Film Reviews by TB

Whatever you could say about Fifty Shades of Gray, it was never dull. Despite a lot of terrible narrative choices, I enjoyed various parts of it. It had a strange humour to it & Dakota Johnson was actually the best part of it. And yet again in this film, she is also the best part. However, this film has lost pretty much all of the charm of the first film and not replaced it with anything.

According to multiple reports, this seems to be entirely the fault of E.L James. When she sold the rights, she also retained extensive & almost total creative control of the franchise, which I cannot blame her for in many ways. There have been so many thousands of films which have been adapted from books & totally bombed/destroyed so much of the source material, that you can understand why you would want to retain as much control as possible. But, the problem comes when you then go too far in the other direction. And this appears to have been what she has done.

In almost dictator style, after many heated arguments on the set of the 1st film, James fired most of the creative team & brought in her own scriptwriter who she could control, who also coincidentally happens to be her husband. The director has also been replaced and as much as James Foley has his own impressive filmography, you do get the impression that he is just a director for hire, who has agreed a massive payday in return for lending his credibility to this project. But the results of all this messing about are devastating for what was already a mediocre story.

The biggest issue with this series, as many others have pointed out, is that if you want to watch sleazy & transgressive sex, you can just stick on some porn. And Fifty Shades, despite all the build-up, is just not a sexy film. When the key selling point (the sex) is shot so badly & gives you absolutely no reaction or feeling, you know there are problems. And front & center of that, as with the first film, is the ATROCIOUS chemistry between the two leads.

There is literally nothing there. Jamie Dornan may act his heart out in terms of puppy-dog eyes & lowering his voice to a growl when trying to raise tension, but it's like watching a terrible school play. Dakota Johnson, who absolutely is the best thing about the series, doesn't fare much better. The two of them actively seem uncomfortable in each others presence, which is never a good thing, especially when the whole story is about how crazy you are for each other.

The bondage itself is also not at all transgressive, and more than that, is actually quite boring, almost laughable. Especially after the events at the end of the first film, you would expect the game to be upped, but it really isn't.

Ironically for me, my favourite bit of this film has nothing to do with the story or actions of the characters: about halfway through on the extended cut, there is a spectacular & stunningly shot scene with a yacht as it sails through the waters around an exotic location (I can't remember where.) This scene (around 4 minutes,) is absolutely stunningly shot. Beautiful camera angles, music, literally like the film takes a pitstop to give you a break from all the turgid rubbish. And that was for me the best bit.

When a sailing sequence with no debauchery is the best thing in a film about S&M sex, you know you're in problems. But there is also a strange fun to be had with it, which is in no way erotic. You may even laugh once or twice...

Paul Verhoeven making a film about lesbian nuns should be an instant winner. Not only is he fearless, but the film would be so much more than it's lurid premise, which was what I was most looking forward to. And after the phenomenal Elle, this was shaping up to be something incredible.

However, this film is really boring. There are lots of speeches about sin and miracle working. But it never is as scandalous as it likes to think it is. And when the much-hinted at and built upto sex scene arrives, it is fairly boring. Another example of this sort of film hype really not delivering.

Verhoeven may have been trying to make that point in a postmodern type of way, but it didn't work for me and fell flat. There are some plus points, the main one being that it's use of lighting, colour palette and cinematography is stunning: this really is a beautiful film to look at, hence the 2 stars. And Charlotte Rampling is suitably frosty & domineering as the head nun.

But these are small plus points in a film which in all honesty should have been so, so much more.

Simply wonderful.

The action film that other action films wish they were.

Bruce Willis's finest performance, as the street-smart, wise-cracking cop who ends up in the middle of a high-stakes robbery lead by a never-better Alan Rickman. He becomes the only hope for the hostages, slowly taking out the terrorists until the final showdown.

The stunts are amazing, the action flawless & the story wonderful.

And yes, Die Hard is a Christmas movie.

The plot for this film is in a funny way like the anti-Expendables, despite the fact that both feature Bruce Willis. Whereas the Expendables are still all absolutely ripped/stacked/muscular, this film is more about brains than brawn.

