Horror Legend Wes Craven Dies at 76

Sad news today as we've learnt that one of Horror's key figures, Wes Craven has passed away. Notable for his work in the slasher sub-genre, many of his films have garnered a cult following, such as his early feature The Hills Have Eyes in 1977. 

Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, Craven earned degrees in English, Psychology and a masters in Philosophy. He worked briefly as a teacher before putting his degrees to an entirely different use when he went on to write, direct and edit pornography. His first feature, The Last House on the Left (1972) was an exploitation-horror piece about two teenage girls who are tortured by a gang of murderous thugs, based loosely on the controversial Bergman film The Virgin Spring (1960)

In 1985, Craven wrote and directed A Nightmare on Elm Street, which brought into being one of Horror's most notorious villains; Freddy Krueger, a razor-fisted serial-killer that stalks and murders his victims in their dreams. In 1988 Wes directed The Serpent and the Rainbow, a voodoo horror story about reanimation, and followed this with sequels to a variety of his other popular films. In 1996, Wes found huge critical and commercial success with Scream, a satirical mystery slasher film with an all star cast including David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Skeet Ulrich, Rose McGowan and Drew Barrymore.

Wes Craven's influence on the horror genre was unparallelled, and many of his most iconic films and characters live on, both in pop-culture and in spin-offs of one type or another. There's no doubt he'll be sorely missed.

Trailers Week 60: 30/08/15

Rock The Kasbah
My question is: why are there so many Americans in war-torn Afghanistan?

Youth

Paolo Sorrentino makes stirring films, both emotionally and visually. By the look of Michael Caine's interactions with Rachel Weisz, this is probably going to follow that line.

Goosebumps

If you had known when you were younger that R.L. Stine was Jack Black, would you have been as scared? I can't wait to see how they do the Monster Blood.

Love The Coopers

If Diane Keaton was my mother, I don't think I'd be excited about Christmas either. Also starring John Goodman, Ed Helms, Olivia Wilde, Anthony Mackie and Marisa Tomei.

Kill Your Friends

I knew the music industry was cutthroat, but yeesh... Starring Nicolas Hoult and Ed Skrein.

The Iron Giant Re-release

Somewhere in the world, some of you are lucky enough to see this childhood classic on the big screen again. I wish I could. Starring Vin Diesel, Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr. and Christopher McDonald.

Irrational Man

Every time I go and see a Woody Allen movie, I go in with a preconceived notion based on past experience what that film is going to be, but he always throws me for a loop. The movies of his that really stick out to me are the ones where he makes a sharp right hand turn not long into the movie, for example time travel in Midnight In Paris. Because of this, that is why Irrational Man sticks out for me.

Abe Lucas (Joaquin Phoenix) is a philosophy professor who has lost all will to live. He is alcoholic and teaches his classes only halfheartedly. He develops a relationship with fellow teacher Rita (Parker Posey) and a friendship with student Jill (Emma Stone). Because of a reputation that precedes him everyone believes that he and Jill are having an affair, including Jill, despite his active efforts against one. One day while eating at a diner with Jill, they both eavesdrop into a conversation being had about a crooked judge and a child custody case. It is in that moment that Abe is lifted from his bad mindset when he decides to kill the judge.

With this movie, Allen is setting out to make his own adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Rope, a movie where two university students attempt to pull off the perfect crime and in a way it works quite well. It definitely has resemblance to an Allen film, but at the same time it is fun and refreshing. Yes, the main character is self absorbed and neurotic, but he is also self aware about the situation he is in, often spouting forth philosophy tenants to match his feelings.

Allen also throws in some big moments that make you jump in delight or fear at what is going on. I like the films when he does this because it really throws me off guard. The last film of his I saw was Blue Jasmine and that was a rather tame self-reflective piece. When he shakes his own formula, it is really quite enjoyable for the audience.

Emma Stone is quite obviously becoming Allen's new muse and I think is doing a good job at inspiring him to tread new ground. Her character couldn't be further from that in Magic in the Moonlight, here she is just playing an archetypical college girl, Emma Stone if you will. Joaquin is fantastic and funny as Abe Lucas and it is amazing to see the transformation his character goes through. It is also amazing to see his dedication to gaining the weight for this role.

Irrational Man is such a refreshing new Woody Allen movie that would be perfect for any jaded fans of his like I was, it is filled with fun moments and funnier performances.

Kill Me Three Times

 "This place feels like an open-air fucking insane asylum!"

