[Review] - Evil Dead Rise (2023)

‘Evil Dead Rise’ is the latest installment in the long running ‘Evil Dead’ franchise. Gone is Bruce Campbell and in his place a close knit family led by a recently divorced mother (Alyssa Sutherland). After a violent earthquake rocks their rundown apartment, the kids stumble on the infamous book of the dead buried beneath the parking complex. Simple curiosity leads to disaster as the kids unwittingly unleash hell on earth. Soon after, the matriarch of the family becomes possessed by the deadites and once again, it’s spam in an apartment block.

‘Rise’ faithfully adheres to the tried and true ‘Evil Dead’ formula albeit with one major change. It transplants the action from a musty run down cabin in the remote forest to a deteriorating apartment block in downtown LA. The change of setting is somewhat appreciated. But unfortunately, ‘Rise’ does suffer from some of the same issues that plagued the 2013 remake.

Whereas the tone of the original trilogy was one of manic absurdity, ‘Rise’ is much more concerned with simply playing up the shock and awe factor by way of over the top gore. By comparison, Sam Raimi’s original films could be best described as anarchist as they played up an almost ‘Three Stooges’ style of physical comedy with gore in place of custard pies. Tonally speaking, ‘Rise’ is much more comparable to the sadistic nature of the 2013 remake. Although, to its credit, it does show a little more restraint. 

One of the most interesting things about the original ‘Evil Dead’ was how it presented the world surrounding it. The forest itself was a character in itself as it grew as equally deranged as those who were possessed by the deadites. By transplanting it to a rundown apartment, some of that feel is lost in the process as the apartment block has very little character. The residents that live within are all merely cannon fodder. As such, the apartment block itself isn’t exactly memorable.

That tangible quality of the world gone crazy is somewhat missing in ‘Rise.’ For instance, in the original ‘Evil Dead’, you have that surrealist moments such as the one where Ash reaches into a mirror only for it to turn into a puddle of water. It's surrealist flourishes like that which I could have done more with in ‘Rise.’

It does have some appeal. It’s nasty and grotesque in a way that should appeal to most hardcore of horror fans. The performances from all involved are very strong. Especially Alyssa Sutherland who once possessed gleefully hams it up to 11. It hits all the beats you expect from an ‘Evil Dead’ film. It’s incredibly slick in terms of production quality, but that may also be to its detriment. Another charm of the original film was its low budget punk rock nature. It was a film made by a group of ragtag friends for no money which only helped to lend to its absurdist charms. 

Much the same problem that plagued the 2013 remake, once you apply a slick studio budget, it does wind up stripping it a little of its modest charms. It’s a little like watching a garage band sell out to the corporate machine. As an ‘Evil Dead’ film? ‘Rise’ never quite lives up to the wild anarchic spirit of the original Raimi films from which it borrows. As a mindless gore fest? It's perfectly serviceable and adequate.

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Rating: 3 out of 5

-Daniel M

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[Review] Creed III (2023)

And so it has come to this. The 9th film in the never-say-die ‘Rocky’ franchise. Do I even really need to write a review for this? ‘Creed III’ is the perfect example of a film that is entirely critic proof. By this point, I think we’re all familiar with this story.

Who hasn’t seen at least one ‘Rocky’ film in their life? Who hasn’t sat with their blood pumping and heart racing while the epic montage shows us a passage of time as the hero gets stronger by the day? Who hasn’t sat on the edge of their seat, biting their nails as the epic final battle plays out?  Who hasn’t pumped their fists in the air in triumphant glory as the final bell rang? Who hasn’t felt that classic Bill Conti score pulsate through their bones in ecstasy? The staying power of this franchise has always been thanks to that never-say-die spirit that all of these films revel in and ‘Creed III’ is no different.

Picking up a few years removed from the previous film. Adonis (Michael B. Jordan) is now retired from the world of boxing and spending time with his wife (Tessa Thompson) and child in his lavish Hollywood Hills mansion. When Damian (Johnathan Majors), a childhood friend and former boxing prodigy, resurfaces after serving time in prison, he's eager to prove that he deserves his shot in the ring. Damian hooks up with Adonis and immediately badgers him for a title shot. Eventually, tensions boil between the two childhood friends as a bitter history reveals itself, setting up for the obligatory final showdown between the two raging bulls.

