#83: IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

Starring James Stewart, Donnna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, henry Travers, Beulah Bondi, Ward Bond, Frank Faylen and Gloria Grahame. Written by Fracnes Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Frank Capra and Joe Swerling. Directed by Frank Capra. Budget $3.5 million. Running time 131 minutes. Originally released in 1946.

A one word review - Wonderful!

Just wonderful. Beautifully written, great direction and a superb performance by James Stewart. I just love this film. It's one of my five favourite Christmas movies along with A Christmas Story, Scrooge (1951) and Bad Santa and Die Hard.

Produced and directed by Frank Capra, it always amazes me to realise that on its release this film flopped, and only became a Christmas staple when first shown on American TVs in the 50s.

Seeing this restored version of IAWL on the big screen means you get to see things you probably missed if you've only watched it on a TV, count how many rooms the drawing of George lassoing the moon turns up for example, or better yet see if you can spot the newspaper headline declaring that 'Mr. Smith has won a nomination to go to Washington'.

Stewart is simply brilliant as George Bailey, the richest man in town. He portrays Bailey from the age of approximately late teens to late 40s and without the need for elaborate make up. He is the prototype Tom Hanks and it's on his performance that the whole film swings. That's to take nothing away from the supporting cast, lead by the Donna Reed, who all give this film its huge heart and character.

The story sees George Bailey, a man who sacrifices his own dreams and ambitions for the greater good of Bedford Falls, who when, through no fault of his own, faces financial ruin and imprisonment decides to kill himself. He is saved by a trainee angel who grants him his wish of never having been born and discovers just how much his life has touched the lives of so many others. The film takes its time, building its back story, not just of George's, but his fellow Bedford Falls inhabitants. Watching George grow from young boy to manhood is a delight and it makes his subsequent fall that much more emotional. His desperation as he runs through town towards the bridge and his date with destiny is deeply powerful, he at that point is a man who has lost, or so he thinks lost everything. The sequence where he finds out just how many lives he's touched is profoundly moving and never fails to make me well up.

For a film that's nearly 75 years old to be this captivating, this engrossing and this magical is a pure triumph. As a callow art school youth I scoffed at this and Singing in the Rain, believing them to be old and fuddy-duddy, despite the fact I'd never actually watched them. And in both cases I stumbled across them whilst watching tv, I came in half-way through in both cases and was captivated by both and I love them to this day.

This film lifts my spirit and makes me feel deeply moved and I bloody love it without reserve.

The perfect Christmas movie and one of my actual Top Ten Movies of all times.

10/10 

#82: AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH

STARRING: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet, Jack Champion, Oona Chaplin, Jermaine Clement, Giovanni Ribisi, David Thewlis and Britain Dalton, plus loads more, too many to mention. Screenplay by James Cameron, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, produced by James Cameron and Jon Landau, directed by James Cameron. Budget $400 million. Running time 197 minutes long. 

it's been three years since the last one of these, but Cameron's not giving us a recap, no siree it's straight into action with this one, no messing about. And so begins the third installment of James P.'Sully' Sullivan's adventures on Pandora, a big planet full of giant blue humanoids called the Na'vi in a galaxy far far away, but very much in the future. James used to be human, well he was in the first film. In that he was the twin brother of bloke who died and James was hired to 'drive' his giant blue avatar for a mining corporation run by Giovanni Ribisi who were mining for Unobtainium. In the second film it was the spinal fluid of giant whales and so it is in this one. In the first film Sully lead a revoltion that saw the humans kicked off planet. In the second one the humans came back, bigger, badder and more weaponed up. And in this one they're even more bigger, badder and weaponed up. This time, they ain't taking prisoners or shit off anyone, least of all Sully, his extended family and all the peace and environment loving sea-side people of Panty Doreen. And once again it's Sully mother-fucking useless family of idiotic children who are running the show, mainly by keep getting abducted by Stephen Lang's big blue baddy. So Sully goes off with a bunch of the Na'vi who fly enslaved gas filled sentient balloon, that is until a branch of Na'vis called the MonkeyWang Tribe, lead by a very angry red faced Na'vi played by Oona Chaplin, who kill everybody. Then there's a series of big action set pieces interspersed by Sully's children not doing what they're told so as to endanger themselves and the vast tribe of people, so then Sully has to get himself captured to elicit their rescue before the dastardly humans mount an enormous attack on the big whale things and Sully, and his deeply annoying family rally everyone round for one mother-fucking battle to end all battles. Into that massive plot boiling pot add the relationship between Spider - the human kid living with the Na' vi and his dad played Stephen Lang, then there's Sigourney Weaver's clone Na' vi to deal with, oh and the slow deterioration of Sully and his wife's marriage, her almost uncontrollable racism aimed at Spider and humans. Look there's lots of secondary guff to deal with ontop of all the action, and shit. There's also a fantastic rescue mission that ranks right up there with Return of the Jedi in its staggering stupid complexity, when three completely separate parties all simultaneously attempt to rescue Sully on the eve of his public execution. And Cameron, so enamoured with this idea does the exact same thing later on when three completely separate parties all simultaneously attempt to rescue another character in a rapidly sinking battleship (something the keen eyed among you might remember from the last Avatar outing). Actually there's quite a lot of call backs to the last film in terms of plot points and motivations.

Anyway, the story is pretty dreary to be honest, it's stupid and only works because it requires stupid people to do stupid things to make the whole stupid plot work. And yet at its core there are some very interesting dynamics taking place, mostly involving Stephen Lang and his estranged son, which sadly never get completely or satisfactorily explored. Oona Chaplins villainess character is the MVP in this whole bloated affair, giving us a truly red-blooded villain to root for, and boy did I root for her. I might be alone but I really wanted her to win. I'm frankly sick to death with Sully and his whole sodding family, a bunch of whiney bitches to a T, that is when they're not moping around endangering everyone with their stupid decisions. 

I was also struck by just how callous the Na'vi are to their enslaved animal livestock, several times those glorious winged creatures are just left to die, you know those creatures the Na'vi mindmeld with through their hideous rat-tails. it seems that once they're of no more use the Na'vi are quite content to leave them to die pierced by multiple arrows. There's also a bewildering sequence where a poor floating creature, which is harnessed to a rapidly burning sentient balloon is left to die horribly, rather than be rescued by one of the Sully's children.

Anyway, as with the previous films the plot and story is lamentable, too much reliance of co-incidence and idiotic behaviour, but the visuals are another matter all together. Frankly the sheer visual excellence of this cannot be over stressed, it is truly breathtaking that this whole world(s) exist only in a computer and built with pixels. But the trouble is, third time round and the wonder and awe are such a given that you forget. Also, give the 3D a miss, fucking waste of time. Just watch it in 2D on the biggest screen you can. Also, as wonderful as these effects are, they don'e dazzle and amaze as they had done, it just seems par for the course now. 

Can't say I hated this, can't say I loved it. Once again I was awed by the sheer spectacle and somewhat bored by the story. The final battle is incredible but the lack of a satisfying conclusion was deeply annoying. Three characters disappear completely and the question of the humans remains utterly unanswered. I was kinda hoping this would be the end of the three film saga and that the rumoured 4th and 5th parts might be something new, but no, I'm guessing we're going to have to conclude this one properly. 

