Film Reviews by TB

This still to this day remains the only film I have even come close to walking out of from the cinema. The only reason I didn't was because I'd spent most of my pocket money on the ticket...

I love the Max Payne games. Everything about them is amazing, from the voice acting by James McCaffrey to the music and the repeated references to clichés and their impact on his life, Max is a multifaceted and fascinating protagonist. The games also welcomingly had very strong female characters in them as well, especially Mona Sax, who was effectively the female version of Max with a life similarly filled with pain and hurt.

I mention clichés and Max's hatred and amusement of them. It is difficult to predict, if Max was a real person, what his reaction to this film would be.

Having watched the trailer, which still to this day is one of the best film trailers I've ever seen, I was pumped and looking forward to it. Then it started...

It has to be said, for me Mark Wahlberg was actually inspired casting. He is a very strong presence, can really do action scenes well and also looks a lot like Max. All of this deserts him in this film. His performance isn't even a performance, it is a trudge through a terrible movie where nothing works.

But Wahlberg cannot be blamed for the failure of this film. That lies squarely at the door of the director John Moore and the script writers. How this film managed to get greenlit and made, let alone why the cast agreed to do it, is beyond me. Nothing works, you don't care about anything and for a game which is primarily intensely action oriented, there are two scenes which could be charitably called "action."

The biggest elephant in the room is the obvious fact that Max Payne is effectively a different version of the Matrix/bullet time. So the film makers were trying everything to not to be accused of copying that film/action. But, you cannot have Max Payne without that in it. And there is now a film series which actually uses that type of action shooting to great effect: The Equalizer series. If the film makers hadn't had that fear, this film might have at least had some passable action to distract from the total failure of the story.

I honestly can't think of one good thing to say about this film. I did mention the trailer earlier and how great that was. Save yourself 90 minutes of your life you'll never get back, watch the trailer instead and rent a decent Wahlberg action film like Lone Survivor or Deepwater Horizon.

I went to see this with some friends at the local cinema after my best mate, who is a huge Edgar Wright fan, wanted to watch it. The reviews were stellar and it had an amazing cast. The lights dimmed and the film started.

2 minutes later, I absolutely hated it and wanted it to be over. But I had to sit through this because I was with friends.

This film riled me for so many reasons. The main one being that we are expected to accept on face value that the protagonist, who is involved in multiple heists, associating with many dangerous criminals and will in some way be on the police's radar, REPEATEDLY draws attention to himself by literally doing everything possible to be noticed.

In the opening robbery, he literally sits in a car, plays music on his iPod, shouts and sings into silence, as well as honking the horn and flashing his lights, all while the bank is robbed right outside where the car is parked. If I was a criminal, after seeing this I'd have put 2 rounds in his head and gone ballistic at whoever it was who hired him. But in this film world where some things are taken totally seriously, strangely there isn't a problem here.

And the rest of the film just continues in that vein. I would cross the road rather than be in the same street with this band of idiots. The only person I remember who even was slightly engaging was Kevin Spacey's character, but that was only because he was slightly less annoying than the others.

But the moment where the idiosyncrasies just collapsed into stupidity & actually made me say "For God's sake!" was in the last third. The main character is being chased by 2 gang members. They have machine guns. They are shooting indiscriminately at people trying to kill him. He jumps into a car to escape... and then because the radio station isn't playing music he likes, he spends nearly 30 seconds TUNING the radio with bullets flying all around him, before he finds something he likes and drives off.

This film is rubbish. Annoying, charmless and stupid. Yes, the stunts might be incredible and pushing the boundaries, yes it may have a good soundtrack. But I honestly don't know how it has got the critical and audience love that it has, nor the huge box office haul. I know there were certainly a lot of people in the cinema as we walked out who loved it.

But this is a film that stole 2 hours of my life that I'm never getting back. If you want a film with amazing driving stunts, incredible soundtrack, great performances and flawless cinematography, rent Drive.

I so wish Roger hadn't agreed to star in this film. This is literally the "one last job that goes wrong" scenario, but a million times worse.

This is a film with all the usual components in place, (stunts, locations, beautiful women, crazy megalomaniac,) but nothing works, at all, in any way.

Christopher Walken, who you'd expect would ham it up perfectly, just doesn't fit and is in the wrong film. The story is risible, stupid and so far-fetched I think the cast themselves can't believe what they have been asked to take part in.

