Film: Enemy

Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko) is Adam, a mildly depressed college lecturer who happens to spot that a little known actor looks just like him.

When Adam decides to get in touch with his lookalike it sets of a series of events that don't look likely to have a positive outcome for anyone involved.

Even though Gyllenhaal delivers a compelling performance this film moves at an incredibly slow pace and the interaction between his 2 characters is all a bit lacklustre until the last 15 minutes.

Unfortunately if you stick around that long you'll witness an incredibly silly ending.

Enemy is available on DVD and pay per view tv services now.

Ric's Rating: Poor.

Film: Entity

A British tv crew head to remote Russia to explore the place where 32 bodies were discovered.

A renowned psychic (Dervla Kirwan) is part of the crew and she soon begins to see visions of the dead who lead her and the team to an abandoned building.

Needless to say this was the scene of some pretty horrific crimes and some strange forces still linger.

Fans of Paranormal Activity may enjoy Entity but if, like me, you are tired of the whole found footage / shaky camera genre then any interest in this will quickly evaporate.

Entity is available on DVD in the UK from 24th June 2013.

Ric's Rating: Poor

Film: The Lords of Salem

Musician turned director Rob Zombie casts his wife, Sheri Moon Zombie, as a late night radio host who unwittingly summons a coven of witches in this shocker.

A parcel arrives at the radio station containing a vinyl record by a band called The Lords. This strange recording has a weird effect on the host and many female members of the audience resulting in countless acts of violence and murder.

The heavy metal soundtrack and the grating resonance of the strange record immediately made me reach for the volume control, I get that this was meant to be unsettling but the feeling created was just one of annoyance.

There is also a constant stream of devil-worshipping type images that includes goats, big hairy monsters, silly guys with masks and naked old ladies. This is often unintentionally hilarious and miserably fails to provoke the intended reaction.

A brilliant straight-to-video cast is largely wasted here. Bruce Davison (V, The X Men), Dee Wallace (E.T), Meg Foster (They Live) and Ken Foree (Dawn Of The Dead) all appear, as does Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes) but unfortunately he is hidden behind a mask.

With The Lords Of Salem Rob Zombie has attempted to move (albeit sideways) away from his previous efforts which include the Halloween remake and the brilliant The Devil’s Rejects. Unfortunately it just doesn’t work.

The Lords Of Salem is available on DVD in the UK now.

Ric’s Rating: Poor.      

Film: Room 237

This documentary feature examines the apparent multi-layered complexity of Stanley Kubrick’s classic horror The Shining.

Room 237 consists of countless clips of The Shining with commentary from various fanatics regarding their theories on any potential hidden messages.

With theories ranging from the massacre of the American Indians to the holocaust this is very strange stuff indeed. Throw in a few silly pieces of sexual innuendo and consistency errors and this amounts to the equivalent of a room full of Star Wars fans nitpicking those movies.

It really is nerds day out as we are supposed to see significance in the fact that an empty chair disappears from view when we return to the same shot.

This sort of stuff could apply to any film and the fact that this has been made into a film in it’s own right almost beggars belief.

Unless The Shining is one of your all time favourites and you’d enjoy examining every piece of minute information that it’s possible to interpret from what’s on screen then steer well clear.

Room 237 is available on DVD in the UK now.

Ric’s Rating: Poor.         

Film: Welcome To The Punch

James McAvoy (Wanted) plays a cop obsessed with capturing the elusive criminal (Mark Strong) who wounded him during a pursuit.

The film begins with the aforementioned pursuit and then resumes three years later. McAvoy is plodding along with his career but his interest is rekindled when the son of his old adversary turns up dead.

This big budget British action film looks great but unfortunately the story is muddled and incomplete. There is no background to either main character and the eventual outcome can be easily guessed by the casting of David Morrissey (The Walking Dead).

Writer / director Eran Creevy please take note…cool lighting, sleek car chases and violent shoot-outs alone do not make a good film.

Ric’s Rating: Poor. 

Film: The Monk

An abandoned baby is left on the steps of a monastery in this French gothic horror.

The boy soon grows up to be the most charismatic Monk within the order and people flock from far & wide to hear him preach, but when a strange newcomer arrives things begin to spiral out of control quickly for the revered Ambrosio  (Vincent Cassell)

The new arrival is a boy called Valerio who wears a mask to hide burns sustained in a house fire. The mask makes Valerio a very creepy character indeed and the whispering voice that accompanies the chilling look adds to his unnerving presence.

Sadly the mask soon comes off and the entire film takes a turn for the worse when Valerio’s true identity is revealed.

Even a few murders and a great performance from Cassell can’t get this back on track. When the tension is gone, it’s gone.

The Monk is a potentially genuinely scary horror that suffers by turning into a tale of forbidden love.

It’s available on DVD in the UK now.

Ric’s Rating: Poor.   

Film: Rampart

When cop Dave Brown (Woody Harrelson) is filmed beating up a suspect his tightly controlled world begins to crumble.

Brown soon finds himself under investigation and past events may re-surface bringing more trouble to his already fragile state of mind.

Desperate to keep his fragmented family together Brown then decides to rob a high stakes poker game but the way it pans out has him questioning who he can trust.   

I was really looking forward to this one but despite a great performance from Harrelson and a stellar cast which includes Sigourney Weaver, Robin Wright, Ned Beatty and Ben Foster, this quickly goes from being an interesting drama to a dull plodding trudge through the life of a morally questionable individual.

The weird combination of great acting but boring story does not make for an entertaining experience.

Ric’s Rating: Poor      

Film: The Cold Light Of Day

When Will Shaw (Henry Cavill) joins his family on a sailing trip off the Spanish coast he thinks his lost luggage is the biggest worry of the trip. Little does he know he’ll soon be fighting terrorists and shady government agents as he attempts to locate missing family members.

Will heads ashore on a shopping trip but when he returns to the boat it’s like the Marie Celeste. Turns out that Will’s Father (Bruce Willis) isn’t the above board businessman he pretends to be and his actions have brought the bad guys to his family.

This is a typical “ordinary guy caught up in extraordinary events” type film but it’s so over the top that even fans of the genre will be disappointed.

The presence of Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver doesn’t help. Willis isn’t on-screen enough and Weaver was decidedly ill-advised to take this part, she looks completely out of place as the ruthless CIA agent.

Ridiculous and unintentionally funny this one isn’t worth anyone’s time and how it got a UK cinema release is beyond me.

Ric’s Rating: Poor

Film: Miss Bala

An aspiring Beauty Queen gets caught up in drug wars in this violent Mexican thriller.

After entering the beauty contest, Laura (Stephanie Sigman) visits a club with her friend. She then witnesses mayhem as a ruthless gang descends on the crowd. The head man soon has her do his bidding but the local cops also show an interest in what she is up to.

Can she play the two factions against each other while keeping her family safe?

This isn’t half as good as it should be, the whole thing lacks tension and Sigman fails to bring the required emotion to her role as she plods like from scene to scene in a trance-like state.

There are also too many long periods of silence, during car rides etc., which quickly make the viewer lose interest.

A good idea poorly executed.

Miss Bala is available on DVD in the UK now.

Ric’s Rating: Poor