Film Reviews by GI

Michael Mann films are always something to get excited about. The Insider is a classic whistleblower tale, a story of brave journalism and the courage of one man to do the right thing. Russell Crowe, in one of his very best performances (he was nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this), plays Jeffrey Wigand who under extreme threats and intimidation exposed the lies of the tobacco industry on the health dangers of nicotine. Al Pacino is Lowell Bergman the journalist who tries to protect Wigand and the story, and with the great Christopher Plummer you have a fantastic cast. With Mann's signature camerawork and editing this plays out like a conspiracy thriller. It's tense, exciting and a great story. If you loved Spotlight (2015) then you must check this out.

Jack Clayton is one of the most underrated British directors. This adaptation of Henry James' The Turn of The Screw is one of the last of the great ghost films from the 50s & 60s. Deborah Kerr considered this her best performance as the timid Miss Giddens who accepts her first job as governess to two orphaned children, Miles and Flora, who live in a remote but beautiful country house with a housekeeper and a few staff. Miss Giddens begins to see a strange man and woman in the grounds and becomes convinced they are the ghosts of the former governess and her depraved lover. Her fears become uncontrollable as she begins to believe the children are in danger. This film is a masterclass in editing, camera position and cinematography including the use of shadow to drive the narrative and it's a genuinely unsettling film. There's a wonderful scene by a foggy lake where the viewer peers in trepidation alongside Deborah Kerr as we think we spot something watching! This is a masterpiece, a fantastic horror film, spooky, disquieting and very scary. A must see for all film fans.

The third film in the Indiana Jones series vastly improves on the previous film and recalls the fun of Raiders of The Lost Ark (1981) and it was inspired to add the father/son dynamic and cast Sean Connery. This is a family film that captures the Saturday Serial style that George Lucas wanted and brilliantly achieved with the original but lost with ...Temple of Doom (1984). Like Raiders there's the biblical epic references, there's gritty, comic book style violence (a little toned down since Raiders, which is very bloody!) and a great story and of course you have the Nazis back as the villains. But ultimately it has Spielberg directing with a little restraint, something he lost in the fourth instalment. The film boasts a great prologue with a young Indiana Jones (River Pheonix) fleeing some grave robbers through a circus train. It sets the tone and introduces the relationship with Indy's father and the iconic whip and fedora. The main story pits Indy against the Nazis searching for another biblical trophy, the Holy Grail. There's plenty of chases, fistfights and shooting as well as the creepy animal horrors (rats in this case) and it's all tremendous fun especially when we get to the final, mystical climax. Alison Doody is the love interest and Denholm Elliott has a bigger part to play in the story as the hapless Marcus Brody. This is the epitome of the Boys Own Adventure and top class family film.

Here is the film where Quentin Tarantino became so self indulgent that it's easy to view this as self parody where Tarantino just makes a film that features all the nerdy over-the-top scenes he loves. On release I was very disappointed and considered this a fatuous dud but on revisiting it a few times it reveals its entertaining ridiculousness and the diamond in the rough of Christoph Waltz' award winning performance. Essentially this is a spoof, with an uncomfortable heady mix of Sergio Leone meets Mel Brooks and influenced by those Boy's Own American war films of the 50s and 60s and especially The Dirty Dozen (1967), a film that itself has panache but is ultimately nasty. Inglorious Basterds is definitely nasty, the violence is graphic and at times shockingly so and you have to allow Tarantino his rewriting of history moment (hence the "Once Upon A Time..." screen shot at the beginning) and of course he's been emboldened to do this again in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019). Once you forgive this and sit back you can enjoy the various humour and fun that the cast are surely having and it's a great cast too including Brad Pitt (not his best film or performance), Diane Kruger, Michael Fassbender, Daniel Brühl, Mike Myers and even Rod Taylor has a weird cameo as Winston Churchill. The best though goes to Waltz, Mélanie Laurent and Denis Ménochet who are all excellent. So in short in occupied France during the Second World War a team of American soldiers parachute in with the mission to kill Germans and they carry off their scalps as trophies. Eventually they become part of a British mission to assassinate the German top brass at a cinema owned by a Jewish woman who is incognito and wants revenge for the murder of her family. But a notorious and devious SS officer is always on the lookout for treachery. The bloodshed is extreme, the climax jaw droppingly daft and yet you'll smile while watching. It's very Tarantino and yet his most cartoonish effort to date.

This is still an entertaining science fiction, action blockbuster, pure hokum but full of panache. It has some wonderful set pieces not least of course the destruction of the White House but also the sight of the fleeing motor homes coming across the Nevada desert and the aerial combat scenes. There's the cringeworthy and the very over-the-top American patriotism and the way that the film presents all other countries as sitting back waiting for the USA to save the day and you have to forgive the now (in)famous speech by Bill Pullman's President Whitmore. Once you forgive this and excuse Brent Spiner's mad professor character, which is a huge script error, you can sit back and enjoy the sheer spectacle of the action, Will Smith's witty one-liners and Jeff Goldblum and Judd Hirsch' father and son relationship and it has Mary McDonnell who is woefully underused. A gigantic spaceship arrives in orbit and despite fear and suspicion there's a hope by the US President and his staff that this is a friendly alien visitation but alas, no the aliens are hostile and begin a massive invasion. Luckily though the President is a former fighter pilot who has Will Smith and scientist Goldblum and a drunk Randy Quaid crop dusting pilot to save the day. This is a typical Michael Bay style auctioneer , full of explosions and gung ho all the time being great fun with no reason to think beyond the sheer spectacle although I sorta like Goldblum's environment obsessions.

