Oliver Battershall

Rabid Dogs (1974) 3.5/5
A stressful, grimy, painful movie whose great sense of tension kept me gripped despite my general aversion to 70s Italian sleaze. Full of low-budget charm with a good soundtrack and plenty of little twists and turns. I always enjoy when a group of enemies just can’t stop bickering among themselves.

True Romance (1993) 3/5
A very tonally odd movie. Nothing wrong with the dork-turned-tough-guy trope in principle but Christian Slater’s performance makes this lead character feel relatively unlikeable. This isn’t helped by Tarantino’s imperfect writing, it’s hilariously obvious that this is his self-insert character and as much as I love the guy I don’t think he quite has the self-awareness to realise it’s a character that remains a dork just putting on a desperate persona and the oft scantily clad Arquette’s adoration of him is a bit inexplicable. The Hans Zimmer score is similarly bizarre, who signed off on jolly steel drums accompanying a romantic noir? That being said I thought Gandolfini and Walken were great, and the action scenes were fun.

Fallen Angels (1995) 3.5/5
Feels like a bit of an outlier among the other two big Wong Kar-wai movies I’ve seen, not just in its less conventional love story but also in that I didn’t connect with this quite as much as his others. I really enjoyed the intimate handheld cinematography and the soundtrack, but sometimes struggled to connect with the characters and ambitious narrative structure.

Team America: World Police (2004) 3.5/5
I finally watched the film that everyone was singing the songs from back in secondary school. They were probably my favourite part. My one issue with this is the same reason I was never able to get that into South Park by the same creators, it’s their reliance on misguided bothsidesism that means they always fall just short of saying something meaningful. I enjoyed the ridiculing of the USA’s destructive foreign policy, but as annoying as the liberal Hollywood elite are it felt odd that Parker and Stone are insistent on poking fun at them to the same extent. That being said it’s a fun time and anything that makes me want to watch Captain Scarlet can only be a net positive.

In the Name of the Father (1993) 4.5/5
Few films have ever been so successful in creating sheer anger and disgust in me. Day-Lewis gives a flawless performance in an utterly brilliant drama fuelled by such ardent belief in its subject matter. The father-son dynamic in this is one of the most memorable I’ve ever seen, a really great simple deconstruction of the generational disconnect rife in that time and place. Really moving, and that ending was maybe the only time I’ve gone “ohhhhh” at a title drop.

Waterloo (1970) 4.5/5
One of the finest war movies I’ve ever seen. The sheer scale of warfare is on perfect display with beautifully composed wide and aerial shots of billowing smoke and soldiers cascading down hills. There’s 15,000 costumed extras to boot, the most of any movie ever made! The sound design warrants a mention, I felt the brutal sonic weight of each firing cannon ripple through me. I also really enjoyed the film’s distinct flair and sense of humour, especially when it comes to gradually dismantling the pomp and pageantry of Napoleonic warfare. Speaking of which, Steiger is a brilliant Napoleon and his whispered segments of mental narration gave me chills. Add a healthy dose of Leone-esque rapid switches between close-ups and wide shots and you’ve got a must-watch, despite the long list of historical inaccuracies typed up by some massive nerd on the movie’s Wikipedia page.

Dracula (1931) 3.5/5
I’ve been a certified Whitby appreciator for most of my life so it was about time I finally started consuming some Dracula-related media (unless the Nosferatus count? Ha, Count. I digress). This was quite pleasant, though sadly “talking about spooky stuff” outweighs “spooky stuff” since the runtime doesn’t leave much breathing room for cool set pieces after all the lore is put across. By the way Dracula just ignores the whole thing about not entering a house unless invited in this? That’s cheating! Lugosi and Frye are fun and I appreciated the pinch of camp that maybe would’ve been embraced more had this been made later. (Case and point, Dracula saying “I never drink…wine”.)

Escape from New York (1981) 3.5/5
I really enjoyed seeing so many elements in this that inspired and were referenced by Kojima for the Metal Gear Solid franchise, it’s always nice to see what’s influenced the art you love. Come to think of it, Carpenter’s signature thing of having a badass hero navigate a world ravaged by many mysterious enemies lends itself quite naturally to the video game medium. This generally felt quite unpolished with some audio imperfections and a runtime that doesn’t allow for much meat on the bones of the story. I certainly would’ve liked to see more inventive weapon usage considering the Bond-esque sprawl we saw of them in the lab at the beginning. However, never underestimate the power of a cast full of actors who make you say “Oh nice, they’re in this!” (Van Cleef, Pleasence, Borgnine, Hayes, Stanton etc). The biggest compliment I can give Kurt Russell is that he’s always who’s popped into my mind when I try to visualise an action hero. Only now it’s with an eyepatch.