Film Reviews by GI

A stylish and effective thriller that draws on the high profile cases of uber rich men taking advantage of young women to the point of sexual assault and depravity. This is a film that fits into a group of film narratives such as Get Out (2017), Saltburn (2023) and Triangle of Sadness (2022) and is the debut directorial film of Zoë Kravitz who also co-wrote the screenplay. Naomi Ackie is Frida, a humble cocktail waitress, who dreams of better things and who gets the attention of Tech Billionaire Slater (Channing Tatum) who invites her and her friend to join a party at his paradise island retreat. Once there Frida enjoys a time of frivolity in luxury surroundings and Slater is obviously attracted to her but soon Frida begins to feel uneasy but can't really pinpoint what is causing her to suspect all is not right. The narrative here is obviously plugged into the case of Jeffrey Epstein and the wider #MeToo campaign and for the most part it's an effective thriller but some of the signs of what is going on are a little too unsubtle with the final climax feeling bit too contrived but overall this has a neat build up and a solid plot. The cast are great and include Alia Shawkat, Adria Arjona, Geena Davis, Christian Slater, Haley Joel Osment and Kyle MacLachlan.

This very belated sequel to Tim Burton's second film, Beetlejuice (1988), is as eccentric as the first and would be a rather silly and pointless effort without Michael Keaton reprising the title character role. This comedy/horror has that same vibe as the reboot of the Ghostbusters series and the jokes are as intermittent as the Men In Black series too. In other words I just don't understand who these films are actually aimed at. There are some funny moments in this, not least a wedding sequence which had me laugh out loud a few times, yet overall it's a varied affair that showcases Burton's carnivalesque visions and Keaton's zany comedy persona. Winona Ryder returns now with her own daughter played by Jenna Ortega who gets into scrapes with ghosts and has to be rescued using Beetlejuice to get her home. Justin Theroux, Catherine O'Hara, Willem Dafoe assist in various roles along with Monica Bellucci and a cameo from Danny DeVito. A film you have to question as to why? It passes the time but overall it's all a bit lame.

The ultimate hi-octane thriller and one of the best films of the 90s. For some bizarre reason this was remade in 2015, pointlessly and stupidly because this film is a modern classic, a cult film that fans absolutely love. The remake is mediocre at best. Keanu Reeves is Johnny Utah, a rookie FBI agent who joins the LA Robbery squad partnered with the maverick and grumpy Pappas (the always brilliant Gary Busey). The squad are investigating a series of bank robberies committed by a gang calling themselves the Ex-Presidents on account of the masks they wear. Pappas believes the gang are linked to the surfing community so he sends Johnny undercover to learn surfing and to try and identify the bad guys. Johnny meets Tyler (Lori Petty) who teaches him to surf and she introduces him to Bodhi (Patrick Swayze in one of his best roles), an adrenaline junkie, and yes you guessed it, this is the very man he's looking for. Plot wise the film is fairly standard and it actually rests on an extraordinary coincidence that if you think about too much you'll groan loudly but narratively its about two men on opposite sides of the moral divide but who are closely linked. The film is overflowing with subtle homo-eroticism and the action set pieces are stunning and exciting, with chases, shoot outs, and gritty fights, although the James Bond moment is a little OTT. It's a wonderfully entertaining piece of cinema and always worth watching. Director Kathyrn Bigelow was emerging as a significant filmmaker with this movie.

The dark, period gothic style is very Hammer films in structure and feel with the addition of Alien (1979) clearly having been used as a key narrative source, even the main character's name is Clemens, a name used in Alien 3 (1992). This takes a chapter from the Dracula novel by Bram Stoker and fleshes it out into a full story. I found myself liking it the longer it went on and I especially liked the depiction of Dracula here, as a somewhat desperate, feral creature that needs food. The creature design is based on the vampire from Nosferatu, A Symphony Of Horror (1922) and Salems Lot (1979) rather than a distinguished Christopher Lee type. The story is that on his journey from Transylvania to London Dracula sleeps in boxes of his sacred soil on board a ship, The Demeter. But at night he awakens and needs to feed, carefully killing the crew one by one. As fear and suspicion on board grows the ship's doctor, Clemens (Corey Hawkins) and the Captain (Liam Cunningham) try to find the cause and discover a young woman (Aisling Franciosi) on the ship who was to be Dracula's blood supply but now rescued warns the crew about the monster they are facing. Those familiar with the book and various Dracula film adaptations will know the end of this story but it's told here with a few neat twists, some scary moments and a great creature barely glimpsed for most of the film. The epilogue is especially clever here. This is not ever going to be the greatest vampire film but it's a great addition to the Dracula story, entertaining and certainly better than the recent Nosferatu (2024).

