We live in a cinematic world that seems completely devoid of new ideas. Everything is a remake, a reimagining, or a sequel. Most of them are lousy. They only exist to cash in on our nostalgia. It is always nice to see one that actually tries to give reason for its existence.
Buy 28 Years Later: The Bone TempleDanny Boyle’s iconic zombie film 28 Days Later didn’t need a sequel. But we got one in 2007. We certainly didn’t need another one some 23 years later, and it absolutely didn’t need to be the first part of a sequel trilogy, but here we are. None of them needed to be any good, and yet at least so far each sequel has actually been quite interesting.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is surprising in just how sensitive it is for the third sequel to a zombie franchise. Most of that comes down to the excellent performance of Ralph Fiennes as Dr. Kelson, a man who has made it his mission to pay tribute to all those who lost their lives due to the rage virus by building a giant ossuary. In this film, he’s made a new friend: a giant, hulking, rage-infected man in whom Kelson manages to find some semblance of humanity (even if he has to find it by using massive amounts of tranquilizers on him).
It is a wild bit of storytelling for a franchise that has thus far spent most of its time sending hordes of fast-moving zombies at our heroes like crazed zombies. Not that this film doesn’t have its more horrific moments. For the other half of the film, Jimmy (Alfie Williams), our hero from the last film, finds himself surrounded by a cult of Satan-worshipping lunatics.
It isn’t a perfect film, but I love that this franchise is still swinging for the fences.
Also out this week that looks interesting:
Send Help: Sam Raimi’s first non-franchise film since 2009’s Drag Me To Hell finds him going back to his horror roots. Rachel McAdams stars as a mousy office drone who continually gets overlooked for promotions by her boss (Dylan O’Brien), but the tables are turned when their plane crash lands on a deserted island and the boss must rely on her survival skills.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die: Gore Verbinski’s first film in nearly a decade is a fun sci-fi romp about a man from the future (a wonderfully bonkers Sam Rockwell) trying to recruit a group of diners to save the world from AI. The excellent cast includes Juno Temple, Zazie Beetz, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Pena, and Asif Chaudhury.
Point Blank: Lee Marvin stars in this excellent 1970s thriller as a man who is double-crossed and left for dead but returns with a vengeance. Criterion has the release.
Primate: Very silly looking thriller in which a chimp gets rabies and attacks a group of partygoers. [See below for a chance to win a Blu-ray copy.]
Primate Blu-ray GiveawayDie My Love: Jennifer Lawrence stars in this Lynne Ramsey directed film about a woman battling with psychosis.
Christy: Sydney Sweeney stars in this biopic about Christy Martin, the most successful female boxer of the 1990s.
The Eye: This classic J-horror finds a blind woman receiving an eye transplant only to find she is now seeing ghosts. Arrow Video has the release.
Confessions of a Police Captain: Franco Nero stars in this police procedural as a by-the-books DA battling with a much more willing-to-bend-the-rules police captain (Martin Balsam) over murder and corruption in an Italian city. Radiance Films has the release; I have the review.
Task: The Complete First Season: Mark Ruffalo stars in this excellent HBO series as a beaten-down FBI agent brought back from desk duty to run a task force to catch a guy (a wonderful Tom Pelphry) robbing drug dealers .
