Film Reviews by GI

A disposable action thriller that is another where a burned out ex-soldier with a 'special set of skills' heads off to danger and redemption. Here there's an attempt to give it all gravitas by setting it in the run up to the US invasion of Panama in 1989 and attempting to interweave political intrigue with real footage, a bit of unnecessary slo-mo and plenty of sex. It adds up to nothing much and Cole Hauser doesn't come across as particularly awesome in the lead role. Mel Gibson as his mentor does what he always does of late which is very little. This is a throwaway and hardly worth your time.

Inspired by real events this is a powerful socialist drama with a western feel to the style and look. It boasts the screen debut of Chris Cooper who here plays Joe, a union man sent to the small West Virginia town of Matewan to pull the exploited mineworkers together into a cohesive force to challenge the greed of the mining company. They in turn bring in a bunch of gunmen given pseudo legality to suppress the miners by violence if necessary. It's a classic tale of the repressed against the establishment and here it's richly filmed with a real sense of authenticity for the time and the plight of the miners. When the company attempt to replace the workers with black and Italian miners there's the ever present of racism endemic in the southern USA. The fact that Joe unites all the workers despite the cultural bigotry lends the film a heroic narrative edge and the entire drama culminates in a famous gun battle. It's a brilliantly told story and the cast are impeccable throughout with James Earl Jones, David Strathairn and Mary McDonnell supporting. The soft, almost hazy photography lends the film a sense of realism supported by the bluegrass soundtrack and the spot on accents. This is a film of betrayal, conspiracy and the strength of the underdog. It's a real treat and well worth checking out if you've never seen it.

The original slasher movie and one that has risen to cult status. Director John Carpenter utilises Hithcockian style tension here and similarities with his Psycho (1960) are inevitable but Carpenter effectively defined the slasher sub genre with Halloween and whilst its not as nasty as it's reputation suggests it may seem full of genre clichés when viewed today but back in 1978 this exciting stuff. This is Jamie Lee Curtis' breakout role and with the great Donald Pleasance, who has top billing but has a smaller part. It also boasts the fantastic Nancy Loomis who was in a few of John Carpenter's films and always stands out in her performance. This is the story of a child psychopath, Michael Myers, who inexplicably murders his sister when he's just six years old and and is incarcerated only to escape fifteen years later from the asylum where he was being studied by Pleasance's Doctor. He returns to his hometown where he begins a killing spree targeting teenage babysitters. Viewed today the film may raise up the odd laugh as it all seems a little dated and silly and yet it's a classic narrative that set a standard that has been much imitated and even parodied. In any event it spawned sequels and a more recent series but none of the latter films has had the same impact as this original. Carpenter is a much lauded cult director who has made as many duds as brilliant independent films. This is up there with his best.

This paganistic, gothic horror thriller is quite a tense and at times exhilarating film that goes in some surprising and quite unexpected directions. The first hour is built as a potential Wicker Man scenario but it then moves into something much more interesting and shocking. Set in 1905 and opium addicted Thomas (Dan Stevens), who is nursing some inner demons from his past, is implored by his wealthy father to rescue his sister from the clutches of a weird religious community that inhabit an isolated island. Pretending to be a convert he joins the sect to try and find her. The community run by Malcolm (Michael Sheen) suspects there's an interloper and they have a very dark secret to hide. Not a film for the faint hearted as this has torture, gore and bloody violence. But it's quite enthralling and has the style and feel of a Hammer horror film such as Die Monster, Die (1965) for instance. The island's location isn't specified but it's like a lush, forested place that hides some dark force. The support cast are excellent including Lucy Boynton and Mark Lewis Jones especially. The film exudes elements of originality making it a compelling watch and whilst it's open to different readings and fans will spot the influences it's definitely one to check out.

A wacky romcom that plays out like a screwball comedy and with two likeable leads that give the film a warm feel good feeling after its over. It's also really funny too. Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani play Leilani and Jibran, a couple who four years into their relationship find it deteriorating and they constantly bicker. On their way to a dinner party they inadvertently become embroiled in a murder conspiracy and decide to try and prove their innocence. This gets them into some really bizarre situations including entry to a secret society meeting that is clearly based on the Eyes Wide Shut (1999) sect where orgies are the order of the day. As the couple skitter from one farcical situation to the next they constantly banter with one another and argue over the funniest things including a great scene where given a choice of which torture to endure they disagree on each's choice!. The two leads have a nice chemistry which is the heart of the film, it's not a film that is ever going to be a classic of particularly memorable but it is one that will make you smile.

