Monthly Archives: October 2019

Replicas (2019)

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There is a good chance you haven’t heard of this Keanu Reeves starring-and-produced film, even though he is one of the hottest properties in cinema right now. Produced in 2016, sold on before it’s 2019 release, and allegedly passed over by Nicholas Cage, it’s box office bombing should have been the talk of the town. Instead of it becoming a cause célèbre, it just got shuffled off the big screens at a rapid pace, another miss in a summer of hits. It then rolled into the Amazon Prime bargain bucket of Amazon Prime in the middle of the year and then on Netflix this month. So, is it as bad as the odd critic has tried to make out?
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Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies

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Because Todd Philips is in the news (and in my spare time I’m a screaming muso and punk aficionado) we’re looking at a documentary that is his earliest work. Shot in 1993, Hated follows around notorious shock-rocker/dangerous lunatic GG Allin as he lives out his rock-and-roll nightmare. Whilst GG had some reputation on the US punk scene, this 53 minute film sent him to notoriety and onto many “most degenerate person in music history” listicles. As for Todd Philips, it might show a lifelong appreciation of performance dickheads and happens to be the highest grossing student film of all time.
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Joker (2019)

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It’s difficult to write a review for a film like Joker, primarily because of the amount of hype that’s been built up around it. For over a year there have been announcements, stories and opinions flying around, from a multitude of camps. First up there are the DC fans, who have been excited at the idea of a villain-centric movie and of DC making two good movies in a row. Then there have been the naysayers, pulling it down because of uninspiring trailers and the habit of the more vocal Joker fans being screaming edgelords. Next up has been the marketing machine, keeping the film “a hot topic” and then, nearer release day, putting it on every bus in town. Finally, we have the director and star declaring it a piece of Art and a new dawn for comics movies. So, does it stand up to its hype?
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The Return Of Swamp Thing (1989)

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Here’s a trivia question for you: which three DC properties got made into movies in the 80s? If your answer is “Superman”, “Supergirl”, and “Batman” then you’re almost right, but also definitely wrong as Supergirl doesn’t count, having had its rights sold off as part of the Superman package. The correct answer is “Superman”, “Batman”, and “Swamp Thing”; a character so iconic that at the time Wes Craven released his film version of it 1982 the character hadn’t had his own comics for six years. And so successful was that film that the comic launched to cash in on it was given to beardy weirdy brit Alan Moore to write and its sequel didn’t happen until 1989! And it’s the sequel we’re interested in this time, because whilst the original was merely mediocre, The Return Of Swamp Thing was joyfully awful!
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In The Shadow Of The Moon (2019)

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One of the often-touted advantages of services like Netflix is that, through its use of metrics, they can exactly what the viewers want to watch. This should be exciting, offering the chance to put money behind more niche films and deliver them directly to a waiting audience. However, if their recent roster of big banner release is to go by, what the audience wants isn’t excitement or innovation. If In The Shadow Of The Moon is any measure of what actually gets and keeps eyeballs, then what the bulk of viewers really want is something that’s non-threateningly almost-innovative and dull.
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