Film Reviews by GI

Local Hero is a gentle British comedy in the style of the endearing Ealing Comedies and it's also a beautiful homage to Scotland, indeed it's often be praised as a love poem to the country. A clash-of-cultures narrative where Texas oil billionaire Felix Happer (Burt Lancaster) sends his ambitious gopher Macintyre (Paul Riegert) to a remote Scottish village to buy it so he can build an oil refinery. Mac finds the locals are very enthusiastic to the plan and can't believe their luck. But a local hermit, Ben (Fulton MacKay) happens to own the main beach and steadfastly refuses to sell forcing Happer to make the journey to Scotland personally. The film is very reminiscent of The Maggie (1954), where a rich American comes up against wily local Scots. There's a lovely romance involving a young Peter Capaldi and some delightful comedy moments. The ending is quite lovely and the film has a famous score by Mark Knopfler. This is a beautiful little film and is beloved by critics and the public alike and is well worth checking out if you've never seen it.

This historical action adventure would have fitted perfectly into the 1960s. Its style, story and structure matches the films of that time so in many ways it's a very straight forward film. Mostly though it all seems too good to be true even though there's apparently some fact behind it. Set in the 1820s this is basically a story of tribal conflicts in West Africa focusing on one that has a regiment of fierce women warriors as a sort of Praetorian Guard to their king led by Nanisca (Viola Davis), scarred and emotionally damaged but with some much needed wisdom. The film has roughly two narrative threads that eventually intertwine. The first is the recruitment and training of new recruits that follows headstrong Nawi (Thuso Mbedu) as she joins, struggles, has attitude etc etc and the second is the war with another tribe and slave traders. There are battles and fighting and despite a lot of machetes and spears and throat cutting this is a surprisingly bloodless affair, with more emphasis on comic book style martial arts which weakened the film's impact. It's clearly trying to be family film or at least appeal to younger audiences who will perhaps receive it more as a superhero genre piece. The presence of John Boyega as the king made me realise that this is essentially a Star Wars narrative with Davis as the Jedi master and Mbedu as a Luke persona. There's a big bad baddie (the dark side) but he's somewhat underwhelming but the story is a very basic one of good vs evil. The attempts to discuss slavery are way too simplistic and skirt around the problematic matter that the tribes themselves traded captured slaves to Europeans. The presence of a beautifully muscled mixed race man to be a love interest to the young heroine and to offer a moral position on slavery are to be honest cringeworthy. A rather average and disappointing film that never really does anything other than a standard, predictable story and at times feels all a bit silly

This slow burning political espionage drama is a must see film. A psychological thriller set in East Germany in 1984, a time when the East German security police (Stasi) were highly active in monitoring, interrogating and imprisoning citizens on mere suspicions or false denouncements by so called informants. This is a fantastic and superbly written story that draws you in and the subtle shifts in plot and character are wonderful. Ulrich Mühe plays Wiesler, an experienced Stasi operative who begins an operation of surveillance on playwright (Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) despite there being no suspicions about him. But a high ranking Government official covets Dreyman's actress girlfriend (Martina Gedeck) and so insists that something incriminating is found. But as the long hours of dedicated and highly intrusive surveillance carry on Wiesler begins to form a different attitude to his target. The plot twists tiptoe up to you as the narrative unfolds. This is an excellent film revealing the hard truths of life behind the Iron Curtain before the reunification of Germany. It highlights the dangers of despotic regimes and at its heart its a story of humanity and of truth and morality overcoming fear and false duty. Overall it's a delight, a tense and somewhat frightening story that keeps you hooked throughout.

Cate Blanchett is note perfect in this complex psychodrama that begins tiresomely but soon turns into something very original and interesting. She play the title character of Lydia Tár, an internationally renowned orchestral conductor who has become the first woman to lead a huge German orchestra. She's no doubt seen as a genius but she's a narcissistic tyrant ready to manipulate any and all around her as she lives her almost rock star lifestyle with her wife played by Nina Hoss. The suicide of a former lover of Lydia's begins her exposure and downfall as the loyalty she demands of her entourage is not as forthcoming as she expects. There's elements of a descent into madness narrative as Lydia begins to use control. The performances are all so good they are mesmerising especially Blanchett who delivers one take scenes of considerable length and at all times has authenticity in the role. Of equal note is Noémie Merlant as Tár's assistant who is instrumental in her downfall. Julian Glover and Mark Strong also have support roles. This is a film that skirts melodrama and some may find it stretches patience but film has a sensual extravagance that makes you want to keep watching. It's certainly a tor de force in screen acting.

