Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban: Rats And Dogs

This is easily the second best film in the series, I appreciate the more adult tone of it and think that seeing more of the wizarding world such as during the night-bus scene is a credit to the film. The dementors make for excellent monsters for Harry and co to face off with as they are both evil but also fairly unexplored, we know they are a threat without even needing to see them be threatening.

I thought the film almost had a paranoid thriller aspect to it with the prisoner being on the loose and supposedly out to do Harry harm. There was a great sense of tension particularly after the Fat Lady is attacked that really makes you share in the sense of peril.

Lupin, David Thewlis, is one of my favourite characters as he makes an impression right from the off and you really buy his connection to Harry. Finding out more about Lupin and Harry’s Dad as boys was also interesting. The twist is quite well done and you would not realise it unless you had seen it before, I am talking about Timothy Spall’s reveal of course.

Overall, a fun ride with a great gothic charm

4/5

Pros.

The twist

The atmosphere

Exploring more of the world

The past stuff

Cons.

The pacing is off

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Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets: I Hope You’re Not Afraid Of Spiders

Summary

Harry’s second year at Hogwarts brings killer Basilisks and a look at what is to come.

So this is a much better film than the first, outside of the first half an hour which feels like its aimed younger than the later sections of the film, it all feels very in keeping with what I would say is the tone of the series.

Getting background information into Voldemort and seeing the first horcrux is also interesting and helps to flesh out the character beyond just the name. I do find it difficult that Harry did not know Voldemort’s name was Tom Riddle as surely there must be information available about him in the wizarding world and he would want to know who killed his parents, but anyway.

I like the mystery of who has opened the Chamber of Secrets and why are all these students being killed or turned to stone, it feels just the right amount of horror for a film like this. There is a creep factor to it without it being unsuitable for kids.

Overall, a better sequel.

3.5

Pros.

The horror

The tone

Setting things up for the future

Seeing more of the Wizarding World

Cons.

The first hour feels removed from the rest of the film

Too many side plots and angst

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Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone: Out Of Step

Welcome dear reader to the first in a series of reviews I am publishing over the coming few days which will explore the Harry Potter series a few decades on. We will be talking about contemporary issues with the franchise, mainly around the actors and we will be discussing it in depth. I have watched the series many times all the way through and hopefully we can have an interesting conversation along the way.

So straight off the bat I just want to say that I tried to not let my dislike of the actors particularly Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson spoil my enjoyment of these films. I fully stand with J.K Rowling in everything she has said and I think the fact that these actors, who would not have careers without her, so openly disparaging her is disgusting.

Summary

Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe, a young boy finds out he is a wizard.

So this is my least favourite of the Potter films for the simple fact that it feels so disconnected tonally to the others, and it feels like they don’t do enough to build up to the big Voldemort reveal at the end. Now obviously you are bound by the books, but I think that a scene showing more of the aftermath of the fall of Voldemort would have worked well here, we could also get a tease him being on the back of the teacher’s head.

As it stands it feels very generic fantasy, and that makes sense as it is a first film so clearly trying to find it creative voice, but I would have liked more references to the wider lore and world in this film. I suppose the film does introduce us to a number of characters and locations here so that very basic but necessary work is being done but I would have liked it to feel deeper.

Overall, a slow start and one that feels very disconnected from where the series will go tonally.

3/5

Pros

The effects mostly hold up

There are some enjoyable moments

The ending remains strong

Cons.

It needs more explanation of what happened in the world post Voldemort’s defeat

It feels tonally disconnected from the rest of the series

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Deadly Intent: The Shadows Of A Father’s Love

Summary

A mother, Rebecca Reaney, and child, Gus Barry, face the threat of an abusive husband and father, Peter Lloyd, from beyond the grave.

So anyone familiar with maternal horror will find that this is quite by the numbers. All of your standard hallmarks are there, overwrought mum, withdrawn kid, and some kind of supernatural threat. However, where this film gets some extra points for me is by having the spirit that is harming them being the father who tried to kill his son in life.