So much has been directed at Roger that I almost don't want to add to it. He is and always will be my favourite Bond. He still has the glint in his eye, the ridiculous smile of "This is great fun, come and enjoy it with me." But he is just too old. He should have stepped back after For Your Eyes Only, or definitely after Octopussy. It's a shame, but for me, he just shouldn't have been in it. Even he admitted as much later on: "I was only about 400 years too old for the part!"

There is however one saving "grace," and that is Grace Jones. She is absolutely brilliant. In the stale film she's in, she electrifies every scene. Although she was apparently a nightmare to work with, on screen you just can't get enough of her.

I so wish this was a film the calibre of The Spy Who Loved Me, for Roger to be given the send off he deserved. But it is what it is. Watch it, then immediately put on the TSWLM or Live and Let Die to remind yourself of how good the best actor to ever play Bond was.

After the huge success of the John Wick films, there was always going to be the case of where to go next. The idea of an older assassin being forced to come out of retirement despite not wanting to is one of the oldest cinematic scenarios.

There is some genius behind the casting of Bob Odenkirk. After roles such as Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad, this was totally against-type and could have worked really well. And one of the only positives in this film is that Odenkirk is good in the role. It is clear he has spent a lot of time and worked really hard with the stunts to make everything seem believable.

But that's pretty much where the good stuff ends. Despite the pedigree of talent behind the camera, the whole film felt disjointed, slow and, worst of all, boring. The action scenes didn't sit well within the film and the final showdown was just a damn squib. Hutch's backstory was just the latest in cliché 101 characters.

A sequel has been announced, but not something which I'll be clamouring to see, which is a shame considering what this film could have been.

A very good and immersive documentary charting Colin Sutton's investigation which eventually brought Levi Bellfield to justice for his disgusting and despicable crimes against women.

The case is fully fleshed out, with plenty of detailed looks at what went wrong. The only complaint I have with the programme is that there is constant distracting music playing whilst Sutton is being interviewed, which does ruin a part of it.

But overall, a great companion piece to the Manhunt ITV series.

In the second of the two companion documentaries to the ITV series Manhunt, Colin Sutton talks about his final case and the capture of Delroy Grant, the Night Stalker whose horrific crimes over more than 15 years terrorised the elderly and vulnerable all over South and East London.

Again, it is a thorough documentary with great interviews, but again ruined by the music playing over incessantly whilst people are talking, which is a major distraction.

Well worth watching after you have watched the Manhunt series.

Christian Bale and Scott Cooper (the director/writer) have done a few collaborations now. This film was their first and whilst all the key elements are in place (phenomenal cast, stunning locations, talented behind the scenes crew,) this movie just never really caught alight (ironic considering it's title.)

Of the cast, Casey Affleck is the one who really made the biggest impression. I had only really seen him before in Manchester by the Sea for which he richly deserved his Oscar and other plaudits. His role here is a character full of pain and hurt, and he really played this to perfection. But everyone else didn't really make much of an impression. Bale, normally a talisman in most things he is in, almost looked lost and adrift. And whilst those may have been the emotions of the character, this never properly translated for me.

The other actors also were almost cardboard cutouts. Woody Harrelson, who has made a career recently of playing all round slimeballs and revolting characters, is almost on autopilot. Willem Dafoe and Forrest Whittaker the same. If there wasn't the wealth of talent involved, this would have gone straight to DVD and ended up in the bargain bin.

So why 3 stars? Because as much as there are faults, this is a very beautiful looking film and there are just enough good points to make it worth renting.

But I highly recommend Hostiles, Bale and Cooper's next collaboration. That is an absolute masterpiece and incredible film.

After the brilliance of The Fighter, this is a massive backward step. Despite the great cast, costumes and music, nothing in this film works. It's bloated, slow, uninteresting and boring.

It also unfortunately had an extremely troubled production, with confirmed reports that David O'Russell (the film's director) was so repeatedly abusive to Amy Adams that at one point Christian Bale had to intervene to stop him.

Despite the pedigree of talent here, and having watched it twice (once when released in the cinema and again a few years later to see if I now liked it,) this is a poorly written mess where almost nothing works.

