Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) - 4K UHD Review

Review:

*Originally written November 3rd, 2011*

For many people (Including myself) Ghost Protocol is the first film in the Mission: Impossible franchise that found a formula that launched the franchise from good to great. The first three films all had their own unique style and voice, for better or worse (MI2 is appalling), but they were lacking something. Thankfully Brad Bird came along and gave us an action film that rides the right line between action thriller and cartoony set-pieces.

It's so great to see that Tom Cruise still hasn't changed in 7 years. The set-piece on the tallest building in the world is just outrageous and exciting, the best the series got until this years Fallout. It's always just a treat to see Tom Cruise performance these stunts himself. He really gives it his all while delivering a charismatic and easy to root for Ethan Hunt.

This is also the first one that introduces Simon Pegg as the one of the main team members. He was in the third, but only as a tiny part, so it's much more interesting to see him in the field this time and bouncing off Hunt so well. It's strange to see Paula Patton leave such an impact in this film, but then never appear in another, there was a lot more chance to explore her character and whatever reason they didn't.

The only real weak spot of the team here is Jeremy Renner, who amounts to absolutely nothing. There's an intriguing backstory for his character that we learn throughout the run-time, making way for a very unearned and weird twist at the end. It's pretty easy to see why wasn't in Fallout and no one really noticed, because I nearly forgot he was in this one. It's weird just seeing a team work so well together, then Renner in the middle just having absolutely no chemistry at all with them.

The plot is what you'd come to expect at this point, it doesn't twist the formula massively, but it does what it tries to do so well. Ethan's team have to stop terrorist with nuclear codes while going country to country. It's fine. All absolutely fine. It's just a shame that the villains are very under-cooked and wasted. The only one that leaves a lasting impression is Lea Seydoux as an assassin responsible for starting the chain of events that kicks off the plot, so it's a shame she's written out pretty quickly to make way for a far less intimidating bad guy. 

There was a point where Ghost Protocol was my favourite Mission: Impossible film, but maybe due to the laws of diminishing returns or just preferring the slightly darker tone they went for in the next two films, I still really like Ghost Protocol, but don't quite love it. Watching it on 4K was at least a treat, an extremely impressive transfer that really showed off those yellows and Tom Cruise's gorgeous face. This is also the first time I'd notice just how poor some of the CGI in this was. The Kremlin explosion and nuke launching look utterly atrocious. 


Ghost Protocol starts the formula that has made the next few Mission: Impossibles so great. It's not perfect, but Brad Bird does a great job delivering us an extremely entertaining spy-thriller with a familiar plot, but insanely exciting set-pieces made even better with Tom Cruise's total commitment. 

8/10 Dans

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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Halloween 2 (2009) Blu-ray Review

Review:

*Originally written December 3rd, 2018*

After revisiting Rob Zombie's first Halloween film and being pleasantly surprised, I thought maybe it was time to go back to this one and see if it was as terrible as I remember, or I was just wrong. While Halloween 2 suffers from a lot of the same problems as the first, it's not quite as bad as I remember, but it is far from good.

Zombie's decision to shoot on 16mm film makes for an ugly and nasty looking film that retains a lot of the grittiness and feeling of trashiness he was going for. It also captures the pure barbaric nature of the Myers violence, but Zombie fails to film his kills with any real tension or decent framing. This is something that gets worse in Zombie's career as he went on to favour shakey-cam in the truly awful 31. 

There's a baffling amount of story decisions in Halloween 2 that just feel off and far too weird for a film like this. I appreciate Zombie was let off the leash for this one and allowed to do his own thing, but this is far removed from the spirit of the Halloween franchise we know. We learn more about Michael's motivation from his hallucinations of his dead mother who orders him to get his sister back. It's nice to explore what's making Michael tick, but it is done in such lame and purely executed fashion that it's hard not to cringe. It's a huge creative misstep and I feel someone should have been handling Zombie's ideas a bit more.

Speaking of missteps, part of me both loves and hates the opening the film, a 20 minute prologue that ultimately meant nothing to the film. It's clearly a homage to the original Halloween 2's hospital setting, but having this event as a dream sequence feels like an outrageous amount of padding to get the film up to an acceptable length. What's most frustrating about it is the hospital scene actually has some real tension and brutality here, far better than anything later in the film. I just wished they saved it for something that actually happens in the film.