‘Creed III’ feels a bit like a potpourri as it rehashes elements from the original film, ‘Rocky III’ and, surprisingly, ‘Rocky V.’ Role reversals are the name of the game here. Adonis has gone from being the underdog looking for his shot to becoming the big shot. Meanwhile, Damian is the underdog, at odds with the world as he desperately seeks to prove himself. It’s a stand-out performance from Johnathan Majors that steals the show from a rather subdued Michael B. Jordan. It’s not the usual good vs. bad formula, but rather a tale of two men facing their childhood demons head to head in one epic showdown of almost anime proportions.

So, after 9 films of men slugging it out against each other, how can you possibly keep this visually arresting when just about every trick in the book has been played before? When there’s nowhere else to go, why not dare to go completely anime with it? Taking over directorial reigns from Ryan Coogler is first time director Michael B. Jordan, who manages to visually impress with an incredibly stylistic finale that isolates the two men from the crowd and really heightens the tension. I never thought I’d see the day when ‘Naruto’ would be informing the final fight scene of a ‘Rocky’ film, but by god, that day has come and to its credit, it somehow works without becoming a parody of itself.

It’s not without its flaws. The editing is a little haphazard. It does feel as if it were a longer film cut down significantly in the editing room to get to a 2 hour runtime. Some subplots are entirely lost along the way. It feels as if it's trying to juggle too much all at once. The third act kind of rushes by all too quickly and doesn’t do a particularly great job setting up the tension for the final fight. It really does feel like it was significantly edited down and winds up feeling a little haphazard in pace.

Also, the lack of Sylvester Stallone is both a curse and a blessing. On the one hand, it’s clear they wanted Creed to finally step out of Rocky’s shadow and become his own man. The plot doesn’t necessarily call for an appearance by Rocky, especially when it already runs the risk of being overcrowded. But at the same time, Rocky is the heart and soul of this franchise and his lack of presence is noticeable, but that’s a minor gripe.

‘Creed III’ is exactly what you expected it to be and there is nothing particularly wrong with that. It exhibits all the themes we’ve come to expect from this franchise. The will to fight against adversity, the will to prove one's self worth, the will to fight the demons that haunt us and the will to fight for love. These are the common themes that make a good ‘Rocky’ film and ‘Creed III’ continues proudly in that tradition without much in the way of fault. Like the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it.

-Daniel M

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[Review] Cocaine Bear (2023)

 

Taking its absurd premise from an actual true story. Which in Hollywood speak means completely made up. The true story goes that in 1985, a convicted drug smuggler was found dead after a failed parachute jump. The working theory has it that he was on-board a plane which contained hundreds of pounds of smuggled cocaine.  

Paranoid that the feds were on their tail, the smuggler threw some of the stash from the plane. The smuggler was found dead in Knoxville with roughly $15 million dollars of cocaine strapped to him and that was that. Four months later, a black bear was found dead in the nearby woods. The cause of death was determined to be an overdose of Cocaine.

‘Cocaine Bear’ takes that setup and simply asks “what if the bear didn’t die and went on a murderous cocaine-filled rampage instead?” Meanwhile, unwillingly caught in the path of the bear is a collective of human prey. 

Among this random group of rag tags are the hired gangsters looking to retrieve the bags of cocaine for their boss (Ray Liotta), a detective hot on their heels, the quirky park ranger, a group of wayward teens who like causing mischief by way of random stabbings and a mother (Keri Russell) who is searching for her rebellious daughter. Not to mention the raging, frothing at the mouth black bear looking for her next hit.

When the trailer for ‘Cocaine Bear’ dropped late last year, it was powered by the sounds of White Lines (Don’t Do It) by Melle Mel. The trailer itself was absurdly hilarious and promised a fun throwback to the likes of the great B-films made by Roger Corman. The question is, does the film actually deliver on that promise? The answer is yes and no. If anything, it actually winds up feeling much more in the vein of 80’s Spielberg as it becomes more about the “family” element.

Tonally speaking, it is a bit all over the place. For gorehounds, there is plenty of gore to be had. It plays up its hard R-rating by delivering an abundance of spilled intestines, dismembered limbs and the likes. All of which are mostly played for laughs. It proudly plays up the horror-comedy angle and that’s all well and good. Less intriguing were its human characters.

Outside of Ray Liotta’s chiseled hard-boiled mob boss, I’m hard pressed to remember anything about the rest of them. That’s a shame considering the film spends a large chunk of its first 40 minutes establishing them. The problem is they’re all mostly bland cannon fodder. The reality is we’re all here to see the antics of the strung out Bear itself leaving the human characters to feel like a distraction.

