I'm coming for you Michael (Halloween Kills 2021)

304.

Halloween Kills

4/10

Always a sucker for horror, I find myself a little less inclined with slashers but I'll watch them nonetheless. Halloween is a franchise which has been around since its first instalment in 1978 and this movie becomes the 12th in the list. A direct sequel to the 2018 movie in which we see Michael Myers being burnt to death in a basement, we know it isn't that simple with this madman. Jamie Lee Curtis reprises her role as Laurie with Judy Greer as he daughter and Andi Matichak as her Granddaughter this movie's timeline is instantly continued after the 2018 movie, the three are taken to the hospital to heal their wounds from their fight with Michael. Listening to the iconic music by John and Cody Carpenter and also Daniel Davies, we know that we are ready. 

As some of the town celebrate the fact that Michael has not been imprisoned for 40 years, or so they believe, firefighters head to Laurie's old house which is ablaze and are soon set upon by Michael Myers who uses their equipment against them and kills them in some inventive and bloody ways. 

It's a strong start for the kill count as Michael then makes his way into town. He moves on to the neighbours before the celebrating party learns that he has escaped. They form a mob of Haddensfield residents, set on killing Michael once and for all. Karen, Laurie's daughter learns that Michael is still alive but chooses to keep the information from her mother as she rests from surgery and Allyson, the Granddaughter, decides to join the mob for revenge against her father's death years before. 

The town is taken out one by one and the rest of the mob look at the kill locations and direction, figuring that Michael is heading back to his childhood home. By this point, Laurie has finally found out that Michael is still alive and makes preparations to leave the hospital to carry on her fight.

Hardly anyone is spared in Michaels rath. As some of the side characters are picked off in quick succession, he is confronted in the street by the mob that is left. Inside the house, he goes to kill Allyson but is stabbed with a pitchfork by Karen, who steals his mask and leads him out to the street and into the mob.

 They swarm him and seemingly kill him before thinking of leaving the scene. As usual, he wakes, slaughters the lot of them and ends up killing Karen whilst Laurie never makes it out of the hospital and remains staring out of her window.

As with the franchise, Michael Myers is just seen as an immovable object. When it comes to some inventive kills, small massacres and little twists, the movie is in abundance but when it comes to some actual substance to the storyline, the movie falls a little short. I'm personally always game for a horror but more centered around a creature feature or something paranormal. When it's a killer walking a mile an horror surrounded by screaming teens, I'm not too fussed as the movie doesn't give you the sense of uneasiness and nor does it usually contain jump scares. 

We've come to know the main cast now as this is a direct sequel from the last instalment with the timeline instantly following on from past events. There really isn't much more to say on our trio of ladies than we already know. I just didn't understand the writing for the characters. Two thirds of the trio spent most of their time in a hospital whilst the main story was going on on the streets. Side characters from the past and town were made out to be chumps, making awful decisions in the face of danger. The cops were non existent, letting the town folk take matters into their own hands and finally the attempt of humour from some characters just fell flat. 

We know there is one more to the franchinse and the only reason I will revisit this movie is to simply refresh the mind. I can live without seeing it again and not miss much to be fair as it has the ability to not make me want to watch the next but knowing the finale is coming, we might as well just give it a couple of hours and say 'no more'. 

Dreams are messages from the deep (Dune 2021)

303.

Dune

7.5/10

Dune is a movie which has had a build-up for quite a while. Although the movie was originally made in 1984 and considered a flop, this remake by Denis Villeneuve had gained traction from the moment the first trailer hit the big screen. In the years between the two, special effects and visuals of movies has moved on ten fold and everyone was instantly stood to attention with what could be achieved with this one. The story is already available for the director as this is a novel. Not a novel that I have read and I also haven't seen the 1984 movie so this story will be brand new to me and I had no idea what I was heading in to. The movie sits at 2 hours and 35 minutes which is becoming so what of a norm with movie coming out in the past year or two. The thing is, this is just Part one of the story. 

