Nextflix Reviews - The Limehouse Golem

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I remember seeing adverts for this when it hit the cinemas and it looked pretty good to me so as soon as I saw it pop up on Netflix I watched it with my girlfriend. Set in Victorian London before the days when Jack the Ripper terrified the city there was another serial killer gripping the populace with fear and morbid fascination. They've been dubbed the Golem after the killer left a part of a Rabbi's anatomy on the page of a book in a section about the Jewish folklore creature of that name. 

Bill Nighy plays John Kildare, a vice detective moved to homicide as they are clueless, and need a scapegoat to shaft if the killer is not caught. Rumours about Kildare have damaged his reputation so he is chosen to take over the case and shoulder the blame. Assisted by local police man George Flood (Daniel Mays) they get an emphatic lead that points to the killer being one of 4 men.

This leads to another story altogether, one of the suspects John Cree has been murdered, poisoned, and the blame has been placed upon his wife Lizzie. Kildare is convinced that she killed her husband after discovering that he was the Golem and seeks to prove it so she can possibly avoid being executed once these extenuating circumstances come to light. Kildare and Flood follow through the clues, question the living suspects and through interviews with Lizzie, Kildare gets into her history finding out how she met John Cree.

This takes us into her story, from a harsh early life she manages to find a place and begins to thrive in the theatre. She meets and becomes good friends with Dan Leno a star in the music halls and is taken under his wing. John Cree is a theatre critic and aspiring playwright who becomes besotted with Lizzie. The historical story crosses over with the present day investigation as Kildare struggles to identify the killer as Lizzie's husband before she feels the cut of the hangman's noose.

I found this to be a very enjoyable movie, the actors are all excellent, the settings and plot are engrossing and there is a bit of gruesome murder too, so something for everyone. Erm... well not for kids though... obviously!

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Nextflix Reviews - Tau

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Julia, (Maika Monroe), awakens in a cell along with 2 other prisoners, all of them captured to be tested and experimented on by Alex, (Ed Skrein), a cold, enigmatic science genius who is working on perfecting artificial intelligence. Seemingly without morals or emotion, Alex has implanted devices into his captives necks that collects data from them that needs to be tested and eventually extracted, a process that will prove fatal. 

Julia manages to free herself from the cell but is still trapped in Alex's house which is full of high tech drones and a security robot that stops anyone from escaping. These are controlled by an earlier AI creation, Tau, who Alex commands to make Julia take on a series of mental tests every day when he is out of the house.

The company he works for are on a deadline and time is running out, he has only so many days to test and remove her implant. The countdown is on for her to try and escape before she dies. Her only chance of escape is to convince Tau the AI to help her. Can she find more humanity from a computer than she can from the emotionless Alex?

I don't want to give any spoilers so I'll leave this review like that, it's a good film though with a cool concept, decent script, good acting and it's well paced. There is some gore but it's more a sci-fi thriller with some good tense scenes than a horror. Can Julia convince Tau to go against it's programming and help her? What makes a person a person? 

I was surprised when looking at the cast to find that Gary Oldman voiced Tau, I certainly never recognised him.

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Also starring Maika Monroe

    

Nextflix Reviews - Before I Wake

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Mark & Jessie a couple who lost their own child adopt another, Cody, who's had an unfortunate life. He lost his mother and then has been in a string of foster homes with not much success even being abandoned by one couple to fend for himself. He's a sweet kid and the couple soon take to him and he seems to be settling in nicely.

There is something a little odd though, we soon learn that he has an odd fear of sleeping, using stimulants to keep him awake. It seems that his dreams have effects in the real world, he has psychic powers or something that makes his sleeping visions manifest. When he does sleep for the 1st time it's beautiful as he dreams of butterflies much to the wonderment of Mark & Jessie. Later he dreams of Tate, the child they lost which seems like a miracle to them helping to aid them with the healing process perhaps although Mark thinks Jessie is taking advantage of Cody to see her son again causing a little friction between them.

