The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 615: The Zone of Interest (2024), Jonathan Glazer, and A24 Movies
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Mark and Jonny Numb (https://bsky.app/profile/jonnynumb.bsky.social) discuss the 2023 historical drama The Zone of Interest. Released by A24 and directed by Jonathan Glazer, the Academy Award winning film is perfect for the “Feel Good” series that Jon and Mark started in 2019. In this episode, they also talk about dolly shots, terrible fishing trips, and sound design. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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Striking Rescue (2024) – Review
Quick Thoughts
- Grade – B
- When it comes to action cinema, things don’t get much better than watching Tony Jaa use his fists, elbows, legs and knees to obliterate villains
- There are way too many characters
- It’s nice that Jaa wants to flex his acting chops by playing a widowed husband/dad, but the dramatics slow down the face-punching dramatics
- The hallway fight will make you very happy.
After Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior (2003) and The Protector (2005), Tony Jaa became an instant legend in the action community with his insane stunts and brilliant fight choreography (watch this scene from The Protector – it’s amazing). However, after a few misfires, the leading man roles stopped pouring in and he had to settle for supporting player roles in fun action movies like Skin Trade (2014), xXx: The Return of Xander Cage (2017), Furious 7 (2015), Triple Threat (2019), Monster Hunter (2020). When news came out that Jaa would be starring in a new action film distributed by Well Go USA, the action world celebrated because the action genre is a better place with an in-form Tony Jaa elbowing overmatched drug dealers.
The good news is the excellent fight scenes in Striking Rescue allow Jaa to beat people up in warehouses, drug dens, city streets, hotels, motels, underground clubs, hallways, balconies, and country roads. During the opening fight Jaa knees a stuntman so hard that the song “Nobody Does it Better” started playing in my head. Jaa’s physicality is unrivaled and it’s nice that director Siyu Cheng (Land Shark, Desperado, The Tai Chi Master), understands that a wide shot of Tony Jaa kneeing a drug dealer in the face is pretty great. The action highlight takes place during a hallway fight that was featured in Mubi Notebook’s excellent “The Best Action Scenes of 2024” list (always a good read). The great part about Jaa’s fighting style is that it works in wide open spaces and tight hallways because his knees and elbows don’t need much space to deliver concussions.
Striking Rescue tells the story of Bai Ann (Tony Jaa), an unstoppable violence machine who seeks revenge on the criminals who killed his wife and child. His quest for revenge puts him on the radar of a gang of over-the-top villains who will murder anyone (kids and women included). Led by a mustache-twirling villain (Xing Yu – Flash Point, Kung Fu Hustle, Ip Man), and his axe-wielding maniac bodyguard (who is the junior varsity version of Hammer Girl from The Raid 2) the gang is comprised of hundreds of disposable goons who get obliterated by Bai Ann and a guy named Wu Zheng (Eason Hung). Zheng works as a bodyguard for He Yinghao (Philip Keung), a millionaire Chinese businessman whose imported goods aren’t inspected when they arrive in Thailand. Since his imported good aren’t inspected, this puts him in the crosshairs of drug dealers who would love to avoid inspections. Things soon turn sour between YInghao and it leads to a lot of chaotic rescue missions.
The rescue that involves a lot of striking happens when Yinghao’s pre-teen daughter Ting (Chen Duoyi) is kidnapped by the criminals. This forces Bai Ann (who thought Yinghao was responsible for his family’s death) and Zheng to fight their way through dozens of villains as they try to save Ting and get revenge on the criminals.
There are way too many characters in Striking Rescue, and the plot gets pretty muddled with Bai Ann dealing with Mandarin-speaking villains, but it didn’t bother me because I got to watch Tony Jaa break neck bones with his elbows. If you are a fan of Tony Jaa, you will love the showcase he gets in Striking Rescue.
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John’s Horror Corner: Starve Acre (2023), a bizarre tale of grief, rural folklore, and a rabbit.
MY CALL: Not really sure what I just watched. It’s slow, awkwardly interesting, bizarre, and sad. MORE MOVIES LIKE Starve Acre: Maybe Lamb (2021) or Don’t Look Now (1973).
