#102 PITCH PERFECT 3

Starring Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Hailee Stainfeld, Brittany Snow, Anna Camp, Hana Mae Lee, Ester Dean, Alexis Knapp, Chrissie Fit, Ruby Rose, John Lithgow, John Michael Higgins and Elizabeth Banks. Written by Kay Canon and Mike White. Directed by Trish Sie. Running time 93 minutes. Budget $45 million.

In the good old days of the 1970s when successful British sitcoms would be given their own movie, I'm thinking Are you Being Served, The Likely Lads, and Love Thy Neighbour the desire was always to take the situation out of the comedy and plonk our characters in an utterly new environment, usually with terrible results. Indeed this tradition has carried on into the present with films such as Absolutely Fabulous, Bad Education and The Inbetweeners.

And this third outing for the Barden Bellas, the all-girl a cappella group whose adventures we've been following since 2012 sees that tradition proudly carried on.

This time round the girls get the band together for a trip around some parts of Europe, while performing an USO tour for the troops. They're forced to compete with two other bands for the honour of opening for a DJ called DJ Khalid. One of the bands is called Evermoist led by Clamity (Ruby Rose), the other is a sort of country and western outfit. Anyway much hilarity ensues when these three bands go head-to-head during a soundcheck and the Bellas get their heads handed to them on plates. Oh! And there's also a totally unnecessary plot involving Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) and her criminal father (John Lithgow) who turns up back in her life to get his hands on $180 million dollars of his money that's been signed over to Amy by her mother in a trust fund. Added to that are the usual subplots involving each of the underdeveloped Bells mostly about finding a boyfriend, or girlfriend in Cynthia (Ester Dean) - The Bella's token diversity character - case. Added to that a handful of songs which sound so staggering artificial as to render any suspicion that they've actually been produced naturally dead.

And that's it. Thankfully it's mercifully short, but could have been even shorter and so utterly bland and generic as to be totally inoffensive. It's like skimmed milk, what's the point?

I thoroughly enjoyed the last two Pitch Perfect films, they were silly, fun and entertaining, everything this tired three-quel isn't. And even Rebel Wilson who I love is criminally wasted. The packed cinema of mostly young women and mums sat stoney silent throughout this, and were more excited by the trailer of Momma Mia 2.

So, this is how the year ends, not with a bang, nor even with a whimper, but rather the slow gentle hiss of a flat tire. 5/10

FILMS OF 2017

Welcome to my annual list of the best and worst films of the year. It's been a pretty good year for film and I've been to the cinema over 100 times and seen 83 new release films, three re-issues and 15 repeats.

I've been moved three times to tears, I've been stunned silent by two and I've walked out of one. I've  seen the end of several long running franchises including Transformers (good riddance), and The Planet of the Apes. I've also seen the birth of some new franchises, Kong, Spider-man and of course Dunkirk (can't wait for the sequel) and the inexplicable continuing of the Fast and Furious franchise that does feel a little like it's now coasting.

The summer produced its usually crop of dross and yet there were still some utter gems, those films that arrived and surprised in equal measure and overall I still managed to see three films that I gave a 10/10 score too. One of those was a subtitled Japanese anime that was both moving, profound and uplifting. I've seen films that have arrived on the crest of overwhelming critical praise that have left me rather 'meh' and I've also seen films that critics dismissed that i thoroughly enjoyed, which is an important thing to remember. These following lists are mine and mine alone, their mine opinion and I fully expect many of you to disagree, which I look forward to because I adore the way that film engenders discussion and opinion.

Anyway, here, in case you're interested, is my various lists of the year. Oh, I've still got one film to go this year - PERFECT PITCH 3, but I'm not expecting it to change the running order of either of the lists.

So, without further ado...

