Film Reviews by Strovey

Having never read the novel and only seen a few reviews of Ready Player One so I went into the film with no idea what to expect.

I’ll say from the start as a slightly dull, fifty-six year old man with a grey beard I find the current trend for nostalgia-porn dull in itself. Naval gazing and eulogising about the glorious past leaves me cold. I was eighteen in 1980 and it was not fantastic nor was it ‘crap’ it was just a time. Some of the music was good, some was awful, some films were great, some were dross – do you know what? Just like now.

The acting in this film is good with Olivia Cooke once again showing why she is getting picked for roles left right and centre, and none of the vocal-fry that irritated me so much in TV’s Vanity Fair. Tyler Sheriden is believable and sympathetic and very ‘normal’ for the role of ‘hero’ likewise the supporting roles – all are believable ‘video gamers’. It would be too easy not to miss the target of the video gamers avatar and what the real person is like and this film hammers that to the hilt – like I said it was too easy a target. The baddy, played with some lovely scenery chewing, by Ben Mendelsohn, seems to exist to be bad, his motive, like so many films, is just to be corporate greedy. I understand this trope and there is some truth in it but it would be nice to see some nuance from time to time.

The film moves along at an exciting pace and certainly has some great visuals of the near future and it was fun for ten minutes, when in the OASIS, to see which ‘characters’ and pieces of nostalgia you can spot but like so many modern blockbusters we do end up with hugely confusing set-pieces of explosions, impossible derring-do escapes and confusing pyrotechnics. This type of action must be for the younger generation because in every film I ever seen featuring these ‘exciting’ battle and set pieces I usually get bored and confused. Near the end of Ready Player One I had no idea what was going on and ended seeing how many repeated place-holder creatures were popping in the scenes – they are there too.

Certainly, as film, I don’t know the book, Ready Player One seems to be a blatant nostalgia-fest with constant references both oblique and obvious but this to me is the real reason for its existence, the story is fairly simple, made to appeal to the video-game generation but nothing that you have not seen here or there. The trouble is when I see Robo Cop for a fleeting second it makes me want to the original Robo Cop and not Ready Player One. For me that is biggest problem of Ready Player One, from time-to-time it reminded me of better films I had not seen for a while.

All in all, it is a well-made film, and well-acted, with some stunning visuals and rip-roaring storyline but on the negative side it is not as original as it thinks it is, it wallows in nostalgia, loves exposition and can be confusing at times, especially near the end with the battles and set pieces.

Ready Player One is okay but I won’t be watching it again in thirty-years time.

There is no doubt the easy charm and on-screen charisma of the always fun Paul Rudd drags Ant Man and the Wasp from the mundane to the fun. His amusing asides and observations are somehow more enjoyable and seem less acerbic than the more confident and brash Robert Downey Jnr’s Iron Man. With his crazy gang of friends, led by the ever-reliable Michael Pena, of the first film still in place the smile and laugh quotient is high and if you are not a big fan of comic-book films this definitely a much needed relief.

Luckily Rudd is surrounded by some acting chops to back up him with Evangeline Lilly back as Hope Van Dyne and Michael Douglas as Hank Pym. Both seem to act effortlessly and the chemistry between the three is there to be seen on the screen. Smaller roles are competently played with Randall Park playing the comic-relief role of FBI agent Jimmy Woo to the hilt.

It wouldn’t be a fair review if Walton Goggins was not mentioned as his thankless task of Sonny Burch is played without over the top gurning and histrionics and it was pleasing to see a baddie whose motivation was fairly simply – he was greedy and wanted more.

For the all the fun and excitement of the little-big world Ant Man and Wasp does have its faults though. Certainly, on the small screen, and obviously this might by the reason, a few of the CGIs affects looked a bit ‘ropey’ but a bigger problems for me is the gap between ‘that was great’ and ‘hold on a minute…’ which sometimes, like with some Star Trek films, happens the next day but in this case they happened almost simultaneously. Now some people will say it’s only a comic-book adventure, a fantasy, relax, I get that and I can but some of the shrinking and growing parts of the story bordered on silly. In particularly the luggage sized office building doesn’t stand up to the slightest of scrutiny, unfortunately for me that means I’m thinking about it whilst the film goes on.

