Focusing on the final days leading up to the events of D-Day, Churchill tells the story of the man, often named the greatest Briton of all time, struggling to find a voice as the powers that be prepare for the Normandy invasion. After the impact he had on the country during The Blitz in WWII and still adored by the general public, he finds himself as a bit player with senior military figures. With memories of the WWI disaster where over two hundred and fifty thousand soldiers were sent to their death in a similar gamble in the Gallipoli campaign, Churchill (Brian Cox) is against the high risk operation. He finds nothing except polite, but firm push back, the leaders of the British and US forces, Montgomery (Julian Wadman) and Eisenhower (John Slattery) are determined to push ahead, preferably with his approval but undeterred even without.

 

 

Taking more desperate measures to try and stop the potential manslaughter he even turns to long term allies such as military advisor Alan Brooke (Danny Webb) and war cabinet member Jan Smuts (Richard Durden) but he is increasingly frustrated with the lack of support and he feels like the whole country is turning against him, he even reaches out to King George (James Purefoy) for assistance at one point but struggles to gain any vocal support.

Considering the historical epic nature of the events that the movie is set to the problem with the movie was that it just didn’t feel that interesting despite the efforts of Cox who puts in a note worthy performance as a man full of self doubt internally yet still full of arrogance in public. Unwilling to bend an inch, the virtues which made him the leader he was in the early war years, are now working counter productively to his needs.

 

 

Equally as admirable is Miranda Richardson as Churchill’s exasperated wife Clementine who has stood side by side with her husband since day one and can see the error of his ways but who, despite her best efforts, cannot bring down his steely exterior.

At times it felt like you were stuck listening to an elderly relative telling you how great things were a few years back, how people had more respect then and that nobody ever listens to them anymore as Churchill spends the movie trying to strut around like he is top dog when in fact he is no longer has the relevance he once had to the military efforts and it is only through an moment of epiphany that he realises he has been battling with inner demons, which have tormented him for years, causing him to act irrationally and understand how he can best serve his country in dealing with the terror of the Nazi forces.

 

 

Also, while artistic licence is one thing, changing a story slightly to improve the tale being told, it is well known, unless history books are lying to us, that Churchill, was initially opposed to the idea of a high risk, singular attack on Europe in the mid war years, by the time the D-Day landings came around he was completely supportive of the idea and contributed to the planning of the operation. Yet the movie paints this lauded historical figure as a major stumbling block for the campaign which turned the war in the Allies favour. I think it was this historical inaccuracies and seeming ignorance of historical facts, more than anything else, which ruined any prospect I had of enjoying the film.

DJ Speaks Rating: 4.5 Out Of 10

© Darren Jones 2017

Based on the character from the novels by Les Charles, Tom Cruise is back as Jack Reacher the drifter, loner, do-gooder character who seems to have a ‘very particular set of skills’ from his ex-military position as formal Major in the military police branch of the army. While the first film in the series seemed to divide opinion, I actually enjoyed it for a fun action movie however this time around it seems there was a laziness to the proceedings, so perhaps director Edward Zwick and writer Marshall Herskovitz just thought they could just drag on the coat tails of the original and expect a hit.

This time around Reacher is assisting Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders) who he seems to have developed a phone relationship with since the first film. He decides to pay a visit to Turner and finds out that she has been arrested on charges of espionage related to a failed operation in Afghanistan where some soldiers where murdered. Of course Reacher believes she is being framed, although when Turners attorney is also killed Reacher becomes the prime suspect. When he rescues Turner from some assassins in her cell the two go on the run to try and clear both of their names and to find the truth behind the murders.

This time around Reacher’s partner is hardly a damsel in distress, she is almost a carbon copy of him but has been less tainted by life and is less inclined to act on her instincts. This is not necessarily a good thing as it takes the focus off as Reacher’s normal demeanour is constantly questioned which slows proceedings down. They also tack on a story about a potential paternity situation for Reacher with a teenage girl, Samantha (Danika Yarosh) which feels way off centre with the mannerisms of the character. I looked to see if this was part of a plot line in one of the books but could find no obvious reference, so it makes the decision to include this plot thread even more baffling as it completely throws the lone wolf type character of the protagonist and what we end up with is a dysfunctional family road trip of sorts which may have been a potential good action comedy, but only if it had been approached from a different standpoint and without the ties to the Reacher name.

