Exactly what it says on the box: alligators in your basement in a hurricane and the water level keeps on rising.
Minimalist in concept, capable in its execution, all around a pretty tight little horror film with decent effects and good performances.
Alligators/crocodiles are legitimately terrifying creatures and this does well to dress them up as little as possible — that groundedness really helps sell the dread.
Worth a watch.
No, not the wonderful Joss Whedon Space Western of the same name from 2005.
In fact, just go and watch that. Even if you’ve already seen it. Even if you didn’t care for it much. Anything but this.
This is 116min of utter pointlessness, even factoring in what should have been a fascinating and intriguing twist (google it) there’s nothing of any weight, feeling or consequence here at all. On paper this might have seemed like a great idea. On film it’s entirely unremarkable in every way.
I’ve heard this decried as the worst film of the year and I think that’s being generous. It’s so severely mediocre as to be a waste of such a grand title, much like this is a complete waste of your time.
Pass.
Only Taika Waititi could take a film about a fanatic 10yo Nazi boy and make something so charmingly funny, heartwarming and honest.
Waititi himself plays Jojo’s imaginary friend Hitler, spurring him on to be the best little Jew investigator he can be.
In anyone else’s hands the premise would be tasteless, especially in today’s climate, but here we have a whole cast of strange, damaged, hilarious figures riding the farce with enough emotional weight that its silliness never floats away.
It’s wonderful, a must watch.
One half a slow, darkly funny buddy-sailor drama about isolation, one half a hallucinogenic, intense psychological nightmare.
Brilliantly disturbing performances from both Dafoe and Pattinson draped in gorgeous cinematography, stark imagery of tempestuous dread and unnerving sound design.
That it’s filmed in a square aspect ratio only further serves to make it feel like the horrifying relic of some dark, forgotten avenue of filmmaking.
Not for everyone, but those who can appreciate it will find a lot to chew on here.
Recommended for a stormy night.
You probably remember this as “one of the good Adam Sandler movies”. I know I sure did.
But I’m here to break it to you, bucko, that you only really remember the awesome soundtrack and that it’s a bad movie.
Not as outright terrible as a lot of Sandler films, but still a bad movie. Google Adam Sandler Movie Bingo instead and save yourself 96min.
A pitch perfect follow up to THE SHINING that makes the world of people gifted with the Shine much larger and much more dangerous.
Compelling characters, fantastic visuals and stylish direction from King champion Mike Flanagan.
A little slow at the start to build the world and populate it, but once it gets going it’s a great take on a classic.
Absolutely worth your time.
The only place really left to go after the crescendo of TS3 was out into the wild, into the larger world, and in doing so opening up some bizarre questions about the nature of living toys and their identities.
Sure, it’s a fun and beautifully realized film but Pixar has once again instilled that wonder with mature questions that would sail over children’s heads and send their parents into existential crises.
Surprising that they managed to make such a compelling case in the fourth film, and with it create some of my now favourite characters from the whole franchise. Pixar really are the best of the best.
Not as emotionally heavy as #3, nonetheless highly recommended.
A solid serial murder mystery decorated with some of the most infuriatingly incompetent police operating under the military dictatorship of Korea in the 1980s.
It’s good, but maybe a bit overshadowed in retrospect by the great things Director Bong Joon-Ho (PARASITE, THE HOST) would go on to make.
Still, worth your time, especially if true crime is your jam.
Another one for the Golden Age of Stephen King adaptations.
Two siblings hear a voice calling for help from within the long grass by the side of a road, but stepping in they suddenly find they can’t get back out.
Really minimalist and strange, as to be expected from director Vincenzo Natali (CUBE). Some of the CG is wonky and I feel like they could have gone even more minimal and not lost anything of value.
Was kind of expecting a bit more of a twist to the end to really drive home some cruel irony inherent to the story, but even lacking that it was an entertaining, trippy 100min.
It’s on Netflix now.
Poor, poor Jesse Pinkman.
Of everyone in Breaking Bad he really got it the hardest, and while his final moments in the series were of a kind of ecstatic, cathartic release after all he’d suffered his story was still always overshadowed by Walt’s.
Great then to spend some more time with him both as a retrospective on what made BB such a brilliant show and as a way to give Jesse and a handful of the supporting characters one last moment in the sun.
If you’re a fan of the show you’ll probably have already watched it like everyone else this weekend. Highly recommended.
NERVE.SQUID.PILOT 