Visually a masterpiece worthy of a 10/10, but plot and story warrant only a paltry 3 giving this an aggregate score of 6/10  

 

#81: ELLA MCCAY

 

STARRING: Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis Jack Lowden, Kumail Nanjiani, Ayo Edebiri, Spike Fearn, Julie Kavner, Rebecca Hall, Woody Harrelson and James L. Brooks. Produced, written and directed by James L. Brooks, theme tune sung by James L. Brooks. Budget $35 million. Running time 115 minutes. 

So each minute of this film cost $304,347 and 83 cents to make. If I were the backers I'd be asking for an itemised receipt. 

It's 2008 and 34-year old Ella McCay (Emma Mackey) a fiesty, enthusiastic, sharp as a tack, bright as a spark lieutenant governor of an unnamed state somewhere in those wonderful United States of America, and of no particular political affiliation,  one day becomes acting Governor when her boss, Governor Bill Moore (Albert L. Brooks) gets promoted to the White House Cabinet and resigns. He warns her that she has just 14 months until the election and to make the most of it. Ella, it turns out, is a dreamer and amazingly has a dream of passing a wonderful bill aimed at mothers and babies and the film charts her spectacular three-day rise and fall. Along the way we flashback to the break up of her parents (Rebecca Hall and Woody Harrelson), meet her surrogate mother and actual aunt, Hellen (Jamie Lee Curtis), her feckless husband Ryan Newell (Jack Lowden), her acrophobic and on the spectrum brother, Casey (Spike Fearn) and her octogenarian personal secretary Estelle (Julie Kavner).

This is one of those films where every man, be it Ella's father, brother, husband or boss are if not total shits, then very close to the edge shits, with only her ex-boss (James L. Brooks) showing even the vaguest of hints of being a decent person. 

With a great cast and hmm, great locations, and a not half bad premise this certainly on paper seemed like a good bet, but the proof is in the eating and this eats like a rancid apple pie, sickly sweet and limp. The problem is there's too much happening and no time is spent getting to know Ella before another middling disaster rears its ugly head, we're told she's liked but hated because she cares too much and her speeches are too long. She's dealing with a father whose extramarital activities ultimately lead to the death of her mother and estranged them, her brother is a shut-in with enough emotional baggage to sink a ship, and her husband, who at first seems like a loyal and supportive kinda of a chap soon turns out to be the absolute worst and the main villain of the piece, as he tries to secure power for himself off his wife's relentless work, and if that means lying, cheating and framing her, so much the better. It's no wonder Ella's aunt warned her he was a ticking timebomb.  

There's just so much going on here that you can never really get a handle on it, it moves like Dominic Toretto and its sickly sweet core begins to grate well before the ending finally skids into view. It's the sort of film that if made in the 1940s and starring Donna Reed, or Betty Davis would have been a charming, scatty screwball comedy, but in the hands of the usually dependable James L. Brooks, is reduced to a rather boring and instantly forgettable romcom without any rom and defo no com. 

Hats off to Jamie Lee Curtis, who delivers a solid performance and a sad pat on the back to Woody Harrelson who is soundly missused in this. The trailer made this out to be a witty, funny comedy about complicated lives. But in the end it's already, blissfully, slipping from my memory. 

4/10    

#80: THE SHINING

                    

STARRING: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson, Joe Turkel, Philip Stone and Lisa & Louise Burns. Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson. Cinematography John Alcott, music by Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Budget $19 million. Running time 143 minutes. Originally released in October 1980.

A wannabe writer, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) accepts a five-month job as the out-of-season winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel situated deep in mountains of Colorado. There he takes his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and their son Danny 'Doc' (Danny Lloyd), Jack's looking forward to working on his great American novel (once he can think of something to write about), Wendy's looking to spend quality time with her family and trying to keep her husband's barely concealed rage in check, and little Danny just wants to eat P&J white-bread-sandwiches, watch cartoons and play with his firetruck. The last thing he wants is to be chased round a giant hotel by an axe-weilding maniac who just so happens to be his dad. However, shit gets real when they become snowbound and Jack promptly goes mad. Whether it's the isolation, the hotel's ghostly inhabitants, or his deeply annoying family who drive him there is anyone's guess, although my money's on wife and kid, no one wants that sort of emotional anchor when you're trying to be creative. They just drag you down!

This marks the film's 45th anniversary, although time has not dulled it one iota, it still looks mostly as fresh today as it did back then, only the costumes looks a tad outta wack.

This one surely polarises people who've seen it, me I fucking love it. Frankly it's one of the most unsettling and uncomfortable films I've ever seen, and god knows I've seen it a lot. This time round it's the full-length version, all 143 minutes, which I've only ever seen on Blu Ray. So it's sudden arrival at my Cineworld made for the best pre-Christmas gift E-VER!

There's been a lot written about this film, about its deeper hidden meaning, it's social interpretations and the such and it's staggering just how much utter guff has been written about it, from theories claiming it an 'allegory of American imperialism.' that it addresses 'topics of toxic masculinity, sexism, corporate America and racism', some read it as an 'Oedipal struggle not just between generations but between Jack's culture of the written word and Danny's culture of images' while other talk about it being a 'metaphor for the genocide of Native Americans', or that it contains a subtext about the holocaust. None of this is true, those elements people claim were always there, but just not labeled, Jack is clearly a wife abuser and we know he physically abused his son, but that doesn't make this film a study of toxic masculinity or sexism, it's just who Jack is. 

I once went to a Fortean Times Convention back in the 1990s and remember a talk by a small group of people who had tracked a hidden network of leylines between standing stones that crisscrossed the United Kingdom and I realised that if you want to find evidence of something you believe in you will. The Shining is the perfect example of that, because it allows every crackpot out there to 'discover' the truth or hidden agenda in the film, and it does that by being extraordinary empty to such an extent that people need to fill the voids. Kubrick isn't interested in all that, he set out to make the best horror film ever made and he did. In the same way he set out to make the best science fiction film of all times in 2001: A Space Odyssey. In The Shining it's clear that he sat down and deconstructed the horror film, learning all it's tropes and tricks, then threw them out and started from scratch. And in doing so he made one of the scariest films of all times. It's a film that's lost none of its power. 

He focused on a small group of characters trapped in a single location, a classic horror trope, and in the Overlook hotel Kubrick created not only a location that seems alive. Those miles of corridor, the cavernous ballrooms, the blood red bathrooms, the tapestries, the carpets, the rugs, the bizarre geometry the Overlook feels and looks so alive you'd want to visit in the real life. 

Added to that is the otherworldliness of the story, is Jack bedevilled by supernatural powers or by mental breakdown? I believe it's the former, although the later is needed for it to work. And that last slow shot into the photo of the 1921 Independence party with Jack front and centre, which some theories claim means that Jack is original Grady, once again I don't, all I think it means is that Jack has now become apart of the Overlook, lost in some distant past awaiting his opportunity to serve his master.

To add more tension, he had a music landscape created by Wendy Carlos that is deeply unsettling, it just helps to up the tension and the paranoia, the whole film is designed to get under your skin, the sharp sound effects, the roar of the Danny's bike's wheels across rug and floor, the silence of the slumbering hotel, coupled with unsettling flashes of the supernatural, the wall of blood the haunting "Hello Danny, come and play with us." all it helps to build an overwhelming sense of jeopardy and impending disaster. And at its centre Jack Nicholson's Jack Torrance. Watching him come apart at the seams is a masterclass in acting and I don't think Nicholson has ever been more handsome or more terrifying. 

