Lifer Movies

Title: Santa Sangre Rating: 5/5 Genre: Avant-Garde, Drama, Horror, Mystery Starring: Axel Jodorowsky, Blanca Guerra, Guy Stockwell Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky Language: English How on earth does one begin to describe the insanity this unsuspecting viewer just bore witness? Psycho on LSD? A love story between a mad man, a deaf mute and his mother? A hyperbolic metaphorical parable of the inherent dangers of religious fanaticism? Certainly they could all fit but none seem to do it a shred of justice. Written and directed by a Chilean man I can only assume is somewhat messed up in the head himself, starring his son as the mad man, what he's created is both brilliant in it's use of detail and symbolism whilst also being in a whole unique class of batshit insane. This isn't a Japanese brand of insanity where you laugh a little at how unexpected that last bit was, nor is it David Lynch's trademark 'this is going to make absolutely no sense but you're gonna c...

Title: Mushi-shi Rating: 4/5 Genre: Adventure, Mystery, Supernatural, Anime Starring: Kôjun Itô, Yûto Nakano, Travis Willingham Director: Hiroshi Nagahama Language: Japanese Duration: (25mins, 26 Episodes) Describing what the mushi are – the entities that our protagonist is an expert in – is fairly difficult, just because of the other things that you'll end up associating it with. I call them ghosts, you'll think of horror films. I add a 'friendly' to that, Casper. I mention spirits and you start to think of the souls of the dead, or to the sudden realisation you want another drink, but that's only for the alcoholics amongst us. Colourful creatures that exist in tandem to our world but most don't believe exist? Pandora. Even if I go on to call them the very essence of life itself, naked to the average humans eye and misunderstood almost unanimously; perhaps the most detailed and accurate description I can muster, what does that bring to mind? Scientolog...

Title: Tokyo Godfathers Rating: 4/5 Genre: Mystery, Drama, Anime Starring: Toru Emori, Yoshiaki Umegaki, Aya Okamoto Director: Satoshi Kon Language: Japanese Its one of those casual conversations that continued to plague the mind I was having recently: why are there so few decent christmas films? Racking my brains for something more than just "Die Hard" or "Gremlins," it was only until I saw my shelf and remembered this lesser known Satoshi Kon flick yet to be watched that I saw hope or another entry to the list. If you've seen much of his other work, you'd notice a strong theme in how they're devised, but not here. With this film he's gone for a more accesible tone of film making, telling us a simple (for Satoshi Kon) tale of three homeless people in tokyo on the journey to the end of the year, discovering a newborn baby on christmas eve and resolving to become its carers until the real parents can be found. As we get to know our homeles...

Title:Hanna Rating: 3.5/5 Genre: Action, Thriller, Mystery Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, Eric Bana Director: Joe Wright Welcome to one of possibly the only mini reviews i'll write. Why mini you ask? Cos i'm on a motherfuckin' plane! No snakes though. Just grumpy turks. Probably for the best... And so even on my voyages abroad I cant help but be tantalised by this flick on the flight menu - you can take the reviewer away from his pc but you can't the...euhm, I guess I didn't think that one through, but you get the idea - that I have intended to watch for a long time but never got the chance. You see, this ain't our standard popcorn action flick or predictable thriller (ok, its a little predictable) but a tale of a young girl and her voyages into the world of assassins. But before you get all 'leon' on me, hanna ain't quite done that way around. This isn't a girl entering the world of assassins as much as it is an assassin told ...

Title: The Breed (2001) Rating: 3.5/5 Genre: Action, Crime, Mystery Starring: Adrian Paul, Bokeem Woodbine, Bai Ling Director: Michael Oblowitz Ah the old classic crime format, taking two new cops with different attitudes to the job and slamming them together to watch the consequences as they hunt for the bad guy. Sometimes it ends up (trying to be) comical as in “Rush Hour,” and sometimes it ends up a cheese filled action classic like “Lethal Weapon.” Even rarer are the times it'll touch upon something great such as of “Se7en” or to a lesser extent “Training Day.” But this is a b-movie, so it will clearly need a far more obvious twist; here we have the big black arrogant cop partnered with the placid, cold and calculating officer, chalk and cheese, playing off one another and contrasting as the events unfold, their overt differences helping create the illusion that there are more detailed characters on display than there actually are. Oh, and the straight man also happens t...

