​THE STORY:
One of movie-land’s all time favs, starring Sean Connery & Christopher Lambert.  Immortals battle one another to the death through the centuries until only one remains.  One who will receive the ultimate prize.
 
Much akin to 2009’s Immortal Edition, this latest 30th Anniversary version is presented to us in 1.85:1, its original aspect ratio, with 1080p transfer.  Additionally, Immortal’s deleted scenes and director Russell Mulcahy’s commentary are accompanied by 2 brand new interviews with Russell and Lambert himself.  What’s more, a 4th featurette entitled ‘IV. The List of Producers’ is tacked in suspiciously seamless fashion on to the 3-Part ‘Makin of’ documentary produced back in 2006. Following chapters ‘I. A Legend Is Born’, ‘II. The Visual Style’ and ‘III. A Strong Woman’, part 4 takes its running time from 85 minutes up to just under the 2 hour mark.  Will we receive a part 5 for the 40th and part 6 for the 50th?  Who knows!
 
To all those noise filter haters, yes, the film’s classic grainy features live on, only considerably cleaner and sharper than past DVD releases.  Sadly, that lighting scene still doesn’t look right, but then again it never did.  Best to just salute it with a slight side grin and a knowing shake of the head.  The blue bolts of energy that slowly surge through the cars after the opening fight sequence still look pretty rad.  And the quickening, well…it’s clearer, but some things never really change. 
 
Things like the fact the Kurgan still freaks the fuck out of me during the flashback scenes, Connery is still funny as shit, Lambert still has the worst Scottish accent in film history and Queen’s ‘Who Wants To Live Forever’ is still hauntingly beautiful, even as it chews up your heart and spits it out.  Some things just shouldn’t change.  Especially when it comes to our old favourites.

From the mind of  Roald Dahl, The BFG is the story of a young orphan named Sophie who is whisked away one night by a Giant she later names The BFG. The BFG introduces Sophie to giant country, a dangerous world filled with man eating giants, where he warns her not to try and escape or run away. The two become close and an adventure into the world of dream catching shows Sophie that not all giants are monsters. With Snozzcumbers and Frobscottle the two race to the Human Bean world to warn the queen of the children eating Giants before it is to late.

As an adaptation to the classic kids book The BFG is....okay, i am disappointed that the wizzpopper song has been left out but that's my own little gripe, however as a whole I must admit this version of The BFG didn't blow me away. Now the film wasn't awful, I did find myself laughing on several occasions and Mark Rylance was amazing as The BFG however it is a shame the other acting talents in this film aren't as good. The film felt way to long, with several scenes that could have been chopped down ever so slightly (The dream catching scene being one of them). Yes  at times Ruby Barnhill was good at points and we do have a good selection of British actors here but they could have done better, with performances which belonged more in an ITV drama than in a Stephen Spielberg film. I am sure I will get some stick for this but oh well.

The film was beautifully shot and the first half of the film was very entertaining and funny, however the last half let this down. This is a great family film, which kids will adore and at the end of the day this is more for the kids than the adults so I can give this a little bit of slack, and in the other side of the coin my wife loved it and said it was made very tastefully to the style of the book for the most part, however we both thought the queen portion wasn't great. 

What are your thoughts? let us know below.

Through the Oscar build up earlier this year there were a few films our local cinema never showed, one of which was Trumbo. Trumbo interested me, I like to watch films and documentaries about the history of the film industry and to be honest i have never really heard of Trumbo at all.

Trumbo follows the life of Dalton Trumbo, the writer of hit films such as Roman Holiday and the 1960's classic Spartacus who was victimized by the US film industry and the US government for being a member of the American Communist party. Trumbo was a member of the Hollywood ten, a group of directors who were all communist party members and who stuck to their guns after the became Black Listed in Hollywood.

Now yes the communist party during this period were very hated, and rightfully so however this film shows the feelings of the communist party in the american sense. Trumbo didn't agree in the american involvement in WW2 but this guy wasn't a Nazi sympathizer and we get to see how harshly people were treated due to their belief once the war was over. We watch as Trumbo has to use fake names to get work doing B-Movies during his time at King Brothers Productions, the court case which led to him being put in prison to Tumbo being placed in the spotlight again for his writing of The Brave One and Spartacus.

This was an interesting Biopic which gives a different look at the communist party during a post war america and the influence hollywood had on how things worked in the world of cinema. The blackmail from the anti Communism side of America was interesting, and looking at Trumbo's family life get destroyed because of it was a sad thing to see.

Bryan Cranston was amazing in this role and the supporting cast gave perfect performances making this film a must see. If you are a fan of Cinema you need to see this. A film which should have got more Oscars.

