DAMIEN RILEY, world musician and performer

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  • The Woman

    I hope you like Bob Dylan style singers because you’ll get that pretty much throughout this film. It’s ok, just a smattering of hatred against a certain type of male that beats and takes advantage of women. It’s cool to see Pollyanna McIntosh, she’s the real star here. You might know her from The Walking Dead, she’s the leader of the tribe that’s sort of with Negan then not. It appears she has only women on her team? That one.

    The Woman (2011)
    R | 1h 41min | Horror | 18 August 2011 (Australia)

    When a successful country lawyer captures and attempts to “civilize” the last remaining member of a violent clan that has roamed the Northeast coast for decades, he puts the lives of his family in jeopardy.
    Director: Lucky McKee
    Writers: Jack Ketchum, Lucky McKee | 2 more credits »
    Stars: Pollyanna McIntosh, Brandon Gerald Fuller, Lauren Ashley Carter

    The woman needs its halfway mark before it really gets believable. Before that it looks like a day gone bad for an otherwise goofy husband and dad. The director Lucky McKee has a unique style in this one. In a way it reminds me of Rob Zombie only the music is more folk and upbeat. It’s a vengeance film about a woman who gets her vengeance. Some will enjoy it, I found tense for tenses sake and not really believable. For example, the stunt his son pulls? Would that happen? I guess that depends on how messed up you take the dad for right? Pretty good but annoying music and not much verisimilitude. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’ve seen a lot of horror movies and this one keeps being recommend to you (as it was to me.) 5/10.

  • Dismissed

    A gut-wrenching horror about a teacher and his “gifted” student. The truth is, this student is a gift any teacher should reject. When teacher tries to make a point to said student by giving him a B+, he opens Pandora’s box and all hell starts to break loose. This clean cut kid is definitely not what he seems. Still, there are signs.

    Dismissed (2017)
    Not Rated | 1h 27min | Horror, Thriller | 8 October 2017 (USA)

    An idealistic, straight-edge teacher is drawn down a horrid rabbit hole by an honors student when he gives him a B+ on a paper.
    Director: Benjamin Arfmann
    Writer: Brian McAuley
    Stars: Kent Osborne, Dylan Sprouse, Rae Gray

    The director here is Benjamin Arfmann, this is his first feature film but he has done television and short films. It’s well directed. I especially appreciated the scenes in the Principal’s office with the police. She was for him, then against him. At some point, the whole situation was so out of control. no authority could contain it. Those are the scariest parts.

    WE al know Dylan Sprouse from “The Secret Life of Zack and Cody.” He’s taken on a huge acting challenge bu doing this horror film. I hope it pays him back because he’s a good actor and I am a horror fan. He is scary and annoying, almost in a Norman Bates sort of way. I liked the film, it was scary and well paced. I give it a 9/10. It could have been a 10 if it fleshed out the character’s past a bit more to show maybe why he did this stuff.

  • Black Mass

    Pretty good, not bad, skip the spaghetti and meatballs because we got IRISH mob kills this time. So what shall we eat? Corned beef and cabbage with green beer? Sure why the hell not. Johnny Depp plays another Johnny. He’s a killer. This one’s a true story too. (I love those)

    Black Mass (2015)
    R | 2h 3min | Biography, Crime, Drama | 18 September 2015 (USA)

    The true story of Whitey Bulger, the brother of a state senator and the most infamous violent criminal in the history of South Boston, who became an FBI informant to take down a Mafia family invading his turf.
    Director: Scott Cooper
    Writers: Mark Mallouk (screenplay), Jez Butterworth (screenplay) | 2 more credits »
    Stars: Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson

    Scott Cooper is the director. He did ‘Out of the Furnace’ starring Christian Bale and I have to tell you I loved that movie. He apparently picks the stories from the city streets. This one is really gritty like Furnace. The characters are grounded and they cuss as well as they handle guns in execution style mob killings. This is not a study in what happened, it’s more a display of what this whacked out killer did when he was alive. Some of the stuff goes way beyond cold hearted. It’s a good mob film, it has an amazing cast as well. It was a little slow in telling thhe story I thought but I got beyond it. I give it an 8.5/10.

