Film Reviews by HM

Cage is splendid in this unusual movie. Backwoods reclusive man has truffle finding pig. He makes his meagre living from this, but seemingly has no emotions to share with other humans. Loss and loneliness are hinted at. Is he mad? Is he emotionally damaged?

Pig gets stolen. The only people interested in the pig must be truffle hunters and sellers in the 'big city'. Off he goes to find her. More is revealed about his personality and background which all comes as a series of surprises. You are with him all the way as his mysterious past comes to light. Brilliant and special. Director Sarnoski presents this as his first feature and I cannot wait for his next. Forget blockbusters, this inspection of a slice of human frailties absorbs and satisfies all in one. See it!

New nurse compelled to spend night in hospital during 70's black out Britain. Her company includes two nasty people fresh from the stockroom of wind-up characters. Spooky 'it's behind you' events hint at supernatural interventions during the night shift. Things get darker as her former torments as a child return to haunt her. Things go bump and wham bam in the night. Genuinley creepy the movie keeps you in a state of tension.

Things glide towards a ghosty conclusion mingling human evil and disturbed spirits. Despite the obvious ghosty references used over and over in movies, the tension works and horror/thriller fans won't be dissapointed.

A hard horror watch at times, not gory just very creepy.

Based on a true story, an English salesman becames a courier for MI6, collecting information from a Soviet Officer highly placed in a Russian Government institution at the time of the Cuban missile crisis and smuggling it back to Britain. The stakes get higher as the spying deepens. No action, no car chases, just the tense grind of dangerous espionage. Personally I would rather have this slow burnig tension than the loud action nonsense of fictional movies.

Things come to a climax, largely because the Salesman and Sovier official become good friends and don't entirely observe the dispassionate approach adopted by spy organisations.

I enjoyed the experience immensly and Dominic Cumberbach bears an uncanny resemblance to the real Salesman we see at the end of the movie. Much recommended.

More of a one act stage play. Meandering dialogue. Goofy characters being smart ass in conversation. The basic premise is that a budding and an accomplished author of horror stories bump into each in a remote location of USA and get together in a shack to scare each other with ad-libbed stories. The stories don't work and the subsequent smudge into actual events doesn't either. Got bored and lost track of developments. I found I couldn't care less what happened to them as both characters were so irritating. My advice: give it a miss.

A highly unlikely scenario plunges a former drug dealer back into bad company. Imprisoned after a deal goes wrong he finds himself on the receiving end of a nasty gangster he has wronged. Cue heavy violence as he tries to save his wife and unborn child from mutilation. No point in any further description; just sit back and endure/enjoy a rollercoaster of violence.

Worth a watch? Certainly if you like punch ups and torture scenes. An exploitation film from start to finish. Plot? Who cares!

Begins with humour tongue wedged in cheek. It takes an unexpected twist then wears the viewer down as one action scene after another piles on the cgi. The script gets dumber and dumber and we end up with a video game shooter exprience. I have had it with super hero movies; Deadpool was a welcome semi-send up but this is just a clod hopping mess. End this series NOW!

Don't bother is my advice, they will just make more of this bilge.

A one hour tv drama dragged and padded out to movie length. Give it a miss if you want entertaining. This story doesn't belong on film and I doubt it has got a cinema release which is all you need to know.

The life of Mary Anning was one of relentless toil scouring the coast of Dorset England for fossils. A drama about her would centre around her work, perhaps family background illustrating the death of siblings, her unlikely survival and then her emergence from the shadows as a major contributor to natural science. However, the writer and director Francis Lee chooses to make up a story about a lesbian relationship between her and another woman. This is entirely fictional. What is the point of this film? It is misleading about her life, character and distorts other relationships she had; not as far as is known sexual ones.

Lee has made another gay film, so he obviously likes the subject. Sadly the film lingers on close to pornographic bedroom scenes. The two woman 'go it it' in an urgent rush which takes the characters as painted leading up to this in a differnet direction of temperement and character. Gratuitous sex really.

Having said all that it is an enjoyable drama and rather touching: just not about Mary Anning.

Tim Burton likes his concepts and redesigining trodden paths. This is a romantic journey through a dying man's life supposedly the truth that is too crackers for his son to believe. Do we believe it? Well it doesn't matter. The quirkey outlook of Burton keeps it colourfull and interesting. When you stop to think about it: why tell this heavily contrived story in the first place? No idea, but if you liked the barmey Edward Scissorhands you won't have much trouble enjoying this.

Entertaining yes, fairytale? Well yes that is what this is and what's wrong with that?

Part one got some momentum up but it all thins out in a routine punch up conclusion and yet another version of how Two Face originated. Dissapointing and let part one down.

A Covid era film. The story follows a female in a time loop. She is caught in an experiment involving another dimension. She tries to get to the bottom of it as she has no knowledge of what is going on. Desperate to locate the scientific establishment that seems to be responsible for her plight she makes progress each time she returns to the scene of her detention in an abandoned house tied to a chair.

OK it is a low or no budget SF thriller. It kept me interested despite the murkey plot. One of the better 'not many people' Covi era films. Doesn't set the world on fire frankly.

Things go bump in the night. 'It's behind you' kids etc. Based on a stage play you won't have heard of because it probably wasn't much good. Neither is this film. Badly connected tales of ghosts and things of the forest, it attempts to make sense of itself at the end but only succeeds in being irrelevent and makes the preceeding events redundent in meaning.

Not up to the job of intelligent horror and not messy enough to be a really horrific experience.

An intelligent build up to the next installment; looking forward to it. The script has more going for it than many of the rather dumb superhero films around. Plenty of action and character development. The graphics are not the Cgi we are used to or Pixar but you sink itno its world easily enough.

A lady customs officer who looks like a Neanderthal can sense and smell peoples emotions and actions. She bumps into a man who looks just like her. A relationship develops and she finds out more about herself and works with police to locate paedeophiles but revelations turn in darker directions.

A movie that passes thorough love, revelation, intrigue, police thriller and ultimatley fairy tale horror. Brothers Grimm could have written this for adults to enjoy and be oppressed by as it becomes a hard watch at times. It will leave an impression on viewers.

Although there are many more true stories of SOE operations, this film concentrates on the early days and specifically on an American operative and those that were in her orbit in France. The story is all the more compelling as it doesn't bull up the events to overkill. There is a compelling feeling of dread throughout without resorting or being attracted to tales of shoot outs. Fine performances all round and an air of reality.

The Germans are for once not shown as brutal dumb goons, but all the more beleivable for that. A good drama all tound and sincere.