#109: PRIMETIME

 

STARRING: Robert Patterson, Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Matthew Maher, Phoebe Bridgers, Ana Faris and Alex Wynter. Written by Ajon Singh. Based on Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die by Luke Dittrich.  Cinematography David Bolen. Directed by Lance Oppenheim. Budget $14.5 million. Running time 109 minutes.

A powerful dramatisation of the rise and fall of both Chris Hansen and his TV reality series To Catch a Predator, which ran from 2004 - 2007. Each episode would see NBC journalist, Chris Hansen (Robert Patterson), his producer, Andie Bender (Merritt Wever), and the vigilante group, Preverted Justice headed by Matthew Maher conduct sting operations to snare paedophiles who targeted underage teenagers for sex. The men would be lured from online chatrooms to a 'bait house', where the police lay in wait, there the predators would be invited into the house by actors pretending to be underage children, either Dale Hardy (Phoebe Bridgers) or 'Decoy' Dan Plum (Skyler Gisondo). Then Hansen would confront them, humiliate them on camera and film their capture. Chasing bigger ratings and an order from his masters to eclipse the success of Lost Hansen set out to enshare a big name or a 'whale' of a predator, which in reality culminated in the suicide of Assistant D.A Bill Conradt (Alex Winter) in a botched raid by Texas police. 

This is a fever dream of a movie, from the intensity of the acting, particularly Robert Patterson, who is electric, to the edgy frendziness of story and the superb cinematography of David Bolen who shoots the whole thing with elevated saturation that makes all the colours seem far too intense and with a camera that stays focused on severe close-ups. There's a palatable sense of implosion never far away, from Hansen's deteriorating marriage to Mary Joan Hansen (Ana Faris) - who is criminally underused - to the show's desperate desire for more ratings, to Hansen's impending exposé in the National Enquirer for infidelity. Meanwhile, struggling to control her leading asset is Hansen's long suffering producer Andie Weaver, and Skyler Gisondo's Dan Plum, an aspiring actor hired purely because he looked 13 when in actuality was 26.

I was surprised by how darkly funny this was, and I found myself laughing at a lot of what transpired. The film has a superb visual style, those saturated colours, the bleached out video whiteouts, the intense pore-deep close-up shots, and the multiple camera set-ups mimicking the use of hidden cameras, all helps to give the film a very personal feel, we truly are the voyeur of this drama, eager to see the capture of these vile predators, but secretly wanting the punishment to be more severe.

The acting in this film is profoundly good. Patterson is superb as Hansen, he holds your attention even as you realise that there's nothing really there beneath the Hansen's surface beyond the pursuit of ratings. For a film about stopping the exploitation of children it's an impressive feat that poor old Decoy Dan Plum is, in the cold light of day, nothing more than a victim himself, used by the production company as a lure based just on his youthful looks, and whereas poor Dan is desperate for 'notes' to improve his performance the sad realisation of what his role really is is heartbreaking. His desire to be a real actor despite the fact his role each and every week is just to act a tad gay in an effort to lure men into trap before flouncing out to let Hansen take the glory is cringingly sad, as is his  realisation to the fact he is in part responsible for Conradt's suicide. 

There's a fantastic shot near the end of the film, after the DA has killed himself that holds Hansen in close up and he considers the suicide, slowly, he backs out of the shot slipping from being the focus to become nothing more than a background blur, which for me, sealed the deal perfectly.

Overall this was a powerful, intense and dramatic film that satisfies. A worthy Oscar contender.

8/10

#108: GODZILLA MINUS ZERO

 

STARRING:  Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Min Tanaka, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Masami Nagasawa, Yuki Yamada and Kuranosuke Sasaki. Written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki. Running time 135 minutes. 