This is a solid, violent, well directed crime thriller based on real events although at times it drifts into glib territory and has a climax that seems very contrived and perhaps a little daft. Jude Law plays a weary FBI agent. You'll recognise the type of character as one who has seen it all, has emotional/relationship problems and a history that has resulted in his posting as the lone agent in a small Idaho town in the early 1980s. He begins looking into a series of violent robberies and explosions suspecting that the culprits are not normal criminals but a band of ultra right wing white supremacists. They are led by Bob, a cold fanatic played by Nicholas Hoult, who has broken away from a mainstream group which he views as all talk/no action in order to build up to an insurrection. This overarching plot plays into the current issues in the USA and indeed there's a post credit reference to the 2006 Capitol Hill events. This film has some great set pieces including a bold highway armoured car robbery and a gripping chase sequence. Unfortunately there are some slip ups along the way including the final stand off that pushes the boundaries of credibility a little too far. Hoult is good here as the unsettlingly bland Bob as is Law as the agent hunting him. Attempts to draw emotional parallels between the characters is a mistake but can be forgiven. Tye Sheridan as a young cop recruited to help the FBI does solid work as he's caught up in the violence but the women characters are a little underused. Overall this is an entertaining crime thriller with a nice blend of story and action and it's well worth watching.

This is a somewhat strange film, a period drama cum comedy that was based on a stage play and feels like it too. Set in Depression era southern USA in a small hick town where the eccentric Amelia (Vanessa Redgrave) runs the local store, dishes out homemade remedies as well as moonshine. She's both feared and loathed by the community for her strange ways. The town is most surprised when a diminutive hunchback (Cork Hubbert) arrives claiming to be her cousin and that she takes him in and seems to dote on him. His influence has her convert her store into a cafe where the locals enjoy dances, food and liquor and all is merry until Amelia's estranged husband (Keith Carradine) returns leading to big tensions. Directed by Simon Callow, indeed his only film as director, this runs like a play and its plot seems very forced and at times faintly ridiculous. There's no doubt Redgrave in particular gives solid performance and the presence of Rod Steiger as the town priest is interesting although he has only a cameo role. This is not a film I enjoyed particularly but its recent return to BluRay might make it a film people want to check out.

A taut, smart and tense thriller that recounts the coverage of the 1972 Munich Olympic tragedy by the American ABC Sports news team who were suddenly faced with this internationally important news event happening in fast time right before their eyes. The film captures the speed at which the events unfolded and the decisions made in the team to get the story covered including negotiating the satellite time allocated and the sudden realisation that the terrorists maybe watching the live broadcast they are sending out including the police preparations to raid the rooms where Black September terrorists were holding members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage. It cleverly utilises real footage with recreated scenes to great effect. The film deals with issues of national animosities, misogyny and the moral dilemmas faced by the journalists over what to show on TV. Historically it's a really interesting docudrama and a reminder of this horrific terrorist crime that shocked the world. The cast are exceptional including Peter Sarsgaard, Ben Chaplin and especially John Magaro as the ABC studio manager and Leonie Benesch who plays a fictitious German assistant who faces the antipathy of colleagues over the German guilt of the Holocaust. One of the best films about journalism for awhile.

