The Life of Chuck (2024)

Mike Flanagan continues his successful collaborative effort with Stephen King in this spellbinding esoteric mystery revolving around a dude named Chuck.

Truth be told, the less said the better. Go into it blind as I did. It had a profound effect on me, even as I discovered how it all pieced together early in Act III.

This one won't be for the Materialists.

Proves that there are still great King adaptations to come.

4½ multitudes out of 5

HIGH-RISE [2015]

To date director Ben Wheatley hasn't made a film that is easily digestible for the average viewer and he's not about to start with his adaptation of novelist J.G. Ballard's satirical pre-Thatcher warning High-Rise.
Set in the 70's, a doctor moves into a chic Mega City-esque apartment building (looking as if it were frozen on the brink of collapse) built to provide it's residents with everything they need in order to never leave, which eventually leads to a clash of the classes.
A not-so subtle paranoid dissection of human stratification, High-Rise is wickedly funny, darkly surreal and generates the same sort of intimate coldness David Cronenberg mastered.  There's some pacing issues and it isn't quite as fascinating as it wants to be but Tom Hiddleston's performance and Wheatley's eye for stark beauty is more than enough to keep your eyes glued to the screen.

3 unhappy bunnies bouncing about out of 5

CRIMSON PEAK [2015]

Visual director Guillermo del Toro creeps over familiar territory with his Gothic romance/thriller Crimson Peak.
After a tragic event in her life, a young American woman moves to England with her new husband to a spooky old mansion that quite obviously has some bloody secrets buried beneath it.
Before, del Toro's non-English films were noticeably more mature than his North American films but here he seems to have finally found a way to lie between that border and revisit some of the themes, visuals and ideas he brought up in The Devil's Backbone.  It's a beautiful homage to the Hammer films with it's bright reds only representing death, the suffocating shadows and melodramatic music.  It's beautifully detailed atmosphere, well-spaced camerawork and extravagant set & costume designs almost make you forget the story is a little weak and offers no real surprises but if you're a fan of the director's previous films than this shouldn't present much of a problem.

3½ delicate butterflies out of 5

ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE [2013]

There are no sparkly bloodsuckers to be seen in director Jim Jarmusch's oddball vampire love story Only Lovers Left Alive.
With it's subtle sense of humor, love for music, wicked fashion sense, vast knowledge of literature, claustrophobic photography and some particularly fantastic performances from Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton, Jarmusch crafts a refreshing take on the vampire genre.  It's gloomy but manages a sly smirk on it's face throughout which makes for a delightful experience that any fan of the actors and director will revel in.

4 sunglasses out of 5

THOR: THE DARK WORLD [2013]

After Kenneth Brannagh shat the bed with the first film, I figured Game Of Thrones director Alan Taylor could only do better on Thor: The Dark World.
I was pleased to find my assumptions were slightly correct.  The first act is a dull bucket of boredom, however it's the second act where the story and conflict picks up into some enticing adventure and then it falls into an overdone grand finale of CGI effects and noise.  The only thing the first film had going for it, besides Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston was it's duck out of water humour which is sadly gone here.  It seems to take itself a bit too seriously, apart from a hilarious scene stealing Kat Dennings who fortunately gets a bit more screentime on this ride.
It's an improvement from the first film but doesn't stand up against it's Marvel counterparts.

2½ dreamy Cappy Americas out of 5

WAR HORSE [2011]

Steven Spielberg brings Michael Morpurgo's children's novel War Horse to the big screen with mixed results.  It rapidly goes back and forth between run-of-the-mill emotionally manipulative schmaltz to moments that are actually quite engaging and effective.  Not one of Spielberg's best nor is it his worst.  

2½ barbed wire missteps out of 5

THE AVENGERS [2012]

Joss Whedon's much anticipated comic book spectacle The Avengers (the sixth installment in the MCU series) meets all expectations and more.  The perfect blend of humor, cheesy comic book moments, humanity, character juggling and jaw-dropping action is to die for.  Summer blockbusters haven't been this much fun since Jurassic Park or Men In Black.  Whedon and Mark Ruffalo bring something to the Bruce Banner/Hulk character that's never been done properly before.  

Bravo.  More please.

4 puny gods out of 5