Film Review - King Richard (2022)

King Richard stars Will Smith as Richard Williams the father of Venus and Serena Williams 2 of the greatest Tennis champions of their generation save for maybe the Greatest of all Roger Federer but this movie documents their upbringing in Compton to eventually Venus competing in the Bank of the West tournament in 1994 at only 14 years of age.

 

King Richard is very enjoyable and a lot of that comes down the performances, Saniyya Sydney and Demi Singleton (daughter of the late great director John Singleton) are very good as the young Venus and Serena and really hold their own very well on screen, Jon Bernthal as Rick Macci deserves a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Academy Awards as he is a delightful as Venus’s Florida based coach and soaks up every inch of screen time while Aunjanue Ellis is really good as Brandi Williams and she gets some key moments to come into her own as well.

 

Also I really liked seeing Erin Cummings from the John Campea show in a brief scene as well.

 

Plus the film has probably the best Tennis match depictions I’ve ever seen as the matches in this film are riveting to watch and done in such a way that makes Tennis look and feel more exciting than can often be the case when your watching real life matches on TV and the final match of the Bank of the West tournament in this movie is a terrific climax.

 

But I have to talk about Will Smith as Richard himself and he is okay but too often I kept thinking that he is doing an impersonation of Eddie Murphy and that kind of soft-ish type of voice Eddie can sometimes have and it got so distracting there was a part of me that started to wish Eddie had played this role instead of Will and I think he would’ve been wonderful in this role and Will does a good job don’t get me wrong.

 

And so that was King Richard and its really enjoyable and worth a watch on the big screen despite Smith’s performance not being that great at times, 3 and a half out of 5.

 

Film Review - Spencer (2022)

 Spencer is directed by Pablo Larrain who also directed Jackie in 2016 which starred Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy and this time Kristen Stewart plays Princess Diana in what the film calls a fable from a true tragedy as the Princess must spend 3 days with the royal family at one of the housing estates during Christmas 1991 which is only some months before Diana would separate from Prince Charles in 1992.

 

I have had very uneasy feeling about this movie before I got to see it for while I had heard good things about this movie as well as Stewart’s performance as Princess Di I am of an age who remembers her when she was still alive, how she was in every aspect the People’s Princess and remembers where I was when the sad news of her passing broke 25 years ago and also so many of the dramatizations of Diana have mainly focused on the last few years of her life regarding her divorce, the intense media scrutiny and her passing which still leaves a huge hole in her sons lives to this day.

 

So could this movie overcome that unease and win me over or justify all the more that Diana deserves to be left alone to rest in peace and her sons carry on her legacy in her place.

 

Well it’s a little bit of both dear reader for I am very divided on this movie.

 

Firstly this is a well made film, Claire Mathon does a beautiful job with the cinematography in this movie using this postcard film type look that is beautiful to behold on a big cinema screen plus there is a fantastic music score by Jonny Greenwood which at times feels like your watching a horror film with these cues of doom and despair seeping in plus there are many great performances.

 

Firstly Timothy Spall is very good as the overseer of the grounds and he watches them like a hawk who knows every inch of the manor and gardens he oversees, Sally Hawkins has a small role but it feels so pivotal to the film and its emotional core, Jack Farthing who plays Prince Charles is extremely good and nails what a cold, pretentious and up himself little Smeghead Charles can be while Sean Harris who was in the last 2 Mission Impossible movies is good as the royal chef who becomes a confidant to Diana throughout the course of the film.

 

Now as for Kristen Stewart herself she is good don’t get me wrong but at times I felt that she either talked too fast for her to be understood or she whispered a lot of her lines and Diana had a soft voice for sure but she certainly didn’t whisper or talk fast from what I’ve been told.

