The Lair

Basic premise is something we've seen countless times. Secret military base with monsters. Bunch of soldiers fighting for their lives. Same old, same old.

Nothing really new here. Pretty much by the numbers.

The special effects are just as average as everything else. Nothing too special. Not terrible, just your usual rubber suits and squibs.

The acting is... alright. The characters are all very one note. Everyone has their role, the muscle, the ass, the doc, the heart, etc... again, all as expected. The acting is serviceable.

The writing... meh. Tons of stupid decisions being made. Lots of nonsensical stuff and contradictions. The monsters are both nigh invulnerable and able to be knocked out by a punch. They can take countless rounds from high powered rifles, but a hammer to the head takes them out.

There's also a lot of magically teleporting moments. Like when a monster is there to grab someone when they weren't there a second ago. Or how there's a ton of them everywhere, then suddenly the place is empty, then it's full again when they need more action. Just very badly directed.

If you turn your brain off, it makes an adequate action flick to waste time with. But not really worth bothering with if you're looking for something beyond made for TV trash.

Those were some of the worst accents I've ever heard across the board and they were so distracting that I have no idea if the movie was any good.

The script seemed choppy and unconvincing but I'm not entirely sure if it was actually bad or if I just couldn't get past the atrocious accents.

The story was slow and dragged it'd feet, the monsters felt repetitive, the entire premise felt forced and had no natural flow to it.

But seriously, in case I haven't hit this point enough, couldn't they cast people with authentic accents if they were unable to find anyone able to convincingly deliver on them?

The motion picture displays frantic action, suspense , terror with claustrophobic touches and is pretty entertaining . This is a gripping , exciting , high-octane nightmare of the worse scenario with terrible monsters stalking a soldiers team . Nail-bitIng science fiction/thriller picture that packs action-packed from start to finish . It deals with a Royal Air Force pilot Lt. Kate Sinclair (Charlotte Kirk) who's shot down over Afghanistan, she finds refuge in an abandoned underground bunker where deadly man-made biological weapons - half human, half alien - are awakened. Later on , she meets a group of isolated soldiers : Major Roy Finch (Jamie Bamber) , Sgt. Tom Hook (Jonathan Howard) , Sgt. Oswald Jones (Leon Ockenden) , Corp. Kip Wilks (Mark Strepan) , Trooper Vince Hughes (Harry Taurasi) , among others. Unlocked !. Unleashed !. When They Rise We Will Fall !.

Moving and extremely violent movie with plenty of chills , thrills , amazing makeup work , and resulting to be entertaining enough . Action movie told in terms of Afghan warfare in which a misfit and motley bunch formed by peculiar roles battle malicious and ominious supernatural forces . The plot is plain and simple, as an expert squadron has to confront extraterrestrial/human enemies and things go wrong , of course . As the screenwriter provided a well-knit plot with mystery and horror, giving full rein to Neil Marshall natural talent for the terror and action genre . The theme of people being stranded in a hostile, perilous environment with weird attackers creatures is justly reminiscent of former films , such as " Predator" by John McTiernan and "Dog Soldiers" by Neil Marshall himself . The film displays an acceptable and passable story, but it is neither notable nor extraordinary, just decent . We have already seen the story several times before and better told, it is full of cliches and already known as well as predictable situations . The ending part is particularly exciting and suspenseful , though it makes not great sense . The result is throughly violent but undenieably thrilling action movie with a decent cast headed by Charlotte Kirk (who produced and wrote as well) as the relentless , tough heroine . And Jamie Bamber as the official one-eyed, along with a remaining cast of not very well-known actors, such as : Jonathan Howard , Leon Ockenden , Harry Taurasi , Mark Strepan , Adam Bond , Alex Morgan , among others.

Containing a musical score fitting to action by composer Christopher Drake and appropriate cinematography by cameraman Luke Bryant . The motion picture was professionally written/directed by Neil Marshall with splendid visual style but with no originally because he has copied former films . Director Marshall fuses the fabulous imagination by means of several monsters and the irreverent wit and comic-book action. Neal Marshall is an expert on action , Sci-fi and terrror genre , such as : ¨Descent" , "Dog soldiers" , "Centurion" , "Doomsday", "Tales of Halloween¨, and ¨The reckoning¨ who also starred/produced Charlotte Kirk . And he has directed episodes of notorious TV series as ¨Constantine" , "Game of thrones", "Timeless", "Hannibal" , "Westworld", "Lost in space¨. Rating 5.5/10 . Passable and acceptable recounting.

I was initially lured in by this 2022 action horror movie's cover/poster. Yeah, I am a sucker for creature features, so of course this movie caught my attention.

Sure, I hadn't heard about "The Lair" prior to getting to sit down and watch it, so I virtually had no idea what I was in for here, aside the creature's face showing on the cover/poster. But that was essentially also enough to get me interested.

Writers Charlotte Kirk and Neil Marshall put together a fairly okay movie here. I mean, it felt like a typical creature feature from the 1980s and 1990s, so if you enjoyed those kind of movies back in the day, then "The Lair" will prove entertaining for you. I enjoyed it actually for what it was, and it was like a trip down a nostalgic path. Sure, writers Charlotte Kirk and Neil Marshall weren't revolutionizing the horror genre with "The Lair", but they came up with an adequately enough movie that proved watchable and enjoyable for what it was.

The acting performances in the movie was good. I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list, but I will say that they actually put on good enough performances to carry the movie and make "The Lair" enjoyable.

Visually then "The Lair" was okay. The creature design was a bit too simplistic for my liking. And the fact that it was so painstakingly obvious just guys in rubber suits wasn't helping the movie. Sure, it felt like something from 1980s, but for a movie made it 2022, it was a bit too simplistic. Better effects would have lifted the movie up from the mediocre lane.

Watchable for what it was, "The Lair" proves enjoyable enough for a single viewing. And I do mean a single viewing, because there simply isn't enough meat on the bone here, pardon my French, to support more than a single viewing.

My rating of director Neil Marshall's 2022 action horror movie "The Lair" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Unfortunately, the saddening downhill slope of Neil Marshall, author of such cool flicks as The Descent, Dog Soldiers and Centurion, continues, with the last three being lackluster Hellboy remake (5/10), disappointing historical horror The Reckoning (5/10) and now this, a flat, murky B creature feature with more cliché's than one can count.

. The set-up, story and conclusion, or pretty much everything, is by-the-numbers, run-down-the-mill B actioneer that also can't decide if it wants to be a horror movie or action comedy. We have an army base, a secret soviet (not nazi?!) bunker, cardboard soldiers throwing an overwhelming amount of weak one-liners, and a depthless, tired protagonist, and, of course, some monsters craving a fight with humans. About the only really decent factor of "The Lair" are the special effects, although used in abundance and leaving a taste for more. Acting wise I can only commend Hadi Khanjanpour, the Afghan prisoner on the road to being a badass, and having the only character with any sort of arc. Rest of the cast are having a lazy sunday stroll. There's a grain of an interesting horror movie idea in "The Lair", but it's all lost in a weak script and flat direction. "The Lair" gets dull and mindless already 10 minutes into it, and struggles to build any tension during the next 80, and whatever tension there might've been, is destroyed by frequent tiresome comedy.

. There really isn't much to say about this forgettable suBpar action horror film, the most fun you'll have is if you crack t least a couple beers and have some company, other than that, pass on this one, even if you love creature features. My rating: 4/10.