Film Reviews by GI

There's been quite a few adaptations of Agatha Christie's famous whodunnit novel and this one doesn't really offer much that sets it apart from the others than some very impressive visuals and a stellar cast although the 1974 film also had one of those. The difficulty with this is the often excruciating time it takes for exposition and talking to build the various plot points and all the smoke and mirrors topped by the lengthy reveal in the film's finale. Kenneth Branagh directs and well as stars as the famous detective Hercule Poirot here sporting pretty magnificent moustache. Having solved a case in Jerusalem in the films prologue he decides to make a break aboard the Orient Express from Istanbul to London. An assortment of characters on board are introduced including Johnny Depp's nasty criminal who ends up stabbed to death. Poirot then takes on the case to solve his murder while the train is temporarily halted due to an avalanche. If you know the book or the other films then there's no surprises here and the film seems very dragged out and all style over substance. The cast are impressive and all perform superbly including Michelle Pfeiffer, Judi Dench, Daisy Ridley, Willem Dafoe, Penélope Cruz, Olivia Colman and Derek Jacobi. It's a reasonable watch on a rainy afternoon.

This rather self indulgent dystopian/sci-fi/fantasy film from Wim Wenders is a very mixed bag that is surely far too long (in the 287 min Criterion Collection 4K restored Director's Cut) and narratively drifts along in a story that's hard to pin down. Cinematically there's a lot to admire here especially visually but it's a strange film in the sense that it's often incomprehensible even though the plot is there to see but to where is it going and why? To be honest by the end I was exhausted and struggling to find the film at all interesting. Set in an alternative 1999 the world is on the brink after a nuclear satellite has gone out of control and the future of civilisation is in doubt. With that introduction the narrative focuses on Claire (Solveig Dommartin), whose story the film follows. In a Eurotrash style she is travelling through Europe and has a car crash that involves two bank robbers. They convince her to take their loot to Paris for them where she decides to keep it but then discovers a handsome yet enigmatic hitchhiker, Sam alias Trevor (William Hurt) has stolen some of the cash from her. So she sets out to track him down and he in turn is on the run from the US government because he stole a gizmo from them that his father invented. Anyway after what is effectively a very long road movie that globetrots all over the world the pair of them, now lovers, and her ex (Sam Neill), the bak robbers and others end up in Australia where Sam's father (Max Von Sydow) is experimenting with a dream machine. And if none of that seems to make sense you'd be right because the film seems senseless for most of the time. You watch in the hope some dramatic swing in the narrative will occur but it actually doesn't. It seems another of those films where an uncontrolled director has been allowed to run riot. Apparently the theatrical 3 hour version isn't any better although I've not seen it. This is not a film that you'll want to watch twice and you need the patience to sit through it for the sheer length alone. But I'm positive it will have its admirers.

Although it's very unsubtle this social satire does have some great laughs and really cringeworthy scenes that makes it somewhat understandable that it's been celebrated and award winning. The obvious steal is that the narrative plays out similarly to the famous play and much filmed The Admirable Crichton. The film's critique of the conventions of wealth and the social class structures that it brings are glaringly obvious very quickly and yet they are well scripted and the performances are superbly defined. These start with the introduction of Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean), a beautiful young couple with he being a wannabe male model and she is a social media influencer. They have a row over who pays a restaurant bill when Carl takes exception to Maya's assumption it'll be him. This sets the tone of the narrative as the story moves to a luxury yacht on which the couple have been given a free holiday through Yaya's 'job'. On board are an assortment of odd characters from a Russian oligarch, a German woman who has had a stroke and can only say one phrase, an elderly British couple who happen to be arms dealers, a tyrannical head steward and the alcoholic and disheartened Captain (Woody Harrelson). When a storm hits a series of events begins that will either have you chuckling throughout of leaving the room! Similarities to a famous scene in Monty Python's Meaning Of Life (1983) is the only hint I can make! In any case tragedy strikes and a small group of the crew and passengers including Carl & Yaya end up on a tropical island where lowly toilet cleaner Abigail (Dolly De Leon) takes control simply because she knows how to make fire and catch fish. She decides this is her time to make her mark and soon demands concessions from the others especially Carl. There is a heavy handedness to this film and the themes smack you in the face and it's basically highlighting what you really know already so in that sense it's somewhat unoriginal and yet it's has a sense of fun that I really enjoyed.

