Copshop - The scoop and digest

Joe Carnahan's latest collaboration with Frank Grillo has Assault on Precinct 13 very much in mind.

Gerard Butler - Robert Viddick

Frank Grillo - Teddy Murretto

Toby Huss - Anthony Lamb

Alexis Louder - Valerie Young

Summary

Con artist Teddy Murretto purposely sucker-punches rookie cop Valerie Young hoping jail will protect him from hitman Robert Viddick.

However, Viddick is also detained for pretending to be DUI.

When the psychopathic Anthony Lamb enters the fray, Young is caught up in the middle of three-way squabble.

Open fire

70's inspired crime caper is pretty entertaining, but struggles in terms of pacing.

Screenplay is nowhere near as sharp as I thought it would be, but does contain some memorable highlights.  

After brutally beating his cellmate, Butler sarcastically screams 'Someone help this man. He's gonna die'. Subsequent maniacal laugh is hilarious.

While holding Viddick at gunpoint, Teddy asks Young something like 'Can I help?', to which she retorts 'Yeah, shut the fuck up'.

Ha ha ha!

Butler is good, Huss's cartoonish villain delights in the carnage that itchy trigger finger brings, but I'd say Louder steals the show.

Despite silly conclusion, I was satisfied overall.

More Incredible Film Rip-offs

Can original be topped?

http://nukesandknives.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-most-incredible-film-rip-offs-ever.html

Maybe.

All rise. The court is now in session.

Be seated.

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) vs Vamp (1986)

Defendant

Bank robbers Seth and Richie Gecko force a family to smuggle them over the Mexican border to a bar which employs vampires.

Plaintiff

College students AJ and Keith visit a seedy bar to hire a stripper, unaware sleazy joint is occupied by bloodsuckers.

Titty Twister vs After Dark

Razor Charlie vs Vic

Both introduce dancers whose sexy routines mesmerise customers.

Santanico Pandemonium vs Katrina

True form.

Richie and AJ are bitten.

Consequently.

Only difference is that AJ doesn't die.

Vampire example

Nobody can ever accuse Frost or Katrina of not having a heart.

Rather appropriately, we wrap at dawn.

Now it's all about imagery.

Let Her Out (2016) vs Evil Dead (2013)

Defendant

Following an accident, bike courier Helen is stalked by her doppelganger.  It's explained that she suffers from 'vanishing twin' syndrome, as sibling dying in utero was absorbed into her rather than mother.  

Getting knocked down activated genetic mass.

Plaintiff

In order to kick drug habit, Mia heads to a remote cabin in the woods with brother and friends.

After incantations from a mysterious book are read out loud, demons are unleashed.

Helen vs Mia

Ed vs Eric

It appears Ashley Hallihan cast Alanna LeVierge and particularly Adam Christie for resembling Jane Levy and Lou Taylor Pucci.

Okay then.

Helen 2 vs Demonic Mia

Scrapbook vs Naturom Demonto

Twin vs Abomination

Helen 2 vs Abomination

Your Honour, I present my final case.

(Groans of disappointment reverberate around the public gallery).

Order. Silence in court.

You may proceed.

Cheers mate.

The Doll (2016) vs The Conjuring (2013)

Defendant

Daniel buys wife Anya a doll, unaware that plaything belonged to a little girl called Uci, who along with family; were murdered during a robbery.

Plaintiff

The Perron family contact paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren to rid the hateful spirit of Bathsheba Sherman from their home.

Once again, plots are chalk and cheese, but Rocky Soraya's effective Indonesian horror wallows in plagiarism.

Ghawiah¹ vs Annabelle

¹One who is evil and follows its desires.

Hide-and-seek! vs Miss me?

Check out this FUCKING SHIT.

Uci vs Bathsheba

If that wasn't bad enough.

Possession

HA HA HA!

To exorcise supernatural curse, Anya is encouraged to think about the good times, just like Carolyn.

And no, I'm not taking the piss.

Malignant - The scoop and digest

Due to some subtle alterations, James Wan does not adapt his four-piece graphic novel Malignant Man.

Oh, feature presentation shouldn't be confused with 2013 film of same name.

Annabelle Wallis - Madison/Emily

Maddie Hasson - Sydney

George Young - Kekoa

Michole Briana White - Regina

Summary

In 1993, at the Simion Research Hospital, Dr. Florence Weaver cannot give 'Gabriel' the treatment he needs.

Today.

Madison comes home to abusive husband Derek who cannot keep his fists to asshole self.

Beating a woman is bad enough, but hitting a pregnant one is just sick.

Thankfully, somebody kills cowardly bastard off-screen.

