Category: REVIEWS

The enigmatic Mr. Roarke (Michael Peña) makes the secret dreams of his lucky guests come true at a luxurious but remote tropical resort, but when the fantasies turn into nightmares, the guests have to solve the island’s mystery in order to escape with their lives.

You may think of me as somewhat as a fool, but yes, I was actually a little bit skeptical about Jeff Wadlow’s newest feature Fantasy Island. Not because of his past work or anything like that, though. This is not his first film under the Blumhouse Productions banner – that would be 2018’s abysmal Truth or Dare, which was one of the worst horror films in recent years.

The reason why I was cautiously optimistic about his newest project with the beloved horror studio was because it was taking the Fantasy Island television series that has been adored by many people since its inception on January 14, 1977 and spinning it on its head.

Those that are fans of the series of the same name will tell you that it is most certainly not a horror series. It is a simplistic drama set on a wonderful island, and not a whole lot of crazy things happen throughout the series. It has its fair share of dramatic moments, but nothing about that original series is insanely intense or dark.

What Wadlow is doing with this movie, is taking the same concept behind the show of the same name and making it a fully fledged horror film. It actually sounded heavily enticing to me. In fact, it left me thinking “How has this not been done before?”. In a world where we see hundreds of remakes coming out in theatres left right and centre, how is it possible that we haven’t had a film remake of Fantasy Island, one of the most iconic shows from the 70s?

Plus, setting any horror movie on an island seems like a really fun and creative idea. There really is so much potential there and there is so much a horror writer and director could do to make that idea come to life in a thrilling and creepy way. Unfortunately, Wadlow’s follow-up to Truth or Dare is yet another drastically disappointing and painfully dull horror film that barely has anything promising to offer.

One of the things I hate the most about some horror films is the way that the screenplay treats its characters. Often times they are portrayed as really stupid and they make some insanely baffling decisions along the way. We have seen numerous films do this throughout the years, and we have even had some movies do an absolutely brilliant job at poking fun at this tired trope.

Take The Cabin in the Woods for example. Virtually everybody thought that movie was going to suck because of the generic and bland looking trailers as well as the relatively dull posters. The marketing as a whole lead people to believe the movie was going to be awful. But then it came out and took everybody by complete surprise because it was actually kind of a horror parody. It was so self aware and constantly found genius ways to make fun of the tropes that we hate seeing in so many horror films these days.

But Fantasy Island is not self-aware. It doesn’t acknowledge the fact that it has tropes or anything of the sort. It just simply has tropes and they are frustrating. Character motivation is thrown completely out the window here. The whole premise of the movie is that a bunch of young adults travel to a fantastic island in hopes of a fun romantic getaway, and a charming snazzy man named Mr. Roarke makes all their deepest wishes come true. But they soon realize that they might be in for more than they asked for.

Whenever some genuinely off-putting and disturbing things start to happen on the island, there is barely an effort amongst the group to try and leave. Yes, they do question things that happen sometimes, but they just constantly make increasingly bad decisions scene after scene. A device that may help a character escape a certain situation such as a phone or boat always manages to get discarded or lost.

Speaking of the characters, they are all extremely unlikable. They are annoying, rude, and abrasive young adults that act like they are drunk highschoolers throughout the entire movie. It’s hard to feel sympathy for these characters because of two main reasons. One, we are never given any good reason to care about them. They are only in the movie for bad things to inevitably happen to them, and that’s it. They don’t feel like characters at all, but rather pawns waiting to be knocked off the map. Two, all of the characters are so incredibly annoying and genuinely rude that it is difficult to be worried for them because of the situation they are in. If all of these people were to die in the first twenty minutes of the film, I would not have cared one bit. In fact, I would have been glad, because then I wouldn’t have had to endure such a painfully boring film.

If I were to pick the best character, the one that was the least annoying, it would probably have to be Michael Peña’s Mr. Roarke. He is not a hero or anything like that, but the reason why he can be entertaining to watch is all thanks to Peña. It is genuinely always a blast to watch him portray any character. Ever since seeing him in 2015’s Ant-Man for the first time, I have always found him to be an excellent actor and great at delivering comedy. Here, he probably gets the most to do out of any of the characters in the movie, and he can be somewhat amusing to watch on screen.

Lucy Hale portrays one of the lead protagonists Melanie Cole, and while I did not like her character, I did think her performance was decent. She does a fair enough job in a movie that does not deserve her acting talent. Previously, she starred in the aforementioned Truth or Dare, but she has been in some good projects in the past. She tries her best here but she was unfortunately saddled with a poor film.

