21.2.13

psychomania (1963)

aka Violent Midnight. Black Autumn.
"I was gonna kill him."
wealthy and moody painter, Elliot (Lee Philips), lives a reclusive life, and is viewed suspiciously by the locals. So naturally he's the main suspect when his latest model is murdered, but as the police investigate, many other suspects emerge, as a knife wielding maniac stalks the town.
Cheap and stilted thriller, but one with some intriguing characters.

django unchained (2012)

"The kids a natural."
Slave Django (Jamie Foxx) is picked by Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), a bounty hunter, to help him find a number of overseers that have been convicted of murder. In doing so, he frees Django and opens up the possibility that he could find his wife and obtain revenge.
Full of gore, humour and action, what's not to like in this re-imaging of the Django franchise.

20 million miles to earth (1957)

aka The Giant Ymir. The Beast from Space.
"Horrible, but fascinating." A US voyage to Venus crashes in Sicily on its return to earth. Only two men initially survive the crash, but unfortunately so does a specimen of life from Venus. Now released from its captivity the animal starts growing at an alarming rate, terrorising the neighborhood. The army manages to capture it, but it manages to escape again and decides to take in the tourist traps of Rome.
Classic creature feature making good use of Ray Harryhausen's animation skills.

kill the irishman (2011)

aka Bulletproof Gangster.
"We're drunks, we're fighters, we're liars! But there's a bit of good in every Irishman..."
A biopic of the Irish-American mobster Danny Greene (Ray Stevenson), who rose through the ranks of the Cleveland unions before breaking out on his own. A charismatic man, he gained a reputation as a Robin Hood character that the Mafia could not kill, but everybody's luck runs out sometime.
Entertaining take on the mob flick, though one that never really gives more than a by the numbers reading of the genre.

17.2.13

cowboys and aliens (2011)


"Move away!"
A man (Daniel Craig) wakes alone in the mid-west, with a wound to his stomach, with amnesia. After killing three scalp-hunters, he then stumbles into town in an attempt to find out who he is, and what has happened to him. There he finds nothing but trouble, as he's a wanted man, and then the aliens appear!
Quirky mash-up of the old west meets alien gold prospectors. Brainless fun.

skyfall (2012)


"You see what comes of all this running around Mister Bond?"
Bond (Daniel Craig) is back, but then is shot, and is presumed dead. But when someone blows up the MI6 HQ, this prompts Bond's return. First to pass his physical and psychological evaluation, and then to find the computer hacker with the skill to infiltrate MI6 and toast their building! This involves bedding some women (Bérénice Marlohe & Naomie Harris), being tortured, shooting things, running around a lot and some fisticuffs. All in an attempt to find Silva (Javier Bardem), the nasty bi-sexual ex-agent with a grudge against M (Judi Dench). A man with the inability to just shoot people he dislikes, preferring to devise a convoluted plot, costing millions, and involving complicated computer hacking, lots of hired goons and hardware, which ends in him walking into a room and shooting at his victim! Why didn't he just hire a sniper and save himself all the money, time and effort! And to top it all off, he's a crap shot so he should have definitely hired someone else to do the job.
Big, flashy, overlong, full of inconsistencies and plot holes. Otherwise it's a fine re-version of the Bourne franchise.