The people who were already disappointed by the fact that the classic Reacher character from the books is not being accurately portrayed will be further disappointed with the addition of new characters and despite some decent acting from Smulders, if it wasn’t for Cruise this would have been a complete mess. As it is, even with his efforts, it’s still a poor movie interspersed with some decent action scenes and flashes of classic Cruise, including numerous of his famous running scenes. If you have seen the trailer, the opening scene in the diner is superb and sets it all up brilliantly, unfortunately it fails to live up to the standards of the opening scenes so the whole thing ends up being very forgetful as it’s all be seen before in other guises and is one of the poorer Hollywood blockbuster of the year. They really should have taken their own advise outlined in the title and left the number of films in the Reacher-verse as one.

DJ Speaks Rating: 4.5 Out Of 10

©Darren Jones 2016

Set in New Mexico, War On Everyone is the story of a pair of corrupt police officers. Terry Monroe (Alexander Skarsgard) is an act on impulse type of guy who tends to think with his fists and has been know to have a drink or two in his time. Along with his partner Bob Bolaño (Michael Pena) the more stable of the two, if there is such a thing in the partnership, they lie and cheat their way through the day in order to get what they need and do what they want with the bonus being that they may actually catch some criminals and uphold the law along the way on the off chance. It really is a case of bad cop, worse cop and needless to say they are not flavour of the week with their exasperated Lieutenant, Gerry Stanton (Paul Reiser) who is trying his best to bring them inline without much success so they are on their final warning about their antics when they come across a potential theft being planned which seems to be linked to some of their local underworld contacts working for a new player in town. As their investigation gathers momentum so does the body count but when blackmail and framing are part of your daily routine you are bound to run into somebody just as dangerous as you are so this leads them to a showdown with the ever so British James Mangan (Theo James) acting like the lord of the manor and his creepy Alex DeLarge like, henchman Birdwell (Caleb Landry Jones).

Brought to us by John Michael McDonagh who also wrote and directed Cavalry and The Guard, he works again with Chris Clark, Flora Fernandez-Marengo and Elizabeth Eves so the similar dark themes are present once more as all the characters in the movie are flawed, some more so than others. With the use of 1970’s style vehicles, complete with power slides and wheel spins there is a very Streets Of San Francisco feel about some scenes and I kept expecting to hear Sabotage by the Beastie Boys kick in but essentially it’s a buddy cop movie so, although humorous in parts it suffered from a lack of originality which is a disappointment given the directors previous efforts.

The lack of chemistry between the two leads was also a big factor, I never bought the relationship as genuine and the friendship didn’t have the feel of a real camaraderie built up by working together, especially considering it should be stronger then most bonds given the fine line they are both walking where you need to know your friend has your back at all times. Couple this with the fact that a lot of the comedy felt forced and crude for the sake of it the film making had a very lazy feel about it.

Although Skarsgard was the more interesting of the movies characters and is the most memorable part of the film, all others are either parodies of similar genre characters or just down right forgettable. Even the dialogue which was very intellectual at times, felt like it was trying to match a speech from a Quentin Tarantino movie and instead of enhancing the characters it felt alien to the general tone of the rest of the film which is more madcap and off kilter. Despite the fact that they are not likable characters there is enough humanity left in the duo to do the right thing and with Skarsgard in particular there is a redemption in the fact that he is a good Samaritan at heart behind the tough, self hating, exterior even if his interaction is more like an owner to pet rather than human to human.

I was hoping for much more when I first seen the trailer and, although it does have its moments, it’s lack of cohesion and the omission of any real memorable moments make it a cast away watch. Yes, you will get a few laughs at some scenes but the writing and acting talent involved are capable of so much more.

DJ Speaks Rating: 4.5 Out Of 10  

© Darren Jones 2016

Tim Burtons recent efforts with the Alice In Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tales have not endeared me to him in a way that his earlier work such as Edward Scissorhands did but at least there’s no Johnny Depp appearance this time.

Instead we follow Jake Portman (Asa Butterfield), a loner of a boy who feels like he doesn’t belong and is lost in life. He has always had a very close relationship with his grandfather Abe (Terence Stamp) who has tried to shield his nephew from his apathetic parents through his tales of travelling the world and in particular with his re-counting of a school, run by a woman who can transform into a bird called Miss Peregrine where the children are all unusual and have certain traits that make them stand out. Jake has never been sure if these tales are figments of his grandfathers imagination so while the rest of society believes that his grandfather is losing his marbles and has always been a story-teller Jake believes that there just may be something in these stories. Then, when Abe dies under suspicious circumstances, he begins to suspect that something sinister may have occurred so he convinces his father Franklin (Chris O’Dowd), with the help of his psychologist to head to Wales as part of this therapy to deal with his grief over the death. While there, Jake wants to establish first hand if there was any reality to the stories.

