Dan Says its Alright

Warfare is a harrowing ninety-five minute peak into, well, warfare. Writer and co-director Ray Mendoza is a former Navy SEAL who now works as a Hollywood military advisor. During their work together on last year's "Civil War", he and Alex Garland (who also directs here) came up with the idea of showing audiences an ultra real slice of modern war without any of the movie trappings that make such scenes more digestible to viewers. This is that film and it's as uncomfortable as you would expect. The events depicted took place in 2006 when Mendoza's unit came under attack while occupying two apartments in Ramadi, Iraq. We open with the soldiers watching the music video to Eric Prydz's "Call On Me" (the only music in the film) before we see them break into a family home and commandeer it to provide support for a group of Marines in the area. After that we are pretty much in real time as hostile locals gather and launch an attack.  Everything we see and he...

The later trailers for Sinners give away a major plot point that will discussed in this review. It isn't a spoiler as such, since its integral to the nature of the film and its hard to see how the movie could have been advertised without showing it, but if you haven't seen the marketing, simply go and watch this astonishing work of film making and come back later. If you've already seen it, or know what kind of film it is, read on.  To date, director Ryan Coogler's big screen credits are; true story "Fruitvale Station", Rocky franchise sequel "Creed" and two MCU movies ("Black Panther" and its sequel). If you've marvelled at how he has managed to infuse those franchise movies with both deeply personal meaning and wide cultural themes, and wondered what he could achieve with a project that is purely his own, then Sinners is your answer and it is glorious. In a rare studio win, Warner Brothers deserve credit for funding a wholly original...

  Death of a Unicorn begins with lawyer Elliot (Paul Rudd) dragging his unimpressed daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) along to the country retreat of his bosses, the wealthy Leopolds. His hope is to make a good impression and seal his place on the board of directors at the Leopold's company but things take a decidedly unexpected turn when he hits a unicorn on the drive up the mountain. Despite his attempts to keep the accident a secret, the unicorn, and the fantastic healing properties of its horn are soon uncovered by the hosts, who immediately begin thinking of the best way to monetise their discovery. Turns out the unicorn is only a baby and mummy 'corn eventually arrives with vengeance on her mind. The film aims to use the ridiculously over the top premise of being a killer unicorn move to provide some hilarity and carnage while smuggling in some observation and deeper meaning. Sadly, it fails at more or less everything it is trying to do. It isn't fast paced enough to en...

The set up for The Amateur is a well worn one, a man loses his wife in a terrorist attack and goes on a mission of revenge. The twist is, that while Rami Malek does play a man with a particular set of skills, they aren't the ones you would expect. Charlie Heller is a socially awkward CIA cryptographer with precisely zero fighting ability and no experience using firearms. He is though, a technological genious who invented half the agencies cyber security and can track and predict patterns like a computer. When his blatantly shady boss, played with smug glee by Holt Mccallany, refuses to act on Charlie's info about the killers he blackmails him for some training and the green light to pursue the perpetrators himself. The two main questions are, can the mild mannered tech guy thrive in the field and is this twist on the formulae enough to carry a fairly by the numbers espionage thriller? The answer to both is, pretty much, yes. Malek is tailor made for roles like this and it'...

 A Working Man is a re-teaming of star Jason Statham and director David Ayer from last years insane action flick The Beekeeper, and it is another Stath vehicle where he plays a bad ass hiding in plain sight who unleashes a furious vengeance on criminals who mess with someone he cares about. It is however, written by Sylvester Stallone and has much more in common with a late period Sly movie than last years apiculture themed romp. That isn't a good thing. In Lance Cade, we do get a typically macho name for Statham's character. He is a former Royal Marine Commando now working as a foreman on a construction site in America and sleeping in his car. He is involved in a custody battle with his daughter's wealthy granfather but you would still expect the foreman of a fairly major construction project to have a roof over his head. Given the title and the leads situation you might think you are about to watch a satire of blue collar grafters being taken advantage of by their wealth...

Novocain isn't the first action film to utilise the gimmick of its lead character being unable to feel pain but no others have gone quite this far with the grizzly potential for body maiming violence. It is also the first to acknowledge the very serious day to day consequences of having such a condition. Jack Quaid plays Nathan Caine, a mild mannered assistant credit union manager who lives an isolated life as he sufferers from CIPA (Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis). Not being able to feel pain means he blends all his food (to avoid chewing his tongue off), has baby proofed every hard corner in his vicinity and uses ice and a thermometer to drink his coffee. He keeps to himself at work and his only friend is online buddy Roscoe (Jacob Battalion) who he has never even met in person. Enter Amber Midthunder as sherry, a relatively new employee at the credit union who spills coffee on Nathan in the break room leading to a romantic night together. The following day, ar...

  The Women In The Yard marks the return of director Jaume Collet-Serra to his horror roots after years in the big budget action space. He puts some scary images together and gives a good cast a chance to shine but is let down by a fairly weak script. The film begins with struggling mum Ramona (Danielle Deadwyler) watching a video of her deceased husband. Struggling may be a bit of an understatement, the crash that took her husband also left her with a badly broken leg and she is stuck in a pit of despair so deep it has rendered her almost non-existent as a parent. Her son Taylor has essentially taken over looking after his little sister Annie, the food is running out and when the electricity goes off they have no means of contacting anyone. With tensions already frayed, things take a sinister turn as a mysterious and threatening figure in black appears in the garden, creeping slowly closer as the day drags on.  The titular woman in the yard is played with equal grace and mena...