More Reviews! Including Some Recent Movies: Don't Breathe and Kubo And The Two Strings!

Best thing: There are some very active scenes in Don't Breathe and the film gives us a great sense of where the characters are in the house. There's a great use of the setting and some great choreography.

Worst thing: In one scene it appears to be confirmed that all the windows are barred and yet our protagonist is somehow knocked outside. This is one of the very few points in the film where the action isn't fantastically clear. While I can presume that perhaps the wall was weaker at that spot, it's unfortunate that the action becomes unclear at that moment when everything was so carefully displayed everywhere else in the film.

Normally I don't like horror films that function by trying to make you jump, but what is different about Don't Breathe is that all the jump scare noises are real noises that the characters in the story would hear. There aren't any "this is a horror movie, throw your popcorn over yourself now"-type boom noises.

Don't Breathe does use the screetchy, whistley noises to build up tension and atmosphere but not obtrusively so and I was mostly too caught up in the action to notice.

The reversed home invasion premise is a lot of fun. Burglars dealing with a blind war veteran who is capable and ruthless with more concern with how to get out rather than how to stop anyone coming in.

Really gripping work from the director of the Evil Dead remake. It feels like he has more freedom here and the results are wonderful.

A+

Best thing: There are countless awesome visual set-pieces in this film and part of me thinks I should pick one of the action sequences where those visuals are particularly well choreographed. However, what really makes action sequences work is our investment in the characters, so I'm going to say that the performances of Kubo's companions by Charlize Theron and Matthew McConaughey (did anyone else think that voice was George Clooney?) and the wonderful way they interacted was best.

Worst thing: There's really not much I didn't like here, but (staying vague to avoid spoilers), doesn't the ending rather confuse the message of the story? If stories are a way people continue after they die, what does that say about made-up stories? Is he really going to tell stories about how nice that guy is? While that might be a good idea doesn't it defeat the message if you tell stories that are COMPLETE mistruths?

Kubo and the Two Strings is breathtaking stop-motion animation work from the studio Laika.

Right now I'd say Kubo is my favourite Laika film, but it's difficult to say since I've loved all Laika films. I feel that the films have been developing consistently better and better.

The performances are wonderful, the visuals are gorgeous and for the first time Laika are working on a fantasy adventure (though there are still plenty of horrifying monsters and creepy other-worldly entities).

With a mixture of sadness, comedy and general enthralling spectacle Kubo and the Two Strings is a very special cinematic experience.

A+

Best thing: When one character who deserves to be killed by demons more than anyone turns out to be fine, our protagonist seemingly can't believe it and takes what he believes to be the appropriate action. For me, that is the funniest gag in the film.

Worst thing: The villainous group that want the black hymn are a bit lame. It feels like the girlfriend could get more attention, but the character that really gets short shrift is the female member of the villainous Satanic group.

What if metal was really connected to demons? That's the suitably ludicrous premise of this hilarious horror comedy. At the centre is the friendship between him and his amoral fellow metalhead. The result is an excellent addition to the list of awesome horror comedies.

The filmmakers are able to make this work as well as they do due to a clear fondness for the metal genre of music. The film is able to play on the more ridiculous aspects of the culture while also showing a clear love for it. The humour gets better in the second half when the action really ramps up. The characters and premise are set up well in the first half so that by the second half the pacing just doesn’t let up at all.

A+

Best thing: When relatively early on the villain makes a big gesture to make very clear just how committed he is to murdering the protagonist. It's a very effective and dramatic moment.

Worst thing: At one point the protagonist chucks a light into the woods and the killer goes after it. I'm not entirely clear on why he does that considering how careful most of his other decisions are.

I quite liked Mike Flanagan's movie Oculus but Hush actually now has me excited to check out anything he directs. It's a fantastically well made movie. Very well constructed with a protagonist who clearly puts careful thought into her actions.

The premise of a deaf woman facing a home invasion situation felt like it could end up showing how easily a woman with a disability can be victimised. But on the contrary, her deafness simply adds a new aspect to her character and allows for a more creative script. A very neat twist on the genre with a fantastic central performance.

A+

Best thing: One sequence of events surrounding a mysterious banging in a flat resolves in a way that is both clever and horrifying. It's probably my favourite part of all the Ju-On/Grudge films I've seen so far.

Worst thing: The ending is unfortunate after such excellent horror beforehand. Introducing a new ill-defined character at the last minute needed to be handled better than this.

This is the first of the Ju-On movies to make use of the visual effect which makes Kayako's jerky motions seem particularly unnatural. I found it rather odd when I watched the first Ju-On: The Grudge movie and saw Kayako simply crawling down the stairs after already having seen this wonderful effect used in the remake. Takashi Shimizu seemed to have upstaged himself with his own effects. But this film has no such issues. The creepy special effects work is all top notch.

What didn't work for me so well here was the mixed up timeline. The curse strikes anyone who goes into the house, so you can imagine my confusion at seeing someone already affected by the curse later entering the house for the first time.

