Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire is the new installment in Warner Bros/Legendary’s Monsterverse series and this time Kong is in Hollow Earth trying to find other members of his kind while Godzilla has been hunting Titans on Earth but when new trouble emerges these once deadly rivals will now have to work together to save their worlds.
Godzilla X Kong is not that different to how I felt about Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire in that it’s not a bad movie but its only an okay but I liked this one a little more than I did Ghostbusters because when the monsters were fighting I had a smile on my face even though at times I kept thinking “I bet people lived in those buildings that are being flattened like pancakes” as buildings and populated areas are being flattened like it’s nothing in this movie and sometimes that can be fun to watch but sometimes you watch that type of mass destruction and think “Um people might live there.” And this was one of those times.
As for the action scenes well their fun for the most part but after a while feel a bit video gamey as more often than not your looking at digital monsters fighting it out and hearing very loud noises and deep bass in the sound mix especially if you watch it in a theatre with a loud sound system like I did and I wish there was more of a sense of stakes or peril with those big battle scenes that felt more real instead of digital and the human eye is often pretty good at telling what is real and what isn’t.
As for the human characters well their okay but not the reason you’re watching it, Rebecca Hall is such a good actress but this role is doing little to nothing for her save for putting a roof over her head (those bills aren’t cheap nowadays), Dan Stevens and Brian Tyree Henry are having some fun though I did get a bit annoyed with the needle drops during key action moments (seriously guys can we PLEASE stop doing this it’s getting very annoying.) while it was nice to see Rachel House a New Zealand actress from Thor: Ragnarok and Hunt for the Wilderpeople in a small supporting role.
And so that was Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire and it’s fun for the most part but again it doesn’t help that this has come out in the shadow of Dune Part 2: Long Live the Fighters and that film has really shown up the laziness in this industry the last 10-15 years hopefully with streaming and Disney’s dominance starting to abate the other studios will start to lift their game, 2 out of 5.
Friday, March 29, 2024
Film Review - Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire (2024)
Saturday, March 23, 2024
Film Review - Wicked Little Letters (2024)
Wicked Little Letters stars Olivia Coleman as Edith, a woman who lives at home with her conservative father (Timothy Spall) and who has been receiving wicked letters with profane language in them and she suspects her next door neighbour Rose (Jesse Buckley) who is unmarried and likes to go to bars and behave suspiciously but there is more to this than one sees.
Wicked Little Letters is good fun and I laughed quite a bit watching it but the film earns it’s MA15+ rating here in Australia as it has a lot of fowl language and if that kind of thing bothers you a fair bit then I won’t recommend this movie but if it doesn’t it’s good fun.
And firstly I have to mention Jesse Buckley in this movie as she is really one of the best actresses around right now and she is so much fun to watch here in both her rowdy pub scenes, her standing up for herself moments or even in the quieter moments where she is fighting for her innocence and ever since Wild Rose in 2018 she has been a real fan favourite of movie goers and here is no exception.
Olivia Coleman on the other hand who has rarely given a bad performance in a film well I struggled with her performance in this movie at times mainly because I struggled to buy her in this role as a straight laced God fearing woman and she has this devilish sense of humour be it in Hot Fuzz or Wonka and here I just thought “I’m not quite buying it here” now that isn’t to say she is bad on the whole as she gets better as the film goes on but in the opening parts of it I struggled with her performance.
And so that was Wicked Little Letters and it is good fun if your not bothered by fowl language, 3 out of 5.
Film Review - Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)
Ghostbusters Frozen Empire is the follow up to 2021’s Ghostbusters Afterlife and this time Gil Kenan takes the directorial chair instead of Jason Reitman who directed Afterlife and is the son of the late genius Ivan Reitman, this story sees the Spengler family (Mackenna Grace, Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd and Finn Wolfhard) living and working as Ghostbusters in New York City when Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) comes into possession of a mysterious orb that contains a powerful ice goddess who if unleashed could bring about a new ice age in a New York Summer.
Frozen Empire isn’t a bad movie per se but it is also a movie that in all honestly isn’t really much of anything either and in the very small group I saw this in the cinema with all it raised was a chuckle at best and that was mainly at the “look who’s shown up” variety as well which isn’t great for a Ghostbusters movie on either front.
The main problem this movie has is in its scripting, it takes far too long to get it’s main plot into motion and when it does it doesn’t have any of the stakes or horror or comedy or scale that it really should and what the original Ghostbusters movie which celebrates it’s 40th anniversary this year had, it had great laughs, it had great horror moments, it had great visual effects, a comedy cast on top form and an iconic movie monster but then again Ivan Reitman was a genius for the most part so that was no real surprise.
