REVIEW: Robbing Mussolini (2022) A.K.A. Rapiniamo il Duce - Starring Pietro Castellitto and Matilda De Angelis

Review by Jon Donnis

Robbing Mussolini is a historical heist comedy-drama film directed by Renato De Maria, and starring Pietro Castellitto, Matilda De Angelis, Tommaso Ragno, Isabella Ferrari and Filippo Timi.

The year is 1945, World War Two is coming to an end, and Il Duce (The Leader in Italian, referring to Benito Mussolini) is seeing the end coming, and not in a good way for him.

Pietro Lamberti (played by Pietro Castellitto) is an arms smuggler; he steals weapons and sells them to the resistance. During one such exchange he utters the words "I'm a thief, not a spy," when challenged by one of the members of the resistance, followed by "Spies don't make enough money.", this should give you a good idea of his character. The resistance tries a double cross, but Pietro is ready, before you know it the Fascists turn up, and all hell breaks loose. Everyone makes a run for it, but just as Pietro tries to recover his bag of cash, it gets hit by a bullet and the money gets destroyed. Luckily, he manages to escape, on the side of a motorbike with sidecar.

Pietro has couple of friends Marcello (played by Tommaso Ragno) and a young man Amedeo (played by Luigi Fedele). Pietro is also secretly dating singer, Yvonne (played by the stunning Matilde De Angelis), unfortunately for Pietro, Yvonne is also the mistress of Borsalino (Filippo Timi) who in turn is a secretary for Mussolini. Throw in the disgruntled movie star Nora Cavalieri (Isabella Ferrari) who is married to Borsalino, and you have quite a cast of characters already.

Pietro learns of the location of Mussolini's secret stash of stolen gold, jewellery and other riches, and decides that he is going to steal it. He just needs a few people to add to his crew and history's greatest heist can commence. Here we meet race car champion Fabbri (Marcello Macchia), explosives genius Molotov (Alberto Astorri) and pickpocket expert Hessa (Coco Rebecca Edoghame)

Now all they need is a plan.

Usually heist films come as two specific types, one is where there is twist after twist, with the ending explaining all the genius moves that the viewer didn't know about. The other type of heist movie is where people just get incredibly lucky and then spend their time trying to get away with it. Now when you set a film in WW2, you would think they would choose one or the other, but instead they end up somewhere in the middle, which I think is a mistake, as people who like heist films, (and I am one of them) really enjoy the twists and turns, and even the dumb luck routine. Robbing Mussolini tries a different route which on its own doesn't really impress. However, the film moves at such a fast pace, with so much going on, that you can pretty much forgive the fact this is supposed to be a heist movie, and just enjoy the story and action.

The film has a great soundtrack, lots of recognisable songs sang in Italian, everyone plays their part well, and each character is well defined and different. The action scenes are very well done, and the odd moment of CGI is not too obvious. I was slightly disappointed by the ending, because of some of the issues I have already mentioned regarding the usual route of a heist film. You get neither type here.

The Good

A fun, action packed film, with a great sound track. I was engaged throughout, and despite my complaints I thoroughly enjoyed most of the film.

The Bad

I didn't like the ending, and I think the heist element of the film needed to be much "smarter" with more twists.

Overall

Don't think of this so much as a heist film, if that is what you are a fan of, just think of this as an action comedy drama set in WW2, with fun characters and lots of action.

I score Robbing Mussolini a solid 7/10. Not quite "La casa de papel", but a good fun film regardless.

Out now on Netflix at

https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81256747

TRAILER: Most Horrible Things - released on UK digital 14 November 2022

 

Deliciously dark and gloriously gory, this might just be one of the Most Horrible Things you’ve seen in a long time...

