REVIEW: MOVIEBLAST: Horns (18) & Maggie (15)

Double review time as we go to MOVIEBLAST and binge watch on streaming site Wuaki with EE Film Club...

HORNS (18) stars Daniel “Harry Potter” Radcliffe as he takes yet another turn from his childhood acting roots to play somewhat of a demon in the horror/thriller Horns. The movie is an interesting one with a scattered narrative and a lot of it you have to try and follow. So what I gathered was this –

 

Ig Perrish (Radcliffe) is in a seemingly perfect relationship with the seemingly perfect Merrin Williams (Juno Temple). When she is found murdered in the woods and the small town mentality is to blame the boyfriend after an argument in a diner, Ig finds himself at the anger of the small town. Defiantly stressing his innocence even his own family do not believe that he is not a murderer. Things change when, inexplicably, he starts to grow horns and things take a turn for the weird. As the horns grow, the people become more strange, it’s up to Ig to prove his innocence and find the killer.

 

This thriller/horror is uniquely original, in parts inspired, but in parts totally out there. Some dark humour underlies the main story which is actually quite shocking. The endgame reveal is a bit of a twist and a bit crazy too. Like The Woman In Black, I was reading in too much Harry Potter references – like when he befriends snakes and wears a yellow hoodie with a maroon top (Gryffindor colours). However, the movie itself isn’t bad and is desperately trying to reinvigorate the horror genre. The narrative, splashed with a lot of flash backs and current time sequences, all jump about making it a bit confusing to follow sometimes.

 

However, overall the movie is one that would be good to watch if you are at a loose end, but I don’t think you could watch it more than once. One cool thing to happen is a small character appearance by the ever gorgeous Heather Graham, but, as usual, is typecast – this time as a slutty, fame hungry waitress. A strong performance by Radcliffe and the cast, Horns is a unique, if weird, take on the horror/thriller genre.

 

Horns is out now on DVD, Blu Ray and all good streaming sites.

 

POPSCORE: 6.5/10

 

MAGGIE (15)  stars Arnold Schwarzenegger in his return to the silver screen (or my console as I streamed this one through Wuaki) in Maggie. Backing up Arnie as the parent of titular character Maggie (played well by Abigail Breslin) is a strong cast with a surprise appearance by Joely Richardson.If I tell you what I would classify as a log line for this movie you would be quite excited.

 

Okay, here goes: When Wade Vogel (Arnie) finds out his daughter has been bitten by a zombie he goes all out to protect her until they can find a cure. Yep, like me, I bet you thought this would be The Terminator: Zombie Edition, but nope, it’s far from it.  The movie is based around a caring father who dotes on his teenage daughter, and when she is infected to become zombiefied, he protects her from going into quarantine and looks after her while she is going through the changing process. The film is a massive departure from the rough and tumble Arnie we know, and is about as curveball as when we found out he was doing Twins with Danny Devito back in the early 90’s. Having said that Arnie does a solid performance as the trouble father while the immediate supporting cast fulfil their roles well. The balance between Wade and his wife – the understanding, sympathetic father and the scared, misunderstanding mother is a delicate balance played well by Richardson and Arnie. Abigail Breslin’s Maggie (of the title) is played well too.

 

There is a lot of quiet or scenes with lack of dialogue in it which create a more pensive tone – and a lot of these scene seem to replace dialogue and if you don’t get it, or miss it, the film seems to jump to continue the narrative. As it’s a bit unconventional this way it seems that the film doesn’t say very much in words but more in pictures – which is good in some respects but, it’s a movie and I’d like a bit more talking as we, the audience, are the ones that have to be quiet. The most annoying thing with it though is that there is an awful lot of what I call “natural camera” (you know the type where it’s like someone holding it and a bit wobbly) which can be distracting at times, especially in important or heartfelt sequences.  It ends up giving the feel that there is literally someone following the characters with a camera – which would be okay if it was one of those found footage type movies, but it clearly isn’t.

