Sep 26 2021

The Tax Collector (2020) Movie Review ‘Vile Violent Movie’

Director: David Ayer

Writer: David Ayer (Screenplay)

Starring: Bobby Soto, Cinthya Carmona, Shia LeBeouf, Jose Conejo Martin, Cheyenne Rae Hernandez

Plot: A “tax collector” working for a local crime lord finds his family’s safety compromised when the rival of his boss shows up in L.A. and upends the business.

Runtime: 1 Hour 35 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: The Tax Collector starts as we meet the family man David Cuevas (Soto) who when he isn’t around his family works with Creeper (LaBeouf) for a crime gang in LA as Tax Collectors. The pair have a reputation of getting the money cleaned up, striking fear on anybody who crosses them.

When Conejo (Martin) arrives in town, David finds his family’s life in trouble, needing to step up to a new crime boss looking to make a play in LA.

Thoughts on The Tax Collector

Thoughts – The Tax Collector is an action crime thriller that dives deep into the criminal underworld in LA, following different members of different gangs, with one trying to have an honest life on the side, which will come and bite him when a new gang leader arrives in town. This is the typical gang nonsense, where it is, we kill someone ti is good, but if they kill someone it is bad, leaving a river of blood of other criminals and gangs who think they are above everyone else. David the lead character is so delusional that he believes God gives him the right for 2 lives, while we know that Creeper is a bad figure, we just don’t get enough to dive into where he could have gone. This feels like a vile movie that is more about trying to be edgy with violent action, only playing into the painful stereotypes Hollywood wants to throw at us.

Final Thoughts – The Tax Collector is a violent vile movie with no redeeming qualities about it.

Sep 23 2021

Language Arts (2020) Movie Review ‘Important Lesson on Life’

Language Arts – Important Lesson on Life

Director: Cornelia Duryee

Writer: Cornelia Duryee (Screenplay) Stephanie Kallos (Novel)

Starring: Ashley Zukerman, Sarah Shahi, Elliott Smith, Lincoln Lambert, Erin Cummings, Mariana Klaveno, Jane Ryan

Plot: Charles, a withdrawn high school English teacher, and his student Romy start documenting collaborations between autistic youth and senior dementia patients, causing Charles to tailspin into his past and confront the errors of his youth.

Runtime: 2 Hours 7 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Language Arts starts when one of Charles Marlow’s (Zukerman) students looks to do a project documenting collaboration between autistic youth and senior dementia, which will see Charles looking into his past, with his own son Cody.

Charles looks at how he handled raising his son with his partner Allison (Shahi) and the difficulties they went through before finding a solution that worked best, even though it stretched their own relationship in the process.

Thoughts on Language Arts

Thoughts – Language Arts is a drama that will span over three different times in Charles life, one as a schoolboy where he came into contact with his first autistic person in life, with a class mate. The second era of time is with his own marriage with an autistic son and the final one sees him as a teacher working with a student working on the idea there could be a connection between autism and dementia. This is a story that is looking to address the real-world situation that people are going to have learning disabilities, but ill learn, once you listen to their needs as a friend, while also highlight the extra difficulties parents overcome in everyday life. The journey Charles goes through is life changing, one that is filled with inspiration, heartbreak and redemption life can put you through. This does feel like certain time jumps can become difficult to keep on top of everything, with the father and teacher periods being too similar, while missing the big change that happened in the middle. The performances in the film are strong, with a large cast including lead Ashley Zukerman, Sarah Shahi and Pamela Reed, which will see everyone perform well throughout the film.

Final Thoughts –Language Arts is a drama that shows us the emotional rollercoaster of Charles life is.

Sep 17 2021

Misbehaviour (2020) Movie Review

Director: Philippa Lowthorpe

Writer: Rebecca Frayn, Gaby Chiappe (Screenplay)

Starring: Keira Knightley, Greg Kinnear, Jessice Buckley, Lesley Manville, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Suki Waterhouse, Rhys Ifans, Keeley Hawes

Plot: A group of women hatch a plan to disrupt the 1970 Miss World beauty competition in London.

Runtime: 1 Hour 46 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Misbehaviour starts as Sally Alexander (Knightley) a woman who wants to fight for her own equality, looking to go through the system breaking her own barriers but only finding walls. Sally ends up getting invited to join Jo Robinson (Buckley) is a women’s liberation group, looking to fight back to overthrow the system.

The women look to target the upcoming Miss World Beauty competition run by Eric Morley (Ifans) who is only interested in the look of a woman, never letting them have a chance to show off who they really are, despite them trying to break the barriers and include their first black entries. This year’s contest will change everything for the system that has always been stuck in its ways.

