Film Reviews by GI

Another attempt at retelling the Billy The Kid story only this time wrapping it around the story of a young boy and his older sister on the run from their vengeful uncle after having killed their abusive father. Director and script writer Vincent D'Onofrio is clearly in awe of Sam Peckinpah's revisionist western classic Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid (1973) because he effectively recreates scenes from that film and attempts the same style and atmosphere. But this film is far too talky, with long, contemplative speeches that render the whole thing tedious at times. Getting bogged down in the Billy The Kid story pushes the potentially more exciting story of the fleeing siblings to the background and it's only at the end that this becomes the film's focus. With Ethan Hawke as Pat Garrett, Dane DeHaan as Billy and Chris Pratt as the bad guy Uncle (sadly underused but worth the wait at the end) this has a reasonable cast but the film offers nothing new to the western genre.

The Baker is a sort of poor man's Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) mixed with one of those cultural comedies much beloved in the UK. It's totally preposterous, very silly and totally clichéd with a slapstick sex scene that isn't funny and stupid characters. It's not a total loss as occasionally it makes you laugh out loud but by the end it's forgettable. Damien Lewis is professional hitman Milo Shakespeare who, disillusioned by his trade, decides to leave and uses the escape plan hatched by his old mentor (Michael Gambon) and heads into the Welsh valleys where he holes up in a rundown baker's shop. The inherently stupid villagers think he's the new baker except one who discovers Milo's hidden weapons stash and correctly guesses his real skills. This opens up the story into a series of incredible misunderstandings and coincidences that may make you groan out loud. There's a love interest of course and a nemesis in the form of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. The narrative is an attempt at a Carry-On/Ealing comedy style but ultimately it's a daft film.

The surprising success and good fun of 2017s Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle was inevitably going to lead to a quick sequel. The Next Level brings a lot more of the same and adds two old curmudgeonly codgers into the mix (Danny DeVito & Danny Glover) as the gang of four friends venture back into the fantastical game. There's plenty of comedy, action and rips from everything from Tomb Raider to Game of Thrones. The characters here get to do a lot of body swapping which ups the laughs although some of the jokes fall a bit flat. Overall this is a piece of family entertainment that will delight those of a young age and a short scene in the middle of the end credits hints at perhaps another sequel on the way.

Director Leigh Whannell has very cleverly and wisely taken this story and turned it into a contemporary suspense thriller that really works and this is aided by the compelling performance of Elisabeth Moss, an actor who has the ability to communicate with an audience even when there is no dialogue. She plays Cecilia (nicknamed 'C'....get it?) who in the film's opening manages a dangerous and daring escape from her controlling and abusive husband Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). He's a wealthy 'genius in the world of optics and they live in an ultra modern house where he also conducts his experimental work. In dreadful fear he will hunt her down she stays with a policeman friend and his teenage daughter but her fears are soon over when news arrives that Adrian has committed suicide and left her his fortune. Unfortunately strange happenings begin to happen around Cecilia and she begins to suspect that Adrian is still alive and somehow the cause. The story builds well with some clever effects and it's shot, for the most part, in brightly lit scenes making some of the events quite a shock. There's a couple of plot holes that do glare out somewhat but these can be forgiven because this is a well executed, well told thriller with a science fiction edge and with a brilliant lead performance. It's really entertaining and I recommend it.

Funny and poignant coming-of-age story that has developed a bit of a cult following over the years mainly due to it being set in the world of 70s rock 'n' roll. So there is an added nostalgic feel to this if you remember those days enhanced by the wonderful soundtrack. Fifteen year old William (Patrick Fugit), despite his domineering and controlling mother (Frances McDormand), is an aspiring rock journalist having been turned onto the music by his older sister (Zooey Deschanel). He manages to bag himself an assignment from Rolling Stone magazine to go on tour with up and coming band Stillwater and produce an article for publication. Adopted by the band especially their charismatic guitarist Richard (Billy Crudup) he also finds himself falling for band groupie Penny (Kate Hudson). But he soon finds disillusionment in the world of the music industry, drugs and false loyalties. By the end though the film exudes a gentle romantic warmth which makes it a great story and a really entertaining film. Overall it's humorous and rather a lovely film so if you haven't seen this then I highly recommend it.