The story certainly whips along a fair pace and is not as baggy as some Marvel stories and villain is suitable villainy and isn’t motivated by world-dominance, he even has one of the Detectorists as a henchman, I could have done with the side-order of the Ghost, which felt it was shoe-horned in and was frankly a bit, well boring. Having said this equally within the ginormous Marvel Universe Ant-Man and the Wasp does not seem to move on the character much in any way. The only part that ties this in with that Universe is the ending which leaves you in no doubt what’s happened to three of the four heroes but there’s a huge clumsy clue to how this golden goose will carry just before the ‘terrifying ending’.

All in all I was entertained and found Ant Man and the Wasp fun not least because Paul Rudd dragged it way out of the mundane ably assisted by the film’s cast but after watching and reflecting on what I was going write the nagging feeling I get, despite all that has been said and written about the comic-book world and the themes they present to viewers and readers, is fair from adult fare the more I thought about this film and all the others I say is that are childish, very simple and childish.

There I’ve said it. Now I’ll put my tin-hat on.

Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool is beautiful romantic drama about a part of real-life actor Peter Turner’s life in the late 70s early 80s. He met and had a romantic relationship with Gloria Graham, one-time Oscar winner and 50s silver screen star. The film centres on this tempestuous relationship that had its ups and downs, but the film makes clear was a true love between the two.

Jamie Bell plays Peter, already a fish-out-of-water actor within his own working-class household and neighbourhood who further pushes against the ‘norms’ when he starts a romance with the much older Gloria. Mr. Bell is on top of his game here, he rarely isn’t to be fair, and breathes believability into a working-class Liverpool lad who happens to love acting and really loves this older woman without actually realising exactly who she was. His relationship with his family, bewigged Stephen Graham and Julie Waters could be said perhaps to be conflicting, dramatastic, actor fodder but in all honesty it’s easy to believe that with Peter being an actor and all the problems and uncertainty that could bring and then being in relationship with a famous, albeit fading, eccentric movie star might bring a few errr conflicts. Still will all know actors love shouting and angry arguments.

The cast is uniformly fantastic with Annette Bening playing the older, insecure, Gloria Graham who ultimately proves to have a deep and caring love for Peter although he never finds out how much, but the audience is let in on it.

There is some great film-making creativity going on here and with trips back into the past a mere step through a door and some old-style backscreens during driving scenes which I think added to the charm of the story. The chemistry between the two leads is there to be seen and none more so than their first meeting a fantastically choregraphed and naturalistic dancing scene – and who doesn’t want to see Billy Elliott giving it some seventies disco?

There are many stand out moments in the film just two come straight to mind; the visit to the cinema and then the pan up to what film it is (not spoiling that) and Peter, his dad and the dog visiting the pub and a completely natural conversation between them that takes place.

All in all, this film is great piece of cinematic romantic drama that is acted impeccably by its superb cast made even more amazing by the fact it is based on a true story, a true romance if you will.

Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool is a simple love story about a younger man and an older woman – at last, because I’m fed up with wrinkly old men copping off with twenty-something starlets. That the star-crossed lovers are actors and one of them a fading famous one is really incidental. If they had been a plumber and a shop owner, written as it was and acted as it was, it would have been as good.

This a story about love and how any true love no matter how short and sorrow-filled is better than no love. Without doubt this is a film that loves love but there is some love left over for the magic of film and the days when Gloria Graham was a star.

Great acting, great film, great story and you will get ‘something in your eye’.

It is to the makers of Turbo Kid’s credit that within ten minutes of the start of the film I was checking the sleeve for the year the film was made. It was 2015 not 1985. This truly was a well-crafted knowing love letter.

Right down to the cheesy synth pop movie to the style of shots, even the acting, Turbo Kid just shouted 1980s from the get-go. Often with this type of pastiche the story does not hold up, the acting can be creaky, yet with Turbo Kid, the joke never wore thin.

The hilarious and so spot-on grand guignol of spurting blood, flying heads and suspiciously rubbery looking intestines were enough to shock when they suddenly popped up or even gushed out. Yet they still make you laugh with their gloriously over-the-top and senseless ultraviolence. The action was the sort of thing that would have made the 80s school kid you were squeal with pleasure and then tell all in the playground the next day.

At 91 minutes running time Turbo kid didn’t outstay it’s welcome either. although I have to say my attention was just starting to fray near the end even though the goodies, baddies and in-betweens were lining up to meet their ends, escape or be the hero.

As far as the story goes it is nonsense, just as it should be but one point I particularly loved was in this dystopian future everyone rides push -bikes, which makes sense to me, do you know how to refine petrol? Everything else is in there, revenge for the murder of a mother, an unexpected reveal for a character, the cool mysterious stranger and the evilest of evils the one and only greatest. Michael Ironside. The tropes of being a hero to yourself loving a friend who initially you mistrusted and winning the day with a sacrifice are ticked off in a competent and fun way. If you loved this type of film as a youngster, you’ll love Turbo kid.