It also doesn’t help that this movie is also the first big movie to be released after Dune Part Two 3 and a half weeks ago and that movie showed what movies really could be when you had a passionate creative team and a willing and able cast working their hardest to deliver something special for audiences whereas here the cast does what they can but no one really gets a chance to shine.
William Atherton from the original is basically a “remember him” fan service cameo, Patton Oswalt only gets one scene which feels like a waste as he fits right in with this universe, the OG Ghostbusters are either exposition dumps on legs or fan service cameos or in the case of Bill Murray here to cash an easy cheque because he was in lockdown for 2 years and wants some easy money plus due to COVID he missed out on being in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City last year and as for the Spengler family their okay and Coon and Rudd have some good chemistry but they don’t really get to show it, Wolfhard really only exists to have an excuse for Slimer coming back and Grace well she does get a subplot of her own but it doesn’t really add much to the greater storytelling.
And so that was Ghostbusters Frozen Empire and once more Columbia Pictures a studio celebrating 100 years this year has delivered another lazy blockbuster, in my State of the Studios roundup last year I said that they really needed to both lift their game and stop relying on Spider-Man to save them and with this and now Madame Web being lazy hangabouts in cinemas that feeling is stronger than ever, 2 out of 5.
Film Review - The Great Escaper (2024)
The Great Escaper is a very good film and one of the bright spots of this early period of 2024 as a movie year and it does this by telling a good story and telling it rather well for the most part.
The first way it does this is it feels like this movie pays tribute to that particular generation who went and fought the great war of that time in World War II and the scars those who survived and came home would live with, at one point Irene says in the movie that the War was their business and we see the effect it had on her not long afterwards and there is also a moving scene in a bar with Bernie and some German officers (one of which is played by Wolf Kahler from Raiders of the Lost Ark) and you see the bridges that some try to mend all those decades on.
And secondly this movie feels like as much a tribute to Michael Caine as an actor as this has been stated that this is to be his final film role and watching him in this movie it is easy to see why as he looks frail and not as energetic as he normally is in a lot of his earlier roles and watching him play a man who needs a walker to get around was a little saddening to a certain degree but he has picked a great way to end his long and storied career.
And so that was the Great Escaper and it is a good story told well for the most part with some moving moments and a great final role for Michael Caine, 3 out of 5.
Thursday, February 29, 2024
Film Review - Dune: Part Two (2024)
Dune Part Two picks up right where 2021’s Dune Part One left off and Denis Villeneuve returns to the directors chair and he and Jon Spahits co-wrote the script (Eric Roth who wrote Part One with them hasn’t returned) and Timothee Chalamet once again is Paul Atreides now in hiding with the Fremen and their tribal leader Stilgar (Javier Bardem) but House Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard, Dave Bautista and Austin Butler) has occupied the planet Arrakis and only sees Fremen and Atreides they want to kill.
To say that I was excited for this movie is a big understatement, not since X-Men Apocalypse in 2016 did I crave the next film in a series like I have this one after rewatching Part One on 4K disc in 2022 and when the film was delayed from it’s November 2nd 2023 release date due to the actors and writers strikes last year I was heartbroken but now it is finally here.
And man oh man it was so worth the wait as this movie not only met my huge expectations it surpassed them right from the first scene which like Part One’s opening scene does such a good job at bringing you into the world of the film right away in a way that you can understand and follow what’s going on, something the 1984 Dune film failed utterly and miserably in doing.
And the craftsmanship on display here is simply top notch, the cinematography by Grieg Fraser, Joe Walker’s editing, the costumes, the production design it is just marvellous to see on a big cinema screen and some shots in particular look absolutely beautiful and Denis’s direction is just as confident and assured as it was in Part One and now that both parts of this book have been properly told on film these 2 films feel like the films that Denis has been building to.
And this feeling came to mind for me when getting to rewatch Part One on the big screen last week before Part Two came out and the sandy/dark edge of Sicario, the thoughtful Sci-Fi of Arrival and the scope and visual effects of Blade Runner 2049 all feel like they were building in their own way along with his own long time love of the book towards Denis making Dune as a proper film adaptation and they are both something very special indeed.
Secondly this movie has a lot more of the Harkonnens and much more action and both are fantastic, there is this great arena fight that is in ink blacks and strong contrast whites and it is beautiful and violent at the same time and serves as a great introduction to Butler’s Feyd which is delicious and he is clearly having a total blast playing this role.