The chemistry between the actors is also great, particularly with the addition of Helen Mirren. Mirren is the last person you'd expect in this type of film, which is exactly why it works. Brian Cox is also good fun. He also has the best part in the movie, when he creates a diversion by pretending to smell gas and setting off the alarms. The completely over the top way he does this absolutely creased me with laughter.

As much as this is a 3 star film, you have a good time watching it and there are some good stunts/stunt work as well.

There were some annoyances, such as Mary-Louise Parker's character, who has the tricky task of being the woman caught up in it all who also spouts dialogue machine gun fashion, which very quickly becomes tiresome.

But it's still a good watch and fun if you don't think about it too much.

When I was at school, there was a music teacher who shall remain nameless. This man was ex-army and had been in the military band. He was also an absolute psychopath, his favourite thing being to throw his big bunch of keys at someone who wasn't playing well/annoying him. He also on more than one occasion so belittled his wife (another teacher) in front of students that he reduced her to floods of tears. This was who I thought of fairly frequently when watching this film, as well as wondering if Fletcher and this guy were related.

The performance of music professionally is something which is infamous in bringing out the worst in some people, especially the more elite level. And Whiplash absolutely taps into that.

We are introduced to Andrew Neiman in a very low-key way, messing around with a drum kit. In through the door walks Terence Fletcher, the renowned and revered music head. After making him feel suitably uncomfortable and watching him play, he invites him to join his jazz ensemble. From there, Andrew is exposed to Fletcher's teaching methods.

This includes extreme threat, belittling, insulting, screaming and physical violence. And this is where, as much as I appreciate the fact that this performance is just that, a performance where there is some dramatic licence taken, the simple truth is that anyone behaving in the way Fletcher is shown with his students would have been arrested within 10 minutes. He definitely wouldn't be teaching in a school in America/the Western world. And the fact that this extreme behaviour is shown like this so frequently, plus the facts that come to light later in the film, means that element to me was something that affected the whole film.

However, it is important to say that Whiplash is still a great film. Miles Teller was exceptional and actually to me was the better of the two. It would have been so easy to make Andrew a very unlikable character, but Teller really nails the everyman trait of him. This could easily be us and we root for him all the way. I also really liked Paul Reiser as Andrew's father, again really doing wonders with what is in many ways a small role.

Naturally a lot of the headlines, as well as every award going, went to JK Simmons and I am not going to reduce his role just because of my previous thoughts. He is an extremely enigmatic character and there is a lot of previous music greats who I know Simmons will have incorporated into his performance. The redemption arc that he goes through is just about pulled off and the end sequence is absolutely fantastic.

The other great thing about this film is how well directed it is, specifically the editing and length. There isn't an ounce of fat or bloat in this film, and much credit needs to go to Damien Chazelle. As a first time director, this was an amazing achievement.

Finally, the film does actually raise one extremely significant question which has no easy answer and something which people will argue about until the end of time: at what price genius? Or to put it another way, how much should or can we as a society/people tolerate contemptible & despicable behaviour, even when the person involved is the best in their field. Whiplash certainly adds an interesting contribution to that debate.

In a career stuffed full of memorable and iconic roles, for many people it is this role as Bex Bissell that is listed as his best. And he does give an incredible performance, especially in his psychotic rage towards both his rivals and his own gang members who step out of line.

But the film around him just didn't click that much for me. Lesley Manville was very good, but the script meanders and there are several scenes which just go on and on.

I can appreciate that today we have a huge number of football hooligan films and that back in the 80's, this was an extremely controversial & new type of film. But for me, as much as it is treasonous to say this, I still feel the best film I've seen about this is The Football Factory. This is mainly because the characters in that film are so relatable and the type of people I have repeatedly met when involved with football days.

Being born in 1988, I had no recollection or memory of any of the communist states/countries, so this film will mean more to others than it did to me.

But the ground is still very effectively laid early on. Otilia and Gabriela are 2 students living in Nicolae Ceaucescu's Romania. Their lives are strictly controlled, including access to money and needing to show identity cards wherever they go. Another element of Romanian life at the time was abortion being illegal, unless there were exceptional circumstances. Gabriela discovers to her horror that she is pregnant and asks Otilia to arrange an illegal abortion for her. The film then shows the desperation & fear that these two women individually go through in order to access this vital service. They make contact with a man known only as Mr Bebe, but from there they are exploited and due to the two friends not following the instructions given, the circumstances and things they are required to do drastically change.

