Bullets only free thing in this "Fire"

Hollywood bullets aren't what they used to be.  The characters - opposing sides in an illegal arms deal gone awry - at the center of Free Fire fire hundreds of them at each other for the majority of the movie, and not until they get shot about 7 or 8 times does anyone actually die.   This diverse cast of forgettable scoundrels is played by Armie Hammer, Brie Larson, and Sharlto Copley, to name just a few, and they all scowl, scream and threaten each other throughout, while the blaze of bullets continues to deafen not only the audience's ears, but also their boredom threshold.

Free Fire starts off well enough, but it is soon drowned by a shoot-out and pointlessly stretched out action scenes reminiscent of Guy Ritchie and Joe Carnahan (honestly, I thought this was some unofficial sequel to Smokin' Aces).  If it seems that I didn't say anything about the plot, it's because there isn't one, per se, only about twenty minutes of mediocre filmmaking and some sixty-plus minutes of bang-bang.  It's never a good thing when a movie that's under an hour and a half actually feels long.
C

"Life" just another Alien clone

The octopus-like monster at the center of Life resembles the slimy offspring from Guillermo Del Toro's Hellboy (the giant octopod at the end).  Having been named Calvin by a group of children on Earth - as the astronauts who discovered him broadcast a live transmission from ISS (International Space Station) across planet Earth - the alien, initially the size of a child's hand, quickly grows into a rather large monstrosity as it feeds on the crew members (including a tiny white mouse) in order to expand.  Such are the biological needs of a life form that's been dormant on Mars for who-knows-how-long.

The similarities between Life and Alien (1979) are clearly present, but in general structure only.  What's missing here, when compared to that Ridley Scott sci-fi thriller, is a quiet sense of impending doom, and a subtle build-up to the carnage to come.  Oh, and did I mention that the cast - which includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds and Rebecca Ferguson - as cosmetically gifted as they may be, simply lack that compelling, fearsome fire that Sigourney Weaver brought to the  aforementioned iconic franchise.  Not even when some of them get slaughtered do we give much of a shit.

More than anything, Life suffers because it has nothing new to offer to a genre that has already reached near exhaustion (Alien: Covenant also lacked originality), and even with a near $60 million budget, it just feels like an expensive B-movie.  The twist at the end (involving two pods heading to different destinations), however, is pretty neat.  If only the ninety minutes that preceded it were as compelling.
C

"Blackcoat's Daughter" continues to haunt long after it's over

A creepy and unsettling movie (released in some markets under the title February) that gets under your skin immediately, and stays there pretty much the entire 94 minutes.  Staged like The Shining lite, The Blackcoat's Daughter resonates with a tone that is hypnotically disturbing, and even though its climax features scenes of gory violence, it honestly could've done just as well without them, using the minimal approach reminiscent of the first act.  Director Oz Perkins proves that the most terrifying horror is that which you can not see or touch; the psychological breakdown of a person's mind, a la Jack Torrance due to an isolated loneliness caused by a heavy snowstorm, is a nightmare a person can not wake up from.  It's ok if you don't understand the story completely, or if the ending leaves you scratching your head: by the time it's over, this movie will have spooked you plenty to keep you from getting a good night's sleep for days afterwards. A-

A vegetarian comes of age in uncompromising "Raw"

Justine's (Garance Marillier) arrival at the "prestigious" veterinary school in French countryside is followed by a night of hazing of the newly arrived freshmen, in addition to an all-nighter of a party in which pretty much everyone is either drunk, tripping on hallucinogenic drugs, or participating in a free-for-all orgy until the break of dawn (somehow no adult is every present to control these young "doctors" in training).  A vegetarian all her life, Justine is forced to eat a rabbit kidney during the hazing initiation, and somehow, this sparks a never before felt hunger in her for meat - and not just poultry or beef.  Soon she's feasting on her sister's freshly severed finger, biting a classmate's lip off, and even penetrating her own flesh with her teeth during sexual intercourse, just so her thirst for blood can be quenched.

Julia Ducournau's film, Raw, is a coming of age story as much as its allegorical subtext is about out-of-control cannibalistic urges that go unmanaged, especially since its subjects are way too young and inexperienced to know how to properly deal with them.  The final scene, between Justine and her father, in which he explains their family history to her, is both shocking and revelatory in just the right amounts.  Raw may not have reinvented the horror genre - as so many pundits have declared - but it'll definitely shock, disgust and disturb you all the same.  I imagine that was its director's intention in the first place.
B

"T2" feels like a tardy postscript to the '96 original

Few movies from the 90s possessed such kinetic, mad-as-hell cinematic energy as Danny Boyle's adaptation of Irvine Welsh's novel of Edinburgh's out-of-control misdirected "youth" (early twenties is still considered youth, is it not?).  When Trainspotting was released back in the summer of 1996 (my senior year in high school), it was the ultimate movie about junkies spiraling out of control (until Requiem for a Dream's release four years later), and Boyle was able to capture the charm of Scotland's bottom feeders with the aid of an exciting soundtrack and some brilliant camera & editing techniques.

T2 Trainspotting, which takes place exactly 20 years after the original, finds our protagonists adjusting to life in Edinburgh as middle aged men whose time has long passed, even if their stupidity has not.  Renton (Ewan McGregor) returns to his hometown after spending the last few decades in Amsterdam, and is shocked to find the newly escaped prison convict, Francis Begbie (Robert Carlyle), still after him for the money he stole; Spud (Ewen Bremner) is a heroin addict, and with the help of Sick Boy's (Jonny Lee Miller) new girlfriend, Veronika (Anjela Nedyalkova), he turns to writing, and becomes the eventual narrator (officially) to the entire story arc we've seen so far (perhaps playing Welsh himself?).

