#75: THE END OF OAK STREET.

 

STARRING: Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella and Christian Convery. Produced by J.J. Abrams, Hannah Minghella, Jon Cohen, David Robert Mitchell, Matt Jackson and Tommy Harper. Written and directed by David Robert Mitchell. Budget $92 million. Running time 99 minutes. 

Can't help thinking the people who churn out the utterly turgid Jurassic Park films must be slapping their foreheads in disbelief and shouting, "So, that's how you do a dinosaur movie!", their last film – the 2025 woeful Jurassic World Rebirth cost a genuinely staggering $254 million dollars to make, while this one a 'mere' $92 million, which in comparison is low budge and ten times better!

It's 1982 and life, or so it seems is good in the Oak Street neighbourhood, there's a massive street party underway and everything seems wonderful and everyone seems happy, although scratch the surface of Platt family, Denise and Gret Platt (Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor) and you can easily see their marriage is on the rocks and their two children, Audrey and Brian (Maisy Stella and Christian Convery) know it. Greg's hiding a secret – that he's lost his job and trying to make ends meet by working as a pizza delivery boy and she's an aspiring novelist who's written something wonderful using her own family as her inspiration. Then one night during a particularly violet lighting and thunder storm, the entire neighbourhood is transported via a worm hole, or ball, back 65 millions years ago to the Cretaceous Period and the family find themselves fighting for their lives as the neighbourhood goes to the dinasours. As their neighbours get whittled down and the family dog goes missing, the family naturally, because it's a film, split up and go off looking for him leading to a genuinely scary sequence that just keeps building. Finally our nuclear family piece together what's happening and how to get home and then late into the third act, something truly shocking and unexpected happens and the stakes rise meteorically leading to a superb third act that does not disappoint. 

Who would have thought dinosaurs could be scary, taking place mostly in the day light, these beasties are feathered, ugly and unbelievably lethal. The action builds nicely and as the town is reduced to a burning ruin, our family keep running looking for a way out. This feels like a Spielberg film, hardly surprising since this is a Bad Robot Production and one of the producers is J.J. Abrams, who for a long time was hailed as the next Spielberg, much in the same way Christopher Nolan is called the next Kubrick.  

This looks, feels and sounds like a Spielberg film, it's packed full 1980s elements, like kids riding their low-rider bikes around the neighbourhood, 8-tracks, Battlestar Galactica movie posters and typewriters. Kids take centre stage for much of this and are deeply annoying at times, asking stupid questions, taking ridiculous risks and running off whenever the plot needs them to. 

Overall this was a thoroughly enjoyable, action-packed, dramatic and emotional romp, a true rollercoaster of excitement and one that utterly nails the landing. What an utter treat. Sure without Jurassic Park, we wouldn't have this, but boy what we do have is a dinosaur film that's actually scary.

Do yourself a favour and pay Oak Street a visit, you won't regret it!

8/10

#74: SUNNY DANCER

 

STARRING: Bella Ramsey, Daniel Quinn-Toye, Ruby Stokes, Earl Cave, Jasmine Elcock, Conrad Khan, Jessica Gunning, James Norton and Neil Patrick Harris. Written and directed by George Jaques. Running time 106 minutes. 

Ivy (Bella Ramsey) is 10 months into her cancer remission, but living effectively as a shut-in with her loving and supporting parents, Bob and Karen (James Norton and Jessica Gunning) home. Abandoned by her old friends and suffering from survivor guilt, she's terrified of living prompting her parents to enrol her into a four week chemo camp with other cancer survivors, and off she goes reluctantly, defiant and determined not to enjoy it or fit in. But once there she quickly makes friends with a group of young wacky teenagers on the cusp of adulthood including Jake (Daniel Quinn-Toye), Ella (Ruby Stokes), Ralph (Earl Cave), Maisie (Jasmine Elcock) and Archie (Conrad Khan) and locking horns with camp commander Patrick (Neil Patrick Harris) the well-meaning rule obsessed and overly cheerful ruler of the camp who naturally becomes her nemesis, until his tragic background cracks Ivy's cynical nature and she begins to emerge from her emotional cocoon. The film broken down into chapters named after each week follows the group as they bond over the four weeks on an overnight camping trip, a day out to a local funfair, go skinny-dipping, fall in love and battle a gang of normals who make the mistake of insulting them leading to a funny punch up. All these events bring the gang of five together and create a bond that only death will end. 

