Film Reviews by TB

Unfortunately, we have now clearly reached the limit of what can be done with the John Wick film series. When the first film came out, it was an unbelievably tightly-edited, brilliantly scripted action film with a great central performance by Reeves which managed to achieve a staggering amount in terms of stunt work, given it's relatively small budget. It was of course extremely successful, which has led to multiple sequels, this one being the third. And, in a really surprising way, Chapters 2 & 3 were both great.

Whilst 2 is my favourite of the whole series, even 3 was absolutely a solid and at times brilliant movie, even with some of its choices. Sadly, Chapter 4 has shown in no uncertain terms that John Wick would do good to keep a very low profile again.

This film is a total mess. The whole mantra of the writers and director seems to be "If bigger is better, then gigantic is perfection." Whilst we have a bigger budget this time around, unfortunately this has only massively increased the problems that were only slightly visible in Chapter 3. The main one, by a country mile, is the length. This film just goes on and on and on and on. Whether it is action scenes (there is a sequence involving a long set of stairs that goes on for over 20 minutes,) or dialogue (a card game which adds nothing to the plot and is again around 15 minutes of running time,) this film just piles on a constant stream of padding.

If I had to characterise it, it is effectively like saying that when they made the first film, they HAD to get it right: the amount of effort to get a new idea off the ground/secure funding, even with an established star, would have been a monumental feat. And then when the sequels were greenlit, there was still an element of "We have to be careful and make sure we create something great." But the attitude now seems to be "We've got loads of money to play with and it doesn't matter what we do, so let's do everything: super-long action scenes, fights which never end and enough exposition to rival War and Peace." And this goes on for almost 3 hours...

Another massive failing is the characters. Whilst Keanu is still very good as Wick, and it's always great to see Ian McShane & Laurence Fishburne on screen, the new additions are mostly a let down. Front & center of this failure is Bill Skarsgård as the Marquis. Skarsgård, who has incredible presence on screen, here quite simply plays a slimy Frenchman. No, I'm not joking, that's it. There is never a hint that he has any assassin skills, which makes his position as the Head of the organisation totally ridiculous & stupid. He is also far too young to be in that position.

Donnie Yen is also wasted as Caine, an old friend of Wick's. As much as the film strains every sinew to make the idea of one of the world's greatest assassins being blind work, it just doesn't, in any way imaginable. This is unintentionally proven in one scene where if a shooter had been targeting Caine & not Wick, he would have been dead.

And that's the other problem this movie has: repeatedly changing allegiances. Characters change their motivations & loyalties at the drop of a hat. But after that has been done more than once, none of their motivations hold any water from then on. Literally, any of the characters can do anything, for any reason & the film just sets it up so that we need to accept it on face value.

It is quite sad in a way that, after 3 amazing films, this is the result of the 4th: stupid decisions, too much action, a rubbish story and a movie crying out for a decent editor to come along & actually cut it to a proper length. But unfortunately, due to the massive box office haul of this film, the chances of major changes happening is slim to none.

The first Bad Boys was a great buddy cop film, at a time when those types of films were in many ways going stale. It was also a high profile, extremely successful film which had 2 black protagonists along with the way that the environment was to them. The fact that it had amazing car chases as well as great humour & soundtrack was an added bonus.

Unfortunately when the second film came along Michael Bay, who when making the first was a scrappy maverick filmmaker, had turned into the Michael Bay of today: extremely garish, almost pornography -style filmmaking, everything LOUD LOUD LOUD, with a really sleazy edge. Even all those years ago, the moment when they are in a morgue & Marcus hides under a sheet with a dead woman, whose enormous breasts take up a third of the screen and this isn't just a fleeting shot but a long, drawn-out one is just revolting. Some may find it funny, but to me it was disgusting. Which is a shame because there are some really genuinely enjoyable moments in the film, especially the incredible car chase in the first third.

In many ways, the best thing that Bad Boys For Life is that it has not one but two fresh pairs of eyes helming it. There is a real sense of change, but all the elements that you love are not only there but enhanced. The friendship between Burnett and Lowery feels much more genuine in some ways, as is the separate feelings that they have about their situation. And the sudden act of violence which propels things further has been done so well, not a cheap throwaway trick to try and make you care.

Adil & Bilall really deserve enormous credit here. As do Smith and Lawrence. They have together made an amazing and great film and a really enjoyable one. The stunts, script, story and feel are all great. And with a sequel announced with all of them returning is welcome news. I am very excited to see what happens next.

