Film Reviews by GI

Part erotic thriller, part gangster and part film noir this is a gem of a film that you may not have come across. Written and directed by the then Wachowski Brothers (now sisters) it is a superbly scripted story that has a twist and turn plot, it's sexy and clever and is full of surprises. Gina Gershon plays ex-con Corky who is renovating an apartment as part of her parole. She meets the sexy Violet (Jennifer Tilly) from next door and very soon they begin a passionate affair. Violet's partner is Caesar (Joe Pantoliano), a money launderer for the mafia and ruthless thug. She convinces Corky she wants to escape from Caesar and together they hatch a plan to steal $2million of the Mob's money and get Caesar blamed for it. It appears a perfect plan but Caesar is cleverer and more unpredictable than they envisaged. There's some innovative camerawork that is very stylish giving the film a contemporary feel even with a plot that is reminiscent of a classic Hollywood film. It's a great little film that is excellently written and directed and delivers a story that keeps you hooked throughout with some edge of your seat bits and occasional unexpected shocks.

This is one of the key American dramas of the 1990s, an impactive film that looks at the falseness of American material society and the resulting dysfunction caused to family, relationships and ambition. It's essentially a dark comedy with tragedy and an emphasis on the ridiculous nature of America and what it really stands for. Set in California in the late 1970s Burt Reynolds (Oscar nominated here) is an adult film maker, making cheap, exploitative porn' films for a growing market. It's world that has a ridiculous veneer of false talent, false respectability and unsavoury characters. He's always on the lookout for new 'talent' and spots young Eddie (Mark Wahlberg - in his first really major role). Eddie comes from a dysfunctional family, thinks he's rather special and is easy prey for Jack. Soon he is making porn films alongside Jack's stable of 'actors' including Amber (Julianne Moore) and 'Roller Girl' (Heather Graham), another teenager lured into the industry due to her struggles at school. All the characters believe themselves destined for something great but each harbours inner turmoil from Amber's desire for motherhood having been denied access to her young son, to Eddie (porn name Dirk Diggler) who thinks he's a serious actor and potential rock star. Their world soon reveals itself to be one of crime, drugs and violence. The film takes some surprising turns making it an enthralling drama and although it's set in the world of pornography it's a restrained film and never slips into gratuitousness. Indeed this is a remarkably clever film and certainly one that I can recommend. You will not be disappointed.

This drama set in Oregon in the 1820s has been critically acclaimed and to be sure there is a visual beauty to the film that takes place in the woods on the North West frontier. It's a tale of friendship with a pre credit William Blake quote signposting the theme of fulfilment through companionship. But I found the film ultimately somewhat too contemplative and lacking. It follows two drifters Cookie (John Magaro) and King-Lu (Orion Lee) who join up and find a common goal in seeking their fortune. Cookie is a trained baker and they come up with a plan to sell buttermilk cakes to the locals who are deprived of any culinary luxuries. To do this they begin covertly milking the famed jersey cow of the local pompous bigwig (Toby Jones). He doesn't react well when this is discovered. This is a narrative that is looking closely at the search for the American Dream through the friendship of two no-hopers (I even detected a hint of a gay subtext here) but it's a slow film which I found rather limited and a bit tedious.

America has a big tradition of creating heroes and myths out of their outlaws - Jesse James, Billy the Kid, John Dillinger etc - often portraying them as the victims of oppression who find a courageous yet fatal means to overcome the times they live in. Bonnie & Clyde are two such criminals, a pair of rampaging killers who roamed the southern states during the Great Depression robbing banks and stores and murdering as they went. This film is one of the first that began a New Wave in American cinema depicting these 'heroes' as dangerously flawed and started to question the image of the screen hero. This film movement opened the doors in the 70s for directors like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and even Steven Spielberg. Warren Beatty plays small time crook Clyde Barrow who impresses bored waitress Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) with his boasts of being a robber. Lured by the excitement they begin to travel around committing poorly planned and small robberies and eventually form a bigger gang with Clyde's brother Buck (Gene Hackman). Graduating to bank heists and pulling off some daring getaways from police ambushes they soon find their carefree attitude results in tragedy. With Beatty portraying Clyde as impotent, with blood spurting and slow motion violence this film broke new ground and it feels like a much more modern film when viewed today. It's certainly an important and influential American film, with a dark humour, fast action and a gripping story. If you like a good crime film then this is absolutely fantastic and if you've never seen it I highly recommend it.

