Film Reviews by GI

A captivating and memorable drama. A fulfilling film that has Robin Williams giving one of his best performances. Set in 1959 in an American Preparatory School for Boys. Focused on tradition, discipline and conformity this is a school where wealthy Americans send their sons to prepare them for university and future careers often chosen for them by their parents obsessed with status. A group of senior boys return for their final year including Neil (Robert Sean Leonard) and shy Todd (Ethan Hawke). Neil walks in fear of his domineering father (Kurtwood Smith) who controls the activities his son participates in and stops anything of which he disapproves. They are therefore unprepared for their new English Literature teacher, Mr Keating (Williams), who has unconventional teaching methods and focuses on bringing out the passions and potential of the boys. Neil especially is motivated to pursue his love of acting against the wishes of his father. The boys begin to find a new zest and excitement in life and the future following Keating's encouragement to "Carpe Diem. Seize the day, Boys. Make your lives extraordinary" but tragedy will affect them all. A beautiful film, a coming of age story that utilises the wondrous colour palettes of the New England Autumn and Winter. It's a tale of love, ambition and joy and whilst there is sadness it's also an uplifting film. A must see.

A stupendous revenge thriller by British director Shane Meadows. Cleverly nuanced with a real emotional impact this is a film I highly recommend as it goes far beyond a standard revenge narrative and it captures a very realistic vision of a rundown Midlands housing estate and the sort of petty criminal characters that inhabit them. Paddy Considine plays Richard, a disaffected soldier, who returns to the dilapidated Derbyshire housing estate of his youth to seek out the gang of petty drug dealers that abused and assaulted his younger brother Anthony (Toby Kebbell), who has learning disabilities. The gang is led by the nasty bully Sonny (Gary Stretch), who runs his drug dealing business with the aid of a small group of drug runners. They quickly realise they are in serious jeopardy as Richard begins a campaign to humiliate, threaten and terrorise them. The film harbours a major plot twist, and even if you know what it is the film remains a powerful and heart wrenching story that is worth revisit if you've only seen it once before. Considine is excellent as the borderline out-of-control avenger who stalks the streets and fields of the area in search of his prey but it's Kebbell as Anthony who is the most memorable and his performance may leave a tear in your eye. This is a dark, gripping and tense thriller set in the heart of middle England, a film that leaves an impression.

Whilst the acting is strong and the basic themes of female empowerment and highlighting society's dual standards in regards to the actions of men and the actions of women are clear this drama glibly deals with the main area of the narrative, prostitution. This is the story of Alice (Emilie Piponnier), a happily married wife and mother of a young son. When her credit card is one day declined she discovers she is penniless and deserted by her husband, François (Martin Swabey) who has spent all their funds, and left her in extreme debt, due to his prostitution addiction. Alice takes the desperate step of becoming one herself via an escort agency and is shown the ropes by Lisa (Chloé Boreham) who becomes her friend. Alice finds a new strength and determination with this new direction until François returns wanting to start their relationship afresh. The main issue with the film is the simple veneer with which it deals with the risks to the woman engaging in sex work. Alice's clients are shown as mostly lonely if occasionally a little weird and it glosses over the refusal to wear a condom issue. This makes the film somewhat passé overall and disappointing. The main theme that the man's use of prostitutes is less an issue for society than a woman becoming one to save her home is dealt with quite well. Worth checking out though.

The revenge thriller has a strong history in British cinema with films such as Get Carter (1971) and Dead Man's Shoes (2004) and this brilliantly conceived film from director Paul Andrew Williams, who also wrote the story & script, fits into that group. Neil Maskell, an actor often found playing criminal hard men, is the titular Bull, a London gangland enforcer who works for Norm (David Hayman) and is married to his daughter Gemma (Lois Brabin-Platt). They have a young son on whom Bull dotes. But Gemma is a heroin addict and when the marriage sours Norm sides with his daughter over custody of the boy. Ten years after Norm believes he's rid of Bull he suddenly returns intent on revenge and in finding his son. There's some unrelenting and shocking violence and the story has suspense and surprises as it rattles along at a great pace. The story unfolds with a series of flashbacks that gradually reveal what happened to Bull whilst in the present he rampages around dealing with everyone that was involved. Whilst the revenge thriller has been done many times before this new one has a panache and interesting twist that you'll either go with or reject entirely, either way this is a gritty take on this type of story and well worth checking out.

