The Surfer: Eat The Rat

A man, Nicolas Cage, wants to buy a house.

So this was a trippy film that made you lose the plot somewhere along the way on purpose. There are times in this film where even if you have been avidly paying attention the whole time you will be a bit lost, and not really understand what is going on and that is the fun of it.

If you enjoy Cage’s broader strangeness and want to get lost in a liminal space that resembles an Australian beach than you will likely enjoy this. However, if you find Cage’s shtick grating then you will not enjoy this film, really it is that simple.

In terms of Cage strangeness this is probably more of a subtle performance for him, there is less screaming and shouting, and he actually plays a man losing his mind in a more toned down way.

4/5

Eat the rat

The weirdness

Cage

There is fun to be had

Cons.

It is badly paced

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Squid Game The Final Season Overview: The Netflix Effect

Summary

Can this make-up for a disappointing second season?

The answer is no.

This never should have been broken up into two seasons, it should have been one long second season. The break creates a need for the first episode of this new season to explain what happened last time, which it doesn’t do very well.

Moreover, as you approach the ending of the series the writing seems to get a lot dumber and make a lot less sense, why wouldn’t they just take the baby, why would they make it a contestant, why would Lee Jung-Jae’s character leave the baby behind and sacrifice himself not knowing what would happen to it, why would you spend the whole series building up to the mercenaries finding the island and the battle therein only to have them mostly slaughtered by two fishing boat captains? All of these are good questions the writing doesn’t account for.

That is also without mentioning the Netflix of it all, with them needing to set up a spin-off show in the final episodes final minutes, with a gender flipped recruiter because why not inject in a girl boss. This leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth as the credits role and asks another very good question, why are they playing Korean games in America, why aren’t the American Squid Games playing American games?

Overall, just a massive disappointment.

1.5/5

Pros.

Some of the games are cool

There are interesting ideas

Cons.

The spin-off set up

The terrible writing particularly towards the end

The questionable character decisions

The pacing

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The Amateur: Crying Over The Death Of Ms Maisel

Summary

Rami Malek, puts on his Jigsaw hat for a minute and heads out to seek some revenge.

This film is your standard revenge thriller, man loses loved one man gets vengeance, there is little beyond that. There is some fun to be had with the traps, however the trailers for this film spoil a lot in this regard.

The global span of the film is nice and feels realistic in line with how a terrorist groups/ wet work operators would work, rather than this idea of them all holding up in a fortress of evil somewhere.

I suppose the impression I am trying to impart in this review is that this film is fine, it is not particularly anything. The trailers spoil the best parts, so if you can try and go in blind, but yes set your expectations to meh and maybe you’ll enjoy it.

Overall, middling.

2.5/5

Pros.

The traps

It is unintentionally funny

You feel the emotion

Cons.

It been done before

The pacing

The trailers gave too much away

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Hallow Road: The Worries Of Being A Parent

Summary

A couple find themselves in a position that no parents ever want to be in.

So Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys are fantastic here, a lot of the film is the car journey to find where there troubled daughter has broken down in the woods, and much like with Locke a hell of a lot of the meat of the film comes from there conversations and facial acting during these tight scenes and scenes over the phone.

As the night begins to unfold and it turns out the daughter hit and kill someone and then with what follows the film takes a turn that you likely won’t expect but is not wholly unpleasant. As it veers off into the supernatural it oddly works within the world created by the film, though I would say that I think Irish folklore is beginning to become a bit tapped out at this point.

The ending of the film is quite bleak but also has a trippy component to it which leaves you asking questions at the end of the film as you pick your head back up off the floor.

Overall, well-acted and with a good supernatural twist.

4/5

Pros.

It is well acted

The horror works within the world

The end leaves open some intriguing questions

Genuine tension

Cons.

Irish folklore is becoming a bit overplayed

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The Secret Life Of Chuck: A Surprising Amount Of Dancing

Summary

A man, Tom Hiddleston, learns to seize the day.

This may be one of the best releases of this summer. Not only is it an effective story in the sense that it is both emotionally uplifting but it also manages to disconcert and have just enough under the skin to give you a chill on the way out.

I was not prepared for the number of dance sequences that were going to be in this film, surprisingly there were several long sequences, however, don’t let that put you off the science fiction mystery of what is going on and what is real and what isn’t is more than enough to give film life. In a sense this film reminded me a lot of The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, and I do mean that to be a positive comparison.

Overall this is a weird and strange film, it is not a comedy, nor is it a horror film, it has science fiction elements but also long dance sequences it is an eclectic film and one that will no doubt have a Marmite like appeal, for our US friends that means you’ll either love it or you’ll hate it.

4/5

Pros.

The mystery

It is fun

You care about the characters

The world is fantastic and dense

Cons.

It makes things too blunt a little more ambiguity would have been better

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Weapons: Putting Naruto Running To Shame

Summary

A group of school children go missing and a concerned and blamed teacher, Julia Garner, sets out to find the answers.

I would advise you to go in blind to this, the less you know the better. This review will spoil things, I’ll keep the reveal near the bottom of the page so it is unlikely you will immediately see it, and I am letting you know so you can look away and come back later.

I think stylistically this is a strong film and in terms of originality this is one of the few films this year that does feel like something new. However, there are tonal problems, perhaps this was by design, or perhaps not. There are moments of the film where things are very clearly scary and supposed to be, and then there are other moments where things almost become a comedy and these two states of being do clash.

I enjoyed the cross over story path and how the film is subdivided into different sections based on different characters with each providing context to what you had seen before or would soon see. There was one key character that did not get a chapter even though I think she really should have, and I think this lack of backstory made the film have a few plot holes as a result.