​THE STORY:
Sarah Bennett (Katie McGrath) was born on Halloween, the night her parents were murdered.  Cut from her mother’s womb by the killer himself.  Years later, Sarah returns to take ownership of the family home.  But it isn’t long until she finds herself at the centre of a small-town nightmare, as a copycat killer is punishing the townsfolk for their sins: the seven deadly sins.
 
Somehow unrecognisable from her stint in mega blockbuster Jurassic World (2015), Katie has the features of a certain type of modern-day final girl.  One that I’m glad is finally inching away from that Megan Fox look. She’s a tough one and very likeable to boot.  Christopher Jacot, Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005), plays Sarah’s new GBF, Robin Turner and provides most of the much needed comic relief amongst all the grim goings on in Waterbury.  Meanwhile, Steve Byers as Officer Cam Henry, the designated series hunk as all he seems to be good for is looking tall and pretty.  He is Sarah’s go-to guy, even though they are both married… Patrick Garrow as Tom Winston, the imprisoned original killer is a less theatrical incarnation of Joe Carroll – The Following (2013).
 
When the series opens it carries with it the suburban claustrophobia of Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) along with the sub-genre rejuvenation of Craven’s Scream (1996).  However, Slasher gradually loses this atmosphere as the killer takes things to a wider scale.  For as the murders progress, the series makes use of a few tried and tested locations such as abandoned factories, empty fishing docks and wide open straw fields.  Not to mention the classic dark alleyways and deserted streets.
 
Slasher’s first downfall is that it’s a painfully obvious whodunit, so if you’re a mystery nut, your case is as good as cracked, I’m afraid.  Its second is that it feels a little stretched.  A typical slasher movie is 79 to 84 minutes, but here that movie is spread out over eight 45 to 50 minute episodes.  Does it work?  Just about.
 
LAST WORDS:
Understandably Slasher kicks things off with a bloody, gore-soaked bang to get us all hooked.  But somewhere along the way the blood-letting becomes merely a trickle until eventually not even a drop is spilled.  Fear not, as there is plenty of stomach-churning sadism in its place.  It tries to keep things interesting by taking a page from A&E’s Psycho (1960) adaption, Bates Motel (2013), in which anyone can have a dark and twisted secret, no matter how bizarre or implausible.  All in all, it’s entertaining enough, even if the seven deadly sins gimmick makes it highly predictable.  But at least its maturity bests that of FOX’s Scream Queens (2015) or MTV’s Scream (2015) in both character and execution.

Hush is the story of Maddie, a deaf and mute writer who lives in seclusion as she writes her novels with only her friend Sarah and her husband John for company, who is terrorized by a mad man who is hell bent on playing a terrifying game of Cat and Mouse with her. With only the eyes to guide her through she must out smart this sadistic psychopath before he decides its time to come in.

Now I do love a Home Invasion film and straight of the bat Hush reminded my of the terror of the French horror film Them, a long time favourite horror film of mine and a home invasion horror which has never been topped in my eyes. Hush has topped this film. Hush is, in one word, TERRIFYING. This is the film I have been waiting for to re-ignite the horror fire under me, A horror film which is so well acted and well shot I can finally have faith in whats to come next.
Hush had me on edge throughout the whole film, I was tense, i was glued to the edge of my seat in terror as I watched this poor woman get terrorized and thinking there is no hope for this poor soul. I was willing Maddie to fight holding my breath as I watched her try and escape but to no avail. This is horror! I repeated in my head, this is a REAL horror film, This is what I have been waiting for.

What impressed me were three things, firstly was the Maddie character, played by Kate Siegel (Oculus, Demon Legacy), Siegel played the Maddie character perfectly, the expressions and the terror in her eyes, you would have thought she was, indeed deaf and mute in real life. Secondly the character of the psychopath played by John Gallagher Jr was creepy as hell, you could tell his character was enjoying the game more and more as we watched Maddie try and fail to escape the house. and the third thing was the use of sound in the film, the way the director Mike Flanagan uses even the most subtle sounds like, a knife of glass or  the sound of the killer tapping the knife on his chest while Maddie sits there unaware he is even there, adds another layer of fear for the viewer who is shouting 'LOOK BEHIND YOU DAMN IT'. The whole film is just perfectly directed, with every little piece of the horror puzzle woven into a masterpiece of film making in ever scene.

If i was to have any negative comment on the film, and I am scrapping the barrel here, is I thought the reveal of the killers face was a little bit to soon. I personally would have had him reveal his face after a bit more terrorizing, but that is if I am being REALLY picky and this is only because I thought the mask was creepy as hell.