A standard serial killer film that is all a little dated and comes over as a straight-to-video 90s style of thriller. Bruce Willis despite second billing has a teeny role and adds zero to the story so I suspect his presence is to draw an audience. Loosely based on a real killer this tells the story of Peter (Lukas Haas), a trucker, who is kidnapping and killing young prostitutes. On his trail is a local cop, Byron (Emile Hirsch) who joins up with FBI agent, Rebecca, who is working a sex trafficking case and acts as a lure in her hunt for her suspect and of course it turns out they're after the same man. For inexplicable reasons the film has quirky flashbacks to scenes we've already seen and which add nothing other than to attempt to make this hackneyed film into something more interesting. It doesn't succeed. There's no mystery in the narrative as we get to know who the killer is almost immediately. There's elements of exploitation on show too in the depiction of young women, scantily clad being tortured and killed. There's nothing here to commend this, it's clunky script is poor and the idea very out of touch.

This is a weirdly stylish and surreal comedy drama that is bizarrely fascinating. Adapted by director Noah Baumbach from a celebrated novel it's set in 1984 and follows the travails of the wholesome American family of Jack (Adam Driver) and Babette (Greta Gerwig) and their assortment of children and stepchildren. The film is essentially a study of the daftness of the modern human condition from the fear of death to relationships and our relationship with the past. Jack is a University lecturer who specialises in the life of Hitler, in itself a preposterous situation, and his family are faced with a Covid 19 allegory in the form of a poisonous gas cloud that threatens to kill people, but this storyline is just a way of highlighting the futility and silliness of the modern suburban way of life with the obsession with YouTube type clips of car crashes (the gas cloud is caused here by a lorry crashing into a train to emphasise the point) and the characters seem to centre life around their trips to a huge, brightly coloured supermarket (the closing credits dance sequence is great). The whole film is a spectacle of darkly weird situations dominated by the great performances of Driver and Gerwig. This will either baffle, bore or be much loved depending on your taste, but it is certainly different.

A classic Boy's Own war adventure film full of derring do and plot twists. Made as a big box office film it has an all star cast and an epic story based on a book by Alistair MacLean and typical of the spectacular cinema of the 60s made to draw audiences away from their TV sets. Gregory Peck leads a hand picked team of specialists who have to destroy some huge German guns that dominate a stretch of sea around the Greek Islands and which are preventing the evacuation of thousands of British troops. David Niven is the explosives expert and Anthony Quinn the Greek resistance fighter who has a grudge against Peck's character. The great Stanley Baker and Anthony Quayle have support roles. The Germans are all stereotypical and there's loads of shooting so it's all very typical stuff but a great blockbuster all the same and great fun for a family film. But you have to accept the occasional dodgy effects and model work which was typical of the time and can't compete with modern Cgi.

This British comedy drama could have been absolutely brilliant but for strange reasons it lacks the script to make it memorable and drifts into a whimsical and daft scenario that doesn't work. The added sadness here is it's the last film of Kelly Preston who sadly died of cancer prior to its release. She plays Cassie one of three former friends along with Kate (Jenny Seagrove) and Liz (Sally Phillips) who are left rail tickets by their fourth friend who has just died and urged to rebond on a trip across Europe that they all did together in their youth. The only condition is they have to take their friend's teenage daughter Maddie (Elizabeth Dormer-Phillips) with them. Old animosities still fester amongst the three and they bicker and hug a lot as their journey has travel hiccups. There's some small romantic interludes chucked in for good measure including with a mafiosi Godfather character played by Franco Nero in a storyline that is silly and goes nowhere. Judi Dench and Ben Miller have cameos and whilst this has some laughs and a sunny disposition it's instantly forgettable.

In so many ways this is a solid, standard 1950s western fitting the Hollywood genre stereotypes before the 60s began to see a change in the depiction of the west. It's essentially an adventure western made for big audiences and lacks the nuances that the films of John Ford and others added in their contribution to the genre during this decade. The famous gunfight at the OK Corral has been filmed many times over the years and this version is only very loosely based on any historical facts indeed the actual gunfight reportedly only lasted a few seconds whereas the one in the climax of this film is much more drawn out into a fully fledged gun battle. But this is cinema so rightly so. Here we have two major stars at the height of their box office appeal with Burt Lancaster as a stoic Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas as the drunken, ailing Doc Holliday. Both do their thing perfectly well with Douglas especially enjoying the more extremes of the character. When Earp rescues Holliday from a Lynch mob they become unlikely friends and bond ever closer through the film culminating in the Earps feud with the cattle rustling family The Clantons and the showdown at the infamous corral. The film is enjoyable enough although it lacks any real sense of itself and simply tells to somewhat hackneyed story with some panache. Rhonda Fleming as a love interest for Lancaster is underused and sadly disappears from the story with little explanation. Jo Van Fleet has fun as Holliday's wayward lover and John Ireland is great as the psycho gunfighter out to get Holliday. Dennis Hopper, Jack Elam and Lee Van Cleef liven things up in supporting roles and there's a clichéd theme song from Frankie Laine that includes the usual whistling! This is an instantly recognisable John Sturges film, nowhere near his best and he actually made a better western about these character with Hour of The Gun (1967). Lovers of classic American westerns may still relish this but it lacks the finesse and status of many other westerns made at a similar time.