The reveal of the witch at the end of the film and her magical powers came out of nowhere, the film does not present for the most part as a supernatural film and when it does go in that direction it works and makes sense. It also provides some good scares, however, the ending wherein she is entirely removed from being this fearsome villain and is chased through houses by a pack of feral kids is definitely not the right note to end on as it reduces her into being almost a comedy villain.

Overall, a good if imperfect film, the tonal issues and plot holes stop it from being the film of the summer.

4/5

Pros.

It is scary

It has a great sense of style

It feels original

It is inventive

Cons.

The ending breaks the tone of the film

There are too many loose ends and plot holes

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A Working Man: Jason Statham Takes On The Deep State

Summary

Jason Statham fights human traffickers.

So I am a fan of mindless action films but I have to say that this had a lot less joy than something like the Beekeeper wherein there was some comedy to proceedings. Not only that but the film isn’t as grisly or intense as would behove the other end of the action film spectrum so you get a film that has promise but that just feels a little boring.

Couple this with the fact that the film casts David Harbour as Jason Statham’s characters best friend and then just does nothing with him. They give him a few short scenes and allows him to arm Statham for his hunt but other than that he really has no role in the film at all.

Even the action leaves a lot to be desired as nothing crazy or intense really happens, it is mostly just scenes of characters going into rooms and getting into very stationary gun fights, they try and give Statham some fighting scenes to try and mix it up a bit more but it lacks any real visceral punch.

Overall, an action film destined to be forgotten about.

2.5/5

Pros.

It has promise

There are a few okay action set pieces

It is relatively well paced

Cons.

The action misses the edge it needs

It isn’t sure whether it wants to be comedic or serious in tone

It wastes the side characters

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Yellowjackets Season Three Overview: Falling Off

Summary

After a long hiatus the yellowjackets are back.

So by and large this was the worst season of the show. The fundamental question regarding that is why that is, was it because they never really had a clear plan for this show? Was it because the writers strike changed thing? Or are they trying to spin their wheels for as long as they can in order to profit off the show?

Who is to say, however, I will say that the first half of this season is damn near unwatchable with how slowly it is paced. The amount of filler that is being injected into this part of the show, would make even Millie Bobby Brown blush, it is infuriating to watch as you are left with week after week with basically nothing of major importance happening.

You have the season long mystery of who killed Lottie, Simone Kessell, which just feels like it comes out of nowhere, and the revelation of who did it was both obvious and also uninspiring. It just feels like such a missed opportunity, as there was far more ground they could have covered and directions they could have gone in if they had not done that.

Then you have what I think is the biggest flaw of the season Shauna. So Shauna, Melaine Lynskey, has always been shown to be cold blooded, however, in this season she goes off the rails in a cartoonish way trying to feed a woman a piece of her arm, and vowing to go after her husband and daughter who have left her and reclaim her Queenhood, meaning the savage side of her from her time in the Wilderness. This is coupled with the teen timeline where Shauna seemingly becomes even more of a supervillain as she can force other people to do what she wants with a bark and manages to keep well over ten people locked down when they want to leave with a glare. The writing here is absolutely stupid as it makes no logical sense how one small young woman could keep all of these other people at her mercy with one gun, yes she could shoot one of them but the rest would still get away. The writers I assume would explain Shauna’s fall to the dark side in the teen years by trauma resulting from the death of her child, yet even in that context this seems far fetch and simply as bad writing. They have turned Shauna into this almost psychopathic killer when she really wasn’t presenting as that before, they have likely done this to create drama and not for any other reason. It feels like extreme flanderisation.

Overall a step back in almost everyway from the previous two seasons.

2/5

Pros.

It still has some good moments

Hilary Swank

Cons.

The death of Lottie

How they change Shauna’s character

The pacing

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A Simple Favour Two: Blake Lively Runs Damage Control

Summary

The internet’s favourite bogeywoman Blake Lively, Amber Heard has run off into obscurity and Rachel Zegler is a bit played out, makes her film comeback in what might be the most chillingly telling performance of her career.

For those unaware, in the first film, we were introduced to Emily, Lively, a character who fakes her own death and then tries to blame it on someone else, Kendrick, and who has a child admitted to killing her father along with her sister. Therein lies my half joke half speculative theory, how far does life imitate art? Could it not be that Lively was drawn to the character for her own cold and bitter ways, both seek to incriminate someone else for something they did not do in order to punish them.

Moving off Lively for a moment the question with this film becomes why? Why wait well over 5 years to make this sequel and who was demanding for it to continue. Was it the director who has not had much success in recent years, Lively in an attempt to rehabilitate her image that was soured long before her most recent scandal who’s to say.

I think this film knows it doesn’t really have a purpose and so just repeats a lot of the plot beats from the first film just with a few characters swapped around for good measure.

Overall, this was doomed to cost Amazon money.

0.5/5

Pros.

It is hilariously telling

Cons.

It is unnecessary

It is boring

It is a rehash

Lively

It has pacing issues

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September 5th: Required Viewing For Anyone With A Pro Palestine Flag In The Bio

Summary

A film recounting the experiences of a live TV crew during the Munich Olympics hostage crisis.

So this film hits hard in relation to events currently going on in the world and the feeling by some people towards Jewish but more specifically Israeli people. Released in a contemporary setting this film serves as a reminder for what happens when you allow antisemitism to march unchecked through the streets, a lesson a lot of European governments need to here now more than ever.

However, as far as historical thrillers go there isn’t much to set this film apart from a number of other similar films. That is the issue with doing something based on a true story though you cannot really innovate in any meaningful way. Whilst I found the film engaging I wouldn’t say it was edge of your seat viewing in the way something like Argo was.

The cast were all serviceable but not particularly memorable.

3/5

Pros.

It is timely

It shows genuine heartbreak and strife

It is very engaging

Cons.

It feels too familiar

None of the performances are stand out

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