Film Reviews by GI

This courtroom drama is both intentionally timely and quite electrifying mainly due to the outstanding cast and performances. It recreates events from 1968 when various anti Vietnam War groups congregated in Chicago to demonstrate at the Democratic Party Convention. They were met by an aggressive police response and eight (this is whittled down to seven in the course of the story) leaders of the various groups were selected by the new Nixon administration for a show trial accused of conspiring to start a riot. The courtroom scenes are really good with Mark Rylance as the increasingly frustrated defence attorney, his frustration caused by the obvious bias of the trial judge played with vigour by Frank Langella. Some of the flashback scenes to the events are occasionally a little clunky when they are intermixed with future scenes of Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen in a rare but excellent dramatic role), one of the defendants, giving a talk to students. But overall this is a sharply told drama highlighting America's prickly relationship with social dissent despite their pretentions of democracy and freedom. The most disturbing scenes are of those involving Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), the Black Panther leader, who is one of the defendants even though he wasn't even in Chicago at the time. Cast includes Eddie Redmayne, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Michael Keaton. An absorbing film, interesting, well told and one that plots a path between past events and current ones. Recommended.

This is an amiable mystery drama with plenty of humour and a balmy vision of Victorian England. A spin off of the now ubiquitous Sherlock Holmes franchise where the teenage sister, Enola (Millie Bobby Brown), of Sherlock and Mycroft has been home schooled and raised by their bohemian mother (Helena Bonham Carter). When she disappears Enola, something of a sleuth herself and very able in the martial arts department, commits to finding her. This is despite her brothers intention of sending her to a boarding school for young ladies. Enola slips away and heads for London where she becomes embroiled in a plot involving a missing Viscount. It's all good fun and with Enola talking to and making expressions to camera it's stylistically reminiscent of TVs Fleabag and Killing Eve (not really surprising since director Harry Bradbeer was involved with Killing Eve). The downside is the story is a bit weak and spread over too long a running time so the film does stretch the patience on occasion. Henry Cavill as Sherlock and Sam Calflin as Mycroft do a good turn as does Fiona Shaw as the headmistress of the Girls School. The set up suggests a sequel or even a series for TV however this film is family entertainment that can be enjoyed by everyone even though it lacks a credible baddie and the plot didn't have enough detecting and went for too much fighting instead.

This is a gothic noir set in the backwoods and about 'poor white trash' in an ensemble tale spanning from the end of the Second World War into the mid 60s. The narrative circumnavigates around Arvin (Michael Banks Repeta as a child then Tom Holland as the older) who grows up in a small Ohio town of Knockemstiff (not made up apparently!) where his war traumatised father is a devout christian and forces his son into various sacrifices in order to try and save his wife from cancer. Of course this fails and death, corruption and murder follow Arvin around. This is all covered through various characters including a married couple who are on a depraved killing spree (Jason Clarke & Riley Keough), a corrupt town sheriff (Sebastian Stan) and a perverted and thoroughly icky priest played with smarmy perfection by Robert Pattinson. This is a thoroughly macabre story, well produced but too long and to be honest I struggled to see what the actual point was. Death and misfortune follows Arvin wherever he goes even to the very end where his final association is with a suitably enigmatic character whose identity I assume I guessed correctly - the film doesn't confirm or deny my theory. This is watchable and sometimes very intriguing but overall it's all a little vague and unsatisfying, worth the time for the great performance of Pattinson though.