A rather over complicated espionage drama that relies on a complex structure of flashbacks that tests one's viewing patience. Based on a best selling novel (scripted by it's author Olen Steinhauer) and all very much in the vein of John Le Carré the scene is set in Vienna when a terrorist plane hijacking operation goes awry resulting in a lot of civilian deaths. Eight years later CIA agent Henry (Chris Pine - sporting a variety of very bad haircuts!), haunted by those past events, is contacted by his old Vienna station chief, the hardbitten Vick (Laurence Fishburne) and told that the reason the op went sour is they had a mole who was tipping the hijackers off. Henry is tasked with seeking out his past colleagues and trying to find out which one of them it was. This includes the shady Bill (Jonathan Pryce) and Henry's former lover, Celia (Thandiwe Newton), now quietly settled in California. The majority of the film is set in a plush restaurant where Celia and Henry talk about their past together as Henry tries to unravel if she is the traitor. It has some twists and turns and you'll probably figure it all out well before the film tells you. Overall its a film that is trying to be a serious espionage mystery but it just didn't quite have the tension it was so desperately seeking.

A film of remarkable depth and originality. Independent filmmaker and director Jim Jarmusch has made some really interesting and unusual films and Dead Man is probably his finest work. It's a bizarre, surreal and engrossing story and an allegory for a journey to hell and back again. Set in the late 1800s and meek, mild mannered and slightly effeminate Bill Blake (Johnny Depp) uses up all his meagre savings to travel across America to take up a job as an accountant with a metalwork company owned by the maniacal Dickinson (Robert Mitchum - in his final film). On arrival Blake finds the position has been filled and he is left stranded. Spending the night with a prostitute he ends up killing Dickinson's son in self defence and, badly wounded, he flees into the wilderness. Pursued by three psychopathic bounty hunters Blake is helped by a strange Indian who calls himself Nobody (Gary Farmer). The journey becomes a spiritual one littered with dangerous and grotesque characters and with each encounter Blake finds violence is the easy way to continue his journey. This film reads as an anti-western, it's a really engrossing and clever movie and has a strange, dreamlike beauty to it. The support cast are exceptional and includes John Hurt, Lance Henricksen, Billy Bob Thornton, Iggy Pop, Jared Harris and Alfred Molina. Essentially an odyssey story, structured like a Greek mythological tale, full of mysticism and atmosphere. It's a film that will leave an impression I guarantee.

A poignant drama with an excellent central performance from Joanna Scanlon. She plays Mary, a British woman who converted to Islam years before in order to marry her beloved husband Ahmed, a Pakistani man who is an officer on the cross channel ferries. They live a quiet life of domesticity with Ahmed often away due to his work. When he dies unexpectedly Mary finds herself a little lost amongst the muslim community she has become part of. But her life is thrown into emotional chaos when she discovers Ahmed had a secret life in France. She decides to go there in order to uncover it. This is a story of secrets and lies and a study of people caught between culture and personal identity. All the characters are seemingly leading double lives which causes anger and questioning of what people actually stand for. It's a subtle yet powerful story, wonderfully acted. Worth checking out.

A vibrant and quite funny animated adventure film that homages a load of other films (The Matrix, I Robot, Tron etc etc) but is ultimately a story about family and in particular about parents relationship with their teenage children. The weird and somewhat dysfunctional Mitchell family are struggling mainly due to the relationship between Dad (voice of Danny McBride) and teenage daughter Katie (voice of Abbi Jacobson), who is soon off to college. Dad tries too hard and yearns for the bond he used to have with Katie when she was a toddler. He's also hopeless with modern tech and hates the kids always being on their phones and laptops. As a way to reconnect he decides the family will have a road trip taking Katie to her college. She is horrified by this especially as she'll miss the first week of her new college. On the journey a big hi-tech company releases it's latest invention, domestic robots, but the program controlling then, PAL (voiced by Olivia Colman), takes control and decides to send all humans into space. Only the Mitchells stand in the way. There's plenty of big laughs to have here as the family join together to defeat the robots and in the process rediscover their family love. The film gets into the difficulty of modern family life and the generational gap whilst managing to be a funny rehash of all those sci-fi films you'll quickly recognise. Kids will love this and adults will have a great time too. Good family viewing.