 

Now that unease I referred to in my intro well it is why I feel so divided on this movie despite liking a lot about it, again this feels like another film that delves into the tragedy of Diana rather than letting me celebrate her and her legacy as the People’s Princess and there are those moments where she has that love in this movie firstly her scenes with the young boys who play William and Harry (what must be going through their heads seeing this movie come out I do myself wondering) and the scenes between Stewart and Hawkins are great the former in particular are wonderful as it nails just how close she was to her sons and how much she loved them with all her heart and why her death has left such a huge hole in their hearts that they’ve tried to fill with their own families.

 

And I wish someone would come along and give me either a film or a series or a documentary that had more of that feeling, more of that love between her and her sons and more of that love the world had for her even if the Royal Family who’s image went down after her death and never really recovered until William and Kate’s engagement in 2010 didn’t really show it as much as they could and should have in the 90s after the divorce as I think that would go down really well with the broader audience much like how Bohemian Rhapsody in 2018 let people celebrate Freddie Mercury and his legacy and their love for him many years after his death.

 

And so that was Spencer and I had a lot to say on this one and it’s a divided response for me now do not get me wrong this is well made film with great performances, craftsmanship and moments but my unease about this movie and movies about Diana in general wasn’t really extinguished and because of that I have to give this movie a 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - The King's Man (2022)

 The King’s Man is directed by Matthew Vaughn and this is the third Kingsman film after 2015’s The Secret Service and 2017’s The Golden Circle and this time we’re back in the time of World War 1 and Ralph Fiennes is the lead here as the Duke of Oxford instead of Colin Firth who is tasked with stopping the Great War as well as saving England from a German onslaught but to do that he will have to deal with the notorious Russian monk Rasputin (Rhys Ifans.)

 

I am probably one of the very few people on this planet who has been looking forward to this long delayed film, first delayed due to the swallowing of 20^th Century Fox by Walt Disney Studios (RIP Fox I still love you) and then delayed again and again due to the pandemic but finally it has come out and I got to see it.

 

And I was not disappointed as this prequel was well worth the wait and I feel that this is as good a Kingsman movie than the first movie and firstly the reason for this is the shift back in time, the first Kingsman felt like a modern day version of a Sean Connery James Bond film while the second felt more like a Roger Moore era Bond film and it got very silly indeed and I felt that in order for the Kingsman series to continue with another film it needed to strip a lot of the silliness right down and take on more of the Timothy Dalton style of Bond.

 

And it feels like Vaughn has taken the criticisms of the second film to heart a lot more than he did the criticisms of the ending of the first film which I felt led to the unnecessary princess sideplot in the Golden Circle here while the action scenes have that Kingsman style there’s no magic remedy this time around when people die they die and this more serious feel is most welcome for me.

 

Another reason is that I loved how this film plays with the history of the time period regarding World War 1, the Russian Revolution and how the senselessness of the Great War as it was known then led to the founding of the Kingsman in a similar way that Colin Firth tells Eggsy about in the fitting room in the first movie and seeing that tailor shop again made me smile big time in the cinema after all Manners Maketh Man as well as a finely tailored suit.

 

Also the film has some great action scenes that actually feel properly edited be it a fight with Rasputin or the big climax on top of a mountain or one big War scene in particular that feels like a scene from Sam Mendes’s 1917 which this movie actually predated in terms of its production and this playing around with history definitely feels inspired from Vaughn’s experience on X-Men First Class 10 years ago where he and Bryan Singer played around with history in regards to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

 

Lastly the film has a lot of great performances, Ralph Fiennes is a worthy replacement for Colin Firth and its great to see him in a proper action role, Djimon Hounsou and Gemma Arterton are also very memorable in their roles as are Charles Dance, Daniel Bruhl and Tom Hollander, Harris Dickinson is also very good as the Duke’s son while Rhys Ifans totally steals the show as Rasputin and the film really comes to life when he’s on screen.

 

And so that was the King’s Man and I really enjoyed it, this is as good a Kingsman film as the first one was and I’m keen to watch it again, 4 out of 5.