Reid Carolin and Channing Tantum direct Channing Tatum, some cute Belgian Malinois and Ethan Suplee in this road movie where a pair of military rejects, an Army Ranger suffering from PTSD and a killer dog who can’t be retrained, travel across America.
Solid. Better than it has any right to be and noticeably straining to make some quite brave choices in its depiction of a post-Trump America.
6
Perfect Double Bill: Every Which Way but Loose (1978)
Mick Jackson directs Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche and Don Cheadle in this disaster movie where lava erupts along the streets and subway tunnels of L.A..
“The coast is toast!” That was the cheeky apocalyptic promise on the poster back in the day. Positioned as one of the big summer releases of ‘97, this now is a footnote. A dusty curiosity known only as the forgotten other half of a set of competing volcano flicks released within the same season. The equally duff Dante’s Peak seems to have at least retained a nostalgic fanbase. Neither movie delivered. I remember going to see this with my friend Cath and us only really latching on to the naff dialogue. Quoting the most unimaginative chunks at each other on the bus ride home, trying to mask our disappointment. It has not aged any better. I’m a fan of TLJ but his heroic Dad role is a bit too much of a softy for his trademark craggy overconfidence. A Harrison Ford or Sam Neill would have slotted into the lead as written more smoothly and maybe focussed the peril at little more dynamically to boot. Anne Heche’s straw-like arms struggle to convince us she’s ever held a pebble so casting her as a geologist is a bit of a hoot. The dangerous flow of the lava is too slow to create tension, the killer heat of its presence seems to shift depending on how famous the cast member in proximity to it is. None of the fodder ensemble really lands. The FX work is shonky more often than not. The Hollywood execs who greenlighted this must have howled and hollared at all the local in-jokes… 25 years on and this probably should come with an advance reading list so you can ken some of the niche references. The heavy handed race subplot feels particularly naive and creaky. The riots were still a raw wound when this was filmed. In many ways this feels like a family friendly Falling Down, with molten rock replacing Michael Douglas, burning a chaotic path through one city’s unique socio-economic problems… at an ambling gait. That makes Volcano sound better than it is. My only real long term take home is I’ve had the end credits song (I Love L.A. – Randy Newman) stuck in my head for almost a week now.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 