#57: CONFESS, FLETCH

 

Starring Jon Hammm Lorenza Izzo, Marcia Gay Harden, Kyle MacLachlan, Roy Wood Jr. John Slattery, Ayden Mayeri and Annie Mumolo. Screenplay by Zev Borow and Greg Mottola, based on the Fletch books by Gregory Mcdonald. Directed by Greg Mottola. Music by David Arnold. Budget $21 million, running time 98 minutes.

The great thing about the success of Knives Out and to a much lesser extent those two woeful Poirot films is that once again light-hearted crime capers and murder mysteries are back in vogue with Hollywood. 

Confess, Fletch sees the return of the amateur sleuth and criminal investigator, Fletch in his first film since Fletch Lives in 1989, which itself was a sequel to the first Fletch film, Fletch in 1985 both of which starred Chevy Chase.

This time it's Jon Hamm in the title role bringing a huge dollop of charisma to the role of the sleuth as he's caught up in a kidnapping, murder and a missing Picasso, which sees him framed for murder. So laid back, he's almost horizontal, Hamm makes this Fletch far more likeable than Chase's version, and wisely dumps the multiple disguise shtick of his predecessor, along with the comedic styling of Chase and his character's rather creepy obsessive flirting. Instead we get a Fletch more mellow, relatable, and not as unpleasant.

With a great supporting cast to back him up, from Fletch's Italian girlfriend, Lorenzo Izzo, to Roy Wood Jr and Ayden Mayeri as detectives convinced of Fletch's guilt, to a next-door-neighbour as played by Annie Mumolo, and Fletch's old boss, John Slattery, all there bring a wealth of levity, although this is Hamm's film to carry or drop and it's pleasing to report that this is a thoroughly funny and entertaining little flick that quite wisely doesn't outstay its welcome, coming in at a deeply satisfying 98 minutes. What we get is a complicated whodunnit that keeps you guessing as to what the hell is going on. With lovely locations, an energetic soundtrack and a terrific cast this is an enjoyable film, which sadly loses its way in the final act but luckily not enough to derail it, and there's a somewhat casual and flippant attitude to the murder victim, which under minds proceedings a little. 

Still it's a witty and fun film and I hope we'll see more of Hamm's Fletch.

8/10

#56: LIVING

 

Starring Bill Nighy, Aimee Lou Wood, Alex Sharp, Tom Bruke, Adrian Rawlins, Oliver Chris, Michael Cochrane, Zoe Boyle, LIa Williams, Patsy Ferran and Nichola McAuliffe. Based on the Akira Kurosawa movie Ikiru. Screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro. Directed by Oliver Hermanus. Music by Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch. Running time 102 minutes.

The plot isn't what's important in this wonderful and deeply moving movie, it concerns Mr. Williams (Bill Nighy), a late-middle-aged civil servant and widow who discovers he only has six to nine months to live and sets out to live a little before he dies. This he does not in a wacky sex, alcohol or drug filled orgy of excess or through a series of Hollywood-style bucket-list type comedic japes but rather with humility and dignity, as he sets out to get planning permission approved on a small playground in a run down area of town.   

Set in a 1953 London, that's not been ethnically homogenised like the similarly set but utterly woeful Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, Instead, Living just presents London as it was, not ethnically diverse, not a glorious melting pot of culture, nor a bingo card of diversity, and leaves it at that, rather it explores the nature of class system in the post war era of the UK, and focuses on a world repressed by unspoken rules and standards, where a young man, new to the world of work, waits his turn to speak to their elders and betters, and the gossip of prim housewives can have a devastating impact on those not conforming to social norms. As a result you're gifted with a simply wonderfully moving and emotional film that doesn't attempt to push your buttons or exploit you with mawkish sentimentality. Nighy plays a prim and proper man, who realises his childhood dreams of being a gentleman has robbed him of a chance to live. 

Bill Nighy is brilliant in the lead role and carries the film with grace and consummate skill. The dignity and humanity he brings to his role is exceptional. And the rest of the cast are likewise a delight, Aimee Lou Wood plays Miss Harris whom sparks in Williams an urge to live, and provides him an opportunity for a deeply moving speech where he explains his motives in befriending her. Similarly the other buttoned up men in his life, his son and office staff are also changed by Williams's final days. But this isn't a film where the hero stands on a desk and delivers a moving speech to rally those around him, rather it's the study of a truly gentle man who strives to leave his mark just one time before it's too late.  