Burtons take on the Ransom Riggs novel has all the ingredients to be a dark tale which is usually right up his street but it falls a bit flat as, despite the potential the unusual ‘gifts’ that the children have it’s all been seen before (Professor Xavier school for gifted mutants) and for all of their unusualness there is nothing really memorable about them. We have Emma (Ella Purnell) who can manipulate air, Olive Abroholos Elephanta (Lauren McCrostie) who is a pyrokinetic, Fiona Frauenfeld (Georgia Pemberton) who can control nature, Claire Densmore (Raffiella Chapman) who has a mouth on the back of her head, Millard Nullings (Cameron King) an invisible boy, Bronwyn Buntley (Pixie Davies) a small child with super human strength and a few other all of whom are cute and charming but nothing special in reality. However the most original and interesting character for me was Enoch O’Connor (Finlay MacMillan) whose gift is being able to bring inanimate objects to life in a kind of reverse Taxidermy yet is given little to do with his skill for most of the movie and spends the majority of the film acting as the grumpy older kid who feels threatened by the new arrival and his developing bond with Emma.

A big problem for me was the central character of Jake, not that there was anything wrong with the acting as Butterfield was fine in the role, but Jake himself who is the only person who can see the Hollows and thus acts as a protector for the group, always felt like an outsider. His work around to allow the group see the creatures was fairly obvious and didn’t really require and special talents so he felt a bit unnecessary and only really served as the conduit from the past to the present. Plus we never got to see any real acting range from Butterfield and considering his performances in The Boy In the Striped Pyjamas and Hugo that was quite disappointing.

The savior of the film is Miss Peregrine (Eva Green) or, Alma LeFay Peregrine to give the character her full name, who is both mysterious and captivating as the pipe smoking head of the house who controls the time loop which keeps the children safe and also holds the knowledge to Jake’s background. Green does a great job in making the character her own as her mannerisms, speech patterns and clothing all paint the picture of somebody who is much more than she seems upon initial impression. Warm and caring one moment but who will take whatever measures she need to in order to keep the children from harm.

Also, adding his two cents as Mr.Barron is Samuel L.Jackson who once again shows that you could put him in any rubbish and he would still be able to bring elements of class to a role, as he is both terrifying and hilarious in equal measures as the eyeball eating, slightly mad leader of the evil Wights

The movie suffers from not being one thing or another as the supposed good versus evil battle only ever really manifests itself during the climactic finale on Blackpool pier but even then it’s played with a certain level of comedy so that it never really feels like there is any sense of serious drama in the situation which leaves the movie as a children’s romp with typical Burton dark tones but no real sense of adventure about what could have been an exciting time travel story with characters who have special powers, but then again I have just described a kids version Days Of Future Past?

DJ Speaks Rating: 4.5 Out Of 10

©  Darren Jones 2016

Brothers Mike (Adam DeVine) and Dave (Zac Efron) Stangle are two party loving guys who’s job is as alcohol salesmen and who consider themselves the life and soul of every party so when we see a montage of their exploits at the beginning of the film it looks like life is one long good time however when they arrive back to their bachelor pad one afternoon they find that their parents and sister Jeanie (Sugar Lyn Beard) are waiting on them to discuss her upcoming wedding in Hawaii and that they have decided that the guys are going to have to bring dates in order to try and curb their wildness. When the guys protest we are shown a second montage which shows the aftermath of their partying which include multiple injuries, fires and even a heart attack.

With no clue how to actually go about finding some respectable girls, in their wisdom, they decide to place and ad on Craigslist regarding an all expenses paid trip which gets just the type of response you would expect but of course does not bring any suitable prospects. It does however get them an appearance on the Wendy Williams Show which only worsens the situation. Just as things are looking grim Tatiana (Aubrey Plaza) and Alice (Anna Kendrick) decide a free vacation is just what they need so they devise a scheme to ensure that they are the perfect candidates. When Mike and Dave fail to see through their ruse and find out that the girls are a teacher and a hedge fund manager they decide that these girls are perfect. So while the family are initially impressed by the two charming girls their actual personas begin to surface and it becomes apparent that they may actually be more trouble than the brothers.

