2016 is like so
last year already! But for my own benefit more than anything else,
here's all my mini-reviews I published on my Twitter account for films
released last year handily gathered together in one place. This is by no
means every film I saw, but just the titles which I felt
compelled to post a succinct '140 characters or less' verdict upon. For my latest Twitter reviews you can follow me here: @M_R_Movie
In Alphabetical Order:
10 Cloverfield Lane: A taut, tense puzzle,
which toys with whether it's a claustrophobic entrapment chiller or something
far more apocalyptic.
Knucklebones:
Solid splattery indie demonic monster romp, boasts spectacularly gory scenes
including a seriously eye-watering sexual demise!
The Other Side Of The Door: East meets West
in supernatural study of grief, which blends Pet Semetary & Don't Look Now
with J-Horror imagery.
They Look Like People: Slow burn
psychological chiller, which nicely teases expectations as it builds towards a
genuinely suspenseful climax.
All Hallows Eve 2: Marked increase in
production values & proliferation of stories. No real catalyst for, or
continuity between segments though.
Among The Living: Deformed, deranged,
disturbing. A bit episodic & makes little sense but as a twisted dark
fantasy it's nasty & nightmarish.
Anguish: Latest fright film to use mental
health issues as the catalyst for its horror. All very intense & ponderous
& really rather dull
Anomalisa: The spark of attraction &
connection flickering in the mundanity of existence. Beautifully animated,
emotionally complex, unique.
Arrival: Contact, communication &
collaboration. Profound, poignant, eerily topical, a sublime slice of spiritual
sci-fi for troubled times.
Baskin: A freefall into the abyss. An orgy
of startling nightmare imagery & surreal logic, it's blood-soaked, bizarre,
bonkers & brilliant.
Batman V Superman Dawn Of Justice: Fleeting great
moments but it's baggy, bloated, borderline incoherent & a bit like
watching at least two movies at once.
Bite: Agreeably grisly body horror
throwback, with the clear mission statement to drown its cast in slime &
gooey, gory, grossness. Tasty!
Blackburn: A bit Wrong Turn, a bit My Bloody
Valentine, a bit like a composite of various films. Utterly generic, if
watchable slasher trash.
Blair Witch: Lacks original's impact &
novelty, but nicely exploits primal fears with solid shocks despite annoying
over-use of jump scares.
Bloodsucking Bastards: Crimson coated
corporate comedic creature feature. Office Space with added bite, a decent if
disposable vampire romp.
Body: Clammy crisis of conscience chiller. A
murderous moral minefield which scores bonus points by having Larry Fessenden
in a pivotal role.
Captain America Civil War: Too little plot
for too many characters & yet still too long! Repetitive drama, artificial
conflict. Mid table Marvel.
Cell: After a strong airport based opening
this rapidly spirals out of control. A bad signal - a directionless,
disjointed, incoherent mess.
Cherry Tree: Occult imagery, twisted teen
romance, weird witchcraft & flesh-crawling centipedes. A mixed bag, muddled
but not without merit.
Creed: Doesn't duck many clichés, but
delivers emotional punches & dramatic blows to match the impressive
fluidity of the fight sequences.
Creepy: Kurosawa returns to suburban shocks
with a serial killer chiller favouring suspicion over suspense, with a dark,
disturbing reveal.
Criminal: What's really criminal is how this
ludicrous, overlong sci-fi tinged action nonsense wastes such a top cast. Dumb
& not much fun.
Curtain: Quirky, culty, crazy. An ambitious
oddity with the low budget invention & DIY charm of Henenlotter &
Coscarelli. A B-movie gem.
Dad's Army: Lacks the nostalgic charm &
gentle wit of the beloved TV show. Such a pity as the period detail &
inspired casting is faultless.
Deadpool: Profane, punky, violent Marvel
departure. Reynolds perfect hubristic, wisecracking fit. Solid foundations for
cool new franchise.
Doctor Strange: A deluge of flashy FX & mind-bending
cosmic twaddle. Feels like an 80's Charles Band movie with a budget, but not as
much fun.
Dog Eat Dog: Cage & Dafoe scenery-chew
in watchable Tarantino-lite crime caper, but by Schrader's standards this feels
terribly disposable.
Don't Kill It: Deadpan Dolph a delight in
gloriously gory tongue in cheek demonic possession romp. A hugely entertaining
B-movie blast.
Eddie The Eagle: Utterly formulaic &
manipulative, but you'd need a heart of stone not to be charmed by its
triumphant feel good factor.
