A luxury resort is threatened by an active volcano. Updating When Time Ran Out via bits of the Jurassic Park franchise, this hubris-tastic disaster movie is a gleeful treat, embracing the all character tropes and situations you’d expect. It’s something of a masterclass in pacing and jeopardy: huge amounts of unpretentious fun. Recommended.
Here’s the trailer.
Harry and friends, now on the run, must destroy the magical items sustaining Voldemort. The first half of the final novel – more or less – is a decent chase adventure, with a darker tone than before; the splitting of the source material allows for pacing to be improved, through the structure necessitates a forced cliffhanger bridge to Part 2.
A search and rescue vessel investigates a fabled spaceship, thought lost. Generally effective Alien/The Shining mash-up, grounding its horror shenanigans with working guy space freighter ordinariness. Doesn’t make a lick of sense once the plot kicks in, but works just fine as a gory rollercoaster ride.
A bullied teen starts to think she has a doppelganger. Low-key and wintry chiller that cribs bits from the genre – Carrie, Damien: Omen II – though offers some pleasures of its own, not least in its Cronenbergian look and some good, if muted, performances.
A power struggle ensues in the USSR when Stalin dies suddenly. Frantic black comedy which plays totalitarianism as a dark farce. Hugely impressive, with a great cast clearly having fun throughout, while making a few satirical points along the way. Recommended.
An idealistic soldier discovers the truth about WMDs in 2003 Iraq. Sleek action-led thriller which dramatises a key event in recent world history. Simplistic in its approach but undeniably thrilling, with several great sequences.
A young executive is lured to a remote clinic to find his superior. Gorgeously-designed and formally beautiful psychological horror, which mixes elements of Dracula and Frankenstein. However, it’s almost an hour too long. Get on with it!
Don’t take my word for it, though. Here’s Lemonsquirtle’s review.
255 Review 