Creep Blue Sea

A bit Karate Mid but somehow worth it for a good old fashioned freeze frame ending and that pizza based pun.
Latest local Vue nonsense: the dude to my left taking about seven posed selfies in his seat for no apparent reason before the film. Actually, you do you buddy.
Very effective single location thriller which remains stressful and tense throughout. Leaves a lot to be theorised as well, in a good, campfire story sort of way.
Two things let it down a bit for me: that the voice on the phone (not the daughter, the other one) was such a tonally off performance, sounding more like someone doing a spooky voice for an audiobook, that I never once bought into it being a real person on the other end…
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Everything from the character focus, fun action, lack of pointless cameos, strong overarching themes, team dynamics, location filming and a post credits that feels like its leading to something we're a) actually going to see soon and b) is relevant to the wider narrative, makes this the best phase 1/2 era MCU entry living in phase 5.
And hey, they finally ended a phase with a new Avengers film again. Sort of.
Latest local Vue nonsense: a left side speaker (in screen 1!) emitting a low level but contant hiss throughout. Dickhead free though - thanks 9.30am showing.
Now we know how Paul Rudd stays so young.
Didn't expect this to lean into Jurassic Park as much as it did but i appreciated how hard it went into that territory in the last (if too padded out) act.
Nearly all but abandons any character motivation it takes pains to setup with the rich family earlier on but you know what, that side of the commentary was kinda going nowhere.
Oh, will always appreciate a Dan Romer involved score too.
It's the battle of the nepo babies - Quaid vs Nicholson!
If this had had Paul Dano in the lead, he most definitely would not have been OK.
Lots of great Boimler screams in this.
Latest local Vue nonsense: the BBFC title card that came up was for The Alto Knights prompting one panicked walkout but then it was Novocaine that played anyway. I swear...
I think it's been so long since a non Deadpool, non cosmic (The Marvels), non Guardians and non shit (Quantumania) MCU flick that we've forgotten what the perfectly fine ones are like, which is my way of saying I don't think this deserves the drubbing it's been getting but nor is it in any way outstanding.
Clearly done a dirty through rewrites, reshoots, poorly shot scenes, delays and a marketing campaign that seemed to have decided early on to blow…
Too much Man, not enough Wolf.
In fact, this could actually be called Scaly Infected Body Horror Man cause there ain't no wolf here.
But despite what this isn't, what this is is a fairly stripped back, genuinely tense little thriller with some great ideas (sound design representing the heightened senses, night vision etc), hampered by a drawn out central siege conceit that plays out almost in real time, falling back on some overly familiar tropes while it's at it.…
Good for Her (2013)
Like Barbarian, loved the complete upending of expectations every 20 minutes or so, just a really fun way to keep evolving a premise that could get stuck in the mud fast. I also think it's easy to overlook how tonally different/unsuccessful something like this can be with bad actors but Thatcher, Quaid and Gage are brilliant throughout.
A great time at the movies - even despite the attempt to ruin it by a Vue staff member…
In this screening... there was a presence.
(A member of staff had left their walkie talkie on a chair on the front row and twice during the film, I heard a disembodied voice say stuff like "alright mate, can you help me at the tills with these tickets?" Terrifying).
This would make for a compelling double feature with In a Violent Nature , the recent 'slasher from the POV of the killer', in that they're both technically horror films (well,…