Isn’t social media supposed to be this untamed thing that encourages edgy, boundaries-pushing comedy; providing a counterpoint to traditional ‘mainstream entertainment’? It’s disappointing, then, that this movie by Maurquis Boone and Richard ‘Filthy Rich’ Harris – who, it seems, have forged successful careers in social media and who wrote, directed and starred in this low-budget comedy – tends to mimic the more tired and tiresome of mainstream offerings. (more…)
Posted on July 4th, 2021 at 11:58 pm. Updated on July 4th, 2021 at 11:58 pm.
Someone did this film a great disservice in giving it the alternative title of The Hammer, presumably to make it appeal to a broader audience. It makes it sound very much like a testosterone-filled boxing movie, but boxing plays second fiddle to what really matters. Maybe even fourth or fifth fiddle.
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Posted on June 6th, 2021 at 10:37 pm. Updated on June 6th, 2021 at 10:37 pm.
This thriller is so eerily similar in parts to the Spanish film, Below Zero (2021), that you have to wonder whether a scriptwriter somewhere between Spain and Kenya – in Algeria, perhaps – was touting the outline of the story to film producers in all directions, and it got picked up by two filmmakers simultaneously. (more…)
Posted on April 27th, 2021 at 10:42 pm. Updated on April 27th, 2021 at 10:42 pm.
It’s a huge shame when you set your film in Alcatraz in the 1930s and 40s, only to find that sending your long-haired, bearded actor to the barbershop will blow the entire production budget of £57.99. (more…)
Posted on March 15th, 2021 at 8:18 pm. Updated on March 15th, 2021 at 8:18 pm.
If honourable mentions were handed out for well-meaning prison movies, this might get one. Not because it’s a great film (it’s certainly not that), but because it tries, honourably, to draw parallels between the struggle of prisoners against an oppressive regime, and the struggle of undervalued workers against their oppressive capitalist masters. In the end, sadly, the metaphor detracts from any real impact it makes as a prison drama. (more…)
Posted on March 7th, 2021 at 9:21 pm. Updated on March 7th, 2021 at 9:21 pm.
“Dreams defeat you more than the cops or the informers.” So says Vulcano (Raúl Taibo), an old school criminal who has committed 50 armed robberies on armoured vehicles, banks and other targets, and is serving a very hefty sentence as a result. But you can’t help thinking that it’s the informers who pose the biggest risk of defeating him in his latest venture.
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Posted on February 17th, 2021 at 10:28 pm. Updated on February 17th, 2021 at 10:28 pm.
I think that this is the first romantic comedy I’ve seen where the couple spend a fair whack of the film drenched in the blood of exploding vampires. I may be wrong. (more…)
Posted on January 27th, 2021 at 10:46 pm. Updated on January 27th, 2021 at 10:46 pm.
Tunnelling movies? We have them in spades. Here is another one, and a good one at that. (more…)
Posted on January 16th, 2021 at 10:39 pm. Updated on January 16th, 2021 at 10:39 pm.
Up until this film, ‘Big House’ had always conveyed the notion of a ‘penitentiary’ to me. I now know that ‘Big House’ can also mean ‘big house’. (more…)
Posted on January 11th, 2021 at 10:10 pm. Updated on January 11th, 2021 at 10:10 pm.
This is a ‘thinly disguised’ account of the prison life of Soledad Brother George Jackson, part of which takes in his romance with activist Angela Davis. It’s an unheralded ’70s prison movie that deserves more heralding, even if it loses a bit of momentum once prisoner and professor meet and start cheesily narrating their letters to each other accompanied by a laid-back R&B soundtrack. (more…)
Posted on December 27th, 2020 at 3:29 pm. Updated on December 27th, 2020 at 3:29 pm.