REVIEW: Ghostbusters (2016) (12A)

If there is something strange, in your neighbourhood... who you gonna call?

After a suitably scary intro, the Ray Parker Jr. tune kicks in and you are strapped in ready for action - but the theme is practically faded out after about four seconds and gets straight into the movie. Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids) is Erin Gilbert (the Peter Venkman of the team) who is desperate to be taken serious as a scientist and is getting a job as a lecturer at a school. However childhood friend Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy) is carrying on their mutual childhood interest in ghosts and the paranormal. Both ladies have gone their separate ways - Abby researching at a local educational establishment and Erin at the respectable university. When a book they wrote years ago surfaces online, Erin finds that Abby has been selling it to make money without Erin's knowledge. Obviously miffed at this, but more concerned about the damage to her reputation, she goes and confronts Abby. When she gets there she finds her researching equipment alongside eccentric Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) who kind of plays the Egon Spengler character with a bit more madness/sass. Jillian has a hairstyle that really reminds me of Egon in The Real Ghostbusters cartoon - which may be purposeful or maybe not, but is a nice touch if so.

Meanwhile some loner blokey has decided to create armageddon by creating a portal to call ghosts to New York to "pester" humans. First, a ghost is seen in the subway by Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones) and she runs away from it - and goes to the Ghostbusters to see if they can help and ends up becoming a Ghostbuster herself.   They employ hapless Kevin (Chris Hemsworth) who is more attractive than intelligent - which is clearly a gender swap dig at the way women are portrayed in the movies for their attractiveness and not brains. However, which every way you look at it, he has some of the best comedic moments and makes the movie funnier that it otherwise would have been.

Ghostbusters has been hit with a lot of criticism and the danger of reviewing this movie is that when anyone has said anything about this, especially bad, it's been taken as people being sexist. What's more, is that the first teaser trailer was one of the most divisive and disliked trailers EVER on YouTube. Even I worried about it - it was awful. I was sad.

But, the second one was much better, and made me less concerned. But the fan speculation was rife. All women ghostbusters, rubbish jokes, bad CGI - reasons people have gave for their dislikes. I think it was doomed from the start, and didn't have the best chance. Then.... there was a review embargo until release. This was not looking good. But I've seen it. And here's what I think.

The last line of the movie, Erin says something like, "It's not terrible, is it?" and my response would be no, it isn't. Although it's difficult to move it to another part of your mind, if you don't link this to the previous Ghostbusters movies (like this movie doesn't link to the others) then it's actually pretty good.

There are elements that are poor - some of the story is a bit iffy, and I think if they made reference to the previous movies it might feel like more of a part of the franchise. With the exception of cameos of cast and characters (the former not being the characters they are known for) then there are no clues that the other Ghostbusters ever existed. There's a lot of nods to the original - the hearse for Ecto-1, the PKE meters and equipment (though it's been verily updated) and some scenes that echo from the 1984 version. In fact the only truly same thing is the theme song.  I mentioned earlier that this is on for about 4 seconds. Don't worry though, the soundtrack itself has 4 different versions on it, and we hear three versions throughout the movie.

I really liked this movie, and it could have been so much worse. The ghosts were decent and it was a fun movie to watch. It was trying to be a comedy though... but it was mainly at the expense of others or through crude jokes. When it tries to be funny, I think it fails, but there is some genuine amusing moments, mainly with Chris Hemsworth's character and his lack of intelligence. Some may say that it's a bit offensive, but I'm not here to judge that.

So, to sum it up I would say that, leave the original Ghostbusters behind, go in and watch this as these ladies have their time at being Ghostbusters and you will enjoy it. It's a fun movie, with some amusing moments, and will pass the time. But, if you force it to stand up against Ivan Reitman's masterpiece from 1984, it may struggle.

Ghostbusters is out at all good cinemas from 11th July in the UK and 15th July in the US.

POPSCORE: 7.5/10

What am I talking about? Ghostbusters (2016) movie
Where can I find out more? http://www.ghostbusters.com/ AND http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/ghostbusters/
If you liked this try: Ghostbusters (1984), Ghostbusters II, Haunted Mansion, Casper and Scary Movie series of movies, possibly Bridesmaids and Spy for similar cast and humour

Anything else?

