Movie Review: Blink Twice (2024)

Genre: Psychological Horror  

Director: Zoë Kravitz  
Starring: Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Alia Shawkat, Geena Davis, Kyle MacLachlan, Christian Slater  
Running Time: 102 minutes  

Synopsis: Catering waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie) and her friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) work a function featuring celebrity technology tycoon Slater King (Channing Tatum). He was embroiled in controversy and took a break from public life, buying an island and getting help from a therapist (Kyle MacLachlan). Frida and Jess are star-struck by Slater and his entourage, and he invites them to a fun getaway. On the island they meet fellow guest and reality TV show star Sarah (Adria Arjona), but what starts as a dream luxurious vacation soon takes a dark turn.

What Works Well: This rich-white-men-are-bad journey to hell is not short on themes. The ripe buffet of topics includes probing a culture obsessed with empty apologies; the mechanisms of sophisticated sexual abuse; the gap between forgiving and forgetting; confronting childhood trauma; celebrity obsession leading none-too-bright women to dangerous adventures in search of drinks-and-drugs good times; and the power of sisterhood. 

What Does Not Work As Well: Poorly paced, frequently bathed in darkness, overly ambitious, and lacking in likeable characters, the plot meanders for too long before finding a purpose. With competing mind-altering substances getting in each other's way, the evil intentions are revealed in defanged minimal impact snippets, courage deserting the project when needed most. The final act defaults to B-movie bloody revenge beats, and given the subject matter, the clumsy attempts at humour are misplaced.

Key Quote:

Slater: Are you having a good time?

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Movie Review: The Public (2018)

A drama about the plight of the homeless, The Public tackles a serious subject with sensitivity and some humour, but unsurprisingly flounders for a resolution.

Cincinnati is in the grips of a cold snap. Librarian Stuart Goodson (Emilio Estevez), recovering from a troubled personal history, is on friendly terms with the community of homeless people who seek warmth at the Central Public Library. Junior librarian Myra (Jena Malone) and security officer Ernesto (Jacob Vargas) work with Stuart, and Anderson (Jeffrey Wright) is their boss. After Stuart befriends neighbour Angela (Taylor Schilling), his job is threatened by district attorney Josh Davis (Christian Slater), who blames Stuart for exposing the library to a lawsuit launched by a mistreated customer.

On a particularly chilly night, homeless man Jackson (Michael K. Williams) organizes a group of homeless people into refusing to leave the library at closing time, insisting it should remain open as a shelter. An unusual siege ensues, and police crisis negotiator Bill Ramstead (Alec Baldwin) is called in. Stuart is thrust into an unexpected media spotlight and wrongly portrayed as a hostage taker by conceited local television reporter Rebecca Parks (Gabrielle Union).

Packed full of plot, characters and incidents, the first half of The Public is full of ambition. Writer, director, co-producer and star Emilio Estevez holds nothing back in spotlighting the now tragically prevalent social failure of homeless people in ever larger numbers struggling for the basics of survival. The setting is Cincinnati, but the story equally applies to many other major cities.

With notable efficiency, Estevez ties together several key characters to the core topic. Stuart himself is not far removed from a life on the streets. Neighbour and new romantic partner Angela is still batting down corrosive addictions that bedevilled her past. And crisis negotiator Bill Ramstead is looking for his missing son in church basements. 

Characters like library boss Anderson and junior librarian Myra are full of good intentions to save the world and save others, but their actions in response to the library takeover will define their essence. Meanwhile, wannabe mayor Josh Davis is the representation of nauseating politicians seeking power through the expediency of soundbites and simplistic solutions to complex problems.

The script is unfortunately less successful in defining the homeless group. They are scrubbed clean of most dangers and reduced to harmless tourist depictions. The more fundamental narrative weaknesses come to the fore after the library takeover. Estevez does not seem to have a clear course to chart, and the second half drags, unnecessarily stretching the running time to over two hours, with a lot of people sitting around and not doing much of anything.

An intractable problem predictably settles for a climax exposing, if only for a night, the failure of policy makers to care for their community's most vulnerable members. The Public strips away the excuses, but also stalls in the stacks.



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Movie Review: Bullet To The Head (2012)

A mindless anti-buddy action flick, Bullet To The Head is a throwback to another era and offers little to suggest that the memories are worth saving.

In New Orleans, hitman James Bonomo (Sylvester Stallone) and his partner Louis Blanchard successfully kill their target Hank Greely, an ex-cop turned criminal. But they are double crossed and Blanchard is knifed to death, while Bonomo barely escapes the clutches of brutal assassin Keegan (Jason Momoa). Washington DC detective Taylor Kwon (Sung Kang) arrives in town to investigate the murder of Greely, his former partner.

