positive review helped spread word of mouth which translated to critical success with many appreciating the film's humor and earning $6.5 million in box office against a $1.6 million budget. Alligator's a fun little exploitation film that knows exactly what kind of movie it is and has fun with it making it spiritually similar to Sayle's other horror writings like Piranha and The Howling.

From where the movie starts with the titular gator being flushed as a baby 12 years prior to cutting to the modern day, the movie does a solid job of setting up the outlandish scenario by creating some fun and over-the-top characterizations. Robert Forster is very good as Detective Madison playing the character with a laid back "coasting to the end" style delivery that he sheds more of as things get serious while still retaining his laconic wit and delivery. In many ways it's not unlike how Larry Cohen would approach this kind of genre fare placing more outlandish horror/sci-fi elements in the context of a police procedural or detective story and it works quite well. Robin Riker is well paired with Forster as Marisa Kendall and the two have charming chemistry and work well with each other. Sayles includes some solid satire of corporate polluters with the Alligator working as a metaphor for the effects of irresponsible waste disposal which is compounded by the fact that once the alligator is forced above ground it works its way through the socioeconomic ladder starting out in the poorer sections of the unnamed city before climaxing at the mansion of the company CEO in a good karmic payoff. Admittedly some of the effects work is a little shaky as they often need to film using workarounds of the giant gator model or even use a real 20 foot gator on a set, but it works well enough even if it's lacking in the finer points of polish.

In terms of genre films John Sayles wrote during this early part of his career, Alligator fits somewhere above the earlier Piranha while not quite reaching the level of The Howling. It's a well-made, well-acted, and entertaining film that gets a good amount of mileage out of its "Jaws from the sewers" premise and delivers on what it promises with tongue planted firmly in cheek.

At a construction project for a London Underground station at Hobb's End, London, the crew unearths several humanoid fossils that predate humanity's existence in the fossil record by a few million years. Paleontologist Dr. Roney (James Donald) and his assistant Barbara Judd (Barbara Shelley) investigate the site to shed more light on the find when their investigation uncovers a metallic object that according to city zoning plans isn't supposed to be there. With the authorities believing it to be an unexploaded German bomb from World War II, the area is cordoned off and Colonel Breen (Julian Glover) and Professor Bernarnd Quatermass (Andrew Keir) of the country's rocket group go to investigate the finding as they've been paired together with due to government's recent reassignment of Quatermass' rocket group to the oversight of the military. However, upon investigating the metallic device it soon becomes apparent that it's not of this Earth and carries unfathomable revelations for not only humanity's past, but also its future.

Quatermass and the Pit is the third entry in Hammer's film adaptations of the Quatermass BBC TV serials. While Quatermass 2 had proven a decent sized hit, it was overshadowed by the success of Hammer's Curse of Frankenstein which saw the company shift their focus in the direction of other Gothic horror adaptations. Quatermass creator and writer Nigel Kneale had adapted the third Quatermass serial Quatermass and the Pit as a film script in 1961, but as Hammer had partnered with Columbia to distribute their films they were uninterested in a new Quatermass movie and put the project into development hell. After Hammer disolved their partnership with Columbia in favor of a joint collaboration with Seven Arts and 20th Century Fox, production eventually began on the third Quatermass in 1966 with Kneale successfully lobbying for the recasting of Quatermass (as he'd long disapproved of Brian Donlevy's portrayal) with Andrew Keir cast and later reprising his role in a BBC 3 radio production The Quatermass Memoirs. Quatermass and the Pit is often seen as the best of the Hammer produced Quatermass films and is even noted for high profile fans like Tobe Hooper and John Carpenter who homaged the film with their own films Lifeforce and Prince of Darkness. Quatermass and the Pit revisits the iconic cosmic horror tropes of the series keeping the eerie tone and amotosphere alive in living color with an absolutely outrageous climax.

As with the prior Quatermass films, Quatermass and the Pit knows how to setup an intriguing mystery as the discovery of the strange fossils and the metallic artifact lead to some interesting and unnerving questions. Andrew Keir is really good playing a more world weary version of Quatermass who finds his drives to use scientific advancement for the betterment of mankind challenged with increasing pressure from the government to use his research for military applications. The slow buildup to the explanation of the artifacts in the Underground station construction site is well supplemented by the research sections detailing the lore around Hobbs' End which ties in with not only the series well-known science-fiction/cosmic horror territory but also looks at various other legends (supernatural in nature) and ties them together quite cleverly in novel and interesting ways. Admittedly there are parts where the the film's reach exceeds its grasp particularly in a sequence that's reminiscent of the projector sequence from The Quatermass Xperiment that overplays its hand by showing too much that it's not fully capable of portraying in a convincing fashion. Despite that one issue in the presentation, the climax is absolutely amazing and outdoes the giant blob creatures from Quatermass 2 by putting the states not just on the road to the apocalypse, but right on the cusp with the amount of damage and mayhem/

Quatermass and the Pit is an amazing final film in the Hammer series of Quatermass series of films and goes out in an audacious display of madness and chaos while never losing its core appeal. While some of the film's attempts at showcasing its world aren't as polished as you'd hope, the sheer scale and outlandishness of what's displayed is the best Quatermass has ever been visually realized. The movie is well-acted, well-produced (questionable effects sequences in parts notwithstanding), and engaging in its central mystery and is a must-watch for not only Quatermass fans but also fans of the genre.

As Professor Bernard Quatermass (Brian Donlevy) finds his rocket program starved of funding, his team discovers an unusual meteor shower hitting a nearby area where a village once stood until it was dismantled by the government. Finding that the shower is exhibiting what appears to be a slow and controlled descent towards the area where Quatermass found some unusual meteor fragments, Quatermass and his assistant Marsh (Bryan Forbes) investigate the area which now has a facility that bears a striking resemblance to his designs for a moonbase that would allow astronauts to survive in foreign environments. Finding an intact meteor, Marsh is exposed to a gas from within the meteor and is taken away by armed guards from the facility with Quatermass unable to stop them. As Quatermass attempts to question where Marsh is and who is behind the facility, he finds himself stonewalled by impenetrable bureaucracy and conspiracies of silence among the local populace that leads him to believe something sinister is afoot.

Following the success of The Quatermass Xperiment, Hammer acquired the rights to Nigel Kneale's BBC sequel series Quatermass II before it was even broadcast and hired Kneale to write the initial draft with subsequent rewrites performed by director Val Guest. As with the prior film, the filmmakers had to navigate a gauntlet of input from the BBC as well as the BBFC ratings board but like the prior film but was nonetheless a financial success but a third entry wouldn't be seen for about 10 years as Hammer would prioritize its re-imaginings of Gothic horror classics in the wake of the success of The Curse of Frankenstein which overshadowed Quatermass 2 and with 2/3rds the budget. Quatermass 2 admittedly follows many similar themes and ideas from its predecessor, but with some haunting visuals and a new lens through which to view them the team make it no less engaging (possibly even a little more) than its predecessor.

As with the previous film, the filmmakers know how to setup a compelling mystery with the nature of the meteor fragments and the unexplained facility bearing a resemblance to his proposed moonbase are used in combo with the series' cosmic horror atmosphere to make for a thrilling and unsettling adventure. While as with the previous film, the story is focused on a malevolent force that invades through assimilation but unlike the previous film that was built around a singular antagonist, Quatermass 2 features one larger in scale and more coordinated. Despite featuring some broad similarities to the previous year's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Quatermass 2 differentiates itself by supplementing the fear of lost individuality with criticism of the UK's conservative government of the time and creating an oppressive atmosphere of mistrust and impenetrable bureaucracy complete with guards who bear a resemblance to German stormtroopers complete with their insignia that appears in increasingly high frequency throughout the film. The movie does a good job of mixing paranoid thriller with Lovecraftian style cosmic horror even if the climax does admittedly have some turns that strain credibility with certain events (though are probably more sadly reflective of human behavior). Brian Donlevy remains good as Quatermass (in spite of reports he was drunk through much of filming much to Kneale's chagrin in how the performance came across) but it does feel like the filmmakers filed down some of his more abrasive edges from the previous film so he's no longer the same "arrogant but brilliant" scientific Sherlock Holmes, but does still carry some of that exasperated appeal. Much like the previous film, the movie uses its atmosphere of cosmic dread very effectively complete with a climax that is legitimately unnerving in how truly "alien" the final encounter feels.

Quatermass 2 covers a lot of similar ground to its predecessor, but it offers enough in terms of scale and alternate framing of its themes so it provides a unique experience that doesn't feel like retreading old ground.

Professor Bernard Quatermass (Brian Donlevy) has successfully launched the first manned test rocket, despite circumventing approval of his superiors, which has now returned from a 1,500 mile journey through space and crashed in the English countryside. After failing to make contact with the crew inside the ship, Quatermass and the local authorities work their way inside and find an unresponsive Victor Carroon (Richard Wordsworth) while the other astronauts have seemingly vanished without a trace leaving behind their spacesuits. As Quatermass works with Dr. Gordon Briscoe (David King-Wood) in examining the data of the test flight, Inspector Lomax (Jack Warner) investigates the disappearances of the other two astronauts admid bureaucratic stonewalling from Quatermass. Eventually clues start piling up that indicate the flight may have encountered some hitherto unknown phenomena and that Carroon might not be who he appears.

The Quatermass Xperiment is a 1955 British science-fiction film produced by Hammer Studios and based on the partially lost 1953 BBC television serial The Quatermass Experiment written by Nigel Kneale. A massive success in its day with both critics and audiences, Hammer producer Anthony Hinds was eager to buy the rights as the studio had carved out a practice in creating B-picture adaptations of successful BBC radio productions. As Kneale saw the potential for a film adaptation he persuaded the BBC to pitch the scripts to higher tier producers, all of whom were hesitant to buy the rights as any film version of The Quatermass Xperiment would receive an "X" certificate from the BBFC meaning that anyone below the age of 16 would not be able to see it. As Hammer had no such qualms about an "X" certificate (and in fact would actively pursue it), the BBC sold the rights to Hammer despite some objection from executives. The film became a joint American co-production with noted B-movie producer Robert L. Lippert (who had a relationship with Hammer that included them distributing his films in the UK) and although the film had to work its way through British censors and BBC input on the script, the film became a sizable success in the UK (timing its release around the broadcast of BBC's serial Quatermass 2) and even saw success in the U. S. where it was distributed under the alternate title of The Creeping Unknown (due to U. S. audiences being unfamiliar with Quatermass and was successful enough that distributor United Artist was enthused about possibly co-financing a sequel and also gave Hammer the standing it needed to compete with larger studios. The Quatermass Xperiment is an enjoyable bit of 50s era sci-fi horror working around most of the contemporary tropes of the time to create something memorable and often a little unnerving.

