Speed Demon

Autumn is getting closer and you know what that means. This is the beginning of the season when The Hallmark Channel prepare to release all of their 200 Christmas movies....oh sorry, i meant 204 titles. They are so many it is easy to loose track. Of course they will release their autumn season inspired films at first, and it always seems like The Hallmark Channel posters are so polished that you can´t even make them look filthy. If i am going to watch any Hallmark films it will be Christmas inspired stories, because they are extremely cheesy, with terrible acting and everyone looks like they just had an orgasm underneath the mistletoe. So yes, i would say i am quite easy to entertain. While i do watch some of these terrible films, i prefer to watch Christmas horror movies instead if im being completely honest. Because they can actually be good for a number of reasons, especially if we are talking about classic ones such as the 1974 horror film Black Christmas, I remember the very first time i watched this film, it was a UK DVD release from the distrubution company Tartan Video ( they had a huge catalogue of DVD releases back in the early 2000´s ). A pretty well made Christmas horror movie, with a great cast such as Margot Kidder, Olivia Hussey ( from the TV mini series Stephen King´s IT ) and of course John Saxon ( from the 1984 classic A Nightmare On Elm Street ). The 1974 film Black Christmas is like a traditional slasher horror film, with a simple but effective plot. Worth picking up on physical media especially from distribution company 101 Films. In 2006 we got ourselves a remake of the same name, with a cast full of names i have never heard of before, except for actress Andrea Martin who was in the original Black Christmas film as well. The 2006 remake didn´t have anything unique to offer or felt like a worthy remake to the 1974 film. They did try making a more modern take on Black Christmas, too bad it falled pretty flat. However, it was in this horror remake i encountered actress Katie Cassidy for the very first time. She would later be found in the TV series known as Arrow, which is actually pretty good. I knew that Katie have a role in a horror film called Speed Demon, where she fights the forces of evil on board a train. This film have no physical release yet from what i could see, so i had to rent the film on VOD to actually see it. Being a fan of exorcism horror films in general, is Speed Demon exatly what we need to see as we enter autumn or is this a film you might as well skip and choose a better title in this specific genre?

Sister Lu ( Katie Cassidy ) is travelling on a train with Father Novak ( William H. Macy )), who knows about her struggling addiction past. Sister Lu is still to this day trying to deal with her personal problems, while doing God´s work helping Father Novak. As the journey go on, something strange begins to happen on board this train. It is almost as if an evil force have entered this train to attack Sister Lu and challenge her faith in God.

I have probably seen at least 60 exorcism movies over the years in many different kinds of styles. I have seen traditional exorcism films, i have seen exorcism happning on an airplace, exorcism on a luxury South Seas ocean liner in the 1974 film Voodoo Black Exorcist, i have even see exorcism happening during an online filmed exorcism in the 2019 horror film The Clensing Hour. I will say that the idea behind the plot of Speed Demon is actually not bad at all. I mean, who doesn´t want to see a priest and a nun fighting against a demon while they are travelling on a high speed train? Since we need some plot changes to keep the exorcism genre alive, i think director Jon Keeyes at least tried to bring us something different with Speed Demon. I am a fan of his 2017 film The Harrowing that i actually rented on VOD back when this film was released, a film i feel is still worth watching. I have not seen  all the films from director Jon Keeys since at least 6 years ago, but i can tell he is passionate about telling different horror stories. That becomes clear as well with Speed Demon, however this film does have some issues that i need to talk about. The heavy amount of CGI used in this film, and m not against CGI effects, i definetely prefer CGI than AI effects. My problem with the CGI effects is that they don´t look that good in Speed Demon, especially in certain horror scenes where we are supposed to feel scared. I can accept terrible CGI effects if they work in certain scenes, when you can tell that they actually made an effort to make it work. I just don´t feel that effort here and that is too bad, because i do like the idea behind the main plot. On the positive note i do enjoy the performance of lead actress Katie Cassidy as Sister Lu. I do feel that we get an interesting perspective of her character knowing she is a struggling drug addict, which of course makes this journey quite difficult. Legendary actor Willam H, Macy us here as well as Father Novak, perhaps the strongest acting performance in this film. I am surprised he accepted a role such as this, considering this is more of a low budget horror film. There are a few moments where some horror scenes look ok, but they use way too much bad CGI effects than they should have and that makes this film loose some charm with me. Speed Demon is not the most awful exorcism horror film i have seen, it just could have been so much better than what we are left with. I do appreciate director Jon Keeys movies in general, but somehow Speed Demon don´t have that much to offer. I recommend his 2017 horror film The Harrowing over this one instead.

