Blink Twice

Official Australian release date: 22/8/24. Viewed: 26/8/24.
Director: Zoe Kravitz
Actors: Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Alia Shawkat, Adria Arjona
Genre: Thriller / Mystery
Rating: MA

‘Blink Twice’ is a psychological thriller with a simple premise – Frida (Ackie) and Jess (Shawkat) are friends and waitresses who somehow wind up on an Elon Musk-style billionaire’s island. In this case, Slater King (Tatum)’s undisclosed Mexican island, lounging by a pool and drinking all day. What could go wrong? Be careful what you wish for!

The cast is stacked, with Slater’s friends and/or employees including Vic (Christian Slater), Tom (Haley Joel Osment), Stacy (Geena Davis) and Rich (Kyle MacLachlan). We see a sort of bond form between Frida, Jess, Sarah (Arjona), Camilla (Caribel) and Heather (Mullen) and it’s nice to see them evolve from party girls to actual characters. Mostly easy to follow, as there’s only about 12 characters, all good. The film takes time to establish things, with nothing going too astray too quickly, and some of the editing keeping you on your toes.

There’s a little bit of ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’, ‘White Lotus’ and ‘The Menu’ about it – while there’s some horrific moments in the final act, nothing overly gory or terrifying. But there’s certainly plenty of “that’s messed-up” moments and there is quite a few hints dropped along the way which to come together pretty well. Some laughs as well to balance some of the tension, and a very satisfying ending, all in under 100min.

Overall: Well-made directing debut/thriller

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars

Alien: Romulus

Official Australian release date: 15/8/24. Viewed: 20/8/24.
Director: Fede Alvarez
Actors: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced
Genre: Sci-Fi / Horror
Rating: MA

‘Alien: Romulus’ is the 9^th ‘Alien’ film, and is technically the sequel to the original 1979 ‘Alien’, chronologically falling between it and ‘Aliens’. Thankfully, it takes lots of inspiration from both of those films and while not quite as great as them, comes closes in many respects. The film is called “Romulus”, as that’s the name of a space station our 6 main characters find abandoned, due to whatever experiments they were doing.

A lot of this film working is due to it focusing only on 6 characters and giving them each a bit of time to become sympathetic to – Rain (Spaeny), android Andy (Jonsson), Tyler (Renaux), Kay (Merced), Bjorn (Fearn) and Navarro (Wu). How many will survive? Great silent/‘Jurassic Park’-like start, then quick intro to these 6 characters, then they’re on the “Romulus” and the face-huggers are skittering everywhere – great stuff!

There’s some good tense moments, a few jump scares, a familiar face, a truly-disturbing xenomorph at the end and a strong score. I was very impressed with the visuals/CGI of the planet and it’s Saturn-like rings and how they were used to bring urgency to the final act. It’s probably 15min too long overall, with some head-making decisions towards the end. But is has a strong cast with Rain not being too much like Ripley, and the xenomorph not being too powerful, but nor easy-to-kill – still always great to see emerging from the shadows! Does well to fit into the overall ‘Alien’ storyline and is exciting enough as a standalone sci-fi film.

Overall: Very strong Alien story

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars

 

Trap

Official Australian release date: 1/8/24. Viewed: 4/8/24.
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Actors: Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills
Genre: Thriller
Rating: M

‘Trap’ is M Night Shyamalan’s 16^th film, and is similar to his last few films (‘Old’ and ‘Knock at the Cabin’): a decent concept full of promise, but never truly becomes too exciting or engaging. This time, we follow Cooper (Hartnett) and his daughter Riley (Donoghue) at a pop concert, which is fictional singer Lady Raven (M Night’s daughter, Saleka). There’s lots of police and FBI at the concert (allegedly in Philadelphia, even though it’s filmed in Ontario) as they try to catch a serial killer.

The twist is given away early, with Cooper revealed to be the killer and main character, with the FBI profiler, Dr Grant (Mills) relegated to supporting cast, the opposite of most crime thrillers. There’s another slight twist in the final act, but nothing of ‘The Sixth Sense’ or ‘The Village’ scale. About 75% of the film takes place at the concert, so it kind of feels M Night is trying to shoehorn a star-making turn for his daughter into the film.

Some pretty “very unlikely” moments throughout, but Hartnett and Donoghue are both solid. Some interesting camera choices, almost too obvious, which is how I was left feeling at the end too – not a bad film, but nothing truly memorable or special either. Glad M Night is still making original films, but expected a bit more.

Overall: Not scary enough for a thriller

Gav's Rating: 3 stars