Film Review - Knives Out (2019)

Knives Out is written and directed by Rian Johnson and stars Daniel Craig as Private Inspector Benoit Blanc who is hired to investigate the supposed suicide of famous author Harlan Thromby (Christopher Plummer) and his family (Toni Collette, Don Johnson, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Katherine Langford, Michael Shannon among others) and his nurse (Ana De Armas) are I say I say possible suspects for he suspects fowl play and the game’s afoot boy.

Knives Out is for me a very welcome return to form for Mr Johnson for while his Star Wars film The Last Jedi had its moments it was for me a big mess script wise and increasingly I feel that he should not have directed that film as here he gets to properly do his own thing as a filmmaker and like Looper in 2012 the results are highly enjoyable and I had a great time watching this movie.

And like Looper this movie gets to show what a clever storyteller he can be when left to his own devices and not be handed the one character above all others in modern culture who represents the heroes journey and like any great whodunnit murder mystery you watch for the suspects to come into focus, give their statements and then the detective I say again boy try to solve the case and everyone has a motive boy be it the spoilt brat, the heir to the publishing empire or the adopted daughter cause well I say again the game’s afoot son.

And speaking of Mr Craig he is so much fun to watch here as the quirky investigator who talks like Foghorn Leghorn from the Looney Tunes and I’ve found myself imitating that voice ever since as well as laughing afterwards as this movie is also filled with terrific comedy moments that had me and the audience I saw it with laughing quite a bit, I’m very torn on humour in movies nowadays but this one makes it work very well.

And also to go back to the overall storytelling for a moment this feels like it was written by someone who really understands how these types of stories work, you have your detective, your suspects, possible motives and the situation for the murder and then you turn all of those elements loose and when they work well like it does here your sitting there watching or reading what happens next and you might have your suspicions but you also don’t want to go too far ahead of the game as to ruin the surprises that might come your way and there are plenty to be found in this movie.

As for the rest of the cast well Mr Evans finally gets to cut loose with a less wholesome role and is clearly having a blast swearing his head off in one scene as well as in the rest of the film, Ms Curtis and Ms Langford were pretty good while Mr Johnson and Mr Shannon do what they can with their roles though they don’t have a big amount of screen time while Ms Collette sadly didn’t do a lot for me as the lifestyle guru her voice bothered me like a little bit after a while.

But lastly I have to talk about Ms De Armas in this movie for while she didn’t do much in Blade Runner 2049 she gets a meaty role to work with here and she is very good and shows a lot of promise as an actress going forward, I hope she will also be as good in No Time to Die next year.

And so that was Knives Out and like Edgar Wright I just want Rian Johnson to do his own thing movie wise from now on as his voice and vision are so much him and his own that when someone like that makes a big franchise film that voice can feel muddied a little and our movie going consciousness would be better for it as we get movies like this and Looper that are so good and so well made that you want to recommend them far and wide, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Frozen 2 (2019)

Frozen 2 is the sequel to the hit 2013 animated film Frozen and this time Anna and Elsa (Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel) find themselves heading to an enchanted forest after Elsa hears a strange voice in the wind calling her so they, Olaf, Christophe and Sven head off on a new adventure to save their kingdom of Arendale.

Frozen 2 thankfully doesn’t try to repeat the Disney Princess Fairytale story of the first film and thankfully this has much more of the feeling of an adventure film where the heroes go on a noble quest to save their kingdom from doom and this adventure feel is one of the best things about this sequel as it stops the series from becoming repetitive too quickly and it is a great quest to watch unfold.

Also the film does a very nice job making sure that the bond between Anna and Elsa is not lost amidst the adventure and the songs and the comedy, it was one of the things I liked most about the first film and it’s also the case here as you really feel the closeness between the 2 of them and the sense in the case of Anna that she simply cannot lose her once more as she’s the only real family she has left even though Olaf, Christophe and Sven are also there in her life even though nothing could compare to the bond between Sisters.