TOP TEN (in ascending order):

FILM OF THE YEAR 2017:
MANCHESTER BY SEA
"I don't often say this, but I urge you to see this, it deserves to be seen. A modern masterpiece. 10/10"

02. YOUR NAME 10/10
03. SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING 10/10
04. DUNKIRK 9/10
05. BABY DRIVER 9/10
06. KONG: SKULL ISLAND 9/10
07. LOGAN 9/10
08. STAR WARS EPISODE VIII: THE LAST JEDI 9/10
09. WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES 9/10
10. BLADE RUNNER 2049 9/10


HONOURABLE MENTIONS:
11. COLOSSAL 8/10
12. TONI ERDMANN 8/10
13. DISASTER ARTIST 8/10
14. IT 8/10
15. THE DEATH OF STALIN 8/10
16. GET OUT 8/10
17. HAPPY DEATH DAY 8/10
18. WIND RIVER 8/10
19. TRAINSPOTTING 2 8/10
20. PADDINGTON 2 8/10

ALL THE REST:
MISS SLOANE 8/10

BATTLE OF THE SEXES 8/10
SPLIT 8/10
CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS 8/10
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 2 8/10
THOR: RAGNAROK 8/10
AMERICAN MADE 8/10
HIDDEN FIGURES 8/10
THE FOUNDER 8/10
THE LIME HOUSE GOLEM 8/10
A MONSTER CALLS 8/10
GIFTED 8/10
BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL 8/10
THE BIG SICK 8/10

THE BELKO EXPERIMENT 8/10
FREE FIRE 8/10
HACKSAW RIDGE 8/10
VALERIAN 7/10
THE HITMAN'S BODYGUARD 7/10
LOGAN LUCKY 7/10
GOING IN STYLE 7/10
THE GREATEST SHOWMAN 7/10
JOHN WICK CHAPTER 2 7/10
ATOMIC BLONDE 7/10
ALIEN: COVENANT 7/10
AMERICAN ASSASSIN 7/10
THEIR FINEST 7/10 
PATRIOTS DAY 7/10
THE GREAT WALL 7/10
A CURE FOR WELLNESS 7/10

THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE 7/10
DESPICABLE ME 3 7/10
LA LA LAND 7/10
UNLOCKED 7/10
THE LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE 7/10
WONDER 6/10
JUSTICE LEAGUE 6/10
MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS 6/10
KINGSMEN: GOLDEN CIRCLE 6/10
FAST AND FURIOUS 8 6/10
GOLD 6/10
LIVE BY NIGHT 5/10

DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS:

20. FIST FIGHT 5/10

19. COLLATERAL BEAUTY 5/10

18. GEOSTORM 4/10

17. STRATTON 4/10

16. GHOST IN THE SHELL 4/10 

15. XXX: THE RETURN OF XANDER CAGE 4/10 

14. KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD 4/10

13. THE MUMMY 4/10

12. LIFE 3/10 

11. POWER RANGERS 3/10

BOTTOM TEN (in ascending order):

10. MOTHER! 3/10

09. ASSASSIN'S CREED 3/10

08. JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE 3/10

07. THE SNOWMAN 2/10

06. SLEEPLESS 2/10 

05. THE DARK TOWER 2/10

04. PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN 5: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES 2/10

03. UNDERWORLD 5: BLOOD BORE 2/10

02. TRANSFORMERS 5: THE LAST KNIGHT 1/10

THE WORST FILM OF 2017:

BAYWATCH 0/10

"Crap. A laugh free, exercise in the laziest film making I have ever seen. With not one iota to recommend to anyone. Seriously do not go and see this, it is truly dreadful.. 0/10"

REISSUES:
1. A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
2. TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY 3D
3. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND

REPEATS (no particular order):
JUSTICE LEAGUE 6/10 (x3)
LOGAN 9/10 (x2)
KONG 9/10 (x2)
VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND WORLDS 7/10 (x2)
WAR OF THE PLANET OF THE APES 9/10 (x2)
SPIDER-MAN: HOME COMING 10/10 (x2)
BABY DRIVER 9/10 (x2)
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 2 8/10 (x2)
JOHN WICK 2 7/10 (x2)
ALIEN COVENANT 7/10 (x2)
WONDER WOMAN 8/10 (x2)
BLADE RUNNER 2049 9/10 (x2)
THOR RAGNAROK 8/10 (x2)

ALL THE FILMS OF 2017 RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST:

1. MANCHESTER BY SEA 10/10 
2. YOUR NAME 10/10
3. SPIDER-MAN HOMECOMING 10/10
4. A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH 10/10 (RE-ISSUE)
5. TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY 3D 10/10 (RE-ISSUE)
6. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND 10/10 (RE-ISSUE)
7. DUNKIRK 9/10 
8. BABY DRIVER 9/10
9. KONG: SKULL ISLAND 9/10 
10. LOGAN 9/10 
11. STAR WARS EPISODE VIII: THE LAST JEDI 9/10
12. WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES 9/10
13. BLADE RUNNER 2049 9/10
14. COLOSSAL 8/10 
15. THE DISASTER ARTIST 8/10
16. WONDER WOMAN 8/10
17. IT 8/10
18. TRAINSPOTTING 2 8/10 
19. THE DEATH OF STALIN 8/10
20. GET OUT 8/10
21. HAPPY DEATH DAY 8/10
22. WIND RIVER 8/10
23. MISS SLOANE 8/10
24. PADDINGTON 2 8/10
25. BATTLE OF THE SEXES 8/10
26. SPLIT 8/10 
27. CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS 8/10
28. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 2 8/10 
29. THOR: RAGNAROK 8/10
30. TONI ERDMANN 8/10
31. AMERICAN MADE 8/10
32. HIDDEN FIGURES 8/10
33. THE FOUNDER 8/10
34. THE LIME HOUSE GOLEM 8/10
35. A MONSTER CALLS 8/10
36. GIFTED 8/10
37. BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL 8/10
38. THE BELKO EXPERIMENT 8/10
39. FREE FIRE 8/10
40. HACKSAW RIDGE 8/10
41. THE BIG SICK 8/10
42. VALERIAN 7/10
43. THE HITMAN'S BODYGUARD 7/10 
44. LOGAN LUCKY 7/10
45. GOING IN STYLE 7/10 
46. THE GREATEST SHOWMAN 7/10
47. JOHN WICK CHAPTER 2 7/10
48. ATOMIC BLONDE 7/10 
49. ALIEN: COVENANT 7/10 
50. AMERICAN ASSASSIN 7/10
51. THEIR FINEST 7/10   
52. PATRIOTS DAY 7/10
53. THE GREAT WALL 7/10 
54. A CURE FOR WELLNESS 7/10 
55. DESPICABLE ME 3 7/10
56. THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE 7/10 
57. LA LA LAND 7/10 
58. UNLOCKED 7/10 
59. THE LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE 7/10
60. WONDER 6/10
61. JUSTICE LEAGUE 6/10
62. MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS 6/10
63. KINGSMEN: GOLDEN CIRCLE 6/10
64. FAST AND FURIOUS 8 6/10 
65. GOLD 6/10
66. LIVE BY NIGHT 5/10
67. FIST FIGHT 5/10
68. PITCH PERFECT 3 5/10
69. COLLATERAL BEAUTY 5/10
70. STRATTON 4/10
71. GHOST IN THE SHELL 4/10 
72. XXX: THE RETURN OF XANDER CAGE 4/10 
73. KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD 4/10
74. THE MUMMY 4/10
75. POWER RANGERS 3/10
76. LIFE 3/10 
77. MOTHER! 3/10
78. ASSASSIN'S CREED 3/10
79. JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE 3/10
80. THE SNOWMAN 2/10
81. SLEEPLESS 2/10 
82. GEOSTORM 2/10
83. THE DARK TOWER 2/10
84. PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN 5: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES 2/10
85. UNDERWORLD 5: BLOOD BORE 2/10
86. TRANSFORMERS 5: THE LAST KNIGHT 1/10
87. BAYWATCH 0/10

That's it for 2017, see you next year movie lovers!

