Film Reviews by AER

One of the most effective ghost stories I've ever seen. Well-plotted, unpredictable, short and very scary when it needs to be. I've seen this twice now and it was even better on second viewing. It has way more invention than ten Blumhouse movies. Shame this is virtually unknown and low budget but it needs to be seen. Very effective chiller. 10/10

PS Crappy title though.

Beautiful film that makes you appreciate life. Sad and thoughtful. Recommended, just don't try to 'logic' the plot out of existence. Great performances all round.

I've never seen a bad Ken Loach film before; I've seen boring Ken Loach films but never a bad one, that is until today. This culture clash love affair contains a great performance by Eva Birthistle but sadly its stranded in a film full of melodramatic twists and turns. It's about as subtle as a brick and the story fails to convince not because of how the families react to the relationship between and an Irish Catholic and a Glaswegian Muslim but how the pair react to eachother. They characters aren't developed enough for my liking, all they do is argue about religion and they don't even seem to like one another all that much. It fails to sell that the central couple are in love. So everything else falls down around it. Disappointing because this tale has been told with more conviction and cohesion elsewhere.

I happened upon this by chance when it was reviewed in the pages of Total Film mag some time ago - so it sat in my list for yonks. An upcoming trip to Hong Kong made me want to take a look at it. I don't think this saw a cinema release in the UK back in 97 - 98 so it completely passed me by. Something of a lost classic, it's been released after a restoration in 2017 by Eureka for their masters of cinema series. I really enjoyed the characterisation by the actors, particularly the lead trio. I also liked the style of the movie. Somewhat rough and ready with it's handheld moves, yet shots were framed with innovation and care, yet they didn't jolt you out the story. It gets quite melodramatic towards the end but somehow it all fits as the main guy is a drama queen anyway. Very funny at times, thrilling or sad in others, MADE IN HONG KONG deserves its reputation as one of Hong Kong cinema's hidden treasures.

The fourth instalment in the Undisputed film series sees one-time bad guy Yuri Boyka take centre stage. The fights are accomplished if not a little bit repetitive and the storyline is staight out of TV's The Equalizer or The A-Team with a Russian slant. The acting is above average, but the script is pedestrian and the drama scenes too cliched to offer anything but undemanding cinema. This is only 1 star because the scale is 1 to 5.... I would give this 2.5 out of 10 because Scott Adkins is a great performer and a decent actor.

Undemanding 4

An Elephant Sitting Still is singularly the best drama of the last 10 years. I've seen it three times now (the first time at the cinema). It's epic and so intimate (like the trailer says) and very moving.

More formulaic than most of Payne's films, this Xmas treat is a heartwarmer with complex characters and superb acting from everybody. The newcomers Dominic Sessa and da'Vine Jay Randolph match Paul Giamatti over the course of some complex comedy and drama. It hits hard in some of the more emotional scenes and the script is also very funny. The only thing I didn't like was the use of music which was unnecessarily manipulative and obtrusive. Too many montages too.... Otherwise, another ace in the hole for Alexander Payne, one of the USA's best directors of dramatic comedies led by superb actors.

Official Competition (crap title) stars two of my favourite actors: Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas. I've never seen Penelope C in a role like this before, she offers a comic yet layered performance as a film director in rehearsals with two vain actors (Banderas, Oscar Martinez) from contrasting backgrounds. Both are buffons and embody their parodies well. I loved it.

Bad Educacion begins well with an intriguing premise but it loses its emotional gumption with some cinematic tricks that distract rather than assist the story. As usual Almodavor packs in so much plot, but for me this one had one silly twist too many and by the last twenty minutes, I'd lost patience with the double-crosses. Gael Garcia Bernal is interesting casting as a beautiful transvestite performer. Still, sadly he's reduced to a cipher to keep the dizzy plot running as opposed to an interesting and complex character. It had a simple story but it was somehow made overcomplicated by the multiple stories within stories and competing versions of the truth with different actors inside. Sadly this is a misfire for Almodavor.

