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Last Night in Soho (2021)
Last Night in Soho (2021)
2021 | Drama, Horror, Thriller
Straight off the bat, there is a whole lot to love about Last Night in Soho. It's a modern-London thriller with a dashing of supernatural horror. It's a modern horror with lashings of giallo. It's a giallo that is also a murder mystery. It bursting with colour, and has two exceptionally talented actors at it's helm.
I enjoy Anya Taylor-Joy in pretty much anything she's in, and the same applies here, stealing most of the scenes that she's in. Thomasin McKenzie is an infectiously likable protagonist, whether she's battling seedy-men ghosts, or the struggles of going to University in England (the scene near the beginning where she's stuck at a dorm party is a literal nightmare put straight onto the screen if you ask me). She's fantastic here as she was in Jojo Rabbit.
It boasts a strong supporting cast as well. Matt Smith plays a convincing shit-bag, and is quite clearly having a ball shouting in a cockney accent. It's always a pleasure to see Terence Stamp, and of course, Diana Rigg was one of the best in the game, and her performance here in her final role is testament to that.
LNIS is dripping with style, which is to be expected from Edgar Wright, but it's more subtle than a lot of his other works, substituting clever edits, cuts, and comedy for a film that's visual crack with a more serious tone. The vibrancy of its colour pallettes, both in the modern and 60s settings are as important as any character. Every frame feels like it's been lovingly poured over and is cinematic in every sense of the word. It also boasts a stellar soundtrack. I didn't realise how much I fucking love a bit of Cilla Black but here we are.
The only minor gripes I have is that it does drag ever so slightly during the final third. At one point it feels like a natural resolve is near, but then the narrative continues for a while longer before the twists and turns land. It also goes a little slasher-y at one point, which isn't necessarily an issue, but it feels a bit alien to the rest of the vibe (still manages to be a visually striking moment though!)

Overall though, Last Night in Soho is an incredibly engaging and enjoyable thriller, and is a proud addition to both Wright's filmography, and the modern resurgence of top quality horror.
  
In Fabric (2018)
In Fabric (2018)
2018 | Comedy, Horror
Verdict: Weird

Story: In Fabric starts as we meet divorced mother Sheila (Jean-Baptiste) who is seeing her son Vince (Ayeh) prepare for college with his muse Gwen (Christie) slowly taking over the house, Sheila is looking for love in the personal ads with her needing to by a brand-new dress.
Soon after wearing the dress for the first time, Sheila notices strange things happening around the house as the tensions between Shelia and Gwen continue to rise. Shelia’s life gets turned upside down, which only escalates the more she investigates the original model of the dress.

Thoughts on In Fabric

Characters – Sheila is a divorced single mother who works as a banker, she is trying to move on with her life, as her son is about to be moving on with his life, she is gets a new dress, which only starts to increase the troubles in her life. Gwen is the older woman dating Sheila’s teenage son, she is slowly taking over the house being very disturbing with the tension filled interaction with Sheila. Reg is on a stage-do which sees him get the dress to wear, he is preparing for his own wedding, starting to see his own life spiral out of control, with Babs being the wife-to-be that is still preparing the wedding.
Performances – Marianne Jean-Baptiste is great for her part of the film, this is mainly because the film is split into two stories with eh dress, Marianne has the first one and shows the struggles she would be experiencing. When it comes to the rest of the cast, it does feel too late into the movie to get truly invested in the second set of actors story.
Story – The story here follows two different people that come in contact with a mysterious dress that has its own abilities to ruin their lives, we are left to guess just what is causing the pain to happen and why this dress is acting the same way around people. This story is flat out weird to follow, mostly because we have two different stories that might well be connected, they are separate enough to leave us with different ideas for each family to deal with. The story doesn’t seem to give us enough answers about the dress itself and with on fleeting images of the store it came from, which only ends up leaving us feel like we could have had more from the story.
Comedy/Horror – The comedy in the film comes from just how outside the box the idea is, while the horror comes from seeing how the dress acts and what it causes to people’s lives.
Settings – The film tries to keep the locations down to everyday ones, be it the two homes, the store or the employment locations, it shows how the weird events of the characters lives happen without anything needing to come from outside the box.
Special Effects – The effects are used well through the film as they show different levels of damage being caused.

Scene of the Movie – The fight.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Not enough behind the mystery of the dress.
Final Thoughts – This is a horror that can be described with one key world, weird, it is filled with strange moments that only leave us with more questions than answers.

Overall: Very Strange.
  
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Sarah (7798 KP) rated Spree (2020) in Movies

Jan 24, 2021  
Spree (2020)
Spree (2020)
2020 | Comedy, Thriller
6
6.1 (10 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Different
In a world filled with YouTubers and social media influencers, it was inevitable that eventually we’d get a film shot in the style of a social media stream. We’ve seen similar with films like Unfriended and Searching, taking on the likes of social media whilst shot entirely from a webcam. However Spree is the first that I’ve seen that takes on social media almost entirely from live streaming or go pro recordings, and overall it’s a pretty decent attempt.

