2013 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 I saw 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 the full list of films I saw and logged in 2013 click this link for my Letterboxd Film Diary 2013. For my latest Twitter reviews you can follow me here: @M_R_Movie.
In Alphabetical Order:
2 Guns: Slick & snappy with whip
sharp wisecracking chemistry between its leads & a deceptively complex
plot. Feels like a Tony Scott joint.
13 Eerie: Unusual location aside it's
pretty run of the mill splattery zombie fare. Seen a lot worse but nothing to
distinguish it. Average.
100 Bloody Acres: Gore & guffaws in
Ozploitation splatstick with inspired & unexpected character dynamics &
gleeful gallows humour.
A Field In England: Kaleidoscopic cocktail of Ken
Russell-like surrealism. A metaphysical monochrome mindfuck, defies convention
or category.
After Earth: Ill-conceived & idiotic vanity
project by the Smith dynasty. A dreary, nonsensical sci-fi slog devoid of logic
or impact.
Aftershock: Lewd, crude, tasteless, relentlessly
piles on the misery. It's The Impossible with added rape. Lowbrow, grim &
trashy.
A Good Day To Die Hard: Not great, but not a complete
disaster either, even if it's main fault is it's resolutely NOT a Die Hard
film.
Ain't Them Bodies Saints: Feels like a film from
another era, but its themes & emotions are timeless. A poignant rustic tale
of sacrifice.
Alan Partridge-Alpha Papa: Faithfully maintains
parochial naffness & excruciating awkwardness of the TV show. Hilarious.
Radio Gravy.
Amer: Arcane, seductive, achingly artistic ode to
eurosleaze surrealism & style. A feast for the senses, a famine for
coherent narrative.
Antiviral: Conceptually rich, astute & grotesque.
Totally nails the ideas-driven, metaphorical bio-shock of Cronenberg Snr's
early work.
Apartment 143: Perfectly functional faux documentary
that'd be lot more effective if we hadn't seen it all before in Paranormal
Activity etc.
Bad Grandpa: Uneven clash of styles. Dramatic
interplay between Knoxville & kid works better than the trailer spolied
gags. Very hit & miss.
Bad Milo: Toilet humour meets body horror as
corporate stress & anxiety manifests itself in demonic form. Crudely
comical B-movie fatuity.
Banshee Chapter: From Beyond meets Fear &
Loathing. Crazed compendium of conspiracy claptrap & Mkultra mad science. A
fun narcotic nightmare.
Beautiful Creatures: A generic blend of romance &
angst with oddly puritanical streak. Tends to get rather bogged down in its own
mysticism.
Before Dawn: Interesting & intimate British
zombie horror. An atmospheric slow-burning approach building increasingly bleak
& brutal.
Beneath: Aquatic horror with hidden depths. It's a
monster movie as metaphor for protagonists' downward spiral into moral decay
& murder.
Big Ass Spider: Tongue in cheek creature feature that
delivers on its absurd premise & is a film my inner 9 year old prefers to
Pacific Rim!
Bounty Killer: Deliriously entertaining ode to
VHS-era exploitation, Mad Max rip-offs, spaghetti westerns & Russ Meyer.
B-movie nirvana!
Bullet To The Head: Clumsy, clichéd incredibly
generic throwback action fodder that has all the hackneyed traits of a direct
to DVD release.
Byzantium: Mature & melancholic, a haunting
revisionist take on vampire lore & a poignant study of maternal blood ties
& self-sacrifice.
Captain Phillips: From exhilarating boarding to
white-knuckle hostage siege Greengrass milks every drop of nerve-shredding
tension. Superb.
Carrie: Plenty of blood but very little soul. As an
original film it would be bland & perfunctory, as a remake of a classic
it's worthless.
CBGB: Flimsy, fanciful, factually inaccurate. Takes a
literal comic book approach, lacks veracity but vitality of the music shines
through.
Cloud Atlas: A sprawling cinematic conundrum, epic in
scope, endless visionary ambition, a multiplicity of ideas unified by theme of
freedom.
Come Out And Play: Almost identikit remake of Who Can
Kill A Child. Effective if you’ve not seen original, pointless & derivative
if you have.