In closing Hush is the perfect example of how not only Home Invasion horror should be made but how horror in general should be made. I am looking forward to seeing how Flanagan does directing the follow up to Ouija. You MUST get Netflix for the soul purpose of seeing this film.

THE STORY:
After being banished from their community, a Puritan family soon falls apart from the inside out as they are targeted by an unspeakable evil residing in the thick wood that is but a stone’s throw away from their new home.
 
Robert Eggers’ The Witch caused me to feel something deeply rooted in my human nature, a dread that I hadn’t felt while watching a movie since I saw a hysterical baby boy abandoned, twice, on a rocky beach as it is lashed by the unforgiving sea that took his parents, the inevitability of his fate growing stronger as the dark tide moves in.  That movie was Under the Skin (2013), and that’s where The Witch firmly places itself.  And that dread was for the simple fact that no matter what may come, nothing is safe, nothing is sacred, not even innocent children when death and its inhumane cruelty darkens our door: purely heartless, yet completely indiscriminate, and so very unstoppable.
 
The cast, particularly mother and father, played by Kate Dickie & Ralph Ineson, are absolutely superb.  Even the children are something to behold, with a special mention going out to Harvey Scrimshaw who plays Caleb.  This little scene-stealer gives an utterly heart-breaking performance.
 
Naturally, the film’s soundtrack is unsettling with its ascending chorus of wailing women that puts me firmly in mind of a similar composition from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), a chilling piece in itself.  Add to that its razor-sharp strings and its jarring percussion.  Its timing is immaculate as it knows exactly which moments to strike to jangle the nerves.
 
LAST WORDS:
Admittedly I’m not all that familiar with costume dramas and period pieces, so dialogue such as “Come hither!” and “Stray not from the brook!” will invoke a childish titter.  And a good thing, too!  For a film whose DVD case has more stars on the cover than there are in the sky, it has absolutely no sense of humour to speak of. 
 
Not necessarily a bad thing.  Why risk losing that feeling of dread in the pit of the viewer’s stomach.  And why risk taking away from the fact that this is possibly the most frightening witch movie I have ever seen.

THE STORY:
Terror has come to the local Drive-In, as a psychopath is on the loose.  Detectives Leary and Koch (John F. Goff & Bruce Kimball) are on the case, but they’d better solve this one fast before the killer lops off another head!
 
I hope many will agree that these two deserved their own spin-off TV show.  But as fantastic a duo as our lead detectives make, I can’t help but surmise that we’re dealing with a simplified rehash of Charles B. Pierce’s brilliant piece of slasher cinema, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, released a year earlier.  It certainly borrows both from its horror – stalking lovers in parked cars at night, and from its humour – cross-dressing policeman, a gag that never fails.  But who can blame them?  After all, the burlap sack mask was Jason’s first disguise in Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981).  And doesn’t that unnerving heavy breathing sound effect come eerily close to Carpenter’s Halloween (1978)?
 
Where the under the blouse action is concerned, some may be left disappointed as the only scene that dares to come close is thwarted by a combination of heavy shadow, poor resolution and a flesh-toned bra.  So anyone looking to get happy might have trouble making out what they’re looking at.
 
The kill strikes are fast and brutal, but ultimately bloodless.  That part always comes a little too late.  And it looks a lot like that paint-like sludge you might be familiar with from Don’t Go In The Woods…Alone! (1981) that appears orange when not mixed right.  One unfortunate victim is even brave enough to let it fill up her nostrils as she plays dead for us.
 
Drive-In’s ending has often been criticized for its abruptness and lack of resolution.  You could blame it on the fact that they kill off just about everyone that could have been a suspect.  Maybe it was the dissatisfaction of an unseen killer remaining unseen, but that was the landscape of the early classic slasher movies.  Be it Black Christmas (1974) or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), before your Scream 1, 2, 3 and bloody 4, the killer got away with it.
 
LAST WORDS:
Okay, it’s not perfect.  But for everything that Drive-In lacks, it gives you what so many movies are missing, and that’s character.  REAL character.

THE STORY:
The need for a cure becomes even greater when the latest member of government operative Raimi’s team is bitten.  It’s a flesh-tearin’, face-shreddin’, belly-rippin’ race against time.  But zombies aren’t the only thing that stands in their way…
 
First of all I have to confess, I have never seen this movie before in my life.  Now before you shake those “For shame!” fists at me, you can just put away those sharpened pitchforks.  For I can assure you that such is the eclecticism of my horror collection that to sneeze at the wrong decibel would cause a domino-like chain reaction lethal enough to kill 2 Kardashians.  And partially maim a third.
 
