I figured out who he is (The Old Man and the Gun 2018)

 

 

 

216.

The Old Man and the Gun

 

 

 

 

6/10

 

It had been a while since I had managed time away from work and seen an Odeon Screen Unseen. The clues weren't really up to much and I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. Sitting down and having a quick discussion with my mate about what it could be, we were still none the wiser and as the screen appeared with the title, I quickly got onto IMBD and had a look at the synopsis and its running time. The film stars Robert Redford, who I had heard of by name obviously but never on the big screen. Casey Affleck is one I do recognise and along with Danny Glover, the cast isn't too bad.
The story is a true one. Following a fella at the ripe age of 70, who hasn't long escaped prison, this gent is called Forrest Tucker. Now Forrest loves trouble and as we can see from this movie, he is never too old to get a heist on the go. Being an old man, no-one suspects him and bank after bank, he gets the job done. One day he meets a lady, played by Sissy Spacek, whose face I recognise from somewhere and even now I had to have a look at her. She played Carrie in the older version of the movie years ago. This woman is someone that Forrest and see himself with and even openly admits to her his profession. There's no chance she believes him.

After the news stories start rolling in and Affleck's character gets on the trail, it's still hard to believe that the eyewitnesses are claiming it to be such an older guy. The general public is even falling in love with this idea. That's when the lady starts thinking. She doesn't leave though, just pleads the case for him to give it up. As he is finally caught, along with an accomplice for one heist, played by Glover, he is finally thinking about ending it and settling down. Never too late I suppose.

 

 

 Once the car chase has ended, and a few months have past whilst living with his new love, we figure this could be the end to the movie. There is one last scene though. Forrest is seen sitting on a bench, outside yet another bank and puts on his usual hat and coat, carrying his briefcase and wearing a massive smile towards the camera, he enters and the movie ends there. He could never really stop his true calling.

 

 

This movie was a little more fun than I was going to give it credit for. I'm not too sure what the true story was and if this was followed in this movie but it was more of a lenient heist movie. No real violence and tilted more towards a romantic comedy at times than an actual crime film. It contained the main 'will he won't he' scene that a heist movie possesses and maybe even more than once. Will he get caught, especially a scene where the detective and the robber and dining at the same place. Will he give up the robbing now that he has found a woman. These questions come with their answers within the movie. The acting was pretty decent and there was a lot more humour than I would have expected but Redford put on a show, whether this was his flirtatious attitude down to his seriousness when on the job, he could switch it on and off on demand. 

Happy Halloween, Michael. (Halloween 2018)

215.

Halloween

 

 

 

7/10

 

It's the time of year that I love and that time is Halloween. This means we get some shite and some good but no matter what, they are horror movies and I'll go and see them. This time it's going to be from one of the most famous franchises. Michael Myers, not the guy who plays Shrek, but a serial killer is back on the big screen, 40 years after the original came out. We've has some remakes that we've been asked to forget about and even some sequels that again, we've been asked to pretend aren't around. Instead, we are bringing back Jamie-Lee Curtis as Laurie Stroud and even Will Patton as the cop, who I hear was in the earlier movies, which I have to be honest about, haven't seen.

The movie follows a simple concept, as many serial killer movies do. We have to investigators loving the story surrounding it all, trying to trace down Michael to ask some questions and moving onto Laurie to ask them the same. We catch our first few glimpses of Michael without his famous mask, which was a big talking point before the movie but ended up being a whole lot of nothing. The movie progresses as Laurie is seen by her daughter, son-in-law and the public as a bit of a crazy cow but the granddaughter actually has a degree of sympathy for her. Laurie kicks off after finding out that they are going to be movie Michael by bus, which of course, crashes and he escapes. As a car pulls over to help, he claims his first victims and heads to get some petrol and clothing.
 