Community: Reactionary urban slum set horror lazily
exploits Daily Mail derived phobias of feral youths, drugs & an evil
underclass. Grim.
Contracted: Grisly cautionary tale plays out as body
horror with a knowing black-toothed grin, escalates towards a gross &
inspired payoff.
Crawlspace: A so-so subterranean shocker with
over-familiar B movie plot used in endless other STV cheapies (Shadowzone,
Mindripper etc).
Curse Of Chucky: Savvy & sprightly series reboot,
goes back to basics whilst cleverly ingraining itself in previously explored
mythology.
Dark Skies: Somewhat predictable Paranormal Activity
meets Communion crossbreed, but manages to maintain an effective sense of
creepy unease.
Dark Touch: Celtic twist on Carrie, concerned with
the ongoing trauma of child abuse & the scars inflicted. Oppressive &
terribly earnest.
Dark Tourist: Intense, gritty road trip into a
psychotic abyss. Somber, brooding & austere with extremely fine
performances through.
Django Unchained: The best & worst of Tarantino -
superb performances, dazzling setpieces & sizzling dialogue yet overlong
& self-indulgent.
Drinking Buddies: The complex rules of attraction
& dynamics of relationships. A leisurely, organic, but incredibly slight
slice of life.
Elysium: Bold & ambitious in scope & design.
It’s a captivating class-war with cyberpunk trimmings, which doesn't quite
fulfill its potential.
Escape From Tomorrow: Its desire to be incongruous is
a bit forced, but cultivates a sinister sense of decay beneath outwardly shiny
facade.
Escape Plan: Solidly entertaining &
well-structured thriller, with surprising amount of character & chemistry
amidst its retro action beats.
Europa Report: Technically impressive low budget
space oddity, but yields few surprises & definitely suffers from being seen
after Gravity.
Evil Dead: Different tonally & stylistically to
original, but refreshingly hardcore & unsanitised. Ferocious, full on, but
crucially no fun.
Filth: A full-on affront to decency & good taste
through a hyper reality descent into depravity & delirium. A career-best
McAvoy is immense.
Flight: Terrifically tense crash sequence & raw
powerhouse performance from Washington get lost in a meandering moral &
emotional conflict.
Frankenstein's Army: Threadbare, episodic plot
enriched by succession of brilliantly grotesque steampunk creature designs. Fun
if throwaway.
Fright Night 2: Strictly 2nd division bloodsucker
bilge, but has great cell animation sequence midway through. Pity whole film
wasn't so.
Gallowwalkers: Makes not an iota of sense, but has
skewed style to burn. A bloodthirsty & brilliantly bonkers ode to Leone
& Jodorowsky.
Gambit: More farcical than farce. A charmless,
witless, messy misfire of grating accents, risible racial stereotypes &
outdated slapstick.
Gangster Squad: Big on brutality, slight on
substance. Almost comic book in approach. Stylish & superficial, enjoyable
despite shallowness.
Getaway: A dumb, directionless, dismal misfire in the
form of one elongated car chase sequence which revs up tedium instead of
tension.
G.I.Joe-Retaliation: A series of setpieces of varying
spectacle loosely linked by a frequently absurd plot that teeters towards
incoherence.
Going To Pieces: Nothing profound or academic, but
comprehensive slasher doc covering classics & minor titles with abundance
of great clips.
Good Vibrations: Evocative, uplifting, buzzing with
maverick energy. Music as a unifying force against a backdrop of chaos &
conflict. Magical.
Gravity: Visually astonishing. Emotionally sapping.
Technically revolutionary. Cinema as a pure immersive experience. Believe the
hype!
Hammer Of The Gods: Makes most of its modest budget
but it's a plodding, ponderous journey into the Heart Of Darkness. Valhalla
Snoozing.
Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters: Brash, boisterous,
camp, ill-disciplined & wildly misjudged, yet a thoroughly undemanding
brainless blast.
Hatchet 3: Absurd levels of gore & viscera as
this plays it largely for laughs. This series has descended into self-parody in
record time.
