'IT' (2017) Review: Float On

After what seemed like the dryest movie period in years, finally, there is something exciting happening at the cinemas. It may be a remake of a miniseries adapted from a novel, but still, it's something. Stephen King's 'It' tells the story of Derry, a town cursed with mysterious disappearances of children. After his brother Georgie meets such a fate, Billy recruits his friends on a mission to find out what happened. On their journey, they come to find the orchestrator of their demise, the ravenous, and infinitely creepy Pennywise, the dancing clown. 

Teaching kids everywhere that clowns, are not to be trusted.

'It' shares much with the recent offerings of horror. It focuses on children as its victims/heroes, and it relies on jump scares to give the thrills the audience demands. There's also the unfortunate instance of characters acting far too calmly in the presence of danger, that renders most horror pictures tepid. 'It' succumbs to these and other horror trappings, but has plenty going on that lets it stand out. 

Chief among those is Pennywise. I can't recall the last time a horror film has seen fit to give its narrative a true antagonist. A face to the terror. While this isn't the first time Pennywise has been given life, I dare say it's a far more chilling one than Tim Curry's best effort. What Bill Skarsgård does is give a performance that feels developed. Pennywise is sinister, charming, jovial, and horrifying, sometimes at the turn of a dime. 

Or I suppose some other coin would do.

His counterparts, the kids in the film, are perhaps just as engaging. 'It' is more of an adventure film than a true horror movie, with the children feeling like soldiers being called off to war at times. I appreciated how distinct each of their personalities was. It made it easier to get to know them, their fears, their desires, their identities. Once that was done, you could fear for their lives, and the film achieves the tension it needs. 

But what 'It' giveth, 'It' surely taketh away. As much as you root for Bill and the rest of Mystery Inc, there are times when the movie feels downright imbalanced. Pennywise goes from being an unstoppable demon god, to a very stoppable clown. This is not a new issue. For the clown to be scary, he needs to seem like he can't be stopped. For you to root for the kids, he needs to feel like he can. 'It' doesn't seem to be able to reconcile those two necessities, and feels jarring when it flip flops between them. 

Still, I did get swept up in the narrative of 'It'. The film had a number of unique and interesting design choices that you don't often see in horror. The type of stuff that disturbs and unsettles you while watching it. The movie does a great job of immersing you in the terror and uses the camera well to put you in the moment as a participant, rather than just an observer. Then a jump scare happens and you're taken out of the experience. 

With characters, you care for, and an antagonist you revel in watching, ‘It’ has more than most horror films these days even bother to consider. While it still has many of the failings that plague the genre today, it still manages to be a good time, with some truly impressive visuals you should see on the big screen.

Rating: Big Screen Watch.

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27. Movie Money 04/09/2017

Well Labour Day weekend 2017 for the US came, and rather than give the film industry a much-needed assist, it proved to be one of the worst weekends of the year thus far. The holiday did provide something of a push to the films of the weekend, giving #1 movie 'Hitman's Bodyguard' an additional $2.8m for a four day total of $13.3m. The rest of the top 5, however, couldn't even muster $10m, with 'Annabelle Creation' coming the closest with $9.3m.

That means, cumulatively, the top 5 of the US domestic box office, over the course of the 4 day weekend, brought in $42.8m. Less than the budget of the emoji movie. Why did this happen? Well, August has never been a hotbed for film releases. It's the end of the summer, beginning of fall, and not many studios experience a lot of success with the films they put out.

The thing about that is, that's a trend that had been coming to an end as of recent. Guardians of the Galaxy cleaned house in August of 2014, and so did Suicide Squad last year. Reason being, August is typically such a dead period for film, they had nothing to compete against them. Contrast that to this year, when for the last three weeks, the biggest films were a horror movie, and an R rated action comedy, neither of which are known to draw the huge audiences that a PG-13 popcorn flick might've.

Hitman's Bodyguard certainly has made much more than it would've thanks to the dry period.

If only films like 'Alien Covenant' or 'War for the Planet of the Apes' had opened up in August, rather than in the shadow of huge Marvel movies, like 'Guardians of the Galaxy 2' for 'Alien Covenant', and 'Spider-Man Homecoming' for 'War for the Planet of the Apes'. Maybe then you'd be hearing more about the future of those franchises.

That's all for this weeks report. You can listen to the podcast below to hear that, and our breakdown of the summer so far at the box office.

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'Unlocked' (2017) Review: Unseen, Unremembered

C.I.O.C: This week in films no one will care about or see!

There are movies that stick with you, lingering on for days, weeks, months, even years after you leave the cinema. Movies that will go so far as to influence the way people think or act. Movies that become a part of a culture. Then there are movies like 'Unlocked', which as I write this, I struggle to even recount it, much less review it. The type of movie that, much like the content covered in this spy thriller, will go unseen by most, as if it never even happened.

via GIPHY

We hardly knew ye.

While I was watching 'Unlocked' I did find myself enjoying the events as they unfolded. The film opens with a snapshot of the diversity of London life. People from all walks of life interacting with one another. The film's plot involves CIA agent Alice Racine, as she is brought it to interrogate a suspect in a potential terrorist threat. While there seems to be the foundation of a film that could provide a meaningful look at Islamaphobia, racial bias, and other issues surrounding the subject matter, 'Unlocked' has neither the deftness nor the intelligence to provide it.

That can be best explained by its main character. Alice Racine is quite possibly one of the impossibly smartest stupid characters there is. Throughout the film, she will be referred to by others for her incredible skills, skills which she will no doubt demonstrate, only to make a mistake that wouldn't get by a twelve-year-old. The plot more or less follows this line of thinking, having moments of brilliance, but then devolving into convention and cliche at the drop of a hat embedded with classified information. It feels like it's playing dress up as a spy movie

I was almost fooled.