Now, since this is a horror movie, you’re probably going to see this movie in hopes of getting scared or at the very least, getting the creeps. While there are some entertaining and fun sequences, the majority of the movie feels extremely generic and does not have a lot to offer. I suppose it could come across as somewhat eerie to people that don’t watch too many horror films, but for seasoned veterans in the genre, this will feel like a walk in the park.

The biggest praise I can give Fantasy Island is its cinematography by Toby Oliver, who previously shot other Blumhouse pictures such as the phenomenal Get Out and the horror comedies Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2U. It is honestly hard to make a movie set on a tropical island look ugly. Oliver’s cinematography here, like always, shines. Every shot looks well framed and it is full of great colors. It looks delightfully stylish and exciting. I just really wish he could showcase his excellent camera work in a different movie. Really, I wish everybody involved with this project could have shown their talents in a different movie. Because at the end of the day, I like all of these actors. Wadlow is not an awful director, either. His direction here is good enough. It’s just that the film that everybody came together to make, was a disappointment.

Fantasy Island is no tropical horror adventure. It contains a drastically dull script, unlikable characters, and doesn’t offer enough scares for its target audience.

Set largely in a New York hotel room in 2016, “The Misogynists,” from filmmaker Onur Turkel, follows people on various ends of the political spectrum on election night. The film focuses mainly on Trump supporter Cameron (Dylan Baker) a depraved, prostitute loving money man living in a 15,000 dollar a month hotel room post divorce, and his co-worker Baxter (Lou Jay Taylor) who has a liberal wife, Alice (Christine Campbell,) whom he is tempted to cheat on, and two young daughters.

The film is almost a marriage of the work of Aaron Sorkin, David Mamet’s famed “Glen Garry Glen Ross,” and Neil LaBute’s “In The Company of Men;” but it unfortunately never quite reaches the notes of anything as memorable or groundbreaking as the aforementioned.

Though Turkel cleverly crafts small pop-in characters that include feminist sex workers, a Mexican hotel worker with a penchant for cocaine, a slightly racist African-American hotel guest, and some additional obnoxious wealthy businessmen, they never really amount to much, and I never quite grasped what the film was ultimately trying to say other than “Trump is trying to ruin the world,” or “Trump supporters are crazy.”

The lone visual symbolism I noticed was Cameron’s TV playing everything in reverse, which I believe was the filmmakers’ way of showing us what he thought to be a political walk back that took place post 2016 election, erasing the progress liberals had made up until that point.

In the film, the reverse image on the TV transfixed anyone who looked at it, to me this also seemed to be a commentary on who Donald Trump is, a mesmerizing figure; though I’m unsure if this was the intent. American’s either loved or hated the polarizing candidate, Trump, but neither the lovers or the haters could look away from him.

It reminded me of when Joe Scarborough made a Trump bashing song in 2016 while he still thought Trump was a joke candidate; despite his effort to vilify him, he shone an accidental light on him, like all mainstream media did, inadvertently causing the mockery to work in reverse. Their efforts ultimately ended up making a spectacle of Trump, leading to his election in 2016, and subsequent inauguration in 2017.

I understand this film’s attempt to paint the large divide between Trump supporters and liberals, but it seemed one-sided, as most films with a political slant tend to be. Cameron’s creepy, misogynistic behavior says more about him as a person, and not much about him as a “typical Trump supporter,” which is what I think the film was trying to portray.

The habits and unhealthy behaviors of wealthy, obnoxious Caucasian business men are nothing new, and did not draw a congruent line between Cameron’s character and his political beliefs, so that angle, for me, ultimately fell flat. I asked myself, if the film is trying to show the new Trump political spectrum as dangerous, narcissistic, sociopathic, drug addled money men the script needed to dig deeper and explore a new framework.

Maybe the setting needed to move more out of the hotel room to get a point across that never came. This one may work as a stage play, but struggled as a feature.

Rating 2/5

A typical night for veterans at a VFW post turns into an all-out battle for survival when a desperate teen runs into the bar with a bag of stolen drugs. When a gang of violent punks come looking for her, the vets use every weapon at their disposal to protect the girl and themselves from an unrelenting attack.

I am always one to support independent filmmaking. It is a difficult task for any filmmaker to craft a fully fledged movie, short film or feature length. Even Hollywood directors have to put all their effort and hard work into making their project the best it can possibly be. But independent directors probably have it the hardest. They do not have a gigantic budget at their disposal and they more than likely don’t have a large list of celebrities they can cast in their work, either.

