Film Reviews by LC

There is a glorious period feel to this '70's giallo thriller, with atmospheric music, vibrant colour and fashions, some nice cinematography and a stunningly attractive female lead. We also get a generous serving of sex and nudity, so much so that it almost feels like a soft porn film at times, though it's all pretty classy and stylised. Less pleasant, but in keeping with the period, is the casual animal cruelty (several ducks are shot in a hunting scene, whilst a live eel is sliced in half). The 'whodunit' plot has a great hook: a novelist's secretary has disappeared, so her friend takes over her job to try and find out what happened to her. The author begins to dictate what seems like the answer to the mystery - but is he telling the truth, or just creating more fiction? Unfortunately the script gets a bit bogged down with red herrings that ultimately lead nowhere, and the final revelation doesn't quite satisfy. Nevertheless, despite the script being slightly below par, there is more than enough of interest here for this to be well worth a watch.

Infamous in having been rushed into production and given a single cinema showing solely to retain the copyright, I was intrigued to see just how bad this would be, and whether it had any artistic merit at all. This 9th 'Hellraiser' film is clearly low budget, and has some pretty bad acting, but the same could be said of many of the later sequels. We also get a new actor in the Pinhead role, but given that the character has largely been limited to cameo roles for most of the series, this wasn't too disconcerting. If there is a major criticism with this film, it's that it brings almost nothing new to the table - the location and characters are new, but otherwise it follows the familiar story beats of the first film. At least it's brief at only just over an hour in length, but it's difficult to see why anyone would need a reheated version of the original 'Hellraiser' that is clearly inferior in every way.

Made in a period when Argento's work was beginning to show a decline, this is clearly not up to the level of the director's peak works, but still has plenty to appreciate. This tale of a cat and mouse game between police inspector and serial killer is given a twist by the introduction of the heroine's hallucinogenic reaction to works of art, and whilst it perhaps could have been further integrated into the plot, it does provide a nice dreamlike quality. The biggest hurdle one has to overcome is that the 21 year-old Asia Argento is clearly miscast and far too young to be playing a police inspector, however if you can ignore that then her actual performance is fine. The giallo plot is twisty enough to be engaging, though the climax doesn't quite thrill as it might, and the film lacks any of the jaw-dropping set-piece killings of the director's best work. Still, this doesn't miss the mark by much, and is far superior to most of the films to come.

In many ways this is a re-tread of 'Godzilla', but thankfully there are enough original touches to keep this entertaining. The addition of a pair of tiny singing faeries gives this film a wonderfully bizarre slant, whilst the struggles against the villain who captures them keeps the human characters in the foreground. Some occasionally very obvious modelwork aside, this looks great, and is full of colour. Utterly bonkers, but fun.

All three of the films on this two-disc set are worth checking out. 'Killing' is clearly the main feature, both in terms of length and budget. At first this tale of Samurais protecting farmers seems almost too generic (with 'Seven Samurais' being an obvious influence), but we get some odd sexual scenes midway through, before the climax completely veers away from what would usually be expected. The other two are more experimental shorts (both under an hour in length). 'Denchu Kozo' is clearly an early film with zero budget, but is dripping in style, and most obviously the work of the man responsible for 'Tetsuo:Iron Man' - this tale of a boy with an electric pole growing out of his back time travelling to battle future vampires is full of frantic stop-motion editing and cyberpunk lunacy. Finally 'Haze' is a slower-moving horror, with a man waking up in an underground torture chamber - a claustrophobic piece which ends up having a more open metaphoric resolution.

In light of the previous review, it appears that this film has since been reissued - certainly the blu ray I received appeared to be uncut. The film itself is a solid comedy, with both Will Hay and a young Charles Hawtrey putting in good turns (also keep an eye out for an uncredited cameo from future Dr Who William Hartnell). If there is a criticism, it's that towards the latter half it turns more into slapstick action routines which, whilst still amusing, seem slightly generic, so it loses a bit of the character of being specifically a Will Hay film.