The acting a from mainly unknown cast, to me at least, (I apologise to any Kiwis and Canucks who know them well), play their roles to perfection, the two younger protagonists Munro Chambers and Laurence Leboeuf playing Turbo Kid and Apple respectively do very well in particularly tricky roles. They have to play their pivotal characters completely straight and yet somehow give a knowing wink to is the audience, for me, this audience, it worked. Leboeuf in what could be an irritating presence had enough skill to make Apple daft, annoying, endearing, fun and ultimately tragic.

Some work there just in that one role.

Munro is Turbo Kid and his charisma carries past any flaws on the story or script. Michael Ironside and Aaron Jeffery are both experienced enough to carry their less nuanced characters with some ease and to wring out as much fun as their respective roles and presence in the film allowed.

If you into nostalgia from you misspent youth (1980s) Mad Max style apocalypses mixed in with BMX bandits channelling Kung-Fu kids with futuristic superheroes – this is the movie for you. The thing is it sounds awful but if you watched this films in your early teens you will get a kick from surprisingly well made and well-acted tribute.

Turbo Kid is fun and daft, like the original films, in fact scrub that, some of them were not this much fun.

The strength of Dead Pool was Ryan Reynolds and Dead Pool 2 is no different. Certainly, it is already hard to imagine another actor owning the role so well already. The first film set up the tone and showed fans of the comic-book they were in safe hands. Dead Pool 2 tries to add a small amount of character and emotion to what could be a one dimensional and tiring character without losing the formulae that worked so well the first time around. I would have to say that in general, it worked. Fourth walls were destroyed, comic-book culture kicked around with no reverence shown and ultra-violence was peppered gorily throughout.

The main villain played straight-faced by the reliable Josh Brolin is given more motivation and even pathos than in some more poe-faced films. Likewise, Reynolds Dead Pool is shown in the same light and even vulnerable although this does sideline Morena Baccarin for the majority of the running time.

TJ Muller and Karan Soni also give way so Hunt for the Wilder People’s Julian Dennison can be thrust-forward as Firefist. I was not entirely convinced by this character or all of the acting on display but if this was a stumbling point it was only a slight trip. Special mentions must go to the Zazie Beetz as Domino who had easily the coolest superpower I’ve seen to date which was only out-cooled by her hair and to the cameo of hilariousness that was Rob Delaney.

The story zipped along at a fast pace was fun and everyone played their part. The special effects were special without being overpowering, the peril, perilous and comic fun, well comically funny.

Whether Dead Pool is strong enough to carry over for a third installment without getting stale or too repetitive is questionable but certainly the first two dips into this world, in what is a very overcrowded market, have stood up strongly against the opposition.

Certainly not a film for everyone Dead Pool is worth a look but if you are easily offended and do not love irreverence best give it a miss. it probably helps if you have some prior knowledge of the setup but Dead Pod is not totally exclusive

Dead Pool 2 is worth dipping your toe into…

A well-made coming of age story Lady Bird takes an interesting look at the coming of age, parent-clash storyline. With well-established actors at the top of their game could this addition to a well-worn and frankly over-used Pantheon say anything new?

I have to be honest Lady Bird with all it is praise put me in mind of the Emperor’s New Clothes. It was good but I’ve seen it all before. I honestly feel that I was shown nothing new or anything that hasn’t been attempted before. This isn’t to say the efforts on display were bad, I’d say sadly just a bit ‘samey’ as a lot of other films.

Laurie Metcalf has rightly taken the plaudits as Lady Bird’s put-upon mother put other than this character, Lady Bird herself and her ‘best’ friend Julie, every other role, including Lady Bird’s dad, seems unwritten, almost unfinished, they drift in do what the story wants them to and drift out. In particular, the gay boyfriend seemed to be heading somewhere and then he more or less vanishes for a long stretch, shows up for a little scene and then is gone again.

In all honesty, it sounds as if hated Lady Bird. I did not. In fact like all Saoirse Ronan films, I enjoyed the acting and story. It is there was much I had seen before, the vulnerable dad, the overweight ‘unattractive’ friend, a troubled gay, the bitchy ‘cool’ clique. If I’m honest we’ve seen it all before, some better, some not so good. Lady Bird is interesting, sad, funny, well- made but in my view, it did not really say or show anything that has been before and many times too.

