All of these films made their UK premieres on Sky Movies this month.
One Way
Freddy Sullivan (Travis Fimmel) is a low-level criminal in Los Angeles who robs his crime boss, Vic (Drea de Matteo), but is shot in the stomach in the process. Badly wounded and needing a blood transfusion, he boards a bus with a bag full of cash and cocaine, heading for the Californian desert. Set in a confined space, this could have been a real edge of your seat thriller. Instead it is merely fine, a little plodding, and with an ending that you can see coming a mile off.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10
The Estate
This comedy has an impressive cast, including Kathleen Turner as a rich but crotchety terminally-ill woman and Toni Collette, Anna Faris and David Duchovny as three of her relatives desperate to inherit her wealth. They descend on their aunt’s house when they hear of their diagnosis, in the hope of getting into her will. There are a few chuckles, mostly as a result of bad taste gags about a sex offender and both Collette and especially Faris throw themselves into their roles impressively. But it does feel forced a lot of the time.
Rating: 6 out of 10
The Hanging Sun
A few years ago, there was spate of novels by the crime writer Jo Nesbø made into films. That seems to stop with the big flop that was the Snowman, thought I thought it was unfairly maligned. Six years later, The Hanging Sun has been made into a feature film. John (Alessandro Borghi) is on the run after betraying his powerful crime boss father (Peter Mullan) and brother (Frederick Schmidt).
He takes refuge in an isolated village populated by strict religious conformists. He meets Lea (Jessica Brown Findlay) and may have found a future for himself. This is unremittingly grim stuff, both in terms of the plodding story and also with so much of it shot in near darkness. It did not really hold my interest and there is an awful performance by Raphael Vicas as Lea’s son.
Rating: 4 out of 10
Alice
Alice (Keke Palmer) is an enslaved person on a rural Georgia plantation under brutal and disturbed owner Paul (Jonny Lee Miller). After a violent clash with Paul, she flees through the neighbouring woods and stumbles onto the unfamiliar sight of a highway. The year is 1973. That twist occurs 40 minutes into the film, and it is in most descriptions online, so I do not feel like I have spoiled things. That initial 40 minutes is very dull and slow moving. The story gets more interesting once Alice escapes and the choice of the blaxploitation era for her to emerge at is an intelligent one. However, the film fizzles out somewhat and Alicia Witt is wasted in a very small role.
Rating: 5 out of 10