In many ways, you can see The Quatermass Xperiment as being something of a prototype to other post-atomic horror films of the era that largely supplanted the classic Universal Monster mold in the face of Cold War paranoia and the destructive power of the Atom Bomb. You can really see these fears made manifest in film's story that combines the unintended consequences of science's relentless march forward (Professor Quatermass' rocket) and of course the return of astronaut Victor Carroon whose return to colleagues and loved ones is tainted by the feeling that something is off (a clear parallel to the fear one's loved ones might fall pray to sympathetic leanings of the "wrong" side). While these would be recurrent themes throughout the 50s and even parts of the 60s, you can certainly see how The Quatermass Xperiment would influence the portrayal and exploration of those themes when faced with a smaller budget. Brian Donlevy is very good as the titular Bernard Quatermass and is emblematic of the character type of the "brilliant bastard" as while he's portrayed as a brilliant scientist with unparalleled intelligence, he's also so singlemindedly focused on getting the results of his experiment or understanding of the affliction of Carroon that he often comes off as unaware or indifferent to those directly affected by it often putting him at odds with humanistic colleague Dr. Briscoe and the justice oriented Inspector Lomax whom he'll often manipulate or lie by omission to in order to attain the end that he feels is "best" for his results.

In terms of creating an eerie mood and atmosphere, The Quatermass Xperiment does a solid job of setting up its conflict as the discovery of the ship with two thirds of the crew missing without explanation makes for a solid mystery and makes you eager to discover who or what could've caused the disappearance of two men and the catatonic silence of the remaining third. One of the standout sequences is when Quatermass and his team watch with horror and fascination the film from the ship's onboard camera that records the men's final moments at the pivotol time done in complete silence with only the sound of the projector running in the background giving the scene an unnerving atmosphere that culminates with a brilliantly cold reading from Donlevy's Quatermass where he only says "run it again!" in response to what he's seen. Admittedly there are some tropes here that would become lesser mainstays of the horror genre of this period including cost saving measures of cutting away, some slightly disorienting cuts made as concessions to the BBFC, and some characters who exist for the sole purpose of being useless kill fodder, but 50s-isms aside, the movie's cultivation of atmospheric cosmic horror makes it impressive even in the face of things that have either become silly with age or were silly at the time.

The Quatermass Xperiment is an engaging 50s sci-fi horror and you can see why it's become a cult classic even if its legacy outside genre faithful has largely been overshadowed by their re-adaptations of the Universal Monsters. While certainly carrying a fair number of tropes and deliveries of the era that have often lent themselves to parody and mockery in hindisght, the film being an earlier adopter plays itself with a level of dignity and a flawed protagonist that gives it more weight than many that tried to copy its formula.

28 Years after the rage virus was unleashed upon the United Kingdom, the islands remain under quarantine with a consistent multinational Naval guard surrounding the island as society's of survivors have hunkered down into fortified communities in order to survive. In one such community on Holy Island, a tidal island kept isolated from the mainland by a lengthy causeway that disappears with the tide, a young boy named Spike (Alfie Williams) accompanies his father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) to the mainland to train for fighting the infected as much like his father he'll be a necessary part of their community in gathering fuel from the mainland to bring back to their home. As Spike and his father brave the hazards of evolved versions of "the infected", Spike learns of a possible way that he can use his acquired survival skills to find help for his mother Isla (Jodie Comer) who is stricken with an illness that no one in their community can identify.

28 Years Later is the long in development third entry in the 28 series of post-apocalyptic films started director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland in 2002 with 28 Days Later, the success of which is credited with reviving the zombie genre after largely being dormant since the end of the 1980s (in western countries at least). The series continued with the 2007 film 28 Weeks Later, which despite not having the same level of critical and commercial support as its first film was successful enough that original distributors 20th Century Fox had ordered development on a third film tentatively titled 28 Months Later. What followed was a lengthy cycle through development hell as despite Boyle and Garland's desire to do another entry in the series, a dispute over series rights saw the project repeatedly delayed to the point that Garland at various points expressed doubt the film would ever be made. Meaningful development finally came about in January 2024 when producer Andrew Macdonald managed to untangle the rights to the series from Searchlight Pictures (the Fox successor of the rights holders) and set up back to back entries in the series with both 28 Years Later (re-titled from Months as a necessity as well as a slightly self-aware joke in how long development took) and the Nia DaCosta directed 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple set up with Columbia Pictures with the intention of making a third film directed by Boyle should the other two prove financially successful. 28 Years Later marks a welcome return of Boyle and Garland to their influential world and shows they've still got some ideas to explore.

At its core, 28 Years Later is very much a coming-of-age story that just happens to be set in a post-apocalyptic world (with Garland citing the Ken Loach film Kes as an influence on the direction). While certainly not unfamiliar territory for the genre (as both The Walking Dead and The Last of Us have incorporated such elements), 28 Years Later subverts the pessimistic tones typically established with this genre and while it paints its world as very harsh with little room for error or misstep, it also portrays a world with significant beauty to it particularly in its Northumberland shot fields that Boyle chose specifically because of the timeless unspoiled quality the land provided. While the opening sequence per the standards of the series portrays the brutal chaos the series is known for, that's really not indicative of the experience of watching the film as a whole. I really have to give credit to the marketing team because the trailers shown have done a great job of selling the visuals and atmosphere present in the film without necessarily telling you what it's about and I can see this as being a point of praise or divisiveness depending on the viewer. Boyle stated in interviews that in terms of experience for this prospective trilogy, he wanted to move the audience from a point of ugliness to one of beauty and have the three films share writer Garland and a thematic connection while also being satisfying entries unto themselves that can stand on their own. While it remains to be seen whether they'll pull this off in the subsequent entries, there is a really good journey here especially in the second half where it becomes something much more personal for Spike that's almost reminiscent of something like the themes in A Monster Calls (in some cases even in tone and visuals).

While Boyle and Garland do a decent job of fitting this film within its predecessors, it's admittedly not seamless as there are certain leaps you have to allow in order for this to work. While Boyle and Garland don't ignore the events of 28 Weeks Later and do work to address them (even including some footage from that film) it is admittedly a case where they have to do a lot of "off camera" implications in order to brush off the big stinger ending of that film and bring themselves back to this point. There's also some other issues like the various sub-variants of the "infected" and the changes they've made which like the 28 Weeks Later connections also require something of a "leap", but I have to admit that they did keep my interest into what was going on and I also rather liked the more feral appearances they've taken on from years of being this way.

I definitely liked 28 Years Later more than 28 Weeks Later. While I'm skeptical as to whether you can really say 28 Years Later is a satisfying "self-contained" movie (there is a lot of buildup and foreshadowing for plot elements, but it doesn't have the feeling of being "incomplete" necessarily) it does provide an engaging journey with interesting characters and a surprising amount of emotional resonance that ties back to themes present in the first film. As a revisit to this world I was consistently engaged and surprised by what I saw and it did make me curious as to what else Boyle, Garland, and DaCosta had planned down the line. If The Bone Temple can keep up with the novelty, themes, and ideas presented here I hope we get to see that sixth film.

28 weeks after the rage virus that ravaged England resulting in its quarantine, a U. S. Led NATO military coalition has been dispatched to to the area to rebuild the country and reintegrate the displaced refugees. Using his political connections as section officer, Don Harris (Robert Carlyle) sees the return of his children Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton) to the recently re-established "Green Zone" on the Isle of Dogs which is the only safe part of England as the military does "sweep and clears" in the surrounding areas, much to the disapproval of medical officer Scarlet (Rose Byrne) who's concerned they're not yet set up for children. When Tammy and Andy venture off to their old condemned home to get a picture of their mother, Alice (Catherine McCormack), who supposedly died in the outbreak the two find her in the attic of the house and upon being arrested by the police both the children and Alice are separately quarantined where it's soon discovered Alice is infected with the rage virus but due to a genetic abnormality carries the disease without being affected by it. When a containment breach occurs thanks to Alice's exposure to Don, the Green Zone quickly descends into chaos prompting General Stone (Idris Elba) to issue "shoot on sight" orders for all civilians in order to contain infection leading which prompts sniper Sgt. Doyle (Jeremy Renner) to abandon his post and lead a small band of survivors to safety including Tammy and Andy.

Following the massive international success for 28 Days Later, both commercially and critically, and the renewed interested in the previously dormant zombie horror sub-genre, director Danny Boyle, writer Alex Garland, and producer Andrew Macdonald saw the opportunity to do a sequel as they felt it was a good course of action due to having a "built in audience" hungry for more. Due to Boyle and Garland's commitments to the movie Sunshine, Boyle stepped back into an executive producer's role and instead assigned Spanish filmmaker Juan Carlos Fresnadillo to direct as Doyle was a fan of his film Intacto and believed he'd bring a unique vision to the film. During its May 2007 release, 28 Weeks Later did score some good reviews (that were a step down from the first one with critics citing reduced characterization) and healthy box office making $65 million against a $15 million budget. 28 Weeks Later has some decent ideas for expanding upon the world created in 28 Days Later, but there's also some rough edges that make those ideas harder to appreciate.

When the film begins, Fresnadillo does a nice job of establishing the post-outbreak London under military control which the filmmakers made analogous to post-war Iraq and other cases of U. S. Military interventionism. It's not a bad route to take especially when you consider that political and social subtext has been a part of the zombie genre arguably as far back as when George Romero redefined it with his Dead series of films that commented on everything from segregation era Southern United States to Consumerism and the Vietnam War. I do however feel that despite the richness of this premise it's not fully explored as well as it could've been as the inciting incident isn't framed as coming from lies, mismanagement, or corruption (at least none that we see) and instead comes from very stupid decisions from two characters who are never really called out for what they do.

