Film Reviews by GI

This war drama remains a powerful and quite astonishing condemnation of war and whilst it still has its dissenters it is a real achievement. When it was made American cinema still hadn't really got to grips with the Vietnam war and this film looked at how it affected the young men drafted to fight there and also the people at home who are equally traumatised by the conflict's resulting destruction of their lives. This is not a traditional genre war film and there are in fact very few scenes of actual combat. When the story moves to Vietnam it is a somewhat disjointed and jarring scene change that moves very quickly to the infamous POW scenes. Controversial to this day the 'Russian roulette' segments that form a key part of the narrative remain very shocking and these go along way to highlighting the exceptional acting that is carried throughout the film by the cast. It's the story of a group of friends from a grimy Pennsylvania steel mill town whose lives are radically altered by the experience of three of them who are drafted to fight in Vietnam. With the opening scenes of a huge wedding to the final chapter of attempting to find one of the three who is missing in Saigon this is a poignant, moving and a very intense and provocative drama. It is a masterwork and deserved the multiple awards it garnered. The cast are all superb including Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Savage and Meryl Streep, it's also the final film of John Cazale who died before the film was completed. Critics have cited the racist depictions of Asians and one can read a homosocial subtext especially relating to soldiers assimilating back into civilian life with the clear feminine influence at play but whichever way this is viewed it's an American 'anti-classic' and a film everyone should see at least once.

A social drama that manages to be both a heartwarming story of self empowerment and a socio-realist story that condemns the bureaucracy and officialdom that deals with the plight of domestic violence victims. Clare Dunn writes and stars here as Sandra, the mother of two adorable young daughters and the wife to a toxic and abusive husband. After a particularly violent assault Clare leaves and with her children is stuck in hotel accommodation while she waits to get housing from the local government. Humiliated daily and carrying several menial jobs she hits upon the idea of building her own house to a self-build template she finds online. The housing officials refuse to help even though loaning her the money would end up cheaper than the hotel fees! But she finds a benefactor in her employer, Peggy (Harriet Walter) and her journey to a new life begins although her troubles with her husband are far from over. This is an unexpected warm drama with some interesting things to say and highlight and although the help of Peggy is a little too convenient for the plot this can be forgiven due to the earnest nature of the film. Overall this is a film about self empowerment and finding strength to overcome the hurdles life throws at you. It's very watchable and and good natured.

Obviously influenced by The Wages Of Fear (1953) and Sorcerer (1977) this action adventure is another in the never ending line of Liam Neeson curmudgeonly old timer action flicks although this one puts aside the usual revenge theme for a reasonably entertaining adventure story that has its moments. Neeson plays Mike, a gutsy trucker who also cares for his mentally damaged ex veteran brother Gurty (Marcus Thomas). Needing the money Mike accepts the highly dangerous job of taking special (and very heavy) rescue equipment across the frozen sea on an ice road to a diamond mine where an accident has trapped miners underground. It's all a race against time before the miners suffocate. There's the tense journey across the ice which isn't without incident as you'd expect and also a slowly unravelling conspiracy to give Liam the chance to battle with some bad guys. It's pure hokum but enjoyable and Laurence Fishburne has a cameo just to add some extra spice.

A routine and uninspiring action thriller that wastes it's set pieces by making them formulaic and generic. The film has some entertainment value but it's an instantly forgettable auctioneer that offers nothing that hasn't been done before. A shame in may ways because Chris Pine seems to be a lead actor constantly in search of a good script. From Captain Kirk he seems to have drifted along with just the odd stand out, Hell Or High Water (2016) for example. Indeed his costar here, Ben Foster, also can offer a gritty addition to any film not least that 2016 one but in The Contractor he's the routine stereotypical mate who lets the side down. Pine plays a former special forces soldier, James, who struggling to get a job ends up working for a shady private firm led by even more shady Kiefer Sutherland. When his first job in Berlin goes awry James finds he's been betrayed and hunted but intends to get home and sort everyone out!