Haunter: Absorbing twist on ghost story which comes
at its subject from an unusual angle. Too many ideas to sustain tension but a
worthy try.
Here Comes The Devil: A simmering intensity &
unsettling undercurrent of chilling unease. Eerie & unusual with a powerful
dramatic core.
Hitchcock: Lightweight & unfocused, neither a
biopic, filmmaking insight or psychological study it borders on dreary soap
opera.
House At The End Of Street: As formulaic, predictable
& underwhelming as feared. By the numbers teen drama with diluted horror
undertones.
Hummingbird: Statham flexes acting chops in a film of
emotional & physical bruises. An urban redemption tale played out in
Western clichés.
Hypothermia: A total throwback to 80’s style VHS-era
men in rubber suit monster movies. Dumb, gory but nostalgic fun.
Insidious Chapter 2: Bland & by the numbers,
bereft of scares & surprises, indistinguishable from any other mainstream
horror for the masses.
In Their Skin: Strong opening, creepy build-up
descends into formulaic home invasion horror cliché. Well played, some menace
but unremarkable.
Iron Man 3: A Shane Black film 1st. Marvel film 2nd.
Smart, slick, sarcastic. Best of series & underlines how plodding Favreau's
films were.
It's In The Blood: Superior indie with real artistic
prowess, gradually unravels layers of psychological torment used as
metaphorical horror.
Jack Reacher: Modestly complex & engaging
thriller hampered by fact Cruise is totally miscast. Herzog’s oddball villain
dominates proceedings.
Jack The Giant Slayer: Devoid of camp lunacy of
H&G Witch Hunters this feels languid, laborious & crucially lacking in
fantasy or adventure.
Jug Face: Bizarro backwoods grotesquery with askew
air of rustic ritualistic oddness. Crazier than a moonshine-addled possum...in
a good way.
Kick Ass 2: Lacks vitality & freshness of
original. Rather uneven in tone & more mean-spirited, but there's still
some solid material here.
Killing Season: Ham-fisted polemic on the horrors
& futility of war, in guise of repetitive survivalist yarn with sadism
& silly accents.
Killing Them Softly: Bleak & brooding 70s
inspired crime movie, which uses recession as a backdrop to decay &
downward spiral in the mob.
Kiss Of The Damned: Radiates with sensual opulence of
classic Gothic euro-horror. Sleazy, stylish, dripping with decadence & a
great score.
Lincoln: Worthy, wordy & earnest. Stylistically
subdued. Great performances but reliance on drawn out dialogue renders pacing
arthritic.
Lovelace: Seyfried & Sarsgaard excel in a
strangely skewed & somewhat passive biopic which struggles to find a tonal
or moral standpoint.
Machete Kills: A lazy, disorderly, disappointing
sequel - little more than a rambling series of cameos, CGI splatter &
repetitive setpieces.
Mama: Serviceable shocker if hardly groundbreaking.
The dark fairytale elements work best. Chastain adds touch of quality to
proceedings.
Man Of Steel: An unruly cacophony of styles &
themes. Moments of reflection & brilliance lost in an orgy of excess &
destruction.
McCullin: Eloquent, enlightening, harrowing. A
'conscience with a camera', a life in pictures exposing raw truth of war,
famine & poverty.
Mimesis Night Of Living Dead: Great concept, largely
under-explored & sadly mishandled in clumsy attempt at cine-literate
post-modern horror.
Mud: Superb Southern rites of passage fable, rich in
character & detail. Beautifully portrays fragility & complexity of
trust & companionship.
No One Lives: Plays in clichés, but subverts them
brilliantly. A full-throttle gory exploitation film of rare invention &
savage wit. Superb.
Nothing Left To Fear: Slowburn smalltown paranoia
incrementally edges towards full-on ritualistic demonic horror. Watchable nonsense.
Now You See Me: Energetic & entertaining heist
movie with a few tricks up its sleeve. However like its subject it's all show
& no substance.
Oblivion: Compelling ideas-driven SF, diluted
slightly by blockbuster action trappings. Flawed, but looks amazing & has
good stuff in there.
Odd Thomas: Vivid, imaginative, quirky &
creative. Director Sommers still has tendency to throw too much into mix, but
it's huge fun.
