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  • Top Five Bruce Willis Roles

    Top Five Bruce Willis Roles

    Bruce Willis has taken Hollywood by storm, starring in over 60 films and with multiple awards under his belt, including a prestigious Golden Globe; he most definitely is everyone’s favourite hard man.

    To celebrate the release of his new film, Marauders in cinemas December 26th, we count down our top five Bruce Willis roles.

    MARAUDERS

    In his latest role as high flying bank owner Hubert, Bruce Willis stars in Marauders, a high action crime thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat. Directed by Steven C. Miller and starring Christopher Meloni, Dave Bautista and Adrian Grenier, it is sure to be a box office hit. After a bank is targeted by a group of very highly trained robbers they successfully execute a highly complex heist stealing millions in cash. When the FBI investigate further, they realise that there is more to this story than meets the eye. Bruce’s role is cunning and manipulative and the perfect film to watch when it’s released on 26th December.

    DIE HARD

    With over five blockbusters in the franchise and another rumoured in production, there is no doubt that Officer John McClane is one of the ultimate Bruce Willis roles. Starring alongside the late Alan Rickman as the frightfully villainous German terrorist Hans Gruber, NYPD Cop John (Willis) must go to any length to save his wife and the rest of her colleagues after they were taken hostage at their Christmas party at mega corporation Nakatomi. Bruce’s break out role has been widely regarded as the best action film of the 1980s and most definitely his most memorable role.

    ARMAGEDDON

    Bruce stars as a heroic driller turned astronaut in this apocalyptic thriller, which doesn’t leave a dry eye in sight. When NASA discovers that an asteroid the size of Texas is rocketing towards Earth holding the capacity to destroy the planet, there is only one person who can stop the asteroid eliminating all humanity: Harry Stamper. With only 18 days to save the planet, the only way to prevent catastrophe is to launch a nuclear bomb an eye-watering 800 feet away from the asteroid to split it in two; a risky and extremely dangerous task and one that can only be accomplished by our hero and his team of cohorts. However when tragedy strikes Harry pays the ultimate sacrifice for his beloved daughter.

    PULP FICTION

    Starring in arguably Quentin Tarantino’s finest film, Bruce Willis stars alongside a phenomenal cast including John Travolta, Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson, as boxer Butch Coolidge. After making a bet with Marsellus to purposely lose a boxing match, Butch has a change of heart after a vivid dream about a gift of a Gold Watch he received from his Grandfather; instead he fights so vigorously that he ultimately kills his opponent. On the run from Mob Boss Marsellus, he ends up in a basement with him and from there on, in true Tarantino style, there is endless violence and gore and Bruce’s performance is truly second to none. Tarantino claimed, after casting Bruce as boxer Butch Coolidge, had made the film ‘legit’ and well, you can’t argue with that.

    THE SIXTH SENSE

    The second highest grossing film of 1999, The Sixth Sense is Bruce Willis’ most chilling performance as child psychologist Dr. Malcom Crowe. When he is sent to Cole, a young boy who claims that he can interact with dead people, he is fascinated and spends more and more time with him in an attempt to understand his ‘Sixth Sense’, much to the dismay of his wife. What happens next shocked all movie goers and ultimately beating Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho to be awarded with the biggest film shock of all time and definitely confirmed Bruce Willis’ credibility as an actor.

    MARAUDERS IS IN CINEMAS FROM TODAY, AND AVAILABLE ON DVD, BLU-RAYTM & DIGITAL HD FROM 20TH FEBRUARY, 2017

  • The Counselor Is Sure To Get Your Attention

    The Counselor Is Sure To Get Your Attention

    By Rich Monetti.

    You can’t watch The Counselor in the typical, play with your iPhone and catch the subtext in between setting off angry Facebook wars. Cameron Diaz cryptically deliberating with Javier Bardem in the New Mexico desert as they spy their pet cougars, a green clad biker racing to nowhere at 200 MPH, Michael Fassbender discussing the reflective quality of nitrogen in the diamond he will spring on Penelope Cruz, and the deal the successful lawyer is about to engage in with a Mexican Drug Cartel. You could easily be lulled to sleep amongst a very sedate dialogue. I was and almost turned it off. But that made the Ridley Scott film all the more chilling as I watched a second time and the beginning and end were seared together in real time.