A gentle and compassionate film that has a magical quality to it and seems to question the very nature of the American Dream. Frances McDormand plays Fern, a middle aged widow who has lost everything in the 2008 recession when the company her late husband worked for collapsed effectively closing down the town too. Without complaint she becomes a 'nomad', buying a van and travelling around the country following seasonal work. She finds a sort of peace and tranquil life amongst her fellow nomads who teach her how to live a satisfied and fulfilled life on the road. In a sense there's a post apocalyptic feel to the film and at times I was expecting the gentle nomads to be harangued by Hells Angels or something but this never happens as this is a film about finding a state of peace in life. There are many hardships and heartaches though for these people who bond in a most beautiful way and who have a catchphrase of 'see you down the road' even if this maybe in months or years and in some cases into eternity. America is painted here almost like a wasteland and often a harsh place and although Fern is offered a return to a 'normal' life on two occasions she rejects them in order to maintain the magic she's discovered. McDormand in a quite understated yet powerful performance is in every scene and deserves the accolades she has received, it's arguably her best role. This is a film that looks at America yet doesn't need to thrust the economic disaster of why people have to resort to this lifestyle into the story, it's presented here for all to see. A mesmerising film at times with a beautiful score and images. It's a film worth seeing at the cinema if you can.

A clunky, very noisy and unsubtle sequel to the 2014 reboot. You can see that a lot of money went into this and to be sure it's occasionally visually very impressive. But it's all rather pointless and confusing and by about half way through you just want it to end, but boy does it drag. Following on from the earlier film we have estranged scientist couple Kyle Chandler and Vera Farmiga getting mixed up in a secret organisation called Monarch that is studying and searching for the newly discovered 'Titans'. They've found seventeen of them around the globe and guess what? Yes they all more or less get woken up and fight one another. This cues loads of massive destruction, lots of roaring and even some vague attempt at religious allegory to try and make it all seem serious and worthwhile. An empty film that makes 2014s Godzilla look much better.

A social drama that in true Loachian fashion depicts a rundown Britain and a sense of no hope for the future of today's youth. In that sense it's a dour film, riddled with sadness but tinged with humour. Filmed with mostly amateur and non actors it has that realism that attracts critics but I'm not convinced it's a film that really gets to the heart of its themes. Bafta winning Bukky Bakery plays a British born Nigerian girl nicknamed Rocks and the film follows her daily life at school with her group of friends, her talent with cosmetics but trying to cope with her mentally ill mother whilst taking care of her little brother, Emmanuel (D'angelou Osei Kissiedu). When their mother disappears leaving them to fend for themselves Rocks is forced to take to the streets with her brother to avoid Social Services. This threatens her stability with friends and her future. I always had a sense that I've seen this narrative repeated many times before not least in Loach's seminal classic Kes (1969), and to that end it didn't offer anything new to say on the implications of the multi-racial complexities of modern Britain.

This is one of the great conspiracy thrillers and exposé stories of the 70s and made more impactive in that it's based on true events, the story of the Watergate scandal that brought down the President, Richard Nixon. More recent and similar films such as Spotlight (2015), The Post (2017) and Bombshell (2019) have all been strongly influenced by this and the style in which the story is told exudes authenticity making it all the more interesting and watchable. Robert Redford plays Bob Woodward, a relatively inexperienced reporter on the Washington Post newspaper, who is covering a small story of a group of men arrested for burgling the Democratic Party offices. He becomes suspicious when some top government lawyers have been brought in to defend the men and this leads to the uncovering of a major conspiracy that goes right to the heart and the top of the Republican Party and the US Government. Dustin Hoffman plays Carl Bernstein, another reporter who works with Woodward to uncover the story. The cast are fantastic and include the great Jason Robards as editor Ben Bradlee (played by Tom Hanks in The Post) and Hal Holbrook who is the mysterious informer codenamed Deep Throat. It's a great story and a significant one too. The recreation of the busy newsroom and the difficult task of getting people to talk after they've all been threatened adds to the feel of the film as a suspense thriller. The story is a complex one and you have to stay focused but this is a major film of the 1970s and one that is worth seeking out if you've never seen it.

A heartfelt yet a bit self-indulgent semi-autobiographical drama written by Shia LaBeouf. He plays a version of his own father, a drug addicted, alcoholic army veteran in a story about his relationship with his child actor son played by Noah Jupe and Lucas Hedges. The film is told through the eyes of his son aged 12 and later aged 22 when he himself is forced into rehab after a drink driving accident. There's no doubt this is powerfully acted but it's a bleak story about a dysfunctional parent but ultimately I found the whole thing rather uninteresting.

