Signature Entertainment presents The Wicker Man on Digital Platforms 20th September and Amazon Prime Video 1st October
A cult classic starring Nicolas Cage (Face/Off) returns 15 years after its original release. Based on the hit thriller of the same name, The Wicker Man returns to claim another sacrifice. A man finds himself sucked into a twisted community whose secrets and Puritan ways could see a young girl sacrificed. It’s a race against time for this outsider to save a life but the residents of Summers Isle may just have other plans. The Wicker Man was written and directed by Neil LaBute, based on the original 1973 screenplay by Anthony Shaffer.
Signature Entertainment presents Escape Plan 2on Amazon Prime Video 24th September
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Strap yourself in for the second instalment of the explosive and electrifying action franchise, as the on-screen forces of Sylvester Stallone (Creed, The Expendables) and Dave Bautista (Blade Runner 2049, Guardians of the Galaxy) combine in Escape Plan 2. Years after Ray Breslin fought his way out of the escape-proof prison, he organised a new top-notch, for-hire security force that includes some of the best in the business. But when one of Breslin’s team goes missing Breslin goes back into the secret lock-up to save his friend. To attempt this near impossible mission, he enlists his old friend Trent Derosa (Dave Bautista) and the returning surveillance expert Hush (Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson), to help him return from the gauntlet with both his friend and his life. Escape Plan 2 was directed by Steven C. Miller and written by Miles Chapman.
Plot: An FBI agent and Florida State officer team up to investigate a string of unsolved murder cases.
Runtime: 1 Hour 39 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Midnight in the Switchgrass starts when a Florida State Officer Byron (Hirsch) gets news of a missing person and the news of a dead body, neither being connected. Meanwhile FBI Agents Rebecca (Fox) and Karl (Willis) are running their own operation out of a motel, one that is getting more dangerous.
As Byron and Rebecca look to work together to track down a suspect serial killer Peter (Haas), we learn how he operates when it comes to picking up women.
Thoughts on Midnight in the Switchgrass
Characters & Performances – Byron is the Florida State officer that is taking lead on the string of abduction in the area with him not getting very far in finding the person behind it, he teams up with FBI agent Rebecca as he races against time to find the killer, while trying to keep his own wife happy being left alone. Emile Hirsch does try to give us a more interesting cop figure, in what is a film filled with disappointing performances. Rebecca is running a sting operation with the FBI trying to track down sex offenders in a motel, she ends up working with Byron after scaring away her senior partner, she has the backstory to show her strength, only to just be a weakly written figure in this film. Megan Fox, much like Emile does try to make more of the character than given in the script. Peter is the married trucker that has been abducting women and torturing them, he has a routine for picking them up, believing he is doing this for the right reason. Lukas Haas is the strongest of the performances here, showing a psychotic side through the whole film. Bruce Willis plays Karl the partner of Rebecca, who decides to talk away from the case believing they are too dangerous to continue. This role really didn’t need to be Bruce Willis.
Story – The story here follows a Florida State Officer that teams up with an FBI agent as they look to track down a serial killer that has been targeting women in the area, as they look to bring an end to their reign of terror. While this is a track the serial killer movie, we do need to let the killer show their truly sadistic side, we need cops that feel like they are desperate to solve the case. The story does seem to lack any intensity behind everything happening, we needed so much more from what is going on to hit the pure intensity of the situation, instead of a lacklustre look at how things ended up going on. It has a lot of filler moments in the film too, which could have trimmed the runtime too, as it feels longer.
Themes – Midnight in the Switchgrass is a crime thriller that will bring the serial killer needing to be tracked down, it doesn’t seem to get any real investigation, just a quick chat leading to something happening, we don’t seem to go dark enough to see how twisted the killer is, with no locations being used to make any impact in the film.
Midnight in the Switchgrass is on Digital Download 13 August and DVD 16 August from Lionsgate UK
Final Thoughts – Midnight in the Switchgrass is a flat crime thriller never getting to the top level or even a strong one.
Signature Entertainment presents Here are the Young Men on Amazon Prime Video 10th September
Sill images from the 2018 Movie Here Are The Young Men
Here Are The Young Men is a fresh and shocking Irish thriller featuring an all-star cast including Dean Charles Chapman (Game of Thrones, 1917), Finn Cole (Peaky Blinders), Golden Globe(™) winner Anya Taylor-Joy (The Queen’s Gambit, Emma), Emmett J Scanlan (Peaky Blinders), Travis Fimmel (Vikings, Danger Close), Ferdia Walsh-Peelo (Sing Street) and Conleth Hill (Game of Thrones). Dublin 2003. Aimless teenager Matthew (Chapman) and his disaffected friends leave school into a social vacuum of drink, drugs and thrill-seeking in one last Summer of adolescence. Matthew romantically yearns after his free-spirited friend Jen (Taylor-Joy) and struggles to maintain his increasingly disturbing relationship with the magnetic but sadistic Kearney (Cole). Whilst their precocious friend Rez (Walsh Peelo) has started to succumb to paranoia and depression. Matthew and the group are soon led by the deranged Kearney into a world of nihilistic violence, falling into shocking acts of transgression that will irrevocably change their lives. Here Are The Young Men is written and directed by Eoin Macken from the novel of the same name by Rob Doyle.
This is under L because of Laurence Fishburne being in the film.
Director: Todd Randall
Writer: John Collins, Hamid Torebpour (Screenplay) Chad Mitchell (Story)
Starring: Milo Gibson, Laurence Fishburne, Abigail Hawk, Acorye White, Carter Redwood, Germain Arroyo, Adrian Favela, Nicholas Delgado
Plot: Brother’s Keeper is a true story about the ’09 Abilene High School Football team.
Runtime: 1 Hour 49 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Under the Stadium Lights starts as we get to meet the different high school football players that are left after a surprise defeat, with Chad Mitchell (Gibson) making it an option for the team to come together to show the problems they are having in their lives, which will bring to light a string of problems that will see the players show their vulnerable side, while the each member of the team will offer a chance to come together for the better.
Thoughts on Under the Stadium Lights
Thoughts – Under the Stadium Lights is a sports drama that focuses on four high school footballers that need to bounce back after a disastrous result, as well as learning to cope with their person problems when a local preacher gives them a chance to express their feelings of pain they are going through off the field. This is an important look at the struggles people will have in life and will show how people will come together as a community to support each other, with this being based on a real story, it would be interesting to learn just how much of this is real. This is more about the drama of coming together over seeing any of the football involved, even if I wouldn’t understand the game anyway. It does have a religious theme playing into the recover the people must go through.
Final Thoughts – Under the Stadium Lights is a religious sports drama that lacks the big impact on the main game changing sequences.
A famous crime writer becomes a victim after a crazed fan brutally attacks her. Isolated in her apartment she tries to recover but continues to feel threatened after experiencing strange events. Her psychiatrist believes that it’s all in her mind, a result of post-traumatic stress, but convinced that her attacker is stalking her she resorts to extreme violence to protect herself.
