Film

[OBollocks]

Superbob
https://youtu.be/gyHN3_ZUyuA

This is what happens when a slightly dim, pleasant chap is struck by a meteor and gains superpowers. A frustrating civil service job and many forms later, he struggles out from under his daily life and escalating international tensions to go on his first date in many years.

While no less cliche than other superhero films, I find myself more forgiving, thanks to the small scale of the film and the events it depicts, the way things are always intimate and personal, and the deep current of humour. Bob is really no more than your average bloke, his powers do not include an enhanced intellect, quick wit, or any of the usual additions that seem to get issued with the cape. He can fly, he is invincible, but he is also a bit of a dickhead. If my superhero film rations have to be eaten, I'd much rather this than the wank-fantasy Dark Knight Returns fan fiction that is Batman v. Superman.

[halfvoid]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IUX0Qy-IDM

Part 1 of a 3 part feature film created by Don Hertzfeld. Available to buy on youtube, or watch on Netflix.
A bizarre adventure through Bill's failing life.

[Alex Connolly]

The Dentist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RWa0yyCOM4

The Dentist tells the tale of oral hygienist Doctor Allen Feinstone (Corbin Bernsen), a man who has it all. A beautiful wife, a big house and his own practice, Feinstone is the epitome of success. But below the surface is a roiling timebomb. Feinstone, obsessive and highly-strung, discovers his wife in the throes of infidelity. This sets off a chain of events that lead to horrors within and without the practice. A tale of revenge, of dental carnage and personal, if futile, vindication.

Brian Yuzna of Re-Animator fame takes the low road here, doing what he can with a languid screenplay by Stuart Gordon (incidentally, the director of Robot Jox). It feels like it could have been a decent thriller, had it not dwelt in such pedestrian fashion on conventional fears. In the end, The Dentist is nothing more than a hollow pretender to Marathon Man, lacking the vision and complexity of John Schlesinger's 1976 tormented tale of violence and escapism.

A cavity.

[OBollocks]

Sinners and Saints.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM-vzkPnfNM

An incredibly unlucky New Orleans PD detective and war veteran investigates a series of brutal crimes. His partner (dead), child (dead), and wife's (gone) fates might put some people off, but soon he has a new partner (black) and in the next five minutes is meeting his family. It's a blokey action film, and it's very good at those bits, but the token attention it pays to dialogue, characters, and everything else other than people shooting, stabbing and punching each other is minimal. It actually has some great effects and little dabs of realism here and there, but when our hero tops handfuls of SMG/AR-wielding bad guys with only a pistol, and then opines that they were professionals, I must sigh deeply into my cups. The backdrop of a post-Katrina New Orleans is totally wasted, and with tiny parts for the best actors (Tom Berenger, Kim Coates) who are stuffed into terrible roles anyway, it makes suffering the likes of Method Man and Bas Rutten all the more painful.

I'll look forward to the next film from the same group, Daylight's End, but only because I'm a sucker for zombies.

[OBollocks]

Harbinger Down. What's Lance Henriksen doing in this piece of shit? An uninspired Alien re-hash, with mutant tardigrades shapeshifting crew of ship explosives plot liquid nitrogen Russians. Some excellent creature design alongside terrible effects, poor acting, dialogue, everything bad. DANGER DO NOT CROSS. DO NOT ENTER. VERBOTEN. AVOID.

[largevisiblemachine]

Valhalla Rising
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RI0Y3jI4S0

If you haven't seen this one you have to, probably my favourite film in the last few years. A bit like Vikings crossed with The Revenant on LSD.

[Alex Connolly]

Valhalla Rising was pretty awesome. Winding Refn working his strange craft. Won't work for some.

[OBollocks]

Thought the cinematography was out of this world. Unique film. Also fed into my board gaming habit, as everything does, as I promptly went off and played Greenland and thought about the film again as the Vikings have small settlements in North America.

Cottage Country. The American James Corden and the unbelievably attractive Malin Akerman are at his family's country retreat when his brother shows up, and shits all over their plans for the perfect holiday. Cue murder. Entertaining black comedy, slapstick brutal violence.

[OBollocks]

The Invitation. A real dinner party from Hell, as a divorced couple with their new respective others and circle of friends get together for some light-hearted middle class evening fun, which quickly turns dodgy and then goes very very wrong indeed. Good acting on display, including the seriously-good-as-always John Carroll Lynch (you may know him from Zodiac). How the director of AEon Flux and Jennifer's Body managed to make a good film is beyond me.

[halfvoid]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LKPghZ5cc_E

Seeing this soon. I was sold at Clint Mansel soundtrack.