Rating: DD

R.I.P. Tim Curry, A Tribute Review For Tim Coming This Upcoming Halloween!

Greetings everyone!

As a lot of you movie fans worldwide you may have heard the tragic news of legendary actor Tim Curry who passed away. A man who not only brought us so many wonderful performances on theatre stages, but especially on the big screen for audiences worldwide. I could talk about some of his most magical performances over his amazing career, but let me tell you how i discovered him the very first time and it wasn´t in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

I remember the very first time i saw Tim Curry on VHS back in 1991 when i was 13 years old ( i was going to turn 14 that summer, but this was during spring of 1991 ). I was at the videostore Videomix and they were putting up a huge wall poster of Stephen King´s IT, the TV mini series based on the very popular book by legendary horror author Stephen King. The picture of actor Tim Curry as the clown Pennywise became iconic that year because people were crazy about this VHS release. I remember that Videomix owner Mikael told me:- I can barely keep a copy in store they are being rented out daily. It got to a point that Mikael had to order more copies to the store, because people were crazy about this rental release. Now, you have to remember, back then most VHS video rental stores never ordered more copies of a TV mini series like this before, so you know this was a big deal back in 1991. So to make sure i got my own copy i went down to the city of Gothenburgh to buy my own copy at the movie store Movieline. After i finally experienced the TV mini series of Stephen King´s IT i finally did understand why this was such an amazing TV horror mini series. Pennnywise was to become a horror icon for horror fans worldwide, and no one could have done this performance as Tim Curry did. I did keep the VHS release for a very long time, until i eventually got the TV mini series on DVD instead ( which i still own from my visit to London many years ago ). It´s been a while now since i watched Stephen King´s IT ( i own a copy of the book as well ), but after the tragic passing of Tim i decided to do something nice in memory of him.

Since Tim Curry tragically passed away i want to honor him by making a special review this upcoming Halloween weekend, by doing a review of the 1990 TV horror mini series of Stephen King´s IT. I know i could have chosen another classic as well from his amazig career, but this TV mini series have always been close to my heart for many years. So, if you want to read this special review in memory of Tim Curry, it will be finished and published by Halloween weekend. Thank you Tim for all the wonderful memories and your work in the movie industry, you will always be remembered.

Life is short, be grateful for each day and take care of yourself everyone.

Hugs from Daniel

Hokum

Even though i have been mostly to Scotland over the years, i did visit Ireland as well to explore the city of Dublin. The biggest reason i went there in the first place, was to see one of my personal favourite bands of my life, which is the Welsh rock band Stereophonics. Amazing concert and a wonderful night where Stereophonics proved they still deliver after so many years, where i especially experienced the song We Share The Sun live. But since i was staying for about a week in Dublin i decided to see some historical places around the city. For example i went to see Guiness Storehouse, the world famous Guiness museum with 7 floors filled with history, pictures, you get to see brewing history, how Guiness became such an iconic brand all over the world and much more. If you love alcohol and history as well, this is the perfect museum to visit. If you want to relax after checking out all 7 floors of this museum, you can get a drink at the 7th floor at The Gravity Bar. I did walk around the famous Dublin Castle, very beautiful and i can totally understand why the Irish people are proud of this historical castle. Let´s stay within Ireland but let´s talk about a film that was filmed in this country. Did you know that the 2014 horror film Dracula Untold was actually filmed in Northern Ireland? This is a horror film that divided a lot of horror fans, some people enjoyed it while others have several issues with this film. I personally enjoyed this film, it´s not one of the better Dracula related movies but as a horror film it does deliver some solid horror entertainment. Actor Luke Evans as Vlad The Impaler is a fun acting performance, i also have to mention legendary actor Charles Dance does a great performance as Master Vampire. There are some fun battle scenes in this film if you love historical references. Worth a watch on streaming. How many of you saw the 2024 excellent horror film Oddity from Irish director Damian McCarthy? A very fascinating story and really well made, Oddity really surprised me. I really enjoyed this film and i remember hearing about his upcoming film Hokum that was being filmed in Ireland. It was recently released on physical media here in Sweden so of course i had to pick up a copy and review this film as well. Is this just as good as Oddity or is Hokum not as powerful as i was hoping it would be?

