Review: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

2015 Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland

The final installation in the Hunger Games film franchise and this time its war.
With evil dictator President Snow cowering in his mansion, the 13 districts prepare there troops for the final assault.

One word a come use to sum up this end chapter is 'heavy', really heavy. Probably the darkest out of all the current teen fiction flicks and the 12A rating is highly deserved. The sense of loss and desperation in this film was almost overwhelming at times, I went into the the cinema tense and came out feeling like id fought the war alongside our heroes! The grimness is broken up by really elaborate and flashy action sequences that looked gorgeous on the big screen. The multiple traps called 'pods' laid out to slice, maim, burn and drown the soldiers were really well thought out. There is a fantastic sequence in which the heroes transition seamlessly from just barely escaping a hot oil pod to straight into a car park fire fight with dozens of Capital guard. All of this exploded from a great dystopian backdrop and accompanied by a booming musical score.

The acting was mostly solid, brilliant performance from Jennifer Lawrence and the final few moments had me fighting the tears (not ashamed!). However I did take issue with the smaller characters being spread extremely thinly. Effie Trinket, a usually vibrant and witty character was almost not seen at all and her inclusion in the film I felt was purely to remind us she was part of the story. I feel that this entry in the series really did cater to the book crowd and may have left ones that hadn't read it scratching there heads.
Overall Mockingjay Part 2 is a solid addition to the series, however it's sombre tone and final act make it a difficult film to enjoy per say and an even harder one to recommend.

The Verdict

Mockingjay Part 2 is an exhausting and emotional ride but a ride worth experiencing never the less. Fans of the series who have not read the book may feel the film lose speed in certain parts, but a strong central cast, heartfelt acting from its leads and gut wrenching final scenes will keep the fires of rebellion burning well into the new year.

3/5

Review: Howl

2015, Sam Gittins, Rosie Day, Eliot Cowan

I am always eager to watch anything that comes from the British horror scene, not just to support my own country but because of a brilliant track record both recent and old. With the likes of 28 Days Later and Eden Lake, can 2015's Howl cement its place amongst the greats?

Our story begins when a bored and frustrated train attendant is forced to work a double shift on the last train home travelling across London. He and his work colleague (and potential love interest) knuckle down for the long haul when the train collides with something on the track, stranding the couple and the train's passengers.

There have been quite a few train themed horror films, Creep being one of the more successful. these films are effective because there is a crushing sense of claustrophobia once something out of your control happens, you a stranded with strangers and are then forced to form alliances.
Watching these alliances form between the small but varied cast of characters was a big highlight for me. Some of the characters started out very stereotype but surprised me in a big way when they did something really clever or brave. This was definitely intentional on the director's part and kept me glued to the screen. It is always enjoyable when you can really get behind a character and root for them to survive, equally satisfying is waiting for potential villain's demise!

The creatures themselves, which you can probably tell by the title are Werewolf like, were spectacular for the film's budget! We are introduced nice and slowly but when the first on is revealed in all it's terrifying glory I actually muttered an audible 'wow' such a pleasant surprise!
The creatures are shown advancing on the train from the woods and the eerie effect of them standing on hind legs with eyes glowing was an image I couldn't shake for the rest of the film.

The Verdict

Howl is a thoroughly well crafted British indie horror flick! The diverse cast of interesting and well developed characters coupled with some great practical creature effects make a it a bloody good time.

4/5

10 films to watch this Halloween

With the spookiest time of the year approaching I thought I would compile a short list of horror films to keep you scared this year. This list is in no particular order and I have picked films I feel are appropriate for horror lovers and the casual viewer alike.
Enjoy and feel free to share with me your scariest film!

1. Evil Dead 2013
I chose 2013's remake of the classic Evil Dead because I feel it keeps the key components of the original, whilst bringing the tale bang up to date. You wont find any corny one liners and goofy acting here, just awesome splatter effects and nail biting tension. A brisk pace and gore galore make it a superb popcorn flick.

2. Laid To Rest
A straight forward but stylishly executed slasher film. The character of Chromeskull easily stands among the greats in terms of a memorable villain. This film also features one of my all time favourite death scenes in any horror film, can you guess which?

3. Jennifer's Body
Megan Fox as a cheerleader possessed by the spirit of a Succubus and only Amanda Seyfried in thick rimmed glasses can stop her! I am still adamant this will be a cult classic in a few years!

4. Macabre (2009 Indonesian)
A nail-bitingly tense horror which steadily descends into absolute carnage. 2 newly weds and 3 of their friends are pitted against a house full of sadistic killers when they offer the wrong girl a lift home.

5. The Uninvited
A much more simple take on the classic Japanese film A Tale of Two Sisters. This is a great mystery with a really well executed 'who done it' theme. Emily Browning and Elizabeth Banks provide the Hollywood names in this larger budget remake.

6. REC.
A brilliant jumping on point for the found footage side of horror films. A television reporter and cameraman follow emergency workers into an apartment building and quickly discovers the terrors within. REC builds tension nicely and has some genuinely heart pounding moments, I guarantee the final act will have you peering through your fingers!

