Bovie Movie

Writer/director Paul Schrader is on familiar territory with this atmospheric though underdeveloped society drama. Revisiting themes from his earlier features American Gigolo and Light Sleeper, it stars Woody Harrelson as the titular “walker”, Carter Page III — a gay, Washington DC-based charmer, who escorts the wives of the rich and powerful to social events. But when Carter tries to protect one of his inner circle (Kristin Scott Thomas) from scandal following the murder of her lover, his world starts to crumble. The picture’s first third is a celebration of superficiality, deliciously capturing the intricacies of privileged life. Schrader’s dialogue sparkles with cynical wit, and his cast, including Lauren Bacall and Lily Tomlin, adds essential depth. Harrelson is particularly pitch perfect, nailing his character’s camp affectations without resorting to caricature. Unfortunately, the slack narrative can’t match the fine performances, dipping its toe in too many genres and losing its direction and emotional impact in the process. 

Chechen rebels take over a Russian nuclear plant and it’s up to a mysterious agent(Snipes) to stop them.

Surpassing its predecessor in terms of sheer spectacle, this sequel to Ridley Scott’s outer-space nightmare from director James Cameron is an outstanding science-fiction thriller. Sigourney Weaver wakes up 57 years after the original events unfolded, only to be told that the planet where she first met the alien predator has been colonised. When all contact with the inhabitants is lost, she’s sent in with a crack squad of marines and hurtles headlong into a hi-tech house of horrors that delivers plenty of shocks and nail-biting suspense. Masterfully controlling the tension and moving the involving plot at a lightning pace, Cameron exploits everyone’s worst fears and carries them to the riveting extreme in this consummate Oscar-winning fright-fest. 

Allegory is replaced by the just plain gory in the first sequel to Clive Barker’s ground-breaking macabre masochistic myth about the dark angels of hell and their Faustian bargains. Kenneth Cranham is the demented doctor anxious to meet the Cenobite messengers, while asylum inmate Ashley Laurence (still recovering from Hellraiser events) is forced to fight the invoked demons for her father’s soul. Routinely directed by Tony Randel, some disturbing eeriness is conjured up between the blood-soaked illogicalities and outlandish inconsistencies. The original sombre shocker was a thought-provoking study in carnal terrors — this is more a three-ring circus of pretentious horror.