American author Ohm Bauman ( Adam Scott ) is a struggling writer who is trying to finish his conclusion to his succesfull "Conquistador" trilogy. After glimpsing the ghost of his mother, Ohm decides to visit The Bilberry Woods Hotel in rural Ireland, where his parents had honeymooned, to lay their ashes to rest. What starts off as an ordinary hotel visit is about to become more strange, in a number of different ways....

If you have seen the 2024 horror film Oddity you might remember how good that film was capturing a very creepy atmosphere, surrounding a very odd wooden full body figure. Even if Hokum tell a completey different story than Oddity, that same creepy atmopshere can be found in Hokum as well. It is almost as if director Damian McCarthy wanted to keep that feeling that Oddity managed to do, make you feel engaged into the story and the characters. Honestly, i would say that this might be the best looking film from director Damian McCarthy. It is a very dark portrait of a depressed writer in the dark Irish landscape, and this combinaion works really well combined . I love the acting by the entire cast including the Irish actors, and the biggest surprise to me personally is how good lead actor Adam Scott ( who i really enjoyed in the American comedy TV series Parks and Recreation ) is as the author Ohm Bauman. One of the reasons why he is so good in this performance, is because his character is a really big asshole, who have no respect for anyone. And this matches well with the story since we are in a very dark place, a hotel that seems to be stuck in time and no big changes have been made within these walls. Bauman is exactly like the hotel, he doesn´t want any changes just minding his own business. The mystery of what is happening within this hotel is told in a fascinating, yet simple way that reminded me a little bit of the Australian horror film The Babadook ( a film everyone should see ). Not that these films have a similar plot, but they are both horror films with a very creepy atmopshere. Hokum is a really good horror film that proves you don´t need lots of blood or gory scenes, as long as you can tell a very effective horror story. Director Damian McCarthy could be one of the most promising horror director´s we have seen in a long time, and with Hokum he really proves that he knows exactly what he is doing with this genre. Lesson learned, never trust a suspicious Irish hotel, just book the most blend Bed & Breakfast hotel you can find instead.

Rating: DDDD

Masters Of The Universe

Let us travel back in time to the year of 1984, when hair spray metal was blooming out, 80´s pop was selling big on the single charts from British rock band Queen´s latest single Radio Ga Ga, Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson released their hit single Say Say Say. It was also in 1984 we had cinema hits such as The Terminator, Gremlins, Ghostbusters, Beverly Hills Cop, Police Academy, Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter, Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom and many more films. 1984 was a magical year for a number of reasons. It was during Christmas of 1984 i got my very first Nintendo 8 bit station with the games Super Mario Bros and Iceman. One other thing i specifically remembered about this year was that our neighbor family The Ostwalds, their youngest son Claes had a big collection of toys from the cartoon series Masters Of The Universe. Since i was 7 years old at this time, i didn´t play with these toys as Claes did ( i think he was 5 years old at this time ). But i did enjoy Masters Of The Universe as a cartoon show, In fact, thanks to The Ostwalds family who rented the show on VHS and i got to see a lot of episodes. It was a fun action packed cartoon show, where the main character Adam who could transform himself to He-Man with his magical sword, became an icon for heroes in many ways wanting to help people in need. 3 years later we got our very first live adaptation of Masters Of The Universe, where action legend Dolph Lundgren was chosen to take on the lead role as He-Man. The film was a box office flop from iconic film distribution company The Cannon Group, but the film have become a cult movie that´s still appreciated by fans of 1980´s films. Especially on physical media where the film found a new audience. I appreciate this film for being somewhat of a 80´s classic and i can easily watch this film again, probably because i love so many of Dolph Lundgren´s best classic films. After many years in development and many ideas brought to the table, it was decided that director Travis Knight would bring back Masters Of The Universe to a new film adaptation. And the actor replacing Dolph Lundgren from the 1987 film would be actor Nicholas Gailtzine. I saw this film in cinema of course and was hoping this would be exactly what i wanted, a fun 80´s throwback. Is this even better than expected, or is the latest version of Masters Of The Univverse even worse than anyone could have imagined?