Much the same as the previous film and really marked only by the untimely death of star Paul Walker who was killed during production forcing the use of body doubles and CGi to complete his scenes and there's a moving tribute at the end. But essentially this is another very similar big budget action film dominated by massive car chases, fights and stunts all very Mission Impossible in style and with another thoroughly daft story and a very achingly bad script. Dom (Vin Diesel) and Brian (Paul Walker) trying to live normal lives are forced to get the old team back together when über bad guy Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) turns up to avenge his brother who the team took down in the previous film. Indeed No.7 will make no sense unless you've seen No.6. Pulling the strings is Kurt Russell as some Government man, Hulk like cop Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) is in the mix too and Djimon Hounsou is a terrorist with some agenda or other. There's a 'macguffin' they're all after too! The story really is beside the point as this is about set pieces full of preposterous stunts (cars parachuting out of planes onto roads for instance) and lots of gritty fights, explosions and gunplay and of course all the male characters are ripped and have lots of fight skills and the women seem all to be endlessly in bikinis! It's along way from the original The Fast & The Furious (2001). A film that is entertaining but all a bit vacuous and forgettable and the survival of Statham signposts his future appearances.

This is a wonderful Sherlock Holmes film and with the great and versatile Christopher Plummer playing the famous fictional detective just as he is depicted in the books. Here he is pitted against Jack the Ripper combining some history and mythology with pure fiction and it works extremely well making for a thoroughly enjoyable film. The reconstruction and imagery of a foggy Victoria London sets the film up towards a horror style narrative but director Bob Clark skimps over the gore of the Ripper murders and gives us an intriguing crime thriller instead where Holmes and Watson (James Mason - excellent casting) uncover a conspiracy behind the murders that goes to the heart of the British establishment. Several books in the 70s and 80s advanced a theory of a freemason plot involving the Crown and Government and this narrative takes elements of those in the story for this film. Admittedly the clues to who is behind the crimes are rely on Holmes telling us, the audience, but the script is rather clever and keeps you hooked in. The casting is inspired: John Gielgud, Anthony Quayle, Donald Sutherland, Frank Finlay, David Hemmings and Genevieve Bujold all give brilliant performances in a quite moving and interesting story. This is one of my favourite Sherlock Holmes films and if you are a fan of the popular TV series then give this a try it's remarkably good.

As Noel Gallagher says in this wonderful documentary record covers are the art collections of the working class. This is the story if the duo who formed Hipgnosis in Cambridge in the 1960s and went onto design some of the most iconic album covers in music history from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The moon to Led Zeppelin's Houses Of The Holy. Working with many bands over the years including Wings and 10cc this is director Anton Corbijn's first documentary feature where he cleverly shoots the film in black & white except the actual artworks highlighting their sheer brilliance. It's a story of two personalities 'Po' Powell and Storm Thorgeson and their relative eccentric personalities shine through all the turmoil of their creative work lives. Interviews with various musicians including David Gilmour and Paul McCartney abound and the entire film is so interesting and creates a nostalgia for the heady days of the 70s when records were so important and the artwork an inspiration to so many people. This is a wonderful documentary and shows the lengths these two artists went to get their dream designs into reality from days spent in remote deserts or up snow topped mountains to actually setting someone on fire. If this is your era of music then this film is simply great.

Like all films that base themselves on controversial true events it is easy to get bogged down on what is fiction and what is fact here but as director Steven Spielberg said himself this is not a documentary nor ever intended as one. It's based on a book which in itself has uncorroborated parts and in the final analysis this is a sharp political thriller from a master film maker. So don't watch this trying to prise apart truth from lie, this is a powerful film and its strength lies in a clever narrative structure and shocking violence that makes the film appear highly real. Inspired by the actual events in 1972 where terrorists of the Palestinian 'Black September' organisation took nine of the Israeli Olympic team hostage at the Munich Olympic village. After their deaths in a bungled German police rescue attempt the Israeli government decide on a covert operation to hunt down and assassinate eleven men they believe were the planners of the attack. Mossad agent Avner (Eric Bana in one of his top performances) is recruited along with a four man team to find these men, who are spread around Europe, and kill them. Geoffrey Rush plays the cynical Mossad boss and the kill squad includes Daniel Craig and Ciarán Hinds. As their successes mount up they soon find they become the hunted by the terrorists and some obscure and shady agencies. Spielberg doesn't explicitly condemn or support the Israeli decision to conduct state sponsored murder but he does omit the deaths of several innocent civilians that the operation caused so his intentions here seem to sit squarely on the side of the Israeli decision. Whatever the morals of the story or your views on the real history this remains a piece of brilliant thriller film making and it's Spielberg without the saccharine sentimentality he has often deployed. If you've never seen this then it's a top class film and you should seek it out asap.

