🎥 Renfield

Renfield (2023): ⭐️⭐️

Almost gets three stars, because it was entertaining, and really, how high were anyone’s actual expectations for this? But though I enjoy the cast, Cage is just as ridiculous as you’d expect him to be, Hoult somehow (very amusingly) channels 90s era Hugh Grant (seriously, Renfield Nicholas Hoult : 90s Hugh Grant :: Heathers Christian Slater : 70s Jack Nicholson), and there are a lot of clever lines that made me laugh, the whole is lesser than the sum of its parts. The editing during the fight scenes is far too quick and choppy, resulting in fights that are sometimes hard to track and often give the impression that the fight choreography just wasn’t there and they had to try to save them through the editing. And the decision to go with 70s-martial-arts/horror-style over-the-top fountains of gushing blood somehow didn’t quite work for me. I don’t regret watching this, but it’s not one I’ll ever have much need to watch again.