#101 THE GREATEST SHOWMAN

Starring Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya . Writen by Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon. Directed by Michael Gracey. Music by John Debney and John Trapanese. Running time 105 minutes. Budget $84 million.

The potted, homogenised and sanitised bio-pic of P.T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman), renowned showman, politician and a civil rights activist. The film races through the life of this remarkable man at a break-neck pace, showing us his life from childhood (and extreme poverty) to young business man happily married to his childhood sweetheart, Charity Hallet (Michelle Williams) before fatherhood brings him and us up to speed with the particular stage of his life the film wants to focus on and all before the ten minute mark! Phew. Then it just carries on at that pace for the rest of the film's rather brief running time. After that, the young Barnum loses his job, and embarks on a dream of opening a wax works museum, which in turn leads to the creation of Barnum's first circus showcasing the talents of a hand-picked cast of freaks that he auditions. But hubris gets the better of him and in his desire to be accepted by high society he embarks on a tour with the Swedish Song bird, Jenny Lind (Rebeca Ferguson) with disastrous results.Then it's time for the arrival of the third act when everything goes tits up and he loses literally everything leaving us to watch his rise again through the love of not only a good wife, good children but also his good cast of human misfits who teach him the importance of 'family'. And one final song.

All told through the medium of interpretative song and dance, because do not be mistaken THIS is a mother-fucking musical! And not one of your boring old-fashioned musicals, no sir-rie, this is a modern, post-LaLa Land musical and all that that entails. Frenzied editing, massive dance numbers and a song every few minutes. Although none of the songs seem that different to each other and it's hard to work out when one ends and a new one begins, leaving the strange sensation that it's just been the same song playing the entire movie. Also the music sounds anachronistic to the era, once more making it hard to fully engage with the film.

And yet, incredibly, this still managed to be surprisingly entertaining, Hugh Jackman's passion for this type of performance is impossible to deny and he wears his heart on his sleeve, giving it his all, much as he did in Les Miserables a few years back. Actually, everyone in this gives it their all, belting out the song and throwing themselves into each spectacular dance sequence. The trouble is that so short is the film that we never get any real development or back story for the characters and that leaves one feeling short changed, you sort of wish the film would just slow down a bit and give the massive cast a chance to shine.

This is an entertaining enough slice of fun which is at its strongest when the talented cast just get on with singing and dancing. Less successful are the technical elements of the film which let this film down severely. The CGI is shocking, as is the animation – particularly when it comes to Tom Thumb and also the appalling animated animals. Like wise the painted back drops and hideous garish colours make this look like a homage to the glorious days of Technicolour, but dialled up to 11.

Offering no threat to the glory days of the great Hollywood musicals this is still a surprisingly enjoyable with a great cast and some lovely performances, plus it makes you want to read up more about the real life Barnum and Lind. 7/10

#100 JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

Starring Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas and Bobby Cannavale. Written by Jake Kasdan, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner. Directed by Jake Kasdan. Running time 7140 seconds of your precious, precious life. Budget $110 million.

Four American stereotype high school teenagers, a Jock, Nerd, Shy Girl and 'Selfie-Princess' get given detention for a variety of transgressions including, texting in class. Cheating on your homework, telling your gym teacher they're a waste of space and being bullied. Purely to get the plot working, they find themselves in the basement of the school where all junk is kept and told to remove staples from old magazines. Within the golden ten-minute rule of ALL blockbuster films, our cast have found an old Nintendo-style video cassette game called Jumanji and decide to ignore the punishment. Instead they each select an 'avatar' for themselves from the menu screen of the game and find themselves sucked into the game where they're transformed into four generic game types. So that our nerd is transformed into the huge muscle-bound, archeologist hero Dr. Smoulder Bravestone (Dwyane Johnson), our high 7 foot tall school football player, called the Fridge, is given the avatar of Sidekick (Kevin Hart), the selfie obsessed Princess is transformed into middle-aged, fat scientist (Jack Black), and the shy girl is converted into Lara Croft clone (Karen Gillian). From then on they're literally fighting for their very lives in the world's dullest and most generic video game ever made.