Running ten minutes longer than it's 2023 originator, Godzilla Minus One, this is not so much a sequel more than a continuation, picking up the action two years after the events of that extraordinary first outing that re-introduced Godzilla in a new and utterly terrifying new incarnation. It's 1949, the remains of Godzilla  lie at the bottom of the Sagami Bay and Postwar Japan has got on with rebuilding  itself, that is until a new and deadly monster named Ghidorah rears its angry dragon-like head and lays waste to Matsumoto City, leading to the Large-Scale Disaster Response Bureau lead by Kenji Noda to launch a counter attack against this new threat, which only makes things worse, much worse by a factor of three when the single headed Ghidorah is transformed in the triple headed King Ghidorah who proceeds to wreck a trail of destruction across Japan. Teaming up with Professor Kanji Murakami – a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing, Meteorologist Makoto Aoyama, kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima, his wife Noriko and the other surviving heroes of the first time to reunite and lead a fight back against King Ghidorah as Godzilla emerges from the depths to continue its reign of destruction. Now all the plucky human heroes have to do is somehow lure KG and Godzilla together for the mother of all fights, but at what cost?

Once again the visual effects for this astonishing film are breath-taking, the sense of scale bewildering and the scope defies exceptations. Somehow, yet again, the human angle of these two films is the brilliant beating heart of the action, it gives the film its drama it's humanity. You find yourself caring for these puny bags of flesh and bones as they somehow fight against these behemoth beasties. Visually this is a truimph and practically seamless. There's a dream sequence when Godzilla destroys New York City and it is simply staggering. 

And yet this just doesn't quite reach the same giddy heights of the first film. That first film was so fresh and unique that exploded with power, this time round takashi Yamazaki's scope has grown, as has his budget and it's clear he has a story arc in mind and that there's probably a third film in this arc that's eating away at him. And I hope so. These Toho Japanese Godzilla films of which this is the 34th in the Toho series and 39th in the whole franchise are so fresh and different from the panto nonsense of the Legendary films, those are fun and silly, but this is grown up, powerful and emotionally satisfying. 

An exhausting and dramatic film that drags you in with the promise of Kaiju action and then hammers you with some powerful human drama and relationships. Still, deeply satisfying. 9/10

 

 

#107: SKYFALL (2012)

 

STARRING: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Naomie Harris, Ralph Fiennes, Berenice Marlohe and Albert Finney. Written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan. Cinematography by Roger Deakins. Edited by Stuart Baird and Kate Baird. Music by Thomas Newman. Directed by Sam Mendes. Budget $200 million. Running time 143 minutes. Originally released in 2012.

And so it came to pass that Bond turned 50 in 2012 and much fanfare and excitement surrounded Skyfall, the 23rd official entry in the Eon Bond franchise. Helmed by heavyweight director Sam Mendes, with peerless cinematography from Roger Deakins, editing from the legend that is Stuart Baird and a banging soundtrack by Thomas Newman. It proved to be a massive hit, the biggest of the entire series and grossed $1.09 billion dollars worldwide, making it only the 14th film to make more than a billion! It was the first film in UK history to gross £100 million. 

The plot sees leathery, human toby-jug, James Bond (Daniel Craig), in his third go at Bond, shot off a bridge by Miss Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) during a mission to stop a freelance spy from stealing a hard drive and presumed dead by M (Judi Dench), and dead he remains until an attack on MI6 by a villainous ruffian by the name of Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) that leaves six agents dead brings him back in game. It turns out Silva has that stolen hard drive which contained a list of ALL British agents currently working undercover for every terrorist organisation in the world and he's releasing the names in batches. it's all part of a stupendously elaborate revenge scheme aimed at M. So, Bond is sent out to bring him down. Meanwhile M is appearing at Parliament to answer for the data breach, oh and she and he, Sliva, share some back story that's come back to bite her on the bottom like a coconut loving rat.

