Starring Charlie Murphy, Emma Mackey, Anson Boon Directed by Phil Sheerin By @RogerCrow
From the first few minutes when we’re introduced to single mum Elaine and her troubled son Tom, it’s clear this isn’t going to be a knockabout comedy. It’s a sombre, slow-burning thriller, at times reminiscent of James Nesbitt TV drama Bloodlands. Something bad has gone on in Tom and Elaine’s past. So bad that they leave England and try and start a new life in an old family home in Ireland.
Tom collects animal skulls, and seems to be the very definition of a disaster waiting to happen. As they settle into their ‘new’ home, and the locals welcome them into the community, it feels like a Ken Loach drama with sinister undertones.
Emma Mackey – The Winter Lake
After making a grim discovery in a seasonal lake, withdrawn teen Tom discovers the truth about his neighbours, a father and daughter harbouring sinister secrets. The cast are pretty good and it helps that they don’t carry loads of baggage from previous films. Emma Mackey and Anson Boon are definite stars on the rise. I’ve no doubt they’ll be everywhere in the coming years, and director Phil Sheerin does a good job of sustaining that gritty, sombre mood.
But it’s so bleak. While some suspense movies jump out at you from the shadows, this seeps into you, a little like spending too long in the bath, or in this case swampy lake; your soul starts to prune.
If lockdown has taken its toll on your spirits, then this won’t do a great job of distracting you, or make you feel better about the world. However, for those in the right frame of mind, then it should keep you gripped.
Starring Frank Finlay, Suzy Kendall, Freddie Jones
Directed by Sidney Hayers
By @RogerCrow
In this hard-hitting psychological thriller, Frank Finlay stars as a career policeman willing to employ unorthodox methods to catch a sleazy murderer.
Suzy Kendall is terrific as a plucky teacher (with cool shades) willing to put her life in jeopardy to help him do so. Look out too for Freddie Jones as a sleazy, determined reporter who will do anything to get a scoop. And James Cosmo, one of the hardest working men in showbusiness, also pops up in an early role.
Director Sidney Hayers does a brilliant job of keeping this dark British drama ticking over, from the first few minutes when a schoolgirl (Lesley-Anne Down) is attacked and becomes fixated with an electricity pylon, to the final few minutes when things go full circle. And throughout the movie anyone could be the attacker, except an adorable golden Labrador.
If you go Down to the woods today…
There are times this goes to some very dark places, such as a confession of sorts, which is quite shocking. But while cast and crew are excellent, the standout is Eric Rogers’ energetic score. He was always the master of bouncy Carry On themes, and he injects the same amount of energy into this ’lost’ classic. It’s so good I’m trying to track down a copy.
Carry on Screaming
Producer Peter Rogers may have been the king of comedy, thanks to hits such as Please Turn Over and the Carry on saga, but this was a fascinating diversion into much more disturbing territory. Full marks to Network for screening this as a double bill with (1971’s) Revenge. Even the intermission trailers, one featuring Sid James in full on double entendre Carry On mode, are terrific.
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Revenge (1971)
Starring Joan Collins, James Booth and Kenneth Griffith
Directed by Sidney Hayers
By @RogerCrow
An ordinary family turn to vigilante justice in the wake of their daughter’s murder. That’s the premise for this gripping thriller from the era when Carry On producer Peter Rogers tried his hand at something far darker than Sid James and Kenneth Williams sparring in a hospital, jungle or wherever.
With taut direction from Sidney Hayers and a tense script from The Saint screenwriter John Kruse, I’m not surprised Revenge had me hooked from the first minute. Joan Collins is terrific as always as the pub owner’s wife, and James Booth does a brilliant job of shifting gears from genial landlord to obsessed grieving dad.
The whole thing is so well orchestrated, with its tense score by Eric Rogers and clever moments of suspense that it should work brilliantly as a shot-for-shot remake. And as hideous as the criminal at the heart of the piece is, you’re always left doubting when the vigilante family have the right man. Is it just a lonely guy or the man who escaped justice when he should have been locked up for life? Well, this will keep you guessing until the last few minutes thanks to Kruse’s superb screenplay.
Poor Joan had nothing to wear in this one. She even did her own washing.