Olympus Has Fallen: Idiotic, jingoistic, relentlessly
violent, yet unashamedly entertaining. A maelstrom of machismo &
head-stabbings.
Only God Forgives: Cooler than an ice sculpture of
James Dean. An abstract neon cocktail of simmering sleaze & unflinching
brutality.
Outcast: Wonderfully idiosyncratic Celtic creature
feature. A culture clash of gritty urban realism & black magic ritualistic
weirdness.
Oz The Great & Powerful: Raimi excels with darker
elements, but it's a sprawling sugar rush, lavish visuals masking the lack of
substance.
Pacific Rim: Nonsensical science, risible cliché-driven
dialogue, disorientating action. Partially redeemed by sheer scale, scope &
spectacle.
Pain & Gain: Bay's vulgar excesses on steroids.
Loud, prejudical, over-stylised & devoid of subtlety. Monumentally crass,
hateful horseshit.
Parkland: Overwrought drama that captures solemnity
of events on various directly involved & peripheral figures. Forgoes
momentum for grief.
Paranormal Diaries Clophill: Concept of mixing fact
& faux documentary footage is intriguing but the execution lacks focus or
credibility.
Parker: Statham's charisma & surprisingly
star-studded support elevate this above what is a fairly conventional if
over-convoluted thriller.
Passion: Subdued stereotypical sleaze-lite.
Incredibly televisual & takes an age for De Palma's customary artistic
flair to kick in. Average.
Pawn: Structurally complex, dramatically intense low
budget heist/siege film with surprisingly starry, eclectic cast. Nothing new,
but not bad.
Pawn Shop Chronicles: Pulp Fiction meets My Name Is
Earl by way of Creepshow! A series of lurid vignettes in a crazed,
uncategorizable film.
Phantom: A mournful, terrific Ed Harris dominates
this laudable, tense Cold War drama, which succeeds despite raw speculation of
its story.
Premium Rush: Kinetic, two wheeled twist on action
formula. Routine plot, but fine stuntwork & scene-stealing Shannon elevate
proceedings.
Prince Avalanche: Quirky & whimsical with nicely
observed bickering chemistry between leads, but it's very flimsy & doesn't
amount to much.
Prisoners: A powerful parable in the guise of police
procedural. A bleak study of guilt & vengeance, brooding & intense
despite its length.
Red 2: Globe-trotting geriatric dynamics lack focus
or originality & there's an almost Woo-like gun fetishism in star-studded
so-so sequel.
Red Dawn: Bland, brainless & banal reboot,
attempts to mask over its inherent stupidity & soulless void of a script
with relentless action.
Red Lights: Rather too pedestrian & ponderous for
its own good, but mashes genres well, great cast & builds impressively
toward its climax.
Resolution: Low on budget, but full of creativity. A
slow-burning surreal puzzle that eschews conventional structure & warps
expectations.
Robot & Frank: Charming & engaging sci-fi
drama mixing gentle comedic moments with genuine pathos & touching
sentiment. Langella is superb.
Riddick: Strangely low-key series reboot which is
keen to emphasise anti-hero elements in a slow-paced, ill-judged, non-event of
a movie.
R.I.P.D: Bridges' gruff charm elevates an otherwise
derivative & uneven film, which though flawed is undeserving of box-office
bomb status.
Runner Runner: Slick, superficial, entirely
predictable. The twists are telegraphed, the plot bereft of intrigue. Affleck
is on autopilot.
Rush: Its central rivalry veers towards caricature,
but evocative detail captures peril & madness of period & race
sequences are exhilarating.
Sawney-Flesh Of Man: Scottish splatterfest - lurid,
pulpy, gleefully grisly, it's Wrong Turn played out beneath granite skies.
Morbid fun.
Seven Psychopaths: Strives for Charlie Kaufman style
smarts with partial success, retains acerbic wit & quirky characterisation
of In Bruges.
Sharknado: Embarrassingly inept on every conceivable
artistic & technical level. Many "so bad they're good" cult films
exist, this isn't one!
Side By Side: Vital & infomative. Works as
technical deconstruction & ode to cinematic evolution. Balanced, unbiased,
essential for film fans.