This is without doubt an awful film. From script, acting, music score, plot it's amateurish, poorly directed and you'll find yourself laughing more out of embarrassment than anything else. This horror film is out of the Andy Warhol Factory group with director Paul Morrissey a leading figure. Despite some smatterings of solid production values the overall film is a mess. Count Dracula (Udo Keir - who at least did go on to a renowned acting career) is ailing and in need of virgin (pronounced wirgin here!) blood so he trots off to Italy where his faithful servant assures him there's a plethora of virgins to satisfy his needs. Toting his coffin on the roof of the car the two find a villa with four virgin daughters for him to ravish. But the gardener (Joe Dallesandro) has been shagging most of them causing some frustrations for the Count and plenty of blood vomiting. This is a film that is an excuse for plenty of female nudity, some incestuous lesbian sex and the rape of a fourteen year old (to protect her from the vampire of course!!). The climax is more reminiscent of Monty Python And The Holy Grail (1975) than any horror film and even the worst of the Hammer Horrors is nowhere near as bad as this.

This is one of the greatest American crime thrillers of the 1960s and it holds up very well indeed. Tough, violent and tense with a superb plot and an intriguing use of timelines, flashbacks and editing it makes for several different readings of the narrative. Essentially it's a story of revenge. The great Lee Marvin plays Walker who is double crossed by his friend and partner Mal (John Vernon) and his wife Lynne (Shirley Acker) during their robbery of mob money. Mal leaves Walker for dead but a year later Walker suddenly reappears seeking revenge and wanting his share of the money. Mal is now part of an organised crime group led by three men. Assisted by Lynne's sister, Chris (Angie Dickinson) Walker goes on the rampage causing massive disruption and chaos along the way. This is a film that takes the basic American thriller and gives it an arthouse structure and European style of narrative. It's a film that has a rich text which continues to deliver even after multiple viewings. A riveting, hugely stylish film and ahead of its time it's a modern masterpiece and it identified director John Boorman as a major talent. This is one of my all time Top 10 films and I hugely recommend it if you've never seen it.

With two highly compelling lead performances from Léa Seydoux and George MacKay this futuristic drama holds your attention even though the long runtime and somewhat impenetrable plot makes it occasionally a trial. In 2044 the world seems controlled by AI which sees human emotions as a harmful thing and consequently people are encouraged to have their DNA purified of emotions. To deal with her anxiety Gabrielle (Seydoux) agrees to undergo the procedure which amounts to her reliving past lives where she has a strong emotional connection with Louis (MacKay). There are two other timelines that she has to revisit, one in Paris in 1910 during the Great Flood and the second in 2014 in Los Angeles where she is a model and actress who its stalked by a psychopathic Louis. It's a confusing narrative and the whilst the performances are truly excellent the film doesn't really allow you to grasp its intent. In many ways the influence of David Lynch seems in evidence and there are some tense and disturbing set pieces but by the end I found the film very tiring.

This is a provocative, quite daring thriller that defies expectations and a film that I found myself increasingly compelling. It has the hallmarks of Tarantino or even Tobe Hooper in its jarring plot twists, structure and the quiet setting of the American backwoods. Basically a serial killer narrative but one that goes in some uncomfortable and surprising directions that in fact make this an undeniably intriguing film. The plot is divided into six chapters that are told out of linear order, with each chapter having a title that hints at the macabre events to follow. The off-kilter structure adds to the sheer brilliance of the plot. The film opens with some onscreen titles explaining how a few years ago a serial killer went on an extended killing spree and the film to follow will show the final part of those events. This information leaves the impression the film is based on real events (it's not) and this adds to the horrors to follow. We then cut to a young woman (Willa Fitzgerald) fleeing an armed man (Kyle Gallner), she is clearly badly hurt and he hunts her as she flees through the forest to an isolated house and begs for the help of the aging couple who live there. Then we cut to the same man and woman in earlier events as they arrive at a motel and discuss having casual sex eventually beginning a night of kinky sex that sets the scene for an uncomfortable ride for the rest of the film. As the events jump back and forth in time we get revelations in the story that will shock and surprise in what is a first class thriller and a film that is highly recommended.

It's quite remarkable how powerful this film still is when considering what has been made since. It is genuine anti-war film and depicted the Vietnam War as a conflict not of heroics but of survival. There are scenes of rape, the murder of women and children, US soldiers murdering one another and discussing the killing of their officers, drug taking and cowardice. It's ultimately a story of the loss of innocence centred on the character of Taylor (Charlie Sheen) who has dropped out of college and volunteered for combat in Vietnam. His idealism is quickly shattered as he finds his fellow soldiers consider his life worthless because he has yet to put any time in. As he witnesses death and murder he's awakened to the horror and the duality of man barely keeping his humanity intact. The conflict within him is visualised in the opposites of Sgt Barnes (Tom Berenger) and Sgt Elias (Willem Dafoe) who battle one another for the moral souls of the men. The combat scenes are gritty and realistic with some now very iconic images. This is an unrelentingly tough film to watch but a remarkable work from director Oliver Stone, based on his own experiences in the war. It's a film worthy of repeated viewings so if its been awhile I recommend watching it again.

