Film Reviews by GI

Timothy Dalton's first outing as James Bond is a neat crossover from the Roger Moore series and predicts the style of the Pierce Brosnan films and ultimately to Daniel Craig's interpretation. It's interesting that the film was conceived for Roger Moore and when he stepped down Brosnan was to be the next 007. Contractual problems led to Dalton who had been on the cards to take the role way back in 1969. The Living Daylights contains nearly all the tropes you'd find in the earlier films especially Moore's; gadgets, bevies of bikini clad girls, an Aston Martin and the odd comedic quip but also in here is a dark espionage film, sometimes struggling to get out but definitely there if you watch closely and some brutal violence from Bond to remind us he is after all an assassin. Dalton was an excellent Bond and could've gone onto some great future films with the right scripts. This one lacks a decent arch-villain, Joe Don Baker as an overweight arms dealer doesn't really cut it but the twists in the story of a Soviet defector and the move across the world from Bratislava to Afghanistan (then under Soviet control) make up for this. A worthy addition to the franchise and certainly a Bond film to re-evaluate in light of the series today with Craig.

A typical B movie creature feature much like the popular films of the 70s such as Orca (1977) and obviously Jaws (1975) although here we have a weak story and a faintly ridiculous scenario. Idris Elba (playing American for some unknown reason) is a widowed Doctor (this comes in very handy when the wounds start appearing) who takes his two teenage daughters to Africa to visit a wildlife biologist friend (Sharlto Copley). On a trip out into the bush they encounter a very angry and vengeful lion, which then stalks them for the rest of the film. Throw in some sacrificial poachers and a stupid fist fight with the lion and there you have it. It's not very scary, the lion is a bit anti climactical and the two teenage girls continually keep putting themselves in danger making them very annoying! The CGI lion is done rather well but for a film in this sub genre it's very average and Crawl (2019) was far better.

A sombre almost bleak biopic about the First World War poet Siegfried Sassoon (Jack Lowden). It's a typical Terence Davies film, much applauded but at times a very maudlin filmmaker. This film will test your patience even when you're trying to accept the visual splendour and the clever editing that includes documentary footage. It's in the harsh and unpleasant characters and their evident self pity that the film grates. It charts Sassoon from his time as a young officer, a gallantry medal winner, but who openly challenges the way the war is being conducted as he despairs of the continued slaughter. For his troubles he's sent to a psychiatric hospital where he meets and mentors Wilfred Owen (Matthew Tennyson). The narrative explores Sassoon's various gay relationships with a variety of unpleasant and selfish men before detailing his subsequent marriage which is shown as deeply unhappy. Peter Capaldi plays the older Sassoon as a cantankerous and sad individual. The film is here trying to reveal the possible regrets and guilt that Sassoon may have suffered by the obscurity in which he found himself and the survivor guilt that many who returned from the war experienced. It's a long film and while the cast are fantastic it's a sad film with a lead character that is quite opaque.

There's little doubt that Roger Moore is really looking his age by the time he came to make this and it's not entirely a surprise that the script was written with the intention of a new Bond taking over (Pierce Brosnan was on the cards) but Moore agreed to stay in the role mainly because this was an attempt to move the franchise back towards the more serious style of film. The previous film, Moonraker (1979), had lurched the series into screwball comedy territory and whilst it was a big box office earner it marked the Bond label becoming more of a spoof spy series than action thrillers. In some parts For You Eyes Only succeeds in its attempt to be more gritty with some brutal killings including a cold blooded one by 007 himself but a silly prologue and and an even sillier epilogue marks the film as typical latter day Roger Moore in style. We even get a major plot clue revealed by a talking parrot!! But there are some good action set pieces including an early car chase, an underwater fight and a ski chase. Bond is sent to recover a British targeting computer which the Russians are after too. He teams up with the beautiful daughter of murdered parents who were working for MI6, and who is out for revenge with a crossbow! Bond manages to woo her into bed fairly easily as well as teaming up with a Greek gangster to fight the bad guy. Story wise it's all a mishmash of other Bond narratives and compared to others in the Roger Moore series it's entertaining and very watchable but it bears little comparison with Connery's first four films nor On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) and fans had to wait a few more years before the series went truly back to basics when Timothy Dalton came on board.

