The Post: Film Review

The Post: Film Review

Cast: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Bob Odenkirk, Bradley Whitford, Matthew Rhys, Alison Brie, Bruce Greenwood
Director: Steven Spielberg

With hot button topics like a President angered by the press doing their job, potential censorship of news and a woman making her place in the patriarchy, it's easy to see why The Post is proving to be such a cinematic firecracker.

But in truth, director Steven Spielberg's take on All the President's Men and to a degree, Spotlight, seems more Mr Hanks Goes To Washington and genial than savage as you'd hope.

Apparently rushed into urgent production to tackle the current US climate and the reaction to President Trump, fake news et al, The Post looks into the cover-up of the Pentagon Papers back in the early 1970s.

When The New York Times took papers from the US government that purported to show the truth of the Vietnam war, they found themselves in the cross hairs not just of the authorities, but also of the provincial new-kid-on-the-block newspaper, The Washington Post.

With an injunction slapped on the Times, The Post, under its editor Ben Bradlee (Hanks, in a dogged and ruthless everyman turn) decides to step in to try and make a name for itself - but battle lines are drawn morally and financially with Meryl Streep's Kay Graham under pressure as she tries to helm the newspaper empire and get it floated to ensure its future success.

The Post is the kind of worthy Oscar-bait drama that thrives on its contemporary themes present in a story from yesteryear as it riffs on All The President's Men and feels bizarrely, like a prequel..

There's never been a more pertinent time to present a film such as this, and even if it does use its ensemble cast to maximum effect, it still can't but help to allow Spielberg to proffer up his trademark over-sentimentalising moments as well.

From a speech of Streep's character decrying the Post is "my company now" after bemoaning the fact it was her father's, her husband's to the reveal of the Court verdict which blatantly emphasises the message that freedom of the press is vital in this day and age, there's a touch of heavy-handedness with which the Post indulges itself.

And there are moments where the film chooses to explain proceedings, rather than present them, that feels a little like it's pandering to the masses.

Yet, despite these moments, it's a superior piece of film-making.

Hanks and Streep deliver strong and solid performances which smack of potential peer recognition, and certainly there's a lit touch paper quality to the stories they deliver.
Despite it all though, their stories are universal and both Hanks and Streep rise to what's needed of them and deliver with panache and verve.

It may be that Spielberg's done his version of Capra and Mr Smith Goes To Washington and hits a few familiar tropes throughout (a typical montage of actual journalism being done being one of them), but he does so engagingly and for the most part, enticingly.

If ever a film about journalism were more pertinent, more timely and more urgent, then it would be a surprise.

Expect to see The Post's jabs rewarded come Oscar season - and even if it had been better had it been a little more subtle, this film, with its love of news, the old school printing presses and the fight for truth and justice, manages to be as compelling as it should.

The Lost City of Z: Blu Ray Review

The Lost City of Z: Blu Ray Review

More a contemplative adventure than a full-on swash-buckling colonial romp, The Lost City of Z sees a quietly soft-spoken Charlie Hunnan taking on the mantle of Brit explorer Percy Fawcett.

Unadorned of medals, and with a father who squandered the familial name, Fawcett is struggling to make his place at the turn of the century in military postings. So, when called up to the Royal Geographical Society in lieu of his mapping skills, and surrounded by fellow explorers making their own names, Fawcett feels the pull of the opportunity to provide a better life and reputation for his wife (Sienna Miller) and young family.

Posted to the Amazonian jungle and teamed with Robert Pattinson's Henry Costin, Fawcett finds his journey is blighted and simultaneously enlivened by the possibility a new civilisation lives deep within. But on returning, his claims are scoffed out, and sensing once again the chance to rid his name of ridicule, he sets out again on a quest that will consume his life.

Director James Gray isn't interested in making The Lost City of Z a thumping adventure of derring-do. In fact, it brings to mind elements of Embrace of The Serpent from a few years back at the festival - which is no bad thing.

In the wash, it's the complete opposite, a slow-moving exploration of what makes the explorer tick and the demons that consume those who've been thwarted for generations.