For me, as I intimated earlier, the locations, setting and world-building are excellent. You really feel the oppression, which is almost suffocating, which these women and the Romanian population as a whole, had to tolerate for over 24 years just with Ceaucescu. I could not imagine the horror of it all.

But this film does have several massive issues, the biggest one being the characters, particularly Gabriela. She is absolutely vile; a petulant and extremely unlikeable woman. And this absolutely overrides any argument that is made about her being scared due to the oppressive regime that she is living in. Her behaviour not only potentially puts her in danger, but also her friend who is risking everything, literally everything, to help her. You may very well be scared, but the way you are behaving means that you risk taking not only yourself down, but your friend and both families as well.

And the flip side of that is that Otilia becomes an unrealistic character as well, the further the film goes on. There comes a point where any self-respecting person would just bail out, irrelevant of how close they are as a friend. When the woman you are risking everything for is acting like a combination of Veruca Salt & Angelica from Rugrats, it's time to get the hell out of there. The chemistry between the 2 is also unrealistic, in that they don't ever seem to be that close, and definitely not the level of friendship which would go even halfway towards the risks that Otilia faces.

The other big problem with the film is that it is far too long. There is also a scene involving a dinner party that goes on and on, stalling the narrative and killing the tension. When the film does finally jump back into life, it cannot recover, although to be fair I was starting to lose interest anyways. There is a further inexplicable piece of behaviour from Gabriela which is so extreme in its selfishness that any remaining sympathy I had was totally shattered.

I appreciate all this film does right, however for me there is such a bitter taste left after watching it that I cannot award it more than 3 stars, irrelevant of how much praise is heaped upon it.

Irvine Welsh's writings have already given us the characters of Trainspotting, which for me basically gives him a free pass for the rest of his life, so phenomenal were those creations. But when it comes to his other novels, things have been very different. The most notable one pre-Filth was The Acid House, which also starred Ewen Bremner from Trainspotting, although his character was a world away from Spud. The Acid House was absolutely terrible: abrasive, miserable and just overall rubbish, despite the pedigree of talent both in front and behind the camera.

However, we now have another addition to the Welsh adaptations which can stand toe to toe with Trainspotting. Filth is a masterpiece: totally and utterly fearless, provocative, shocking, boundary-pushing but never for the sake of it/the shock value.

I love this film. Love love love it. Whilst the components of the film, a rogue cop who uses his cover in the police force to be as corrupt as possible, is one that has been done repeatedly over the years, very few hold a candle to this one. I need to put on record I haven't seen, although I have heard about, The Bad Lieutenant (with Harvey Keitel,) but have seen some of the other bad-cop films.

For me, the most credit for this film has to go to James McAvoy, who not only is the lead but also produced and got the film to the finish line. The McAvoy I thought of when his name was mentioned pre-Filth was of either the cheeky rude brother of Paul Bettany in Wimbledon or Wesley from Wanted, who whilst he wasn't a perfect action hero, absolutely gave it his all and made the film great. But here he is a total revelation. His Bruce Robertson is a monster, totally amoral, scheming, conniving & dangerous. Within 20 minutes of meeting him, he has already been intimate with a minor & slept with 2 of his colleagues's wives. And his singular focus is to be promoted, which will then impress his beloved wife.

The supporting cast are also brilliantly written, with Jamie Bell, Gary Lewis, Eddie Marsan, Shirley Henderson and Kate Dickie all putting in memorable performances. Jim Broadbent is a particular delight as Bruce's psychologist.

But what I love most is how dark this film goes and also the strange morality Bruce has. He will do 100 dispicible things, but then will totally flip & do something completely moral, then be profoundly impacted by it afterwards. Like many characters, he so hates what he has become but yet cannot change it, because that's who he is.

The story concerns the murder of an Asian student who is murdered, then the search to find his killers. Robinson tries to investigate this, whilst still holding on to the tiny amount of sanity he has left. But as Bruce's world turns upside down, he is forced to confront unbelievably uncomfortable home truths.