The exploration of domestic abuse and how the trauma can stick around long after the person has died made this film interesting to me and separated it out from being yet another Babadook clone. I also found interesting how this film approached grief showing how the mother is in no way effected by it and is instead overwrought by her fears of losing closeness with her son. This marks a distinct difference from how single mother grief is often depicted in these sorts of films and offered some much need divergence.

Overall, it pretty much is what it says on the tin, or in the summary, what you see is what you get. The reason I am interested in it is because it is different and provides a counter weight to other films in the maternal horror subgenre.

3/5

Pros.

It offers a different perspective on grief

The intimate ghostly connection and comments on domestic abuse

British charm

Cons.

The pacing

It looks very low budget

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The Damned: An Ode To Those Lost At Sea

Summary

A fishing team based on the coast of Iceland comes into some supernatural trouble.

Whilst the idea of a group of people being hunted down one by one by some supernatural entity is hardly new, this at least tries to add a lick of new paint to it by drawing inspiration from Scandinavian folklore rather than the same old well of monsters.

The twist at the end of the film, is one that I think is fairly played out, I didn’t see it coming, but when it hits it is somewhat of a damp squib, I would say the film would work better without it.

I appreciated that the film gave a lot of attention towards creating an atmosphere rather than just relying on cheap jump scares that become formulaic after a while. Particularly in that regard I found the use of the scenery and location to be effectively used to create a sense of isolation that really scores the entire film.

Overall, a January gem that should not be missed.

4/5

Pros.

It has a great atmosphere

The location is used to great effect

Interesting mythology

It is smart

Cons.

The twist

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Bridget Jones Mad About The Boy: Later In Life Dating

Summary

Bridget Jones, Renee Zellweger, is back.

I think this is probably the film of the year so far. In many ways this is a near perfect film, the only thing that I didn’t like was the creepy sort of age play relationship sub plot- I didn’t like it as it felt icky plus you can guarantee that if such a storyline was done with a man and a younger women these days people would be up in arms.

That aside I thought this film was just the right amount of old notes brought back to play homage to previous film and also new ideas. It was fun to see the family dynamic of seeing Bridget with kids, it was nice to see the dysfunctional single mother be played without the judgement, she cared about her kids deeply and was there for them whilst also having her own thing. Take note Hollywood that is how single mothers should be.

I thought how they handled the passing of Colin Firth’s character was both beautiful and sad, there was a real melancholy there, but the film handled it in a mature and grown up way. I think the final time we see the ghost of Firth’s character at the school play is a fantastic moment and one in which it is hard not to shed a tear.

Overall, a wonderful send off for the franchise.

4.5/5

Pros.

It is sweet

It gives the characters a good send off

It merges the old and the new well

It is well paced

It is funny

Cons.

The icky relationship

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Wallace and Gromit Vengeance Most Fowl: Keep Out Of Yorkshire

Summary

Wallace, voiced by Benjamin Whitehead, and Gromit are back and this time they are dealing with smart technology.

So I like Aardman, and I think the studio is talented but I really think it depends on the project, for example all of the Wallace and Gromit films are good, as is Robin Robin and the first Chicken Run, however things like Early Man, The Netflix Chicken Run, Shaun The Sheep and their segment for the second season of Star Wars Visions are bad. It is a mixed bag.

With this film I would argue it is watchable and has its moments but isn’t as strong as any of the other film films in the series particularly Wererabbit. I just found the inciting incident to be a little bit gimmicky, the smart gnomes felt a bit like taking a franchise that felt like it was set in the past, by design and that added to it, and then forcing in modern tech in a desperate attempt to seem trendy.

Bringing back Feathers McGraw was a good decision and the ending fight atop a train bridge was a lot of fun, as was him escaping to Yorkshire. It was a joke that only certain people may have gotten but it landed for me, I would have liked to have seen more of him throughout the film rather than wasting so much time with the gnomes.

Overall, good but not a patch on Wererabbit

3/5

Pros.

It is watchable

There is still a charm there

The ending

Cons.

It wastes too much time

The smart gnome feels gimmicky

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That Christmas: An Epitaph To The Sorry State Of Modern Britain

Summary

Richard Curtis should retire and Netflix should issue a public apology.