The film offers nothing new and it's tropes and beats are what you'd expect from a coming-to-age comedy/drama about cancer, and yet it's an engaging, funny and kind film. Watching these young people connect and bond is quite powerful, particularly when they gingerly talk about their own cancer experiences. Likewise the relationship between Ivy and Ella, Ivy's room mate is charming and funny. There's no 3rd act fall-out for this gang of survivors, although the film does deal an emotional gut punch in the third act which is quite clumsily telegraphed and in hindsight unnecessary. 

It also does something quite, quite extraordinary, it made me like Bella Ramsey. I find her performance in both the Last of Us and Game of Thorns awful and yet she's expected to carry most of the heavy emotional luggage in this film and does so with grim determination. The rest of the cast are fun and my personal favourite was Ruby Stokes who was genuinely funny. And I think this is saved by being a UK film and not American one, so it avoids giving the young cast lessons to learn, or a bully to thwart or overcome and allows the 17 year-olds to engage in a very touching and sweet sex scene.

Despite some rough edges and clunky direction from director and writer George Jaques, plus some continuity errors that jar, this film also suffers from an over abundance of Ikea dressed sets, which pull you out of the film.

Overall, this is a kind, gentle and fun film about surviving cancer that only suffers from the need to pour on the pathos in the third act, which feels there just to give Bella one last chance to cry and emote. 

8/10  

#73: SUPER TROOPERS 3

 

STARRING: Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske, Hannah Simone, Nat Faxon, Chace Crawford, Brian Cox, Lynda Carter. Written by Broken Lizard. Directed by Jay Chandrasekhar. 104 minutes long.

The continuing adventures of a group of idiot state troopers as they do very little but prank motorists and each other while swearing, drinking to excess and being marginally crude. I have no desire to do a deep dive into this. I think I saw the first one, the second one was crowd-funded and apparently terrible and this is a soft as putty, vaguely amusing, although not funny, sort of thing. The characters all look the same and it features Brian Cox clearly doing it to pay the mortgage. There's a nice bottom on show, some sexy underwear and a flash of boob, but that's about it. The plot has something to do with drug smuggling and maple syrup. There's some nonsense about the funniest character getting married to the sister of one of the others, but the brother isn't happy and tries to sabotage the wedding. At the stag do, strippers are called in to disgrace the groom to be. Mild racist jokes are made, but they're utterly inoffensive and are mostly unfunny, as is the whole thing. 

There's a talking eco car, a car stunt and a baddy who's hiding in plain sight. That's it. The ending rolls to a halt at the wedding and someone, the baddy is shot and killed. Then there's three weddings and a final post credit sting with Brian Cox and Lynda Carter lying in baths. The whole thing is written by the cast and has all the spark and vim of a ward full of medicated geriatrics. 

I've seen a lot worse and a lot funnier. This is the mildest of films and I doubt any of you will go and see it, and if I'm being honest I'm really not too sure why I went, I knew it was going to be this sort of film and yet I went. Is my life this meaningless that i fill the waking chasm in my soul with this sort of shit? Isn't there a single other thing I could do than sit in a cinema with just two other patrons and watch this. I mean I could have stayed at home with the wife, still recovering from a hip replacement, but oh no, I choose to go and see this. I suppose it was cooler inside and the cherry slushy was nice.

What I will say is that I saw something that deeply shocked me, and no it wasn't the sight of Brian Cox in a bath, it was a trailer for Silent Night 2, a film about an ultra violent Santa Clause that's not out till November. What the hell is wrong with this goddam world, this week, Harrods opened its Christmas department and the cinemas are trailing films for Xmas, it's the middle of August you sons of bitches, we're living through the worst heat wave in living memory and you're already getting excited about Christmas. Put a fucking sock in it you pricks. 

Anyway back to this. I missed the second outing, only vaguely remember the first and will never watch this ever again. I suppose I saw it so you don't have to. So, don't and if you do, then don't say I didn't warn you. 

Middling, dull, and rather bland. Thank god for Brian Cox who gives a 5% performance that still 10 times more than the rest of the regular cast.

