Saturday 23 April 2016

Warlock 1989

Year: 1989
Stars: Julian Sands, Richard E. Grant, Lori Singer
Directed by: Steve Miner
Budget: $7 million

So first of this is one of my favorite movies, the cast are perfect in their roles and it is one of Julian Sands (at least for me) stand out roles. So Julian plays the role of a warlock in 1690ish Boston, he's been caught by a witch hunter and sentenced to death.
He manages to escape to the future (our time, well almost) the witch hunter manages to follow him back. His name is Redfern and is played, also brilliantly by Richard E. Grant. Who has to stop him attaining three parts of some kind of anti bible The Grand Grimoire that has goods true name inside.
Saying it will undo all of creation or something along those lines, why do these bad guys want to destroy the world where are they going to live if there's no planet?

Lori Singer plays Kassandra with a K, love the way Redfern always addresses her as this. shes a young bright bubbly redhead. The warlock finds out that the book has been split into three parts and goes on a hunt for each part. Kass, finds herself thrown together with Redfern. Who is clearly alienated by today's standards and very fish out of water when he isn't focused on the task at hand. He explains a few rules to Kass like the warlock can't abide salt which is like poison to him, also iron which will hurt him in many different ways.

Kass unfortunately has a bracelet stolen and a curse placed on her by the warlock to age exponentially. Redfern swears to her he'll get it back and cure her, Kass also suffers with diabetes which is a very minor subplot but comes into play later. So they both track Sands down nearly always one or two steps behind him.
This is down to the warlock making a flying potion from the fat of an unbaptised child, told you Sands was good in this role. So yeah pretty gruesome and probably what got it it's 18 certificate.
I find child murder in stuff usually does that. Kass amusingly manages to get her bracelet back by nailing iron nails into the warlocks foot prints which seem to hurt him like real nails in the foot.

So he assembles two thirds of the book before Redfern and Kass find out the last third is buried with Redfern himself. So they head to his grave and dig up his corpse, Redfern is not to happy about this but he perseveres with it.
The warlock shows up and beating them gets the last third of the book, he's assembling them and almost sees the name of god when Kass. Remember I said she had diabetes, who was knocked into salt water fills her syringe with it leaps on Sands and injects him into the neck.
With this poison like substance coursing through his veins he bursts into flames leaving only smoldering bones.

His work done Redfern is pulled back to his timeline, there's a little more to the ending than what I've explained and a bit more time wise too. Because as you now i don't like spoiling to much. This film has to me at least a half decent sequel too, which you'll see me do at some point. YES i know there's a threequel too but meh.

Well a very decently acted on all parts and excellently paced film, in my opinion. I am soooooo tempted to go with a five star but four might be more realistic, so yes four stars but with a mighty recommend from the THN audience. Give it a go see if you agree


Wednesday 20 April 2016

Friday the 13th parts 1-10 1980-2001

Right folks doing the whole, well almost whole Friday the 13th series, Freddy vs Jason though a sequel is a different type of film. The remake though just feels like ft13th part 11 is a remake so is not included here.

Friday the 13th: 1980
The original and some might say the best. This film isn't a 'Jason' film it's a slasher film but every thing has got to start somewhere right?
So camp crystal lake is being reopened to the public after a tragedy that happened a few years before. The councilors are there setting everything up. Unfortunately there someone who doesn't want this camp reopening. Our hero in this film is an unlikely female named Alice, who when people start dying steps up to save her own life. See the tragedy that befell the camp years back was the drowning of a disabled boy.
Jason Vorhees, who was both mentally and physically disabled was not watched by some councilors ( who were busy doing the jiggly) so he subsequently drowned. near the end of the film when everyone else has been killed in various ways.
Spears through necks, axes etc Alice the only survivor runs into Pamela, who happens to be Jason's mum and the crazy killer. She has a seemingly split personality of where Jason tells her to kill all the youths. Alice defends herself and ends up chopping off Miss Vorhees noggin with a handy machete.
The movie ends with Alice upon the lake being dragged under the water by the boy Jason, only to wake up in an ambulance asking where the boy is.