Hiroshi Katagari – who has worked on a slew of Hollywood blockbusters including Jurassic Park, A.I., War of the Worlds, Wolverine, The Hunger Games, Avatar: The Way of Water, The X Files and more – makes his bold and blood-thirsty feature-length directorial debut with this rambunctious horror-thriller, which ­­­­is set to arrive on UK digital platforms on 14 November 2022 courtesy of Reel 2 Reel Films.

When six young strangers are invited to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – an exclusive dinner party hosted by a charming and enigmatic host on the most romantic night of the year, Valentine’s Day – they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Or so they think...

Lured by the promise of romantic connections and a substantial financial reward – these optimistic, bright young things come together in the hope of finding true love. But all is not what it seems, and when their host reveals their dangerous and ultimately deadly secrets – the promise of romance proves to be something far more deadly.

Starring Sean Patrick Flanery (Powder), Natalie Burn (Black Adam), Andrés Erickson (Dopesick), Rich Paul (Godzilla), and Sean Sprawling (Gehenna: Where Death Lives) – this viciously violent and terrifically terrifying tale dials up the shock factor and serves up a tasty horror treat.

Feast your eyes on Most Horrible Things – a brilliantly brutal and entertaining thriller packed full of surprise, intrigue, mystery, and bloody murder.

On UK digital platforms 14 November 2022 - https://apple.co/3FsQUY6

REVIEW: Pinocchio (2022) - Starring Tom Hanks and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth

Review by Jon Donnis

Pinocchio is one of those titles that has been made and remade many times, and although the Disney cartoon version is the most famous, there have been plenty of other films and cartoons made, mainly due to the fact the story went into the public domain in 1940.

Well for reasons that no one has explained, Disney has decided to remake their own version of Pinocchio from 1940, this time in a live action format with CGI characters.

We find ourselves in 1895 in a small village in Italy, Jiminy Cricket (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has entered the home of an elderly woodcarver Geppetto, played by a curly haired Tom Hanks.

Geppetto has been working on a marionette puppet based on his dead son, keep it light Disney! we then get a silly scene where Tom Hanks thinks up the name  Pinocchio, which is made of "Pine" and then he just sort of comes up with occhio, of course the problem here is that the original book is in Italian, and the occhio means eye.

Geppetto is about to go to bed and sees a shooting star, so makes a wish. I think you know this bit.

A while late while Geppetto is asleep, the star sends a ray of star light which bounces off a mirror and brings Pinocchio to life, and he then visited by affirmative action hire Blue Fairy (Cynthia Erivo), who then promises to make Pinocchio a real boy if he acts brave, truthful and selfless, and appoints Jiminy to look over Pinocchio and to teach him right from wrong.

In the morning Geppetto wakes up and finds Pinocchio is alive!, instead of grabbing a shovel and whacking this monstrosity, which is what we would all do in this situation, he becomes overjoyed. Before you know it, Pinocchio is being sent to school. Something which no one seems to think is that strange.

Throw in a deceptive, anthropomorphic red fox called Honest John (Keegan-Michael Key) who is trying to con Pinocchio, the head teacher throwing Pinocchio out of school, due to him being a puppet, and you have something of a bastardisation of the original story that should appeal to kids.

Pretty much everyone knows the story of Pinocchio, or at least a version of it. I am not quite sure why Disney decided they needed to release this, other than just an easy cash in, but this film will soon be forgotten and kids will go back to watching the 1940s version instead.

There was a 2019 Italian version of the film released, which is much closer to the original book and done in a much better way and with no CGI. I would advise anyone interested in the story to watch that instead.

The Good

The CGI is of the highest quality, Tom Hanks is decent as Geppetto, and it is an easy film to watch.

The Bad

I just found it slow in parts, and at no point found myself caring whatsoever about Pinocchio, and that is a huge problem for a film like this. Not a patch on the 1940s cartoon, and nowhere near as good as the 2019 film of the same name.

Overall

This is not a bad film, don't get me wrong, it is just a film that no one really asked for. Maybe kids will like it, but it doesn't really bring anything new or original to the story, and perhaps it suffers because there have been so many versions of the film, and the 2019 release is widely regarded as the best of the lot.

