Film Reviews by Timmy B

I will never forget seeing this film. It is burned into my memory, such is it's power. I had heard rave reviews for it, then managed to score a ticket to an advanced preview screening weeks before it's release. From it's opening moments, with grainy mobile phone footage capturing horrific random violence, then watching as a seemingly mild-mannered & frail pensioner transforms into an avenging angel, I was captivated. But it is also a film which emphatically shows the negatives of this journey, not just becoming another Death Wish knock-off.

Harry Brown is a retired Royal Marine Commando, who lives a mundane & simple life on a London estate. He visits his wife every day in hospital, who is in the final stages of a horrific terminal disease. Aside from an occasional pint with his friend Len, he keeps an extremely low profile. Then one day, Len is murdered by a group of thugs who have been terrorising the estate & whose behaviour has spiralled out of control. After being told that the police will not be prosecuting them, Harry's anger explodes & he launches a one-man mission to exact revenge on the youths.

What I love most about this film is how carefully it is scripted & crafted. The world that Brown lives in is one which many people recognise, even though there were some commentators at the time who hysterically accused it of sensationalism. And whilst with every film there is dramatic licence taken, there were hundreds of stories of communities being terrorised by these sorts of individuals, who felt powerless to act.

It is also unashamedly shown, like with many of the best revenge thrillers, just how impactful Brown's actions are to him, in the sense of starting to enjoy & get satisfaction from the wrongs he feels he is righting, but never straying into the danger territory of cliché. Whilst some stories leave you at the end wondering whether the person becomes someone who cannot live without violence, there is a clear line drawn under this, which perfectly compliments the story arc.

Having said all that, I cannot in any way deny the satisfaction of seeing Brown terrorise & bring rough justice to some of the vermin who have not only killed his friend but brought fear to countless others. But the film is just as powerful when Brown himself opens up to one of these individuals, sharing his own pain from his military service.

As Harry Brown, Michael Caine is absolutely sensational. His decades of acting & wealth of experience pay dividends here, making Brown both a man filled with anger & pain, the two emotions constantly fighting each other but clearly destroying him. And that is such a rarity in these types of films, or if there is some attempt to give the protagonist layers, the actor is better at firing a gun than expressing personal trauma.

The supporting cast are great, in particular Emily Mortimer & David Bradley. Jack O'Connell & Plan B also bring suitably disgusting energy to their characters. Another perfect part of this film is the soundtrack. Mixing hip-hop & rap with traditional but beautiful brass original compositions, the music truly becomes another character. Daniel Barber's direction is also exceptional.

This is one of those films which genuinely is as good as you think it will be. And Caine proves once again why he is one of our greatest ever actors

One of countless films which enabled writer/director Clint Eastwood to not only play some variation of law enforcement, but also to slightly vary his tough guy schtick which served him extremely well in the Dirty Harry film series.

The Rookie stars Eastwood as street-wise & experienced detective Nick Pulovski. After a sting operation attempting to catch career criminal Strom goes wrong & Pulovski's partner is killed, he is partnered with young & fresh-faced rookie David Ackerman, much to Pulovski's chagrin. They then go after Strom again, determined to bring him down once & for all.

When it comes to originality, forget it. This film wears it's clichés like badges of honour. From the opening scene with Pulovski's partner being killed, to the showdown at the end, you know what you are in for. When I was watching this with my close friend who I see many films with, sometimes we just had to see the opening shots to know exactly what was going to happen. There were also plenty of times we burst out laughing at the sheer on-the-nose/clichéd dialogue that first Eastwood & later Sheen say on screen.

But this film also has some surprises, which elevate it above many other terrible cop thrillers released around that time. Far & away the best thing about this film is the absolutely incredible stunt work which is featured throughout it, from the opening chase featuring an articulated car transporter, through to the jaw-dropping escape by car out of an exploding building, all done for real with no CGI. The film, like many of Eastwood's movies, is also extremely competently directed by him, zipping along at a good pace & never being boring.

Another "surprise," but one which was both extremely weird & fairly unpleasant was a rape, committed by a woman on a man, which was filmed almost like a love scene, not a sexual assault, and which the film then revisits later on almost to get laughter but comes across as extremely bad taste.

One of the biggest surprises to me was the almost total lack of chemistry between Eastwood and Sheen. Here are two actors who, in their previous work, have unbelievable screen presence & charisma. But here, they never truly gel, which then makes Ackerman's later actions both far-fetched & odd. Raul Julia looks like he is having a ball, capitalising on his post-Addams Family success.

