John Singleton directs Cuba Gooding Jr., Ice Cube and Laurence Fishburne in this coming-of-age drama following three neighbourhood young men who are growing up amongst the gang violence and systematic racism of Los Angeles.

When I did my Film Studies A-Level Psycho, Don’t Look Now and this were the movies we used the learn how to “read” and decode a director’s intentions. And while it isn’t quite as strong as the others in its company, it will always hold a special place in my heart. Singleton presents an environment of constant disruption, where even a family BBQ and a sex fantasy are tinged by confrontation, interruption, the threat of violence. None of his scenes settle. The ambitious script can feel a little too didactic at times but then again the best scenes are self consciously preachy and emotive. Furious Styles’ monologue on gentrification, the grief stricken aftermath of a senseless murder. The primary colours are so rich here… digital cameras don’t capture these pure shades. Ice Cube does his finest work in his big screen debut. His performance is mesmerising – his dominating physicality and his subtler moments of fraternity. Shame no other director could find these notes in him again. And Larry plays possibly the most memorable movie dad ever. A father with a tough job, in an unforgiving environment, whose values he ingrains in his son might just see his boy through to college. There’s Furious Styles and Bobby De Niro’s bus driver in A Bronx Tale. End of conversation!

9

Perfect Double Bill: Stand By Me (1987)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Ingmar Bergman directs Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann and Margaretha Krook in this Swedish art movie where a nurse must look after a mute theatre star and begins to fill the silence with confessions.

There’s a lengthy central monologue that is erotic as fuck. Both actresses look glorious. Striking, rich black and white cinematography of places and faces from Sven Nykvist. But it is also pretentious and obtuse in the extreme. Not my cup of tea but I found pleasures in it.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Autumn Sonata (1978)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Rob Savage directs Haley Bishop, Jemma Emma Louise Webb and Radina Drandova in this found footage horror where a séance over a Zoom call goes out of control.

Recycles all the tricks quite effectively, and then repackages them into something that just about transcends its gimmicky prescience. Having said that, the cast and their characters are annoying to a hateful degree. Maybe there’s a Texas Chainsaw level pleasure in eventually seeing such a bunch of grating doinks have hell unleashed on them? I don’t think this was the intention though. Revisiting those initial 30 minutes of build-up, spent in the odious company of a conference of yahs’ to get to their comeuppance, isn’t an attractive proposition. A one-watcher.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Searching (2018)

David Parker directs David Argue, Bruce Spence and Mary Coustas in this Australian comedy where the staff of an independent cinema have to live dub their own voices over their opening night movie, a naff swords-and-sandals epic.

A sweet idea but the one joke peters out. There probably should be more scenes of the three dubbers desperately finding solutions in the projection booth.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Be Kind Rewind (2008)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Geoff Murphy directs Steven Seagal, Katherine Heigl and Eric Bogosian in this action sequel where special forces chef Casey Ryback needs to stop a train full of mercenaries.

Two of the least charismatic stars of their respective generations share the screen. Takes an hour to get going. Everett McGill and Jonathan Banks play grumpy henchmen. The ending is explosive. Just about gets away with it.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Under Siege (1992)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Anders Thomas Jensen directs Mads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Andrea Heick Gadeberg in this Danish action comedy where a grieving military man teams up with an unlikely group of mathematicians and software designers to hunt those responsible for killing his wife in a random terror attack.

Making sense of violence in a world of infinite cosmic permutations seems to be the over arching theme here but the end result is a bit more like a vigilante The Full Monty. A group of broken men process their issues and grow over some violent justice. The comedy can be very random in tone but overall this strange little package works.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Cold Pursuit (2019)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Stanley Kramer directs Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney and Phil Silvers in this blockbuster comedy where an ever expanding group of schmoos race against each other to reach some buried loot.

Nearly everyone talks in that ‘wiser than you’ wise guy patter that Silvers particularly excels at. This is all about excess and it just goes on and on and on. Long after the hook wears thin.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Rat Race (2001)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

John Carpenter directs Sam Neill, Julie Carmen and Jürgen Prochnow in this Lovecraftian horror where an insurance investigator must track down a missing horror author whose best selling books might be driving the world psychotic.

“Do you read Sutter Cane?”