I Score Pinocchio (2022) a fair 5/10

Out now in cinemas.

REVIEW: Black Adam (2022) - Starring Dwayne Johnson and Sarah Shahi

Review by Jon Donnis

DC are back with a new Superhero film! And apparently the start of a new "Phase" of films, whatever, I don't really care about all that, I am only interested in this film.

WARNING: There are spoilers in this review, so stop reading now if that is a problem, spoilers are limited, but still I thought I should warn you since this is a new film.

Let's start off with the name of the film, Black Adam, ok the "Black" has nothing to do with being Black, and is purely to do with the colour of his suit. It is also strange that Dwayne Johnson was cast as the lead character that is supposed to be some ancient middle eastern guy, especially as The Rock is half Samoan and half black Canadian. But I guess he looks the part so that's ok.

The film starts in 2600BC, in the ancient town of Kahndaq, basically like somewhere in Iraq. A tyrannical King creates the Crown of Sabbac out of some kind of blue mineral that has special powers. Whoever wears the crown is granted great powers.

Slaves are used to mine, and after one finds this mineral, a young boy tries to stage a revolution, and just before he is to be killed, he is given the power of Shazam by some ancient wizard types, which transforms him into Kahndaq's heroic champion Teth-Adam. As Teth he kills the King and ends his reign of terror, but as he does so the town is destroyed.

Fast forward to the present day, and Kahndaq and its citizens are once again being oppressed by a group known as Intergang, I am guessing these are supposed to be Australians, US or British, god knows, but its that evil white man again.

Archaeologist Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi) is searching for the ancient Crown of Sabbac with the help of her brother Karim. She finds the crown but find themselves being attacked and chased by Intergang. Adrianna reads an incantation that awakens Teth-Adam from his 5000-year sleep. He then kills all the bad guys, but also gets hurt himself. Adrianna takes him back to her place for him to recover.

Meanwhile an intelligence officer with A.R.G.U.S., Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) hears of the incident in Kahndaq and instructs the JSA, the Justice Society of America, consisting of Kent Nelson / Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Maxine Hunkel / Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell), and Albert "Al" Rothstein / Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) to investigate and take Teth-Adam into custody.

The JSA come along and spoil all the fun, reveal the truth about Teth-Adam, and genuinely are instantly unlikeable. Doctor Fate comes across as a poor man's Doctor Strange, Cyclone is just Storm from the X-Men, and Atom Smasher is Ant man. Now I have no idea who came first in the Comics, and I don't care, they all come across as cheap rip offs.

Teth-Adam is called Teth-Adam throughout the film, making the title kind of pointless. And although I like Dwayne Johnson, they just take away all of his personality in this film. They go down a similar route that was done with Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy, where he doesn't understand sarcasm, and humour etc, and has to learn etc. The problem is that people like Johnson, because he has personality, taking that away, just for a couple of slightly funny lines seems a bizarre choice to make.

Later on in the film, there is even a hilarious bit of CGI whereby they show you what Johnson would look like without the steroids, and just as a normal man, it looks so funny, I burst out laughing. Perhaps worse than the start of Captain America.

The film is full of plot holes, the JSA are really unlikeable, and although the film delivers almost nonstop action, it just seems to lack character, there is no one really to cheer for other than Archaeologist Adrianna Tomaz and her son. At least actress Sarah Shahi is actually from the Middle East.

The Good

Sarah Shahi is a likeable actress and is the best thing in the entire film. The action scenes are great, and if you like near 2-hour action films, with a huge budget, then this is the film for you.

The Bad

So many plot holes and unanswered questions. Even the mid credits scene that stars another famous DC superhero, setting up another film I assume, only makes you ask the question why he never showed up earlier? Why didn't Amanda Waller call him up first instead of the JSA? I could point out more plot holes, but if I did it would spoil the movie even more.

