August 2013 Movie Reviews and Round Up

I'm going to come right out and say this. My August has been pretty lousy for movie watching. I was in Thailand for the first couple of weeks but as there were monsoon rains battering my cabin in the woods (rainforest) one evening, I sat in and watched Green Lantern as it was playing and I was sick of watching Al Jazeera. Then I watched five films on the plane ride home (but I'd already seen most of the decent films on offer) and then I've been rushing to catch up with new releases ever since. My biggest regret is that I think at this rate I might have missed Pacific Rim on the big screen. Must try and catch Elysium instead to make up for it.

Anyway here's what I watched this month:

Green Lantern: Not sure why everyone hated this so much. I had incredibly low expectations which must have helped but Ryan Reynolds is likeable, the constant CGI didn't completely alienate me and Peter Sarsgaard is perfect for playing baddies. Then again I've never read the comics so have no idea if this adaptation is a disgrace to the fans.

Admission: First film I watched on the plane home. Paul Rudd and Tina Fey in a strange but mildly entertaining dramedy. Strange tone and mixed messages but quite memorable characters and occasionally amusing script.

Identity Thief: Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman star in a suprisingly sweet road trip comedy that was not the complete car crash I expected. McCarthy struggles with such an unlikeable character and Bateman plays the same old schtick but it had some amusing moments.

The Croods: Family animation that angered me at first but vaguely charmed me by the end. Ryan Reynolds again too.

Broadcast News: Classic satire and irritating love triangle from James L. Brooks. Great performances from Holly Hunter and Albert Brooks and enthralling look behind the scenes of the news room. Also the last film I watched on the plane home from Thailand.

2 Guns: "For an action comedy, 2 Guns delivers plenty of shoot outs and a healthy dose of exploding stuff but the script is weaker when it comes to the comedy. Without the charisma of Washington and Wahlberg, it is easy to assume this might have gone straight to DVD. It's quite fun while it lasts but you certainly don't want to spend any time afterwards pondering the plot. 2 Guns is neither Washington nor Wahlberg's best but it's still worth a shot, just probably not 2"

Lovelace: "fails to fully penetrate the dark heart of the story despite some hard core performances from an excellent cast. It is however an eye opening look at an industry that I suspect is only getting more vicious and more worrying as time goes on."

Headhunters: Finally got round to seeing this bonkers Jo Nesbo adaptation. Not sure if I was feeling overly sensitive for some reason but I found this incredibly violent. Obviously that means I quite enjoyed it. Fast paced thriller with some crazy moments of pitch black humour.

We're The Millers: "may not break boundaries in its border crossing but it is a road trip fueled by excellent comedic performances and a few side splitting scenes; a comedy about a family that is definitely not suitable for the whole family"

You're Next: "The comparisons to Scream and the touting of You're Next as the future of horror are forced and not fair to Scream or this film. While it shows some great potential and has some beautifully scored moments, it will be even more interesting to see what director Adam Wingard has in store for us next"

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa: Mildly amusing throughout but like most British TV characters when they make it to the big screen, a little lost and stretched thin. Steve Coogan is game and the hostage crisis set up provides good laughs but loses its way towards the end.

Dark Tourist: Watched this at FrightFest 2013 but was too tired to stay awake and kept nodding off and then waking with a jump moments later. Not sure I missed much but I did get to interview the star and director before the film.

Rush: review coming soon at Static Mass Emporium.

The Lone Ranger: "According to Box Office Mojo, The Lone Ranger may have only just managed to scrape back it's over $200 million budget with a particularly poor domestic take. It looks likely that instead of becoming a Pirates size franchise, this might be the Standalone Ranger after all"

Apart from film watching, I've also been writing at Yahoo Movies and Filmoria, continuing to read the second Game of Thrones novel, A Clash of Kings and keeping up to date with Breaking Bad series 5. I've also just started watching Dexter series 7 so I'm only about a series behind on that one!

Best film of the month: Rush

Worst film of the month: Dark Tourist

Most popular phrase of the month judging by my mini-reviews above: Mildly amusing

How was your August? What did you see? What did you like? What did you hate?

