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Luther: The Fallen Sun – Movie Review

Idris Elba and Andy Serkis star in the latest installment of the Luther series, Luther: The Fallen Sun

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Hey movie fans, it’s Slick Dungeon here. I’m back to review another movie, although this one has a pretty limited release and it’s more of an episode of television. If you’ve seen the Luther series starring Idris Elba, currently airing on Netflix, you know what this series is about. If not, you may want to skip this review because there will be spoilers and they may cover more than just the movie but also the series. You’ve been warned.

I’m reviewing this here because I want to post about every movie I see in theaters this year. I’ve watched the other episodes of Luther but never caught them in a theater so you won’t see the review for those episodes here (at least not yet). None of those episodes, as far as I know, were ever released as movies like this one was.

The Luther series is a gripping psychological thriller series starring Idris Elba as detective John Luther. This is a man who has a special talent for catching bad guys doing unspeakably bad things. But Luther has gone too far in some instances to see justice done. Luther: Fallen Sun continues this story.

The movie starts out mysteriously with a young man receiving a phone call in the middle of the night to show up at a random location in the middle of a road. When he gets there he finds a car has crashed and a body on the side of the road. The young man calls the police and moments later is attacked by the person who was lying in the street.

We cut to Luther who is investigating a case. A desperate mother asks for Luther to promise to find her missing son for her. Luther promises but he’s clearly got other priorities at the time. A few months later some of the things Luther has done in the past which cross the line of the law come to light and he ends up in prison. But there is a serial killer on the loose and Luther wants to end the case he never finished.

Obviously this presents problems. He can’t do much if he’s in jail and he is not a detective anymore so he’s pretty limited. However, he’s still got more insight than most people in the police force and Luther has a plan. He’s able to get out of jail and go after the man who is causing such havoc.

It plays out like most Luther episodes otherwise, where Luther is a step behind a killer but he’s determined. There are tons of disturbing and uncomfortable scenes in this movie but if you have watched Luther before, it’s nothing new.

Andy Serkis puts in a great performance here as usual and Idris Elba is fantastic as always. The story is gripping and believable, although there are parts which seem a bit far fetched. The end also feels like it will be the beginning of something bigger so I don’t think this will be even close to the end of Luther.

If you like psychological thrillers like Silence of the Lambs, or Wallender, you’ll enjoy Luther: The Fallen Sun. While I did see this in a theater, I don’t think that’s necessarily the best way to watch this. It’s a highly bingeable show and this is another solid entry in the series.

Thrillingly yours,

Slick Dungeon

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Deadheading – Book Review

Deadheading by Paul Cristo

Note: this review was first posted on Reedsy Discovery, an awesome website that pairs independent authors and readers. To see the post there, click here.

If you are a book reviewer and want to contribute reviews on Reedsy Discovery, click here.

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SUMMARY

Lewis’s life changes forever after waking up one morning to find the world’s population just gone. Stranded without food or water, he’s forced to use ingenuity to survive, foraging resources from the desolate city around him.

Until he discovers he’s not alone.

Lewis is threatened by a violent gang of gun-wielding scavengers led by a deranged madman. He learns these men are harvesting survivors, inflicting slavery and torture for a horrifying purpose. Outmanned and outgunned, Lewis and some newfound friends must band together, employing their collective wit and cunning against a deadly foe to avoid being killed. Or worse… captured.

DEADHEADING is a post-apocalyptic journey of survival, ingenuity, and a dollop of vengeance.

REVIEW

Lewis is an average loner. He’s living a fairly solitary life, hanging out at home, watching television, eating convenience meals and peanut butter cups. But around him, the world begins to change. A sickness permeates the globe and most of humanity dies off as a result.

Somehow, Lewis has survived on his own, unscathed watching it all unfold on television. Until there is no television. Or supermarkets. Or anything else you’d find in a modern civilized city. Including food and water. Lewis finally has to go out to scavenge food and water for himself in order to survive. It’s a difficult situation and potentially lethal.

It gets worse once Lewis finds other survivors. There are gun wielding lunatics who are oppressing other survivors through slavery and torture so they can live a comfortable existence. Lewis has found a way to grow his own food and take care of himself so these other people are a threat to everything Lewis has.

After an encounter with one of these groups, Lewis comes to find there are still some rational people left in the world. Now it’s on Lewis and this group of survivors to defend themselves from the gun toting madmen.

