Goose

Captive State is directed by Rupert Wyatt and features John Goodman as a government official. Ten years ago aliens came to earth and began to 'help' calm down the anarchy that was reigning across the world. Now it seems they have an agenda of their own.

The Most Dangerous Game (1932) A shipwrecked man washes up on a seemingly abandoned island. In terms of 'man hunting man for sport' movies, this is where it all began. After a brief and quite violent introduction, a man noted for his writings on hunting, washes up on shore of an island. He finds a building that's finely furnished and decorated, and meets the owner, Count Zaroff. He's also introduced to a brother and sister, who too were shipwrecked, and talk of two missing sailors. Before long Zaroff lays his cards on the table and the hunter becomes the hunted. This story has been made a few times in the intervening years, notably John Woo's Hard Target and Ernest Dickerson's Surviving The Game. This is a brief picture at just over an hour that does take a little time to set up its players. I was quite surprised at the opening, for the time, as we see people killed by a combination of fire and steam, explosions and a shark attack. Joel McCrea plays the everyman hunter, a upstanding kind of guy who gets to realise what his normal prey feels like when the tables are turned, so to speak. The caddish Leslie Banks is Lord Zaroff, a man trying his best to hide his true intentions, while being hospitable to his next victims. Rounding out the cast was the lovely Fay Wray, who ends up tagging along with McCrea when the game begins. I recognised parts of the set from somewhere and as it turns out, this was shot on the King Kong stages during the night. This was quite a good thriller, with a few darker moments and a great final twenty minutes. Again, I was quite surprised that we got to see the aforementioned opening as well as a wall-mounted severed head and another in formaldehyde later in the picture. It's a shame for such a short movie that it ties up its cast for ten minutes while we watch Wray's brother become more drunk and make a fool of himself, while Zaroff wonders around, plays the piano and rolls his eyes. However, once the game is afoot, there's a solid third act in which McCrea tries to outsmart Zaroff, falling back on his hunting and survival skills. There's a couple of tense moments as we wait to see if the hunter will notice traps and snares that have been set up by the hunted. There's also a decent scrap at the end, and while the reveal can be seen a mile off, it still played out well. Not as much fun as Hard Target, but still fine entertainment, especially for the time.

Galveston (2018) A dying hitman is set up, and while trying to escape with his life, rescues a young prostitute. Ben Foster plays Roy, a hitman/enforcer for a local crime boss, who for reasons unclear, sets him up during a hit. He manages to get out of the situation and discovers a prostitute named Rocky (played by Elle Fanning) being held captive in the place. He rescues the girl and the two flee town. Prior to the hit, Roy had found out he had shadows on his lungs, and his days are likely numbered anyway. The pair form an uneasy friendship, which both strains and blossoms when Rocky rescues her sister from the clutches of her stepfather. The now three head down to Galveston while Roy tries to figure out how to get back at the boss that has wronged him. I wasn't quite sure what to expect with this, but anyone looking for a revenge picture will be left disappointed. However, if you're after for a low key drama with two fantastic central performances, Galveston doesn't disappoint. Ben Foster is a real powerhouse here, a broken man knowing his time is short, too angry and too tired. Elle Fanning is equally as fractured, a girl desperate for attention and love, with little idea how to achieve either. Their relationship feels real despite all the things going on around them. The film doesn't try and get them together or force a romance, it is content to let them exist. Foster's character is already dealing with enough, and seems ill equipped to cope with the situation evolving around him.Similar, Fanning has essentially done something, which while commendable, adds another pile of problems to their already dangerous situation. At times this is hard going, there's very little joy here, just the lives of people living on the edges of society. A simple trip to the beach or a dinner out are the highlights of their world. I was impressed by both the performances, and more so with how the film evolved and didn't play out how I expected it to. Even after an event, the film defies convention and ends up down a completely different path. Though I haven't seen it, I imagine the tone is similar to The Florida Project. What came as a pleasant surprise too was that this was directed by Mélanie Laurent, known for her role of Shosanna Dreyfus in Inglourious Basterds. She has a confidence and eye that will serve her well going forward. A good soundtrack too, a mixture of synth and downbeat country. Strong performances and a simple plot become a really well made drama.

Someone has managed to get the system working via a USB, so it won't damage the console itself. The games on the USB have their own save slots and resume points. You can also change the background of the system itself.

I’m interested to see what Kerraig makes of it.

Coming in March 2019 - Triple Frontier - with Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Pedro Pascal and Ben Affleck, who was good in Phantoms.

That looks great!

No worries at all I probably could have found it sooner but it slipped my mind for a while.

I had a look for it but it’s not on Netflix here - despite being set here, made here and shot about an hour away from our town.

The Thing From Another World (1951) A group of scientists and military personnel discover something in the Arctic ice. Despite being a huge fan of John Carpenter's The Thing, I'd never got round to seeing the original version. The remake treads a similar path to this original, and the first thing that caught me off guard was the 1951 title sequence, which was almost identical to Carpenter's version (or the other way round). We meet Captain Hendry as he's called up to a research base near the North Pole. Along with a few other soldiers is reporter Ned Scott. Upon arrival there's a slight tension between the two groups, including the head of the facility, Dr Carrington. The team fly to the sight of a strange happening, which they deduce to be a crashed craft of some kind. They end up discovering a creature trapped in the ice and decide to recover it. Even though this was a fairly short movie at around 80 minutes, and took its time setting things up, it played out really well once the creature got back to the base. Prior to that it painted a realistic picture of the key players and you got a sense of loyalty on both sides. The visit to the site had an eerie feel to it, and a sense of unease that continued to grow. While the creature wasn't up to much, the film wisely kept it from view so when it did strike, it was quite a foreboding presence. The arm around the door was a great bit, and the sequence in which they try to use fire was a solid set piece with a brilliant outline of the creature in the flame. I liked too how it wasn't some dumb killing machine, that it had an intelligence and a plan. The clashes with the military and scientists, which are the bread and butter of such stories, played out a little different to the norm, which made a refreshing change. I really enjoyed this, while I don't think it was a patch on Carpenter's version (what is?) it had more than enough tension, excitement and fear to comfortably hold its own. The cast were of a high quality and even the bit players got space to be something more than the norm. The film took its time but was sure to make constant progress, so while it might have seemed slow, it was simply doing the ground work it needed to do. It didn't play up the paranoia angle, however in many ways it was just as cynical as the remake. I thought this was well worth a watch and is a fine companion piece to the 1982 version.

That was an excellent section, particularly the start of it.

These are already available in AU for $125 (they launched at $149)

Two things - It's basically the titles of the show with the episode names for S3 playing in front. Teaser has no other footage and be sure and stop at 50 seconds as there's a 20 odd second load Joblo outro

One of the few negative reviews..