Despite a typically strong (indeed Oscar winning) performance from Joaquin Pheonix this is a disappointing film. In opposition to the Marvel Universe the DC Universe is a dark, bleak and brooding one and never more so than in Gotham City. Here we have the iconic villain and Batman's arch nemesis given a backstory that all seems a little tedious and forced and in consequence it overall lacks the power that Heath Ledger brought to the character in The Dark Knight (2008) where he was unburdened by history. Pheonix plays Arthur Fleck, a former mental health patient now living with his elderly mother in her grotty apartment, he has a condition that involves him having bouts of uncontrollable laughter. But with aspirations to be a stand up comedian he is optimistic although bullied in his low down job as a street clown. Eventually Arthur finds his talents lie more in violence than comedy in a scene reminiscent of Death Wish (1974) and he begins his journey towards becoming Joker, focusing his anger on, amongst others, cheesy TV comic Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro). The Wayne family are involved in the story too just to lay the ground as it were for a link into Batman. There's some visceral violence and great production design which helps the film yet for a film that is ultimately a descent into madness narrative it is underwhelming.

Despite its age this remains one of the most realistic and powerful of war films and viewed today it recreates the trenches of the First World War so accurately it's easy to confuse the scenes with documentary footage. Based on a celebrated novel this is thematically a film that is designed to condemn war and does so through the theme of the disillusionment of youth. It tells the story of a group of German students who are roused to patriotic fervour by their teacher and en masse sign up for the new war against France and Great Britain. After tough training they are thrust into the maelstrom of the frontline where death and horror are daily occurrences. The film doesn't shy from showing dismemberment and gory battle scenes (this was made before the Production Code came fully into force in 1934) and there are some iconic scenes that have become renowned in cinema history, not least the ending. This is a wonderful and memorable film and one that every film fa n should see and I guarantee you will not be disappointed so don't be put off by it's age it's one of the finest American motion pictures ever made. It's been restored for DVD and BluRay in recent years but don't be tempted by the 1979 remake, it's not a patch on this one.

One big splatterfest, very bloody, very gory and the sort of thing Arnold Schwarzenegger would've starred in in the 1980s. Instead we have man mountain Dave Bautista recruited by a shady government man to take a band of mercenaries into the walled off city of Las Vegas, which now is inhabited only by a zombie horde, to empty a casino vault of millions in cash. Along for the ride is Garrett Dillahunt who, in the employ of the shady government man, has another agenda . The trouble is it's less a prison for zombies than their kingdom mainly because the undead are not all of one caste, and they have a leader (explained, sort of, in the film's prologue) who controls the more intelligent ones. They're actually more like Orcs than zombies but either way they object strongly to these annoying humans trespassing on their territory. This cues a lot of bloodshed, shooting and general gore that makes the whole thing borderline humorous. Overall it's entertaining but it lacks the frights needed for a good zombie film and it's not as good as director Zack Snyder's earlier zombie remake Dawn Of The Dead (2004). I think the recent plethora of zombie film and TV has weakened the sub-genre making zombies simply annoying nowadays, we all know how to despatch them easily with nothing more than a kitchen knife!!

Even for a non believer and fierce critic of the Catholic Church this somewhat indulgent drama has much to admire in its entertaining bromance structure about the clash of ideas between Pope Benedict XVI and his successor Pope Francis I. Played with gusto by Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce they make the film worth watching in what is really a preposterous imagining of private meetings between these two rivals as the incumbent Pope is considering the sensational decision to retire the papacy. The film plays out as the two spar together in a series of meetings and it's the early ones that really are more interesting as their animosity for each other is revealed. Hopkins portrayal of the ultra conservative Ratzinger is especially cold and at times a little bit Lectorish. The trouble is as the two duel with each other key issues are glossed over not least the international scandal over child abuse and whilst Pryce's Cardinal Bergoglio is given a backstory told in flashbacks there is no balancing one for Hopkins' Ratzinger and his final confession is made deliberately and annoyingly inaudible. By the end when the two sort of become mates the film feels all a bit sloppy. But it's two actor masters who are really interesting in their roles and this makes it all worth checking out.

Sometimes enjoyable, sometimes tedious and sometimes corny this action thriller puts Liam Neeson back into another action role this time as ace safecracker Tom who has accrued $9million of ill-gotten gains but bizarrely not spent a penny. Then he meets Annie (Kate Walsh), falls in love and wants a new future so decides to return all the money for a reduced sentence. Unfortunately corrupt FBI agents, Nivens (Jai Courtney) and Hall (Anthony Ramos) want the money for themselves. Ex marine Tom is having none of it of course. The film ebbs and flows from hackneyed to mildly interesting to downright daft. The action set pieces and shoot outs are unexciting and overall the film is an average piece of hokum that passes the time but soon forgotten.