The fear of radiation and/or nuclear holocaust that led to a cycle of science fiction and horror films made in the 1950s are ripe for rediscovery by a modern audience, many are now considered classics of the genre and of American Cinema in general; films such as Invasion of The Body Snatchers (1956) and Them (1954) being two superb examples. The Incredible Shrinking Man is also one of the best, a remarkably well structured and photographed film considering its age. Essentially it's a 'Robinson Crusoe' narrative where a happily married man (Grant Williams) is exposed to a strange radioactive mist and begins to gradually shrink. First he has to deal with the fear and emotions of the change and the effect on his marriage and then the social stigma of being different. Then the story moves into a survival narrative and the horrors of battling to live. Williams performance is very good when you consider that he had to act against nothing at all to achieve the effect of being very small as this all before green screen and CGI. The resulting film is exciting, very scary and tense. Film fans I urge you to seek this out it's simply fantastic and its fully restored for DVD and BluRay.

A fantastic action adventure science fiction film. Christopher Nolan makes blockbusters for grown ups, exciting, tense, spectacular and with a narrative that has complexity and originality to keep the mind guessing, analysing and constantly hooked. This has a great story, Leonardo DiCaprio leads a team of covert operatives who illegally use technology to infiltrate the dreams of people and steal their secrets for money. They are hired by Ken Watanabe's billionaire businessman to go one step further to plant a new idea into the mind of Cillian Murphy. The narrative moves through various dreamworlds within dreamworlds and the viewer has to keep engaged to know in which reality the action sits at any one time. Nolan is famous for keeping his action as effects free as he can and much of what you see has been created and shot within camera rather than using costly CGI and benefits the film so well. This is Nolan's James Bond inspired film and gives a strong indication of the sort of visual and fast paced narrative that a Nolan directed 007 film would be. Top cast including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Tom Hardy and Ellen page. An awesome film, it deserves repeated viewings to capture all the clues and nuances that you will miss on first seeing this. A modern masterpiece.

A complex plotted espionage drama from the master of cross cut editing, Tony Scott. This has a story that keeps you hooked throughout and you can see some similarities with the Bourne series. It's not as action packed but the characters and story emulate those in that franchise. Indeed it's said that Brad Pitt turned down the Jason Bourne role to appear in this film. He plays Bishop, a CIA agent who is caught trying to free a prisoner from a Chinese jail. His former boss Muir (Robert Redford) is pulled in by his bosses who want all the information he has on Bishop. Muir soon realises that Bishop is to be sacrificed and he plays his own game at CIA HQ to get Bishop freed. Told with great flashback sequences the story forms of a strong working relationship between the two men that is damaged by the involvement of a woman (Catherine McCormack). What's great about this film is the mind games and manipulation that Muir employs against a team of top bosses with a well written and superbly directed film. There are some good set pieces although this is less an action film than a good spy drama. It certainly has that great Scott style with changes of colour palette for the different time periods the flashback scenes are set. Above all though it's a solid, well crafted film that hasn't had the audience it deserves. If you love a good spy film this one is worth checking out.

Sadly this is an unremarkable drama that skirts the fringes of comedy but never gets down to providing any laughs. That's a shame because as a straight forward social drama it's mediocre. There's been some much better studies of posh friends exploiting each other whilst reuniting and this one is all very anticlimactic. Pete (Tom Stourton) is looking forward to reuniting with his university 'gang' at the large country house of his best mate, George (Joshua Maguire) to celebrate Pete's birthday. But he's anxious as his ex girlfriend will be there and he's recently engaged. He's also disconcerted when he finds that the others have invited a local chap, the mildly strange and suspicious Harry (Dustin Demri-Burns), a man he instantly dislikes but the others seem to love. As the weekend progresses Pete begins to feel he's the butt of some strange joke he doesn't get or that all his friends are revealing their deep seated dislike of him. There's the ever present threat in this film that violence will spill over and the central theme of social anxiety and the inability to read the situation has it's merits but the film seems to drag and ultimately ends disappointingly.

