Signature Entertainment presents Bull exclusively at UK Cinemas from 5th November
Bull is a brutal, subversive and wickedly suspenseful revenge thriller written and directed by Bafta®-winner Paul Andrew Williams (London to Brighton),and featuring outstanding performances from an electric Neil Maskell (Kill List, Utopia) and a terrifying David Hayman (Taboo, Vertical Limit) plus Tamzin Outhwaite (Eastenders). After a 10-year absence, former gang enforcer Bull returns to his old haunts to find his missing son and seek revenge on those who double crossed him and left him for dead. Painful secrets from the past will soon be revealed and like a man possessed, Bull will stop at nothing to get back at those who must atone for their sins.
Starring: Monique Rockman, Carel Nel, Alex van Dyk, Anthony Oseyemi
Plot: An injured forest ranger on a routine mission is saved by two off-the-grid survivalists. What is initially a welcome rescue grows more suspicious as the son and his renegade father reveal a cultish devotion to the forest.
Runtime: 1 Hour 36 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Gaia starts when a forest ranger Gabi (Rockman) goes in search on land for her drone, while her partner ranger Winston (Oseyemi) gives her the time limit to search for it, when Gabi gets injured, she is rescued by two men Barend (Nel) and Stefan (van Dyk) who offer her safety.
The two men believe they are fighting against intruders within the forest, one that is supernatural in origin, one that will strike fear and create monster that will become deadly as they look to defend Gabi from the viral threat in the forest.
Thoughts on Gaia
Characters & Performances – Gabi is the forest ranger that has been working in the dangerous area for a while, knows certain dangers within the forest, she finds herself getting caught in the middle of a trap, helped by two estranged men who teach her about the dangers she isn’t prepared for in the forest. Gabi must learn quick, as the fight to survive is deadlier than she could have ever imagined. Monique Rockman does give us an exceptional performance in the leading role, going through the nightmares both dreaming and living ones. Barend and Stefan are the father and son living in the forest, fighting against a threat in the forest, teaching Gabi what the dangers are, while showing the dangers they might have seen created in their heads in the forest. Carel Nel and Alex van Dyk both does a great job, showing the two different generations of beliefs behind what is going on.
Story – The story here follows a forest ranger that finds herself injured and rescued by a couple of men who live in the forest, a forest they believe to be haunted by a creature that is looking to feed of the people who roam through the area, showing us how she must figure out how to survive the horrors she finds herself in. This is a horror that will play completely into the unknown for Gabi, not letting her or us know everything that is going on, only giving small bits of details through information from the men, or the visitors they get. It will have an eco-message, despite large parts of what we see feeling like something we have seen before, despite making you think about the bigger picture.
Themes – Gaia is a horror that will throw us into a world of an unknown threat in a forest, which once we see, you will easily have a comparison to one of the popular horror creations in a popular video game. The film will keep everything within the one location, the forest away from the world, showing the message of nature in the horror. The effects in this film are amazing, showing the transformation slowly happening to the victims.
GAIA IS RELEASED ON ALTITUDE.FILM AND OTHER DIGITAL PLATFORMS FROM 27 SEPTEMBER.
Final Thoughts – Gaia is an unsettling horror that shines on the special effects side of the horror.
The Courier is on premium digital 27 September from Lionsgate UK
The Courier is a true-life spy thriller, the story of an unassuming British businessman, Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch), recruited into one of the greatest international conflicts in history. At the behest of the UK’s MI6 and a CIA operative (Rachel Brosnahan), he forms a covert, dangerous partnership with Soviet officer Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze) in an effort to provide crucial intelligence needed to prevent a nuclear confrontation and defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Writer: James Cameron (Screenplay) Claude Zidi, Simon Michael, Didier Kaminka (Original Screenplay)
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Tia Carrere, Art Malik, Eliza Dushku
Plot: A fearless, globe-trotting, terrorist-battling secret agent has his life turned upside down when he discovers his wife might be having an affair with a used-car salesman while terrorists smuggle nuclear war heads into the United States.
Tagline – When he said I do, he never said what he did.
Runtime: 2 Hours 21 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: True Lies starts when super fearless secret agent Harry (Schwarzenegger) is hot on the trail of the latest terrorist Aziz (Malik) when he learns his secret life has made his distant from his wife Helen (Curtis) and daughter Dana (Dushku).
When Harry learns that Helen is about to get involved in an affair with a used car salesman Simon (Paxton) pretending to be a super spy, he uses the government resources to spy on her and track down, forgetting about the terrorist threat he must fight against.
Thoughts on True Lies
Thoughts – True Lies brings us a fresh approach to the action comedy movie, playing heavily in both, but rarely mixing the two, having the spy start and finish side of the film being everything you would expect from a more serious light hearted action film, while the comedy comes from the marriage side of things for the spy, which is all comedy, with little action. The idea that a spy has been keeping his life a secret for so long. Arnold Schwarzenegger was a perfect choice in the leading role, where he can have all the fun in action role, then look out of place in the family life. Jamie Lee Curtis as the lonely housewife works wonderfully too, with Tom Arnold bringing along most of the comedy in the film. The action involved in the film does get bigger as the film continues, with the final acts of the film involving a host of different incidents including a fighter jet next to a building. This is one of the most entertaining action comedies you will ever see, one that I feel most people will get enjoyment out of.
Final Thoughts – True Lies a big entertaining action comedy, filled with all the action and plenty of laughs.
Starring: Jake Johnson, Susan Sarandon, D’Arcy Carden, J.K. Simmons, Luis Fernandez-Gil, Cleo King
Plot: Leif is left with a conditional inheritance when his estranged mother Honey dies. Before he can move into her picturesque Yosemite cabin, he has to complete her elaborate, and sometimes dubious, to-do list.
Runtime: 1 Hour 28 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Ride the Eagle starts when Leif (Johnson) gets the news that his estranged mother Honey (Sarandon) has passed away, leaving him her cabin under one condition, he must complete a to-do list.
Leif heads up to the cabin to start the list, which will see him get some late life advice from his mother that will see him challenge his past, as he is struggling to face his future.
Thoughts on Ride the Eagle
Characters & Performances – Leif is the man who lives with his dog Nora, he is part of a band, but doesn’t seem to be achieving much in his life, finding himself feeling lost at times. When his mother dies, he gets left her cabin, with a series of challenges to get through, that will give him a chance to face his past, in hope of finding out more about his future. Jake Johnson does a great job carrying this film, bring his charm to the role, while having the serious side of the film down perfectly. When we go into the supporting roles, we get the recording from Honey, Lief’s mother, which is her trying to get a message across to him, a message she never got through in the real life. Audrey who is on the other end of a phone call for Leif, with the two remembering their old life together and Carl the neighbour that Leif finds himself in a rivalry with for no reason. The supporting cast does everything right without needing to do that much in the film.
Story – The story here follows a man that hasn’t seen his life go the way he had planned it, seemingly going nowhere, that will find his mother pass away needing to complete a series of challenge to inherit her cabin. This is a story that is filled with the idea that one person will get a final goodbye to an estranged family member, while finding his feet for the future. This has everything it needs to get the basic idea for this side of the story, but it does seem to only touch the surface of what drove them apart in the first place, while it does become clear, we don’t seem to get the major emotional impactful moment in the film that will leave us flawed with what has happened.
Themes – Ride the Eagle is a coming of age comedy drama looking at a family relationships with a journey that will see the son will have to make, the location is stunningly beautiful, away from the world, bringing the peace from the busy world.
Ride The Eagle will be available on Digital Download from 4th October
Final Thoughts – Ride the Eagle tries to draw on the heart strings of finding your place in the world.