Bonomo and Kwon form an uneasy alliance to track down the mastermind behind all the killings, with Kwon insisting on due process while Bonomo is more inclined to shoot his way to quick solutions. Bonomo's daughter Lisa (Sarah Shahi), a tattoo artist, provides some help and catches Kwon's eye. The unlikely partners dodge murderous crooked cops on the way to confronting sleazy middle man Ronnie Earl, crooked lawyer Marcus Baptiste (Christian Slater) and corrupt businessman Robert Nkomo Morel (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje).

Director Walter Hill (age: 70) and Sylvester Stallone (age: 65) attempt to turn back the clock to their glory action film era from 30 years ago, and fail. Bullet To The Head, an adaptation of a French graphic novel, is squarely aimed at the undiscerning subcomponent of the international market, but even with Kang added to boost appeal in Asia, all audiences knew enough to steer clear.

It's easy to see why. Despite Hill introducing stylistic touches and Stallone delivering dry one-liners, the film is entirely constructed of recycled and tired old components long since exhausted. The banter between Bonomo and Kwon is lifted from the 1980s and numerous opposites-but-partners-in-the-car buddy movies. Kwon wants to question and interrogate, Bonomo wants to threaten and intimidate, and it's clear early which method will always prevail.

The action scenes are slightly better, but are lined up with sequential set-piece discipline, Bonomo predictably knocking-off his opponents with mechanical efficiency. As far as the detective work is concerned, the film starts and ends with Kwon making phone calls to his DC headquarters whenever he needs to locate anyone, and within seconds receives the information needed to pinpoint the exact current location of the intended target.

Bullet To The Head sorely needed a dose of its own medicine before it ever jumped onto the screen.

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Movie Review: Broken Arrow (1996)

A straightforward action flick, Broken Arrow sets its sights on blowing things up and sticks to its agenda of expensive pyrotechnics attached to a cheap story.

Major Vick Deakins (John Travolta) and Captain Riley Hale (Christian Slater) of the US Air Force are tasked with flying a B-3 Stealth Bomber equipped with two nuclear missiles on a test mission over the Utah desert. Deakins is disgruntled with his career and has secretly masterminded a plot to steal the bombs and demand a large sum for their return.

Hale survives Deakins' attempt to kill him, and after the bomber crashes in the desert, the race is on to recover the nukes. Deakins has assembled a large and well equipped team of henchman to help with his plan, while Hale teams up with resourceful Park Ranger Terry Carmichael (Samantha Mathis). Meanwhile government agent Giles Prentice (Frank Whaley) is dispatched from Washington DC to assess the unfolding situation, while Colonel Max Wilkins (Delroy Lindo) tries to assemble a force to assist Hale.

Directed by John Woo, Broken Arrow is a a mindless action movie unconcerned with logic, characters or any semblance of plot progression. The only objective is to destroy hardware, and Woo blows up helicopters (many helicopters), planes, trains, trucks and a copper mine at regular intervals. If there is one certainty in Broken Arrow, it is that every piece of equipment introduced on the screen will be a flaming wreck before the credits roll.

In between, thousands of bullets are exchanged in chaotic firefights, as secondary characters are efficiently perforated while Deakins, Hale and Terry of course survive effectively unscathed to make it to the grand finale.

John Travolta does his best to exude some elements of cool evil, but even he struggles to make a mark among all the detonations. The rest of the cast members stick to plastic mode, neither Christian Slater nor Samantha Mathis emerging with any credit.

The true heroes are the stunt performers, and Broken Arrow features someone falling down a hill, off a bridge, out of a helicopter or thrown from a train at the same regularity as all those explosions.

Woo knows his way around filming action scenes and the movie looks great, but that's all. The script by Graham Yost is satisfied with broad brush strokes to define a most rudimentary plot and superficial characters, and then stands back from providing any depth. The result is a loud, boisterous and quite silly game of chase the bombs in the desert.

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Movie Review: Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves (1991)

Another retelling of the legend, Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves rides the charisma of star Kevin Costner but is an otherwise overlong and unnecessary rehash of a familiar story.