FrightFest 2013

FrightFest is an annual horror movie festival held in Leicester Square in London. On Sunday 25th August 2013, I got to attend the festival for the day and help out James from Tastic Film by conducting on camera interviews with the stars and directors in attendance. I also managed to sneak in a quick screening of a film called Dark Tourist but I was so knackered that I could barely stay awake for most of it I'm afraid.

First the stars and director of In Fear showed up. I'd heard a bit about this film and that it might be one of the best in the Fest so I read a bit about it before coming up with some questions for director Jeremy Lovering and stars Alice Englert and Allen Leech. Lovering has done all sorts of stuff in TV, most notably a recent episode of Sherlock and Alice Englert is from the recent Beautiful Creatures, while Leech is from Downton Abbey. Check out the video below this picture for the full interview:

Very poor pic of Alice Englert and Allen Leech

After that Anthony Di Blasi, the director of Missionary came and chatted for a while. Though I haven't seen his film, it sounds very interesting and Di Blasi was great fun to talk to.

Anthony Di Blasi (R) and his producer (L)

Next up I got to question Dark Tourist director Suri Krishnamma and lead actor Michael Cudlitz (from TV's Southland). This was the film I managed to sneak in to see and though it had a very intriguing premise about grief tourism and a guy who wants to visits locations where serial killers did their deeds, it didn't really grab me.

Suri Krishnamma and Michael Cudlitz

Finally it was time to interview the judges and winner of the 666 Short Cuts to Hell competition. Entrants were given a whole list of restrictions in which to make their own horror short film and I also managed to get to watch the six finalists on the big screen at Empire Leicester Square. All the finalists I saw were incredible; brilliantly crafted and often packing some hilarious punchlines. The judges included Tom Six, the director of the Human Centipede trilogy and Rosie Fletcher, the associate editor of Total Film magazine. Tom Six was too busy editing HC3 to be there so he sent star of HC2 Laurence R. Harvey. So the highlights of my day were asking Harvey about HC3 and also bugging Rosie Fletcher with loads of questions about how I get myself into Total Film one day!

Competition winner and judges

Here is a video I shot of Laurence R. Harvey talking about HC3 in front of the packed FrightFest audience. All the interviews will be up on Tastic Film soon and I will post links to them as soon as they are up.



Anyone else attend FrightFest 2013? What were your picks of the Fest?

More on past FrightFests from I Love That Film:

Tower Block Trailer Shoots to Kill

Where are the Dead?

Zombies Attack London! 

Tower Block Trailer Shoots to Kill

After The Raid, Dredd 3D and less recently Attack the Block, you'd think the tower block would be ready to be retired as a location for an action thriller.  But British director James Nunn has come up with another promising take on tower block terror, filling one with the likes of Sheridan Smith (lots of British TV) and Jack O' Connell (more British TV, a few films) and the legend that is Ralph (Camberwell Carrot) Brown.  Then a sniper is unleashed, taking potshots at this unsuspecting bunch and chaos ensues.

Tower Block closed this year's FrightFest and has a promising score of 7.3 over at IMDb from the 47 people who have rated it so far.  With Cockneys Vs Zombies getting good reviews (also written by James Moran) and Ben Wheatley's Sightseers being one of the must-see films at this year's London Film Festival, it looks like the British horror film is in rude health.

Tower Block is out tomorrow in the UK and below you can watch the suspenseful trailer:



Read my review of Tower Block here.  Will you be braving this one in the cinema? 

Where are the Dead?

Alex Zane on stage

Some of you may have read about my zombie hunting mission to Leicester Square this Sunday.  If you didn't, check out the post here.  I was expecting the opposite of 28 Days Later's deserted streets.  I was expecting countless flesh-eating, decaying, gore-covered horror fans and maybe even some kind of Thriller inspired flash mob dance routine.  I was disappointed.  The few hours I spent in the new-look Leicester Square that doesn't actually look that new were spent, not cowering in the corners as expected, but desperately squinting into the sun to see if anyone had come dressed as a zombie.  I saw one, yes just one, embarrassed-looking girl in zombie make-up but she soon disappeared.

Taking the piss with Ted

But the trip was far from a total loss.  The Sun's film reviewer Alex Zane was on hand to do a horror film quiz with some fans from the crowd.  I  got to get a quick photo of myself in one of those interactive movie posters pretending to piss with Seth MacFarlane's Ted.  I also got to have a play with some interactive giant iPad type thing that had loads of trailers and stuff to look at. 