My first 18 certificate at the cinema. Snuck in between my sister and cousin at the Warner Village multiplex in Park Royale. What a baptism of fire?! Creeping psychological disintegration meets gore, monsters and jump scares. You can approach it as a loving parody of the Stephen King phenomena and tropes or as an apocalyptic vision of our world giving way to mania. Either way it constantly slaps. We are the only sane man in the asylum. We are seeing the axe murderer slowly cross the street towards us with only a window to protect us. We are looking down the alleyway at police brutality that doesn’t need a face covered in rotten latex to feel frightful and deranged that we accept it is as reality. We are pulling at the tear in the marketing poster peeking at the writhing truth that lurks behind it à la They Live. We are caught in a timeloop with boy on a bicycle whose journey never ends. We are arriving at Hobb’s End… one of those North Eastern little towns where Needful Things and Salem’s Lot occur… and we are arriving as the third act is about to get underway. Paintings live, zombie children swarm, somethings in the greenhouse, the old lady behind the hotel room desk is losing it, the church is besieged by gun shot wielding locals, and they are the good guys. The end is nigh and we are just getting started. The only way out of Hobb’s End is a pulsating door to oblivion, a passageway guarded by a wall of monsters (one of many half glimpsed treats from the gloopy lunatics at KNB EFX Group), a rip in the pages of an unpublished bestseller, a peek into the abyss of our nightmares. Sam Neill is playing against type here, his diamond cut movie star looks and innate decency chafing against a cocksure sleaze role. Carpenter’s score goes for head banging rock to ease us in. He plays with so many horror modes so masterfully here that I’m surprised In The Mouth Of Madness has not outgrew its cult standing and become a key classic in the horror canon. Then again I had to order the Blu-ray from Spain to own a copy so someone is missing a trick over at Warner Bros.

9

Perfect Double Bill: Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Joachim Trier directs Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie and Herbert Nordrum in this Norwegian romantic comedy where a restless young woman struggles to settle on the right man / career / lifestyle / path / hair colour… and that’s OK.

Insightful, well made, some neat moments. I can see how millennials might really embrace this, see their lives reflected in a way that doesn’t match their instagram feeds. But that leaves me sharing one part of the love triangle’s fate… standing abandoned, dick out and vulnerable. Wondering what’s in this for me when I really couldn’t vibe with it. The miserable last third over extends itself but speaks to me more, I just know I’m out of the loop and five years too old to fall for this. Let the young people have their fun before they too reach middle age. I’ll go watch Amelie or Singles or summink.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Young Adult (2011)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Michael Bay directs Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Eiza González in this action thriller where two bank robbing brothers try to make their getaway in the very ambulance containing the cop they didn’t really mean to shoot.

A big project stalled, the pandemic keeping him housebound, Michael Bay declared he wanted to make a small, character driven movie in a claustrophobic setting. Two hours and twenty minutes of luxury cars, assault rifles and fender benders later … Ambulance is clearly his tribute to Bergman and Ozu. I’m no snob. I loves me some Bayhem. The polish and glow he adds to everything, his love of that neon toxic spill green colour, the epileptic fit editing, the schmaltz. This ain’t the movie for him though. The plot hook feels like a throwback to the glorious 1990s where he made his name. Physical stunts, automatic weapons a-go-go, high concept, not a cape or a cowl or a children’s toy IP in sight. Even a comedy cute farting dog is included in the action. Roland Emmerich looks across the crowded room at Michael Bay and raises a glass in tribute, Bay shoots finger guns right back at him. These are not men concerned with making great art, these are titans who want to inflate and overwhelm a marketing idea and spank their audiences into a slap happy submission with sheer god-damned scale of the back of their hands. For an hour I was a happy victim of abuse. It felt like dumb Speed, or stupid Heat, or present day Mad Max: Fury Road only made by a team of creatives who thought Con Air needed twice the amount of bickering cops playing catch up on the ground and To Live And Die In L.A. was lacking in drone shots where we race up and down the side of skyscrapers in place of static establishing shots for us to get our bearings. Beating? Bearings! I’m not complaining about being pummelled, seduced by the sheen. Dragged across tarmac. I just realised too soon that once we were racing across freeways, backstreets and sewers, Ambulance didn’t know what to do with itself. It really is just two men shouting relentlessly at a foxy paramedic while helicopters hassle them. No memorable set piece emerges from them careening around L.A., treating the City of Angeles like their own demolition derby. They just scream, bicker, bond, and try to keep their shot cop alive while a dozen others faceless cops are killed in car wrecks and explosions the wake of their deadening escape causes. Gyllenhaal approaches his chatty bad egg with relish, the acerbic lines just aren’t written down to match the performance. Everyone else is boiled in their own stock. The two extended finales both stall, neither keeping all that unexploited momentum in play. We stop the pursuit, leave the locomotion. Mexican stand-offs when we wanted bright green ambulances flying through the air or scraping through roadblocks. At the two hour point there’s nothing left in the tank. Yet we are being kicked to death by melodrama, everyone gets a teary epilogue. Slow-Mo sad eyes, a hint that a happy ending might be possible even for the arrested, guilty, the traumatised and exhausted. This doesn’t stick the landing, it besieges the runway and mutilates the terminal building. I should have at least liked this, instead I couldn’t wait for it to flatline. Too much, not enough, all in the same near endless sitting.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Den Of Thieves (2018)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/