One of the great classic science fiction films and ranked as an important and ground breaking film. It was made at a time when the fears of atomic war were rife and the arms race between the major powers was gaining momentum. The film is anti-military, they are seen here as trigger happy and bumbling and the film cleverly, and bravely for its time, challenges politics and such ideologies as potentially the real danger to the future of mankind. In that sense the film still resonates today. Considering this is a 1950s film the effects are clever and interesting and mostly shot in camera, with the inevitable use of back projection. Modern audiences drenched in CGI often criticise older films for their lack of authenticity but looking beyond this reveals an innovative science fiction story with strong themes and messages. The story is simple, much to the world's surprise a spaceship arrives and lands in Washington DC, its crew is one alien, Klaatu (Micheal Rennie) and his huge robot companion Gort (Lock Martin). Klaatu seeks a meeting with all the world's leaders but becomes frustrated that getting them together proves very difficult. So having received a hostile reception from the US military he slips their guards and hides amongst the population to try and understand how humans behave and think. He finds most of what he needs to know through the eyes of a young boy, the daughter of widow Helen (Patricia Neal). Ultimately it's by connecting with scientists that he gets to deliver his message that violent Earth is seen as a threat to the harmony of the Universe and that humanity needs to change its path of war and animosity towards one another.....or else! A key film, hugely entertaining and strongly recommended for film fans who've not seen it. (There was a pointless remake in 2008 that is no where as good as this original.)

A remarkable British science fiction apocalypse film where the detonation of two massive nuclear bombs in simultaneous tests by the USA and USSR inadvertently causes the Earth to be thrown off it's axis, which causes huge weather changes and moves the planet closer to the sun. This threatens the very survival of humanity. The film is shot and told with a documentary style realism and through the cut and thrust of a Fleet Street newspaper where the reporters try to get to the bottom of the Government cover up. It's an unusual film for its time because it's not a huge effects film but mostly a quite intimate story that was very risqué with some nudity and the occasional swear word. But the film is more marked by its bleak narrative, it's not a gung-ho heroic film but a film that looks into the dire consequences of the proliferation of nuclear testing, tapping into the rising public fear of atomic war and the escalation of the Cold War and shows the increase in CND popularity in British society. The film also offers no real solution to the major catastrophe that man causes in the story. So in that sense it's a film that stands out against anything that Hollywood was producing at the time. New star Edward Judd plays the heavy drinking, cynical journalist that breaks the story and the realistic portrayal of a major British newspaper of the time was seen as something very bold. At the heart there's a tender love story to highlight the loss mankind will face and some of the effects, including a dried up Thames river and a heavy fog that engulfs London, are quite impressive even when viewed today. The gradual breakdown of public services including water supplies are very thought provoking. From the perspective of film history this is well worth checking out especially as director Val Guest was an innovative filmmaker and who had made the excellent Quatermass films. If you are a science fiction fan and also love British cinema then this is well worth seeking out. It was recently restored by the British Film Institute and can be seen it's all its glory. Keen eyed viewers will spot Michael Caine in an early screen role.

A riveting political crime thriller based on the best selling novel by Frederick Forsyth. Filmed with a documentary style realism this is a tense, almost nail biting drama that has now, rightly, been hailed as one of the best British films of the 1970s. Casting the then unknown Edward Fox as the lead was a risk which affected the initial box office but over the years this has become recognised as a first rate thriller and definitely one of those films everyone should try and see at least once. Set in the early 1960s and just after the French president, Charles DeGaulle, gave the African country Algeria its independence. This led to the formation of a terrorist organisation, the OAS, formed by disaffected members of the French army who felt betrayed after so many French soldiers died in fighting in Algeria. All this is based on facts. The film begins with the OAS attempting to assassinate DeGaulle and having failed they recruit an enigmatic and very clever English hitman to kill him. Codenamed The Jackal (Fox) he plans the assassination in complete secrecy but a leak reveals his existence which starts a manhunt led by top detective Lebel (Michael Lonsdale). The hunt for this man forms the centre of the story and The Jackal seems always to be one step ahead. It's a gripping and interesting story and omits the clichés often found in films of this genre. There's no heroics or big set piece action scenes and Fox as the outwardly pleasant gentlemen is revealed as a very cold blooded killer. A superb film, brilliantly directed and beautifully paced to keep you watching right to the very last, key moment.

