Film Review - Living (2023)

Living stars Bill Nighy as Mr Williams a long serving civil servant in 1953 London who learns one day after work that he has only a few months to live and he is someone who has done the right thing and served his country in War most likely (it isn’t mentioned but I assume he did) and raised a family and went to work every day for much of his life but one day he sees an old work colleague of his Ms Harris (Aimee Lou Wood) and he wants to spend time with her and take in her youthful exuberance before his end comes.

Living is very good and Bill Nighy well earned his Academy Award nomination for his work in this film, though at times he is soft spoken you get a certain joy from seeing him on screen and remember roles he did like Shaun of the Dead where he was very good as he is here, also good is Lou Wood as Ms Harris the young girl who worked for him and brings him out of his shell for what time he has left feeling his son has his own life and it isn’t right to tell him he’s sick.

The film also does a very good job of mixing in old footage of 1950’s London with the recreation the film itself does with the old trains/offices/pubs it all looks nicely done and the use of the old 1950s London footage is good as well and I’m sure helped the filmmakers save on trying to recreate the exteriors of London at that time which would not have been easy or cheap to do.

And so that was Living and I really liked it mainly due to Nighy’s performance, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - John Wick Chapter 4 (2023)

John Wick Chapter 4 is the fourth John Wick film and Chad Stahelski is directing again and Keanu Reeves stars as John Wick who this time must contend with Bill Skarsgard (Pennywise in the recent IT films) as the Marquis Vincent de Gramont a member of the high table who wants Wick dead but the Baba Yaga never goes down without a fight.

John Wick 4 is a terrific time at the movies and it’s the most fun I’ve had in a cinema so far this year, yes this is a long movie at 169 minutes but like Avatar the Way of Water which despite its 192 minute runtime became the third biggest movie ever I wasn’t bothered by it and I feel it allows the action scenes to really breathe and play out at a good pace without needing to rush them along so we can get the story and plot moments going.

And speaking of the action scenes they are simply superb from an opening fight in an Osaka hotel to a Goldfinger esque owner of a Berlin nightclub to the final hour of the film in Paris each set piece fight scene is simply superb and are enhanced by the long runtime and I was never bored, Reeves commits to these moments even if some of them border on silly at times and he seems to be enjoying playing this character still even if the wear and tear might be starting to show.

As for the rest of the cast, Laurence Fishburne and Ian McShane are good in their roles as is the late great Lance Reddick, Skarsgard is serviceable and is of service as the main villain while Clancy Brown, Hiroyuki Sanada and Donnie Yen are the highlights outside of Reeves.

Everytime Brown came on screen all I kept thinking was “The Kurgan” his role in Highlander while Sanada and Yen are very memorable in their roles as is Scott Adkins as Killa the Goldfinger esque owner of the Berlin nightclub and he really did remind me a lot of Gert Frobe from that film during his scenes.

And so that was John Wick Chapter 4 and its my favourite after the first film for sure now I liked 2 and 3 but not as much but this time the action and characters and decent enough villain work very well and I had a terrific time with it, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Shazam Fury of the Gods (2023)

Shazam Fury of the Gods is the new DC film and the second Shazam film, David Sandberg returns to direct as does Zachary Levi as Shazam who this time along with his makeshift Shazam family must contend with the daughters of Atlas the Greek God (Lucy Liu and Helen Mirren) who seek the staff of their father so they can reclaim their former glory meanwhile a new girl at school Anne (Rachel Zegler) catches the attention of Freddie (Jack Dylan Grazer.)

In terms of recent superhero movies Shazam 2 is much better than Ant Man or Black Adam or Dr Strange or Thor from last year and sits behind Black Panther 2 as the superhero movie I’ve enjoyed and this isn’t a great one like Superman the Movie or X-Men 1 and 2 or Avengers Infinity War and Endgame but like Cocaine Bear recently it does what it says on the cover in the video shop.

And this is a fun movie, it has plenty of action and comedy and superheroics all of which are good fun for the most part and unlike most of these movies some fun villains and Liu and Mirren are the highlights of this movie for me, Mirren in particular seems to be enjoying herself here and sure she’s probably doing this because she’s been in lockdown for a good year or 2 and wants to make some money but she’s had a great career and deserves to have fun once in a while.

As for the rest of the film like I said it clips along at a good pace, the main hero actors are fine in their roles and the action is exciting even if it stops at one point for what looks like a Skittles commercial without Danny Glover in it but its nothing you really haven’t seen before but its been better than what you’ve seen recently.

And so that was Shazam Fury of the Gods and its fine, perfectly entertaining and does what it says on the cover but you won’t think of it as one of the best superhero films, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Women Talking (2023)

Women Talking is based off of a novel and is written and directed by Sarah Polley and stars Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jesse Buckley and Frances McDormand who are part of a group of women in a secluded colony who are routinely drugged and raped by the men in that colony but one of them has been arrested and the other men leave to post bail, while their gone the women debate whether to stay in the colony and fight or leave and make a new life for themselves elsewhere even if they might forfeit their place in heaven.