In Eternos, the capital city of the planet Eternia, a young Prince Adam ( Artie Wilkinson-Hunt ) and his friend young Teela ( Eire Farell ) are trained in the art of battle by Duncan ( Idris Elba ), the king´s Man-At-Arms and Teela´s father. The city is attacked by forces led by Skeletor, who captures Adam´s parents, King Randor ( James Purefoy ) and Queen Marlena ( Charlotte Riley ). Skeletor want to take the Sword Of Power, but The Sorceress ( Morena Baccariu ) will never allow this to happen. She open a portal to Adam to travel to Earth to live there protected and making sure he keeps the sword with him. In the portal he loose the sword, while he crash lands into water. 15 years later Adam ( Nicholas Galitzine ) is working an ordinary day job at a office, while living in his friend Hussein´s ( Christian Vunipola ) apartment. Adam have been searching for this sword online, asking around if anyone have seen this specific sword. He get´s contacted by a man who claims to know where it is, inside a comic book store. Adam must get this sword and figure out a way to get back to Eternia, making sure that Skeletor will pay for the crimes he commited.

I have heard some reviews where they complained that they didn´t like that Adam is not much more manly before he turns into He-Man, i personally don´t have a problem with that. I think it´s good we get to see two different sides of his personality when we see Adam transform into He-Man, that even when he gets his powers he still is the same individual inside his heart. There are a lot of details to appreciate with Masters Of The Universe and let´s talk about this for a while. This film capture some 80´s nostalgia moments with the right colors, the costume design from the cartoon series, and when they add music from legendary British rock band Queen you can´t ask for more. It´s almost like we are back on the fields of Scotland in Highlander with Christopher Lambert, but here we experience these battles in Eternia instead. Lead actor Nichloas Galitzine ( who i recognized from the Netflix film Purple Hearts ) as Adam ( and He-Man ), deliver a fun, energetic acting performance and i have to say he is quite funny in some scenes as well. I especially love his battle scenes towards Skeletor´s army towards the end that are far more brutal than i expected, and i love that they did not hold back on the violence. There are several great casting choices here such as actor Idris Elba as He-Man´s mentor and partner Duncan. I also appreciate actress Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn ( i love her costume design by the way ), because shes both funny and evil combined in her performance that works better than i expected. Actress Morena Baccarin as The Sorceress is a perfect match, she manage to capture the personality of The Sorceness in such a magical way. Of course we have Skeletor with the voice of Jared Leto ( who i am not a fan of, for personal reasons ), i do think the character of Skeletor is fun with some cheeky dialogue in certain scenarios. The action scenes are pretty intense with epic battle scenes, and i think the character development in this film show that you can succeed making a good movie live adaptation of a cartoon show. Masters Of The Universe may not be everyone´s cup of tea, but for me growing up watching the cartoon series this is a fun action adventure, with some quite unexpected funny dialogue as well. If you love the 80´s in general this could be exactly what you are looking for. Maybe a little bit too long, otherwise i have nothing negative to say. Director Travis Knight have definetely made the best film adaptation so far of Masters Of The Universe and i think this film could be appreciated for many generations ahead.

Rating: DDD

The Gates

Friends is very important to have in life, and i don´t mean you have to have many. If you just have a best friend that´s fantastic as well. To be able to do different things with a friend, or several, as long as you enjoy the company and like the personality. I usually look at it this way, i rather have some friends only than many, because these friends accept me for who i really am. You can of course have other types of friendship, such as between brothers or sisters. Let´s speak about the friendship between brothers for a while and focus on one specific film from 2001. In the psychological thriller Joy Ride from director John Dahl ( director of the 1998 classic film Rounders with Matt Damon ), we meet a man named Lewis ( Paul Walker ), who is going on a road trip with his brother Fuller ( Steve Zahn ), and Lewis female friend Venna ( Leelee Sobieski ). Fuller has a CB radio installed in Lews car and the two begin listening in on trucker´s chatter.  Fuller coaxes Lewis into playing a prank on a truck driver nicknamed Rusty Nail ( Matthew Kimbrough ), asking him to pretend to be a woman named Candy Cane. They set up a meeting with Rusty Nail in a motel, what started as a prank will soon turn into a pure nightmare. Joy Ride is a really effective road thriller with great acting performances, and the film looks good as well. The thriller influences match very well with the story, and even if the story is nothing unique i feel that it is told powerful enough. This is actually my personal favourite Paul Walker film and i think his screen prescence with Steve Zahn works well. By the way, this film have a great soundtrack from the early 2000´s that match the look of this film. If you love road thrillers then you should definetely check out Joy Ride on streaming or physical media. Since i mentioned friendship early in this review, i checked out the thriller The Gates from director John Burr on VOD. A thriller about 3 young male friends, who end up having a truly awful night. The trailer looked interesting and the movie poster is simple but effective. Is this a thriler you should check out this late summer, or is The Gates not worth spending your precious time on?

