REVIEW: Project Gemini (2022) From director Serik Beyseu and Starring Egor Koreshkov, Dmitriy Frid and Martinez Lisa

Review by Jon Donnis

It is that time of the week whereby I review the latest low budget film, now you know I love my low budget films, so I was looking forward to Project Gemini, if only for that awesome poster! Props to the design team for that.

Project Gemini is a sci-fi survival thriller; a deadly virus has destroyed life on Earth, well at least it is not World War 3! I imagine we will get a lot of films with that storyline in the coming months. Anyway, a deadly virus has infected all the plants on earth, and animals eat plants, and humans eat animals, so you can see the problem. Scientists have decided that the best hope for the human race is to find a new planet to live on.

We have a crew, Steve (Egor Koreshkov), David (Dmitriy Frid) and Leona (Martinez Lisa), we have a rocket ship. Oh, and luckily, we also have a 4-billion-year-old piece of alien technology that we found, have managed to replicate and that will help us terraform a planet that is just 300 lightyears from Earth. For some reason the planet is called Tess, and to get there our crew needs to head through a wormhole of sorts. Of course, with this being a sci fi survival thriller, there is always more going on.

Without spoiling too much, something was hiding in the device, and it is on the ship with them, so they need to finish their mission, before it is too late. Throw in a love story, a pregnant woman, people being killed, and you have a half decent thriller here.

Clearly comparisons will be made to Alien, but this is different enough that those comparisons aren't too deep. And keep in mind this is a film with a low budget, and one thing that frustrates me, is when movie critics judge all films as equals. They are not. You can't compare a Hollywood Blockbuster which cost $200m, with a film that cost a few million. So, we should always judge a film with the limitations the film makers have to deal with.

Despite the budget, the CGI, Visual Effects etc are all very good, and very believable. The film starts off very strong, and also ends very strong with regards to the special effects.

There are a few problems however, a glaring one right near the end, when an answer to THE problem is not really given to someone, as it is physically impossible, so the viewer has to just try to ignore that, unfortunately these kinds of errors always slap me in the face and I start shouting at the screen. There are also some issues with this being an international cast, some dubbing is a bit suspect and some of the lines spoken could have been given with a bit more emotion.

With all that said however, I did enjoy the film, and thought that they did a great job despite the limitations.

The Good

A very watchable sci fi thriller/horror. A nice twist of sorts, that I think should have been a bigger deal, "Damn you all to hell". People over 40 might get the reference.

The Bad

Low budgets, sometimes mean some tedious dialog to fill time.

Overall

It is easy to pick holes in films, and there are some holes in this one, however I quite enjoyed the film, as previously mentioned the special effects were more than what I expected. The story was good, and some of the moments that built tension were well done.

I score Project Gemini a limitation busting 7/10

Out on Digital on 28 March 2022 from Ignition.

REVIEW: The King's Man - Starring Ralph Fiennes

Review by Jon Donnis

Although it has been out about a month now, I finally got round to seeing The King's Man, a prequel of sorts to the Kingsman film series.

The film has some big-name actors in it, Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Goode, Tom Hollander, Harris Dickinson, Daniel Brühl, Djimon Hounsou, and Charles Dance, and is set during World War I and covers the emergence of the Kingsman organization.

A collection of some of the worst "bad guys" from history have come together to plot a war to wipe out millions, and Orlando Oxford (Ralph Fiennes) is in a race against time to stop them.

Now I was a big fan of the Kingsmen films, I thought they were well made, had some great funny moments in them, captivating characters and a good plot. However, this prequel is awful.

It is advertised as a "spy action-comedy film" yet they seemingly forgot to add in any comedy.

The majority of the film tries to be a war film (Think 1917 by Sam Mendes), and then the last 30 minutes it wakes up into something a bit closer to what you were expecting. If you were hoping this would be a modern spy film, you will also be disappointed, instead of gadgets and clever set pieces, you have way too much old-fashioned espionage, which is ok if you thought you were going to a serious war film.

By the time did kick into gear, I had already lost interest, and just wanted it to end. The film's makers, clearly did not have a solid vision here, and instead of giving us more of what The Kingsmen gave us, they tried something different, and for me it failed.

With the exception of one scene with Rasputin licking Ralph Fiennes leg, the film bored me. There were some nice action scenes, but I just didn't have any emotional investment into the characters to care.

The film is poor, and is the worst in the franchise so far.

The Good

The last half hour is decent, a great scene on the side of a cliff, Ralph Fiennes is a great actor, just a shame he was given a pile of crap to act from.

The Bad

The first 90 minutes, I just found myself constantly looking at the time, and wishing something that was advertised would happen.

Overall

For a franchise I am a big fan of, this really let me down, and for any fan of the franchise this is one film that needs to quickly be memory holed.

I score The King's Man a poor 3/10

Out on Digital now at https://amzn.to/3I0RCcy

REVIEW: Antlers (2021) - Horror film starring Keri Russell, Jesse Plemons, Jeremy T. Thomas, Graham Greene, Scott Haze, Rory Cochrane, and Amy Madigan

Review by Jon Donnis

I hadn't seen or heard pretty much any publicity for Antlers, so I expected this to be your run of the mill supernatural horror film, but I was pleasantly surprised by this rather engaging film.

Directed by Scott Cooper, and starring the excellent Keri Russell, probably best known for FX spy thriller series The Americans, as a school teacher, one of her students is seemingly suffering from personal problems at home, but what she doesn't know is that he actually has a dangerous secret in his house.

The film starts off with Frank Weaver who runs a meth lab out of an abandoned mine, one day Frank is attacked by some kind of creature, along with his son Aiden, they survive,  we learn later on that their condition got worse when home, so he ordered his older son Lucas to lock them up.