Overall, this is a decent film with a few twists & turns to keep you interested. However, when you know just how good Eastwood in particular can be, you do come away feeling slightly short-changed. Full marks to the stunt coordinator though

For many people, Deliverance is an iconic slice of American cinematic history. Made on a moderate budget but deliberately sabotaged by the studio to try & shut it down, it then became an enormous success both financially & critically, nominated for both Oscars and Golden Globes. It also launched the careers of John Boorman & Ned Beatty. The main reason I had rented it was because of it's iconic status as well as hearing Charley Boorman (the director's son,) talking about his cameo at the end. But the actual film itself was for me a very mixed beast.

Four friends decide to go on a canoeing trip down a river which will soon be closed off by the state. Lewis (Reynolds) is an adventurer & outdoor enthusiast, who has been on trips with Ed in the past. Bobby & Drew have been persuaded by Lewis's bombastic personality and promises of adventure to come along for the ride, both of whom have no experience in these surroundings. Whilst at first the quartet have a good time, they are then attacked & a horrific assault is committed on one of them, leading to revenge & a desperate fight to survive.

For many, the best part of this film, as well as one of the most well-known, is the opening "Duelling banjos" scene between one of the men & the severely inbred son of one of the locals. This is both unexpected & also highly entertaining, making the later events all the more shocking. There is some good chemistry between the actors, especially in the establishing scenes between them.

However, this film is incredibly uneven in many ways. For example, the cinematography, whilst beautifully composed by Vilmos Zsigmond, also at times looks absolutely horrendous. There are scenes which were clearly meant to be set at night-time which are instead shot during the day then darkened artificially post-production in the film lab. These look so bad, so terrible & so garish that for me it genuinely affected my opinion on the film, even when factoring in when it was made.

There are other moments which again are really badly staged, such as one character managing to shoot not only someone else, but also himself, at the same time, with two separate arrows... which is physically impossible.

But this film manages to impact you in many profound ways as well. The infamous sexual assault is unbelievably nasty & brutal, as well as the stark religious imagery & the uncompromising hell which these men go through as they fight to survive. There also needs to be massive respect given to the 4 actors, who did most of their own stunts, including Jon Voight, who actually climbed the sheer cliff face on his own with no assistance.

But despite all I have said, this was for me absolutely not the masterpiece which many others hold it up as. It is a shocking & well-acted film, but also an extremely uneven one.

The Aristocats is one of the first films I remember watching as a child. It's combination of bright colours, iconic songs ("Everybody wants to be a cat!") and perfect voice acting made it a winning choice. And it has aged wonderfully over the years. It also had for me a couple of moments which are so funny, I burst out laughing every time (Roquefort cracking the padlock & O'Malley's reaction to the van braking.)

The tale of Duchess & her kittens being catnapped by the greedy butler of her owner in order to claim the estate after she passes is a simple one, but is populated with the classic characters found throughout Disney's stories. And in O'Malley, a tough alleycat who is instantly smitten with Duchess, you are taken on an adventure through the backstreets & countryside of France, complete with great music.

A brilliant adventure suitable for any age

The coming of age, exploration of sexuality drama is one which has been told in many different ways. Because of this, it can be hard to find new & compelling ways to add to it without it just being a re-hash of many previous films. But Giant Little Ones is admirable in its decision to go in unexpected directions, managing to avoid the multiple clichés which the genre has.

Frankie & Ballas are high-school royalty, popular & best friends since they were young. They spend all day together & tell each other everything. At Frankie's birthday party, after many drinks & when everyone has gone home, the two best friends end up experimenting with each other sexually, before Ballas runs away, scared of what the situation may mean. He then turns on Frankie, as does much of his friend group. Frankie then has to come to terms with this, whilst dealing with conflict in his own family as well.

The most admirable thing this film does is to emphatically not go down the normal clichéd route of two guys being intimate & then the whole film being about them not only coming to terms with their sexuality, but then the fairytale ending. Yes, the experience is the catalyst for the change of circumstances within their lives, but the film is just as interested in the other difficulties & challenges Frankie faces.