Robin Of Locksley (Costner) is part of King Richard The Lionheart's latest Crusade. Things are not going well and Robin is imprisoned in Jerusalem. He makes his escape along with a Moor named Azeem (Morgan Freeman). As Robin sails back to England, the evil Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman) assisted by his cousin Guy of Gisborne (Michael Wincott) and the evil witch Mortianna (Geraldine McEwan) takes advantage of the vacuum created by the King's absence to make a grab for power. Robin's father Lord Locksley (Brian Blessed) refuses to join the Sheriff and is killed.

Robin and Azeem arrive in England to find the Locksley estate destroyed. Robin connects with his childhood friend Marian Dubois (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), a cousin of the King, but she is playing a cagey game of staying on good terms with the Sheriff to protect her estate. The Sheriff identifies Robin as a threat to his plans, prompting Robin and Azeem to escape into Sherwood Forest where they join forces with a band of farmers and misfits hiding from the Sheriff's brutality and high taxes. Robin organizes the group, which includes Little John (Nick Brimble), Will Scarlet (Christian Slater) and eventually Friar Tuck (Mike McShane), into a band of thieves, and they start to gather wealth by hijacking gold shipments while Robin plots a course to stop the Sheriff and avenge his father.

Directed by Kevin Reynolds, Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves is an amiable enough romp through the legend. The film ticks all the boxes from action to romance, but cannot avoid a sense of paint by numbers, an assembly of elements lacking a soul. The settings are grand, the early scenes in Jerusalem are welcome, and when the swords clash and the arrows fly, the battles scenes achieve the requisite level of excitement and drama.

But the film carries an uneven tone, sometimes dipping into slapstick, occasionally trying for commentary about social justice, dabbling with tension among the ranks of the thieves, sprinkling some supernatural dust, deploying the requisite swashbuckling, playing with the theme of avenge thy father, and injecting romance here and there. It sometimes works in individual patches, but Reynolds is never able to create a unifying theme, and the severely bloated running time of 155 minutes does not help.

Star Kevin Costner coasts through the film with a "look how handsome I am!" posture, not really even trying to do much more than wow the camera with star power. Morgan Freeman is much better, and appears to be the only member of the cast with the necessary solemnity matched with wit to rise above the silliness. The bad guys lack venom and undermine the more dramatic aspects of the movie. Alan Rickman is mostly goofy as the Sheriff, and Michael Wincott is wasted as a less than fearsome Guy of Gisborne. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio tries hard but is never quite able to generate the required passion.

The film bursts into life in the final 30 minutes and offers a rollicking climax, the people rising up to bring down the Sheriff and his cronies as Robin claims his love and saves the day. The pivotal sword battle between Robin and the Sheriff raises an enjoyable bit of sweat. But when the dust settles and Sean Connery strides in for his cameo and Bryan Adams sings his smash hit "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", it becomes apparent that Connery in two minutes is better than Costner in two hours, the song is better than the romance, and this version of Robin Hood recycles that which need not be recycled.

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Movie Review: True Romance (1993)

A stylishly violent crime misadventure, True Romance is joyously out of control. The story of a newlywed couple who stumble onto a bag full of cocaine is crazy fun.

In Detroit, Clarence (Christian Slater), a big fan of Elvis, meets Alabama (Patricia Arquette) at a movie theatre. Although she is a call girl sent by Clarence's boss as a birthday gift, Alabama genuinely falls in love with Clarence, and he reciprocates. They get married almost immediately. Clarence is not afraid of violence, and decides to eliminate Alabama's psychotic pimp Drexl (Gary Oldman) to prevent him from re-emerging in Alabama's life. In the bloody confrontation that ensues, Clarence does kill Drexl, and inadvertently also steals a briefcase full of uncut cocaine worth millions.

After a quick visit to his dad Clifford (Dennis Hopper), Clarence and Alabama head to Los Angeles, where they connect with Clarence's buddy Dick (Michael Rapaport). Dick arranges a meeting with fellow actor Elliott Blitzer (Bronson Pinchot), who may be able to arrange for big-shot movie producer Lee Donowitz (Saul Rubinek) to buy the drugs. But mobster types including Don Vincenzo (Christopher Walken) and enforcer Virgil (James Gandolfini) want their drugs back, and they are hot on the tail of Clarence and Alabama, and don't care who they hurt to get their hands on the merchandise.

Directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Tarantino, True Romance was Tarantino's first involvement with a major studio, big budget production. Scott rearranged the story into a linear structure and altered the ending, but otherwise kept Tarantino's vision intact. The result in a madcap, ultra-violent adventure, insanely enjoyable but just lacking the laser sharp edge that would emerge one year later with Pulp Fiction.