Some of the original Ghostbusters (1984) cast have cameo's in this movie including Annie Potts (who played Janine Melnitz), Dan Ackroyd (Ray Stantz), Ernie Hudson (Winston Zeddemore), Sigourney Weaver (Dana Barratt) and Bill Murray (Peter Venkman). Sadly none of them, except Ackroyd, have any link to their previous characters as they all play different characters in this. Ackroyd mentions about ghost classification - but it's not clear if he is Ray Stantz or not.
Like the actors, some ghosts make cameos from the other movies including Slimer and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
There's a lot of references to the original movie's scenes including moments like the banging on a window in a restaurant, pulling tablecloths from a table and being in the mayors office.

REVIEW: MOVIEBLAST: Crimson Peak (15) & Mr Holmes (PG)

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

Crimson Peak (15) is Guillermo Del Toro's latest foray into fantasy horror starring everyone's favourite Marvel MCU antagonist, Tom Hiddleston. Backed up with other talent including Mia Wasikowska and no less than two actors from a Foxy's Favourite movie Pacific Rim (which is also directed by Del Toro) is this gorgeously shot fantasy horror.

The movie starts with a well-to-do family in America. Their daughter, Edith (Wasikowska) is coming to terms with the death of her mother (which includes seeing ghosts) and dealing with her overprotective father. When well spoken Englishman Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) comes to America to try and get some financial backing for an invention, love gets in the way. Trying to woo her dad for cash and  his daughter for marriage, Sharpe uses his influence to try to achieve both aims. When disaster strikes. however, a love struck Edith returns to England with Sharpe and his sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain). Meanwhile her childhood friend Dr Alan McMichael (Pacific Rim's Charlie Hunnam) finds some unsettling news about these English visitors and goes to retrieve her from the ramshackled manor house in rural England.

Crimson Peak is a delightful film to look at using colour in such a lovely way. The sets, costumes and cinematography are fantastical and a pleasure to look at - however I found the movie to be a bit bland, unlike the scenery. I love most of Del Toro's works but this one just fell a bit flat. I feel maybe that it was to slow and took a while to say what it needed to. Hiddleston's look was far too similar to Loki in the MCU for my liking but his performance was strong. Alice in Wonderland's Mia Wasikowska was great in her role, even though some of her outfits looked like she raided Lady Gaga's wardrobe. The supporting actors were fab too.

Overall this movie looks the business but ultimately fails to deliver on time. It felt more like a paint by numbers horror movie; one for beginners - more fantasy than scary but it's ok nonetheless. Decent for a night in, but not much more. I loved the Johnny Depp fronted Dark Shadows, which is what I expected this movie to be like (from the DVD cover and look of the movie) but it wasn't. Not the strongest entry into Del Toro's collection but probably one of the prettiest to look at.

 

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

 

POPSCORE: 6/10

Mr Holmes (PG) stars Sir Ian "Gandalf" McKellen as the ageing Sherlock Holmes in his twilight years. Years later, after his final assignment, Mr Sherlock Holmes has retired to the country to attend to bees and live in a country house. Estranged from Dr Watson and never married, Holmes lives alone save for his housekeeper Mrs Munro (Laura Linney) and her inquisitive son, Roger.

Holmes befriends Roger who keeps him on his toes. Roger is similar to Holmes in a way and is impressed by his mental capacity to think logically and deduce problems and mysteries. However, here's the rub - and the interesting crux of this film - Holmes is diagnosed with dementia!

I have wanted to see this film for some time. The idea of having a literary character develop dementia - (especially for one such as Holmes who is famed for his mental capacity) - is quite a unique take on the mythos of Sherlock Holmes. As his mental capacity declines, with the help of the ever inquisitive Roger, Holmes tries to piece together his last assignment of which he has forgotten.

McKellan plays the younger Holmes and the ageing one well and brings a human side to the man who was almost robot-like in his reasoning and deduction. He infers the frustration well as you would expect from a character famed for his mental capacity. Roger is played well by the young Milo Parker and I can see great things for him in the future.