Friday the 13th Part 2: 1981
We start this movie with a catch up with Alice, who is subsequently murdered by an unknown assailant. 5 years later another group of teenagers come to set up the camp anew again. again the kids get killed one by one by a bag headed man. All until Ginny one of the councilors manages to escape and find a strange cabin in the woods.
This cabin happens to belong to none other than an adult version of Jason, he had survived his drowning as a child and was now continuing his mothers killing spree.
In the cabin Jason has built a shrine to his mother, including her decapitated head and the machete used to behead her. Ginny manages to fight back now and ends up cleaving the machete into Jason's shoulder sending him backwards.
Ginny again passes out and later awakes when an ambulance is carting her away.


Friday the 13th Part 3: 1982
So Jason is still alive after the last film, he's recovered from the machetes strike to his shoulder in the way only Jason can. So he finds way to a guy named Chris's barn where he hides out for a while. When people wander in the barn he kills them, he obtains the iconic hockey mask this way.
Jason eventually leaves the barn intent on murdering the rest of the group, he pretty much succeeds until Chris gets him good with an ax to bonce.
The police come and take a very hysterical Chris away in the back of their car.


Friday the 13th Part 4: 1984 (the final chapter)
Jason's supposed corpse is taken to the morgue where they remove the ax from his head. He kills a coroner and nurse and makes his way back to crystal lake. Tommy a young boy interested in movie make up and props in general rent a holiday home near the lake. a group of teens have hired the cabin next door who Jason proceeds to murder.
He then comes for Tommy and his sister but Tommy thanks to his sisters distractions disguises himself as a young Jason. This confuses the large Jason, Tommy however goes into a flying rage and starts hacking at Jason with a machete.


Friday the 13th Part 5: 1985 (A New Beginning)
This film features Tommy from the last one, only he's been in and out of mental homes for children for the past few years. Tommy is in a constant state of fear that Jason will come back. He even dreams of Jason rising from the grave.
One of the kids is accidentally killed by an ax, So kids keep dying and Tommy keeps seeing Jason and no one believes him again. Finally him and Pam, who he persuades Jason is alive manage to stop the killer. They de-mask the killer and find out he was actually the father of the boy who was accidentally killed.
Using the persona of Jason to hide his actions. The film ends with Tommy wearing Jason's mask holding a knife ready to kill Pam before the screen fades to black.


Friday the 13th Part 6: 1986 (Jason Lives)
Again Tommy Jarvis is the main protagonist of this film. This is in fact my favorite part of the series, possibly jaded as it's also the first one i watched. So Tommy recently released from mental care goes with his friend to make sure Jason is really dead.
The idiot digs up Jason's corpse intending to burn him. However he goes mental rips off a fence post and proceeds to beat Jason's corpse then ramming it into his chest. Throwing petrol all over the corpse he's about to light it when a rain storm starts. The pole is struck by lightening bringing Jason back to life. He proceeds to kill Tommy's friend who falls into Jason's grave, Tommy however escapes.
Jason goes on a killing spree while Tommy unsuccessfully tries to persuade the people that Jason is back. He also gets the blame for some of it. In the end he finally works out that they need to return Jason to crystal lake. strapping a boulder around his neck and then breaking his neck with the boat propellers ends this chapter and also the end of Tommy being in future parts.


Friday the 13th Part 7: 1988 (The New Blood)
After some time has passed new people begin to live on the lakeside. One of these is a troubled girl named Tina. Her father drowned in the lake when she was young. Tina however has a certain special power, shes telekinetic.
She's being studied by a doctor who has designs on her mother. Tina gets upset near the beginning of the film and tries to raise her dad from the bottom of the lake. unfortunately its Jason she brings up. Like all the films Jason goes on a killing spree in the house of teens next door mutilating the teens partying in there.
He even kills Tina's mum. She gets mad near the end of the film where Jason is on the end of the pier using he powers she calls forth her dad who drags Jason back down to the bottom of the lake.