I found Plaza and Kendrick more interesting than the two brothers and their chemistry seemed more natural. Efron and in particular DeVine seemed to be playing more over the top than necessary and once the movie switched to Hawaii their exploits didn’t seem to be half as bad as the set up had promised, even if they were supposed to be toning it down for the benefit of their sister. The moments where characters are opening up and showing their real side behind the madness slowed the movie right down and didn’t sit well with the rest of the mania and some of the jokes were repeated until they became a little tiresome. But, as with all movies of this nature, despite the craziness and mayhem all the characters learn some valuable life lessons along the way and with a nod to the romantic comedy movies it tried to parody it ends well with a nice little song and dance number albeit with a twist.

To my surprise I found out that this film was loosely based on an actual story and the reason it was so shocking is that  nothing in the movie felt real. The character are so over the top that the movie can only be described as a surreal comedy and script writers Jay Cohen and Brendan O’Brien do not wander far from their levels of vulgarity and crassness previously shown in the Bad Neighbours films. In what is a debut effort for Jake Szymanski of Saturday Night Live fame, it’s not a bad start but at times the movie did feel like a number of different sketches put together rather than one flowing story.

If you like these type of movies then you will no doubt enjoy this as well but it’s not as clever as it wanted to be, some of the comedy seems very forced and it never reached the levels of the likes of Wedding Crashers or Role Models both of which it tried hard to surpass. So when I then found myself laughing more at the outtakes during the credits than the movie itself it told me all I needed to know.

DJ Speaks Rating: 4.5 Out Of 10

Suicide Squad is a movie that I have been waiting for every since the first trailer appeared and it looked like we were going to get an action packed movie about the multi talented group of anti heroes. As the trailer and teasers followed it was looking like they could have a cracking movie on their hands but then the rumours began about a dramatic volume of re-shoots and that things were getting messy. Still, I kept my hopes high but unfortunately my expectations were not met.

Let’s start with some positives, there were some good tie ins with the DC universe which has been set up so far. Batman (and another justice league character) appear briefly, it makes sense and it works. Will Smith was excellent as Deadshot, whether he was supposed to or not, his screen presence took over when on screen and was only matched by the films other big plus in Margot Robbies take as Harley Quinn. It felt like she was crazy and the moments where her interaction with the Joker came on screen felt like I expected them to. Jared Leto also looked great as the Joker and particular loved his laugh which was absolutely maniacal but this leads into the first problem. He’s barely in the movie and his appearances felt like they were really only there to build up the Harley Quinn character so the trailers as a little misleading.

Some of the backstory elements were very good El Diablo, Katana, Deadshot and in particular the Harley Quinn/Joker relationship all looked like they had the potential for a stand alone or spin off movie but Katana has very little interaction, plus I don’t understand why she was even part of the plot and El Diablo has a little more involvement but only for brief moments. Jai Courtney was good as Captain Boomerang but along with Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) he had little to do. The participation of Slipknot (Adam Beach) was pointless and despite opening well the story line for The Enchantress (Cara Delevingne) just didn’t work for me.

Outside of that Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman) who is supposed to be the commander of the group, seemed to play second fiddle to Deadshot and never really feels like he is in control of the group. This fact seemed to be covered by placing him in a plot thread giving him some purpose to see the mission through, but which once again didn’t work for me and Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) who puts the squad together, while playing the role very well, would have been a far better villain that the actual protagonist. Lastly, and probably worst of all, there was some great music used in the movie but it never felt right or part of the film and it took over the scenes rather than enhancing them which was very off putting.

The movie starts strongly but once the mission actually begins it slows down somewhat and the missions ending was awful. I can’t say it’s a bad film and I certainly didn’t think it’s as terrible as the general consensus seem to be. I still enjoyed it, it’s a decent action movie but it was a bit of a mess and felt disjointed so while all of the elements were there for what could have been a great film, they got it very wrong and in the end DC have once again failed to deliver on early movie promise. Director David Ayer has written movies such as Training Day and Fury and I cannot believe that he would put together a plot this messy and lazy so there must have been some studio input in fear of further backlash after the Batman Vs Superman debacle.

