Film Reviews by GI

This adventure comedy is a buddy movie about a most mismatched pair. What's great is that the film is a big hearted charming film without any pretensions. It's a simple enough story of Ricky, an orphaned city kid who has a history of petty crime, loves rap and wants to be a gangster who is fostered with Bella & Heck, a pair of simple country folk who live on the edge of the New Zealand bush. It's Ricky's relationship with Heck that is the centre of the narrative. Sam Neill is perfect as the grumpy, down-to-earth Heck. Taika Waititi, the director, clearly has a need to show off the magnificence of the New Zealand wilds with some beautiful panoramic shots of the mountains and forests but it's in the intimate confined bush where the characters make the film so warm and hilarious. Admittedly the narrative veers almost into zany territory as the story progresses but this is all part of the fun and the emotional punch of the film is never lost. Highly recommended viewing.

The 'joke' is that Nicolas Cage plays a fictionalised version of himself here with the film's title being the biggest laugh albeit an ironic one because really if you think about it Cage has been playing a version of himself for years. When you get past that thematic joke what's left is essentially a mediocre action/caper movie that has some laughs and entertainment value but is ultimately fair routine and fits squarely into your average Nicolas Cage film oeuvre. The story is that actor Nick Cage (note the spelling change to ensure you understand it's not the real Nic Cage!) estranged from his wife (Sharon Horgan) and daughter (Lily Mo Sheen) who despair of his self absorbed personality, is hard up for cash and forced to take a $1 million gig to be at the birthday party of a super rich fan, Javi (Pedro Pascal). But on his arrival he's recruited by the CIA who claim Javi is a crime family boss. This cues action, adventure, shooting and lots or over acting. This is a film for die hard Cage fans who love him for his excesses and here they'll get the whole range all played for comedy. Pascal is good here and there's some rather pointless cameos to spot. Overall it's a lame film with a few laughs but not one of Cage's better films.

If you like your horror films to be subtle, sexy and very, very stylish then look no further than The Hunger. Director Tony Scott's marvellous take on the vampire sub-genre with Catherine Deneuve as centuries old vampire Miriam and David Bowie (who is really excellent here) as her lover. When he begins to age at an extreme rate he seeks the help of a specialist doctor, Susan Sarandon who becomes the focus of Miriam's affection. It's a very 80s film with a great soundtrack and some wonderful make-up effects. The film eschews the usual vampire motifs so you'll not find fangs, garlic, wooden stakes etc here but what you have is a very original and interesting horror film from a director who is often overshadowed by his older brother but who has made some very interesting and important films.

A thrilling action thriller based on Tom Clancy's first novel and a story involving espionage, political intrigue and submarines! There's not been a better naval battle film since Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982). Sean Connery dominates the film even though his performance is typically very subdued and Alec Baldwin plays a young Jack Ryan after Harrison Ford turned the film down! Superb support cast including James Earl Jones, Scott Glenn and an underused Stellan Skarsgård. Fans of the novel may decry the loss of some of the books narrative set pieces and occasionally the film feels a little rushed but this remains a great entertainment and is a worthy member of the Jack Ryan franchise. So here we have a Russian submarine commander (Connery) on the maiden voyage of the new nuclear super sub Red October. The Russians tell the Americans that he has gone rogue and intends to fire his missiles at the USA and ask for their help to sink him pronto. But humble CIA analyst Ryan (Baldwin) thinks that he has other plans! A film to check out if you've never seen it.

This Oscar winning drama about a small Welsh mining village at the turn of the nineteenth century is a film that every cinephile should ensure they see and see again. It's a wonderfully directed and edited film full of love, hope and heartbreak - a story about family, about good times and bad times and the loss of community. Like a lot of John Ford's films it relishes folklore with song and dance, tradition and attacks religion and the stifling of freedom. A great cast including Walter Pidgeon as the village preacher, Maureen O'Hara, Donald Crisp and a young Roddy McDowall. The story follows a loving family of miners overseen by strict but loving mother and father as seen through the eyes of the youngest boy (McDowall) who watches the break up of the family as economical disaster strikes and eventually tragedy. A beautiful and moving classic and a film that deserves a fresh appreciation from a new audience. If you've never seen this then seek it out you'll not be disappointed. This is a real gem.