7. Wrong Turn
Fantastic slasher romp centred around teens in the wood being pursued by bloodthirsty cannibals. Solid scares, good action and practical effects makes this film a real all rounder.

8. The Descent
A great British horror film! The Descent is smart, gritty and extremely claustrophobic. This one will leave you holding your breath and wondering what really lies within our countries cave system.

9. The Loved Ones
Hilarious but also really unsettling Aussie masterpiece! When Brent turns down his classmate Lola's invitation to prom, she wildly concocts a brutal plan for revenge.

10. Ginger Snaps
A film really close to my heart, Ginger Snaps deals with family, adolescence and the horror that is growing up. Wrap all these up in a gothic/werewolf/fantasy theme and you've got a real gem here!

Review: The Visit

2015 Olivia Dejonge, Ed Oxenbould, Deanna Dunagan, Kathryn Hahn

Director M. Night Shyamalan is one of those directors you either love or hate as the years go by, he is capable of making thought provoking and tense films such as Signs, but on the other hand he can produce uneven messy films such as The Last Airbender and the disgraceful After Earth.
I am sad to report that this years entry in the form of handheld horror flick The Visit is yet another misfire...

The Visit begins with a mother sending her 2 children to stay with there grandparents for a week whom she lost contact with due to a quarrel when the was a girl. The girl of the pair decides to video tape the whole week (because that is what children do these day apparently!?). All seems normal when they arrive and the boy of the pair (and also the comic relief for this film) wastes no time telling his Grandmother all about rap music. However when the first night approaches the duo soon learn that not all is as it appears when the long lost Grandparents are concerned...

This film sticks to a very formulaic plot in which the Grandparents increasingly become unstable as the nights pass by. This predictable approach meant I was able to guess the outcome halfway through the film. You could even skip to the Friday night showdown/finale point in the film and literally not have missed anything of value. Shyamalan uses his usual tricks of red herrings, jump scares and of course the extremely outdated and tiresome approach of 'shaky cam'.
The characters are as 2 dimensional as they come, funny boy character and sensible older sister are the main stars. The villainous Grandparents were laughably bad, going for the creep factor yet never for one second did I see them as any kind of threat to our protagonists. They were geriatrics, geriatrics aren't scary!

The overall effect of the film was just a mishmash of set pieces and ideas strung together by a wafer thin plot. Horror has never been the most intellectually challenging of genres but there were so many instances where characters made questionable decisions just to advance the plot or drag out what was meant to be a frightening scene. I cared little about the characters or thier outcome and found myself checking my watch more that once, a real stinker in what should be the spookiest month of the year.


The Verdict

The Visit fails across the board as horror/thriller, it is neither scary, nor funny, or even remotely engaging. Bland characters and a ridiculously predictable plot make this film unworthy of a visit.

1/5

Review: Cooties

2015 Elijah Wood, Rainn Wilson, Alison Pill

Cooties is a film with an extremely simple premise but it makes the most of it's unique setting and highly entertaining characters.
The plot centres around a primary school set in a small American town in which a bad batch of chicken nuggets ends up turning all the children who attend into rabid tearaways. The virus is passed on through bites and scratches but doesn't seem to affect the adults thus pitching a war between teachers and the pre pubescent undead.

There is a great cast of characters amongst the school faculty, Rainn Wilson providing the most laughs as the overly macho P.E instructor. Elijah Wood did a great job as the main protagonist and it was a real joy to see him in another horror film. Wood has proven himself as a real staple in the genre since appearing in 2012's Maniac as well as the 2014 crime/horror Open Windows and I look forward to seeing him in more roles. Although the majority of the cast played horror movie tropes of some kind, they all brought their own flare to the characters making them funny and likeable.

The rabid kids themselves were a formidable foe, they were weak as individuals but once they attacked in a group the results were horrifying! The gore effects and make up were pretty standard, some scenes looking slightly worse than others but no major crimes committed here. The action is mostly slapstick style gore and it was a good balance between comical and gruesome. There were a good balance of quiet creeping moments which were often  followed by all out chaos. One particular scene in which two of the teachers had to creep through air vents while one of the zombies rides around on a tricycle gave me flash bakes to The Shining and really had me on the edge of my seat.

Cooties biggest strength lies in its humour, as a film it is smart, relevant and has some brilliantly quick jokes that you really need to pay attention to in order to appreciate their genius. From the opening credits which put me off chicken nuggets for life, to the comical jab at Elijah Wood's character for resembling a Hobbit made the film for me. The end scene and playground battle was the smallest epic finale I had seen in years and was a brilliant final act.

The Verdict

As a horror/comedy Cooties is up there among the greats, it has charm, heart, gore and laughs. All these elements are brought together wonderfully to create something die hard horror fans and the casual crowd alike can enjoy. I put money on this being a cult classic in years to come, make sure you catch Cooties this year!

