Hello, welcome to the Geeky Brummie Film Roundup! Each week we take you through the biggest new cinema releases and why you should be excited for them. This week: killer dancers, killer sharks and killer clowns…
Usual disclaimer: unless otherwise stated, I haven’t seen these movies yet so all of my opinions are based on trailers, early reviews and other rumours and buzz.
Ballerina
Set in the world of John Wick, Ballerina sees Eve (Ana de Armas) seeking revenge after the death of her father. She trains as an expert assassin, using her balletic dance skills to compensate for her lack of size and physical strength.
The John Wick series has, over the course of four movies, built a surprisingly detailed world where seemingly everyone is an assassin, with the various cabals of killers having their own hotels, currency, traditions, radio station, healthcare and access to arsenals of weaponry. I still think that they should make a film about Bob, the one guy in this universe who isn’t part of the assassin world, trying to live a normal life while everyone around him is constantly taking out hits on each other. It’s such a sprawling, complex mythology (at least for a franchise that is essentially just a man going round shooting bad guys) that, even though Chapter 4 seemed to end in a pretty conclusive way, it would have been a real shame not to return to that setup.
Fortunately, we now have Ballerina, in which the excellent Ana de Armas steps into Keanu’s smart dress shoes (before trading them out for a pair of ballet pumps). It’s set between two of the other John Wick films, which allows for a cameo from the Baba Yaga himself, but the focus is on the new character and potentially a new series that can run parallel to (and beyond) the main quadrilogy. It may be a different face on the poster but otherwise you can expect all the usual John Wick staples – incredibly slick action sequences, moody lighting, and an endless stream of thugs and assassins waiting to be shot, stabbed, kicked, hacked and exploded. There are also appearances from Ian McShane’s Winston and the late, great Lance Reddick as Eve checks into the Continental Hotel.
If you’re looking for something cerebral at the cinema this week, this is not it (although it’s probably the best you’re going to get out of the new releases). But if you’re looking to switch your brain off and watch a visually spectacular, high energy, well-crafted action movie with a great cast, this promises to be one of the films of the year.
- Ballerina on IMDB
- Ballerina on Rotten Tomatoes
Dangerous Animals
Zephyr (Hassie Harrison), a free-spirited surfer, is abducted by a serial killer (Jai Courtney) and has to try and escape his boat before he feeds her to the sharks.
I haven’t heard too much about this film, but it’s a simple and intriguing premise. Take a pretty well-worn concept – young woman is captured by a killer – and throw a load of sharks into the mix. Even though the main threat here is Courtney’s villainous sailor, there is something inherently terrifying about sharks that will immediately make a story scarier, and it looks like this film plays on that very heavily. Expect lots of shots of teeth and fins to build tension and add weight to the situation building on the boat.
The main thing I know Jai Courtney from is Suicide Squad which, although it might not be the best film, did at least prove that he can do a pretty good unhinged Australian. From the trailer, he looks quite convincing as a threatening fishing bro who might believably have spent more time around sharks than people. I’m not familiar with the rest of the cast but hopefully they’ll have more to do than filling the chum bucket.
This looks like fun. It’s a shame it didn’t come out a few weeks ago as it would have made a great companion piece to Nic Cage film The Surfer. Although there’s an argument for pairing it with Lilo & Stitch. Basically, it’s a bad time to be a surfer in the movies at the moment…
- Dangerous Animals on IMDB
- Dangerous Animals on Rotten Tomatoes
Clown in a Cornfield
In a midwestern town fading into obscurity, a killer emerges dressed as Frendo the Clown – the beloved mascot of a product the town used to manufacture and a symbol of its bygone success. Can the local townspeople escape his attention?
There are plenty of killer clown movies out there – It, the Terrifier and the Dark Knight to name a few. It’s easy to understand why so many people are afraid of even regular clowns – their leering painted faces mask their true feelings and intentions, their capering antics are erratic and unpredictable, and they often scare the bejesus out of small children at an age where that terror has a tendency to linger. This all makes them pretty effective as horror movie villains, but it also makes it hard to be original with them.
Clown in a Cornfield doesn’t look like it has much of an answer to that problem. Presenting Frendo as a symbol of nostalgic Americana puts the carnage in a more interesting context, and there is some potential for allegory in there. But as far as I can see from the trailer, the character and his kills are much the same as any other slasher (apart from one scene where he seems to attach a saw blade to a victim’s barbell mid bench press, which just looks like a lot of effort for no reason). A slew of young people are dispatched with hand scythes and crossbows and chainsaws and pitchforks in a way that’s been done a million times before.
That being said, there are some good names involved which give me some hope. The director is Eli Craig, who made the brilliant Tucker & Dale Vs Evil (a hillbilly horror-comedy that I thoroughly recommend if you haven’t seen it). That is reflected in flashes of comedy – the moment in the trailer where the young teens get completely thrown by a phone dial is very well done. The cast also includes Kevin Durand, who’s often a sign of good schlocky fun (and will almost certainly turn out to be the guy dressed as Frendo because, you know, it’s Kevin Durand).
If you’re not a horror fan there won’t be much for you here. If you are a horror fan then you’ve probably seen this movie before, but it still looks like you could have a good time with it.
- Clown in a Cornfield on IMDB
- Clown in a Cornfield on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
John Wick? Good. Ana de Armas? Good. Ballerina… yeah, I’m thinking it’ll be good.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
- Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
- Lilo & Stitch – Comfortably one of the better live-action Disney adaptations. Stitch is still adorable, as is Lilo (Maia Kealoha), while her older sister Nani (Sydney Agudong)’s part is played up to give the alien antics a more grounded and relatable foundation. Jumba (Zach Galifianakis) gets done a little dirty, replacing Gantu as this version’s outright villain, and none of the alien CGI looks quite right. But it’s still good. Yeah, still good.
- Karate Kid: Legends
Trailer of the week
Although the first trailer for part two of Wicked dropped last night, my pick for trailer of the week is one that I’ve been looking forward to for a while. Guillermo Del Toro is one of my favourite directors, and a common theme running through many of his films is the idea that mankind is often more monstrous than any of the monsters we can imagine. Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy and The Shape of Water all played with the idea to great effect. But if there’s one story that could be pointed to as the origin of that concept, it’s Frankenstein. Mary Shelley’s novel was always quite clear that Victor Frankenstein is the villain of the piece, digging up corpses to play God, while his monster is the victim – a tortured soul dragged into a horrendous existence and hunted for being different. So it is no surprise that Del Toro is a fan, and his upcoming adaptation is something of a passion project. Like Robert Eggers’ Dracula, this feels like a perfect meeting of art and artist. The trailer, which was released over the weekend alongside a treasure trove of other Netflix trailers and announcements (including Squid Game season 3 and Stranger Things season 5), looks excellent, boasting a strong cast including Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz. The movie comes to Netflix in November, which suggests a potential awards campaign – which would be great, because the biggest awards require a cinema release to be eligible and I would love to see this on a big screen.
Leave a Reply