Elvis & Nixon: Quirky, character driven
with few deft comedic touches & solid performances, but fairly
inconsequential. It's no Bubba Ho-Tep!
Emelie: Reasonable one-dimensional cuckoo in
the nest chiller. An unsettling & often uncomfortable watch, as Sarah
Bolger gives good psycho.
Everybody Wants Some: Mirrors shallowness of
its characters in a nostalgic celebration of hedonistic youth. My favourite
Linklater since Dazed & Confused.
Evolution: Sparse dialogue & lush
visuals it exudes a hypnotic dreamlike quality, but feels like a sterile, less
spiritual cover of Spring.
Eye In The Sky: The complexity &
culpability of modern warfare. A moral, ethical & political conundrum as
tense trigger fingers twitch.
Frankenstein: Rose transforms classic Gothic
text for modern age yet retains the dark tragedy of source material. An
impressive update.
Goddess Of Love: A most fatal attraction, a
dark & disturbing descent into delirium. Alluring Alexis Kendra's Venus is
far from (h)armless.
Gods Of Egypt: A deluge of dire digital FX,
dismal dialogue & mind-boggling, incoherent plot. Actually makes John
Carter look a classic!
Goosebumps: A fun but flimsy family friendly
monster mash which nails an 80s Monster Squad / Joe Dante vibe. Giant mantis is
the highlight.
Green Inferno: Americans abroad brutalised
yet again by Roth. Explicit, but too inane to have visceral impact of films
which inspired it.
Green Room: Nazi punks fucked up! Premise
bit of a stretch but as events go south the brutality rises with violence as
hardcore as the music
Hail Caesar!: Fragmented & frivolous,
more a Coen sketch show than a cohesive whole, a mirthful chuckle at expense of
Hollywood's Golden Age.
Hangman: Voyeuristic, intruder chiller which
stretches credibility to breaking point. Has fleeting shocking moments, but
recycles clichés.
Heist: Solid if generic mix of John Q &
Speed. Well paced with strong cast & decent character development. Better
than most STV thrillers.
He Never Died: Wonderfully quirky
quasi-vampire film delivers bone-crunching brutality & black humour. Henry
Rollins is a deadpan delight.
High-Rise: Idiosyncratic & insane, its
class politics play out in unsubtle metaphor but it generates a vivid sense of
debauchery & decay.
Holidays: Festivities themed fright anthology,
plays trump card early with truly nightmarish Easter story, then becomes
increasingly patchy.
Hunt For The Wilderpeople: Warm, witty
wilderness romp which tugs on heartstrings & tickles the funny bone. One of
year's best. "Majestical."
Hush: Superior, suspenseful spin on home
invasion sub-genre milks every drop of tension from a premise Hitchcock
would've been proud of.
I Am Not A Serial Killer: Clever, creative
subversion of serial killer story. Defies expectations & warps genre
conventions. Avoid spoilers!
Imperium: Conventional plot, curious
casting. Solid domestic terrorism infiltration drama sees Radcliffe further
shed his Potter persona.
Independence Day Resurgence: Lengthy
preamble before the spectacle. If ID4 was a guilty pleasure this is merely
guilty of being a predictable retread.
Insidious 3: A sorry sequel spun from
supporting characters. It's an over familiar retread adhering to the law of
diminishing returns.
Intruders: Superior subversive spin on home
invasion sub-genre. Nasty violence & inspired plot twists as it smartly
confounds expectations.
Jane Got A Gun: Despite its feminist slant
it's a fairly traditional revenge-driven Western. Moments of introspection
shattered by gunshots.
Jason Bourne: Basically an elongated 3-act
chase sequence with minimal plot & sparse dialogue. Kinetic but empty.
Greengrass's weakest entry.
Jeruzalem: A solid Cloverfield inspired
street-level end of days fable scuppered by its irksome Google glasses found
footage mechanism.
Joy: Capitalism fairytale, which shifts tone
from forced quirkiness to increasingly dull drama. Lawrence needs more than a
mop for this mess.
Kill Command: Militarised man vs machine
sci-fi has hugely impressive spfx, but its plot & characterisation were
clearly lost in combat.
Knucklebones:
Solid splattery indie demonic monster romp, boasts spectacularly gory scenes
including a seriously eye-watering sexual demise!
Last Girl
Standing: Less post-modern, more post-mortem slasher. Novel genre inversion
with savage, psychotic, seriously brutal final act.
London Has Fallen: About as subtle as a
rampant hippo on meth, but if it's spectacular meat-headed violence you're
after, this delivers.