As to the film's true meaning, that's simple.

It's a film about writer's block. Jack is one of those wannabe writers, he'll tell anyone he meets he's an 'author', it's probably what bagged him Wendy back in the first place. But truth is, he's not a writer he just dreams of being one. His home in Boulder is strewn with thin paper backs, westerns, and the kind scattered randomly around the apartment, but the thing is these aren't the books of a true writer, just a failed one or a wannabe. One who spends more time telling everyone who'll listen that he's a writer, that he's just waiting for the right time to write, and so when the Overlook job comes up he deludes himself into thinking this is the answer to his prayers, the perfect opportunity to write and off he goes. Trouble is once he's there he has no more excuses as to why he's not writing. Wendy asks him how's it going and he says he's been thinking about a couple of ideas but nothing working just yet. Once again, bullshit! He's run out of excuses as to why he's not writing. Truth is he can't, he was never a writer, he was someone who loved the idea of it, but not the hard work. When he's sat at that goddam typewriter with the blank sheet of paper he's utterly lost and to keep his wife off the scent he starts typing, probably as a joke at first, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." In his head, he's doing this until the 'story' arrives, trouble is it never will. And finally when his deceit is discovered he lashes out at his family blaming them for his inability. And that's my take on The Shining. All that other stuff about ghosts and spirits, that's just all his rejected ideas that he couldn't make work.

Anyway, enough guff. the score as if you needed telling is without a doubt.

10/10

#79 FACKHAM HALL

 

STARRING: Thomasin McKenzie, Ben Radcliffe, Katherine Waterston, Emma Laird, Tom Goodman-Hill, Anna Maxwell Martin, Sue Johnston, Tom Felton and Damian Lewis. Written by Steve Dawson, Andrew Dawson, Tim Inman, Jimmy Carr and Patrick Carr. Directed by Jim O'Hanlon. Running time 97 minutes.

It's all happening at Fackham Hall, the inbred toffs upstairs are dimmer than 40 watt lightbulbs, the staff downstairs aren't that much better. There's stupid gags aplenty and an endless stream of sight gags, the jokes, japes and puns that come thicker than custard and at such a rate that if one doesn't land, then don't worry there'll be another along in the minute. 

One thing's for certain, it's not big, it's not clever and it most certainly isn't sophisticated. Parodying Downtown Abby, Bridesend Revisited, Upstairs, Downstairs and the Forthsyth Saga this is a silly enough romp. It made me laugh, along with my daughter and wife, but not so my Woke Princess son who sat stony faced throughout it all, head in hand, boy was he not impressed. He starred at me at the conclusion of the film with a look akin to deep and unhappy  disappointment. This sort of humor is most certainly not for whatever generation those born in 2003 are. But for those amongst you who like the comedy stylings of Jimmy Carr then be prepared to have an amusing night out. 

6/10

#78: DIE HARD

Starring Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia. Written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza. Directed by John McTiernan. Budget $35 million. Running time 132 minutes. Originally released in 1988.

New York cop, John McClane (Bruce Willis) arrives in Los Angeles on the literal eve of Christmas to spend the holidays with his estranged wife, Holly (Bonne Bedelia) and young family. Chauffeured to the Nakatomi building, McClane arrives in the middle of a joint Christmas/business celebration only to become right man in the wrong place and time when an army of highly deadly and well equipped Euro-trash terrorists, lead by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) hi-jack the office Christmas Party as a cover for stealing 600 million dollars worth of bearer bonds, not realising that one of the guests is actually a NYPD cop...

What follows is a masterclass in action cinema, and quite frankly one of the best action films ever filmed, it's certainly in my top ten all time favourite films.

It's the film that made and established Bruce Willis, introduced the world to Alan Rickman and cemented John McTiernan as one of the best action directors. it also changed the shape of action films and created a template that's still in use to this day. The imagined conversation in Hollywood about pitching a film to a producer, "so, what's it about?' And the writer firing back, "It's Die Hard on a boat!". It's become a part of the cinematic lexicon.

I've always loved this movie, and last saw it on the big screen back in 2023, oddly enough I saw it back then with It's a Wonderful Life, which is the next film I saw. Seeing 'it', Die Hard on the big screen again is always a delightful experience, films need to be seen on the big screen, where you lose yourself in the experience in a way you don't at home. You seen things you miss on a small screen. Willis cared back then and it shows, Rickman is simply superb in his breakout role as the leader of the gang of ex-terrorists, Hans Gruber and the movie gave Robert Davi a brief golden period in his career, leading to the role of the villain, Franz Sanchez, in the Bond film Licence to Kill.

This is a glorious action film that has no need for shaky cam or frenzied editing to convey drama, it's got an endlessly quotable script and it's well plotted and has no flabby centre, the way it sets up the scenario and introduces the villains is a masterclass in plotting. That coupled with good practical effects, some nifty compositing and a 15 cert for bloody violence, plus bare breasts makes it one of my top ten favourite films!

10/10 Quiz time. 1. How many 'terrorists' survive the attack? 2. Several other action actors and characters are referenced by John McClane, how many and who? 3. What day does 'Die Hard' take place on? 4. How many years has McClane been a NYPD cop?

#77: ETERNITY

STARRING by Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen, Callum Turner, John Early, Olga Merediz and Da'Vine Joy Randolph. Written by Pat Cunnane and David Freyne. Directed by David Freyne. Budget $8 million.  Running time 114 mintues.

80-something couple Joan Cutler (Betty Buckley) and her husband of 63years are attending a gender reveal party when Larry Cutler (Barry Primus) chokes to death on a pretzel and wakes up as Miles Teller in the afterlife. There he's asked to choose which eternity he'd like to have and the choice is limitless, Broland, Winecountry, or even Beachworld to name a few, but instead and much to the chargin of his Afterlife Coordinator, Anna (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) Larry refuses to choose announcing he's going to wait for his wife, Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) to arrive. Luckily a week later she passes away too and they're reunited. And then Joan's first husband, Luke (Callum Turner) a Naval pilot who died in the Korean war walks up, it turns out that he too has been waiting for 67 years for her to arrive and Joan finds herself in an impossible dilemma, which man will she choose to spend eternity with, or does she wish to go it alone? However there is a fly in the ointment. Once an Eternity has been choosen, you can never leave it, if you do you'll be hunted down like Logan's Run and exiled into the void. SO, choose wisely...

And that's the plot. What follows is an utterly glorious and wonderful romantic comedy that will have you laughing and crying in equal measure, it feels like a classic Hollywood Screwball Comedy, or those comedies that used to star Doris Day and Rock Hudson. The script is witty, and funny, fast paced and romantic, it explores not just the relationship between Joan and her two husbands, but also the growing relationship between the two husbands and also the relationship between the two Afterlife Coordinators assigned to cases, Anna and Ryan (John Early). Added to the mix is Karen (Olga Merediz) the life-long friend of Joan who knew both men. 

The production design is superb, the portrayal of the afterlife, seen as a infinity-sized railway arrival hall sat side-by-side with to a huge trade convention offering afterlife opportunities, is great and packed full of wonderful sight gags. The tone is upbeat and light but that never drowns the emotional core. This is a film that explores love and relationships and it's a real treat. But this isn't all fluff, there's a visit to the memory archive, where people can relive their lives, that offers a sombre note to the proceedings. 

