Film Reviews by TB

Whenever I see David Fincher has released a new film, I always get excited. Whilst there are many reasons for this, the biggest one is because you never know what you are going to get. From his magnificent (and completely unfairly traduced,) 1st film Alien3, through to the massively successful & legendary crowd pleasers Se7en & Fight Club, Fincher is a chameleon, incapable of creating anything bland or stale, irrelevant of whether the viewer likes it or not. For his latest film, he adapts another novel, this time a highly successful & critically adored one from writer Gillian Flynn.

Gone Girl is about the sudden disappearance of Amy Dunne, who achieved a certain level of fame as a child after a series of successful books written about her by her parents, on her 5th wedding anniversary. Her husband Nick is a business owner but also in many ways, despite some small successes, basically a loser who has come to take everything in his life, including his relationship, for granted. After Nick calls the police, he then becomes a suspect, a suspicion that is exacerbated by the media hysteria/circus that descends upon the case. Nick then realises that something is very wrong & has to take matters into his own hands.

As you would expect in a Fincher film, everything is technically perfect. The cinematography, sets, costumes, soundtrack & performances note perfect. The actors are amazing, especially Rosamund Pike. In a film where she has to play so many different emotions, she aces every one. But I also feel that huge praise must go to Carrie Coon as Nick's sister. As the story progresses & it dawns on her the full horror of the situation that she has been dragged into, it is a joy to watch.

The script and story is also great. Even though I have not read the book, this did not in any way affect my viewing of it, plus I did also hear that the structure & ending has also been changed to keep an element of mystery. And the story itself is a dark & at times graphically violent one. This is a film where nothing is held back & that is absolutely to the movie's benefit. This film would not work if it was shot with half measures.

Whilst this is essential viewing, it's also emphatically not a "date" film, unless you both really like messed up films, in which case, everything you could want is catered for here.

After one of the greatest ever careers as an actor, filled with unbelievably varying characters/stories, it was completely appropriate that Daniel Day-Lewis would choose as his final film another strange & deeply idiosyncratic individual to portray. Although, as confirmed in an interview with him, when filming started, he had no idea or thoughts that this would be his final role; it was only in the middle of shooting that a deep depression & need to retire took hold. But he has gone out with a bang so to speak, playing a man only he could play & keeping us as the viewer engrossed & riveted as the film progresses. He also reunites with PT Anderson, after the magnificent There Will Be Blood, often called one of the best films ever made.

Reynolds Woodcock is a highly respected & supremely gifted fashion designer, running his fashion house in post-war 1954 London. He is revered for his designs & tailoring, catering to a wide variety of extremely influential, wealthy & important women, including royalty & the upper classes. But Woodcock is also an absolute nightmare as a person: a petulant, highly demanding, controlling & obsessive creature. Every single detail of his life, whether it is the minutiae of the stitching on the dresses he creates through to people at the breakfast table not eating certain foods at certain times, has to be exactly as he wants it, otherwise all hell breaks loose. His sister Cyril manages this life, tolerating much of this behaviour, as she accepts that this is what a tortured genius requires in order to keep the show on the road.

Into this life of precision & exacting standards comes Alma, a waitress who Reynolds meets on his yearly vacation. They immediately form a bond which then turns into love & a relationship. However, it soon becomes clear that Alma is absolutely not going to slot into the world & whims of Reynolds. We are then treated to a ringside seat as a monstrous ego meets its match.

The film itself is great fun. It is brilliantly written, quite profound & also at times unbelievably funny. Day-Lewis, who also did uncredited work on the script, dives headfirst into this world. As much as when you read the above description of Woodcock, he sounds unbearable, you do grow to love him but also feel pity for him. He is, in every sense of the world, a tortured genius, plagued by visions & hurt over the loss of his mother. But matching him toe to toe is newcomer Vicky Krieps. As with Barkad Abdi in Captain Phillips, putting a relatively new actor up against a talisman of talent like Hanks or Day-Lewis either works or it doesn't. But Krieps's gentle, fierce and strong Alma always has the viewer willing her on, whilst at the same time imaging the horror of having to deal with what is in many ways an extremely talented baby in a grown-man's body.