Director Edgar Wright and lead actor Simon Peggs follow up to their popular Shaun Of The Dead (2004). It's a zany, and gets more zanier as it goes on, British comedy that brilliantly homages cop action films (many are referenced directly in the film) and more cleverly and very effectively highlights and mocks the middle class smugness of rural 'Little' England and the habit of constantly hanging onto the past as somehow better than today. This especially resonates today following the Brexit debacle that promised some idea of a return to a traditional England of old. Overall though this is a great comedy film and there's so many little references and in jokes that every viewing reveals something you've not noticed before. Pegg plays ubër keen London police officer Nicholas Angel. His arrest rate is so good it makes his colleagues look bad so he is transferred to the quiet, rural town of Sandford where life is much more laid back. He is constantly frustrated by his apparently lazy new colleagues and when a series of grisly accidents occur Angel is convinced they are murders much to the amusement of the other officers. There's a fantastic support cast who are all brilliant and include Olivia Colman, Timothy Dalton, Jim Broadbent, Nick Frost, Billie Whitelaw (in her last film), Paddy Considine and Rafe Spall. There's also cameos from Martin Freeman and Bill Nighy and sharp eyed viewers may spot Peter Jackson and Cate Blanchett. Maybe this is for a certain sense of humour but it's comedy that has its roots in British classics such as Monty Python, Fawlty Towers so fig that's your thing then this will not disappoint.

A British cop thriller with Jason Statham on fine form as an uncompromising London detective who gets involved in a serial killer investigation where the killer appears to be randomly killing police officers. When considering his other output this is a fairly restrained affair from Statham even though this is a violent and tough action film but being set in England guns are little seen. Statham is Detective Sergeant Brant, a sort of rogue cop who is always in some sort of trouble or other usually because he deals out rough justice with little regard for the rules. He joins up with fellow cop, Nash (Paddy Considine), a gay man constantly faced with homophobic abuse from his colleagues, in the hunt for the killer who shoots cops at apparent random. When Brant's old friend is murdered it becomes personal. There's no attempt here at representing any police procedure that is remotely realistic as this is an all out action thriller designed to entertain and it does just that. The side plots involving police officer use of drugs and an attempt to highlight homophobia in the police are so underdone as to be rather pointless and somewhat lame considering the importance of these issues. There's a Dirty Harry (1971) influence at play here but this is all Jason Statham's show in what is one of his best films. The support cast includes Mark Rylance, David Morrissey, Aidan Gillan and Luke Evans.

A very British romcom that may not appeal to anyone who isn't British and able to recognise the quirkiness of the lives on show here but believe me they are very typical and work a treat. Set in Camden, a cosmopolitan district of London, the film follows the lives of six people in their romantic endeavours as they intertwine with each other. The catalyst for the narrative is the wedding of Hannah (Catherine McCormack) and Danny (Douglas Henshall). At the reception a guest casually tells Danny that Hannah has been bonking her husband, his best man, and this sets off a chain of events that involves Mary (Kathy Burke), a lonely girl with self loathing issues, Sophie (Jennifer Ehle - with spot on English accent), a single mother rebelling against her wealthy upbringing, Liam (Ian Hart), a lonely and emotionally weak man desperate for love and Cameron (Dougray Scott), a cocky womaniser with commitment problems. The cast are all impeccable and really give the slightly complex stories a natural and easy going feel making this a funny, tragic and uplifting film. In many ways this is sort of an alternative to Four Weddings And A Funeral (1994) and definitely one to check out if you've never seen it.

This rather dated and, by today's standards, tame horror has gained a bit of a cult following over the years due to repeated TV showings and it stars the Hammer Films duo of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. There's moreorless everything thrown into the mix of this British/Spanish co-production including a mad monk, alien creatures and zombies all together on a train! The main interesting thing about this film is the clear influence of the novella Who Goes There by John W. Campbell Jr which was filmed twice in 1951 as The Thing From Another World and in 1982 as The Thing. Although the film fails to credit the book or the earlier film it's pretty obvious the story is taken from there. Lee plays a famed archaeologist travelling on the Trans-Siberian Express with a frozen fossil of an apelike humanoid he's discovered in the Chinese wilderness. Another scientist played by Cushing is also on board and the two are sort of rivals. When the creature thaws out and starts killing people it becomes apparent it's an alien that takes over people and absorbs their knowledge. Telly Savalas pops up near the end only to die and be reanimated briefly and his arrival does raise the laughs a bit. It's all a bit ridiculous and one can't help laughing at much of it but this is a good example of the cheap European horror films of the 70s that were played in late night cinema showings back then so watch it for the nostalgia if you remember those days.

This attempt by director Neil Marshall to homage the B movie Hammer Horrors of the 60s is a dismal failure and at times quite an unpleasant and offensive film. It makes little sense, has a terrible script and may just make you seethe with anger for being so awful. Marshall has really sunk in aspiration since his really good Dog Soldiers (2002) and The Descent (2005) with this mishmash of gory horror and devil worship. Charlotte Kirk, terribly wooden, plays Grace who is grieving after her husband commits suicide having contracted the plague in Seventeenth Century England. When she rejects the advances of the local squire (Steven Waddington) he accuses her of witchcraft which cues Witchfinder (Sean Pertwee) to spend an hour of the film torturing her. But despite being stabbed, whipped and having a device inserted inside her vagina that expands to cause grievous injury Grace still manages to recover enough to go on the rampage for the film's dull climax. Even the Devil pops up to give her a naked cuddle just so we can look at Kirk's bum for another minute or so. Don't waste your time with this, it's dire.