There are some solid performances & this also clearly was a passion project/meant a great deal to Maria Bello, who not only stars but also executively produces it, the events mirroring some of her own life experiences. Sadly, despite all this, alongside the choice to deal with some extremely traumatic incidents which weren't often mentioned in this type of film genre, it comes across as extremely soapy in many ways. Despite it's 15 certificate, if you took out the swearing, it often is like watching an episode of Hollyoaks or Coronation Street.

But there is plenty to admire about the narrative, plus an extremely powerful scene between Frankie & his recently out father, which the story thankfully again avoids becoming a Kumbaya moment. And the fact that the film is not just about the same-sex moment between the two friends, but many of the difficulties of growing up & finding out who you are, is to it's credit.

A solid & at times powerful story of self-discovery

Over decades, Stanley Kubrick quite simply reinvented & changed cinema forever, to the extent that Steven Spielberg called 2001 "our generation's Big Bang." When you watched a Kubrick film, you knew you would genuinely see something which would become a trailblazer & the stuff of legend. After a 12 year gap following the release of Full Metal Jacket, he returned for what would become his unexpectedly final film (passing away 6 days after finalising it.)

The expectation & anticipation was off the scale, heightened by the casting of unquestionably the 2 biggest movie stars on the planet at that time, who also happened to be married to each other, costarring together in a film which was marketed as an explicit sexual romp. But Kubrick's final act is not what many cinema-goers expected it to be.

Dr Bill Harford is a highly-regarded & popular doctor, who has a picture-perfect life with his beautiful wife Alice & young daughter, living in New York City. One night after smoking weed with Alice, she confesses to him that on a recent holiday, she fell in love with a handsome sailor & considered abandoning Bill & her family, and has since fantasised about the potential passionate encounters with this mysterious man. This leaves Bill heartbroken & when he is called out on a medical emergency, he then goes on a nighttime odyssey through the seedy underbelly of New York.

The biggest myth to debunk is that this is emphatically not the hardcore sex-fest or erotic thriller which was promised by the marketing material, leading to frenzied ticket sales and the anticipation of seeing Cruise & Kidman naked in the heat of passion. I personally found this way of thinking both ludicrous & funny: one of the most technically acclaimed directors ever suddenly deciding to make a soft-core porn film, let alone Cruise and Kidman agreeing to do it.

Because Eyes Wide Shut is a very different & at times slow-going morality tale. Yes, there is sex & nudity, but this is in no way erotic. The much talked-about orgy is in many ways extremely unerotic, due to the music & the very real sense that most of its participants are in some way imprisoned within that life. Kubrick is clearly far more interested in not only the fragility of marriage & relationships, but also how one revelation can lead to a seismic breakdown of everything you held dear.

Unfortunately, despite all the beauty on screen (by this I mean production design, cinematography & lighting, which of course being a Kubrick film are world-class,) this film is also very boring. Harford is, despite Cruise clearly giving it everything, an extremely boring protagonist in a story which is itself often prone to naval-gazing (Cruise himself has gone on the record stating his dislike of the character, despite his awe of working with Kubrick.) Some of the other actors don't fare much better either, although Alan Cumming has a memorably creepy cameo as a hotel concierge.

But this film is in many ways saved by Kidman. Her performance is extraordinary. Alice is an extremely complicated character, who knows in that moment of honesty, what she is doing, the devastation she is about to unleash. But she is also unbelievably fragile & clearly scared of the consequences of her sexual yearning. The fantasy intimate sequences with the attractive sailor, far from being erotic, are an uncomfortable look at just how far her desires go, irrelevant of their ramifications.

There is no doubt Eyes Wide Shut will stay with you, both as a visual experience but also as a parable about life & relationships. And for many people, if they manage to get all the way to the end, they may not like it that much. But despite my 3 star rating, I was profoundly moved by it, even though it was at times a long slog. And this is in many ways Kidman's best performance, despite my love for Moulin Rouge & Destroyer. She breaks your heart & gives you no easy answers.

Syriana is incredible. It is a film which I saw not long after it was released in 2005. I watched it an almost empty cinema, which was the perfect place to view it (no annoying noises from other people, or hushed whispers of "I didn't understand that.) And believe me, there would have been a lot of that. This film is deliberately confusing, with multi-strand narratives & characters interacting with each other. For many people, that would immediately put them off. But the film is so well-crafted, so perfectly performed & paced, that if you stay with it, it will blow you away.

