Film Reviews by AER

More formulaic than most of Payne's films, this Xmas treat is a heartwarmer with complex characters and superb acting from everybody. The newcomers Dominic Sessa and da'Vine Jay Randolph match Paul Giamatti over the course of some complex comedy and drama. It hits hard in some of the more emotional scenes and the script is also very funny. The only thing I didn't like was the use of music which was unnecessarily manipulative and obtrusive. Too many montages too.... Otherwise, another ace in the hole for Alexander Payne, one of the USA's best directors of dramatic comedies led by superb actors.

Official Competition (crap title) stars two of my favourite actors: Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas. I've never seen Penelope C in a role like this before, she offers a comic yet layered performance as a film director in rehearsals with two vain actors (Banderas, Oscar Martinez) from contrasting backgrounds. Both are buffons and embody their parodies well. I loved it.

Bad Educacion begins well with an intriguing premise but it loses its emotional gumption with some cinematic tricks that distract rather than assist the story. As usual Almodavor packs in so much plot, but for me this one had one silly twist too many and by the last twenty minutes, I'd lost patience with the double-crosses. Gael Garcia Bernal is interesting casting as a beautiful transvestite performer. Still, sadly he's reduced to a cipher to keep the dizzy plot running as opposed to an interesting and complex character. It had a simple story but it was somehow made overcomplicated by the multiple stories within stories and competing versions of the truth with different actors inside. Sadly this is a misfire for Almodavor.

Too busy.

How I miss 90s mid-level action movies like this. This was DTV in the UK, but I was keen to see it because of it's great cast of b-movie villains - Rutger Hauer, Gary Busey, F Murrray Abraham, Charles S Dutton. This was during the wonderful time in Hollywood when Ice T was a leading man for a few years! Following so closely after John Woo's / Jean Claude Van Damme's Hard Target (which is based loosely on the same story THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME) this could be seen as repetitive, but the focus is closer than the JCVD version and just as much fun. Basically, rich guys trick a homeless person into being hunted in the wilderness, but the baddies pick the wrong guy. For once Ice T isn't a former Navy SEAL or SAS, he's merely an ex-janitor with a survival instinct and a lot of luck. It's corny, trashy but the acting is good and the cast interesting. I miss Rutger Hauer RIP.

Far from perfect but it's the kind of 90s flick I miss - all the action films in Hollywood now are huge scale and Jason Statham is the only one who gets to make films like this anymore....

So all these years I was thinking that Nicolas Cage's acting style got weird after Face/Off but he was extreme and nutso all along. Vampire's Kiss hasn;t dated as badly as a lot of 80s films but I'm afraid it was too madcap and a mite tedious for my taste inspite of the fantastically OTT perforrnance by Nicolas Cage. I recgnised so many scenes from 'memes' etc. It had some great moments but it wasn't my cup of tea I'm afraid.

Black comedies about murder are a hard thing to pull off successfully - I guess like a murder itself. Mark Addy and Charlie Creed-Miles play a dim double act of the world's worst assassins. Skint and without a clue, bullsh*t artist Frank (Addy) gets hired by his new friend Kenny (Creed-Miles) to avenge his brother who was given brain damage by a London thug a few years earlier. Witless yet funny dialogue just about sees this comedy through but ultimately it's all a bit lacklustre like the characters. In fact, it's too effective and convincing because the film farts about without a clue, just like the characters. A mixed bag.

I wanted to see what a David Ayer-directed movie starring Jason Statham would be like to see whether the former would elevate the latter into more interesting territory or whether Ayer would end up making a generic actioner. Saddled with a crappy script by Kurt Wimmer and a bunch of British actors sporting lousy American accents in support (Jeremy Irons and Jemma Redgrave take a bow), The Beekeeper is fairly generic even by Statham's standards. Stealing off the Equalizer films and a dose of John Wick too, this fails to distinguish itself at all. There is a lots of noticeable 'one-at-a-time' fighting in The Beekeeper, so it's the one on one fight scenes that count for something. Look out for some terrible acting from a South African mercenary with a false leg - it's only January (2024) and there's already a candidate for worst performance in a cinema release already!

The Beekeeper is unimaginative, and unmemorable. Statham's fourth duff movie on the trot (for me). Please come back David Ayer. I miss your LA cop movies.

Director Chris Newby only made two films to my knowledge - this and the weird and wonderful LGBTQ+ curio Madagascar Skin. Why he didn't go on to becoming one of the UK's leading filmmakers in the vein of Terence Davies is unknown. This tale of an anchoress in the East of England is full of amazing imagery, stunning sound work, and interesting / appropriate performances. A superb cast led by Natalie Morse (not sure who she is), Christopher Eccleston, Toyah Willcox, Pete Postlethwaite, Eugene Bervoets (from The Vanishing!!!), Julie T Walllace (She Devil), and Annette Badland, this is very memorable and haunting. See it if you can, there's not many films like this one.

9 out of 10 - Bewitching.

Competently made, but this is mid-level Blumouse Horror fare. A haunted swimming pool could have been interesting but this film has no good ideas of its own. The acting elevates a dumb script and a very predictable plot. Some of the scare worked and it does have a degree of atmosphere, it's just a shame it ended up being placid and ordinary.

No waves. 4 out of 10.

Considering that this was directed by Joe Carnahan who made The Grey, Smoking Aces, and Narc, this should've been something special. Instead, it's a fairly workmanlike actioner that sags in the middle. Some quirky elements like Toby Huss' hitman are memorable, and Alexis Louder is great as the heroine, yet Gerald Butler and Frank Grillo seem unimpressed by the material and just go through the numbers. It's rare to see a film where the supporting players leave the lead actors standing. It's competently made but largely forgettable. Half marks from me :)

Similar in tone to Nicolas Cage's MANDY. this sees Vince Vaughn in a brilliant role as a hard man who descends into penal hell to save his wife and unborn child. Violent doesn;t sum it up well enough. Those who have seen S Craig Zahler's BONE TOMAHAWK and DRAGGED ACROSS THE CONCRETE will know the style and pace. Well worth a look if you are onto this director. BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 isn't an action film like the title might suggest, it's something else. I just don't know what. But I thought it was brilliant, and makes me want to see VV in more interesting films like this and DRAGGED ACROSS THE CONCRETE.

8 out of 10 for putting me through a bone-crunching hell

Inspired by a real-life sting operation in Australia, The Stranger changes the names and some of the circumstances to come in close to some truly disturbing characters. Sean Harris is embodiment of ordinary evil and Joel Edgerton easily matches him as the undercover cop who has to befriend him in order to gain his trust enough for him to confess to the murder of a young teenager. The poise and build up is expert and it's an upsetting film that works its spell because all the elements dovetail to create one of the darkest and disturbing films to enter into the mind of a killer. There is no violence in this film, or action. It's all in the mind. A future drama classic.

Currently this is only streaming on Netflix but hoipefully it will receive a physical DVD / Bluray / 4K release at a later date.

10 out of 10 - No qualms, mate.

Next Goal Wins is an underdog film inspired by fact. Think Cool Runnings all over again except this is soccer and the setting is American Samoa. Starring an ill-at-ease Michael Fassbender, he is amply supported by a very comfortable cast of Samoan (New Zealand-based) and Kiwi actors such as Oscar Kightley (Sione's Wedding), Rachel House (Thor 3), and David Fane (Sione's Wedding / Eagle vs Shark).... It's full of montage sequences, but I didn't care because a lot of the humour was wacky and LOL funny. It's slight material and is ultimately low-stakes but I didn't mind. Also Rhys Darby was very funny in a very small role.

Feel-good stupidity.

:)

The Thirteenth Floor has some good ideas but ultimately it's let down by huge plot holes and unsure performances. Many people will say this is a rip-off of The Matrix but in fact it was made before that behemoth stole its thunder. Thirteenth Floor was never even granted a cinema release in the UK, instead going DTV, as an afterthought when The Matrix cleaned up at the box-office. So it's unfair to call Thirteenth Floor a Matrix rip-off because it was here first, just released in former's wake (in the UK). I;m not saying it's better though. This falls a long way short, entertainment-wise and qualitywise than the world of Neo. Some elements and they are mostly visual give this some elan, like the cars racing into the desert, and a toy game of Baseball. Otherwise this clunky, and feels murdered in the edit, as it packs an awful lot of plot into its 90 min(+) running time but leaves out the emotional heft we're supposed to feel for any of the characters. Ultimately, it falls flat, wasting good supporting actors like Armin Mueller-Stahl and Vincent D'Onofrio.

One Life is a fascinating film about a humanitarian act instigated by a London stockbroker (Nicholas Winton) in the late 1930s. Despite a lack of time, endless bureaucracy, and an imminent Nazi invasion, some brave people led by Winton arranged for nearly 700 Jewish children to be moved to the UK. It's stirring stuff. Alas the film is pretty flat, with OTT supporting performances from Helena Bonham Carter, and Helen Spiro (ridiculous as Esther Rantzen). However, certain scenes led by Anthony Hopkins re particularly good, but he can't save this very average treatment of a hugely brave act by a select few. It's certainly a film to raise debate about current views to helping those in dire need. This isn't the place for political rants, but I will say that it's also a call to be kinder and a bit more worldly.

Interesting subject - flat presentation with off-beat annoying actors overdoing their bit parts.