  • I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore.

    Just about anything Melanie Lynskey is in is great. She’s part of a group of actors that includes Mark Duplass and others who are making their way through a career and developing a particular style of character. She’s the star of this one and it’s a really great thing to see.

    I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore. (2017)
    TV-MA | 1h 33min | Comedy, Crime, Drama | 24 February 2017 (USA)

    When a depressed woman is burglarized, she finds a new sense of purpose by tracking down the thieves alongside her obnoxious neighbor. But they soon find themselves dangerously out of their depth against a pack of degenerate criminals.
    Director: Macon Blair
    Writer: Macon Blair
    Stars: Melanie Lynskey, Chris Doubek, Marilyn Faith Hickey

    Macon Blair is the director here, he did a truly good job in ‘Blue Ruin’ which was a vengeance movie made on a shoestring budget. He’s in the director’s chair this time and I’m happy to report this film is great.

    Elijah Wood plays the neighbor DIY mercenary. When the two team up to get her stolen property back it works like clockwork. In these unsure times, it’s comforting and entertaining to see regular people take charge of their situation. The humble ways of these characters are just plain fun to watch. I recommend this one and it’s on Netflix. 8/10.

  • Bloody Sunday

    Short review here. My score: 4/10. A wooden, poorly edited (which is very distracting), under-developed biopic of the Bloody Sunday event so well know by the Irish and members of the world audience.

    Bloody Sunday (2002)
    R | 1h 47min | Drama, History, War | 19 April 2002 (Portugal)

    A dramatization of the Irish civil rights protest march and subsequent massacre by British troops on January 30, 1972.
    Director: Paul Greengrass
    Writer: Paul Greengrass
    Stars: James Nesbitt, Tim Pigott-Smith, Nicholas Farrell

    There could have been better backstory and illustration of why this happened. They use handhelds as an excuse to not engage through other means. Director Paul Greengrass went on to direct some truly awesome films like Jason Bourne, Captain Phillips, The Bourne Ultimatum, United 93, & The Bourne Supremacy.

    Too many shaky camera closeups that don’t serve a central theme. “You can’t see the forest for the trees.” Not sure what he was going for with Bloody Sunday but whatever it was, I missed it. I wanted to like it as an Irishman myself, but I couldn’t get into it.

  • Walking Out

    Dads get a bad rap. We want our teenage sons to be tough to face a carnvivorous world. We want them to do better than we did. Sometimes dads are the more rugged and “rough” parents. In this case we have a teenage boy sent to spend time with his outdoorman father, both get more than they bargained for.

    Walking Out (2017)
    PG-13 | 1h 35min | Adventure, Drama, Mystery | 6 October 2017 (USA)

    An urban teenager journeys to Montana to hunt big game with his estranged father. Father and son struggle to connect, until a brutal encounter in the heart of the wilderness changes everything.
    Directors: Alex Smith, Andrew J. Smith
    Writers: David Quammen (short story), Alex Smith (adaptation) | 1 more credit »
    Stars: Matt Bomer, Josh Wiggins, Bill Pullman

    This was directed by “The Smith Brothers,” specifically Alex and Andrew Smith. They have about 4 films under their belt, none have been blockbusters. That’s ok with me because I don’t necessarily want to see the blockbusters when there are amazing smaller scale gems to be watched. This is one of those. It’s man against nature once again and we see a lot of the same old conventions connected to that premise. A boy is sent to his father to grow up and he does it the hard way with snowy hiking, a bear, and finally … (no spoliers). I was never bored watching this film and I can’t thik of a way I could have made it better. It is a timeless theme and I recommend it to you dear watcher at a 7/10.