In loose terms, the film looks at the impact of a new oil deal in the Middle East. We follow the workers on the ground who, despite loyalty & hard graft, have been laid-off without a second thought; the energy analyst who is reporting on oil deals who gets sucked into the orbit of the Emir's business after a tragedy; the lawyer working on behalf of the legal firm investigating if there is criminality in this merger; the secret service agent who is attempting to track down a stolen American missile after a sting goes wrong, plus other different strands relating to this stories.

This is intrinsic, dense storytelling but it is also a masterpiece of subtly. Clooney, who won pretty much every award going (including an Oscar,) is electric. To look at Bob Barnes, you would never think he is a spy, much less imagine that he is capable of espionage. Podgy, with a salt-and-pepper beard & an easy-going manner, he becomes a dogged & relentless pursuer of the truth following a deal gone bad. Never more is this shown than a midnight meeting with a powerful handler of his whom he turns the tables on. Damon also does strong work, reminding you that when he isn't playing Jason Bourne or another action hero, he is a powerful presence.

I loved the locations the film uses (over 200 of them,) taking us all around the world as the different parts of the story interconnect. At times, you are in total confusion as to who is involved with what and how that effects the storyline. And the film offers no easy answers. I cannot think of another film within recent memory which not only challenges you, but takes the time to make fully-rounded & believable characters.

Syriana was also unique in that it was an American Hollywood film which took the time to show just how people can be sucked into terrorism & suicide-bombing, without it being either a sappy saccharine sob-story or simply a plot device to make the other parts work, without fully committing to it. These aren't simply "Bad Muslims who hate America & want to destroy it," but complex & desperate people who through circumstance go down a dangerous & deadly path.

The only other thing I will add to my review is that this is a film that has to be watched a minimum of two times, in order to fully appreciate & understand it's nuances, complexities & story. But it's impact will stay with you forever.

Stunning filmmaking

Tim Vine is an institution. Still going strong after decades in the business (his debut on TV was in 1996 I believe,) this show contains his one-liners alongside extremely random & weird props and sight gags.

But even though there were several absolutely brilliant one-liners and gags, it simply couldn't sustain an over 1 hour show, something Vine makes humourous reference to many times but towards the end is in danger of being too truthful... Even as a big fan of his, it stretched my patience.

I don't for a second lose sight of just how hard it must be to write a comedy show, especially once you get into the circuit and have to keep producing new material. But there comes a point where maybe a break and a bit more time writing could be a good thing.

The story of the big boss of a company having an illicit affair with the intern is one which has been done many times before. When adding BDSM into the equation, the ground shifts towards the likes of Secretary, the film which catapulted Maggie Gyllenhaal into the spotlight & garnered rave reviews (I haven't seen that film but do intend to at some stage.) Babygirl attempts to tap into that, but reversing the roles completely, looking at female dominance and a woman CEO involved with a young male intern.

Romy Mathis (Kidman) is the CEO of a highly successful company. She is beautiful, wealthy & fiercely driven, with a "picture-perfect" family & life. But she is also deeply unsatisfied within herself, especially her sexuality. Whilst she has an active sex life with her husband, she gets nothing from this, climaxing by herself to porn afterwards. One day, a batch of new interns arrive for work experience, including Samuel (Dickinson,) who immediately makes moves on Romy & engages in a debauched affair with her. But the secret, as well as the mind games Samuel starts to play, threaten to unravel everything.

For a film which is obsessed with sexuality & deviance, one of the most striking things about Babygirl is how "safe" in many ways it is. There is very little nudity, and what little there is, the director shows only brief flashes. In a film which also repeatedly hammers home it's message of female dominance & equality, it is only Kidman who disrobes, with Dickinson conveniently wearing clothes or in bed sheets. And when you remember that Kidman was used to heart-breaking effect in another film exploring sexuality (Eyes Wide Shut,) Babygirl comes off like a damp squib.

But the biggest issue with this film is just how unbelievably boring it is for much of its running time, with inspired flourishes occasionally to attempt to keep your focus. Dickinson tries to underplay Samuel to make him both a cypher & a brooding heartthrob, but he just comes off extremely badly-written. Some of the motions the script forces him to go through, far from reinforcing this sexual dominance & lust, make him look ridiculous. There is one scene in a hotel room which tries to raise pulses before the sex starts, with him dancing whilst holding a glass of scotch, which caused the cinema audience I was in to collectively groan & laugh in awkwardness.