Side Effects: Excellent malingering mystery,
consistently confounding expectations & disguising plot directions. One of
the year's best.
Sightseers: Twisted, tainted, surreal. Hilariously
eccentric & oddball British subversion of U.S. road movies. Badlands in a
caravan. Superb.
Silent Hill Revelation: A distillation of why video
game adaptations don't work - incoherent & uninvolving. Soulless,
senseless, scareless.
Silver Linings Playbook: Real chemistry between leads
but quirky to point of irritation. Fails to resonate on a romantic or dramatic
level.
Skinwalker Ranch: A barmy blend of found footage
folly & X-Files alike crackpot conspiracy theories. Utter hokum, but
entertainingly so.
Sleep Tight: Beautifully crafted & understated
study of psychosis, obsession & infatuation. A superior suspenseful
psychological shocker.
Snitch: Has plenty of dramatic meat amongst its
muscular action, which leads to an often conflicting tonal compromise. Laudable
but flawed.
Sound City: Fascinating & engaging, works as both
a nostalgic rock history piece & study of demise of analogue studios as
digital eclipses.
Sound Of My Voice: A total gem, stylistically
minimalist, but enthralling, intriguing, utterly immersive & beautifully
understated.
Spike Island: The Stone Roses career-defining gig
proves an incidental backdrop to themes of friendship, family & euphoria
& energy of youth.
Spring Breakers: A dayglo descent into hedonistic
self-destruction & excess. A gaudy, nihilistic headrush. Superficial,
shallow, stylish.
Springsteen & I: A candid, passionate love letter
from a devout congregation. For tramps like us it’s a communal celebration of
hero worship.
Star Trek Into Darkness: Everything you could ask
for-action - spectacle, humour, emotion. Respectful without being
over-reverential. Superb.
Static: A real under the radar gem. Exploits genre
tropes with a subtle sleight of hand to deliver a surprising & emotionally
impactful coda.
Stitches: Blackly comedic throwback splatterfest with
graphic, wildly inventive gore, but none of delicious darkness of similar
Psychoville.
Stoker: Delicious dark tale of family ties &
infatuation, awash with cryptic, seductive symbolism. Furtive, sensual,
sublimely shot & edited.
Stone Roses Made Of Stone: Subjective & smoothes
over rough edges, but Meadows' fanboy affection is infectious & live
footage is exhilarating.
Stranded: Shoddy sci-fi schlock which seems to derive
inspiration from the likes of Inseminoid & Galaxy Of Terror rather than
Alien(s).
Texas Chainsaw 3D:Void of inspiration & shocks,
ridiculous backstory adds to the woes & Leatherface is diluted to point of
being called Jed!
Tower Block: Generates decent tension & some
shock value despite blatant plot holes, unlikely character arcs &
credibility stretching story.
Thale: Compelling Nordic dark fairytale, subdued but
with a sense of oppression & dread, balanced by an ethereal arthouse
sensibility.
The Act Of Killing: As a concept - sort of entrapment
& confessional via cinema it's astonishing. As a study of man's cruelty
it's haunting.
The Battery: Essentially a two-hander travelogue,
works wonders with zero budget but arrives at THE most drawn-out,
patience-testing climax.
The Baytown Outlaws: Insignificant but intermittently
entertaining southern fried action / crime comedy with decent characterisation.
The Bling Ring: Superficial satire employing vapid
teen culture to condemn shallowness of celebrity. Makes Spring Breakers look
profound.
The Call: Solid if formulaic sweaty-palmed suspense
thriller, which strikes a balance midway between police procedural & psycho
horror.
The Collection: Solid stylish splattery sequel. Nasty
& nihilistic this ramps up the action & body count, but keeps pacing
& duration brisk.
The Colony: Derivative it may be, but fully exploits
potential of its bleak premise via well-crafted thrills & chills. A
superior B movie.
The Conjuring: Refreshingly retro, succeeding via
malevolent mood & expert manipulation of primal fears of things that go
bump in night.
The Conspiracy: Odd quasi-documentary, tries to cultivate
sense of insidious paranoia & menace, but lacks momentum or any real
surprises.
