Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle: Film Review

Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle: Film Review

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Jack Black, Bobby Cannavale
Director: Jake Kasdan

Positioning itself with its tongue firmly in its cheek at times, and aiming squarely at the family market, the next generation version of Jumanji is surprisingly a relatively fun, fluffy movie that builds on the original and yet somehow becomes its own beast.

20 years after the game was discovered initially, it's re-discovered in a basement of a group of four teenagers confined to detention (can you say Breakfast Club?). But the game is now a video game and when the nerd, the jock, the silent beauty and the self-obsessed girl all wind up inside it by accident, it's a race against time to save Jumanji and escape...

Jumanji Welcome To The Jungle is a bit more fun than you'd expect, largely due to the Rock goofing off in the film and cocking a snook at his persona of rugged action hero.

While Jack Black's attempts to channel an Instagram obsessed teenager occasionally resort to a little bit creepy and the attempts to explain why Karen Gillan's video avatar is so skimpily clothed and behaves like a stripper at one point rankle, there's actually a reasonable pace that carries Jumanji Welcome To the Jungle along at such a pace it's almost infectious and distracts from the levity of the script.

It's largely due to the core cast's chemistry, and even if the rest of what transpires is shallow, it does work well from this factor.

Adhering to the rules of video games and channeling the ethos well, Kasdan gives the film an internal logic that helps greatly (even if his villain seems a little weak in the wash). Channeling Hardcore Henry at the start and NPC elements of video games, as well as some meta moments involving cut scenes, helps it riff on its Uncharted / Indiana Jones / Jumanji vibe. (Though no points to the OTT Sony PlayStation product placement early on)

Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle may not win any awards for being the greatest film of the year, but it has to be said, its pace, willingness to send up its heroes and build on Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson's Central Intelligence chemistry help it to carve out its own strong niche in the family outing market.

Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle does goofy well and its learning lessons may be obvious to many, but given its success at the box office and its ability to bring families to it's "You only have one life and it matters" message are nothing to be sniffed at.

The Hitman's Bodyguard: DVD Review

The Hitman's Bodyguard: DVD Review

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L Jackson, Gary Oldman, Salma Hayek, Elodie Yung
Director: Patrick Hughes

Apparently The Hitman's Bodyguard sat on the infamous writer's Black List since 2011.

Which may go some way to explain why it's nowhere near as funny as it thinks it is.

Ryan Reynolds brings his usual level of cool to the role of bodyguard Michael Bryce who's forced to slum it after a protection contract he carries out goes sour.

Sucked into an international case by an ex (played by Elektra star Elodie Yung) Bryce is asked to protect notorious hitman Darius Kincaid (Samuel L Jackson) who is the last hope in the trial of an international warlord, played by Gary Oldman.

But with hitmen on their trail, has Bryce been forced to bite off more than he can chew as he chases redemption and a return to the world of protection?

The Hitman's Bodyguard starts off suitably amusing.

A suave mickey take of a Bond style smoothy, meshed with a Hallenstein's Brothers style suit and split screen cuts, plants the film's tongue firmly in its cheek and leads you to believe the tone will be pitched somewhere between humorous and noisy.
But within moments of the titles, it becomes clear The Hitman's Bodyguard is a dumb, overblown film with no aspirations than to have its stars swear and blow stuff up (as well as include a badly timed sequence where terrorists drive into a group of innocents)

Whilst it's content to make use of the European settings to great aplomb (a shoot em up sequence in Coventry is blessed with no basis in reality), The Hitman's Bodyguard fails to bring the required banter level to channel its Midnight Run aspirations.

As it ping-pongs between having Jackson phone in his furious righteous sass and letting Reynolds look exasperated, it fails to settle or commit fully to one tone. Is it screwball or is it action or is it a subtle blend of the two?

There are some great touches inside the workmanlike formula of The Hitman's Bodyguard - the action's reasonably well put together, if overly familiar; and if you're out with a group of mates and after a few beers, this will be positively a riot fest.

But there are frustrating hints that it could have been more.

Thanks to its feeling underwritten, it's underwhelming at best - and the relationship and antagonism between Kincaid and Bryce offered such fertile comic territory of opposites but somehow fails to capitalise on either a Riggs / Murtagh relationship or a Shane Black caper.