A blatant rip off of Predator (1987) where every six years an alien warrior arrives and has to be dealt with by a band of ninja martial arts fighters. It's all totally silly, a film made up of a series of long winded athletic fight scenes with a stupid and incoherent story attempted in between. Nicolas Cage appears in a cameo and reportedly took a fifth of the budget in wages and clearly the reason he did it at all. Avoid, I've given up 105 minutes f life so you don't have to.

Stupendous satirical dark comedy from director Armando Iannucci, hilariously funny and sharply scripted with a top cast who ring every last drop of brilliance from their roles. Based on a French graphic novel the story is close to historical accuracy in the telling of the rush and rivalry to gain power by the USSR top politicians when their leader Stalin suddenly dies of a brain haemorrhage. But with the actors keeping their natural accents and with a really funny script this becomes comedy gold and it's a film that you could see a mature Monty Python team writing and making. Simon Russell Beale is the dark heart of the film as the notorious Beria, a man who has murdered and sexually assaulted his way to the top and who now evilly plans his way to take over, along with Steve Buscemi as Krushchev and Michael Palin as Molotov out to foil his plans. Another stand out is Jason Isaacs as the tough, no nonsense Field Marshall Zhukov, a really funny performance. Along with a support cast that includes Andrea Riseborough, Rupert Friend, Jeffrey Tambor and Paddy Considine you also have a richly, clever satire on modern politics and whilst this story includes murder and depravity it takes a sharp look at the way politics has evolved including to today and in the aftermath of the Trump debacle viewers will recognise the contemporary themes. A great adult comedy that is a must see.

An experimental sci-fi film shot on an iPhone (although you couldn't tell to be honest) during the Covid pandemic. Written and made by husband and wife team Matthew and Tori Butler-Hart. It's a monotonous film about some weird mind experiment in which an unnamed woman (Tori Butler-Hart) awakes in a strange attic tied to a chair. She's escapes but finds that at certain moments time seems to reset itself and she has to start over, so like a computer game. Each time she manages to puzzle out what to do to keep going, all the while heading for an old country house where the said experiment is being controlled. Ian McKellen and Conleth Hill have cameos but mostly it's a one woman show! Nothing much happens, it's frustrating and self-indulgent and ultimately boring.

A satirical melodrama that is fun even if a little unsubtle that delves into the moral squalor of the super rich. This is epitomised by the character of Sir Richard 'Greedy' McCreadie (Steve Coogan), a billionaire high street retailer and clearly a caricature of the odious Sir Philip Green. Having suffered a big dose of bad publicity after appearing at a parliamentary select committee the film follows McCreadie as he sets up for a lavish 60th birthday party on a Greek island, which includes a roman theme, a wooden coliseum and a lion called Clarence. Isla Fisher plays Richard's awful ex-wife, Samantha and David Mitchell is a writer hired to write Richard's biography. The film follows a rockumentary style as it gradually reveals the lengths McCreadie will go to exploit and suppress people in order to make any profit. Coogan gives a sound performance even though he's not tested by the role because the script doesn't push the boundaries as it weaves between a bit of farce to the very real issue of the exploitation of women around the world who make the clothes the big retailers sell. The support cast are excellent and include Asa Butterfield, Stephen King (in a cameo as himself), and Shirley Henderson as McCreadie's mother. The film has a nice structure and is edited well to show McCreadie's rise from expulsion from a public school to hustling in London's rag trade. Not everything works here but it's an entertaining and at times thought provoking film.