 Coming across the investigators from earlier, he makes easy work of them, collecting some teeth and adding to his death tally. Laurie has a sixth sense about this and instantly tries to protect her own family. She's been living away from years, in a cottage in the sticks. Surrounded by fences and some target practice, she's been waiting for this day.
Now apart from the usual rivalry between the killer and his target, we need some side story and this comes in the form of the granddaughter. Not only was she the only person to believe Laurie from the start, but we follow her closely. With Michael, he's found his way to a petrol station and low and behold, it's the same one as the investigator's from earlier. He makes easy work of them before finding his old mask in their trunk. The granddaughter is at a school dance as Michael finds his way into town, going door to door he picks off people with ease, adding to his tally. They two come to their first meeting in a garden than the Granddaughter cuts through with her friend. He makes light work of the friend and sets his sights on her, realising her resemblance to a young Laurie. Now, this is the part that always winds me up. The girl can run as fast as she can but the serial killer with a slow walk always catches up. The girl is picked up by the cop, who is giving the shrink a ride and when they come across Michael, the cop plows him down. The shrink isn't best pleased about this, showing his fascination with Michael and when they inspect the body, the cop gets stabbed in the neck by the shrink, who drags Michael into the car to sit next to the girl. Crazy bastard.
Laurie is off making sure the rest of her family are safe. She grabbed her daughter and son-in-law and taken them to her house in the woods. The Shrink is on the way too, just before Michael wakes, kills him and goes after the girl, but she escapes and legs it into the woods. Now Michael has a new plan.

He heads to the house in the cop car and plants it outside so that the only gent after he's massacred the cops, comes to have a look. He's easily dealt with and the only people left to stop Michael are the three generations of ladies. The two eldest are hiding the basement and the youngest is in the woods somewhere. Laurie has a plan though, she has been waiting for this for years and has laid trap after trap around her house. Even the granddaughter makes is back in time so that they are all in the basement, tempting Michael to come down until he is shot, locked down there and caged like the animal he is. All of a sudden the faces on the two eldest change to stubborn bitches and they know they have won. The room fills with gas, as does the rest of the house and with one match, Michael is lit on fire, standing, unbothered, as he burns to death without a sound. The females walk away from the house, just as it explodes and the movie draws to a close.

I'm going to look at this movie as a standalone to an extent, mainly because I haven't seen the others but because it was also told quite cleverly. Although we have a story 40 years on, there are enough references from the earlier movies to fill in the gaps for the first time viewers to this tale and I find that very well done. This isn't the type of horror that would have too many jump-scares, maybe a leap out the closest and such but it holds it's esteem by being such a creepy thriller, not one that the cops will end the case but a vigilante. This movie shows that there could be a monster in anyone, without actually showing a true monster. Instead, we get an iconic mask that is a symbol of this franchise. The music score does will to add to this suspense at the right moments, more meaningfully as Michael regains his mask. Putting in a little bit about the bad points, as one has already been spoken about and that's the love of the slow walking killer who never gets outrun somehow. This alongside some continuity errors. The door to the basement was hidden under a countertop in the kitchen, one that as the movie carried on, got slower and slower at closing, obviously giving some more suspense but Jesus wept, you could clearly see this was slowing down on purpose. The main feature of this movie that I enjoyed, was the most unexpected parts. This would stem by how quick the investigator's deaths came about, how the shrink turned on the good and how the women banded together in such a fashion towards the end. This was definitely a movie that could once again do the franchise justice, whilst forgetting the terrible ones that apparently came in the middle.

 

A thousand year army needs a thousand year soldiers (Overlord 2018)

214.

Overlord

 

 

 

 

 

7/10

 

 

A horror that gave me a little bit of excitement once I read that it was coming out. One of the first games that I remember being into was Return to Castle Wolfenstein and this movie looked like an absolute twin to that game. Now there is no promise of it being just as good, following the storyline or even being a good horror, all I cared about was that it looked like it could be. Always a sucker for horror, I couldn't wait until the time went to watch the movie.

 

The story followed a group of American soldiers, heading behind the enemy line to take down a radio tower. Knowing there's a chance they wouldn't make it out is the least of their problems. In the old French town that they need to make it into, lies a secret that they wish they never came across. It turns out that the Nazi's are running experiments on the local. These involve draining the poor buggers because there is something in the land that they live and pouring this blood into the Nazi soldiers, creating some sort of super zombie Nazi army.