4/5

Review: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

2015 Dieter Laser, Laurence R. Harvey, Bree Olson

As a die hard horror fan I have always been in defence of the 'Centipede' series, I applaud the first film for it's daring originality and applaud the second for its gross out, uber detailed and graphic depictions of medical procedures.
So naturally when I heard a third and final film in the franchise was being made I waited anxiously for more news. News of delays and complications were broadcast so often and I eventually lost interest and gave up any hope that it would even be released. Then out of the blue the Final Sequence is finally released on DVD and my curiosity peaks yet again, however nothing could prepare me for what I witnessed...

I shall simply start by saying I truly hate this film, I hate everything it stands for and it physically made me angry. It isn't even a film rather than a bunch of 'cheap shock value' sequences strung together by as many sexist, racist, offensive and repulsive lines of dialogue the director could think of.
This film literally sets out to offend everyone. But that's not my problem with it, my problem is that by trying so hard to offend and shock it just end up doing none of these things. I wasn't repulsed by the cheap tacky gore effects, I wasn't offended when women were treated badly or black people were abused. I felt absolutely nothing because it was so obvious and unnatural in it's delivery that it simply couldn't have any effect or even be taken seriously.
Sure genitals are mutilated, comatose patients are raped and open wounds are sodomised, but it is all dealt with such little care that its just eye roll worthy. The second film in the series took so much care in getting under your skin and making you shocked but this is just the definition of lazy!

I also must mention that Dieter Laser gave not only the worst performance in the film, but the worst performance I have ever seen in any piece of media ever. All those Paris Hilton cameos? Oscar material compared to this talentless hack. It is almost as if the director didn't even write a script and instead left this idiot to mumble and scream any obscenity that came to his tiny mind.

The Verdict

This film is nothing but a vile, lazy, crude, intelligence insulting piece of waste that should never have seen the light of day. A film so bad, so hateful, that you shouldn't even watch it out of curiosity. To give 90 minutes of your one life to this insult of a film would be a huge mistake.
An slap in the face and an insult not only to horror fan, but the word 'cinema' in general.

Tom Sixx take a bow.

Review: Jurassic World

2015 Chris Pratt, Judy Greer, Irrfan Khan

Jurassic World follows on about 20 years after the events of Jurassic park. The dinosaur tourist industry has reached huge success and Jurassic World is a prehistoric Disneyland built on a remote island.
Now I am not on of those people who puts the original Jurassic Park on a pedestal, I enjoyed it and I still enjoy it to this day but I don't consider it one of the greats. People have commented about how Jurassic World is the 'true sequel' to the original film. I am now going to delve into why I think these people are completely inane....

The original film had a mix of suspense and action sequences in fairly equal measure. Jurassic World throws this out the window in favour of 'whizz bang' action sequences every 15 minutes. There is only a handful of ways you can show army men getting eaten whole by dinosaurs, so after about 10 times it just becomes repetitive. We have to have the inevitable children in danger sequence and we get this in the form of THE most annoying child actors iv seen in recent years being trapped in a hamster ball while the Idominus Rex tries to swallow it whole. I forgot to mention that the Idominus Rex is meant to be the smartest dinosaur of all time yet still tries to eat something bigger than it's own head.
The 'final showdown' was a lack luster event and a had such a ridiculous cop-out ending it made me want to put my head in my hands. They could have salvaged the rest of the film with a really good final battle but I just found myself checking my watch and rolling my eyes.

The acting for a summer blockbuster I thought was well below par. Chris Pratt nailed his role as a funny, witty but sensitive dinosaur wrangler. The child actors who i wont even name because their careers are already over were just so gormless, flat and irritating that I was just waiting for them to get eaten by something, anything!? Judy Greer played the stereo typical business obsessed woman who eventually lets her hair down and gets seduced by the hero but to be honest any female actor could have played the same role with ease. The rest of the cast were limited to cannon fodder and food for poorly cgi animated dinosaurs.

But above all these gripes the main thing that angered me most was the sheer volume of unanswered plot lines, it was to the point of sillyness.
1. The children discuss their parent's suspected divorce in what is meant to be an 'emotional scene' this subject is never mentioned or touched on again.

2.The oldest of the children says goodbye to his girlfriend before he visits the park. He is constantly eyeing up other girls and we suspect he intends to cheat. He never does but we never see him get home or hear from his girlfriend again.

3.Chris Pratt's character communicates with the raptors using a clever system of hand gestures and a clicker that mimics the raptor vocal calls. This really cool method is completely abandoned in the final battle when he just has to give a teary eyed nod to them in order to get them to attack/move.There are so many more moments like this it just completely pulls you out of the film and leaves you scratching your head when the conclusions never arrive.

Im not going to stretch as far as to as i hated Jurassic World, but i just felt so cheated. There were some good points but they would make to difference if I mentioned them now.

Towards the end of the film there is a sequence where Judy Greer outruns a T Rex in high heels. What more do I need to say?


The Verdict

With uninspired action sequences, flat characters and plot holes galore Jurassic World is one attraction I will not be revisiting in a hurry.

2/5