Too busy.

How I miss 90s mid-level action movies like this. This was DTV in the UK, but I was keen to see it because of it's great cast of b-movie villains - Rutger Hauer, Gary Busey, F Murrray Abraham, Charles S Dutton. This was during the wonderful time in Hollywood when Ice T was a leading man for a few years! Following so closely after John Woo's / Jean Claude Van Damme's Hard Target (which is based loosely on the same story THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME) this could be seen as repetitive, but the focus is closer than the JCVD version and just as much fun. Basically, rich guys trick a homeless person into being hunted in the wilderness, but the baddies pick the wrong guy. For once Ice T isn't a former Navy SEAL or SAS, he's merely an ex-janitor with a survival instinct and a lot of luck. It's corny, trashy but the acting is good and the cast interesting. I miss Rutger Hauer RIP.

Far from perfect but it's the kind of 90s flick I miss - all the action films in Hollywood now are huge scale and Jason Statham is the only one who gets to make films like this anymore....

So all these years I was thinking that Nicolas Cage's acting style got weird after Face/Off but he was extreme and nutso all along. Vampire's Kiss hasn;t dated as badly as a lot of 80s films but I'm afraid it was too madcap and a mite tedious for my taste inspite of the fantastically OTT perforrnance by Nicolas Cage. I recgnised so many scenes from 'memes' etc. It had some great moments but it wasn't my cup of tea I'm afraid.

Black comedies about murder are a hard thing to pull off successfully - I guess like a murder itself. Mark Addy and Charlie Creed-Miles play a dim double act of the world's worst assassins. Skint and without a clue, bullsh*t artist Frank (Addy) gets hired by his new friend Kenny (Creed-Miles) to avenge his brother who was given brain damage by a London thug a few years earlier. Witless yet funny dialogue just about sees this comedy through but ultimately it's all a bit lacklustre like the characters. In fact, it's too effective and convincing because the film farts about without a clue, just like the characters. A mixed bag.

I wanted to see what a David Ayer-directed movie starring Jason Statham would be like to see whether the former would elevate the latter into more interesting territory or whether Ayer would end up making a generic actioner. Saddled with a crappy script by Kurt Wimmer and a bunch of British actors sporting lousy American accents in support (Jeremy Irons and Jemma Redgrave take a bow), The Beekeeper is fairly generic even by Statham's standards. Stealing off the Equalizer films and a dose of John Wick too, this fails to distinguish itself at all. There is a lots of noticeable 'one-at-a-time' fighting in The Beekeeper, so it's the one on one fight scenes that count for something. Look out for some terrible acting from a South African mercenary with a false leg - it's only January (2024) and there's already a candidate for worst performance in a cinema release already!

The Beekeeper is unimaginative, and unmemorable. Statham's fourth duff movie on the trot (for me). Please come back David Ayer. I miss your LA cop movies.

Director Chris Newby only made two films to my knowledge - this and the weird and wonderful LGBTQ+ curio Madagascar Skin. Why he didn't go on to becoming one of the UK's leading filmmakers in the vein of Terence Davies is unknown. This tale of an anchoress in the East of England is full of amazing imagery, stunning sound work, and interesting / appropriate performances. A superb cast led by Natalie Morse (not sure who she is), Christopher Eccleston, Toyah Willcox, Pete Postlethwaite, Eugene Bervoets (from The Vanishing!!!), Julie T Walllace (She Devil), and Annette Badland, this is very memorable and haunting. See it if you can, there's not many films like this one.

9 out of 10 - Bewitching.

Competently made, but this is mid-level Blumouse Horror fare. A haunted swimming pool could have been interesting but this film has no good ideas of its own. The acting elevates a dumb script and a very predictable plot. Some of the scare worked and it does have a degree of atmosphere, it's just a shame it ended up being placid and ordinary.

No waves. 4 out of 10.