 Good one Hitler you crazy bastard. Once our main villain takes a bullet to the face, he ends up taking a needle of the good stuff and sorting himself out. This guy is the only one that I do recognise, playing Theon Greyjoy's uncle in A Game of Thrones. This is now the part of the game I loved. Just like this movie, it started as a normal war storyline, taking a dark turn with all sorts of disgusting soldiers heading to kill the good guys. Obviously, we know the outcome. Our guys save the day by bringing down the labs, radio tower and whatever else was in the tunnels below. If you went into this movie thinking that is was going to be a war movie, you'd have been dead wrong.

 There was such a creepy and dark aspect brought about halfway through the movie that really turned this story on its head. I can imagine the unsuspecting audience would have had the same look on their faces as the soldiers, once they seen their first zombie on screen. This sort of cross over has only really been done on movies that have gone straight to DVD.

The look of this movie was exactly as I expected. There was the war aspect to begin, looking like something fresh of the beginning of a Call of Duty game and then as the team made their way below, the story turned downwards towards hell too. With pitch-black corridors, old ruins, plenty and I mean plenty of gore, this was a clever twist to a zombie movie which usually depicts some slow walking gormless bastards. There was plenty of action, killing and explosions to brighten up our screens at the right time, keeping this as an action-packed horror. It was always going to be an interesting idea when J.J Abrams is involved. He never likes normal.

This movie will go well below the radar and maybe not be successful in any real way but for me, the nostalgia that came from this movie became a massive talking point amongst my friends. It would be very interesting to see which mission this gang of soldiers were sent onto next after seeing the horrors that they had scene.

Eyes, lungs, pancreas. So many snacks, so little time. (Venom 2018)

213.

Venom 

 

 

 

 

 

8/10

 

I remember where I was when they announced Tom Hardy would be playing Eddie Brock, the lead character in the Venom movie. I was on holiday in Florida, coming face to face with a rather large Tiger when I got the text. I also remember some of the backlash. I'm not one to judge the casting before I've seen the movie anymore after I was completely against Affleck as the Bat and I ended up pleasantly surprised. With this being a Sony Marvel movie, it brought a lot of negative media, with many of the 'fanboys' not wanting to give this the time of day with it not being MCU official. These people are too high and mighty for their own good.

We are seeing Eddie Brock in the best moments of his life, good job, good relationship and not long after, it all comes crashing down. This is because he snoops in on his missis's work and uses it for his own media story, taking the game to our main villain for the movie. Riz Ahmed plays Carlton Drake, who is in charge of a company experimenting with the Alien entities found in space. With the rest of the movie carrying on as Eddie is bonded with Venom, we see him getting used to this new invasion and trying to control everything going on.

 He quickly uses this symbiote to be the parasitic antihero that we have come to know. We still have the love interest angle as he comes clean to his ex-girlfriend Anne, played by Michelle Williams, who even mixes with Venom for a few minutes to save Eddie. The one surprise I get from this movie would definitely be the humour. There seems to be some sort of love-hate bond at first between Eddie and Brock but this soon turns into a brotherly love and the back and fore with banter is very, very refreshing. As the movie heads on, Riz Ahmed's fella bonds with his own symbiote called Riot and this leads to a massive fight scene at the end in which we see Venom save Eddie before having to sacrifice himself for the better good to save the world and stop other alien slime balls heading to take over. But has he truly gone? The last scene gives us a conversation that answers this with a no. Venom is still inside and here come's Stan Lee's cameo too. Cheek bit of after credits too. Now I knew Woody Harrelson was in this movie and rumoured to be Carnage. They left it until the last few minutes to reveal this but maybe this was because they were so sure that the fact there would be a sequel. I couldn't really deny this because it's a great way to set up the next. What a villain that would be and cast very well.