Frustrations among the fronds of the jungle and realistic problems mark out The Lost City Of Z as something both grand and equally languorous. Hunnam's quiet approach to Fawcett makes his hero feel infinitely more human, and when he's tackling the mores of society and the hypocrisies of belief, Fawcett emerges as a more rounded and infinitely more plausible character. Plus Hunnam's flawed Fawcett as he rails against inequality but forbids his wife from joining them on the trail speaks well to the internal conflict of narrow-minded convictions.

There's a melancholy to this adventure and it seeps through every frame as the journey to capture the feeling or re-capture the belief of what lies unexplored is laid out. Gray consumes his screen with closeness within the jungle, which doesn't lead to claustrophobia but promotes a very real sense of belonging within.

Ultimately, there's a sprawl to The Lost City of Z which seeps through your eyes as you view. Its slow pace may put some off, but its realistic view of the adventure genre is a welcome touch in what could easily have been an overblown post-modern take on colonialism and distant beliefs. 

The Girl With All The Gifts: Blu Ray Review

The Girl With All The Gifts: Blu Ray Review

Released by Universal Home Ent


Mixing the vibe of The Road, 28 Days Later, Schwarzenegger's zombie film and PlayStation game The Last of Us, The Girl With all the gifts is a contemplative piece that perhaps goes a little too long.

In a post-apocalyptic Britain,Gemma Arterton's scientist Helen Justineau is desperately trying to help save children from being experimented on as the search for a cure continues to a plague that's reduced mankind to hordes of hungry cannibalistic masses.

When Justineau goes on the run with Sennia Nanua's Melanie, with the army in tow, all hell breaks loose.

Trading largely on atmospherics and mood, The Girl With All The Gifts is, at times, a veritable ripper of a film that does nearly outstay its welcome.

It riffs on contemplation as well as peeling into some of the horror tropes as well, and with some very assured performances - including Nanua - and a desire to underplay, it works terrifically well.

There will be those who prefer the contemplative prose of the book, but for those looking at what's already an over-busy genre, The Girl With All The Gifts proves to be a shot in the undead arm that film occasionally needs.

The Free Man: DVD Review

The Free Man: DVD Review

Director: Toa Fraser

Starting with a Sartre quote that "Man is condemned to be free", director Toa Fraser's latest doco is perhaps incorrectly being sold as a look at Jossi Wells, the NZ free-skier and his interest in the sport.

But what it actually is, is more of a meditation on what inspires people to be involved in extreme sports, and is more of a look at the Flying Frenchies, a pair of French guys who started a company of base-jumping and high-lining. Added into the mix is the inclusion of Jossi Wells, who starts training with the Frenchies to be able to cross a zipline in the French Alps.

Fraser creates a typical documentary set up in the start, detailing a bit more about Jossi and how he got into sport before switching the film's focus away from this and more into the psychology of extreme sports and whether it's man's desire to push the edges and visit the void.

That's potentially some of the problem with The Free Man, in that it doesn't quite seem to know what exactly it wants to be as it unspools. Loaded with slightly po-faced questioning and voiceover that equates the director to those walking a high-wire, The Free Man's philosophical edges may be enough to put some people off.

However, what helps it, is the incredible footage of extreme sports and also the camaraderies that emerge from between the Frenchies and Wells.

Using a locked off camera and some truly vertigo-inducing shots, Fraser manages to spin out some magnificently existential moments as you end up questioning why people are doing this. It doesn't quite get into the psyche as well as perhaps it intends to do, but The Free Man reminds once again of the adrenaline thrill that people get from being involved in such pursuits.

Perhaps if The Free Man had had a slightly tighter focus on perhaps just one angle and one group, it may have been a more precisely delivered documentary; as it is currently, its thoughtful edges and desire to create metaphors mean it feels a little tonally jerky, almost as if it's caught on its own high wire of being.  

Dunkirk: Blu Ray Review

Dunkirk: Blu Ray Review

An apparent triptych of war stories that conclude and collide in surprising and spoilery ways, the breathtakingly intense Dunkirk is nothing without its thundering score from Hans Zimmer.

Its screeching, pulsing, pounding sonic blast powers the movie all the way and distracts from the relatively thinly drawn and relatively stereotyped characters.

