Nolan Gerard Funk

Vin Diesel and filmmaker David Twohy wrestle their iconic intergalactic character back to his leaner, meaner roots in this bluntly titled thriller. This movie harks back to what made 2000's Pitch Black such a discovery: one misunderstood man fighting idiotic reactions to real danger. Thankfully, the filmmakers have set aside the murky mythologising of the 2004 sequel The Chronicles of Riddick.

There's a brief mention of things like necromongers and the underverse before Riddick (Diesel) is abandoned on a harsh desert planet apparently populated by only two species: stripy, spiky-haired wild dingos and slimy two-legged scorpion-stinging beasts. Riddick gets to grips with both, even domesticating one of the doggies, then sends a distress signal that is answered by two teams of bounty-hunting mercenaries. First up is a motley crew led by Santana (Molla), and they're soon joined by a muscle-head team captained with military precision by the steely Johns (Nable), who has a secret personal reason for being here. But of course Riddick is ready for them.

All of the characters are beefy hotheads, challenging each other's authority with gruffly shouted taunts. Even as they play it straight, the cast members have a lot of fun with this banter. As Johns' first officer, Sackhoff is clearly in her element as the only female in sight, happily giving the men a taste of their own machismo. Even man-mountain Bautista gets into the fun as Santana's brutish thug, calmed down by Danby's true-believer nice guy. Everyone is sure they can capture Riddick easily, of course, but he picks them off one-by-one until they accept his terms. This heightened human interaction gives the movie a kick of energy that holds our attention even as things begin to feel faintly ridiculous.

Continue reading: Riddick Review

Movies that allow us to wallow in a trashy story for a couple of hours can often become a guilty pleasure, and this lurid concoction blends the skills of Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho) and Paul Schrader (American Gigolo) for an entertaining story of sexual depravity with Hitchcockian overtones. It's a bit clumsy and corny, but the characters and situations hold our interest simply because we have no idea where it's heading.

In the canyons around Malibu, independently wealthy Christian (Deen) has decided to produce a low-budget slasher movie starring the sexy actor Ryan (Funk), boyfriend of Christian's assistant Gina (Brooks). Christian's girlfriend Tara (Lohan) is trying to stay out of all of this, but Christian keeps telling everyone about their wild sex life with random third and fourth partners. Their one rule is that they won't lie to each other, but both are keeping secrets: Tara has started seeing Ryan, who's actually her ex, while Christian is sleeping with his yoga teacher (Houston). And when these secrets emerge, trouble follows.

Christian is the usual Ellis protagonist, a guy with no real moral centre: his whole life seems lifted from the movies, and Deen plays him as a preening peacock, arrogantly sure he is in control of everything. He's a charismatic villain, and Deen commands the screen. But Lohan gives just as good as the more emotional Tara, who is a bundle of naivete and duplicity, driven by insecurity and just as power-mad as Christian, really. Opposite them, Funk and Brooks are playing the innocents caught in their depraved web, so they're the ones we can identify with.

Continue reading: The Canyons Review