A quiet, rural couple doesn’t know what to do when their son is involved in a troubling incident mutilating an animal at school. The boy refers to the voice of a rabbit speaking to him, one of dark local folklore. Shortly thereafter, their son dies from an asthma attack. With time, the couple’s tensions build, leading to doubt in one another, distancing, grief and fixation. And then the boy’s father Richard (Matt Smith; Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) discovers the “the rabbit” buried on their property, with other components of the troubling folklore.
The delicateness with which Richard unearths, excavates, cleans and reassembles a rabbit skeleton is odd gripping. The rabbit skeleton slowly begins to reconstitute (a la Hellraiser), with the beginnings of nervous and cardiovascular tendrils extending and connecting across the bones; and then sinew and more. Or is it all a delusion? Apparently not. But does freeing this rabbit free them of their problems?
A sort of séance reveals a presence most unwelcome. The film becomes more about Richard’s investigation into this rabbit, and Juliette (Morfydd Clark; Saint Maud, Crawl, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) tending to it like a child, than it does their son’s loss. The local folklore is about sacrifice, a long-cut tree, the rabbit, three sacrifices… what is to come? Folklore is realized as horrible legend, sanity is lost, people are cursed.
Director Daniel Kokotajlo’s film is pretty much an intriguing slow burn… and I’m not even sure what this movie is meant to be or mean other than a bizarre story of parental grief. Still, it’s a somewhat interesting watch, well-acted, well produced, and very weird.
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John’s Horror Corner: Meander (2020), a claustrophobic, trap-filled death maze of a Sci-Fi Thriller.
MY CALL: Let’s be clear, this film owes everything to Cube (1997). But that withstanding, this is an excellent unofficial sequel/spin-off. MORE MOVIES LIKE Meander: Cube (1997) and sequels.
A hitchhiker Lisa (Gaia Weiss; Vikings) catches a ride with the wrong stranger and awakens in a Tron or Running Man jumpsuit, trapped in a high-tech chamber with a light source affixed to her wrist with a timer counting down. The chamber connects to a system of tunnels that feel like being trapped in the ventilation system of a spaceship or some labyrinthine complex a la Cube (1997). Where do the tunnels lead? What happens when the timer counts down to 0:00? Is there anyone else here?
To advance Lisa must crawl though long dark tunnels, squeeze through ever-tighteningly claustrophobic spaces, escape tunnels with crushing trap ceilings a la Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, navigate trap doors and flamethrowing traps (a la The Rock or Galaxy Quest), flooding waters and acid baths, and more deadly obstacles.
Truly, it’s like Lisa is Player 1 in a videogame death maze. Her spelunking brings her to a similarly equipped cadaver of the last “mouse” to run this maze. It’s completely putrid, gooey, slimy, falling apart, and deliciously gross. More developments are uncovered… but I’m not here to spoil it all for you. Let’s just say it involves other meandering maze entities and their motives, some interesting cybernetics, and some answers.
As simple as it was, I really enjoyed this. Tense, well-paced, energized, and occasionally shocking. This was a solid Sci-Fi Thriller Adventure with some good gore to spare! Something for everyone… except for those who want a proper explanation of that’s going on. Those folks will surely be a bit annoyed by the ending. Director and writer Mathieu Turi (The Deep Dark, Hostile) made something pretty great here. And for all it owes to Cube (1997), it spelunks a different corridor by focusing on one person’s story, experience and motivation.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 614: The Punisher (2004), Thomas Jane, and Florida Movies
You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome.
Mark and John talk about the 2004 comic book adaptation The Punisher. Directed by Jonathan Hensleigh, and starring Thomas Jane, John Travolta, Rebecca Romijn, and a large Russian hitman, The Punisher earns its R-rating and has built up a loyal cult following. In this episode, they also talk about cheeky assassins, fire skulls, bathroom booze, and Florida movies. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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John’s Horror Corner: Unspeakable: Beyond the Wall of Sleep (2024), an occasionally wild, bizarrely sexualized, Lovecraftian B-movie.