There were lots of posters dotted about the square and a wodge of cash with The Dictator's face on the notes stuffed in a transparent safe but really I was ready to go home after about twenty minutes of being there.  I didn't come for endless marketing, I came for zombies!

Giant iPad

Wadiya currency

Never mind.  Then the gathered people enjoyed a few trailers on the big screen on stage.  The likes of Prometheus, Storage 24 and Chernobyl Diaries all played before the hard core horror fans and the random families with small children that looked a little concerned about what they were seeing.

Noel Clarke in...

Johannes Roberts' Storage 24

Then it finally got really interesting with a Q&A with FrightFest organiser, founder and co-director Alan Jones.  His tales of being a film journalist were fascinating and inspiring and FrightFest sounds like a great place for fans of horror to descend over the August bank holiday every year.  It's a just a shame it clashes with Reading Festival otherwise I'd be there.  Maybe when I get too old for the music...

 Then came a final pleasant surprise in the form of a further Q&A with two of the cast members of upcoming Brit-horror Cockneys Vs Zombies.  It sounds potentially terrible from the title but the clips shown on the big screen gained quite a few laughs from the assembled crowd and it actually looks like it could be quite a promising horror-comedy.  Alan Ford, the terrifying Brick Top from Guy Ritchie's Snatch, answered questions with his co-star Michelle Ryan.  

Here's a news report from the set of Cockneys Vs Zombies.



And here's the trailer for Storage 24 from the director of hoodie horror F.  Incidentally, the director of this is Johannes Roberts who is coming to give a talk to my media students very soon.  So that's exciting!






Finally here's a quick video I uploaded of Alan Jones answering two questions: what is his favourite horror film and who are the most talented horror filmmakers working today?



So all in all it was quite a worth while trip, even if there were far less zombies than I had hoped for.

Zombies Attack London!

In case you are a Londoner and haven't heard about this, please go check out this link!

 'On Sunday 27 May, zombies will rise all over London and shuffle into the West End, invading the Leicester Square gardens from 12.00 noon – for Lawn of the Dead.'

Leicester Square has apparently been undergoing 18 months of redevelopment work and is re-opening this weekend.  I wouldn't know as it's an hour and £20 train ride away from me so I don't get up there very often!  However as it's the home of the Odeon that had the first digital projector in Europe and hosts the most premieres with a capacity for 1683 people, this is pretty much the centre of London's film exhibition.

Apparently there is going to be loads of stuff going on all weekend starting today:

'An array of interactive displays, costume characters and personal appearances will bring the new-look Leicester Square to life in a special film-themed event running from Thursday 24 to Sunday 27 May.  Free to the public, the live event will showcase the quality and diversity of films coming to West End cinemas in 2012 in a variety of engaging ways - while also offering a glimpse of the spectacular film events hosted in Leicester Square during previous years.'

It sounds really exciting and pretty much a film lovers dream.  I hope the beautiful sunny weather that has just finally arrived holds out all weekend for the lucky Londoners in attendance.

In case you're wondering what the zombie invasion is about: 'The programme of relaunch events includes a celebration of FrightFest, which has haunted the Square for the last 12 years'.  Hence the zombies. 

And there's more.  In an email I was sent from See Film First, it says:

''Get down to the square for:
 ▪ interactive preview zone, in which visitors may select and view their own choice of content such as trailers, compilations and games on digital iTables;
 ▪ a family zone with entertainers, face painters, green-screen photo opportunities for audiences aged 3 plus;
 ▪ a performance zone that will feature a film quiz presented by Alex Zane, a Q&A with the world's leading stuntman Vic Armstrong as well as a movie fencing demonstration, and an insight into life as a leading film journalist with Empire magazine.'

If all that isn't exciting enough, you can 'come as a zombie or get a special make-over in the Square' if you head down on Sunday!

Head here for the full programme including the details of free screenings of Top Cat - The Movie and Red Tails.  The programme really suggests this would be a great family event but just be careful of all the marauding zombies on Sunday.

So is anyone going along to any of this?  I'm busy Friday and Saturday but am really hoping to go join the zombie madness on Sunday.  If I do, expect lots of ridiculous photos next week.

 Read more about it over at Screen Daily.