Kong: Skull Island (2017)

Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts

Notable Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Brie Larson, Jing Tian, Toby Kebbell, John Ortiz, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Shea Whigham, Tomas Mann, Eugene Gordero, John C. Reilly

There are essentially two kind of King Kong movies. You have the more serious adventure ones that mean to paint Kong as a kind of tragic figure who is betrayed by humanity which is represented by the original 30s version and Peter Jackson’s 2005 remake. Then you have the silly Kong films, best represented by the Toho versions (King Kong vs Godzilla and King Kong Escapes) and to a lesser extent King Kong Lives. While the initial trailers made out the latest Kong film, the second in Legendary’s new expanded Monsterverse that includes 2014’s Godzilla, to be something more serious and drawing on plenty of Vietnam war imagery, this film is far more akin to the latter films than the previous. This is not a remake. This is not some kind of morality tale outside of the subtext. This is a giant monster film. This is pure kaiju cinema worship and it never takes a breather from its intent as being an entertaining popcorn flick. Don’t expect to be blown away by thoughtful characters, dynamic plotting, or even logical progression because that is not what Kong: Skull Island is about. This film is about big monster fights and giving the audience their money’s worth in outrageous entertainment.

Girl with All the Gifts, The (2017)

Director: Colm McCarthy

Notable Cast: Sennia Nanua, Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine, Glenn Close, Fisayo Akinade, Anamaria Marinca, Dominique Tipper, Anthony Welsh

For a while there, thanks to shows like The Walking Dead, zombies came back as all the rage. Sure, that trend perhaps started with Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake, but it finally started to die out a few years ago as the casual horror viewer moved onto other trends like vampires, werewolves, or the current demonic ghost/witch that is haunted up the cineplexes. Thank God. It was getting to the point that I just didn’t give a shit about zombies anymore and being raised on the genre, it felt a bit like betrayal. Still, there are a handful of zombie films that pop up now and again, but they are usually of a higher quality and a bit more effective. Last year we got the South Korean melting pot Train to Busan which was excellent and effective at its use of modern zombies. This year, we already have a runner to be the zombie flick to beat, The Girl with All the Gifts. Unlike Train to Busan, The Girl with All the Gifts attempts to use its zombie tropes and superb execution to take the genre into some familiar, but fresh feeling territory. At its heart, it might still be a Day of the Dead kind of zombie film, but its attempts at crafting a social commentary and very impressive characters makes it a heartfelt and emotional film worthy of the praise it has already been receiving.

Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So (2017)

Director: Jian Yong Guo

Notable Cast: Zhi Hui Chen, Jun Cao, Mei Ying Wang

When HBO Asia announced that they would be getting into the exclusive content trend with a couple of films based on Chinese folk heroes, I must admit that I was pretty excited. Not that I was expecting these films to be award winning or even all that great in quality, but the idea that martial arts films were going to be a growing commodity and even get a US release was one I can get behind. The first of the two films for this double header was Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So, based on the folk hero that serves as an origin story of sorts. The film itself is a mixed effort, suffering from its low budget and some cheesy stylistic choices, but all in all it remains an entertaining film that has enough charm and fun moments to not be a total bust.

Don't Knock Twice (2017)

Director: Caradog W. James

Notable Cast: Katee Sackhoff, Lucy Boynton, Javier Botet, Nick Moran, Jordan Bolger, Pooneh Hajimohammadi, Richard Mylan, Ania Marson

Looking back, I guess it’s pretty easy to say that the new trend in horror is creepy and demonic witches. Replacing the long dark haired young girl ghosts and pretty vampires of the last few trends, this does seem to be a welcome change of pace as it feeds into the recent trend of atmospheric horror that dominated the genre last year. The latest entry into this style is Don’t Knock Twice. Don’t let the gimmicky, tongue-in-cheek, throwback title fool you though, Don’t Knock Twice is less about being a quirky homage to decades prior of the entire ‘don’t’ title horror movement and instead it’s a modern atmospheric witch film to be lumped in together with the likes of Lights Out or the recent spin on Blair Witch. Of course, that does mean that the film does have a certain mainstream consumable nature to the entire thing with its high production values and easy to understand plotting. However, it does retain a few aces in its sleeve to make it a fun and enjoyable horror experience and one that deserves more attention than it has received thus far.

Logan (2017)

Director: James Mangold

Notable Cast: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen, Richard E. Grant, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Eriq La Salle, Elise Neal

The X-Men franchise has seen its ups and downs, but it’s only when one of the entries into this almost 20 year franchise takes a risk on something new that it finds itself resonating after the fact. Outside of X2, which remains perhaps the purest and most potent of the basic formula, these chances have paid off. The time setting and new cast in First Class, the time hopping nature and epic tone of Days of Future Past, or even the samurai cinema motifs of The Wolverine have made the franchise worth following even if it occasionally stumbles into some rocky territory of execution (I’m looking at my copy of X-Men: Apocalypse right now.) The latest entry into the series and third for the spin-off franchise to feature Wolverine as the lead character is not only one of those films that takes a chance with its western style inspiration and R-rating, it’s the best that this franchise has seen thus far. Logan is a film that not only entertains in an action film manner and quirky humor that has always come with Wolverine as a character, but its messages of a life time of violence and regret, partnered with a focus on familial drama, and a timely expansion of its X-Men themes that make it piece of cinematic art that will last longer than any of the previous entries. This is not only an X-Men spin off, this is truly a film that encompasses the heart and soul of a character bound for the history books and it’s executed with the precision and artful grace of inspired cinema. Logan is not only the superhero film we all wanted, it’s the superhero film that this genre desperately needed.