As time goes on, Lucas collects roadkill or left-over food, to take back to feed his father and brother. All the while trying to act normal by going to school. After being bullied and ending up in the nurse's office, his teacher notices marks on his body, and worries that he is being abused, and since she has personal experience of abuse when she was young, she is determined to help him.

What follows is a genuinely engaging film, with some excellent performances, especially from Keri Russell as teacher Julia Meadows, and the young Jeremy T. Thomas as Lucas Weaver.

The horror elements are well done, never over the top, or too silly, there is a slightly clichéd ending, but if they didn't do that, you would probably moan, so I will give them a pass.

The Good

High quality acting and direction. Well filmed, and at just over 90 minutes, the perfect length for a horror film.

The Bad

Perhaps a little serious at times, for what is a creature based supernatural horror.

Overall

Thoroughly enjoyable film. 

I score Antlers a solid 8/10

Review By Jon Donnis

Out now! - https://amzn.to/3rV8dbF

REVIEW: A Day to Die (2022) - Starring Kevin Dillon, Bruce Willis and Frank Grillo

Review by Jon Donnis

A new Bruce Willis film you say? What an unusual thing these days. In what I believe is the 46^th film to feature Bruce Willis, released in 2022, I could almost just copy and paste my last review of a Bruce Willis film, that was way back on Friday, a whole 2 days ago! But hang on a moment, this film has "Die" in the title! Could it be a new Die-Hard film? No. Sorry about the tease, couldn't resist.

The film starts off surprising quite hot, with a hostage situation at a college in mid flow, fancy SWAT like team brought in to solve the crisis. The team includes Mason (Frank Grillo) and Connor (Kevin Dillon). Of course, everything goes wrong, the hostage takers are crazy white supremacist types, that are well armed, the police try to enter, but there are other people with rocket launchers nearby, big explosions follow, helicopter blown out of the sky, with some slightly dodgy special effects, a landmine that a hostage taker uses to kill himself and a load of cops, and before you know it we are fast forwarded to the future.

Connor (Kevin Dillon) is now a parole officer, and when one of the people he is in charge of is attacked he gets involved which results in the attacker being killed. That attacker was a drug dealer and worked for the local big gang boss Pettis played by the super cool Leon Robinson. The boss is pissed off as he has lost one of his dealers, and blackmails Connor into paying him the money that the dealer would have made over his "career". Connor's pregnant wife is taken, and Connor now needs to get in contact with some old friends, and rob some people to get the money, which quickly turns the film into a heist movie.

Did I mention that Bruce Willis is in the film? He plays city Police Chief Alston, who is also on the payroll of the drugs boss. 

This is very much a Kevin Dillon film, he is the lead, he is the one you care about, and he is the one that takes part in the most action. As is often the case the big name of the film, Bruce Willis most likely completed all of his scenes in a few days, and picked up a nice pay check I am sure.

The Good

We like to make fun of Bruce Willis knocking out hundreds of films a year, but this is actually a half decent action film.

The dodgy CGI is kept to a minimum, the dialog is decent, and Kevin Dillon is a likeable lead character, who you do want to come out on top. And Leon Robinson as the drug Lord is perfect casting. Leon Robinson is just so cool!

I also need to mention the rather cool sound track, lots of great tunes to get your blood pumping.

The Bad

The film is full of clichés, the Police Chief being on Pettis' pay is given away way too early in the film, and should have been kept as a twist.

Overall

At 1 hour 40 minutes, the film isn't too long, and is actually pretty good Saturday Night viewing.

I score A Day to Die a fair to middling 7/10

Out now at selected cinemas and digital - https://amzn.to/36Zb0K5

REVIEW: Gasoline Alley (2022) Starring Devon Sawa, Bruce Willis and Luke Wilson

Review by Jon Donnis

Gasoline Alley is the latest film in what is a never-ending run of films featuring Bruce Willis, whereby he doesn't really do much, and is hardly in the film. I believe in 2021 Willis released 8 films, I think in 2022 we are already on number 3 or 4! With a total of 12 films planned to be released. Luke Wilson is also advertised, but it seems like he is "doing a Willis", and has just taken a cheque to be in the film for the sake of being in the film. Is Willis just calling up old friends now to appear in these straight to digital releases? His next film features John Travolta!

So, forgetting Willis and Wilson, this is basically a Devon Sawa film. Devon Sawa is one of these actors who you will recognise, but can never really name a TV show or film he is famous for, he appears in a lot of shows for an episode or two, and then that's it. NCIS, Hawaii Five-0. MacGuyver etc. It is nice to see him as the lead in a proper film.

The story for Gasoline Alley is as follows.

"A man implicated in the triple homicide of three Hollywood starlets begins his own investigation. Needing assistance, he enlists the two detectives on his tail in order to expose a conspiracy more explosive than any of them imagined."

The film is set very much in the sleazy world of Hollywood, prostitutes, porn, human trafficking, drugs and so on. The problem is that the film is quite dull for large parts, and despite the last 20 minutes having some decent action scenes, by then you may have lost the will to live.

One saving grace is the film is only about 95 minutes long. And even then, they could have cut another 15 minutes off the run time and you would never have noticed.

If you are a fan of Bruce Willis, go watch a Die Hard film, if you are a fan of Luke Wilson go watch Idiocracy, a film which is very fitting with regards to the world we live in today.
If you are a fan of Devon Sawa, then this is the film for you.

The Good

A nice film for Devon Sawa, who is a good actor and someone I like in a lead role.

The Bad

Another movie churned out to make money, not a very good story, the dialog is poor, and overall, you will watch once and never watch again.

Overall

Poor film. Don't waste your time. I score Gasoline Alley a 3/10

If you absolutely have to watch the film you can do so at https://amzn.to/3MlrFYr