It's not all bad though, Malcolm McDowell is back and wonderful as ever as Dr. Loomis. I'd guess a lot of fans would not be a fan of this portrayal of Loomis as it portrays him as a money hungry profiteer off the misery of the people who had died in the previous film and his failure to treat Michael. It's not particularly deep or clever, but it's fun to see McDowell play Loomis as such a sellout in a performance that clearly isn't taking itself as seriously as the rest of the film.

I was also pretty impressed with Scout Taylor-Thompson's role as Laurie Strode this time, they actually do a lot of interesting things with her in the first half as she learns the truth about her connection to Michael while she suffers from PTSD after the events of the first one. It's no Jamie Lee Curtis from Halloween 2018, but it's definitely a step above a lot of other horror film final girls.

Some part of me wishes we got a trilogy of the Rob Zombie Halloween films, while we waited 9 years for the Excellent David Gordon Green film, it would have been nice to see this canon of the story told and wrapped up. Whether it would have been better or worse than this one is another story, because the ending stinger implies something a lot more stupid than this one. Hey-ho, this canon is dead now so it doesn't matter anyway.


Rob Zombie's Halloween 2 is a huge misstep after the decent first, but it still has Zombie's aggressive flare and enough interesting moments to make it one of the better Halloween films. I feel I'm giving this a really low score, despite kind of enjoying it, but it really is a mess. I might like this one more in the future. After this watch, I'm surprised and confused as to why I hated this so much when it came out?

4/10 Dans

Halloween 2 is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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Halloween (2007) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written November 2nd, 2018*

Jesus Christ, I have to get this out the way first. How is this so hard to get hold of in the UK? Its less successful sequel is released on both Blu-ray and DVD here, while this one only got a DVD release that is out of print and is selling for around £30 on Amazon (The fuck?). I had to import this from the US only to find it was region locked, which has never been a problem for me, but for whatever reason my PS4, Xbox One or PS3 could not play it, despite being used as a multi-region player several times. I decided fuck it and just torrented it and just shelving the Blu-ray. I'm genuinely curious though, what went wrong with the distribution of this in the UK? 

Onto the film, yes. Rob Zombie's Halloween. It's... interesting. Not entirely successful, but by far one of the better horror remakes that at least doesn't make the mistake of being a shot for shot remake of the original and tries to do its own thing with Zombie's typical charm and endearing characters.

From what I remember from this (I'd seen it once about 10 years ago), they explored a lot of Michael Myers childhood and sorta ruin the mystery of the character, but I much preferred the stuff with Michael as a deeply, deeply disturbed child with a rough home life and utterly disgusting family.

This is where the Rob Zombie'isms kick in. From the opening scene you know you're in for a Rob Zombie film. It opens with abrasive heavy metal music and around 30 uses of the word "Fuck" before the opening scene ends. It's hard to sympathise with a family that act like this, so when Michael inevitable kills them, it was more a relief. Zombie really knows how to create some truly awful characters with no merit. 

Daeg Faerch does a good enough job as young Michael as its quickly revealed he murders small animals before setting sights on bigger targets, he mostly shines in his scenes in the mental institution with Malcolm McDowell's Dr. Loomis. Having them spend time together while Michael was young is a smart move and brings a lot more than what could have been a generic remake. McDowell's Loomis doesn't hold the same gravitas as Pleasance though, but he puts his own spin on the character and it more or less works.

Where things start to get messy however is with its second half. When Michael is grown up and escapes the mental institution, it becomes a pretty generic and uninspired slasher, which is a shame because the first half did a good job of being its own beast. I know it had to become a slasher at some point, and it's not bad at all, it just feels very samey with stuff I've seen before. Especially in regards to David Gordon Green's 2018 film, which has genuine creativity and tension.

The second half really is a blurry mess of tits and gore. Michael pretty much just goes on a rampage killing horny teenagers while trying to find his sister and kill her? I don't know, the film isn't very clear? It implies he wants to kill her as he didn't as a child, but he wastes every chance he has to the point where I'm not sure what his plan was.

Zombie at least brings a lot of graphic violence and unflinching gore to the kills. What they lack in tension, he really makes up for in brutality. There's an argument that Zombie takes thing too far, the rape in the mental institution just feels a bit off and Michael killing people that are nice to him is pretty horrible, but that at least adds to what a monster Michael is. 