If you are looking for excitement, edge of your seat Sherlock you are so looking in the wrong place - that is the domain of Cumberbatches or Downey Jr's. This is a slow burning drama, chronicling his decline in mental health and all that goes with it. I would say it's a drama... no, it would be more of an exploration of an idea on film of how this premise would pan out. There is some semblance of story - but the most exciting parts are told in flashbacks. It's not the best film in the world but has such an interesting premise it is worth a watch on a cosy night in or a rainy Sunday afternoon.

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

 

POPSCORE: 6/10

REVIEW: The Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (15)

For those of you that know me, I have a few film rules - any movie that is two words long starting with "The" as the first word and any movies that have a sentence for a title immediately start my alarm bells ringing on the quality of the forthcoming movie. other things that worry me is sequels with the same characters but different casts playing them or a production company I've never heard of. Luckily, the "directed by M. Night Shayamalan" proviso has been removed as you may have seen an earlier post on this blog. In it, I actually thought his last movie, The Visit, wasn't that bad.

So already the film has warning bells ringing as it's practically a sentence for a title. But, unlike She's Having a Baby or The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill And Came Down A Mountain (or whatever it was called) the title of the movie sounds actually quite fun. And you know what? The film was fun too.

The film is all about three teenage lads who are all scouts. Ridiculed for still being in the scouts at nearly college age, the trio try to fit in. However when Augie is to be promoted to getting his Condor badge (whatever that is in Scout talk!), the three go camping to celebrate and to be awarded his badge from the rather strange Scout Leader Rodgers (David Koechner) - a man who has all the hallmarks of Ranger Smith from Yogi Bear and a penchant for Dolly Parton. The three lads - Ben, Carter and Augie are basically stereotypical teenagers - think the Goonies without Data. Ben is more of a leader type, wanting the girl and torn between the difficult friendships between the other two. Carter is just a typical teenager desperate to throw away his childhood, and see as much boobies and sex as possible. And Augie, the one who's desperately holding onto the Scouts and his childhood and is the geeky one, and the one who is cramping Carter's style. Along for the ride when things get a bit difficult is Denise, a kick ass blonde lady who works in a strip club called *ahem* Lawrence of Alabia. Her vocation it turns out, as she cocks a shotgun, is that she is a cocktail waitress and not a stripper.

Still there is plenty of body parts and gore and blood in this crazy tale of a town ridden with infected zombies. The start of the movie locks you in for what's in store as a stoner janitor enters a laboratory and accidently reanimates a dead person by falling onto some equipment and starts a zombie infestation. When the town is over run with zombies, its up to the three Scouts to use their uncanny scouting skills to help them save the town.

The violence is bloody and stupid at the same time and the movie itself is like a mish mash of others I'd seen before. If you stuck Shaun of the Dead in a blender with say, the Goonies, Ghostbusters and World War Z and siphoned it through a sieve, you would probably be metaphorically doing something as stupid as this film. It's nowhere near as good as those films mentioned just now but it is a different take on the zombie movie. It's fun, it's stupid and it passes the time. There are some generally laugh out loud bits - like zombie cats and some interesting uses of music in the movie - especially to Britney and Dolly, but it was never going to be a blockbuster. There are some silly moments too - all I'm saying is the trampoline scene - and this pretty much rounds off the whole movie.

Overall it was a fair attempt at the zombie genre - and an enjoyable watch. One for the lads or for some light hearted buffoonery. There's plenty more movies that are way better - but it's just good enough to spend some time with. Check it out and let me know what you think.

The Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse is out now at all good cinemas.

POPSCORE: 6.5/10

What am I talking about? The Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse

Where can I find out more? http://scoutsandzombiemovie.com
If you liked this try: The Goonies, World War Z, Shaun of the Dead, This Is The End

REVIEW: The Visit (15)

M. Night Shyamalan's latest movie is The Visit,  a weird cross pollen genre of horror-black comedy with an over egging of found footage.  Having a peek at some lovely factoids about this movie, apparently M. Night made two versions of this movie - a comedy version and true horror one and the finished one is kind of a mix up of both.