Overall

Despite my obvious issues with the film, I did watch it from start to end, I wasn't distracted and never felt the need to check my phone or do anything else. The film kept me interested throughout, which to me is a success for any film to do.

I have to admit I am a bit of a sucker for huge budget action films. Throw enough action scenes my way, and you keep me watching. The question is will I watch a second time in the future, and that is when I know if I really enjoyed the film for the story, or if I was just entertained by fancy CGI. Right now, after just finishing the film, I have literally no interest in seeing the film again, that is not to say I wont, I just have no interest right now, and as such that points to me that the film failed on some level.

The film at times feels like a way to create someone who can match up to Superman in a future film, as well as give DC another "diverse" film to shout about.

Not the best film from DC by a long way, but also not the worst, somewhere in the middle.

And as such I score Black Adam a fair 6/10. Too much shine, not enough substance.

At cinemas now!

REVIEW: Hellraiser (2022) - Starring Odessa A'zion and Goran Višnjić

Review by Jon Donnis

Hulu are back with another reboot of a classic horror film. This time Hellraiser gets the Hulu treatment.

Directed by David Bruckner this is the second adaption of the 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker. Of course, the first adaption being the 1987 film Hellraiser. Now whatever you think of the original film, I know some love it and think it is the greatest horror film ever made, others not so much, it is fair to say that one character really stands out, and in quite a terrifying way. Yes Pinhead. Played by Doug Bradley, it was a truly scary character. The way he spoke, moved, the eyes, everything. He was a horror icon! But of course, this is 2022, so everything has to be woke, but we will get onto that later.

We start off with a woman buying a case from a man on the street, she is buying it on behalf of Roland Voight, we quickly then move to a party hosted by said hedonistic millionaire Roland Voight (played by the always interesting Goran Višnjić), in his mansion. A male prostitute, Joey (Kit Clarke) approaches the same woman as earlier, Joey wants to meet Voight, she tells him to go to a place in the mansion. He obliges. He soon finds a mechanical looking puzzle box. As he does Voight comes in, and insists Joey solve the puzzle box. As he does, the box stabs him. Voight then traps Joey in the room. A door then opens, and chains fly out and rip Joey apart. Voight looks to the sky and demands an audience with Leviathan.

We then fast forward 6 years and recovering druggy Riley (Odessa A'zion) is living with her brother Matt (Brandon Flynn), his boyfriend Colin (Adam Faison) and a roommate Nora (Aoife Hinds).

Riley's boyfriend Trevor (Drew Starkey) talks Riley into breaking into an abandoned storage warehouse, he has the keycode, so will be easy to get in. When inside they break into a safe and find the puzzle box from earlier.

Later on, Riley argues with her brother, and goes to the park. At the park she solves the box, but avoids getting cut. Then weird humonid creatures start to appear. They are Cenobites, weird, demonic, alien type creatures. They demand she makes a sacrifice.

Matt finds Riley passed out, as he tries to wake her up, he cuts himself on the puzzle box. Which we soon learn means he will be taken by the Cenobytes.

Ok enough of the story. The basics are this, each time you solve part of the box, a person gets cut and they are taken by the Cenobytes, once the box has been completed, whoever has the box is given a gift by Leviathan, the ruler of wherever the Cenobytes are from, basically Hell.

Special shout out to Selina Lo who plays the Gasp, one of the Cenobytes, she looks amazing!

At 1 hour and 53 minutes, this is a LONG film. Horror films over 90 minutes always struggle in my opinion. 

The big change in this film we are told is that the character of Pinhead is now supposed to be female. The problem here is that with all the makeup, and visual effects, the character just looks androgenous, it is not particularly sexy, so seems pointless having the character change from a clearly male character, to something in the middle. I understand we live in the world of wokedom, and we have a transgender actor playing the part. But I think they missed the point here.