If you watch this you’ll probably enjoy it but for me Edge of Seventeen was better.

At the time, the media sensationalised what was in truth a sordid event which turned out to be so petty and pathetic that it could only have ever been filmed in this mockumentary style. Amazingly what happened had little bearing on the competitors involved until the court case.

Harding’s story is told from the point of view of Tonya herself, her ex-husband and her estranged mother and at no point are we led by the nose to say who is telling the truth. I actually liked that about this film. We have to make our own mind up.

Margot Robbie definitely brings Harding to life and does not sugarcoat her side of the story. She is a victim of her mother who shapes her warped outlook on the world but nevertheless she is still mean and vindictive too – was she made that way or was that nature already there? Only you can decide. Likewise, her mother is allowed a voice and again she isn’t sugarcoated, she’s mean and tough but she does have a motive for it. Alison Janney brings her tremendous talent to this role and you could not have asked for a better actor to bring the ‘wicked-witch’ to the screen but somehow get sympathy for her. It’s a tough life and she had to be tough – maybe not that tough, but you know the reason.

Sebastian Stan and Paul Walter Hauser play the almost Laurel and Hardiesque team of the vicious husband Jeff and the truly idiotic fantasist Shawn. I have to admit that the crime that these two perpetrated was mean and vicious and could have ended Kerrigan’s career and even mobility permanently but even bearing this mind their portrayal at times had me laughing more than any full-on comedy. In particularly Hauser’s portrayal of the so stupid, it hurts bodyguard and hitman was a triumph. More problematical is the role of Jeff, was he a violent abuser or was Harding painting him in a bad light to take the spotlight off her? Who knows the real truth? Real abusers never own up to it and her description of events does fit in with exactly how abusive relationships work out. But you do have to make your own mind up.

Having a North American relative who was involved in figure skating I have been told first hand about the snobbery and how the cards are stacked in favour of certain competitors no matter what. In fact, he left to train people instead because the competition was truly uncompetitive. So Tonya Harding’s frustration at the way she was treated despite her talent rings true. She did complete that triple-axel no matter what anyone else says.

Did she have prior knowledge? Was she treated unfairly in the aftermath? Unfortunately, if you read comments on this film and the events involved then the American public, in particular, have made their minds up. Me? I’m not so sure. You? Well watch the film, do a bit of reading, put your prejudices to one side, and make your own mind up. I think as a film in this respect it’s mission accomplished.

The skating scenes involving Robbie are magnificently the done and the overall feel of the film, with regard to the time-period and attitudes more than often hits the mark than misses. Is it fair to the real-life participants in this affair? Who really knows but I think the film-makers really tried their hardest to be fair.

Overall this is a great fun movie about a fairly serious topic and it does make you laugh, wince and even cry at the right moments without being jarring. In my view that is a very hard thing to pull off, most films that try this fail.

I, Tonya is a great entertaining film, has it shed a new light on the Nancy Kerrigan event? Well it has brought the public back to the event for a short-while to discuss it and it does not lead you by the nose – so as the film says also, I say make your own mind up.

The Limehouse Golem is called a horror film due to a few extreme gory and graphic murder scenes but all told it is a Sherlock Holmes-style murder mystery where the viewer is expected to figure out who the killer is whilst being led up the garden path by misleading reconstructions of the murders. It’s none the worse for this.

Victorian London is a place that regular viewers of TV dramas and cinema is now getting used to and the squalid underbelly her is shown to good effect, although everyone, once again, is probably a bit healthier and more bonny than what would be the real thing, but it is a drama, a film, entertainment, so this has to pass. Including, as the novel does, real Victorian characters, Dan Leno, Karl Marx and George Gissing, once again for clarity the timelines of these real people don’t tie up particularly the real Marx and Leno but this doesn’t distract from an interesting twist in the usual type of Victorian murder mystery.

Oliva Cooke plays the role of Lizzie Cree almost to perfection and certainly, there is not a trace of the irritating vocal-fry the distracted so much in the TV production of Vanity Fair, her story is sordid, sad, vicious and interesting. Ably supported by the somewhat somnambulistic and unemotive Bill Nighy and the ever-stalwart Daniel Mays who could play his type of role in his sleep the film is in experienced and good hands. I couldn’t decide if Nighy was playing his character in this style or if he was picking up a cheque. To be fair to him it does work. Douglas Booth gives a strong performance as the Victorian superstar Dan Leno and the whole parts of the film involving the music-halls are lovely recreated, add into mix creepy Eddie Marsan and Maria Valverde and you do have a melodramatic grand Guignol murder mystery. It’s always a matter of opinion but I think the film was created on the slightly over-the-top camp side to fit in the setting and story if it was it works.