3/10 mostly for the fore-mentioned nudity and the occasional chortle. 

#72: DAVID BYRNE'S AMERICAN UTOPIA

 

STARRING: David Byrne. Written by David Byrne. Produced by David Byrne and Spike Lee. Music by David Byrne. Featuring the Chris Giarmo, Tendayi Kuumba, Karl Mansfield, Angie Swan, Bobby Wooten III, Mauro Reosco, Tim Keiper, Gustaveo Di Dalva, Jacquelene Acevedo, Daniel Freedman and Stephan San Juan. Directed by Spike Lee. Running time 105 minutes.

This is the second concert film for me of the year following the sublime EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert. This one, directed by Spike Jones is a filming of the 2020 tour, which due to Covid didn't get released at the time. It's a filmed performance of the New York Broadway run. Back in 2020 I was lucky enough to see this extraordinary performance at the O2 just before Covid shut the country down. It was the second time I've seen David Byrne perform live, the first as part of the Talking Heads tour, was back in 1982, that was an experience that bordered on the religious for me and I was profoundly moved by it. Watching American Utopia live 28 years later was similarly sublime. Sadly this year's David Bryne American Utopia world tour was prohibitively expensive and I had to give it a miss, so when news of this one night screening of the 2020 show was announced I pounced and I'm glad it did.

Featuring among other Burning Down the House, Don't Worry About the Government, Once in a Lifetime, and Road to Nowhere as well as 17 other numbers from Talking Heads: 77 to American Utopia, Little Creatures, Remain in the Light and Fear of Music this really is a visual and audio masterpiece. The band and Byrne surge endlessly across the stage, wearing their instruments and dancing, as they follow their glorious leader from one song to the next, this ebbs and flows and is a vision to behold. As a committed Talking Heads fan I can only fault this for one glaring omission, the lack of Psycho Killer, the song that made me a fan and that I've listened to more than any other song. But that is the only negative I have for this wonderfully moving and extraordinary film. 

Spike Jones directs this wonderfully, the camera never intrusive, flowing with the cast and feels organic. the way the performers move around the small stage is a marvel, performing as they dance, there is no backing track, no speaker stack, no leads and cables just Byrne's crew wearing their instruments, playing, singing and dancing, always moving. I wish I'd seen this on a bigger screen, but regardless it was a joy, and Petra on only her second cinema visit since her hip replacement gave it a very rare, for her, 10/10.

Me I couldn't possible disagree, that would be rude. 10/10

#70: SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY

 

STARRING: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Florence Pugh, Tramell Tillman, Michael Mando and Mark (I'm not the Gruffalo) Ruffalo, Marisa Tomei and Liza Colón-Zayas. Written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers (not the brother of Scott Sommers, who spells his name Summers). Based on the comic strip created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. Budget $225 million. Running time 145 minutes. 

Set four years after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which saw Spider-Man, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) forced to cast Dr. Strange's spell that robbed the whole of the world of the knowledge that he was Spider-man, including love of his life MJ (Zendaya) and bestest friend in the world, Ned (Jacob Batalon). This Spider-Man has been fully accepted as NY's masked avenger and rightly feted by its populace, there's no J.J. Jameson to sully his name, so he can concentrate on dealing with a seemingly never-ending wave of street level villains from Scorpion, to name but one, as I don't want to spoil anything for you here. That said, there's one wonderful homage to a comic that had me squeaking in sheer delight, and on the Amazing-o-meter it rated a solid 15! He's got a friend in the NYPD, detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas), acting as his Commission Gordon, and a love/hate relationship going on with Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) aka The Punisher. Parker lives an almost monastic life from his attic, alone and mourning his lost relationships. Then, one day an audacious attack on Damage Control HQ by a little old lady in an armoured tank, brings Spider-Man face-to-face with a mysterious villain who can leap into the minds of people and take control, but who are they and what does it have to do with Damage Control?

There is a lot of plot, characters and incident to shoehorn into this film, no wonder it's so long, at its core the loneliness of Peter Parker - still grieving for the loss of Aunt May and MJ, but there's also the sense of hope, of a 'brand new day' as Parker goes about trying to build new relationships, like the unlikely one between Parker and Castle, or Detective DeWolff, as well his feeble attempts to somehow reconnect with Ned and MJ. 