The film shows us the impact his buttoned up life has on those he works with, as well as his son and daughter-in-law who all know nothing about the real Mr. Williams.

 
Set in and around County Hall and some brilliantly sourced locations, the film also uses some amazing vintage footage of London to great effect to bring 1950's London to vivid life.

A total delight and joy. 9/10

#55: BLACK PANTHER: WANKAS FOREVER

 

Starring: Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Florence Kasumba, Dominique Thoren, Michaela Coel, Tenoch Huerta, Marting Freeman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Angela Bassett. Written by Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole. Directed by Ryan Coogler. Running time ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY ONE MINUTES! Budget $250 million dollars. 

T'Challa, King of Wakanda is dead and the 'erb that gave him his superhuman power is gone, the super-secret nation state of Wakanda is in mourning and the world wants its' hands on the Vibranium. Luckily a new source of it is discovered at the bottom of the sea. Unluckily, there's this mutant called Namor who uses it to power his super-secret underwater nationstate of Talokan and he doesn't want the upstairs people (us) to have it.

Gotta say, right off the bat that if these two incredibly selfish and greedy super-secret nation states shared the vibranium with the rest of the world, then we'd all be living in an utopia, but oh no. These two wanka nations just want it for themselves. Hence the subtitle of this movie. Wankas Forever. Greedy bastards. 

Anyway, when Namor finds out a young, sassy, wise-ass-talking teenage girl from up there (us) has built  device to find vibranium and located his source of totally unguarded Vibranium just lying about in the open, at the bottom of the sea, he throws a hissy fit and threatens to kill everybody in Wanka unless they bring the girl to him. 

Queue a long and rather tedious adventure that sees people abducted to propel the plot, repeatedly, that's when they're not acting like arseholes to each other, which is all of the time, or spending an insane amount of time just moping about talking about their feelings, and dealing with grief for about ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY MINUTES, leaving just 30 minutes for any, you know, action. And when after about ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY MINUTES Black Panther 2 finally turns up for the big old fight with Namor, you sort of wave your hands in a hooray kind of way. Shame it's not really worth waiting for. The fight has no stakes, no drama and no tension, just you know bloodless stabbing and slashing with knives, swords and spears, but at least there's no spinning vortex of doom, and the fights take place in broad day light.

Also, for a race apparently insanely smart, the Wankandas sure are idiots when it comes to military strategy. I mean, seriously? You're going to attack a race of underwater people from a really large boat in the middle of the ocean, where the race of underwater people get their power from, you know water. The blue stuff that covers the Earth and where Namor's bunch of grumps live. Yeah, smart move brainiacs. Why not lure them on land. 

Most of the film, I'd say a good 95% of its running time is spent waiting for Letitia Wright put on the new Black Panther suit and when it finally happens you're sort of left deeply underwhelmed by it. I wish these movies would lose the trope of having heroes not wanting to put on the mask. It's been done to death. 

However before then there's lots of earnest discussions about honour, responsibility, grief, family, and oodles of emotion, which really helps to fill out the ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY ONE MINUTES.

I find the whole idea behind Wanka really annoying. What a selfish bunch of tossers, hiding away from the world and acting like their shit don't stink. The Western world are presented here as a useless bunch of greedy tossers and only the Wankas and Tapioca people are worthy of respect or our time.

And yet another MCU superhero movie where none of the other heroes are featured or mentioned, nor is the dead Eternal sticking out of the Earth is talked about. Added to that is yet another genius tech wizard creating Iron Man suits from literal balls of string and sticky back plastic and you have a Marvel cash-cow movie just created to suck as much filthy lucre from a gullible audience as it can.

I found the whole film dull and tedious to be honest. Doubt I'll ever watch it again. Nothing worth going back for. But it's not all bad news, at least it's not as bad or dull as The Eternals, but it's pretty damn close race. 

Not as bad as a DCU movie or Morbius, or Venom, although this is still a rather dull, boring and dreary plod of a movie and it does elevate mopping to truly gargantuan  proportions. A film more interested in lionising, nay deifying Chadwick Boseman than in actually having an interesting or exciting story to tell.  6/10