But alas this sequel is sadly something of a mixed bag for me despite those big positives and there are 2 big negatives I have with this movie:

- First of those is most of the songs themselves, the songs worked in the first movie for me because the movie being made then was a more old fashioned Disney movie like Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast or Aladdin where the songs were fundamental to the spine of those stories whereas here because the storytelling is taking on much more of that adventure quest feel the songs for the most part I felt got in the way of the quest story and with one exception ground it to a halt.

That one exception is Lost in the Woods which Mr Jonathan Groff who voices Christophe sings and it is very very good especially the visuals that back up the song and I had a big smile on my face during that song.

- And secondly the films comedy moments just fell flat for me and again those moments worked for me in the first movie because Olaf was that films equivalent of characters like Sebastian in Little Mermaid or Cogsworth and Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast and Abu and Iago in Aladdin where you have those humorous sidekicks that provide that comic relief for the kids in the audience whereas here I felt the humour fell flat very quickly and after a while I got a bit sick of Olaf playing the fool.

And so that was Frozen 2 and it’s a real mixed bag for me, I loved the adventure story and the focus on the bond between the Sisters but the songs and the humour fell flat for me, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - The Irishman (2019)

The Irishman is the new movie by both Netflix and Martin Scorsese and concerns the life of Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) a man who was driving meat trucks and later finds himself doing business with the legendary Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), business that isn’t always within the letter of the law.

The Irishman firstly is very well made, Marty might be in his 80s now but he hasn’t lost his ability to craft a movie that is never boring to look at, the way that the costume design, production design and cinematography reflect the changing decades is very very good and the deaging technology is used very very well here and the High Dynamic Range on the Netflix 4K stream does a very good job in hiding whatever defects you might go looking for and I went looking and couldn’t find any.

As for the performances well Mr De Niro is truly great and it feels like it has been a very very very long time since he has been this good in a movie, if he was to win Best Actor at the Academy Awards next year for this performance I wouldn’t mind one bit, it was also nice to see Mr Joe Pesci in a movie again even though he doesn’t have the biggest role in this movie.

But alas I have to say that at 3 and a half hours, this movie’s storytelling which is well done by Mr Steve Zaillian after about 2 hours and 40 minutes it started to feel like it was being stretched very thin and it also became a little predictable to me but I’m someone who has seen the 1992 Hoffa movie with Jack Nicholson and Danny Devito and knows to some extent how the Hoffa story plays out.

And speaking of Hoffa well Mr Pacino I was nervous about him in that role because I thought Mr Nicholson was so good in his movie and again after a while I began to tire of Mr Pacino’s voice, now don’t get me wrong its nice to see him playing a straight role in a movie rather than a parody but after a while I got a little tired of his shrill and nasily voice and again I just didn’t think he measured up to the bravado and gusto that Mr Nicholson brought to the role of Hoffa in his movie.

And so that was the Irishman and look its not a bad movie not at all but it was one that didn’t do an awful lot for me in the long run as I felt it got a bit thin story wise with the 3.5 hour runtime and Pacino’s Hoffa got on my nerves after a while, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Last Christmas (2019)

Last Christmas is co-written by Ms Emma Thompson, is directed by Paul Feig and stars Emilia Clarke as Cate or Katarina for short who works in a specialty Christmas store but has been very sick, one night after work she meets Tom (Henry Golding) who opens her eyes to a world where she rarely looks up.

Last Christmas asks for your heart but in 2 short hours it takes it away (takes it away) but the 2 leads Clarke and Golding save it from being a lump of Coal in the family Christmas stocking, Ms Clarke in particular is really good here and shows a lot of potential as a romantic lead in movies going ahead, she has a lot of charm, has big expressive eyes that say a lot and you really get on her side and its nice to see this side of her outside of being Daenerys Taegeren Mother of Dragons and the Rushed Character Arc.

As for Mr Golding again he shows what a great star he is turning into in a short amount of time, he’s charming, charismatic and shows a warmth and caring side that is very refreshing in a romantic movie and his chemistry with Ms Clarke is the best thing about the film.