This felt like a throw-back to a bygone time, the script never preaches, there's no hidden agenda or messaging trying to piggyback the ride, just the story of a woman trying to choose which husband to spend an eternity with. It's witty, funny, clever and utterly enjoyable and the running time of 114 minutes flew by. Catch it before it's lost for all eternity. 

9/10

I have this theory that Hollywood like to replace old movie stars with new, Brad Pitt was the new Robert Redford, Arnie was Victor Mature, Mel Gibson the new Rod Taylor and after this I can announce that Miles Teller is the new Rock Hudson.

#76: KILL BILL THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR

 

STARRING: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, Sonny Chiba, Julie Dreyfus, Chiaki Kuriyama, Gordon Liu, Michael Parks and David Carradine. Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Budget $60 million. Running time 275 minutes, or four and a half hours.

Heavily pregnant assassin and the 'most dangerous woman in the world' Beatrix 'The Bride' Kiddo aka Black Mamba (Uma Thurman) is beaten half-to-death, shot in the head and left for dead during her wedding dress rehearsal by members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (of which she was a member) and her mentor and lover the eponymous Bill (David Carradine). Four years later she awakens from a coma to find herself robbed of the child she was carrying and embarks on a bloody trail of revenge against the two men and four women who tried to kill her. The film told in chapters and chronologically out of order charts her battles against O-Ren Ishii- Cottonmouth (Lucy Liu), Vernita Green - Copperhead (Vicica A. Fox), Ellie Driver - California Mountain Snake (Daryl Hannah) and Budd - Sidwinder (Michael Madsen) until the final showdown with Bill himself. 

What follows is 275 minutes of pure cinematic genius, a glorious movie, one that now presented as a whole and not as two films released a year apart is a note perfect triumph, made by one of the last great auteurs of the cinema, Quentin Tarantino.

Originally released back in 2003 for Kill Bill films and 2004 for the second part, it's only now as a whole that Tarantino's vision can be experienced as he truly intended and what an astonishing visual feast it is! Seeing both together elevates both films to something close to perfection. The original Kill Bill was hailed by all, while the second film felt flat in comparison. Seen now as a whole,  slightly tweaked, with added sequences, an extended anime interlude and the original 'cliffhanger' removed, the journey of The Bride becomes an utterly absorbing experience, and the 275 minutes seemed to fly by, I found myself grinning for the entire running time, sucked in completely and fully engaged, to see this write large, in 35mm up on the big screen helped to complete the illusion. The music, handpicked by Tarantino fits perfectly, the acting peerless, David Carradine was never better, likewise Michael Parks playing two roles was sublime, as was Michael Madsen, not to mention either Thurman, Hannah or Liu, all of whom were superb! The look and cinematography gave this film its own unique and almost tactile feel. the cinematography by Robert Richardson has to take a special mention too, the colours, so rich and sumptuous. And whereas the original Kill Bill 2 seemed a tad wordy and talky, here as a whole the two halves compliment each other and help to create one of the greatest films of this century, so far. The script by Tarantino is filled with quote-worthy lines and some truly beautifully written scenes. He really was never better than with this and whereas i still really enjoy his films, this is the one I love beyond measure. The action so expertly shot and now presented in all its uncut gory glory is astounding. No need for shaky cam or frantic editing, here everything is in shot and choreographed by a stunt team of utter legends. GODDAM IT! I have to stop, I have nothing bad about this film! 

There are some people who do not like Tarantino the man, or his works who will call Kill Bill ploddy and boring, or all style over content, but to those people I will say that not only are you wrong, but your opinion is also utterly without merit and completely wrong. We should count ourselves lucky to live in a world where Tarantino can create unique, original works that confound our expectations.

Drop everything and go and see this on the big screen as soon as you can. I cannot think of a single thing I did not like about the film, it truly was one of those extremely rare cinematic occurrences, a note-perfect, cinematic triumph that will go down in history as one of the best films of all-times. 

A total stone-cold 10/10.

#75: PILLION

STARRING Harry Melling, Alexander Skarsgård, Douglas Hodge, Lesley Sharp, Jake Shears and Anthony Welsh. Written and directed by Harry Lighton, based on the book Box Hill by Adam Mars-Jones. Running time 107.

Harry Melling is Colin, a young, lonely, gay traffic warden still living at home with his terminally-ill mum, Peggy (Lesley Sharp) and his dad, Pete (Douglas Hodge). He spends his days being verbally abused by irate motorists and his evenings enduring cringe-worthy first-dates with any gay man, Colin's mum can find in her social group. That is when he's not singing, with his brother, in their father's barber's shop quartet. Then one night Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), dressed in skin-tight bike leathers, strides into his life and Colin's life is turned upside down. Before you can say, 'Can I get you a drink?' Colin's on his knees in a grotty alleyway fellating Ray and licking his boots. The next day he's a fully signed up member of the BDSM community, living alongside Ray's dog, Rosie, in Ray's spartan home, cooking, cleaning, getting his head shaved, sleeping on the floor of Ray's bedroom and being Ray's sex toy, whenever the urge grips him, and Colin couldn't be happier in his submissive role. It's a role Colin seems to have been born to play, and he soon finds himself deeply immersed in a gay biker gang BDSM club that Ray rides with. As time passes, Colin begins to feel the need for something more emotional, a non-sexual connection, maybe the chance to sleep in Ray's bed at night, or just be hugged occasionally rather than flung around like a rag doll in a bout of BDSM wrestling.  

Ray is stoic, silent and utterly mesmerising and beyond being fantastically sexual, we learn absolutely nothing about him, his past, his job, his aspirations, in fact he barely speaks. He spends his nights reading, and ordering Colin to perform anything he desires, all we learn of him is that tattooed in the middle of his chest are three names, all female and that the only living thing Ray seems to have any true affection for is his Rottweiler.

The wonderful thing about this film is that Colin's homosexuality is utterly accepted by everyone in his sphere, his co-workers, his brother and his parents, they don't care if their son is gay, it's never an issue and it's just accepted and it was quite refreshing. It's also incredibly rare to see gay sex in a mainstream movie, it's even rarer to watch two men dressed in skin-tight lycra, wrestling  on a mat before engaging in full-on sex, which to the un-initiated would seem to more akin to rape that than consenting, so welcome to the world of BDSM.

This was a fascinating cinematic experience, at times this is incredibly uncomfortable to watch, the sex seems so aggressive, so outside anything I'm used to that it's awkward to watch, but yet Colin is such an eager and willing participant to the sex that you no option but accept it as the norm. Colin wants it and boy does he get it, but what he also wants is an emotional connection, especially once his mother dies, and that's when problems begin to rise in their relationship. He asks Ray for a day where they just do normal couple things, and to share his Ray's bed, and maybe cuddle or just kiss and it's the highlight of the film. 

The performances from the two leads is mesmerising, although Harry Melling's face is a tough watch, Luckily Alexander Skarsgård isn't. Good performances, well shot and with a strong soundtrack. I might have had issues with this particular type of sex, but not with the film itself or the story at its core.

8/10

#74: NUREMBERG

 

STARRING: Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, Michael Shannon, Richard E. Grant, Leo Woodall, John Slattery, Mark O'Brien, Colin Hanks, Wrenn Schmidt and Lydia Peckham. Written and directed by James Vanderbilt. Running time 148 minutes.

Welcome to Oscar bait season. 