Michael Winner's infamous vigilante film holds up rather well today and whilst it's flawed, violent and controversial it isn't the sadistic film that is often rumoured. It continues Winner's obsession with death that flows through all his films in particular those he made with Charles Bronson in the 1970s. Symbols of violent death litter the film, including hangman's nooses and swastikas for example. Narratively and thematically the film does revel in the law of the gun and Winner can't help but interlink the story with the frontier violence of the western albeit the west is about myth rather than the reality of the social problem of gang violence in modern day USA. (Interestingly Arizona, the landscape heart of the western is depicted as a peaceful and beautiful place over New York as a pit of depravity. One character claims this is because they have a very open relationship with guns) The main issue with the film is that Winner randomly switches his message from support of the actions of the vigilante to a gentle condemnation perhaps intending the viewer to also switch. In my opinion the film's coda leaves little doubt that the main protagonist grows to relish in killing. The story is fairly simple. A humble city architect, Paul (Bronson) is left distraught when his wife is murdered by muggers and his daughter raped. He tries to come to terms but when a colleague gives him a gun as a present Paul carries it for self defence and after killing a mugger starts to prowl the city streets looking to kill more. Meanwhile the police begin a search for the vigilante fearing copycats and a loss of control. The film attacks police methods as ineffectual and the narrative has an interesting political angle when officials have to decide on how to deal with him. Not as violent as some may think (although the swearing is full on for a mid 70s film) this is entertaining and a good example of Bronson's work as a lead actor (I always think he's an unlikely one at that). There were four sequels to this film with part 2 being a very nasty film and none of them are worth your time nowadays. A 2018 sequel from director Eli Roth is also a waste of time but this original is perhaps ripe for reassessment.

Fantastically entertaining creature feature and disaster film with plenty of horror tropes thrown in for good measure. This is one of those films made simply to sit back and enjoy for the sheer fun of it all and who doesn't love a good shark film? Action director Renny Harlin throws all his usual flair into this, it's all brilliantly done, tense, exciting and wonderfully gory at times. A deep sea laboratory led by scientist Susan (Saffron Burrows) is trying to find a cure for Alzheimers disease from a fluid found in the brains of sharks. With her team she has genetically engineered three sharks to produce sufficient quantities of the precious fluid but a side effect is the sharks have grown larger and more intelligent. When a storm hits the lab everything goes awry. The cast are all having great fun including Thomas Jane as the 'shark wrangler', Stellan Skarsgård, LL Cool J and Samuel L. Jackson. There's some superb surprises to be had along the way. The obvious influences of Alien (1979) and The Abyss (1989) are there for all to see. A film you don't have to think beyond what you see it's just for a great time.

A cop thriller filmed in a noir style and with a subversive undertone. The story though seems a bit clichéd when seen today and there have been better films that deal with the pressures and conflicts of police undercover work. Laurence Fishburne plays uniformed cop Russell who is recruited by DEA agent Carver (Charles Martin Smith) to infiltrate and work his way up in a major drug trafficking ring run by a South American cartel. The aim to nail the foreign politician who runs things. The film follows Russell as he struggles with the boundaries of his role especially as he has a past that causes him particular angst. When his loyalties get tested and political priorities interfere Russell begins to disobey his boss. There's romance, violence and some of the characters are a little stereotypical although the film has it's entertainment value but it seems a little dated today.

Deep Impact is an example of first class cinematic storytelling. An action adventure film that has family drama, political intrigue, romance, apocalyptic disaster, science fiction and good ol' traditional heroism. The film has such a superb structure that follows diverse characters in one main narrative, the editing is spot on and every aspect of the story is interesting and entertaining and all this where many of the characters never interact. The essence of the story that a comet is detected heading for direct impact with the Earth heralds big effects that are neatly mixed with solid character studies as various the characters have to deal privately and professionally with the potential extinction of humanity. Téa Leoni is an ambitious reporter who uncovers the story carefully controlled by the Government and develops a rapport with the President (Morgan Freeman) but also has to deal with a complicated family drama involving her parents (Vanessa Redgrave & Maximilian Schell). The young astronomer Leo (Elijah Wood) who discovered the comet receives fame as a result and desperately wants to save his girlfriend and comes up with a moving and tender plan that nearly goes awry. And to top it all there's the space mission led by a gritty old astronaut (Robert Duvall) along with some very impactive disaster scenes when parts of the comet hit the planet. The film is gripping, tense, and highly entertaining and best of all it comes across as well grounded as if the whole thing is exactly what would happen. A remarkable cinematic treat, one to definitely revisit and enjoy for all it's cleverness and great story.

