Lima

A decent horror film, reasonably suspenseful most of the time, but so stupid towards the end that it slams the door of the house. The voodoo theme is used here for a twist that is anything but clever. The casting of Sarsgaard, then, is somewhat by-the-book, given his typical roles.

Poster tagline: SPECTACULAR! REACHING FROM THE SCREEN TO SEIZE YOU IN ITS GRASP! Rather than good sci-fi, I think of it as a perfect relic of an era. With this, Jack Arnold perfectly tapped into the era of McCarthyism, when American society was gripped by the fear of creeping communism, with aliens playing that role here. At first it doesn't really work, it’s haphazardly proportioned (an explosion with a crater like this would wipe out half of California), but after a monologue about the fear of being bugged, the film takes on a proper paranoid air, with concerns about infiltration by alien forces, and the fact that the aliens here are actually good characters who just want time to fix their spaceship, giving it an unusual paradoxical flair. The film was also ahead of its time in being the first to show the possibility of aliens taking on the bodies of ordinary citizens (which was used successfully several times in the years that followed). There are also some nice visual effects sequences (the laser gun), but above all I am grateful to this film for launching Jack Arnold's successful career in the 1950s, after his great success in the cinema, and cementing him as one of the best ever science fiction directors of the Golden Age.

Scott Cooper, in the manner of Amadeus Mozart, might say, “My apple people understand me.” I've never bashed him. Perfect craftsmanship, as Cooper is wont to do, so what more could I ask for? Maybe just cut out the final Ripley vs. Boss duel, or put it in a different way, with smarts, a trap, or something. Otherwise, the gloomy atmosphere worked out on me, the camera taking in the autumn weather of the western borders of the United States helped a lot, evil gets lost in the deep woods. I like Keri Russell a lot (I recommend the excellent series The Americans), she's great again here and I'd like to see her in more leading roles.

You wouldn't think that in the ghost subgenre you could come up with something original. A really interesting, original premise, physically uncomfortable in places, an intense flick without cheap clichés and stale scares (there are a few and they're good). And with likeable new faces, all of them acting great. To make this as a rookie debut, well, hats off to them.

HE’S RUNNING AGAIN, at a nice heroic pace, knees right up (yeah, right Tom, we know you're an eternal youngster, you don't have to keep reassuring us so blatantly). The film itself is a succession of good action sequences, glued onto a stupid skeleton that seems to have fallen out of a spy movie from the 60s, the ones that were so beautifully parodied later. I found the concept of the Entity utterly ridiculous.

Up until now, I thought Tobe Hooper was the creator of only one great movie, but proved my wrong with this one. Quentin Tarantino adores it and praised it in his book, and I'm not surprised. Funhouse is basically the concept of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (a murderous family), transposed to the setting of a carnival. Visually impressive, atmospheric, where the genius loci of the House of Horrors is exploited to the max. Perhaps only the mask of the main villain is like something out of a stupid cheesy B-movie, otherwise maximum satisfaction for me. And Elizabeth Berridge is fantastic here, especially in the tense ending.

The first half is a fine Scandinavian-style crime drama, including a sadistic murder, the chilly autumn weather and muted colours. And with one fantastic actor who I totally, totally love. Benicio Del Toro is walking charisma, he gets better the older he gets, and you can't take your eyes off his spare acting. The film loses its footing for a bit in the middle, and then it starts to get tangled and convoluted, and I'm not saying it's not good, but they lay their cards on the table too soon and lose the element of surprise. It's just not one step ahead of the viewer like a crime drama like this needs to be, and that's a shame. But for my beloved Bull, I'll give it 4*. P.S. Also excellent are the psychotic Michael Pitt and Justin Timberlake, with his vacant shark-eyed stare.

The 1970s were very good for disaster movies, but they were not very good for Charlton Heston, who was gradually losing his position as a global superstar, and this was one of his last glimpses to make his presence known. If I had to describe in one word the first 50 minutes, where we are introduced to the characters and some narrative groundwork is laid for the disaster itself, I can only think of the now so popular word “cringe”. Yes, many scenes here teeter on the edge of awkwardness, whether it's the dialogue about nymphomaniacs, George Kennedy staring tits in a trance, all the bar scenes, including Walter Matthau's ridiculous cameo, Marjoe Gortner's entire role as a pervert (who, when he climbs into uniform, takes off his wig and plays the tough soldier), etc. But the cherry on top is a washed up Ava Gardner, who plays the tycoon's daughter, both actors being almost the same age and both looking more like husband and wife. Just “cringe”. The visual effects are fine, the front and rear projections look nice and just prove that there is no need for artificially ugly CGI (I'm looking at you, Dwayne Johnson). But unfortunately, the overall impression of the film is awkward to say the least.

I don't like films that make attempts at humour, especially when they are infantile and unfunny. This one styles itself all the time into a kind of slapstick comedy with none of the horror it touts, and where only one in the ten or fifteen jokes hits the mark. Yes, it pokes fun at classics like Carrie, The Shining and Alien, but in a rather unfunny way, lacking any point with rare exceptions. Occasionally it's properly politically incorrect when it takes a shot at homosexuals (you'd be crucified for that today), but otherwise it's a waste. The actor playing the German scientist, who looks like Robert Englund's younger brother, overacts so mightily that watching him is agony, while Vincent Price (!!!), who flashes in four scenes here, thoroughly enjoys it, probably even had fun, but I still can't shake the feeling that his presence in such a dud is rather a devaluation of his wonderful career. For Vincent and four fleeting chuckles, I give it a shaky two stars.

First of all, I have to mention the unfortunate casting decision to put Burt Young in one of the main roles, a guy who never knew how to act and was barely good enough for small roles, and here he is looking like he has a pain in the ass the whole time. Otherwise it was better than I would have expected thanks largely to Damiano Damiani's directorial skill. It's a film of two halves, and the climax comes about halfway through, where Damiani does a great job of spiking the tension and playing with the camera and the sound. There's also some of that Italian sleaze, so there's a flash of gore here and there, and on top of that unexpected incest between two siblings. But then for the rest of the film it devolves into a rather uninspiring variation on The Exorcist, which is a shame because here Damiani has hit his ceiling and doesn't bring anything more to the film. The ending with the exploding latex is like something out of a Troma movie.