The final thing I want to mention is the ending: it is perfect. It is a masterful & deeply impactful finish, with a perfect song featuring Eliot Sumner. By the time the credits roll, you sit back in your chair, exhilaration coursing through your veins. You have been so moved by this journey and yet feel such sadness and joy at the same time.

This film won't be for everyone and there will be many who are disgusted by it. But it is absolutely a film that you feel, it pushes your buttons & makes you laugh and wince: everything that great cinema does.

Based on the comic book by Mark Millar, Wanted is about a team of people who have superhuman abilities, but also the ability to be able to curve bullets around objects, which is a novel & interesting power to have. Into this, they recruit Wesley Gibson (McAvoy,) whose father was killed by a super-assassin who has gone rouge. Wesley is a man whose life is falling apart, but who with the training is able to harness his powers & finally break out from his mundane life.

This film is great. The cast is amazing, the stunts fantastic & also welcomingly there is an unbelievably lightness of touch, which works so well in conjunction with the silliness of the material. As much as all of the cast were great, it is Angelina Jolie who steals every scene she is in, quite rightfully getting all the headlines.

This film is also no-holds barred, both in terms of it's story and also the graphic violence, used to both horrible and amusing effect.

Everything zips along at a fantastic pace, nothing is taken too seriously and it is a joy to be taken on this journey, expertly directed by Timur Bekmambetov. The only sad thing is that as much as it is crying out for a sequel, that has been stuck in development hell for years, so is unlikely to see the light of day.

Dieter Dengler's life is one of incredible luck & horrific experiences. This film was made following on from the Werner Herzog documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly. Following Dengler signing up to fight in the Vietnam war and his shooting down & capture, through to the daring escape from the prison where he and other captives are held, the film is incredible.

Bale gives a wonderful performance, imbuing Dengler with an unbelievable optimism & strength, even as he is slowly starved & threatened with death. His escape and subsequent rescue is exhilarating and so damn emotional, especially considering the losses he has to deal with.

But despite this praise, there is something that does have to be said that is not mentioned or referenced anywhere in the film: Gene DeBruin, played by Jeremy Davies, is shown in the film as a duplicitous and scheming, almost treacherous man. This is NOT accurate and is false. DeBruin was in fact totally the opposite, helping with the plan and even refusing to leave until he had gone back to rescue one of the injured prisoners. It is to me a major failing of this film that this isn't included and as much as I love Herzog, this is a real negative against him, especially as his family have gone on record as saying they repeatedly tried to contact him.

But this is still a great film & absolutely one to rent.

A film which was for years stuck in development hell, but finally was brought to life by Ang Lee, who you would think would be able to make something incredible, especially with the enormous budget and star power in Will Smith.

But unfortunately, whilst there is some incredible CGI and the film as a whole looks absolutely incredible in 60FPS, the story itself is actually rather bland. Will Smith plays an assassin who, after a job goes wrong and he is betrayed, is then relentlessly pursued by a clone of himself.

It's all very schlocky and also, because it becomes so ridiculous, slips into blandness. So you are left with a stunning looking and realised multi-multi million dollar film which then suffocates under the weight of its own preposterousness.

Surely Hollywood could have done something better than this? Or better still, split the budget up among 50 different small filmmakers who could produce something infinitely more enjoyable and groundbreaking.

And finally, as was the case with Lee's previous 60FPS film (Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk,) unless you're watching the 4K Blu-ray which has this higher frame rate, this film is pretty much like many other high concept but bland action films set in the future.

This was a very well reviewed series, hence my renting of it. But I just wasn't interested in it. Suzie wasn't a particularly likeable character, the supporting characters were really annoying and I just couldn't be bothered.

There may very well be a good series here, but not one that I am interested in. It took too long to say almost nothing and there are far more interesting series out there.

The first three Jason Bourne films (Identity, Supremacy & Ultimatum,) ranged from average (Identity,) masterpiece and one of the best espionage films ever made (Supremacy) and very good (Ultimatum.) But despite an attempt to launch a new character within the Bourne world (Legacy, with Jeremy Renner,) it just didn't work.

Matt Damon frequently commented in interviews that he was repeatedly asked, sometimes several times a day, when was a new Bourne film coming out? And despite both him and Paul Greengrass (the director since Supremacy and also the only person who Damon has said he will make the films with now,) turning down the opportunity to due to the lack of a good story, the fandom have won out and we now have the simply titled Jason Bourne.

