#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  

#67: TAXI DRIVER

 

STARRING: Robert DeNiro, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Cybill Shepherd, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris and Albert Brooks. Written by Paul Schrader. Produced by Michael Phillips and Julia Phillips. Cinematography by Michael Chapman. Music by Bernard Herrmann. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Budget $1.9 million. Original box office take: $29 million. Running time 114 minutes. Originally released in 1976.

I was 13 when this first came out and had to wait until I was 15 before I got to see it in a double bill with Midnight Express. And whereas I enjoyed Midnight Express, I was, very much like Harvey Keitel's character, blown away by Taxi Driver. That said, it's not a film I've rewatched that many times since, it sort of stays with you and so I've probably only seen it once or twice since 1978. So the chance to revisit it up on the big screen as part of Cineworld's Scorsese Season was an opportunity to good to miss. 

The story is nothing that special, it sort of meanders long, a bit like Vietnam vet Travis Bickle's (Robert DeNiro) life as he fills his days and nights driving a taxi, visiting porno cinemas and obsessing about a young woman, Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) whom when she rejects his naive and awkward advances determines to rescue a young teenage prostitute, Iris (Jodie Foster) from her pimp, Sport (Harvey Keitel) in a triumphant display of violence and thereby redeem himself.

My god, what an extraordinary film, it's haunting and intense, DeNiro is an utter revelation his performance is nothing short of astonishing. But then, just singling him out does a massive disservice to everyone associated with this film. It is a remarkable cinematic achievement and one of the greatest films ever made. Starting with the music by Bernard Herrmann, which acts as the film's actual beating heart, it throbs with menace, with a soulful saxaphone and jarring strings. The cinematography captures a lost era of New York City, all dazzling neon reds and yellows of the streets and crumbling decayed interiors of cheap hotels. This is a snapshot of social history whose real life details reward the careful viewer, and the performances from the rest of the cast from Jodie Foster to Harvey Keitel, Cybill Sherherd, Peter Boyle and Albert Brooks is brilliant, Jodie Foster just 12 when she made this shows a maturity and still that staggers belief. Then there's the amazing special effects of a young Dick Smith that help to make the insanely violent ending so realistic.

I utterly loved this film, it has lost not one iota of its power or its majesty. If you get a chance to see this at the cinema do yourself a favour and see it. You will not be disappointed. 

A peerless, note perfect 10/10

Trivia.

• Martins Scorsese has two cameos, the first as a bystander watching Betsy arrive at work and the second as a cuckold husband fantasying about killing his adulterous wife. 
• Two of the films that appear on cinema hoardings in the background are Charles Bronson's Mr. Majestix and Clint Eastwood's The Eiger Sanction. 
• George Lucas named the Emperor Palpatine after Senator Charles Palantine.
• This was Bernard Herrmann's last musical score he died within hours of finishing it.  

#66: THE ODYSSEY

STARRING: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong'o, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, Charlize Theron and John Leguizamo. Based on the poem by Homer. Music by Ludwig Goransson. Written by Christopher Nolan. Directed by Christopher Nolan. Budget $250 million. Running time 173 minutes. 

It's been three years since Nolan unleashed his last movie, Oppenheimer on the world, in fact he seems to release a film every three years. Each one hailed as a masterpiece by the critic-arti and Nolan declared the new Kubrick. He is worshipped and adored and it's considered rude to point out any faults with his films. One can't but admire this approach, apart from the Battyman trilogy, Nolan makes his own IP and like Kubrick before him, he tends to jump from genre to genre making films he wants to make and the studios indulge him. Often on repeated views, unlike Kubrick, his films tend to reveal their faults - laborious ridiculous plotting of Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises, or OVERLY LOUD BOMBASTIC AND IMPOSSIBLE TO LISTEN TO SOUNDTRACKS, woeful sound mix, like Oppenheimer, relentless, non-stop explosion of plotpoints that pummel you into submission, Tenet or ridiculous left turns into stupid-land, like Interstellar. That said he also made the utterly superb Inception, The Prestige, Batman Begins and Memento, so you know swings and roundabouts.

Whatever you think of Nolan you can't fault his vision, drive or ambition. And so it is with this, The Odyssey a project he's been noodling about for the past twenty years since he walked away from the 2004 Brad Pitt movie, Troy.

This is an adaptation of Homer's epic ancient poem The Odyssey and apparently the Emily Wilson translation. The plot follows a non-linear path cutting between Odysseus (Matt Damon) on the worst work outing in history as he and military faction of the Greece Empire turn up in Troy on a pub crawl, while 8 years later, his missus, Penelope (Ann Hathaway) and their son, Telemachus (Tom Holland) fend off the amorous advances of a bunch of randy suitors lead by Antinous (Robert Paterson), while wondering where their husband and father is. Meanwhile, Odysseus, who's been held prisoner by the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron)on a desert island paradise and fed a memory robbing lotus flower, struggles to regain his memory and find his way back to his wife and family before the 'people from the sea' arrive and destroy his world.

This is an extraordinary movie, powerful, satisfying, and adult, brilliantly acted by all, especially Matt Damon who is exceptional in the lead role. Nolan directs with consummate skill and the soundtrack by Ludwig Goransson helps to build drama and tension with genuine skill. Similarly the cinematography and production design are top notch. At its core a deeply engrossing story, with action that is brutal, savage and intense, and featuring seamless special effects, as witnessed by Nolan's version of the cyclops which is exceedingly clever in its design and practical execution, indeed  the sequence with Odysseus and his men trapped in the cyclops's cave was one of the highlights and also surprisingly frightening. Similarly there's a fight in a forest with an army of silent giants that just makes you tense up in alarm. And the attack on Troy really conveyed the true horror of war and the commentary from Odysseus, "I opened the gate and unleashed ten years of hate." really hit home. God, I can't fault this film, it was so engrossing, so satisfying and so complete. And that's before we get to the scene with Samantha Morton that took this to a whole other level.