Lesley Manville is also excellent, her acid tongued sister Cyril managing this situation whilst also begrudgingly respecting what Alma is trying to do. There are a few great scenes between Woodcock & her, in particular one where he tries to pull his tricks on her & is cut down immediately & remorselessly. There are other elements of great humour, my favourite involving a teapot.

I did love this film, but it is in no way like There Will Be Blood, in terms of certain scenes having a degree of action in them. This is a film full of conversations, dreams & musings about life.

As much as I am devastated that one of my 2 favourite actors will no longer be working, I am glad that this was the film he went out on: a brilliant & difficult look at talent and genius.

Mr Day-Lewis, thank you for the memories.

A very gentle & warm film, showing what happens when children grow up, but don't completely lose their innocence and wonderful memories.

In this film, Christopher Robin is an adult and now is working for a company where he is in constant demand, forgetting not only his family but also all the animals in the Hundred Acre Wood. After a personal crisis, Robin is drawn back into the world & comfort of the animals and the place where all of his happy memories were created. He then slowly rediscovers the parts of himself that were suppressed & forgotten about as he was forced to mature.

It is all very gentle, with no nasty surprises, or indeed any surprises narrative wise at all. Exactly what you think will happen happens, but it is enjoyable. The cast are great, especially McGregor and welcomingly, Jim Cummings, the original voice actor of both Pooh & Tigger. The CGI is also excellent.

A perfect film to watch with your children, or by yourself if you want a trip down memory lane & a reflection of everything you had to lose in order to grow up, some of which you would do well to rediscover.

In a career full of amazing performances, this is for me hands down Nicole Kidman's best. Like a number of other actors in challenging roles, she has totally transformed herself through incredible prosthetics & make-up, but most importantly, this is emphatically not a case of simply relying on this transformation to carry the film. Like Charlize Theron in Monster or Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club, this simply allows you to buy much deeper into the story & enhances the performance in every single way.

Erin Bell is a cop with the LAPD, who has spent time deep undercover within gangs. When we first meet her, she is as close to death as it is possible to be without being in an intensive care bed. She looks like she has spent a millennia in the baking sun, her blood has been replaced by whiskey & the last time she slept was a hundred years ago. Bell is also openly mocked & traduced by her colleagues, who express credulity that she still has a job within the police force.

Arriving at the scene of a brutal gang murder, Bell claims to know who was involved, which again is dismissed by those around her. The film then jumps back in time, looking at her evolution from a keen & fresh-faced undercover cop to the ruin of a person she is now.

The entire metaphor of the film, which Kidman plays to perfection & the director Karyn Kusama flawlessly deconstructs, is the enormous personal price that being in enforcement, especially undercover, does to a person. It can, in the case of Bell, literally destroy you. But it is absolutely gripping. It also, for a nano-budget film, has a stunning heist scene, which rivals any big budget thriller film.

I won't say too much more, as part of the joy of this film is the shocking journey that you are taken on. But this is Kidman & cast at the top of their games.

A brilliant film

Free climbing, meaning the scaling of mountains & rock faces with no safety equipment, is a niche but horrifyingly watchable and adrenaline-raising sport. Whilst there have been some TV programmes on it before, there has never been a standalone docu-film about one particular individual, following his journey. 

Alex Honnold is in many ways the perfect subject for a film like this. It is clear from the opening moments that he never intended to be famous or well-known, and treats the media fascination around him with a sort of bemused detachment. As someone who has spent the vast majority of his life simply being on his own, setting & breaking multiple records, he would have probably stayed under the radar indefinitely with no-one outside of the climbing community knowing about him. But this documentary has been massively successful, even winning an Oscar & propelling him into the spotlight. 

We follow Honnold as he prepares to try to achieve the first ever free-solo climb on part of El Capitan. Along the way, we find out more about his early life, as well as how he mentally deals with the pressures and strains, despite also being strangely separated from the dangers in certain ways. Honnold is also fairly open to investigations as to why that is, including agreeing to submit to brain scans examining how his mind works. There are also some lovely intimate scenes as he finds love with Sanni, who becomes in many ways the beating heart of the documentary. 

Then we get to the climb, after months of preparation & close calls. And the way it is shot is perfect: no music, no stupid tricks or media flourishes. We are just given a front row seat to one of the greatest athletic performances of all time. Huge praise must be given to the directors, who give us just enough distance whilst still keeping us close. 

