Film Reviews by AER

Hysterically pitched Canadian horror by national treasure David Cronenberg is big on memorable, cool set-pieces and body horror but fails to delve below the surface of its nutty non-characters.

Alex Donnard knows why he was put on Earth, and to the expense of all else, he does all he can to uphold and facilitate that need. Hold up - rewind - he has set up a trust to help benefit those in need of tech in the third world. To do what he does is hard to understand, we can be awed by his achievement but what introspection there is is limited. Like a lot of athletes, it's about what they do and not what they say, so this one was a hard nut to crack. An interesting watch from a sporting achievements POV but no great shakes on the human front.

If you have read Derek Jarman's diaries Modern Nature and Smiling in Slow Motion, Blue is an even richer experience. In the director's words small memories are read out by himself and a small collection of actors against the backdrop of a never-changing blue screen. Nigel Terry, John Quentin, and Tilda Swinton round out the 'readers'. It's a touching, sad and all-too-human documentary and as such is Jarman's masterpiece. Not for everyone, but if you've heard of it, seek it out.

Synchronic has more ideas than a summer's worth of action films, however, it is unfocused and fails to harness the seriously interesting ideas that run throughout its story. Time is a construct, and two paramedics work to unravel a mystery concerning a legal high called Synchronic that gives us a new perspective of experiencing time as a non-linear. It's a shame that the workings of the plot are lumpy and at times difficult to understand the emotional logic. I enjoyed bits but ultimately, it felt frustrating and baggy. It needed a few more drafts to give it more oomph. There was so many ideas vying for attention that some aspects felt rushed and neglected.

Give me noble failures like this any day though compared to the airheaded reboots, remakes and dead sequels.

Comparisons to American Gigolo and Taxi Driver are probably inevitable given that this was also written by director Paul Schrader, however this is more thoughtful and ultimately more human than the former. Detailing an impasse with his routines and the coming-of-age of a drug courier called John Le Tour, we get to know his lonely world and his attempts to connect with those around him. It's a deep film that is very of its time. The soundtrack works as a third narrative strand but it simultaneously pins it that early 90s period of the 80s comedown from excess. Willem Dafoe has never been better in a lead-role to my knowledge and all the female lead roles are strong too, Dana Delaney (where is she now>?) and Susan Sarandon are amazing. This can be seen as a film about luck and the spirit, about time running out and our options as we get older. It's universal. The hopeful ending is perhaps the sweetest you'll ever see in a crime film. Full marks.

Slow, lumpy,over wordy, badly scripted and utterly boring this is one of Jonathan Sothcott's most disappointing films since the awful AGE OF KILL. Written in crayon by his in-house screenwriter Adam Stephen Kelly, this is a lifeless, leaden affair that only surprises at how these seasoned pros continue to deliver characterless drivel like this again and again with increasingly bad results. Nemesis makes We Still Kill The Old Way look like a masterpiece (and that was still below average). The plot which is a home-invasion with some preposterous plot-holes, logic gaps, and rotten twists, sees a gangster return to London to deliver a speech to a charity. However, a cop-with-a-grudge, a devious brother, and a young woman with a score to settle all descend on him at the same time. How one-time pros like Nick Moran, Bruce Payne, and Julian Glover got roped into this crap is a mystery. I wish all the makers of these under-powered, sleep inducing crime flicks would bore off and learn how to make something a bit more interesting. This is the last one I'll ever watch. I'm done.

This Australian oddity is worth seeking out if you love Mad Max and The Wicker Man. It centres around a remote country town in NSW where the mayor and it's people have devised a scheme to stay afloat by plundering the cars of passing travellers. Unsuspecting folks are killed by the townsfolk or booby-trapped roads - yet dischord begins to reasonate as the young car mad youth begin to chafe against the order. At the centre of this is a survivor who is taken in as a waif and who slow begins to see the town for what it is. Our hero is largely passive, played by the gentle Terry Camillieri (who play Napoleon in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure), and the big bad just eccentric (John Meillon - Wally from Crocodile Dundee). Other familiar faces pop up like Chris Haywood (Muriel's Wedding) and Bruce Spence (The Matrix 3).

The cars are great, specifically a VW beetle with spikes! It's not an action film, like the sexed-up trailer suggests, it's more typical of those meandering 70s films that were pretty common in Australia. Peter Weir went on to direct some great Hollywood films before leaving his natice Australia. Odd, memorable, and deserves a considered remake that keeps the soul intact but bolsters the threat levels to the max.