The first in what has proved to be a very entertaining series. It's Jason Bourne on testosterone, all very comic book in stylised action but with Keanu Reeves as the title character this was destined to be a hit. In it's very essence this reminds me of the great 70s films of Walter Hill such as The Warriors (1979), it's clearly not to be taken as anything remotely seriously it's there to be a hi octane, superb fun film that has panache and it delivers on all counts. John Wick is a grieving man who has recently lost his wife, her final gift to him a cute puppy. When the punk son of a big gangster covets Wick's classic Ford Mustang, steals it and kills the puppy he doesn't bank on the relentless trail of revenge that Wick unleashes on him because John Wick is a former über assassin and a member of a secret elite hitman's club. There's plenty of bloody gunfights, chases, punch ups and all in cool suits and with heavy metal music. What's not to love, it's just great fun.

This is a really quite remarkable film and arguably Oliver Stone's best. Epic in scope this is a political conspiracy thriller that really draws you in and keeps you hooked for it's 3+ hours. The cast is impeccable from Kevin Costner, in a career best performance as New Orleans DA, Jim Garrison and including Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald (an uncanny performance), Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones, Joe Pesci and cameos from Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau and others. After the shocking assassination of President Kennedy New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (Costner) learns that the alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had connections in his city. With his team he begins an investigation where he soon becomes obsessively convinced a conspiracy at the highest levels of the US Government is behind the murder. The editing style, use of flashbacks and real footage all enhances the viewing experience. There's no doubt that there's been a tremendous attention to detail and the use of the actual locations relevant to the narrative including the 'grassy knoll' and book depository in Dallas. The complexity of the story has meant that Stone has had to rely on two lengthy expositions to explain the plot, one by Donald Sutherland as the mysterious X, a 'Deep Throat' styled whistleblower, and the second by Costner in his summing up speech during the trial scene. However both are great performances and in a film like this they work to keep the viewer fully engaged. Whatever your views on the film's claims about the assassination it has to be remembered this is still narrative cinema and in that regard it's worthy of respect as a significant American film.

The time loop narrative has almost become a sub genre in its own right stretching back to Groundhog Day (1993) and including Edge of Tomorrow (2014) and even the Happy Death Day films (2017 & 19). This one is an all out actioner with plenty of bloody gore and a video game vibe to it. It's certainly a very macho B movie and Frank Grillo as the lead handles the fights with aplomb but he lacks the charisma of a leading man. Here he plays Roy, an ex special forces soldier, who wakes every morning to the same day and where from the get go has a whole plethora of people trying to kill him. It all eventually points to some weird time shifting gizmo his ex wife (Naomi Watts) is building for the big bad guy played by Mel Gibson. As with most of these type of stories Roy spends the runtime reliving the day getting further and further on as he tries to work out why he is trapped. There's plenty of John Wick style fights and shooting and swordplay too. Michelle Yeoh has a cameo and Watts and Annabelle Wallis are woefully underused. In many ways this is a fairly typical action film from director Joe Carnahan but it's nowhere near some as good as some of his earlier films such as Narc (2002). It passes the time but it's occasionally cheesy, dips into humour then tries to be serious and the ending is naff.

Jaws is as close to the perfect film that you'll ever find. It's a perfect balance of suspense, drama and humour with family crisis, political shenanigans, psychological trauma and an age old narrative of man against nature. Essentially a horror film in the monster sub genre mode it has a fantastic episodic start with the various attacks superbly linking into one another and culminating in the final beach attack before the film shifts to the hunt section. On the surface this is a narrative similar to many where the status quo is thrown into chaos by the arrival of an outside force and then reacquired by its destruction. But the clever script sets up subtle subplots which are only hinted at here but are full on in the source novel; for example the tension in the Brody marriage which in the film is about the move to Amity Island from New York, also the honest yet naïve attitude of Brody in a town of self serving businessmen (in the source novel there are mafia connections!). But when you critically analyse Jaws taking into account the impeccable casting and performances of Roy Scheider, the incomparable Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary (immensely good in this film) and Murray Hamilton and not least too the local cast who are fantastic. Editing, music, writing and direction are all spot on with tension, shocks (the death of the little boy is really quite horrendous) and a damn good story. The much reported delays caused by a faulty mechanical shark led to the three main actors perfecting dialogue and character relationships that bring a special warmth and a real feeling for them in their plight. It's a relatively simple one too. The small island community of Amity relies on its summer tourist trade to survive. Newly appointed police chief Martin (Scheider), who has moved there from New York with his family, is unprepared when a series of shark attacks cause fatalities. The island mayor tries a cover up but events lead to Martin, assisted by a shark expert (Dreyfuss), and a grizzled and cynical shark fisherman (Shaw) to try and hunt and kill the shark which proves more of a dangerous adversary than anyone expected. This is fantastic cinema, a film to be enjoyed time and time again and one to reconsider if you've not seen it it in awhile. (Forget all the sequels they are poor)