He also has a voice which is just a monotonous drone, like a vacuum cleaner on low setting. In no way did I buy the affair between him & Kidman, and the attempt at role-reversal as a gotcha moment just came off as desperate, no doubt looking better on the page than on screen.

However there are some good moments, like a nightclub scene which was the closest the film got to showing actual chemistry between the 2. Antonio Banderas, as Romy's husband, also makes a strong impression in the screen time he has. I also really liked Esther MacGregor (daughter of Ewan,) who manages to elevate the role of the clichéd lesbian daughter into something profound, especially later on in the film.

But despite the efforts of Kidman & the cast, I was actually quite glad when the credits rolled. Kidman is a totally fearless actress, who takes on genuinely provocative roles alongside the Hollywood movies she stars in. But the film seems to think that playing it safe is more erotic than fully letting rip, like Basic Instinct, a film the director has confirmed had an indelible influence on this movie. In the hands of a different director, such as Isabella Eklöf, Paul Verhoeven or Mary Harron, this could have been so much more.

In 2002, Lee Tamahori did something unforgivable: he nearly single-handedly destroyed James Bond, amusingly enough needing fellow Kiwi director Martin Campbell to come back for Casino Royale (and thank the heavens he did.) For me, Tamahori was persona-non-grata, a man who seemed to think that filling a film with horrendous CGI & idiotic ideas created brilliant movies. And not only did he do that to Bond, he was then hired to direct the next xXx film & did exactly the same thing, in a film I was strong-armed into watching & walked out after 30 minutes.

I fully intended never to watch anything Tamahori was involved in ever again. But then I started to hear about this film, specifically the strong word-of-mouth praise & acclaim for Cooper's dual performance. What finally tipped the balance was that this was emphatically NOT a big-budget CGI-filled franchise sequel, but a small-scale film which had to work really hard to succeed. And it is sheer brilliance.

Latif Yahia is an unremarkable Iraqi soldier who, as a child, went to school with & has a passing resemblance to Uday Hussein, son of Saddam, the dictator of Iraq. He is summoned to meet Uday where he is informed that he has been chosen to become Uday's double, due to the serious threat of assassination that comes with being the President's son. Latif refuses, but relents after being tortured into changing his mind. He is then turned, with plastic surgery, into the spitting image of Uday, experiencing not only the untrammeled wealth & privilege but also having to deal with the despotic & psychotic behaviour of his "master."

Cooper is absolutely sensational, a total revelation. As Uday, he is totally & distressingly evil, a psychopath who has limitless wealth alongside the genuine power to do whatever he wants with absolutely no consequences. The film is clear to show you the disgusting depths he sinks to, such as driving his Ferrari around schools, picking up girls who cannot refuse him, before raping & murdering them. It is totally to the film's credit that this is presented uncensored & shown as the evil it is. With a nightmare grin alongside a volcanic temper, he is the stuff of nightmares.

Latif is the total polar opposite to this. When he first refuses Uday's request, he makes clear just what he thinks of his old classmate. But he is also a deeply moral person, trying in vain to in some way control the hell he has been forced into. In one of the most powerful sequences, he faces down Uday, not only challenging him but also acknowledging the fact that he is collateral, never more than a second away from Uday killing him on a whim. It is a compelling character & one which perfectly balances Uday's explosive nature.

As both characters, Cooper is incredible. Sometimes, one actor playing dual roles just doesn't work that well, despite the best efforts of the crew. But, and again is impressive for a low-budget film, is how seamlessly this is done. With a smile snatched straight from the devil, Cooper makes you horrifyingly hooked. He also totally outshines the other actors, especially Ludivine Sagnier, who is given a thankless role as the girl Latif risks everything for, but who comes across as the writers almost feeling they had to have a love interest of some kind to add to the story. But these are minor quibbles.

This film is one of the reasons I love movies so much: a story which takes you on a rollercoaster ride, centered around incredible performances & with a story which keeps you gripped and guessing. And God can Lee Tamahori make an incredible film when he actually controls his urge to fill the screen with garish special effects.

Civil War is clearly being made to show what could potentially happen in the next few years, and what did nearly happen in some respects in '21. The notion of a despotic leader refusing to give up power & causing a split in the country they run is nothing new, but here it is given a shocking & all-too-real edge, clearly taking inspiration from world events.