The story begins as single mom decides to send her children - 13 year old Tyler (who pretty much steals the show with his charisma - if a little overbearing at times) and his older sister Becca, who is much more matter-of-fact and has an interesting vocabulary considering she's supposed to be about 15. In a vain attempt to get her mom to make peace with her estranged parents, Becca decides to make a documentary about their week long visit to see "Nana" and "Pop Pop". Although her mom isn't too forthcoming about why she abruptly left the house she grew up in and turned her back on her parents - Becca is desperate to find out the truth. When the kids go away, mom goes on a holiday with her latino lover, Miguel and the kids meet their grandparents for the first time. However, when the rule is not to leave the bedroom after 9.30pm, the modern teenagers flaunt this rule (mainly to sneak downstairs for some midnight snacks) and their grandparents are not all what they seem.

M Night has had a difficult time of late from the heyday of when he was awesome and could do no wrong - hit after movie hit came - Signs, Sixth Sense, Unbreakable - and it seemed he was. Then came the dross that was The Last Airbender and After Earth and his credibility was practically non-existent. Still he is churning out the movies, when maybe he should have stopped. However, this movie isn't bad, but he still has a long way to go to reach the former awesomeness that was his original set of movies. Shyamalan takes the now clichéd route of found footage and takes a stab at this genre - and those expecting a jumpy horror will be disappointed. Tyler (played excellently by Ed Oxenbould) is both endearing and wholesomely annoying, but is a welcome comic relief in the movie. His matter of fact sister - Becca (Olivia DeJonge) is also great as the sensible one, but she doesn't have enough time to develop as a character rather than a person to help the narrative along. The grandparents are suitably strange and Deanna Dunagan plays Nana with the endearing dodderiness of an old lady one minute and the slight of madness in the next. Pop Pop is also a strange character who is as grumpy and withdrawn as the children's mom is outgoing and loud.

The movie is definitely not one of M Night Shymalan's best, but it's certainly a step in the right direction for redemption after the recent disappointments he has helped fill the bargain buckets with in supermarkets. I have high hopes that he will be back as the go-to director for tense thrillers and people will again say - how awesome is that movie. This movie is above average, but I think that he is getting his form back and I hope that as he continues we'll be seeing a lot more awesome movies from this director who gave us such memorable movies in the past.

The Visit is out now at all good cinemas.

POPSCORE: 6/10

What am I talking about? The Visit - the movie
Where can I find out more? http://www.thevisit.com.au
If you liked this try: Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Sinister and any of the multitude of sequels. I would even suggest The Gallows or to a lesser extent the Blair Witch Project.

REVIEW: The Gallows (15)

The Gallows is the latest found footage horror movie from Blumhouse Productions (who seem to be going from strength to strength).Featuring directors you've never heard of, actors you've never heard of and a story that you probably have, The Gallows is about a set of young people who are running a school play that has a sinister past. The movie is mainly set about a group of them hanging around the school at night time trying to sabotage the play.

The movie starts with some historical footage about the school play, The Gallows, which was ran in Beatrice School in 1993. However a freak accident occurred when one of the young people (who was playing a convicted criminal) was accidently hanged in front of everyone when they were acting out the hanging scene. Cue mass hysteria and a jump to present day.

Nerdy theatre girl, Pfeiffer decided to bring back that fateful school play 20 years later and has the complete backing of the school. Reese, football jock and admirer of Pfeiffer, signs up to star opposite her in the play - but is a terrible actor. Fearing that the play will bomb, Reese's best mate (and arguably the most entertaining character and cameraman) Ryan, hatches a plan to stop the play from happening. This plan includes his ultra hot cheerleader girlfriend Cassidy and him and Reese to go an sabotage the set so the play can't go ahead. When they get accidentally locked in the school in the dark, things start to get a bit scary.

The Gallows is a low budget horror movie but does things rather good considering the fact there's no famous actors, big budget or famous screenwriters behind it. The concept is simple and sometimes predictable - but there are so many horrors being churned out these days it's hard to be original. Even awesome horrors like Saw and Final Destination have so many sequels and copy cats that the impact of the originals have been watered down somewhat from the genius that they were.