If you remember 28 Days Later, then one of the best parts of that movie was the characterization from unknowns or character actors playing a diverse array of characters with their own identities and arcs in the film and you were invested in whether they lived or died. The characters in 28 Weeks Later feel a lot more one note (a victim of the leaner runtime I suppose). Robert Carlyle is given good setup as someone who survived by less than honorable means as the opening sequence shows him leaving Alice for dead in order to escape, but there's very little actually done with that character trait and while the movie seems to imply he uses his political connections as section chief to get certain things it's never explicitly stated and is just sort of hanging there as an unexplored character thread that's never fully developed. But easily the biggest issue with the movie is Tammy and Andy. Now credit to their actors, they're both perfectly fine in the roles and are believable as brother and sister, but their breaking protocol is really clumsily setup (it's actually all done through ADR implying that there's probably been some massive truncating in the editing room) and their actions inadvertently bring about the spread of infection throughout the Green Zone. I honestly don't mind when characters make mistakes in movies, it humanizes or endures them to the audience, but both Tammy and Andy are massively unaware or indifferent to the part they played in the disaster and it becomes really frustrating with how aloof these characters are and how they're given a free pass for the part they play simply because "they're kids", if Newt from Aliens and Fool from People Under the Stairs were old enough to know better so were they. There are some saving graces in this movie. While Rose Byrne's scarlet isn't especially deep or anything, she's at least a likable and noble character who's well intentioned, but the real revelation in this movie is Jeremy Renner's Sgt. Doyle who shows why he became such a strong leading man even before his big breakout in The Hurt Locker as a heroic and charismatic character who you do become invested in (definitely this film's equivalent of Frank).

In terms of capturing the world established by its predecessor, Fresnadillo certainly captures the rapid fire shaky cam intensity during the major action beats with the infected especially with the major outbreak sequence where everything goes wrong (which honestly with themes of bureaucratic overconfidence and oversight makes sense). The movie adds the military as a secondary antagonist to the infected and it does differentiate itself quite nicely from its predecessor as an experience. Sometimes the movie can feel a little too "studio notes" particularly with the inclusion of some "just kidding" style jump scares and a jump scare dream sequence which makes you appreciate the more quiet and unsettling dream sequence about isolation from the first film all the more. With the massive bombast that comes from the military threat and some over the top sequences like a helicopter using its rotors to chop up several infected (and still be able to fly) it does feel like it's not quite in tone with the previous film. Coupled with the more scant characterization it just makes the experience of watching 28 Weeks Later feel less impactful and less engaging.

28 Weeks Later isn't without some interesting ideas particularly with its commentary on U. S. Interventionism, but flat characterization and several plot contrivances invite unfavorable comparisons to the simple setup and rich characterization of its predecessor. While the film is certainly bigger this time around it also loses a lot of the atmosphere that made the first film so memorable and while it's entertaining for what it is, it's also nowhere near as impactful.

28 Days after a group of animal rights activists accidentally unleashed a rage virus from a testing facility that forces the infected into a permanent state of violent rage, Jim (Cillian Murphy), a bicycle courier, awakens from a coma in a hospital in London to find that both the hospital and the city are deserted. Running afoul of a group of the infected, Jim is rescued by survivors Selena (Naomie Harris) and Mark (Noah Huntly) and with their help eventually finds father and daughter Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and Hannah (Megan Burns) who embark on a joruney to find a military broadcast that promises sanctuary from the infected.

28 Days Later is a 2002 horror thriller directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland. The idea for 28 Days Later came from Alex Garland's love of the zombie genre, particularly George A. Romeo's Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead and it was only upon playing the PlayStation video game Resident Evil that he realized it had been awhile since he'd seen such a movie (with the genre largely dormant in English speaking territories since the end of the 80s barring outliers like Peter Jackson's Dead Alive, though the genre did thrive in Eastern territories like Hong Kong and of course Japan). As Danny Boyle had directed an adaptation of Garland's novel The Beach, Boyle liked the screenplay enough to sign on to direct (though he's voiced hesitance in calling the film a "Zombie" movie and has cited Day of the Triffids as the primary inspiration). The film was pitched to Universal Studios who declined (and ironically would make their own zombie horror two years later with the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake) before the film was setup with Fox Searchlight who'd had a good relationship with Boyle on The Beach. Made with no big names and released in only 1,500 theaters at its widest, 28 Days Later became a sleeper hit earning $45 million in the U. S. and $85 million worldwide, the film was a sizable hit against an $8 million budget and along with the Resident Evil adaptation (I know, but it was a hit at the time) and of course the Dawn of the Dead remake the film is credited with reigniting the zombie genre. 28 Days Later not only updates the long dormant genre for the new millennium, but it's also well acted and beautifully directed to boot.

From the opening sequence where we see the virus unleashed to the introduction of Jim naked in a hospital awakened to a world with no one in it, 28 Days Later knows how to capture the sense of isolation and desolation in the aftermath of an unprecedented disaster. During the first few minutes there's a similar feeling to The Omega Man in the film's depiction of empty and ruined streets and coupled with Anthony Dod Mantle's cinematography helps create an unsettling mood and atmosphere that also has something of a punk rock guerrilla edge to it (with some of the action beats almost reminding me of a Black Flag video from the 80s). Cillian Murphy sporting his natural Irish accent makes for a solid everyman and audience proxy who becomes more hardened in this world gone mad where he quickly learns that there's no room for error (even in something like mourning the death of his loved ones). The film finds a solid host of characters for Jim to pair with and get some solid exchanges such as the first two survivors Selena and Mark played by Naomie Harris and Noah Huntley who are battle hardened through weeks of survival with Selena sporting a cynical outlook while Mark tries to keep his spirits up with some gallows humor. But the movie goes from good to great once we meet Frank and his daughter Hannah played by Brendan Gleeson and Megan Burns with Frank holding out hope of salvation from the infection (which he holds onto as he has to believe there's something for his daughter besides fear and hunger) and Hannah whose quiet reticence suggests having needed to grow up faster than needed despite still being a child. While the middle portion of the movie features less action than both the beginning and climax of the story, it's never boring due to how lovable the characters are especially in how they all form a quasi-family unit and are able to partake in fleeting moments of joy, happiness, and comfort (including some fun homages to the original Dawn of the Dead).

As the "infected" as they're known in this movie move much faster than traditional zombies, the movie itself follows at a similar pace replacing the lumbering creeping dread of older zombie flicks with a more sudden and harder hitting bombast that breaks the eerie silence with the speed of a lightning flash. You could even see the film's structure as being something of an acknowledgment of the speed as each act also covers what would've been an entire film in earlier years (first act Omega Man/Last Man on Earth, second act some Dawn of the Dead, and the third act definitely covers similar material to Day of the Dead). While I've often had my issues with overly fast editing in late 90s/early 00s horror films (particularly when it's described as "being made for the MTV Generation"), I really felt that style of editing was put to good use here as a way of conveying the disorienting and sudden nature of the attacks which combined with a mixture of longer shots helped sold the tension and unease of the attacks. I will say that I am a little mixed on the ending, particularly in how it goes from a very brutal and purposefully ugly gauntlet of sadistic violence before suddenly transitioning to an ending that doesn't fully mesh tonally with what we saw. I don't think it's a case of it not working as the audience does like these characters and wants them to survive, but it also kind of brushes away a lot of moral quandaries from the third act.

28 Days Later is not only a great zombie film but a great film period. Featuring fantastic acting from all of the key players who make for likable and engaging characters as well as sporting a tense mood and intense scares, you can see why 28 Days Later carried so much influence not only in its day but to so many subsequent horror and post-apocalyptic films that followed in its wake. The film doesn't quite nail the ending as it has two halves that never satisfactorily come together tonally, but the journey getting there is completely worth it.

David Watson (Charlie Schlatter) is a college student who is struggling as he takes abuse from the frat brothers he is pledging, particularly Russ Deacon (Anthony Starke) and working towards a degree in Accounting due to pressure from his father Arnie (Tony Roberts) despite his real passion being an artist. At the celebration of his grandfather Jack's (George Burns) 81st birthday, David and Jack sneak away for a drive in Jack's Rolls-Royce with David admiring his grandfather's swagger and wit and confiding in him his inability to approach his crush Robin (Jennifer Runyon) in his history class. When the two head back home, Jack swerves to avoid hitting a construction worker totaling the car and rendering the both of them unconscious. When Jack awakens in the hospital he finds that he's now in David's body while his own body is comatose with David presumably inside. Now free to use his 81 years of experience in a young 18 year old body, Jack sets to living David's life in a way that beats his bullies and gets him his love interest.

Yet another entry in the 80s wave of body switch comedies (Like Father Like Son, Vice Versa, etc.), 18 Again! Is notable for being the last major film vehicle for comedian George Burns. I'm not quite sure how this movie came to be as having read through the entirety of books either written about or by George Burns about his career, nowhere does it say what the impetus was to make this movie as it's only offhandedly mentioned in throwaway exchanges if at all. The film is apparently based on the country song "I Wish I Was Eighteen Again" by Sonny Throckmorton that although originally sung by Jerry Lee Lewis, became more notable when it was sung by George Burns (after much coaxing from the producers as he was relcutant to sing having never done country) where his version actually outpaced the original on the billboard hot 100 and became something of an unofficial anthem for Burns as he'd perform it at many of his in-person performances. In terms of this era of body switch comedies, 18 Again! Isn't offensively obnoxious like Like Father Like Son, but it's also not to the point I'd call it legitimately good either like Vice Versa hovering somewhere between the two.

