​‘Jurassic Dead’ is a combination between a creature feature and a zombie movie. A mad scientist discovers how to bring dinosaurs from the dead as zombies, and they can also infect humans. While this is a fun premise the film doesn’t quite land for me, and I generally found it boring (although there were a few good moments).


The acting is terrible, even for this kind of movie. Of course, this could be considered a deliberate move to create that B-movie vibe but the group of students in particular didn’t even seem to be having much fun with their roles and their lines were super flat. The military squad were the most enjoyable characters. The coolest part was probably when one of them gets infected (of course they don’t tell anyone else because why would they? Has anyone ever been responsible in a zombie movie?) and they walk out to some awesome rock music playing. So there are some enjoyable moments here and there, but not enough to make me want to watch it again.


The green screen is terrible, sometimes on an ‘Incredible Bulk’ level (especially at the beginning), but the practical effects where they’re used – and I’m assuming the dinosaurs in this are practical because they look like a puppet/animatronic was used in combination with CGI – are actually pretty good. If the special effects had been like this consistently, it could have been improved.


Overall, there are some enjoyable moments in the film as it gets going, particularly from the characters of the military squad, but some of the main actors don’t bring much fun or personality to the table which brings it down. It does get better as the film gets into the action and the two groups of characters meet, but it would have been good to have been interested in the characters from the moment they’re introduced. I’m not asking for a full backstory for these people, just a little charisma would have gone a long way. I went into the film really wanting to like it because who doesn’t love a good B-movie creature feature? Unfortunately it just didn’t hit the mark for me

‘Minutes to Midnight’ is a slasher horror about a group of friends who decide to celebrate New Year’s Eve at a ski lodge despite warnings from the sheriff (Richard Grieco) about an impending storm. They also come across a backpacker called Travis (John Hennigan), who is searching the area for his missing brother. Little do they know that meanwhile, a group of killers are finding their victims nearby.

Unfortunately, I found the film overall pretty boring. The acting felt incredibly flat despite managing to get some recognisable faces involved such as William Baldwin. The closest I got to excitement during the whole thing was when I realised Christopher Judge, who voices Kratos in my favourite video game ‘God of War’, was in it. However, his character was barely in it so what little interest I’d managed to muster up was short lived.

It might not be the actors who should take full responsibility for the bland characters, however. The script left a lot to be desired from the very start; exposition is dropped on you like a brick from the very first scene and lacks any kind of subtlety or sense of mystery. Not to mention the romantic history between Sophia (Sara Fletcher) and Michael (Bryce Draper), two characters I just didn’t care about, that’s attempting to bring some emotion to the film but if anything, it’s just annoying when it seems the only thing that defines Sophia’s character is the fact that she’s upset about Michael leaving her. I know it’s a slasher film, it doesn’t need to be complicated, but it wouldn’t hurt to allow the audience to care more about the characters in order to make the horror they experience hit the audience harder.

One thing I did like about ‘Minutes to Midnight’ though, is the costume design for the murderers. The mask that Angus (Aaron Aguilera) wears looks good and doesn’t look too derivative of anything I’ve seen in other films of this genre. The gore is also good, so these practical aspects of the film are the highlights of it.

Overall, I didn’t particularly enjoy this film because it didn’t seem to have much of a personality to it or anything special that made it stand out. Despite managing to put together a relatively well-known cast, the writing is what held it back the most and didn’t give the actors much to work with.