Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary

Brandon Cronenberg directs Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott and Jennifer Jason Leigh in this sci-fi horror where an assassin leaps into stooges’ bodies taking over their lives until they have access to the target.

Lots of nice juicy disturbing qualities here but it runs out of steam when the focus moves away from Riseborough’s haunted existential parasite. The gender bending nudity and practical FX are strong, the violence excessive. The artier sequences where minds meld and separate are very impressive. Yet it is hard to fully care about these cold characters and their simulacra world. It feels too flat, too closed off, too much like a drab playset. And for all of Brandon’s strengths as a genre director (he understands the mission) you can’t shake off the irritating pall of nepotism. Not only would he not be making this feature if it wasn’t for his more famous groundbreaking father, but he wouldn’t be making it like this if it wasn’t for David’s brand identity. The best thing about Possessor is it is a homage to daddy, but whether you want to sit through Oedipal karaoke and not feel slightly gypped is a whole other thing. Ironically Possessor is a body horror throwback that cannot figure out its own identity while inhabiting another’s flesh.

6

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/

Russ Meyers directs Dolly Read, Cynthia Myers and Marcia McBroom in this sex romp where a female trio arrive in LA hoping to make good in fame and riches, sex and love.

Paced and edited like a bullet train, you are more likely to have a heart attack than keep up. Busty young ingenues race through a decade worth of soap opera melodrama in a mere 100 minutes. Unpredictable, horny, parodic and a lot of fun.

8

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/

John McTiernan directs Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson and Jeremy Irons in this action adventure where John McClane finds himself racing around New York solving riddles and completing impossible feats at the whim of a mad bomber.

Hot time Summer in the city… YOU ARE ABOUT TO HAVE A VERY BAD DAY! I’m just going to say it, I grew up loving this but the more I watch it the more it niggles at me. While 2 is a near perfect sequel (sue me), this feels quite cobbled together. The disorientating but blissfully unceasing first half of phone trash talking, taxi chases, subway explosions and quirky bomb disposals gives way to a very choppy and loose concluding half. The editing in the second section is atrocious, coincidences are relied on heavily and you can see the scars and severed connections created by the obviously reshot finale. Where did the battalion of terrorists go after they armed up? Why is Samuel L Jackson in that helicopter? Well, Samuel L Jackson is wonderful here as the reluctant participant in the mind games and terror tactics of a bunch of white people… so why wouldn’t you let him joyride inappropriately into the big end sequence? He never undersells the risk, kills every line and has a good rapport with Willis, who generously shares his spotlight. Race and racism is leant into frequently, leading to some witty asides (“Let me guess… Rodney King?”) and moments of gripping small scale peril. Willis’ opening salvo, forced to walk around Harlem with a charged epithet on a billboard, is a moment that feels truly original and unlikely in action cinema. Later Jackson’s Zeus has to answer a ringing phone as a beat cop points his gun at him for a misdemeanour and you never question the reality of his precarious situation as a black man. Quibbles aside, this is still a rush of adrenaline… I just kinda wish it could maintain the polished unpredictability of the earlier set pieces right up until the finish line. Still, we have John McClane chuckling deliriously as he climbs out of an obliterated subway carriage… just as incredulous as we are that he is not dead… and sometimes that’s all you need to get you through a tough week.

9

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/

Harold Becker directs Timothy Hutton, Tom Cruise and Sean Penn in this teen drama where, after a tragedy, a group of students takeover their military school and the ensuing stand-off turns into an armed siege.

George C Scott is top billed in the credits but only appears in a handful of scenes. Timothy Hutton is nowhere near the movie star that Cruise and Penn would blossom into so your eyes are always drawn away from him, no matter how pivotal his actions are in the story. The casting would work better rejigged if Cruise were the lead, Penn the hothead and Hutton the voice of reason. It is a strange little teen rebellion movie, not a bad one, but one where the kids are fighting for their right to be part of the system. Unusual to see a flick where the values are quite so conservative, so traditional and almost pointedly uncool. You can constantly sense the tragedy brewing after an unpredictable first act proves there’ll be no holds barred. The big finale is surprisingly violent.

6

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/

Michelangelo Antonioni directs Monica Vitti, Gabriel Ferzetti and Léa Massari in this arthouse classic; a mystery where an heiress disappears during a boating weekend.