Thoughts on Misbehaviour

Thoughts – Misbehaviour is a film that looked at how a group of women fighting for their place in an equal world, look to target a Miss World competition to get their message across, while the Miss World competition is stuck in the backwards thinking on only wanting to objectify the women. This is an important moment in a movement for equality, that shows just how similar to a cattle market the competition is, with us seeing just how much the women all want something different from this competition rather than just being about beauty could get impact more. The movement does seem like it doesn’t have the direction it needs, which is shown in the best scene of the film when Sally meets Jennifer, proving there are many battles going on each one is at a different stage and each one will have a different way to win. The performances in the film are great, with Keira Knightley and Gugu Mbatha-Raw shining through too. The message is the important part of this film and it does come through clearly.

Final Thoughts – Misbehaviour is an important drama that showed the changes needed to be put in place in yet another story of how history needed to be changed.

Sep 13 2021

Sacrilege (2020) Movie Review

Sacrilege – The Cult Lacks Personality

Director: David Creed

Writer: David Creed (Screenplay)

Starring: Tamaryn Payne, Emil Wyatt, Sian Abrahams, Naomi Willow, Ian Champion, Rory Wilton

Plot: Four lifelong friends head to a remote lodge for a weekend of fun. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly descends into a fight for their lives when a local Pagan cult offer them up to their Goddess as a sacrifice for the Solstice.

Tagline – Face your fear

Runtime: 1 Hour 26 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Sacrilege starts when four friends Kayla (Payne), Trish (Wyatt), Blake (Abrahams) and Stacey (Willow) look to go on a remote girls weekend to put aside the problems they have had in the past to have a fun time putting the bad memories behind them.

The girls get invited to a Pagan ritual for a party unlike anything they have had before, one which sees them have a great time, but returning to the home, they all start suffering horrendous nightmares, as the cult has plans for them.

Thoughts on Sacrilege

Characters & Performances – Kayla is the member of the friends that has been through a traumatic event along with a bad break up, she needs that chance to relax and unwind, which this weekend away could offer, being the one pushing the rest into going. Trish is the ex of Kayla, the one that caused the pain, the one that wants to make up for her mistake and remain friends even if she must win over the friends again. Blake is the bar owner who is always up for a good time, she always has the biggest stories to tell from the girls past. Stacey is the social media addict that is obsessed with her own image and taking selfies. Between the four actresses, we get genuine chemistry as they have the party side of life together, but alone, the characters aren’t written as smartly as the friendship is. When it comes to the cult members, we don’t get a chance to see them much, which is disappointment as we could have seen more about what they want.

Story – The story here follows four friends as they look to have a weekend getaway for some fun, only to find themselves coming into contact with the local Pagan cult, which will see them suffering from their own nightmares. When it comes to the Pagan ritual style movies, it does feel like we need to see more about the cult and what they are after, but instead we focus just on girls and what they are going through, which could have more horrific moments, with better reactions, especially once they learn what might be happening. Most of this film does feel like we could have had another act, as we need to see more into the horrors of what is happening, even though the grounded figures created early on, seem to make illogical mistakes.

Themes – Sacrilege is a horror thriller that takes us into the world of Pagan Rituals, seeing the four women facing their fears, which all comes off basic, never hitting the heights you would expect from the horror occasions we could go through. The remote house is the isolated location that is needed for the women to be away from the world, a place where the ritual could take place too.

Final Thoughts – Sacrilege is a horror that offers plenty, but fails to deliver on the highest levels of horror.

Sep 2 2021

Death Drop Gorgeous (2020) Movie Review ‘Flamboyant Slasher’

Death Drop Gorgeous – Flamboyant Slasher

Director: Michael J Ahern, Christopher Dalpe, Brandon Perras

Writer: Michael J Ahern, Christopher Dalpe, Brandon Perras (Screenplay)

Starring: Wayne Richard, Michael J Ahern, Christopher Dalpe, Paul Bohn, Anthony DeRose, Complete Destruction, Brian Finney

Plot: A dejected bartender and an aging drag queen try to survive the eccentric and hostile nightlife of a corrupt city, as a masked maniac slaughters young gay men and drains them of blood.

Runtime: 1 Hour 44 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Death Drop Gorgeous starts as we meet Dwayne (Richard) a young man looking to get back on his feet after a break-up and losing his job, returning a bar owned by Tony Two Fingers (Perras) as a bartender in his bar, famous for the drag queen performances.

As Dwayne gets to know the different performers, the club becomes the centre of a string of murders of gay men, who have had their blood sucked out of them, as the bodies pile up, the suspect list continues to grow, who could be behind it all?

Thoughts on Death Drop Gorgeous

Thoughts – Death Drop Gorgeous takes us into the world of drag queens, showing us the competitive nature of trying to become the bigger star in the club, showing us how a killer has targeted the gay community of the area, not in a hate crime style, more of a targeted assault on what can’t be had. This is a story that is filled with the different flamboyant characters, with each drag queen having their own style, along with Dwayne the plucky bartender just wanting to make ends meet. We will be kept guessing as to who is behind the killings, without many clues being left along the way, giving the film a nice slasher feel to the horror elements being used. The performances in the film are strong from everyone involved with Wayne Richard taking the leading role and being the calmest person in the film.

Final Thoughts – Death Drop Gorgeous is a fun slasher, with plenty of twists along the way.