Eli Craig directs Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk and Katrina Bowden in this slasher spoof where two sweet redneck pals are mistaken for crazed killers by a bunch of college students…

…Who then keep having ridiculously gory accidental deaths trying to “survive” the backwoods encounter. It is a dumbsmart concept, cartoonishly executed. A lotta lotta heart helps. Tudyk and Laine have a sweet buddy dynamic and the romantic subplot just about works. A stupid bloody blast.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Broken Lizard’s Club Dread (2004)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin

David Cronenberg directs Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger and Guy Pearce in this erotic thriller where a widowed tech millionaire has created an app where he can watch in detail his wife’s corpse decompose within her tomb.

There is a spectacular sex scene. And before that a shocking one. This is on the whole Cronenberg’s best since A History Of Violence. The through line satire about a life lived on apps has a real “I told you so” energy to it. Let down only, but almost fatally, by an interminable final half hour. Every mystery has been resolved. We understand the themes of moving on from grief and sexual desire in sickness as much as health. So why drag it out with the same old impenetrable techno conspiracy that Cronenberg has been dangling like an obtuse prankster in front of us since the Eighties?

6

Perfect Double Bill: Videodrome (1982)

Joseph Kosinski directs Brad Pitt, Damson Idris and Javier Bardem in this sports blockbuster where a Formula One driver comes out of retirement to mentor and team up with a younger driver.

Top Gun: Maverick meets Days Of Thunder. But also just Brad Pitt absolutely louching around in the perfect vehicle for him. This is the closest the A-List handsome goof gets to both serious drama and selling out. It is a true paradox, I know. I do find Kosinski’s visual style to be too clean. He dials back all details and the commercial minimalism often feels distracting. He loves exposition almost as much he adores a white, spotless interior. Give me a director like Tony Scott or Simon West who truly caused a visual ruckus within the Bruckheimer formula. That production pattern means F1 will be endlessly rewatchable (the summer pop soundtrack stoking our emotions, the roar of kinetic action, the light fingered humorous character work). You can even overlook how iffy some the third rung acting is. It puts you in the races. It makes you care about F1 for three hours. I didn’t before and don’t after. It has a scene where Kerry Condon walks out on Brad Pitt because he takes her somewhere where the pints are flat and lifeless. Imagine spending $200 million dollars on a movie and not keeping a head on a beer for continuity?

7

Perfect Double Bill: Heart Of The Beast (2026)

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Danny Steinmann directs Melanie Kinnaman, John Shepherd and Shavar Ross in this reboot where a Jason spree survivor joins a woodland getaway for disturbed kids… only for the mass slaughter to start up AGAIN.

Grubby. A former porn director asks the question what is we tripled the normal amount of kills? The result = no tension. 90% of the characters we are introduced to last, at best, three scenes. They should have made stand out Reggie the Reckless the Ripley of this franchise.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)

Jeremiah S. Chechik directs Johnny Depp, Mary Stuart Masterson and Aidan Quinn in this romantic comedy where a mentally ill young woman finds her love in an eccentric man who models himself after Buster Keaton.

Homesy and messy. Undoubtedly an afterbirth of Edward Scissorhands’ unrepeatable success, this has to be one of the potentially riskiest bad taste gambles of modern mainstream Hollywood. Everyone involved just about makes it work. The end result is cute rather than near sighted exploitation. Though it does tread a fine line. Melodrama this saccharine ain’t my spoon of sugar.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Edward Scissorhands (1990)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin

Roger Donaldson directs Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman and Sean Young in this conspiracy thriller where a naval officer investigates a murder he knows he is being framed for.

Slick but empty. The first half hour, where this is an unabashed erotic thriller set around an affair in the corridors of power, is far meatier than the last hour of triple crosses and chases. The package knows it has the goods in Costner, Hackman and Young but doesn’t give any of them enough to do. An early doors limousine sex scene is the highlight. Has heat.

6

Perfect Double Bill: 13 Days (2000)

Deran Sarafian directs Mario Van Peebles, Christopher Lambert and Denis Leary in this action thriller where three wrong-uns race around Mexico to seize a boat (whose cargo is a drug lord’s fortune).

Grubby remake of The Good, The Bad And The Ugly. Yes, really. Sleazy banter. Sleazy gunplay. Sleazy cameos from hip hop stars. Sleazy sweaty titty shots. Everything a 14 year old boy wants from a DTV rental. Leary delivers his best villain, there’s just enough action to fill a credible trailer without harpooning the low budget. Beer and pizza night trash that held up beyond deep dive Nineties nostalgia. If you can track a copy down then treat yourself.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Highlander III: The Final Dimension (1994)

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Douglas McGrath directs Gwyneth Paltrow, Toni Collette and Jeremy Northam in this Jane Austen adaptation.

Nice lace but not much going on under the hood. Pretty much every role except Jeremy Northam’s feels miscast. Too much neck, not enough décolletage

5

Perfect Double Bill: Mansfield Park (1999)

François Truffaut directs Isabelle Adjani, Bruce Robinson and Sylvia Marriott in this true period drama of a young French woman who runs away across the globe to pursue a soldier who spurned her.

Sad and stilted oblivion. We get another beautiful / unhinged lead performance from Adjani. Wow! There is no one else like her. To see someone so china doll pretty and fragile destroy themselves through obsession became the actress’ trademark. She makes Huppert seem warm. This isn’t quite Possession, it even feels a little too much like a limited mini series at times in terms of production values. Told with an icy factual bluntness.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Camille Claudel (1988)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin

Michael Ritchie directs Eddie Murphy, Charles Dance and Charlotte Lewis in this oriental flavoured action comedy where a private detective specializing in missing children is charged with the task of finding a mystical kid whom dark forces want to eliminate.

Maybe a little too gentle and laid back. There are scenes where Eddie has a cheeky riff but we aren’t seeing his trademark motormouth awesomeness that often . There is action but it isn’t very memorable. There are special FX but they don’t dominate. With everything entertaining so dialled back it is hard to tell what the movie ultimately wants to be. Fills a Sunday afternoon nicely but the bar was very high at this point in Murphy’s career ascendancy.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Big Trouble In Little China (1986)