Not nearly as flashy or thrilling as its predecessor, T2 often times feels like an overgrown child who's a few decades late for the prom.  Its characters, so fascinating to follow once-upon-a-time when the needles were sticking out of their arms, have by now become rather redundant in their old age.  This isn't a movie for those who don't hold the '96 original close to their hearts; for everyone else, it's a trip down memory lane that manages to entertain and disappoint.  Luckily, it pulls off the former more often than the latter.
B-

"Supermike's" vanity nearly runs Zagor out of Darkwood

As Mike Gordon (a.k.a. Supermike) - the pompous, egotistical brat from the East who arrives in the American Wild West with the blind ambition of a conqueror looking to be the talk of every town - the blonde haired young man is, in a way, Zagor's exact antithesis.  Whereas The King of Darkwood is a humble and compassionate individual, never interested in personal achievements, but in prosperity and endurance of both the whites and the Native Americans to co-exist together, Supermike is a boastful punk whose only interest is his own vanity.  He simply wants to be the best.  At everything.  And yes, that includes both knitting old sweaters and being the fastest gun in Zagor's neck of the woods.  No one said that arrogance was an uncomplicated character flaw.

Peculiar nicknames apparently lead to peculiar egos.

Gordon's eventual arrival in Darkwood is soon followed by various infractions, committed mostly to embarrass and enrage Zagor - who had earlier given him a public licking after Mike had maliciously murdered a notorious gunslinger for the sheer purpose of bloviating his own unmatched ego.  Strutting around in his newly designed yellow costume, consisting of a large "M" on his chest (another antithesis of Zagor's own Eagle symbol), Supermike blows up a U.S. Army bridge, nearly destroys a village of Native Americans, and physically assaults Zagor several times, and does it all with a smile on his face.  But Zagor finally has enough: he proposes a challenge to Supermike, a contest where their physical abilities will be put to the test, and the loser will eventually have to leave Darkwood forever.  Soon it's game on, and one - or perhaps even both - of them will not make it out of it alive.  

Written by the legendary Sergio Bonelli (under the pseudonym Guido Nolitta) and illustrated by Zagor's graphic creator, Gallieno Ferri,  Zagor versus Supermike (Epicenter Comics, 312 pages, $16.99) is an unforgettable adventure of that famed and long running Italian comic book hero (second only to Tex in longevity and popularity), and has been ranked among Zagor's top 10 adventures of all time by his faithful fans ever since its initial release in the early 1970s.  The bold, kinetic new cover artwork for this Epicenter issue is by Michele Rubini, and it pits Zagor against Gordon's screwy alter-ego atop of an elevated, old-school type of boxing ring, like two Gladiators whose so-called "seventh" round truly was a fist-fight to the death, so to speak.

A challenge, a challenge... my kingdom for a challenge.

More than just a standard Zagor's action tale - which typically involves the Darkwood King going up against crooked bootleggers selling illegal alcohol to the Natives, fighting injustice at any cost, or even facing his immortal nemesis, Professor Hellingen - Supermike pits our acrobatic hero against a foe who isn't interested in the extermination of the American Indians - as serials with similar themes generally tend to focus on - but a delusional man who's obsessed in creating his own legend in the Darkwood forest.  That of course, includes surpassing the myth that Zagor has built for himself during all these years. The problem is that, although Supermike is physically as gifted as Zagor, he simply lacks the humility and decency to ever look past his own reflection in the mirror.  The man is a reincarnation of Narcissus himself, but instead of staring at himself in the water, he gawks at Zagor's aura, and deems it an obstacle that he must overcome, at any cost.

As Zagor and Supermike face one another, Darkwood residents enjoy their iconic mano-a-mano bout.

Zagor has fought many notable enemies during his life, and hopefully, he will continue to entertain his loyal readers by fighting many more in the years to come.  He has, however, seldom had an adversary who was as charming as he was diabolical like Mike Gordon.  Chances are, he may never face the likes of him again.  Or perhaps he might.  That would surely be a super occassion, just like the first ever publication of this quintessential episode in English.
A

"Hounds" howls with unrequited love

Ben Young's new Australian feature film, Hounds of Love, presents us with a twisted couple who get off on abducting teenage girls, only to chain them to a bed in their creepy house while torturing and raping them, before murdering and burying their bodies in the nearby forest.  One day, when they cunningly lure young Vicki (Ashleigh Cummings) into their home, they find themselves, at long last, discovering just how different from one another they may actually be, much to both of their surprise.

As a woman who is conflicted about her boyfriend's maniacal serial killing ways, Evelyn White (Emma Booth) displays a quiet rage that is simultaneously off-putting and relatable.  She's the modern day Lady MacBeth, but with a "heart" - albeit an easily manipulative one, controlled with just enough psychotic subtlety by her coarse-as-hell boyfriend, John (Stephen Curry).  Cummings' inner turmoil is scarily and realistically authentic, both psychologically and physically.

But make no mistake: the real wonder here is Booth, an actress with raw talent that is heartbreakingly vast in the range of emotions her complex character has to convey.  When Hounds of Love is over, you may find yourself wondering if what you've just seen is just another dramatic torture porn, or a film with unexpected depth that explores the thin line between good and evil in the most original way.    Me?  I'm leaning towards the latter.
A