Whenever a new indie film is released, I go out of my way to see it. Especially horror. Anybody that truly knows me knows that horror is my favorite genre in all of fiction. Not just movies. It also applies to television, books, and more.

Jeff Begos’ latest feature VFW is an insanely weird and over-the-top film and it lets you know that right from the opening frames and it carries its craziness all the way until the end. It is an unapollegetically brutual and unforgiving in all the best ways. It’s a stylish bloodbath of fun, even if it has its fair share of issues.

The concept behind this film is one that truly excited me. The whole idea of this crazy drug named “Hype” that basically turns people crazy seemed like it would be a crazy thing to explore and for the most part, it was. Sadly, we never get to learn a whole lot about this fictional drug itself, and it would have been nice to explore that a little bit more.

But with that being said, this is still a relentlessly entertaining movie for the most part. The first act does drag quite a bit, though. The opening credits of the film screamed Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and it seemed somewhat unoriginal. In addition to this, the opening credits here with all of the actors’ names appearing on screen went on for far too long. They had actor names appear on screen for a solid ten minutes, and it did take me out of the movie. Gratefully though, after the initial setup of the plot, VFW becomes a gory thrill-ride.

Production company Fangoria is well known for producing some incredibly bloody horror films that have been appreciated by genre fans, and VFW is no exception. One of the first things we see in the film is somebody’s body explode after falling to the ground, and it sets up what is to come for the rest of the movie.

While all of these sequences are entertaining, the story here was not front and center. It definitely felt like Begos was putting all of his effort towards making these kills as brutal as possible. It is both a positive and a negative. On one hand, it is relentlessly entertaining to watch these over-the-top sequences play out on screen, but on the other hand, the story gets thrown to the side for the most part.

The same thing can be said about the characters and their development, too. For the most part, our lead protagonists do not get a lot of development and their arcs are not too existent, unfortunately.

If you want to watch a movie that contains some extremely well-done, bloody, ridiculously gory and insane action scenes, then this is most definitely going to do the trick. It certainly entertained me. But do not go into this film expecting a gripping and riveting storyline that will move you or anything like that. Watch this knowing it is a fun action/horror film and you will probably like it.

VFW‘s strengths lie in its unforgiving brutality and intense action sequences, but it does lack in its character and story department.

DC Comics and Warner Bros have had an interesting relationship as of late. Their new direction for some of comic’s best loved characters has been a divisive one. For every Wonder Woman there’s been a Suicide Squad, for every Joker there’s been a Justice League and now, riding on the tail of Joker (and Joaquin Phoenix’s) recent Oscar success comes Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey.

‘Wait a minute!’ I hear you say,

‘I thought the title was Birds of Prey: The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn?’ and to that I reply

‘Yes, you are quite correct and I compliment you on remembering that title so clearly’

However, over the movie’s opening weekend something happened. Warner Bros got quite excited about releasing a new movie based on one of their properties, but they forgot one thing. They forgot to market it up to high heaven so that people would actually see it. Joker was talked about months before it even came out, winning festival awards and even raising questions in the media about the influence of violence in cinema. What did Birds of Prey and The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn have? Two trailers and a poster. So, Warner Bros in all their infinite wisdom did the only thing they could do to boost ticket sales. They changed the title. So, for all intents and purposes this review will be about a little movie called Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey.

Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) has been dumped by Mr. J so now she’s out on her own and doing what everybody else does after a break up – partying and getting drunk. During her wild antics she attracts the attention of local crime lord, Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor) and realises her life has taken a turn for the worse. Seeing this as an opportunity to get rid of Gotham’s Clown Princess of Crime, Sionis sets about to bring her down. The problem is that he’s really underestimated his target and even worse, there are plenty of others who would like to see his head on a plate. So, after a diamond goes missing Sionis hires Harley to get it back so that he can reinstate his title as Gotham’s criminal kingpin.

Have you ever had one of those weeks? A bad break up over the weekend ruins your whole week, only for you to feel like a whole new person by the end of it. However, despite the name change, Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is still the same movie. Margot Robbie returns from being arguably the best part of Suicide Squad prompting Warner Bros to put all their eggs in one basket, hoping that Robbie would be able to pull it off – and she does.

One of the biggest problems about Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is expectations meeting reality. Half the audience want a comic book movie that’s extremely faithful to the comics and the other half probably saw Joker because of the awards buzz but had never seen a comic book movie before. So, when they heard about the Harley Quinn movie and her connection to Joker, they probably thought they were getting more or less the same thing. However, once both sides have reconciled with the fact that Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey scratches none of these itches then they’d really start to enjoy themselves.