The Western was once the mainstay of American cinema, the essential mythology of a young America, but then starting in the late 1960s and into the 70s and 80s the staples of the genre began to be redefined and key films revising the traditional frontier building of a nation were made. These began to de-mythologise the western and turn them into historical drama that questioned the usual cinematic take on the West. Bone Tomahawk is a film that sits within the traditional genre for the most part. It's essentially about a posse, heading out to rescue a kidnapped woman taken by savages or in other words a taming of the west scenario. But then it takes a most surprising turn and it will get you on the edge of your seat and possibly gasp with shock. Kurt Russell plays a town sheriff who accompanied by a dandy gunfighter (Matthew Fox), his ageing deputy (Richard Jenkins) and a fearful husband with a part healed broken leg (Patrick Wilson), set out to search and rescue the husband's wife and another young deputy who have been stolen away in the night by savages. Having to survive the harshness of the land and beset by outlaws along the way does nothing to prepare them for the final confrontation with the Indians. This is a film that goes off in a very surprising direction so you think you're watching one sort of film until it turns into another. It's great entertainment, thrilling, exciting, quite shocking and the cast are impeccable. Kurt Russell is one of my favourite actors, he is always a real treat. So even if westerns aren't usually your thing I urge you to give this one a try.

Entitled Alone outside the UK this is a routine zombie apocalypse story with Tyler Posey as Aidan who wakes in his apartment one morning to find that the world is engulfed in a pandemic where contagion turns victims into screaming zombies driven to cannabalism. One bite is all it takes. Trapped in his apartment with the odd attempt by the zombies on the outside trying to get in Aidan considers suicide until he finally spots Eva (Summer Spiro) alive & well in the apartment building opposite. With something to live for he begins to venture outside so they can join up. This is a film for zombie genre fans, it offers nothing much new, the zombies can run and attack on sight or sound although Aidan dodges and weaves his way around most of them. Donald Sutherland has an interesting cameo but overall it's all been done before and better to be honest.

It would be easy to dismiss The Bodyguard as a fairly routine thriller with a romance narrative at its heart. But it's actually a rather enjoyable, sometimes dark and quite interesting film. Originally conceived back in the 70s as a vehicle for Steve McQueen and Diana Ross Kevin Costner, even attempting a McQueen hair style, plays Frank Farmer a reclusive and highly disciplined former Secret Service agent who now works as a bodyguard for rich businessmen. He reluctantly allows himself to be hired to protect pop singer Rachel Marron, a surprisingly very good Whitney Houston, after she has received death threat letters. Of course a deep bond of love (Farmer only does serious) develops between them which the story tests over and over and of course there are some plot twists that keep you hooked into the story. This all results in an entertaining movie that deserves re-evaluation. The soundtrack by Houston is fantastic and of course includes her iconic cover of I Will Always Love You written by Dolly Parton. Well worth a rewatch.

A dark Christmas comedy that is all gimmick and no substance (the trailer is far better than the actual film!) with Mel Gibson as a grumpy Santa Claus who lives and works on a farm, with his wife and elves, readying for the night he has to deliver toys to the world's children. Worried by the declining morals of youngsters his business is failing and his subsidies from the US Government have been cut. But things get worse when he leaves a lump of coal for a spoilt, nasty rich kid who then hires a hitman (Walter Coggins) to kill Santa. Yes you heard that right. Said Hitman also has a long standing grievance against Santa and relishes the job. The sad thing here is that despite the set up there was great potential here for a fresh, contemporary Santa story with some social commentary about youth crime, millennial entitlement and declining standards but the film descends into clichéd old age jokes and a shoot 'em up, and yes it's quite bloody. Gibson is the best thing about this film, he deserved a better script that had less cartoonish characterisations.