Friday the 13th Part 8: 1989 (Jason takes Manhattan)
Two teens on a boat sail around on crystal lake, again an indeterminate amount of time from the last, the boy plays a trick on the girl with Jason's mask. unknown to them their anchor has disturbed an underwater power line.
The anchor breaks the line sending electric shocks into Jason's dead body. The newly resurrected Jason climbs aboard the ship takes the new hockey mask and kills the teens. Early the next morning a bunch of teens who are on a senior class cruise get to go on a boat ride to Manhattan.
Apparently there's a dock just down from the lake?
Rennie one of the girls on the boat has a secret and her uncle is an evil ass, her uncle trying to teach her to swim nearly drowned her. In fact she believes Jason tried to pull her down.
So in true Jason fashion he murders 90% of the boats occupants before they manage to reach Manhattan. Rennie her uncle and only a few make it ashore. One of the lads cornered by Jason is a good boxer, he does manage to beat Jason up for a bit until he tires out. Where, this being one of my all time fave Jason kills. Jason bops his head off his shoulders.
So only Rennie and her boyfriend make it through the sewers at the end Jason is hit by a torrent of toxic waste ridden water which melts his skin and flesh from his bones. How he comes back from this i'll never know.


Friday the 13th Part 9: 1993 (Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday)
Possibly the worst of the bunch this one breaks with tradition in that Jason is alive and well stalking Crystal Lake. A seemingly defenseless woman takes a shower and Jason comes for her. She escapes and runs to a wide opening. Jason follows her then flood lights come on and the FBI pop up guns blazing, an air strike is called in which blows Jason to bits.
His remains are bagged and sent to forensic labs, the doctor doing tests on his corpse gets possessed by some black goo (blood?) from Jason's giant malformed heart.
So apparently Jason needs a family member to come back to life proper, otherwise he has to body swap now and then as a normal human with deteriorate to mush after a while. So he goes on a killing spree in many different bodies until he finds his long lost sister and niece. His sister gets killed but he still manages to use her dead body to come back.
His niece using a special blade, as she's the only one who can truly kill him stabs him right in the heart. Where we see Jason dragged to hell, the end of the film see's his mask pulled under by Freddy Krueggers hand.


Friday the 13th Part 10: 2002 (Jason X)
This film starts a good few years into the future they've caught Jason (who is miraculously alive again) and don't know what to do with him. They've tried lethal injection, firing squad a host of ways to kill him but his regenerative powers are to strong.
So they decide to freeze him permanently. Of course he escapes and kills everyone except the scientist, Rowan who has been studying him for years. she lures him into the cryogenic room and shoots him into the container. Gloating up against the container Jason impaled Rowan allowing cryogenic gas to escape and freeze the whole room.
about 400 years later some students on an excavation tour find their bodies. They save Rowans life with nano tech repairing her wound and fractured cells. One of the senior students sets about giving Jason an autopsy. Where he thaws and then goes on a minor killing spree. He's eventually stopped by futuristic firepower from a female android KM-14.
Unfortunately his corpse lands on the nano bed where the tiny bots rebuild his body using metal and circuits. The new 'Uber Jason' goes on killing, the KM tries to stop him again only to be beheaded by the new more powerful Jason. It's only as they reach Earth 2 that a brave strong marine manages to eject himself and Jason into space. Where they both burn up in the planets atmosphere.


So that's a my full series review hope you enjoyed reading it gleaning enough information to decide if you want to have a go at watching it or any parts yourself over all as a series it's one of my faves, it hasn't aged amazingly well so by todays standards I give it an over all 3 out of 5 but highly recommended parts 6+8 are my all time faves though.


Friday 15 April 2016

Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence 1993

Cast: Robert Z'Dar, Robert Davi, Caitlin Dulany
Directed by: William Lustig
Budget: ?

OK this one is stretching it a bit. Even as an invincible psycho killer lover, I can see how this killed off the series. Right so a priest, yeah a priest who knows the black arts of voodoo resurrects Cordell at the beginning of this film.
He grabs his badge and strides off to do some biddings. Meanwhile a female police officer Katie Sullivan is in the midst of a store robbery. Some camera men hoping to scoop a big story film the scene.
Katie notices some clues that the store clerk is actually in on the robbery  she's the robbers girlfriend. In a hail of gun fire the clerk is killed and Katie is gravely wounded.
In the hospital she is officially pronounced in a coma, possibly brain dead. McKinney back from the last film curses the luck of this, then sees that the way the camera men filmed the scene makes it look like Sullivan used excessive force.
This threatens to have the robber released on bad policing grounds. The robber being a youngish Jackie E Haley, called Frank.