Whilst this is a fairly standard vehicle for Clint Eastwood who does a reasonable directing job too it's actually one of those entertaining films in his oeuvre because of the injection of gutsy humour. A big flag waver celebrating Eastwood's proclaimed patriotism this is military drama about the US marines with Eastwood as the grizzled and curmudgeonly Gunnery Sergeant Highway a veteran of Korea and Vietnam who has won the Medal of Honour. He returns to his favourite combat battalion much to the disgust of his buy-the-book, bureaucratic C.O. (Everett McGill) and there he takes on a squad of lazy marines and turns them into a gung ho bunch of fighters who get tested in the US invasion of Grenada in the mid 1980s. The best parts of the film are the training scenes and the attempts by the youngsters to rid themselves of this new tough NCO and the battles Highway has with his boss. This all climaxes in some combat in Grenada. There's romance thrown in with Highway's ex wife played by Marsha Mason. Eastwood gets to be a super tough soldier and fight loads of bigger toughies all the while using some very imaginative insults. There is nothing in the narrative that seeks to look into the rights or wrongs of combat or of young men being sent to war as it's all just a celebration of the military. So don't think Full Metal Jacket (1987) or anything like that this is more like the John Wayne style war films such as Sands of Iwo Jima (1949). But it is just a good ol' action yarn that will entertain.

Director Gaspar Noé, usually a filmmaker who pushes boundaries, has here made a restrained film about dementia although there is something pitiless in his depiction of an old couple struggling to cope. Coé uses a split screen technique throughout the film to highlight the separation that the two protagonists experience as the wife (Françoise Lebrun) becomes more affected by her growing dementia. The struggles her husband (Dario Argento) has in coping as she wanders off or leaves the gas on and at one point destroys his notes for a book on which he is working highlight the frustration that close loved ones often face. There's a grimness to the presentation of the overly cluttered apartment that the two seem to aimlessly drift through in their day to day existence and Noé creates, at times, some striking imagery especially in the juxtaposition of the two screen images. Similarities with Amour (2012) and The Father (2020) are inevitable and, for me at least, those are better films that deal with the issue of dementia as this film seems at times to be unsympathetic or almost cruel in the way it is treated. This was exemplified in the depiction of the couple's inept drug addict son (Alex Lutz). But the film is not without its merits and although I found it a little too long it's worth checking out.

Every so often it's good to sit down and watch a good, solid thriller. This is thoroughly entertaining with an interesting and warm performance from Clint Eastwood who subverts his tough guy persona with jokes about his age and a heartfelt speech about a huge regret involving the JFK assassination. He's a Secret Service agent who works undercover in the the world of counterfeit currency and becomes involved in a threat to kill the President. The killer is beautifully played by John Malkovich who turns on his psychopath act to great effect here. There's humour, suspense, plenty of restrained action and it's a good story. Worth a rewatch if you haven't seen this in awhile and one to check out if it's passed you by before now.

Based on the BBC TV series The Thick of It this is an absolutely hilarious political satire and no doubt very close to reality. Tom Hollander, a wonderfully versatile actor and a brilliant comedy one, plays Simon Foster, a hapless British Minister of State, who being incompetent at press interviews inadvertently offers a view on a brewing International conflict which brings the wrath of the Government Communications head Malcolm Tucker down upon him. Tucker is the bullying and very abusive creation of Peter Capaldi and he's really funny even while you are cringing at the highly imaginative insults he delivers to all who get in his way. Even if you are unfamiliar with the TV series on which it's based this film stands alone and it will have you in hysterics. It's all very adult humour and has aspects that resonate with today's political problems. Fantastic support cast includes Gina McKee and James Gandolfini. This is one of the finest modern comedies of recent years and if you loved director Armando Iannucci's The Death of Stalin (2007) then check this out too.

This is one of the most celebrated of Britain's wartime propaganda films written and part directed by Noël Coward (he sort of gave up during the film finding directing too hard and handed the reins to his co-director, David Lean). It's a story of the HMS Torrin and it's crew, who include John Mills, Bernard Miles and a young Richard Attenborough, whose stories are told in a series of flashbacks. What's fascinating about this film is that it's a war film, with some really good naval combat scenes but also a story of family, love and it provides a nostalgic vision of Britain in the war years including the striking class differences. It's a real classic of British cinema and one of the great war films and deserves a modern audience.

An enjoyable science fiction romp that mixes a space crash landing scenario and survivalist narrative throwing in dinosaurs for the tension and adventure. Yes it's essentially Jurassic park in space but it's all done with a nice panache and Adam Driver as the tough astronaut gives it his all. He plays Mills, the captain of a spacecraft on a two year mission having left behind his seriously ill daughter on their home planet. The passengers are all in cryosleep when the ship strays into an uncharted asteroid field and crashes on an uncharted planet of primeval forests and very dangerous wildlife. We, the viewer, are informed this is actually Earth but 65 million years ago. From there we have a simple survival narrative with the usual jump scares and the dinosaurs are all well presented. Mills does find one survivor, a young girl (Ariana Greenblatt) to give him someone to protect. Overall the film at times feels all a bit rushed and it's all totally predictable stuff. There has been reported some release issues for a few years and I have little doubt that the film was expected to be more epic than it actually is. This is a shame because with some thought and a more focused and perhaps slower narrative this could have been really very good. As it is it's a well presented B movie that has some neat set pieces yet leaves you feeling just a little bit disappointed.