Given its reputation as a flop, I was expecting a complete car-crash of a movie, but this simply turns out to be a mediocre X-Men film: it's not terrible, but neither is it going to blow your socks off. The basics of the plot are all there, but nothing quite gels into anything special. It looks nice, and the action scenes are OK, but such CGI superhero fare is ten-a-penny these days. In terms of the emotional journey of the film, the elements are there, but it just doesn't quite work. Sophie Turner doesn't appear to have the charisma to carry the film as the main lead, but almost all the cast seem to struggle with the material, either coming across as wooden or over emoting. Jennifer Lawrence's agent also appears to have struck a deal to give her as little screen and make-up time as possible.

This is an amiable, easy going slice of 80's nostalgia, but it relies almost entirely on the likeable star power of Richard Pryor. The script is functional, but never really examines in any depth the nature of the lead character's rags to riches journey or his relationship with money (indeed, it ends with such shocking haste there's barely any room for any examination of character development at all). This wouldn't matter if it was laugh-out-loud funny, but as a comedy it's also lacking any particularly witty dialogue or amusing jokes. A functional star vehicle, this ambles along pleasantly enough, and isn't awful by any means, but it does feel like it could have been so much more.

I had vague memories of watching this at the cinema as a child, so decided to revisit it decades later. The animation has certainly held up well, and is impressive for the time. The storyline however, (which is essentially 'Watership Down', only with mice and rats) does creak a bit at the edges - the basic elements seem fine, but the characters don't all develop in satisfying ways, and the introduction of a magic amulet into what otherwise seems like a more grounded narrative jars. I suspect the target audience of young children will barely notice this stuff at all, but the script certainly feels like it could do with another pass, to bring all the elements together in a more coherent whole.

The occasional lapse in acting or effects betrays its humble TV origins, but for the most part this is a solidly made movie, and holds up well. A very traditional ghost story, if there is a criticism here it's that the plot beats are all fairly familiar - the biggest dramatic pull for me was simply waiting to find out if this was going to be a truly supernatural occurrence, or one of those 'Scooby-Doo' style bits of trickery. That said, there is one tremendously effective scare around the midway point that is so well done, it's almost worth watching for this moment alone.

'Tenet' is a rare film that feels both too complex and too dumb at the same time. The concept is great, with the protagonists flipping forward and backwards fighting through time - though you'll need to pay close attention to keep the mindbending plot straight in your head. Unfortunately it's coupled with a storyline that plays out like a particularly dumb James Bond film, only minus the knowing humour that makes such movies fun. It looks great, and the concept alone means this is worth a watch - but by trying to be both a cerebral high concept movie and a dumb action flick, this ends up falling between two stools, and doesn't quite succeed as either.

This film has valid targets in taking a pop at greedy capitalists and poorly paid workers in the fashion industry - unfortunately it fails to really work as a piece of fiction in that the script is so obvious and preachy. There's no subtlety here, or allowance for the audience to discover the themes for themselves, as the viewer is hit around the head with the political arguments with pretty much every scene. It's tough to care, or even be vaguely convinced by the characters or their world, as the whole thing is so clearly staged as a piece of didactic moralising. There are a few mildly amusing scenes featuring Coogan's character's early years in the rag trade, which might have been a more valuable avenue to explore, but as it is, I'm not sure why the maker's didn't just make a documentary tackling this subject instead.

I expect this film had much more impact on release, when people were living under the daily threat of nuclear holocaust. Watching it for the first time now, I'm not entirely sure how well it holds up. It's nicely made, and obviously well-meaning, but the actual storyline is so thin it's barely there, with this clearly being more of a political warning of the time than a rounded drama.

This very short animated feature starts off as a nicely understated romance, but unfortunately climaxes with some fairly ripe melodrama. Some solid themes, but ultimately it's all a bit heavy-handed (possibly the fault of the English dub?), and in the end comes across as a fairly cheesy romance. Still, some pleasant animation, and with a running time of only 45 minutes it's unlikely to outstay it's welcome by too much.

Stylistically, this is recognisably a John Carpenter movie, with another group of isolated characters battling for survival, set against a moody synth soundtrack - unfortunately however, it falls flat on pretty much every level. Where the mix of SF and horror worked brilliantly in 'The Thing', here the attempt to merge supernatural horror with scientific theory just feels messy, whilst the threat element is too nebulous ( we have an eerie glowing container, murderous tramps, zombies who shoot water from their mouths, people who turn into bugs, and a demon from a mirror dimension) to act as a strong hook. Worst of all, the characters are all flat and uninteresting, so it's hard to care when they die anyway - even Donald Pleasance can't save this script.