Paul Andrew Williams, in 2006, made one of the best British films ever with London to Brighton. If you haven't seen it, immediately put it on your rental list. What he managed to create with a miniscule budget & 10 days shooting time (the budget was so small this was all they could afford) was the sort of masterpiece $100 million films can't even come close to. When I first saw it, the rawness and tension hit me like a sledgehammer and still stays with me. Whenever I watch a small budget British film, I rate it against London to Brighton & Trainspotting, such was the impact.

Sadly, unlike Danny Boyle, Andrew Williams's career never managed to get the same amount of traction. There were a couple of misfires, Cherry Tree Lane being one of them. Although he had a larger budget, unfortunately for me it was just too horrible to really be enjoyable or watchable. He also directed a lot of TV shows, but now finally he is back where he excels, with a small film, great cast, amazing script and shocking violence.

Bull was conceived and shot during the pandemic and as much as it will have been extremely challenging to arrange and film, I think the tension in the real world had an indelible effect on the drama on-screen. The plot is fairly basic, in that a gandland enforcer comes back to settle scores and get revenge after being horrifically double-crossed and left for dead. So far, so clichéd, you might think. But oh no. This film is so much more than that.

The real ace up it's sleeve is the incredible cast that Andrew Williams has put together, and front & center of this is Neil Maskell. Maskell is genuinely terrifying. Although I know he has played these type of characters before to great effect (Kill List is a particular highlight,) here he is absolutely unhinged and psychopathic. This makes the acts of violence he commits even more shocking.

David Hayman is also excellent as Bull's boss and father-in-law, matching him toe to toe in both intimidation and the levels of violence he is prepared to use.

The other cast members are also outstanding, particularly the little boy cast as Bull's son. The casting director deserves special praise for the fact that she managed to get a boy who literally is the total spitting image of Maskell.

Everything else, in terms of cinematography, music and sound is spot on. The only real complaint I have and what stops this reaching 5 stars is that, even though it's only 90 minutes, like Muscle (another outstanding micro budget film I have also reviewed,) it does run out of steam a bit towards the end. And given how tight as a film this is, the extra flab is really noticeable.

But still absolutely rent this and be blown away by the talent of everyone involved.

One of the classics.

Packed full of one liners, dated and schlocky but excellently shot action scenes, plus what at the time was a really groundbreaking premise and special effects.

A band of rag-tag mercenaries are parachuted into the jungle to track down a missing team. What they discover and the subsequent escape is the driving force of the story.

This film, along with Commando, cemented Arnold Schwarzenegger's cult status, and with good reason. He is the best thing about it and fully embraced the ridiculous but also serious tone as well.

As much as there have been sequels and reboots, nothing comes close to this. Stick it on the TV, grab some popcorn, invite round some friends, leave all notions of seriousness at the door and enjoy one of the best and most influential action films ever made.

I so clearly remember the first time I saw The Raid. I was in a small cinema in Brighton with a friend. I had seen the 5 star Empire review basically calling it the best action film for years. I watched it and was blown away. Flawless, superb, incredible and a masterpiece. Even now, after multiple viewings, it still has not in any way been diminished. You are left with your adrenaline pumping and a massive grin on your face.

The critic reviews for the second film were broadly positive, so I rented it and the same friend and me sat down to watch it. An hour later, we were still waiting for it to "start."

The whole film is a mess. Whilst there was "a strong script" in a sense with the first film, it was strong because it gave bare bones details (which was all that was needed,) and then let the action develop the story. But the director Gareth Evans has for some inexplicable reason decided that what was missing from the first film was enormous amounts of exposition and characters spending huge amounts of time talking to each other.

I can appreciate that the expanding of the Raid universe might have been something that some people may have wanted and with other series's that have done this with the sequel, it has paid dividends. The most obvious one for me is Alien/Aliens. In Alien, not much is really known about the world it exists in. Aliens fleshes this out perfectly, but only to a point and only what benefits the story.

The Raid 2 totally overblows this. I am not interested in the minutiae of the gangster world. I don't care about the small details of the characters that in no way propel the story forward. And when you go from a film which literally is adrenaline on speed to this one & watching 2 head gangsters talking exposition to each other, it just totally fails.

When the action does finally and mercifully start properly (there is a very good car chase in the middle which is very ingeniously shot,) it is of course incredible. But it's too little too late. My friend I was watching with, when the action did start, turned to me and said "This is where the film should have started."