A modern masterpiece Little Big Man is a film that all film lovers should see and see again. It's an absolute delight throughout, a film that debunks the genre conventions of the western and the myths of American frontier history. Dustin Hoffman in one of his most iconic roles is Jack Crabb, a 121 year old man interviewed by a historian about his memories of living on the frontier but who claims to be the only white survivor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. The film is then the story of his life from the massacre of his family as a child to his life with the loving, caring Cheyenne, his return to white civilisation and ultimately his hatred for General Custer. Along this journey we meet a series of characters all of whom are on the face of it stereotypical western characters but each one is subverted to reveal a different angle whether it be the ridiculousness of the movie staple or the reality from history. There's the call girl (Faye Dunaway), the preacher (Thayer David), the travelling showman (Martin Balsam), the gunfighter (Jeff Corey as Wild Bill Hickok), the Indian Chief (Chief Dan George) and some Hoffman himself becomes including the storekeeper, town drunk, a gunfighter, Indian scout, and best of all is the complete unravelling of the myth of Custer played here to wonderful effect by Richard Mulligan. This film has comedy, indeed at times you'll laugh out loud, sadness, and shocking violence including the massacre of an Indian village and the murder of women and children. Ultimately the film questions the staple of myth versus fact and debunks the Fordian idea of 'when the legend become fact, print the legend'. This is a thoroughly remarkable work, one of the finest American films that emerged in the American New wave of the late 60s and into the 70s.

A routine pagan creature feature that is watchable for the bleak, dreary landscape and the presence of Keri Russell in the lead role. She plays Julia, a small town school teacher who lives with her local sheriff brother (Jesse Plemons). There's a sordid history of parental abuse behind them so Julia is only too aware of issues with one of her school kids, the withdrawn and clearly malnourished, Lucas (Jeremy T. Thomas). He is harbouring a dark secret at home which the inquisitive Julia soon sets out to discover unleashing an ancient horror in the process. There's nothing outwardly wrong with this film, it's competently made, looks good and has the usual atmospheric build ups. It just doesn't really add much to a quite tired sub genre and whilst it maybe thematically about modern generational abuse or societal disavowment of the under privileged, I suspect it's just another film following the current horror trends. There's gore, a monster and daftness in equal measure and Amy Madigan has a cameo. Watchable for Halloween perhaps but otherwise a throwaway.

This British scifi horror film was treated as low budget B movie on it's release and much derided by critics and the public alike but over the years it has gained a cult following and is now regarded as an interesting addition to the science fiction/horror genre hybrid. A space mission to study Halley's Comet as it passes close to Earth discovers a massive object hidden in the tail of the comet. The crew investigate and find the remains of an alien species and three human bodies which they return to their spaceship. But the ship is later found burnt out and the crew all dead although the strange bodies have survived the fire and are taken to Earth by a rescue ship where they awaken and unleash an ancient evil. The film is a great story and although the special effects may appear a little old fashioned by today's standards they are mostly shot in camera and are quite exciting. It's a violent film and occasionally gory and has a notoriety because French actress Mathilda May spends most of her screen time totally naked. The cast includes Steve Railsback as the Commander of the spacecraft, Peter Firth as an SAS Colonel and an early screen role for Patrick Stewart. This is one of my guilty secret films, a really entertaining piece of hokum from the Golan-Globus Productions (Cannon Films as it was to become) and well worth checking out as there's a restored BluRay version with two cuts of the film, the theatrical cut and a longer International version.

This is a first class crime thriller with an interesting structure and a great central performance by Terence Stamp as Wilson, a hardened London career criminal who travels to Los Angeles to look into the circumstances of his daughter's death supposedly from a car accident. It's a tough, gritty film with bursts of violence, a creepy and cowardly villain played by Peter Fonda and his tough security chief played by Barry Newman. This is one of Steven Soderbergh's often forgotten films and underrated films especially considering his use of time swings to reveal his story through the eyes of Wilson which opens up interesting questions about the narrative. Stamp's character is much more nuanced than the over exaggerated cockney persona that dominates and gives the film some humour (his interaction with Bill Duke's DEA agent is really funny). But it's a much more complicated character here which Stamp cleverly reveals in small facial expressions and scenes where the camera lingers on him as a lonely figure highlighting a life of regrets and one reading could be a life he imagines rather than actually lives. However you analyse it this is a remarkable character study, with a slight but clash of culture theme that is not overdone. A film to check out and certainly if you weren't impressed the first time.