I am reminded of the Borg Queen in Star Trek. Here you have a character that is pure evil. The queen of a collective of part robotic drones. And as much makeup as you put on the character, it still remained feminine. It even had sex appeal, and I think this is what they should have done with the Pinhead character here, if you are going to change its gender, then do it properly.

The film does have its moments, there are some good gory scenes, the visual effects are great, the Cenobytes all look amazing. The story is a bit more straightforward that the weird fest of the original, so will be easier to follow for newcomers to the franchise.

The Good

As a standalone horror film, Hellraiser 2022 does a good job of telling an interesting story, the ending is satisfying if a little predictable.

The Bad

They ruined the most iconic character of the original film, and there is nothing really scary in the film.

Overall

I understand that you want to try something different, we know that reboots/remakes of classic horror films tend to fall flat, so I appreciate the efforts to change things up, but I think they missed the boat slightly with the main iconic character. There is an old saying, you can't be half pregnant. Meaning that it should be all or nothing. I think they wanted to tick some woke boxes, but in doing so missed a chance to really change things up. In its own right this is a decent horror film, with some interesting and weird characters. But I just feel like the film should have delivered more. Not weird enough, not scary enough.

I score Hellraiser 2022 a fair 6/10

Out Now on Hulu

https://www.hulu.com/movie/hellraiser-eb138082-5c40-4a8f-aa30-3fc66ef615fd

TRAILER: The Vanished - Starring Yoon Yeon-Seok and Olga Kurylenko

 

Synopsis: When an unidentified body is discovered in suspicious circumstances, the detective (Yoon Yeon-Seok, Mr. Sunshine) in charge of the case calls in an international forensic expert (Olga Kurylenko, Black Widow). Using cutting edge technology, they discover the body’s identity and uncover a sinister conspiracy that finds them reluctantly drawn into the organ trafficking underworld. The pair are forced to face their own fears alongside international criminal gangs as they fight to stay alive and reveal the truth before they vanish too. The Vanished is directed by Denis Dercourt (Lisa and Andre), based on Peter May’s (The Blackhouse) original novel The Killing Room.

Signature Entertainment presents The Vanished on Digital Platforms 7th November

REVIEW: The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM

Review by Jon Donnis

When George Floyd died there was a media outcry, which resulted in the famous BLM riots across America, over a billion dollars worth of damage. People murdered, and society changed forever.

Candace Owens has made an incredibly detailed, and well sourced documentary looking at the death of Floyd, and specifically the rise of the BLM movement.

Candace looks at how the media controlled the entire narrative of what happened with Floyd, which in turn deeply affected the trial of the cop accused of killing him, as well as how the media reported on BLM.

We also see how after she first spoke out, Dave Chappelle attacked Candace in one of his shows with a sexually charged, brutal misogynistic take down, something that I as the viewer had no idea he had done, mainly as no one reported on it. Is the reason that it was not reported on because Candace is a black, female conservative?

Candace sits down and speaks to people who new Floyd best, not his family, who we learn didn't even bother to visit Floyds home after his death to collect his belongings, but the people who actually lived with him, people that were never interviewed by the media, because their story did not match the narative that the media was pushing at the time.

Candace also looks at what happened to the nearly $100 million that was raised by BLM, where did that money go? 

This is an incredible detailed and fair documentary, which anyone who took an interest in the George Floyd case and BLM in general should watch. It is eye opening, and even I as someone who is deeply into polictics Stateside, learned a lot that I didn't know.

I score The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM a solid 9/10

An incredible documentary that everyone should watch.

Watch at Daily Wire

https://www.dailywire.com/videos/the-greatest-lie-ever-sold

REVIEW: Code Name Banshee (2022) - Starring Antonio Banderas, Jaime King and Tommy Flanagan

Review by Jon Donnis

Assassins, revenge, and everything going wrong, this sounds like my kind of film.