Women Talking is a wonderful achievement and praise must go first and foremost to Polley as director and writer, she does a great job adapting this story and uses the visual language of film very well to help tell that story, much has been made of the colour grading for this film but it really worked for me for the most part especially on a nice sized cinema screen and it also highlights just how secluded and isolated this religious community is.

Also the film has some great performances, McDormand and Ben Whishaw are good (Whishaw is very good here as the school teacher who takes the minutes of the meetings the women have) but this movie belongs to Mara, Foy and Buckley and I wish all three of them received Academy Award nominations for their work but I’m not surprised they were overlooked.

Each of these three ladies embody the different reactions these women have to the awful situation they find themselves in as well as what to do about it in terms of their options one embodies hope, another anger and another frustration and this movie like She Said from late last year is a tough watch at times as well as a sad one but it also has a hopeful tone to it in terms of the hope for a better tomorrow and your story being different from the one these three ladies each experience.

And so that was Women Talking and it is highly recommended from me, a great achievement anchored by great writing/directing and performances, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Scream 6 (2023)

Scream 6 is the sixth film in the series and the first without Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott and this time the setting is New York City where Tara and Sam Carpenter (Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera) are now living but Ghostface is also in town and he’s ready to take Manhattan one stabbing kill at a time to get to the Carpenter sisters and their friends (Jack Champion, Jasmin Savoy-Brown and Mason Gooding) but they’ll have help from Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) and Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere)

Scream 6 was good fun and I had a good time watching it in the cinema and part of that firstly was the NYC setting, it was nice to get out of Woodsboro for once and shift the setting to somewhere else and the film does a good job extracting some horror tension from this especially with one scene on a crowded Subway train where people are wearing masks and its hard to know who Ghostface really is and the horror kills are fun as well especially one in the beginning of the film with a nice cameo appearance.

As for the main cast they are a good group for the most part, Ortega and Barrera make up for the absence of Campbell well and I didn’t miss her anywhere near as much as I thought I would and watching Barrera here as well as in In the Heights back in 2021 made me wish all the more that she was Princess Jasmine in the live action Aladdin because she looks like a proper live action Jasmine where Naomi Scott (who I do like) did not.

I couldn’t recognise Jack Champion recently seen as Spider in Avatar: The Way of Water as he looks so different here which shouldn’t be a surprise as he shot his Avatar scenes when he was younger and smaller, as for Savoy-Brown, Gooding and Cox they are good as well but my favourite of the cast outside of the Carpenter sisters was Hayden Panettiere’s Kirby who we first met in 2011’s Scream 4 she is clearly having a great time being back in this series and that shows on screen.

And so that was Scream 6 and I had fun with it even if I preferred other Horror films like Smile, The Black Phone and Malignant, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - 65 (2023)

65 is written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods who helped write the A Quiet Place films and Sam Raimi is a producer on the film as well, Adam Driver stars as Mills a pilot in charge of an interstellar mission when his ship crash lands on what he thinks is an Alien world but is actually prehistoric earth 65 million years ago and he and the other survivor of the crash a little girl named Koa (Ariana Greenblatt) must now fight to survive on that terrible Planet of the Dinosaurs.

Wait a minute?

Dinosaurs,

THAT WAS OUR PLANET

And sadly 65 might have some of you going “YOU MANICAS, YOU STUFFED IT UP, DAMN YOU, DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL” because while its not a bad movie per se its also a movie that while I was watching it made me appreciate all the more what Krasinski brought to the A Quiet Place films Beck and Woods co-wrote because this script feels a lot like a rough draft that was rushed into production.

It feels like its in such a hurry to get to the stranded on the Planet of the Dinosaurs (one scene had me saying to myself “Get your stinking claws out of my face YOU DAMN DIRTY RAPTOR!!) that as a result the setup of the story is either ignored or was cut out in the editing room and you sit there thinking “wait a minute what’s the mission he’s going on, I get why he’s going but what was it” and by the time you get to the Driver Vs Dinos action there’s not a lot to feel invested in in terms of whether he and Koa are going to make it or not.

That said however the look of the prehistoric Earth is good and there are some fun action scenes in the film but they don’t come with the thrills or excitement or danger or tension that should have because the storytelling has been hurried along at such a quick pace that you don’t really get all that invested in them and it’s a shame because the preview for this movie made it look like the kind of film I sorely wish Jurassic World Dominion had been last year but you can’t win them all I suppose.

And so that was 65 and it’s not a bad movie but a very forgettable one despite some good moments and I won’t be surprised if a comet strikes this one at the box office, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Cocaine Bear (2023)

 Cocaine Bear is based off of a true story and is directed by Elizabeth Banks and the story takes place in 1985 when a plane load of Cocaine goes missing from a flight only for some of it to be found in a national park where a wild Bear manages to ingest some of it and goes on a rampage through the forest and some of the drug dealers (Alden Ehrenreich, O’Shea Jackson Jr and Ray Liotta in one of his last film roles.) are scrambling to find it while a young mum (Keri Russell) tries to find her missing kids.