Based on the book, The Nazi and the Psychiatrist. The film chronicles the efforts of U.S. Army psychiatrist, Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) to psychoanalysis and keep safe Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe) and 10 other high-ranking members of the Nazi party long enough so they can stand trial for war crimes in Nuremberg. 

The film is earnestly and seriously made and the actors, all save one, do a damn fine job, Crowe eats the cast for dinner, hence his enormous girth and give the film its true menace and power. the film starts by following Michael Shannon's Robert H. Jackson as he fights to have the War Crimes Trials set up in the first place, and then later in the third act as the leader of the prosecution, and his work with Sir David Maxwell Fyfe (Richard E. Grant) to land a conviction against Göring. The second and main thread follows Rami Malek's Douglas Kelley as he interviews Göring and the other Nazis, and his relationship with his German-born Jewish American translator and US Army solider Sgt Howie Triest (Leo Woodall). And finally in the final act the court case itself.  

This is an earnest and deeply sincere work whose only fly in the ointment is the dashing Hollywood star who's as wooden as he is stiff, Rami Malek who stands out like a massive sore thumb. While the rest of the cast easily breeze through their roles, Malik screams "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT MY CRAFT! GOD, I'M A GREAT ACTOR!" He spends most of the time posing in doorways, or smoking, or turning around to deliver lines facing us, or dressed in a T-shirt, which feels so anachronistic for the time. He's all twitches, pouts and teeth and never feels comfortable in the role, while in complete contrast Russell Crowe just fucking smashes it like a gladiator. 

The film's course sees the preparations of the trial and Kelley's numerous interviews with Göring, then cuts to Kelley racing off for lunch with Göring's wife and daughter before racing back for more interviews, before the classic third act drama of him being dismissed from the military and sent home, but staying long enough to deliver the evidence that will convict Göring, and everyone stands and nod their approval of him. 

The trial is the most profound element of the film and the use of the actual footage from the Nazi death camps that were shown at the trial still have the unbelievable power to shock, even today.

The film has an unhurried, thoughtful and powerful feel which makes you realise how if left unchecked certain current world leaders aren't a million miles away for the horrors of Hitler and his despicable ilk.

7/10

#73: WICKED FOR GOOD

 

                                                 

STARRING: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande-Butera, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum. Screenplay by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, based on Wicked by Stephen Schwartz and the 'book' Wicked by Winnie Holzman. Directed by Jon M. Chu. Budget $150 million. Running time 137 minutes.

11 months have passed since Wicked first sung and danced its way into the collective subconscious of the world through the medium of cinema. 11 months since I gave up 160 minutes of my life to listen to one continuous song and I've not seen it since. I remember hating it with a passion until the characters got on the emerald train and travelled to the Emerald City, which is when I finally engaged with the film and where it  finally came alive. But that bit set in that hateful school filled with a bingo card of memes and stereotypes just baked my biscuits and left me seething with a deep, unending loathing for all those hideous emotionally stunted and oppressively needy twats.

Anyway, 11 months has passed, all memory erased and so I went back with my daughter, whom I saw the first with, to experience this - the second and concluding chapter.  The story set after the events of the first film sees Elphaba Thropp aka THe Wicked Witch of the West (Cynthia Erivo) waging her absolutely useless and pointless war on behalf of animal rights, meanwhile her best buddy Glinda Upland, aka Glinda the Good (Ariana Grande-latte) flies around in her big pink bubble spreading good cheer. While back in the Emerald City the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) and Madam Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) sort of do things, like imprison the magical animals, build the yellow brick road and ban the Munchins from travelling. leaving the remaining talking animals to escape Oz for an unknown realm. Then there's Winkie prince, Fiyero Tigelaar (Jonathan Bailey) who secretly pines for Thropp but pretends to love Glinda, while Thropp's paraplegic sister Nessarose Thropp (Marissa Bode) governs Munchkinland and believes her assistant, Bog Woodsman (Ethan Slater) loves her, while he only has eyes for Glinda. Anyway, Madame Borrible gets Fiyero to ask Galinda to marry him and everyone gets ready for the big day. Meanwhile Elphaba tries to get the rest of Oz to realise the Wizard is up to no good, but he's convinced everyone that she's the one up to no good. Then Galinda convinces her that the Wizard is good and for about thirty seconds, the three agree to team up and make Oz a better place, but then the Wizard reveals he's up to no good and Elphaba gate-crashes the wedding and all hell breaks loose. Then a tornado turns up, from the original film and does what it does sending Dorothy off on an adventure and Galinda, Elphaba, Woodsman and Fiyero are forced to do something to save the day. 

Look, there's a lot going on and it's hard to sumarise the whole film in a concise manor. But the end result is there's a lot of talking, a lot of songs and a lot of emotions flying round. 

Overall I'm surprised to say I quite enjoyed this, it's mercifully shorter than the first film by 30 minutes, the production values are outstanding - the attention to detail in the costumes and the art direction are excellent. The performances, particularly from the two leads is great, including their singing. Indeed everything except for the story is utterly top notch, it's only because this film lacks any bite and the story is very floopy robs this from being a rip-roaring success. There are many questions left unanswered and to much of this is just toothless and far too gentle for the likes of me. The Wicked Witch of the West spends a considerable amount of screen time moping about the forest and committing half-arsed acts of sedition before running away following harsh words. Madam Torrible is revealled to be almost utterly powerless and despite showing some serious magical chops in the first film here is only able to sum up one tornado, and the Wizard (Goldblum) who shines isn't given enough to do and sort of drifts away from the story. 

Not remotely hateful and rather enjoyable. I didn't leave the cinema wishing everyone involved a horrible and painful death, so you know, winner, winner chicken dinner.

8/10 for the production values but only 6/10 for the lacklustre script for a final score of 7/10. 

#72: SISU: ROAD TO REVENGE

 

STARRING: Jorma Tommila, Stephen Lang and Richard Brake. Written and directed by Jalmari Helander. Budget $12.2 million. Running time 89 minutes.

Two years ago the original Sisu movie, Sisu exploded onto cinema screens in a 93 minute orgy of unrelenting uber-violence against a battalion of fleeing Nazis in the dying days of World War II. 

This one, Sisu: Road to Revenge sees our death-proof one-man-killing machine, Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila) the Sisu of the title, do the same thing, but this time, to the might of the Soviet Union's Red Army. 

WWII is over and our hero, Aatami, a gold-miner and Finnish ex-commando sets out in his huge truck into Soviet occupied Finland to return to his home - a log cabin. There he dismantles it log-by-log and attempts to transport it back to free Finland so he can rebuild it in honour of his family who were butchered by Red Army commander, Igor Draganov (Stephen Lang). For reasons never really explained, the Soviets unleash Draganov, who's been imprisoned in a Siberian gulag to kill Aatami by any means possible. 

To save time, I've used parts of my review of the first film, since the only thing that's changed is brand of enemy that Aatami faces, so just replace the other 'N' word with 'Soviet Conscript'. 

"What follows is a relentless and brutal battle that doesn't let up as Aatmai takes on them all on in a no-holds barred fight to the death and seemingly beyond as, with the power of Sisu, he manages to survive death at every turn, with almost supernatural power. This is savage, brutal and unrepentant. The Nazis die in violent gouts of bloody gore, and as the death toll rises so does the inventiveness of the kills." 