Lee Smith is a battle-weary & PTSD-riddled war photographer, who iconic pictures have won her every type of award, which she has seemingly had in exchange for her sanity. She is linking up with an old colleague, fellow photographer Joel, on a seemingly impossible & suicidal mission to locate and interview the embattled president. This requires them to travel across multiple conflict-ridden states to reach the White House. Along the way, they are joined by Sammy, their mentor, and wannabe war photographer Jessie, much to Lee's protests.

The battle scenes, as well as the smaller moments, are brilliantly shot. You really feel, due to the staging & camera work, that you are in the thick of battle, with bullets whistling overhead. Dunst is also excellent, as is Stephen McKinley Henderson as the father-figure to the main protagonist. Cailee Spaeny unfortunately drew the short straw in terms of character, with her struggling to make the evolution from the blue-eyed & innocent hero-worshipper to battle-scarred photo journalist an original or compelling journey. This is in no way a slur on Spaeny's ability, just simply poor writing.

And this theme carries on throughout the film. The journey these characters make is at times good & certainly well-shot, but often my mind wandered. Various scenes simply weren't that interesting, or feeling workmanlike in order to give a slice of exposition or the set-up to the next part of the story.

The ending battle is again well-shot, but isn't the big payoff which is the writers think it is. We simply watch a battle clearly inspired by multiple Call of Duty games, which also is nonsensical in its setup. There is simply no way that the President would be where he is following the events of the film. There are other plot holes which are so ludicrous they verge on pastiche, as well a convenient lack of any responses or action from the outside world.

But this film does have an ace up it's sleeve in terms of cameo appearances. An actor makes a brief appearance as a disgusting, despicable racist, which is so impactful that the movie loses some momentum which it never regains afterwards. That is the main takeaway you have from this film.

A good effort but a better script would have done wonders for the story

Kiss of the Dragon is a film which is, above everything else, brutally efficient & stripped down. It is for those viewers who know exactly what they want from a marital arts film: minimal but impactful story, bone-crunching violence, spectacular stunts/set pieces and a final showdown which delivers the big payoff. And this film delivers that in spades, further cementing Jet Li's credentials as one of the greatest martial arts performers/actors in the world.

Liu Jian (Li) is a Taiwanese detective sent to France to assist in the undercover sting of a crime lord, Mr Big, using prostitutes as part of the operation. He is partnered with Richard, the highly unstable & violent French chief of police. The operation goes awry & Liu is framed for murder by Richard. He then attempts to clear his name, joining up with one of the prostitutes who was herself forced into sex work by Richard.

This film was primarily created by Li's determination to bring back genuine stunt work & combat scenes, after a slew of films which had lost these elements, substituting them for CGI & wirework. This is in many ways why this film is so impactful. It is so so brutal in both it's fight scenes & stripped-back production. There is one scene in particular involving a room full of martial arts students which literally has your jaw on the floor. The level of technical ability combined with choreography is at its pinnacle here. Alongside that, just before the Bourne films made this one of its signatures, there are many uses of ordinary objects utilised in fight scenes to devastating effect...

Li is always dependable as the man who has every odd stacked against him & yet still feels both believable & stoic. Fonda fares less well, in one of her final screen roles. Whilst she looks every inch the broken woman whose life has been destroyed after being forced into the horrors of the sex trade, as a character she is quite thinly written, never breaking out of the "hooker with a heart of gold" cliché. And Fonda is absolutely an actress who could have elevated a properly written role like that.

But for me, this film belongs to Tchéky Karyo. To be clear, his performance is absolutely outrageous. No-holds barred instability & insanity. We are in the presence of one of the greatest overacting & megalomaniac portrayals of a villain ever seen. For many, it will be too much, too far-fetched (I remember one reviewer writing "With Mr Karyo's performance, never before have the French police been portrayed as so incompetent & idiotic.")

But the reason I love it so much is because both Karyo & the director have totally committed to the insane world that these sorts of films exist in (where characters do the most idiotic things for no reason or make decisions which defy logic.) Within a few minutes, Richard kills 2 of his men, the 2nd of which is due to his seemingly total ignorance of the existence of gravity. Later on, he is part of a car chase in which he kills both his colleagues & ordinary members of the public with absolutely no consequences... For me, he is the best thing about this film. Karyo is sheer genius & obviously having an absolute ball.

But if you buy into this crazy world, there is so much fun to be had here. This is an "unplug your brain & have a riot" film, agog at the action scenes and laughing at the ludicrousness of it all. Just don't cross Jet Li, especially when he is armed with chopsticks...

