Nov 30 2021

The Secrets We Keep (2020) Movie Review

Director: Yuval Adler

Writer: Ryan Covington, Yuval Adler (Screenplay)

Starring: Noomi Rapace, Joel Kinnaman, Chris Messina, Jackson Dean Vincent, Amy Seimetz, Muluette Nalin, Jeff Pope

Plot: In post-WWII America, a woman, rebuilding her life in the suburbs with her husband, kidnaps her neighbor and seeks vengeance for the heinous war crimes she believes he committed against her.

Tagline – A quiet neighborhood. A deadly past.

Runtime: 1 Hour 37 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: The Secrets We Keep starts in the aftermath of World War II, a Romania woman Maja (Rapace) has married an American doctor Lewis (Messina), with the pair running the local clinic.

When Maja notices a new stranger in the town, Thomas (Kinnaman), she becomes convinced he is the man that put her and her family through horrific war crimes, which will see her kidnap him, demanding the truth to come out before considering letting him go, while Lewis, looks to dive into the past, to figure out which one of the twos stories is true.

Thoughts on The Secret We Keep

Thoughts – The Secrets We Keep is a thriller that will show us one of the many stories of survivors from war crimes in World War II and what they would do if they could get their hands on the person they believe to be behind them, giving us the fine balance of whether the man in question is innocent, or really the man that did these horrific things to Maja family. It will show how both sides will have looked to move on and how both sides could be seen as just the nightmares of what they experienced. We will get the bigger question on what would happen if this had happened to you, where would you stand on revenge side of things. The performance in this film are brilliant with all three leads showing the sides of their character that will have been pushed to the extremes from before and after the war. The small town location proves to us where the people might go to hide after the war, showing us that you might never know what your neighbour had done or been through in the post-World War II world

Final Thoughts – The Secrets We Keep is a tense thriller highlight the new lives both victims and war criminals might try to have despite being haunted by their pasts.

Nov 30 2021

King Richard (2021) Movie Review ‘Inspirational Story’

King Richard – Inspirational Story

Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green

Writer: Zach Baylin (Screenplay)

Starring: Will Smith, Aunjanue Ellis, Jon Bernthal, Saniyya Sidney, Demi Singleton, Tony Goldwyn, Mikayla Lashae Bartholomew

Plot: A look at how tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams became who they are after the coaching from their father Richard Williams.

Tagline – Venus, Serena and a plan for greatness.

Runtime: 2 Hours 24 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: King Richard starts as we see the routine Richard Williams (Smith) put his daughters Venus (Sidney), Serena (Singleton) along with his three other daughters Tunde (Bartholomew), Isha (Lawson) and Lyndrea (Crawford) in his plan to make the pair tennis superstars.

Richard spends most of his free time trying to help with coaches, which will see the beginning of the careers of Venus and Serena, as they will look to become the superstars we know now.

Thoughts on King Richard

Characters & Performances – Richard Williams is a man with a plan, his plan starts with him having two more daughters to turn up into tennis superstars, drilling them to be the best from watching every tennis match he can get his hands on, most importantly he wants to make sure they get an education and never have to live in the conditions he went through. Richard has a way he likes to make sure things are done, a different path to anyone else has done in the past, a decision that will see him test the coaches he finds, putting the future of his daughters on the line, even if he just wants it to be a way to remove the pressure from the girls, unlike any other tennis parent. Will Smith does give us a wonderful performance as the stubborn father and coach. Oracene Williams is the mother of the girls, she has worked double shifts to make this a reality, getting involved, but knowing and letting the professionals guide her daughters, needing to keep Richard in check from making the reckless decisions. Aunjanue Ellis will give us the most reserved character in the film, getting the biggest lines needed for the film. Venus is the elder of the two sisters, the one that will become the centre stage of the bigger story going on, with her success leading to become the inspiration for Serena. Saniyya Sidney is amazing in her role as the star in the making. Rick Macci is the trainer that Richard trusts to help his daughters, he knows how to make a superstar and knows he must deal with Richard’s quirks to make the star.