Be it Tom Hardy in a mask and bomber jacket in the cockpit of a Spitfire above patrolling the skies and trying to keep others safe, or the avuncular Mark Rylance, helmsman of a fishing boat commandeered to head to Dunkirk or the desperate to get-out-of-hell squaddie played by Fionn Whitehead, the propulsion of the plot is knotted in its ticking score, which ratchets up the stress levels and tension to near unbearable.

Sketched out across the canvas of the evacuation of Dunkirk and blown big upon the IMAX screen, perhaps some of the heart is initially lost, ripped asunder in the tapestry of what Nolan is weaving.






But this is not what Dunkirk is setting out to do, nor is it what Nolan clearly has envisioned from his take on the conflict. 

In among the smaller moments and the muddied, desperate faces of nameless soldiers seeking evacuation and cowering in fear as Stukas and their death-dealing payloads edge ever closer, there are times when Dunkirk's delivery of spectacle and its one smart trick excel, hitting you emotionally where you feel you should have been guarded.

It begins and unfolds over a moment in 1940 with a soldier running through the French streets in a troop, desperately scrabbling to avoid bullets and get to the evacuation, and ends with Churchill's words echoing in your ears. But in between that, Nolan's Dunkirk is a sickeningly gripping film that reworks its timelines in ways that make you feel like you're in an enclosed room with the walls closing in against you, struggling for fear of where your next breath will come from, and wishing desperately that Nolan would loosen the vice-like grip you've found yourself in against the odds.

Pressure and tension are tangible throughout, with no direct heroes coming to the fore and just the apparently disparate actions of various men fuelling the fire that burns up this dramatic pot. Less a story, more a thunderingly visceral experience that evolves from what appears to simply be a plume of smoke in the sky in the distance, Dunkirk drops you in the centre of proceedings of one day at various points in it - from its very beginning the scope of this (bloodless) battle is evident. 

Troops line the beaches, desperately jostling and waiting in line to be evacuated, with the ever niggling threat of the German invasion nipping at their toes. Nolan doesn't need exposition to sell the scene (though Branagh's commander occasionally provides it) and uses the sparsity of the acting and the visceral edges to really place you there. 

Dunkirk's beyond tense, and there are surprises within. Death is waiting around every corner of the conflict, and the theatre of war, and the scale of Nolan's execution really makes it evident how truly horrific it would have been. 

But much like Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan where the emotional end led a level of cornball to what had gone before, Nolan finds a way to offer a bittersweet resolution for enduring this cinematic tour-de-force.  Granted, after stretching everything out over the previous 100 minutes, and leaving you with the heart-in-the-mouth feeling as you try to work out how the 400,000 trapped on the beaches could escape a potentially deadly fate, Nolan's denouement may be viewed as a little on the cheesy side, but given the spirit of hope which has been suppressed throughout this piece, it was perhaps inevitable.

Essentially re-inventing the war movie and somehow managing to provide an intimately gripping tale inside an epically structured landscape, Dunkirk is a piece of bravura film-making. There's no way you won't leave this film gasping for air and admiring the human spirit as well as admiring what Nolan has concocted. 

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: Blu Ray Review

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: Blu Ray Review

Imagine Star Trek on hallucinogenics, mixed in with the wonderful digital wizardry of the WETA team, and you'd be quite close to what Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets manages to achieve.

With a budget estimated to be $210 million, and helmed by the man who brought us The Fifth Element and the much under-rated Lucy, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is based on a French science fiction comic series Valerian and Laureline.

A Cure For Wellness' DeHaan plays Valerian, a major in a 28th Century space federation who trudges from mission to mission with his colleague Sergeant Laureline, played by model-turned-actress Cara Delevingne.

Following a dream of a low-tech planet that's vaporised by marauding ships, Valerian discovers his next mission is to retrieve a "converter", an animal that holds the key to reproducing resources and is highly sought on the black market.

But, it seems not only he is after the converter, and soon more nefarious groups are showing up and a major conspiracy is revealed...

It seems somewhat pointless to rail against Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets on some level.

With its wild, throw everything digitally at the world and hope some of it sticks ethos, there's no doubting the grandeur and scale of this cinematic and hyper-kinetic folly.