The Gallows is genuinely unnerving and there are some jumpy points and it does horror well. It's not an amazing movie but it is certainly worth a watch if you like horrors.  It's not bad, go check it out and let me know what you think.
 

The Gallows is out now in all good cinemas.

 

POPSCORE: 6.5/10

What am I talking about? The Gallows
Where can I find out more? http://thegallowsmovie.com/

If you like this try: Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, Unfriended, Creep

Anything else?
Apparently this movie was made by funding from friends of the makers rather than by a studio - the studio only sorted out the distribution.
All of the characters use their real first names in the movie only their surnames are different.

REVIEW: Unfriended (15)

Unfriended (also known as Cybernatural) is another found footage movie but presented in such a way that it's like you are using a lap top. Not only that, but it uses (here comes the product placement) Skype, Facebook, YouTube and a few more. Thing is, as much as I'm not the biggest fan of found footage movies (the best one in recent times was Project Almanac in my opinion) this does it different, and, if you are open to it, it's really pretty good.

The film starts with a girl called Blaire Lily, who has booted up her lap top to chat with her boyfriend. As they start getting a bit raunchy (don't get too excited - she only unbuttons her top) the rest of her friends invade Skype to have a 5 way conversation about their day. It all seems fairly monotonous until all through the convo they finally notice there is an extra caller who is not showing their photo on Skype. Funny things start to happen and soon it is revealed that this extra caller isn't exactly there to be very nice.

Backstory time - there is a young lady by the name of Laura Barns who is ridiculed/shamed on YouTube after getting very drunk at a get together in a field with her classmates. She passes out (I still cannot define whether she was raped or pooed herself or both) but the upshot of it was it was uploaded to YouTube with the tag line "LAURA BARNS KILL URSELF" and then posts were ridiculing her on the site. However, it didn't stop there and overflowed onto Facebook. This cyber bullying obviously affected Laura who took her own life by shooting herself in the head. That's as far as it goes for now, until this random chatter has joined the Skype Squad (I'm trademarking that) and starts talking. It's all kinda ominous until one person discloses it is a year since Laura took her own life and that the account these new messages are coming from are hers.

The film is basic, even some of the young men in the cinema who were noisily scoffing popcorn claimed "This film is rubbish - I could have made that on the computer" are completely missing the point. Yes, it's about as back to basics as found footage goes, but it is suspenseful, realistic and very grounded using things we take for granted every day.  This includes authentic Facebook chat, Skype chats and the like. Although if you really look you can see glaring errors - like erroneous time stamps and the fact a 99kb photo takes over 15 seconds to download but a 1.8GB file takes less than 10 seconds is irrelevant. The film uses those things we see while being on the net as devices to add suspense - the freezing of the Skype picture as one of her friends is screaming and no-one knows what is going on then it stutters on to see a horrific image of a character meeting their fate, or the sinister extra caller issuing threats by chat message and following up on them is both unnerving and quite close to home.

It's been called the Blair Witch Project for the internet generation but it's definitely a horror. It's definitely a thriller. But it also has a message. It's social media gone crazy and it's inference is that a lot of the naughties children (who are now teens) have grown up with this in their lives and a small amount of them think it's funny or cool to degrade and hurt others through pictures, taunts or posts - it's bullying evolved. This film is an example of this to the nth degree. In this movie their dead class mate comes back through the internet to wreak her revenge on those who drove her to kill herself. Although it is highly unlikely that deceased people's Facebook and Skype's will start posting and ringing people, the fact of the matter is that cyber-bullying is very real and affects people in this way.

The film then is a horror - it's jumpy in parts. It's basic and it's premise is simple, but it's the message that is what was clearest for me. A lot of people left the movie at the end and didn't seem to struck on it and I guess it's an acquired taste. But it's clever, very clever.

Unfriended is at the cinema now and is rated 15.

POPSCORE: 8/10

What am I talking about? The movie Unfriended

Where can I find out more? http://www.unfriendedmovie.co.uk/
If you like this try: Paranormal Activity, The Ring, Blair Witch Project