Cordell however has taken a fascination in Sullivan's case going to the hospital he watches over her. He kills two physicians one with a defibrillator and another who was going to have Katie's life support turned off. The stupid reporters also get minced but this injustice is the type we like ain't it?
McKinney and female physician Susan investigate the murders. Some how they do work their way back to the priest, Houngan who admits to bringing Cordell back to life.
Cordell then ends up trying to get Houngan to bring Katie back to life with his magic. McKinney says do you really want to doom that girl to your existence?
To which Matt just continues making the priest do the ritual. When he is unable to bring her soul back under the grounds of her not wanting to come back. Matt angrily kills the priest accidentally setting ablaze the area. He on fire as well as Katie's corpse which gets proper burnt up. Collapse, McKinney and Susan escape but are suddenly followed by an enraged still ablaze Cordell. He is driving a police car while the other two drive an ambulance Suffice to say the end of the movie isn't far off you know what happens at the end of these films. The bad guy is finally stopped in some way.
What I will add is a little scene at the end of the film in the coroner's office shows Cordell's hand moving to hold Katie's.

Aaaw that's nice isn't it?
Well I can kind of see where they were trying to go with this find a kindred spirit unfairly judged like Cordell. But the movie around that just falls flat on its face. They had apparent problems on this one too.
So what do I think of it? As a sequel it's poor and doesn't reflect the others to well. As a part of the series God damn it my ocd of watching full series of things reared is head.

So as my views I give this a 2 but a strong two if like me you have to watch a whole series it decent enough.


Wednesday 6 April 2016

Maniac Cop 2 1990

Cast: Robert Z'Dar, Bruce Campbell, Robert Davi
Directed by: William Lustig
Budget: 4 million

This takes place almost right the way after the first film. Cordell though being impaled by the pipe and plunging into the water has escaped capture. Campbell's Cop Jack just wants to get on with life putting Cordell behind him Theresa is still fearful though even after councilling. She fears Cordell will still come after them.
Cordell acquires an older police cruiser and his first port of call is a clerk who thinks the cop has come to save him from a robbery. Wrong Cordell kills the clerk and gives the robber his gun back, he is killed by cops later because of this.
A new killer is on the scene too, Steven turkel who kills strippers but more on him later.
Jack happy and oblivious to Cordell's return buys a paper from an old blind vendor he knows. Then gets Cordell's baton knife through his neck. Theresa distraught over this tries to leave town. Escorted by the female psychiatrist/Cop Susan into a taxi they are chased by Cordell.
He kills the taxi driver attaches Susan to a car steering wheel and send her off freewheeling down the road. After hurting her a bit he snaps Theresa's neck. Susan just about manages to escape by getting inside the car.
Steven meanwhile has his sights on killing a stripper he saw earlier. She manages to call the police who arrive just in time, before they can arrest Steven however Cordell comes and kills the officers. Him and turkel escape before more cops come to Cheryl's aid.
Strangely they strike up friendship and Cordell goes to turkels apartment. He stays a while listening to turkels repartee, however when turkel passes out he leaves. Later on turkel awakes and stupidly goes back to the strip club. There Cheryl identifies him and he's arrested.
While in the cells he threatens that his friend is coming to get him. Cordell does indeed break into the police station killing officers left and right. Turkel and Cordell take Susan hostage into a prison bus. They head towards the prison and break in there.

Another police officer McKinney however has been persuading the DA Doyle to reveal his cover up of Cordell's death. When makes him announce it over the prisons PA system Cordell abandons the killing and walks off.
He finds the men who originally attacked him. They hit Cordell with a molotov cocktail, unfazed he proceeds to kill them. Since Cordell first made friends with turkel he's used him to get to this point. The crazy realises this and attacks Cordell, the fight and plummet from a window/wall.
Hitting a bus below it explodes killing them both. Near the end Cordell is finally buried with honours. McKinney and Susan look on and throw Cordell's warped burnt badge onto his coffin. As they walk away Cordell's hand bursts from the coffin and grabs his badge.