The film sets out its stall in its opening moments as a montage of cuts introduces us to various first contacts with races from around the galaxy, each bubbling with a life and visual flair from WETA Digital which reeks of a competition to see who can provide the most out there creatures.
But, much like Star Trek's Federation did all those years ago with Deep Space Nine, there's a continuity of critters which is pleasing. When an emergency meeting is convened later on, the various races from the opening are found to be seated around the tables; it's a touch that shows Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is committed to its universe and the internal logic of it all.

And there are some seriously trippy and gorgeous visuals at play here.

Worlds have blue and red clouds hanging in their skies, and Valerian's dream sequence certainly has a distinctly Na'vi meets Prometheus' Engineers vibe to its stretched out lanky aliens. A space market sequence later on is Mos Eisley on speed mixed with George Lucas' desire to over-populate the world within with as much as you can handle.
In fact, the digital scale and ambition of this hyper-kinetic film leap off the screen and beg you to luxuriate within.

So it's a shame to report that Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets suffers because of its human elements and the tonal mish-mash they bring.

DeHaan delivers his lines as if he's trying to impersonate Keanu Reeves' Bill and Ted outing, imbuing most of it without any touches of emotion or ambition. Delevingne doesn't fare much better either, reducing Laureline to a series of eye-rolls and carefully orchestrated bursts of childish petulance as the story goes on.

It's not fatal to the feel of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets but it does, unfortunately, stop you engaging fully with the overlong execution of what is at best, a minimal story.

All in all, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets probably would work better as a cartoon series than a fledgling franchise launch.

It feels like it's aimed at youngsters, as the more kiddy elements of the film make it feel like it's a space romp for them to revel in - there are elements of the script-writing of The Phantom Menace in some of the dialogue, and given its delivery by two relatively wooden leads, it stands out.

But yet, as a saga, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets delivers something that's distinctly Besson and his idiosyncracies; it's distinctly European in its outlook and laissez-faire attitude, but undoubtedly it can't be criticised for the breadth and depth of its truly astounding digital scope. 

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. 

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri: Film Review

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri: Film Review

Cast: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Caleb Landry Jones, Abbie Cornish, Zeljko Ivanek
Director: Martin McDonagh

Revelling in the kind of dark and comedic touches that were in 2008's In Bruges, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a tale for our times, and a reflection on the world we live in.

McDormand stars as Mildred, the emotionally battered and destroyed mother of a girl killed in her small town.

With justice having eluded her seven months later and fearing her daughter's case is going unnoticed by the police as time goes by, Mildred deploys a triumvirate of provocative billboards, aimed at keeping the unsolved murder at the front of everyone's mind.

Naming and shaming the local police chief (played with mournful touches by Harrelson), Mildred finds herself in opposition with the town and in the line of the racist drunk sheriff Dixon (a brilliant Rockwell, playing fast, dastardly and loose, yet surprisingly engaging and emotional).

It's hard to give more away of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri as part of the satisfaction of McDonagh's film is in the journey and the devilish edges of the dialogue.

Whilst there are a few frustrations here and there (from the film's resolution to a few scenes such as the disrespecting of a Catholic priest for no reason other than to launch a diatribe), there is a lot to perversely revel and reflect on in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Chiefly, it's the triumvirate of performances from McDormand, Harrelson and Rockwell that hit a series of dizzying highs.

McDormand manages to tread a fine line between perseverance, bringing heartbreak and hard resolve to Mildred. There's never any doubt that you're on your side, and McDormand delivers a controlled pitch perfect performance that aches with loss, and teeters on extreme sadness. Harrelson and Rockwell surprise too, particularly as their law enforcement attitudes are as poles apart as you could expect.

However, Rockwell's racist drunkard, wrapped up in his momma's boy hillbilly outlook and his Archie comics, proves to be the film's surprising emotional touchstone for reasons that would spoil too much here.

In many ways, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri deals with a lot of issues currently around - a sexual predator and murderer who appears to be above the law, the inherent seething racist underbelly in the police and the innocent wronged and left hanging outside of a justice system which appears to be skewed in favour of the criminals.

And yet, deep within Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and its penchant for potty-mouth moments, there's a lot of humanity and love on show; of people coming together when divides seem too immense and of the one thing that unites us all - sadness.

McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is being touted for awards, and while parts of its heart are black beyond recognition, thanks to McDormand and Rockwell's powerfully compelling performances, this at times jaw-dropping spectacle has all the compulsion you'd need to be carried along on the darkest of rides.

Ferdinand: Film Review

Ferdinand: Film Review

Cast: John Cena, Kate MacKinnon, Anthony Anderson, Bobby Cannavale, Peyton Manning, Gina Rodriguez, David Tennant
Director: Carlos Saldanha

Based on the Munro Leaf 1936 novel The Story of Ferdinand, Blue Sky's latest animated fare is squarely aimed at pushing an anti-conformist message to kids viewing.

Cena plays Ferdinand, a bull who'd rather smell the flowers than fight even though that goes against the grain of the farm where's he's being raised as a bull to take on a matador.

However, when Ferdinand's father is taken to the arena and doesn't return, Ferdy makes a break for it, finding a new owner in  a little girl and her flower-growing father. But one day when Ferdinand's stopped from going to the annual flower festival and despite the warnings from his owners, he makes his way into town.

Seen as a monster, captured and returned to the bull-rearing farm, it looks like destiny's taking its course - unless Ferdinand and his new goat friend Lupe (MacKinnon) can turn it around.

Lacking some of the zanier edges to keep the younger audiences amused, Ferdinand flirts with darkness as it explores some of the reality of what happens to animals and in particular, what happens in the bull-fighting ring.

While Cena makes for an affable big-lug of a character, complete with softer edges, Ferdinand's adventure never fully embraces the wacky until late in the day when it heads to Madrid, and a chase sequence which has vitality, joie de vivre and great sight gags.

But it's a long road to this point - and the filmmakers' desire to not go too dark (for obvious reasons, it's a kids' film) means they flirt with moments that consequently feel under-developed. There's a meat factory near to the bull-rearing farm, there's some shots of a matador threatening Ferdinand (in a badly edited final sequence that loses some coherency) and there's plenty of indication of how meat is murder.

Yet, despite that, Ferdinand never quite finds its feet - it knows that to keep the younger audience in check it needs some lunacy, which it gets with a bull/ horse dance-off, but it's few and far in between.

It's all perfectly affable and solidly animated, but Ferdinand lacks the wow factor, or a stronger emotional trajectory to carry it along.

Not exactly terri-bull, but a no-bull attempt at doing something worthy, Ferdinand's mixed approach to the subject means it never quite hits the marks it should do - but it will keep the kids amused, for some of its duration at least.

Mary and The Witch's Flower: Film Review

Mary and The Witch's Flower: Film Review

Cast: Kate Winslet, Jim Broadbent, Ruby Barnhill
Director:Hiromasa "Maro" Yonebayashi 

Likely to appeal to those who felt Harry Potter was too male-led, Mary and The Witch's Flower's the first film from the Japanese Studio Ponoc.

It's the story of Mary, a young girl who's finding life in the countryside a little dull while she waits for her parents to move across to be with her. On the cusp of starting school, one day Mary heads into the nearby woods following a cat - despite her great aunt Mary's insistence on staying away from the woods.

Finding some strange flowers and a broomstick that comes to life, Mary is whisked above the clouds to a magical school, Endor College, where she's welcomed as the latest witch apprentice.

But Mary's flower discovery puts her in peril and at odds with those running the college - as well as discovering a threat to all life.

It's fair to say that Mary and The Witch's Flower wears its Potter influence deep on its sleeve.

Whilst it may lack some of the warmth and emotion of the Potter series (there's not as much heart on display here sadly), the central story of Mary, with her outcast red hair and quirky ways, will give some girls a heroine they need.

However, Mary's prone to pratfalls, to mess ups and to bursting into tears which weakens the argument a little and disappoints.

In terms of the animation it's perfectly fine, but for a new studio, it unfortunately lacks the wow factor to help them set out their stall with their debut feature.

The backdrops are nicely painted and tend to fade into the background rather than stand out, and while there are some well-executed set pieces, there's little which truly jumps from the screen.

If anything, the copy of the Hogwarts style school is solidly executed - from a menagerie of creatures and critters to a Scottish groundskeeper, there's a lot here that feels familiar. And, because of that, it's a shame as Mary and The Witch's Flower has some real potential to cast some magic.