The visual style, sets and characterisations make this fantasy/horror film clearly a Tim Burton one. It's a sort of whodunnit with the supernatural all mixed together. It's certainly entertaining, nicely gory and humorous and boasts a fantastic cast although many aren't on screen anywhere near long enough: Michael Gambon, Miranda Richardson, Richard Griffiths, Ian McDiarmid, Christopher Walken and Christopher Lee amongst others. Johnny Depp stars as the slightly eccentric and squeamish 18th century policeman Ichabod Crane, sent by his superiors to the small hamlet of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of murders where the victims have all been beheaded. Crane believes in new fangled science methods of detection and is confident he'll solve the crimes but soon finds the townsfolk believe a headless horseman has risen from the grave to exact revenge on them. As the bodies pile up Crane discovers that someone in the town is part of the terrible reign of terror. Christina Ricci plays the love interest but has little else to do other than need to be saved and Depp doesn't seem to be trying too hard having perfected the hapless, naïve type character before, indeed his Crane reminded me of his Blake in Dead Man (1995). Style wise the film is very reminiscent of the 1960s Hammer Horrors. It's enjoyable but fails on repeated viewings simply because once the plot is all revealed the film offers little else. Worth seeing if you never have though.

SPOILER ALERT

A southern revenge thriller that's really bad. In fact it's a struggle to find anything redeeming about this pile of trash even with the presence of Robert De Niro and John Malkovich, I'm struggling to believe they signed up for this so perhaps the script started out a lot better.....we'll never know. Shelby (Jack Huston) and Ruby (Willa Fitzgerald) are lovers and heroin addicts who decide to get clean when Shelby proposes. Her family is delighted including her brother in law (Malkovich). But when Ruby relapses and overdoses Shelby goes on the rampage hunting down the local drug hierarchy. De Niro is the cop on his tail who is given some inner demons of his own presumably so he can actually do a bit of acting in the film. The action is muted and often carried out while some daft song on the soundtrack drowns out the gunfire. Malkovich, as if you didn't already guess, has a bigger part to play in the denouement. None of this is particularly original and it drags itself to the finish line after lengthy and dull romance scenes in the first half just in case you don't get how much in love the starry eyed junkies actually are. You can avoid this one. Known as Savage Salvation in other countries including the US - again for reasons unknown.

One of the several adventure films Roger Moore appeared in during his James Bond tenure and indeed there's a bit of a Bond family thing going on here as the director Peter Hunt had directed On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) and the titles are by Maurice Binder who is famous for his 007 opening title sequences. That aside this is an adventure film with doses of comedy in a Fordian style intermixed with some quite brutal violence the contrast making for a confused film that never really decides what it's trying to be. Set in 1913 in East Africa and alcoholic ivory poacher Flynn (Lee Marvin) teams up with handsome aristocratic Englishman Sebastian (Moore) and harasses the stereotyped German commissioner across the river. When war breaks out a year later the two sides go all out to kill the other and it all comes to a climax when the two heroes decide to blow up a German battleship. There's a love interest for Moore with Barbara Parkins as Flynn's daughter and plenty of nasty violence that at times is a bit unnecessary and Marvin gets a Wild Bunch moment, ironically considering he was Sam Peckinpah's first choice to star in that classic.. It's an overlong film and very of its time making it one for those nostalgic for 70s cinema and/or fans of Roiger Moore but otherwise it's mediocre when viewed today.

This is a rollicking and thoroughly entertaining piece of hokum obviously influenced by Indiana Jones but manages to keep itself exciting, humorous and downright good fun from start to finish. Despite its horror film roots this is actually a piece of fantasy adventure made with adults in mind although there's no resort to gore or fright, it's more of a swashbuckler than an outright monster film. Set in the 1920s Brendan Fraser is fantastic as the hero Rick O'Connell who happens to know the location of a lost Egyptian city being sought after by egyptologist Evelyn (the tantalisingly beautiful Rachel Weisz) and her hapless brother Jonathan (John Hannah). Unfortunately for them others are looking for it too but it's protected by an ancient brotherhood who happen to know an ancient evil resides there and of course it's not long before this gets awakened. So what with it's 50s serial styling, great storytelling and a nostalgic feel for those great fantasy films of yesteryear like Jason and The Argonauts (1963) this is absolutely superb. There was a couple of fairly pointless sequels but this one is a film to really enjoy time and time again.

