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Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)
A Shawshank for the millennials
We all know critics have an agenda, to support the views and pockets of their paymasters. Classics like What a Wonderful World, Psycho, And yes Shawshank Redemption have fallen foul to this manipulation well add Crawdads.
It's by accident that films like this grow in cult status, many like me would have watched this movie with low expectations and because there was nothing else to watch, but wow! It is a brilliant movie that has everything, suspense romance, mystery, great acting, fantastic scenery, maybe the critics wanted that bit more? Maybe Chase could have been Chastity a trans man from San Francisco? I don't know, but maybe not as he had a bad side,
But whatever I will put it out there that in 20 years time the critics will call it differently.
Terrifier 2 (2022)
If only it was 1980!
Who's old enough to remember the video nasty outrage in the early 80's? Every other week there was another low budget effort set to cause venomous outrage from the daily mail, vivid posters promising the most outrageous violence you could possibly imagine, titles like Driller Killer, SS experiment camp, cannibal Holocaust etc., we hunted them down to try and beat the censor ban only to ultimately think what a load of crap!.
Well Terrifier 2 is what we were looking for! The sadism and gore we imagined is there and some.
Had this been released in 1980 the director would no doubt have served a seven stretch.
Anyway film so so, but delivers what it promises.
Goodfellas (1990)
How can you better this?
Goodfellas is the ultimate in movies,it makes you feel every emotion possible and despite its length it never stutters in intensity or storytelling. The casting is spot on, everyone of the characters is hard to imagine anyone else playing the role,maybe Paulie is a bit too likable but then maybe he was in reality who knows! There are so many standout performances that to pick one seems a slight on the others,but Joe Pesci where did that come from? Simply awesome. The Godfather was a great picture and set a standard far above anything previous the progression upwards from that is Goodfellas My one reservation being from a crime movie perspective is where do you go from here
The Exorcist III (1990)
Not just better than the original but possibly the scariest film ever made
When you want to discover if a horror movie really works is to wait till everyone else has gone home or sleeping put a DVD on and sit and watch it alone,I have done this many times with all types of highly rated movies,only once have I switched off early,and that was for the exorcist 3,not because it was rubbish or boring or I was tired but because I was absolutely terrified! I kid you not I was virtually unable to walk up the stairs had to turn the light on and call the dog to me! This film contains a few stand out shock moments and the scene in the hospital ward is without doubt the single most startling moment I have ever seen.Admittedly when I resumed watching the following day(afternoon) it tailed off a bit the ending not living up to the rest of it almost like they decided to rush it which is why it only makes it to number 2 of my top ten list. How this movie isn't higher rated by everyone is beyond me this should be up there as the one to beat,if the marketing had been done in the right way this would have been a £100 million movie,I mean if a good run of the mill film like the conjuring can do it?
Per qualche dollaro in più (1965)
The king of westerns
For a few dollars more is in my opinion the greatest western yet made,it has everything a fan of the genre could possibly want. You have the lead character who is a bounty hunter,he is not a perfect role model far from it but forget all that he kills bad people! You have another bounty hunter now he is a good man with even better reasons to kill criminals you can root for him with no feeling of guilt. Then you have the baddies and especially one who is both evil and mentally deranged on top of this is a superb soundtrack brilliant flowing direction from Leone at his absolute best and great locations,the only reason I don't give this film top marks is because I'm not stupid enough to realise that this film is really only aimed at fifty percent of the population!
The Exorcist (1973)
Always be a classic but losing a bit of its notoriety
I was 7 when the Exorcist was first released and even at that age with no chance of seeing the movie I was aware of it,such was the frenzy surrounding it,thus it was going to be immortalised in history as the most notorious of all mainstream horror films. When the bbfc decided to ban it from video release several years later not on the grounds of extreme violence like the so called video nasties,but basically because they felt it was to scary for the common man,then it's long term reputation was cemented. To live up to the hype was always gonna be a big ask,and unfortunately it doesn't quite make it but makes a valiant attempt. The scenes of possession,head spinning,projectile vomiting and especially the shocking scene with the crucifix truly must have been disturbing to an early seventies audience,and also the opening sounds and first scenes in Iraq are unsettling which create a real feeling of evil and are all responsible for the almost hysterical reaction to the film. But times have changed,people like me of a certain age have witnessed so much horror since then both real and fictional that the mystique of the movie just doesn't wash anymore,worse still when I lent a copy of the film to some younger people during the time of its ban they found it laughable,that was probably more shocking! Overall the Exorcist is a brave movie it is still a classic but unfortunately like many things in Hollywood it is not ageing well. By the way there have been several sequels to this movie and one of them is a hidden gem possibly the real scariest film ever made! Please look at my top ten scary movies.
The Good Doctor (2011)
Oh dear me! What a pile
I'm one of those people who takes each film I watch with a completely open mind willing to give anything a go not pre judge,well I have to say this is one of the most atrocious films I have had the displeasure in watching in the last 10 years. How some studios give money and time to trash like this is beyond me I could save them so much by reading the script for them and chucking it straight in the bin. I think you could put any actors in this even have Scorsese direct it and it would still be a yawning piece of junk.Thats not to say the acting was great because it was far from it,am I in a minority here who thinks Orlando Bloom is a wooden mannequin of an actor? He may prove me wrong one day but I will be surprised although he wasn't too bad in the TV extras series. But to be fair De Niro would have struggled to bring much to this tripe Avoid
The Wanderers (1979)
Others promise this one delivers
I saw this movie at the cinema back in 1980 when it was in a double bill with the choirboys,I didn't expect too much having been let down by numerous other offerings in the same mould. But pleased to say of all the teenage films aimed at a male audience during the era of the 70's and 80's this was easily the best. Set in the early sixties in a Hollywood vision of the Bronx we are introduced to such fearsome gangs as the wongs the notorious baldies and off course the title making wanderers. For once what we get is what we want,a bit of banter,a bit of fun with the ladies, and most importantly a fair amount of brawling. All this set to a most glorious soundtrack(thank you frankie!) If you want to kill an hour and a half with some mindless violence,nothing too serious, great music and a bit of the other then you could do a lot worse than this movie.
The Changeling (1980)
If you could create the perfect supernatural film it would be this!
When you put together a great story with great technicians including superb actors you can't go wrong, and the changeling has it all in abundance. No need for blood and guts,nudity or profanities this film doesn't need gimmicks to scare you, but scare you it will! Special mention must be said for the sound department only when the noise subdued did I realise the speed of my heartbeat! I am bemused that this movie was not a huge hit when originally released in 1980 this says to me the marketing boys were not as special as everyone connected with it. My one criticism, and believe me it's hard to have any,is that despite the fact the film is scary I believe it could have been scarier,yes I rate it one of the ten scariest films ever made(see my list)but the opportunity was there to make it the movie that others would try to emulate.
Don't Look Now (1973)
Arty horror almost works but not quite
When I first saw this movie I was about 10 or 11 and I got totally traumatised by the dwarf murder of Donald Sutherland's character,shockingly scary violent and sinister. Years later I watched the film again,yes the murder is still a strong scene,yes as an adult the famous sex scene is a pretty good watch,Julie Christie a not painful on the eyes,but I tell you what the rest of the film is a lesson in pretentious nonsense. It is not often I find supernatural themed thrillers boring but I find it hard to express any other emotion when describing the movie. Why do some directors try to be so clever when executing their work? It's almost like the most important aspect of any movie gets overlooked-entertain! You do feel in the hands of a more commercial(if maybe not so highly regarded)director this could have been maybe a good slasher movie but hey, each to their own one mans trash and so on