A formulaic and poorly scripted musical biopic of the legendary singer. You're better off watching the documentaries about Houston that have been released in the past couple of years if you want to know any details of her life (even those films were hampered by legal issues). What you have here is a whistle stop tour of Whitney's rise from teenage gospel singer to mega star that skirts over any issues and fails to nail its colours to a mast. Everything is just touched upon, the jealous and domineering mother (Tamara Tunie), the greedy and embezzling father (Clarke Peters), the best friend with the 'was Whitney gay?' or not and finally to her drug laden and stressed marriage to Bobby Brown (Ashton Sanders) and motherhood. None of these major parts of Houston's life are given any depth. There's a scene where her mentor (Stanley Tucci - the best thing about this film) tells her she needs rehab', as a viewer you will, if like me, be surprised and think 'Does She?' because up to that point the drugs issue has hardly been evident. Naomie Ackie does a reasonable job as Houston, lip synching the iconic songs and performances, but the script never allows her to give the character anywhere to really show the despair that she felt. A weak biopic.

A truly original horror film from Sweden. It's teen love story, a bully revenge thriller, a serial killer story and a monster film all wrapped cleverly into one modern masterpiece. It's a gloomy, lugubrious and nightmarish film set in Stockholm during the heavy winter and tells the story of ruthlessly bullied 12 year old Oskar, who lives with his mother. Friendless he meets his new neighbour Eli, also 12, and they quickly bond. She encourages him to face his tormentors but when a series of ritualistic murders occur in the neighbourhood Oskar soon begins to believe his new friend and the deaths are connected. The clever, indeed original, use of a familiar movie trope makes this a really intriguing and rather brilliant film. Adapted from a bestselling novel it's a film to discover and admire.

A film very rooted in it's time, the mid 90s, so much so in fact that it hasn't aged well and can't remotely survive a re-evaluation nor be valued as a film that's 'so bad its good'. It's just a failure on so many levels. Firstly the themes that director Paul Verhoeven attempts around the exploitation of women in the world of Las Vegas entertainment, the links with prostitution and the accepted rape by celebrities is given the veneer of sordid soft pornography as he obviously relishes getting as much naked flesh on screen as he possibly can. All the characters are simply unspeakably horrid and especially the main character of Nomi played by Elizabeth Berkley, whose career this film no doubt ruined. Nomi is a former prostitute (although her past is held back as some sort of justified reveal near at the film's concluding scenes) who arrives in Las Vegas hoping to achieve fame as a showgirl dancer. She's clearly talented but is forced into lap dancing to earn a living eventually realising that the only way to the top is by being a nasty bitch. Berkley's performance is all anger and exaggerated movement making Nomi an unrealistic and petulant figure. The worst part is the viewer has no sympathy for her as she sulks, fights and manipulates her way to the starring role in the show. The rape sequence that is meant to be some peak of the journey loses any of it's intended impact because by the time it arrives you are in the position where you couldn't care what happens to anyone even though the the rape victim is the one character with any sort of morality. The vengeful woman sequence that immediately follows is almost laughable and certainly anti climatic. When you consider Verhoeven's major films, both his European and American, and those of writer Joe Eszterhas who penned this, you wonder what went so wrong. It has to be that the entire concept is ill thought out to the extent that Verhoeven's usual and successful excesses in violence have no part when it comes to female exploitation and misogyny in the American system where he relies on titillation as a means to push boundaries. This remains a poor film and whilst it will have its fans it cannot be remotely admired.

Here you have Die Hard (1988) but instead of cop John McClane we have Santa Claus who takes on a team of mercenaries. To be fair Die Hard is referenced unapologetically throughout in this adult comedy that flounders after awhile leaving an occasionally silly, overly violent story that becomes more interested in bloody fights than good jokes. In short a dysfunctional, wealthy family are gathered on Christmas Eve when a bunch of baddies arrives to steal money hidden in the family's vault. Unfortunately for them a very grumpy and disheartened Santa (David Harbour) happens to be in the middle of delivering presents and decides to intervene. There's a great Home Alone (1990) episode and if you remember all the bad Santa clichés from other films you'll find them here too. It's an average film, with a half baked plot and a mostly unfunny script indeed when you break it down Santa's presence in the story is pointless as the part he plays could be any ex-soldier type, it could've been John Wick on a visit for example!