Focusing on the storyline first, its easy to see what this run time is only part one of the novel. It doesn't feel rushed and it seems that each of the little things were thought about and wanted to be portrayed. After reading the reviews of the 80's movie, that movie felt rushed and lost the essence of the novel. At times, for me anyway, it felt a little too slow and drawn out for the run time. The movie became climatic only for it to end abruptly and left the audience waiting for more as the characters walk away from the screen. The only way I can explain it is by comparing it to the ending of The Fellowship of the Ring, as we needed the second part almost instantly as the first part felt like it was leading to something huge. At the same time, there is a good point to be made which is the intrigue that the story has began. Making an audience which the second part was coming sooner to find out where we go from here is also only a good thing. I was more intrigued by the dark side of the story and following the villains narrative at times more than our 'hero's' mainly because the character of Baron Valadimir Harkonnen was so dark and creepy that there was almost an aspect of a horror genre. Will our main character be able to fight his war against the forces of evil to protect his family and also fight against his visions of a dark future? Only time will tell.

A lot was made of the cast of this movie and how stacked it actually was. More last longer than others due to their roles in the story and some with much larger roles in the second part I can imagine. Timothee Chalamet is a name gaining traction in Hollywood and he leads the way in this one. Firstly seeming as a young feeble boy, he is quickly trained to fight by a mixture of Josh Brolin and Jason Mamoa in order to last in his future mission. A parent partnership of Rebecca Ferguson and Oscar Isaac keep the cast names flowing before we start seeing Zendaya in Chalamet's visions before meeting her towards the end along with Javier Bardem's character. All doing a stellar job and leaving some questions to be answered with their stories rather than wishing they would be written out of the story. My stand out performance comes back to the Baron again. Played by Stellan Skarsgard, who has been in many a successful project, the Baron was a sinister 600-pound man from the depths of hell. He didn't have to do much to still command the scenes he was featured in.

We can't finish a review of Dune without talking about the cinematography of this movie. The special effects and overall look of this movie made the planets, vehicles and every technical piece look as real as possible. Watching this movie in the context of a cinema setting, big screen and plenty of speakers to blare that movie's score into the audience. The score was so loud, in a good way, that the cinema screen's seats were shaking from the sound's bass. 

I'm left waiting for the second instalment but one thing I've noticed since watching this movie the first time a while back is that I haven't looked to go back and watch this movie again. I will need to and will eventually want to watch it again before the second instalment hits the screen but I don't know how I feel about the fact that I've not been drawn back since. 

Something wicked this was comes (Venom: Let There Be Carnage 2021)

302.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage

5/10

Tom Hardy brings back Venom onto the main screen and this time are promised carnage. With the hope that this is a good thing, Woody Harrelson has joined the cast to play a serial killer named Cletus Kasady, later becoming Carnage. If you've seen the first Venom movie, you know what you're letting yourself in for. Another Sony movie which is struggling to keep up with the MCU in using its Marvel characters well. I would have really been excited for this movie if I knew that Sony wasn't constantly missing the mark but let's digest what kind of carnage we got ourselves in to.

At a run time of 97 minutes, I already think this movie could well be rushed and kept to a minimum in order to lack the opportunities for mistakes. The movie begins by setting up Cletus' backstory which shows him in a home for unwanted children where his girlfriend gets taken away to a maximum security facility due to her special powers. She has super sonic screams and although she puts up a fight and injures a cop, she is still taken to her final cell, with a bullet wound in her eye.

The cop is now a detective and played by Stephen Graham and needs Eddie Brock to interview Cletus as he will not speak to anyone else. Just as this gives his career a boost, his ex calls him to announce she is engaged, much to the displeasure of Venom. Cletus is be to executed for his crimes and one last interview ends in a confrontation between himself and Brook. 

Cletus bites Eddie Brook and a little bit of symbiote makes its way into Cletus' bloodstream. Eddie makes it home and him and Venom have an argument about how Venom feeds, ending with both deciding to go their separate ways. The scene cuts to Cletus ready for his lethal injection but it doesn't go to plan as a red symbiote named Carnage puts a stop to things. As he escapes whilst killing cops and freeing criminals from their cells, Carnage now shows himself in full force. The scene is created to make this symbiote look as violent and large as possible, considerable more than we have seen Venom in the previous movie and scenes from this one. Cletus sets out to find his girlfriend from those years ago and its quite an easy job to find her and free her. Now played by Naomie Harris, Barrison is recruited to help kill Brook and Venom. 