I honestly do think that despite the movie featuring a lot of similarities to Like Father Like Son (such as both having elements involving a track team) Charlie Schlatter and George Burns are actually quite likable and have decent chemistry with each other unlike Kirk Cameron and Dudley Moore so the movie does have good bones. However, once the film sees the two switch bodies that's where we start to see issues especially with David being locked in a comatose state for a large part of the movie. While Charlie Schlatter is amusing channeling Burns' mannerisms, it also kind of robs Burns of doing much as he can't do much except voice-over (and two tangent dream sequences that are more bizarre than funny) and while the movie frames Jack's character as "helping" David it opens up several uncomfortable questions especially since Jack leaves David stranded in his comatose body and seems pretty indifferent to it as he focuses on swaggering about and using his age acquired talents to show off. Honestly so much of the problems with this movie go back to the problem of having Jack's body be comatose and it makes you wonder why we even needed a body swap at all. Why couldn't this just be George Burns reverting to a younger version of himself or even having Jack be dead and David getting advise from Jack in a manner similar to the Disney film Blackbeard's Ghost (at least it would shake things up from partially aping Freaky Friday like the other film's did)? There's not a bad premise here, but the way it's handled especially with those two dream sequences that really highlight the uncomfortable areas traversed through this premise.

18 Again! Is a movie that feels like it had a good idea but was heavily rushed before it was ready (not surprising given its from a post-Roger Corman New World Pictures and has a very TV movie look). The performances by Charlie Schlatter and George Burns are honestly pretty decent and there's some fun and humor to be had, but they're also carrying the lead weight of a premise that didn't think itself through in how low key disturbing it is.

Marshall Seymour (Judge Reinhold) is an executive for a high end department store who is struggling with balancing his relationship with his son Charlie (Fred Savage) from his failed marriage while also juggling a new South China Seas initiative for his company and his relationship with his girlfriend Sam (Corinne Bohrer). When Charlie's mother and stepfather embark on a trip, Charlie is left with Marsahll who experiences friction with Charlie as each feels the other has it better. When the two make a wish of being each other while holding an ancient Tibetan skull relic the two find themselves in each other's bodies leading to shenanigans as the thieves who stole the relic Lillian and Turk (Swoosie Kurtz and David Proval) want back their misplaced score.

Vice Versa is the first of five body switching comedies that came about during the period of 1987-1989 (the others being first release Like Father Like Son, and subsequent releases 18 Again!, Big, and Dream a Little Dream). Released roughly five months after Like Father Like Son, Vice Versa actually did have some critical support from the likes of Roger Ebert and Leonard Maltin with praise going to the two leads while feeling the film itself wasn't all that special. Unlike Like Father Like Son which managed to score a decent if unexceptional box office haul of $35 million, Vice Versa quickly fell out of the box office earning only $14 million against a $10 million budget. While Vice Versa isn't anything too outstanding, it's a likable comedy that makes up for its familiar formula with solid chemistry from its leads who have good chemistry with each other.

While the film structurally speaking is very similar in structure to the prior year's Like Father Like Son, it features two major differences that help it immensely. 1St, it allows for more time for Reinhold and Savage to play against each other (both pre and post switch) giving a greater sense of personality and comic friction once said personalities transfer between actors and 2nd, it also gives a sense of an emotional arc to both characters so it actually feels like they learn something about each other as opposed to Like Father Like Son where it just came out of nowhere in the last 20 minutes to give some semblance of a point to what was an endless parade of inanities. Both Savage and Reinhold are clearly having a blast playing each other and there's some good chemistry and comic friction mined from the situation as a result. Savage does well playing an adult frustrated at being trapped in a kid's body (even if there's an over-reliance on the amount of material mined from him swearing and drinking) and Reinhold brings a lot of youthful energy and exuberance to his portrayal. Vice Versa isn't an overlooked classic or anything as it adheres very closely to the formula of this kind of film, but it's likable and well-made enough that it's a decent diversion and revisit of the formula even if it doesn't shake from convention.

Vice Versa is the kind of movie that the word "solid rental" was made for as it has a familiar high concept hook that's brought to life through its two talented leads elevating the material. It's definitely a case study on how a familiar template can be done well (this) versus terribly (Like Father Like Son) despite having the same structure and its really the little details and the care of those details that make something like this enjoyable.

High school senior Chris Hammond (Kirk Cameron) features competing pressures as his father Dr. Jack Hammond (Dudley Moore) is pushing him to go to medical school while Chris also deals with making the track team and scoring a date with his dream girl Lori (Camille Cooper). When Chris' best friend Trigger (Sean Astin) brings over some body swapping serum that his archaeologist uncle Earl (Bill Morrison) acquired from some Navajos, accidental ingestion of the potion by Jack leads to him and his son Chris swapping bodies. As Trigger tries to track down his uncle to find an antidote, both Chris and Jack must make the best of being trapped in each others bodies and lives.

Like Father Like Son is the first of five body switching comedies that came about during the period of 1987-1989 (the others being Vice Versa, 18 Again!, Big, and Dream a Little Dream). Why so many similar films came about at the same time has never been concretely established and is cited as an example of the "twin film" phenomenon where its possible that shared scripts throughout production offices and congregation spots for entertainment profession spread similar ideas around multiple offices leading to multiple scripts. In the case of Like Father Like Son, producers Brian Grazer and David Valdes were very interested in making a star vehicle for up and coming teen star Kirk Cameron whose sitcom Growing Pains was in its second season and was one of the biggest hits on TV at the time with producers feeling they could position him as the next Michael J. Fox who like Cameron also broke out on TV with his own series Family Ties. As Cameron was on the cusp of his prominent conversion to Christianity, the movie marked something of a turning point in his career as he specifically accepted it due to its underlying message after turning down several other teen skewing scripts. While the film was a modest performer making around $35 million against a $10 million budget, but critical reception was overwhelmingly negative and Cameron would return to Growing Pains limping along for another 5 seasons and never headline another mainstream film of this size again. In terms of that cycle of body switcheroo comedy films, Like Father Like Son may have been first, but that's not indicative of quality.

From the beginning it becomes pretty clear why this movie isn't going to work as Kirk Cameron is lacking in leading man charm or charisma and often times blends into the background while his sidekick Sean Astin often overshadows him with his better comedic timing and confidence despite being someone who the film treats as second banana. The movie's directed by Rod Daniel who previously directed Michael J. Fox in the decent if unexceptional high concept comedy Teen Wolf (which was really more a testament to Fox' charisma than the script or direction) and without a strong central performer in the material it just goes to show how stiff, awkward, and poorly thought out the humor is in the film. To Dudley Moore's credit he is trying to give some energy to the material, but there's so little character to Chris or Jack Hammond for that matter that more often than not Moore's just forced to prance around to the biggest hits of MTV of the time. The movie features a decent soundtrack, but the songs including the obnoxiously intrusive score of Miles Goodman and Shelly Manne often feel like they're thrown at the audience non-stop in order to pick up the slack of a not very good script and make things seem like they're more energized than they are. The movie also features a very saccharine ending wherein Jack and Chris reconcile with each other and it just does not feel earned because there hasn't been any character growth or lessons learned and it's only here because the movie needs a stopping point without actually putting effort in place to make it make sense.

Aside from serving as a time capsule of MTV and featuring a cameo by the band Autograph, Like Father Like Son was deservedly savaged by critics upon release and is no better now than it was then. When you do a body swap comedy like this it's imperative that you have good actors and good chemistry to sell that comic friction and it's significantly below what Walt Disney Productions was able to do with this premise 11 years earlier with the original Freaky Friday.

Set in San Francisco, architect Doug Roberts (Paul Newman) has designed what is currently the tallest building in the world for businessman James Duncan (William Holden) who is hosting a gala celebrating its opening to be attended by all manner of cultural elite. When some of the building's systems start malfunctioning, Doug confronts Roger Simmons (Richard Chamerblain), Duncan's son-in-law who oversaw the building's electrical systems, and learns Simmons may have deviated from Doug's plans in order to shave costs with components no longer able to meet the building's massive demands. Unbeknownst to the building staff and gala attendees, a fire breaks out in a utility closet from a faulty junction box slowly setting into motion events that will turn the tower into a firetrap. As Doug tries to reunite with his fiancee Susan (Faye Dunaway) within the burning building, San Francisco Fire Department Batallion Chief Michael O'Hallorhan (Steve McQueen) tries to find ways to fight the out of control blaze in the building.

With the success of films like Airport and The Poseidon Adventure at the start of the 70s, disaster films became the new go-to formula blockbusters for major studios replacing their prior stalwarts of lavish musicals that had largely died out with the end of the 60s and the emergence of the New Hollywood era. In 1973, a bidding war emerged between the studios of 20th Century Fox, Columbia and Warner Bros. For the yet to be published novel The Tower by Richard Martin Stern with Warner Bros. Eventually winning out. Fox would acquire the similarly plotted and themed The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson for Irwin Allen to develop. Worried that two competing films featuring burning skyscrapers would cannibalize each other (with Allen citing competing biopics on Oscar Wilde and Jean Harlow from 1960 and 65 respectively), Allen arranged a deal between Fox and Warner Bros. In which they'd collaborate on the project together splitting costs and distribution rights with Fox taking U. S. And Canadian distribution while Warner Bros. Would handle international territories and TV rights. Made for $14 million (a significant step up from the $4 million for Poseidon Adventure), The Towering Inferno was a major hit in its time earning $200 million worldwide and becoming the number one movie of 1974 and scoring solid critical reviews and even Academy Award nominations including Best Picture while winning technical awards for Cinematography and Film Editing. In the year's since its release, The Towering Inferno has often been pointed to as the quintessential disaster film of the 70s (outside of maybe Jaws which can of goes back and forth in public perception as to whether it qualifies) and while The Towering Inferno is unquestionably the biggest the 70s disaster films got, that doesn't necessarily equate with being the best.

Starting off, The Towering Inferno does have some very impressive claims that you cannot deny it. The movie features an absolutely stacked cast with the likes of Steve McQueen and Paul Newman as our heroes, William Holden as our Icarus like businessman who's ambition outpaced common sense, Richard Chamberlain as our de facto villain whose penchant for shortcuts and opportunism make him easy to hate, and a host of other rounding out the supporting cast like Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Roberts Vaughn and Wagner, and.....regrettably O. J. Simpson (who despite my feelings gives a good performance). Admittedly the screenplay doesn't give these characters the greatest of depth and has them fall very much into archetypes, and while screenwriter Stirling Silliphant did something similar with The Poseidon Adventure that film felt more tight and focused where as here the character roster is significantly bigger so you have the same amount of characterization you saw in that film spread across more actors (meaning they really have to pick up the slack to add something to their roles). This is mainly noticeable with actresses like Faye Dunaway, Susan Blakely, and Jennifer Jones who despite their prominence really don't get much opportunity to shine and often fall into the background with the movie's surface level melodrama of multiple uninteresting love stories that are elevated solely by the chemistry of their actors. Steve McQueen also feels a little wasted as he doesn't really get to tap into his hard edged anti-hero charm (save for maybe two moments where he delivers some bitterly sardonic remarks) and he's mostly relegated to barking orders and pointing hoses.