Roger Moore's first outing as James Bond 007 and in fact the oldest actor at 45 to play him. This remains Moore's best film in the role and it is a worthy introductory film for the long series he went onto make. Many attribute The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) as the pinnacle of Moore's Bond movies but I disagree because I think it's here that the cross over from Connery (and not forgetting George Lazenby) was very cleverly done. Moore had an extra lightness to his predecessors but the dark edges of the Bond character remained and the overuse of wacky gadgets had yet to take hold where the franchise slipped woefully into spoof mode. This is a full on Boy's Own Adventure style narrative and the espionage theme is more or less dispensed with making it very comicbook and at times you just have to go with it. Here Bond is sent to the USA to liaise with the CIA into an investigation into the murder of three British agents. He discovers a link between a New Orleans based drug dealer and the leader of a small Caribbean island and sets out to bring down the entire organisation. Yaphet Kotto is a good villain with the usual lair that 007 must infiltrate to bring him down and Jane Seymour is a particularly beautiful woman who has to be seduced. This film has some exciting set pieces not least the chase sequences and especially the central speed boat chase through the Louisiana rivers. Like a lot of the Bond series there are some really daft plot lines and the climactic death scene of the main villain is silly. Viewed today Live and Let Die is controversial with it's racial stereotypes and language, and the idea that a whole black American community would be complicit in conspiracy to murder even under duress is pushing things way too far. But that aside this is a notable addition to this enduring franchise not least as Moore's debut as 007, but for it's sheer entertainment value, the removal of many of the Bond tropes (many would later return), a beautiful 'Bond girl' in the form of Jane Seymour and the only Bond film that has a narrative with the supernatural element.

It's become somewhat fashionable to cite this as ones favourite James Bond film but I have to say not only is it mine (the first one I saw) but it's also the best film in the franchise. This is because it's a superbly constructed action spy film with a balance of action, tragedy, romanticism and drama. George Lazenby, in his one performance as Bond, added vulnerability (he shows fear and cries!) and toughness and the film has one of the most moving endings of any film let alone a Bond film. British Secret Service agent James Bond has gone missing in Europe searching for the hideout of Ernst Blofeld (Telly Savalas), the leader of SPECTRE, a huge criminal organisation. On his travels he meets the beautiful Tracey (Diana Rigg) whose father is a mafia leader. With his help Bond tracks Blofeld to a research lab in the Alps and goes undercover to find out what he's up to. There's plenty of chases and shooting but also a neat blend of espionage and thriller aspects. Lazenby is very good in the role despite his reputation of being a poor actor. The fight scenes are realistic and tough and the story is really a thrill ride (it's actually the closest adaptation of a Bond book out of all the series), there's a fantastic John Barry soundtrack including a great song from Louis Armstrong, a dark yet very moving ending and here you will see the seeds of the Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig Bonds. It's great stuff and worth watching again if it's been awhile.

This strange, surreal musical written by the Mael brothers, aka Sparks, has had a few plaudits especially as the director Leos Carax is much admired, but I found it an impenetrable, overly weird affair with songs that would be better applied to a concept album rather than a cinematic musical. Adam Driver is no doubt exceptional in his performance going from challenging stand up comedian to obsessed lover to controlling svengali in a story that, if you're like me, will have you pulling confused faces. He plays Henry, a performer whose career is on the wain, but who is in love with opera diva, Ann (Marion Cotillard), a much celebrated performer (so a bit of A Star Is Born narrative going on). They have a strange child together presented as an elf like marionette which they name Annette. When tragedy strikes Henry discovers the tiny Annette can sing like her adult mother and he devotes himself to her career, a path that leads to violence and destruction. All of this is presented in a nightmarish narrative with lyrically minimalist set of songs that are downright dull and watching Henry perform oral sex on Ann while singing 'we love each other so much' is, to be frank, odd. It's a film that I'm sure Film School students will rave about but for us mere mortals it's a pretentious load of tosh!