3 young men, Derek ( Mason Gooding ), Kevin ( Algee Smith ) and Tyon ( Keith Powers ) have all be invited to a house party with several hot women, all waiting for the men to show up. They take a detour and end up in a community they have never heard of. At first this seems to be an ordinary neighborhood, until they witness a possible murder and put themselves in a lot of trouble....

While i was watching The Gates i was reminded of the 2017 psychological horror film Get Out, directed Jordan Peele. If you have seen that movie you might remember it tells the story about a society where black people are seen as trash basically, where you can tell there are several rascist minds within this society. The Gates does something similar where we see a neighborhood built basically to keep black people away, especially to make sure they don´t have any crimes commited by a black person. Hearing that you would think that´s insane, but there are actually communities out there like this in America still today. You would think that we have developed more as human beings and see humans as equals, unfortunately we are not that far. The Gates is basically a traditional thriller where 3 men witness a possible murder, and pretty much get the blame for it because they are black. The plot is not original in any way, or take any unexpected turns. But what this film manage to do is work as a thriller regarding racism, as well as showing how a society can fall when the wrong people should not be the leader of this community. The acting in general is actually pretty good, but the 3 main actors Mason Gooding, Algee Smith and Keith Powers all pull off realistic performances, being victims of racism. I also enjoy the performance of actor Brad Leland ( who i remember from the TV series Friday Night Lives ), as the character Christopher, and of course i have to mention actor James Van De Beek as the psychotic Pastor Jacob, a really fun performance. I appreciate that The Gates try to show us a realistic view in how a racist society could look like, so we see how horrible people can be just because someone´s color of their skin. The thriller aspects are good and i like the portait of these civilians living in society, who don´t want to live in reality. One scene i felt was silly was a recording of a rap song, comes out of nowhere and doesn´t really feel like this scene belong in this film. I understand the message of the scene, it just didn´t do anything for me personally. Overall i like The Gates, and i feel that director John Burr manage to tell a simple, yet effective thriller story. One thing is for sure, i will be careful visiting the wrong church after watching The Gates.

Rating: DDD

Daniel´s B Movie Summer Madness: Ouija Witch ( 2023 )

If there is one thing i really appreciate to do every summer it is to watch low budget independent horror films. Doesn´t really matter what the category is, as long as it´s independent films i am all in for many different categories. This has become like a tradition for me personally, to find different independent horror films and watch them during summer for my segment Daniel´s B Movie Madness. What is so fun about this is that i get to discover independent films i have never heard of, or i might have seen a poster at least of one of the films but know nothing about the plot. I try to go into each film knowing as little as possible, that makes it more fun in case i would be surprised over the quality of the film, or if i find something else that i appreciate. The most difficult part is always knowing what film to choose, since there are so many independent horror films released every single year. So sometimes i have to just pick a title and hope i will enjoy it, you just have take a chance in case i find something good. For example back in 2022 on this segment, i did a review for the 2018 independent horror film known as Extremity. The film had an interesting concept for a horror film, the problem was that it didn´t really work all the way. This film was supposed to show different ways how to torture certain individuals, and i do think the idea itself is interesting, but the horror scenes are far too lame which affected my view on this film. If you are going to do something that´s meant to be brutal, why not go all in for it and actually make an effort? Extremity is not a terrible film, there are some good scenes to be enjoyed, but it feels like director Anthony DiBlasi could have done so muh more with the concept of this film. So, since i decided to choose an independent film for this summer on my segment Daniel´s B Movie Summer Madness, i decided to pick the 2023 independent horror film known as Ouija Witch. One of the biggest reasons why i picked this specific film was that the movie poster looked intersting. Definetely a low budget horror movie poster, but seemed to match the title. Over the years i have seen several films which includes the title Ouija included, but i didn´t know anything about the film Ouija Witch other than seeing the poster. Is this a surprisingly good independent horror film, or should you choose something else to watch instead of Ouija Witch?

Young struggling woman Sarah Byrne get seriously assaulted one night by a bar visitor named Isaac Cross ( Ryan M. Shaw ). After getting up and trying to deal with what happened to her, she is invited to a strange woman named Lilith ( Sean Young ), who runs her own shop of mysterious objects and does seances. She finds out what happened to Sarah and make her joina seance, to let the spirit of  the dead with Mary Blackwood, resurrect to revenge those who hurted Sarah. At first this is what Sarah wanted, until she see that this witch have other plans as well.

I have to admit that this film started off quite boring if im being honest. We get a ouija seance scene that we have seen so many times before, the trick is to make the scene interesting and actually combine interesting characters with an interesting plot. I don´t mind if you use a similar theme in a horror scene, as long as you make it work. This is why i feel this film could have started off much more effective than what we are served. Where i finally find myself enjoying certain details about Ouija Witch is when we are introduced to the character known as Sarah Byrne ( played by actress Miley Rose ). I do think this is a great chartacter for a horror film such as this, since we have influences of withces in here, and that is where we need a solid character to make the witch story more interesting. Sarah is a cool, confident young woman and actress Miley Rose pull off this perfomance withou any problems. I also like her screen chemistry between her and actor Jeremy Dean playing the character Derek Hart. The most interesting part of the film is where we see how Sarah digs into the witch mystery of Mary Blackwood, where Sarah summon her spirit through a ouija board, Actor Ryan M. Shaw as the asshole character Isaac Cross is exactly what this film needed, a pure asshole of a character that blends well ino the story. We even have legendary 1980´ss actress Sean Young here, who deliver some good dialogue. Even if it takes a while for Ouija Witch to find the right tone for a witch horror film, i would say it finally manage to make the main story of the witch Mary Blackwood interesting. Even if this horror film is made on a limited budget, it´s a good looking, the acting is actually not too bad, and some of the elements work pretty good. My issues with this film would probably be some dialogue scenes feel a little bit stretched out, as if they just focused more on delivering dialogue scene than actually creepy horror scenes with the witch. That was a mistake if you ask me, they do have an interesting story here so why not use it properly? Either way, for a independent horror film i do thing this film have enough charming details that you might enjoy, if you are a fan of low budget horror films such as myself. Director Robert Michael Ryan ( director of the slasher horror film Popeye The Slayer Man ) deliver a film that may especially for you who love witches in horror films. It´s not unique or intelligent, it´s more like an old school throwback to 1980´s horror film that succeed to please fans of this specific genre.

Rating: DDD

If you want to watch Ouija Witch you can watch this film for free on the YouTube channel CiNENET on the following link:

Ouija Witch (2023) [Horror] [Mystery] 🪄 A Dark Pact: Revenge of the Evil Witch | Full Movie

Box Office Bombs In Cinema History: Windtalkers ( 2002 )