And that's the main problem with this film. While watching Nazi scumbags being slaughtered in ultra-violent acts of pure barbarity is always a delight, watching the same treatment ditched out to a silent army of Soviet Conscripts doesn't carry the same levity and most certainly doesn't feel justified. Watching a train's worth of young Soviet Conscripts hacked-to-death, shot-to-death, stabbed-to-death, beaten-to-death or stamped-to-death becomes an uncomfortable watch.

Stephen Lang's Igor Draganov is a very one-note character whose most used word of vocabulary is 'Fuck', or variations of. He's there to give us a showdown and the obligatory fight to the death, although his demise is one of the hi-lights of the film.

What makes this watchable is the fact it's not a Hollywood movie, because it is Finnish it has a quality, look and style that makes it engaging, the staging of the action is freed from shaky-cam and frenzied editing of its US counterparts and the added gore and blood gouts elevates this, last week's The Running Man has the same body count, more or less, but hides its shame behind a feeble 12A certificate. This comes with a full-blooded 15 certificate and rightly so. Violence shouldn't be glamourised or homogenised and this is fully unpasturised violence.

This, like the first, as moments of outrageous intentional humour and some spectacular deaths but I find that I can also reuse my summing-up of the first film with just a couple of tweaks for this one. 

"[Not as] Funny, [but just as] brutal and savage. Not everyone's cup of tea but this is every WWII film crossed with Rambo and Friday 13th with Jason Voorhees as the hero.

8/10

#71: EBIRAH: HORROR OF THE DEEP

 

STARRING: Akira Takarada, Kumi Mizuno, Chotaro Togin, Hideo Sunazuka, Haruo Nakajima and Hiroshi Sekita. Screenplay by Shinichi Sekizawa. Special effects by Sadamasa Arikawa. Directed by Jun Fukuda. Originally released in 1966. Running time 86 minutes.

This is was the first Godzilla film I ever saw, when it was shown way back in 1982 on Channel Four back when it showed eclectic movies. I'd been a fan of Godzilla for far longer, ever since I'd seen pictures in my various Octopus published books about science fiction and horror films, but this was the first time I got to see him in action and boy what a treat!

The story sees five random people drawn to a remote and mysterious island somewhere in the South Pacific, each with their own reasons, for one it's the chance to look for his lost at sea big brother, for another, an attempt to hide out following a successful bank heist, for another to escape a press-ganged slave gang, while the last two are just lug-headed friends who somehow got drawn into the whole crazy adventure. When the first four arrive on the island they find themselves hunted by a super-secret society hellbent on destroying the world and preparing to unleash atomic armageddon on an unsuspecting world. It turns out the island is the secret base of an environmental terrorist gang called: The Red Bamboo. As luck would have it again, the island just so happens to be the bedroom of Godzilla who's currently kipping under a mountain. Meanwhile off the coast lives a giant red lobster called Ebirah, who just so happens to be the Horror of the Deep and he's controlled by the Red Bamboo who use a special yellow liquid to keep it under control. Anyway, things lead to other things and before you can say, 'Oops, that wasn't very smart' Godzilla has been awoken and all hells broken loose, all culminating in the greatest film trope of all times, the activation of a self destruct mechanism that's going to sink the island, while Godzilla goes toe to claw with Ebirah. And that's before Mothra turns up late in the third act.  

What follows is 86 minutes of pure delight, an utterly guileless romp that's not ashamed for one second to be pure pantomine one second, brutal monster smackdowns the next, with elements of James Bond thrown in for good measure, and a jungle-based adventure romp! And when Godzilla and Ebirah finally get together for the first of their two massive battles the screen positively bounces from the sight of these humungous leviathans dishing out the smackdowns. The scale of the island and the ocean works well with the beasties and helps to sell the conceit perfectly. And the final utter annihilation of the island through atomic explosion in the climax is a sight to behold.

This utterly cemented my love of all things Godzilla when I first saw it all those years ago and watching it again 44 years later up on a big screen was a treat I never thought I'd get to enjoy. What an utter joyess experience, from the outrageously bonkers script and over exaggerated acting, to the peerless man-in-a-rubber-suit special effects and beautiful model work, and the bat-shit bonkers tonal shifts in story, pacing and action. Featuring four Kaiju monsters, an army of gun-crazy goons, an evil secret organisation hell-bent on destroying the world with home-made atomic weapons and the added pleasure of the Cosmo Twins, this was an utter and wonderful delight from beginning to end and I loved every single sodding second of it. 

The phrase 'They don't make films like that anymore' could not be any more truer and this film proves without a shadow of a doubt that when a man has become bored of watching another man in a rubber suit destroying scale models of cities of secret bases he is bored with life.

I love, love, loved this wonderful little film and simply cannot fault it. A note-perfect gem of a movie that should be seen on the big screen whenever possible. 

Godzilla thy name is perfection. 10/10

70: PREDATOR: BADLANDS

 

STARRING: Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi. Screenplay by Patrick Aison, story by Patrick Aison and Dan Trachtenberg. Directed by Dan Trachtenberg. Budget $105 million. Running time 107 minutes. 

Well, that was a surprise. Who would have thought that the 7th entry in a series that wasn't needed should have been so goddam enjoyable. Hell, I'm not embarrassed to say that I bloody enjoyed this quite a bit. Finally, an attempt to do something different with the Predator franchise, very much like the last outing, Predator Prey. This new dollop of Predator mayhem doesn't drop popular lines from the mother-source, like: 'Get to the chopper', or 'Stick around.', or repeat popular visual tropes, instead it just tries to come up with something different and as a result is quite arguably the fourth best Predator film. Although that said, it's not exactly a high bar. And I'm including both AVP films and excluding the animated TV show.

PREDATOR (1987)
PREDATOR 2 (1990)
PREDATOR:PREY (2022)
PREDATOR: BADLANDS 
AVP (2004)
PREDATORS (2010)
THE PREDATOR (2018)
AVP 2: REQUIEM (2007)

The story sees our hero Predator, Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) cast out of his clan by his father cos he's the runt of the litter. To earn honour and respect he sets out to the planet Genna  aka 'Death Planet' there to kill the legendary Kalisk, a seemingly unstoppable apex predator who's been known to eat Predators, or Yautja as they're known in this film, for breakfast. Crash landing on Genna, Dek is quickly robbed of all his high tech weaponery and very nearly eaten by every single thing on the planet. As luck would have it, Dek stumbles across the top half of a torn-in-two Weylan-Yutani Corporation android called Thia (Elle Fanning). Dek and Thia form a partnership and set out to kill the Kalisk. Along the way the unlikely duo become a trio when they befriend a bug-eyed alien critter Thia nicknames Bud, and together they set off on a quest to kill the beastie. So far so Jabberwocky. Meanwhile Thia's old bestie, Tessa (also Fanning) who's also a Weyland-Yutani cyborg has been ordered to capture the Kalisk and she too sets out on a quest, which will bring her in direct conflict with her synthetic sister. And that's sort of the plot. 

What follows is a thoroughly enjoyable and action packed little sci-fi pic. With great effects both practical and CG and some lovely makeup. The film has a heart and the relationship between Dek and Thia gives the film it's heart and soul. There's something quite endearing about their banter and slowly the Predator begins to see the benefit of, if not a friendship, then a union of sorts. This rips along at a fair pace and features some excellent action beats. The weird thing is this didn't have to be a Predator film, cos it's only Predator in name, Dek looks so different from the usual and has been softened to make him look more human. The relationship between not just him and her is strengthened by the arrival of Bud. And it won't take a rocket scientist to work out it's relationship to the big bad beastie. 