Headshot (2016)

Directors: Timo Tjahjanto, Kimo Stamboel

Notable Cast: Iko Uwais, Danny Pang, Julie Estelle, Very Tri Yulisman, Zack Lee, David Hendrawan, Epy Kusnandar

The Mo Brothers have impressed me since I saw Rumah Dara (the short film) years ago. Onward with the full-length feature, Macabre, I sank myself into the world of Timo Tjahjanto and Kimo Stamboel's twisted minds. A few years later, they unleashed Killers, and while I don't love it quite as much as I did on initial viewing, it's still quite solid. Needless to say, when their project The Night Comes for Us (with Joe Taslim of The Raid and Fast and Furious fame) went under, I was gutted. Also, like their fellow director and friend, Gareth Evans (The Raid), the Mo Brothers had a plan B for their failed project, and that comes by way of Headshot a.k.a by far the best thing the Mo Brothers have done to date.

War of the Worlds - The Final Season (1989-1990)

WAR OF THE WORLDS - THE FINAL SEASON

After surprisingly enjoying the first season more than I thought I would, I was eagerly awaiting to see how the show panned out in it’s second and final season. Well to my surprise the producers decided to COMPLETELY CHANGE THE FUCKING SHOW! Seriously I have never seen a show have more of a tonality shift between seasons than with this second season of War of the Worlds. One can easily tell I was not happy with the changes and the proved this was the FINAL season for a reason.

War of the Worlds - The Complete First Season (1988-1989)

WAR OF THE WORLDS - THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON

The 1953 film adaption of H.G. Wells’ classic alien invasion novel “The War of the Worlds” left a deep impression on me when I was a child as I watched it numerous times with my father. I also have vague memories of watching this late 80s sequel television series with him as striking images of grotesque three fingered creatures grasping for victims implanted themselves in my memory. After rewatching the classic original film with my wife I figured it was time to revisit those vague nostalgic memories of the television show by viewing both seasons which I received as a birthday present. Well my memories were not distorted by time as the show was every bit as graphic as I remember and even being a tad better than I was expecting for a late 80s late night Canadian produced television program.

Iron Monkey, The (1977)

Director: Chen Kuan-Tai

Notable Cast: Chen Kuan-Tai, Kam Kong, Wilson Tong Wai-Shing, Shut Chung-Tin, Leung Kar-Yan (Beardy), Chi Kuan-Chun

Also known as: Iron Monkey, Bloody Monkey Master, The Iron Monkey of Shaolin, School of Shaolin

The Iron Monkey is a film that always seems to come with the highest of recommendations from kung fu fans. However, my initial viewing of the film, some ten years ago, wasn’t one that left a mark on me. It was good, but your standard kung fu flick. So, it was high time to revisit the film and see if it would have improved over time, remain in the same echelon, or fall to being one of those overhyped flicks made popular by the will power of a vocal few. Fortunately, The Iron Monkey is a film that I found more impressive this time around than I did the first time as it plays its style loose and straight forward. It is not, however, the instant classic that belongs in the upper levels of the genre that I find so many fans claiming. If anything, the film is fun and shows a lot of interesting character depth that makes it solid watch and if a viewer goes into it with that mindset then The Iron Monkey is a film eager to please.

XX (2017)

Directors: Roxanne Benjamin, Sofia Carrillo, Karyn Kusama, Annie Clark, Jovanka Vuckovic

Notable Cast: Natalie Brown, Melanie Lynskey, Breeda Wool, Christina Kirk, Michael Dyson, Sheila Vand, Mike Doyle, Susan Jacobs, Angela Trimbur, Kyle Allen, Peter DaCunha, Peyton Kennedy

At this point, the horror anthology has become something of a gimmick. Not that I’m complaining, far from it as I love short horror films and these kinds of anthologies give young and/or upcoming artists a chance to strut their stuff in front of a larger audience. Yet, at this point they have become such a regular occurrence that the marketing and approach must rely on a hook to attract its audience. For XX, the idea behind its series of short films is that they are all directed by women. While the fact that this even should exist as a “gimmick” irritates me to some degree (the gender gap issue in the film industry is a huge problem and one that needs to be rectified immediately), but it’s wonderful that this film wanted to showcase four very talented film makers in this manner. It helps that XX is a great horror anthology too. It’s not perfect as a film on the whole, lacking the narrative flow to get all the segments to work together, but each one is an entertaining romp of a different approach that does its job as a short horror film. Horror fans will find something to love here and it comes with a strong recommendation.