With no sign of forced entry, police naturally make Maddy the prime suspect.

Maddy begins to hallucinate a sinister figure murdering people.

Is her imaginary friend up to mischief?

Cut out the cancer

Anybody expecting something along the lines of The Conjuring or Insidious will be bitterly disappointed.

Of course, those who did their homework will already know that.

Homage to 80's horror can get messy, but definitely worth anybody's time.

Cinematography is at its dazzling best when environments seamlessly transform around Maddy.

Are we in Silent Hill?

(Laughs).

Attic even has a huge fan, similar to the one seen in Midwich's Otherworld.

Slow-burning mystery thriller explodes into life after gruesome reveal.

Emily (Maddy's birth name) was born with a teratoma, a tumour made of fully developed tissue, such as hair, skin, bone, muscle and even teeth.  In this case, Gabriel is her parasitic twin.

Over time, it learned how to access part of brain that processes visual stimuli, explaining hallucinations and waking dreams.

Weaver and co removed what they could of Gabriel and suppressed remainder inside Emily's skull.

Derek thumping Maddy caused her to hit back of head against wall, waking Gabriel up.

Did director plagiarise the concept of a Stephen King story?

I am of course talking about The Dark Half, which was first adapted as a video game in 1992 and then by George A. Romero in 1993.

Hmmm.

Bonkers finale of Gabriel massacring prisoners and cops like John fucking Wick was absolutely ridiculous, but great fun.

Maddy astral projects and manages to send Gabriel back into hibernation.

Sequel bait.

Antagonist is played by professional contortionist and dancer Marina Mazepa, who appeared as a contestant on America's Got Talent.

We'll see her again as Lisa Trevor in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.

Bring it on.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - The scoop and digest

First appearing when the MCU began with Iron Man, Destin Daniel Cretton gives mysterious organisation the feature-length treatment.

Simu Liu - Xu Shang-Chi/Shaun

Awkwafina - Katy/Ruiwen

Meng'er Zhang - Xu Xialing

Fala Chen - Ying Li

Florian Munteanu - Razor Fist

Michelle Yeoh - Ying Nan

Ben Kingsley - Trevor

Tony Leung - Xu Wenwu

Summary

Several millennia ago, Wenwu found ten rings and used mystical weapons to assemble an army.

In 1996, Wenwu has two kids (Shang-Chi and Xialang) by Ta Lo's village guardian Ying Li.

Li is murdered by Wenwu's enemies the Iron Gang.  After intense training, Wenwu sends Shang-Chi to assassinate their leader, and succeeds.  However, this leaves him traumatised and young pup flees to San Francisco, going under the name of 'Shaun'.

Present day.

After Shang-Chi clashes with Ten Rings assassins, Wenwu (aka Mandarin) tells estranged family that Li's 'told' him she's trapped behind a sealed gate in Ta Lo.

When children object to plans of burning village down, he turns nasty.

Having safely negotiating deadly forest, Ta Lo's leader and Li's sister Ying Nan informs that Wenwu has actually been manipulated by soul-eating dragon Dweller-in-Darkness, as monster knows the power of ten will destroy gate.

Better hurry guys, the clock's ticking.

Mid-credits

Inside the Sanctum Sanctorum, Shang-Chi, Katy and Wong chat with Carol Danvers and Bruce Banner, who reveal the rings are emitting a signal.

Perhaps threat is from another dimension?

Post-credits

Xialing has taken over her father's mantle.

Also, 'the Ten Rings will return' is displayed.

Rings of quality

Marvel does Crouching Tiger, Kung Fu Hustle, Ip Man etc etc.

Performances are great and we relate to Tony Leung's pseudo villain.

Humour (sometimes ironic), is not cheesy and characters never irritate.

Martial arts sequences are immaculately choreographed and ooze energy.

Bus fight has already become quite a thing, and rightly so.

Clichéd story, second half taking a nosedive and CG-heavy climax means it's not perfect, but definitely in my Marvel top 10.

Candyman - The scoop and digest

As per Halloween (2018), the sequel to Candyman is Candyman, so Farewell to the Flesh and Day of the Dead are ignored.

Even The Candyman would have been a better title.

Anyway, how much blood will co-writer and director Nia DaCosta spill?

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II - Anthony

Teyonah Parris - Brianna

Nathan Stewart-Jarrett - Troy

Colman Domingo - William Burke

Kyle Kaminsky - Grady

Vanessa Williams - Anne-Marie

Summary

In 1977, a boy encounters a man with a prosthetic hook in Cabrini-Green.

42 years later, Candyman country has since been pulled down.