Brook needs to find Venom in order to fight back and finds him in the shop owner Mrs Chen. They forgive each other and prepare for the final battle.

Carnage is holed up in a cathedral, with Mulligan the detective as a hostage, Barrison now has Mrs Chen. Mulligan is seemingly killed by being hung from a chain, Carnage is winning with ease until Barrison is tricked into using her power which separates Carnage from Cletus and kills him whilst Venom devours Carnage. The cathedral collapses on Barrison killing her and Mulligan is somehow still alive with a blue glint in his eyes, hinting that he has somehow digested a little bit of symbiote. 

Brook and Venom are now fugitives and somehow make it to a nice beach resort on holiday to discuss their next move. Up next is the mid-credit screen. They are discussing the symbiote's universe when a large flash transports them to another hotel room. One TV we see J. Jonah Jameson talking about Spier-Man's real identity. Venom ends the scene licking the screen hinting that he wants to eat Peter Parker. Clearly this has been caused by the multi-verse cross over in Spider-Man: Far From Home. 

Another swing and a miss from Sony for me. God loves a tryer but honestly I think they just need to give up any rights they have, back to Disney and say they had a go. The story to this movie felt rushed, patchy and actually boring. Our hero and villain hardly interact and when they do, it's far from edgy and tense, our hero has nothing to solve but find out where the final show down is taking place and have a bit of rough and tumble for 10 minutes. Instead, Sony took us on a journey of a weird feeling gay couple bickering constantly until they split, only to resolve their differences to save the day. 

Hardy, Harrelson, Michelle Williams and Naomie Harris have all had success on their CVs but my word, they'll not want to add this when going for interviews. You can't blame them, you have to look at the writing as we have already mention what the chemistry of Eddie Brock and Vemon was like. Cletus was such a strangely written character as he had no new feeling other than a normal psychopath that could have been copy and pasted from any other movie. Cletus's girlfriend eventually added nothing to the storyline, even with her mutant powers and finally having Brock's ex-girlfriend still floating about with the hope she becomes She-Venom for 30 seconds is just a waste of a role and payslip. Yes we had some laughs with a bit of darker humour compared to normal Marvel movies. Yes some of the action was ok at times and this was a movie for escapsim but is that really enough?

This could have been the exact same movie on much less of a budget as even the CGI didn't spark a smile. The whole movie is made worth while to sit through just for the end credits where there is a link with Tom Holland's Peter Parker but this gets extinguished in a few MCU movies time. Thankfully. It hurts that I paid for this movie for my steelbook collection but life's a bitch. 

God will not punish those who tell the truth (The Last Duel 2021)

301.

The Last Duel

6/10

It had been a while since a good medieval movie had made it to the big screen and I immediately fancied giving it a watch. The Last Duel sprung to my attention as the trailer hit and we saw the list of talent involved. Ridley Scott was about to direct a screenplay which Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, along with Nicole Holofcener had written, with the gents previously having success together. Damon and Affleck were also both starring in the movie alongside Adam Driver, Jody Comer and a handful of smaller names. A movie set around 'true' historical events and a book named 'The Last Duel: A true story of Crime, Scandal and Trial by Combat' by Eric Jagar, I'm glad they shortened the name. The movie revolves around 3 main characters, played by Damon, Driver and Comer. Damon plays Jean De Carrouges, Drive plays Jacques Le Gris and Comer plays De Carrouges' wife, Marguerite. The main event of the movie is Marguerite accusing Le Gris of raping her whilst De Carrouges was away at war. This leads to a judicial duel, in which the winner would be right due to a lack of witnesses and no confessions to the crime. 

