GANGSTA (2018)

 

Directed by: Adil Elarbi & Bilall Fallah  Written by: Adil Elarbi, Bilall Fallah, Nabil Ben Yadir, Bram Renders, Kobe Van Steenberghe & Handrik Verthe  Cinematography: Robrecht Heyvaert Editor: Adil Elarbi, Bilall Fallah, Kobe Van Steenberghe & Thijs Van Nuffel 

Cast: Matteo Simoni, Junes Lazaar, Nora Gharib, Said Boumazoughe, Nabil Mallat, Paloma Aguilera valdebenito, Werner Kolf 

Antwerp. The lives of four dealer friends, who want to become real-life swaggers, spin out of control when they steal a shipment of cocaine. They trigger a full-out war between them, an Amsterdam drug lord and the ruthless Colombian cartels.

PRINCE (2015)

Written & Directed By: Sam De Jong Cinematography: Paul Ozgur  Editor: Mieneke Kremer 

Cast: Ayoub Elasri, Jorik Scholien, Oussama Addi, Achraf Meziani, Elise de Braun, Sigrid Tennepal, Olivia Lonsdale, Chaib Massaoudi 

A troubled teenager attempts to conquer the love of his life by becoming the baddest boy on the block.

THE FAMILY (2013)

 

Directed By: Luc Besson  Written By: Luc Besson & Michael Caleo Based in the Book Written By: Tonino Benacquista Cinematography: Thierry Arbogast Editor: Julien Ray

Cast: Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tommy Lee Jones, Dianna Agron, John D’Leo, Domenick Lombardozzi, Vincent Pastore, Jimmy Palumbo 

The Manzoni family, a notorious mafia clan, is relocated to Normandy, France under the Witness Protection Program, where fitting in soon becomes challenging, as their old habits die hard.

WILLY’S WONDERLAND (2021)

Directed By: Kevin Lewis  Written By: G.O. Parsons Cinematography: David Newbert Editor: Ryan Libert

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Emily Tosta, Beth Grant, Ric Reitz, Chris Warner, Kai Kadlee, Caylee Cowan, Terayle Hill

A quiet drifter is tricked into a janitorial job at the now condemned Willy's Wonderland. The mundane tasks suddenly become an all-out fight for survival against wave after wave of demonic animatronics. Fists fly, kicks land, titans clash -- and only one side will make it out alive.

THE BANANA SPLITS MOVIE (2019)

Directed By: Danishka Esterhazy Written By: Jed Blinoff & Scott Thomas  Cinematography: Trevor Calverlay  Editor: Michael P. Mason 

Cast: Dani Kind, Steve Lund, Celina Martin, Finlay Wojtak-Hissong, Sara Canning, Romeo Carrere, Maria Nash, Naledi Majola 

A family attends a live taping of The Banana Splits television series, but are forced to survive as soon as the characters go haywire and start a killing spree around the studio.

You know what you are going to get from this type of film. Then again you might not of expecting this to be an exact big-screen version of the television show. Anyone going into this film can’t complain too much. As for how good or bad quality did you really think it would be?

As this is more a kind of reinvention. we have the characters more or less going on a murder spree. This is explained but seems a rather thin reason.

At first, the characters who are killed are generally unlikeable so you pretty much know they are going to be victims and the film doesn’t try to hide that fact, but then some rather likable and innocent characters start to get off.

The most enjoyable aspect of this film is the kills. The violence which like the show is very over the top and impressive in a ridiculous way. Keep in mind this Film was made to premiere in the Syfy network. Though bathes itself in gore.

The film plays like a dark comedy the only problem is that it really has no style. It just leaves the audience waiting for the kills. Then at first seems like a more demanding black comedy that at first is a revenge movie of sorts. Then just becomes a horror film. That flirts with killing children but then backs away from the edge that it tries to push us over.

There is an interesting part of the movie when a character cracks and becomes a totally different type. One that actually might relegate a sequel.

Though the film ends up being pretty predictable and comes off as a rushed Canadian horror feature. That is generic except for its pop-culture tie-in. That seems the best way to use the characters as we have already had a kind of animatronic live-action feature film in WILLY'S WONDERLAND

It doesn’t seem anyone including a studio was interested in trying to update it into a Family Comedy. So this seems an inventive way to go or at least a way to make a quick dollar for the franchise and bring them up to date maybe even be slightly subversive.

GRADE: D