The Reckoning
I watched this last night as part of Leeds Film Festival (they've made most of their choices available online this year for obvious reasons).  The quick version - it's terrible.  However it has opened my eyes to an altogether more interesting tale.

The film first then.  It's a period horror of sorts, in which a woman loses her husband to the plague and then is accused of being a witch after spurning the advances of the local squire.  One of the great frustrations of the film is that it's not entirely hopeless.  Director Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, The Descent, erm -  the Hellboy remake) knows how to direct an action set piece for instance. Where he is less competent is at directing actors, or script writing (he is a co-writer along with Edward Evers-Swindell and star Charlotte Kirk - of whom more later.)  The script is, in fact, so wonderfully clunky, that at various points I found myself laughing out loud, and both my wife and I spent the first 20 minutes or so unsure as to whether or not it was meant to be a comedy,

Most of the film consists of the interrogation and torture of the accused witch - Marshall cuts away enough to prevent this from entering torture porn territory, but there's no getting away from the fact that it's mainly a film about doing awful things to a largely defenceless woman.  All of which is a lead up to the inevitable revenge, and when, after an eternity, it finally arrives, the film suddenly becomes vaguely entertaining.  (As I say, Marshall knows how to film this stuff).

Whilst we're waiting though, we're treated to some of the worst acting I've seen in a film with, well, any kind of budget.  The only exception is Sean Pertwee - usually a guarantee of enjoyable hamminess, here elevated to Olivier status by virtue of acting opposite animated lumps of mahogany. Chief offender is the film's star, Charlotte Kirk.  Kirk sports an awkward posh English accent, that occasionally dips into Cockney for no reason, and which seems quite at odds with the dodgy Sean Bean impressions adopted by everyone around her.  Her emotional range is a fixed as her physical appearance.  A statement that becomes particularly damning when you consider that at no point in the film is she without perfect hair and make up - not when waking in her hovel, not when digging her husbands grave, not when randomly masturbating on a grimy cell floor, not when having implements of torture inserted into her.  Presumably the enthusiastic young man who delivers her bread and water throughout the movie, was also bringing lippy and hair straighteners.

It's a bizarre mess of a film, with little hints that it could, possibly, have been something more interesting.  Ultimately it left me with the overwhelming question of how Kirk managed to get herself cast in the lead role despite having no discernible talent.  So I googled her.

The first thing to note is that she's Neil Marshall's fiancée.  This is possibly explanation enough for both the lead role and the writing credit.  Perhaps, I told myself, this is a Jovovich/Anderson type deal. Which is fair enough.

However the picture's much murkier than that.  It's a long, complicated story, and it's evident that there are various conflicting versions of it, that lawyers are continuing to work through.  It's a story that's resulted in at least two major Hollywood moguls losing their jobs - as summarised in a lengthy piece here.  The quick version seems to be (and this is just one almost certainly unfair take) that Kirk came to Hollywood confidently believing that to be a movie star you simply had to sleep with the right people - and met the sort of sleazy bastards who were only to happy to exploit that.  The difference in her story compared to many other vulnerable young Hollywood actresses, is that when said arseholes didn't deliver on their side of the bargain, she didn't take no for an answer, and screwed them over in return.

(Marshall, for what it's worth, appears to just genuinely really like her - though he's now being accused, along with her previous boyfriend, of extortion.)

In short, the film is terrible, don't bother with it.  But the story of how this woman with no discernible talent ended up the star of a movie is much more interesting...

tigersgogrrr wrote:

It is

Spoiler:

I See You.

Tigro got it and yeah it is a spoiler so don't click his spoiler if you don't want a spoil.

I totally didn't remember the majority of the film.

Lynne Ramsey's next film is an adaptation of my favourite Stephen King book, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. Let's fuckin gooooooo

The Daddy wrote:

tin_robot wrote:

The Reckoning

Reads like a [7], will give it a shot. Thanks for the heads-up.

I guess it could be a 7, if it's a large enough scale...

It is a much more grounded novel, where the horror is based in a real world situation. The high concept pop line is and it goes from there.

b0r1s wrote:

Skip on to Arrival

Then skip back to 2001




In other news last night I watched Trading Places for the first time. How that gave me the slip for so long Ill never know.

^yeah; good enough film. Just overshadowed by the two greatest American films of all time.

Still. I wish they’d just let dying horses sleep.  Or dead horses sleep. Or something.

hylian_elf wrote:

^yeah; good enough film. Just overshadowed by the two greatest American films of all time. Still. I wish they’d just let dying horses sleep.  Or dead horses sleep. Or something.

Agreed. That should be the end of it.

I like things to end. It's why I prefer films and mini series to TV series. TV series peter out into mediocrity too often and I always feel like I'm being strung along and I lose interest.

Tell me a story and then have the balls to end it and move on.

b0r1s wrote:

Skip on to Arrival

Then skip back to 2001 In other news last night I watched Trading Places for the first time. How that gave me the slip for so long Ill never know.

And you lloved it right?  Right?  RIGHT?

Damn straight son! Wonderful to find a previously unwatched 80s classic.
Im going to rewatch Planes, Trains in the next couple o days.

Trading Places is the peak of that era. Wonderful cast all on form. Wonderful film.

Been meaning to watch that.

John Bronco

40 minute mockumentary about John Bronco (Walton Goggins). Face of the Ford Bronco ad campaign for 30 years until he disappears.
The film explores his rise and fall in your classic talking head style.
A great reel of gags based on American advertising throughout the mid to late 20th century.

Not all the gags land but there are more than enough laughs in there and the short run time means the gags come thick and fast.
The highlight being the Baha Bronco 8 Bit videogame that nails the crappy licensed games of the era.

[8]

I really want someone else to watch John Bronco.
@NickMD might get a kick out of it, there are lots of cowboy hats and general mid century cowboy attire.

LivDiv wrote:

I would rather gouge my eyes out than watch a Veronica Mars film. Why is there a film? 

Is that the show she is in in that movie with Russel Brand?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-mars-movie-project

I've got no idea what the second question is asking.