And that's it, basically for the plot. It's a plot that ultimates robs this of a perfect 10/10 score seeing as it's not so much filled with plot holes but rather a plot colander. The entire plot of Skyfall makes the ludicrousness of Return of the Jedi seem like a tightly written crime noir and relies on a series of preposterous events and coincidences to propel the whole shebang along. Silva bombs MI6 knowing exactly where it will relocate its base of operations, where his cell will be, that his computer will be examined by Q so he can infiltrate their server, he's placed bombs to bring a tube train crashing into an underground crypt at the exact moment Bond arrives, he knows the complete layout of not just Temple Station but also, Charing Cross and Embankment, he knows Bond will kill his agent in Shanghai and will get bought to his poison island, where Bond will kill all his men, before he's captured by Bond. And then once he's escaped from MI6, blown up the Loindon Underground and evaded capture his grand plan is to walk into a closed parliamentary meeting and try and shot M with a gun, and when people shot back, to run away. Then Bond has to play his own plot tricks by pretending to lead Silva to his own country estate, Skyfall somewhere in the Scottish highlands, while actually driving there in a car that's 45 years old, which means that Bond must either be well into his 80s, or just one in a long line of agents using the name James Bond. Finally Silva takes the bait and a final boss level fight takes place at, of all places, Skyfall, but that's the title of the film, and the name of James Bond's ancestral home! Gosh, what were the odds? 

Without doubt the single best produced and best looking film of the entire canon, just beautiful, truly magnificent. Roger Deakins deserved an Oscar for it. Sam Mendes directs this brilliantly and the acting is great. Craig isn't as sharp and angry as he was in Casino Royale, but he's got an incredible masculine physicality that hogs the screen and you really can't take your eyes off him. With a damn fine rogues gallery of supporting actors to elevate this to a whole new level, it's plain to see the writing was was being written on the wall of this one and that the series could only get more serious, more over burgeoned with back story and incident ultimately leading to Bond's death in 2021's No Time to Die.

Still, to watch a Bond film, almost any Bond film, on the big screen is a treat too good to miss and this delivered in spades. 

A solid 9/10

#106: WILDWOOD

 

STARRING VOCAL TALENTS OF: Carey Mulligan, Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Richard E. Grant, Awkwafina, Amandia Stenberg, Tom Waits, Charlie Day, Blythe Danner, Arthur Knight, Angela Bassett and Mahershala Ali. Screenplay by Chris Butler. Based on the book, Wildwood by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis. Directed by Travis Knight. Budget $100 million. Running time 132 minutes. 

This is the latest release from the exceptional Laika studio the stop-motion animation masters behind Coraline, ParaNorman, The Box Trolls, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Missing Link. It was 16 years and 100 million dollars in the making and for once you can see each of 504,911,232 seconds and every single cent up there on the screen, this film is a magnificent visual masterpiece of such exceptional breath-taking artistry that it constantly takes you out of the film itself as you gasp and marvel at each and every scene. From the movement of the leaves, to the vast epic crowd scenes, the exquisite detail in the background of Oregon wilderness and the city. This is a film that shows you just how much better handmade stop-motion animation is to CGI, this is a film that puts to shame each of the generic, seen a million times before CGI movies, screened during the trailers. This is a film that shows you just how much better something created by humans is compared to pixels moved on a screen. This has a weight, a momentum, a sense of physicality that elevates it to a whole different level. And I marvelled at every scene. 

The story, which borrows liberally from Labyrinth, Time Bandits, Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Hitchcock's The Birds, and The Faraway Tree, sees the young brother of 13 year-old Prue McKeel (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) kidnapped by crows and taken to the dark forest on the orders of the Dowager Governess Alexandra (Carey Mulligan), an exiled, once loved ruler, who used witchcraft and dark magic to bring her dead son back to life and now wants to sacrifice Prue's baby brother to the  Ivy that strangles the forest to bring him back to life again, even it it will mean the destruction of the whole forrest. Through a series of incidents only found in movies, fellow 13 year-old nerd, Jacob Tremblay (Curtis Mehlberg) gets literally dragged into the deep dark forrest along side Prue on a rescue mission and discovers the hero inside. 

The wonderful thing about this film is it doesn't explain itself, it doesn't set out the ground rules first, it doesn't provide a huge back story it literally just drops you right into the middle of a fairytale nightmare and expects you to deal with the fallout. The story is big, the characters many and the the sense of jeopardy and drama from the opening scene when a young naked boy plucks out his mechanical heart and falls to his death to the genuinely staggering battle at the end of this 2 hour and 12 minute masterpiece is sublime. 