An incredible documentary & richly deserving of all the plaudits that it received.

I remember so clearly the tsunami of 2004, especially as it was Boxing Day. But this story seeks to flesh out not only the true story/experience of one family, but also to show not only the selfishness at times of some of those caught up in it (like someone refusing to allow a desperate person to use their mobile to contact family,) but also and far more frequently the incredible generosity & care of particularly the Thai people to help.

Maria & Henry arrive in Thailand with their 3 children to spend Christmas in the beautiful surroundings of Khao Lak. Over the opening minutes, you see them all sharing wonderful & precious moments together, as they mess around in the swimming pools & light fire lanterns, making the night sky come alive. Then, one day the peace is shattered in the most horrific scenes imaginable: an enormous tsunami hits the beach where they are, destroying everything in its path & splitting them up. When the tsunami passes, there is a frantic attempt to try to help the wounded & find loved ones.

For me, the special effects, as well as the use of miniatures/real world effects was absolutely staggering. When you look at the special features & see how it was recreated, it simply blows your mind. There isn't one second where it doesn't look like you are watching actual footage/you have been thrown into the center of this horror. The scenes of the water exploding through everything in its path, destroying & obliterating enormous buildings like they are made of glass, are the stuff of nightmares.

But this film is most remarkable for its performances. Naomi Watts & Ewan McGregor had worked together before on the fairly underpowered & little-seen film Stay, but had always said that they wanted to work together again. And their chemistry pays dividends here. One thing which is often completely missed by people is that in the space of literally 10 minutes, they have to convince you that they are a family who have known each other for years & make you want to follow/become emotionally involved with them.

Watts, who we mainly follow for the first part of the film is, as you would expect, amazing. Her chemistry with Tom Holland (in his feature film debut after coming to fame as one of the Billy Elliot's in the UK stage shows,) is also great. Her resilience in the face of catastrophic injuries & undescribable fear is stunning.

But this film belongs to Ewan McGregor. He has always been one of my 2 favourite actors (the other being Daniel Day-Lewis,) and in this film, there was not one thing that could be improved with his performance. He is a completely broken man who has to try & find his children and wife, whilst dealing with the constant horror of what is happening around him. And this leads to one of the most heart-breaking & unbearably emotional scenes I have ever watched, with some of the best acting imaginable, in a bus garage surrounded by actual people who were caught up in the tsunami (not actors.)

But there is also many wonderful acts of kindness shown which were inspired by real-life events. One of the most moving for me was the small moments that were shown of local people who has literally lost everything they had, be it property or loved ones, making rafts out of whatever they could salvage, rescuing people & getting them to medical help. This showed so clearly & movingly how decent people can be when helping their fellow man.

The film does everything you could imagine. It makes you laugh, cry, wince but also feel hope that in the worst times imaginable, people help each other & miracles can happen. I loved it, and I hope you do as well.

One of Pacino's early performances but also one that really put him on the map as one of the greatest actors of his generation.

Frank Serpico is a newly qualified & extremely moral cop working with the NYPD. He has become a policeman for all the right reasons: to want to help people & stop crime/criminals. However, and to his absolute horror & disgust, he quickly realises that his colleagues are every bit as disgusting and corrupt as the criminals he is attempting to take down. When he reports these actions to his superiors, he is first laughed at then slowly ostracised & begins to fear for his safety. But Serpico's decency & determination to expose this is not stopped. And as seen in the opening shots, he pays a very heavy price for this.

Pacino is excellent, really making us feel the horror & disgust of Serpico as he is associated through his colleagues with this nakedly immoral behaviour, being done often to the poorest & most vulnerable he is meant to be protecting. The other supporting cast are also good as well, plus the use of locations/shooting on the actual streets & cities that Serpico himself worked adds huge authenticity to the picture.

However, as much as I have given this 4 stars, that is mainly down to Pacino. Parts of this film are long, drawn-out and at times a bit dull as well. Pacino saves this from being a fairly rote police-procedural film & turns it into a gripping and classic movie.

After the Oscar-winning & incredible 12 Years A Slave, Steve McQueen then did exactly what you'd expect an artist of his calibre & previous work to do: go in a completely different direction to his last film & make an action/thriller film based on an 80's British TV series, but moving the action to America. Frustratingly though, this produces both inspired & also turgid/rubbish results.