In terms of the effects and action sequences (directed by Irwin Allen while John Guillermin handled everything else), the movie does a nice job of creating the illusion of a giant skyscraper in the middle of San Francisco using a combination of miniatures, forced perspective, and mattes that give you a good sense of the size and scale of the building as well as the disaster once it catches fire. But despite the selling point of big explosions and blazes (which are done well) it was the quiet moments in between the bombast that really stuck with me such as Newman's Doug and some other survivors needing to navigate the twisted metal of a ruined stairwell to get down several floors, or the slow buildup of an incidental fire slowly working its way to a blaze. You can definitely see why Fred J. Koenenkamp and Joseph Biroc won an Academy Award for Cinematography in their work here. Despite the effects work and action beats being quite well done, I did start to feel the length around the 100 minute mark as when Doug reaches the Promenade Floor at the top of the building, the movie loses momentum as it becomes a series of different kind of methods of evacuating people from the building that of course fail until the last resort is taken. This section really makes its last 60 minutes a bit of a slog and while the action sequences are impressive, the characterization and variety of the sequences isn't enough to really justify it and I would've preferred a leaner runtime more in line with The Poseidon Adventure.

The Towering Inferno is an impressively made film and is undeniably the apex of the 70s disaster wave, both in scale and casting, but it's also sort of a prime example of why these films later became the but of jokes for this period of film making with its bloated runtime and an A-list cast given very little to actually do other than run, scream, or make death defying jumps. If I'm ever feeling nostalgic for an older disaster film I'd be more likely to watch Poseidon Adventure again whereas with Towering Inferno is worth a one time viewing for its cultural significance even if it also embodies most of the issues that people have with disaster films as a concept.

Kyrah Owens (Kerry Washington) and Issac Sarr (Omar Sy) were once high level operatives of a clandestine black ops program called Shadow Force until the two broke the rules by falling in love and having a child much to the ire of the program's director and now secretary of the G7 Jack Cinder (Mark Strong) who uses his resources to hunt the two down as revenge for what they did to his program and to his political standing. As Issac has been raising their son Ky incognito while Kyrah is forced to travel the world throwing Cinder's operatives off their trail, their fragile peace is shattered when an encounter with a group of bank robbers forces Issac to reveal himself in order to save his son forcing the two on the run with the three reuniting and trying to find a way to escape their past.

Shadow Force is the recent action outing from noted genre director Joe Carnahan whose work runs the gamut of serious to silly having such films as Narc and The Grey as well as more comic works like The A-Team, Stretch, or Smokin' Aces. The project was acquired in 2019 and like many projects faced delays due to Covid with original director Victoria Mahoney leaving the project (directing this year's The Old Guard 2) with Carnahan coming on board to rewrite the script after assuming the director's chair. Despite having completed filming in 2022, Shadow Force released in May of 2025 where it opened in 7th place buried by several early Summer tentpoles that were dominating the box office. Shadow Force strives to be a romantic, taut, sexy thriller for the date night crowd but instead comes off as a limp and reheated retread that's here more out of obligation than anything else.

While many have compared this movie to being a "serious" version of earlier Netflix action-comedy Back in Action from earlier this year that's not quite an accurate statement as while Back in Action was nothing special on its own, it did have good chemistry from Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz who seemed like they really enjoyed being together and helped prop up the movie's standard template. In Shadow Force however, leads Omar Sy and Kerry Washington never come alive sexually as we're given a lot of scenes and speeches where characters say things like "they broke the rules by falling in love" but that never really comes across in the scenes between the action beats or even during them for that matter as one exchange where they barter over who should get the extra bullet just feels flat with none of the actors adding any passion or showcasing comic timing with their deliveries. We also have Mark Strong who seems to be trying to outdo Danny Huston in half-hearted "Rent-a-Villain" performances as he recycles his Kick-Ass performance and accent to diminishing returns. But the biggest drag on the movie is Kyrah and Issac's son Ky. I'm not going to name the actor or be too hard on him because, he's a kid he did what he was told and probably as best he could. But the movie has Ky in a lot of scenes and while the kids in Back in Action where basically sitcom archetypes who existing to be straightmen to Foxx and Diaz, Ky is written to be "pwecociously" cute including scenes where he sings an entire Lionel Richie song (a running gag the movie will force down your throat with a battering ram) or asking manufactured "cute" questions like "daddy, what's a brick house?".

Aside from the characters and performances, the action isn't particularly good either. The film unfortunately sets the stage for how limp the action will be as the opening bank robbery scene that forces Issac to reveal himself (because of some terrible writing that requires Ky to act like a "deer in the headlights") the sequence is shot entirely from the back of Ky's head and has the sequence flash on and off so there's no continuity of movement or flow of action and it's essentially the screen "blinking" until it shows all the bank robbers unconscious. The other action sequences aren't handled much better such as a key sequence involving a car chase where the car is clearly going much slower than its supposed to be or some terrible choreography in the climax where someone will fire an uzi at three people from less than three feet away and hit nothing while blood squids will explode with no reaction from the person wearing them.

Shadow Force is absolutely terrible and if it were just some direct-to-video or VOD release I wouldn't have bothered, but this has a good cast, a proven director, and a workable premise that is just a mess when executed upon a screen. How it was decided this should play theatrically is baffling because I have seen direct-to-video films that handled their action and characters better than this allegedly $40 million movie that had the means and resources to work.

Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) is a vanlifer living on Australia's Gold Coast who avoids people and only focuses on finding her next meal or catching her next wave. After being reluctantly dragged into helping a young man named Moses (Josh Heuston) with car issues, the two hit it off after discovering their shared passion for surfing. Following an evening with Moses, Zephyr goes away in the early morning hours to catch waves at the beach where's she's abducted by boat captain Tucker (Jai Courtney) and wakes up chained to a cot in his ship alongside another girl Heather (Ella Newton). With the two trapped in a hopeless situation, they must now figure a way out before Tucker feeds the two of them to sharks.

Dangerous Animals comes to us from Aussie director Sean Bryne who directs from a script by Nick Lepard. In many ways Byrne tackles the horror staple of the shark thriller with Dangerous Animals in a manner not too dissimilar to how he tackled demonic possession/satanic horror films with his prior film The Devil's Candy. While Dangerous Animals is built on familiar tropes, it's also an exhibit in how the familiarity of those tropes don't have to be a hinderance so long as you find fun and inventive ways to use them.

Hassie Harrison and Josh Heuston make for appealing leads in the film's opening act as it almost structures itself like a mini rom-com in how they initially are abrasive towards one another until they develop chemistry once they get past their seemingly abrasive exteriors. The opening act is fantastic character setup that makes the audience extremely invested in the stakes of the second and third acts which is where we have a scene stealing (and possibly movie stealing) performance by Jai Courtney's tucker. Playing with equal parts unhinged menace and pitch perfect comic timing (for the film's dark as black sense of humor) it's great to see Courtney's really come into his own with roles like this and Captain Boomerang from Suicide Squad where he gets to be more fun and energized in his performances after Hollywood tried to sell him as a stone faced action hero in things like Terminator: Genisys or A Good Day to Die Hard and he is having the time of his life playing this gleefully sick individual who delights in feeding his victims to sharks. In many ways I was reminded of an overlooked Aussie creature feature from years back with 1984's Razorback directed by a pre-Highlander Russell Mulcahy where it mixed a Down Under take on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with its own spin on the Jaws formula involving a giant rogue boar. In many ways you can see Dangerous Animals as having DNA in films such as Wolf Creek by way of Jaws, but with a healthy does of humor that adds its own spin to the material and gives it its own identity.

I really enjoyed Dangerous Animals as pure bloody genre fun of the finest calibre. Led by two compelling leads and an effortlessly engaging villain turn by Jai Courtney, Dangerous Animals is a welcome treat for anyone who loves horror, shark movies, thrillers, or just an all around good time.

Set in 1882 in the Wyoming Territory, Lucas Hollister (Patrick Scott McDermott) despite his young age looks after both his younger brother Jacob (Easton Malcolm) and his family homestead after the loss of his mother to fever and his father to suicide. When Lucas accidentally shoots another homesteader with whom he had a feud due to his sons bullying his brother, Lucas is arrested and sentenced by a local jury to be hung by the neck until dead. The night before Lucas' execution, a stranger named Harland Rust (Alec Baldwin) storms the jail and takes Lucas with him and reveals himself to be Lucas' grandfather who has lived his life on the run as an outlaw. As the two travel southward with Harland intent on getting Lucas to safety in Mexico, the two are marked with $1,000 bounty which puts them in the sights of opportunistic bounty hunters including fanatically driven Fenton "Preacher" Lang (Travis Fimmel) and disillusioned U. S. Marshall Wood Helm (Josh Hopkins) who following the death of his son to fever has lost his belief in justice.

Rust is a 2024 western film written and directed by Joel Souza from a story written by star and producer Alec Baldwin. The film marks the second time Souza and Baldwin have worked together as Baldwin had actually served as a producer on Souza's previous film Crown Vic which Baldwin had been slated to star in before contractual obligations saw him vacate the role. Eager to work with Souza again, the two collaborated on Souza's screenplay Rust which although initially written as a father/son story was rewritten to being about a grandfather so Baldwin could play the role. Shot as an independent production, Rust became the subject of a real-life tragedy and media storm when a prop gun provided by the film's armorer turned out to be loaded with real ammunition and wounded director Souza and fatally shot director of photography Halyna Hutchins. This incident resulted in renewed discussions about safety on film sets. I really don't want to rehash this as there's been enough of that with those involved as well as the inexcusable vulture like behaviors of cultural parasites who couldn't care less about those affected and only cared about generated hackneyed, regurgitated and insensitive memes to earn points in stupid culture wars while completely uncaring about the actual people whose lives were ended by this tragedy (one can only imagine the indignities Brandon Lee or Vic Morrow would endure had their tragedies happened today). Despite this and the civil and criminal legal fallout that befell the production, Rust resumed shooting due to contractual obligations with proceeds of the film's revenue going to Hutchins' survivors. After a long protracted road to release, Rust is certainly a handsomely produced and well-acted western, but it's also one where it owes a heavy debt to prior films of the genre.