Firstly, Margot Robbie is truly great, not only as Harley Quinn, but as a continuing screen presence. However, if you were expecting a Birds of Prey movie with a little Harley Quinn then you may be disappointed because she’s everywhere and this is pretty much her movie. Secondly, although the other characters bear very little resemblance to their characters in print, the film is made all the better for not having these strict constraints. if you were expecting the film to match exactly what was in your mind then you may have misunderstood what this film was in the first place – and that’s probably down to the marketing. Will the characters eventually get around to the way they are represented in the comics? Probably, but for now they are their own characters and the film is less of a comic book movie and more of a crime comedy along the lines of Midnight Run and The Big Lebowski. So, bearing this in mind you should get into the swing of things.

Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey (yes, I am going to keep using that title) is a fast, frenetic and fun movie with great action set pieces, a great soundtrack and you may never see your local takeaway shop in the same way even again. This is Harley F****ing Quinn and you had better throw all those comparisons to Deadpool out of the window while you’re at it because she’s very much her own person and this is definitely her movie. There may not be a sequel, there may not be a stand alone Birds of Prey movie, but right now Harley Quinn has had her moment in the sun and it was truly fantabulous.

Buzzard is an independent film released back in 2014. It follows the story of Marty, a man with a boring job who decides that it would be a good idea to take jabs at work and society as a whole. To do this he takes to doing some petty crime – stealing office pens and messing with the system to give him more coupons. Then he gets cocky and goes way too far. Only when it is too late he realizes that the cameras may have caught him. Paranoia and delusion quickly take hold as Marty tries to hide from his deeds.

Recently, Buzzard has been released on Blu-ray. While the main page is nothing to write home about, with the only options being Play Movie, Special Features and Set-Up. There was no option for Scene Selection, which I found a little weird, but perhaps I’m just used to that. However, the Special Features are really quite extensive. 

What we are supplied is a selection of content including the usual group of trailers, director’s commentary and deleted/alternate scenes. These are usually fun and can deliver insight into what was intended for the film. The deleted scenes were what I have come to expect from them – they’re cute and sometimes interesting, but I can see why they were cut out or changed for the final product.

Adding to the insight of the film, we have footage of the film’s release at festivals, in particular the Locarno Film Festival. Any fan of Buzzard, or even aspiring film makers or general supporters of independent films will find good reason to buy this Blu-ray for the content in the menu alone.

As for the film itself, I found it quite engaging – in that weird way only independent films seem to do anymore. Where it feels like someone came up with a strange idea and then the next thing we know it’s being shot and recorded.

Yes, every now and then we get film’s like Upgrade and Crawl, where it is the same thing on a bigger budget – but it’s becoming a sad rarity these days. It’s obvious that the filmmakers are horror fans – from the Freddy Kruger ‘Power Glove’ from Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (easily the worst film of that series), to Marty constantly wearing t-shirts of giallo movies like Demons. That does come through in some of the visuals and camera work. The film feels like an even lower budget giallo movie – without the use of vibrant colours, more’s the pity. But there is a banging metal track throughout the film.

But I was never in love with the film itself. Partly because it felt a little too slow to me. I’m not one who needs action and mind-numbing visuals to keep me entertained. But I draw the line when I check my watch as we near the final third. There is also an effect in this film that left me baffled. Tonally, Buzzard has a dark comedy edge to it. It’s not a comedy, but I wouldn’t take it seriously either. And some of the effects are quite good for what the film makers had to work with – when a man gets cut by the razor glove it does look like an injury, a bruise looks very realistic at one point and the film’s final shot uses a simple bit of trickery to fantastic effect.

While I watched it, my partner walked in when an infected cut was on screen and she was visibly repulsed – clearly something went right here. But I can’t forgive the effect used in a scene when cone shaped crisps are flying into someone’s mouth. It looked like an early effect an amateur YouTube star would use. It was unfinished and if comedy is what they were going for with that scene, then they simply failed to land the joke. The effect was too bad to be funny.

Buzzard is a weird one, that I think fans of film, particularly of obscure film can enjoy. No, it won’t entertain your Fast and Furious fans and the like. But it is an entertaining film, with a good amount of passion and clearly has its heart on display. The Blu-ray looks lovely and the special features do add more to the understanding of the film’s themes and intention. If you have time, give it a go. It looks like you won’t find a better copy of it yet, so now is the perfect time for it.