Spree is a 2020 comedy horror film starring Joe Keery as Kurt Kunkle, a failing social media influencer who works as a driver for a rideshare app called Spree. Fed up of his lack of viewers, Kurt decides to fit out his car with cameras and livestream “The Lesson”, where he instructs viewers on how to become famous on social media while picking up passengers and murdering them. One of the passengers he lets go is comedian Jessie Adams (Sasheer Zamata), a star and social media success who Kurt becomes obsessed with over the course of his murderous evening.

Spree is definitely a fun film. The comedic horror style works very well, especially in the first half although later on it does make way for a more serious side. There’s a decent amount of blood and gore too and it has a wonderfully cheesy B-movie vibe about it. What makes Spree so fun though is Joe Keery. His performance as an influencer is entirely believable and it’s his charisma and baby-faced innocence that makes this film watchable. He spends the entirety of the film like he’s high and hyped up on energy drinks and while this does make his performance a little over the top, this is exactly what Spree needs. David Arquette as Kurt’s dad also brings a lot of fun although his screen time is sadly lacking.

Despite Spree’s dark comedic feel, there’s a more serious story and commentary underlying this film. It might look as though it’s making light of social media influencers, but actually it’s making a rather serious point of the pressures and negatives of the constant need influencers have to be liked and obtain more followers. Kurt’s story is rather sad, and even the other characters like Jessie are shown to have their own stories but still stuck in the same social media behaviour. The live streams used to shoot most of this film, with the likes and comments from viewers, emphasise the pitfalls and real life issues with social media.

Admittedly this live stream method does get a little thin by the end of the 90 minute run time, and after the initial few murders, it’s only Keery’s performance that holds the film up to the end. It isn’t helped that aside from Kurt, none of his victims are particularly likeable and it makes them very difficult to relate to or care about. And this also goes for Jessie who despite her heroine status, becomes unlikeable due to how she too bows to the pressure of social media.

I’m not a fan of the YouTube and influencer revolution, so for me Spree was an interesting take on this and social media in general. It has a good point to make and a serious message, although this may be overshadowed by the dark comedy and horror. With a great turn from Joe Keery, it’s a fun film but not entirely memorable.
  
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Jimmy Fallon recommended American Movie (1999) in Movies (curated)

 
American Movie (1999)
American Movie (1999)
1999 | Comedy, Documentary
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"This is a comedy for you movie nerds (but that’s probably why you’re on Rotten Tomatoes anyway, because you are a film nerd). This movie is called American Movie, and it’s a documentary comedy. Man, oh man, I remember seeing this film with Horatio Sanz: we were in the theater, and we were crying so hard from laughing, we were hugging each other and punching each other because we were laughing too hard. It’s about a man trying to make a horror movie. He calls it Cove–en, and it’s about a coven, but he doesn’t like the way “coven” rhymes with “oven,” that doesn’t make sense, so he calls it, mispronounces the title for his film, and calls it Cove-en. He tries to get his dad to act in the movie, and his dad is going like, “You have something to live for. Jesus told me so.” And he’s like, “All right, Dad, do it again, but your teeth are falling out.” And he goes, “Cole, you have something to live for. Jesus told me so.” And he goes, “Geez, I hear his teeth clickety clacking in the audio, it’s unusable.” I mean it is crying funny. He takes a dentist, a local dentist [who] wants to be an actor, and he’s ramming his head into a closet that he was supposed to have scored so that it easily breaks away, but he forgets to score the wood so he’s actually ramming a human’s head into a wooden cabinet. [The man] is screaming, and he’s ramming this poor man’s head into the thing. So cut, and the guy’s holding his head. He’s like, “Oh, my gosh.” He’s like “Uh, man, I’m sorry, I forgot to cut that board.” It’s one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. It will make you cry laughing. If you love filmmaking, you will appreciate this. The two guys, the two stars of the movie, are true stars."

Source
  
Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015)
Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015)
2015 | Comedy, Horror
We film-goers really can’t get enough of zombies. The brain-munching, cannibalistic horrors used to be the stuff of nightmares. But as our tastes became more extreme, the flesh-eaters managed to slip into the mainstream with genre-bending films at the forefront of zombie resurgence.

Christopher B. Landon brings zombies back to the silver screen with horror comedy, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. Are we looking at a US version of Shaun of the Dead? Or something a little more dead behind the eyes?

Scouts Guide follows the tale of three teenage boys, having to battle not only their raging hormones, but a raging horde of zombies in a small town during the course of one evening. Starring rising star Tye Sheridan, Logan Miller and Joey Morgan as the aforementioned teens and the ever-likeable David Koechner as their scout leader, the trio must survive and defeat the creatures.

To create a successful zombie film, you need to know your monsters and this is where things start to unravel here. There are so many inconsistences that it’s difficult knowing where to begin. Instead of choosing a zombie-typing, like fast walkers from World War Z or traditional moaners like those from Shaun of the Dead, Scouts Guide uses both and the result simply doesn’t work.