I felt that the first Japanese Ju-On: The Grudge movie was too slow without a decent payoff. The same cannot be said of the sequel. While the plot isn't up to much, all the different segments of the film feature very effective horror sequences expertly executed. If I hadn't been so disappointed by the ending I might be calling this my favourite Grudge movie.

B+

Best thing: The opening scenes involve a pretty cool death involving some quite cool effects.

Worst thing: While the drama scenes surrounding the kills are pretty well acted, they don't build up a horror atmosphere. We don't really get a horror movie. Instead, whiny soap opera antics tackling the difficulties of holding down a job seem entirely separate from the supernatural kill scenes.

I spent most of this film trying to work out where I'd seen the female lead before. Her face was really familiar. Turns out she's Johanna Braddy, the actress who plays Jenny Matrix in the online series VGHS. (I'd suggest you all watch that instead of The Grudge 3.) The actors are all pretty great here, but there is absolutely no horror atmosphere. We have a drama about a family that are getting their income through the now-haunted tenement building and there's a child with high medical bills who needs extra-special care. Meanwhile the older of the two sisters wants to move away to study. The oldest brother is looking after the family, presumably because their parents are dead. It's all very soap opera and not really fantastically exciting.

The deaths often involve some fairly neat effects, but there's not much build-up. The drama scenes feel mostly unrelated to the scenes where the grudge kills tenants. Quite early on there's some cool security   camera footage of someone being brutally murdered by the grudge, but like with all these scenes, the build up is too short and the creeiness quickly disappears when we get back into the more mundane family antics.

The Grudge 3 suffers from the loss of Takashi Shimizu. The new director simply doesn't seem to have the knack for developing a creepy atmosphere consistently through the film.

D-

Best thing: I give this a lot of credit for taking the cloning debate seriously, even while pushing a creepy horror vibe. We don't get the impression that the clone is evil. I was especially impressed with the handling of the initial press conference where the scientist responsible draws attention towards the question of malformed clones, but the media are too focussed on moral outrage. Perhaps a little unfair on the media, but at least the writers understand the issues.

Worst thing: When the story of the baby clone is completely hi-jacked by the story of a bizarrely super-strong earlier clone maddened by pain. The shift into a slasher format isn't a betrayal of the earlier part of the film, but it's pretty disappointing all the same. The absurd rantings of the religious protesters are pretty terrible too, but I can believe that religious protester rantings could easily be that stupid in real life.

The central performance of the scientist who develops the first human clone is pretty great. All the performances here are pretty good. The build up of tension is also very well-orchestrated. I feel like the only problem is the uninspiring third act.

A Frankenstein Story  (awful UK title by the way) is strongest in the way it handles the situation of the scientist after the clone is revealed. Avoiding their location being exposed to the media or opposing religious groups. When it turns into a slasher film, it doesn't feel earned. It feels like the main plot has been hi-jacked.

C-

Best thing: There are essentially two sources of comedy in this film. One is Ralph Fiennes and his relationship with the central protagonist Zero. Ralph Fiennes plays an incredibly charming and yet totally self focussed eccentric gentleman. The trailer had me expecting a Basil Fawlty type of hotel manager who complains about everything and everyone. Instead he turns out to have a very hands-on and efficient but overbearing management style; certainly not the Fawlty Towers incompetence. I also loved how he would regularly give up on politeness and start swearing. I think John Cleese is a definite inspiration for this performance.

Worst thing: The other source of comedy is the constant quick cuts.  The side characters don't really get much time for proper development and often one gag is stopped dead by a quick cut to the next one. Saoirse Ronan's character seems particularly stunted by the preference for quick cut visuals over  dialogue. But the worst use of this style is the framing device. This film seemingly would never start and took ages to end. Introducing us to a monument to the author and then to the author as an older man, then to the author as a younger bored-looking Jude Law, then to the protagonist as an older man. Then finally we get to see Ralph Fiennes and start the blooming story. The framing scenes are completely unnecessary and lead to excessive baggage to tidy up in the final scenes.

I've never quite understood Wes Anderson. I saw Royal Tennenbaums and I don't even remember what I thought of that. It just completely failed to make an impression. I liked the animated bits of The Life Aquatic and not much else, so I thought I might like Fantastic Mr Fox. I ended up hating the way Anderson's Fantastic Mr Fox ditched Roald Dahl's source material in favour of an insufferable version of Ocean's Eleven with animals.

But so many people LOVED The Grand Budapest Hotel, so I figured I should probably give it a shot. The upshot of that? It's okay. Ralph Fiennes is amazing, but I'm afraid the style seriously grated on me. It's so annoying that the film keeps pulling us away from Ralph Fiennes to watch Jude Law looking vaguely interested and punctuating the storytellers words with 'he saids' and 'he continueds'.

So nearly wonderful, but Wes Anderson is lacking a decent sense of timing. His quick cutting visual style makes the whole film jolt around, constantly dragging itself to a halt.

C+