Cannonball Run 3 (1989) Another great John Candy Movie

   Let me say that this movie is a hoot.  John Candy was the man.

   In C3 amateurs replace professional drivers before an illegal cross-country race. The real amateurs, however, were behind the camera. Jim Drake (who did some fine TV work) lazily directs this film based on a weak, laugh-free Michael Short (Martin's brother) script, complete with an obnoxious music soundtrack and bland stunt work. Even the cameos look unenthusiastic. And we don't even know who's leading the competition until the very end, a cardinal sin in racing movies.

   The main cast is quite talented (no fewer than 3 SCTV alums) but it looks like everyone flew in for their two weeks of filming and went home; there's simply no inspiration between the actors. During the closing credits we see John Candy, Donna Dixon and company riding around in amusement park bumper cars -- Lord, do they look utterly embarrassed. I wasn't demanding Shakespeare, but a competently-made, well-acted comedy (along the lines of Splash or Animal House) shouldn't have been out of the question, either.


Rating...
5.5/10

The Offspring (2009) A Decent Flick if you like the Hills Have Eyes

   A clan of cannibalistic, cave dwelling savages breaks into a country home and viciously attacks the residents, in search of a baby for some kind of ritualistic purpose. They gut the one guy and drag the two women to their cave where they subject them to more horrendously cruel treatment while a team of cops draw closer in their on-going search for the tribe... "Offspring" has it's share of gruesome bits, including mutilation, child killing, and a woman getting her vagina clamped in a pair of metal dentures.

   The acting isn't all that great and the effects are relatively simple, yet practical which is a welcoming adjustment if you ask me. If you liked Jack Ketchum's novels or movies like "Hills Have Eyes", you shouldn't be disappointed with this cool little flick...


Rating...
5.5/10

The Thaw (2009) A Surprisingly good horror movie

   Let me say that this movie is going to make you squirm and sweat.

   The premise: A prehistoric bug is discovered in melting Arctic ice by a renowned global warming alarmist (Val Kilmer). The bug reproduces by infecting people. A small group of students attempt to contain the new infestation.

   The Thaw offers more suspense than it does horror, though there are some jumpy and/or gory moments. The CGI bugs are just convincing enough, and the other effects are good. While the plot revolves largely around Kilmer's character, he doesn't get very much screen time. However the other actors were engaging enough that I didn't find myself missing him all that much.

   The story starts with Kilmer and his team, beginning the movie's more mysterious element. It then switches to the students for their rather straightforward horror-genre struggle against the bugs. The Kilmer part of the story is revisited in the end, to wrap up the mystery with a twist. Having the mystery lingering in the background was a nice touch, as it added some extra intrigue to carry me through the movie.

   Nothing to write home about, but competent film-making and moderate entertainment throughout. Has lots of blatant public-service messages about global warming, too, if you've got the stomach for that
  
Rating...
6/10

High Tension (2003) I Love French horror

   Let me say that first and foremost - I love French Horror.  Now after stating that I bring you High Tension.

   Oh my god. Without a doubt I have not been affected by a movie this much since watching the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre when I was well under age and the movie was certainly more than dodgy. I couldn't sleep after watching that and was very uneasy, multiplied a gazillion times by the imagination of a kid. This certainly had a similar affect on me, it scared me and horrified me.

   If you have any preconception about foreign cinema being weaker to Hollywood then you have hardly spent enough time watching foreign cinema and too much time engrossed in poor romantic flicks with Clooney et al. You really need to get out and grab some of that Japanese, Spanish and French cinema action. It's easily had and there's a lot to it, far better movies...anyway, I find myself digressing again.

   From the outset this movie pitches itself as a hard horror, it isn't going to pull any punches and it's going to show you like it is, harrowing and horrific. That said, the story then turns to a slower pace and you find that it's mixing the suspenseful thriller in with the moments of full on horror, and it's done so well. Too well in fact, and watching the psychotic at work is sometimes shocking.

   It rides a fine line between schlock horror and suspense horror, it manages to combine the two without falling into a complete gore flick. It is gory mind you, very gory. I was eating a couple of biscuits during the movie and I stopped until it was finished, even then I wasn't sure.

   That's where this movies strength lies, it really pushes the boundaries of between those two types of movies but keeps its feet firmly in the suspense, and tension area. The film is exceedingly tense, and it's raised slowly to begin with, but creeps up at every set piece, and it's not long before the shocking and surprising final set piece is upon you. That in itself is terrifying, and as it unfolded on me I was stunned. 

   Part of me thinks that this movie could have done much better without all the horror, but I'm not sure that the film would have carried on the tension and suspense alone, it's the very presence of the horror that adds to and heightens the pressure.

   High Tension is a very stylish, tense film, truly a suspense-thriller-horror to be proud of from the French. Please Hollywood, don't remake it.