This builds to two great showdowns, one on Genna the other back on Yautja Prime and ends with the mother of all sequel bates, if you'll pardon the expression.

Went in hoping to hate this but was won over and found myself entirely satisfied by it. One of the few films from this year I intend to buy and own, which will bring my grand total of 2025 films to three.

8/10 

69: THE RUNNING MAN

 

STARRING: Glen Powell, William H.Macy, Lee Pace, Michael Cera, Emilia Jones, Daniel Ezra, Jayme Lawson, Sean Hayes, Colman Domingo and Josh Brolin. Written by Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright. Directed by Edgar Wright. Budget $130 million. Running time 133 minutes. 

How strange in the same week two films turn up both based on original films made in 1987 and in both cases the originals directed by Paul Michael Glazer and John McTiernan were vastly superior. Although, that said both of these films, this and Predator Badlands, on which more in the next review, ain't so bad. Although of the two, this one is by far the weakest and most forgettable. 

It sees Ben Richards (Glen Powell), the Running Man of the title sign up for a brutal TV show called The Running Man that sees contestants trying to survive on the run for 30 days while they're tracked down by five hunters and the entire population of these United States of America. Ben is a good father to a very poorly daughter, and whose wife is forced to work triple shifts in a hostess bar to make ends meet. Ben been blacklisted for caring too much about his co-workers and is convinced by Josh Brolin's Dan Killian to take part in the show. And so begins the running. It's obvious that Glen is being positioned as the next Tom Cruise, whom he resembles, even if his eyes are too close together, so it's no wonder we get to see how well he runs, and run well he does. From one over the top action scene to the next in an escalating series of encounters with the show's Hunters, lead by Lee Pace. All the time, Ben is portrayed to the baying audience is the villain of the piece with no compassion for the multitude of collateral damage he leaves in his wake.

However the longer he runs the more popular he becomes and although once hated he becomes the face of a growing ground swell of rebellion that threatens to bring the establishment to its knees in fiery retribution. 

And that's in really. It's good fun, it's more satirical than the original and the sense of growing rebellion works well. Also because it doesn't have to make its lead character a super-bad-ass action hero it feels a little more grounded. Along the way Ben runs into several characters who help him run and survive until the enviable final act showdown with Gillian on live TV. 

This doesn't quite nail the ending but it's entertaining enough, although it features almost none of the glorious visual flair that Edgar Wright is known for and is rather pedestrian to be honest. That said, Powell is entertaining as the lead, and so is Michael Cera who really seems to relish the role he's given.

All that said, this won't be round for long, making a dreadful $17 million in its opening weekend, so if you want to see this on the bigscreen don't leave it too long. 

7/10 

68: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III

 

STARRING: Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames, Billy Crudup, Michelle Monaghan, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Keri Russell, Maggie Q, Laurence Fishburne and Simon Pegg. Written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and J.J. Abrams. Directed by J.J. Abrams. Originally released in 2006. Budget $150 million. Box office $398.5 million. Running time 126 minutes.

Super-agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), now retired from active service, spends his days training future Impossible Mission agents and his evenings with his super-nurse fiancee Julia Meade (Michelle Monaghan). However when one of his favourite agents Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell) is abducted by super-baddy Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) while on a mission, Ethan is coxed back into active service by his boss Declan Gormley (Billy Crudup) to lead a rescue mission and bring her back alive. 

Sadly Ethan fails and Lindsey is killed remotely by a tiny bomb hidden in her head, which in turns a series of events that will see Ethan run his little socks off across the globe, from Berlin to Rome, South Korea and China, to abduct Davian, capture something called the Rabbit's Foot, rescue his kidnapped super-nurse fiancee and clear his name and avoid Laurence Fishburne (I.M.F boss)'s army of 'not quite as good as Ethan' spies.

After the awfulness of Mission: Impossible II film, which had been directed into the ground by John Woo whose overuse of white doves, ludicrous motor cycle stunts and Dougray Scott really screwed the pouch, even if the film did become the highest grossing film of 2000 with a world wide gross of $546 million.

ANYWAY, I:M2, as it was known was shit and I hated it. This outing, however, I absolutely bloody loved! It's packed with superb stunts, great action beats, a tightly written and gripping script, and most importantly the best villain of the entire series in Owen Davian played with perfection by Philip Seymour Hoffman. If I had a quibble, and it's a minor one, then it would be Simon Pegg who sticks out like a dirty great big sore thumb. What bugs me mainly is that he goes on to appear in all of the following I:M outings and he's too much the comedy foil.

There are so many excellent action sequences in this film it's hard to pick a favourite, but the Florida Keys attack is outstanding, as is the brilliant Vatican extraction. Oh, and the attack on the disused Berlin factory is also great. Damn it, the whole film is knock-out!

I was lucky to see it on the big screen a couple of weeks ago but sadly it's gone already so if you didn't see it then maybe it'll come back, if it does go and track it down, it's damn fine!

10/10 



  

#67: ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER - TAKE 2

 STARRING: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hally, Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti. Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Budget $175 million. Running time 162 minutes.

When Willa Ferguson (Chase Infiniti) goes missing following a police raid on the night of her high school prom, her permanently stoned single-parent father and ex-revolutionary, Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio) races off on a relentless search to rescue her from Colonel Lockjaw (Sean Penn) an obsessive, psychotic hard-core marine who's convinced that Willa is his daughter. With only Willa's sensei, Sergio St. Carlos (Benicio del Toro) to help him, Pat sets forth on a rescue mission whose outcome is anything but certain. 

Here's a link to the original review. 

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/474873268835444248/3915445226366393064

Went to watch this again, before it disappears from our screens. It's often a very rewarding experience to rewatch a film you've enjoyed, sometimes you become aware of a film's flaws and faults and dramatically revise your original score, like Die Another Day when you realise, much to your shame, that rather than being a thrilling and fantastic spectacle worthy of a 9/10 it is in actuality a rather piss-poor, badly plotted, over-the-top, piece of crap worthy of probably a 7/10.

I should point out that for me, a 7/10 is a middling film. I realise that some of you might consider a 5/10 to be middling. But I think all films should aim for a 7/10 as their basic minimum score. 

ANYWAY. What of One Battle After Another? I took Petra who'd I'd tried to take when it first opened but she was reluctant, she seems to have taken against my film suggestions and so it took the combined might of her entire office telling her she should see it to finally make her agree to experience it. 

I was suprised how much of it I had forgotten, or how my brain had editorially broken it down and subtly restructured it. I was immediately stuck by the music, which starts before the opening credits and before the film proper has even begun, both the choice of classic rock and pop music tracks, and later the unsettling discordant strings are used throughout this are simply fantastic. 

The acting too is outstanding, that's across the board, it goes without saying for the likes of del Toro, Sean Penn and DiCaprio, who are acting royalty, but it's Chase Infiniti who deserves special attention. She is the real revelation, she holds our attention and her performance easily matches the three male leads, which considering this is her first film role is astonishing. I think the future is bright for her, I bloody hope so! 

The action throughout is superbly handled and the intense car chase in the final act is truly inspirational. Likewise, the humour is spot-on and although some critics have complained about the Christmas Adventurers Club I think it was perfect. At the end of the day, this film is a social commentary of the utterly corrupt and abhorrent Trump administration, and as such it nails it perfectly. 