I knew very little about the Williams sisters, apart from the fact that they were both American & incredible tennis players. I also knew nothing of Richard Williams, their father, coach and mentor. The film does show many times how he was not only protective but also overbearing, but crucially his motivations behind this. This film fleshes out how he raised them as well as their sisters and the morals he instilled in them.

The thing that impressed me most was quite simply that Richard never treated his children as cash cows the moment it was realised how good they were. Pretty much any other parent who had lived the life that he had (relatively poor, living in a very dangerous neighbourhood and the victim of repeated, disgusting and despicable racism,) would probably be tempted to use his talented children as a great big ringing cash till, selling them out for every penny he could. But he does the total opposite, demanding that the children be allowed to make their own choices, even if he was also at times overbearing. His insistence as well that they were allowed to be "children" and that they should continue their schooling was also very moving.

As much as there is the elephant in the room about Smith's behaviour at the Oscars, I am not going to give it any further mention. I do not want to detract from the story and also Smith's excellent performance. He has always been an actor who is very welcoming to anyone watching him, whilst being able to project extreme charisma and gravitas. And the role of Richard may be his best performance to date. He makes Richard a complex but deeply moral man who only wants the best for his daughters and for them to in no way go through any of what he had to experience. But as much as this film is called King Richard, Aunjanue Ellis cannot for a second be sidelined as Richard's wife/the sister's mother Brandi. I was really blown away by her and her quiet dignity. She doesn't have much screen time, but the amount she has she does wonders with. It is a shame in one respect that we don't see more of her. And finally, the two young actresses cast are as the sisters are great too, their chemistry real and hard-hitting.

There may be some criticism of the fact that this film doesn't do much new in terms of a sports biopic, but what it does do, it does so well and keeps you so hooked that you don't care. I loved this film and it has made me revere all of the Williams's family achievements, coming from what they did to where they are now.

This film, showing the heartbreak of forbidden love, is incredible.

But for me, as much as the performances are masterful, the locations & costumes perfect & the script excellent, the thing that blew me away with this film was how it was shot. It is all done on Super 16MM with 30MM film lenses. The result is the closest I've ever seen to a film looking exactly like a dream. I was totally engrossed, hooked and smitten. I love being in that world, with the formal suits, smokey drawing rooms and small intimate bedrooms.

Todd Haynes has created one of the most profound love stories ever. As much as it received huge attention at the time for its portrayal of a lesbian relationship, it is timeless and trancends all boundaries. Everyone brings their A-Game and I was very sad when it finished. I wanted to just be in that world, at that time with those characters. Watch it and have your heart broken.

A masterpiece.

The film which in many ways launched Saoirse Ronan's career and put her front and centre on the list of the most talented actresses working today. This film is a gentle, but also at times powerful & heartbreaking film. It charts the life of Ellis, who is born in Ireland into a large family, but as a young woman does not find the town she lives in a place that she feels that she can make her life in. Her sister makes contact with an Irish priest living in New York City to help Ellis move over to the USA and start a new life there.

The film then follows Ellis as she makes the horrible and hazardous journey across the Atlantic and tries to settle in the USA. She also falls in love and starts to build a life, before having to come back to Ireland again. Things then get complicated with a man who she had been interested in before she left, as well as the family politics.

The whole film is brilliant. I loved not only following Ellis's journey, but also seeing the various characters that she encounters. Saoirse Ronan at the centre is absolute perfection. I loved her & she totally anchors the film. The other cast are great, but the main two that stuck for me were Julie Walters as Mrs Kehoe the strict landlady and Emory Cohen as Tony, Ellis's love in Brooklyn. But everyone does amazing work.

This film doesn't put a foot wrong. It is the perfect length, great script, looks amazing and brilliant soundtrack. It is also, despite it's 12 rating, a very mild and uncontroversial film. Watch it and fall in love with this incredible world.

The Inbetweeners was a cultural phenomenon in the UK. Starting with the TV show, which was so successful that it was given three series and then two movies which broke records for the highest gross for British comedy films in cinemas, this was a concept which whilst it had been done before, at its best felt totally irreverent and fresh.

But, as time went on with the TV series and which was then exacerbated with the films, one thing became painfully clear: The Inbetweeners either worked brilliantly or totally failed. With the final TV series and the 2nd film, it was either the funniest thing ever (Simon trying to lose his virginity in the TV series, Will having a meltdown around a load of spoilt brats who have gone travelling to "see the real world" whilst living in 5 star hotels and off Daddy's trust fund in the film,) or completely unfunny and totally failing (pretty much everything else in the rest of the 2nd film.) For me, the worst thing about comedy films is when they are not only unfunny but aggressively so, with the performances/script getting more and more ridiculous to compensate for this.