 

This was a much darker comic book moved focused around a Marvel creation. With all of the bad press that was focused on this movie before it even came out to the public, I'm so glad that I can go against the grain and really like it. It was humorous, dark and didn't cut out the gruesome scenes, showing just how violent this character can be. Hardy, once again, played his role really well. He pretty much stole the show with having to act as two characters at times and having a conversation with no-one but his thoughts. From firstly being a happy fella to looking like he is about to die, to finally accepting his new buddy and acting upon each moment to the best of his abilities. Riz Ahmed is another impressive actor at the moment. From the story of him begging to be in Rogue One, to moving into a villainous role with ease. If we had to talk about the graphics and the look of Venom, which again came under scrutiny before the movie even hit the big screen, then I wouldn't really have much in the form of criticism for it all. Yes Venom did look a little strange but what did we really have to compare too? 20 minutes of scenes in Spider-man 3 or just the drawings from the actual comics. This movie had a blank canvas and I'm really impressed with it's look, especially the final fight scene. I'm looking forward to what's on the horizon with this franchise and if it will incorporate Spider-man in any way in the future.

The house is a very old place (The House with a Clock in It's Walls 2018)

212.

The House with a Clock in it's Walls

6.5/10

Jack Black leads a cast and it's audience into a family film mixed with magic, horror and as always, a little bit of humour for good keeping. I can't really remember watching a movie based around magic since seeing Potter fling his wand about the screen in the well-known franchise. Cate Blanchett comes along for the ride, back to her usual fair hair rather than her jet black Hela look, which took the MCU for a little ride.

The story is of a young orphaned boy, recently losing his parents and moving in with his uncle, Jonathan, played by Jack Black. He's a little bit of a wizard and Lewis, the young lad, soon finds himself wrapped up in a world he didn't know existed. The old owner of his Uncle's house was a dark wizard and created a clock within. This clock counts down to the end of the world and Jonathan along with Blanchett's character, the neighbour named Florence, must find the clock and shut it down before it finishes it's count down to the end of the world.

 We follow the path of the young lad getting used to the world of magic and of course, making the mistakes that a youngster would make. This leads to the villain being resurrected before the boy can regain his Uncle's lost confidence in him and win the day and saving the world. In between, we have some back stories of Jonathan and Florence but the movie overall isn't too taxing, with it being aimed at a younger audience of course. There were times that you were left frustrated within the viewing. There were mainly as you seen this young boy constantly making the wrong decision with ease, just to be accepted by another. You could tell the way it was going to end but sometimes it's all about the journey you take from the beginning to end. With a little twist here and there and enough darkness to keep even an older viewer entertained, it turned out to be alright all in all.

There isn't too much you take into context when you look at a young actor or actress because they can grow into something more as the years go on. This time, Owen Vaccaro who played Lewis, seemed a little rough around the edges but wasn't afraid of getting into some action scenes. Jack Black enjoyed his role, giving it with his usual delivery of some eccentric scenes mixed in with some seriousness of becoming a guardian. The final cast member of importance would be Blanchett. She put in a stellar performance of a troubled widow, raked by guilt but still with an aspect of sensitivity that made you wonder what her story was from the beginning, up until the time all was revealed.

For the rest of the movie, I can imagine it wasn't a massive budget for the special effects but at times, especially the cosmic scene in the gardens, it did look really nice. Then again, some also looked quite cheap and dated. This isn't something that can bring too much damage to the movie though because this isn't a major aspect that the movie was made for. I'll be remembered for being a fun family flick with an interesting storyline and plenty of creativity around each corner. I don't think I would jump at the chance to re-watch this movie in the future but I do enjoy a bit of wizardry and how creators envision certain creatures and myths, bringing them across for the audience to see.

I'll have you for chunks! (King of Thieves 2018)

211.

King of Thieves

7/10

Welcome a British version of Ocean's Eleven with a gang of older gents that are well known to many audience members. This isn't going to be fully fictional though, this story is based on the true events revolving around the Hatton Garden Heist in London and we are about to see what went down. The gang are an old group of crooks that come out of retirement for one final score. Michael Caine, Michael Gambon, Ray Winstone and a younger character in Charlie Cox are going to bring this story together.
The storyline follows the conventional heist of lookout's, trials and the, of course, the main robbery.

 They pass gas repairmen, operating their old school tactics over an Easter weekend and stealing more than £14 million worth of jewellery and money itself. As they operate, things start to fall apart a little, Caine's character is kicked out and the rest operate on their own rules. Broadbent and Winstone's characters start showing their muscle, especially once the robbery s completed.

