Hi guys, I hope everyone is doing ok? I thought I’d do a little blog while my voice recovers properly from me having Covid, fingers crossed I can stop going croaky long enough to get a podcast out soon!!
First up is an absolute gem of a film : Last Night In Soho. I missed this when it was released at the cinema in September ’21, but I did pre-order a hard copy (which I managed to forget about when it came!) and a couple of weeks ago I finally sat down to watch a film that has gotten itself a very healthy reputation.
Directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) and staring Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Terence Stamp and the legendary Diana Rigg, this is a film that covers several genres and yet doesn’t fully fit in any of them. Thriller, horror, mystery, time travel, it hits them all.
The film starts with us meeting fashion student Ellie (McKenzie). Here is the first twist the film throws at us as for all appearances, this is the 60’s. The music, the decor in her room all screams authentic. Ellie is packing to leave Cornwall for university in London, its only when she leaves the house do we see that it is in fact present day.
Once in London and at uni Ellie is immediately set as an outcast by her class and housemates. Her Cornish accent is used really well by the director here as a way of further isolating her.
Ellie moves out of the student halls and finds a private bedsit, owned by the very charismatic Ms. Collins (Rigg) and this is where things start to get odd/weird/interesting. On the first night Ellie dreams of a young woman, Sandie (Taylor-Joy) in London in the 60’s. The film really does capture the romantic view of that time, you can almost smell the cigarette smoke, hear the music and feel the glare from the lights. In the dream we see Sandie go to the legendary Cafe de Paris to pursue her dream of becoming a singer, It’s here we see Sandie meet Jack (Smith), a man who promises to make her a star.
The next day Ellie starts her project in class, a dress inspired by what she’d seen Sandie wearing. It’s also the first time we see Ellie looking happy at uni, like she’s been lifted by having had a insight into the decade she loves so much. She even passes up on going out with classmates in order to get an early night and to see more of Sandies story.
The dreams get darker in tone and subject and we get to see the seedy underside of the bright lights as we see Sandie get deeper and deeper in despair. This in turn has an effect on Ellie as we see her become more and more distressed and isolated once more, her situation not helped at all by her seeing ghosts almost everywhere she turns.
The one thing I will say is the ending, the pay off, the reveal is totally worth it and not at all what I was expecting!! I cant say much about it because its something I think has to be seen without any prior knowledge to get the full effect. But I will say that this film is one of the best things I’ve seen for quite some time.
Absolutely 10/10
Next up is Resident Evil : Welcome to Racoon city. And that’s where the problems start. Movies taken from computer games are notoriously hard to get right. You could argue that the Milla Jovocich films did the best thing in that they kind of never tried to be 100% true to the games, instead favouring a loose adaption approach and because of that they kind of worked. Or at least worked as best as they could.
This film however tries another way. It’s almost as if it tries to change timelines of the games, while trying to stay true to them. Characters are introduced before they appeared in the games timeline, as if the makers have tried to merge at least two of the games into this origin story. This will always be the hardest decision with computer game movies. Either stick to the source material or don’t. I just can’t think of one of these films that has tried to have a foot in both camps and worked.
The plot, such as it is, focuses on the start of the outbreak, but unlike what we saw in the 2002 movie, this one is set more in Racoon city, with Stanley Manor only featuring in the 3rd act. What follows is around two hours of some of the worst dialogue, worst acting, worst story telling that you’re ever likely to see, with only Kaya Scodelario (playing Claire Redfield) just about making it to the end with any sort of credit left.
But
It is a lot of fun. Yes it’s stupid at times, yes it’s clunky, but as long as you’re not expecting anything more you’ll have a blast. It almost has that 80’s action movie feel of ”lets throw absolutely everything at the wall and see what sticks” and that is refreshing at this time in cinema where everything feels polished, reviewed and polished again.
It’s hard to say if I would want a sequel to this one, but if it were to happen I’m sure I would watch it. It’s a shame its not really related to the other films in this franchise, maybe this one could have told the story of what was happening in the city while we were watching what happened in the Hive but that’s not how the makers of this movie wanted it to be and that has to be respected.
Fun. And bad. But fun. 5.5/10
Dead Mans Chest 