Then there’s the plot. It’s so riddled with holes, cheap jumps and clichés that it’s almost impossible to fully immerse yourself in the experience. The makeup on the zombies is also terrifically poor, lacking in any sort of terror or real detail.

Thankfully, the acting from the lead three scouts is good with Sheridan in particular proving why he’s fast becoming one to watch, especially after being cast in next year’s X-Men: Apocalypse. The remainder of the characters are cardboard cut-outs with no backstory and no real gravitas when it comes to how the story will play out.

Nevertheless, there are some funny and genuinely clever moments dotted throughout Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. A living-room chase choreographed to Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 is a hilarious, albeit too short highlight in a film that needed more intriguing and unique sequences.

There’s also a nice, if unusually placed, homage to John Carpenter’s Halloween that whilst being particularly tasteful, is at odds with the film’s genre.

Overall, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse is as beige as a blood-filled horror comedy can come. Despite a couple of clever scenes, some good acting and a reasonably fluid directing style, it’s a damp squib of a movie that never really gets into its groove.


https://moviemetropolis.net/2015/11/15/dead-behind-the-eyes-scouts-guide-to-the-zombie-apocalypse-review/
  
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
1974 | Classics, Comedy, Horror

"The next movie would probably be Young Frankenstein. I remember going to see that as a kid. Because I loved all the Universal horror films, but I had only seem them on TV, like on Creature Double Feature on Friday afternoons. By that point I loved Gene Wilder, because I made the connection like, “Oh, that guy was in Willy Wonka. Now he’s in Young Frankenstein.” So that movie blew me away. And even to this day, I watch it all the time. It’s such an incredible movie because it’s really, really funny, with such incredible performances, but it’s so beautifully made. Nobody would spend the time now to make a comedy that well. Visually and technically, it’s so incredible. It doesn’t date; it holds up. Peter Boyle’s perfect, and Madeline Kahn and Gene Wilder, and everybody. It’s just an incredible movie. It really captured the feel of those Universal films, like Bride of Frankenstein, yet it is really funny. It’s something that almost never works. You know, kind of look at the Munsters on TV, and the Addams family, where you could get into it and they have the art direction there and everyone’s funny, but it almost never works. It’s almost always a disaster, and that film is just so perfect. I think the fact that people were brave enough back then to release black-and-white movies."

Source
  
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LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated Dead Set in TV

Aug 18, 2019 (Updated Oct 25, 2019)  
Dead Set
Dead Set
2008 | Drama, Horror
8
7.5 (33 Ratings)
TV Show Rating
Dead Set in short - a six part British drama series, set around a zombie apocalypse, where most of the story takes place in the Big Brother house.
It's also from the mind of Charlie Brooker - the creator of Black Mirror, and the results are pretty good.

The opening episode deals with an eviction night of the British Big Brother series, where everyone involved both on camera and behind the scenes go about their usual business.
As a virus takes hold and chaos quickly ensues, the Big Brother housemates are trapped inside the house - which happens to be pretty secure.

The way that Dead Set is shot is frantic when the action starts. It's nasty and gritty whilst keeping a British dark humour sort of charm without ever going full comedy. In fact, the series is really quite bleak throughout.
The episodes run at 20 minutes each with an extended pilot, clocking in at just over 2 hours and it managed to hold my attention throughout.

Of course, being a Charlie Brooker project, there's an underlying message - as the zombie horde surrounding the house grows and grows, even in death, the public are drawn towards trashy reality shows.

Considering Dead Set is a TV show aired on Channel 4, it's pretty impressive. Well worth checking out for anyone who enjoys horror.
  
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Lee KM Pallatina (951 KP) Aug 19, 2019

I watched this during it's original airing and really enjoyed it, it helped that I enjoy zombie movies, gritty brit flicks and am an adam deacon fan.
Still have the dvd.

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LeftSideCut (3778 KP) Aug 19, 2019

@Lee KM Pallatina it passed me by when it originally aired unfortunately. It's only in the last few years that I watched it. Thought it was great though 👍

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)
Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)
2023 | Action, Adventure, Comedy
6
6.3 (7 Ratings)
Movie Rating
I've always quite liekd Zachary Levi, going back to when I first encountered him in his TV days on the spy comedy drama show 'Chuck' (remember that?)

Beyond that - and a few side character appearances in the early Thor films - I would struggle to name a single movie with him in it.

Except for 2019s Shazam!, where he took the leading role of the grown-up alter-ego of a teenager who is granted magic (superheroic) powers when he shouts the word Shazam!

That movie, itself, was enjoyable and a breath of fresh air from the grimdark of the DC brand (in the movies) at the time.

This follows on from the events of the first movie, with a certain select group of people now aware of who Shazam *is*, and with the same sprinkling of the horror genre throughout; albeit not quite so much 'on the nose' as the Seven Deadly Sins were. Instead, we have the mythical Daughters of Atlas out for revenge, viewing their powers as having been stolen and gifted to the mortals by the (still nameless) Wizard (who makes a return, despite having turned to dust previously - don't ask).

Whilst the future structure of the whole DC universe is currently 'under review', it may be interesting to see where this lesser-known (at least, to me) brand goes!