Overall The Limehouse Golem is a slice of horrific melodrama populated with good actors playing mysterious characters all apparently hiding their true selves from the world as the real Victorians did. The dark alleyways, murders and music-halls are all ticked off in competent style, the murders mysterious and gory and suspects many. If you looking for straightforward entertainment with a dark side this could be the film for you.

Interestingly depending on your experience you make take a guess at the killer and get it right at various points throughout the film. It took me just over halfway through the film for the coin to drop, others I have read online took less time and still others longer or not at all.

I would recommend The Limehouse Golem if you like your murky, gory, Victorian murder mysteries but if you are a bit blase about the genre and are looking for a realistic representation of that period be warned you might get a bit peeved.

Obviously made on a low budget and a collaboration between three or four companies this film happily does not suffer for it. Casting well-known character/comedy actors make the viewer, in particular, British viewers, feel comfortable from the beginning. Clearly, the story is written by fans of the sci-fi and in particular time-travel genre. Therefore the poking at the tropes and blind alleys that more serious films gloss over is done with fun and true love of these types of stories. There are as much imagination and ingenuity shown in the storyline as is demonstrated in much bigger and more serious films of the same type and this is the strength of the film. More flippant or less grounded would have made this something that you sat through rather than watched. If you are observant or really know this genre as much as the characters in the film you will spot signals, background things going on that tell you how the story will go, if you don’t, that’s okay, because it’s as, if not more, enjoyable as the silliness unfolds.

Chris O’Dowd, Marc Wootton and Dean Lennox Kelly are stalwarts of British TV although all three have gone further afield over the years their down-to-earthness is perfect for the roles and they all are well-craft in playing the normal but somewhat bumbling ‘bloke’. The complaining mates-conversations about films, music, what their future holds will seem realistic to thousands of people who have sat in pubs and other places and rambling, seemingly pointless conversations over the years. I certainly know I have taken place in a few ‘conversations’ like this over the years.

The situation, which cannot be gone over in too much detail as it will spoil it for those who have not seen this film yet, involves a convoluted time-travel situation for the lads and being mixed up with the charming Anna Faris, so it was not entirely a bad day for the lads!

Overall FAQ About Time Travel is a knowing wink to the science-fiction well-worn story of time-travel but it sets about trying to avoid the usual plotholes and asking all the questions these films often leave unanswered with a great sense of humour and some good acting but still with a clear love of the genre it sending up.

Not so well-known or watched this film should be more popular as director Gareth Carrivick’s final film as he sadly died soon after the completion of the film. Recommended.

In an age proliferated with so many ‘pastiche’ and comedy versions of genuine films an genres a lot of film-goers might feel they will never laugh at another ‘satire’ again. Airplane! started it all with a spot-on, occasional miss, ‘zany’ comedy riffing on many films and genres. Then the goose that laid the golden egg was not only slaughtered but minced, fried and feed to ravenous pigs. Most of us have hardly laughed since at the hilarious ‘take-offs’.

Black Dynamite directed by Scott Sanders, albeit from nine-years ago, gets all of this back on track with loving, spot-on and hilarious tribute the glorious Blaxploitation phenomena of the seventies.

It is clear to see on the screen how much Sanders and his collaborators loves and admires those at times preposterous films. It is all there, this is not mean-spirited in the fun, whilst taking the proverbial throughout this is a film that loves its source.

The boom mike makes a deliberate appearance during the shoot as it did so often in the 70s and with the perfectly shoot zoomed-in close-ups followed by the over-exaggarated facial expressions at times you would have thought you were watching a product of the 70s such is the skill and dedication shown in the making.

The film takes place in the 1970s, using the wild and somewhat strange fashions, all cranked up to ‘eleven’ and then it sirs in the language, slang, of the era adding in the low-budget errors, miscues and continuity errors, including a character hitting his head against the boom mike. My favourite was the stuntman who was replaced during a take after getting punched for real during a stunt fight. This is all framed with shaky close-ups, exposition in song, supporting actors appear out of nowhere the list is extensive and on the whole accurate.

The script by Michael Jai White, Byron Minns and Scott Sanders is pin-point accurate and is played entirely straight by the cast of (stalwart) supporting cast.