As for the Harkonnens well they cement themselves with this movie as my favourite movie villains in a long long time and other genre film franchises could well learn to make the villains ACTUALLY. FEEL. IMPORTANT!!!!! and no that is not a typo I am being deadly serious because I am so fucking sick to death of sitting through endless genre films that treat their villains like a goddamn afterthought here they are important to the plot, are very memorable in their scenes and in this movie they deliver on the promise that Guerney gave in Part One that they were brutal.
As for the other major action scenes they are simply spectacular especially in the third act where you really feel the cultivation of Desert Power and it is at times simply jaw dropping to watch, though at times the battle scenes feel too brief in terms of their length they are not disappointing in the least.
And lastly I have to talk about the performances as all involved deliver the goods in this movie, Chalamet builds on his work in Dune Part One and Wonka here and comes into his own as a leading man and along with Butler and Glen Powell will hopefully lead to a renaissance for the leading man in films, Zendaya is very good as Chani and has a great role in the films second half, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Florence Pugh, Charlotte Rampling, Christopher Walken, Josh Brolin and Dave Bautista are also very good in their roles while I have to give a shoutout to Stellan Skarsgard as Baron Harkonnen, I love that character and I love him as that character.
Dune Part Two is simply a marvel of a film and along with Part One and Avatar: The Way of Water represent big scale filmmaking at it’s very best and these films should be the standard we accept and not the increasing laziness we see over and over again nowadays and audiences are starting to reject in the cinemas, I can’t recommend this movie highly enough but please rewatch Part One before seeing Part Two, 5 out of 5.
Saturday, February 17, 2024
Film Review - The Holdovers (2024)
The Holdovers is the new film by Alexander Payne and takes place in the Winter of 1970 in a New England school where one of the students Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa in his first film role) is left behind as a holdover due to his parents going away for the holidays and he is left with a cook (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) who is mourning the loss of her son in the Vietnam War and a crusty History teacher (Paul Giamatti) and these 3 people could have more in common than they think.
The Holdovers is very good and throughout some of its early scenes I thought to myself “This could be my favourite film of the year so far” and while it doesn’t quite hit that mark it is still on the list along with Force of Nature: The Dry 2 and The Beekeeper and to have 3 in February is the sign of a good start to a movie year and one of the reasons for this is Payne’s direction, he does a great job at not just directing his actors but also making the New England school feel like this eco system unto itself that is isolated from the outside world.
And also I really like his portrayal of these 3 lonely people who could make up this makeshift family, the crusty father, the distant but loving mother and the wayward son trying to find his way in the world and the script by David Hemingson also helps as well in making these characters feel real and believable as you feel like when watching it that you’ve come across people like these in your own life.
And the performances are a real boost as well, Randolph is very good as Ms Lamb the cook and while she is doing her best to keep it together there are times where you see her struggling with the loss of her son and its tough to watch, Giamatti is excellent and if it wasn’t for Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer he would be a shoe in for Best Actor at the Academy Awards as he is that good here as this History teacher who asks a lot of his students but does so so they don’t end up making a similar or the same mistake he made with his life many years before.
But the real find is Dominic Sessa, this is his first movie and he really shines here as this troubled young boy on his way to becoming a man and while he has very little in his way you can see that he lacks that strong familial stability in his life that can make living be worthwhile and give you that everlasting love outside of that special someone you find in life and I hope I see more of him in movies in the years to come.
But if I have one problem with this movie it is that it’s too long and as good as this movie is I felt that it did start to peter out towards the end of the film and the end in particular I felt ran on too long and a good 15 minutes or so could’ve been removed from this movie and not affected things too much.
And so that was the Holdovers and it’s very good but too long, 3 and a half out of 5.
Film Review - Madame Web (2024)
Madame Web is the new Columbia Pictures Spider-Verse movie not to have an actual Spider-Man in it and it stars Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb who works as a paramedic in New York City but after an accident on the job one day she starts seeing visions of the future and it leads here not just to Ezekiel (Tahar Rahim) but also to 3 young girls (Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced and Celeste O’Connor) who could hold a key to the future.
Madame Web is not a bad movie per se but its also one that really does not work, right off the bat when you hear the first lines of dialogue you start to get a bad feeling and it only goes downhill from there, I honestly do not known what went on during this movie’s production but large chunks of it especially in the editing feel off as if there were chunks of this film that were shot and then removed in order to get the runtime down to under 2 hours.