This surreal, ever so weird drama does give you feelings of disquiet and occasionally foreboding but ultimately I found it lacking in depth and just a little too far out there to make it either riveting or enjoyable. Director Charlie Kaufman has a gift for comedy which is sadly missing here although the claustrophobia and themes of loneliness and hopelessness this film purveys have a way of getting under the viewer's skin. An unnamed young student has reluctantly agreed to go with her boyfriend Jake (Jesse Plemons) to meet his parents. They undertake the journey in a snowstorm and the woman is already having doubts about the future of her relationship with Jake. When they arrive at his parents farm the nightmarish elements of the film really begin, with his strange parents (Toni Collette and David Thewlis) who's appearances keep changing along with the furnishings and photographs. Insisting on going home their drive back gets repeatedly interrupted especially when Jake decides to stop at his old high school. If you need to your films to have a straight forward story then this isn't for you, as the narrative veers off in some very strange and incomprehensible directions. This is an unexpected and unsettling psychological drama and isn't for everyone and to be honest I didn't enjoy it as much as some of Kaufman's earlier work.

This is a massive cinematic thrill ride that is gigantically ambitious and gigantically confusing but like one of the characters says, "Don't try to understand it". Here Christopher Nolan has taken his love of the James Bond films and added a huge dose of his science fiction genre passions to make a metaphysical action thriller that will excite and baffle in equal measure. The story is basically a CIA agent (John David Washington) is recruited by a mysterious organisation called Tenet who show him that future technology that allows time to be inverted (or flow backwards if you like) has begun to affect the present and that items, mostly bullets to begin with, are arriving back from the future but they move in reverse - confused yet? - and the agent's job, aided by his partner (Robert Pattinson) is to find the source of the ammunition. After some exciting fights and stunts etc they are led to nasty Russian baddie, Kenneth Branagh and his estranged wife (Elizabeth Debicki). The bad guy has access to the future technology and plans to do some very diabolical things with it. This is all told in a narrative that is fast, action packed, very loud and hardly gives you time to work out what is happening and by the time you get to the huge climax you just have to free your mind and enjoy the spectacle and try to work out the plot afterwards. I love Nolan's attempt to bring intelligent blockbuster cinema to adult audiences and this is a film best enjoyed on the biggest screen you can get into. His films have a tendency to grow in the mind so whilst I don't think this is his best film it will no doubt grow in stature especially once you can get to grips with the plot. I cannot but admire his epic vision and as cinema goes this is visionary and worth a trip to the cinema.

A soppy, dull and cheesy romance about two lonely 60 somethings who meet while out walking their dogs and over the course of 23 dog walks form a relationship....of sorts! The problem with this is that the 23 walks structure is mostly pointless, indeed when it gets to about walk 4 you start to think about how many more you've got to sit through (they are counted with subtitle each time so you don't have keep count yourself). But the narrative deviates away from the actual walks to delve into the lives of the two protagonists, Dave (Dave Johns) and Fern (Alison Steadman) and pretty uninteresting they are too. The move into Ken Loach territory where Dave's council home rent arrears as an issue is all too vague and unnecessary and takes away from the romance which I'm guessing is the main purpose. The idea of a story about middle age romance is a good one but if this had been done with humour rather than full on angst, something more like Hampstead (2017), then it would have worked and been more enjoyable where even the slow pace would have been ok, as it is it drags on and on and by the time we get to the sex scene you just want it to stop.

This is a rather lovely, magical film with Gemma Arterton in fine form as grumpy academic, Alice, living alone on the Kent coast during the Second World War. She's treated with disdain by her neighbours and the local children call her witch and a spy. But when she is forced to take in Frank (Lucas Bond), a London evacuee, she is none too pleased and makes little effort to make him feel welcome. But gradually a bond forms between them and long suppressed feelings of affection are rekindled in Alice. This is a touching story filmed beautifully in a rich, honeyed colour palette. It's tale of loneliness, lost love, family and redemption and there's a brilliantly constructed story that has some neat surprises. Arterton is fantastic here and plays the grumpy Alice with gusto, it's a great role for her and she really nails it. Tom Courtney supports as the local headmaster and Penelope Wilton plays the older Alice and Gugu Mbatha-Raw is superb casting as Alice's lost lover. A heart warming film and highly recommended.