The action aspect often takes a sidestep, which isn't necessarily a bad thing although it certainly spoiled a lot of the younger kids in the audience's enjoyment, this is a 12A film, it's quite sophisticated in its language, plus it's not a live-action animated film, there's a lot of talking and I think younger kids are going to be bored by this, one such tyke in the audience last night started playing with his pinging tablet last night and his mother couldn't seem to care less, till several people around her told her to shut it off. 

ANYWAY, the film itself. It was surprising to see so much of Spider-Man in full costume talking and interacting with people, it felt strange, but in a good way and soon became quite believable, he's a very likeable character perhaps the most relatable of all the superheroes. The action is jawdropping, the Hulk, revealed in the trailer so there's no spoiling to mention him here, is great, brief but great, and when he finally goes full Hulk it's fantastic! Likewise the relationship between Parker and The Punisher is funny and rewarding too, but the Punisher struggles to work in a 12 A universe, ultimately his superpower is just shooting guns, but there's a connection between the two that reminds me of Superman Vs Batman, but done better. In fact all of the relationships at play in this film are deeply rewarding, perhaps none more so than the final one between Ned and Parker which really choked me up.

The phrase Super Hero Fatigue gets thrown around a lot these days, but I can tell you there's no such think as Spider-Man Fatigue, judging from the crowd I saw this with. I think the fatigue comes from a hideous glut of truly mediocre superhero fare with generic off the peg stories, and threats too big to comprehend. Not so this, the story at it's core is the important sauce. Give the audience a strong story with a proper emotional core and some stakes they can relate to will win the day.

This isn't a perfect Spider-Man film, for me that would be Spider-Man Homecoming (2017), Spider-Man (2002) and Spider-Man 2 (2004). This is a tad too long, and the effects are a little soft and murky at times, the direction by Destin Daniel Cretton is very perfunctory and pedestrian and lacks the visual flair of Sam Raimi, he's just a safe pair of hands. Plus the villain, as surprising as they start out to be is, if I'm being honest, a tad disappointing by the end. The soundtrack, which seems to be mostly pop songs doesn't really register and this feels like a TV movie rather than a spectacle and doesn't quite have that gloss of a big Hollywood blockbuster, which at a price tag of $225 million it should have.

Anyway, exceedingly fun and entertaining and filled with some simply excellent Spider-Man moments, with plenty of action and emotional resonance, but sadly not quite firing on all cylinders. It flew but just didn't quite soar.

So this gets an Amazing Fantasy rating of Tim Boo Ba, or 9/10 if you don't know your comics.

#69: RAGING BULL

 

STARRING: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty. Screenplay by Paul Schrader adn Mardik Martin. Based on Raging Bull: My Story by Jake LaMotta, Joseph Carter and Peter Savage. Cinematoraphy by Michael Chapman. Edited by Thelma Schoonmaker. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Budget $18 million. Box office $23. 4 million. Originally released in 1980. Running time 129 minutes.

For a film that garnished a lacklustre boxoffice haul of just $23.4 million off of a budget of $18 million, and mixed reviews at the time, this black and white biopic certainly packs a punch. It went on to become the first film selected into the Library of Congress's National Film Registry for being 'culturally historically, or aesthetically significant'. It was ranked in 2007 by the American Film Institute as the fourth-greatest American movie of all time. Robert De Niro would win an Oscar for Best Actor and Thelma Schoonmaker one for Best Editing. It was nomitated a further six times by the academy and went on to win a further 16 International film awards. Three more of Scorsese's films would go on to be selected for the the National Film Registry including Mean Streets, Taxi Driver and Goodfellas. 

The plot is simplicity itself, it's the biopic of Jake LaMotta, his rise and fall, or knock down, and based on his own autobiography tracking his career from king of the ring to nightclub owner and stand-up comic of sorts.  

