Tag Archives: Neo-Western

Trigger Warning – Movie Review

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TL;DR – When things click into place, this can be quite an entertaining film. Unfortunately, a lot of the connective tissue is full of awkwardness that holds it back.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Parker mourns her father.

Trigger Warning Review –

Okay, so I am going to be upfront with you right from the start. The reason I sat down to watch this film is because it has been an age since I have seen Jessica Alba in anything. She was one of those tent pole stars when I was growing up, and I am always here for a new renaissance.   

So to set the scene, we open in the Bādiyat al-Shām Desert, Syria, as two pickup trucks with machine guns chase down an aid vehicle that clearly is not delivering aid. Instead, it is driven by spec-ops operative Parker (Jessica Alba), who is very handy with a knife. But when an apparent cave-in kills her father at the mine he works in, Parker travels all the way home to deep rural America to find out what really happened. However, one look shows that the cave-in might be a very convenient conclusion.   

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Deadland – Movie Review

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TL;DR –  It is a film with a lot of intrigue, but I wish it had a bit more going on under the hood.  

Rating: 3 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 man standing on the river's shore.

Deadland Review –

I do love when films get weird, when they play with your perceptions of what is real or not, though I should maybe stop playing them before bed. Today, we are looking at a film that does just that with the people in the movie, but does it have the same effect on the audience?

So, to set the scene, we find ourselves on the USA/Mexico border with US Customs and Border Patrol, where they find a suspicious van trying to cross. Agents Angel Waters (Roberto Urbina) and Ray Hitchcock (McCaul Lombardi) find just a kid behind the wheel and a whole lot of drugs in the back. It was just a routine day for The Patrol, but when Angel is alone and finds the body of The Stranger (Luis Chávez) floating dead in the river, he is the most surprised when the man wakes up out of his body bag on the drive home. But when Angel’s father, Ignacio Coronado (Manuel Uriza), returns and the dead man, now alive, turns up dead again, things start falling apart, and this is when Internal Affairs starts to sniff around.  

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The Stolen Valley (Alta Valley) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While it starts strong, it unfortunately runs out of gas after the first act as the storyline becomes convoluted.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I was sent a screener of this film

The Utah Countryside.

The Stolen Valley Review –

Today, we are looking at a film that is wearing its influences on its sleeves. That is not a bad thing. In fact, just last week, we watched Monkey Man do just that, and it was grand. But there is danger in this approach because if people are constantly thinking about other movies and not your own work, well, something has gone badly wrong. Today, we look at where The Stolen Valley lands on this spectrum. 

So to set the scene, Lupe (Briza Covarrubias) struggles to find her place in the world. Trying to connect with her mother, Lizette (Paulette Lamori), learn her native language, Diné, or just get ahead in a world where everyone is taking from her. But when her mother becomes sick, and there are only experimental and expensive options left, Lupe is forced to find her father, who she thought was dead. But a run-in with Maddy (Allee Sutton Hethcoat) after she just crossed local crime lord Antonio (Ricardo Herranz) leads to a dangerous gun-filled chase.

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Let Him Go (Let Him Go: Fight For Family) – Movie Review

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TL;DR –  A film that explores tension at every moment that leaves you sitting on the edge of your seat as it all falls apart.   

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

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

Warning – Contains scenes of abuse

Awards:

Nominated – Beautiful Cinematography, The Emotion, All The Tension & Fascinating Worldbuilding.

Let Him Go (Let Him Go: Fight For Family). Image Credit: Universal Pictures.

Let Him Go Review –

It has been a while since a film has had me sat on the edge of my seat as the tension overwhelmed me. Well, today, we look at just such a movie that I was honestly struggling to find the right genre to categorise it. It is sort of a western but not, it is sort of a noir film but not, a detective hunt but not. But whatever it is, it was engaging from start to finish.

So to set the scene, we open in on a family in a full happy mode as they get ready for the day.  James Blackledge (Ryan Bruce) is out working breaking in a horse as his father George (Kevin Costner) watches on. Back in the homestead, his mother Margaret (Diane Lane) is making breakfast while his wife Lorna (Kayli Carter) is trying to corral their new baby. As James takes out the horse for a ride, everyone is working together, that is until the horse comes back without its rider. Three years later, Lorna is re-marring Donnie Weboy (Will Brittain), and she and her little one Jimmy (Bram Hornung/ Otto Hornung) go to move in with him. Much to the consternation of Margret and George, that is only elevated when one day Lorna and Donnie skip town without telling and take Jimmy along with them.

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Movie Review – Logan

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TL;DR – There was a lot of hype for Logan, and it mostly lives up to it, Logan is violent, gory, but also really emotional at times. At the very least this may be the best X-Men universe film they have made so far.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

P.S. There is no after credit scene

Logan. Image Credit: 20th Century Fox

Review –

The X-Men films have been a real scattershot, from great to trash and everything in between, but after Apocalypse fell flat I came into Logan with a bit of trepidation. As well as being the next X-Men film, Logan is also Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart’s last outing, that was a lot of weight to put on a film, and yet they nailed it. Of course one of the things you need to know before going to see Logan is that this is an incredibly violent film, as a movie about a man with knives in his hands probably should be, but unlike previous instalments Logan shows the violence in graphic detail i.e. what would actually happen if you were attacked with someone knives protruding from his hands. One would think the rating would be enough to warn people about this, but from the people around me in the cinema it was a surprise to many, so this is probably not a film to take your kids too. Now I have not read the source comics (Old Man Logan) so I can’t tell you if this is a good adaptation, but what I can tell you is that this is a great film.

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