Ridley Scott's gripping espionage thriller set in the Middle-East is a first class film, grittily realistic and one of the action films covering the American War On Terror. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Ferris, a CIA field agent, who is sent to head up operations in Jordan after one in Iraq goes awry. Ferris' controller is Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) in Langley, a cynical and self serving boss. Ferris goes against Hoffman's orders and liaises with the head of Jordanian intelligence, Hani (Mark Strong in a topnotch performance). The focus of their joint operation is a Muslim cleric who has orchestrated a series of terrorist atrocities across Europe. But a lack of trust and conflicting political agendas leads to problems.....big problems. This has a well written, very involved plot and the action set pieces are realistic, bold and very well executed. The detail in every scene is impeccable as you'd expect with a Ridley Scott film. This is an action thriller told on an epic scale, it's underrated movie and well worth your time. Highly entertaining and it cleverly masquerades as a serious political drama but it's actually a great action film with a solid cast. This is cinematic storytelling at its best.

Another richly detailed and fantastic film from Ridley Scott, this one a true crime story about the infamous 1970s kidnapping of the 16 year old grandson of John Paul Getty, the billionaire oil baron. Scott's visual reconstruction of the 1970s as the story flits between Rome, where the kidnapping occurred, to London and with flashbacks across various other countries is impeccable. This is a convoluted and complex story and Scott directs with the skill of a storyteller experienced in epic cinema. But this is much more than a story of a simple kidnapping, although the intricacies of the actual crime are very involved, but this is also a story of greed, of megalomania, and obsessive love of money and riches. When young Getty (Charlie Plummer) is kidnapped in Rome his devoted mother (Michelle Williams) turns to her ex father-in-law, John Paul Getty (Christopher Plummer) to pay the ransom demand of $17million. The trouble is he refuses to do so. She is left to negotiate only with the help of Getty's troubleshooter, Fletcher Chase (Mark Wahlberg) whose loyalties are tested during the film. Oscar nominated here, Christopher Plummer is a revelation as the 80 year old Getty (Plummer himself was 88 at the time). He manages to play the money obsessed man as a vindictive, unfeeling tyrant yet with flashes of inner regret and resisted emotion. Plummer was a latecomer to the role as initially the film had been completed with Kevin Spacey in the part but Scott decided to reshoot all his scenes with Plummer after the numerous allegations that Spacey had been a sexual predator hit the media and that this would damage the film's chances of finding an audience. It was a bold decision and we will probably never see Spacey's take on the role reputed to be different from Plummers'. In the end this matters not because the film as now available is a marvellous story of a vicious crime and the fight of a mother for her son's life against not only the criminals but the warped mind of a power hungry man who should have been her ally. An example of the maxim, 'absolute power corrupts absolutely'. Another superb film from this director. Sometimes it takes awhile for the genius of his work to be appreciated but believe me this is a remarkable film and highly recommended even if you've already seen it once.

Written and directed by Richard Curtis this has a story structure and style that is reminiscent of the great British comedy films from the early 1960s such as the first 'Carry Ons', so its bawdy, funny, occasionally silly but manages to capture an exaggerated image of Britain in the mid 1960s. It's also Curtis' ode to Pirate Radio and to the great time when rock and roll was a much more immersive experience. The story is of a fictional Pirate Radio ship (although based on Radio Caroline), Radio Rock, loved by millions and bringing a service denied to music listeners because the BBC only played very limited amounts of pop music and rigorously censored anything remotely seen as offensive. The DJs and their support have a wonderful time on board with plenty of drink, drugs and sex and bring 24 hour music to their devoted fans. But the 'Establishment' in the form of Government minister Kenneth Branagh and his sycophant Jack Davenport are committed to bringing them down. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Nick Frost, Rhys Ifans, Ralph Brown and Chris O'Dowd are the DJs ably assisted by Bill Nighy as the boss. There's a coming of age sub plot involving Tom Sturridge as a young man sent by his mother (a cameo from Emma Thompson) to the ship for some questionable reasons. The film is a great laugh with a fantastic 60s soundtrack and you can spot some brilliant in-jokes if you watch carefully (for instance a recreation of the notorious album cover for Electric Ladyland). This is a good solid British comedy with the added bonus of a rousing soundtrack and definitely worth catching if you've never seen it.