All in all, Patrick Hughes proffers little to this, with talents like Hayek and Oldman being squandered in thankless stereotyped roles.

It's supposed to be entirely dumb - but with a bit more chemistry, banter and a whole heap of fun, The Hitman's Bodyguard could have been something to enjoy, rather than a formless mess that's simply average at best. 

Win a copy of Battle of The Sexes

Win a copy of Battle of The Sexes

To celebrate the release of Battle of The Sexes, out January 10th, thanks to 20th Century Fox Home Ent, you can win a copy!

BATTLE OF THE SEXES

In the wake of the sexual revolution and the rise of the women’s movement, the 1973 tennis match between women’s world champion Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) and ex-men’s-champ and serial hustler Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell) was billed as the Battle Of The Sexes and became one of the most watched televised sports events of all time, reaching 90 million viewers around the world. 

As the rivalry between King and Riggs kicked into high gear, off-court each was fighting more personal and complex battles.  

The fiercely private King was not only championing for equality, but also struggling to come to terms with her own sexuality, as her friendship with Marilyn Barnett (Andrea Riseborough) developed.  

And Riggs, one of the first self-made media-age celebrities, wrestled with his gambling demons, at the expense of his family and wife Priscilla (Elisabeth Shue).  

Together, Billie and Bobby served up a cultural spectacle that resonated far beyond the tennis court, sparking discussions in bedrooms and boardrooms that continue to reverberate today.

- Based on a true story

- Starring: Emma Stone (La Land), Steve Carell (The Big Short), Andrea Riseborough (Nocturnal Animals)

- Director: Jonathan Dayton (Little Miss Sunshine), Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine)

To win a copy, all you have to do is email  your details to this  address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com or CLICK HERE NOW!

Include your name and address and title your email BATTLE!
Competition closes January 21st

It: Blu Ray Review

It: Blu Ray Review

Cast: Bill Skarsgard, Jaden Lieberher, Finn Wolfhard, Sophia Lillis
Director: Andy Muschietti

Abuse in all its forms predicates the 2017 retooling of Stephen King's celebrated It.

Channeling into the 1980s vibe set down by Netflix series Stranger Things and also reminiscent of the horror comedy of The Goonies, the re-telling of mid-town America's outsider kids (the self-styled Loser Club) and their fight against evil is a genuinely chilling creep-fest that perhaps overplays some of its hand toward the end.

For those unfamiliar with the book and the mini series which starred Tim Curry, the remake centres on the tragedy of Bill (Midnight Special's Jaeden Lieberher) whose younger brother disappears one night in a storm. As the family struggles to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives, Bill and his other friends get ready for the end of school and subsequent summer vacation.

But the ensuing freedom is anything but for the friends, who find summer days riddled with bullies and the on-set of adolescence.

Things are further exacerbated when they all begin to experience horrific visions and all share the fact that a clown is front and centre of their collective mania...

It works well as a set piece rollercoaster ride of jump scares and psychotic thrills, guaranteed to make you jolt out of your seat whether you're coulrophobic or not.

But as the film goes on, the reliance on jump scares and the inevitable Stephen King silliness sets in, fatiguing the final strait of this over-long, but largely terrific and atmospheric piece.

A chilling pre-credits sequence sets the stall out well - a sense of uneasiness pervades with menace as Bill's younger brother meets Pennywise the clown as he tries to retrieve something from a drain. It's here that Skarsgard earns his stripes as the sinister clown, bouncing from mirth to downright nastiness on the turn of a coin. Director Muschietti (Mama) wisely uses the clown sparingly throughout giving the film the edge it needs to be unsettling - and Skarsgard makes the best of every single scene the demented and cracked-painted monster appears in.

Perhaps equally successful are the smaller details that ooze through It.

There's an effective damning of adults in mid-town Americas, where kids are raised in the shadow of implied incest, abuse, poverty and continual neglect and bullying. There's the skating of the line between innocence of childhood and the oncoming terror of adolescence and menstruation. There's the innate tragedy of trauma affecting both families of loss and the children of abuse; in short, there's a lot from the King novel which is laced within to terrific use.

It may feel very familiar because of how the cinematic world's been shaped by such tropes ever since, but given how deliberate the pacing of Muschietti's first It film is and how much time is spent with the kids' group and within their own dynamics, even the stereotyped and familiar feels largely fresh and thrillingly frightening. In the quieter moments and the internal relationships fare the best, with Lieberher and Amy Adams-lookalike Lillis adding heart to the proceedings and universal recognition to teen awkwardness.