The best bits are actually in the first 20 minutes, where we see Bourne living off the grid, making his living doing unlicensed boxing fights and either knocking out his opponents with one punch, or taking extreme amounts of punishment & not fighting back for a big payday. Then an old friend re-enters his life, sucking him back into the world of espionage & running all over the world.

From there, the film takes you to all the locations you would expect. There is a very good chase scene in Greece and we get an amazing antagonist in Vincent Cassel, who in real-life is a huge martial arts devotee so looks great in the hand-to-hand combat, as an agent who paid the brutal price of Bourne going AWOL in the first film.

But despite introducing new characters including Alicia Vikander and Tommy Lee-Jones, it just becomes very standard spy fare. I was never invested massively in Bourne's mission, plus as has been pointed out by many people, this is now the 4th time that Bourne's personal history/amnesia has been mined/his family involved in order to make a plot that is now even halfway interesting enough to make him motivated to pursue those involved.

As the film progresses, I felt my interest start to wane. And the final car chase/confrontation, racing through the Las Vegas strip before continuing on in the sewers underneath, just didn't excite me that much.

I know that for many people, including me, that Jason Bourne was a part of our childhood and we want to continue to see these films cranked out. And it's a mark of the talent of the filmmakers that the first 3 were of the quality that they are, but I feel that the game's now up. Certainly, the Treadstone TV series launched after this film absolutely tanked, so hopefully this means that it will be left well alone (at least until it's a slow work day at the producer's offices and they decide to reboot the franchise...)

I rented this because I was in HMV and saw that a whole load of these retro sex comedies had been remastered & re-released. They looked so bad & so terrible that I had to see what this was all about.

And the result is both embarrassing & also quite funny. The acting is atrocious and this is made more funny by the fact that the Automated dialogue replacement/ADR (the process of the actor re-recording their lines in post-production for audio clarity) has been done so badly that it often doesn't match up with the lip-syncing on the screen. So you end up watching a film where you frequently hear the dialogue which doesn't line up with the actor speaking, which just looks terrible.

As for the sexual element, this is just a non-starter. The lead actress, who to give her credit seems incredibly game for the various ridiculous scenarios she is put in, frequently disrobes and is surrounded by extremely awkward looking men who then unconvincingly give her a good rogering. And the director also seems to think that one way to really excite the audience is repeated extreme close-ups of her backside or pubic hair, of which there is enough to stuff a mattress.

But it is so camp and so silly that actually, if you are in the mood for a laugh, there is a strange pleasure (not in any way a sexual one,) in watching this cringefest.

Margot Robbie has become something of a legend in my eyes. After The Wolf of Wall Street, she has taken on a variety of different projects, really stretching herself and broadening her range. My favourite currently is still I, Tonya, which if you haven't seen, put it on your rental list.

But the role for which she has become most known and also starred in pretty much non-stop is Harley Quinn. Whilst in other films (Suicide Squad,) she is very much part of an ensemble, this film is unapologetically her film. And as much as it misses, it also has a lot of hits.

Welcomingly, this film tries to do many things differently. It is very zany and the cinematography and art direction really are poles apart from a lot of the dark and dank superhero films we see. It is almost like Robbie (who also produces) and the director Cathy Yan are deliberately thumbing their noses at the continual way that this genre is shot. And this absolutely is to the film's credit and something I really respect.

Quinn is also a very engaging protagonist, never boring and always enigmatic. There are also a decent number of supporting characters who make an impact. But this film has an absolute coup in its casting, with Ewan McGregor. He is brilliant and more than that, totally buys into the hammy and ludacris nature of his character. Whether it's committing graphic violence against his enemies or raging in a childlike tantrum, he is wonderful.

Unfortunately, and what gives the film it's 3 star rating, is that it sets itself up well, and includes a great action scene with wonderful fight choreography, then just coasts. For sections of the film, not very much happens at all, and there is only so much the characters can carry. It does towards the end start to pull itself back, but it still can't escape the slow and cumbersome middle part.

Still, credit where credit is due. This does many things differently and succeeds with a lot of them. Plus can we please see Ewan do more of these roles in the future.