Men (2022) - What was this film about?

I do like horror films, whether they're blood-spattered in-your-face wall-to-wall gore, or something a little more cerebral and slow burning.  2022's 'Men' is definitely the latter, sometimes going up to fifteen minutes without even the central protagonist uttering a word to any other character.

A woman (Jessie Buckley) has recently lost her husband, who she was in the process of divorcing, and decides to take a break by renting a large house in the British countryside.  There, she intends to divide her time between scenic walks in the country and general work via remote laptop.  However, it's not long before she encounters the - you guessed it - men.

Now, it's about now I should point out how good the make-up in general is.  I can confidently say this because all the men in the village she encounters are played by Rory Kinnear - and I never noticed!  I only found this out while researching the film later on the internet.

Naturally, the male population are an odd bunch to say the least and the woman starts to realise there's more going on than first meets the eye.  Before long, she finds herself trapped in more of a cat and mouse/life and death struggle for survival.

This all takes quite a while before the 'slasher' element of the film takes hold.  By that I mean a woman in trouble being pursued relentlessly by a hostile force.  Now, I was quite enjoying this.  I didn't mind the slow pacing and the performances by the men (or MAN as I discovered afterwards!) really kept me hooked.

Then, in the final act, things really picked up.  There's some of the most inventive and grim body horror I've ever seen.  I was truly in my element.  Granted, I still wasn't too sure of what or why these hideous things were transpiring, but the overall feel of the film was enough to keep me watching.

Then it ended.

And I was left with a feeling of wondering why these things happened and what exactly I had just watched.  I looked up various articles online which  - sort of - explained things (and found the film wasn't that well-received overall).  It seemed that no one really had much of a definitive idea of why all this transpired, so I guess it's worth saying that much of the film's 'meaning' could be said to be up to the viewers' interpretation.

Because I actually enjoyed the majority of this film, slow-burner it may be, I don't feel like I wasted my time, but I think it's worth pointing out that if you like your stories to have every little point explained by the time the credits roll then you may feel a bit disappointed with the ending.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that

Godzilla vs Kong (2021) - Where's the 'no humans' edit?

Oh, my was I disappointed with this one.  I'm not sure what I want from a 'giant monster' movie, but this wasn't it - for the most part.  I have a chequered past with the franchise.  I hated the original 'Godzilla' as there wasn't enough of the monster (or Bryan Cranston) then the 'King of Monsters' sequel was little more than colours and noise before me, yet the - much maligned 'Kong: Skull Island' was quite an enjoyable romp.

Here we have a film about humans.  A lot of humans.  Occasionally a giant ape or lizard show up and punch each other.  That's about it.  It's like 2007's 'Transformers' film all over again.  I know that focusing a story on either giant monster would be difficult, so humans would have to be a major part of it - I don't know - it's just it felt too centred around pointless stuff.  If the main cast of humans wasn't enough, they feel the need to include a totally redundant sub-plot about Millie Bobby Brown leading a pair of other wise-cracking, yet still bland, sidekicks around a secret facility.  This whole aspect could have been left on the cutting room floor and the movie would be all the better for not seeing this - supposedly - secret base.  Yes, this is the most secure facility that just allows any old Tom, Dick or Harry to simply wander in and nose around.

And that's just one of the plot holes.  I swear if a modern movie exists that has more leaps of faith in it than 'Godzilla vs Kong' then I haven't seen it yet.  To even hope of enjoying this film you really can't afford to allow yourself to actually think too deeply about what you're watching, because nothing really holds up when put under any form of scrutiny.

The humans are annoying, but the monsters are - reasonably - cool.  Yeah, even for a big budget film like this they're still kind of CGI-looking, but they at least do more than their human counterparts.  Naturally, our titular beasties have to team up to fight some 'greater evil' - if you've seen 'Batman vs Superman' it's almost a play for play re-enactment and I kept expecting it to be Doomsday.  Don't worry - it's not just the - obviously evil - human baddie in this film who wears a coat over his shoulder just to prove what a cad he really is.

It's a film.  It's way too long.  It's not terrible, but I got through it by not watching it at the cinema and therefore in the comfort of my living room I was able to fast-forward every time I saw Millie Bobby Brown come on.

6/10 Should probably keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights