Incident at Loch Ness (2004)

Director: Zak Penn. Cast: Werner Herzog, Zak Penn, Kitana Baker, Gabriel Beristain. 94 min. Rated PG-13. UK. Comedy/Horror.

What is fact? What "creates" truth? Werner Herzog is out to explore the collective truth (what people have decided to believe) about the Loch Ness Monster, but simultaneously his producer is making a movie about him. So is this merely a Herzog project with a con man as producer? Or is the whole film a set-up, with Herzog himself in on the con? Since I was hoping the movie had lingered on that question till the end, the fact that the answer becomes too obvious mid-movie, is disappointing. But the film is still a fun, memorable and even chuckle-worthy ride.

Mo says:

Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)

Director: Christopher McQuarrie. Cast: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris, Vanessa Kirby, Michelle Monaghan, Alec Baldwin, Angela Bassett, Wes Bentley. 147 min. Rated PG-13. Action/Thriller.

Watching this, I kept wondering: they've been making action movies forever, and here's still one that I'm glued to the screen, having adrenaline rush after adrenaline rush for the characters, during chase scenes involving cars, motorcycles, helicopters, running (yes! running!), through the most intricate plot, for two-and-a-half hours straight. And the movie knows since we're in the Game of Thrones/Infinity War hero-dying era, the stakes are higher than James Bond, because we'll ask: did Tom Cruise and his team just die? Mission Impossible has never been boring, but this next to Ghost Protocol is one of the best.

Mo says:

MoMagic!

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

Director: J.A. Bayona. Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall, Daniella Pineda, Isabella Sermon, James Cromwell, Toby Jones, Ted Levine, Jeff Goldblum, BD Wong, Geraldine Chaplin. 128 min. Rated PG-13. Sci-fi/Adventure.

It's okay. As a director, you loved Jurassic Park, so you want to pay respect in its fourth sequel, and therefore open with a dinosaur eating an employee. But you don't stop there. Your wide-eyed characters watch a brachiosaurus entering the Park/World. And again run from beasts (and lava) they thought they could handle. And again end up with the worst man-eater, in a museum, who learned how to turn doorknobs, who ate a lawyer, who is again attacked by a raptor at the climax. And I haven't even touched the surface. Instead of "paying respect", call it ...

Mo says:

Ghost Stories (2017)

Director(s): Jeremy Dyson, Andy Nyman. Cast: Andy Nyman, Martin Freeman, Paul Whitehouse. 98 min. Not Rated. UK. Horror.

I watched this not because it was a horror movie with a corny title, but to watch Martin "Dr. Watson/Bilbo Baggins" Freeman in a horror movie with a corny title. And I was regretting wasting my time on three supposedly scary ghost stories which solely relied on jump-scares and things-that-go-bump-in-the-night to tell tales that were otherwise not scary at all - because I watched this in daytime. But then the ending brought the three stories together in a way that was ... satisfying, to say the least, if not gratifying. That's what saved this from a No-Mo.

Mo says:

No Stone Unturned (2017)

Director: Alex Gibney. 111 min. Rated PG. UK/USA. Documentary.

1994. A few Irish were watching the Ireland-Italy World Cup match in a local pub ... to be suddenly massacred by masked terrorists. Alex Gibney's new investigative documentary pieces clues together on how these people were caught in the crossfire of the ghastly Northern Ireland guerrilla war (a.k.a. "The Troubles"), why the Irish and British governments both did nothing to find the culprits and covered it up, and most chilling, how informants are not only the dominated but domineering force before any police investigation. You'll rethink how democracies function; namely at the expense of a few murdered in a local pub.

PS: Available on Amazon Prime. Must see.

Mo says:

I Kill Giants (2017)

Director: Anders Walter. Cast: Madison Wolfe, Zoe Saldana, Imogen Poots. 106 min. Not Rated. Belgium/UK/USA. Drama/Fantasy.