The film opens with a spectacular heist, which very quickly goes very badly wrong. The gang are cornered, then desperately flee in their getaway van to the safe house, some of them sustaining serious injuries. However, they are then exposed and slaughtered in a hail of bullets by the police, leaving their broken widows to grieve them. Then, after being threatened by the man their husband's robbed, forced to become criminals themselves and target the next person on their deceased partner's list to pay back the debt.

These opening scenes are the best in the entire movie & McQueen's ability to be able to marshall this type of action really is impressive. Going from a scene of intimacy between the gang leader & his wife to being thrust straight into the action in the back of the van as the cops chase after the thieves really starts the film in a great way. However, it never again manages to hit those heights. The strangest thing for me about Widows was that when it worked, it was amazing. But so much of this film didn't fit together: characters at times were terribly written & scenes just didn't work. Plus certain actors just completely outshone everyone else because of their gravitas.

For example, the shining star by a country mile was Viola Davis. In every single thing she has been in, she has been amazing & elevated the drama. Whether it's Suicide Squad or Fences, she is perfect. And in this film, she is given a massive & expansive role as the widow of the lead gang member. But she also wipes the floor with many of the other actors/characters. They just can't keep up with her. And it is exactly the same with Daniel Kaluuya. He is introduced in a scene which suddenly descends into shocking & brutal violence, making us extremely uncomfortable with his unpredictability. But then in other scenes he is wasted & his actions just don't work within the film's narrative.

So, despite me wanting to like this film, coming after 12 Years and especially Shame, it is never any more than a 3 star film filled with as many faults as it is flashes of brilliance.

When A Star Is Born was released, it received many 5 star reviews. As someone who has always liked Bradley Cooper, I was interested & encouraged to see this film, especially as this was his directorial debut. And whilst several elements have been updated, such as people using every opportunity to ask for autographs/pull out camera phones & take pictures/invade privacy, the core elements still remain.

But it was not something that I particularly bought into or enjoyed. The music was good & the chemistry between the two of them great, however I stopped watching after an hour simply because, whilst there was nothing much wrong with what was on screen, there wasn't much right either. I could see what was going to happen and the mood I was in at the time was one of boredom & indifference.

I may one day give it another shot, but in all my reviews I am completely honest and this film was not one I was interested in finishing, despite the positives.

This concert is a celebration of the incredible work of Hans Zimmer, who has been working for over 30 years, scoring many of the films which today have become iconic elements of people's lives. For me, The Lion King, Gladiator & The Dark Knight trilogy would not be what they are without Zimmer's music. Here, we are treated to a selection of the most iconic pieces he has written.

The other reason I rented this film was because I actually saw it live when the concert was brought to London. If you are a fan, as I am, there is so much to love, as well as the thoughtful & detailed explanations given by Zimmer about the inspirations behind the various pieces he has created, many coming from places of intense pain & difficulty he has faced in his life.

Whether you are 8 or 80, there is an embarrassment of riches to be experienced. Put this on the biggest TV with the best sound system you can find.

In the bloated & extremely crowded genre of spy/espionage thrillers, Killing Eve was an instant & incredible success, making stars overnight of Sandra Oh & especially Jodie Comer. It just was such a fresh, light but also at times shocking series, following a highly skilled Russian assassin called Villanelle who was not only leathal with her skills but also her ability to blend in as well. And nowhere is this more amazing than with Comer's staggering ability with any accent you can imagine.

Bearing in mind that Comer's mother tongue/accent is an extremely strong Liverpool/Scouse accent, she literally can do any voice imaginable & switch immediately from one accent to another, sometimes in the same sentence. She also absolutely convinces in the physical/action scenes.

Sandra Oh was a bit more of a mixed experience for me. Eve Polastri is a typical desk-bound operative who works for MI-5. She is successful & competent in her job, but dreams of being an agent in the field. She is then drawn into a shocking battle of wills with Villanelle, who takes great delight in avoiding all of the traps that are laid for her, as well as mercilessly slaughtering Eve's operatives & associates.

