Slingshot (2024)

Sci-fi thriller involving a crew traveling to Titan to harvest natural resources. The "slingshot" of the title refers to the gravitational maneuver which will launch them towards their target. As this journey spans many years, they are placed into a drug-induced sleep, re-awakening every 90 days in order to perform maintenance and make sure they're still headed on course.

I had an odd experience watching this movie, because I kept going in and out of consciousness, similar to the characters. Anyway, I made a prediction from the very opening montage that this story may have taken a page from The Twilight Zone. While I will neither confirm nor deny, I will say its plot does feel overly familiar to similar sources.

I was ready to write this off as a POS until the ending, which I found audacious in its execution. It doesn't manage to save the movie, but almost redeems it for me. That final shot will stay with me for awhile.

2 hibernation cycles out of 5

Basic Instinct 2 (2006)

A belated sequel that once again stars Sharon Stone as crime writer Catherine Tramell, who uses her cougar-like womanly wiles to fuck with psychoanalyst Michael Glass (David Morrissey), a man whose professional instinct tells him to stay away, but whose cock tells him to go all in (literally). It's a tired scenario that had been explored and done much better many times before.
David Thewlis adds some meagre spice as an antagonistic Scotland Yard Detective, but the character's self-serving machinations are as unsuccessful as everything else - there's nothing and no one to care about in the script.

1½ tourist lighters out of 5

THE ONES BELOW [2015]

Hanna & The Night Manager screenwriter David Farr makes his directorial debut with his 90's inspired thriller The Ones Below.
Two pregnant couples move into an English flat, one couple sickeningly happy in life and the other weird, weird and more weird...so naturally things get intense ala The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, Pacific Heights, The Crush, The Temp...well, you get it.
It's a light piece of fluff that misses all it's marks to be anything remotely suspenseful, thrilling or unpredictable.  There's far too many far-fetched plot-points and character bits to make it the least bit believable.  However Harry Potter vet Clémence Poésy gives in a pretty wonderful performance that will make it a fine film to catch in the middle of the afternoon on The Woman's Network.

2 darned cats out of 5

CENTURION [2010]

Just because director Neil Marshall steered away from the horror genre, doesn't mean he left his Splat Pack roots behind with the excessively gory historical action film, Centurion.
The film tells the story of a small group of Roman soldiers in 117 A.D. fighting for survival behind enemy lines as the escape from a pack of Picts hunting them down.  As entertaining as the film is, it lacks any real characterization or believable dialogue and therefore becomes somewhat tiresome by the third act.  If not for the beautiful photography, talented cast and wonder how they're going wrap things up, it might not have been quite as enjoyable.

3 witches out of 5

THORNE: SLEEPYHEAD [2010]

Edited down to 2 hours from the original trio of hour long television episodes for American distribution, author Mark Billingham's Thorne: Sleepyhead is a bit of a hit & miss, more so than it already was in it's versions.

David Morrissey works wonders with his role, never seeming like a police officer and more the criminal, while Aidan Gillen, Eddie Marsan and Natascha McElhone earn respect for their performances.  Sadly, the story is rushed, there's some ridiculous moments, crime drama cliches galore and nothing quite gels together properly.  However, it will keep you guessing right up to the end and that's what keeps you from giving up entirely.  

3 annoying voice-overs out of 5