If you are familiar with the cinematic and quite unique style of director Wes Anderson then you will be forearmed because this is perhaps his most stylised film. If you are not aware of his films then you may need to ready yourself for something very unusual, strange and surreal. Like a live action cartoon, with theatrical overtones and even the feel of old silent comedies this is Anderson's homage to the New Yorker magazine. It's a sharp, satirical comedy with a big cast and it's full of delights, fun, eccentricities and originality. It's an ode to print journalism set in a fictional French town of Ennui where a magazine The French Dispatch is produced. The film is told in sectional short stories that are interlinked around the sections of the magazine. So for example the arts section deals with the story of a convicted and declared insane artist (Benicia Del Toro) who paints his jailer (Léa Seydoux) and is discovered by the art world. There's a story of a student rebellion led by Timothée Chalamet and one of the police chief's son being kidnapped during a celebratory dinner. Overall I found the whole thing to be a bit too much at times but knowing Anderson's films quite well I was sort of prepared. The cast are impeccable and include Tilda Swinton as the art critic, Frances McDormand as the journalist covering the student riot, Jeffrey Wright as the food critic and Bill Murray as the magazine's editor who doesn't allow crying in his office. You'll also spot Henry Winkler, Edward Norton, Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Saoirse Ronan and Willem Dafoe amongst others. The film is off-beat, highly visualised and for the most part it's quite a treat.

This zany musical comedy has become a big cult favourite. It's gloriously stupid, over the top and hilarious with a fantastic central performance from John Belushi assisted by Dan Ackroyd and a host of musicians and actors in support roles. Based on the characters Belushi and Ackroyd created for the American TV show Saturday Night Live and with a simple plot this is a comedy that has a fantastic rhythm and blues soundtrack. Belushi is Jake, who on being released from prison is taken by his brother Elwood to see the nun who runs the orphanage where they grew up. Partly terrified of her and partly out of duty they agree to try and raise the funds to stop the orphanage from closing. To do this they decide to reform their old band and play gigs. The trouble is the old band members are reluctant and the brothers end up wanted by the police. By the films end they are being pursued by a host of 'enemies' including the local Nazi party. Filled with car chases, fantastical and crazy set pieces including Carrie Fisher as a vengeful woman trying to kill them throughout the entire film in more outrageous ways this is a film that will have you laughing out loud or groaning at the whole daftness of it. But the songs are great not only from the Blues Brothers themselves but you also get Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Cab Calloway, James Brown and John Lee Hooker. With a brilliant support cast that includes John Candy, Twiggy and keen eyes will spot Steven Spielberg in a small role. Many absolutely love this film and it's certainly one everybody should try at least once because it is bonkers and you will laugh and tap your feet too.

A routine action thriller with Liam Neeson toning down his usual action man stuff. This is the sort of film that at one time Clint Eastwood would have starred in and indeed director Robert Lorenz has worked on Eastwood films in the past. Neeson plays Jim, a widowed Arizona rancher down on his luck. He ends up promising a dying woman to take her young son Miguel (Jacob Perez) to her family in Chicago. But the boy is being hunted by nasty Cartel baddies which cues a long road movie, where the curmudgeonly Jim bonds with the boy whilst they manage to get away from the tattooed nasties. It all points to the inevitable confrontation which is a bit of a disappointment especially as the title and the narrative all allude to Jim's past as a Marine sniper but he's forever losing his guns and doesn't do much sniping. The film rips from Sicario (2015) even using the same music and there's numerous examples of similar stories that have all been better. Average stuff, entertaining in parts but nothing memorable.

Kristen Stewart is note perfect as Princess Diana in this imagined story of a royal Christmas weekend at Sandringham. She portrays the fragility of Diana as her marriage has collapsed and her increased feelings of being trapped in a world she cannot escape. Not only has Stewart caught Diana's mannerisms and accent but as a performance of a woman descending further into mental torment she is revelatory. The royal family are painted as preposterous as they no doubt are showing bizarre traditions such as being weighed on arrival but they are kept mostly in the background here as the film focuses on Diana's mental decline and some touching scenes with her two children. The atmosphere is one of gothic claustrophobia with long, cold corridors and a creepy Major Gregory (Timothy Spall) who is head of the staff ever present. Not all of the film works especially some of the visions that Diana is depicted as having but the analogy of her with Anne Boleyn is apt and interesting. Sean Harris and Sally Hawkins as friendly servants but who are also part of the royal machine are both very good. An interesting film, well told and surprisingly clever and certainly better than the awful Diana (2013) and knowing the royal family will hate it makes it well worthwhile.