When the film started I have to say that I was intrigued by the premise as it focused on young teenager Lucas taking care of his younger brother Jacob in the wake of their parents' death. Patrick Scott McDermott makes his film debut here having previously done some stage and TV work and he's honestly really good in the role and you buy him trying to be both a caring brother while also trying to serve as a parental figure to his brother Jacob. Honestly the first act is so good and so unique among westerns I honestly kind of wished that it had been more greatly expanded because it feels like it could've been a movie in and of itself but it's basically just used for setup before the actual story takes place later. Once Alec Baldwin's Harland Rust enters the film and rescues Lucas from jail, the movie basically ditches the setup of its opening act and only really circles back to it in the last few minutes. While Baldwin is good in the role of Rust playing an aging and hardened outlaw who now seeks to do one good thing to make up for a life of aimless drifting and violence, it basically leads to a mash-up of Unforgiven by way of News of the World. While the whole "coming of age"/emotional thaw arc they do with Lucas and Harland is decently acted, it does kind of feel clumsily grafted on when the first act established Lucas as someone who had taken on more adult roles before his time out of necessity even if it lead to things like the accidental death the instigated the plot so there's something of a schism between the first and second act that never feels fully resolved.

Intermixed with the scenes of Harland and Lucas are two other plots one involving a fanatical Christian bounty hunter named Fenton "Preacher" Lang played by Vikings alum Travis Fimmel and he's a really solid antagonist who carries himself as a man of faith while also indulging in all manner of sadistic or vile appetites while taking pride in his family history as slave catchers prior to the Civil War and it's a fun performance that calls to mind Robert Mitchum's iconic role as "Preacher" Harry Powell from The Night of the Hunter but he really doesn't show up as a direct threat to Harland and Lucas until the last act so he's massively underutilized as an antagonist. Then we have arguably the third lead in Josh Hopkins' Wood Helm, the burned out U. S. Marshall who's tracking Harland and Lucas and unlike the various other bounty hunters or opportunists the two encounter Helm takes no joy or even pride in his work and just does it because it's the only thing he does have after years of chasing outlaws and losing his son has eroded his will. In theory he's supposed to be something of a mirror to Harland where Harland carries the weight of years of outlaw violence, Wood carries the weight of dispatching justice of the Law with no real sense of pride or accomplishment because nothing ever became better from what he did. While I understand thematically while he's here, as a character in the plot he often feels extraneous and while some of the interactions between him and his posse are engaging, they also create a very staccato rhythm in the flow of the story without much payoff character-wise for him.

Rust is a movie that clearly had grand ambitions, but it's also a story that suffers from being overly familiar and too unfocused and leaves its most promising elements unexplored while favored the more traveled path. It's well-acted and beautifully shot (partially credited to the final work of Hutchins) and assuming you are a fan of westerns there's plenty here to appreciate. In the shadow of a terrible tragedy, Rust emerges as a flawed film with interesting ideas that are placed secondary to familiar tropes.

Eddie Barish (Bill Skarsgard) is a financially struggling delivery driver who is a few hundred dollars short of getting his van back from the garage and struggling with being an attentive father to his daughter Sarah (Ashley Cartwright) in the wake of his divorce. With options running low, Eddie tries and fails to find contacts willing to front him the money and resorts to petty theft in order to obtain the needed funds to get his van back. Spotting a high end Luxury SUV, Eddie enters the car looking for anything that might be worth selling only to find once he's inside the car that it is now locked and reinforced with bulletproof material so he can't escape. Receiving a call from a man named "William" (Anthony Hopkins), Williams says he is the owner of the car and sick of being robbed says he intends to teach Eddie a lesson.

Locked is a remake of the 2019 Argentinian thriller 4x4 and comes to us from producer Sam Raimi who re-teams with David Yarovesky, with the two having been behind the 2021 film Nightbooks. Taking the minimalist strengths of the original and re-framing it for a new ___location, Locked doesn't have the same lofty aspirations as its predecessor instead going for a more trashy and commercial appeal, but with a pair of solid leads and a tense high-concept premise it makes a decent companion piece with enough ideas of its own even if it trades its predecessor's shortcomings for some of its own.

Bill Skarsgard is really good as Eddie and unlike the original film that kept its protagonist in a more abrasive portrayal, Locked tries to make Eddie more sympathetic as he's established as someone pushed to doing this as a last resort and is more a victim of "wrong place, at the wrong time in the wrong state of mind" whereas 4x4's Ciro added insult to injury with his activities by defacing the car after stealing from it in a way that was trying to provide commentary on property crimes and wealth disparity in Argentina. While there is that same kind of commentary here, it's really kept mostly to the first act as Skarsgard's Eddie does engage in some verbal barbs with Hopkins' William (who embodies the arrogant kind of objectivist libertarian leanings you'd expect from someone who's money exceeds their humanity), but these are mostly used as setup more than commentary as by the second act it's pretty apparent that William is just a sadistic psychopath who was looking for a reason to justify indulging in his reprehensible appetites. The movie doesn't mirror its original completely as the car does have some new features and setpieces to allow for more action, and while it is very ridiculous in the routes it takes much like the original it's a solid rental and gets just enough from its high-concept premise to justify itself.

Locked is more or less in line with its 2019 counterpart as while it largely does its own thing and isn't a 1:1 remake, it does face some similar issues in successfully mining the limited ___location premise in a way that's completely satisfying as there are plenty of things where logic needs to be suspended in order for the premise to operate, but if you're willing to go along with it there's an entertaining ride awaiting you.

Petty criminal Ciro (Peter Lazani) while walking through a neighborhood in Buenos Aires sees an SUV that catches his interest and breaks into it in order to steal anything valuable. However, Ciro's seemingly easy mark turns into a nightmare as he becomes unable to exit the car once in it and none of the pedestrians can see or hear him as the car is sound proofed with polarized windows nor can he force an escape as the car is fitting with bulletproof glass. As he deals with dehydration, hunger, and isolation, the car's owner Enrique Ferrari (Dady Brieva) revels sadistically in Ciro's suffering.

4x4 is an Argentinian crime thriller directed by Mariano Cohn who co-wrote the film with his producer and collaborator Gastón Duprat. The film is inspired by a news story in which a car thief became trapped inside the car he was trying to steal with Cohn and Dupart crafting a premise from the story that they believed could speak to issues in Argentina involving insecurity and property crimes within the country as well as wealth disparity with the two also soliciting input from people not affiliated with film production in order to craft the film's approach to the discourse of the subject matter while lead actor Peter Lazani studied the performances of Ryan Reynolds and Colin Farrell in Buried and Phone Booth respectively to approach the central performance which would mostly be a one man show. 4X4 is an ambitious film with high concept premise that has a lot on its mind, even if I feel like it stretches itself in order to achieve the ends it seeks.

The movie does a solid job of introducing its contained premise as for the most part the first half-hour or so is mostly silent as Ciro slips into the luxury 4x4 in order to steal its stereo. While the film wears its commentary about wealth disparity and property crimes in Argentina on its sleeve, it is effectively done even if it does make Ciro hard to sympathize with particularly as he attempts to add insult to inury by urinating in the car after stealing the stereo before learning he's trapped in it. Peter Lazani gives a good central performance as Ciro and while he is playing a pretty reprehensible character (down to the fact the movie reveals he has killed people in past crimes) he does add some humanity to the performance that keeps the limited ___location story engaging. There are some contrivances in the film like Ciro's phone running out of batteries or a lengthy dream sequence in the film that felt like a massive culdesac (it felt like it was trying to emulate the movie 1408, but there was actually a reason for it there that's missing here) and third act feels like it makes the commentary a little too heavy handled in a very public spectacle that culminates in a very rushed epilogue that in theory should be fine but in practice doesn't arrange the pieces in a satisfying whole.

4x4 is certainly a movie that using a limited budget and ___location for big performances and ideas even if I feel those ideas could've done with a bit more polish. While I did like the film better than Buried (at least by way of not having a nihilistic ending) I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Phone Booth or 1408. 4x4 is nonetheless a decent small scale thriller that's worth a one time rental provided you're willing to indulge some rough spots and stumbles.

Following the death of their father Luke Purdue (John Krasinski) and his younger sister Charlotte (Natalie Portman) are estranged from each other as Luke travels the world stealing artwork while Charlotte serves as a museum curator while going through a divorce trying to maintain custody of her son Thomas (Benjamin Chivers) against her soon to be ex Harold (Daniel de Bourg). After Luke steals and then returns a painting at Charlotte's museum, getting her fired and embroiling her in a criminal investigation led by INTERPOL Inspector Abbas (Arian Moayed) who has been tracking Luke's activities for several years, Charlotte confronts Luke and learns he is looking for the Fountain of Youth and is being financed by billionaire Owen Carver (Domhall Gleeson) who is dying of liver cancer and seeking the fountain's restorative powers and has been helping Luke steal various paintings of Jesus Christ by famous artists as they carry pieces of a map that leads to the fountain's ___location. While Charlotte is initially irked by the revelation and wants nothing to do with it, she reluctantly agrees to help as Carver can help with her custody battle using his resources and sets off on an adventure to find the fountain as INTERPOL and the guardians of the fountain known as the Protectors of the Path attempt to stop them.