In 1989, Daniel Day-Lewis & director Jim Sheridan worked together on the nano-budget film My Left Foot. A small little Irish production (which was repeatedly nearly shut down due to lack of money,) about the celebrated disabled artist Christy Brown became a cultural behemoth, winning Day-Lewis his 1st Oscar and making megabucks at the box office, as well as being for me Day-Lewis's best film. Following this success, Sheridan was given the budget and power to make anything he wanted & there had been a shattering, seismic miscarriage of justice involving Irish nationals which was a story he had to tell.

Ireland, the 1970's. The Troubles are ripping the two countries apart, with British military in the thick of it, trying to keep the peace but inflaming the tinderbox. In the midst of this is Gerry Conlon, a ragamuffin petty thief who is working several scams in Belfast & just about getting away with it. One day, whilst stealing lead, he is mistaken for a sniper and nearly shot. After this, his father desperately sends him away to England, trying to force him to change his ways & remove him from the carnage of his homeland. The same time period he arrives, the Guildford pub bombings occur. Conlon & 3 others are arrested and forced into making false confessions, which also wrongly implicates his father & extended family. Jailed for life, they desperately fight to clear their names against impossible odds as well as the deliberate sabotage by the UK Government.

This film, like Mr Bates Vs the Post Office, leaves you furious. White-hot anger. It shows viscerally what happens when a desperate political & legal system makes a catastrophic series of mistakes, which due to the massive pressure to catch the perpetrators, it continues to pursue, even after proof emerges that the wrong people are being accused. For a large number of people, including me, the Troubles & the violence of that time are something we don't really remember, due to when we were born. But for decades, Irish republicanism & the violence it inspired was huge.

The story takes pains to show the truth about Conlon & his early life. He is sometimes an unlikable protagonist, especially in his early days as a petty thief, but never is reduced to a single character trait. He has a solid heart & is in many ways a victim of his circumstances. When people live around constant tension & the threat of violence, some cave in whilst others become rebellious and fight back. Conlon is a free spirit looking for fun & adventure, but is never for a second someone who would pick up arms & fight.

The scenes of him being arrested, tortured & then imprisoned when you know that he is totally innocent are excruciating to watch. And then to see his hopes raised & destroyed repeatedly rubs salt in the wound. But there is incredible poignancy amongst the hell, especially in the scenes with his father. And that's where this wronged man starts to become the legal juggernaut who, alongside his legal team, eventually exposes the evil miscarriage of justice to the world.

Day-Lewis is staggering, as is Postlethwaite. Their chemistry is electric, their father-son relationship heart-breakingly real. As Conlon Snr grows weaker, you feel the fear that he will die inside jail as a wronged man. And rounding it off is Thompson as the electric Gareth Pierce, the lawyer who was dogged in her determination to exonerate her client, who she knows is innocent. As the film builds to the final courtroom showdown, the momentum & energy is electric, such is the power of the acting & direction. But also, when the inevitable happens, followed by the credits which detail the subsequent events where not 1 of the people responsible within law enforcement are held to account, you are left with a bitter taste in your mouth. Which is exactly how it should be.

Powerful & incredible filmmaking

One thing with Sean Baker that you will always get is stunning visuals & bright colours, combined with a zesty energy which courses through the film. Irrelevant of what happens on screen, your eyes will have a feast. And this really makes a difference in Red Rocket, a look at a deplorable but undeniably charismatic hustler who returns in desperation to his hometown.

Mikey Davies is a washed-up, burnt out & out of luck ex-porn star who turns up again on the bus in Texas City, Texas, having fled California beaten, bruised & with just $22 to his name, along with the clothes on his back. He heads to the home of his estranged wife Lexi, who lives with her mother and both of whom share a visceral hatred of Mikey, due to his treatment of & subsequent abandoning of her. He then attempts to get his life back on track, as well as a chance meeting with a 17 year old girl whom he falls in love with.

There is plenty to like here, mainly the vibrant energy, which as I said earlier, spills out of the screen. The world this film creates and invites us into is a real & beautiful place which is filled with dynamic & genuine people, almost all of whom are non-actors. Speaking of performances, as much as Simon Rex got most of the plaudits, for me the real star here is Suzanna Son. It would be so, so easy for her to play Raylee as a beautiful "bimbo" who simply falls in love with & is ambivalent to the obviously horrendous traits Mikey has. But Raylee is a genuinely complex young woman, headstrong & in control of her own destiny. I also liked the fact that the script shows her to be a "real" woman who has explored & experimented with her sexuality, not just a clichéd character who has been "waiting her whole life for a guy to come along & show her what she's been missing out on."