Good support comes from Kenneth Griffith, who later popped up in The Wild Geese and Four Weddings and a Funeral; Tom Marshall, and there’s also a great turn from Sinead Cusack. An added bonus for nostalgic viewers of a certain age is spotting all the 1970s ephemera, including soap boxes of the era. Watching Joan Collins doing her washing by hand is quite the sight.
Like the other half of Network’s double bill, Assault (made by many of the same team), this is a fabulously dark, occasionally disturbing slice of British drama, with a terrific cast, great script and assured direction. Highly recommended.
I’m guessing it’s 35 years or more since I last saw this British comedy, though given the quality of the latest disc, it looks like it was shot yesterday.
The HD remaster from original film elements makes it look better than ever. (I’d love to see how it looked on that last viewing all those years ago. Half as good I imagine).
The plot is simple enough: Jo Halliday, a beautiful, precocious teenage daughter, secretly writes a steamy bestseller featuring fictionalised versions of her family and friends. She turns their quiet suburban life upside down in the process when their neighbours believe the book’s contents are true. Naturally her folks have no idea of its publication until the ’damage’ is done.
Julia Lockwood and Leslie Phillips
Yes, it stretches credibility to breaking point, even in 1959, but that’s half the beauty of it. With a solid cast, including Ted Ray, Jean Kent, Leslie Phillips and Joan Sims (as a sort of pre-Hilda Ogden cleaning woman), the whole thing ticks over like a Swiss watch. It’s a movie of three acts. The first being the preamble, as the suburban family and friends come to terms with the effects of Jo’s writing on the locals. The second being the re-enacted version of the book, with some over-the-top melodrama, and the third of course being the aftermath, back in the real world.
Carry On writer Norman Hudis, producer Peter Rogers and director Gerald Thomas ensure there’s rarely a dull moment. And yes, there are times its source material, West End comedy ’Book of the Month’, looms large over the production, but it hardly matters. Julia Lockwood, one of British cinema’s brightest unsung heroines, is splendid as Jo, and has to carry most of the movie. She does it with ease, while it’s a treat to see Lionel Jeffries, effortlessly generating giggles aplenty as her driving instructor relative. (It was a joy to see him doing the same sort of thing recently with an episode of sublime 1980s ITV comedy Shillingbury Tales).
Look out too for Dilys Laye (Carry On Cruising), future Miss Marple Joan Hickson, and the wondrous Charles Hawtrey, who of course was one of the key players of the regular Carry On team.
Please Turn Over is one of those lovely British comedies from an age when they’d brighten up the TV schedules a treat. The latest version, in its crisp, many shades of grey, looks better than ever, and the Buckinghamshire backdrops are a feast for the eye.
Supporting features include the original trailer, and a recent interview with co-star Tim Seely, who played Jo’s understandably besotted writer boyfriend. Okay, Hull-born director Gerald Thomas doesn’t reach the dizzy heights of his masterpieces Carry On Cleo, ’Screaming’ or ’Up the Khyber’, but it’s still great fun regardless.
Starring MacLeod Andrews, Natalie Walker, Sydney Vollmer
Directed by Adam Stovall
By @RogerCrow
It’s a story as old as the hills: boy meets girl; boy loses girl, boy and girl get back together. But what happens when the girl is a ghost and she tries to scare the boy off? What then?
You’re terrible Muriel
Well, co-writer/director/producer Adam Stovall answers that question in this charming, bittersweet indie, which is one of the best supernatural rom coms of recent years.
With solid turns from MacLeod Andrews (Doctor Sleep) and Natalie Walker, it turns the Ghost and Beetlejuice formula on its head. AGW centres on Jack, a handyman whose job is to fix up rental properties to make way for new tenants.
However, one property keeps winding up empty. Tasked with discovering why and fixing the issue, Jack meets Muriel, a “spectral agent”. Her job is to haunt the home and keep it vacant.As things unfold, Jack comes to terms with the haunting and Muriel tries her best to scare him off, but when that doesn’t work, her boss resorts to other measures.
High spirits
With a great score, including Wussy’s hugely infectious track Yellow Cotton Dress, and highly effective monochrome photography, this is a joy from start to finish.
Adam Stovall is definitely a name to watch in the future; this is just the sort of cinematic calling card which has studio bosses falling over themselves. He may already have been snapped up for a big budget offering.
It was probably made for a few thousand dollars, and is proof that a few actors and a great script are worth far more than endless effects and clever camera moves. Just a roll of tape creates one of the smartest visual gags of the movie.