Overall, Deadheading does a good job of portraying what life would likely be like in a city devastated by illness almost to the point of zero population left. The beginning takes a little bit of time to get the story going but once it does there is plenty of action happening. A nice touch is that Lewis does not instantly go from being a couch potato to an action hero. The author, Paul Cristo, shows us how Lewis does his research and learns his way out of situations.

There are a few moments in the book that stretch the imagination a bit, but those are few and far between so they are ultimately forgivable.

If you like post apocalyptic fiction like The Walking Dead, Divergent, or The Hunger Games but without any supernatural elements and a story more grounded in reality, Deadheading is the book for you.

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Nightcrawler – Movie Review

Nightcrawler 2014 Film

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Hello internet people, it’s me, Slick Dungeon. I’m here to review one of the hidden gems on Netflix, an old Jake Gyllenhaal movie from 2014. Fair warning there will be some spoilers ahead so if you haven’t watched the movie yet, pick up your video equipment, rush through traffic and go watch the movie before reading the review.

Nightcrawler is a tightly paced, tense, psychological thriller of a film. The whole premise is pretty dark and there is an overall sense of creeping dread through it. Some viewers may find it too intense not for the blood (although there is some) but for the relentless nature of the intensity of the film.

The movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Lou Bloom, a thief who finds a way to make some real money by filming bloody footage of newsworthy events and then selling the footage to news channels. The people who do this are apparently called nightcrawlers and the goal is to get the news footage before anyone else and sell to the highest bidder. Lou sort of stumbles on this profession but takes it up immediately.

He sells his footage to Nina, a news producer played by Rene Russo. Bill Paxton also stars as Joe Loder, a rival nightcrawler. Rounding out the cast is Riz Ahmed who plays Rick, a man Lou employs to help him navigate to crime scenes and take footage with him.

Throughout the film, Lou presents as a definite sociopath. He’s out for his own ends, not concerned with the health or welfare of anyone else, and has no trouble walking right past ethical lines.

The movie already starts pretty intensely but as Lou makes more and more reckless choices it gets downright uncomfortable. Even if you don’t like the rest of the film, Gyllenhaal’s performance is gripping. He gives off just enough of a villain vibe without being cartoonish and we’re still always able to relate to what he is trying to do even if we know he is going too far.

If you need a good thriller to watch, you can find this one on Netflix right now. If you haven’t seen it do yourself a favor and put it on your watch list. But maybe skip eating anything while you watch it.

Thrillingly yours,

Slick Dungeon

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Cold Hell – #MovieReview

A First Rate Thriller That Never Lets Up

Slick Dungeon here, streaming to you live from inside of a dull, dusty, dungeon. I know that everyone is saying that The Invisible Man is a fantastic and frightening thriller. I am sure I will get around to seeing it at some point but I watched a truly gripping thriller on Shudder last night and no one had to become invisible in that movie for it to be terrifying.

Cold Hell is a movie about a serial killer in Vienna, Austria. He is targeting Muslim women who have become prostitutes. I’m not going to give away much more of the plot here because I seriously think everyone should just watch this, it’s that good. There is some blood and the violence is brutal and vicious and realistic. But, it’s not overly gore drenched because it simply doesn’t need to be.

If you watch this, here are some things you can look forward to.

  1. A protagonist who is a total bad ass and not someone who just seems like a victim.
  2. The most intense killer in the back seat car chase I have ever seen in my life.
  3. Police who do their jobs and are not stupid, heartless or foolish in the film.
  4. Great acting.
  5. A lot of subtitles to read, but it’s worth it.
  6. An extremely believable reason as to why the serial killer has gone free so long.
  7. Non-stop intensity. That’s not to say that all scenes are action scenes, far from it, but in every frame of this film you feel the weight of it.
  8. A satisfying conclusion to the action. I won’t say if it ends well or not for the heroine but the end was perfect.
  9. A film of reasonable length that still wallops a mean punch. This is only about 90 minutes long so you probably have time to see it.
  10. A reason to keep streaming movies while you are bored at home.

Cold Hell caught me off guard because a lot of what is on Shudder is kind of silly or the third rate trash bin flicks I usually tend to watch. I love those and I am definitely going to keep reviewing them but this one is for anyone who just likes a good thriller. This is riveting and I loved every second of it. Do me a favor and give it a try. If you can stand a little blood, this is totally worth the time.

Praisingly yours,

Slick Dungeon

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