And this is everything that this film is and more.

From the opening scenes, it is clear that Joe Thomas, who plays Simon in the Inbetweeners, has been brought in to tap into that fanbase and also to be subjected to many of the same embarrassing things which the characters encountered in that show. But none of it is in any way funny, at all. It just comes off as desperate. In the 40 minutes that I watched it, I saw exactly the same things that I would have expected in the show, but without anything funny to anchor them to. We see Thomas’s character Nick have a sexual accident, get dumped, embarrass himself in front of everyone, get himself into an extremely awkward sexual situation ect ect in the first 40 minutes. I had by then lost all interest in the film and switched it off, as I just didn’t care about it.

It was, to me, just a lazy and cynical cash grab aimed at the extremely vocal & at times crazed Inbetweeners fan base who have never been able to get over that there hasn't been any more content since the second film. And the biggest irony in this whole sorry saga is that after watching this, they will probably feel even more short-changed...

This film isn’t funny, edgy, radical, provocative, interesting or even controversial. It is simply bland, boring & uninspired. Can we please now stop having Inbetweeners inspired films which cast actors from that world and leave well alone. Stop traducing what was for many of us a wonderful and brilliant part of our teenage years.

It might have good intentions, but I just couldn't get into it. It was a very loud, slightly obnoxious film and the central message was noble but the way it was being done just grated.

Not one for me unfortunately.

The events of the moon landings have been extensively covered through all types of media over the years, such as Apollo 11. This film covers the build-up to and the actual journey itself.

But as much as there is a rich amount of detail and everything looks great, this was at times a very long and heavy-going film. Gosling does try his best and bring gravitas to the role of Armstrong, but also he is an impenetrable character. The rest of the cast also give their best.

By a country mile, the best parts of this film are the final shots on the Moon, shot in stunning IMAX. They are worth waiting until the end to see. They just about make the build-up worth it.

For people who love watching anything space-related, they will lap this up. For others, it is a somewhat interesting but long film. Definitely stay to the end though.

I really enjoyed this and rented it solely because it was Mortensen's directorial debut & attracted excellent reviews.

It is a very beautiful, slow and gentle film. There is a very strong naturalistic feel, with frequent cutting back and fourth between the past and present. Mortensen is shown as a skilled writer as well as a bold and competent director.

The performances are also great, but front and center is Lance Henriksen. For many people, he will be known as Bishop from the Alien universe, But he is also an exceptional actor and here he is giving a massive, meaty role to inhabit. It is a towering performance, full of upset, hurt and hate. But underneath all of it is a deeply miserable and scared man. Mortensen is also great, perfect as a deeply hurt and wounded man, trying to do the right thing which taking a torrent of disgusting abuse, much of it homophobic.

If this is what Mortensen has done with his first attempt of directing, I cannot wait to see what he does next. A brilliant debut.

The first Mummy film was great in so many ways. And re-watching it 15 years after I first saw it, I was reminded again how good it was. Everything just worked and welcomingly there was an unbelievable lightness of touch that ran through all of it. I had remembered that when I watched The Mummy Returns all those years ago, it was my favourite, but that was mainly due to the fact there is much more action in this one. Watching it back 15 years later, I have changed my mind and now feel that the first one is the better of the two.

But that doesn't mean there isn't a lot to love. Starting with the positives, it is wonderful that pretty much everyone has been brought back from the first film, although some people get less to do this time around sadly. Brendan Fraser & Rachel Weitz continue on their perfect chemistry. I just love spending time with them & it is nice to see that their romance has really believably blossomed. They now have a son, who to me was actually the best character in the whole film. Freddie Boath as the son is so so good & manages to do the almost impossible thing of being both extremely likeable and precocious without being annoying. The scenes of him with Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, continually antagonising him are hysterical. We also see the return of both Arnold Vosloo & Oded Fehr, both excellent company.

One character who sadly falls into the category of less to do is John Hannah's Jonathan. In the first film, he was really good comic relief but also fitted well into the story. Here, he makes an appearance early on, then is relegated for the middle part to the background before being almost shoehorned back into the film for the finale. And the pompous blustering did get annoying after a while.

Welcomingly, after the huge success of the first film, there is a significantly bigger budget for action & this is something else that Returns delivers on in spades. As much as the ending fights might get a lot of attention, for me the chase with the London bus was an absolute masterpiece of choreography, fight work and seemless melding of CGI. And as with the first movie, you have to remember that this film is 22 years old now and the sheer amount of films back then which has CGI which was done appallingly were off the charts. So to have this film's action sequences still standing up to scrutiny today is a massive achievement.