Where to start with That Christmas? There are so many things wrong with it that I honestly don’t know.

First and foremost it doesn’t understand the UK, it was written by an Englishman and yet it depicts a south coastal city in the winter as having knee deep snow and having frozen ponds and bodies of water. For those of you not familiar with UK weather that is incredibly unlikely unless maybe you were at high altitude or it was particularly cold but otherwise it is nonsense.

Then you have all of your horrible and dating ‘modern day tropes’ one of the characters is really into militant veganism and so releases all of the Turkey’s to die or later be recaptured, another goes off on multiple climate change lectures and of course has all the answers despite being a child. Then there is the fetishisation of the NHS, our free public health service here in the UK if you’re unfamiliar, with their being a whole subplot about a single mother, voiced by Jodie Whittaker, being selfless and working on Christmas Day and needing to be treated like a queen when she returns home. It has the sickening and fake over sentimentality of when people were banging pots and pans in Tribute to the NHS during the pandemic. She is doing her job, and arguably being a bad parent, yet we are supposed to give her some applause? Of course every different race imaginable is depicted as it’s a Netflix film and they don’t seem to understand that not every part of every country is the same as what they see on the streets of LA, especially not the monied parts of southern England.

Finally, it struggles as a Christmas film without a message. All good Christmas films have a message as well as being entertaining, but what does this film have to say? Communities should come together? Christmas is about the people and not the presents? Old people caused global warming and so are evil? All of these things have been said before, more intelligently and with more depth, by trying so hard to appeal to a modern audience the film is left saying nothing.

Overall, Netflix spits in your face and tells you it is Christmas snow.

0.5/5

Pros.

It is short

Cons.

It doesn’t understand the UK at all

It is horribly dated

It is cringe

It feels the need to lecture

It has nothing new to say

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Curse of the Crimson Alter

Summary

An antiques dealer, Mark Eden, goes off in search of his missing brother only to become wrapped up in a Lovecraftian horror.

This is perhaps an underrated Christopher Lee caper, and you can see why. Whilst it has some charm with its Lovecraftian horror it feels perhaps the most dated of Lee’s output that I have recently seen. By that I mean the first scene of the film with the creature looks awful, the costume and the lighting both contribute to this. I know that these films were made on a shoe string budget but even still it looks bad.

The plot is also a little thin on the ground as it has the effect of feeling like it is simply a lot of things happening without much rhyme or reason to connect them or make them make sense. Again I gave it some leniency due to the type of film it is, but come the end credits I would be hard pressed not to mention the fact it doesn’t make any coherent sense.

Overall, the sort of budget period horror film that only the most die hard fan could enjoy

2/5

Pros.

Some fun moments

It tries to be different and edgy

Cons.

The horror doesn’t work

It doesn’t make a lot of sense

It is silly when it should be creepy

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Ghostwatch: The British Blair Witch

Summary

A BBC crew investigate a haunted house little do they know the entity wants them there.

So Ghostwatch is something of a legend in the UK it was a found footage film that many people thought was real as it was shown on TV to look as real as possible and that caused a lot of social commotion. It was Blair Witch before Blair Witch.

The film takes the form of a televised ghost hunt, we have a traditional old fashioned BBC presenter leading us through a night that will prove whether ghosts exist or not. However, as the night progresses things start to go awry in a very Late Night With The Devil sort of way.

What works so well about this film is just how real it appears it does genuinely feel like it’s an actual televised ghost encounter. If I had been shown this at the time on live television I would had thought this was real too. There is some elements that might look a little dated by today’s effect standards but on the whole it holds up very well.

I liked the film’s atmosphere and its non-reliance on jump scares, however, for anyone familiar with the Enfield Poltergeist there are a number of familiar elements which might make the film seem a bit obvious, though this is made up for with quite a different ending to how that case went.

Overall, a British horror gem.

4/5

Pros.

It is scary

It seems real

It has a good ending

It makes the most with a limited budget

Cons.

Too many nods to Enfield

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