Cox's character is very timid and is easily manipulated by stronger characters. He is left with some cash in his pockets before being told to leave but little did the remaining members knows, Caine's character had told Cox's how to establish which envelope symbols contained the best jewels. As each of the old heads gets caught by the police, Cox is on the move and with a smirk on his face that we had yet to see in any other part of the movie, he's away and the real mastermind by the end.
I do enjoy a real-life storyline and I'm not too sure how closely it follows with what actually happened but I'm thinking that this astonishing robbery was followed along with the truth. The ending was a breathe of fresh air, to see the underdog come out on top and the expense of everyone who expected to use him for his talents and give him nothing back. Seeing such a good, British cast of well-known faces let this movie flow and you could believe that these men were true robbers. I doubt this is a movie that would make a success across the pond with their heists in Vegas but for British attention, it's still pretty fresh off the press.



I guess we know the purple carpet doesn't match the drapes (The Happytime Murders 2018)

210.

The Happytime Murders

 

 

 

 

 

5.5/10

 

We are stepping into a crazy alternate reality where puppets, who know they are puppets, live alongside humans. The puppets though are treated as a marginalised group for their troubles. The trailers for this movie make it look like something that is a step above.  A cross between Who Framed Roger Rabbit due to the investigators and The Muppets, which is mainly because the same producers are involved. With a cast of Melissa Macarthy, Elizabeth Banks and Maya Rudolph, each has had their own success in someone's eyes. It always leaves you wondering whether the best parts have been shown in the trailers to get the audiences through the doors, so let find out. Let's find out if we are being taken for muppets.

The story follows our usual detective narrative of 'who dun'it?'. We follow a disgraced cop named Phil Phillips who must team up with his old partner played by Mellisa Macarthy. They used to work together until Connie, Macarthy's character was held at gunpoint and Phil had to save her, failing and instead, killing an innocent puppet on the sidewalk in front of his own daughter. This lead to Connie signing a petition to stop Puppets ever becoming cops again. From there Phil turned into a private detective in a seedy office.
The main story follows a group of old tv hosts, all puppets who get murdered one by one, leading to an investigation and Phil needing to get involved due to a cross over with his own job, a side mission/storyline which is for a female puppet named Sandra White. She fears for her life after a serious of threatening letters. This character is over the top sexually teasing and Phil can't control himself. This leads to a crazy and at first, a funny sex scene between the two, which then becomes a little cringeworthy.

 It reminded me of the scene from Team America all those years ago. This is a running theme as things start to get a little cringy. We are introduced to Phil's actual love interest, played by Banks and the pair of Connie and Phil begin to try to solve the case, but begin failing miserably. Phil even gets set up for killing his old love interest. She is now the wife of Sandra, in a full circle move and Sandra blames Phil for the death. Connie must prove that her old partner is innocent as their relationship is now growing strong once more. She heads to Sandra's apartment where she finds a hidden room full of plans to from Phil. It turns out she truly has a motive. She was the daughter of the man shot dead by Phil. Although it was an accident, just like every woman in history, she never let him forget about it. Connie grabs Phil and they head to the airport to stop Sandra together. He tries to apologise for his mistake but it falls on deaf ears. It turns out that Jenny, Banks' character is still alive too. A staged death to set up Phil but Sandra knocks her out to steal some money for herself. Connie is taken at gunpoint and Phil is put in the same position as he was years before. This time he doesn't miss and Sandra's fluffy brains are everywhere.

They are both reinstated as partners and Phil even asks her old assistant from the Private Detective agency, played by Maya Rudolph,  out on a date.
I couldn't wait to see what this movie had in store when I had seen the trailers but in fairness, it far from lived up to the potential. The storyline was a normal crime drama with all of the humour added in, which at times, became a little bit tedious. There were some clever twists nonetheless but nothing that would stick and get you saying, 'yeah, great movie'. Not too sure what you can say about the acting with 50% of it being voice acting. I enjoyed the dryness of Phil's character but there is something about Macarthy that I far from enjoy. It always seems forced humour and that for me is never a winner. If you are after some slap-stick comedy, over the top humour and needless crass, then this is for you. In my opinion, it had to tools to be up there with Rodger Rabbit and Team America but it did more than fall short.