As for the rest of the film well sadly it is not the best and the big culprit is the screenplay by Ms Thompson as well as Greg Wise and Briony Kimmings and it above all else has some serious tonal issues that it doesn’t really make gel very well as on the one hand it wants to be this fun, lighthearted and romantic Christmas movie (though Die Hard is the greatest Christmas movie known to all mankind just saying) but on the other hand its lead character has a serious condition that for me made me go “Nup I’m sorry your not doing this right now” and there’s a Brexit sideplot that really has nothing to do with the rest of the movie at all and both could have easily been excised from the script without hurting the film too much.

And so that was Last Christmas and look its okay but really without its 2 charming leads this Christmas movie is little better than a lump of Coal in the Christmas Stocking, 1.5 out of 5.

Film Review - Ford V Ferrari (2019)

Ford V Ferrari is directed by James Mangold and stars Matt Damon as Carroll Shelby (and performance is his business) and Christian Bale as Ken Miles and its 1966 and Henry Ford the second (Tracy Letts) wants to rejeuvenate his ailing family company so they decide to build a race car to win the 24 hour race of Le Mans but building such a car and then getting the right driver to race it will not be easy.

Ford V Ferrari was the one film I was looking forward to the most for the second half of this year as I love a good racing movie (2013’s Rush by Ron Howard is criminally underrated), the trailers were terrific and I love both Mr Damon and Mr Bale but could it race across the finish or would it burn out after the starting gun.

Happily very very happily this is the case of the former as I really loved this movie and genuinely think it is terrific for multiple reasons:

- Firstly Mr Magold’s direction is finely honed like a driver racing a car built for the fast lane, the way he paces both the quieter moments and the big racing moments is fabulous and the racing scenes in particular are fan-fucking-tastic from the low angles he shoots the cars from behind that reminded me a little of the Mad Max movies at their best and the way their edited gave me a sense of exhilaration as well as having me on the edge of my seat wondering how that final race would play out.

- Secondly the performances here across the board are great, both Mr Damon and Mr Bale anchor the film effortlessly, the former doing a great Tommy Lee Jones impression and the latter pretty much doing the whole performance in his natural British accent and one octive below his infamous Terminator set rant from 10 years ago (in fact during the film part of me was waiting for him to do a similar rant) while Mr Letts is really good as Henry Ford and has some of the films most memorable scenes.

- And lastly I have to give a special shout out to Mr Josh Lucas who plays one of the Ford executives but is so good you can just see Mr Mangold and his screenwriters seeing him as every slimy, I want full control studio executive they’ve had to deal with in their careers (and Mr Mangold had to deal with Miramax when making Cop Land) and that toothy grin, cynical smile and constant talk about being a brand man just works so well and I would love to see him get a Best Supporting Actor nomination.

Sadly I have to say however that this movie as much as I love it and I do very much it is a little long and there are times like a car doing a long race where you can feel the length a little bit and it could’ve lost 5 minutes or so without disrupting the film too much.

And so that was Ford V Ferrari and I loved this movie to death, direction/performances/sound/editing this is a finely crafted film and its one of my absolute favourites of 2019, 4 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Charlies Angels (2019)

harlies Angels stars, is co-written and directed by Elizabeth Banks and also stars Sir Patrick Stewart, Sam Claflin, Kristen Stewart, Ella Balinski and Naomi Scott the latter 3 being the new Angels who have to stop a deadly EMP weapon from being detonated around the world killing millions of people.

Charlies Angels surprisingly is actually pretty good fun and I definitely had a good time watching this in a cinema and a big part of that is due to Ms Banks’s work as a director and writer, she definitely shows signs of improvement in the directors chair after Pitch Perfect 2 in 2015 and she does a nice job directing the action scenes and not over cutting them in the editing room.