Ultimately though, It is a nightmarish yet somehow episodic meshing of phobias and primal premises wrapped up into one effectively retro package, guaranteed to haunt you. 

American Assassin: DVD Review

American Assassin: DVD Review

Cast: Dylan O'Brien, Michael Keaton, Taylor Kitsch, Sanaa Lathan
Director: Michael Cuesta

Some time ago, in the late 80s to the early 90s, a thriller like American Assassin would have been all the rage.

Thanks to the pulpy page-turners of John Grisham et al, and Harrison Ford in the likes of Patriot Games, the action-thriller was de rigeur.

In American Assassin, the Maze Runner star Dylan O'Brien is Mitch Rapp, a man whose fiancee is murdered on an Ibiza beach when terrorists strike just moments after he's got engaged.
Understandably angered, Rapp trains himself to infiltrate the terrorist cell to wreak revenge.

But when his quest goes awry, he finds himself sucked into a secret counter terrorist group run by CIA Head Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan) and headed up in the field by Hurley (Michael Keaton).

With a nuclear football in play and a rogue agent at the centre of it, the race against time is on.

American Assassin is a solid enough, if generic, thriller.

Anchored by a fairly emotionless O'Brien as Rapp, and a suitably over the top Keaton in the final stretches, the film's pace is solid, if never spectacular and is predictable as they come in terms of twists and turns.

Based on Vince O'Flynn's novel series, the faux 24 vibe complete with punkish emo arrogance translates to set pieces that seem lost in 2017, where sophistication is jettisoned in favour of by-the-numbers formula aimed at hitting the expected beats of the genre, but never exceeding them.

Whilst its initial Americans-beating-the-terrorists vibe feels like an answer to the current global ills, the film soon settles for your average cliched dialogue and macho bon mots as it hits its unchallenging straps.

O'Brien's a little too bland as the lead and his hirsute haunted earlier incarnation in the film offers the most dramatic meat, which he does reasonably well with. But post the initial burst, the film turns him into a spiky arrogant know-it-all, a Johnny come lately whose rogueish sensibilities rarely backfire.

It's all so familiar and so predictable, that unfortunately American Assassin ends up being plodding and TV movie like in its execution. A truly laughable Battleship CGI finale wraps things up but leaves you feeling that this is more a missed opportunity than a geo-political thriller with some potential.

The titular American Assassin may never miss his target - but the adaptation of the first novel sadly does.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

As 2017 ends, and closes, it's time to both reflect and look to the future.

Whether you're spending the new year bingeing the new series of Black Mirror or reflecting on Peter Capaldi's Doctor Who exit, all the very best for 2018.

Happy New Year to you all - and remember, be kind to each other.

And even kinder to those you don't know....

20th Century Women: DVD Review

20th Century Women: DVD Review

One of the titles much requested for this year's festival and one of the earliest to be revealed, Mike Mills' 20th Century Women is a relatively joyous memoir of 1 boy growing up under the thrall of 3 women.

Set in 1970s California, the film zig-zags around the daily life of 15-year-old fatherless Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann) who lives with his mother (Annette Bening) who runs a boarding house. Other inhabitants in this house include Abbie (red haired Greta Gerwig) and handyman William (Billy Crudup).

Also dropping by, unbeknownst to Jamie's mother, is best friend Julia (Fanning)  whom Jamie has a crush on but whose advances are continually rejected.

Worried that Jamie's not getting the full life experience he needs, his mother asks the house guests to help impart their life wisdom - but it doesn't quite go to plan.

Reflexive, warm and gentle, 20th Century Women is a nostalgia blast about the coming of age, gaining of new insights and pushing against the times.

Most of the push and pull of the film comes from the interaction between the characters and how living and coping together shapes many of us in ways we don't appreciate until later in life. Bening's ease of presence and way with quick one-liners throughout give this an edge early on, but later, a more mournful tone means the kaleidoscope of life feels a bit more poignant than you'd first expect.

Ruminations on life through various eyes come easily throughout, but what 20th Century Women actually does is spin a web that's entrancing and engaging, if slightly forgettable - it's a reflection of the signs of the times, but also a salutation to the wisdom of those around us.