Black Dynamite is an underappreciated spot-on parody of a cheesy but needless to say important genre of films from the 70s.

Highly recommended you jive-ass suckas!

In the end, despite the reams of text written about The Shape of Water, it would appear that del Toro has made a simple love story, albeit between an amphibious humanoid and Sally Hawkins, but at the beating heart of it all, it is a simple love story.

Stylistically directed and shot the film very much reminded me of The City of Lost Children and similar Jeunet output. This is no bad thing and gives the film an air of fairytale despite the real-world setting. Like that French director’s films del Toro does not allow the saccharine to creep in too far and this film, like all his other outputs is filled with some unsavoury characters and involve sex and real death with all the messy details.

We do get a clear line of black and white hats, with Stuhlbarg’s character being a dark shade of grey, and having a noble motivation, whilst Michael Shannon being Michael Shannon does very well in a role that could have been said to be one-dimensional. He gives Strickland a scary motivation that most viewers could not agree with but could understand but he definitely has a hat that says ‘Bad Guy – hate me’.

Sally Hawkins effortlessly plays a non-speaking role to such a skilled and nuanced effect that I genuinely forgot for long periods her character is mute. Ably supported by Octavia Spencer and the sublime Richard Jenkins who plays the type of character that he has made his own over the years the film is in good hands.

Guillermo del Toro has often made films about being an outsider and being the ‘different’ one and here has turned the dial up to ‘eleven’ on this theme. You can’t be more outside than a ‘gill-man’ but then he throws into the mix Octavia Spencer as a poorly treated black cleaner with a work-shy husband, a mute orphan girl and a sensitive and lonely gay man. You’d have to be tone-deaf to not see his message.

Whilst others might baulk or see this message being pushed as unsubtle or ‘PC’ it has to be said in this day and age there are plenty of other films taking an altogether different message to the masses. Admittedly they won’t have the stellar cast or acting that del Torro gets but they are there. I did not see this as particularly anti-American or PC but it just says ‘be nice’ when you boil it right down. If you don’t agree with this simple message well….

This film gave me pleasure in watching it and equally nearly as much when I read some utterly foaming at the mouth reviews on IMDB. I thought people like me were supposed to be snowflakes? It’s just a film calm down. It won’t change anyone’s views that are not already entrenched.

The Shape of Water is a very modern fairy-tale about love and hate and like all good, violent and sexy fairytales in the end love wins…just.

Right from the opening scenes the director makes it obvious this is more than just a story of how the characters of Winnie the Pooh were created. It is not a feel-good story. It seemed to me to be how much of a hole a great and terrible war can leave inside a person. Domhall Gleeson plays AA Milne with the such unsmiling, frowning, sombreness that you can’t help feeling the war had absolutely nothing to do with his lack of emotion or response to anything other than being ‘proper’ and ‘correct’. We are only lead to the conclusion that is was the war by a brief battle-scene and the flinching and ticks he displays at noises. I started off feeling sorry for him due to this setup but less than halfway through I started to think he was just an unloving, stiff-upper-lip git. I’m not sure Gleason or the director wanted this.

Disappointingly the makers decided that the ‘baddie’, (every film has to have one), would be Christopher Robin’s mother. A harpy interested only in having the right type of husband and family, who had a child to please her husband and treats ‘lesser’ people like slightly intelligent stock. Was she really this way? Even some of the worst types of these people, believe me, they still exist, are not as two dimensional and cartoonish. Margot Robbie does well as she can with the role but her odd cut-glass accent definitely slips back to Australia a few times during the run.

No doubt Gleason and Robbie are fine actors but in truth, they were blasted off the picture by the amazing acting of ‘small’ child actor Will Tilston who just seems to be natural and unaffected by the whole process. Right from the get-go, I believed he was a small boy going through these circumstances, amazing. He is ably backed up by the ever-reliable Kelly MacDonald whose character is clearly the surrogate audience and voice of conscience. As usual, she does well with a character who most film-goers would start to lose patience with and begin to yell ‘Tell them to stick it…’

The settings are pastoral green and do a good job of sending us back to the oft-imagined and over-exaggerated green and pleasant land that so many seem to dream of and believe in nowadays. Whether it was as idyllic as this is a moot point but certainly the real Christopher Robin remembered it with real love and affection so a portrayal of the scenery in this way suits the narrative.

The film builds us up to a difficult and spiky relationship between the main four characters and then pulls all this back to end with the sentimental tear-jerking that people expect from a Winnie-the-Pooh based tale.