Story – The story here follows Richard Williams as he looks to turn his daughters into Tennis superstars following the plan he has put in place, believing he knows exactly what is needed to achieve it. This is an interesting biopic looking into the birth of the stardom for two of the biggest stars in tennis history, it shows the demands needed to become a sports star and the unusual methods their father used. Certain parts will leave you scratching your heads towards what is behind his methods, ones that will get questioned through the film. It does feel like there should have been a more subtle way of getting over the point of wanting to make sure his kids have a childhood, not only drilled into the only knowing one thing.

Themes – King Richard is a sports biopic that will show how Venus and Serena Williams became the superstars we know, showing the different training programs they have been through and understanding how to make the system the professional level occurs.

Final Thoughts – King Richard is an inspirational story behind creating the superstars in the tennis world.

Nov 29 2021

Night Raiders (2021) Movie Review ‘Bleak Filled Sci-Fi Movie’

Night Raiders – Bleak Filled Sci-Fi Film

Director: Danis Goulet

Writer: Danis Goulet (Screenplay)

Starring: Elle-Maija Tailfeathers, Brooklyn Letexier-Hart, Alex Tarrant, Amanda Plummer, Shaun Sipos, Violet Nelson

Plot: A mother joins an underground band of vigilantes to try and rescue her daughter from a state-run institution.

Runtime: 1 Hour 37 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Night Raiders starts as we head into a future where the world has been in a war and children are kept in a state-run institution. Niska (Tailfeathers) has been raising her daughter Waseese (Letexier-Hart) off the grid, away from the scanners. When they find a scanner over their home, Niska must risk going into the city for help, seeing her daughter taken to the institution.

10-months-later Niska still regrets her choice, while adapting to the city, looking for a chance to save her daughter, while Waseese hasn’t fitted into the training programs. Niska gets to meet a group of vigilantes that have been trying to free children, little by little, which will see her join them in an attempt to rescue her daughter.

Thoughts on Night Raiders

Characters & Performances – Niska has been living off the radar with her daughter for years, but when her daughter gets injured, she is forced to let the institution take her. She is looking for a way to get her back, which will see her get the chance to work with the other vigilantes who have been saving children for years. She is desperate to make up for letting her child go and this is shown with how much she will risk to save her. Elle-Maija Tailfeathers is brilliant in this leading role, she keeps her character holding everything together in a world where letting emotions out will get her killed. Waseese is the daughter of Niska, she gets injured, which will see her needing to be taken to the institution, where she will learn more, but never fit in with the other children there. Brooklyn Letexier-Hart is great in her role too, which will see her doing a lot of isolation environments, never fitting in. when it comes to the rest of the characters, we get to meet the other survivors in the city, just trying to survive. The vigilantes living off the grid, looking to save the children the institution and the people running the institution, which is the one set of characters it would have been nice to learn more about.

Story – The story here follows a mother and daughter living in a world torn apart by war, where children are kept separate and trained, while the adults must find a way to survive. When the pair become separated, the mother will look to find a way to rescue her daughter from the institution she finds herself trapped in. This is a story that we might have seen certain points before, it has the journey the mother must make, after the difficult decision she must make. The idea the children are kept separate, did give us a mix of the dangers of Children of Men and the strictness of groups that the Hunger Games had where nobody could mix outside of their society. Most of the story does focus on the mother trying to save her daughter, not enough time is given to see what the institution is truly about, which ends up leaving us wanting to know more about the bigger picture going. Overall, the story does play out well though, filling the world with people that just want to be free.

Themes – Night Raiders is a dystopian sci-fi movie that will put us into a world where the world has changed, been taken apart by war and will show the small number of survivors needing to figure out how to survive against a group of military controlled people, holding the survivors to ransom. The world however big, does look broken, decaying and a place nobody would want to live, which is the strongest visual look behind the film.

Signature Entertainment presents Night Raiders on Digital Platforms 6th December

Final Thoughts – Night Raiders is a bleak filled world, waiting for the change for the hope of the characters.

Nov 29 2021

Slumber Party Massacre (2021) Movie Review ‘Smart Twist on the Slasher’

Slumber Party Massacre – Smart Twist on the Slasher

Director: Danishka Esterhazy

Writer: Suzanne Keilly (Screenplay)

Starring: Hannah Gonera, Frances Sholto-Douglas, Mila Rayne, Alex McGregor, Reze-Tiana Wessels, Rob van Vuuren

Plot: Based on the 1982 original, this remake follows Dana and a group of her friends as they go on a trip to have a slumber party. But after car trouble causes them to stay at a secluded cabin, their fun turns to terror as their night becomes a fight for survival as they must escape a drill-wielding killer.