Director David Lynch's dark, sinister and distinctly unsettling thriller is an absolute masterpiece of modern cinema. On first viewing this will baffle and astound in equal measure but you'll want to go and watch it again very soon afterwards. I recommend you do because the clues to what is going on are all there if you are careful enough to spot them. If you are familiar with Lynch's work then this will be a bit easier as there's a narrative structure here that can be seen in some of his other work including his TV series Twin Peaks. Naomi Watts plays Betty, an aspiring young actress who arrives in Hollywood hoping to make it big in the movies. She takes up residence in her Aunt's apartment whilst her Aunt is away but is surprised when she finds the glamorous Rita (Laura Harring) hiding there. Rita has lost her memory after a mysterious car crash and Betty agrees to help her find out who she is and what has happened to her. This starts a nightmare chain of events that involves a film director (Justin Theroux) and his struggles with casting his new film under pressure from some nasty bad guys. There's a host of strange characters throughout the story and it involves murder, dark erotic sex and corruption. To give you a slight clue Lynch is obsessed with dreams and nightmares so bear that in mind when you're watching. I cannot recommend this film enough. Watts is superb, the story and vision unique and it's a film that will get you talking for hours after having seen it.

A routine thriller that benefits from a topnotch cast. Michael Caine effortlessly plays an aging man on the run chased by Tilda Swinton in a story that is loosely based on real events. Swinton is Annemarie, a French Judge tasked with tracking down Broussard (Caine) a former nazi collaborator who personally selected and executed seven jewish men during the Second World War and who managed to escape justice. It turns out Broussard is protected by a secret cabal of catholics who fund and hide him. Also after him is a high ranking government official who Broussard can implicate in war crimes. All this leads to a film that has little excitement, hardly any action or suspense and where a series of incompetent agents fail to capture this angina ridden old man who outwits them time and time again to the point of tedium. All this is a shame too because with this cast and as director Norman Jewison's last film it had all the ingredients to be something rather good. But sadly this is no Marathon Man (1976) despite Ciarán Hinds, Charlotte Rampling, Jeremy Northam and Alan Bates also in his last theatrical film.

A chilling dystopian action film from director Alex Garland, a director of unique vision, and a film that will possibly divide audiences although as a cinematic experience it's visceral and an assault on the senses. Set in the near future the USA is embroiled in a civil war where the states of Texas and California have united to fight a tyrannical President (a cameo from Nick Offerman). The film doesn't give us much if any political context for the causes off the war although there's the inevitable allegory to Trump albeit a tentative one. This is a narrative around the effects of conflict and close proximity to combat. Kirsten Dunst plays Lee, a veteran combat photo journalist, who has become somewhat immune to the violence she witnesses although she is haunted by the past. She and her colleague are intent on a perilous journey across America to try and get an interview with the President, a risky enterprise as journalists have been summarily executed in Washington DC but as the President appears close to defeat they want the scoop. Tagging along are a fellow veteran journalist (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and Jess (Cailee Spaeny). Jess is terrified by what she sees and Lee becomes a reluctant mentor to her and the film focuses on Jess' emotional arc as she becomes more and more a war junkie. With a road movie structure the travellers go from episode to episode some of which are very traumatising and violence is ever present. This is a violent and at times uncomfortable film and the combat scenes and set pieces are realistic both visually and aurally. This film captures the chilling and terrible momentum of war in a way that Saving Private Ryan (1998) did for the war film genre and in the character structures it reminded me of The Hurt Locker (2008) in the depiction of the numbness to horror and the addiction to the rush of combat that both Lee has and regrets and Jess is obtaining on the journey. An impressive film and one that I'm sure will gain accolades as time goes on.

There's been a few adaptations of this famous 1930 children's novel by Arthur Ransome possibly the most famous being the 1974 film with Virginia McKenna. This latest one doesn't really offer much that's new or particularly amazing other than a very good adult cast and the addition of a spy subplot that wasn't in the original novel. I'm unsure where the drive to remake this period nostalgic adventure has come from as it's a story directed at children in an age of superheroes, the MCU and very realistic computer games that the young seem much more involved in than a 1930s story of children pretending to be pirates on an idyllic English lake. Anyway, the story here is of the Walker family who led by their mother played by Kelly McDonald (the father is away at sea) go on holiday to the Lake District and stay in a local farmhouse,. The four children spend their days sailing a small boat on the nearby lake and have a mock pirate battle with two local girls, go camping, get into a few minor scrapes and eventually come up against a grumpy man (Rafe Spall) on a houseboat who accuses them of stealing his stuff. Added to this rather worn out and unexciting stuff there's a couple of Soviet spies roaming around and thereafter the grumpy man. Andrew Scott is the lead bad guy, and typically very good as the charming but cold villain. There's a small set piece involving a seaplane but other than that this is a routine children's adventure film that has a charm but that's about all.