Apr 22 2021

Occupation: Rainfall – Release News

Signature Entertainment presents Occupation: Rainfall in Cinemas and on Premium Digital 9th July

Synopsis: Avatar meets Star Wars meets Independence Day. From the VFX team behind The Last Jedi and Blade Runner 2049, Occupation Rainfall is a sci-fi action epic with an all-star cast including Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter), Temuera Morrison (The Mandalorian) and Ken Jeong (The Hangover).After an intergalactic invasion of Earth, where survivors are fighting back in a desperate ground war, the resistance uncover a plot that could see the war come to a decisive end for mankind. With the alien invaders hell-bent on making Earth their new home, the race is on to save the planet. Occupation Rainfall Is an explosive sci-fi extravaganza that grips from start to thrilling finish, written and directed by Luke Sparke.

Apr 22 2021

Deerskin – Release News

DEERSKIN will open in cinemas across the UK on Friday 16th July

Georges (Academy Award winner Jean Dujardin), is a man who has one ambition – to possess the finest jacket in the world at the expense of all others. With the relationship with his wife in tatters, Georges retreats to a remote town where he purchases the deerskin jacket of his dreams. Along with the stylish jacket he has just acquired, he also gets hold of an old video camera. This ignites a new interest as he moves from couture to auteur. Aided by aspiring editor Denise (César winner Adèle Haenel), he sets out to create his masterwork. However, his ever closer relationship with his deerskin jacket starts to take him down a darker path that he continues to document on his camera and which Denise continues to sew together into a film. Laugh out loud funny and gloriously unexpected, the odyssey on which Georges has embarked leaves him guilty of many things, not least an excess of killer style…

Apr 22 2021

Here Are the Young Men (2020) Movie Review

Here are the Young Men – Dark Coming of Age Tale

Director: Eoin Macken

Writer: Eoin Macken (Screenplay) Rob Doyle (Novel)

Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Travis Fimmel, Susan Lynch, Finn Cole, Dean-Charles Chapman, Ralph Ineson, Conleth Hill, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo

Plot: Dublin teenagers Matthew, nihilistic Rez, and the deranged Kearney, leave school to a social vacuum of drinking and drugs, falling into shocking acts of transgression.

Runtime: 1 Hour 36 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Here Are the Young Men starts as we meet the three Dublin teenagers Matthew (Chapman), Kearney (Cole) and Rez (Walsh-Peel) who have finished school and are spending their days causing troubles around the town with their drinking and smoking.

After the three see a traumatic event, Matthew looks to try and get his life back on track with Jen (Taylor-Joy) looking to escape the life he has created, while seeing his friends fall not their own holes of madness.

Thoughts on Here Are the Young Men

Characters & Performances – Matthew is a teenager just out of school where his teachers believed he could have achieved something, but his friends are causing him to waste his potential. He starts dating Jen and after a traumatic experience, he wants to try and find something more from his life, as he sees what the future is offering his two best friends. Dean-Charles Chapman does gives us a great performance of a young man that is starting to feel lost to the system he has wanted to escape from. Kearney is the deranged friend that has a twisted sense of enjoyment in his life, he will look to break every law in the book, imagining his own life filled with violence and drugs. Finn Cole does make a threatening figure for a young man that doesn’t know how to hold back. Rez is the part of the friends that is suffering from depression, he is struggling with the confidence to take on the next stage of his life, needing his friends to keep him safe. Ferdia Walsh-Peelo does give us a character that does feel isolated in the group of friends, the one that can feel like the outsider along the way. Jen is the girl that hangs out with the boys, she starts spending more time with Matthew but her own position of not knowing her future can be reflected on the guys too. Anya Taylor-Joy is good in this role, giving us one of her most grounded roles in her young film career.

Story – The story here follows three school friends that finish school and find themselves drawn into a world a drinks and drugs, where one starts to look at his own life and how he could put things back on track, while his friends violent side becomes more apparent. This story does manage to mix the difficulties of growing up post school, where you don’t know what will happen next in your own life, with friendships that are drifting apart from each other because the actions are only showing horrific side effects. This will show just how people change, some for the better, some for the worse and other just need help, leaving school will change everyone’s life no matter what they thought.

Themes – Here Are the Young Men is a coming of age drama that will show us just how difficult the time after school is before finding a job role, it shows us how life can happen quickly and while you need to have fun, you can’t go too far with actions. Using the Dublin backdrop to show the limited chances they have.