So yeah, Rob Zombie's Halloween has been pretty panned over the years, but for the most part I like it. It's completely different from the original while paying homage to it at times and it definitely has Rob Zombie's voice. I just wish the second half was an interesting as the first. Oh, and someone sort out a real Blu-ray release for this in the UK please. 

6/10 Dans

Aside from an out of print DVD, Halloween has no release in the UK
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Unforgiven (1992) - 4K UHD Review

Review:

*Originally written November 1st, 2018*

I don't know about you, but I found most of the classic Westerns I've seen painfully dull (Sorry), particularly ones from the '60s with the exception of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. I just find them to be like watching paint dry, but for some reason, most of the ones from the '90s and '00s I find incredibly more interesting and increased in quality, with Unforgiven being the peak of Clint Eastwood's Western career.

I will argue that Unforgiven is a film I've had crammed down my throat after a year of film studies at sixth form, but for whatever reason, despite having watched it under the worst conditions possible (On a washed out projector with the teacher pausing it every minute to talk about it), I still find myself loving this.

 Plus with the 30 hours or so I've put into Red Dead Redemption 2 so far, I was in the mood and was happy to see this had a 4K release in the UK. And what a 4K release this is. Another knockout from Warner Bros, blistering with detail and increased colour, making the beautiful landscape shots of the Texas desert look better than they've ever been.

Clint Eastwood's anti-hero William Munny is one of the most fascinating of his career, an aged criminal with a shameful past who only picks up a bounty to have his dying farm he lives on with his two kids after the death of his wife. In many ways Munny feels like the aged character of all his previous Westerns put together, but makes him feel far more human and believable. Like Logan, I have a huge soft-spot for films about ageing gunfighters going back one last time and Eastwood nails this as a finale for his career in westerns.

While this is Eastwood's show, he joined by a cast who all do an excellent job. Gene Hackman is terrifying as the utterly psychotic and intimidating sheriff of the town Bill and Morgan Freeman does his usual reliable thing of being likeable. I honestly thought Saul Rubinek was the father of John Oliver too, I mean, look at him in this.

What I really love is just how restrained and real this feels compared to many other Westerns set in the same period. It runs at a slow pace, but takes it time to give the characters the development they deserve, giving the finale some incredible dramatic weight. There is some action spliced in the middle, which is well shot and feels authentic, but this is all about character and not action. I miss when Eastwood used to be able to direct as well as he did here, his later work is so lifeless and flat, even downright appalling based on his latest film, but it's nice to see him be able to direct something excellent here.


Unforgiven is a triumph, a character driven western that rounds off Clint Eastwood's long foray into the genre in the a way that's close to as perfect as possible. I wish more westerns were like this. Gorgeous 4K restoration too, Warner Bros are knocking it out the park with their releases. 

9/10 Dans 

Unforgiven is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD now in the UK
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Halloween (2018) - Cinema Review

Review:

*Originally written October 24th, 2018*

Well, here we are. A film that had a lot to live up to. A film that promised to wipe the slate clean of all the garbage Halloween sequels and be the sequel we deserved to John Carpenter's horror-slasher classic of the '70s. There were lots of question marks as to whether this to work or not, but with a solid crew behind it and John Carpenter returning to produce and score, plus Jamie Lee Curtis back as Laurie Strode, they've not only managed to make a successful sequel to the original, but one of the best slasher films in years.

The Halloween franchise is one of I've held dear since my childhood. I first got acquainted with the series during late night showings of the sequels when I was very young. I couldn't tell you which sequels they were, but there was something about Michael Myers and his cold, relentless brutality that stuck with me. I eventually got to see whole series eventually, and while they got worse with each one, I still liked the mythology and presence of Myers. I even have a soft-spot for Rob Zombies first remake, not the sequel though, that was one of the lowest lows of the series. 

So after a a lot of bad sequels and remakes that killed the franchise for 9 years, we're finally back with Laurie Strode as the lead and its a direct sequel to the original that ignores every following sequel, and it is beautiful. Rather than the overly complicated and increasingly silly backstory behind Michael Myers, he's returning to what he should be, the embodiment of pure evil. A silent killer that brutally murders people without remorse and for no real reason. 

We open with him at a mental institution for the criminally insane as he is awaited transportation for a maximum security prison. He's interviewed by two people who do a true crime podcast, leading to an insanely effective cold open that involves a chained up Michael and his original mask before smash cutting to the opening credits that pay homage to the originals opening, while doing something new with it. 