Despite all this early figures would seem to suggest that this will have a big box office take so in terms of profit margin it may be a hit but they will need to try much harder with the upcoming Wonder Woman and Justice League movies as their characters are being wasted by mediocrity at present.

DJ Speaks Rating: 4.5 out of 10

When her son Oliver (Logan Creran) is killed in a car accident while she is behind the wheel, Maria (Sarah Wayne Callies) is unable to cope with the loss as the guilt eats away at her and after a failed suicide attempt her housekeeper Piki (Suchitra Pillai-Malik) explains that there may be a way for her to speak with her son one final time using an old Indian ritual at a local temple where her sons ashes can be used to call a tribe of shamans called the Aghori that will use the ashes to link this world to the other side for a small period of time. The one stipulation is that while talking to her son, under no circumstances can she open the door she is speaking through. That night after completing the ritual Maria is speaking to Oliver but during their conversation he begins to request her help as people are trying to take him away, Maria opens the door to rescue him but there is nobody there and the link is lost.

It is not long until some strange occurrences begin in their home and Maria begins to see strange figures appear. The situation begins to escalate and when Piki realises what has happened she tells Maria that by opening the door she has allowed the Aghori access to this world while condemning Oliver’s soul and will need to cleanse herself of all his possessions in order to free him but that the Aghori will want to keep the soul and will fight her every step of the way. As Maria becomes more and more frantic her husband Michael (Jeremy Sisto) begins to question her mental judgement and Maria alone must try and save her sons soul before it is too late.

While the concept was decent there is a case of been there, done that with the movie as the predictable jump scares, religious rituals, a characters slow descent towards seeming madness, mysterious shadowy figures and ghostly spirits are a tick box of standard horror movies so while director Johannes Roberts & cinematographer Maxime Alexandre have thrown in some stunning scenery and some beautiful perspective shots, I felt for the actors as they were given a very basic script to work with. While Callies does her best to evoke some levels of sympathy towards her, the ridiculous actions of the character negated anything I felt as, even taking into account the loss of her some, her actions were very questionable at best. Even as a horror fan I struggled to get anything positive from this one.

Following the unexpected success of the first movie Ride Along 2 was always on the cards and without the need to spend time building the lead characters this time around it jumps straight into things as we see Antonio Pope (Benjamin Bratt) speaking with a port official about stolen money which doesn’t end well for the thief, so there’s no mystery about who the bad guy is this time around. Popes hacker A.J (Ken Jeong) is getting cold feet and wants out so he steal files from Pope and goes on the run hoping to blackmail his way to freedom.

In the meantime James Payton (Ice Cube) is attempting to infiltrate a drug gang run by Troy (Glen Powell) with his partner Mayfield (Tyrese Gibson) while Ben Barber (Kevin Hart) is now out of the academy but is still clinging to James in his continued attempts to prove that he’s a good officer so when James and his partner get into bother he decides to help out but ends up causing a shoot out where Mayfield is injured. After a subsequent car chase where James manages to catch his man and finds a flash drive necklace he is assigned by his boss Lieutenant Brooks (Bruce McGill) to head for Miami so he can chase the lead on who Troy was working for. Ben tries to convince James to allow him to tag along and assist, which James unsurprisingly refuses but when Angela (Tika Sumpter) pleads with James to allow Ben to travel in order to keep him out of her hair while she is planning their wedding he thinks that it may be an opportunity to prove to Ben once and for all that he cannot make it as a cop and get him out of his face so the two men, along with some assistance from local Miami office Maya Cruz (Olivia Munn) go after their man.

In what is essentially the same movie as the first with a bigger budget, a shift in location and the addition of some further stars the only real plot shift of significance is that Hart has gone from a wannabe cop to a new recruit and instead of dating Ice Cubes sister, she is now planning a wedding.

Jeong has seemingly been added to the mix for Hart to work his comedy alongside, this is particularly evident in their Star Wars argument. Munn has some moments but never seems to be anything more than a filler to give Ice Cube some potential romantic interest and Bratt is barely used which was a shame. So while the larger budget has allowed for the destruction of more cars it doesn’t seem to have allowed the script writers come up with anything radically different, although given the financial success of the first movie I’m sure they will throw back the ‘if it’s not broken then why fix it’ line.