Dark, subversive, irreverent and really funny and the film that really cemented Ryan Reynolds screen charisma. This is the Marvel film that takes the comic book superhero and gives him a foul mouthed, immoral and violent personality with loads of wisecracks and a penchant for bloody retribution. Reynolds plays Wade Wilson, a former soldier who now hangs around a bar for ex military taking jobs as a mercenary. His love is prostitute Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) but when he is diagnosed with terminal cancer their lives fall apart. But a creepy guy offers him a cure which turns out to be some nasty experiment by the thoroughly despicable Ajax (Ed Skrein), which results in Wade becoming permanently disfigured but with special powers including self healing. He becomes the classic anti-hero, Deadpool, and sets out for revenge on Ajax. Referencing the X-men films and several other superhero characters, including DC Universe, this is a really entertaining comedy. Sharply scripted, sexy and bold this makes sitting through all those overlong MCU films worthwhile. The 2018 sequel is not bad either although lacks the originality of this.

A disturbing and yet vibrant crime drama that recreates the true story of the FBI's infiltration of the Black Panther movement in the late 60s in order to bring down the charismatic head of the Illinois chapter, Fred Hampton (David Kaluuya). This is a revealing look at a sad chapter of the USA's battle with civil rights and the film attempts to show the true ethos of the Black Panther movement and the extremes to which the authorities, here epitomised by J.Edgar Hoover, creepily played by Martin Sheen, and Agent Mitchell (Jesse Plemons in a subtly menacing performance). Mitchell forces petty criminal Bill O'Neal (LaKeith Stansfield), on threat of imprisonment, to join and rise up in the Black Panther movement and supply intelligence on Hampton. The story is the struggle of O'Neal as he becomes torn between his role as informant and his growing relationship with Hampton. It's a tragic story that ends in a state approved murder with O'Neal playing an intregal part. The film is cleverly constructed and the performances are all really good especially Kaluuya, who reminded me so much of Keith David in his mannerisms here, and Stansfield, who captures O'Neal's complex position and emotions. The core of the film is their contradictory relationship. However, it is a very speech ridden film and at times I found this was wearing on my attention span. There's no doubt the story is an important one but the film is a bit labouring at times which makes for a viewing experience that tests ones patience. Worth checking out though.

Whilst an interesting story from an historical perspective and despite the all star cast this is an over talky Second World War drama that has that air of Colonel Blimp about it. It seems that the core of the story wasn't enough so it's been puffed out to include love affairs and personal jealousies in side plots that peter out and go nowhere. This is the story of a British covert intelligence operation in 1943 to have the Germans find a dead body that is carrying secret documents alluding to a panned allied invasion of Greece instead of Sicily, which is the real strategy. This is dreamed up by Naval intelligence officer Ewen (Colin Firth), whilst dealing with marital problems, aided by RAF intelligence officer, Charles Cholmondeley (now there's upper class British name for you!) (Matthew Macfadyen). Of course they have trouble getting the higher ups to agree, in the form of a grumpy Admiral (Jason Isaacs) until good ol' Winston (Simon Russell Beale) backs it personally. The tense nature of the plan is told mostly through lots of hand wringing in smoke filled offices while Ewen and Charles moon over their assistant Jean (Kelly Macdonald). This love triangle is distracting and lessens the more interesting story as the discovery of the body by the Spanish doesn't always go to plan. Thes tory has been told before in The Man Who Never Was (1956) and the core of the idea was used in North BY Northwest (1959) but as a modern war story it's a bit of a lame film that fails to lift itself beyond a passing interest.