I always find an unwelcome pretentiousness to Stanley Kramer's films and that's especially the case with this one. I'm sure it's full of good intentions and it boasts fantastic performances from Spencer Tracy, in his last film, Sidney Poitier and Katherine Hepburn. Tracy for example gives a famous and note perfect soliquoy at the end of the film. But viewed today this melodrama that looks at the then contentious issue of interracial marriage which at the time the film was released was still illegal in 14 of the US states. The trouble is that the subject matter is dealt with here with a degree of flippancy and an apparent lack of seriousness despite the very impressive speeches that occur as the drama plays out. It's a mostly studio bound film too and the action, for the most part, takes place in the plush house of the Drayton family. Father Matt (Tracy), Mother Christina (Hepburn) and Joey (Katherine Houghton) along with their black housekeeper, Tillie (Isabel Sanford). When Joey returns home from a holiday with a new fiancé in tow the family is thrown into turmoil mainly because he's black. This is John (Poitier), a Doctor, who is all too aware of the racial issue at play. His parents also show up and John's family is also against the planned marriage. All the players iron out the issue over an afternoon and whilst the final speech about love beats all is touching mainly due to Tracy's deliverance, overall the film seems unfulfilling when watched today even though the racism in American society still continues today. This is a famous film, admired by many, and it deserves to be seen but it might garner more controversy today for all the wrong reasons.

A more extravagant and indulgent sequel to the highly successful Knives Out (2019). This has its entertainment value but it all seems so over stuffed that it begins to drag after awhile. The A-list cast (Dave Bautista, Kate Hudson and others + Hugh Grant in a small cameo) are no doubt having fun and there's more laughs to be had here especially in the more vocal detective, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig). He sort of gatecrashes an elaborate murder mystery weekend held on a Greek island owned by multi billionaire, Miles (Edward Norton). All the other guests are someway of other beholden to him except Cassandra (Janelle Monáe) who was the original creator of Miles' company but pushed out by him years earlier. As a pretend murder mystery turns into a real one Benoit soon begins to unravel who is up to what. There's obviously twists and turns often explained by flashbacks and you do have to keep attentive throughout hence with the 2 hours plus runtime it can get a little tedious. I found it lacked the originality combined with the nostalgic murder mystery vibe that the first film did so well but it's worth a watch but once seen the surprises are worth revisiting.

This belated sequel to 2014's The Equalizer is actually a reasonably entertaining action thriller bringing Denzel Washington back to do his Jason Bourne/James Bond/Jack Reacher thing with gutsy violence, realistic fights and a revenge plot that reveals more of the central character's past. Washington is McCall, former black ops assassin, now taxi driver and lover of books who occasionally goes out of his way to right wrongs and deal nasty people some righteous justice. When his beloved ex colleague (Melissa Leo), is murdered McCall goes on the prowl to find and despatch those responsible. There's some gruesomely violent set pieces and the main story is one involving espionage and double cross. Admittedly some of the narrative is left a little unexplored to its full potential but what's left is a good, solid action thriller that does exactly what you'd expect following the first film.

Hugely entertaining, big, spectacular and hilarious sci-fi extravaganza that ups the ante from the 2014 original. It's great fun mostly due to the great script that has the titular Guardians bickering and arguing like a group of siblings and all appropriate as the narrative emphasises this team as one big family. The cast all return and with the addition of the great Kurt Russell and cameo from Sylvester Stallone. This time around the Guardians are now heralded as saviours of the Universe and get hired to help various planets with any problems. But their tendency to indulge in petty crime still gets them into trouble and they become hunted by Elizabeth Debicki's warriors for stealing some valuable power sources. But the team find a saviour in Ego (Russell) some sort of super being who claims to be Peter Quill's (Chris Pratt) father. But is he all he claims? There's loads of very impressive space battles and effects, a good story and plenty of laughs and another great soundtrack. With the next instalment due in 2023 this is a film worth revisiting, it's a joy.

Whether you're a fan of the Marvel Universe films or not a film with a talking raccoon, a tree like character that just says 'I am Groot' and going for comedy shouldn't have worked very well. It may well have been a great comic but a film?? But it does work and in my opinion it's one of, if not the, best of the Marvel film franchise. This is not least due to the fantastic central performance of Chris Pratt who has a wonderfully funny screen presence but can carry off the action stuff just as easily, channelling a bit of Hans Solo into his performance. Even if you're not into superhero/comicbook genre films this may surprise you as to just how entertaining it is. Pratt plays Peter Quill who likes to call himself Star Lord, he's an intergalactic chancer and thief. He steals a valuable artefact coveted by the evil Ronan and finds himself hunted by the bad guys as well as a host of bounty hunters including Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Rocket (the aforesaid raccoon voiced by Bradley Cooper) and his pal Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel). Eventually they team up to fight the evil forces with great special effects and action scenes. The film is a hoot the entire time and the 2017 sequel is just as good with a third due next year. Great family entertainment and well worth checking out even if its not your usual thing.