All in the all the film as a story on its own is good and the acting, with a few wobbles, is top class. Unfortunately, once again, it is a ‘true story’ where the actual truth and the story are only nodding acquaintances. Christopher Robin loved being Christopher Robin until he went to school and really started to dislike the fame when he was in his twenties and so each layer has a grain of truth to it but seems to have been altered, shortened or moved for the benefit of running time or my personal bug-bear to give the audience ‘a focus’ etc.

Goodbye Christopher Robin is a film I enjoyed watching and I’m glad I watched it. I doubt I’ll watch it again and it did make me research the truth but I do get frustrated with mangling of history when the true stories are as interesting as what is finally put out into the cinema. I’ll never understand it no matter how much film-makers try to justify it.

No Man’s Land garnered a lot of awards and was feted for being a realistic and funny depiction of the futility of war.

If nothing else this film shines a light for us fat and comfortable Europeans who saw the events on TV for a few months and then promptly forgot about them.

Directing Tanovic clearly tried to condense something of the conflict down into a manageable personal conflict. It is not the first time someone has tried this nor the last, this type of film certainly has been better made and definitely worse. Tanovic’s effort falls between the two stools. You can see what he wants to say, you get the funny and futile message he makes but at times it appears to be simplistic and childish.

The start of the film certainly shows the amateur and foolish side of war. There are no slick heroes here. They get lost and ambushed. No one really seems to have much of clue of what they’re doing. Instead of being slick cohesive units who know what is going on these ‘war heroes’ are scruffy, unmotivated, clumsy, scared and barely much use to anyone.

When we get down to the on-off three-hander in the trench things start to come a bit unstuck and clunky metaphors start to leak in. It seems to be obvious who the director things the real baddies are and what each of the characters represents.

For instance, one side seems to have a lot of overweight, unshaven slobs in their ranks. I don’t think this is a coincidence. One dead combatant is shown to be gay by having a picture of a nude muscled hunk in his wallet. This is treated by the character who finds the image with much disdain. It’s a bad thing, funny even, there is no doubt about the director’s message here.

Georges Siatidis is superb when he shows up as the hopelessly powerless UN sergeant only allowed to observe but who really wants to intervene in the carnage. Then we get Simon Callow playing directly opposite this as lazy, uncaring UN general who at first doesn’t want to leave the comfort of his office and sexy assistant and then when he’s forced to wants to get out of the situation as quickly as he can without any regards to anyone else. I’m sure the drama and conflict of what people wanted to do and what they had to do and why they had to do it could have used a slightly more subtle brush.

Katrin Cartlidge is the only female character of any note but I found it confusing for some time what here charactering was representing? Any other example of the west just being disinterested voyeurs, but Tanovic makes our mind up with giving her character some telling dialogue about murder and then makes her dispassionate near the end about the outcoming of her ‘breaking story’. As I’ve said before a bit clunky. A more interesting question would be, ‘if you take sides, how do you decide which side?’ Perhaps that is a question for another film. Nevertheless, she does well enough with her ‘writ large’ role.

The story plays out with mainly a big broad strokes to its conclusion – unsatisfactory and stuffed with more metaphors but as I said I found it unfulfilling.

The acting wavers between great and a bit wobbly and despite being labelled as surprisingly funny the laughs are sparse. Having watched a lot of films over the years I am well aware of the horror and stupidity of war so when a film comes along and says this again it has to be well acted, interesting and say something new for it not to get stale. I liked the vivid green of the Bosnian countryside which made a big difference from a lot of muddy brown hell-holes but for me, something was missing from the whole film.

No Man’s Land has its good points and while I feel that it is not the Emperor’s new clothes it definitely is wearing his jacket and tie.

Don’t go into this film thinking you are going to see a silly but exciting spy drama. Quite frankly the plotline and story presented with Central Intelligence are neither central to the film’s purpose or in any shape intelligent. Clearly, this film was made as another vehicle to showcase Dwayne Johnson amiable hunk film persona along with Kevin Hart’s uptight and intense version. To this extent the film works with the schtick being Johnson is the loveable and over-enthusiastic nerd, although still massive, imposing and impossible to defeat in any situation and Hart, normally more wild and bug-eyed, playing a straight up 9 to 5 white collar bore. It works but it really isn’t so different or unusual that I sat up from slump on the sofa as the film played out.

Both actors have a good chemistry with each other and with Amy Ryan and it is this dynamic that saves the film from being just another m’eh in a long, long, line of mismatched partners comedy films.

