Tag Archives: Drama

Escape – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While it dabbles in exploitation, the film never really comes together as a whole.

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Disclosure – I was sent a screener of this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

A woman running towards a cabin in the desert.

Escape Review –

So, to set the scene, we open with a woman running for her life in a desert as she is being chased by a truck. 24 hours earlier, while a bunch of women have arrived at a luxurious island hideaway for a holiday, at a workshop, a comically evil trafficker is setting out the rules to his henchmen. They need ten women captured to be shipped off by Friday. The women are having a blast, not knowing they are walking into danger.  

Well, there is a lot I can say about this film, but I want to highlight some of its strengths. They make the most of their shooting location on the Canary Islands, which helps the narrative or at least makes it more energetic. I also liked that, on the whole, the women were written as out of their depth but not entirely stupid. For example, realising that maybe having a wrench would be a good idea. However, I think they would have preferred being kidnapped and wearing more practical footwear.

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Unit 234 The Lock Up – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It understands that when you cast Don Johnson, you give the man a monologue.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was sent a screener of this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

A truck pulls up to the storage lot at night.

Unit 234 The Lock Up Review –

One of the more interesting shades of drama out there is the surprise trapped. You are going about your day, and then all of a sudden, bam, through the machinations of others or nature, now you are fighting for your life. These are films that live and die on the believability of the scenario and how the characters respond to them. It is in that space we dabble tonight.

So, to set the scene, Laurie Saltair (Isabelle Fuhrman) works, well, is more stuck working for her family’s old storage unit facility. It is a job she inherited, but it is not great for her work/life balance. But what she doesn’t know is that her self-storage unit is about to be at the centre of some regrettable circumstances: a mighty storm is about to hit the coast of Florida, she just crushed her mobile phone in a fall, and some idiot stashed the one thing the wealthy and powerful construction tycoon Jules (Don Johnson) needs in one of her units. What could be in there that he wants so much, and why is there a warning alarm going off?

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Darkgame – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While there are some conceptually interesting ideas here, the fact that everyone is playing a one-dimensional character greatly limits its potential.

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was sent a screener of this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Prisoners around a table.

Darkgame Review –

As the internet becomes all persuasive in our lives, we are becoming more and more accustomed to the negative possibilities that can exist. But whether real or imagined, one genre that has been populated on popular media is what would ancient Colosseum games look like in a modern era where anyone anywhere can watch on? Today’s review leans into that wholeheartedly as we delve into the world of the dark web.    

So, to set the scene, Detective Ben Jacobs (Ed Westwick) is a detective who is famous for finding two lost brothers who have been kidnapped. However, something new has come across his desk: a disturbing video feed from the dark web called Russian Roulette. A masked Presenter (Andrew P Stephen) is making contestants play games against each other. Only the loser meets a grizzly demise. Imagine Sam Reich with a murder kink and making a truckload of money from betting customers. One of those contestants was Fay (Sophie Rankin), who is one of the missing cases Ben was working on, so this is now personal. But when another person is kidnapped, Katia (Natalya Tsvetkova), only time will tell if they catch the perpetrators before more bodies drop.

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The Phoenician Scheme – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Weird and wonderful in equal measure.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Zsa-zsa looks up at you from a bath.

The Phoenician Scheme Review –

Today, we are going to experience a touch of tonal whiplash when it comes to our film reviews. Because we are going from Fountain of Youth, where I could not tell was directed by Guy Ritchie as all his signature stull was sandblasted out of the film, and in the days since I am still wondering if he actually directed that film. But now we are hard cutting to the opposite side of that spectrum with the most stylistic director working in the field today. A man with a stylistic pallet that is oft copied but never replicated. I was first introduced to Wes Anderson’s work through Isle of Dogs and Asteroid City and was delighted by his reinterpretations of Roald Dahl’s short stories like Poison a couple of years ago. This means I came into this with somewhat high expectations, and I think they met them and more.  

So, to set the scene, in 1950, Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro) is flying above the Balkin mountains when an explosion rips apart his plane, yet miraculously, he survives, for this is not the first assassination attempt on his life. He feels like his life work might get cut off by influential players seeking to ruin him and realises that his legacy is not going to be passed down to his ten other sons. Zsa-zsa calls upon his one and only daughter, Sister Liesl (Mia Threapleton), who is about to take her nun oaths. However, he offers her a deal, well, a trial run, at being his sole heir to his fortune, as long as he can fill in the gap in this funding that the shadowy powers just forced upon him. Oh, and stop all the many, many, many people trying to kill him.

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The Island (Haunted Heart/ Isla Perdida) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Some films are greater than the sum of their parts, and then we have today’s entry that has all the right ingredients, yet, like me, every time I try to make bread, nothing rises from it.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is an end-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

The Island

The Island Review –

So, to set the scene, it is Greece in 2001, and people are making their way around the many Greek islands. One of those is Álex (Aida Folch), who is making her way to a secluded restaurant to be their new hostess. It is the kind of restaurant full of fresh flavours that you could feel were pulled right from the sea that surrounds you. But because she is late, the restaurant owner, Max (Matt Dillon), demotes her to server. It is her dream job, dream location, and the boss is quite fine, which is why she does not see all the warning signs everywhere.

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Space/Time – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A wildly ambitious film, which while it doesn’t always live up to the promise it makes, when it does land, it is wildly fascinating.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

A plant sits in front of the machine about to make a portal.

Space/Time Review –

One of the things I like best about my job is when you find something that has taken a big swing to explore. Not content to play it safe, they reach for the sky and don’t care if they hit the Moon or not. I do love exploring that kind of creativity, even if it does not always pan out.

