Shameless Self Expression

The Foo Fighters star as themselves as they struggle to create their latest album, with record exec Jeff Garlin losing patience. They’re booked into a mansion to help them find their sound, and boy do they. The mansion is cursed due to an incident in the 90s where another band was killed in a Satanic ritual. Now lead singer Dave Grohl has become possessed and obsessed, and that’s when the weirdness and bloodshed begin. Whitney Cummings plays a kooky neighbour who won’t leave the guys alone.   I was mildly curious to see what a horror movie starring rockers The Foo Fighters might look like, despite not being a massive fan of their fairly generic Top 40 rock music. Yeah, ‘Everlong’ is undeniably great and the rest of their stuff is inoffensive and competent enough. However, I’m a much bigger fan of Dave Grohl’s other band where he didn’t sing lead. Still, I figured I might be in for some comedic Sam Raimi-esque horror fun and certainly some tolerable music. That’s the impression...

Ed Helms and Owen Wilson play twin brothers (!) of very opposite personalities, the sons of Glenn Close who had lied to them throughout their lives about their father being dead. Now the brothers go on a road trip to meet mum’s list of ex-lovers to figure out which one of them might be their daddy. The rogues’ gallery includes a former NFL player (Terry Bradshaw, natch), a veterinarian (Christopher Walken), and a tattooed repo man (J.K. Simmons). Harry Shearer is wasted as Close’s current beau, whilst June Squibb plays Simmons’ wife.   Did it catch me in a weak moment? Did the critical drubbing give me low expectations going in allowing it to clear a very low bar? Or did I simply just enjoy this 2018 comedy-drama from debut director Lawrence Sher (who was the cinematographer on “The Hangover” , “War Dogs” , and “Joker” ) and screenwriter Justin Malen ( “Office Christmas Party” )? Yeah, I’m gonna go with the latter for now. I laughed, I had a good time, and I think it’s mostly ...

Josh Duhamel and his supposedly adult dude-bro pals (Dan Bakkedahl, Nick Swardson, Kevin Dillon, James Roday Rodriguez, and Dax Shepard) compete in an annual series of frat boy-derived obstacle courses. One year the obnoxious Dan Bakkedahl (a frequent winner of the games) gets particularly painful to endure with his grotesque victory celebrations. It pisses off both Nick Swardson as well as Bakkedahl’s wife enough that the latter takes a paintball gun and shoots the jerk in the testicles while he’s ‘tea-bagging’ a fellow competitor. Swardson takes the blame to protect his repulsive friend’s marriage. Cut to five years later and Duhamel is told by Bakkedahl’s mother that he is suicidally depressed and the only thing that might cure him is to have another Buddy Games. Duhamel reluctantly agrees to get the gang back together, minus Swardson at Bakkedahl’s request. Naturally Swardson finds out and turns up anyway. Let the games begin! Olivia Munn plays Duhamel’s disapproving wife.   ...

After a trap set by SPECTRE leads him to question the loyalty of lover Dr. Madeline Swann (Lea Seydoux), 007 James Bond (Daniel Craig) parts ways with her and quits Her Majesty’s Secret Service altogether. Several years later, old buddy Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) and CIA operative Logan Ash (Billy Magnusson) approach Bond in Jamaica asking him to look into the theft of a bioweapon. British Secret Service are also looking into the matter, represented by Bond’s 007 replacement Nomi (Lashana Lynch). The trail leads to villains old (Christoph Waltz’s Blofeld) and new (Rami Malek’s Lyutsifer Safin), whilst also incorporating Madeline into the mix somewhere along the line. Ana de Armas plays Paloma, a novice agent who helps out Bond briefly.   I haven’t been a fan of the Daniel Craig era of James Bond films, with the unpopular “SPECTRE” being the only one that worked for me. This 2021 final entry in the Craig era from director Cary Joji Fukunaga (co-writer of the recent film adap...

Somewhere in the woods of the Pacific Northwest, something out of the sky lands and a creature springing forth from it attacks an unawares deer. Meanwhile, a happy young couple (Maika Monroe and Jake Lacy) are ready for some camping in those very same woods. It will be their doom.   This 2022 sci-fi/horror offering from co-writer/co-director team Dan Berk and Robert Olsen ( “Stake Land II” , “Villains” ) seems to have been pretty well-received by those who have seen it. I was enjoying it too, for about 40 minutes or so. Unfortunately after about that point, things go horribly wrong for the film. Or at least my enjoyment of it.   On the plus side, the directors give us an eerie sense of dread at the outset, with the direction/cinematography really putting emphasis on those tall trees. It’s quite unsettling, actually. It’s a well-shot, and particularly well-lit film. It was being eerie and tense whilst really more of a sci-fi film than a horror film. In fact, if anything...

Timothee Chalamet plays Paul, son of Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac). Duke Leto is charged with ruling over the desert planet Arrakis, home of a substance called ‘spice’, which is in high demand particularly for the purposes of space travel. Soon after Duke Leto, Paul, and Lady Jessica Atreides (Rebecca Ferguson) arrive on Arrakis, trouble starts with rival family Harkonnen attempting to take Arrakis back by force. Jason Momoa plays Duncan Idaho, who trains Paul in swordplay, Josh Brolin is Gurney Halleck, Duke Leto’s ‘Warmaster’ and another mentor/instructor to Paul. Stellan Skarsgaard turns up as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, the chief villain of the piece, with Dave Bautista having a small role as Baron Harkonnen’s nephew. Elsewhere we have Charlotte Rampling as Reverend Mother Mohaim, Javier Bardem as Stilgar leader of the Fremen tribe, and Zendaya as a Fremen named Chani.   Look, can we all just finally admit that Frank Herbert’s novel Dune was never meant to be a motion pic...

Cynical Robert Mitchum and good-natured idealist Jack Lemmon are a couple of smugglers in the Caribbean who agree to ferry a mystery woman presumably in trouble (Rita Hayworth) illegally from island to island. Both men fall in love with her, but Mitchum wins out because they’re both like-minded people. Meanwhile, Lemmon is left embittered and drunk for losing out. And then tragedy strikes. Bernard Lee plays a doctor, Herbert Lom is a conflicted harbour master, Anthony Newley plays a contact of Mitchum’s, and Edric Conner is Jimmy Jean, the loyal first mate.   No, not the late 90s Steven Seagal flick, but a 1957 Robert Parrish ( “Lucy Gallant” , “Saddle the Wind” ) star vehicle. The film starts terrifically, and features top work by Mitchum and especially Lemmon. Even when it switches gears and becomes more of a disaster/rescue movie it still works, largely because of Lemmon’s excellent, likeable performance. Unfortunately it nearly gets torpedoed by one of the most inappropriat...

On a satellite repair mission, NASA astronaut Patrick Wilson encounters something he believes to be extra-terrestrial, colliding with the spaceship it results in a fellow astronaut being killed. Back home in an official inquiry, Wilson’s account of events is not backed up by mission leader Halle Berry, and the findings blame technical issues and Wilson basically made the scapegoat. A few years later the disgraced astronaut is now near-homeless and leading children’s tours at a museum whilst Berry is now NASA deputy director. One day, Wilson encounters budding scientist and conspiracy theorist John Bradley who believes the moon is really an extra-terrestrial satellite and that its orbit has changed. Soon NASA seems to concur, believing the moon is on a collision course with Earth. Berry and her NASA colleagues need drunk and miserable Wilson to get his shit together to help in their possible solution to the problem. Michael Pena plays the new man in Wilson’s ex’s life, Charlie Plummer i...