The visions he projects soon start to take on a more sinister turn, as he has dark dreams, where his own personal nightmare, the Canker Man turn ups. Can his new family keep him safe from this terrible apparition, can they themselves survive it?

I thought this was a decent film, with an interesting premise and some nice chills, the acting and effects were good and the explanation tied it up very well at the end. It's only a 15 so don't expect it to trigger too many nightmares itself unless you are squeamish, although just because it's not super gory at all perhaps the concept of it might just makes your own dreams a little uneasy.

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Nextflix Reviews - The Outsider

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This film stars Jared Leto of not so popular Joker in Suicide Squad fame as Nick, The Outsider a westerner or gaijin, in the world of Japanese mobsters set in a post WWII era. He starts out in prison, we never get to find out how he came to be in the prison or much about his past at all really, apart from one small scene later in the movie. Whilst there he does a favour for a Yakuza member, Kiyoshi and is welcomed into the fold upon release. It soon becomes apparent he has a violent streak in him which makes him fit right in with his new associates, although as an American in post-war Japan and not having a vested interest in the Shirumatso family many of them do not really appreciate his presence. Kiyoshi perhaps feels an obligation towards him as he helped him in prison.

The pace of the movie is pretty slow in the main and the dialogue is quite minimal but it is far from boring. The movie charts his progress trying to gain acceptance, with mixed success, into his new family life among his new brothers learning their harsh rules and customs. The 4 watch words being honour, respect, loyalty and obedience all to the backdrop of a long running animosity with another family which slowly builds to a head where that code is tested.

Much of the dialogue is in Japanese so prepare for a lot of reading and they also do a lot of talking with their fists, knives, swords & guns too so expect a lot of blood and violence. I really thought it was a good film, two hours well spent.

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Nextflix Reviews - Clinical

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Dr. Jane Mathis a Psychiatrist whose speciality is post trauma patients is finally getting back into practise after a 2 year hiatus. She suffered a traumatic incident herself at the hands of one of her patients, Nora, a young girl who viciously attacked her with a shard of glass before slashing her own throat albeit non-fatally. She's been a patient herself having a colleague analyse her in the hopes of helping her to cope after the trauma but the memories and perhaps guilt are hard to shift.

When she renews her practise, she takes on a new patient, Alex, who is coming to terms with having a face transplant after getting hit by a vehicle. He feels he is no longer himself, the face looking back at him in the mirror is that of a stranger. Alex oversteps the Doctor/patient boundaries a few times, turning up at her home when he shouldn't be there. Initially she has trouble getting him to talk about the accident but slowly the backstory unfolds as his sessions go on and he is able to vocalise what happened. Also we see what happened with Nora through some flashbacks and also discover that Nora has been released. Nora turns up a few times at Jane's home which worries her and increases the intensity of her flashbacks and also has her fantasizing about new attacks. Things suddenly take a dramatic turn and she is left fighting for her freedom and her life. 

This film had some promise I felt but it ultimately left me feeling a tad disappointed. The protagonist's motives were dubious and didn't seem to make a lot of sense. After starting with a bang with the bloody attack scene the middle of the movie is like a slow fuse burning building up some intrigue and anticipation but then the end is just a damp squib that fizzles out. 

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Nextflix Reviews - Skin Trade

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I was doing my review of Kung-Fu Hustle a while back and got reminiscing and thinking that there just ain't as many cool martial arts movies coming out anymore. That's what got me having a search around for some of the cool stars I remembered and I came up with this winner from 2014. It stars Dolph Lundgren (He-man, Punisher) as Nick Cassidy and Tony Jaa, (Ong-bak series) as Tony Vitayakul in a really cool cops and martial arts movie. Dolph takes down the kingpin Viktor Dragovic played by Ron Perlman (Hellboy) who's son gets killed in the arrest. Viktor has Nick's wife and daughter killed and him left for dead. He doesn't die though and hellbent on revenge he travels to Asia where he ends up tangling with Tony after crooked FBI agent Reed played by Michael Jai White (Spawn) stitches him up making it look like he killed Tony's partner.

Dolph with Jaa wearing Hellboy's Hand of Doom!!