Jaime King plays Banshee, we first meet the character during a CIA interrogation. We learn that her father and a man called Caleb (Antonio Banderas) have both been designated as traitors after a mission went wrong. Banshee's father is presumed dead in an asset transfer, but no body was ever discovered. Caleb disappeared during the ambush. The CIA have put a bounty of $10m on the head of Caleb. Banshee is sceptical of the official government account of what happened.

Fast forward a few years and Banshee has become a contract killer. Along with hacker Kronos (Played by Aleksander Vayshelboym), she takes out whoever she is paid to. One day while pursuing a target who is a congressman, she is attacked by Anthony Greene (Tommy Flanagan) who is lying in wait for her. He is after Caleb, and believes that Banshee was trained by Caleb and as such will know of his whereabouts. Banshee escapes, but she realises she needs to find Caleb, warn him about the bounty and find out what really happened to her father.

Of course, Banshee finds Caleb in New Jersey with his daughter Hailey (Catherine Davis), and warns him that there is a huge bounty of his head, they will now work together to find out the truth and try to stop the bad guys.

The film is your pretty standard action thriller. Although the film clearly has a relatively low budget, a really strong cast lifts the film to a position higher than it would otherwise.

Jaime King pulls off the tough as nails female lead, very believable, and likeable. Antonio Banderas is great in everything he does, and Tommy Flanagan is your perfect bad guy that you love to hate. A special mention goes out to Catherine Davis who plays Calab's daughter Hailey, in the final scenes she gets to shine, and just like Banshee she gets to kick ass too. 

Once again, a film can show female leads being tough and believable, without the viewer ever feeling like they are being pandered to. It seems that independent movies seem to do this best, whereas Hollywood films fail 90% of the time.

The Good

A very strong cast helps carry the film beyond its budgetary limits. The film makes clever use of camera angles, and sound effects to enhance scenes that they are unable to spend a couple of million on visual effects to produce.

The Bad

There are a few moments where they seem to have forgot to add the visual effects, for example a grenade/flash bang is thrown in a house near the end of the film, you hear the bang, you see the bad guys all jump in the air, but there is no explosion, no flash, so it just comes across as weird. A few moments like that should have been picked up in the editing room. There is also a couple of time line issues. 

Overall

Strong female lead, great bad guy, and a satisfying ending, what more could you want.

I score Code Name Banshee a strong 8/10

Watch now at https://apple.co/3yACotq

Pre-order on DVD at https://amzn.to/3nxu1sc

REVIEW: Jeepers Creepers: Reborn - Starring Imran Adams and Sydney Craven

Review by Jon Donnis

One of the biggest problems in rebooting/re-imagining/rebirthing a classic horror film, is that you lose the initial surprise build-up of the main character, and even if you never saw the original 3 films, if you come to this film completely fresh, you are more than likely going to search on google for Jeepers Creepers, and in doing so, you pretty much learn everything about the main character in a few seconds looking at a few posters or screenshots. So out of the window goes the old reveal and element of surprise, which you only ever truly get to do once.

Perhaps realising this Jeepers Creepers: Reborn takes a slightly different approach, and instead of making this a sequel, or even pretending that the original films never happened, Reborn takes the unusual step of referencing the original films.... as films. Yes, the original Jeepers Creepers trilogy exists in the Reborn universe as 3 films.

The film starts with a short re-enactment of the original film, 23 years ago an older couple are driving down a road when a big red truck speeds up behind them, it eventually passes them, but later in the drive they see the driver of that truck dumping something down a large pipe that goes underground, by an old house. Suddenly the truck appears behind them again, they manage to escape, but return to the house to see for themselves what was being dumped. They look down the pipe, scream, and we quickly fast forward to the present.

Chase (Imran Adams) and his girlfriend Laine (Sydney Craven) are off to The Horror Hound Festival, it is finally coming to Louisiana for the first time ever. Horror fans from all over the country are descending on the State to experience the fear and fun of the festival.

