"Send Help" - But Not For Me!

Underappreciated, underfucked and underestimated for the last time, meek "Planning and Strategy" lady Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) is at the end of her rope when her consultancy firm's new shithead boss Bradley Preston (Dylan O'Brien) passes her over for the promotion promised to her by his father, in favour of one of his dickhead friends in braces. When a flight they are on runs aground, however, and both Linda and Bradley are the only survivors, the tables turn as Linda reveals just how capable she is...

(Photo credit: Bedford Playhouse)
I've missed you Sam Raimi, you son of a bitch.
His first directorial effort since "Dr Strange and the Multiverse of Madness" (which I honestly would not have known was a Raimi movie had you not told me: what was the point in getting him to do it if you were sanding off the edges and having him make placeholder stuff? I know why, "name" and "brand!" fucking Disney), it has the halmarks and tricks I love from him.
We get a focus in the intro on details, closeups of eyes and mouths and noses and bits of food left over; we get an utterly twisted, bloody, wicked sense of humour; Looney Toons violence, that swooping camera shot we know him for, even a Bruce Campbell cameo! All it's missing is Ted Raimi, and is all the lesser for it, though we do get his daughter! Sam's, not Ted's. We're all daughters of Ted.
Rachel McAdams is a fucking delight in this, relishing the material, tearing into the flesh of the character as she evolves and devolves, a true gift for an actor. Dylan O'Brien is a fucking shithead and Pantomime evil in this, and I respect the excellent job he does. I'm not familiar with his work but great job man! Raimi embraces the turns and twists of the script, which would otherwise be a joke in the wrong hands, and goes helter-skelter with it. This is stupendous, bloody fun and I had an excellent time. My cinema was crowded and howling, loving life.
Two guys behind me went "oh FUCK YOU Sam, we should have seen that coming" with glee and affection. He's been missed.
And great use of Blondie, even if it's not "Dreaming".
Rachel McAdams fights a boar, film of the year.

"Dead of Winter" - Review

Recently widowed Barb (a rather game Emma Thompson) heads to a frozen lake in the Canadian wildnerness to scatter her husband's ashes. She comes across a crime in progress, as a woman in a purple coat (Judy Greer) and a man in a camouflage coat (Marc Menchaca) have stashed a bound woman (Laurel Marsden, no relation to James) in their cabin. Unwilling to let surely bad things happen to this girl, but with no special skills outside of tenacity and age, Barb does battle with the pair.

(Photo credit: thefutureoftheforce.com Fucking websites not using fucking JPGs, bastard piece of shit internet, fuck it)
A fairly solid thriller, all things considered. It's not going to set the world on fire (hah!) and doesn't exactly reinvent he wheel - but it doesn't have to. It's a tight enough fare (through it loses steam in the cellar in act 3), with lovely scenescapes, good use of flashbacks, and a focus on the nitty-gritty survival elements like soaking clothes in a sink to screw with people, and how actually bloody difficult would be to sew up one's own wounds. I like that the protagonists are ordinary people (Barb has twinges in her back, people slip over and drop things in fight scenes, for example), there's no "secret military background" or crowbarred tangent: it feels natural and fun and a touch of class. It's a nice, simple movie and a quirky change of pace for Thompson, who's really good in this.