Sned Hepl

I've seen the Amanda the Jedi video about this, so I knew what I was getting into, but...

It's a boys club out there, but one woman is doing the best she can... but she finally sees that the boys club is against her. But a plane crash means its her and her new boss, and soon it becomes very prevalent that he will need to rely on her. However, she likes her new life, and is down for this, at all cost.

This reminded me of the third act of Triangle (and that Madonna movie that no-one wants to remember) in that it's all about "well, well, well, how the turns have tabled..." ... and then we see that everyone is terrible. I'm also reminded of the quote of Lord Acton "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

There's definite some Sam Raimi moments, with Raimi-Cam! And hey, a zombie moment! Rachel McAdams is clearly having fun with this, and I hope Dylan O'Brien also had fun but that doesn't come across (acting!).

This movie will depend on how well you can take the revelation of what the people are really like, but if you are here for just "girl-boss moments" I wouldn't recommend this.

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undertony

It's another A24 horror movie!

Evy is doing two things: looking after her dying mother, and recording a podcast. And on the podcast, she and her co-host get sent ten audio files, which get progressively creepier. Clearly everything is fine, and Evy isn't inviting a demon into her house and possibly her mother too, why would you ask that?

Just because you have a low budget doesn't mean you can't get a horror movie working. We have two on screen actors (Nina Kiri as Evy and Michele Duquet as the mother) and a host of other people playing off-screen voices, and the set is one house. There are slow pans, and things in mirrors/backgrounds to pay attention to, but the focus is on the audio files and seeing Evy dealing with things by herself.

This movie is a lot about guilt, of dealing with the mother, of potentially becoming a mother herself, played out through the medium of something praying on pregnant women and not being able to stop yourself from bringing it onto yourself.

There's a lot of potential of this whole thing being in Evy's mind, but that is an easy out. But the ending is definitely touching more on what you think is going on more than that you see (which isn't a lot).

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New Maddy?!

And it seems like there will be a new album!

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Diabadical

What if the Boys... but a cartoon?

This is a collection of standalone stories, set in the universe of The Boys. Some feature the characters we know (with their tv actors providing voices) and sometimes just people being in the world, usually dealing with some form of impact from Compound V.

There are a mixture of writers and so we have a mixture of qualities. Some are a contemplative episode, some is written by Justin Roiland (just the one, but it is so Rick and Morty who can't not think of that), and one features a sentient pile of poo (thanks Awkwafina!). They aren't terrible... but their biggest bonus is that they are only around 13 minutes long, so don't get a chance to outstay their welcome.

There is a variety of cartoon styles as well, nothing too out there, but each episode does have its own style. The character models are somewhat the tv, but also the comic style (Hughie is definitely Wee Hughie of the comic). In common is pretty gruesome images of blood and gore everywhere, so that's on brand.

Not a bad distraction, but I doubt anyone will come back to this for a second look.

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PrimeApe

Monkey! ...very graphic Monkey!

Ben is a chimp... and Ben has rabies. A group of young women return to one of them's home, and say hi to Ben... but Ben has problems, and the movie wastes no time in going from "here are the people" to "here is the chimp attacking them",

The opening shot, which leads to the doctor getting his face ripped off, gets across the point straight away. This movie is going graphic, and it's going practical. The deaths are all practical effects, and the chimp is a man in a chimp suit (I don't completely buy the chimp face mask). This is a brisk 90 minutes, and just assumes everyone is buying into the premise and is here for it.

The young women are... largely interchangeable. So much so that I often couldn't tell which character was who unless they said the names. Troy Kotsur is notable as he is the older man in the movie, and is deaf, so the movie have a few moments playing around that.

This is "Cujo, but a chimp" with practical effects and just getting on with it. It's fine, and if you are after that, then this is definitely for you.

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Bennny Hilly Copppy 3

And that's it, finally caught the last (3rd) one!

Axel's boss gets shot, but the feds tell him to back off investigating... and so he's going to Disney World! No wait, I mean Wonder World! Which is not Disney World at all... but it is in California, so he's back with his buddies, but considering they consist of old friend Billy and new friend Flint... what's the point of him being here? Anyway, there are bad guys at Wonder World, so Axel is going to go in, get thrown out, go in again, get thrown out again, get in again... and I actually lose track. Maybe out and in another time? But anyway, it's all about money, and shooting people.

This definitely feels lighter than the others, no doubt due to the park life of things, but there are still a lot of people getting knocked out or shot, and at least one badly green screened stunt. Oh, and this is a George Lucas movie! (He has a very minor cameo.)

But did this need to be in Beverley Hills? Aside from the park location, there is no Beverley about the place, and you can have parks anywhere, even back near Detroit. But we get to have some excuse for Eddie Murphy to team up with Judge Reinhold (who gets one (1) extremely stupid scene and one (1) cool shooting moment). We have Hector Elizondo as the other cop, and... Bronson Pinchot is back too!

This is a fun movie, but man the script is thin. No wonder they needed a break.

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Buluk

A scientist's string theory experiment goes wrong when his brane explodes.

With an opening description like that, how can I not watch?

Harlan it brought to the House and must penetrate it to find Ansom. He is guided by Aclima and often stopped by Sessler... and encounters them time and again as he seeks deeper into changing realities and seeks the truth inside to find out what happened to the people in the explosion.

Ben Wheatley wrote and directored this, and while he lists a number of influences at the end, he misses the main obvious one: David Lynch. This is attempting to be Lynchian as fuck, with black and white film, odd angles, odd transitions and odd filmography all around. All transports are actual models (and clearly obviously so), there is tons of green screen (again, not hiding it), and all dialogue is dubbed over the actors talking (again, could have been recorded at the time, but not the way the film wants to do it). With all sorts of influences, this is distinctly odd, but the main chap is there.

We have only four actors, who play all sorts of parts (although not heavily credited we also have Bill Nighy as the Voice - there's no mistaking that speech). I easily recognised Noah Taylor, and maybe Sam Riley.

Weirdness... but I can't entirely say it pays off...

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