Copycat – Film Review

Posted on August 5, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Jon Amiel

Written by: Ann Biderman and David Madsen

Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Holly Hunter, Dermot Mulroney, William McNamara, Will Patton and John Rothman

Rating: ★★★

The 1990s was a decade of strong dark thrillers and crime stories. From The Silence of the Lambs and Scorsese’s Cape Fear to The Usual Suspects and The Sixth Sense, there is something for everyone and now that we are over two full decades past the 90s, it’s easy for so many films to be forgotten and left behind. Kalifornia starring Brad Pitt and David Duchovny being a perfect example of a film that not enough people talk about. Another example is Copycat from 1995 which had great reviews when it was first released and made a decent amount at the box office. Over time it has been largely forgotten about.

A serial killer who is copying the methods and styles of previous serial killers is haunting the streets. Dr Helen Hudson (Sigourney Weaver, Alien, Ghostbusters), a criminal psychologist, who is suffering with agoraphobia after a horrific attack, may be able to help solve the crime. Hudson joins forces with Inspector Mary Jane Monahan (Holly Hunter, The Piano, The Firm), to bring the killer to justice.

The strongest element of Copycat is the performances, especially Weaver, who in of the best performances of her career, brings life to Dr Helen Hudson. The first scene starts with her, before the attack, giving a guest lecture and standing tall with confidence. After being attacked after the lecture in a horrific moment, that will make you scared to use public bathrooms, her confidence is gone. As the film progresses, we see her as an almost hollow version of herself, and Weaver’s body language changes completely to show this. It elevates the whole film and makes it worth watching. The rest of the cast is great as well, but it’s Weaver who steals the show.

The story, while chilling in places and an interesting premise, does start to drag towards the end. It’s predictable in its twists and it’s nothing that hasn’t been done before or since. This was released very shortly after Seven and pales in comparison to that flair, originality, and visuals that Seven puts on display. It feels like the 90s were a time to be obsessed with dark crime stories about serial killers. If it wasn’t for the performances from Hunter and especially Weaver, Copycat would not be worth revisiting and while it isn’t essential viewing, it’s a good watch. It’s easy to understand why this one hasn’t stood the test of time like so many others.

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Riddick – Franchise Catch Up

Posted on August 5, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

I don’t know why I’ve never seen these films before. I’ve been aware of them since The Chronicles of Riddick came out, but just never watched it. It’s not that I was avoiding them, just hadn’t felt the need to watch it even though I’m a big sci-fi fan. I was talking to Tabby about something that we had watched, I can’t remember what and she said it was like Riddick. I said I’ve never seen it, so she said we should watch it and it would make a good catch up post.

For those that are new, Franchise Catch Up is where I take a series of films (of at least 3 or more) and binge watch them, writing a initial thoughts for each one shortly after watching it. If you haven’t seen the Riddick series and are curious, or you love the franchise and want to see what a newbie thinks, I hope you enjoy.

Pitch Black

From the voice over at the beginning I knew I was going to enjoy this one. I love sci-fi and this is a really good sci-fi horror. Vin Diesel is perfectly cast, the world is imaginative, although I wish we got more lore. I love the idea of Riddick’s eyes being brighter so he can see in the dark. The cast is great. When the horror gets going it’s well done. I do think it’s a little too slow towards the end, but it’s still enjoyable. A solid start to the series. I do like Riddick as a character, especially how he doesn’t change at the end and tries to leave without them. It’s almost a redemptive arc, but not quite. 

I also love how they used the lighting in the film. It’s got to be good when you call something Pitch Black, and it doesn’t disappoint. There are a lot of cool moments in the darkness in the later half of the film. It’s also well done with how light the first half is. I was expecting more action, but a horror is a nice surprise. I’m on board for the sequels and look forward to watching them.