So, to set the scene, in the not-too-distant future, society is on the verge of collapse. Years of environmental degradation have taken their toll, and the biosphere might not hold up in the long run. It is in this space where scientists, like Holt (Hugh Parker), have been working on a secluded island to find ways to stave off the collapse. They tried to develop wormhole travel, but it backfired spectacularly, and many were killed. Liv (Ashlee Lollback) and Harris (Pacharo Mzembe) have tried to move on with their lives after the calamity. Still, when the opportunity to dabble in some illegal science comes up, Liv can’t help but dive back into a world that almost took her life last time.  

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Paradise: Season 1 – TV Review

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TL;DR – Cornerstoned by some fantastic performances, we explore a world where things might be perfect, as long as you don’t look any deeper.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series.

Xavier walks up some stairs.

Paradise Review –

It might just be the current climate, or the fact that rewatching The West Wing makes me feel a growing sense of naivety. But I have been trying to find a new political or politically adjacent series to stick my teeth into. My first attempt was the delightful The Residence, which made its mark. But I wanted to find something with a bit more bite, and today I think I found it.

So, to set the scene, Secret Service Agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) was doing his usual daily rounds in the sleepy town of Paradise. The sort of town where you can jog to the President’s house as part of your morning commute. Xavier did the usual handoff to the agents on site, including Jane Driscoll (Nicole Brydon Bloom) and Billy Pace (Jon Beavers). However, something was off that morning, POTUS, Cal Bradford (James Marsden) was still in bed, which was odd even for a man who spends most of his day in a bathrobe. But as he goes into the President’s room, he is accosted by the sight of blood and the body of the President. Xavier should call it in right away, but he locks the site down before word can escape, and before he loses control of the first murder scene in Paradise’s history. Now, from here, we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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The Last of Us: The Path – TV Review

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TL;DR – This week is a step back from the relentless pace of the opening episodes to refocus us on the rest of the season.     

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Max service that viewed this show.

End Credit Scene – There is a trailer and behind-the-scenes making off.

Joel's watch.

The Last of Us Review –

Last week’s Through the Valley was … well … look … even for those of us who knew what was coming, it hurt a lot, even more so with the way that they updated the framing for the television adaptation. But it is also one of the lynchpin moments in the series. From here, everything changes, and that can be very hard to handle at the best of times. But when you are shifting the narrative structure from the game, things can become precarious.  

So, to set the scene, the city of Jackson has probably gone through the most significant test that has been thrown at it in the post-apocalyptic world of the series. The Infected sent feelers down their old sewer pipes and forwarded a large hoard right to their doorsteps. Many lives were lost, and much that had been built was destroyed and needed to be rebuilt. For some, that pain was even more acute as Ellie (Bella Ramsey) had to watch Joel (Pedro Pascal) be brutally murdered in front of her without closure from their confrontation during Future Days. Three months later, the city finally started to heal, but some wounds were deep and couldn’t be fixed with a hammer. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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Sinners – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Soulful, Sanguine, Sensual, and more than a little Scandalous. It is the kind of film that one second will seduce you with the nectar of the Blues as your whole body moves along with the music but then horrify you with its brutality in the next instant.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid and post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

People dance in ecstasy as fire whips around them.

Sinners Review –

Sometimes in life, you discover, ‘Ryan Coogler is making a vampire film set in 1930s Mississippi,’ and the moment you hear it, you know that you want to see it. Few directors have had such a remarkable track record as Ryan Coogler, and that alone would make this a must-see film. But add in a cast list like this and all the world and themes you know are going to be fascinating. Goodness, what a film this could be.

So, to set the scene, Smoke (Michael B. Jordan) and Stack (Michael B. Jordan) are two legendary twins from the Mississippi Delta who left to make their names in Chicago nine years ago. But they are back with a truck full of assorted booze and enough money to make even the most racist guy in the town still want to sell them the old mill. They have a plan to create a club/bar/gambling den/music hall for the people of the plantations. Part of that was getting the best food from Grace Chow (Li Jun Li) and her family, cooked by the one person all can trust, Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), with some of the best music around headlines by their cousin Sammie (Miles Caton). It was a glorious night, but sometimes music can be so good that it can pierce the veil, and not all that is good can flow from it.   

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Drop – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Drop is uncomfortable and unsettling but also deeply compelling. It’s one of those thrillers that has you on the edge of your seat, wondering if anyone will make it out alive.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

A phone message to check your security cameras.

Drop Review –

Even though film is an old visual medium, it is always trying to connect with and incorporate modern technology. While some films like Searching take that concept to the extreme, others sit back and pick the lazy option and just show a message pop up on a screen. It takes a lot to have modern technology fit naturally into your movie. But today, we look at an entry that just might pull that off.

So, to set the scene, Violet Gates (Meghann Fahy) is a single mother to Toby (Jacob Robinson), and that and her work supporting victims of spousal abuse and coercive control have meant that she has not gone on a date for a very long time. But today is different; her sister Jen (Violett Beane) is coming over to babysit, and tonight, she is going out on a date with what seems like a perfect gentleman who has been chatting to her for months and has not asked for a feet pic once. Her date, Henry Campbell (Brandon Sklenar), is taking her out to a fancy restaurant called Palate, with a view right over the Chicago cityscape. It could be a perfect date, right up until she starts getting obnoxious messages on her ‘Digi-Drops’ app. They are annoying, and she is about to turn the app off when it tells her to look at her home security cameras and do whatever they ask her to do, or her sister and son are dead.

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