Here are the three movies that I watched this week that I found most interesting to share:
Dredd (2012)
Dredd is a remake of a comic-based movie from 1995. It’s set in a dystopian future where the world (aka the USA) is full of radioactive contamination and people live in a giant city called Mega-City One, where there are huge apartment buildings that house hundreds of thousands of people. In these mega-cities, cops are called Judges, and they act as judge, jury and executioner. Judge Dredd, the main character, and his rookie partner are sent to one of these huge apartment buildings to investigate a drug lord who is putting out on the streets a deadly drug called Slo-Mo. It will not be a smooth investigation, and shit escalates quickly.
Let me start by saying that this is one of the best sci-fi movies I’ve seen in a long while. It’s one of those gems that has a great cast, a good script and amazing special effects. There is so much graphic violence and it’s so well done. I think Dredd has a similar vibe with great movies like Robocop, Total Recall and even Akira. There are slow motion scenes in this movie that are so cool and beautifully trippy that I’d say they make Dredd worth a watch just on their own.
Saint Maud (2019)
Although this movie premiered at TIFF in 2019, it didn’t reach major audiences until late 2020 due, of course, to the pandemic. It is the first feature film for director Rose Glass, and what a great debut!
Saint Maud tells us the story of Katie, a palliative care private nurse who couldn’t do anything to save her last patient and is now in charge of taking care of a woman, Amanda, who used to be a dancer and is now dying of cancer. Katie recently adopted Catholicism as her way of life, and soon she gets obsessed with the idea that she must save Amanda’s soul at any cost.
The story and character development in Saint Maud are so well told and portrayed that, even though most of the film feels like a drama, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.
I say it feels like a drama because this movie is a dark and sad psycho-horror movie, that talks about loneliness and religion in a scary but profound way. I love how Rose Glass introduces some horror imagery and subtle twists that keep you guessing until the end if she’s going to play it old-school horror or not.
Even though she has awesome movies like Crawl on her resume, I believe actress Morfydd Clark did her best interpretation to date and one that will be remembered for a long time.
If you’re looking for an original, fresh and quality horror flick, Saint Maud is one of the best you’ll get this year.
Immortals (2011)
Immortals is a 2011 action-fantasy flick from the director of the great classic The Cell.
The best way I can describe Immortals is that it’s like the movie 300 on steroids.
The film follows (loosely) the classic tale of the adventures of hero Theseus and connects it with the war between the Gods of the Olympus and the Titans.
Though it’s not one of the best movies out there, it is definitely very entertaining just because of how over-the top it is. Honestly, I put it on expecting to fall asleep within the first 10 minutes and ended up staying awake and enjoying the damn thing. There are few dialogues where the movie feels long, most of the scenes are action-packed or sex-packed. All the fight scenes are a bloodbath, the CGI backgrounds are very cool and the cast is surprisingly good (the best part being Mickey Rourke as the badass King Hyperion).
Overall, this is one of those movies that has so much of everything (fights, sex, special effects, a huge budget, hot people, evil monsters, etc.) that it will inevitably be a fun watch. Careful with that brazen bull!
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