MY CALL: For fans of Lovecraft adaptations, this is a “bad movie” that’s actually pretty good. It boasts way more special effects that the budget would suggest and really swings for the fences! MORE MOVIES LIKE Unspeakable: Beyond the Wall of Sleep: There are Lovecraftian movies to be taken much more seriously. For more recent Lovecraft-adapted fare, consider Dagon (2001), Dreams in the Witch-House (2005), Cold Skin (2017), The Color Out of Space (2019) and Suitable Flesh (2023). For some clearly Lovecraft-inspired movies, move on to The Shrine (2010), Black Mountain Side (2014), Harbinger Down (2015), Baskin (2015), The Void (2016), The Beach House (2019), The Superdeep (2020), Glorious (2022), and Deus Irae (2023).
Upon his placement in Arkham Asylum in 1998, new inmate James Fhelleps (Robert Miano) hits it off immediately with his cellmate, who finds himself mutilated and separated from his manhood in a most grotesque manner by a seemingly possessed Fhelleps.
25 years later, oneirologist Ambrose London (Edward Furlong; Brainscan, Night of the Demons) is summoned to Arkham Asylum by Dr. Barnard (Susan Priver) to study the strange case of dissociative identity disorder in the patient James Fhelleps, or more so his murderous alter ego Joe Slater. Like a high priest of Cthulhu, Slater preaches Lovecraftian prose of madness beyond great oceans of space and beyond the wall of sleep.
The imagery is often as graphic (and quite provocative) as the limited budget permits. There is some very low budget CGI—like, laughably silly low budget. But this CGI is complemented by maximum effort latex monster makeup, like when Slater’s neck monstrously elongates and he eats an orderly’s face. Likewise, some of the writing (e.g., Slater’s monologues) is most thoughtful, whereas the execution of other scenes (e.g., possessed mobs of patients) is forgettable B-movie fodder. This movie is clearly self-aware of exactly what it is. But, at times, it still aims a good bit higher and, frankly, pleasantly hits above its weight class at times.
PSA: I rented this on Amazon and was most enraged by the large black box censoring out images from the opening scenes. Don’t worry. It’s just this one scene. But again—in the moment—enraging!
Director Chad Ferrin (HP Lovecraft’s The Old Ones, The Deep Ones) had fun with this one. He toys with us with dreams within dreams within dreams, and bizarre macabre imagery. But things elevate to the next level when Ambrose hooks himself and patient Fhelleps (and Slater) up to his dream analysis machine to connect with his mind. This dream sequence explains the origin of Jim Slater (a Color Out of Space-corrupted peasant who lived over 100 years ago), his exposure to a meteorite that corrupted him, and some mutant alien “manhoods.”
More ultra-low budgetiness is observed when the Arkham patients touched by madness behave like manic zombies, but are only recognizable by behavior—some bags under their eyes or blood smears around their mouths. But hey, at least they are eating coils of rubber guts! We also see someone’s face pulled off by a garbage disposal. A high point for sure! And for those who like padded casts, additional small roles are played by Bai Ling (Crank: High Voltage, Samurai Cop 2, Sharknado 5), Ginger Lynn (New York Ninja, 31, The Devil’s Rejects, Buried Alive) and Steve Railsback (Alligator II, Lifeforce).
For being of such low budget, this was a pretty fun bad movie. Worth it if you know what you’re getting into, and more so if you’re a fan of Lovecraft adaptations. This makes me curious to see more of Ferrin’s movies. Although I’m told this one is the best by far, I liked this enough to take the leap.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 613: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Humpback Whales, and Excellent Sequels
You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome.
Mark and Niall discuss the 1986 blockbuster sequel Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Directed by Leonard Nimoy, and starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Catherine Hicks and some cool humpback whales, the even-numbered Star Trek film is one of the best sequels ever made. In this episode, they also talk about Donald Peterman’s cinematography, time travel, and a well-timed Vulcan nerve pinch. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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The Ballad of Wallis Island (2025) – Review
Quick Thoughts:
- Grade – B
- The screenplay written by Tim Key and Tom Basden pops with engaging dialogue.
- The Welsh filming locations are stunning.
- Tim Key successfully walks an eccentric tightrope to deliver a likable and charming. performance. Many things could’ve gone wrong when playing a character like “Charles,” but Key avoids any major misstep and makes the guy quite charming.
- It features the best 2025 usages of a phone booth and a bag of coins.