There's a sequence late in the film where Odysseus realises the true extent of what he has unleashed and the enormity of his actions and the impact it will have on his world. It's powerful and deeply emotional and it left me a little dazed. In fact it makes you wonder if the whole film isn't just the fever dream of someone suffering from PTSD.

It's deeply refreshing that Hollywood is still producing films as unique as this one and I think it's the first Nolan film I've seen which doesn't scream 'Kubrick' at me and this also feels the most grounded and personal of all his films, indeed it might be my favourite of his. I look forward to seeing this again and possibly again on the big screen.

My only criticism is the use of the word, 'dad'. Telemachus uses it all the time and I found it oddly jarring, it feels too 20th Century. But that's as far as it goes for negatives. 

At the end of the day I say see it on the biggest screen you can find and loose yourself in a tale as old as time. 10/10 

#65: THE MARTIAN

STARRING: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kata Mara, Jeff Daniels, Chitwetel Ejiofor, Kirsten Wiig, Sean Bean and Michael Pena, Kate Mara, Sean Bean, Sebastian Sean, Donald Glover, Benedict Wung, Mackenzie Davis and Aksel Hennie. Written by Drew Goddard. Based on The Martian by Andy Weir. Cinematography by Dariusz Wolski. Directed by Ridley Scott. Budget $108 million. Originally released in 2015. Original box office haul $630 million. 141 minutes long. 

(I saw this at the cinema 11 years ago, back then I wrote the following review. let's see how I fee about it now.)

30 days into a mission to Mars, poor old astronaut and botanist, Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is accidentally marooned and left for dead following a violent Martian storm, while his crew mates piss off home. What follows is Mark's battle to survive for four years with just enough food for 50 odd days, while NASA fight to bring him home any way they can. And that's the story in a nutshell, or should that be space helmet?

And what a fantastic story this is, by god, the time just flew by, seriously I had no idea this film ran for 2 hours and twenty minutes, I was so engrossed that I would have been just as happy if it had been on for another 2 hours. It's beautiful to look at, gripping, enthralling and uplifting. I have to say that despite enjoying Gravity greatly, I was left a little flat by it, not so with The Martian. This is just fantastic from beginning to end and I utterly loved every single second!

Also, huge kudos to Ridley Scott who just directs the shit out of this film! No one does science fiction like him, it looks so real it's staggering!

Go and see it and enjoy.

10/10 

2026 revisit.

Nope, can't find a single goddam thing to change about the above review. I've seen this at least six times since it was first released, it's become a feelgood Sunday movie and I've already seen it this year at home. But back on the big screen, this just comes to life, it sings, it soars, it's an utter delight. Visually breath-taking, Old Ridders, as he likes to be called, sure can mount a damn fine little movie. And a huge big up to Matt Damon who just nails this perfectly. It still brings a tear to the eye! It's such a deeply satisfying watch, all the performances mell together, the story is gripping and the building tension is wonderful.

Just do yourself a favour and go and see it, seriously it's a sheer delight. 

STILL 10/10

 

#64: MINIONS & MONSTERS

STARRING, VOCALLY: Pierre Coffin, Trey Paker, Christoph Waltz, Allison Janney, Jesse Eisenberg, Jeff Bridges, Zoey Deutch, Bobby Moynihan and Phil LaMarr. Written by Brian Lynch and Pierre Coffin. Directed by Pierre Coffin. Budget $85 million. Running time 90 minutes. 

The 3rd Minions entry in the prequel category and the 7th in the Despicable Me franchise finds a group of Minions searching the globe for a evil genius for whom they can minion for who end up in Hollywood of the 1920s and the advent of sound, there, through a ludicrous set of circumstances, they find themselves the toast of Hollywood and making of movie of their own. And naturally because this is the Minions, they accidentally summon up Cthulu, and his girlfriend, Irene -a multi-eyed orange blob, thwart an alien invasion and inadvertently create the greatest monster film of all times. And if that doesn't make you drop whatever it is you're doing and race down to your local cinema to watch this, then take it from me, you're dead inside.

O.M.G. hands down the funniest animated film I've seen all year. A huge 90 minute love letter to the bygone era of silent cinema, black and white movies, and the legends of yesteryear, with nods to Orson Welles, Bruce Lee, Universal's The Mummy, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and so many more I couldn't keep count. Plus an hilarious cameo from George Lucas. The opening 20 minutes are pure genius. Sadly the film can't keep the sheer momentum going and the need for a romantic subplot and an alien invasion robs this of a perfect 10/10.

That said, I can't fault this, it looks superb, and better than that it looks like it's own thing, it's not a Pixar rip off, the world of Illumination is quite unique and different from it's American counterpart, and I would say that they've found a visual style that easily outdoes Pixar's recent Toy Story 5 and Hoppers. Illumantion's character design is fantastic, and the whole visual look of this is perfection. There are so many visual gags and jokes that you'll want to watch this a second time just so you can check out all the shop names, movie titles and references that litter the backgrounds. Plus an hilarious Citizen Kane reference that's bound to get all the ankle biters cheering.

And above all that, it's the sheer energy, fun and delight that power the Minions films and this one, in my humble opinion, is the best of the bunch. I've not laughed this much at a kid's animated film in years, maybe decades and as a cinema and film lover this utterly delighted me!

A resounding, glorious, heart-felt 9/10!