Film Reviews by MB

This movie starts off really well in true American-indie style: great broody synth soundtrack, unique characters, a sense of emptiness in the setting and a really nasty bad guy (a glorious Ed Harris). But then... the 'big event' happens about halfway through and it all goes downhill from there with no sense of direction, in what is quite frankly, a chaotic mess of a second half. Probably deserves 2.5 but nearer 3 stars than 2. Just.

I don't know where to start! This film had so much potential and could have been a 4 or 5 star job. However, it was just ridiculously stupid. I don't want to give too much away, as it was generally a very enjoyable romp, but it had far too many stupidly 'mystical' unrealsitic escapes. I'd like to at least discuss the hanging and plane crash scenes with the filmmakers one day!

Oh Lordy! If it wasn't for the three main star performances, this would have been a total stinker! As it was, Walken, Freeman and Macy made this 'comedy' just about watchable. The storyline is actually quite good and I love a heist movie, but there are so many holes in their plans and so many naff sub-stories that you'd be better off watching 'Heat' again. The editor should be shot because events occur where you say "hang on a minute, I thought that..."

Not good. 

1917 is a proper nail-biting, edge-of-the-seat action movie. The film-making / camera work is superb and my brain hurts just trying to work out how Mendes and his crew did it so well. The storyline is proper 'boys own' and you really are rooting for the main characters to be successful.

There has to be an element of 'near-missism' but some of the capers were a little far fetched for such a serious film.

The three stars as opposed to four, for me, was mainly because of the Am-Dram-esque acting. The way the characters delivered their lines was as if they were performing at the local church hall performance of 'Far from the Madding Crowd' or something, rather than in the middle of a 2020 movie about the worst bloodbath in human history! Other, more learned scholars, may well disagree with me but that's how I saw it.

Despite me being 50, this film made me want to be 18 again and hang out with this bunch of characters. The dialogue was sharp and witty and all the main characters were strong and likeable. The plot was a little thin, but that didn't detract from the entertainment.

A good storyline with some good action shots, and tense moments. However, the cheese was shovelled on liberally with mushy flashbacks, slow-mo explosion scenes, feisty damsels in distress, and baddies that couldn't hit an elephant's arse with a banjo!

I usually really enjoy Takeshi Kitano films - both his directing and acting. However, this hotch-potch of a gangster movie was a real disappointment. The plot summary sounded promising - rival Yakuza clans double-crossing each other, and then double-double crossing. However, it was all a bit of a mess and confused, and by the fourth or fifth 'double-cross' I'd lost interest and didn't care who sided with who. And therein lies another problem - I didn't really care. They were all unpleasant, humourless characters. There are one or two moments of classic Japanese gangster violence, but not enough really to detain you. There are much better Japanese Yakuza and Kitano films to check out, so unless you're a real die-hard, you can give this one a miss!

Oh - and it was really annoying that this was a Japanese city with absolutely no people or traffic! Except for the gangsters. Highly improbable!