This is a real surprise. It starts out and lulls you into thinking it's going to be one of those gentle, bittersweet films about a bunch of old guys trying to come to terms with their past before it launches into a gritty war movie and mixes social satire and drama in for good measure. The story concerns four Vietnam veterans including Paul (Delroy Lindo) and Otis (Clarke Peters) who journey to Vietnam to officially recover the remains of their beloved squad leader (played in flashbacks by Chadwick Boseman). But they are also intent on finding a cache of gold they stole and hid whilst fighting in the jungle. Joined by Paul's son, David (Jonathon Majors) they find getting and keeping the gold is far more difficult than they anticipated. Director Spike Lee has lots to say here about the role of African Americans in US society and the character of Paul, a Trump voter, is front and centre as the one who gradually becomes less in control of himself as the story plays out. The combat violence is tough and bloody, both in the flashback sequences where Lee has cleverly had the actors appear as they are in the present day, it works really well. The tone and mood of the film switches along the way making it a constant surprise. It's a little too long but by the end you'll have had an education on the plight of African Americans and enjoyed a very entertaining war film.

This is a fast paced action thriller. On the positive side it has some brilliantly choreographed action set pieces, the chases, fights, gun battles (and there's a lot of 'em) are all extremely well executed. On the negative side is the rest of it! A very shoddy script, one dimensional characters that are comic book in nature (it's been adapted from a graphic novel or in other words a comic) and a very clichéd plot. Chris Hemsworth (who surely deserves better than this) plays Tyler, a super soldier turned mercenary who has some emotional baggage (well, he had to have didn't he??). He works for some shady company who specialise in all sorts of extreme violence stuff. So when the young son of a Bangladeshi crime lord is kidnapped by a rival crime lord in comes Tyler for the rescue or the 'extraction'. Cue loads of bullets and inept bad guys getting killed in nasty ways. The film utilises loads of Bourne action styling, plenty of early Schwarzenegger type stuff and dare I say it steals an idea from Schindlers List (1993), which annoyed the hell out of me. Anyway apart from the real time actual extraction scene, which I was impressed by, the film is basically stupid and a throw away. The slightly mysterious ending is obviously to pave the way for a sequel.....I hope not.

A gory, adult horror/thriller thematically similar to The Hunger Games (2012) and The Maze Runner (2014) and Battle Royale (2000) too where a group of strangers wake up in a field and find they are now being hunted in some twisted game where no one can be trusted. The film garnered some controversy before its release owing to mass shootings in the USA that coincided with the advertising for the film. However it's a relatively straight forward schlock violent film with a subversive edge. One of the 'victims' (Betty Gilpin) turns out to be capable of turning the tables and the deaths and violence come fast and sudden and often very gory. Hilary Swank is the chief baddie and Amy Madigan cameos. It's ok, entertaining but ultimately forgettable B movie stuff.

The concluding and ninth episode in the Star Wars saga is certainly a huge, adrenaline rush of a film and all the elements are present for diehard fans. Indeed one could argue that those fan pleasing familiarities are all just a series of copycat images, scenes and plot lines from the first trilogy (Episodes IV to VI), after awhile you'll get tired spotting them there are so many! I think the trouble is Star Wars has become such a huge, cumbersome beast that attempts for subtlety and originality are nigh impossible. (Oh how I hark back to 1977 and 'A New Hope' and even to 2016s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story where there was a freshness and fun to be found.) The forces of good (the Jedi) and the forces of bad (the Sith) face off for one last battle for control of the galaxy and thank goodness dead characters are able to return with aplomb, they are vital for the story and of course fans and pop up with surprising regularity. There's light sabre duels galore, plenty of fast spaceship chases and the whole film rattles along with a frenetic energy that on occasion it's all you can do to keep up. Yes the film is spectacular, entertaining but ultimately all a teeny bit underwhelming much like the previous two episodes. If you're a geeky super fan then yes it's going to satisfy and if you enjoy Star Wars films but are not obsessed then it's all well done, worth checking out if for no other reason than to see how it all concludes and to enjoy Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, who really nails the conflict of good and evil that rages inside him (and in whose character the theme of the entire saga is summed up). Anyway, it's not the best of the nine films, it's far better than the awful prequels (Episodes 1 to 3) but not a match on the original trilogy.