At a nifty 70 minutes long, Socrates packs a lot of incident into its slender running time. This is an emotional watch and gripping from the off, when we learn that the 15 year-old Socrates has to think fast and make ends meet when his mother unexpectedly dies. At first, he is resourceful, but eventually all his escape routes are closed off and he needs to find a way forward that doesn't involve falling into homeless traps like prostitution, alcohol abuse, or drug addiction. The acting is electric, so truthful, and the setting vital to realising how perilous his situation is. The ending offers little closure but we are left with the hope that things will improve for brave Socrates.

Impressive 5 out of 5.

This zombie film opens with a verbose prologue detailing the origins of the curse on the estate of Hobbes House. If ever the house moves away from the lineage of the family the undead will rise to protect it. I think that's the gist. The cast are a wooden bunch of dead wood stock types of estranged sisters, caddish villainous boyfriend, humble caretaker and expendable solicitor. It's pretty ordinary stuff , although the night scenes and chase scenes are fairly atmospheric. Crucially, it is NOT scary, tense or interesting, in fact it is borderline unwatchable as the terrible cast trip over the truly rotten script. At least it is finished to a professional standard unlike a lot of no-budget Brit horrors. It's a shame that, whilst ambitious, this is dead in the water from the very beginning. AWFUL. Avoid like the plague!  Beautifully designed DVD / poster though. 

Sorry but this was tedious and unfunny. To begin with the idea of five men playing a prolonged game of TAG / It / Tick seemed appealing and lightwork but the comedy cast make heavy work of it. I'm sorry, but this was boring and lazy. Other reviewers have detailed the plot mores for you to better effect than I can muster. Jeremy Renner is always good, but this probably felt like a paid holiday for him as there's very little work going on. I found a lot of bad taste humour pretty basic and uninventive. FAIL.

I enjoyed this, unlike most sequels it doesn't try to go bigger, bolder or more dazzling (or more boring). Like the first one it just ambles along and the fun comes in the details. The plot is negligible and the game cast entertaining - there are plotholes and a lack of logic, but in a film like Zombieland 2 who cares? It's good for one watch and is worth a look if you are a fan of the first one. It's not scary but I don't think it tries to be, it's more of an action-comedy with gore. This is world's better than Woody & Jesse's other sequel Now You See Me 2 (that was DOA), and it made me laugh, so I ain't mad at it. Zombieland 2 works, because just like the first one, it's just a dumb place-holder and embraces its slacker status.

Sorry, but I found Mary Magdalene to be a very cool customer indeed. Whilst the locations and cinematography were stunning, something was definitely amiss with the acting and the script. Following on from Lion, the director's last film, which was a huge emotionally satisfying film, this is flat and lifeless. I just couldn't connect with it and considering how wonderful the actors involved usually are, I can't understand why this was utterly uninvolving.  

A crime drama from the POV of a gangster's girlfriend is very rare, and Holiday is a beguiling, shocking film that plays into our own perceptions of the opposite sex. The violence is short, sudden and shocking (like in real life) but on the whole this cold film is highly-stylised and unlikeable. It's a bleak and relentlessly horrible film, every scene is filled with the promise of violence. It's a tense watch and will be shocking to some, others will be killed off by the pace - however, this is a drama not an action-film. It also has an important message which I won't spell out for potential viewers, and it's a rewarding, unpredictable watch.

Do not watch it with your parents! There is a prolonged scene of unsimulated sex at the halfway mark.

Interesting and complex characters, occasionally questionable dialogue, good script, and unique plotting single Wind River out as a superior police drama. Set in a snowy Wyoming far from the cities, an out of her element FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) is assisted by a govmt sanctioned hunter (Jeremy Renner) to solve the death of a Native American teenager. The film doesn't go where you think it's going to go, and whether you like how it's resolved is the decider. Legal justice versus vigilantism?

Wind River is a muted affair not a triumphal one full of pep and vigour. It knows its characters' sadness, but occasionally the script leans in heavily on the sadness and is verbose. It's a shame as there is some excellent acting from the central pair, and a decent supporting role for Graham Greene (Dances With Wolves) and a host of unknowns.

Worth watching for those that like American crime thrillers; this is a superior page-turner that slowly tightens the screws and never loses sight of its message.

It's difficult to put my finger on quite why this documentary fails to get under the skin of its fascinating subject matter. Each year 100s of thousands of people walk the 500 mile Camino de Santiago trail through France and Spain on a pilgrimage. People do it for a variety of reasons, to turn over a new leaf, to come to terms with a loss and more. Camino Skies follows six Antipodeans on their walk, and although they share their reasons for walking - their is tragedy - somehow the film flops. This isn't a commentary on the people featured, it's just the treatment of the subject is rendered flat and ultimately lifeless. For once, I'm at a loss as to what could have improved this - the finished film just seems to have been put together without any creativity or thought to breathe life in it. It's straight forward enough but strangely uninvolving.