Laine starts to have strange psychic visions that involve the town's past. They learn more about the stories of the Creeper, and Laine starts to get the feeling that something evil is coming.

The film pretty early on shows the Creeper as he crawls out of a barn in a very decrepit state, awakened from his 23-year hibernation. (for those unfamiliar with the mythology, the Creeper sleeps for 23 years, then he wakes up, feeds on humans for 23 days, then goes back into hibernation.) Well, he awakens, and to regain his strength he must feed.

The film goes down a lot of the classic horror monster routes, stupid young people making bad decisions, a monster that keeps coming up with imaginative ways to kill people. And a few twists and turns along the way to keep the horror fan happy.

The Good

Forget about the previous films, watch this as a standalone film where you already kind of know what the monster is all about, (since he is literally on the poster and in the trailer). This is a classic horror film, which ticks all the boxes you would expect. It is also a great vehicle for two young actors to further expand their acting work. A tight runtime is also appreciated. There are some nice gruesome scenes and the Creeper looks as good as he ever did.

The Bad

A low budget means that there is a lot of green screen backgrounds, which I am not a fan of, although once they get into the big house to have the showdown with the Creeper, that is where the film hits full speed.

Overall

If you can separate this film from the original, and accept it as a standalone low budget horror film, then you should enjoy it for it is. If you try to compare it to the original then you are being unfair to this film, since the original had the benefit of surprise, which this one simple does not.

I am a horror fan, and I appreciate that they had a tight budget to work with, and with that budget they did a decent job. Imran Adams and Sydney Craven both have huge potential, and I am sure they will both have long and successful careers ahead of them.

Out in select cinemas now, and on Blu-ray and DVD on October 24th.

Pre-order at https://amzn.to/3T3ynoO

REVIEW: Expired (2022) (a.k.a. Loveland) - Starring Ryan Kwanten and Hugo Weaving

Review by Jon Donnis

Ryan Kwanten stars as Jack, an assassin in a futuristic neon-drenched version of Hong Kong, he leads a lonely life, pays for time with android prostitutes. One day he sees singer April played by Jillian Nguyen, he is instantly drawn to her and starts a relationship. As time goes on, he starts to get physically weaker, his body is starting to deteriorate, he tracks down a life extension scientist Doctor Bergman (Hugo Weaving) to find out what is happening to him. He is a hitman and if he can't kill, he won't get paid.

The doctor figures out what is causing the deterioration, and Jack has to confront his own past. Jack and April's relationship starts to face troubles, as the only way for him to survive is for him to stop seeing April, and around them the world is approaching both immortality and extinction at the same time.

Despite the very sci-fi sounding nature of the film, this is at its base a film about love, life and extinction. Wonderfully filmed, with incredible looking settings, everything does look great. The main problem however is the mumbling, a common complaint these days, as films try to portray more realistic interactions, but in turn seem to forget that the viewer needs to hear what is going on.

For much of the film you get a narration of sorts from the Jack character, the problem is it is almost impossible to hear what he is saying, now of course subtitles can help, and as some of the other characters are not speaking English, you get subtitles for them anyway. Regardless it is a small annoyance, which simply should not get past the early drafts of the film.

The Good

Wonderful backdrops, the film looks incredible. The acting, when you can hear what is going on, is decent.

The Bad

The audio is dreadful, and for a sci-fi film, lacked the kind of special effects and excitement that you might be expecting. This is a dialog heavy film.

Overall

Not for everyone, as this is a slow, quiet, dialog heavy film. 

I score Expired a perfectly fine 5/10

Out now at Cinemas and on Demand at https://apple.co/3RLZsvE 

EXPIRED dystopian neon-drenched Sci-Fi spectacle arrives on UK digital 7 November 2022 from Reel 2 Reel Films

WARNING: The trailer gives away the main plot twist for the film.