The Corridor: Slow-burning existential shocker that
succeeds as strong character piece & disturbing study of escalating
paranoia & dementia.
The Dyatlov Pass Incident: Builds escalating sense of
unease, leading to an admittedly barking mad conclusion, but the journey there
grips.
The East: Shares common ground with Sound Of My Voice
but expands themes & ideological conscience. Full of ideas, many too
underdeveloped.
The Family: Not particularly funny as a comedy &
too lightweight as a drama, it's incredibly inconsequential given the talent
involved.
The Frozen Ground: Clinical cat & mouse serial
killer thriller. Solid if disposable. Cage better than of late, Hudgens the
standout here.
The Great Gatsby: Luhrmann's more concerned with
surface gloss than core themes of greed & corruption, but visually it's
vibrant & audacious.
The Hangover Pt.3: Deviates from tired formula, now
plays as more crime caper than comedy, but it's too little too late for this
ugly series.
The Helpers: Unremarkable mix of Vacancy & Saw
with unlikely revenge motivation. Characters so dumb death by torture is too
good for them.
The Iceman: As cold & impassive as its titular
hitman. Shannon nails the stark duality of his ruthless killer, but film lacks
dramatic heft.
The Impossible: Takes a vast natural disaster &
presents it as an intimate, emotionally traumatic family drama. Terrific
performances by all.
The Kings Of Summer: Charming, whimsical, laugh out
loud funny. A rare subtle teen movie that captures the awkwardness &
complexity of youth.
The Last Days: Lyrical & emotionally-wrought
apocalyptic drama, which for all its sincerity & striking imagery is rather
sluggish & drab.
The Last Days On Mars: Mature & magnificently
bleak, this really utilises grim isolation of its location. One of year's best
genre indies.
The Last Exorcism Pt.2: A chilling opening sequence
rapidly descends into a predictable, plodding litany of stock horror clichés.
Poor.
The Last Stand: Riddled with plotholes & idiotic
narrative, but has a strong ensemble supporting Arnie & delivers on the
action big time.
The Last Will & Testament Of Rosalind Leigh: Has
a fusty, archaic feel of a film from another era. Impressively builds from
sleepy to creepy.
The Lone Ranger: An overlong, ill-disciplined, often
spectacular, frequently deranged $200m folly with a charisma free lead &
crackpot Depp.
The Look Of Love: A flawed but fascinating film of
hedonistic highs & emotional lows. Fabulous attention to period detail
& strong ensemble.
The Lords of Salem: Surreal Satanic stew, utterly all
over place - banal, batty, beguiling & brilliant in parts. An unhinged
ambitious oddity.
The Master: Enigmatic, hypnotic & remarkable
performances, yet somehow aloof & meandering. The final act just fizzles
out without impact.
The Numbers Station: Mundane & archaic in concept
& approach, limited location & cast gives it a stage play sensibility.
Cusack on autopilot.
The Pack: Gloriously grotesque Gallic gorefest. A
macabre marriage of potently poetic horror imagery & grimly fiendish
gallows humour.
The Paperboy: Idiosyncratic & incredibly uneven,
a star-studded sleazefest masquerading as art. A garish, lurid but never dull
trash curio.
The Place Beyond The Pines: Ambitious in scope &
beautifully played, a mature study of fathers & sons & generational
fate & destiny.
The Possession: Formulaic & unremarkable, notable
mainly for the USP of its Jewish exorcism. A chilling MRI sequence is the highlight.
The Purge: Intriguing premise that largely forgoes
social comment in favour of violent action. Works better as concept than the
construct.
The Rise: Decent gritty urban Brit crime thriller,
which unfurls via flashback to reveal a sort of Ocean's Eleven meets Shameless
narrative.
The Seasoning House: Man is the monster in this
well-made but relentlessly grim & oppressive film. Harrowing, haunting but
very heavy-going.
The Signal: A blackly comedic & ultraviolent
apocalyptic vision. Impressive indie that delivers social comment via a
crescendo of carnage.
The Sweeney: Partially successful update, slight of
plot, solid of action, works best as a character study of Winstone's archaic
machismo.