The problem for me is, the first movie wasn’t that good despite what the box office success may suggest so watching what was essentially the same movie again done nothing for me. Unfortunately, given the budgetary success this movie also achieved I wouldn’t be surprised to see a third movie appearing. All i can say is that we’ve had numerous Rush Hour, Lethal Weapon and Bad Boy movies so do we really need the same premise again?

DJ Speaks Rating: 4.5 Out Of 10

Daniel Radcliffe is Arthur Kipps a widowed father and lawyer who is struggling to make ends meet. He is instructed by his employer to head to the village of Crythin Gifford in order to take control of the sale of Eel Marsh house and any other deeds left behind by the deceased owner Alice Drablow (Alisa Khazanova), so he decides to make the most of the situation and asks his nanny (Jessica Rane) to follow him to Eel Marsh in a few days with his son Joseph (Misha Handley) in order to allow them to spend a weekend from their normal routine. But when he arrives he finds the local population less than friendly towards him and the only person who seems to show him any courtesy is a local wealthy landowner Samuel Daily (Ciaran Hinds)

Unfortunately for Arthur the house and estate have a unhappy history and once he enters the house to survey the situation he begins to hear strange noises, notices a spectral figure and other visions of previous events. When he reports this to the local police office he is dismissed and some locals warn him off speaking about what he thought he seen. When a local child ingests lye and dies Arthur is blamed for speaking about the woman he seen but Arthur is not accepting of this so he begins to investigate the house and it’s contents but soon find that there is more to the situation than it seems so he must try and uncover the truth before the Woman In Black takes her revenge on any more children in the village or his own son.

In what was his first role after he completed the Harry Potter movies it is a little hard to buy Radcliffe as a widowed parent (he was twenty two at the time) which takes away from his character and while he does an alright job he seemed to lack the on screen presence to play the role of a man fighting against the struggles of being a single parent who is financially troubled and is battling a village of people who do not want him around. Where this movie does benefit is from director James Watkins excellent use of settings, the movie is constantly dark, raining, foggy. The ominousness of the situation even away from the house is palpable. But the house itself is the real star, it’s like mixing the house from The Amityville Horror with Frankenstein’s Castle, full of shadows constantly shifting, sometimes naturally, most times unnaturally, locked doors which are then suddenly open, noises from behind the walls all brought together by The Woman In Black who patrols the corridors, waiting for her opportunity to be released.

While there are enough jump scares to warrant the horror movie genre placement it felt more like a period piece ghost story and, while it’s a decent movie, there’s not a lot to set it apart from the rest of the pack.

DJ Speaks Rating: 4.5 Out Of 10

The Duel begins with a showdown in the town of Helena where Abraham Brand (Woody Harrelson) is battling Jesse Kingston (Jimmy Lee Jr.) to death in a knife fight and Jesse’s son watches on as he is beaten. We then cut forward to where David Kingston (Liam Hemsworth) is a Texas Ranger and is assigned back to the town of Helena to investigate a sudden increase in the deaths within the local Mexican population including the nephew of General Calderon (Jose Zuniga) a high ranking Mexican army official who is threatening to bring militia into Texas to investigate himself.

So the premise seems like a pretty standard revenge Western but all is not as it seems in the town of Helena and the noble, law abiding David and his life Marisol (Alice Braga) are placed straight in the middle of a town run by Brand, who is now called ‘The Preacher’, with an almost cult like iron fist and so begins the good versus evil battle with Marisol smack bang in the middle.

Director Kieran Darcy Smith does a great job during the duels and gun fighing scenes themselves which are excellent as the camera cuts back and forward and never really shows the carnage however it keeps the movement frenetic. The rest of the action however is just standard fare and the motivations of both characters are questionable at best so I was never really invested in the characters and with the exception of the two main characters the rest of the cast, inclusive of Braga felt like background noise and filler. The movie never really explains who Abraham has become and why, yes he is the epitome of evil right down to the use of snakes in his sermons, but is he just a mad man, is there something satanic going on or is he just the leader of a local cult and whichever it is, why? Perhaps I missed something but I was left hanging in this sense.

To give credit to Hemsworth he put up a good show as the protagonist and, more so than in Independence Day, showed some signs that he can become a lead man in the future, he looked great as the sheriff, his presence on screen was good and he matched Harrelson every step of the way while Harrrelson played crazy as we know he can and would expect.

If you like Westerns then you might find something in this movie but for me it was just all a bit flat and never raised itself above the level it opens up at.

DJ Speaks Rating: 4.5 Out Of 10