Within the first ten minutes of Netflix’s Axel F, we hear the big hit songs from both Beverly Hills Cop 1 (“The Heat Is On”) and 2 (“Shakedown”). So the promise of 80s nostalgia is made early, and then part 4 in the franchise makes good on that promise for nearly two hours.
Thirty years after the dreadful BHC III, Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) still has the same Detroit Lions jacket, and the same penchant for stirring up trouble.
He also has an estranged daughter named Jane Saunders (Taylor Paige, classing up the joint) who’s a successful defense lawyer in…anyone?…Beverly Hills. And Jane sometimes works with now P.I. Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), who left the Beverly Hills police force after now Chief Taggart (John Ashton) didn’t have his back on a complicated case.
Jane is defending an accused cop killer that Billy thinks might have been framed. Their work doesn’t sit well with Taggart, or with the Rolex-wearing Captain Grant (Kevin Bacon), head of the new narcotics task force. So when some goons try to scare Jane off the case, Billy feels responsible and….anyone?…calls Axel.
First-time feature director Mark Molloy dutifully rolls out a workmanlike series of recognizable franchise faces (Bronson Pinchot, Paul Reiser) and situations (Axel crashes an exclusive club, Axel startles cops by jumping in the back seat of their cruiser). And while it’s nice to see the addition of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a well meaning cop/ex boyfriend of Jane, little of the script from Will Beall, Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten deviates from the convenient and the predictable.
But is it fun? Yeah, it kinda is.
Murphy seems engaged about the character again (especially during a surprisingly relevant exchange with a parking valet), and the film is perfectly happy to remind you of happier times and take your mind off of Supreme Court decisions.
Come back in the room after feeding the cat: oh, look it’s Serge! Check your phone for minute: there’s a shoot-em-up car crash! You know who the bad guys are, you know fences will be mended, and you know you love the 80s.
Axel F knows you know, and this time, that’s just enough.
Husband and wife hit man with car. They think he is dead. He is not. Chaos ensues.
Cold Blows the Wind, written and directed by Eric Williford, is a zombie movie with notes of possession that does have an interesting premise, but gets overshadowed by lackluster performances.
The film starts off rather cryptically, with a woman covered in blood singing a song. This chilling excerpt is immediately broken by the main couple, Dean (Danell Leyva) and Tasha (Victoria Vertuga), whose chemistry is nonexistent and whose acting feels robotic. They open the trunk of their car, where a pointedly undead jogger (Brandon Tyler Jones) cowers. From this moment on, the couple immerses themselves in a dangerous world of murder and what comes next when their efforts fail.
Everything about the film is visually stunning— the lighting, with its cool and warm tones; the sound, with its exacting and disturbing realism; the special effects; the fight scenes; and the cinematography by Marc Martinez, which diversifies the slasher label with complex shots. The main issue is that the tech does all the work.
Cold Blows the Wind loses the plot in its dedication to shock factor and gore above all else. Once the film moves past the exposition and starts living up to its horror label, the acting improves—or maybe the phenomenal tech distracts from it. That being said, Briar (Jamie Bernadette) and Uncle Stevie (Torrey B. Lawrence) play convincing and thrilling roles that hold the film up in its weakest moments.
Cold Blows the Wind commits to disturbing viewers, but in the process, discards its originality. If a good thrill and some gore are what you’re looking for, this film may be for you. If you want an enticing film whose plot is strengthened by its lead performances, look elsewhere.
Horror sequels—absolutely no genre turns out more of them. There are twelve Friday the 13ths, eleven Hellraisers, nine Texas Chainsaw Massacres Hell, there are eight Leprechaun movies! Usually the first one’s great and each successive sequel is weaker than the last. But are there any series where the third installment really stands out? There are! And we are here to count those lucky numbers three down in podcast form.
