everyfilmin2011 Reviews

Wake Wood (2009)

Cracking new horror film from Hammer

[8/10 · 25 March 2011]

And I am utterly delighted to say this is exactly the sort of movie I hoped Hammer would produce when it rose from the ashes. Last week, I laid into The Resident which was hopelessly feeble. This is anything but. A gory, edge-of-the-seat cracker which also has a fabulous psychological edge. From the start it grabbed me. Which is not too surprising because in the first three minutes a young couple's daughter is torn to death by an angry Alsatian. This inspires the pair, Patrick (Aidan Gillen) and Louise (Eva Birthistle) to start a new life, deep in the Irish countryside, at a village called Wake Wood (what a great name). Louise senses there is something a little odd about the locals, who are led by a squire, played with perfect gravitas by Timothy Spall. Many other reviews have given the game away at this point. I am going to avoid doing that and just suggest supernatural jiggery pokery. Patrick and Louise get involved and the consequences are bloody but rather brilliant. I have read that Wake Wood has echoes of the Whicker Man and I sort of understand this thinking. Certainly, the villagers share a secret and are involved in behaviour which outsiders are unlikely to understand. Gillen and Birtwistle are rather splendid as the fraught interlopers. They succeed where Hilary Swank failed so hopelessly in The Resident. And then there is Spall. I've been enthralled by Spall, so to speak, since the days of Auf Widersehen Pet. He gets better with age. But the real hero is director David Keating who was also on the writing team. With a limited budget he has created a movie with levels of horror and suspense which would make the heroes of Hammer proud.

Brotherhood (I) (2010)

Better than average frat thriller

[6/10 · 6 January 2011]

So, with limited preparation (I had no idea what the film was about) I set about this American fraternity thriller. And, I have to say, it wasn't bad at all. The opening scenes are in the back of a van where three teenagers are being yelled at by one of their peers who then charges off, gun in hand, claiming he is going to rob a convenience store. He reappears seconds later to tell the trio they have to follow suit if they are to be accepted into a sought-after university fraternity. It quickly transpires that the initiation ceremony is a fake and, before each individual gets to the door of their respective stores, they are stopped by a fellow frat man who gives them the cash they have been instructed to rob, to make it look as if they have been successful. Unfortunately, he is not there when the last of the three , Kevin, (Lou Taylor Pucci) goes off to do his robbery and, therefore, Kevin tries to carry it out. However, things start to unravel pretty quickly. Kevin is shot in the shoulder by the shop assistant who refuses to believe he is not being properly held up until the concept is beaten into him by Kevin's friend Adam (Trevor Morgan) and Frank (Jon Foster), the teenager who had been giving the dummy instructions on the hold-up. Frank, fearing that the police would not understand the hold-up had been a prank, insists that Kevin, despite bleeding heavily is taken back to the frat house and the emergency services are not called. This begins a sequence of dramatic events in which just about everything transpires against a successful outcome for the group. All of the time, Adam is fearing for Kevin's life and is desperately pleading with Frank to take him to hospital. As sparring takes places over the decision, the dynamics of power and peer pressure are put acutely under the microscope of director Will Canon. Canon's movie is low budget but he builds up tension and develops characters well and, in less than 80 minutes, ratchets up considerable tension.

Honeymooner (2010)

Cracking little Brit bro-mance

[8/10 · 5 January 2011]

I have to say I haven't been so pleasantly surprised by a film for some time. Spector's comedy is refreshing and his keen eye for observation elicits some truly funny scenes. The laughometer was needed to record three proper belly wobblers, a couple of snorts and plenty of sniggers. All of this from a movie which only lasts 75 minutes. The script is so fresh because it looks at relationships through the eyes of a jilted bloke, rather than the dozens which stare through the mascara stains. It kicks off with our hero, Fran, lying on his own in bed on what was meant to be his wedding day. We follow him for the next two weeks when he should have been on his honeymoon. During that time his two rather flighty best mates attempt to drag him out of his pit of misery by pushing girls, alcohol or even yoga in his direction. Indeed, Fran has several chances to find a temporary solution to his situation with several rather attractive females throwing themselves at him but he is not convinced of a quick-fix answer, unlike his friends who are desperate to bed anyone in a skirt, despite being both involved in long-term relationships. The film belongs to Gerard Kearns (Ian Gallagher in Shameless) who, as Fran, is endearing yet not wet, thanks to an earnest or even, at times, deadpan delivery. Spector's writing is also a triumph. Fran is like so many 20-something blokes - misunderstood, awkward and lacking in confidence. The very people who would scorn the idea that it is always women who get the rough end of relationship break-ups. Spector says that he was interested in how the nice guys who offer security get dumped and the bits of rough don't. It's a line which will find much sympathy.

He has also done a masterful job of packing such a good movie into just 17 days of filming. Both Mrs W and myself gave it a big smiley face and a splendid 8/10. Go along and see it...it's a bromance which will please lads and lasses.