Month: May 2014

CHEAP THRILLS (2013)

cheap-thrills-poster-2013-pat-healy

 

How far would you go?

This is described on IMDB as a comedy thriller. The comedy is pretty much as dark as you can get; so dark as to elicit no smiles from this viewer.

There are elements here that suggest darker forces are at work but really the darkness manifests in all sorts of ways; mundane or extreme.

Pat Healy plays Craig a man who loses his job on the same day he is given his eviction notice. Craig has a wife and a baby and is at the end of his tether. He’s sat in the bar and in comes Vince (Ethan Embry who was brilliant in Brotherhood) his erstwhile teenage buddy, they sit, reminisce and meet a couple played by David Koechner (Whammy) and his wife Violet (Sara Paxton) who are clearly loaded.
The couple dare the old friends to do more and more bizarre and twisted things for money.

And there is the premise.

How far would you go if you were at the end of the road?
This pitch black thriller is definitely not for everyone especially the squeamish but it is well made, the acting is real and the script is sturdy. Everyone is excellent and convincing. This is E.L. Katz’ debut feature and doing a bit of research it seems that his genre is horror so it’s unlikely we’ll see his name anywhere different than this niche market.

My question is why would you make it?
A little bit like Prisoners, the Hugh Jackman/Jake Gyllenhaal thriller, well made but to what end? Maybe it’s shock for the sake of it; no more, no less. If so, a wasted venture methinks. It does shine a light on the darker and does it in an interesting way but it could have gone further down that line of questioning.

‘For the love of money is the root of all evil’.

Dark, disturbing and borderline demonic; for true extremists only.

3/5

BUY THE BLU-RAY DVD HERE

DOWNLOAD THE FILM ON iTUNES HERE

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (2014)

Captain-America-The-Winter-Soldier-Poster

Like Punch usually says given half the chance: “That’s the way to do it”.

A vast improvement on The First Avenger, this sets the precedent now for all Marvel films.
None of the previous ones have come close to the intelligent composition of this film.

The directors-Joe and Anthony Russo (Arrested Development, Community) have raised the bar as far as these kinds of films are made. You can cram in all the set pieces in the world but if there are no real stakes for characters that you don’t care about then all you have is a very shiny empty shell.
The set pieces in this one really deliver, one, which shall go un-named due to lack of wanting to spoil, is probably something I have never seen before, at least with that level of stakes and was hugely enjoyable.

Chris Evans builds on his previous ventures as Steve Rogers and cements the character as one equal to if not greater than all the others. Scarlett Johansson secures her place in the universe and it’s only a matter of time before Black Widow gets her own screen outing. A nice addition to the big screen Marvel characters is Anthony Mackie as Falcon.
It’s great that the lesser known heroes and villains are being introduced.

Samuel L brings his Nick Fury back to the table with a little more depth than usual and Robert Redford brings old school Hollywood weight as Alexander Pearce, another S.H.I.E.L.D. member.

The best thing about this film is that it doesn’t treat its audience as a bunch of idiots.
There is an intelligent script at the heart of it and it is directed with assurance and confidence.

All the previous Marvel films (this time around) have been deeply unsatisfying, Iron Men, Thors, Spidermen, Avengers, X-Men (although First Class was pretty good), and it is definitely a style over substance problem.

Maybe they were just too big for the silver screen or at least too big for the mere humans trying to make them.

Maybe this will be the start of a beautiful friendship.
Let’s hope so.

3.5/5

BUY THE BLU-RAY DVD HERE

DOWNLOAD THE FILM ON iTUNES HERE