    So if you’re paying attention, it doesn’t take long to gage the mercury levels in Diaz’s heart. “The truth has no temperature,” she coldly explains to Bardem on the futility of bringing back lost love.
    Fassbender, as the title character, has no such concern as he and Cruz are locked in. “Everything else is just waiting until we’re together,” he professes his captivation.

    Still, Bardem as his partner tries to deter Fassbeender’s professional decent. “If you pursue this road that you’ve embarked upon, you will eventually come to moral decisions that will take you completely by surprise. You won’t see it coming at all,” he instructs as the reckless cartel facilitator, Reiner.

    Closer to where the counselor eats, Reiner foretells how ambiguity inside the business model translates to danger and makes his point in a device called a bolito. “It has this small electric motor with this rather incredible compound gear that retrieves a steel cable. Battery driven. And the cable is made out of some unholy alloy, almost impossible to cut it. And it’s in a loop. And you come up behind the guy and you drop it over his head. And you pull the free end of the cable tight and walk away. No one ever even sees you. And pulling the cable activates the motor and the noose starts to tighten. And it continues to tighten until it goes to zero,” Bardem revels in the dissertation.

    Nonetheless, Fassbender chooses denial and feigns it very well as he assumes the cause of death is “strangulation.”

    Bardem doesn’t miss a beat and continues his public service message for Fassbender. “The wire cuts through the carotid arteries. Then sprays blood all over the spectators and everybody goes home,” Bardem is wholly resigned the potential costs.

    But Fassbender thinks he’s up to it. “Sweet,” his denial goes into high gear.

    On to Brad Pitt, the middle man. He doesn’t hesitate either to educate Fassbender and the calculating ruthlessness of the cartel suffices as the lesson plan. “And, Counselor, here’s something else to consider. The beheadings and the mutilations? That’s just business. You gotta keep up appearances,” Pitt opines his wisdom. “It’s not like there’s some smoldering rage beneath it.

    A slight crack does appears in the facade but where does Diaz fit in. We get a sense as Bardem freely offers that he would rather not know how much she knows about his business dealings.
    Even so, a little female cunning gets a mandatory dismiss – especially since Fassbender has come this far. Instead Bardem begins to crumble and his guilt takes shape in the form of providing full disclosure. “Why are you telling me this,” Fassbender asks as Reiner recants a piece of sexual history that would make Tawny Katian weep and allows the seasoned criminal to start deducing disaster.

    But just because her onscreen sleaze and material yearnings begs a bath for anyone in range, are we sure the unraveling falls on her?

    No matter, as the Counselor’s world crumbles, all that’s really left for Fassbender is perspective. “Dying is easy,” his contact inside the cartel soothes him and is on point.

    Attention spans on both sides of the plasma now getting their due, the ending will leave you in a shudder.

  • The BRWC Review: Phantasm Remastered

    The BRWC Review: Phantasm Remastered

    By Patrick King.

    Just when you start to think Don Coscarelli’s 1979 horror film Phantasm is going to be a conventional horror film, your expectations suddenly get turned around and you realize you’re watching a pretty unique piece of low-budget filmmaking, psychologically and cinematically. A new crisp transfer and remastering from JJ. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions has just been released on Blu-ray and it looks perfect. There hasn’t been a better time since its theatrical release to see this film.

    Writer/director Don Coscarelli started making Phantasm when he was twenty-three, but didn’t finish it until he was twenty-five. Much like Stephen Spielberg, he wrote and directed short films as a teenager. He made his first feature film, Jim, the World’s Greatest when he was nineteen, following it quickly with Kenny & Company, both of which were released in 1976.

    The films were dramas about teenagers. Kind of like infamous microbudget filmmaker and “Godfather of Gore” Hershell Gordon Lewis, Coscarelli got into horror because he knew the genre had a built in audience and made money. However, unlike Lewis, Coscarelli actually has a passion for filmmaking apart from its ability to earn him a few bucks. Coscarelli loves making movies, and it shows.

