Dan Says its Alright

  After watching the trailer you'd be forgiven for thinking  Challengers is a teen sex comedy about two guys trying to sleep with their tennis coach. To say that this is underselling this film would be like saying Roger Federer was kind of decent with a racquet. The film begins with tennis champion Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) trying to prepare for the US Open after a career threatening injury. His wife and coach Tashi (Zendaya), herself a prodigy who's playing career was ended by injury, enters him in a small time challenger event to help grow his confidence. Plans for an easy win go out the window when he comes up against Patrick Zweig (Josh O'Conner), a journeyman player who is Art's former best friend and Tashi's former boyfriend. The narrative cuts between the match, the week leading up to the match and the proceeding decade, charting the relationship between the three characters while the match plays out and reflects who is on top at various stages of their his...

  The premise of Boy Kills World is both entirely familiar and also somewhat unique. You've seen "man goes on a murderous rampage of revenge" about a dozen times at this point right? What about "deaf/mute man raised by a forest shaman goes on a murderous rampage of revenge in a near future dystopia with a video game aesthetic"? Maybe not so much. Well thats what's on the table here. Bill Skarsgard saw his family killed by Hilda Van Der Koy and has been living with "The Shaman" in the years since. The Shaman isn't big on affection, solely focusing on raising the boy to be a killing machine and given he is played by Yayan Ruhain of The Raid fame you know he is teaching the kid to be badass. Meanwhile, Hilda (Famke Janssen) and her family have been busy running the unnamed city as a consumerist dystopia with the highlight of the year being an event called "The Culling", where twelve enemies of the state are killed in a violent TV progra...

  Abigail sees a bunch of career criminals locked in a mansion and forced to face off against a little girl ballerina who just happens to also be a centuries old vampire. It's ridiculously over the top and seasoned with lashings of gore but is never quite as much fun as you think it should be. The film begins with the kidnapping of Abigail (Alisha Weir) by a motley crew of crims led by Dan Stevens and consisting of Melissa Barrera (the main protagonist), Angus Cloud (idiot of the group), Kathryn Newton (rich girl here for kicks), Kevin Durand (big guy) and Will Catlett (ex military guy). They take her to a secluded mansion where Giancarlo Esposito tells them to sit tight for 24 hours while he collects a bounty from the girls wealthy father. Turns out the little girl is actually a vampire and the diminutive bloodsucker soon turns their expected pay day into a fight for survival.  It's a pity Abigail was released at a time when trailers feel they have to spell out exactly what ...

  Civil War may be about a war in America but don't be fooled into thinking it's a satire of current US politics. That's not say it has no political opinions, just that they are universal rather than Washington specific. Much as this approach may disappoint people who need to be constantly reassured they are on the right side of the debate it keeps the water clear so we can focus on what the movie is really about, journalism. The story takes place in the near future where a fascist president is attempting to fight off an uprising led by the combined states of Texas and California (see, no current politics here). With the rebel army getting ready to march on Washington a group of journalists attempt to make the journey down from New York to the capital. What fallows is essentially a road movie that espouses the virtue of impartial journalism and takes a look at the kind of people who happily throw themselves in harms way to secure the big story. The travellers encompass var...

  The First Omen could easily have arrived as a cynical cash grab (may well be that was the original intention) but, like last years Evil Dead Rise, it has clearly fallen into the hands of someone who loves and understands the original. That's not to say it isn't without issues. This is a direct prequel to 1976 classic The Omen and focuses on how demonic hellspawn Damian came to be born. Obviously, there is only so much milage to be garnered from "person has baby" as a plot so a fair chunk of the story focuses on mystery. Margaret Diano (Nell Tiger Free) arrives in Rome to help at an orphanage as she prepares to take the veil. It quickly becomes apparent something spooky is afoot, especially since Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson) keeps accosting her in the street to warn her about a sinister church plot to bring forth the antichrist. The plot tries to get some milage out of exactly how they plan to do this but there isn't much to it and the "twist" is so o...