Title: Source Code Rating: 3.5/5 Genre: Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga Director: Duncan Jones It wasn't all too long ago that I first saw the film “Moon,” debut effort from this director now only on his second bout with recognition and once again managing to produce a concept that is nothing if not intriguing; his chops before delivering upon one of the best sci-fi films to emerge in recent years and evidently returning for something perhaps a little more palletable to a mainstream audience was still something I couldn't pass up. Telling the story of Colter Stevens (Gyllenhaal) of the US Air Force, suddenly awakened inside the body of another man aboard a commuter train opposite the enigmatic Christina (Monaghan), it isn't long before he has his life whisked away from under him from an explosion that decimates the train. Coming to once again in a mysterious capsule, he finds himself conversing with one Colleen Goo...

Title: Stalker Rating: 4.5/5 Genre: Sci-Fi, Mystery, Drama Starring: Aleksandr Kaidanovsky, Anatoli Solonitsyn, Nikolai Grinko Director: Andrei Tarkovsky Language: Russian Tarkovsky might be a name known to many, or it might just be the select few who have spent any deal of time exploring classic Sci-Fi films, but regardless of how well known he is, he is often praised of something of a 'Russian answer to Stanley Kubrick' with the infamous “Solaris” being his “2001.” But it's not Solaris that has drawn my initial attention but this overlooked work which I already know something about having played through the series of games that draws heavily from this piece, but if you're under the illusion that anything more than the environment is to feature here then remove that notion before you get too far. This is intelligent, philosophically thought provoking and superbly detailed in it's subtle suggestions. It's also over two and a half hours long and mostly fi...

Title: Moon Rating: 4.5/5 Genre: Sci-Fi, Drama, Mystery Starring: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey Director: Duncan Jones Some know me as something of a sci-fi fan but I seem to belong that dying breed of those who enjoy intelligent sci-fi, which always struck me as a little puzzling given the wealth of possibilities open for exploration and yet rarely utilised. Increasingly I find my interest is more readily captivated by novels and films gone by than the increasingly prevalent tendency to rely upon action and special effects to make themselves known, which is all precisely what made this sound so intriguing. Following the tale of Sam Bell (Rockwell), an astronaut left in isolation aboard a lunar base in charge of maintaining the operation of He3 harvesters used to supply the Earth with its growing demand for energy, he soon falls prey to a crash which leaves him incapacitated aboard his rover; his form of transport across the moons desolate surface. Awakening back aboard the base wi...

Title: Hipnos Rating: 2/5 Genre: Horror, Thriller, Mystery Starring: Cristina Brondo, Demián Bichir, Marisol Membrillo Director: David Carreras Language: Spanish Another Spanish film made for TV (though not from the same package as the last couple), a trend which not only seems to be growing over there but seems to be coming up with some interesting results and proving that there is still creativity left in the genre, and that the right director with the right idea and trump anything Hollywood has to throw at it. Hipnos, however, isn't. The plot which revolves around the young new doctor given the opportunity to work at a prestigious sanatorium, but whilst investigating her patients a number of strange events seem to occur. Patients aren't what they seem and are capable of knowing what they shouldn't be able to know; the doctors seem to be putting patients under hypnosis so as to convince them to commit suicide, and as our young protagonist delves deeper into the d...

Title: Les Revenants (They Came Back) Rating: 3/5 Genre: Mystery, Psychological Horror Director: Robin Campillo Starring: Géraldine Pailhas, Jonathan Zaccaï Language: French Usually, when people say “I wish he/she was here” or “I wish I could hold him/her just one more time” when talking about their departed, they don’t really expect for such an event to take place. However, to the awe of all, people in this film are confronted by these possibilities as millions of dead people around the world return back from the grave, as they were, expecting and desiring to continue on with their lives as they have left it. Taking place in a small French town, we see what I believe to be a redefinition of the “zombie” genre as this town struggles to cope with such a phenomenon. Focusing more on the emotional and the psychological side, Campillo wittingly poses several philosophical dilemmas that inspire the viewer to think and to wonder. However, while presenting such potential, the film see...

Title: Madeo Translated Title: Mother Rating: 4/5 Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery Starring: Hye-ja Kim Director: Joon-ho Bong Language: Korean I'd been meaning to explore more of this director since he came out with the best monster flick in years with “The Host,” and this film clinches it; South Korea now has two directors that everyone should start keeping a close eye on. Using a play on words (both “Mother” and “Murder” translate to the same 'letter' in Korean), this tale of tragedy is simple in its design, right from the actual plot itself right down the use of language, cinematography and musical score. Yet, it never feels raw as much as it does simply unapologetic in its treatment of the subject material; the characters are on display as ultimately human with both the good and the bad left for all to see, yielding a certain sense of natural complexity that makes judging their actions all the more difficult. What on the surface might seem like a straight-forwar...