You know where this is going though, Michael breaks out and returns to Haddonfield for another round of teenager slaughtering mayhem. But the twist is this time Laurie is waiting for him and she's been preparing for 40 years to finish Michael off. I rarely expect excellent performances from a horror film, but Jamie Lee Curtis is fantastic here, playing Laurie as a much more prepared and stronger character that has shades of Sarah Connor from Terminator 2 while having her own tragic back story. Seeing the mental repercussions of Michael's original killing spree on Laurie's friends was a fantastic touch, that really ground the film in some sort of reality and makes Laurie easy to root for.

What makes this sequel of Halloween work is how it doesn't try to over explain Michael or give him a reason for his crimes. His psychiatrist has spent decades trying to understand him, but came up with nothing. He doesn't even seem to have a real vendetta against Laurie at all either, he will simply kill anyone he comes into contact with. He doesn't even seem to care about Laurie, she even comes for him, not the other way around. Making for a great role reversal and an insanely unexpected and expectation subverting third act that involves three generations of the Strode women.

In terms of brutality and gore, Halloween certainly earns its 18 rating, people are stabbed, shot and beaten to death in unflinching and increasingly brutal ways. Michael's penchant for violence has never been more unchained that is has been here, he is an absolute tanking force of nature that makes you feel every uncomfortable moment of his rampage. It even goes to some surprisingly dark places most mainstream horror franchises wouldn't touch. There's even a beautiful series of long takes as Michael weaves in out of houses, killing the inhabitants and getting hold of whatever weapon he can while John Carpenter's gorgeous and varied score blares in the background. It was a moment of pure cinematic nirvana.

Even with the brutality and gore, David Gordon Green manages to direct the film with an insane amount of confidence and tension as all these kills are earned and are built up. It's rare a horror film doesn't rely on multiple jump scares and rather let's the scene build as we know what Michael is capable of, but watching as the characters have no way out of their horrific situation. One of the little touches I loved was that we never saw Michael's face too. While he spends the first act without his mask, we only ever see the back of his head or very out of focus shots of his face, it just adds a little bit more to that mystery of Michael and the only time we see his face is from archive footage from the original after seeing him be unmasked as a 6 year old after murdering his sister.

I was also pleasantly surprised by Danny McBride and Green's script, which I had no idea what to expect. McBride obviously being majorly comedy focused in his career was something I had my reservations about, but they mostly knock it out the park. There are moments of humour spread throughout, but they don't do that Marvel thing by throwing a lame joke into a middle of a scene that's meant to be tense only to ruin it, but they leave all that stuff on the outside, letting the scenes of horror breathe massively. My only real complaint about the script is the bizarre and out of place character turn late into the film that comes out of nowhere and is wrapped up so quickly that I have no idea why it was even there. That aside, it's all pretty great and there are  huge amount of nods to the original that pay homage to it while making its own original take on such iconic imagery.


Halloween 2018 is everything I possibly could have hoped for, it wraps up a story that started 40 years ago perfectly and makes up for much of franchises short-coming while being its own beast. A tense, violent and horrific ride that was a complete blast and might just be the best horror film of the year. It's rare that a film comes along where all I want to do is just watch it again, but here we are. Go see Halloween, support good horror films.


9/10 Dans

Halloween is in cinemas now in the UK and has a 4K Steelbook available to pre-order from HMV
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Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) - Cinema Review

Review:

*Originally written October 19th, 2018*

Bad Times at the El Royale feels like its stuck in the '90s, which isn't a bad thing. This clearly Tarantino inspired feels exactly like the sort of film that came out just after Reservoir Dogs, riffing on Tarantino's formula, and for the most part, it works. 

It's a hard one to talk about without spoilers. A group of strangers arrive at the El Royale Hotel, each with a different secret and complicated past. Some more interesting than others, but it all comes to a head when Chris Hemsworth's Charles Manson like cult leader 'Billy Ray' gets involved.

I'm not the biggest fan of Drew Goddard's work so far. I really wanted to like Cabin in the Woods, but just found it remarkably okay and a bit of a slog to get through (I will revisit it at some point though). Goddard clearly has an understanding of genre film-making that has largely been untapped as I can tell he's so much more capable than the films he produces. I will say El Royale is a huge improvement on Cabin at the very least.

Being a Tarantino style film, Goddard does indulge in some of Tarantino's faults. For instance, this is barbarically overlong. So much is drawn out and felt borderline insane to even exist within the film. We see the same event from several different angles multiple times throughout, and it got a little grating. This could have easily done with another round in the editing room.