Fantasy films such as this would bring sheer joy to me as a child. Full of magic, danger and darkness they were made for the family to enjoy together. This is one of the finest films based on greek mythology, the story of the search for a magical Golden Fleece which is guarded by monsters and titans and involves a perilous voyage full of treachery and danger. Above all in these days of CGI where everything has to be so realistic or it gets dismissed as unworthy it's great to see the wonderful work of Ray Harryhausen, the master of stop motion. In this film there are two particularly good set pieces; the first is the very scary sudden awakening of Talos, a gigantic bronze statue and, secondly the now very famous fighting skeletons sequence. Both are amazing to watch and children today would love this film. Admittedly some of the acting is very pantomime and the script occasionally daft but who cares this is sheer fun and a great piece of film history.

A serious and well intended romance/relationship drama that has an interesting narrative structure and a sincere elegance but lacks the passion needed to really light it up. It follows couple, Tony (Tim Roth) and Chris (Vicky Krieps), a film director and his screenwriter partner, who travel to the Swedish island of Fårö, the home of famed film director Ingmar Bergman where his home is preserved and there is a museum and tours showing the locations used in his movies. Chris is eager to share her ideas for a new script but Tony is distracted and this is having an affect on Chris' and her relationship with him. Eventually Tony agrees to hear her new story which is then shown as a romantic film within a film story about two former lovers who reunite at a wedding where they are guests. This is the more interesting part of the film as we follow Amy (Mia Wasikowski), who becomes besotted by Joseph (Anders Danielsen Lie). The imaginary drama is clearly linked with Chris' own feelings. Overall the film just starts to become a little tedious when it perks back up in the central sequence. It's watchable and Wasikowski is excellent but I felt that Roth was a little miscast here and played Tony as too distant. This is a film with much going for it but ultimately it's a little too empty and unrewarding.

There's little doubt that this remains a film that its fans from the early 80s still feel really very nostalgic about. That's ironic considering that it's a film about nostalgia or at least about regret. A life affirming tale about that moment when the dreams and aspirations of youth are overtaken by the reality of adulthood and life in general. With its brightly talented cast and superb soundtrack this is a film you'll either love or if it's your first time may feel it's a bit dated. Either way it's an interesting drama about a group of thirty something former college friends who reunite at the funeral of one of their old group who was their brightest and favourite but who has committed suicide. After the service they congregate at the house of Harold (Kevin Kline) and Sarah (Glenn Close) to grieve and where past emotions and connections are revisited. There's little story as such as this is about the discovery of your past and accepting the naïvety of your youth. Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Tom Berenger, Mary Kay Place and JoBeth Williams are the former friends along with Meg Tilly as the dead friend's girlfriend. The script is cleverly structured and the performances are nothing short of brilliant. It is a film to appreciate a few times to get its nuances but everyone can see that lost dreams from the excitement of youth are lost in the humdrum of later life.

The fourth James Bond film and arguably Connery's last decent one is a bigger and more spectacular film than anything previously and it was hugely popular. As an action adventure film it's as entertaining as ever and even though it will possibly make modern audiences cringe somewhat it's a worthy addition to the franchise although it's not as good as the first three films. It also marks the moment when more slightly silly gadgetry began to be the norm and here we have a jetpack as well as the return of the famous Aston Martin DB5. The enemy here is SPECTRE who will go on to dominate the missions of Bond for sometime to come. They have stolen a couple of nuclear missiles and are blackmailing the world but 007 is soon on the case which centres on the Bahamas. Bond essentially manages to have sex with just about every woman he encounters sometimes by his own unique blackmail methods! There's a spectacular underwater speargun battle which it takes all your concentration to keep track of who is who but it all works in exactly the way you'd expect. You can see the budget has grown with ever more expansive sets and there's more explosions and destruction. The support cast are mostly forgettable and chief baddie Largo (Adolfo Celi) is a tame villain by Bond's standards. For fans this is a Bond film that still does what you'd expect and Connery, although tiring of the role now, is still on top form.