Getting into the movie itself, it was told interestingly as we get three accounts of the time period in mention. Before we get to the accounts, we learn about the male characters and how Le Gris and De Carrouges know each other before the main body of the story. They are both swearing allegiance to Count Pierre d'Alecon who is played by a bleach-blonde Affleck. This Count will be De Carrouges' overlord, on behalf of King Charles IV. This starts tension as Le Gris begins to work with the Count and oversees De Carrouges' estate to make sure the Count is paid, which is really the King collecting taxes. To get some dosh, De Carrouges marries into a wealthy family to Marguerite but her father owes the Count money and his estates are suddenly taken away to pay his way. The Count gives the estates to Le Gris as payment and now the once friends are even more strained at friendship. 

We now suddenly have the story split into three accounts. De Carrouges is up first. The pair reconcile for a while at a party whilst Marguerite introduces herself to Le Gris to gain favour for her husband, or so she thought. This was taken as an advance on Le Gris, which more will follow soon enough. One more attempt by De Carrouges to gain coin is heading to Scotland to fight for the King. Whilst we have De Carrouges' state of events, a war in Scotland and a massive struggle, he returns home to be told by his wife that she was raped by Le Gris. After being quite violent in making sure she wasn't lying, De Carrouges beds his wife to make sure he was the last to sleep with her.

Secondly, we have Le Gris and his account. We head back to when he first meets this woman and the encounter is a lot more flirtatious. Le Gris falls in love with her and on the night in question, tricks his way into her house and declares his love. She demands he leaves but he chases her into her chamber and has rough sex with her but insists that it was consensual. He asks her not to tell her husband and after a while, the Count tells Le Gris that he is being accused of rape and it's going to be contested in front of the King. 

Our final account is that of Marguerite. Obviously, we expect this to be on a different end of the spectrum than what Le Gris has said happened. This time around, the first time they met was subdued. It shows her husband as more of a demanding figure, telling her not to leave the castle and the relationship is strained as she cannot bear him a child. The night in question did begin with a declaration of love from Le Gris but what followed was a lot more aggressive. She tells her husband only for her mother-in-law to advise her to drop it for the sake of her son.

The movie finally draws to a close as a duel is accepted by the King. Marguerite is now heavily pregnant and is advised that if her husband loses this duel, she is to be burnt at the stake for purgery. A bloody fight ensues with Le Gris getting the upper hand only for Da Carrouges to fight back and pin Le Gris to the ground. Demanding an apology and the truth which never comes, Da Carrouges kills his former friend but not before the beaten man sticks to his story of being innocent of any wrongdoing. The movie ends pretty sharpish after Le Gris is killed. We are treated to an epilogue which tells us that Da Carrouges dies a few years later in the Crusades and Marguerite lives the rest of her life in peace, never marrying again.

At the end of the movie I wasn;t really satisfied that I knew the truth. The story depicated and carried the female version of events as the true narrative but was this just a story told so that a wife would not be in the wrong or was it actually the truth. The body language and stance of Marguerite at the end didn't give too much away but she was very subdued compared to her husband. But I suppose he did just come out on top from a fight to the death. It is a very interesting take on a movie which is set up quite slow and like something the audience may have seen before but then questions are asked on who we should be believing. Da Carrougues isn't seen as the hero that we thought he might have been from the start and Le Gris side of the story makes the audience question who they should actually be routing for. This ambiguity is ended when the female story is told and the 'truth' is told. This actually ends any mystery that may have been left lingering within the movie and I wonder if that came a little too early. The duel at the end is exactly what we wanted with some brutality and the actions of two desperate men but I'll be honest it didnt last two long and the main story was not really depeitive of the movie's name.

All there main performanes were great. We don't see Damon as a gritty sort of character too often but this showed his range was ticking boxes as he took this up a notch from his usual. Adam Driver is moving on up in some serious roles as he comes out of the shadow of Disney's Star Wars in order to elevate into working under someone like Scott. Finally, Comer smashes yet another out of the park. I really enjoyed her on the other end of the spectrum in Fall Guy but this movie had me questioning whether her character's story was one of truth or deception. This is all down to the work of the cast.

