Thanksgiving (2023) - Movie Review

For as much shit as I’ve given Eli Roth over the years, I freely admit that I was actually looking forward to him releasing this film. The fake Grindhouse trailer that inspired this remains, for me at least, his greatest cinematic artwork. It’s a prime example of his bloodsplattered sense of humour, but without the annoying and/or smug underpinnings that keep getting in the way of the fun in his feature productions. I have a deep love for all things connected to Rodriguez and Tarantino’s Grindhouse project, including the fake trailers and the films that eventually spawned from most of them. I may understand Edgar Wright’s stance on making his Don’t trailer into a full film, but a man can still dream.

Sisu (2023) - Movie Review

2023 has already seen action cinema reach some amazing heights, from the high-art elevation of John Wick: Chapter 4, to the western shonen sports drama of Creed III, even the one-take shoot-out scene in Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3. So when a film like Sisu comes out, it can’t help but feel slight, even if that is somewhat by design. It is by and large as simple and straight-forward as an action flick gets: Man finds gold, Nazis find man, Nazis try and take gold, man makes them regret it.

It’s a 90-minute feature that is so lean, it’s possible that quite a bit of usable meat was thrown away in the attempt to remove all traces of fat from the cut. But then again, even if it is just a thin excuse to have our stoic action lead cut, shoot, and blow up Nazis for an hour and a half… well, there’s never not a good time for such things, right?

Terrifier 2 (2022) - Movie Review

Art The Clown (David Howard Thornton) might be one of the greatest slasher villains ever. Like, legit, this creation is something special for modern horror. He’s like a cross between Charlie Chaplin and Crazy Joe Davola; this murderous mime that shows more personality just through gestures and facial expressions than a lot of main characters in other horror films. And over the last several years, his creator Damien Leone has been slowly but surely building up this new face, from short films, to anthology wraparounds for short films, to starring in his own solo feature. A solo feature that turned out pretty damn good, all things considered, and with its follow-up on limited release in cinemas… hell yeah, I was going all-in with this. But even though there’s certainly a lot to like about it, I have to admit that I prefer the first film over this one.