I’m not denying this has some of the most beautifully composed shots in cinema history. And I liked how unresolved it all is. Yet this is ultimately an exploration of ennui, restlessness and angst… like seemingly every Italian film of the era… we see how grotesquely the idle rich behave… and boredom and desolation is quite boring and dispiriting to watch.

6

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/

Pietro Marcello directs Luca Marinelli, Jessica Cressy and Vincenzo Nemolato in this Italian dramatic adaptation of Jack London’s novel about an uneducated worker who becomes a struggling writer.

What a fantastic lead performance by Luca Marinelli. He anchors this story of love, ambition, politics and poverty with a star-making turn equal to Brando in Streetcar or De Niro in Taxi Driver. He suits this sensual but cruel world, we share in his stubborn, often amusingly curt, rejection of compromise and patronage. Marinelli’s decade spanning exploration takes place in a vague 20th century Naples. Some of the technology is quite modern, some of the fashions and politics feel like they belong in a forgotten past. Old footage is colourised or recreated as mood setting flashbacks and visual representations of Martin’s personal writings. These sequences are spellbinding. This temporal vagueness helps you get lost in the story… though there is a jerky leap forward in time and fortune at the start of the third act that disorientates. The conclusion seems to be aiming for the artier and the metaphorical… the kind of unspoken desolation of decadence that Fellini or Antonioni or Kubrick aim for. I’m not sure I entirely picked apart the closing moments true narrative import, though the sense of fatalism they evoke is definitive. I look forward to rewatching them.

9

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/

Jaume Collet-Serra directs Emily Blunt, Dwayne Johnson and Jesse Plemons in this family adventure movie based on Disney’s theme park ride.

This starts oh so strong. A non-stop pummelling of period romping and slapstick spectacular. Genuinely relentless and high quality entertainment which owes as much to Buster Keaton as it does The African Queen, The Mummy (1999) as it does Indiana Jones. At one point The Rock performs a suplex on a jaguar! This really is popcorn heaven in that initial hour and I can’t over emphasise what a blast it is. Then abruptly the tone shifts. Suddenly we are in a miasma of murky green screen environments, plagued with unconvincingly CGI’d antagonists and a spew of overly laboured plot revelations dominate. It isn’t dreadful but often reminds of the worst excesses of a Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Watching this movie of two distinct halves is the equivalent of watching the sprightly first chapter and bloated fourth sequel of a modern Disney franchise all in one condensed sitting. Having said that, Blunt and Johnson have lovely chemistry, Plemons and Paul Giamatti make for colourful villains – ones who land as many laughs as the screwball heroes.

7

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/

Andrew Davis directs Arnold Schwarzenegger, Elias Koteas and Francesca Neri in this action thriller where a firefighter hunts the terrorists who killed his family in a bombing.

Made when Arnie was eyeing up retirement and a move into politics. Made before 9/11 but released after. This feels pretty bog standard. Doing nothing wrong but nothing particularly memorable. The role stretches Arnie a little – he needs to portray grief and helplessness. You can see him making the effort to meet the task head on. This leaves the humour to fun actors like John Turturro and John Leguizamo, who are deft at making colourful little cameos. Picking up a paycheck for a short week’s location work. Collateral Damage does the basic job on a Saturday night but never reaching, or even particularly aiming for, the top blockbuster standard. Competency isn’t exactly a huge selling point.

5

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/

John Dower directs Jo Weber, Duane Weber and Tina Mucklow in this documentary looking at the various suspects considered in the unsolved lone bomber airplane piracy case that occurred in 1971.

A pretty unsensational true crime retrospective that benefits from avoiding making any definitive conclusions or relying on forced cliffhangers… a bane of the sub-genre in recent years. The unique crime itself and the strange menagerie of living room obsessives still trying to promote their own solutions make this extremely watchable.

8

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/

Lee Tamahori directs Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin and Bart the Bear in this adventure movie where, after a plane crash, a bookish billionaire and the man he suspects is sleeping with his supermodel wife are chased through the wilderness by a ferocious bear.

Hopkins trying to dial back the ham + a fantastic animal performance x David Mamet script = Hopkins eventually exploding “Today, I’m-a-gonna-kill the mutha fucka.” Daft and pretentious in equal measures yet in its purest moments, very engaging.

6

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/