The Chronicles of Riddick

This is what I expected from Riddick a fantasy/sci-fi with some interesting law and gorgeous design. I was surprised that the first one had more elements of horror and quite enjoyed it, here there is no horror. It’s straight up high concept fantasy in space. It feels a little like Dune, a little like Stargate and even a little Mad Max. But mostly its own thing. I love the way it looks, the aesthetics are all brilliant. The effects are honestly amazing and put a lot of films from today, almost 20 years later, to shame. The action looks great. All the characters are interesting. Diesel is great as Riddick. But I found this very hard to stay engaged with. It’s a slow film and beyond the lore it’s a very simple plot. It looks cool, but it’s essentially religious people hunt down those that are different convert them or kill them, they hunt down Riddick and he escapes until he doesn’t. I think this would have been better as a TV show honestly to spend more time with the world and let a more detailed story take place. I did enjoy it, but not as much as the first one. I have high hopes for Riddick.

Riddick

The latest in the series so far. Tonally it’s a mix of the first two. It has the isolation and horror of the first one with the broader universe of the second one. I think this is actually the best one of the lot; even though the effects are often questionable, especially some of that dodgy CGI. I also don’t think I’ve ever been so aware that what I’m watching was filmed on sets. It was obvious that this was filmed on a smallish set with greenscreen backgrounds. It was the most interesting character wise and did keep the pace up. There was also a few laugh out loud moments. Riddick slicing that guy’s head in half and the animal who is gutted and lives long enough to try and eat his own stomach.

It does feel like a step backwards in relation to the universe building of the second one. It’s a lot smaller on scale. I would love there to be a long running series of comics featuring the universe, it would be interesting to see more of it.

Final Thoughts

I quite enjoyed all 3 films. They’re nothing spectacular, but they are interesting and fun enough. I think it would work better as a TV show as the world it builds up is interesting but takes a back seat to the very simple narratives of each one. There is supposedly a fourth one in the works, which will be good. Vin Diesel is great as Riddick and is a perfect casting. The first one is probably the most well-made of the lot with the tightest script, but I like the third one the best personally because by this point I knew Riddick well enough. I would happily watch these again, but they won’t be making my favourites of all time list.

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Stillwater – Film Review

Posted on August 4, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Tom McCarthy

Written by: Tom McCarthy, Marcus Hinchey, Thomas Bidgegain and Noé Debré

Starring: Matt Damon, Camille Cottin, Abigail Breslin and Lilous Siauvaud

Rating: ★★★½

Tom McCarthy, director of Spotlight, bring a new crime thriller with Stillwater. Without going into the widely documented controversy surrounding this film, is it film worth watching? If you can separate it from reality and see it as its own thing, then there is a decent film here. It’s not spectacular but enjoyable enough.

Matt Damon (The Bourne Series) is fantastic, giving one of his best performances to date as Bill Baker, the American who travels to Marseille to support and try to find proof of his daughter’s innocence. Baker is a quiet unassuming man who has messed up in the past but is doing everything he can to correct that and make up for himself. His relationship with Maya, played fantastically by Lilou Siauvaud mirrors the relationship he wishes he had with his daughter. The moments these two share the screen together are among the best of the entire film. Camille Cottin (Allied, Killing Eve) is also fantastic as Virginie, who helps Baker in his journey.

The characters are incredibly well written, with great dialogue and hints at their past. Much like the opening of the film, nothing is explicitly told to you outright, you discover the plot and the characters slowly piece by piece, slotting them together until it creates the full picture. It’s because of this that the extraordinarily long-feeling run-time of 140 minutes is bearable.

This is a long film, probably too long. There are a lot of scenes that build the characters nicely, but don’t really add anything beyond that. It’s a slow-burn thriller that focuses more on the relationships between the main characters for better or worse. It probably could have be shortened down though, without losing much. Despite that there are some very nice sequences throughout. The day that Baker gets to spend with his daughter Allison, played by Abigail Breslin is one of the highlights. Their strained relationship is perfectly shown through their body language and dialogue. It’s really well shown on screen.

Sadly, the biggest let down of the film is the ending. It feels very rushed and anti-climactic. Things build up with a lot of tension and then it seems to just jump to the end without the steps on how we got there. It makes sense, but after how slow the film was to that point, it doesn’t really keep the pace. If some of the earlier scenes were cut, then the ending would have more time to explain. It does leave a few unanswered questions and that is a shame.

Seeing Stillwater completely as fiction, it is a fine film with some great characters and dialogue. It doesn’t do anything too original, but Damon’s performance makes this worth watching. If only the ending wasn’t so rushed then this would be a really good film.  