This is considered one of Luc Besson's best films. It's an American set crime thriller with that gritty and realistic European arthouse style and vibe that makes it eminently watchable and original. In her first real role Natalie Portman is the 12 year old Mathilda whose family is massacred by a corrupt DEA agent, Stansfield (Gary Oldman), and his team. She seeks sanctuary with her strange neighbour, Léon, who just happens to be a highly skilled hitman. Under his tutelage she plots her revenge. The highlights of this film are Oldman as the psychopath agent Stansfield and Reno as the child like and emotionally stunted Léon. But, in the director's cut version, the relationship between Mathilda and Leon takes on a challenging slant and the awkward nature of it makes you perk up and take notice that this is more than a routine action thriller. Besson skirts a very fine line here but he does it skilfully and focuses the narrative on the relationship between Leon and Mathilda turning this film into something highly original and intriguing. It's a film of strange nuances from the opening sequence where Leon's skills take on an almost supernatural air to the various interactions with the main characters and these include the father/son dynamic between Leon and his boss, mafioso Tony (Danny Aiello), and the neurotic and evil force of Stansfield who corrupts all he encounters. Oldman really excels here and makes this psychopath a real force to be remembered. But it's in the beguiling play of father/daughter, mentor/pupil and finally lovers (?) of Leon and Mathilda that the film plays around with your feelings and leave you strangely unsettled but also satisfied.

John Wayne in interviews regretted passing on the role of Dirty Harry especially after he'd seen the film that cemented Clint Eastwood's top box office position and so he subsequently agreed to make two cop action films, McQ (1974) and Brannigan. They are both star vehicles with an obviously too old Wayne as different tough cops, indeed he was quite ill during production of both films. But it is Brannigan which has garnered more praise probably because of its London setting and the 'fish out of water' and culture clash narrative. Brannigan is a tough Chicago cop sent to London to bring back a mobster played with his usual slimy persona by John Vernon. Scotland Yard are supposed to have his man in custody so Brannigan is less than pleased when he discovers that his prisoner has been kidnapped. So, as you'd expect, Brannigan goes a bit rogue around London on the hunt aided by Judy Geeson as a beautiful British detective and hounded by her boss played by Richard Attenborough, who is clearly having fun but managed to never ever mention this film in interviews for the rest of his life! This is good fun, a fairly routine action thriller with the usual doses of humour that you find in Wayne films, plenty of roustabout violence including a hilarious bar fight. Of course Brannigan manages to keep a gun despite the laws of England and there's a sort of running joke throughout about it. Of course this doesn't match up to any of Wayne's best films, but it's an interesting one when considering his 70s output and his waning box office draw. His best film of the 70s, and his last, was yet to come but Brannigan, much like Coogan's Bluff (1968), brings a cowboy into the metropolis to wield his mythical prowess and viewed today, it's dated but hugely enjoyable.

An excellent gangster drama based on the infamous Kray twins who dominated the London crime scene of the 1960s. In many ways this is a star vehicle for Tom Hardy who plays both brothers in a superbly edited and constructed film. The temptation will be to assume this is an accurate biopic of real life gangsters but it's reported to be inaccurate in some key areas and indeed one major plot point and overall the film has the vibe of an adapted graphic novel with the characters sharply exaggerated and the film is all the better for it. Ronnie and Reggie Kray are two East End villains who are rising up in the underworld by taking over clubs and similar venues through threats, intimidation and brutal violence. They have to contend with the attention of the police (their nemesis being detective 'Nipper' Read played by Christopher Eccleston, although the film hardly delves into any investigation narratives and Read is a sidelined character in this depiction) and the Richardsons, a rival gang (Paul Bettany cameos as their boss). The main focus though is on Reggie and his besotted relationship with Frances (Emily Browning), who struggles with the violence she gets caught up in. The insanity of both brothers is neatly portrayed with the clearly psychopathic Ronnie who is always close to ruining their empire to the slowly revealed Reggie as an equally violent sociopath. Hardy is excellent throughout and the film recreates London in the 60s with aplomb. There's some excellent set pieces and although mostly restrained there is some brutal violence on display. A better film than The Krays (1990) which was dark and had an unpleasantness to it, mostly because of Hardy's great screen presence. Overall highly entertaining.