The Vatican Exorcisms: Po-faced, generic mockumentary
mix of The Last Exorcism & The Rite. Startling physical contortions aside,
v.dull.
The Way Way Back: A fine cast enrich an otherwise
prosaic, indie-spirited coming of age dramedy which is hugely derivative of
Adventureland.
The Wolverine: Less dynamic & frenetic than many
other summer blockbusters. Well-judged balance of action & character.
Better than expected.
The World's End: For a film about a pubcrawl this is
strangely sober stuff. A lament to lost opportunity against a Midwich Cuckoos
backdrop.
This Is The End: Treads very fine line between
self-conscious & self-indulgent. Original idea, but as a comedy laughs are
few & far between.
Thor-Dark World: As slick & stylish as we've come
to expect from latter-day Marvel. Increased spectacle in a confident,
accomplished sequel.
Trance: Dazzling, dizzying, dynamic. Its internal
logic is flawed, but masked by Boyle's trademark flair.Shallow Grave for
Inception age.
Twilight Breaking Dawn Pt2: Ends series on utterly
bonkers high with orgiastic decapitation frenzy & climactic X-Men-alike
showdown. A hoot.
Twixt: Largely told thru vivid dream sequences
presented via striking luminescent monochrome with hints of sparse colour.
Visually stunning.
UFO: An alien invasion of a Midlands housing estate
portrayed via endless bickering, punch-ups & a baffling Jean Claude Van
Damme cameo!
Under The Bed: Slow to get going, steadily builds
impressive air of portentous dread, before becoming full-on 80s inspired
creature feature.
Universal Soldier-Day Of Reckoning: Surreal,
stylish, disorientating, abstract, crazed & insanely violent. I think
that’s a recommendation!
Upstream Color: Like a jigsaw with wrong
& missing pieces, just doesn't fit together & is a pointless challenge.
Abstract chinstroker toss.
Vehicle 19: For a film which almost
exclusively takes place inside a car, this travels nowhere fast. A dull,
contrived, idiotic misfire.
VHS 2: Loses much of leery fratboy
idiocy of first & is far more consistent & effective with format.
Superior sequel in almost every respect.
Warm Bodies: Vibrant, witty, inventive. Creates its
own spin on a tired subject, mixing genre elements expertly. Best teen movie in
ages.
We Are The Night: A chic Euro 'Lost Girls' - Lensed
with decadent, hedonistic pop video polish. Stylish, slick, sultry, but
superficial.
We Are What We Are (2010): Smart & subdued,
growing steadily sinister. Uses horror tropes to comment on poverty,
desperation & dysfunction.
We Are What We Are: Lyrical, melancholic slice of
pastoral American gothic infused with a solemn tragic tone. Mickle is a major
genre talent.
Welcome To The Punch: Superior crime thriller. Top
Brit cast excel in a complex & compelling story with slick, sterile,
stylish sheen.
We're The Millers: The game cast is the trump card of
an amiable comedy which largely shuns sentimentality. Will Poulter is the
standout.
West Of Memphis: Exhaustive account of criminal
injustice. Impactful & incredibly cinematic, Zodiac-like in-depth
re-examination of case.
When The Lights Went Out: Evocative period design,
uneven tone switching between mischief & malevolence. Engaging &
effective ghost story.
Wild Country: Modest parochial monster movie with
accents as strong as its splatter. Creaky creature FX when finally revealed.
Cheap but fun.
Wither: Spirited Swedish splatter is a virtual carbon
copy of The Evil Dead. Delivers gore by the bucket load but has little else of
merit.
World War Z: Episodic in structure & at times
uneven in tone, but plays out on an epic canvas & the action &
spectacle is often breathtaking.
Would You Rather: Uncomfortable viewing, a gleefully
sadistic mix of Clue & Saw, but with the harrowing intensity & cruelty
of Compliance.
Wreck It Ralph: Beautifully animated, brisk &
colourful but lacking the wry humour & post-modern deconstruction of best
recent cartoons.
You're Next: It's no
game-changer, but it's an inspired spin on the home invasion/slasher genre with
tight direction & wickedly black humour.