Also the 3 Angels have very good chemistry and any doubts I had going into the film as to whether they would deliver the goods very quickly evaporated after the opening scene as they have great chemistry, perform the physical action very well and really emerge as stars on the rise especially Ms Scott who radiates off the screen, is very charismatic and a good actress as well.

And lastly I enjoyed seeing Sir Patrick Stewart and Mr Claflin again in slightly more substantial roles than they might have gotten in the past though everytime Mr Claflin came on screen all I could think was “Finnick.”

And so that was Charlies Angels and its not the best movie I’ve seen this year but it was a film I had fun with, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Dolemite is My Name (2019)

Dolemite is my Name is a new Netflix film starring Eddie Murphy as Rudy Ray Moore, a struggling performance artist who invents a character named Dolemite in order to make himself known on the stand up stage, sooner or later he produces some very successful comedy albums and soon he sets his sights on making movies.

Dolemite is so much fun and I had a big big smile on my face while watching it and first I just have to start with Mr Eddie Murphy, the moment I first heard him talk on this movie I just thought to myself “He’s Back” and it was just this feeling I had throughout the whole film He’s Back, that trademark smile, that ability to think quickly on his feet during a scene, knowing how to time a comedy laugh and being able to show great dramatic potential and be charismatic its all there and this man has had a very bad habit over the years of blowing up his own career due to his own ego but watching him in this movie there’s none of that this is vintage Eddie again and it feels so fucking good.

Also great in the film is Mr Wesley Snipes and like Eddie his career has had some huge bumps along the way but he too delivers some great work here and again like Eddie he delivers some great laughs as well as some good dramatic moments and its so good to see him back on form as well.

Also this film has some beautiful craftsmanship on show here, firstly the production design is great especially with the old 1970s cinemas that look so big and seat so many that went away as multiplexes took hold and carved their way through those old cinemas and also the costume design by Ms Ruth Carter is terrific, it so captures that 1970s era so well with the colourful jackets, the canes, the hats and the dresses which she also did so well on Black Panther in 2018.

And lastly the script tells a great story of an artist who refused to take no for an answer and fought tooth and nail to get his vision on stage, record and screen and its very good to watch and it’s a role that just fits Eddie so well.

If you couldn’t tell already I really loved Dolemite is my Name mainly because Eddie Murphy one of my favourite stars because of Beverly Hills Cop 1 and 2 is back on top and when this movie ended I thought to myself “Coming to America 2 is in great hands” as this team is making that sequel and I am very confident they will deliver the goods once again, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Judy (2019)

Judy stars Renee Zellweger as Judy Garland in the final year or so of her life in 1968/69 as she struggles to get her life back in order to spend time with her children, sooner or later a chance to perform in London comes up and this could be a way to get it all back.

Judy is mainly worthwhile for the great performance by Ms Zellweger as Ms Garland, she is in virtually every scene of this film and she is never boring to watch from the body language to the semi gone voice that can still captivate a crowd and there are some great concert moments scattered throughout the film.

Outside of her however the film itself is a pretty much straight up and down biopic where you learn about some her childhood with MGM, her various marriages and the tries to get into more of her children’s lives and its all really framed around that last 12 months and after a while I began to get a bit bored of it all and was checking my watch on a couple of occasions.

What was interesting and I wish more of the movie had explored this side more is her treatment by MGM studios and Ms Darci Shaw is a great likeness for the young Ms Garland and is clearly capable of helping to carry the film and those scenes with her and the MGM studio bosses were very interesting to me given the constant diet of pills and strict guidelines she had to deal with that would have devastating consequences later on in life but sadly they are only a few scenes of the film and I wish it had been explored a little more especially given the Weinstein revelations of 2 years ago.

And so that was Judy and its perfectly fine but really only worth a watch for Ms Zellweger’s great performance, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Ready or Not (2019)

Ready or Not stars Samara Weaving as Grace, a young woman who marries into a rich family that made its fortune through games and she has to pick a card for the game inside the house of her now in laws and she gets Hide and Seek but what her in laws Seek is her and she has to Hide until Dawn to survive.