Director Elizabeth Banks pulls a lot of cues from the likes of Sam Raimi and The Coen Brothers. It proudly wears its influences on its sleeves and never apologizes for it. The park ranger alone feels like a character ripped directly out of ‘Fargo’ with her quirky Southern accent.

I won’t deny that I got a few laughs from it, mostly with the CG Bear itself. The animators clearly had a lot of fun mimicking the behaviors of taking Cocaine and transplanting it into a black bear. But it mostly suffers from the same problem that ‘Snakes on a Plane’ had, where the premise and title alone were absurd genius but the movie itself was just rather flat.

Much like many of those direct-to-VHS horror films of the 80’s, it’s another case of the end product being unable to live up to the somewhat genius marketing fuelling it. It’s not without its charms and audiences will most likely have a good time with it, but for myself? I guess I wanted it to be more Roger Corman and less 80’s Amblin.

- Daniel M

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[Review] Knock At The Cabin (2023)

It’s the end of the world! Earthquakes, volcanoes, planes falling out of the sky, cats and dogs living together. Mass Hysteria! And the only way it can be stopped is if one of three people sacrifices themselves for the greater good. Such is the premise of M. Night Shyamalan's latest film, 'Knock at the Cabin.'

What starts as a fun family vacation for Eric (Johnathan Croff), Andrew (Ben Aldridge) and their adopted daughter Wen (Kristen Cui) turns into a nightmare as four strangers turn up on the doorstep of their isolated cabin in the woods. Led by a hulking adonis of a man in white, Leonard (Dave Bautista), they lay claim to sharing visions of the World’s End. They hold the family captive and inform them that the only way to stop the pending apocalypse is if one of the family members is willingly sacrificed.

The questions come thick and fast. Is it a shared group delusion? Is it just a bunch of whack-job evangelical doomsayers targeting a gay couple and their kid? Or is it a sign of God's wrath, and is the world truly at stake? As the clock ticks down, a series of natural disasters begin to occur in the outside world, bringing it all further into question as to what is truly happening. Is it merely coincidence, or is it the end of all life as we know it?

‘Knock At The Cabin’ takes the old Hitchcock quote of placing the bomb underneath the table and letting the audience know it will inevitably go off and runs with it. It’s a simple, almost brilliant setup that delivers enough tension to keep the audience involved.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the film is how it plays against type regarding its characters. Leonard and his crew of home invaders are far from the menacing types you’d expect from a typical home invasion thriller. In fact, they are the politest set of home invaders you’ll see on this side of ‘Funny Games.’ Their actions mostly seem driven by fear, leading the audience to question their motives.

Dave Bautista turns in a surprisingly vulnerable performance as the group leader. It’s astoundingly well-played and further proof of the ex-wrestlers talent for acting as he dials down the theatrics and delivers a rather subtle performance.

Shyamalan intercuts the tension with glimpses of Eric and Andrew’s relationship beforehand. We find out that Andrew is driven by angst at his perceived persecution by the world regarding his homosexuality. Therefore, he’s far more willing to disregard their talk as the ramblings of god-fearing lunatics with an agenda. Meanwhile, Eric remains agnostically uncertain, which furthers the tension at bay.

For the most part, the film does well to keep the tension high throughout. But it does admittedly lose some steam going into the third act as it maybe over willingly answers too many of its own questions. It eventually goes from questioning the motives to becoming more about the ethical dilemma at hand. Maybe the one flaw it has is that it doesn’t add up to much of anything, at least in terms of something more thought-provoking or daring.

The central concept is intriguing but runs a little out of steam the more it unravels. The performances are outstanding and Shyamalan keeps the tension taut throughout. Even Rupert Grint of Ron Weasley fame gets a memorable performance for what little screen time he has. For the most part, outside of its characters, it checks all the usual boxes that come with your standard home invasion thriller. But still, I can’t deny that it felt like there was something a little lacking.

Given Shyamalan’s hard-on for surprising audiences, it’s relatively light on surprise come the end. But on the other hand, 'Knock At The Cabin' is an undeniably well-crafted thriller that is engaging for the most part. That said, I kind of wish the ending had transcended into something more memorable and challenging, given the circumstances of its characters.


-Daniel M

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