The action is pretty cool, Lundgren still looks like an authentic although slightly slower than in his heyday bad arse and his fights with Jaa are intense and believable. Size and strength Vs speed and youth makes for a good showdown. Can Nick get his revenge on Viktor without getting killed or arrested by Tony? Watch this film to find out!

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Nextflix Reviews - He Never Died

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Well I gotta say this is an interesting film, not what I expected and not similar to any other film I can think of, just very unique. In this film we have Jack who is an anti-social loner it seems. From the beginning of the film he comes off as being on the autistic spectrum with traits of Asperger's being mainly monosyllabic and very blunt and matter of fact in his limited interactions. I am not sure if he is having memories or audible hallucinations or just on the cusp of dreaming but you keep hearing sounds that seem to suggest a very violent history, with sounds of torment and war. Does he suffer from mental illness or is he about to have a breakdown?

He seems to spend his days sleeping, playing some bingo, going to the diner and meeting up with a guy in a carpark to buy mysterious packages from him. He gets disturbed from his routine by a daughter he never knew he had popping up in his life and also the guy he buys stuff from is in trouble with some others he owes money to who get Jack involved in their business. Without this guy to supply him with his stuff he gets a bit antsy and unpredictable which can be bad for those around him. He also has a waitress in the diner who seems inexplicably interested in him.

I don't want to give any spoilers, in fact I'd say don't read the film blurb as I think it gives away a fact of the film it'd be better to have revealed through watching. Damn even the cover of it gives it away slightly but I suppose they need something intriguing to pull the viewers in.

As well as these things going on in his life he also has a strange elderly man popping up now and again who he seems to be concerned about. Things escalate massively with the thugs and at 1st he seems to be trying to ignore them but things are forced upon him and he has to act. The whole time doing crazy stuff in an almost emotionless manner. It's a really dark, interesting, sometimes almost funny and certainly pretty unique film, I really enjoyed it but wouldn't know how to classify it exactly. Is it a horror? A thriller? An action movie? I dunno give it a watch and see what you think.

It stars Henry Rollins of Black Flag fame, he also did some solo music stuff, some other acting and some TV show presenting too as I recall. I just got into reading his bio on Wikipedia actually and he's done quite a lot of movie work, including the voices of Mad Stan in Batman Beyond, Benjamin Knox/Bonk in Batman Beyond: Return of Joker and Kilowog in Green Lantern: Emerald Knights!!

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Other movies with Henry Rollins

   

Nextflix Reviews - Pandemic

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The world is ravaged by a pandemic outbreak that has 5 stages of progression. At the 5th stage victims become mindless murderous savages. The story begins inside a safe zone where Dr. Lauren Chase (Rachel Nichols) is receiving instructions on a mission outside the zone she is being sent on.

Two teams are sent out looking for non-infected survivors and also a possible cure. This is Lauren's 1st mission outside the safe zone with her team. She is the team doctor but her lack of experience in the field could potentially harm the group as they travel out by bus looking for non-infected people in an urban area where they encounter desperate & mostly dangerous people suffering from various stages of the infection. Chase has more than just the official mission objective on her mind though, she has her own agenda and a secret she is keeping from her team. They soon come across the other team's bus with all but one of it's crew on board dead with no sign of the last member. Then slowly but surely her team whittles down in size, losing their bus along the way. Despite that though she still ploughs on with her own mission when any sensible person would be considering only their own survival.

Also stars Alfie Allan (Theon from Game of Thrones)

Much of the film is in 1st person, shot from the helmet cams of the team members. This idea has been used in quite a few films now and can often be quite jarring with the picture shaking around and everything filmed in near total darkness but it's actually done pretty well here with some gritty & visceral fighting sequences. In some fights the perspective moves from camera to camera which also works quite effectively to convey the chaos and panic of the life or death melee. It also provides a couple of nasty point of view scenes which I thought were pretty well done.

Overall I thought this was a pretty decent movie with some good ideas and action sequences, well worth checking out I'd say if you like a bit of horror.

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