Not even 2 months have passed since 88’s release of the wacky yet satirical duo of schlock-o-romps that are The Suckling (1990) & Flesh Eating Mothers (1988), and already we are being treated to J. R. Bookwalter’s The Dead Next Door.  And what a treat it is, as it fuses the humour of Return of the Living Dead (1985) with the gory chaos of Day of the Dead (1985) and presents it with such irresistible independent charm as can only be found in earlier gore-fests, such as The Evil Dead (1981).  And if that’s not enough, Bruce Campbell himself steps in on dubbing duties.
 
Bruce does a great job on Raimi, as his commanding voice fits Pete Ferry’s look perfectly.  The special effects team have done a phenomenal job on this movie.  Something about a good zombie mauling just makes my day.  It’s like watching fireworks as a kid, only with less blood.  It’s a cool and colourful show, which makes me so grateful for the improvements that have been made to the film’s picture.
 
Make no mistake.  This isn’t a slick, clean-cut operation.  It has its blips, its bloops and its faults.  But that only adds to the fun, making it even harder to hate.  The cult that puts a major hitch in Raimi’s mission is dafter than the one in Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988).  But they’ll make you laugh when they go BOOM!
 
LAST WORDS:
Whether you realise it, or not, it’s important to have a degree of respect for the journey that this movie has taken over the years.  Dip into disc’s features and you will know just how commendable the sheer level of care that is put into bringing out the best level of quality for the long-time fans and appreciative first-timers, such as myself, to enjoy.  And enjoy it I did.  It now has its own place in my deadly collection.
 

When Henry ( Jack Gordon - Panic Button, The Devil's Business)  and his friends head to Argentina for his stag weekend they never thought it would end up like this. After a revenge scheme goes wrong the group find themselves in the middle of nowhere hunted down by a mysterious demon called The Hunter, a being who only prays on those who are not pure of heart. Everyone has their secrets.

Bachelor Games is a slow burner...I mean VERY slow as we delve into the shaddy misdemeanors of Henry and his buddies. the story is interesting and I love the revenge plot gone bad aspect of the film, however i did find my self looking at my watch wondering if it was going to end soon, which isn't really good for a film which is only an hour and twenty minutes long. I felt, unfortunately a little boring through the majority of the film and i found that a shame, as for once in a long time we have a cast of actors who are actually very good. Acting wise I have no disputes, Jack Gordon is a brilliant young British actor, his role in Devil's Business was brilliant but I actually recognise half the cast in the film for a change, which is rare in a indie horror.

A little like how Catacombs was a good story but lacked substance, this is the fate of Bachelor Games. If you have a lazy Sunday free then you could do much worse than putting this is your player but personally I would wait for this to hit Netflix.

When there is something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call? Well these four talented female actresses of course. Yes after all the negative press from a lot of the fans of the original and after getting the most disliked trailer in You Tube history the Ghostbusters has hit cinemas this week....and it is VERY good.

The film follows Erin and Abby to childhood friends who took different paths in life. Erin looks to get a serious career in science while Abby is following her passion in paranormal sciences. When Erin finds that Abby has released a book to two had written years before she visits her to get her to take the book off sale. But when the girls, accompanied by Jullian Holtzman, looking into a suspected haunting they are met with a real life ghost, proving that the years of investigating is finally leading somewhere. Fired from their jobs the three women take up residence on the top floor of a Chinese restaurant  where the begin their studies in the aim to catch some ghosts. 

The team grows ever bigger with Receptionist Kevin and subway worker Patty, who has witnessed a ghost in the subway tunnels, which leads to an end of the world style situation which sees some hilarious moments and some brilliant cameos from the former stars of the original including Slimer and the Marshmallow Man.

It seems that all the negative press was unfounded and like some reviewers and film people have said on the build up to the film have said....watch it before you judge it because all it looks like is a bunch of old guys being VERY sexist because "how dare you cast a load of women in the main role". Well fuck you because it works really well. Kristen Wigg, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones take the film and make it their own. This is a perfect reboot! I don't say this often. While some jokes may fall flat at times the overall funnies do make you laugh out loud at times, the story also isn't a direct rip from the original film which is a a major plus. It isn't a rip off here it is a film which will stand on its own and will produce a series of follow ups I can only hope.

The final battle in the city looks amazing, loved the different styles of ghosts, i loved the addition of Slimer and Lady Slimer who got a got little part in this too. The funniest actor in the film though was Chris Hemsworth who plays bumbling receptionist Kevin.

Ghostbuster is a great film. Very funny and well written and acted and this is a must watch for the summer and is one of the top films for the summer in my opinion. MUCH BETTER than Independence Day: Resurgence which was a total flop.