Also this movie has some of the most obvious looping (a process where actors re record their lines in post-production) I’ve seen, one moment you’ll see and hear the actors talk and their lips are matching the dialogue their saying and then you’ll hear them say a completely different line off screen and their voice sounds much cleaner than in the previous scene.
As for Ezekiel the villain well here we go again another Marvel movie another bad villain that is really only here to be a walking, talking, punching bag for the heroes to fight when you probably could’ve done without him completely and the movie wouldn’t have felt that much different and the action in this movie is so pedestrian.
But lastly I have to talk about this movie’s blatant attempt to tie in to the broader Spider-Man universe which falls flatter than an anchor in the sea and during those moments I just went “what, oh my god” or I just laughed at the movie for trying and failing miserably to do this and also they just feel so predictable because anyone who knows anything about Spider-Man and his story will know exactly what is going to happen to those characters.
And so that was Madame Web and look I didn’t hate this movie but it’s also a dead weight that gets projected in front of you and this year is the 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures and they really need to stop relying on Spider-Man and get back to making rom coms and dramas and great epics like they used to, 1 and a half out of 5.
Saturday, February 3, 2024
Film Review - The Iron Claw (2024)
The Iron Claw is written and directed by Sean Durkin and stars Zac Efron as Kevin Von Erich a member of the famous Von Erich wrestling family who are pushed by their father (Holt McCallany) to win the world title that eluded him, but Kevin and his brothers (Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson and Stanley Simons) will find it tough to do right by each other and their dominating father.
The Iron Claw is a movie I have mixed feeings about but I will say firstly that this is a well made movie, Durkin does a good job in the directors chair in terms of both the dramatic scenes and the wrestling scenes and both work very well both edited together and on their own and the film does have some moving moments in it especially in the second half of the film.
Also the film has a lot of great performances, Efron is most excellent and had it not been for a competitive Best Actor race at the Academy Awards he most certainly would’ve been nominated and it would’ve been a good pick as both physically and dramatically he anchors the film very well, Allen White and Dickinson are very good also as 2 of his brothers while Simons was good but not as good, McCallany is very good also as the Von Erich father who pushes his boys to breaking point and beyond while Lily James and Maura Tierney are solid as the wives who more often than not have to deal with the adversaries the men in their life face and rarely talk to them about.
But at over 2 hours I felt this movie was too long especially towards the end and as the film goes on I felt that it got more and more grim and downbeat and I didn’t find myself enjoying the film as much, I get that some families have tragedies but this just felt repetitive in that respect and after a while I didn’t really find myself all that invested in the suffering and crying and inability of anyone to actually talk to each other and say what they should say.
And so that was the Iron Claw and its well made, has moving moments and good performances but it didn’t work as well for me as others, 2 and a half out of 5.
Film Review - The Boys in the Boat (2024)
The Boys in the Boat is directed by George Clooney and is based on the true story of the University of Washington Rowing team going to the 1936 Berlin Olympics but in 1930s America the Great Depression has hit hard in Seattle and their coach (Joel Edgerton) will have to push his young team hard if their going to succeed against all the odds.
The Boys in the Boat is a movie that I really enjoyed and the main reason for that is I felt that it was simply a good story well told, George Clooney as a director has been VERY hit and miss for me and I’ve been a big fan of his for a long time but both the Monuments Men in 2014 and Suburbicon in 2017 were awful films that didn’t work for me at all but this one does and he does a good job managing the balance of the dramatic scenes and the rowing scenes, the final race in particular is very well done and it had me tense there for a little bit as well.
Also worth noting is the music score by Alexandre Desplat who delivers another solid score even if it isn’t as good as his score for Greta Gerwig’s Little Women in 2019.
Next is Joel Edgerton’s performance, now he might be still doing that quasi American accent he started doing in the Great Gatsby in 2013 but it worked there and it works here, he’s been an underrated talent for a fair while now and Clooney puts him to good use here, I also enjoyed Peter Guiness as the boat maker for the university rowing team and he plays the mentor part well.
But the ones who really shine are the young cast, Callum Turner and the others members of the rowing team (I’m afraid I forgot the other actors names) work very well and the way they worked as a group and in their individual scenes I was reminded of the movie Memphis Belle from 1990 which starred Matthew Modine and Harry Connick Jr among others and that film dealt with young men in a WW2 bomber whereas this is about a rowing team before WW2 starts but they felt similar to me in terms of being young men with dreams and desires and wanting to do their country and their loved ones proud.
And so that was the Boys in the Boat and it isn’t the best movie you’ll see but it’s one that I really enjoyed, 3 and a half out of 5.