Fountain of Youth is the latest big budget release from Apple for their streaming service AppleTV. The film comes to us from Skydance Media who've been behind a large number of these larger scale Streaming tentpoles and while they do have some solid films to their credit like the Coen Brothers remake of True Grit, sci-fi film Annihilation, or all the Mission: Impossible films after the third film that have arguably been that series' best work, they also have a lot of generic filler like The Adam Project, Michael Bay's would-be franchise starter 6 Underground, or the action-comedy Ghosted which despite middling reception became the highest watched debut for an Apple film on their service. In fact, Fountain of Youth was originally announced as a follow-up for Ghosted director Dexter Fletcher, but Fletcher dropped out and the project was instead taken up by Guy Ritchie, who despite his most notable work in mid budgeted darkly comic crime and action films has had success in blockbuster territory such as the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes films. Unfortunately despite the promise of adventure, Fountain of Youth feels more like an assembled product of ready made adventure cliches only without any real personality or identity of its own.

As with pretty much all these kinds of films, Fountain of Youth certainly shows the money on screen as there are some nice locations and production values on display including arguably the standout sequence involving using several flotation devices to raise the sunken wreck of the Lusitania (even if it's a bit nonsensical as to why they couldn't just use a submersible to retrieve it or something, but hey, it looks nice) so at the very least the movie at least has the resources to look and feel like a grand adventure. Unfortunately, outside of carrying a decent layer of polish, Fountain of Youth often feels rather lacking in the elements that make for a good adventure, namely character and humor. John Krasinski is an actor I really do like, but I really do feel like he's miscast playing this snarky wise-ass who's constantly throwing out quips and jokes and makes it feel like it was a Ryan Reynolds role that maybe he was simply too busy for (definitely got more than a few shades of Red Notice from this material). Krasinski and co-star Natalie Portman don't really have the chemistry of a brother and sister rediscovering their familial bond because the script often calls for Krasinki's character to screw with his sister's life in pretty unforgivable ways while Portman is called upon to give disapproving looks at both him and the situation (which, while understandable doesn't make for a fun adventure). Despite being an ensemble a lot of the cast often feels bereft of things to do as Laz Alonso and Carmen Ejogo's Murphy and Deb who don't really get many moments outside of their roles in the heist which is more than can be said about Elza Gonzalez' Esme who's supposed be a secondary antagonist with sexual tension with Luke but it plays very flat complete with the fact her name isn't mentioned in the movie to my recollection and Ritchie shoots the big kiss between the two from the back of Krasinski's head meaning even he can tell they don't have chemistry with each other.

In terms of the action, there's really not much to say about it as it feels like very stock and interchangeable action sequences that really don't have much in the way of creative novelty, spectacle, or intensity which is very strange when you consider that Ritchie is known for bringing that certain level of flair to something like this as seen in his Sherlock Holmes films or The Man from U. N. C. L. E. Where he was able to add his own flair to the material, here however, Ritchie feels like he's very much on autopilot in a way that reminds me of when he directed the live-action remake of Disney's Aladdin where he clearly is either operating as a hired gun or has no passion for this material so he does the job of "point and shoot".

Fountain of Youth is a movie that's clearly so full of money and resources that I'm still taking aback by how it can leave this little of an impact. Filled with very uninterested actors wearing the roles of two dimensional archetypes, I could almost forgive the generic plot and setup if the film at least had fun with itself but it's so mechanical and devoid of personality that like an off-brand generic version of something you can find at the supermarket, it'll do its job but will you actually care?

Following the destruction of the old world, mankind now lives in strongholds such as the City Under the Mountain toiling under the yolk of both a Queen (Amara Okereke) ruling as proxy for a dying Overlord (Jacek Dzisiewicz) and the oppressive Church ruled by the Patriarch (Fraser James) while everything beyond is known as The Lost Lands and is home to all manner of supernatural and dangerous things. The Queen approaches the witch Gray Alys (Milla Jovovich) and asks her to obtain for her the powers of a werewolf as Gray Alys' reputation is that she won't refuse a favor but will always demand a price. Captain Jerais (Simon Loof), who commands the Queen's soldiers the Overwatch, also enlists Gray Alys to fail at her mission which she agrees. Enlisting the aid of wandering hunter Boyce (Dave Baustista), the two traverse The Lost Lands to find the legendary shapeshifter Sardor at Skull Creek as the Patriarch sends his Enforcer (Arly Jover) and a contingent of the church's most loyal soldiers to capture Gray Alys and use her confession against the Queen to attain power and control.

In the Lost Lands is a 2025 post-apocalyptic fantasy adventure directed by Paul W. S. Anderson and written by Constantin Werner and based upon the short story of the same name by George R. R. Martin. Constantin Werner acquired the rights to some of Martin's short stories back in 2015 including In the Lost Lands and had been attemtping for nearly a decade to get a feature film made with Milla Jovovich as Gray Alys until once Dave Baustista came on board to play Boyce the project came together. While there's plenty of material here that seems poised for outlandish high concept fun, the end result feels more like an expensive LARPing session rather than the fantasy epic it strives toward.

I should preface this review by saying that I have enjoyed Paul W. S. Anderson's works to a certain trashy extent with notable examples such as Solider, Mortal Kombat, and Event Horizon. Admittedly since the 2000s, I've found a lot of his work lacking in that same level of cheesy fun starting with his Resident Evil films and more often than not his films today feel very overproduced and too quickly cut to provide that same level of junky entertainment (save for maybe Pompeii to a degree). In the Lost Lands almost seems like there's a slight return to something like those old originals especially in its presentation of an R-rated post-apocalyptic fantasy world gone mad, but there's a few too many of those modern flourishes that hold it back from being enjoyable trash. Playing like a mixture of western, fantasy, and horror In the Lost Lands certainly can't be faulted when it comes to ambition, but it never really creates an immersive world with a lot of the genre mashup elements often calling attention to themselves more than they coalesce into an actual world. Credit to Milla Jovovich and Dave Baustista who are clearly giving their all to these characters, but they're such thinly defined archetypes that it feels more like you're watching two actors in a game of dress up more than two characters on an adventure which is a recurring issue with most of the characters who comfortably fall back into types simply because they have to. Easily the one who makes the most memorable impression is Arly Jover as The Enforcer for the Church and that's mainly because she's relishing playing an unhinged and sadistic religious zealot with such unfiltered enthusiasm it becomes impossible to look away and you kind of wish she were in the movie more.

In terms of visuals and style, there are certain moments that do look pretty decent with one sequence at an abandoned nuclear power plant being pretty fun especially with the design of the "demons" who live there, but for every moment that works there's plenty more that don't especially with the color grading and over-usage of lens flairs that leads to the movie having a predominantly ashen gray, rust, or tan color palette that results in a movie that's often unappealing to look at. Honestly, the last time I saw a movie try this hard to look stylish while just looking ugly and repulsive, it was the 2008 Frank Miller directed version of The Spirit. Now this isn't nearly as bad as The Spirit (mainly since Anderson for all his faults actually knows how to shoot a movie unlike Miller), but it's a case of misguided style attempting to substitute for a lack of substance.

It really is a shame the movie doesn't really work because there are some fun trashy ideas here and even occasional sequences almost work, but it's also such a muddled and often confusing mess that there's as many moments that don't work as one's that do which isn't helped by a frankly ugly visual style. There is definitely some potential here for bad movie fans so take that for what you will.

Rookie LAPD officer Nick Holland (Luke Kleintank) is paired with a pessimistic veteran training officer, Ray Mandel (Thomas Jane) as the two embark on a patrol that is filled with the usual high stress encounters the same day as a manhunt for two violent bank robbers and Mandel's off the books activities keeping tabs on his deceased former partner's family.

Crown Vic is a 2019 crime thriller written and directed by Joel Souza. While Souza had directed a handful of smaller films (mostly low budget children's films) Souza had been a veteran of the industry since the 90s working as part of the prop department on films such as the third Beverly Hills Cop. Souza wrote Crown Vic over the course of ten days and due to a series of circumstances that resulted in the right people seeing the script, the film garnered a lot of attention initially being positioned as a project pairing Alec Baldwin with either Scott Eastwood or Sebastian Stan before Baldwin's busy schedule saw him step back into a producer's role. Despite being made for a modest budget and covering very familiar material, Souza's direction coupled with strong performances in Jane and Kleintank make for an engaging if familiar experience.

The movie covers similar ground to the likes of similar films like Training Day or Dark Blue in its portrayal of policing the streets of LA as a grinding and demanding duty that sees erosion of one's life and humanity a little more every time you put on the uniform. Luke Kleintank is well positioned as the more optimistic Holland who is counterbalanced by Thomas Jane's more weary and pessimistic Mandel where it's very much supposed to be a portrayal of the same man in the same position except with the difference of 20 years (which Mandel even says himself in the film). Despite following a very familiar framework when it comes to this kind of gritty police movie, it is done with a solid level of visual polish in both the presentation and the acting especially when you consider how low the budget was.

What Crown Vic lacks in novelty, it makes up for in presentation and performance. The two lead performances by Jane and Kleintank help to make the film a handsomely mounted character study that manages to overcome much of the familiar aspects.

Scholarship college student Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) is suffering recurring nightmares that feature a woman named Iris (Brec Bassinger) dying at a tower collapse in the late 60s. Now on academic probation due to the worsening frequency of the nightmares, Stefani returns home to her family to inquire about their grandmother Iris (Gabrielle Rose) as she believes the woman in her dreams might be her grandmother due to sharing the same name. With her family unwilling to tell her how to contact Iris due to unresolved trauma they suffered from her fear of death. Tracking down Iris to her fortified compound in the middle of nowhere, Stefani tells her grandmother about her recurring visions which started at the same time as Iris received her cancer diagnosis. While Stefani initially reacts to Iris' claims of her dreams being the premonition that saved herself and others of the tower collapse with skepticism, Iris tells her that death has been working it's way through the survivors and will soon come for their family and upon Iris dying in a freak accident sees a chain reaction of others soon follow.

Final Destination Bloodlines is the sixth entry in the Final Destination franchise which has been mostly dormant for 14 years since the release of Final Destination 5 in 2011. While Final Destination 5 did see itself in a slight decline of revenue from The Final Destination and also serving as a natural conclusion that tied everything back together from the beginning, like other horror franchises or horror characters there's always a way back. Not that there was ever any doubt about the series coming back as there were discussions as far back about doing Final Destination 6 and 7 back to back but just fell into development hell. From an initial promise of having the film set in the world of first responders (in what seems like would've been Final Destination by way of the TV show 9-1-1) to originally being slated as an HBO Max exclusive until eventually coming to its final form when Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein obtained the job by staging a Final Destination-esque accident over their Zoom interview and demonstrated their passion for the franchise. Bloodlines doesn't reinvent the wheel when it comes to the series, but thanks to some likable characters and passion behind the camera, Bloodlines provides an entertaining and surprisingly heartfelt entry in the series.