Ready or Not is going to be very high up in my favourite films of the year list as this was a terrific horror movie in many areas:

- Firstly this is just such a great idea for a horror film this rich family that plays these sick and twisted games on those who enter the family through marriage and the race to survive is on and it made me think sitting there in my seat “How would I react in this situation if it was my wife” or “How would I feel if my family had this kind of reaction to her or vice versa, would her family accept me” that kind of thing though not taken to the kind of extreme that this movie takes it but it generated that kind of questioning in me.

- Secondly the production design of the house and the night photography really adds to the mood and the tension of the film and it looks fantastic on a cinema screen, the use of the blacks and the chandeliers and the wooden halls and giant rooms makes for a very effective horror setting as you become familiar with each room and what’s inside to help Grace survive the night and it just helps to add to the effectiveness of the horror your watching projected in front of you.

- Third this movie has some fantastic bloody violence that more than justifies its MA15 rating and the use of blood in this movie I just loved every minute of it, the kills feel great and gory and the blood is the life to quote Coppola’s Dracula and all of those moments just felt tasty like I wanted to lick my lips when the blood flowed on the screen and gave life to the Earth.

- And lastly Ms Weaving (Niece of Hugo) is a terrific scream queen, she has got a serious pair of lungs in her and she more than holds her own on screen in both trying to survive the sick game being played against her but also learning to fight back much like Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton in the first Alien and Terminator movie respectively, I hope she gets to more gutsy roles like this one in the future.

And so that was Ready or Not and yeah I loved this movie big time and very very highly recommend it if your not squeamish in any way at the sight of blood, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

Terminator: Dark Fate is the newest entry in the Terminator franchise and sees the return of both James Cameron as a story writer and producer and Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor who must help a new heroine Dani (Natalia Reyes) and her protector Grace (Mackenzie Davis) fight a new Terminator called the Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna) before it can complete its mission and Arnold is also back for the ride.

Terminator: Dark Fate is not a bad movie not at all and we’ve certainly had those with 2015’s Terminator: Genisys which tried to do a Days of Future Past on the series but failed miserably and 2009’s Salvation directed by McG which was set in the Future War but didn’t make much of an impact whereas here director Tim Miller who made the first Deadpool movie does a good enough job directing the film to the point where you don’t sit there too bored with it all.

Though he is greatly helped by Ms Hamilton and Ms Davis who do an awful lot of the heavy lifting here, Ms Davis reminded me a little of Michael Biehn from the first Terminator movie and does a very good job in the protector role while Ms Hamilton plays Sarah Connor as if she never left and everytime she was on screen I was enthralled by her presence and her performance.

But sadly much like the other sequels that came after 1991’s Terminator 2 this new film despite Cameron coming back to guide the story struggles to justify its own existence as once again it has to skirt around the events of T2 in order to really exist as a story and the film opens with the tape of Sarah in the hospital from T2 and that scene is so good that it makes the rest of the film that comes after it on a story level feel mediocre as again you sit there thinking:

“So are the Terminators just like the Decepticons from Transformers now there’s just groups of them that come to Earth every once in a while, as this is making no sense.”

And as for the new Rev-9 played by Mr Luna I’m awfully sorry but he is miscast in this role and its really down to him having a nice face, he comes across as a sweet man that I found it hard to believe him as this unstoppable killing machine whereas in the first 2 Arnold and Robert Patrick had angular faces that could turn off their emotions at the drop of a hat and Arnold himself was so muscular that you instantly believe he was unstoppable and after a while seeing very rubbery CG battle scenes got a bit long in the tooth.

And so that was Terminator: Dark Fate and look its not a bad movie but with this, Star Wars, Jurassic, Predator, Rambo, Alien and for me personally Mad Max to see these revivals fail to measure up just isn’t good enough and just stick to Terminator 1 and 2 from now on you don’t need to see any of the others after those their just not worthy, 2 out of 5.