By far no where near as enjoyable as the first but a very decent sequel none the less. The original cast are killed within the first third of the film leaving a new group to deal with Cordell. The story is slightly intelligent with him manipulating turkel to his ends, for this I give the film a good 3/5


Friday 1 April 2016

Batman vs superman 2016 spoiler laden

Right let's just air this laundry right away, I usually trust critics especially on things like rotten tomatoes etc, also when it comes to comic book films as the market is saturated with them so they gotta know their stuff right?

WRONG now my disclaimer is batman vs superman was not a great film, was it bad?, did it deserve the panning it got?

NO

Right I consider myself a pretty up to speed guy on comic books I can usually tell you the powers, origin, their enemies and a good chunk on a LOT of comic book people from DC to marvel heck maybe even some others ( even some of the newer new 52 stuff that i shied away from for a while). Am I nerd or a geek? Debatable I wouldn't say I know enough but my friends say yes lol. So when it comes to films I don't like a whole lot changed when it comes to my bread and butter superheroes.

Right batman vs superman when announced I jumped for joy, when Zack Snyder was attached I did a little less joy, but I actually liked MoS despite it being overly CGI heavy. I didn't like supe's killing of Zod but I felt it was the was the ONLY choice he had. Which is like the comics, it's happened in there before. I also was not to hot on Affleck being chosen as batman, hands up how wrong I was and that guy needs to hold his head high at such a great performance.

So the film sees superman rescue Lois from some terrorists near the beginning of the film. This will come back to bite my ass later in the review. Anyway so militants cuase havok and supe's gets the blame. Also we get bruces parents funeral, Bruce runs off discovers bat cave. Now I had (yes right at the beginning) a massive wtf moment as Bruce Wayne seeming floats under the updraft of the bats flying out.
Not to worry! It's all a dream, my anger flared at this until it was explained. I think that's the problem with this movie, some people get\got angry at segments then either dismissed the explanation or plain missed it's point through rage.

The thing is a CAN see why for critics and nerd\geek types these points might subtract, but they WERE explained for later on or felt justified by other things that happened. You need to get past these misgivings as a critic or die-hard fanboy and think OK then that's why, not be blinded by your initial reactions.
Bats hates superman because he witnessed firsthand the destruction him and Zod wrought while fighting. He now fears that if there's even a 1% chance supe's could go rogue someone has to be there to stop him. Totally justified if you ask me.
Enter lex who also has plans to make a 'just incase weapon' should superman turn. He gets backing but not without some opposition. He asks to have the green rock imported and access to the kryptonian ship. A senator does all in her power to stop this, more on that later.

Now this batman is not a batman many people will know, the cartoon series batman beyond? If you ever watched that this batman is halfway there. Soured by past mistakes, hardened by tradegy and holding a vendetta against an alien he sees as a massive threat. Now earlier in the film we see a massive amount green rock, yes kryptonite found at the world engine superman destroyed in MoS, this is quite a large plot point.
We see supe's get asked to defend his actions which he agrees too. Lois on the other hand thinks it's a set up and goes to prove it with bullet she found well above even black market grade.
As Clark Kent we see supe's disapproving of Batman's heavy-handed way of dealing with bad guys.
Branding them with a bat symbol so that's where he starts his hate towards batman. See it's all good so far right?

Bruce follows leads under false pretences of looking for an undesirable named the white Russian. This is to throw his ever protective butler of the scent that he's up to something more dangerous. Enter wonder woman, all three end up at a bash thrown by lex. Batman/Bruce attaches a device to get info from lex's archives, much to our amusement and Clark's super hearing he can hear the conversation between Bruce/Alfred. At this point I was thoroughly enjoying the film. I wasn't to hot on Jesse's Luther I have to admit. His flinching twichy madman just didn't seem to bely all the different Luthors intelligence throughout the ages/comics. The intellect was there though as we'll see more that (unfortunately) later.
Bruce goes to retrieve his gizmo but finds it gone, stolen by Diana. He chases her but she drives away before he can catch her.