With a staggered release and recent semi-ceremonial dumping onto video-on-demand platforms and home release, Kriv Stenders follow-up to the runaway success of 2011's Red Dog, Kill Me Three Times, lands with a dull splat on the Aussie cinematic pavement. The rather oblique path to audiences that this film endured works decidedly against its internationally appealing cast, with the always welcome Simon Pegg (Cornetto Trilogy, Mission Impossible, Star Trek) heading the bill, followed by Brazilian supporting player Alice Braga (Predators, I Am Legend, City of God), Teresa Palmer (Warm Bodies, Point Break) and stars of the criminally underrated 300: Rise of an Empire Sullivan Stapleton and Callan Mulvey. Veteran Bryan Brown and the Luke "the Lesser" Hemsworth round out the cast with minor roles.

Kill Me Three Times opens with black-clad, muscle-car-driving, handle-bar moustachioed hitman Charlie Wolfe (Pegg) hunting an unknown blue collar worker on the sands of a WA mining site. After a clumsy attempt at a stylish kill, for both the character and the film, Wolfe receives a mysterious job offer. The job involves following Alice (Braga), wife of the vaguely criminal Jack (Mulvey), who is having an affair with mechanic Dylan (Hemsworth), who is mates with dentist Nathan (Stapleton) whose married to Jack's sister Lucy (Palmer). For various reasons everyone wants Alice dead and Bryan Brown shows up on occasion to deliver threatening dialogue in a police uniform. It's all inter-connected and numbingly simple.

With such an internationally appealing cast, a farcical noir premise, and a picturesque location, Kill Me Three Times flaws are almost instantly blatant. The debut screenplay from Irishman James McFarland leaves much to be desired with its banal plotting, empty world and on-the-nose dialogue and is certainly dragged further down by the flat, bored direction of Stenders, who has obviously put as much effort and style into the character and camera-direction of this bloody noir-ish farce as he did with Red Dog, a film with underwhelming direction though undeniable family-friendly charm. KMTT markets itself as a triumvirate of stories of remote, back-country murder and mayhem, but it's actually one story split into three parts; the set-up and execution of an action, the context, depth and character motivations behind that action, and the consequences. Finally, add a simple and over-used 70's Southern-style guitar riff in place of a score and you have the recipe for Wasted Opportunity.

The obvious inspiration behind KMTT is to create a 70's-styled, Coen-brothers film, but the execution is almost devoid of effort or visible interest. Pegg's charm and star-power is simply wasted, a golden opportunity to capitalise on his comedic skills into an enjoyably evil character but instead he spends much of his time hiding in bushes or sitting in his car staring at the other characters. Braga is either tossed into car boots, in hiding or unconscious, and so similarly wasted.  Palmer and Stapleton are the only ones involved who seem care about what they're doing but with the limited creative authority involved, there's not much to do. What little enjoyment this film elicits comes from the performances of Pegg and Brown and the beautiful setting that is almost as devoid of life, save for the cast, as the film itself is for original ideas or satisfactory execution. A derivative, wasted opportunity.

Southpaw

After the first photos emerged from Southpaw, all everybody could talk about was Gyllenhaal's physical transformation for the role. But since the metamorphosis of actors seems to be the current zeitgeist of Hollywood, I was more interested in what director Antoine Fuqua could do with his dark cinematic style and a sports drama. The answer is: everything that's been done before, with Eminem slapped over the top.

Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal) is an undefeated light heavyweight boxer with a wife Maureen (Rachel McAdams) and daughter Leila (Oona Laurence). Billy lives the high life, with his large mansion and blinged-up posse, but after sustaining an eye-injury during a match, Maureen convinces him that it's time to retire. After another boxer, Miguel Escobar (Miguel Gomez) taunts him, leading to a very public brawl, Maureen is accidentally hurt and dies at the scene. Heartbroken and depressed, Billy also loses his daughter to social services. The only way he can get his daughter back is to get his life back on track, which he starts doing by getting a job at a gym owned by ex-boxer Titus "Tick" Wills (Forest Whitaker). After Tick starts to train Billy, he strives once more to seek the redemption he needs.

This is basically an hour of watching Billy Hope's life fall apart, then an hour of him picking up the pieces, in the most unoriginal of ways. I have no doubt that Gyllenhaal gave this role his all, but his character is constantly reduced to polarising extremes of emotions - either depression or extreme anger - but never anything in-between. The blame very much lies with the plot, which, cliche after cliche, tells the same story of redemption that we've seen in boxing films more times than anybody would like to admit. The first act of Southpaw establishes the obnoxious characters, entrenched in a shallow, tedious world. The early development is so shockingly bad that I honestly couldn't care less about Hope's wife dying. From the banal script-writing to the emotion-milking dialogue, the film opens a wreck.

It's not until the second act, when Whitaker's character comes into the mix that Southpaw manages to conjure up some dignity. Whitaker similarly pours everything into Tick, and at times the potential of the character shines through, but he's eventually reduced to the typical enigmatic black motivational trainer movie trope. If it wasn't him, it was Morgan Freeman in Million Dollar Baby before him and so on. As for the other characters, McAdams's portrayal of a sidelined boxer's wife is as dreary as it is two-dimensional, and 50 Cent's character is just an outright arsehole. The biggest insult is the suggestion that we could empathise with almost any of these characters.