Based on the 2007 Bafta-nominated short film, and filmed in 18 days, The Ballad of Wallis Island is a charming look into what happens when a wealthy maniac named Charles (Tim Key) pays $800,000 for two folk musicians (Carey Mulligan and Tom Basden) to play a concert for him on an isolated island. It asks you to set aside your cynicism and embrace a world where telling a retired folk musician that you bought a lock of their hair is normal. It reminded me a bit of rom-coms like While You Were Sleeping, The Truth About Cats and Dogs, Never Been Kissed and The Proposal – movies featuring lead characters who lie their faces off and somehow come out on top. It’s a good thing that director James Griffiths and writers/actors Tim Key and Tom Basden couldn’t let go of their short film because they’ve produced a neat ‘self-contained little fairy tale’ about how hard it can be to move on.
The Ballad of Wallis Island is a scrappy tale centering around a widower named Charles who after winning the lottery twice, has secluded himself on a gorgeous island inhabited by puffins, fishermen and Amanda (Sian Clifford), the owner of the only store on the island. He spends his days cooking halibut, going on walks, practicing his tennis serve, and listening to McGwyer Mortimer’s records. On the 10th anniversary of his wife’s passing, he shells out $800,000 for Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden) and Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan) to come to his island to perform a show in front of “less than 100 people.”
The major hurdle for Charles is that the popular folk duo broke up their successful partnership years ago when Herb attempted a solo career and Nell moved to America and got married to Michael (Akemnji Ndifornyen). There isn’t any major bad blood between them, but Charles doesn’t tell Herb about Nell coming — which adds drama to the proceedings. Herb arrives first and is immediately put off by the fact that there’s no dry dock on the island and he’s forced to wade through waist-deep water that soaks his belongings and skinny jeans. Herb is the type of person who, even though he is getting paid $500,000 for a few days’ work, can’t be bothered to pretend that he wants to be there or that he cares about the gorgeous scenery. I’ve read some reviews that say nothing is interesting about Herb, which is the point of the character. Decades of touring and recent failures have made him tired and annoyed. Having worked on 200+ film/TV/commercial/music video sets and comic conventions, I’ve witnessed a plethora of artists show up to a set or convention and behave like McGwyer. It’s not that he’s boring, he just hasn’t had to be interesting for years.
Nell arrives a day later with Michael and is immediately smitten with the island and totally game for the reunion because she’s getting paid $300,000 (there’s a good bit when she realizes she’s getting paid less). Michael takes off almost immediately to go on a bird-watching tour (can’t miss the puffins!), which leaves Nell and Herb alone to practice their set and hang with the over-the-moon Charles. During their time as a popular folk duo, Nell helped write the final 10% of each song and was the creative and grounding force that made them successful. When they broke up the band, neither could recapture their former glory and the lucrative money being offered by Charles is a welcome lifeline after they ended their profitable world tours.
The Ballad of Wallis Island offers a few surprises so the rest of the film won’t be spoiled, just know that it ends on a happy note involving the characters being able to kick off a new phase in their lives. The most impressive aspect of the movie is how it adapts a short film with a running time of 25 minutes into a feature-length experience. A decent amount of the lines from the short film reappear, and the leaky sink is still a character, but the new additions don’t feel unnecessary or created to stretch the running time. In the short film, Charles has won the lottery twice, but instead of traveling the world with his wife (which happens in the movie), he spends it on booze, drugs, parties and a monster truck. Also, the character of Nell is never introduced, and her inclusion brings a welcome dose of warmth into an experience dominated by two men bickering endlessly.
The production design by Alexandra Toomey is perfect as Charles’ house is believably snug and Amanda’s shop seems welcoming and real. G. Magni Ágústsson’s cinematography is just as good because he allowed the camera to linger on the walking trails, rock-strewn beaches and the beautiful views of the Irish Sea. On top of the solid production and cinematography, the costume design by Gabriela Yiaxis is top-notch as the characters look great in their comfy sweaters, 1970s-esque tennis gear, flowy dresses, and fanny packs. The Ballad of Wallis Island is a solid all-around production and I hope that it gathers an audience.
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Death of a Unicorn (2025) – Review
Quick Thoughts:
- Grade – B-
- Jenna Ortega and Will Poulter steal the show.
- I love a good mood board.
- Paul Rudd has gone full wet noodle
- If you’re looking for something with an edge, the unicorns and their spiraled cones of death might not be for you.