The movie did seem a little long and it's hard to watch a movie of this type without thinking that it's a little too repretitive but at the same time, as the third version of event unfolded, I felt myself sitting a little further forward in my chair because we knew this was going to the truth to how the events unfolded. Being based on a book, it would be hard to change the story of this movie because it needs to follow exactly as the book tells in order to deliver on the dramatic effect as the two and a half hours carry us through. Ridley Scott, who has in the past delievered Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven, has made us go back to those movies for another watch. I can't ever see myself going back to this in order to enjoy another few hours of screen time. Although when we got a bit of action, he was bloody and top bill but the rest was a bit of a trudge and not one I'm willingly wanting to do again. 

You have all the time in the world (No Time to Die 2021)

 300.

No Time to Die

8.5/10

I'll be as honest as possible and I'm not a massive James Bond fan. I've never got into the franchise, haven't been going out of  my way to watch the Daniel Craig lead films and Pierce Brosnan is proper my favourite in the role, which says a lot. This movie was highly publicised as being Daniel Craig's last out so understandably there was a lot of hype around how he was going to bow out and what or who comes next. I also remember a stir being caused as it was confirmed that the new 007 was a black female but we'll address that is good time. I hadn't seen the movie that preceeded this one and the name almost escaped me but this is a follow on from events of Spectre. Some of the cast are back from that stroy line such as Christophe Waltz and Lea Seydoux but we also bring in Ana De Armas and Rami Malek plays our main villain. I'm going to try and cut down these reviews but not going so deep into the story but let's tackle some.

The movie begins as a flash back stage with a young Madeline witnessing her mother being killed by a guy named Safin. She fires at him and tries to escape but falls through ice and instead is saved by this masked man. The movie now comes to present time with Bond and Madeleine on a holiday together to celebrate his retirement but the quiet doesn't last as Bond is nearly killed in an assassination attempt and he believes his new lady has betrayed him. 

He leaves her on a train and disappears. Five years pass and shit hits the fan with bioweapons being stolen from London which can be programmed to certain targets and therefore be harmless to everyone else. Bond is tracked down by the CIA to help but refused and the new 007 agent also tracks him to ask for help. Played by Lashana Lynch, Nomi seems to have only taken the codename 007 rather than leading the movies for the future. She seems to be a little more to the book than Bond. 

The mission moves to Cuba and a birthday party for Waltz's character who is still in prison but he leads the party in an interesting way. He knows Bond is there and orders everyone to kill him with the Nanobots but instead its been programmed to kill the remaining Spectre members and Safin has made his mark once again with some double agents. Bond ends up working a little more than he wanted to and after meeting with Q, a meeting is set up with Blofield, played by Waltz, to track down who is behind the nanobot killings. In the mean time, Madeleine is in a meeting with Safin and he attaches the nanobots to her, this passes onto Bond and Blofield is killed in a roundabout way. He dies but not before admitting to the attempt on Bond's life at the beginning and doing his best to make it look like Madeleine was involved. 

Bond now tracks Madeleine down to the home she grew up in from the beginning of the movie and learns that she has a daughter now. Bit weird that shes around 5 years old. We can guess where this is off, even with the bright blue eyes, there's little chance she jumped straight into bed with someone after splitting from Bond. She admits that her father killed Safin's parents when he was just a boy and he will not stop with his revenge on the world. His team are moving in to capture our new trio and after some great action scenes in a forest, the mother and daughter are caught.

Safin is hiding out on an old miltary island between Russia and Japan, because why wouldn't they be. The place is a nanobot factory and they have plans to kill millions to establish a new world order. Q send out Bond and Nomi to end the wrath and Nomi asks for Bond to be reinstated as 007, which was a nice touch. The mother and daugther are rescued and sent with Nomi whilst Bond stays behind to finish the job. He needs to open the old missle silos so that the HMS Dragon which is sailing the ocean can pepper the island with missles and end all threat. Bond has faught his way through many a guard and comes face to face with Safin. Bit of a sadistic character to say the least and Bond is shot but eventually gets the upper hand and kills Safin. The kicker is that Safin, in a last gasp effort, infects Bond with nanobots that are designed to kill Madeleine and Mathilde. Bond knows he can't leave the island and after opening the silos, heading to the edge of the island and finds a nice quiet area to speak to Madeleine who admits what we already knew, that Bond has a daughter. He tells her to move on without him and with his love she turns away as the missles hit is location in a pretty sad scene for a Bond movie. 