However, despite my 4 star rating, this series as a whole also has some problems with it, the main one being how many of the situations that are set up simply aren't believable. This is either represented as repeated gross incompetence that would have, once discovered, resulted in probably instant dismissal; or quite simply things which would not happen in the way they are shown/extremely unlikely situations that stretch believability.

But I cannot deny how many times I found myself either laughing, in awe of the acting ability or totally gripped by what was on screen. So despite the flaws, this is a great series. It's just a shame that once we get to series 2 and change the showrunner (Phoebe Waller-Bridge,) a lot of the charm & zany elements are lost.

But Comer is perfection in every way.

In many ways, it's surprising that it took until 2010 for a concept like The Expendables to be realised by Hollywood, given their huge appetite for those types of big budget action fests. The basic premise of the Expendables is, to quote one reviewer, "To point a grenade launcher at the action section of your local Blockbusters;" e.g to get as many action stars from particularly the 80's/90's into one film, give them a thinly plotted mission to rescue or take out a target, as many guns as they can carry then throw it onto the screen. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that concept, indeed when it's done well, you'll struggle to have more fun in a cinema. However, the biggest issue faced with this film is the tone.

The Expendables are an elite mercenary team who specialise in carrying out impossible missions where the risk of death is high and disownment guaranteed: if they get caught, there's no-one coming to rescue them. Led by Barney Ross(Stallone,) they are then hired by a shady individual called Mr Church to topple the Latin American dictator of a country where it is revealed that it is in fact in the control of a corrupt ex-CIA operative (Eric Roberts, the go-to actor for bad guys who fortunately had a gap in his schedule between back-to-back shoots of barrel-scrapingly bad straight-to-DVD trash,) on an island full of military with enough weaponry to send the Statue of Liberty into orbit. Things are further complicated by the fact that the dictator's daughter becomes a love interest of Ross's, as well as conveniently being against everything her father is.

There are many good moments in this film including, welcomingly, the first time that Stallone, Willis and Schwarzenegger are on screen together, although we sadly have to wait until the sequel to actually see them all together in an action scene. As actors, they have known each other for decades, through friendship & rivalries, so the scene of them all together is great fun, with good chemistry. This film is also chock-full of one-liners (including one of my all-time favourites said by Stallone to Stone Cold) & unbelievably cheesy situations, which the film unashamedly hams up and is all the better for it. Add into that some decent action & a sizeable budget and it should be a winner.

However, this film does have what for me is actually quite a significant failure which affects pretty much all of it: it's tone. With action films, especially ones in this genre/style, whilst they can absolutely deal with heavy subjects, they also have to have a lightness of touch/a streak of silliness in them so that it doesn't descend into a weighty, turgid & lumpy mess. And whilst this film is in no way as bad as Night Hunter, it still has missing a huge amount of fun. It is at times unbelievably heavy-going, with lengthy scenes of exposition for pretty much no reason. Stallone, you aren't making Citizen Kane, you are directing a film in which at one point a bad guy gets doused in petrol & set on fire, then somehow manages to KEEP fighting...

However, if you keep your tongue in cheek & sit through the various heavy moments, there is much to like & laugh about. And the sequel is absolutely 1st class, so please don't be put off renting it after watching this.

When the first Expendables came out, it was a real mixed bag. There were plenty of flashes of brilliance, but the heavy & dour tone of the film dragged it down & proved to be a weight around its neck it could never fully escape from. However, with this film, 2 things have changed: as the first movie was extremely successful, there is now more money to play with/more confidence about what they are doing; secondly & most importantly, they have brought in Simon West to direct. West, who among other films, directed the brilliant & classic Con Air, totally gets what this series is about, what it needs to be & what went wrong with the first one. The result is nothing short of brilliant.

In the second film, the team are joined by a new member, Billy the Kid. He is a youthful, good-looking, moral man who became disenfranchised after serving in Afghanistan; horrified at the slaughter all around him, he decides that the only logical response is to join a mercenary organisation where he is paid eye-watering sums of money to slaughter "bad guys." He also intends to leave after his final mission with the Expendables & retire with his beautiful girlfriend. Obviously, as he has all these morals, good looks & plans, he gets slaughtered within the first 20 minutes by Vilain, the big bad of this film. The remaining Expendables then vow to avenge his death, setting off a chain of events that eventually leads to stopping nuclear material being sold to the bad guys.