The story, simply structured in nevertheless deeply engaging and the 162 minutes speed past and I was completely captivated. I simply can not fault it and watching it again made me realise this is quite possibly The Film of the Year, although you'll have to wait to the end of December to find out if it managed to  finally knock The Phoenician Scheme off the top spot. No spoilers.

Once again this scores a 10/10 from me, and from Petra, who loved every second. Maybe she'll start trusting me again, when it comes to film recommendations. 

#66: TRON ARES

STARRING: Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith, Hasan Minhaj, Arturo Castro, Gillian Anderson and Jeff Bridges.  Story by David DiGilio and Jesse Wigutow. Screenplay by Jesse Wigutow. Directed by Joachim Rønning. Music by Nine Inch Nails (NIN). Budget $200 million. Running time 119 minutes.

So, 15 years have passed since Tron Legacy and in the present Jared Leto plays Ares – a programe who dreams of being human, imagine a digital Pinocchio who's also a one man killing machine. He's a program created by the Grandson of David Warner's Dillinger from the first Tron movie, and he's found a way to 3D print digital weapons and soldiers, but they only have a life span of 29 minutes. Meanwhile there's this scientist lady called Eve who's the owner of all of Kevin Flynn's, played by Jeff Bridges in the original, company and tech and she and Dillinger are mortal enemies. Anyway she finds this old Flynn code that will make all the 3-D printed stuff last indefinitely. Dillinger and his mum, played by Gillian Anderson want it, girl genius wants it and so does Ares. But when Ares escapes into the real world he teams up with genius girl, and Dillinger sends another digital warrior after Ares to get it back. And then there's this big chase and battle somewhere in an American city and Ares ends up in the original Tron world and chats with Jeff Bridges and then more stuff happens and it ends, with a post credit sequel bait sequence and there you have the synopsis for the most unnecessary sequel, since the three Star Wars prequels and sequels, the three Matrix ones and all the Terminator and Alien ones after the second. 

I left the cinema less than an hour ago and I'm desperate to get my thoughts down before I forget I've ever saw this. Interestingly enough the four other members of the audience for this film walked out after ten minutes, while I stayed to the very end and I'm rather glad i did, because I rather enjoyed it. 

Just make sure to switch your brain to neutral, disable your critical facilities, and lower your firewall and just enjoy the visual and audio spectacle because this was a mostly entertaining and exciting little romp that didn't outstay its welcome and didn't offer a world threatening global extinction event. Jared Leto, an actor I have very little enthusiasm for, did well and offered up a mostly reserved and likeable character in Ares, the effects all reds and blacks were very well done, but the highlight of the whole event was a return to the original world of Tron in a most unexpected way, I wish we could have stayed there longer, seeing the original light bike was a total delight and worth the admission price alone. The music by NIN is very good, powerful and raw and very much suited the visuals. The pacing is good, the direction won't win any Oscars but was very competent and there's a very funny bit about 1980s music which had me laughing. The great thing about being the only one in the audience is not only can you whoop and cheer with impunity, but you can also sit there in your underpants and string vest as if you were at home. 

The original Tron came out in 1982 and beyond its ground-breaking special effects had very little less to offer, the story was bog-standard and very Disney-esque. Tron Legacy arrived 28 years later and was an overblown affair mostly remembered for the terrible CGI de-aging of Jeff Bridges. This new sequel, which if it is to be believed has been in development since 2010 makes no effort to resolve the ending of the last film, which saw Sam Flynn and Kiora the female program drive off into the sunrise, or sunset, although their existence is hinted at in this and their possible involvement should there be another installment. That possibility seems very likely since for some inexplicable reason, despite their poor box-office returns, Hollywood just keeps on producing more Tron films. 

To sum up, this wasn't totally ch-TRON-ic, and it did sort of ARES-ise above expectations.

7/10

#65: GOLDENEYE

 

STARRING: Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, Izabella Scorupco, Famke Janssen, Joe Don Baker, Alan Cummings, Dame Judi Dench and Samatha Bond. Story by Michael France. Screenplay by Jeffrey Caine and Bruce Feirstein. Directed by Martin Campbell. Music by Eric Serra. Special effects by Derek Meddings. Running time 130 minutes. Budget $60 million. Boxoffice £356.4 million. Originally released in 1995.

And so it came to pass that after a six-year absence James Bond did return for his 17th cinematic outing, in the guise of Irish actor Pierce Brosnan. Featuring a new Miss Moneypenny, now played by Samatha Bond and a new female M played by the superlative Dame Judi Dench, this was the Bond franchise Rejuvenated and invigorated. It was also the first Bond film not be based, in any small part on the works of Ian Flemming, the first without Cubby Broccoli's involvement and with a new director replacing long-time stalwart John Glenn. It marked a new beginning for series and was the first to seriously try and update the whole template of Bond. There was a lot riding on this one and its success would herald a new era of Bond which would go on to see some of the best entries of the entire series and also some of the absolute worst. 

The story sees little Jimmy Bond going up against the Huge Janus crime syndicate run by Sean 'Bastard' Bean's in a post Soviet Union collapse (rather amusing in this day and age) he's got his hands on the Goldeneye EMP device and Jimmy's keen to get it back before his old work buddy Alec Trevelyan 006 can steal loads of stuff from his super-duper secret satellite dish complex in Cuba. Along for the ride and to be his reward for a job well done is Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco), a Goldeneye computer game programmer. 

Actually, come to think about it, this film is very female-centric, what with Dench's M, Samantha Bond's Miss Moneypenny who's not tolerating any of Bond's leery innuendo, Trevelyan's henchwomen Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen) who gets sexually aroused by murder and killing and the aforementioned Natalya. See, strong female characters. 

Despite the reboot, this new Bond film still features many of the tropes that made the series so successful, the visit to Q Branch and its head Q (Desmond Llewelyn), the gun barrel, the iconic Bond March, the gadgets, guns and cars. 

And where as time seems to have been rather kind to Goldeneye, it's not a perfect film. The music by newbie to the series Eric Serra is, in a word, shit. Ghastly 'whaa-waa' twanged disco funk that sits badly with the action and makes you crave a good-old meaty John Barry score. 

I've not seen this up on the big screen since 1995 so it's a nice coincidence that the screening I saw just so happened to be the 30th anniversary of Goldeneye! What a nice surprise.  

This starts extremely well, with one of the best pre-credit sequences ever, that valiantly tries to out-do sublime The Spy Who Loved Me and fails. It introduces the new Bond perfectly even if Bronson doesn't quite feel comfortable in the role and he brings some lovely little tweaks to the mythos of Bond, the straightening of his tie, the way he pouts when peeved and some youthful energy. However he's also a rather seedy, tad creepy and rather predatory Bond and some of his innuendo schtick is rather icky. Martin Campbell, who directs, brings some much needed energy to the proceedings, and helped to kickstart this post-Berlin wall Bond. Special mention also to the special effects of Derek Medding and his crew. using models and practical effects, the film action set pieces are downright superb and some of the best of the series.

While this is definitely not my favourite Bond film, that honour belongs to The Spy Who Loved Me, Goldfinger and Casino Royale, this is my favourite Pierce Bronson Bond and it was an absolute treat to see it writ large on the silver screen again. 

8/10