Fascinated by a story told by his girlfriend's brother, visual artist Anthony begins to research the history of Helen Lyle.  At the former Cabrini-Green, he's stung by a bee and thinks nothing of it.

We learn from local William Burke that guy from the beginning was Sherman Fields.

He was beaten to death by the police for assaulting children, but later exonerated.

During an art exhibition, Anthony showcases his painting 'Say My Name', daring people to look directly into a mirror and repeat 'Candyman' five times.

As the bodies pile up, Anthony is haunted by Sherman's ghost.

After learning from estranged mother Anne-Marie of his connection to the first Candyman Daniel Robitaille, Anthony's sanity unravels.

Bee my victim

This wasn't great, but definitely not the car crash I expected.

It's aesthetically pleasing and shadow puppetry was a nice idea.

As everything is pretty much summarised, there's absolutely no need to watch classic original to understand what's going on.

Good or bad thing?

Down to personal opinion I suppose.

Okay, cue multiple problems.

Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe's music is decent, but compared to Philip Glass's beautiful score...

However, an interpretation is briefly heard during Helen's back story.

De-aging horror icon Tony Todd for literally a matter of seconds was pointless and reeks of fan service.

Using gentrification as a visual metaphor came across as preachy rather than clever.

Also, white vs black.

Presumably to avoid 18 cert, kills now occur entirely off-screen.

Anthony becoming the latest addition to the hive was stunningly predictable.

Going further, where's Helen?

Most stupid of all, why did it take so fucking long for Anthony to get infection checked out?

(Rolls eyes).

Censor - The scoop and digest

Inspired by her own 2015 short Nasty, Prano Bailey-Bond makes feature-length directorial debut.

Niamh Algar - Enid

Michael Smiley - Doug Smart

Nicholas Burns - Sanderson

Vincent Franklin - Fraser

Sophia La Porta - Alice Lee

Adrian Schiller - Frederick North

Summary

During the video nasty crisis, meticulous film censor Enid does everything she can to protect the public from obscene material.

Her sister Nina went missing as a child and presumed dead.

Whilst presiding over latest work submitted by mysterious director Frederick North, she links actress Alice Lee to Nina.

Don't Go in the Church becomes an obsession, blurring the lines between fiction and reality.

Compelling

Takes a while to get going, but once it does...

Psychological horror owes a lot to Videodrome, but acting and direction is pulled from the highest of drawers.

It's also very nostalgic, as clips of The Driller Killer, Frozen Scream and Nightmares in a Damaged Brain et al are shown.

Fictitious film Deranged (ironically a real 1974 yarn of same name) is blamed for unnamed man murdering wife and kids.

Unfortunately, interesting subplot of Amnesiac Killer goes nowhere, as dialogue states he never pushed play.

After taking Church's sequel way too far, Enid kills Beast Man and decapitates North.

Unimpressed with outlandish claim, Alice flees.

'Nina' suddenly appears and they drive off to visit parents.

Any chance of a happy ending is soon eliminated, as beautifully shot sequence glitching reveals peeps are absolutely terrified, strongly suggesting that Enid killed sibling.

Well that's my take anyway.

Don't Breathe 2 - The scoop and digest

First time director Rodo Sayagues (who co-wrote screenplay with Fede Álvarez) takes a different approach to hit original.

Stephen Lang - The Blind Man/Norman Nordstrom

Brendan Saxton III - Raylan

Madelyn Grace - Phoenix/Tara

Summary

8 years after original, Norman (revealed to be a former Navy SEAL) has isolated himself from society and lives with daughter Phoenix, who was orphaned after a house fire.

A news broadcast reports an organ trafficking ring is operating in the local area.

Members track Phoenix down and despite Norm dishing out pain (and receiving some of his own), she's eventually kidnapped.

After gang leader Raylan (Phoenix's real father) torches humble abode, Norm tools up and literally goes all Liam fucking Neeson.

They have taken his daughter.  He will look for them, he will find them... and he will kill them.

Post-credits

Baddie's dog licks Norm's hand and fingers slightly move.

Ridiculous

Lang puts in a good shift (again) and there's some decent violence, but overall, Taken clone was very predictable and pretty ordinary.

House burned down because meth laboratory caused an explosion. Smoke from chemicals poisoned mother's blood, badly damaging her heart.

So agenda was not out of love, but to save his wife.

Norm breaking through window to attack gang member is identical to Michael doing the same to Laurie in Halloween (2018).

Going further, latter ripped off Friday the 13th (2009), which paid homage to Friday the 13th Part 2.

Finally, considering Norm is guilty of rape and murder, why is he now a hero?

(Rolls eyes).