As it is, it's a fairly enchanting sort of tale for 90 minutes, but its bucolic edges and Potter-familiarity (as well as dashes of Howl's Moving Castle) prevent it from truly weaving a magic spell.

Flatliners: DVD Review

Flatliners: DVD Review

Cast: Ellen Page, James Norton, Nina Dobrev, Diego Luna, Kiersey Clemons, Kiefer Sutherland
Director: Niels Arden Oplev

27 years ago, a couple of fresh faced Brat Packers made a sci-fi film that was pure hokum, but tapped into something that troubles many - and in the resulting film formed something of a cult.

Now, mixing a cast and one original together, the resultant toothless Flatliners remake is dramatically and creatively dead on arrival, feeling like a CW drama that doesn't even bother to really pack in the jump scare moments.

Centring on a group of interns, it's the same story.

Page plays Courtney, who decides to embark on an experiment to see what lies beyond this world by stopping her heart and technically dying for a few minutes, before being brought back.

Dragging along Clemons and Norton's fellow students, the experiment initially promises a heady high, but soon delivers them all various nightmares.

Full of pretty people and a terrible American accent from Happy Valley ruffian Norton, Flatliners is frankly a mess.

It lacks any edge and is as flat as the ECGs in the film itself. Relying on wet bus ticket jump scares, the 2017 remake of Flatliners is creatively limp and narratively weak.

Page takes it all too seriously and becomes the science exposition nerd of the group, setting up the premise and presenting the calm in the ensuing laughable panic that sets in.

There's just nothing that fires any of the neural synapses here whatsoever, and while Oplev manages to make some of the afterlife visuals feel hyperreal, it can't quite shake off the fact that it all seems like a music video for the MTV and teen-loving CW generation.

Maybe needlessly glamourising suicide and self-harm, the 2017 Flatliners is a waste of everyone's time from the cast to the audience. Slapped with a cinematic Do Not Resuscitate would be a kindness, because there's little here to engage anything of the cinema-going audience - be it in this life or the next.

The Emoji Movie: DVD Review

The Emoji Movie: DVD Review

In theory, it's easy to understand why The Emoji Movie has been hailed as the second cimematic coming of the Anti-Christ.

Set inside a smart phone and with a plethora of product placement (Spotify, Katy Perry, Instagram) it's fair to say that perhaps the film's vision is more on the merchandise than the execution of the story.

Talking of which, The Emoji Movie centres on Meh emoji Gene (voiced with usual laconic deadpan by former Silicon Valley star TJ Miller) who's eager to impress on the first day on the job.

Gene is one of those who lives in Textopolis, a digital city inside their user Alex's phone. Despite being pigeonholed as a Meh, he can make plenty of other faces and frequently does so.

But by breaking out his panicked faces when Alex chooses to send his crush an emoji, Gene threatens the future of Textopolis as Alex plans to wipe his phone.

Facing persecution as a malfunction by the ruthless smiler icon (Rudolph), Gene begins a journey of discovery across the phone to ensure his future survival.

It's easy to be cynical about The Emoji Movie, a corporate by-the-numbers animation that reeks more of potential downloads than sizzling script or witty moments.

In fairness, it's actually a solid animation that squanders both its Inside Out bastardisation and its chance to mock and meta-comment on its premise.

However, there are a few moments which garner laughs.

From the mocking the elderly emoticons to ripping in to Facebook's popularity algorithm, there are some moments which really engender you to the film, but ultimately leave you wishing it could have been much more subversive than it actually is.

But that's the problem with The Emoji Movie - its tone is so bland that despite the solid animated work and the great voice cast (James Corden as the formerly popular Hi-5 emoji brings much energy and chutzpah to the digital table and it's a thrill to hear Steven Wright's weary tones on the screen as Gene's father), nothing ever really soars as it should and many scenes end in flatness.

Piling on product placement like Candy Crush and Just Dance does nothing to endear the film too - and while youngsters may get a sugar rush from the overload of products and apps that they force their parents to buy, it's hard to justify any reaction other than that of Gene's stock and trade to the Emoji Movie.

Meh.