Our cast of 'stars' then trudge across Hawaii losing the occasional life (they get three each, cos this is a video game) as they attempt to replace a green gem into the eye of the tiger that sees all in the land of Jumanji, all the while slightly chased by the villain (Bobby Cannavale) and his horde of motor-bike riding goons who turn up occasionally to shoot at them or pop the odd wheelie. The nature of the video game set up means that the peril and challenge increases as our band of heroes make their way through the game, although don't worry that level never rises beyond mild jeopardy. CGI is used whenever the filmmaker can't be arsed to do anything approaching, you know, film making, so each and every special effect is an uncanny-valley CGI dirge of overly shiny effects and the animation is piss poor and ignores the laws of gravity.

To propel the paper thin plot along odd jokes or rye comments are made about old video games along the nature of, 'oh, we're in a cut scene', which seem to be there purely for the audience. Now this  would work if the audience in mind were ones playing video games back in the 1990s, but most of the references bare no relationship to video games played today. The video game nature of the film hamstrings the plot completely as each of the characters progress along the pre-written path nature of the game, this is no sandbox world but a linear line which just progresses along from A to C, no time for the other letters mainly because the audience might get bored.

Aimed solidly at children, this film lacks teeth, or anything else for that matter. That is apart from two very odd sexually based sequences. The first concerns Jack Black's character who we discover is the avatar of the 'Princess' character, she's obsessed with her looks, with texting and with using her sexuality. On discovering she has a penis we are treated to a delightfully awkward scene where Black, Johnson and Hart stand around teaching Black how to piss and Black discovers his penis has handles. Later he develops an erection, but not before we are treated to an incredibly uncomfortable scene where Karen Gillan, dressed in hotpants and crop top is taught how to flirt with men and how to tease with her sexuality. This scene is made even more uncomfortable since it's Black, in ultra camp mode telling Gillan how to exploit her sexuality to advance the game.

Sure these sequences did garnish laughs, I burst out laughing at the pissing scene, but then I think I was laughing mainly out of embarrassment, as I would imagine were most of the parents in the cinema who could be heard whisper-explaining what was happening to the much younger kids.

I'm giving this film far too much credit and considered opinion. It's a film that works best as the 3 minute trailer, when all this sexual stuff is ignored for a series of CGI effects and one-liners.

As a film, it's lazy, dreary, very unfunny and utterly bland. Usually Dwayne Johnson can be called on to elevate these sort of films, like Journey to the Centre of the Earth 2, and make them worth a laugh, but not so this time, likewise Kevin Hart's small-man shtick gets thin within seconds, as does Black's camp, mincing performance. And Karen Gillan gives us nothing more than some eye candy for the dads.

Sending very mixed messages and offering us nothing approaching proper entertainment this is an ugly, bland and generic piece of shit that squanders its one and only interesting idea for a sickening smaltzy ending. That idea is that our heroes find another human player who's been lost in the game for 20 years, waiting for other players to help him get over a difficult level. But the fact that he's lost 20 years of his life, is pissed up a tree when on completing the game he doesn't return to our time, but to his own back in the past.

3/10 for Karen Gillan in hot pants and crop top.

#98, #99 STAR WARS - EPISODE VIII: THE LAST JEDI

Starring Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isacc, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong'o, Domhnall Gleeson, laura Dern, Ade Edmondson, Gwendoline Christie, Kelly Marie Tran and Benicio del Toro. Written and directed by Rian Johnson. Budget $??? Running time 152 minutes.