And by the time it finished, yes there had been some great moments, but the whole legacy of the Raid was somewhat tarnished. You almost couldn't compare the two films, they are so different. And it's sad and gives me no pleasure in writing that. I wanted to love it, I was so pumped for it, but it was a complete let down. I'd almost go as far to say that it's not worth watching it in the sense of continuing on the Raid universe. Watch the action scenes on their own, enjoy them and leave it at that.

There was talk of a third film, randomly taking place in the middle of the events of this one, but that now doesn't look to be the case and to be honest, I wouldn't want made, if it is anything like this one.

When writing this review, the one thing I am not going to talk about in detail is the politics within this film. The other review makes some extremely valid points about the hypocrisies of particularly the twins and their situation. But the reason I'm not going to talk about it because honestly, I don't care. I did not look at this film particularly in that respect, because I was so in love and enamoured with the world Bertolucci has created.

The Paris shown on screen is completely authentic, believable and lived in. I felt I could almost smell and feel the atmosphere. The cinematography, with its soft colour palette and perfect Mise-en-scène, was flawless. As much as there was the threat from the riots outside, when inside the 3 characters world, it was a distant worry.

The other reason this film works is due to the actors. As much as they were all good, I felt Louis Garrel was the slight weak link. As much as there was the frisson and tenseness between him and his sister, the moody element of it did not work for me. But that is also because of how electric the other two were.

In many ways, I can't choose between Eva Green and Michael Pitt in terms of who I liked more. Green is absolutely intoxicating, not only with her beauty but more than that her attitude and strength. She is many things: crazy, preachy, immature, needy, bossy, scared, innocent.

Pitt has in many ways the far more challenging of the roles. He has to be many things, but not completely overplay the innocence and naïvity of an American in Paris, experiencing all these new events from an outsider's perspective. And Pitt absolutely mastered this. As the protagonist, we saw all of his fears and hopes, plus his slow falling in love with Green's character.

But what makes this film truly fly is the absolute and total fearlessness of all 3 actors. Vast amounts has been written about the sexual content and sex scenes within The Dreamers, by a cynical and controversy obsessed media. And as with films like Intimacy, for me not only is it childish, but also much worse than that, it degenerates and debases the film.

Pitt has said in interviews about his worry about how this film could be seen as pornography and not as a film, but that he wanted to try and be a part of something to change that perspective. And he and the other cast members absolutely succeed in this. Green also mentioned that Bertolucci would repeatedly tell them to not hold back, to take risks and be free & fearless. This has paid dividends.

Without the actor's commitment and fearlessness, The Dreamers would totally fail. It is not a film of half measures, it is an adult and grown-up film which pushes boundaries, challenges you and yes makes you want to be there with them in their little piece of fantasy heaven.

It is pure, over the top extravagance, escapism and fun. Yes, it was a little too long for my liking and some of the script choices were not logical, but I didn't care. I loved this world and I loved this film. And if you want fearless, no holds barred acting, you'll love it too.

Whilst scrolling through Juno Temple's filmography, I saw this little indie film and thought I'd give it a shot.

I lasted about 40 minutes. It just didn't work. Juno was OK but completely wasted and worth so much more than this dreck. Nothing to keep me watching and in no way cared.

If you want a decent film, watch Killer Joe. Incredible performances all round and far more transgressive and fearless.

A very grim and not particularly accessible drama. In many ways, it shares many themes as My Left Foot, except in this case the disability is replaced with alcoholism. John Healy's story is one of a difficult childhood and slip into drink, then finding his saviour in chess.

Whilst there are many interesting elements shown, such as mental health and xenophobia, many of these are not explored and simply thrown onto the screen, hoping some of them will stick. The script itself is also extremely poorly written, jumping about all over the place and at times very incoherent.

Whilst Mark Rylance does try his best and there are some interesting flourishs he brings to the role, ultimately he is failed by a poor script and direction. The only huge positive from this role is that it got him the part of Jay in Intimacy, which is a far superior piece of drama.

A really good documentary.

Timothy Dalton's portrayal of James Bond allowed him the opportunity to be involved in various passion projects of his. And this is clearly one that he feels very strongly about. In the opening comments he talks about his fascination with and reverence of wolves but also his frustration over their misrepresentation and demonisation in the modern world.

He is very fortunate to also be paired with an extremely interesting researcher, who is a great guide for him and us.

The result is an extremely concise, enlightening and informative programme. Dalton is not only a great actor but also a terrific presenter whose passionate interest in this animal and it's history made for compelling viewing.

Highly recommended