Gerald's Game (2017)
Based on the 1992 Stephen King novel
Starring Carla Gugino & Bruce Greenwood
A wife is left handcuffed to a bed after her husband died of a heart attack during a kinky sex game.
As she gets more and more panicked and dehydrated she has visions of her husband and herself taking her back through the things that have happened during her life. This is mainly a psychological horror film but there is one grisly scene similar to one in the first saw film.
8/10
Sherlock:A Case Of Evil(2002) A twenty something Sherlock Holmes played by James D'Arcy investigates the murder of opium dealers. A rather cheap looking but effective take on the detective, with a pretty ingenious storyline. D'Arcy makes an excellent Holmes with Vincent D'Onofrio a fine Moriaty, Roger Morlidge a decent Watson and Gabrielle Anwar a sympathetic leading lady. There some grimly realistic looking drug sequences while the only real letdown is portraying young Sherlock as a womaniser and a social butterfly. Also starring Nicholas Gecks (Lestrade),Peter Hugo-Daly(a good support role as a journalist) and Richard E Grant (Mycroft Holmes). 6.5/10
The Whip and the Flesh(1963)
The ghost of a vicious nobleman returns to inflict more misery and indignity on the residents of his castle.Director Mario Bava delivers his usual sumptuous visuals in spades for this kinky tale of sadism in a quite apt gothic setting.The great cast of Christopher Lee,Tony Kendall and Idea Galli seemed to revel in the material.
6.5/10
My last two films at this years BFI London Film Festival
Sweet Country (2017) Just after the end of World War One in the Australian Outback and a determined police sergeant(Bryan Brown) pursues a Native Australian farmworker(Hamilton Morris), accused of murder, deep into unknown lands. A slow paced but dramatically satisfying Western covering racism,post war trauma and Man versus Nature in its mix. The cinematography is stunning, the director's use of flashback and flashforward works well. The mainly Native Australian cast(making their debuts) equip themselves well, backed up by the excellent Sam Neill as the local cleric. The film was followed by a Q & A with director Warwick Thornton. Also starring Matt Day,Gibson John,Anni Finsterer,Thomas M Wright,Tremayne Doolan and Trevon Doolan. 7.5/10
Journeyman(2017) Paddy Considine directs and stars as a middleweight boxing champion who suffers a life changing trauma shortly after a title fight. More of a realistic drama than a boxing film,this is raw and believable in the style of Considine's earlier directorial Tyrannosaur. Obviously meticulously researched, the film is dominated by the generally low key but top acting of Considine and Jodie Whittaker as his wife. Also starring Tony Pitts,Paul Popplewell and Anthony Welsh. 7.5/10
Lion(2016) 1986 - Saroo(Sunny Pawar), a five year old Indian boy, becomes lost, a long away from home, in Calcutta, and is eventually adopted by an Australian couple(Nicole Kidman and David Wenham). 2006, adult Saroo(Dev Patel) begins a search to trace his birth mother. Based on a true story this is an emotionally charged drama, partly through the fine use of flashback/dream sequences and partly due to some top performances, as well as Pawar,Patel and Kidman(very good- and I'm not always a fan), there's an intelligent, sensitive turn from Rooney Mara as Patel's girlfriend. Also starring Adhishek Bharate,Priyanka Bose,Tannishtha Chatterjee,Nawazuddin Siddiqui,Deepti Naval and Divian Ladwa. 7.5/10
We're the Millers (2013)
Never got around to seeing this before for one reason or another but I found this to be a very funny film with some genuinely laugh out loud moments
8.5/10
Aguirre,The Wrath of God(1972)
The first of five fractious collaborations between film maker Werner Herzog and actor Klaus Kinski.Set against the recreation of the doomed expedition of Gonzalo Pizarro,who led a group of men down the Amazon River hoping to find the lost city of El Dorado.The film focuses more on the obsession and madness that sometimes comes in the quest for avarice.The lunacy of the tale also ran parallel to the production,with Kinksi running riot on the crew(he shot off the tip an extra's finger),it was amazing that it was ever completed.So influential on terms of visuals and style,director Francis Ford Coppola by his own admission,owe this a great debt.
8/10
Sensual and savage, Lorraine Broughton is the most elite spy in MI6, an agent who's willing to use all of her lethal skills to stay alive during an impossible mission. With the Berlin Wall about to fall, she travels into the heart of the city to retrieve a priceless dossier and take down a ruthlessespionage ring. Once there, she teams up with an embedded station chief to navigate her way through the deadliest game of spies.
Not great but not bad!!
7/10
Possession(2002) Two modern day professors(Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart) investigate the secret love affair of two Victorian poets(Jeremy Northam and Jennifer Ehle) through their letters, but then fall in love themselves. A mostly charming romance with a fine script, much of this charm is found in the Victorian scenes with a nice dose of sadness and mystery too, and fine performances from the ever reliable Northam and Ehle. The modern romance is however rather dull. Also starring Trevor Eve,Toby Stephens,Holly Aird, Graham Crowden,Anna Massey,Lena Headey and Tom Hickey. 6.5/10
Everly 2/10 - action movie starring Salma Hayek, this is a truly atrocious film that takes place almost entirely in a single apartment. It has brutal violence, strong torture scenes and a ludicrous plot (if it can be called that).
AVOID