Mikey himself was someone I didn't much care for, as well as starting to tire of him & his narcissistic personality. It is clear, both from the way the film treats him as well as the reviews which cannot stop praising him, that we as the audience should be equally as enamored with him. But for me he was basically a tic, scampering around & leeching the goodwill and generosity of everyone around him. And alongside that, the manipulation he tries to do towards Raylee is seen by the writer/director as this almost scallywag trait which makes him more charming, when the opposite is true.

However, the narrative of this film is one which I think can be at times quite dull. We have a lot of montages of Mikey cycling, as well as random meetings between characters which doesn't further the plot that much. I do however admit that some of the situations he gets himself into are sometimes quite funny, plus the ending is one which, although it can be read in many ways, I actually think is simply a prelude to everything catching up with him.

An interesting movie and one which hopefully will see Suzanna Son go on to bigger & better things.

In 1987, Timothy Dalton took over as James Bond from Sir Roger Moore. By the end of Moore's tenure, despite him being my favourite Bond, the film series was in a pretty atrocious state. A View To A Kill is by some distance the worst Bond film ever made, to the extent that Bond himself didn't intentionally kill a single person in it (even the shotgun he used was full of rock salt.) Many critics were openly speculating that the Bond franchise was now too tarnished & past it's sell-by date.

Fortunately, Dalton came to the rescue with the brilliant The Living Daylights, which introduced a world-weary, almost burnt-out Bond but one which had an extremely dangerous air about him, with a capacity for violence. There was also a radical departure from the Moore era, with Dalton's insistence on doing as many of his own stunts as possible. When it came to the sequel, especially with the rise of drug lords in the USA, Licence to Kill had found it's new story, but also the driving force of Dalton to make this an extremely dark & violent film (to this day, it is still the only Bond film to be released rated 15 for the violence, something not done before or since.)

James Bond manages to, with the help of his friend Felix Leiter, capture Franz Sanchez, an extremely dangerous & lethal drug baron. However, after a significant betrayal, Sanchez escapes and enacts a terrible revenge against Leiter & his new wife. Bond, furious and seeking to avenge his friend's maiming, then deserts MI6 after they refuse to bring Sanchez to justice, launching a one-man crusade against him & his criminal organisation.

Make no mistake, this is in many ways the true Bond film, as inspired by the novels. We are in the "take the gloves off & get honest" territory, whether it is with psychotic drug barons feeding their enemies to sharks, killing people they think have betrayed them in horrific ways or Bond slaughtering villains so all that is left is a red mist & the echo of a scream. 007 himself is also brutalised & beaten, Dalton really making you believe why his Bond is the burnt-out wreck only hinted at in later films such as Skyfall.

But despite the extremely heavy subject matter, this also delivers everything you could possibly want from a Bond film. The stunts are incredible, the women beautiful, the locations stunning. We dash all over the world, from the USA to the UK to Mexico. The locations, especially Sanchez's mansion & the Olympia drug factory, are amazing. There is also, amusingly, a Western-style bar brawl which is brilliantly choreographed.

But for me, this film is made by it's cast. Robert Davi is absolutely sensational as Sanchez. The monster he creates is genuinely terrifying, a demonic & pure evil abomination who you totally believe as this unchained, vicious psychopath. In one of his first starring roles, Benicio Del Toro is equally horrific as Dario, Sanchez's right-hand man, with brains as well as brawn. Talisa Soto is the beautiful & fiercely free-willed Lupe, who steals Sanchez's then Bond's heart, with Carey Lowell as Pam, the fiery & highly competent CIA agent Bond joins forces with. The cast is absolutely perfect in every way.

However, the most praise has to go to Dalton. His singular vision, as confirmed by the other actors, to make Bond the lethal killer he was written as, really laid the ground work for the series to reinvigorate itself, as well as what in many ways Craig carried on. Bond is probably here the most human he will ever be, really showing us as the audience that all the violence & brutality he has endured has a devastating impact. This is 007 at its most pure, which despite some scripting & pacing issues, is the most honest the character will probably ever be.

The biggest tragedy is that we never got a third film. I so wish we could have seen where Dalton's Bond went next...