In fact so extraordinary is the visual look and feel of this film that it actually robbed it of a point, the trouble is, it's so goddam beautiful that you keep stopping to gasp at what's on show. 

That said, I bloody loved this film and it made me realise that so far Laika has yet to make a shit film, their outré is peerless and reminded me of the golden age of Pixar before Disney turned it into a factory. 

I hope to god that Laika continues to make films as wonderous as this, it truly needs to be seen at the cinema and I urge you to see it before its damned to a life on streaming where you'll lose the sheer wonder and scope of the whole thing. 

9/10

#105: STREET FIGHTER

 

STARRING: Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji, Callina Llang, Joe Anoa, David Dastmalchian and some other people, frankly I can't be arsed to name them all, there's too many of them. Written (that's a laugh, right there) by T.J. Fixman and Kitao Sakurai. Directed by Kitao Sakurai. Budget $82 million. Running time 120 minutes.

The plot. There are these two brothers, both orphans raised by this bloke who trains them to be fighters. Then one of them awakens a demon during a fight tournament, the demon goes on to kill the father figure. the two brothers, split up and one goes missing, the one who awakened the demon. Then 6 years later there's this bloke called Bison (David Dastmalchian) who's trying to harness psycho power so he can be big and evil. So he puts on the same fight tournament that awakened the demon and invites only 8 of the world's best fighters, two of which happen to be the brothers. Then they meet for the tournament and shit happens, and there's fighting and stuff. Then Jason Mamoa as a green skinned creature arrives near the end, then the demon and one of the brothers fight, then the demon is defeated and Bison kidnaps him and runs away so the two brothers team up with this girl who's an interpol agent and some of the other defeated fighters from the tournament go off in a car to find them leaving the film to end on a motherfucking cliffhanger. 

What the actual motherfucking what? What a huge slap in the fucking face this film was, just a real kick to the batteries, how dare this film that robbed 2 fucking hours of my life, not counting the sodding adverts and trailers, oh and the walk to and back from the cinema have the sheer naked nerve to end with a fucking cliffhanger! Because believe me, The Empire Strikes Back this most certainly isn't. 

What this is is the fourth film in a year based on a video game and the second on a fighting game, the first being the excremable Mortal Kombat, which this is marginally better than, but just. In fact it's saved by having some simply superb anime and David Dastmalchian who seems to be having the time of his life playing Bison the baddy. The same could not be said of the rest of the cast, I don't know who they were, who they played or what the fuck was going on. I recognised a couple, there was Fifty Cent and Jason Mamoa for sure and I think I recognised one of the brothers, Andrew Koji, but the rest, not one iota of a fuck could I care less to know. 

This film was overly loud, overly bombastic, overly saturated and overly long, dear god you feel each and every second of it. Oddly enough this starts off strongly, the anime sequences are good, well mounted and dynamic and in fact if it weren't for those this would struggle to make a 2/10. it's also played solely for laughs and at time bordered on being a panto. Visually for the first 30 minutes or so this looked great the over saturated colours worked well to create the illusion of if not a video game well then a live action anime, the fights were for the most part okay, but the dialogue was all shouty and trope ridden and repetitive, the acting is OTT to the Nth degree and by the end of it you're just bombarded into submission, it's all just so goddam tedious, for a long time this was safely in the 6/10 camp but as it dragged on and on and on and on, my patience was tested by by the time it ends not with a full stop but an out-and-out cliffhanger I was well and truly pissed off with it. 

Given the choice between this and Mortal Kombat I'd opt for this, the bums are nicer. 

3/10

#104: CLAYFACE

 

STARRING: Tom Rhys Harries, Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella and Eddie Marsan. Screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini. Directed by James Watkins. Budget $44 million. Running time 108 minutes.