Cocaine Bear pretty much does what it says on the cover in the video shop, its about a bear that does Cocaine and goes on a rampage and I had a good amount of fun with it, the film under Banks’s direction manages to find the right amount of silly humour and sincerity that had me laughing with it instead of at it and enjoying some of the gruesome bear kills that earn that MA rating in Australian cinemas.

As for the cast they’re fine, Ehrenreich and Jackson Jr are a fun pair while Liotta is good as well while also reminding film fans that they’ll miss him now he’s no longer with us, Russell was good as well and that was nice to see after the Rise of Skywalker so badly wasted her in a nothing role back in 2019 while the kid actors Christian Convery and Broklynn Prince are fun as well.

And so that was Cocaine Bear and its good fun and does what it sets out to do nothing more, nothing less and I had a good time with it, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Creed 3 (2023)

Creed 3 is the third in the Creed series and Michael B Jordan both plays Adonis Creed and directs this movie as his debut in that chair, Adonis is now living the good life as a retired boxer managing a gym but one day he sees an old friend named Damian Anderson (Jonathan Majors) fresh out of jail after serving a lengthy prison sentence and seeing Adonis living the life of a Boxing Champion he felt was his to have makes him hunger to take it all from Adonis.

Creed 3 is a sequel I feel is as good as the first Creed film that Ryan Coogler directed and co-wrote back in 2015 and this film I feel sees the Creed spinoff series come into its own and find its own identity, the first film balanced the doing a new path with the Rocky fanservice very well while 2018’s Creed 2 was a film I didn’t really care for.

The reason why was I felt it leaned too much into the Rocky tropes with the first fight, the loss in the ring, bringing back Drago and the montage then the final fight in the ring whereas here some of those tropes are present but Jordan makes them his own and the film is better for it, some of his directing in the boxing ring fights is very good especially as a longtime Dragon Ball fan where he does some fantastic nods to some punch blows from that series, I would love to see him go full on DBZ with the fight scenes in the next film.

Also this movie has Jonathan Majors once again giving his all to a character and he matches Jordan blow for blow in both the fight scenes and the dramatic moments and is a better villain here than he is the recent Antman film as it feels like he is affable in moments but ferocious in others.

And so that was Creed 3 and I really enjoyed this movie and feel it is as good as the first Creed film and I hope future films in this series continue in this vein and build on its strengths, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Empire of Light (2023)

Empire of Light is the new film by Sam Mendes coming off of his Oscar nominated 1917 in 2019 and stars Olivia Colman and Hilary a Duty Manager at the Empire Cinema in a British Coastal town and one day a young man named Stephen (Micheal Ward) comes to work at the cinema and as she gets to know him she begins to feel more alive than she has in a long time.

I was keen for Empire of Light mainly due to Sam Mendes making it as I loved 1917 a whole lot, it was a stunning war film that floored me when I saw it and again when I rewatched it recently.

But sadly this movie is a real mess that for the most part left me bored and uninterested but I will say this Mendes’s direction and Roger Deakins as cinematographer craft a great looking film that makes full use of the 2.35:1 aspect ratio and Mendes does some great staging and camera blocking in a number of scenes that visually tell the story very well.

But his script is a real mess and it sinks this film as while I was watching it I felt like I was watching 3 separate movie ideas mashed into one:

- One movie about the Empire Cinema and its staff and the day to day going’s on inside the cinema from how it runs to the movies showing to the various customers coming and going through her doors

- A second movie about Hilary and her own private struggles with mental illness

- And a third movie about Stephen and the racism he faces going about his life in Thatcher’s emerging Britain

And only the first of those I found to be of any interest and those scenes when they were allowed to be the main focus really worked for me especially after the dark times of Covid in 2020 and 2021 which saw cinemas close due to the health risks and those were dark days for me as I love the holy church of the cinema and sitting there in that dark space where nothing else matters and I would’ve happily sat through that film from start to finish.

As for the other 2 I didn’t care and I wasn’t interested, Olivia Colman is a gifted actress and there’s very little she can’t do but watching her going through those mental illness moments just felt like a waste of a great talent same with Colin Firth as the theatre manager who also feels wasted in a pretty nothing role.

As for Micheal Ward he is a good young actor but again his storyline didn’t really interest me all that much as it felt like for me “I’ve seen all this and I’m not interested” now this is not in any way to dismiss the very real struggles people of colour have in their daily lives but in this movie they felt like they got in the way of the Empire cinema movie I was so much more interested in.

And so that was Empire of Light which could’ve been something very special maybe this generation’s Cinema Paradiso but instead it’s a boring mess that for the most part left me unmoved, 1 out of 5.