Another movie date night with my gorgeous Mrs. She fell asleep after 10 minutes as she always does and I watched all these movies as she lightly snored and snuffled beside me on the bed.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle was her choice and I was more than happy to watch it as we'd both thoroughly enjoyed it's predecessor. The films are based on the Kingsman comic book series by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons released in 2012 though I am sure I read a book that was very similar to this concept before as well which was very, very similar too I thought. I can't recall for the life of me what the book was called or any of the characters names from it but I was SURE it was based on it when I first saw the film. I have tried to have a google up to find it but had no joy there.
Oh well, the 2nd film is another high energy, fight fest full of crazy action and far-fetched gadgets & plot scenes that see the last of the Kingsmen teaming up with members of their US counterparts the Statesmen to take on the drug cartel The Golden Circle who have poisoned their products threatening to kill anyone who has taken them and will only release the antidote if the world agrees to make them all legal! The organisation's leader has also kidnapped Elton John and seems to make a habit of getting her robot dogs to kill her failed underlings and then mincing and making them into hamburgers!! That kind of cannibalistic behaviour would help her fit right in with the protagonists of the next movie from this evening......
...Leatherface. This is not to be confused with Texas Chainsaw Massacre III which had the subtitle Leatherface and a cool Heavy Metal soundtrack, but there are so many chainsaw killing movies based in Texas now that I have totally lost track of them all! (This is #8 it seems!!) It doesn't really matter though does it, you know what you are getting when you buy or hire one of these out don't you? Well, normally I'd say yes you do but this is an origin story for this evil face wearing maniac so it's a bit different. There is still a family of wrong 'uns living on a farm in Texas somewhere and the mother who is raising her kids with very nontraditional family values has one of her boys taken away by the authourities after they kill a sheriff's daughter. There is no proof that it wasn't just an accident so there are no criminal charges instead he is put into what seems to be an asylum or at least a home for VERY maladjusted, twisted teens/young adults. I have to admit I thought that she had 2 children taken from her and Bud another character was Jedidiah's brother, the passage of time in the film and the fact I am sure there were 2 kids in the film's early sequence made me think this but Wikipedia says otherwise so I'll trust it over my own addled memory!
He'd been there for 10 years with his mother fighting to get back custody of him. After a bit of chaos caused by his mother a riot and a breakout ensues where he, his friend Bud (who I thought was his brother) and 2 other inmates escape, with a nurse as a hostage in tow. They are pursued by the very sheriff whose daughter they killed all them years ago and he is taking no prisoners. Along the way Leatherface is born making his deranged mother very proud I am sure!!
From a lunatic mother we move on to an alien mother!! Actually there is no alien brood queen mother in this film but there are plenty of eggs, facehuggers and a new alien that infects through mushroom like spores and emerges in splendidly horrific fashion! This, the 6th film in the Alien franchise is about the colony ship Covenant which is carrying settlers to a far off planet to make new lives there. Along the way the crew's stasis sleep is disturbed by an accident. Once awoken they discover signals from a nearby planet, seemingly human in origin they seek the planet out to investigate. Bad idea, terrible idea..... it ends badly. This movie is basically the follow up to the much reviled Prometheus from 2012 and the planet they go to investigate is the one from that movie and the android David played by Michael Fassbender is still living on the planet along with far too many alien killing machines to make it a safe place to visit. Fassbender plays 2 roles, he is David the android on the planet from the Prometheus ship that crashed there and also Walter the later version android from the Covenant. There is plenty of good action and gore and I liked it.
In fact all 3 films tonight were a hit for me :)
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Fun fact - Leatherface was filmed in Bulgaria not Texas!!