The Sacrament (2014)

Two journalist's travel to an unknown destination with their cameraman friend to document the commune "Eden Parish" that his missing Sister has been living, soon though they uncover a sinister under belly to the so called utopia.

Directed by Ti West (who directed the excellent "House Of The Devil" and "The Innkeepers") this is yes, yet another, found footage horror movie but one with some pedigree and quality. Hard edged, slowly boiling tension, but compelling through out, this is loosely based on the "Jonestown Massacre" of 1978, a commune led by a sinister leaded ("Father") people brainwashed by his religious fever with  a climax shot on video camera's reminiscent of the panic and terror of  the infamous "Cannibal Holocaust".

A gritty, excellent slice of real life horror.

*****

The Outsider (2014)

Directed by Brit 'ard man Craig Fairbrass, straight to 'on demand' and dvd with a miserable 5% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, not a great advert for the movie is it.

Fairbrass plays ex-military Special Ops Lex Walker who is summoned to LA to identify his daughters body, only to find out it's not her, so where is her daughter, and who is covering up information on her whereabouts?

Well the movie has a quite a decent cast, Fairbrass is always watchable as he punches and shoots his way through the LA underbelly as is James Caan as Mr Bad Man, and Jason Patric as a Cop, we also get a wooden appearance from Shannon Elizabeth (American Pie) but these are the only minor plus points in a rather pitiful thriller. Full of clichés, punch up's with security, shoot outs in the middle of the City, with barely a Police response, Fairbrass knocks anyone out who crosses him, and it all comes to a rather predictable show down between our two protagonist's.

*****

Cheap Thrills (2013)

Craig (Pat Healy) is down on his luck, a family man, he's just lost his job and threatened with eviction. During a quick drink in a bar he runs into an old friend Vince (Ethan Embry), and in turn they befriend a wealthy couple (David Koechner, Sara Paxton) from snorting coke to a strip bar, things start to spiral out of control when they indulge in innocent dares, upping the stakes, all with big cash incentives.

An intriguing wickedly black comedy, headed by a great cast, especially Koechner ('Anchorman'), this movie asks what would you do for money, how far would you go, and the answer is "how much?"

Dark, disturbing, and very funny, highly recommended.

*****

Cold Comes The Night (2013)

Topo (Brian Cranston) a partially sighted Russian criminal takes a Hotel owner Chloe (Alice Eve) in a desperate attempt to recover illicit money from his car after it  has been impounded by Police after a murder.
An average thriller goes up a few notches thanks to it's excellent two leads, we know Cranston can play evil, jeez the guy's 'Breaking Bads' Walt! but he is ably supported by Alice Eve in a low key but powerful performance, though sadly she's all plain Jane in this flick sporting woolly jumpers, no 'Star Trek' "Hello Boys" moments here guys!

Some neat twists with some gritty violence, worth a look.

*****

House Hunting (2013)

A 'haunted' house horror movie is hardly an original idea, but Eric Short's debut feature certainly is. Two families go on an 'open house' viewing in a remote woodland, but soon they realise they are 'imprisoned' in the home and it's surroundings.

Similar to a 1950's episode of 'The Twilight Zone', 'House Hunting' sounds like a daytime tv property show but turns out to be a smart. intelligent, psychological supernatural thriller. Suitably grim looking with a 70's feel, sombre with creepy flashbacks, revealing two family's skeletons in their cupboards.

*****

The Contractor (2013)

Rich couple in Malibu hire some guy to do odd jobs around the house, turns out he's a wrong 'un.

Oh dear, I didn't expect much from this straight to dvd, or should I say, charity shop release, but for the first hour, well it wasn't to bad. Cheesy, fairly enjoyable little plot, with almost tv soap opera 'qualities', but when we get to the final third it completely goes off the rails and turns into a train wreck of a movie. A laughably bad, melo-dramatic finale with some painful dialogue ("You can run but you can't hide") Danny Trejo bumbles his way through the movie, zero tension, plenty of clichés, painful.