The war rages on among the stars. The First Order continues its purge of the old Empire and resistance alike under the rule of the Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis). Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) is tying to lead what's left of the Resistance's fleet to safety ahead of a battle fleet lead by General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson), while trying to buy time while Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Chewbacca try to convince Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) to give up his life of a hermit on Ahch-To – a planet that was the birthplace of the Jedi religion – and join the resistance as a beacon of hope. And onboard the Resistance's flag ship, Finn (John Boyega) just wants to get away from it all that is until he meets Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) a young grief stricken Resistance officer and sets off on a mini quest that might just save her fleet. Meanwhile, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is struggling with the duality of his feelings and the guilt he's still feeling for murdering his father, Han Solo in the last film. AND Poe Dameron (Oscar Isacc) just wants to jump into a ship and blow stuff up.

And that, apart from the stuff involving Laura Dern, Gwendoline Christie, Benicio del Toro, Lupita Nyong'o, BB8, R2 D2, C3PO, some odd fish-faced nuns, a group of slave kids, and of course the Porgs is that! No wonder this film is over two and a half hours long!

What an utter, utter delight! What a thrill! What a glorious ride! What the ruddy what?

I simply wasn't expecting to love this film as much as I did, in fact I'm simply staggered by just how entertaining and thrilling this film was. It's packed to the literal gills with incident, plot and story, often for expense for character development. All too often just as we're getting used to watching these characters we cut to what the others are up to, although what this does is give us a sense that this war touches the lives of everyone in this galaxy and it does give the film a sense of urgency. I saw this just 9 hours ago and I'm still reeling from it, there was so much to take in, so many great scenes and incident that I'm still giddy with excitement. Among the stories told those that stand out for me were the treads involving Kylo Ren, Rey and Luke Skywalker. 

The direction is very good, the effects, model work and cgi is, in a word, superb. The action and battle scenes, which starts with the very first scene are just glorious, exhilarating and most surprisingly not too jarring, you're actually able to work what's going on which is rather rare these days. Written and directed by Rian Johnson the film, despite it's vastness, feels like the vision of one man rather than a  committee demanding a checklist of tropes to tick off to satisfy focus groups.

It's not perfect, it stumbles in the middle, losing momentum as one group of our characters become prisoners to another and the back and forth can, at times, be a little jarring, but the thing is I forgot I was sat in the cinema!

This is a great addition to the canon of Star Wars and one that ranks alongside Empire Strikes Back as one of the best. After a glut of some bloated action flicks based on long running franchises this year, I'm looking at you Transformers, Pirates, Fasters and Leaguers this was a superb and utterly delightful romp!

9/10

#97 BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL

Starring Takuya Kimura, Hana Sugisaki written by Tetsuya Oishi. Based on a Manga by Hiroaki Samura. Directed by Takashi Miike. Running time 141 minutes. Certificate 18.

When disgraced Samurai Manji (Takuya Kimura) is infected by sacred bloodworms given to him by an 800 year-old nun he is forever cursed with immortality, and although he can never die, he still feels the agony of healing after each and every wound and injury.

52 years later, the sole survivor of a massacre that claims the lives of her parents, Rin (Hana Sugisaki) stumbles into Manji's life and begs him to avenge the death of her family by hunting down Kagehisa Anotsua (Sōta Fukushi) the master swordsman who killed them. It transpires that Kagehisa dreams of destroying all other Dojos so that his will be the only one. Manji reluctantly agrees and together they embark on a quest for vengeance culminating in an utterly blood-soaked final showdown that will see the deaths of literally hundreds of Samurai.

This is the 100th film directed by Japanese legend Takashi Miike whose films range from bloody violent Samurai movies and Yakuza crime flicks to family friendly movies.

