Tag: Jack Quaid

Scream

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★1/2Scream

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett

Written by: James Vanderbilt, Guy Busick

Characters Created by: Kevin Williamson

Produced by: Paul Neinstein, William Sherak, James Vanderbilt

Starring: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Jenna Orgtega, Melissa Barrera, Marley Shelton, Dylan Minnette, Jack Quaid, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sonia Ammar, Mikey Madison, Mason Gooding, Kyle Gallner and Reggie Conquest.

‘What’s your favourite move?’

The phone rings and I think to myself, who has a landline?

But Scream 2022 is all about bringing back the audience to the same opening as Scream 1996, the original.

Tara (Jenna Orgtega) answers.  She’s home alone and about to get stabbed.

Welcome back to Woodsboro.

Scream the return, doesn’t shy away from its slasher genre.  The film gets very stabby, Ghostface relentless as the knife penetrates cheeks and stomachs, people straddled with two handed plunges.  It gets bloody.  As expected with the Scream franchise.

The difference with this instalment is the invitation to the audience to be part of ‘the game’.

Watching the characters walking around the house just waiting for Ghostface to suddenly appear behind a door.  It’s a tease and light-hearted (if a slasher can be light-hearted) because the audience knows what’s going to happen.  We’ve seen it all before and know:

Don’t go off on your own.

If you know the why of the killing, you’ll know who’s the next target.

The killer is always part of the tight-knit group of friends being targeted, here your somewhat typical high school buddies, hyper vigilant Wes (Dylan Minnette), twins Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding), girlfriend of Chad, Liv (Sonia Ammar) and best buddy of Tara, Amber (Mikey Madison).

The film uses the assumption the audience knows what’s coming and the characters know what’s coming next because they’ve all seen the slasher franchise, ‘Stab’.  Which is basically the Scream franchise so the characters analyse their situation based on the Stab movies.  While being in a Scream movie.  Scream the return, or ‘requel’ as described by Mindy is not just a slasher, but also self-reflecting that makes for some funny, tongue-in-cheek humour.

Another rule in making a sequel (requel) is bringing back some legends, enter the return of Sheriff Dewey Riley (David Arquette), Gale Riley (Courteney Cox) and of course, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell).

So there’s the current storyline of Tara and her sister Sam (Melissa Barrera) with boyfriend Richie (Jack Quaid) coming back to Woodsboro to help solve this new phase of Ghostface killings.

And there’s the legends brought back to help figure out who Ghostface is because they’ve been in the same situation many times before.

All the while inviting the audience to see the characters reflect on their story while comparing the killings to the Stab movies while we the audience watch them.

Is it better than the original?  No.  The first one was shocking and unforgettable.  But it’s just as good in other ways because it’s something different and challenging.

This instalment is not your typical slasher and the risky re-visit to the original idea of, Scream, is surprisingly successful.  It’s like a re-make in a re-make that leads to all sorts of layers and humour while still having the scary moments.

Recommend going back and watching at least the first Scream movie to get some of those aside jokes.

 

Logan Lucky

Rated: MLogan Lucky

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh

Written by: Rebecca Blunt

Produced by: Gregory Jacobs, Mark Johnson, Channing Tatum, Reid Carolin

Starring: Farrah Mackenzie, Channing Tatum, Jim O’Heir, Riley Keough, Katie Holmes, Boden Johnston, Sutton Johnston, David Denman, Charles Halford, Adam Driver, Seth MacFarlane, Mark McCullough, Daniel Craig and Jack Quaid.

Logan Lucky is about the not-so-lucky Logan Brothers who put together a heist to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway during the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race – one brother, Clyde Logan (Adam Driver), with one arm, I mean, one hand missing after being blown off on the way to the airport in Iraq, about to come home after fighting in the war.  And the other brother, Jimmy (Channing Tatum) with a limp, just fired from his truck driving job because of said limp – not that the limp would’ve affected his driving.

The Logan brothers enlist the help of demolition expert, Joe Bang (Daniel Craig) (ha, ha, Joe Bang), currently incarcerated; sister and hairdresser, Mellie (Riley Keough) and Joe Bang’s younger brothers, Fish (Jack Quaid) and Sam (Brian Gleeson).  Add these characters together and you’ve got a motley crew of robbers attempting a complicated job: the release of a prisoner, accessing the cash at the raceway, extracting and removing the cash from the site and the re-insertion of an escaped convict.Logan Lucky

After the introduction of these slow talking, seemingly thick-headed hillbillies, the film just kinda fumbled its way through the motion of the heist while expressing all those white trash clichés like child beauty pageants, John Deer trucker caps, long painted nails, big hair, NASCAR and energy drinks.  Well, the energy drinks were a bit different, as was the poodle-haired, race-car owner, Max Chilblain (Seth MacFarland) who owned the stuff and was forever trying to promote the drink by forcing it down his driver’s throat.

So, you can see there’s a parody here, of the backward North Carolina culture – but there’s also a paradox with smarts here too, like a tasteful martini made with one hand; a bomb made from bleach and gummy bears on the other…

I admit the dry humour eventually got me tickled and once tickled it was easier to laugh.  But the humour didn’t always hit the mark.

The stand-out for me was the one-armed Adam Driver as Clyde Logan.  Maybe I find amputee humour ticklish?  But, yes, his quiet take on the world was the highlight for me.Logan Lucky

There were some sweet moments, particularly between Jimmy Logan and his daughter Sadie (Farrah Mackenzie) – passing the flat-head screwdriver or the wrench or singing a heart-felt country and western song.  And there was a coming around and twist here and there with the story but I was too far gone on the hillbilly nature of the characters.

I got bored with the clichéd and any twists in the story felt cheap, like an Ocean’s Eleven (2001) (of which Soderbergh also directed) re-make, but starring hillbillies… without action…

So, it was a weird mix of: intelligent plan with backward characters.

The film outsmarted itself by building the hillbilly nature of the characters at the loss of story, so Logan Lucky ended up being kinda funny and kinda smart.

I wanted to like the film more, but didn’t quite get there.

PS. What was the deal with the Hillary Swank FBI character, Sarah Grayson? Brought so late into the film the character felt tacked on, a little like this PS.

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