A young girl sees and lays traps for giants to prevent them from attacking her small hometown. If you've watched A Monster Calls (or even haven't), you know early on the heroine suffers from a certain childhood trauma, and her visions and behavior are hallucinatory defense mechanisms to deny reality. The somewhat amateurish handling here is how long it takes for the filmmakers to uncover the truth we already know. While the ending contains some valuable moments, I found it hard to forgive the way it tugs at our heart strings. Just watch the far more effective A Monster Calls.

Mo says:

The Commitments (1991)

Director: Alan Parker. Cast: Robert Arkins, Michael Aherne, Angeline Ball, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Colm Meaney. 118 min. Rated R. Muscial/Comedy.

In the late 80s Dublin, working class youngster starts a soul music band. That bizarre combination flows throughout the movie, most hilariously displayed as the band's in-fighting behind the scenes, while simultaneously performing the perfect show on stage - creating genuine, tear-flowing laughs. It'd been a long time since I'd seen a movie with a heart. In fact, I don't recall ever seeing a 'bad' Alan Parker movie.

PS: Watching this, I suddenly realized where Irish director John Carney (Once, Begin Again, Sing Street) keeps copying his musical movie-making style from. Actually, Glen Hansard, the star of Once, is 'The Commitments' guitarist.

Mo says:

Columbus (2017)

Director: Kogonada. Cast: John Cho, Haley Lu Richardson, Parker Posey, Rory Culkin. 100 min. Not Rated. Drama.

The unusual friendship between a middle-aged Korean man, who arrives in Columbus to attend his famous architect father's deathbed, and a smart twenty-something year-old girl, who's stuck with her mom's companionship before moving out into the world. Among all this, Columbus' architecture (and its incredible framing in numerous shots) plays a major role in the story, even though I didn't know that's what Columbus is famous for (which I guess is the point - lost souls in a lost city). Reminiscent  of Paterson or Linklater’s Before trilogy, but the 98% on the Tomatometer is a tad too generous.

Mo says:

Polytechnique (2009)

Director: Denis Villeneuve. Cast: Maxim Gaudette, Sébastien Huberdeau, Karine Vanasse. 77 min. Not Rated. Canada. Crime/History.

One of the earlier films of Canadian auteur Villeneuve (Prisoners, Sicario, Arrival, Blade Runner 2049), based on the Montreal Massacre of 1989, where an anti-feminist murdered numerous engineering students. Obviously invites comparisons to Gus Van Sant's Palme d'Or winner, Elephant, based on the Columbine school shooting - and in those terms, even though Villeneuve dampens the violence by shooting in black-in-white, it's still too in-your-face disturbing, and nowhere as effective as Van Sant's off-screen violence. Incendies and Prisoners contain significant violence also, but this felt like Villeneuve used it to establish his roots. Okay, I was fast-forwarding the film. That disturbing.

Mo says:

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

Director: Peyton Reed. Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Micahel Douglas, Michael Peña, Hannah John-Kamen, Walton Goggins, Bobby Cannavale, Judy Greer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne. 118 min. Rated PG-13. Action/Sci-Fi.

More of the same, more of the same. Ant-man along with Deadpool, with their style deviations from the mainstream, were supposed to act as antidotes to superhero movie fatigue, but hey ... now they've copied them in sequels, which in effect neutralizes the philosophy of their primary existence! The only new element here could've been a cool-looking new villain, Ghost, but even she isn't sure whose side she's on. So we're left with a post-credits scene which is more captivating than the entire movie - considering you've seen and enjoyed Avengers: Infinity War, that is.

Mo says:

The Chamber (1996)

Director: James Foley. Cast: Chris O'Donnell, Gene Hackman, Faye Dunaway, Robert Prosky. 113 min. Rated R. Crime/Drama.

This was the only John Grisham-based movie I hadn't seen at the time, and I'm glad I it visited today. There was an era when we thought racists and the KKK were the fringe of the society; cool movie villains played around merely for entertainment purposes. Now we discover not only can they flip governments, they might even bring down democracies. This could've just been another 90's movie (curiously, films of the same decade almost all look and feel the same), but in the case of The Chamber ... not anymore.

Mo says: