THE POPE'S EXORCIST : Tuesday 18th April 2023.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'THE POPE'S EXORCIST' earlier this week at my local independent movie theatre, and this American supernatural horror film is Directed by Julius Avery whose previous feature film credits are 'Son of a Gun' in 2014, 'Overlord' in 2018 and 'Samaritan' in 2022. This film is based on the Italian Catholic Priest and Exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth of the Diocese of Rome, who lived from 1925 until 2016, and who claimed to have performed thousands of exorcisms throughout his life, as recounted in his memoirs 'An Exorcist Tells His Story' and 'An Exorcist : More Stories'. The film cost US$18M to produce, has so far brought in US$38M at the global Box Office, has generated mixed or average reviews and was released first in India earlier this month and then in the US and here in Australia last week.

The film opens up in mid-1987 and Father Gabriele Amorth (Russell Crowe), acting as the Pope's personal Exorcist pulls up at an Italian village on his Lambretta scooter where a man is allegedly possessed by a demon. With the help of a local priest, Amorth enters the room where the man is tied up, shouting obscenities in English although he has never uttered a word of English in his life up to this point. While exorcising the man, using a Saint Benedict sacramental Medal, Amorth drives the demon into a pig, which is then killed with a shotgun, leaving the man in a crumpled heap on the bed seemingly to recover.

This 'exorcism' gets Amorth into some seemingly serious trouble with a Church tribunal, since he acted without permission from his superiors. One tribunal member is a friendly African bishop, Lumumba (Cornell John), but another is an overly zealous American cardinal, Sullivan (Ryan O'Grady) who is skeptical of demonic possession, and readily discounts all of Amorth's counter arguments. Amorth replies that evil does exist, and that he did not perform a true exorcism, but instead, some psychological theatre to help the mentally-disturbed man. Amorth goes on to explain that 98% of cases can be attributed to mental or scientific reasons, but the remaining 2% are down to pure evil. However. disgusted by the accusations made by the panel before him, he walks out of the tribunal hearing.

The Pope assigns Amorth to visit a possessed boy named Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) in Spain. Henry, his mother Julia (Alex Essoe), and his rebellious teenage sister Amy (Laurel Marsden) had traveled from America to take possession of a mysterious old Spanish abbey which was Henry's father's sole bequest to his family after he died tragically in a car accident in which Henry was present in the back seat, and saw his father impaled. The traumatised Henry has not spoken since the accident, which was one year ago now. The group of workmen, who were restoring the abbey so the family could sell it, leave after a mysterious fire breaks out in the basement. Hereafter, Henry starts behaving bizarrely and self-harms. His mother takes him to a local hospital but various blood tests and MRI scans show nothing to be out of the ordinary.

Henry, mercilessly possessed, requests a priest, and when the local Father Esquibel (Daniel Zovatto) arrives, Henry obscenely chastises him and sends him hurtling through the air to come crashing down against a cupboard and saying 'wrong priest'. Amorth arrives and with no alternative, enlists Esquibel as his assistant, though Esquibel is untrained as an exorcist. Amorth states the importance of prayer and staying the course despite the distractions that Henry might throw his way. However, Esquibel makes several mistakes as an assistant exorcist, including attempting to strangle Henry when he derides him, and mocks him for his sins.

The pair attempt to exorcise Henry, without success, as he utters blasphemous rantings throughout the ritual. Furthermore, without the demon's name, their attempts prove futile. Amorth finds Julia has not been a religious believer since childhood, but he convinces her to pray after she reveals she believed a guardian angel was always by her side during her early school years.

Meanwhile, back in Rome, the Pope (Franco Nero) becomes gravely ill while reading documents about the Spanish case, and is rushed into hospital. Amorth locates a well on the abbey grounds going down to an underground cavern sealed off by the Church as being demonically dangerous. He learns that a founder of the Spanish Inquisition, an exorcist, was possessed, which let him infiltrate the Church and in turn conduct much evil. Amorth also discovers that the Church covered this up centuries ago, and eventually learns the name of Henry's demon, Asmodeus, which will help with the exorcism.

Amorth and Esquibel participate in a Confession and Absolution, mutually confessing, and absolving each other of their sins - with Amorth, an Italian partisan, who survived World War II and vowed to serve God in gratitude, when later a mentally-ill woman asked for Amorth's help, and subsequently died by suicide when he did not help her due to pride, with Esquibel fornicating with a young woman he later abandoned. The two prepare themselves and Amorth instructs Esquibel to wear a Miraculous Medal necklace. During the exorcism, they are tormented by visions of the women whom they failed. The exorcism succeeds only when Amorth offers himself to be possessed, which coincides with Asmodeus's earlier stating that he wants to destroy Amorth.

Amorth attempts to hang himself, but Asmodeus doesn't allow it, preferring that Amorth infiltrate and destroy the Church from within. However, Esquibel helps Amorth drive away the demon that emerges from a well as the Blessed Virgin Mary elevating before him, as well as the demonic manifestations of the two women who so troubled the men. The Pope makes a full recovery, as does Henry who has returned to the USA with his mother and sister. The triumphant pair visit Rome, and find Sullivan has taken extended leave in Guam, being replaced by Lumumba. Amorth and Esquibel are escorted to a special Church archive with many of the relics recovered from the cavern. Lumumba tells Amorth that he will be visiting 199 other evil sites, depicted on a world map Amorth discovered at the abbey, to combat the Devil, to which Amorth replies that it will be a life's work and that he will need an assistant, to which Esquibel acknowledges his support.

'The Pope's Exorcist' is entertaining enough but it doesn't offer the viewer anything new that we haven't seen many times before. There are plenty of plot holes here too, for example, I really can't believe that Amorth rode his Lambretta scooter all the way from Rome, through northern Italy, through southern France and down into Spain; or how Julia gets slammed head first into a bathroom sink that shatters and she gets up with nary a scratch; or how Henry and Amorth seem to recover from their demonic possessions almost instantly; or . . . . well, you know what I'm sayin' here! The film is however, elevated by Russell Crowe's performance as the often quirky, not too serious, scooter riding, whisky guzzling albeit dodgy accented Father Amorth who saves the day to battle it out on another occasion as the open ended conclusion paves the way for a potential sequel. The scares here are few and far between and the tension rarely amounts to much, but stylistically and visually the films looks the part, with particular credit going to Crowe and the twelve year old DeSouza-Feighoney who add a certain gravitas to the proceedings.

'The Pope's Exorcist' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

JOHN WICK : CHAPTER 2 - Tuesday 23rd May 2017.

'JOHN WICK : CHAPTER 2' which I saw earlier this week tells the ongoing story of the hirsute hitman character of John Wick as played by Keanu Reeves who first burst onto our screens all guns blazing in 2014 and proved to be a critical success, whilst grossing US$89M off its US$20M budget. It was therefore inevitable that a sequel would follow, and now in 2017 our titular forced out of retirement assassin seeking vengeance and dispensing his own kind of justice down the barrel of a gun, is back. Keanu Reeves reprises the role he so successfully made his own from the get-go, and Director Chad Stahelski is back in the chair with this film that saw its initial release in the US in early February and here in Australia only on the 18th of this month. The film has so far made US$167M from its US$40M budget and has received much critical praise.

Set four days following the end of the first film, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) has tracked down his prized 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 to a warehouse chop-shop where various criminal underworld activities are ongoing overseen by Russian gangster Abram Tarasov (Peter Stormare) whose brother Viggo and his son Iosef were both killed by John in the first film.

As John fires up the engine to his beloved vehicle, all manner of heavies quickly come out of the woodwork, and a kinetic car chase is on for one and all that culminates back in the warehouse where it all started with John taking out each and every one, before bursting in on Tarasov, who can only shake his head in disbelief. John siddles up to Tarasov, words unspoken, pours them both a neat glass of vodka, toasts peace between them, and walks away, sparing the Russian's life. He gets back into his now heavily trashed Ford Mustang and drives home.

Back home John attempts to settle back down to a quiet life of retirement. But his best laid plans are thwarted when he is visited by Italian gangster Santino D'Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio) who presents John with a 'Gold Marker' which binds him via a never to be broken blood oath to an earlier commitment for a past favour granted. There is clearly some history between the two gentlemen as they have done 'business' together in the past which enabled John to retire to marry Helen (Bridget Moynahan, in flashback only) but now D'Antonio wants his payback. John refuses, saying that those days are behind him, he's retired, and he's not that man anymore. This doesn't sit well with D'Antonio who is holding the Marker with John's bloodied thumb print inside it. The two part company, but before driving away D'Antonio promptly blows John's home to pieces using a grenade launcher - John is blown clear out of the house and his new best friend, the dog with no name escapes unhurt too, but John's luxury home is totalled.

Consulting with Winston (Ian McShane) at New Yorks' Continental Hotel who reminds John that if he does not accept the 'Marker' he will be breaking one of the two cardinal rules of the underworld - the first to not kill or conduct 'business' within the grounds of a Continental Hotel, and the second that all Markers must be honoured. John reluctantly meets again with D'Antonio and accepts the task, which is to travel to Rome to take out his sister Gianna (Claudia Gerini) who sits on the council of high level crime lords, so that he can take her place.  D'Antonio sends his own assassin and mute personal bodyguard, Ares, (Ruby Rose) to keep a watchful eye on John to ensure that he delivers on his commitment and to tie up any loose ends.

In Rome, John's checks into the Continental Hotel there, managed by Julius (Franco Nero) and then sets about suiting up and tooling up, using all the specialist suppliers of custom made bullet proof tailored suits and hitman special weapons that a gold coin or six can buy. He then infiltrates Rome's catacombs to get close to Gianna's celebration party, and confronts her alone, stating that he is there to complete his Mark as ordered by her brother. Rather than die unexpectedly at the hands of another, she chooses to die her own way, committing suicide. After she has passed, John fires a single point blank shot into her head and walks away.

Whilst retreating back through the labyrinth of underground tunnels, John is ambushed by D'Antonio's henchmen and Ares, wanting to tie up those loose ends. Needless to say it will take more than a few dozen heavily armed heavies to dispense with a well prepared bullet proof suit wearing tooled up arse kicking John Wick. Just when he thought he was in the clear, Gianna's personal bodyguard Cassian (Common), having discovered her limp lifeless body, comes out seeking revenge having seen John earlier at the party and asked if was 'working'. They fight on the streets of Rome late at night in a savage close quarter kicking, punching, gouging, knifing and shooting fight eventually crashing through a window into the Reception of the Rome Continental Hotel, which also allows no 'business' to be conducted on its grounds. Under strict compliance of the rules, the pair share a drink in the bar, and John tells Cassian who ordered the hit on Gianna and that he had no choice. Cassian swears revenge for her death, and leaves to fight another day, having paid for the drink 'out of professional courtesy'.

Following her death Santino places a US$7M bounty on the head of John as a smoke screen to avenge her death leading every assassin in New York to come out to kill John and claim the reward. John dispenses with the attacks of several assassins, but Cassian is once again on his tail, and confronts John in the subway. They board a crowded subway train and maintain their distance until the next stop when the passengers disperse leaving them access to each other while the remaining passengers look on in disbelief as their fight breaks out within the confines of the subway carriage. John overpowers Cassian, pushing a knife into his aorta and sitting him down on a seat, stating that if he pulls the knife he will bleed out and quickly, and that 'out of professional courtesy' he let him live.

Injured and running out of options John seeks out an underground crime lord that John had previously taken a hit on, but who he also let live, albeit with a potentially life threatening injury, The Bowery King (Laurence Fishburn, in their first screen pairing since 'The Matrix' trilogy). After exchanging social niceties, The Bowery King reluctantly agrees to help John and leads him to D'Antonio's whereabouts armed with a revolver and a magazine containing seven rounds only.

Here John confronts D'Antonio and his several dozen henchmen with Ares who are all on hand to protect their leader. After more close quarter gun fighting in which heads explode with gushes of the crimson stuff against marble white walls, culminating in a dizzying bevy of fist fights and gun battles in a hall of mirrors, John overcomes Ares who stays behind allowing D'Antonio to flee to The Continental, and safe harbour. John tracks his quarry to the Hotel, where D'Antonio is very self assured that John will abide by the strict rules of the Hotel, and that he can stay indefinitely in very comfortable surroundings. John needless to say has very different ideas.

The next day, Winston sends for John, and explains that the High Table at which Gianna and subsequently Santino sat for a very brief time, has doubled the bounty on John's head and issued it globally. Winston also advises that John is now considered 'excommunicado' from The Continental, and in so being loses all special privileges and access to the resources of the underworld that he has hitherto enjoyed and taken advantage off. He is out on his own in the world, with every assassin in the known universe now hot on his tail. Winston however, gives him a one hour head start before the bounty goes live, and in so doing hands him a Marker for his future use should he ever need it. As John races through the streets of New York on foot with his trustee no name dog bounding beside him, John hears mobile phone messages sounding all around him, as hitmen & women are alerted to John's new status.

'John Wick : Chapter 2' is a frenzied frenetic feast of bullet ballet gun-fu, that raises the body count over a number of very well choreographed action set pieces, whilst providing some clarity surrounding the mythology of the story. This is exactly what you would expect and more from the first instalment, ramping up with a high octane opening car chase in New York somewhere, to an intense and perhaps overly long underground gun battle in the ancient city of Rome, back to the streets and subway of New York, for the final showdown in a city Museum. Director and former stuntman Stahelski, who has worked with Reeves before on 'The Matrix' series, has a keen eye for big screen inventive action and he pulls out all the stops here to deliver a thrill ride that is exciting, at times humorous, well acted by Reeves who carries the whole film on his shoulders, and by McShane and Common especially. John Wick is a man of few words, and he too comes off a little worse for wear, proving that he is not infallible suffering a gun shot wound, a knife stabbing, all manner of kicks and punches but he keeps coming back taking out those that would cross him with a deft touch . . . often at point blank range. Very entertaining, bloody and violent compelling action packed bullet riddled escapism that ticks all the boxes.  Director Chad Stahelski has already stated that a third film in the series in currently in the works, which will lead on from where this instalment ends. Bring it on!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-