Okay - so whats the deal? Well the plan is to do some pretty succint reviews of the films I see each month in one post, and then start another similar thread at the start of the next month. Films can be both contemporary, recent and old.

The Witch Finder General: the classic English horror movie by short lived cult director Michael Reeves, casts aside the darkened fairy tale style of the other Hammer productions to for a gruesome historical drama of the witch trials amidst the English Civil war. Doesn't mean its any bloody good though does it? What a disappointment this was, the internet had left me reeling in anticapation of seeing this for some time, with Total Film rating it in its top 50 horrors, and number 28 in the best of British Cinema. It rambles along with ramshackle production values. Manys the tavern scene and busty wench covered in ale. What your left with is a basic romance/revenge plot instead of the psychological creeps in your spine. A cousing of the Wickerman this is not, the let down...

Family Guy: who can fault it? The film tears along with three episode plots sellotaped together with the joints as visible as a flashers knob. Stewie takes centre stage as the most diabolic cartoon character ever, rejecting the pathetic Peter this flick sees him in pursuit of his real dad. The films becomes a quick excuse for the sort of one liner, and surrealist drop in scenes that define the show. The wittiest of which being the absurdist drunken adventures of an infant and a dog. Fantastic stuff, but hardly as good as any decent episode, a lazy effort made to go straight to DVD.

Nightmare On Elm Street 5 - The Dream Master: as the original Freddie franchise draws to a close ya get to jump back to see the birth of the nightmare as the bastard son of a hundred maniacs sets out to reign havoc on a new generation on Elm Street. Entirely predicatable stuff, but worth a watch to realise that all that was needed to sort Freddie out was his mammy. Then there is the sub Ultramagnetic MC's rap videos he stars in as promotions for the films.

Saw: one of the silver screens most grotesque and interesting killers, Jigsaw operates in this graphic novel tinged meshing of horror and thriller. With so much to offer, its sad to see this burn itself out as a lazy vehicle for a commerical cash in on the success of Se7en, with Danny Glover adopting the role of Morgan Freeman as the obsessed investigating cop. Some wonderfully rendered tension oozes from this one, but it all goes pants in the end as it over extends itself with twists.

Almost Famous: a Dazed and Confused-esque furoe into the the deminishing optimistic heart of rock and roll. Speeding along as a part autobiographical coming of age tale of the director Cameron Crow and part an evocative portrayal of the demise of rock after Lester Bangs described how "they" won the battle in the sixties, the film pursues a teenager on the road with a second rate Led Zepplin as he struggles to write his first cover story for Rolling Stone battling the dilemnas of family, love and the critics role.

Equilibrium: is a dystopian sci-fi that combines elements of 1984, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 in creation of the authoritarian Liberia which premises the continued survival of the species on the suppresson of human emotion and feeling through Provium a valium-esque suppresive. Taking stylistic notes from the Matrix, Christian Bale is a Tetragrammaton Cleric chaged with suppressing sense offenders who dare express human emotion, when he comes into contact with the resistance the heart of Liberia becomes threatened.

Labels: Film