Rating...
8.5/10

Australia (2008) I still don't know what to think of it

   I have no idea what to make of Australia. It can't possibly be a serious movie, right? It certainly starts as a camp comedy, then lurches into a clichéd action romance adventure, before descending into an attempt at World War Two melodrama and finishing with a dubious helping of Elgar over a rather uncomfortable attempt at serious social commentary. Elgar? I mean why? My dictionary defines a farrago as a confused mixture, a hodgepodge or medley. It has no idea what it wants to be so it attempts to be everything to everyone and fails at almost all of it. You can only get away with this stuff if you are really clever and have a well honed sense of irony and your tongue kept firmly in your cheek. Australia is neither clever nor ironic enough, which is a pity, because I loved Moulin Rouge.

   I'm sorry if this sounds cruel, but when this much money is thrown at a movie and it turns out to be this inadequate, I actually feel quite miffed. Had it cost $10M, it might be excusable.

   The (multiple) stories: there's an aristocratic woman arriving in an alien hot land to take control of a ranch which was her husband's purchase (think Out of Africa but without Meryl Streep). There's a cattle drive across the Outback (again heavily borrowed from Out of Africa) and the criminally wasted diversion into the desert to try and find water, which could, if handled properly, have led to some quite interesting drama. The heroine can't have children (O of A again) and takes up with an attractively roguish man (Robert Redford / Hugh Jackman) while taking on responsibility for the Kikuyu/Aboriginals who inhabit her land because unlike 99.99% of the other white colonizers, she has a conscience - surprise surprise. There are aerial shots of the Australian Outback – compare to the aerial shots of the Rift Valley in O of A - there's the pantomime villain Neil Fletcher played by David Wenham (apparently picking up where he left off in The Proposition playing an identical character, called Eden Fletcher – is there some significance to the name that a non Australian doesn't get?) then we lurch into the bombing of Darwin and the rescue of the lost children.

Rating...
5.5/10

Downloading Nancy (2009) A Strange Overlooked Movie

   The masochist housewife Nancy (Maria Bello) is a physically and psychologically destroyed woman. She had been so violently abused by her uncle since she was seven years old that she can not have babies anymore. She is ignored by her selfish husband Albert (Rufus Sewell), who does not have sex with her or give any attention to her problems, dedicating his leisure time to play a virtual golf game in a special room in their fancy house.

   The psychoanalyst Carol (Amy Brenneman) unsuccessfully tries to help Nancy to resolve her emotional issues with therapy. When Nancy contacts the sick sadomasochist Louis (Jason Patrick) in internet, she schedules a meeting with him in Baltimore to release her from her painful life. They meet each other and have kinky sex, but along the days together, Louis falls in love for Nancy and tries to persuade her to stay alive.

   "Downloading Nancy" is a disturbing, powerful and heartbreaking movie with a story apparently based on a true event. Yesterday when I saw this film, I felt very uncomfortable with the dramatic story of Nancy, a woman destroyed by sexual abuses in the childhood and adolescence, and rejection and lack of love in her marriage. The gorgeous Maria Bello performing a character without any glamor gives a performance that should deserve a nomination to the Oscar, if this ridiculous institution were slightly honest and serious. Rufus Sewell is amazing in the role of a selfish man totally indifferent to the emotional problems of his needy wife. Jason Patrick is also excellent and there is one specific scene absolutely gruesome when he has sex with Nancy and a piece of glass.

   The non-linear screenplay makes the difference in this film, disclosing the drama of the lead character through flashbacks and intelligent dialogs.


Rating...
6.5/10

Endgame (2009) A Good Overlooked Movie

   Shot in a manner very resonant of Frost/Nixon with outstanding editing Endgame is a fittingly unsentimental and very nicely played drama of the last days and brinkmanship of the apartheid negotiations in South Africa.

   With competent performances from all involved this is not overacted but rather relies on the relationships and the materials. Cutting between South Africa and the UK it tells the story of the two sides: the Afrikaans government on the one, and the ANC and Pan-African parties on the other. How they came to find a path in what was probably the most volatile of all post-colonial politics to not lead to civil war is the story. Through the efforts of an Afrikaans philosophy professor (William Hurt) and a British troubleshooter for the gold mines (Johnny Lee Miller, who is in excellent form, less manic suits him very well indeed) the players first arrange to meet, meet, and work through the issues.

    Filmed in South Africa (A lot of outdoor shots) and the UK, this has more story than you'd think on first sight. It has some action scenes, but in the main it is a nicely poised political drama.

   The film scores points for exceptional use of camera and again I have to mention the editing which is outstanding: rarely missing a beat and playing its focus on both the players and the reactions this is a first-class lesson is how film editing can make the story better and worth watching on that basis alone if film-making is your thing.

   For those of us who remember the marches, the cause, and Mandela walking through the prison gates with Winnie, this films not only gives meat to the bones of the background to that history; it is evocative without being sentimental.

  In the end I want to say that this is a strong reminder of the best that humans are capable of.


Rating...
7.5/10