From the opening sequence set in a towering restaurant know as the Skyview that plays almost like a mini 70s Irwin Allen disaster movie with all the stops pulled out (down to being set in roughly the same time period) there's a good feeling of the filmmakers breaking from convention by having the big sequence take place outside of a contemporary world (even if Final Destination 5 technically did it, but it was so downplayed you wouldn't have known if not for the reveal at the end). In terms of setpieces it is undeniably some of the best work the series has done even if it's so good it kind of cast a shadow over the over death sequences later in the film as they never really reach that level of insanity once we're in the present. Kaitlyn Santa Juana is a solid lead who elicits sympathy while also possessing quite a few flaws due to her home life which involves an estranged mother and a divide between herself and her brother and father. Like a number of other films of the past 5 years or so, this is very much a look at multi-generational trauma that along with the fact the survivors are all part of the same family is another aspect used to differentiate it from its predecessors (even if admittedly some of the impact is stolen by The Monkey from earlier this year tackling some of the same material albeit as more a black comedy). Despite the lineup of characters having some abrasive characters much like we've had in the past, such as Richard Harmon's Erik, the movie does a good job of mining both humor and humanity from them particularly in how one character finds out he's not technically part of the family tree. Lastly, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out Tony Todd's posthumous final performance as William Bludworth who despite being critically ill at the time (and you can certainly tell in the movie) he gives the most impactful performance as both he and the filmmakers knew of his condition and allowed him to ad-lib much of his dialogue which is not only a fitting sendoff to the character, but also to Tony Todd himself with his final words of living life and appreciating the time you have some absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking words to go out on.

Final Destination Bloodlines does a really good job of utilizing its premise in some unique ways while also serving as a heartfelt send off to Tony Todd. I can't say it'll convert anyone not already in the Final Destination camp as it has many of the same issues people have complained about ("flexible" rules, lack of a physical antagonist, etc.) but for those who've enjoyed the prior entries you'll find this resides at the upper end of quality especially with how it uses character and humor.

Three years after having lost her family aboard a plane crash, Stephanie Patrick (Blake Lively) has turned to drugs and prostitution largely abandoning her life. Approached by journalist Keith Proctor (Raza Jaffrey), he informs her the plane crash was in actuality a terror attack and that the bombmaker, Reza Mohammad (Tawfeek Barhom) is walking around free in London. Stephanie attempts to buy a gun and kill Reza, but upon finding him freezes and lets him walk away with Keith later murdered by Reza as a result. Stephanie makes contact with Keith's former MI6 source B (Jude Law) and with his help hones her body and mind into a mechanism of revenge to take down everyone involved with facilitating the attack.

The Rhythm Section is an adaptation of the 1999 novel of the same name by Mark Burnell. Attempts to adapt the novel as a new franchise dated as far back as 2005 when the book was first optioned by New Line Cinema, but as with many projects fell into development hell until it landed with EON Productions. Problems with acquiring financing led to issues in the adaptation process as well as clashes between EON and the crew (primarily Blake Lively and director Reed Morano) with them as well as Paramount wanting a more Bond-like action-thriller with a female lead while EON wanted something more slow paced and character based. Upon release, Paramount dumped the film in January 2020 where the film broke records for the worst opening for a film at 3,000 screens ultimately only earning $6 million against a $50 million budget. Critical and audience reception wasn't particularly kind with many lamenting the disjointed nature of the film while praising aspects such as the cinematography and Lively's performance. While The Rhythm Section tries to bring a unique spin to the well worn revenge thriller, but just because it's unconventional doesn't mean it works.

Despite the film possessing many issues, the cast and performances are not among them. Lively does give a good performance as Stephanie as she is this broken character who needs to work on bringing herself back together and performance-wise it is pretty engaging. Jude Law is also very engaging playing her mentor B and gets to dive into some solid intensity. It's also a very nice looking film thanks to Sean Bobbitt's cinematography which not only beautifully frames the film's various international locations, but also offers a nice cinema verite style to the action scenes particularly a car chase in Tangier where the camera is placed in the passenger seat. Unfortunately, despite being a straightforward revenge story, the editing and writing often feel needlessly opaque and meandering. A good part of this might be attributable to Mark Burnell's work as screenwriter as the movie has many issues you see when an author adapts their own work as it feels like there's a struggle at conveying information that he probably did successfully in novel form (admittedly I haven't read the book). The movie also has a number of scenes that it plays out in a very stretched and decompressed fashion and while for the most part it plays itself with an overly stoic and dour tone, the movie also sometimes incorporates a non-diagetic soundtrack that adds an ironic action swagger that creates a tonal clash. While supposedly there was an effort by the producers to channel the style of something like Le Femme Nikita, it's decidedly lacking in the off kilter humor that made that style work.

The Rhythm Section has a few elements that do legitimately work, but confused editing and questionable translation from page to screen makes a relatively straightforward revenge thriller much more of a slog than it needed to be and robs the energy of the elements that do legitimately work.

Lucas Reyes (Josh Hartnett) is a former Secret Service agent who after being disavowed by his agency is rotting away in Bangkok, Thailand using what meager scrapings he can acquire drinking himself to death. When his former colleague and lover Katherine Brunt (Katee Sackhoff) manages to catch a break on an unknown cyber terrorist known as "the Ghost", a lack of available agents Bangkok where the Ghost is boarding a plane to San Francisco forces her to contact Lucas. Lucas initially rejects the assignment, but following a promise of getting him his old life back takes the job and boards a plane which is filled with all manner of killers and assassins who are also after the Ghost and its substantial bounty while Lucas must keep the Ghost alive.

Fight or Flight comes to us from John Wick and Sicario producers Thunder Road Productions through their production banner Asbury Park Pictures, a joint venture whose initial purpose was to provide low to mid budgeted genre fare for Redbox (Red Right Hand and Black Site being the only prior releases) until Redbox's collapse into bankruptcy. Given that Fight or Flight managed to travel under the radar and is being released as a Sky Cinema original in the UK, it most likely was intended to be to be a Redbox original even down to the fact that despite getting a decent sized 2,000+ theater release in the United States by Vertical (who've branched out from their VOD releases with limited success with The Exorcism and In the Lost Lands) has been relatively muted in terms of promotion. It's unfortunate that Fight or Flight was seen as such a disposable effort by its producers and distributors because it's honestly a pretty entertaining ride.

Taking a cue from recent post-John Wick action films like Bullet Train, Fight or Flight is a simple concept of taking a bunch of violent characters, shoving them in a pressurized tube, and letting the action come naturally. Josh Hartnett is really good as our lead Lucas Reyes who plays the hard luck action protagonist quite well with his exasperation at the nonsense including a fun running gag of his clothes getting ruined meaning he needs to change outfits (including switching shirts with his cabbie who then drives off shirtless) often at the expense of dignity and practicality. The supporting cast is filled with all manner of eccentric oddballs and quirky killers including Charithra Chandren, Danny Ashok, and Hughie O'Donnell as the flight crew who have to serve as Lucas' unwilling support while trying to keep some semblance of order on the plane to the various killers and fighters on the plane who range from would be entertainers to kung fu fighters straight out of an old Shaw Brothers film and of course more standard thugs or triads who are just there to pad out the body count. While Fight or Flight is very straightforward, there were some surprises such as who the Ghost ends up being or the involvment of a certain company that did legitimately catch me off guard.

Fight or Flight doesn't pretend to be anything other than it is and delivers the maximum amount of crazy in a minimum amount of space. Anchored by a strong central performance from Hartnett who is well positioned against a host of violent eccentrics, I really enjoyed Fight or Flight and hope enough people discover it so they can maybe return to this character and this world.

After the events of the first film, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), now head of the of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, is alerted that her predecessor and mentor, Raymond King (J. K. Simmons), has been killed while looking into an El Salvadorian family and having only left the message "Find the Accountant" as his dying declaration. Despite her reluctance in working with Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) due to his working with the criminal underworld's finances, she enlists his aid in finding out why King was killed while Wolff in turn enlists his estranged younger brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) with the two overcoming their emotional baggage and unravel why King was killed.

The Accountant 2 is the long in development sequel to the 2016 film of the same name. After the first film proved to be a sleeper hit, development began on a sequel albeit in a protracted development cycle that saw Warner Bros. Sell domestic rights for the sequel to Amazon MGM Studios while retaining international rights. Bringing back and refining the strengths that resonated so much with audiences, The Accountant 2 is a tighter and more focused sequel even if it admittedly carries over some shortcomings of its predecessor.

At its core, The Accountant 2 functions as more of a buddy film in comparison to the first film which very much took its cues from familiar "lone wolf"/hitman style action-thrillers while bringing in the unique element of having the character be an accountant as well as on the autistic spectrum. Ben Affleck remains good as Christian Wolff and the movie offers a lot more humor this time around starting off with Christian hacking a dating algorithm in a very humorous scene, but the biggest asset is definitely in the expansion of Jon Bernthal's Brax, revealed in the first film to be Christian's brother and the two have really good chemistry with each other as Christian's quirks are well balanced against Brax's more arrogant swagger in funny but also very human ways. Cynthia Addai-Robinson reprises her role as Medina from the first film, and unlike the original where her story was more parallel she's better integrated and some of her best scenes are in serving as the straightman to Christian and Brax's antics although she is unfortunately sidelined at the climax. The villains are unfortunately very stock (just generic human traffickers without much identity beyond that) and with both this film and its predecessor there's a recurring issue where they create really good characters and dynamics at the forefront while the villains just aren't that engaging (even the usually reliable John Lithgow was sort of lost among the plot of the predecessor).

Odds are if you liked the first film you'll definitely like this one as it delivers on expanded on everything that worked while unfortunately bringing along some of the things that didn't. But the stuff that works is incredibly well done and easily makes itself worth a viewing as well as open for another adventure with these characters which I hope we get.