Action in the movie is fine, and it does a good job of moving from point a to point b, but you don't really care about the film as it goes on. Alice has some personal demons that are only dealt with on the surface level, not that I was invested enough to go much deeper than that. 'Unlocked' is not bad enough to be offensive, in fact, I almost wish it were. The worst movies aren't the ones that make your blood boil, they're the ones that leave no impression at all.

The saving grace of the film is it's impossibly stellar cast. Clearly, there seems to have been a mix up of sorts, as the film is filled with extremely heavy hitters. Toni Collette, Michael Douglas, John Malkovich, Noomi Rapace, so many accomplished and entertaining forces of acting prowess in this film. Orlando Bloom is also there. The script doesn't give them much to do besides carrying out a cartoonish and cliched depiction of international espionage, but even at his worst Michael Douglas can deliver a line. Overall, if I were to see this on television, I wouldn't hate it. It's a short film, only 98-minutes long, that is perfectly fine if you catch it on cable.

Rating: Catch It On Cable.

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'The Hitman's Bodyguard' (2017) Review: Genuine Article

Half Price: The antics of the two leads more than make up for the film's shortcomings

When a movie gets too self-aware for its own good, it can go either way. They can be fiendishly clever playing on the tropes of its genre, or it can feel like it reaches for brilliance, but never quite makes the mark. 'The Hitman's Bodyguard' might fall into the latter camp, but that's not to say there's no fun to be had with this R Rated action comedy.

Watching Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L Jackson play themselves was more rewarding than I expected. It really ought to be, since it's the roles they know best, and to their credit, the duo plays off each other like the dream team 90s buddy comedies they're trying to emulate. They have a hysterical back and forth as they riddle their enemies with bullets, the same way the script is riddled with plot holes and exposition. Then again, anyone who complains about such things is a stuffy film snob who has no business seeing 'The Hitman's Bodyguard'

"Hmph. Ask me I say a woman superhero is a step backwards for cinema"

The roles of the film are in the title. Jackson plays the Hitman, Reynolds the bodyguard. The two are mortal enemies from the start of the film and share a storied history. The bodyguard protects, from the hitman. Their relationship in the movie is marked by constant bickering, and with a clear "you and I couldn't be more different" buddy movie dynamic. All you need is a Jackson munching on a carrot and Ryan Reynolds with a lisp, and I'd mark this a quiet release of an R Rated Looney Tunes cartoon.

Reverse the roles and the resemblance is uncanny.

Yet despite how obvious it would be, I found there was a charm to the film. Sometimes, there's nothing more that I'd like to do than be transported to the world that looks like mine, but without the negatives. There's violence in this film, but you'll never feel your heroes are in any grave danger. For a movie that felt as though it was going to buck the trends of its genre, 'Hitman's Bodyguard' is quite comfortable doing the same old thing. While familiarity usually breeds contempt, I appreciated the film for at least delivering an entertaining ride, even if it doesn't reinvent the wheel.

I mean they pretty much nailed it the first time.

It's not that I'm giving the film a pass for its errors, but for the entire experience, I'd say its issues were minor. The second half of the film especially capitalizes on the film's strengths. It gives you more of what you like, the witty banter, implausible action, and does it in a way that wasn't just a distraction from the film's errors, but genuinely impressive. The movie crafts some truly interesting action scenes that reward the attentive viewer, even if the rest of the movie lacks that level of intelligence.

'The Hitman's Bodyguard' is a movie that knows exactly what it wants to be, and for the most part, achieves that. The best thing it does is lets its two leads, Jackson and Reynolds, run the show they were meant to run. When the movie's about to overindulge in their performances, it provides a decent ridiculous action movie. Kudos should also be given to Selma Hayek, who was easily my favourite performance in the film. 'The Hitman's Bodyguard' is not a film for the ages, but what it is, is a harmless, fun, creative, and entertaining film you should see at a discount.

Rating: Half Price

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Movie Money Episode 26 (21.08.2017)

I wish there were more to say about this week's box office, but alas, August continues to be a cruel mistress. Hitman's Bodyguard and Logan Lucky were the heavy hitters this week, and those heavy hitters seemed to be films best suited for a DVD release. At #1 we had 'Hitman's Bodyguard' with $21.3m, against a budget of $30m. The action comedy will no doubt make back its modest budget, but it's nothing that will garner sequels and spin-offs until kingdom come. 'Logan Lucky' came in with $7.6m at #3, and no doubt suffered from the incredibly sparse marketing of the film. Perhaps this time Soderbergh will be out for good, considering the film opened with less than a third of its $30m budget.

The rest of the box office had the old familiar faces. 'Dunkirk' made $6.6m at #4 and brought it's domestic and worldwide totals to $165.4m and $395m respectively. To still be in the top five after 5 weeks is remarkable for this film, but entirely expected considering the dry wasteland of August releases. Also benefitting from being the only other film out at the moment, 'Annabelle: Creation' dropped down to #2 with a $15.6m weekend, with a domestic total of $64.1m and a whopping worldwide total of $126m. While I despise the movie, you have to respect getting almost more than 10 times your $15m budget in your second weekend.

Underwhelming for the new releases, but good for the old ones, this weekend was ultimately disappointing as the top spot barely etched over $20m. The box office doesn't seem to be picking up much steam either, as theatres may continue to be empty, as the next big release is all the way on September 8 with 'IT'. Hopefully, this Stephen King adaptation does better than the last, as 'The Dark Tower' went from #4, all the way to #9 this week.

Here's the podcast for your listening pleasure:

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