But in terms of the good stuff, it's pretty much excellent all round. Every single cast member does an excellent job, even with such a talented and diverse cast, everyone feels on the same level and no one stuck out as wasted or pointless. It was incredible to see a film where I actually understood what Jeff Bridges was saying, which is a huge rarity these days. 

The central mystery is constantly intriguing and helped by the marketing which told us pretty much nothing about the film, but really hurt its commercial performance at the same time. It builds up to a spectacular finale involving Chris Hemsworth who completely steals the show. It was so great to see him as the villain and I instantly wanted to ravage him and join his family every moment he was on screen. He just oozed charisma and brought alive every second of his brief performance. I just wish he was in it more, as he completely dominated every scene he was in, despite only showing up in the final act.


Bad Times at the El Royale is a step the right direction for Goddard. An overlong, but intriguing mystery thriller with an excellent cast and gonzo final act brought alive due to the pure psychotic charisma of Chris Hemsworth.

7/10 Dans

Bad Times at the El Royale is out now in cinemas in the UK
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First Man (2018) - Cinema Review

Review:

*Originally written October 16th, 2018*

I had really high hopes for Damien Chazelle's First Man. Whiplash and La La Land were some of my favourite films from the years they came out. There was high buzz, critical acclaim and Oscar talk for this, but when I saw it, I was sadly just pretty underwhelmed. It exceeds on a technical level, but a lot of the film is sadly just a bit of an overlong slog to get to.

I wanted to love this Neil Armstrong biopic, but I was just left cold, but I cannot deny some of the amazing craft that went into making it. With a title like First Man, it's pretty obvious what this is. A biopic leading up to Armstrong's successful mission to the Moon as he becomes the first man to set foot on it.

There's a ton of focus on Armstrong's relationship with his family. Opening with a heartbreaking event that the film just doesn't manage to come close to through its run-time. I have my problems with biopics, they often feel very Oscar baitey, especially the cradle to grave ones. Thankfully, this focuses on a very specific period in Armstrong's life, hitting all the things you'd want to see. 

I was unsure about Gosling's performance as Armstrong at first. He plays it in that same way he did Drive, where he does long pauses and stares before answering a question he's asked. Making him seem possibly autistic. But once I was informed this is what Armstrong was really like, it made a lot of the scenes a lot better in reflection. A particular scene where he has to tell his kids he's leaving and the way he goes about telling them is a huge highlight. I'm gonna be very surprised if Gosling doesn't at least score a nomination for this.

Claire Foy also does an excellent job alongside Gosling as Armstrong's wife, who has to go through the emotional ringer as an astronauts wife, wondering if he'll ever come home and dealing with emotional distance he keeps while training for the history changing mission. Making her such a prominent focus in the story was a smart move and brought a lot more humanity to Gosling's stoic performance. 

I'd mentioned the technical aspects of First Man, and once those moments in space and the training hit, they hit hard. Chazelle makes space seem so cold, empty and terrifying. It's helped by the use of amazing camera work that rarely leaves the from the viewpoint of the Astronauts, making the shuttle seem claustrophobic and scary, especially with the incredible sound design. I'd recommend seeing this on the biggest and loudest screen possible. 

I'm sounding hugely positive towards First Man, but in all honesty, it is let down by some really poor pacing. This thing feels extremely dragged out, you feel every moment of the 140 minute run-time and I'm ashamed to say I did nod off for a brief few moments, which is probably my fault for going to see a film like this on very little sleep. But I just can't help but feel this could have been much tighter if they cut out a good 20-30 minutes of footage.

The buildup to the event itself is honestly worth the wait though. Once they get to the moon it really is some of the most spectacular sights cinema has had to offer in 2018. Everything felt genuine and real, this only could have felt more realistic if they actually went and filmed on the moon itself. It's even capped off with a scene of genuine emotion as Armstrong pays tribute to the opening event of the film that turned him the way he was. 


First Man isn't the masterpiece I wanted it to be, it's too long and a little dry, but it more than makes up for this in the technical department and I'm sure it'll sweep up at the Oscars. It might be something I'll enjoy more on a rewatch, but for now I'm both a little disappointed and impressed. Can't wait to see what Chazelle and Gosling do next.

7/10 Dans

First Man is out now in cinemas in the UK, with a 4K UHD Steelbook available to pre-order from HMV
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