A somewhat wearisome thriller that puts little new on the table and is full of the standard by-the-book clichés. Set in the woods of Minnesota, all wet and eerie, where Rayburn, a lonely drunk runs a huge wildlife sanctuary named after his missing daughter. He spends his days chasing off poachers and putting up missing posters in the hope his daughter may yet be found. Then the body of another young girl is found and cop, Gustafson (Annabelle Wallis) is on the case. She acts all dedicated etc but has a wayward junkie brother who she looks out for just a little bit too much. Eventually Rayburn spots a girl in his woods fleeing from a man camouflaged in some weird outfit and the hunt is on for a serial killer!! There's attempts at a surprise twist or two but none of them work well and the killer is obviously one of the characters it's just a matter of guessing who. It's not hard. A routine film that offers nothing very original, it'll pass the time adequately but is instantly forgettable.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable and a good ol' no-holds barred action flick. Scripted by Sylvester Stallone and starring Jason Statham it offers nothing overly original but it's all done in a mean, lean and exciting way. Statham has made a career in action films and many have been just B movie exploitation and/or missteps but some have become cult favourites. This is one of his better films, mainly due to it's high production values and a simple story of an ex cop with some 'special skills' who while trying to live the quiet life comes up against local rednecks and sorts 'em out. State is Broker, a former DEA agent and recently widowed who retires with his young daughter to the backwoods of Louisiana. When a playground bullying incident gets out of hand Broker finds himself up against the local drug trafficker, Bodine (James Franco) and some bikers with connections to his past. The fights scenes are gutsy and neatly violent and all the right people get their come uppance and whilst you have to look past the daft plot at times it rattles along at a great pace. There's a great support cast of that includes Winona Ryder (somewhat underused here), Kate Bosworth and Clancy Brown. Check it out, it's great stuff.

Henry Hobson owns a respected Bootmakers shop in Salford in the 1880s and uses his three daughters to run the shop and look after him. He tries to constantly assert his authority over them and finds his only solace is in the local pub. When his trusted oldest daughter Maggie announces she's leaving to set up on her own with Henry's highly skilled boot hand, Will Mossop, Henry is less than pleased. This is one of the greatest of British comedies, it's a real classic and absolutely hilarious. David Lean directs this lovely comedy of manners and really recreates a very realistic nineteenth century northern England at the heart of the Industrial Revolution. Better known for his big epics it's great to see one of his more intimate films that are often forgotten. Charles Laughton is the centre of the film as the patriarch Henry who is losing control of his world and his performance as a drunk has never been bettered. When you add in the great John Mills and a host of British character actors you have a little gem of a film and one that deserves a modern audience.

This falls fairly and squarely in the traditional British underdog comedy genre, it's cheerful, funny and every character is a stereotypical one found in every other film of this type. But of course its a charming story based on a true one although heavily fictionalised of Dave Fishwick (Rory Kinnear), a Burnley businessman who is a rag-to-riches millionaire due to his motorhome sales business but has never forgotten his working class roots. In the 2008 banking crisis he begins lending money to his struggling friends and local people and eventually comes up with the idea to open a local bank in order to offer an alternative to the high street banks. But he faces opposition from the pompous banking world represented by Hugh Bonneville who go out of their way to stop him. He employs London solicitor, Hugh (Joel Fry), who reluctantly takes on the case. Of course it all ends totally predictably and romance for Hugh warms him to the north of England which he initially sees as a foreign country! The inevitable jokes about the north/south divide with accents etc are a little hackneyed but still make you chuckle. Kinnear gives the role his all and fits it perfectly. As long as you don't believe everything you see here as true this is just a nice gentle comedy that makes you smile.

When mild mannered family man Tom foils a robbery at his diner and kills two criminals he becomes a local hero and headline news. But soon afterwards three sinister men arrive claiming Tom is really a former mobster and they've come to take him back to atone for past deeds against the 'family'. Tom insists they have the wrong man but soon his wife begins to have doubts that Tom isn't who he says he is. A really great crime thriller that exhibits Viggo Mortensen's acting range. It's a tough, occasionally brutal film with some really graphic violence and the controversy comes from what you interpret director David Cronenberg's intention is here. Where violence erupts in the narrative it seems to produce result satisfactory consequences. Tom's killing of the two psychopath's who rob his diner saves others and rids the world of two quite horrendous people, equally though Tom's son, Jack (Ashton Holmes) reacts violently to school bullies and we applaud his actions even though he is told of the likely reactions by his father. There's a scene where Tom violently threatens his wife during an argument which results in her becoming sexually aroused. The film is asking questions about the nature of violence and its consequences whilst being wrapped in a very entertaining thriller narrative. In many ways an interesting look at the part played by violence in the modern world. Maria Bello, Ed Harris and William Hurt round out a great cast in this film that, for the most part, keeps you guessing with some neat plot twists. Well worth revisiting if you haven't seen this in awhile and definitely one to check out if it's passed you by before now.