Muriel’s haunting
Yes, there are genuine scares, and the odd laugh out loud moment, but it’s that sucker punch finale which really hits home. ’Muriel’s Haunting’ might have been a more flippant title, but A Ghost Waits is just perfect for what is a near perfect movie.
Starring Richard Burton, Lee Remick, Lino Ventura Certificate PG By @RogerCrow
When I first saw this thriller in 1982, I dismissed it as an Omen clone. And there’s still some merit to that. It even has the dreamy Lee Remick, who must have been a tad bored of being offered supernatural thrillers when this was filmed a year after the success of that first Omen movie. However, as nuts and bolts thrillers goes, it’s still pretty good, despite the fact the structure is basically a series of flashbacks. We open with Richard Burton’s character Morlar at home watching coverage of a Moon shot. A mystery assailant apparently beats him to death, and from that point on Lino Ventura’s dogged detective Brunel is left to carry the bulk of the film. Not a bad actor, but the wrong man to for a film like this.
There are so many times when it looks like Richard Burton has been replaced by a body double that it feels a bit of a con. But when he’s on screen, my goodness he makes those moments count. Whether in a court room scene, dispensing his case for the defence, or those more intimate moments when he and Lee Remick’s shrink Zonfeld are discussing his alleged powers, Burton is utterly magnetic.
Even a moment worthy of Crossroads, when he discovers his wife is having a fling, he manages to burn up the screen like an arsonist in a cinema. There are so many quality actors propping up the rest of the movie, including legends like Michael Hordern, Derek Jacobi, Gordon Jackson, Harry Andrews, and a young Michael Byrne, a decade before playing a key Nazi in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. And there’s a plane crash orchestrated by effects legend Brian Johnson, which is a reminder of how great model effects used to be before the film industry became slaves to CGI.
Starring John Terry, Jack Palance, Bernard Bresslaw Certificate PG By @RogerCrow
Forty years ago I was so inspired by the trailer for Hawk the Slayer, I wrote a fantasy novella for my English assignment. Though ’Mindsword’ is still collecting dust, the memory of Hawk lives on with millions of fellow geeks. Anyone who’s owned a copy of the Spaced DVD will know one of the menu commands features the sound bite ’Hawk the Slayer’s rubbish!’ And yes, parts of it are, but in the days before Peter Jackson made the fantasy movie genre respectable with his Tolkien-inspired epics, HTS was a bold, low budget offering from Terry Marcel. Who he? Well, his daughter Rosie (who looks like one of the elves from Lord of the Rings), is more famous for propping up Holby City for a decade or more. (By strange coincidence I was watching his long forgotten 1987 offering Jane and the Lost City when the offer to review ’Hawk’ came in). So, is it worth a look? Well, a definite yes. I wouldn’t go so far as to read the novelisation, which I used to see on regular visits to my local discount bookshop, but just look at the calibre of that cast: Jack Palance giving a stellar performance as the bad guy, Voltan – this was around the same time he chewed the scenery in a Buck Rogers double bill on TV; John Terry, who later played Felix Leiter in The Living Daylights, as Hawk. And so many other familiar faces, including Carry On legend Bernard Breslaw; the brilliant Annette Crosbie; Peter O’Farrell, who later popped up in Ridley Scott’s Legend; Warren Clarke, and Rocky Horror Show veteran Patricia Quinn.
Contrary to what you may have heard, Hawk the Slayer’s not rubbish.
Hammer veteran (and Roger ’Queen’ Taylor lookalike) Shane Briant is also rather good as the villainous Drogo – son of Voltan; he was also in the wondrous Captain Kronos, which shares the same creative DNA as this gem. It’s easy to poke fun at the fantasy genre. After all, elves, wizards and the like can be pure panto, but the key is playing it straight with an element of humour. “Would it were that simple,” as Hawk comments at one point, (years before it became a standout comedy moment from Hail, Caesar!).