Hang on, didn't the makers of Clayface get the memo? Did no one tell them that these sort of films have to be as shit as Blue Beetle, Shazam, Wonder Woman 1984, Morbius, Madame Webb or god forbid John Kraven The Hunter? What were they thinking? Because against all expectations this was actually rather good! A horror-based origin story for Clayface, a pretty ludicrous Bat Man villain who has the ability to morph into anybody.

The plot sees stupidly handsome and wholesome Gotham actor, Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) horrifically disfigured and mutilated by crime lord Markos Szabo (David Dencik) after Matt sleeps with Szabo's girlfriend Mia Torrez (Joana Ribeiro). A rigged courtcase sees his life and reputation further ruined as he loses his agent, his mansion, his wealth and his future. A series of terrible botched surgeries only make matters worse and before long Matt's back in living in his old Gotham City slum apartment with only cockroaches the sizes of fists for friends. Then one day he stumbles across a magazine article about Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie) a pioneering doctor experimenting with nanite technology to rebuild damaged tissue. The initial treatment is a huge success and Matt briefly regains his fame, but when his body starts to reject the nanites, he does the only thing anyone in his position would do, he overdoses on Corr's only stock of the stuff and is cured. It turns out the nanites react to his mental state of mind and when that slowly begins to unravel the true extent of his new found abilities are revealed. And it's not long before Matt is off on a murderous revenge spree against all those who wronged him. And that's about it for the plot.

This was a surprisingly enjoyable and well made horror romp, with good performances, some truly gross-out special effects and some good and grizzly deaths. It didn't outstay its welcome, it didn't have too many plot holes and the whole thing had a fiesty, grim feel to it. Most satisfying, surprisingly so.

8/10

#103: GHOSTS: THE POSSESSION OF BUTTON HOUSE

 

STARRING: Charlotte Ritchie, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Lolly Adefope, Mathew Bayanton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard, Ben Willbond, Scott Ellis Watson,. Written by Mathew Baynoton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond. Directed by Simon Hynd. Running time 97 minutes.

There's a great tradition of British Sitcoms getting movies and changing the situation, so for example, Porridge took Fletcher and Godber out of Slade prison, in Are You Being Served, the staff of Grace Brothers went off on holiday to Costa Plonker and in Holiday on the Buses, Stan and Jack lost their jobs as bus drivers to become bus drivers for a holiday camp, surely the most perfect example of a busman's holiday? Modern times saw The Inbetweeners, Absolutely Fabulous and Bad Education all leave their 'situations' for pastures green, and now to that august group can be added, Ghosts: The Possession of Button House. More or less.

The plot set just nine months after the events of the very last episode of the TV show, sees Button House in sad disrepair, the developer's dream of converting the run-down house into a hotel and golf resort seemingly abandoned, much to the chargin of the ghosts. Things go from bad to worse when a group of eco activities turn up taking up residence in the woods and demanding that the hotel/golf course plan be cancelled for good forcing the ghosts to take action. Convinced that only Alison and Mike can help the Ghosts are offered an opportunity to seek their help when a gang of teenagers break into Button house one night to hold a seance resulting in Julian (Simon Farnaby) possessing the body of teenage orphan called Jack (Scott Ellis Watson) and at last the Ghosts have found a way to leave the confines of Button House! What follows is a glorious delightful, charming and lovely comedy that never fails to cause mirth in its wake as first Julian and then the other ghosts all find a way to escape the house to aid in the mission. A mission made much desperate when it's revealed one of the eco warriors is actually an professional arsonist with orders to burn down the house so a corrupt politician can build an airfield. Then there's just the matter of Alison and Mike being accused of child kidnappers and a massive police hunt to contend with.

Some films don't need to be analysed or discussed to the Nth degree and can just be watched and enjoyed as they are, undissected and such is the case with this wonderful little gem of a movie. With a good natured soul, a seemingly endless supply of jolly japes and gags and offering no cringey afterlife lessons, no fake American sentimentality just a bigger canvas to play for the cast of ghosts, who are also the writers of this splendid little British comedy that wouldn't be out of place in an afternoon of Ealing Comedies. 

8/10