The production values are also outstanding and the film, as with the first one, looks spectacular. The sets & costumes are beautiful & so much effort and thought has gone into how everything looks. The remaster in 4K is also brilliantly done as well.

But sadly this film does have its problems and the biggest one by a country mile is the middle section. After the amazing first act, where it so seamlessly slips back into the pace & quality of the first film and in some ways improves on it, we then get a stodgy middle section full of exposition and nothing really happening. By the time the film starts to pick up again, all the wonderful work done previously cannot bring it back. I did enjoy the final battle in the pyramid, but also it was a little too long and bloated.

As much as there is this criticism though, I still had a blast watching it. And it is a worthy successor in many ways to the first film.

I love this film. It takes a genre that has had so many films made about it (boxing) filled it with relatable & colourful characters, used the true story to brilliant effect and builds up to a genuinely thrilling finale.

Massive credit needs to be given to Mark Wahlberg, without whom quite simply this film would never have got made. For years & years whilst it was stuck in development hell, he not only didn't give up, but consistently trained throughout that entire time to ensure that he was match-fit and ready to shoot at a moment's notice.

Every performance is flawless, although for me my favourite was Christian Bale as Dickie. When you see the real Dickie in the behind-the-scenes footage, it is staggering how perfect Bale's characterisation of him is. Amy Adams also perfectly pulls off the tough as nails barmaid and later wife too.

The fight scenes are shot perfectly, the locations great and like with many other films made this way, the vast majority of the smaller bit parts/background characters were real locals from the Boston neighborhood where the film was shot & and the brothers came from.

A flawless, brilliant boxing film and richly deserving of the huge praise given to it.

Imagine you are directing your first film and you manage to get Robert De Niro, Clive Owen & Jason Statham to star in it. Then added to this, you get a $70 million budget, which is roughly $68 million more than most first-time film directors get to play with. This means that you have the ability to get the best stunt teams/action department available. And finally, you are adapting a celebrated although controversial novel by one of the UK most well-known ex-special forces authors and explorers.

You would think: what could go wrong? How could this not be an even halfway-decent film, with some great action to offset any script failings? And after watching the trailer, which even to this day still stands up to scrutiny as a brilliant action preview, I was absolutely pumped for this film.

And then it started...

This film is rubbish. Total and utter boring dreck. It takes a premise which should have been great (ex-special forces mentor kidnapped & his protégé forced to complete the job otherwise the mentor will be killed, whilst also battling against his old colleagues; so in other words, a perfect Statham vehicle,) and turns it into a movie full of schlocky dialogue, rubbish pacing & boring action.

The cast are wasted. Clive Owen & Jason Statham, who can both absolutely hold their own in action scenes & also have incredible screen presence, are reduced to chewing scenery & spouting off exposition. Their much hyped-up (in the trailer) confrontation is also a wasted opportunity, despite the considerable effort both men bring to the table. De Niro is also wasted, given a thankless part which requires him to sit in a cell for most of the film before being allowed to show his military credentials, in an action scene which is blink-and-you'll-miss-it length.

It is actually quite sad to see this decent cast bringing their A-game to a movie which simply doesn't deserve them or use them in any meaningful way. And like with other terrible films I've seen like this, if it wasn't for the A-list cast, you'd find this film in the bargain bin at your local Poundland.

When Mark Wahlberg & Peter Berg first started their collaboration, the results were spectacular. Lone Survivor was a masterclass in tension-building, incredible action and the amazing true story of an American soldier who was trapped & wounded being cared for by what most people regarded as the enemy. Then Deepwater Horizon was made, with a massive budget due to the success of Lone Survivor. This was in every way a masterpiece, building on everything that had started with the previous film. The stunts, script and look of the film perfect, with Wahlberg anchoring everything with his amazing performance.

After that, things started to get a bit wobbly. Patriots Day, whilst again mining a real-life tragedy for the story, was notable for its lack of true quality after the previous works of perfection. But it was still great in parts and every collaboration has a mis-fire, especially when the bar is so high. But compared to this, Patriots Day is Citizen Kane in every way. 

Mile 22 is a genuinely terrible film, total garbage, but loud and obnoxious with a really nasty streak running through it. Wahlberg plays James Silva, who the film tells us, from a very small child had an enormous IQ and all-round lightening-fast reactions. He was then enlisted into the military and rose to the top. He is also an absolute arsehole in every way: confrontational, rude, threatening, belittling and demeaning. Just imagine all the worst traits of Dignam from The Departed turned up to 11. But the film also feels that the best way to portray Silva is frantic, almost epileptic-style frenzied cutting and close-ups. All this does, within the first 10 minutes, is make you hate the film and realise that you have a very long watching experience ahead of you. 