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An Exciting Update!

Posted on August 4, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

I want to start this weeks update by telling you about how my writing is going. On Sunday I had an idea, just before bed. It kind of came out of nowhere. I told Tabby and she said it sounded sad. I woke up on Monday with the idea more fleshed out so got to work writing. I wrote 1000 words in half an hour and then had to go to work. Once I finished work I got back to it and wrote another 1600 words in about an hour or so, finishing up the short story. It’s one of the quickest things I’ve written. It’s called ‘Teddy’. I don’t want to give anything away about it just yet. I still need to go over it and edit it.

I’ve also been working on Cyclical the other short story that I started a couple of weeks back. I’m about half way through this one, and it’s picking up now so I expect to be finished in the next week or so. The Teeth Fairies is also being worked on slowly, but that will be longer.

I don’t have a specific schedule just yet, but they will be coming soon.

I’ve also made a decision to go back and edit Time Heals…/Homecoming (I changed the name half way through uploading it). It’s a full length novel, around 60,000 words. I didn’t finish uploading it on here, mainly because I changed jobs and took time away to readjust and partly because by that point the views were very low. I’m going to edit it over the next few months and then release it in full. I received a couple of very nice comments from someone who discovered it recently and it made me motivated to finish it up properly. I was happy with it when I first wrote it.

Reading wise I’m waiting for the new Stephen King book to arrive. I pre-ordered it last year, but in typical fashion it’s late being delivered. That’s my next book to read, and it’s going to take up most of my time for the next week or so, if it does arrive.

I’m still writing the film reviews, with one for Stillwater coming out later today. The next Franchise Catch Up will also be coming tomorrow morning for the Riddick series.

Onto fitness. I have been more active this week than the week before, but still not enough. I’ve stayed steady at 16 stone and 1 pound. I’m going to lose it, I just need to get into a better routine with exercise. That will come with time. I do think next week is going to be a step back, to be honest. It’s my birthday this weekend and I have some meal plans with family.

Thanks for reading and until next time,

Ashley

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The Happening – Film Review

Posted on August 3, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: M Night Shyamalan

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Ashlyn Sanchez

Rating: ★★★½

For a lot of people, The Happening was the final straw for Shyamalan when is first came out. His previous couple of films were harshly reviewed and audiences equally didn’t think much. But the concept of plants killing the humans on the planet was too much for some. 

If you think about the plot objectively; a group of people trying to outrun plants that are releasing poison into the air that makes people suicidal, it feels almost like a 1950s B-movie. Shyamalan, though, doesn’t present The Happening as a B-movie. Here’s it’s presented with realism, and it takes itself very seriously. While there are funny moments, this is made as a thriller.

For the most part the film isn’t scary. It does have some unsettling moments, but this isn’t a film to watch to be scared. It’s tonally inconsistent and doesn’t blend that well, with some tense character driven moments, such as the people in the house who won’t let them come in and end up shooting out from the boarded-up windows. Contrasting the tension with some laugh out loud ridiculous moments, such as the characters running away from the wind. It can’t decide what it wants to be. There is a serious tone, but at its heart this is a B-movie and if it leant into that more, this wouldn’t have clashed with people so much when it first came out.

The last section, with the woman’s house in the middle of nowhere, is the scariest bit. It feels like a precursor for Shyamalan’s later film The Visit. She is completely unhinged and the performance from Betty Buckley is absolutely perfect. From the moment Mark Wahlberg meets her, you’ll be begging for them to just leave and find somewhere else to stay. Honestly the film could have been an extended version of this scene and it would have been a really good film.

Thankfully the main driving force of the film, the characters, are really well done. Deschanel and Wahlberg are both really good as the leads, carrying the emotional weight of the story. The side characters are also interesting. It’s the characters that make this film overcome its shortcomings and make it enjoyable to watch.

The Happening is not Shyamalan’s best film, not by a long stretch, but it is no where near as bad as people made it out to be when it was first released. With some great humour (not all of it intentional), great characters and a short run time this is a fine film. The idea is great and if the script had more direction, then this could have been a great film. It’s still enjoyable to watch as it is.  

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