A fantastic, enjoyable apocalyptic disaster film where extreme weather events presage an ice age. Forget the science here because this is a piece of hokum but it's all done with panache and spectacular story telling making for a great survival adventure film. Dennis Quaid, a highly underrated American actor, plays climatologist Jack, who, whilst witnessing strange climate changes predicts that the Earth is about to undergo a major atmospheric climate shift. Of course all the politicians don't listen until massive tornados, huge hailstorms and tidal waves start happening. As the world begins to freeze over Jack and a couple of his compadres trek across the now frozen wastelands trying to reach his son, Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal), who is trapped in New York with some of his student friends who have had adventures of their own trying to survive. There's some great CGI effects especially the various storm and weather events from the opening scenes of a huge break in an Antarctic ice shelf to the massive tornadoes devastating Los Angeles and the tidal wave that floods New York. Director Roland Emmerich has made a reputation for himself making these big budget effects film and this one just hits all the right notes especially with following various storylines from the students trapped in New York to Jack making his way to rescue them to a small group of scientists in Scotland trapped in their weather station (Ian Holm and Adrian Lester). If you've never seen this then I really recommend it, it's great fun, exciting and very well done.

A post-apocalyptic thriller that is a real gem. One of those films you occasionally come across that grabs you and keeps you watching throughout. Shot with a washed out palette, almost in black & white, to highlight a ravaged world and following a group of five young survivors as they make their way across the wilderness looking for food and trying to stay alive. With one of them feeling unwell they shelter for the night in a ramshackle old farmhouse but it's a trap! I don't want to give too much away here suffice to say this is a gutsy thrill ride of a film. The cause of the dying world is not revealed and in many ways it's similar to The Road (2009) and could even be set in the same time and events, but the environment seems to be eroding and so the film hints at a climate crisis. Food and water is scarce and the land holds big dangers. There are elements of Assault On Precinct 13 (1976) in the way this story unfolds and the relatively unknown cast are all excellent including Shawn Ashmore (recognisable from the X-Men films) and Dominic Monaghan (from Lord Of The Rings) and Ashley Bell is outstanding as one of the group with a dark secret. A superb film and one that is definitely worth seeking out, it's a great story, violent and tense and well as being something quite different and clever.

Highly entertaining action horror film and a general remake of an earlier 1978 film directed by horror meister George A. Romero. Here though Zack Snyder has made a contemporary graphic novel stylised film with some Hammer Horror touches. This is a zombie apocalypse story but not the traditional reanimated corpse type that shuffle around but a virus induced fully mobile type, these zombies race at their victims! This makes for a very adrenaline fuelled action film with some big bloody shocks to keep you on your toes. It's all great fun and very well done too. One day, without warning, a virus breaks out turning victims into cannabilistic zombies and one bite from an infected is enough. Ana (Sarah Polley), a nurse, just manages to escape being attacked by her infected husband and joins up with a small group of survivors including a cop (Ving Rhames). They barricade themselves inside the local shopping mall but, after the initial relief of finding safety, realise they have to form a plan to break out and find a better sanctuary. But they are surrounded by a horde of zombies. This is a story of survival and the real issues and themes come out in the struggles the survivors have with themselves as their individual loyalties, prejudices and selfish needs come to the fore. There's a great use of panoramic scenes, plenty of jump scares and a combination of tense, dark moments combined with full on gunplay. It's all tremendous fun and well worth checking out even if you don't normally like this sort of thing.

A somewhat tepid erotic psychological thriller that fails to ignite into anything other than a routine murder story with stock characters. This is a surprise considering director Adrian Lyne brought us such gritty and shock thrillers like Fatal Attraction (1987). The one saving grace here is Ana De Armas who delivers a performance that exudes the warmth of youth and beauty juxtaposed with the cold, selfish control of the femme fatale. This is a story of a poisoned relationship where Melinda (De Armas) is married to the much older and wealthy Vic (Ben Affleck). He allows her to have affairs with a stream of younger men on the promise she'll stay in the marriage. Her casual flings that she conducts almost as a challenge to Vic are the catalyst for his seething anger. His subtle boast to one of her paramours that he killed an earlier one sets him on a path of emotional rage. The question of whether he did or not is soon abandoned for a plain murder story. Can you see the issues here? The story is all too plain and obvious. The delectable trophy wife openly bonking and assuming the cuckold of a husband is going to accept the situation even though he says he will. It doesn't add up and the film becomes predictable and disappointing. Affleck's character just does a square jaw, mean look throughout the film which reflects the lacklustre script and direction of what could have been a very interesting marriage character study.