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The Beekeeper (2024)
Juvenile Nonsense
It is insulting to 12 year-olds to say this is like something written by a 12 year-old. It strains credulity so often you just end up sitting there bored and clock-watching. However, I'm sure plenty of 12 year-old boys will enjoy the sadistic brutality in the film, such as chopping people in half with lifts, and other gruesome fantasy sadism. If ALL you want to see in movies is fight scenes and blood-letting then this is the film for you. If, however, you enjoy a plot, characters or just a semblance of reality - avoid this at all costs. Statham has a long history of movies such as these, and I can only assume he doesn't really enjoy acting, only the pay-check, because there is no other motive for this film other than profit.
Wolf (2021)
Disappointing flat ending
An absolutely terrific film about everything from identity, the concept of self, mental illness and the barbarities performed on people 'correcting' them. It works exceptionally well throughout, with likeable and believable characters, but it builds up to a crescendo that never happens. Our hero doesn't attain hs metamorphosis into this true self, despite the appearance that he does, and it all ends up sort of flat on its face. I've rated it for the bulk of the film, which is riveting, but that ending? Oh dear no,,,,
P. S. a shout out to the movement coach who apparently taught the hero his movement. Its one of the most credible human 'wolf' impersonations I've ever seen, no CGI needed. Even more of a shame that impersonation doesn't then fulfil its promise.
Barbarians (2021)
Unexpected and full of red herrings
I expected very little of this film, and its current viewer rating of 5 suggests it is mediocre, but it isn't at all. It constantly shifts your expectations. At first it looks like it's going to be about (failed) relationships, then we get pagan festivals meets social media - bound to be a conflict there; then it swerves again into alpha brother and sibling rivalry - all the time you are waiting for the angle the plot is going to follow to become clear, but it doesn't click into gear until it wanders into Straw Dogs territory, and even then it still manages body swerves of the unexpected. It constantly throws up red herrings so that it keeps you on your toes, and while none of them are original it manages to make them original by its off-key take on them.
It also has a terrific laugh-out-loud black humour, which I suspect many people will mistakenly think is a failure of the script to make the characters endearing. I spent the entirety of the dinner party scenes whooping with delight at the outrageous provocations of their sly little barbarities against each other. It really does make you question, as I suspect it's meant to, who the real barbarians are here.
The only place it falls down a little is in the ending, which feels a teeny bit flat, and which viewers might not forgive them for after the build-up, but other than that it is surprisingly gripping. A real subtle little slow-burner which I hope gets more recognition.
Feed (2005)
A hugely underrated movie and a true original
There seems to be a lot of talk on IMDb on how "gross" this movie is. One of the problems that afflicts 'horror' type genre films is the same one that afflicts movies with sex scenes - nobody gives a damn about the film, only about the sex/gore that everyone else is talking about. People are never more sheep-like than when any art or entertainment gets landed with the sex or horror labels, and this film is no exception.
This is an exceptional film which stands head and shoulders above films with fifty times the budget. As is typical of much Australian product, it cheerfully ignores the filmic language of Hollywood and the boundaries of what we come to expect on the screen and tells the story it wants to tell. Feeders are a real phenomenon and this film treats them very realistically. Anything that is 'gross' in it is not due to the sight of unnaturally and unfashionably large women, but the underlying sickness of a society that produces such thinking in the first place. It examines the gender politics of power and is, indeed, a feminist treatise in its own way - only not nearly as boring or worthy as that sounds.
If you want to see something that will unsettle and disturb you and that has a real intangible quality of originality, not to mention bravery, then watch this - and try and forget what you're 'supposed' to feel compared to what all your friends are feeling. This isn't a competition and you won't win any prizes for thinking like everyone else.
It's good, just enjoy it.