The movie ends with our remaning M16 characters having a toast to James Bond and the mother and daughter on a road trip as Madeleine starts telling her daughter about a man named Bond.

I tell you what. This was a cracking little send off for Daniel Craig. I enjoyed watching Spectre to catch up on some of the storyline and character and glad that I gave it the chance so that I could watch this movie. The story was very well thought out and I had no idea that it would include so much from the previous movie considering the Bond movies that I had seen in the past were seemingly stand alones. It was quite a long movie looking at the run time but I have seen this movie on a flight since and wasn't put off by knowing how long I'd have to invest into the movie again. This is because the movie was full of action, twists and ultimately the end of an era which audiences want to be part of. 

I hadn't been fond of Craig as Bond but this movie won me over and I don't know if once again it was due to this one being the last or everything coming together and the way that he acted out the final scene. A lot of the cast were seen in the previous movie so Rami Malek starring in this one is really the only one worth going into length about. I found it very interesting to find him cast in the role of the main villain when previously I had seen him in the total opposite character placement. This wasn't a villain who threw his weight around but instead used his powerful ideas to wreak havoc. Even as he state in silence, he had a presence in this movie that always seemed malicious and that's once again down to the good work of Malek. 

I think I have now seen each Daniel Craig movie where he is playing Bond and although some were a struggle, such as Quantum of Solace and Skyfall, Casino Royale and this instalment were 100% the strongest. I went to the cinema to watch it, I watched it a couple of months later on a flight to NYC and enjoyed it just as much the second time if not more. The ending just proved that Bond is a character that they may never find happy ending for and with this being the first real death of Bond on screen it felt a much more powerful ending than any of the other movies. I wonder where they go from here. Rumour has it, Henry Cavill is in talks. That would be a larger figure of a spy than we've been used to. 

Pain comes from always wanting things (The Many Saints of Newark 2021)

299.

The Many Saints of Newark

6.5/10

This movie wasn't really one I had planned to see straight away but the lads fancied it and as a gang, we booked our seats. Now they have either seen The Sopranos TV series in its entirety or were working through it at the time of watching this movie. I on the other hand had never seen an episode and still haven't. The TV shows I believe revolve around Tony Soprano and his mafia family. This movie will be set before that time, as Tony is a kid. The lads were excited, I had no idea what to expect but enjoy movies such as Scarface and Goodfellas, and I knew that I at least enjoyed the crime genre.

So the movie follows a crime family member named Dickie Moltisanti played by Alessandro Nivola, who is the mentor to a young Tony Soprano. They both travel to welcome home Dickie's father and his new young bride and are joined by many other family members who feature in the TV series but are obviously played by younger cast members. The year is 1967 and a black man is killed by some cops causing riots throughout Newark. Harold, one of Dickie's men, kills a white guy who is trying to loot his shop and quickly moves away before he is caught and locked up.

 The time passes and the family starts to crack a little as Dickie's old man pushes the wife down the stairs and Dickie ends up accidentally killing his old man for this before dumping his body in one of his businesses and burning it down, acting as it all happened during the riots. This leads him into sleeping with his, at the time, step-mom and Tony is suspended from school for starting a gambling ring. Dickie loves the promise in the kid but at the same time, needs him to follow the rules for a while.

Years pass now and we are in 1972, some family get out of prison, Harold returns to Newark looking to start black-led crime operations and the actor playing Tony is now Michael Gandolfini, the son of the later James Gandolfini who played Tony in the TV series. 

Dickie's lady has an affair with Harold and a little war is raged as Dickie kills one of Harold's men and Harold retaliates with the life of one of Dickie's family. Dickie's life is starting to fall apart now as Tony's mother warns him about being around her son as everyone seems to die. After a funeral, a family member falls down the stairs and Dickie laughs in front of a lot of people. Dickie finds out about his missis's affair in full and drowns her and everyone's suspicions are finally up. Tony is infuriated that his uncle has been ignoring him and tracks him down. The end doesn't end well as he refuses to meet his nephew. The night and movie draw to a close as Dickie is shot in the back of the head on the orders of Junior, the guy that fell down the stairs after the funeral. This apparently was a bombshell in the tv show as the audience didn't find out for a long time who actually ordered the hit. The movie finally ends with Tony standing at the coffin at the funeral and Harold moving into a white neighbour, seemingly flourishing with his new business venture. 