Batman eventually gets the info back after Diana can't decrypt the high level codes on the drive. While it's decrypting he has a nightmare of a future where superman has gone rogue. We see batman meeting a convoy where he thinks they have kryptonite for him. It's a trap!
Now for die hard batman fans here this may be to much as yes batman uses guns. But! And this I can say as a massive batman fan I hated it to, again but! I say he has NO choice here this is all he can do to defend himself. Besides it's a futuristic dream sequence it's not even real!
Supe's obliterates him and he snaps awake, quick mini dream sequence, or is it? When the flash using his time travel suit (not many people realised this, I had to explain this to my friend) comes to warn Bruce to not let Lois die. He gets his information and also learns Diana is not a normal woman either.
So supe's stops bats from getting his mitt's on the kryptonite he's found that lex has snuck in. Threatens him not to answer his bat signal anymore.

The senator who wronged lex is the one in charge of superman's trial. Now at the beginning of the movie we see Bruce Wayne help an employee who unfortunately loses his legs. Lex has given him an automated chair packed with explosives. At the hearing he sets it off killing the senator and framing superman for the deaths.
Superman vanishes after this in a slump thinking he really can't do any good. Batman gets hold of the kryptonite and starts prepping for his battle vs superman. Lex enters the kryptonian ship with Zods body and starts experimenting.
Right for me now the film took a nose dive as some of the plot holes that I had read do start to open up and effect the film now. Lex kidnaps Lois and Clark's mum. Clark who was last seen up a mountain talking to his dead dad suddenly appears in metropolis (plot hole 1 was the mountain a dream?, how did Clark know and get there in time?) To rescue a falling Lois.

In between this Diana checks out the drive sent to her by Bruce, she realises he knows about her. We then see what feels like to me three shoehorned in clips of cyborg, aquaman and another flash cameo.

Batman goads superman into a fight using his bat signal, but he is further goaded into fighting him when lex tells supe's that he's got an hour to kill batman or his mother will be roasted alive.
(Plothole 2 a whole hour? Why does superman just use his super hearing to listen for her? Thus rescuing her faster and easier than batman does later on?)
So superman goes to try and convince batman not to fight and work together to stop lex. Batman in rage just tries to beat superman before he can convince him. Superman retaliates telling him he can kil him if he wants. Batman uses a gas form of kryptonite and weakens superman enabling bats to fight him on par. I loved this fight it actually felt gritty and on par with fights from winter soldier (easily some of the best comic movie fights to date) not over the top CGI either.
Back and forth the fighting goes until batman is about about finish of superman with a kryptonite spear. Hes stopped in tracks when supe's asks him to save Martha, now most people (non comic people mostly) don't know that Batman's mother was also called Martha.

Lois runs in confirming that supe's mum is called Martha this is seemingly enough for batman to become supe's best friend and even offer to rescue his mum. I voiced my views on this earlier. Power outages around the city centred on the ship means supe's goes there. Lex cajoles him for not killing batman and says he'll just have to do it. Made from Zods body contaminated with human blood (why?) Someone we all know in comic book circles as Doomsday.
Fight of the CGI century breaks out. Diana sees this on the aeroplanes screen and runs off the plane. Superman takes Doomsday into space where the President nukes them both. Doomsday doesn't die he just absorbs the energy and mutates further (yes we all know Doomsday can evolve and it usually isn't like this he evolves once beaten to not be killed in that way again)

Superman got nuked but regenerates thanks to the sun (supe's has taken a nuclear blast before) Lois threw the spear into some deep water earlier. Bats tries to get Doomsday to follow him FROM THE UNDESERTED RIKERS ISLAND BACK TO GOTHAM CITY FULL OF LIVING PEOPLE.
Even wonderman tells him off. Anyway I'm getting bored and it's nearly the end of the film anyway. Lois nearly drowns getting the spear (superman hears this over the sounds of battle) superman severely weakened using the spear (though he could have thrown it to Diana to use surely?) Kills Doomsday but not before getting speared himself and (apparently) dying.

So yes there's a bit more to it after this, supe's not really dead, bats saying about getting the rest of the metahumans together hence for justice league.

So it wasn't great but it was also not bad a decent 3 out of 5 at least and I will never ever trust critics on the rating of a film ever again.