At times HTS is so earnest, but stick with it. Roy Kinnear adds comic relief during one of Voltan’s murderous assaults; Graham Stark is terrific as the comedy foil to Bresslaw’s giant. And a running gag denying Bresslaw’s character of food also adds a necessary lightness to the proceedings. With nods to Michael Moorcock, the Seven Samurai and Sergio Leone Westerns, with a prog rock/Jeff Wayne/Ennio Morricone-inflected score, it’s as much of a shining gem as the glowing jewel in the hero’s pommel – very handy for identifying the hero in a mist-saturated forest battle. The costumes look like they’re off the peg (not a mud fleck on many an outlaw’s jerkin), but given the limited budget, the movie stands up rather well. Supporting character Crow the Elf was way ahead of his time, with his lightning-fast bow skills offering a taste of Legolas’s 21 years before Orlando Bloom became an overnight star. Spearheading a string of eighties fantasy flicks such as Clash of the Titans, Excalibur, Sword and the Sorceror, Conan the Barbarian, Krull, the aforementioned Legend, and Willow, it’s great to see this Hawk soar once more. Though there are plenty of suggestions of a sequel at the end, that never happened. However, some canny producer would be wise to stage a remake, and I would be first in line to see it, when cinemas eventually re-open.
Cast 9 Script 7 Direction 7 Effects 7 Score 8
Hands up all those who rightly got the most money…
Office politics can be horrendous, as any wage slave knows. That sense of paranoia and the need to fit in, or the inability to do so, can make a nine-to-five existence either a joy or a living nightmare. And workplace bullying can obviously push honest workers to resign or worse.
Nowhere is that better illustrated than in this Danish psychological thriller.
Toxic office shenanigans
Based on the best seller by Christian Jungersen, it stars Amanda Collin (of Ridley Scott’s bleak sci-fi saga Raised By Wolves); the ever reliable Sidse Babett Knudsen (The Duke of Burgundy), Lene Maria Christensen and Danica Curcic.
Given the fact the book sold more than 200,000 copies, there was obviously a hunger for the material. It centres on Iben, Malene, Anne-Lise and Camilla, women working together in a daily routine marked by power struggles, whispers and alliances.
While Iben works alone in her office, she is desperate to feel part of the team next door, and when they start playing a funny video on the PC, naturally she hopes to be part of the fun. But when she tries to show them a similar amusing clip, the mood changes.
It’s one of those beautifully executed moments which sums up that sense of alienation far better than the book could have done. Or maybe not as i’ve not read the tome.
When Iben and Malene each receive death threats, they start to suspect a Serbian war criminal, who they have been writing articles about. However, when a case of bullying in the office escalates, they slowly begin to wonder if the evil comes from themselves.
As much as I wanted to like this well crafted, beautifully acted drama which is bound to crop up on BBC Four at some point in the future, it was all a little too bleak for my tastes. I was reminded of the John le Carre-inspired movie A Most Wanted Man, which I went to see at the cinema a few years ago, in desperate need of escapism. Despite a terrific cast, great script and worthy subject matter, I emerged from the cinema far more depressed than when I went in.
Okay, not all movies should be little rays of sunshine on cloudy days, but this is one of those offerings where you’re probably better off avoiding if down in the dumps.
The first five minutes of this animated offering are among the most hauntingly beautiful of the year. A kid suspended in a tree from his parachute, and a shadowy giant who emerges from the mists of a random desert to inspect, and eat him. Our hero runs off with the apparent antagonist in slow pursuit. Not a word is spoken.
The music is simple and never gets in the way. It feels like part of a compelling video game like Limbo, so if you are a gamer, the desire to guide the young hero to safety is ever apparent. Usually by this point I’m so used to the best bit being in the first minutes that anything which comes after will be a let down.
Thankfully that promising start continues like an absorbing puzzle. Imagine a Hayao Miyazaki version of TV series Lost and you get the idea. And like one of Miyazaki’s best films, you will also be ‘spirited away’ as the lone explorer investigates his extraordinary environment.
A mix of what looks like CG landscapes and cel animation works rather well together, which is not always the case, as early forays into hand-drawn and computer-generated animation proved.
What unfolds turns into one of the most rewarding animated films of recent years. Like Pixar’s Soul, this works on a number of levels: it’s a surreal mystery which touches on loneliness; empathy; facing your fears and that age-old staple of an innocent protagonist on a journey of discovery. His friendship with a little yellow bird is hugely affecting, and the use of chapters to break up the story works rather well.
Latvian writer/director Gints Zilbalodis has so far made a series of short films, so it’s great to see him make the leap into features. He also wrote the excellent score and edited this labour of love.