Blade of the Immortal is unlike an American or European film you'll ever see. It's beautifully shot and the pacing and structure is strangely alien, particularly if you're used to having your stories laid out in a nice little line. Japanese films often seem structured in such a way that the audience has to play attention and they seem to be expected to fill in the blanks when and wherever necessary. 

The action is superb, the violence almost balletic in nature, the running time is somewhat bum numbing. Although that said the relentless sword fighting never gets boring, somehow Miike is able to present fight after fight with aplomb and skill. It's helped that the villains culminating in the final showdown between Manji and Kageshisa, seem to get bigger, better and more outlandish. Ranging from one-armed men with the sharpened bones of his arm stump acting as a pretty savage stabbing weapon to a fellow immortal with a death wish. 

This is an operatic and sweeping epic action flick that contains many images that will stay with you long after the movie has ended. It's also impressive that a film with such a simple structure should still engender the characters with real depth and feelings that we the audience care for them. 

A very satisfying and unique film and well worth checking out, particularly if you like blood-soaked Samurai flicks about revenge and honour.

8/10

#96 A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH

Starring David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey, Raymond Massey and Marius Goring. Written and directed by Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell. Running time 104 minutes. Budget £320,000.

Re-released and restored to all its glory, this is one of my all-time, top-ten favourite movies. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen it, although this was the first time on the big screen. God bless the NFT!

The story sees Peter D. Carter (David Niven), a R.A.F Squadron Leader forced to bail out of a burning Lancaster bomber over the English Channel without a parachute rather than burn to death. Before he jumps he dictates one last message of love for his family to a young American radio operator June (Kim Hunter) and in his final minutes the two connect, then leaps to his almost certain doom...

Meanwhile in heaven, his fellow Lancaster pilot Rob Trubshawe (Robert Coote) waits his chum's arrival, and 30 minutes after Peter fails to arrive, the alarm bell sounds and it is discovered that the angel sent to collect him, Conductor 71 (Marius Goring) missed Peter thanks to a frightful pea-souper and so Peter accidentally avoided his own death.

Instead he awakes on a beach and discovers to his astonishment that he's still alive, more over he incredibly meets up with June and instantly they fall in love. 71 is sent to Earth to fetch Peter, but he refuses and demands the right to appeal the decision because in the allotted extra 20 hours he's had he's fallen in love with June. 71 informs him that he has three days to find a defence counsel to represent him.

But is Peter experiencing reality or is he suffering from traumatic head injury? June turns to her friend, noted brain specialist Dr. Frank Reeves (Roger Livesey) for help, and intrigued by the young poet Peter's plight takes charge of him so he can get to the bottom of the situation. He realises the significance of Peter's hallucinations and the importance of Peter defending himself in the courts of Heaven, but Peter can't find a suitable candidate to be his Counsel and his physical condition worsens. As luck would have it on the day of his appeal, Peter is sent for life-threatening surgery and Dr. Frank is killed in a terrible motorcycle accident, thus giving Peter the Counsel he so desperately wanted and the chance to properly fight over the little matter of Life and Death.

This is a truly moving, wonderful and utterly beautiful film, it's charming, funny, perfectly balanced and utterly satisfying.

The performances are all divine, David Niven is that rare actor who simply shined in every film he made, and in this he is incandescent. Roger Livesey brings such intelligence and wit to his role as the hyper-vibrant Frank that his death makes you mourn his passing. And Kim Hunter's eyes convey with just simple tears the love she has for her dashing young pilot lover. With a staggering exquisite script, some simply perfect acting and exuding Britishness through every pore and fibre of its being, this is a perfect movie. Not one bum note, not one bad line. From the genius of filming heaven as a black and white galaxy-spanning modernist idyll to the technicolour wonder of a simple Dorest beach in summer. This is a film that fills you with awe and leaves you moist eyed with wonder.

If you've never seen this film, you must! It will resonate and sing to you in a way that no modern film will ever do. It is a fantastic slice of British life and shows us just what we can achieve when we are at our best.

10/10