Lost After Dark: Faithful pastiche of 80's
slashers. Robert Patrick ruins the illusion but it really nails the retro vibe,
style & splatter.
Love & Mercy: Portrait of tortured
musical genius teetering between inspiration & insanity. Unorthodox dual
time line shows scars & healing.
Mark Of The Witch: Stylishly shot occult
indie. Compensates for sparse plot with woozy hypnotic Suspiria vibe. Its 3.2
imdb rating is a joke.
Martyrs: Serviceable standalone shocker but
compared to visceral transgressive masterpiece original it's a diluted,
pointless cover version.
Midnight Special: Mysterious, magical,
nostalgic throwback to a golden age of cerebral sci-fi. Otherworldly but
ultimately full of humanity.
Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children:
A bit unruly & rough around edges, but as a compendium of Burton's
obsessions there's ample imagination & visual wonder.
Nerve: Ridiculous if mindlessly engaging
zeitgeist cyber-thriller / social network nightmare. Highlight is the sci-fi
sheen of neon-lit NYC.
Never Let Go: Kicks off at break-neck pace,
with premium action, but loses momentum, bogged down in political conspiracy
halfway through.
Nina Forever: Ghosts of girlfriends past,
macabre, morbidly humourous, (nec)romantic, a bizarre love triangle with a
deliciously dark twist.
Our Brand Is Crisis: Bullock best thing
about a seen it all before political satire, which takes a very slight approach
to a serious subject.
Pet: On the surface a tale of psychotic
obsession reveals deeper, darker layers of manipulation & mind games
anchored by two excellent leads.
Plan 9: Can't decide if it's post-modern
spoof or straight-up zombie indie. Lacks naive charm & innocent ineptitude
of original. Garbage.
Pride Prejudice & Zombies: Odd mix of
corsets & corpses is a novel genre hybrid. Handsomely shot & benefiting
from gutsy female characters.
Purge Election Year: Not as satirical or
scathing as could be, but the way this series has evolved beyond its initial
concept is impressive.
Road Games: A bumpy ride - minimal mystery
& lacking suspense, it's a bland, largely bloodless bilingual thriller with
an obvious twist.
Rogue One: Slack pacing in first hour, bland
characters, reworked set pieces. Partially redeems itself via strong final act
& powerful climax.
Room: From a place of confinement &
cruelty this soars with emotional impact. Tied my stomach in knots & pulled
my heartstrings to bits.
Scouts Guide To Zombie Apocalypse: Immature,
idiotic, crude, lewd & laddish. A geeks vs ghouls guilty pleasure. I
surprisingly kinda dug it.
Sinister 2: Utterly run of the mill sequel.
Ups the nastiness factor at the expense of the genuine creepiness & impact
of the original film.
Some Kind Of Hate: Contemporary slasher is a
revenge fantasy for the disturbed & downtrodden. Slick & splattery with
dubious self-harm angle.
Son Of Saul: Dignity amidst unrelenting
cruelty. It's sickening sounds & harrowing horrors on periphery which
haunt. Gruelling but essential.
Southbound: Satanism, slaughter & dread
in the desert. Cyclical in structure & slightly unresolved, but a superior
modern horror anthology.
Spotlight: A fine ensemble bring their
A-game to sharply penned forensic investigation of systemic scandal. Powerful,
gripping, essential.
Star Trek Beyond: Finally this summer, a
genuinely thrilling & fun blockbuster. Action, spectacle, humour, emotion
& a fab score. Loved it.
Suicide Squad: Could've been darker &
more disturbed, but is way better than reviews suggest - a blast of sociopathic
superhero fetish fun.
Sully: Eastwood's customary economic style
& Hanks' subtle performance bring the personal drama to forefront of a
gripping reconstruction.
Summer Camp: Essentially it's Cabin Fever
meets REC, mining a rich seam of black humour. The 'rage' action is relentless,
but repetitive.
Supersonic:
A candid cut & paste history of a meteoric rags to riches rock & roll
odyssey. Bittersweet & beautifully evocative of its era.
Swiss Army Man: One of strangest films I’ve
ever seen, but for all its overt oddness there's real charm here. A celebration
of life via the lifeless.
Tale Of Tales: Visually lavish, beautifully
bizarre. Mix of eye candy & mind-bend, a deliciously deranged, twisted
freaky fairytale fantasy.
Tank 432: 90 minutes of utter tedium
punctuated by quarrelling, sporadic gore & trippy interludes. The final
revelation will surprise nobody.