And the worst part about all of this is that everything that you felt Berg & Wahlberg worked so hard to achieve in the previous 3 films has been totally ruined and destroyed in one fell swoop. There is not one element of this film that is likeable, competent or enjoyable. If it hadn’t have said Berg’s name in the credits/I’d gone in and watched this movie cold, I would have refused to believe it was made by him. 

And there are so many missed opportunities. After his incredible work on The Raid, Iko Uwais is probably the hottest actor/action star who does his own stunts working in films today (who are his age.) His ability to craft and act in these scenes is in the same league as Jackie Chan and Jet Li. And to be fair, in this film he is the only one who manages to emerge with any type of dignity. But even so, he is absolutely wasted and worse than that, all the stunts he is involved in are shot & edited so badly, you can’t see what’s going on. Every fight/hand-to-hand combat scene is just cut cut cut cut cut cut cut. You cannot tell what’s happening, and instead you are left wondering who the hell is in charge of quality control and how did this get cleared to be released. 

By the time you get to the end, you are left with a headache and in my case, a sadness that a collaboration which had produced so many great films before had managed to, in one film, totally desecrate all that brilliance and good will. 

In the mid-90’s, the film world was in a glorious state of craziness. As much as there was a huge amount of rubbish released, there were also some absolute gems. I recently watched Basic Instinct for the first time and absolutely loved it: totally crackers off the wall craziness. As well as Hollywood making these sorts of erotic thrillers, there was also another welcome consequence of this: A-list actors signing up to star in these films meant there were massive budgets to play with. And like with Color of Night, welcomingly a vast amount was spent on the actual productions, not just on actor’s wages and their expensive trailers.

This film looks stunning. As much as it is marketed as and will be remembered by many people as simply another erotic thriller with a famous cast, the cinematography, lensing, colours, locations, wardrobes and sets are the best you could possibly hope for. Even Bond films didn’t look this good at that time. This film literally is a visual feast for the eyes. And speaking of Bond films, the stunts and hand-to-hand combat is also great too. 

The story is about an explosives “specialist” called Ray Quick (Stallone) who, after a mission goes awry, quits the CIA and moves to Miami, becoming a hit-man. He is then contacted by Mae Monroe (Stone) who has sworn vengeance on the mafia crime family who years earlier slaughtered her own family. Added into the mix, the mafia family’s head of security is Ned Trent (Woods) who is Quick’s ex partner who he violently fell out with. It then becomes a classic cat-and-mouse thriller which reaches ridiculous levels of silliness. 

Stallone and Stone have excellent chemistry, which is vital because the film simply wouldn’t work otherwise. Woods also chews up the scenery for all he’s worth and even Nicolas Cage might say to him “You need to tone it down a bit!” The thrill of this film is simply that everything is so gloriously silly and stupid, but all done with a totally straight face. 

Amusingly, this film and Color of Night also share another similarity: they both have unbelievably over the top, protracted sex scenes. Whereas Color of Night used pretty much every room in Willis’s character’s mansion to bang, here is it a 7 star hotel room which is the size of an aircraft hanger. And with Stone bringing her Basic Instinct credentials/reputation with her, this just adds to the mix. Part dance/part erotic fantasy/part total cheesy schlock, it’s a great addition to proceedings. 

If you come to this film expecting a masterpiece, you won’t find it. This is a film to be watched exactly as it comes across: tongue firmly in cheek craziness, clichés aplenty but all wrapped up in beautiful production values. A great Friday night film to watch with your friends.  

A film that was devised by Sam Mendes after listening to conversations with his grandfather about his days as a war messenger, 1917 concerns 2 young soldiers who are tasked with delivering a vital message to a commander who is about to lead a charge which is a trap set by the Germans. 

The main draw of the film is that it is a “one-shot” movie with no visual cuts. So you literally spend the entire time following the soldiers and experiencing the danger and threat that they face, at the same time. It is is a technical marvel and as much as there should be the praise for Mendes & his writers, this film belongs to the staggering genius of Roger Deakins. The look, feel, pace and cinematography is his incredible work. I cannot think of another recently comparable example. 

The young actors, who star alongside many Hollywood A-listers, absolutely hold their own and we really root for them the whole way through. It is also a reminder of just how many young men were conscripted and lost in this barbaric & horrific war, which sadly was repeated in many ways a few short years later. 

Essential viewing.