    The plot is thin, relying mostly on atmosphere and visuals to push the narrative forward. Mike (Michael A. Baldwin), a kid of about thirteen or fourteen, lives with his older brother and caretaker Jody (Bill Thornbury) after their parents’ death. When a pal of Jody’s dies and is interred at Morningside cemetery, Mike spies on the funeral from afar, watching the thing with binoculars from a distance.

    In an unguarded moment, the mortician, referred to as the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) because of his height, which made even more noticeable because he’s almost comically skinny, lifts the coffin into his hearse singlehandedly. Knowing this is physically impossible, Mike decides to investigate. From there, we slowly learn what lies behind the Tall Man, his little dwarf minions, and the funeral home with the strange mausoleum where bodies are constantly disappearing.

    The question throughout the movie, and one that’s never really answered is, what’s really happening and what’s in the characters’ minds? If you don’t like at least a little ambiguity in your movies, you won’t dig this one. Although it constantly seems like the movie is veering toward horror movie cliches, those conventions are constantly being subverted.

    Point of view shots are used extensively. Most of them are from Mike’s perspective as he tries to solve the mystery of the Tall Man. You find yourself consequently questioning what, if anything, is real, what is imagined, and what is a combination of the two. And even though most of the point of view shots are from Mike’s perspective, not all of them are. Sometimes something, we don’t know exactly what, though it surely has something to do with the Tall Man, is watching Mike.

    Tiny flashbacks, lasting maybe a few seconds each, are peppered throughout the film. These bursts of memory add a nice touch of verisimilitude, like the sudden flashes of something we thought had been long forgotten coming to mind quickly and disappearing just as fast. Anyway, all of these elements come together to create a wonderfully unique mood.

    Phantasm touches on nearly every horror subgenre that existed up to that point. It’s a bit gothic, there’s some elements of a slasher film, there’s even a bit of gore, exemplified by the shot where a poor schmuck of a funeral worker gets knives that are attached to a self-propelled silver orb bored into his forehead and blood squirts out in a steady stream, as if being released from a garden hose. The music, too, is a big factor in the movie’s unique mood. Composed by Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave, the keyboard-heavy tunes are reminiscent of the stuff Goblin did for Dario Argento, specifically in Suspiria.

    There are short sections of the movie that border on surrealism. On two separate occasions, Mike and Jody fall asleep and are attacked by the Tall Man and his little dwarves. When Mike falls asleep, the Tall Man appears malevolently at the head of his bed, now in a graveyard, watching ominously as hands push out of the ground and try to drag him to hell. Not a fun way to spend one’s evening.

    Angus Scrimm’s Tall Man is used sparingly, thankfully, adding to the mystery. We don’t get tired of him and the black-suited funeral director always appears menacing. Scrimm was one of Coscarelli’s discoveries. Beginning as a stage actor, he later became a journalist and wrote liner notes for a variety of records, from rock-n-roll to classical. Every second he’s on screen is one of complete menace. Who knows to what strange depths within himself Scrimm had to dig to find this character, but he really pulls it off.

    And besides the menace, there’s something bizarrely Freudian about the Tall Man. On more than one occasion he transforms from a beautiful naked blonde into the middle-aged and pale Tall Man after seducing and stabbing a male victim.

    The visual effects aren’t bad, either, especially for the budget. There’s a kind of mutant fly puppet that menaces Mike and Jody toward the middle of the film and it doesn’t come off as overly silly, though as you might suspect, it does require a bit of suspension of disbelief. Probably the coolest effect comes when Mike finds an old picture of the Tall Man in an antique shop. The photo is from some time in the 19th Century, of the Tall Man in a horse-drawn buggy. As Mike looks at the photo, the Tall Man moves his head toward Michael to stare back. This is possibly one of the creepiest parts of the film.

    The killer dwarves in their brown hoods always have darkness obscuring their faces, even though you know there’s either little people or kids underneath the robes. (As it turns out, they were a couple of boys who lived next door to Coscarelli.) Unfortunately, they do look almost identical to the jawas from the first Star Wars film, a coincidence that Coscarelli laments in the commentary track: “We were shooting the film…and somebody said, ‘they’re using your dwarves in Star Wars.’” Well, what can you do, eh?