After a somewhat stuttering start, once Clarence and Alabama get their hands on the illicit drugs the film takes off on a dizzying, fast-paced trip into a world of unimagined opportunity, bloodshed and larger than life characters. Everything about True Romance is hyper-intense, and the film creates a vortex of wild activity that demands attention. Scott amplifies all the film's elements, from Clarence's oversized Cadillac to the garish colours of the Los Angeles hotel where he holes up, to the stomach-churning rollercoaster ride that serves as a negotiations venue with Elliott. The shoot-outs, villains and attitudes are no less magnified.

Tarantino conjures up two exceptional face-off scenes. In the first Don Vincenzo has Clifford tied up and is demanding to know the whereabouts of Clarence. Instead Clifford launches into a history lesson about the ethnic origins of Sicilians that will do his chances of surviving the ordeal no good at all, but then that's Clifford's point. The second scene features Alabama having to survive the brutal henchman Virgil without giving up the location of the briefcase. Both scenes are playful, savage and ingenious in celebrating sacrifice for a cause.

With a cast that also includes Christopher Penn and Tom Sizemore as police detectives; Brad Pitt as Dick's zoned-out roommate; Samuel L. Jackson as Big Don (a random thug); and Val Kilmer as the spirit of Elvis, True Romance boasts an incredible cast, with committed performers in almost every role. Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette make for an engaging and ridiculously cute couple in the middle of the mayhem, while Rapaport, Pinchot and Rubinek form an often hilarious triangle of self-obsessed Hollywood types tilting into dangerous territory.

And of course the film ends with Tarantino's traditional over-the-top showdown, a multi-pronged hotel room battle with plenty of ferocious firepower and precious few survivors. The romance is true, but it's just a spark for what proves to be true pandemonium.

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Movie Review: Heathers (1988)

A dark high school revenge comedy, Heathers takes peer pressure to dangerous corners where violent fantasies become real and the consequences are deadly, all with a dose of acrid humour.

Heather Chandler (Kim Walker), Heather Duke (Shannon Doherty), and Heather McNamara (Lisanne Falk) form the most uppity clique of girls at Westerburg High School in Sherwood, Ohio. Chandler is the conceited and dominant leader, Duke the bulimic and bookish brunette, and McNamara the tentative cheerleader. Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) is trying to join the Heathers, but often finds herself the target of their insults instead. J.D. Dean (Christian Slater) is the new kid in school, and is both too cool and too quick to resort to the threat of violence.

Veronica and J.D. start a romance, but when Veronica runs out of patience with the Heathers and out of frustration wishes that Heather Chandler was dead, J.D. is happy to oblige. Chandler's death is disguised as a suicide, and ironically she becomes even more popular after her death. Soon Veronica finds herself in a maelstrom of multiplying murders and pseudo suicides, as J.D. runs amok, the school is thrown into turmoil, and another Heather simply moves up the hierarchy to once again traumatize the uncool kids.

Heathers turns the awkwardness of high school into a tragic comedy. Peer pressure, abject meanness, the bullies and the bullied, the need to fit in, outcasts in the corners, jocks and hunks all come to life in a bizarre pantomime. But rather than chase after the usual themes of celebrating individuality through sarcasm and broad humour, the Daniel Waters script veers off into uncharted territory. Here the reveries born from typical grievances become all too real, people die, murder and suicide grip the school community. Everything seems to change, and yet nothing really does change.

Released eleven years before the Columbine High School shootings changed the discourse about violence at schools, Heathers is free to explore violence and its consequences through the warped lens of sarcasm. Metaphorically, J.D. represents Veronica's dark side taking control and acting on her most evil impulses, and Heathers is ultimately about the resilience of the well established high school culture. No matter how disruptive J.D.'s actions are, he is no match for the prevailing order. The school's ecosystem adjusts and rearranges itself, the popular kids become more popular, the losers remain losers, and life continues. The violence creates a ripple effect but ultimately consumes itself, leaving a trail of victims but achieving little.

Working with a miniscule budget of $2 million, Michael Lehmann keeps the production simple, with a focus on the characters and Waters' sharp words. Winona Ryder is perfectly cast as Veronica, her brooding yet mischievous persona acting as both instigator and observer of the pandemonium. Christian Slater gives J.D. an ice cold stance, an emotionless killer disconnected from the reality of his actions. The actresses portraying the Heathers do a fine job of creating three unique profiles united in their desire to demean everyone else.

Heathers is challenging, charming and unsettling. Narcissistic girls can be hell to deal with, but unleashing violence in response just makes hell that much hotter.

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