The film does try to make a point about cruelty and bullying but in huge broad strokes that only an utter idiot or the world’s biggest bully might not get and we get to this point by having the most poorly written and pointless cameo as Jason Bateman pops up as the father of all bullies with his cartoonish and shoe-horned in character. It was at his appearance that the film started to lose me.

The action side of the film with shooting and even death involved is almost a side issue it is so silly and slight. I’m sure they didn’t make this film to be this way though.

I understood that early on the spy, CIA side, of the film should not be taken too seriously and mismatched friends are where the viewers should be focussing but this overworked trope was going to have to be completely captivating and different to keep me glued to the screen. Johnson and Hart just about worked enough magic and fun to stop me sighing continuously but it was close.

Everyone in the film keeps things moving on, there is some funny laugh out loud moments, not enough but they are there, but the longer the film goes on the more it sags under its own weight and by the end it is dragging along.

It’s a shame because Johnson’s on-screen presence is certainly enough to keep most viewers enthralled because in all honesty it’s a big as him and his 100 Megawatt smile. It works, he knows it works, and film-makers do. Kevin Hart with his considerable smaller frame and more intense energy, can also work in the right film, playing off against the personality of Johnson it works but in this viewers opinion it needs a better script and film.

Enough for a wet Sunday afternoon or a boring middle of the weeknight but film-makers have to got to stop churning out these films unless they do something different, something that’ll make anyone over twenty-years-old sit up and take notice.

Close but no cigar – even for the artist formerly known as ‘The Rock’.

So often in the modern filmmaking world, reboots/remakes that claim to 'pay homage' to the original films they are based never live up to the originals. Now as a huge childhood fan of the original Planet of the Apes films (and the TV show) it is a great pleasure to see a set of film-makers and actors who clearly have a great respect for the source of their film.

The War for the Planet of Apes is clearly greatly updated in the storyline, realistic settings and unparalleled special effects and ape acting but if you look closely you can see the setups and references to those original films. In particular, I was delighted with the build-up and story behind 'Nova' the mute girl and how human's became mute (or will). The makers really sat down went through the original stories and must have said let's pad this out, give it a reason and not just say 'because it is'.

It made me smile and still does thinking about it now. Someone thought long and hard about the backstory, cogs and wheels in the background.

The story itself is as old as the hills, revenge, pure and simple. What makes it better than most is the clear villain, Woody Harrelson, has a motive that makes sense and there is a reason for his specifically cruel and merciless actions. Most of us, but not all, would not agree with them but we do know why he does them and it's not because he is 'evil'. Yes, the makers do have a dig and modern society and the current world situation and why not? It's a road that is clear for all to see.

The action sequences are as good as most serious war films and especially the opening assault puts me in mind of a few Vietnam films from over the years, both claustrophobic and then all-encompassing with some great sweeping camera shots.

It takes some great writing and motion-capture acting to make you close to tears over the deaths of CGI apes and laugh at the antics of Steve Zahn's comic side-kick 'Bad Ape'. In lesser hands it could have been awful but the motion-capture and Zahn's comic chops had the role on the right side of the tracks. Needless to say, Andy Serkis is basically now a real talking ape because he has his role to the T so much you forget he's an actor from London. He is helped no end with his supporting cast, particularly the other apes where facial and body language is the performance. That is not to cast the 'humans' into the shadows because overall I could not think of a character that jarred with me throughout the running time.

It was great to see that a film that uses 'War' in its title did not go down the explosions and non-stop gun battles that perhaps some would expect or even want it to be. There is a battle at the beginning and battle at the end but in between you get a drama with pathos, laughter, tears and peril. Pretty impressive I'd say.

Both the main character are neither black nor white, there is a moral to the story and real peril throughout with no character, favourite or otherwise, guaranteed to make it to the conclusion. The settings and locations are both magnificent, wild and natural. A world left alone.

If I have a quibble it would be the ending seemed rushed and slightly too neat, which is odd considering the film's 140 minutes running time, I can't actually say what happens without spoiling the film but considering the way the story was crafted as messy and difficult for all the characters, like real life, the ending was just too neat, too tied up in a bow but it's a personal quibble really. Others will love the ending I'm sure.

Oh and I hated Woody Harrelson's actor's tool, the unnecessary sunglasses, used to take off and put on to emphasise points.

War for the Planet of the Apes is a very, very, good film, it sits comfortably with the first two films of the series, is a fine update on the original films and pays knowing, loving and carefully thought-out tribute and continuation of those 70s film storylines.