    Originally a three hour movie that was cut down to around 90 minutes, Phantasm feels disjointed at times, but that only helps the subjective mood and strange psychology of the piece. It’s not quite one of the great horror movies, but it’s not hard to see how it has developed such a cult following over the years. Not just for horror fans, Phantasm will appeal to anyone who likes their movies on the weird side and a touch abstract.

  • The UK’s Best & Worse Xmas Films

    The UK’s Best & Worse Xmas Films

    Merry Christmas!

    The UK has named Elf as the top Xmas movie, followed by Home Alone and Love Actually in a shortlist of 15 classic titles.

    Curtains.com investigated which 15 cities are the most festive using UK Google search data, analysing the number of searches for the most popular Christmas movies this festive season.

    Surprisingly, traditional Xmas movies, including A Miracle on 34th Street and It’s a Wonderful Life, didn’t make the top five. Elfalone was searched for twice as often as the two traditional titles.

    Hitting the bottom of the charts was Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, followed by A Christmas Story, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Babes in Toyland and A Charlie Brown Christmas.

    Unconventional festive films included Die Hard, which was in fourth place with nearly 14,000 searches, and Gremlins (No.5) with a little over 11,000.

    Tim Burton’s dark Chrimbo classics, Edward Scissorhands (No.7) and The Nightmare Before Christmas (No.9) also made it into the top 10.

    The list of the top 15 Christmas movie searches are detailed below:

    1. Elf
    2. Home Alone
    3. Love Actually
    4. Die Hard
    5. Gremlins
    6. It’s A Wonderful Life
    7. Edward Scissorhands
    8. Miracle on 34thStreet
    9. The Nightmare Before Christmas
    10. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
    11. A Christmas Story
    12. The Muppet Christmas Carol
    13. Babes in Toyland
    14. A Charlie Brown Christmas
    15. Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

    Elf is a 2003 American Christmas comedy film directed by Jon Favreau and written by David Berenbaum. It stars Will Ferrell, James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Mary Steenburgen, Daniel Tay, Ed Asner, and Bob Newhart. It was released in the United States on November 7, 2003 by New Line Cinema. The story is about one of Santa’s elves (Ferrell) who learns of his true identity as a human and goes to New York City to meet his biological father (Caan), spreading Chimbo cheer in a world of cynics as he goes.

    One of the things we Brits love about these merry movies is the festive décor. Get-the-look of the top five Christmas film interiors using this handy last-minute buyer’s guide.

  • Liam Neeson Retrospective

    Liam Neeson Retrospective

    Now considered one of Hollywood’s leading action stars, Liam Neeson wasn’t always the go-to man for high-octane thrills. His big breakthrough was in Steven Spielberg’s war drama Schindler’s List which he followed with Christmas rom-com Love Actually, before the Taken saga propelled him to action thriller infamy. It’s fair to say that Neeson has collated an extremely eclectic list of films for his CV…

    Neeson returns this month in his first war film role in over a decade: Operation Chromite (in cinemas and on demand from Boxing Day); a compelling, tense and dramatic portrayal of the operation that turned the tide of the Korean War, in which he displays his versatility more than ever.

    Let’s take a look at his most accomplished roles to date…

    Operation Chromite (2016)

    Inspired by real events in the Korean War, Operation Chromite brings to life the clandestine mission that paved the way for a dramatic invasion that is regarded as one of the greatest landing operations in military history. The film follows the efforts of UN Supreme Commander, General MacArthur (Neeson), to regain control of the North Korean occupied Incheon. In a bid to achieve this, he directs special covert officers to collect intelligence by going undercover as a North Korean inspection unit, led by Captain Jang Hak-soo. However, when their cover is blown they have one last chance to regain control of Incheon and recover their footing in the war, facing near impossible odds.

    Schindler’s List (1993)

    The one that put Neeson on the map and arguably his best performance to date: Steven Spielberg’s multi-Academy Award Winning war drama Schindler’s List. Neeson plays Oskar Schindler, a German businessman in occupied Poland who employes – and thus saves the lives of – hundreds of Jewish people at a time when all of Krakow’s Jews are assigned to the Plaszow Forced Labour Camp. Schindler’s factory (refitted to manufacture ammunition) is the only thing preventing his staff from being shipped to the death camps. Schindler demands more workers and starts bribing Nazi leaders to keep Jews on his employee lists and out of the camps. By the time Germany falls to the allies, Schindler has lost his entire fortune but saved 1,100 people from likely death. Schindler’s List is a dramatic masterpiece that blends the abject horror of the Holocaust with Spielberg’s signature tender humanism.

    Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace (1999)

    The first return of the biggest movie saga in the world and ultimate sci-fi popcorn flick was highly anticipated  in 1999, no less because it boasted a star-studded cast including Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman and Mr Neeson. The Phantom Menace would be the first of a trilogy of stories to trace what happened in the intergalactic saga before the first film began. Neeson plays Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn, tutor to Obi-Wan Kenobi (played in this film by McGregor), who meets Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) on Tatooine and is soon convinced that the boy could be the leader the Jedis have been searching for.

    Love Actually (2003)

    The soft-centred jewel in Neeson’s acting crown is undoubtedly 2003’s iconic Love Actually. In this rom-com classic Neeson plays Daniel, a recently bereaved father of one trying desperately to do the best he can for his precocious young son, Sam (played by Thomas Sangster), now his wife has passed on. Despite occupying one of the sadder storylines in a film that tugs at the heart strings throughout, Neeson’s dry delivery and rapport with Sangster injects a welcomed dose of bittersweet humour. Neeson’s performance marks yet another high point in his incredibly eclectic filmography, proving his adaptability as an actor.

    Batman Begins (2005)

    It can definitely be said that Neeson is good at being bad – and none more so than as leader of The League of Shadows, Ra’s al Ghul, in 2005’s Batman Begins. What is perhaps most chilling about Neeson as Ra’s is that, unlike his showy villain counterparts, The Joker and The Penguin, he manages to be terrifying without any masks, prosthetics or theatrical costumes. Ra’s is an intellectual match for Batman (played by Christian Bale) and the part fitted Neeson to a T, calling on his air of power and authority to create a genuinely menacing yet understated villain.

    Taken franchise (2008, 2012, 2014)

    The one that established Neeson as a bona fide action star, Taken. Now a completed trilogy, the Taken saga sees Neeson play an ex-soldier with “a particular set of skills”, Bryan Mills, who travels through Europe on frantic quests to rescue his daughter (Maggie Grace) and wife (Famke Janssen), and kill their abductors. Taken is now considered a cult classic, most notably for the “I will find you and I will kill you” soliloquy and the thousands of memes and GIFs that flood the internet as a result.

    The A-Team (2010)

    Director Joe Carnahan resurrected the popular 1980s-era action series with this explosive reboot following the adventures of four Iraq War veterans who begin a second career as mercenaries for hire. The whole gang is back, this time played by Neeson (Col. John “Hannibal” Smith), Bradley Cooper (Templeton “Face” Peck), Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (B.A. Baracus), and Sharlto Copley (H.M. “Howlin’ Mad” Murdock). This time the group of former Special Forces operatives are sentenced to military prison for a crime they didn’t commit. Breaking out with relative ease, they embark on a treacherous quest to clear their names while being hunted across the globe by Charissa Sosa (Jessica Biel), a high-ranking military officer and one of Face’s many former lovers.

    The Grey (2011)

    In The Grey, Neeson leads an unruly group of oil-rig roughnecks when their plane crashes into the remote Alaskan wilderness. Battling mortal injuries and merciless weather, the survivors have only a few days to escape the icy elements. To compound the severe situation, a vicious pack of rogue wolves are on the hunt for the survivors. Neeson steals the show in this exciting tale of survival.

    Non-Stop (2014)

    In the same vein as Taken, Non-Stop sees Neeson in full throttle action star mode. Co-starring Golden Globe Award winner Julianne Moore, Non-Stop is a suspense thriller played out at 40,000 feet in the air. During a transatlantic flight from New York City to London, U.S. Air Marshal Bill Marks (Neeson) receives a series of cryptic text messages demanding that he instruct the government to transfer $150 million into an off-shore account. Until he secures the money, a passenger on his flight will be killed every 20 minutes.

    Operation Chromite is out in cinemas and on demand from 26th December, courtesy of Signature Entertainment