This period drama is thematically quite dark and probably suffers from the main character being a total cad. There's little, if any, chance that the plot allows you to feel anything but antipathy towards him. This is Georges (Robert Pattinson), who in 1890 Paris, is a former soldier, uneducated, resentful and jealous of the wealthy and more privileged classes of people he sees around him. His only connection is with whores in a rowdy brothel where one day, by chance, he bumps into a former colleague, Charles (Philip Glenister) who charitably invites him to dinner. Georges soon realises that Charles and his male colleagues are strongly influenced by their wives and he sets out to ingratiate himself with them including seducing them and soon finds his way into the society he craves for. But his selfish and immoral appetites soon start to backfire on his plans to gain wealth for himself. Pattinson is certainly an adept leading man here especially up against the renowned cast that includes Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci and Kristen Scott Thomas as the wives he targets as well as Colm Meaney, Glenister and James Lance as the men who gradually see through him. As a steamy period drama this works well and it's an entertaining film mostly as you wait for Georges downfall to happen. You'll wait in vain though as the ending is a little anti-climactic but that aside this is a well produced, very well performed film that has that dark edge making it quite interesting.

A witty, humour filled and yet serious drama from writer, director and star Jesse Eisenberg that is clever, moving and a real treat. Basically a road movie that hovers between the trivialities of modern day problems and the horrors of history in this case the Holocaust. This is the story of two American cousins, the introverted David (Eisenberg) and the free spirited Benji (Kieran Culkin) who were very close as children but have since grown apart. David has a secure job and a family whereas Benji has a more laid back life still living in his parents basement. They have reunited on a tour to Poland basically to honour their recently deceased grandmother who was a Holocaust survivor and to find her childhood home. The tour is an organised one with a small group of tourists, led by a tour guide (Will Sharpe), who David hesitatingly tries to be a part but Benji embraces with full on intensity of personality in a tour de force of uncontrollable personality flitting between mood swings of emotional bonding to sharp anger. The narrative cleverly explores the real issues that lay deep within these two especially Benji who harbours demons that gradually reveal themselves. It's not explicit but Benji certainly has serious anxiety as he borders on alienating his fellow travellers but seems to unite them too whilst David cringes in horror at his mood swings. This character driven part of the story is intertwined with the experience of the Holocaust tour and highlights the American experience of trying to come to terms with the horrors that a previous generation preferred to keep silent about. The script is a masterclass of understatement and yet is has a strong message that resonates throughout the entire film. Culkin gets the funny lines and he dominates the film but rightly so as this is about his journey. His child like reactions and switch to fierce anger is a cleverly written and performed character. There's a lot to enjoy in this film, it's sort of arrived without fanfare but it deserves to be recognised for the sheer cleverness in its easy nature and moving story. The ending is a tear inducing one.

This is a little gem that arrived without any hype back in 2000. A science fiction thriller where a merchant space craft crash lands on a desert planet with only eleven survivors including a convict, Riddick (Vin Diesel) being escorted to prison by Johns (Cole Hauser). Riddick is a notorious murderer and as the survivors try to work out what to do they also have to worry about what he might do to them! In any case their fears are doubled when they discover that the planet is home to large nocturnal beasts and when it's realised a month long eclipse is about to happen they have to work out how to get off the planet very quickly. This is Diesel's first big starring role and he's suitably menacing and interesting as Riddick, a criminal with adapted eyesight. The cast includes Radha Mitchell as the ship's pilot and Keith David as one of the surviving passengers. Visually striking this film has originality even though the story has elements of Alien (1979) to it but there's enough freshness here to make this a fantastic sci-fi film and certainly one I recommend if you've never seen it. There have been a couple of ambitious but disappointing sequels but you can ignore those and just enjoy this great little film.