6. A Quiet Place: Day One
Recency bias? Maybe. Writer/director Michael Sarnoski has more than inventive scares to live up to as he helms A Quiet Place: Day One. The third installment of John Krasinski’s alien invasion series may boast breathless tension, sudden gore, and the most silent theaters you’re likely to visit. Beyond all those things, Krasinski shows no mercy at all when it comes to ripping your heart out. In that area, he does more damage than aliens. Sarnoski is ready for it—all of it—so you should bring some tissues.
Lupita Nyong’o leads a stellar cast as Sam, an unhappy woman on a day trip with her cat to NYC. Her plans are upended when giant ear-head monsters begin dropping from the sky, smack into the noisiest city in the nation. Any time you can watch a film with giant extra-terrestrials bearing ear drums where a face should be and you find yourself fully believing anything, you’re watching a pretty good movie. A Quiet Place: Day One is a pretty good movie.
5. Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
Easily the best in the outright Annabelle series (not specifically ranking the rest of the Conjuring universe in which she’s also situated). Annabelle Comes Home delivers a blast of fun, and a remarkable tonal shift from its precedessors.
Mckenna Grace is Judy Warren, daughter of Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine (Vera Farmiga, both in cameo). Folks go out of town to save some souls or buy more polyesther, whichever, and leave Judy with reliable babysitter, who invites an unreliable buddy, who touches every object in the Warrens’ “do not touch by reason of demonic possession” room and all hell breaks loose.
It’s fun—mindless PG13 fun, but definitely fun.
4. Son of Frankenstein (1939)
Basil Rathbone plays the estranged son of the wacky Dr. Frankenstein. He’s spent his life abroad, but now that his father’s dead, he’s decided to look into that old property left to him. His lovely wife and precocious son accompany him, but they find nothing but ill will in the village.
Which does nothing to dissuade the young Dr. Frankenstein from reviving his father’s monster the first chance he gets. Boris Karloff is back, this time taking orders from Ygor (Bela Lugosi), a vindictive little villager who helps out in the laboratory. It’s a tense, sad and often funny film littered with some of the biggest stars of the age, and though it never comes near the heights of the James Whale films, it’s rock solid.
3. Day of the Dead (1985)
The third and in George Romero’s original Dead series, Day of the Dead delivers a cynical look at humanity. The filmmaker turns his eye toward what happens to civilization long after the zombiepocalypse ravages humanity.
It’s clear that this is the episode where Romero began to really identify with the zombies, a thread he pulls more clearly through later installments – Land of the Dead in particular. But if you compare Bub with any of the civilians, even Sarah Bowman, it’s clear who’s the favorite character. Not that anyone blames Romero for that.
2. Army of Darkness (1992)
Yes, all of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films are a laugh riot, a visceral delight, a spew-happy celebration. But the Ashley J. Williams of the first two episodes gets a big makeover for Part 3.
Bruce Campbell loses the unibrow, gains some pecs, biceps and abs, and turns the attitude up to 11. The result is a medieval fantasy spilling over with one liners, bravado, idiocy of the best kind, and angry dooting. That’s right, angry dooting!
1. Exorcist III
Hands down the best third installment of any horror franchise, William Peter Blatty wrote and directed this dialogue-dense sequel to the 1973 phenomenon William Friedken had made of his novel. Blatty starts strong enough, garnishing shots with vivid, elegantly creepy images. He enlists George C. Scott to anchor the tale of a cop drawn back into a supernatural case. In other inspired casting, New York Nicks great Patrick Ewing plays the angel of death in one of Kinderman’s freaky dream sequences, joined by romance novel coverboy Fabio as another angel. Also, the always great character actress Nancy Fish plays the bitchy but reluctantly helpful Nurse Allerton.
There are also two of the scariest scenes in cinema. Eventually the story moves into a hospital and stays there, but just before that move, there’s a terrific confessional scare – crazy spooky voice, effective cackle, blood – that elevates the entire project.
And then there’s that insane flash of terror as one nurse crosses the narrow hallway in front of the camera, quickly followed by some gauze-draped figure, arms outstretched. Eep!