For this reviewer, an amateur animator tinkering with his own short films, it’s hugely inspiring, and makes me wonder what I’ve been doing with my life. On the strength of ‘Away’, I’m guessing Gints already got many a major film studio, including Pixar, dropping him countless requests to work on their next project. They’d be fools not to.
Soul Featuring the voices of Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton Certificate PG Directed by Pete Docter By @RogerCrow
Remember when we all sat in the cinema, slack of jaw as Toy Story proved a full length computer-generated film was possible? Okay, maybe you were too young, in which case a shame, as it was as important as the debut of Disney’s Snow White in the 1930s. Twenty five years later and just the idea of sitting in a cinema is the real dream, so when Pixar released their latest movie on Disney+, there was a genuine sense of event. Given the fact CG cartoons are now the norm rather than the exception, that quality Pixar has nearly always managed to deliver, the sucker punch, is that rarest of gifts which no computer on Earth can replicate without an army of animators crafting every frame for maximum effect.
Director Pete Docter has long been one of the company’s brightest stars. The initial 10 minutes of Up is so heart-breakingly powerful, just the first few chords of that theme leave me speechless. Going into Soul, I knew it was going to be emotional, but it’s also one of the funniest films of 2020. And let’s face it, any laugh out loud comedy is all the more welcome at such a dark time.
Just what the Docter ordered.
Soul is not a kids’ film, though the stunning candy coloured animation will leave them hooked. It’s a family movie which tackles questions most of us ask and deal with on a daily basis: self doubt, depression, being trapped in the wrong job, letting go of our dream vocation, grief, and so much more.
It centres on Joe, a middle-school band teacher whose life hasn’t gone the way he expected. He’s passionate about jazz, to an obsessive degree. But then fate intervenes, and Joe travels to another realm to help someone find their passion.
It might sound a little humdrum, elements of La La Land and Docter’s Inside Out if you like, but that mix of a perfect vocal cast, terrific animation, splendid Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross score, and that all-important sucker punch make this one of the best films of the year. It’s hugely intelligent, daring, occasionally surreal, and for this Pixar fan, ramps up to one of those overwhelming third acts which makes me relieved I couldn’t see it at the cinema. And I don’t say that about many films which deserve to be seen on huge screens with an audience. Judging by some of the feedback on socials, it’s also a bit of a Marmite movie, so, like any film, there’s no guarantee you’ll be affected in the same way.
Have hankies on standby just in case. You might need them.
Starring Jeremy Piven, Olivia Mai-Barrett, Joely Richardson Directed by Mick Davis @RogerCrow
This time of year I subject myself to all manner of Christmas films, not all of them great. Yes, I could watch Elf, Love Actually and It’s a Wonderful Life yet again, but I’m fascinated by the production line Xmas movie, usually churned out in Canada with a bunch of no-name stars.
Hallmark have cornered the market with tales of rich thirtysomethings in immaculate knitwear falling in love, usually while working on a random project in a wealthy town. However, a Yorkshire film company are hoping to give them a run for their money with at least a couple of Christmas movies shot in Yorkshire for Amazon. The first is My Dad’s Christmas Date, which is essentially a love letter to York, with assorted drone shots of the city. However, those around Bubwith and Beverley Minster may also recognise a few familiar locations.
It centres on Jeremy Piven’s American single father who’s obviously missing his late wife. She has a habit of appearing in ghostly form, but lingering a little too long just to hammer the point home. Anyway, lawyer dad has a smart and sassy daughter, brilliantly played by rising star Olivia Mai-Barrett, who is the best aspect of the movie. Her Jules goes to a posh school, has an idyllic home, a BFF and wants to set her dad up with an ideal woman. So naturally she sets him up on assorted dating sites, and then drags him off to random meet-ups. He’s oblivious initially, but soon gets wise, along with more gorgeous drone shots of York.
Inbetween these moments of father-daughter bonding, or lack of it, are some truly am dram performances, and a cringeworthy ’York’ accent from one veteran actress who shall remain nameless. There’s a lot going for the movie. Some of the production values are good, and Piven and Mai Barrett are pretty solid, but it goes nowhere slowly, and surprises are few and far between.
It’s not as bad as Dolly Parton’s Netflix atrocity Christmas on the Square, or Mariah Carey’s product placement heavy visual car crash I sat through recently, but it’s still pretty poor. I hope next December’s Howden-shot Father Christmas is Back from the same team is more on the money.
Nostalgiahhh 