I'll be honest and say I think this story was a little lost on me. It relied quite heavily on the characters that proceeded this movie and even with some of the storylines such as the killing at the end, it had no relevance to me and each link to the series was completely lost on me. This would have had a massive impact on me because unlike something like Goodfellas, some aspects of the movie were completely lost on me. Knowing that I hadn't seen The Sopranos this movie did nothing for me to go and immediately watch the series. It didn't really drive forward the rise of Tony which I expected it to but that isn't something I then drew to expect as I realised how young Tony was in the movie. Instead, the story focused on an uninspiring character who had his moments but didn't really lead a dominating crime family as I loved in Goodfellas. 

The character development in the movie was way below par and rather than leading the line in crime, it seemed like a family and their tantrums. Alessandro Nivola has been in a couple of movies that I have been through. Goal! Face/Off and Jurassic Park III to name a few. A different role played in each, the guy 100% has range. In this movie I didn't feel he was a mob boss, I didn't watch the movie thinking this guy is a badass, even when killing, the character seemed very subdued and I'm not sure the writing did him justice. I'm not under the impression that this was the actors' fault. If you looked at a cast listing featuring Ray Liotta, Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga and Corey Stroll, you'd be an idiot to not be impressed. When you watch the movie as a stand-alone, you would be right to not be impressed. The one part I did think was a cool addition would be Michael Gandolfini. It was a very interesting idea to bring him in to play the young version of a character that his dad made extremely famous within one of the biggest TV shows of all time. He gave a good account for someone who hasn't been acting too long but who am I to judge. 

I've typed it once and I'll type it again. This movie did not make me want to go home and start watching The Sopranos for the first time. I haven't really asked how the fans of the TV shows found this movie but from the reviews, it looks like they ended it as much as the ending of the final episode. A boring, uninteresting crime movie that could have been so much more if it just looked into how the other feature movies of the same genre went about their business. Even I doubt that this movie did the series any sort of justice.

It's time to cut out the cancer (Malignant 2021)

 298.

Malignant

7/10

I am a big fan of James Wan's work since he created my favourite horror universe revolving around The Conjuring movies. Over the past few years, Wan has put his name to things without being at the forefront of directing or writing. This time he is the lead name in both as he looks to bring a unique movie to the cinema. Too many times do we see the same formula of horror movies come about, same beginning, middle and end leaving the audience with the enjoyment of the horror but not really making them think. This movie was the complete opposite. The storyline was completely off the chain and will 100% be too much for some people but going in a brand new direction was a point of the board for me. There is only one cast member that I recognised and that is Annabelle Wallis in the lead role of Madison. Let's try this a new way and not give too much away in the story.

The movie starts in the early 90s as a character called Gabriel is in a psychiatric hospital receiving treatment from a couple of doctors. Gabriel has special powers in which he can control electricity and communicate via nearby speakers. One night, during some routine examinations, he decides it's time to kill a few people, just before the timeline gets to 27 years later and we meet Madison. The movie will now take us on a quick journey to learn about Madison and her abusive relationship, the fact she's pregnant and before she locks herself in the bathroom to get away from the husband. Falling asleep, she dreams that her husband is murdered but this isn't a dream and the attacker is still in her home. She is once again attacked, this woman can't catch a break and it's lights out once again for Madison. 

Madison wakes in a hospital with her sister at her side. She finds out that her baby didn't survive the attack and after the police ask a few questions, she returns home. Her sister Sydney stays for a while and Madison reveals to her that she was actually adopted into Sydney's family at 8. After another sleep, Madison has another vision of the killer kidnapping a woman in the Seattle underground, only to find out it is a Dr Weaver who, during an investigation is found to be a child reconstructive surgeon. The detectives find a picture of Madison in the Doctor's office. The police are contacted by Madison and Sydney after yet another vision of a Doctor getting killed. The killer gets in touch with Madison, and revealed himself to be Gabriel which Madison believed was her childhood imaginary friend. They visit mom, find out that Gabriel was actually real and are both led to a string of doctors linked to Madison and yet another body. 

