Hornsmith

Meaning, it's unbelievable that this spawned several sequels. The original, apparently true tale of gangland murders is no justification for this lowlife wallowing in gore and violence. Some people perhaps need catharsis from these - I would say films, but these are not remotely cinematic in the proper sense; just hooligan bloodletting for psychopaths. The story, characters and plot are well covered elsewhere. The only good thing I can say is that this and others took pitiful amounts of money; sadly, recent sequels took larger sums. A sad reflection on today's society. The odd appearance of a national film award covering these films is quite suspect. Please, avoid this.

I stumbled upon this, showing live online. I was intrigued by a slice of so-called swinging London, a film I'd never heard of. There are a couple of well known actors here; Askwith (who even appeared in 'if...' the surreal 60s classic of rebellion) did not go on to a career such as that film's emerging stars, sadly. This, though, plumbs depths even his Confessions films didn't reach. Cool it Carol is no Georgy Girl; it makes the early 1970s era look like a lurid, tasteless hell. Most of the actors appear to have wandered in from the street, appropriately. Tacky, sordid, an embarrassment for all involved.

Maximum murk and mumblecore. The first scenes of (unexplained) battle set the tone. Too gloomy to see much, and too mumbled to make out dialogue. And there were no subtitles on my copy. Luckily, that was boilerplate grunt stuff. You feel like you're trapped in a video game, which some may like. The body count was relentless out of the gate; hard to tell if it was mostly CGI. Linda Hamilton's role is token; the 'storyline' mashes up early Alien, Cloverfield, the Cruise version of War of the Worlds. Awful. Apparently the budget was tiny...none of it on the script.