Signature Entertainment presents Here are the Young Men on Digital Platforms 30th April and DVD on 10^th May

Here Are the Young Men is a dark coming of age tale, that shows us how friendships can be shattered.

Apr 22 2021

ABC Film Challenge – Action – V – Vault (2019) Movie Review

Director: Tom DeNucci

Writer: Tom DeNucci, B. Nolan (Screenplay)

Starring: Theo Rossi, Clive Standen, Samira Wiley, Chazz Palminteri, Don Johnson, William Forsythe, Sean Ringgold

Plot: Vault tells a story about a group of small time criminals in 1975 who attempt to pull off the biggest heist in American history: stealing over $30 million from the Mafia in the smallest state in the union, Rhode Island.

Runtime: 1 Hour 39 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Forgettable

Story: Vault starts as we meet two small-time criminals Deuce (Rossi) and Chucky (Standen) who commit robberies, in the middle of the battle for power within the Mafia, with Raymond (Palminteri) being in charge and Gerry (Johnson) wanting more.

After the pair get caught, they meet Gerry in prison and he offers them a job when they are out, one to rob the vault of the Mafia, to be one of the biggest robberies in history.

Thoughts on Vault

Characters – Deuce is one half of the crime partnership, he doesn’t want to get involved with wearing a mask, only for him to meet his girlfriend on the job and show his family side, he doesn’t want to remain in the world as much as his partner. Chucky is the partner to Deuce that loves the criminal world and will do anything to stay in it, always pushing Deuce into the next job. Karyn is the woman that Deuce meets on the job, she wants him to get out of the life of crime even after standing next to him during his prison stint. Raymond is the head of the Mafia that isn’t willing to let anyone has power, while Gerry is the one trying to gain the power.

Performances – The performances in the film aren’t the best, with most just being your typical criminal figures and the one from Samira Wiley all about wanting to have the lifestyle and showing the reluctance to be in the world.

Story – The story here follows two small-time thieves that find themselves drawn into a bigger job which will see them take on the Mafia, with on of the biggest robberies, only for the consequences being bigger than they imagined. This does fall into the category of story that is just another criminal heist which is filled with consequences, with unlikeable characters, that just drags along at a poor pace, never getting going in anyway.

Action/Crime – The action is slow and focuses more on the gangster mentality of the world, with the criminal world never getting going as they are more naïve than smart about what they were doing.

Settings – The film doesn’t use the settings well enough because it never shows us just how intense the locations end up being.

Scene of the Movie – The first robbery.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – The pace is all over the place.

Final Thoughts – This is a poor crime thriller that never gets going and by the end of the film, you will have forgotten what you have just seen.

Overall: Dull.

Apr 22 2021

The Deep Ones (2020) Movie Review

The Deep Ones – Lovecraft Fantasy

Director: Chad Ferrin

Writer: Chad Ferrin (Screenplay) H.P. Lovecraft (Writings)

Starring: Gina La Piana, Robert Miano, Johann Urb, Silvia Spross, Jackie Debatin, Nicolas Coster

Plot: A married couple rents a beach side Airbnb only to be surrounded by peculiar neighbors and occurrences. They soon discover to be in the grips of a mysterious cult and their ancient sea god.

Tagline – See the light

Runtime: 1 Hour 23 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: The Deep Ones starts when Alex (La Piana) and Petri (Urb) arrive at a beach side Airbnb for a romantic weekend, despite meeting the strange owners Russel (Miano) and Ingrid (Spross) who seems to get a hold of Petri bringing him into the mysterious cult they seem to have around the beach.

Alex finds herself feeling left along by the strange goings on, which will see her starting to see her husband acting strange, with the community acting closer than she could imagine, bringing her towards their desires of the cult latest member.

Thoughts on The Deep Ones

Thoughts – The Deep Ones brings a couple to a beach house for a holiday, which will soon turn into a nightmare as the cult surrounding the area looks to take advantage of them. This does continue a trend in horror that will see a group of people wanting something from a couple, one that is getting tiresome now, this one does have an interesting build and is looking to bring the creations of Lovecraft mind. When it comes the effects, we get some strong moments, as we wait to see what we are going to see, but it never reaches the levels of other Lovecraft visions we are seeing. We could have gone a lot deeper into what is going on with more creepy moments involving the creatures from the imaginations.

Final Thoughts – The Deep Ones gives us a look at the imagination of Lovecraft, but only a glimpse of what we could see.