*****

Alex Cross (2012)

Two Cops hunting a maniac serial killer (as opposed to well rounded), one Cops a bit of a 'lad', wise cracking, knows it all, the other, seen it all before, thinks he's the guy from 'The Wire', oh and his Wife's expecting....OH NO! (bound to end in tears)

On the minus side we've seen all before, 'Lethal Weapon' buddy movie, 'Along Came A Spider', '8MM' psycho killer on the loose etc.

On the plus side it is fairly entertaining and the mad, bad, head cracking loony lead Picasso, played by Jamie Fox, pushes all the buttons marked 'MENTAL'.

*****

House At The End Of The Street (2012)

Jennifer Lawrence can do nothing wrong in the world of Movies at the moment, the excellent 'X-Men:First Class', 'Winters Bone', the under-rated 'The Beaver' and  the mega shit, sorry hit 'Hunger Games' but not even a fine "scream Queen" performance from her  can save this lack lustre silly packed full of cliches, seen it all before psycho thriller.

A Mother and Daughter move into a property, previously the scene of a family double murder, what could possibly go wrong?? Well when I saw the title back in the Summer I was expecting some gore/slasher fun but what you get is a tired little film with no originality.
Angry High School teens, an over protective Mum, locals with chips on their blocks for no reason, why do they all hate the Kid who's family where killed by his own Sister?

There's a "twist", nothing too shocking (obviously) that is drawn out for 30 minutes in which every stupid daft movie nuance is added, the town Sheriff, gets a lead, does he tell anyone or get back up? Course not! People are tied up and shot, yet are chasing after their prey 2 minutes later, BANG! what was that!!!

Painful.

Not even young Ms Lawrence running around for the majority of this movie looking hot and sweaty in a white vest can save this bullshit.

*****

The Bourne Legacy (2012)

Now I'm a massive fan of the 'Bourne series of films, part one I thought was rather average but the following two episodes were top notch, hard assed intelligent thrillers, the films that shaped the later day Bond movies (Casino Royale etc)

So when I read that there was to be a forth film in the series, without Matt Damon and Director Paul Greengrass, I had incredibly low expectations, but I'm pleased to say this another gritty, intelligent film, Jeremy Renner (Hurt Locker, The Avengers, The Town) is excellent as you would expect, the movie zips along at a fine pace, I've got to admit that the final 'chase scene' was rather bloated, but this doesn't detract from what a fine entertaining thriller this is.

*****

Devil (2010)

The 'Devil's premise is simple, a group of strangers, all with shady backgrounds, are stuck in a lift, soon sinister happenings are a foot as the emergency services and Police try to rescue them....before it's too late!

Creepy, edgy and spooky, this is a fine thriller I really was expecting the worst from, why? Well when "Produced by M.Night Shymalam" name is attached to the movie you really do fear the worst, but don't, this is an edgy, tense and nervy horror/thriller with a real fine twist at the end to chew over.

*****

The Reef (2010)

Based on a true story, four friends are stranded on acapsized Sail Boat in the Great Barrier Reef when a Great White Shark starts hunting them down.The Reef is a perfectly well made, filmed and acted, quite tense, the Shark attacks are very effective....but.....I'm sorry, WE'VE SEEN IT ALL BEFORE!!

If you've seen Open Water (2003) then I'm struggling to find a reason why you should give The Reef your much valued attention, if you haven't seen it then I whole heartidly recommend it, simple as that!

*****

Rogue (2007)

Directed by Gregg McLean who was responsible for the excellent gritty slasher 'Wolf Creek', I had high hopes for this 'monster' movie.
A party of tourists in the Australian outback are terrorised by a man eating Crocodile, the film is fairly tense, well made, but you get a sense of you've seen it all before, and if you've seen the excellent 'Black Water', then you've seen it done so much much better.

A good solid, if unspectacular, thriller.

*****