What stands out is De Niro's commitment to the role, perhaps no other actor with the exception of Daniel Day Lewis commits so much to a role. In De Niro that commitment saw him pile on a legendary 60 lbs or 27 kg to portray the older post fighting Ray LaMotta. This is not an easy film to watch, it's savage, aggressively so, in fact on its release the sheer violence of the film damaged it with the movie going audience not used to the sort of savagery Scorsese filled his screen with. But it's necessary, Jake was a very violent man inside and outside the ring, he's a man that only ever seemed happy beating another man half to death, his jealousy made him a monster outside the ring and the brutality meted out to his brother, Joey (Joe Pesci) and wife, Vickie (Cathy Moriarty) makes for deeply uncomfortable viewing, but isn't that a good thing? We grow up with films that glorify violence, how many times the noble hero who stabs to death an opponent or shots another with impunity, but when it's on a human level, a domestic one then the violence becomes ugly, and hateful and deeply uncomfortable. Once again, Thelma Schoonmaker's editing is an utter masterclass, as is the cinematography by Michael Chapman, which reminded me of Elephant Man and Eraser Head.  And as always, Scorsese uses music and popular music to powerfully create tension, mood and drama. This truly is a superbly made film and it leaves you emotionally drained. De Niro is mesmerising in the role, his self-made transformation into the bloated LaMotta is genuinely astonishing and you do literally forget you're watching De Niro. Similarly, both Pesci and Moriarty give their roles depth and nuance.

10/10 A profoundly powerful experience.  



 



   

#68: GOODFELLAS

 

STARRING: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino. Screenplay by Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese. Based on Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi. Edited by Thelma Schoonmaker. Budget $25 million. Box office $47.1 million. Originally released 1990. Running time 146 minutes.

God bless Cineworld for showing a short Martin Scorsese season, with eight films in total ranging from King of Comedy, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull to Casino and I intend to see them all except for Shutter Island, which although I enjoyed I don't feel the urge to revisit. This one however, Goodfellas was an absolute no-brainer to see again. It's a film I've watched a dozen or more times since it was first released 36 years ago and I never tire of rewatching it. 

A critical and commercial success, it was deemed 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant' and selected for preservation in the Library of Congress's National Film Registry. Nominated for six academy awards it won one for Best Supporting Actor (Joe Pesci) it would go on to win 28 International film awards. And today it is widely considered to be one of the best films ever made.

Based on the true life story of Henry Hill, the plot told from his point of view of Henry Hill (a career defining Ray Liotta) and narrated too, follows Hill's life from school boy to gangster in the New York Mafia run by Paulie Cicero (Paul Sorvino) along side Tommy Devito (Joe Pesci) and Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro). Spanning several decades as the three lead crimbos work their way up the pole to the top, robbing trucks, clubs, airports and anything else they can, while also manufacturing and selling drugs, and killing if it'll help, there's nothing these wiseguys won't do to make a dishonest buck. 

This is Scorsese firing on all cylinders, or all chambers if you want a gun reference, from the direction, to the performances, the music, the cinematography, the visual look and the astounding three-minutes single-take camera shot of Henry Hill and Karen arriving at the Cococoba Club, this is a film to be savoured like a fine wine, it needs to be viewed on the big screen without interruptions, writ large where it can soar. It is a timeless film that will still seem as fresh in 50 or a 100 years from now. It feels like the flip side of a coin where the other face is The Godfather, this in contrast is the grubby blue-colar world of organised crime, where the only honour exists for as long as money holds out. Where lifelong friendships can be exterminated over a mink coat, but you never grass to the feds, unless you're Henry Hill. It plays a clever trick on the viewer, at first it seems to almost glamourise the lifestyle it presents, an apparent  victimless world with the adage of take what you want with impunity. It's a close knit community among the gangsters they seem to live in each others' pockets offering a family of sorts, gathering for birthdays, weddings and weekend BBQs and while the men conduct their business the wives ignore the truth and live a pampered life. Then slowly as the film progresses and the greed and pursuit of money takes over the veneer and glamour of their world wears off and the ugly truth is revealed and it's genuinely horrifying. And that makes this whole film so gripping, it's a dirty, grubby world and its sheer power is a joy to behold. A film so filled with incident but never feels rushed, you are whisked along with a soundtrack of superb pop music that's matched to the year and ends with The Sex Pistols. 

A stone cold classic. A brilliant, gripping, dramatic and very brutal film filled with incredible acts of cinematic genius and moments of unbelievable savagery. A film worthy of all the praise and adoration and it is in a word, simply magnificent.

10/10