HCF Review - Gold Rush

BULLET IN THE HEAD (1990)

Of all John Woo’s Hong Kong projects this is probably the most overlooked, perhaps because it doesn’t star Chow Yun-fat, or perhaps because of its sometimes gruelling nature. The behind the scenes story is well known but after a disagreement with producer Tsui Hark about a third A Better Tomorrow the pair went their separate ways. The official third movie is best described as tepid; mistaking slow-motion for style. Bullet in the Head on the other hand is a bleak and blistering assault on the senses that uses its Vietnam scenery tell a nihilistic tale of brotherhood gone awry. Perhaps it’s just a metaphor for the end of a film-making partnership.

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Horror Bites - Man Yells at Cloud

NOPE (2022)

Nope is a weird movie. In a complementary sense; a long forgotten review of Get Out on this blog suggested that it should have been more unnerving and also funnier. Which is an oddly specific complaint that has been addressed here. The characters are more eccentric, the tone is more peculiar, and the horror moments are much stranger. Which is saying something when the overall vibe of the movie is a sci-fi adventure borrowing from UFO films as well as Jaws and other influences. But with all this going on does the film as a whole manage to be compelling beyond the sum of its parts?

Review Roundup - Eye of the Tiger

SEND HELP (2026)

Time for a double helping of people surviving dire situations and overcoming certain doom. In the case of Send Help the ideal version of this story was already told in Hell in the Pacific; pitting an unlikely duo stranded on an island against each other. However, this is also the return of Sam Raimi who hasn't directed anything fun for very a long time. The couple of misfires after 2009's Drag Me To Hell don't really count and perhaps he agrees; teaming up with Rachel McAdams from Doctor Strange and giving her something more interesting to do. Let's see if it works and whether the old Evil Dead magic is still present and correct...

HCF Review - Déjà Vu

RIVER (2023)

While Junta Yamaguchi’s Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes asked what someone might do if they could see (a very short time) into the future, this later project asks what might happen if that same amount of time kept repeating itself. Taking the concept from Groundhog Day and shrinking it down so much doesn’t seem like a great idea. How can there even be enough room to tell a story and what could it really have to say? However, by combing this micro-scale with a group of characters who all become trapped in the experience it does something both familiar and fresh with the premise.

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HCF Review - Summer Daze

SUMMER TIME MACHINE BLUES (2005)

Time travel stories exist in a variety of formats whether they’re deadly serious or farcical, but sometimes it’s fun to sit back and enjoy a story with low stakes. In this case the rather silly tone disguises a well planned time-warp adventure, even if the story revolves around some kids trying to kill time during a heatwave. However, the plot is in the realm of something like Twelve Monkeys where the timeline is set rather than Back to the Future (which gets name dropped). The results might not be as tightly scripted as its successor Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes but it’s highly enjoyable, so let’s take a look at why.

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