Boxing films are well known for their cinematic exuberance, and at times Mauro Fiore manages to capture the raw emotions of the moment, but Southpaw visually lacks the ingenuity that others like it have been brave enough to attempt, and ultimately the film is degraded to the archetypal training montages - complete with Eminem soundtrack - that we could all see coming from a mile off.  In the end, Fiore can't manage to stretch the style of Southpaw beyond what we've seen before. 

Of all the great boxing films - Million Dollar Baby, Raging Bull etc. - the triumphant ones create an atmosphere and tell an original story. Whilst the two leads manage to conjure up surprisingly decent performances given the material, Southpaw is ultimately the antithesis of original, and risks fading into mediocrity.

Dope

I've never seen a movie that handles racism as subtly as Dope. Movies like American History X and 12 Years a Slave advertise up front that they are about racism and how bad it is, but never really highlight the real life effects that everyday prejudice and stereotypes have.

Malcolm Adekanbi (Shameik Moore) is by no means a popular kid. He and his friends Diggy (Kierson Clemons) and Jib (Tony Revolori) are into things that others from their neighbourhood aren't, like old school hip-hop and trying to get into college. One day after school, Malcolm gets caught up in a discussion between local drug dealer Dom (A$ap Rocky) and his girlfriend Nakia (Zoë Kravitz) and inadvertently gets invited to Dom's birthday party. After a rival gang attacks the party, Malcolm discovers big packages of MDMA in his backpack. Unknown to him at the time, Malcolm meets the true owner of the drugs who tells him the best thing to do would be sell the drugs and pass the profits onto him.

This movie really highlights the lack of opportunity that black kids have growing up in poorer neighbourhoods. Even if they get good grades and work really hard to try and make something of themselves, there is still external pressure and questioning of why someone like Malcolm would want to do this because the expectation is that he would become a drug dealer. Each of the main characters have moments where they become something that is the complete opposite of who they are. Malcolm has a moment where he brandishes a gun at some gang members, normally super confident Jib has a breakdown when they find that they are in possession of the drugs and rich kid Jaleel tries to be a gangster, getting into a gunfight with some gang members.

Shameik Moore makes a huge splash with his first lead role in a movie. Malcolm is an extremely likeable character and that's because Moore's performance gives the character so much depth. Tony Revolori is once again a joy to watch, as is Kiersey Clemons. Both A$ap Rocky and Tyga give great performances which is something that I was surprised at and Blake Anderson plays his stereotypical stoner with much joy again.

One thing that this movie really has going for it is it's amazing soundtrack. Filled with songs by the likes of Public Enemy, Nas and Naughty By Nature, all artists Malcolm considers to have been made in the golden age of hip hop. It also features some great songs from the band that Malcolm and his friends are in, written by Pharrell.

An amazing and truly insightful film that is enjoyable on the surface level, but once you look at the message that it's trying to tell you, it becomes even better.

Trailers Week 59: 23/08/15

Ashby

Wait, what the hell happened to Mickey Rourke? He's all different looking. He plays a former CIA asset who teaches the local loser how to be a man. Also starring Nat Wolff, Emma Roberts and Sarah Silverman.

Hell and Back (NSFW)

An animated movie for grown ups (or people who haven't quite reached that stage yet) about two friends who travel to Hell to save their friend. Starring Nick Swardson, TJ Miller, Mila Kunis, Bob Odenkirk and Danny McBride.

The Anomaly

Sci-fi concepts seem to be getting more and more complex in an effort to stand out. This example seems to be the idea of someone's body (but not consciousness) being controlled by an outside agent against their will. Starring Noel Clarke, Ian Somerhalder and Brian Cox.

Victor Frankstein

A new imagining of the classic story but with more emphasis on Victor and Igor's relationship. It definitely looks like a turn for both Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy who both embrace their Victorian surroundings.

Scouts Guide To The Apocalypse (NSFW)

Some grown up scouts end up being the ones to survive the zombie apocalypse. Starring Tye Sheridan, Halston Sage, Patric Schwarzenegger, Blake Anderson and Cloris Leachman.

The Witch

Historical horror! Some settlers leave the safety of the town build a home on the frontier and soon begin to experience evidence of witchcraft. Starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson and Kate Dickie.

The Final Girls

So it's like Pleasantville where the characters get sucked into a fictional world. This time its a slasher movie parody of Friday the 13th. Starring Nina Dobrev, Taissa Farmiga, Malin Akerman, Alexander Ludwig, Thomas Middleditch, Alia Shawkat and Adam Devine.

The Martian

An extended look at Mark Watney's survival on Mars.