Madison is hooked up with a psychic of sorts and her memories are unlocked to an extent. She remembers her birth name, the fact that Gabriel wanted her to kill her unborn sister and she came very close but thankfully was able to stop herself. Randomly, a woman that has been kidnapped falls through her ceiling and it turns out that Gabriel had been living in the attic all along. This doesn't look good for Madison and she is arrested. This woman is Madison's birth mother, Serena May. Whilst Madison is locked up, Sydney heads to the old Hospital where her sister and the dead doctors met when she was younger. She finds out that Gabriel is actually Madison's twin brother that is an extreme version of teratoma. If you don't know what that is, it's a very rare form of tumour and can be thought to be a person's twin. It instantly reminded me of the fella who had a face on the back of his head who apparently told him to do evil things. This story is instantly thrust in that direction. The doctors hacked away at the twin and pushed it back into Madison's brain, sewing the back of her head up. Yeah I know, as far-fetched as shit from China but at the same time, very unique as a villain. They share a brain and when you look back at the attacks, Madison's body is walking and used backwards, so that Gabriel has the view out of the back of her head. He had laid dormant for a long time but when the ex-boyfriend smashed Madison's head against the wall, the tumour was woken up. 

Gabriel is provoked whilst locked up and attacks the other inmates, leaving none alive. With some super-human strength, he works through the police station until he comes across Sydney and one of the detectives. They don't last long as the detective is injured and Sydney is pinned against a wall but a hospital bed. Sydney tries to wake Madison back up by telling her that the brother is the reason for her miscarriages because he was feeding off them through her body. This wakes Madison back up and she takes control of her body once again. She enters her own mind to lock Gabriel behind some metaphorical bars, before proclaiming that her body is now hers along with the powers that Gabriel has. Gabriel finishes by saying he will be back one day to terrorise her. Madison claims she will be ready and leaves her mind to return to the scene in the police station's med ward. She lifts the bed with her newfound strength to release her sister before they embrace as a happy family, even if not by blood. As they embrace, a light bulb in the corner flickers, which has been a sign for Gabriel taking over.

This movie will very much split opinions. There are going to be some audiences that think this movie went too far and the story was a little crazy and this movie will never be successful. Then there are the opposite viewpoints who will think that this movie was something very different and loved it for that. I really enjoyed that this movie didn't go down the conventional route and didn't play it safe. The point of a horror movie is to make you feel very uneasy. We have all seen movies with a slow-walking killer following a bunch of teens. We've seen those stories of a house-haunting building to a climax. This movie was very different and with James Wan at the helm, I had every bit of confidence that this would be an interesting watch. The twists and turns weren't expected for a little while but I did start to notice that Gabriel was turned backwards and although it still wasn't completely transparent what was happening, it did start to unravel. 

There is a handful of supporting cast who are ok with helping the story along but the main success of the group has to be Annabelle Wallis as Madison. Wallis has been in a couple of movies that I have seen. The Mummy with Tom Cruise is a flop and she is also part of the Conjuring Universe, which I am a big fan of. Wan must have known her potential and drafted her in again. Wallis drove forward a character who was packed with emotion and mystery whilst also trying to be as normal and relatable as possible. The whole movie relied on her performance and it did not disappoint. It got a little crazy towards the end as she challenged her inner demon and the scenes were very expressive but nothing other than some kudos to our lead actress. 

The movie got dark, gruesome and out of hand real quick and I was all for it. There is no reason we need slow burners and longer-running horror movies. Give us action-packed and keep us gripped and Wan is becoming a master of doing just that.  It was very refreshing not to get another sequel, prequel or re-run of the same old horror movie and have a stand-alone which may gather up a little cult following within the audience who like the outrageously absurd. The third act of this movie completely opens up the gore-fest and it is welcomed with open arms as it emerges from a dark, mystery into an all-out, off-the-chain ending sequence. Years ago this would have been straight to DVD but thankfully it's getting some time in the cinema and I'm all for it.