Meanderring tale with a borrowed plot. An aged Willis stumbles around Venice Beach in a pastiche of himself. Billed as a comedy, with the only laughs coming from how shoddy this films looks now. Might have been a hit in 1994. Dull and tiresome. 😦
Red Planet (2000, dir. Antony Hoffman)
The first manned mission to Mars goes awry. Straightforward SF disaster/bodycount movie with the usual nods (astronaut called Bowman etc), though more contrivances than usual. Seriously, guys, don’t take a robot with its “military” mode enabled.
The Witch (2015, dir. Robert Eggers)
A puritanical family has to endure a nightmare when a witch steals their youngest child and casts a spell on their remaining children. Austere and evocative, with a predatory camera that imparts a terrifying atmospheric on this exquisite folk tale.
Kong: Skull Island (2017, dir. Jordan Vogt-Roberts)
A scientific expedition travels to a newly discovered Pacific island to perform geological tests, and King Kong is very unhappy to see them. With an unsubtle and wobbly man-is-the-enemy narrative, this is nonetheless fabulous entertainment. Go watch!
Red Heat (1988, dir. Walter Hill)
A Soviet cop comes to Chicago to extradite a prisoner. Dated but effective and brutal mismatched buddies thriller with comic touches, this doesn’t recapture the magic of Hill’s 48 Hrs, but makes great use of Arnie and of Chicago locations.
Lone Survivor (2013, dir. Peter Berg)
A covert US incursion in Afghanistan goes awry. Effective mission-gone-bad thriller which sensibly avoids close scrutiny of politics, focusing on Hawksian camaraderie and on delivering a sensational sustained action set-piece.
The Phoenix Tapes 97 (2016, dir. anon)
If a shaky camera, lots of night vision, constant cries of, “What the hell was that!?” and people being dragged away into the dark are your thing, then you might like this film. If you don’t, there’s not much else to hold your attention here. 😦