 

Overall the movie isn’t fantastic but it shows Arnie has the potential to be a lot more than just an action hero, but now, in his later years, a serious actor too.

 

Maggie is out now on DVD, Blu Ray and all good streaming sites.

 

POPSCORE: 6/10

REVIEW: Terminator: Genisys (12A)

Terminator movies have been gradually churned out over the years since the first one back in 1984 when James Cameron took a risk with some unknown actor called Arnold Schwarzenegger and a lead character combo of Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn. Fast forward a few decades later and we have the latest instalment of the popular franchise.

Many Terminator movies feature wars, Terminators and the ongoing travails of John Connor and his mum Sarah. Although iconic now, Terminator was a massive risk for the relatively unknown actors at the time – and even now, the memorable lines like “I’ll Be Back” and “Come with me if you want to live” resound in popular culture and make the original an instant classic. But where do you go from the following movies? Terminator 2: Judgement Day was a massive smash and was awesome (in my opinion) and made the Terminator a permanent fixture on a lot of peoples top ten movies of all time.

They tried to mix it up a bit with Terminator 3 with a stunningly beautiful girl as the cyborg killer. More recently, Christian Bale took up the standard bearing in Terminator: Salvation which was lacklustre at best – and had no Arnie (kind of). However that movie pretty much wrapped everything up. So where do you go from here?

Well, Genisys is the latest incarnation of Terminator and what do you do when the last movie pretty much completed the cycle? You – kind of remake the first one. Already on dodgy ground, Genisys starts in the future and sends Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back in time to protect Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) from The Terminator (Arnie). John Connor (Jason Clarke), leader of the resistance against Skynet is our only hope against the machines. Making a plan to protect his mother he sends volunteer Kyle Reese back to 1984 where Genysis attempts to reboot Terminator by making the same movie again. This time the amazing chemistry of Hamilton and Biehn is replaced by the awkwardness of Courtney and Clarke. Sarah Connor is no longer the petrified waitress but a hot, sassy kick-ass chick attitude with and Reese spends most of the movie being taken aback by her and trying to figure out what the hell’s going on. The movie also features “Pops” (the original Terminator character played again by Arnold Schwarzenegger) who apparently actually visited Sarah Connor when she was young and has become part of her family as a guardian and surrogate parent.

Seeing original 1984 The Terminator at the cinema only weeks before on a one off special showing, I had the original still fresh in my mind. It follows the original quite closely for a time, albeit with different actors and slightly different consequences – when old Arnie fights young Arnie for example, is on of the best parts of the movie and is inspired. As the movie goes on, it continues to develop the story and brings it in a different direction and rushes to a conclusion. Lots of homage’s to the original 1984 movie, some hat tips to T2 and 3, and none regarding Terminator: Salvation.

This film has tried to bring Terminator to the new audience, but although by no means bad, this movie, I felt, could have been a lot better. There is no taking away that Emilia Clarke is a stunning looking lady, but her sassy Sarah Connor never fit right with me at all and her chemistry with the rather lacklustre performance of Jai Courtney had me pining for Hamilton and Biehn.

The special effects are fantastic and the highlights include Arnie as the Terminator and the fact it’s a twist on the original movie. However, the movie, although enjoyable, was not as good as it could be, and this means that they will have another challenge if Terminator 6 is going to be made. Overall though, it’s not bad, but could be better. For those of you who heard that Dr Who’s Matt Smith was going to to be featured in this movie – well he is – but don’t expect much screen time. It did make me smile however that he is credited as Matthew Smith. Guess he gets his Sunday name on this one.

POPSCORE: 7/10

What am I talking about? Terminator: Genisys

Where can I find out more? http://www.terminatormovie.com/home#

If you like this try: Terminator (previous movies especially the first one), Robocop (especially the first one), Aliens

Anything else?

James Cameron officially endorsed this film and considers it the official third film in the franchise.

The body of young Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie is not actually Arnie but actor and body-builder Brett Azar who was playing the original Terminator. Arnie's face was computer edited on him later.