Everything about this film is so stupidly funny & silly, it is brilliant. Yes, there are some heavy moments, but these are perfectly offset & complimented by the rest of the film. The stunts have been taken up a notch & it must again be praised how much of them are largely real/not CGI and many are done by the actual cast themselves, including by Stallone who has his neck broken in the first film...

But most importantly, it is so much fun to sit & watch all these old actions stars ham it up and have a ball on screen. We finally, after many many years, get Stallone, Willis and Schwarzenegger on screen in an action scene fighting alongside each other. There are also welcome additions, such as Chuck Norris, who actually quotes a Chuck Norris fact as dialogue. Van Damme is also perfectly cast, fully learning into the silliness of Vilain.

Yes, this film won't be for everyone, although I feel that as it wears it's themes & intentions so proudly/as a badge of honour, if you rent this, you should know what you're getting yourself into. Sadly, things go downhill again with the 3rd film, but this one is an absolute riot and fully uses it's premise to great effect.

Back in 2010, Sly & his producing partners came up with the Expendables series: a homage/throwback to the action films of the 80's & 90's, full of outrageous stunts, clichés & one liners, all done totally tongue-in-cheek. The first film was good in terms of laying the groundwork, although it also had a very heavy & cumbersome tone, sorely missing a lightness of touch. Then number 2 came along, took everything that the first film had created, added some new things and was one of the best/most enjoyable nights at the cinema I've ever had. So, after the greatness of that film, expectations were sky-high.

But then something happened, which totally changed the whole dynamic & I feel in many ways set the movie up to fail: it was announced with great fanfare & enthusiasm that the film was to be made to be a PG-13 rating (12A in the UK,) in effect hamstringing & completely toning down/reducing the violence in the film to become effectively a kid's movie. Basically, and this has been admitted quite frankly later on by Stallone, this decision was completely commercially driven in order to make the film be able to be seen by as many people as possible to make as much money as possible. And it wasn't only me thinking this: there was a significant backlash from fans, which was responded to by Stallone, assuring them that it wouldn't affect the movie. But, after watching this debacle, I knew that the film was not only being set up to fail, but that it would also simply not work. You cannot have a film like the Expendables, make the first two proper action films with violence (although it has to be said not gratuitously violent,) then release one which has literally had the soul ripped out of it.

So now the firefights & hand-to-hand combat have no edge to them, no real sense of suspense or danger. Almost every moment where, in a normal action film, you'd see a bullet hit someone/the effects of the violence, this has now been cut/the editing cuts away to another angle. But what makes it even more frustrating is that, again in a step up from number 2, there is more money to play with; bigger, bolder stunts; great locations ect ect. But with the limits of the rating, all this effort is mainly for nothing. So in effect, it's like watching teletubbies bouncing around in a padded room.

There are also some very annoying story changes. The theme of age is repeatedly brought up, in respect to getting in newer younger blood (although this didn't work particularly well in film 2...) so some new cast members have joined. None of them are particularly good or interesting, they are mainly just annoying. Even Antonio Banderas can't salvage this, despite his best efforts.

However, this film has an absolute ace up its sleeve in the form of Mel Gibson. In many ways this film, along with Hacksaw Ridge, was Gibson coming back into the public eye after his personal disgraces. And whatever you may think of that behaviour, this film would have totally failed without him. Summoning the gravitas & presence which made him a star, here he chews up the scenery for all it's worth, creating a megalomaniac who dominates the screen whenever he is on it.

But despite the efforts of all the cast & crew, this film's problems are just too great. And whilst the Blu-ray does add in some cut footage which bumps the rating up to a 15, it is a token gesture & does nothing to affect the story/solve the numerous issues with the structure.

The irony is that there is to be a 4th & final film and the main selling point which is repeatedly referenced in the trailer is that it has an R rating. Unfortunately, I think it's a case of too little too late. The damage has already been done.

After the misfire of his previous DVD/stand-up, which I saw live and was so bad, his support act was funnier than he was, Kevin Bridges is back with a new show.

Clearly having worked hard on his writing & act, this is full of the classic and hysterically funny observations which made Bridges an essential comedian to watch when he first exploded onto the comedy scene many years ago.

A great laugh and highly recommend.