Sam Mendes has delivered an exhilarating war film that has a sense of adventure about it. For the most part the film is one long take with only a couple of obvious edits making this a journey of discovery type narrative. On the western front Lance Corporals Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Schofield (George McKay) are given a mission to cross the German lines to reach a large contingent of British soldiers poised to launch an attack the next day. Fresh intelligence has revealed the Germans have laid a trap and the men will be massacred unless they're warned to stop their advance. As an added incentive Blake's brother is one of the soldiers who will die if they fail. From the moment they receive their orders the camera follows their passage through No Mans Land and beyond and along the way there are shocks and surprises. Some of the set pieces are very impressive and whilst there are some gruesome images the film isn't particularly bloody or violent and it's closer in style to Dunkirk (2017) than Saving Private Ryan (1998). There are some lovely tender moments as well as gritty combat scenes. An impressive war film with a great supporting cast including Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott and Richard Madden and certainly one of the best set during the First World War and definitely one to see at the cinema if you get a chance. Highly recommended.

This is director Guy Ritchie's return to the geezer/cockney gangster film that made his name. It's a welcome return after the disastrous King Arthur: Legend of The Sword (2017) and the disappointing The Man From U.N.C.L.E (2015) although it lacks the originality and freshness of Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels (1998). Matthew McConaughey is very good as Mickey Pearson, a self made big time marijuana drug dealer who uses large aristocratic estates to grow massive amounts of weed for distribution (a neat dig at the English upper classes and British tax systems from Ritchie, himself a man of aristocratic stock). He wants to sell the business to Matthew (Jeremy Strong) and faces various attempts by other gangsters to buy into his lucrative enterprise. The story is told through a narration by a seedy investigative journalist Fletcher played by Hugh Grant, who is fantastic here, and who is attempting to blackmail Mickey. The story unfolds in Ritchie's typical episodic style with a host of funny and unusual characters including Charlie Hunnam as Raymond, Mickey's right hand man, Colin Farrell as a boxing coach who gets involved, Henry Golding as a Chinese gangster who covets the power Mickey wields and Michelle Dockery as the gangster's cockney moll, and very good she is too. There's plenty to like in this film, it's funny, very adult, not too violent surprisingly and well scripted if at times a little clumsy to the extent you can see what's coming. Overall it's entertaining and definitely worth seeing but vaguely disappointing.

A dull reboot of the 70s TV series and I see no reason at all why it was decided to revamp this tired old franchise. Basically a spoof action/caper movie this is tedious and unfunny which is a little surprising considering director Elizabeth Banks is usually in touch with what's funny. But this is a let down, the fight scenes are unimpressive, the story hackneyed and it's hardly worth your time. Kristen Stewart gets top billing and she's an actor that I always think has something special hidden away but never picks the right roles. In any case here we have a very brainy electronics engineer, Elena (Naomi Scott) who has concerns over her new invention that could change the way humans use electricity. She finds herself hunted and gets help from the mysterious Agency of women super spies led by Bosley (Elizabeth Banks). Cue chases, fights, wisecracks etc etc none of which is particularly exciting or original. Sam Claflin, Djimon Hounsou and Patrick Stewart offer support but fail to lift this mediocre film.

A thriller with a mystery story at its centre that rattles along at a great pace and has two lead performances played with relish by Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren. He's Roy, a predatory con man with a ruthless streak who sets his sights on rich widow Betty (Mirren). He plans to steal her £2million fortune and inveigles his way into her life via a dating website. But Betty's grandson, Stephen (Russell Tovey) is suspicious and starts to look into Roy's history. This has a nice plot that twists and turns although the clues to what is happening are a little too obviously signposted. This can be forgiven because the two leads are on fine form and occasionally the film adds a little shock or two to keep you on your toes. Recommended.