The Accountant: Intriguing mix of
genres-Bourne meets Rainman; a tad convoluted & often feels like an
incomplete jigsaw, but has its merits.
The Assassin: Sedately paced, dramatically
remote yet visually arresting - stunning use of colour, costume & location.
Beautiful but bland.
The Big Short: The economy crashes as the
fourth wall smashes making accessible a subject that'll leave your head
spinning & blood boiling.
The Boy: Doesn't
do much new with the concept, but has a few creepy moments & captures that
fusty, archaic old Amicus / The Innocents vibe.
The Darkness:
Generic sub-Poltergeist suburban haunting clone. Decent performances but
largely devoid of scares it's anodyne & forgettable.
The Evil In Us: A
narcotic nasty. An anti-drugs cautionary tale in the guise of a gruesome
splatter movie. Puts the psycho in psychotropic.
The Forest: Does bare minimum with creepy
concept & location full of potential. Aims for J horror, but is strictly J
for Just very ordinary.
The Funhouse Massacre: Gory, gaudy Halloween
set horror - a colourful carnival of blood which plays out like a stalk &
slash Suicide Squad.
The Ghoul: Meeten's twitchy central
performance aside, this is a soporific descent into insanity & angst. An
ordinary tale of madness.
The Girl With All The Gifts: The evolution
of the zombie film, heart & soul amongst blood & guts. A smart,
cerebral, stunning gift to genre fans.
The Good Neighbour: Build-up superior to the
reveal, but this maintains tense intrigue as it morphs from voyeurism suspense
to tragic drama.
The Greasy Strangler: Nudity & crudity,
profanity & insanity. Gleefully grotesque, a delirious deep-fried blast of
cartoon bullshit artistry.
The Hateful Eight: Reservoir Dogs reworked as a
sprawling, stunningly shot nihilistic Western. An unruly mix of brilliance, barbarity
& bloat.
The Jungle Book: Pinpoints middle ground
between venerable Disney & Kipling adventure. Visually lush, rich
characters, breathtaking FX work.
The Last Witch Hunter: Dull, tepid &
largely incoherent twaddle with Vin Diesel approaching Tor Johnson levels of
unintelligible gibberish.
The Mind's Eye: Worshipping at the
Cronenberg altar, this is superior to any official Scanners sequel, putting the
psycho into psychokinesis.
The Neighbour: A gritty, taut, mean-spirited
thriller with a razor-toothed vicious streak. Preferred this to similarly
themed Don't Breathe.
The Neon Demon: Hypnotic eye candy as empty
as a model's stomach. Compelling & cruel, art & antagonism. Divisive,
provocative, deranged. Loved it.
The Other Side Of The Door: East meets West
in supernatural study of grief, which blends Pet Semetary & Don't Look Now
with J-Horror imagery.
The Revenant: Stunningly shot saga of
survival & revenge. Rarely has cruelty of nature & savagery of man
looked so striking & felt so harsh.
The Trust: Loose cannon Cage & fretful
Wood an engaging pairing in heist film laced with black humour, growing more
tense & fractious. Decent.
The Vatican Tapes: Standard exorcism fare
enlivened by its director's trademark breakneck action licks & a particularly
bonkers conclusion.
The Void: A full-throttle throwback to 80's
style practical creature FX & intense horror. Its influences are legion,
its imagery stunning.
They Call Me Jeeg Robot: Unbreakable with
Toxic Avenger vibe. Superheroes grounded in reality with emotional punch to
match the brutality & black humour.
They Look Like People: Slow burn
psychological chiller, which nicely teases expectations as it builds towards a
genuinely suspenseful climax.
Trash Fire: Dysfunctional relationships,
religious fundamentalism, mental decay. Seriously scabrous, deliciously dark,
caustically comedic.
Victor Frankenstein: Looks amazing - top
production & set design. Explores intriguing themes, but rather ponderous
& devoid of dramatic heft.
Victoria: In technical terms a one take
wonder. Slow to start, but once it shifts gear in 2nd hour it becomes a far
more thrilling prospect.
Wind Walkers: A bit Jacobs Ladder, a bit
Wolfen, a bit The Thing. Has its moody moments, but utterly all over the place
in tone & narrative.
Worry Dolls: Solid, splattery voodoo
possession serial killer yarn, boasts a drill through the head scene which
outdoes Fulci for gory excess!
X-Men Apocalypse: A genuinely imposing
villain & some revelatory character back stories help disguise an escalating
sense of series deja vu.