After years of outlining, researching and writing, Director Alex Sharfman has delivered a film that tackles pharmaceutical companies, unicorn lore, parent death, class commentary, and financial anxiety to create a relatively grounded “unicorns murder rich people” satire. Death of a Unicorn works best as a horror comedy with an emotional center, and even though it’s being described as a “satire,” don’t think of it being on the satirical level of American Psycho, The Menu, Sorry to Bother You or Triangle of Sadness.
The movie opens with a sweet moment on an airplane involving a recently widowed lawyer named Elliot (Paul Rudd) enjoying the fact that his sleeping college-aged daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) is using his shoulder as a pillow. While Ridleys sleeping, Elliot is going over a work presentation that finds its way onto the floor. Instead of asking for help, he bends over to collect the papers and Ridley’s head crashes onto the armrest between their seats – which pretty much explains their relationship. Ridley wants her dad’s attention, and he wants the business files that he dropped on the ground.
The duo are on the airplane because they are traveling to the sprawling and isolated estate of Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant), Elliot’s cancer-ridden boss and pharmaceutical billionaire who wants his family to meet Elliot before he gets too sick to run the company. The plan is for Elliot to become the family lawyer/proxy for Odell’s wife Belinda (Téa Leoni) and his son Shepard (Will Poulter), and they want to meet Elliot before agreeing to the big promotion. While driving to the mansion, the cellphone-obsessed Elliot takes his eyes off the road and plows into the hefty body of a baby unicorn as it’s crossing the road. As the unicorn lies dying, Ridley touches its horn and is mentally transported to a heavenly place, but before she can communicate with a unicorn higher power, Elliot bashes the baby’s head with a tire iron and the duo gets soaked with unicorn blood. Typically, getting splattered with blood isn’t a great thing, but the unicorn blood acts as a healing agent that clears Ridley’s acne and cures Elliot’s allergies. It’s perfectly bad timing, as not only are they visiting titans of the pharmaceutical industry, but the cancer-ridden Odell and his family want to find more unicorns that can be used to save lives (for incredible amounts of money).
What follows is a bloody romp that features impalements, head stomps, intestine shredding and rich people snorting crushed unicorn horn debris up their noses. What’s interesting is that despite all of the gore and profanity, it’s a laid-back experience that is more comfort food than “eating the rich.” For an A24 release from the guy who helped produce The Witch, Blow the Man Down (great movie), and Resurrection (holy moly), it’s unexpectedly subdued considering it features pissed-off unicorns impaling scientists who are attempting to sell their body parts for huge profits.
The Most Valuable Unicorn Killer (MVUK) of the film is Will Poulter and his short shorts which allow him to do his best Paul Mescal impersonation. We’ve seen characters like Shepard before in Ready or Not and Knives Out, but Poulter plays the cocaine-addled bow hunter (who loves a good mood board) in a grounded way that makes everything funnier. Shepard is interesting because he’s insanely rich and he knows that he’s insanely rich – which allows him to not behave like a stereotypical rich jerk (that’s something less rich people do). Shepard is a guy who drinks bloody marys for breakfast and knows his butler Griff (Anthony Carrigan – great) will get him whatever he needs whenever he needs it. He also knows that he is a disappointment to his family, but he gets along well with them and he isn’t a complete liability to their fortune. There isn’t a person on the planet who could say that the Leopolds are likable people, but, it’s interesting, that they like each other and avoid many of the tropes that rich families in films like Ready or Not or Knives Out deal with (E.G. – lots of infighting and pettiness).
The weakest aspect of Death of a Unicorn is Paul Rudd’s Elliot character. His entire arc is based around him learning that earning heaping amounts of money won’t make his relationship with his daughter any better. Elliot is a one-note character and he’s so ineffectual that he slows down the film whenever he appears. As always Jenna Ortega is excellent and her scenes with the charmingly sarcastic Téa Leoni work well. Also, watching Ortega spar with Poulter over her sh*t board (a bad mood board) is a highlight of the film. Overall, Sharfman’s script is constantly engaging and there are some excellent lines, but because he wedged in so many elements the final product is a bit watered down because of all the plot distribution.
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If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome.
Mark and Erik talk about their favorite movie bosses from Empire Records, Support the Girls, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, The Way, Way Back, and Greyhound. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
Movies, Films & Flix 