Runtime: 1 Hour 26 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Slumber Party Massacre starts as Dana (Gonera) looks to return to the cabin where her mother was attacked in her teenage years, joined by her friends Maeve (Sholto-Douglas), Alix (Rayne), Breanie (McGregor) and Ashley (Wessels), where the five look to have drinks, drugs and a good time together.

As the night unfolds, Alix discovers Russ Thorn (Vuuren) is still alive, leaving bodies around the area, leaving the girls to need to fight to survive.

Thoughts on Slumber Party Massacre

Characters & Performances – Dana is the daughter of the lone survivor of the previous attack, she is looking to have a weekend away with her friends, which will see them head out to the same cabin with their own motivation. She does seem to be the only one that understand what could happen, while the rest do end up trying to be against stereotypes, until things start going wrong. This is one of the biggest questions being left about these characters, where everything is created to break the mould, but ends up falling short where certain decisions will make you roll your eyes. When it comes to the killer, we get the creepy figure that carries his power drill around looking to skew people. The performances don’t get enough to shine, which could have given us an iconic role for the future of the horror franchise.

Story – The story here is a re-imagination of the original, with the added sequel idea, much like what Friday the 13^th did years before, squashing the first movie into the opening, before giving us a fresh bunch of characters to follow. This does bring us a new way to tell the story, which is a direction that is new, is excited to see, but only for part of the film, it does end up falling apart in how the final act plays out, falling back into the typical slasher errors, which can work with certain tone, but this film goes so out of the way to change the normal, it just gets caught up going down the same old style. This will end up being a slasher story that is easy to watch, fitting in the franchise with ease.

Themes – Slumber Party Massacre is a horror slasher that looks to build on what the original did with the driller killer, only to spin on what we would be expecting, with a couple of clever kills along the way, which is what we can want to see in the slasher movies. The location does create the isolated location, which again, is all we needed for the film.

Slumber Party Massacre will be available on Digital Download from 13th December

Final Thoughts – Slumber Party Massacre is a slasher with a great twist on concept, which will turn what expect on its head.

Nov 28 2021

The Cold Light of Day (2012) Movie Review

Director: Mabrouk El Merchri

Writer: Scott Wiper, John Petro (Screenplay)

Starring: Henry Cavill, Bruce Willis, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Echegui, Joseph Mawle, Caroline Goodall, Rafi Gavron

Plot: After his family is kidnapped during their sailing trip in Spain, a young Wall Street trader is confronted by the people responsible: intelligence agents looking to recover a mysterious briefcase.

Tagline – Instinct is his greatest weapon.

Runtime: 1 Hour 33 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: The Cold Light of Day starts when a wall street trader Will (Cavill) travels to Spain to spend time with his estranged family, father Martin (Willis), mother Laurie (Goodall) and brother Josh (Gavron). After Will goes on a trip to the shops, he returns to find the boat abandoned, with his father’s secret past coming back to haunt him.

Will finds himself in a race against time to try and save his family, not knowing who he can trust, with his father’s former partner Carrack (Weaver) hunting him down, along with the terrorists who have his family.

Thoughts on The Cold Light of Day

Thoughts – The Cold Light of Day is an action thriller that relies on the star power of Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver, while trying to create the next star in Henry Cavill. The story will give us the reluctant hero trying to learn what is going on, while trying to save his family, not knowing who to trust in the grander scheme of things, as nearly everyone new that he meets has their own agenda. The idea that he has no background in the spy world, will leave us wondering how he can get the upper hand on most of the people he meets. We do have the explosive action needed, with one notable car chase through the streets of Madrid being the standout in the film. This is a film that might try to offer plenty of twists and turns, but it does become clear who is involved with the plots. The performances are strong enough for an action film, with Henry Cavill doing well as the unlikely hero, despite us expected it in the post Superman appearances.

Final Thoughts – The Cold Light of Day is an easy to watch action film.