It is not easy knowing what the audience wants to see on the big screen. Obviously there are certain movie franchises that will get an audience such as Avatar. But if you look at the majority of cinema releases each year, there is no guarantee certain films will make any profit at all. Even if you have a great cast included and have a great director on board the project, still doesn´t mean the audience will be there. A perfect example of this is the 2001 buddy cop action thriller 15 Minutes, directed by John Herzfeld ( the director of the great 1996 film 2 Days in the Valley ). I saw this film in cinema and actually enjoyed it, i think actors Robert De Niro and Edward Burns had a great chemistry on the big screen, i also enjoyed the performance by Fraser actor Kelsey Grammer. The action scenes were fun and i did like the migrant villains in this film. It didn´t matter if 15 Minutes had several great action scenes and some pretty good acting performances, the audience didn´t seem to be interested. On a budget of 43 million U.S. dollars the film only made around 56 million U.S. dollars worldwide totally. If you think about the budget, this film would have needed at least to cross around 100 million U.S. dollars in ticket sales. The good news though is that the DVD release of 15 Minutes actually helped the film, from what i understand in America alone the DVD rental numbers were pretty good at that time, while in the UK the DVD release didn´t make the same impact. Even though this is a box office bomb from the year of 2001, i still think 15 Minutes is a solid film. Especially if you love Robert De Niro movies in general, you should pick up a DVD copy. Speaking of box office bombs i decided to do a segment review called Box Office Bombs In Cinema History. Since there are a lot of box office bombs to choose between, so i decided to pick the 2002 war movie Windtalkers from legendary Hong Kong director John Woo ( the director of the Hong Kong action cult films The Killer, and Hard Boiled, both films you should see). I have seen the theatrical version of this film plus the director´s cut as well, I actually saw Windtalkers in cinema back in the summer of 2002. I was wondering if i should review the director´s cut but for this review i decided to review the theatrical version, since we are talking about cinema releases. With a quite big celebrity cast included, is this a war movie you should see or are there far more better releases such as Apocalypse Now Redux worth watching instead?

During World War II , U.S Marine corporal Joe Enders ( Nicolas Cage ) returns to active duty after surviving on the Solomon Ilands against the Imperial Japanese Army that killed his entire squad and wounded his left ear. Enders and Sgt Pete "Ox" Hendersson ( Christian Slater ) recieve new assignments to protect Navajo code talkers Pvt. Ben Yahzee ( Adam Beach ) and Pvt. Charlie Whitehorse ( Roger Willie ) in a JASCO. Yahtzee and Whitehorse, childhood friends from the Navao tribe, are trained to send and receive coded messages that direct artillery fire. With their knowledge they might have a chance to strike out their enemy.

I might be completely wrong but i have a theory why Windtalkers flopped at the box office. The film came out in June of 2002 in America ( while the film came out in August here in Sweden that year ), and as we all know it´s usually the box office blockbusters that makes most of the cash during summer. I mean, if you look at the box office summer releases of June, 2002, how was Windtalkers supposed to have a chance against Steven Spielberg´s latest film Minority Report, the live film adaptation of Scooby Doo and of course The Bourne Identity released in the same month? Plus you had Star Wars Episode II - Attack Of The Clones released a month earlier, which did really well at the box office. It doesn´t really matter now i suppose, let´s just talk about Windtalkers in general and let me give you my personal opinion. One of the most interesting details regarding Windtalkers is that the film is inspired by real stories of code talkers from the Navajo nation during World War II. The fact that these people managed to find out secret codes being sent out, who probably never would have been solved without the Navajo soldiers. This is definetely a different story than we usually see from films taking place during World War II, and i like the fact that director John Woo wanted to tell this story and how important it was having Navajo soldiers during the war. Just imagine if they never would have found out the secret codes, could that have affected the war somehow? The acting performances from actors Adam Beach and Roger Willie as Navajo tribe soldiers Private Ben Yahzee, and Private Charlie Whitehouse are solid and they definetely leave an important impact on this film. One of my issues with this film is the character development, for example Christian Slater´s character Seargent Peter feels more like Christian Slater in a soldier´s clothes, but don´t feel like a Seargent character. I like his scenes when he looks more like an ordinary soldier, with some descent dialogue scenes. Nicolas Cage as the character Seargent Joe works better, as if he actually tried to portait his character with some actual acting effort. That doesn´t mean the full performance is great, it´s not. As well all know Nicolas Cage loves to do over the top acting, and he does this as well in Windtalkers. The real strength of this film is the war scenes and the brutality of war. It´s far from some of the best war scenes we have seen on camera, but since director John Woo knows how to make violent films effective, he knows how to capture that feeling even in a war film. The brutality of Worls War II is definetely captured on camera in some of the most brutal scenes. I mentioned earlier that i review the theatrical version of Windtalkers and that is still correct, i should just mention that the director´s cut version show some different details that actually makes that version more interesting. Windtalkers is a war movie that may not be as good as some war movie classics, but if you are a fan of World War II movies then this could be something for you. I still feel that Windtalkers have an interesting story to tell, worth a watch on streaming or on physical media.

Rating: DDD