Film Review - Argylle (2024)
Argylle is based off of the novel and is the new film by Matthew Vaughn who you may remember from such films as the Kingsman series and Kick-Ass and this time Henry Cavill stars as Agent Argylle the focus of a series of spy novels written by Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) but while Elly is on a train trip one day she meets a real life spy (Sam Rockwell) and hijinks ensue.
Watching the preview for this movie I kept thinking to myself “This will either be great fun or a complete mess” and sadly it is the latter that has won out as I really didn’t like this movie.
Firstly this thing gets so bogged down in twists and turns and surprise reveals that the more this goes on especially in the second half of the film I just sat there going “What” more and more and they also just left me scratching my head more often than not and look I like twists and surprise reveals but it’s a form of slight of hand and when it goes wrong like it does here you find yourself standing there with your pants down and the audience laughing at the colour of your underwear.
M Night Shyamalan when he does this well can sometimes leave enough of a bread crumb trail to where you want to watch that film again to find those clues which sometimes can be right in front of your face but you don’t notice it until the last minute and it works wonderfully well but here it doesn’t and it just makes watching the film all the more baffling and frankly boring.
Next up this movie thinks it is so much more funny and exciting than it really is and I just got so fucking sick of it, every other line in this movie feels like a bad attempt at a joke and I just do not think this works and I’m fed up with it and it’s not just this movie, most big movies now do this and also they do the big action setpiece set to a jazzy jukebox tune and I’m over that bullshit as well.
And this leads me to my next problem with this movie and that is Vaughn’s direction, it just feels so lazy and uninspired as he’s just doing the same thing he’s been doing since Kingsman: The Secret Service nearly 10 years ago and I love that film as well as a lot of Vaughn’s early movies like Stardust and Kick-Ass but here it’s the same over the top fights, the same quasi jokey atmosphere, the same jukebox soundtrack and the same tongue in cheek humour and it feels like the same fucking thing that has now grown so tiresome I’m sick of seeing it.
And next is the cast and almost all of them are wasted here, Bryan Cranston is a great actor but here it just feels like he was just told to be a villain again and he does that, Ariana DeBose, John Cena and Dua Lipa may as well have had their roles played by day player actor as they do next to nothing with the thankless roles their given, Catherine O’Hara plays the same neurotic mother she played in Home Alone 30 plus years ago but she doesn’t go ELLY!! Like she did KEVIN!! In those films while Sam Rockwell I just found to be annoying with his constant talking all the time in dumb spy movie lines.
But the biggest waste is Henry Cavill as Argylle, I mean this is a man who many few was worthy of the mantle of being Superman (no easy task I assure you) and who many more would like to see be the next James Bond and like Daniel Craig in Layer Cake from 2004 Cavill gets the chance to prove he could be a great 007 but no he’s barely in this movie and he doesn’t really get the chance to properly prove he could be a great Bond and that is a genuine shame.
And lastly I love Cats but the Cat in this movie doesn’t get to do anything, no one gives him a fuss or a pat and he doesn’t get to be shown any love by Elly instead he’s a digitally rendered Cat which is obvious at times and he feels more like a prop instead of a cute and cuddly character.
What a waste this movie is, a waste of talent, money, resources and a cute kitty and if there is a worse movie than this one this year then it will most certainly be a bad year at the cinema, 1 out of 5.
Saturday, January 27, 2024
Film Review - Force of Nature: The Dry 2 (2024)
Force of Nature: The Dry 2 is the follow up to 2021’s The Dry and both Writer/Director Robert Connolly and Eric Bana as Aaron Falk return in their roles, this story however takes place in Victoria’s High Country as 5 women (Deborah Lee-Furness, Anna Torv, Robin McLeavy, Sisi Stringer and Lucy Ansell) head up into the high country for a corporate retreat but only 4 return and Alice (Torv) is the one missing and Falk was using her for a high stakes AFP operation so the race is on to find her before a powerful storm system sweeps through the area.
I was very keen for this movie as I really enjoyed the Dry in early 2021 and have rewatched it a couple of times since then, it had a great mystery, a much welcome great role for Bana who had really been struggling since his break out role as Chopper Reed and great use of the drought stricken area it took place in but sadly this movie was the first to fall victim to the dual writers and actors strikes last year and its original August 23rd release date was delayed to February 8th but my main cinema was able to take part in some early screenings over the Australia Day long weekend and I pounced.
And happily most happily this movie has been well worth the wait and if you liked the Dry then you will not be disappointed and in 2 of the 3 fronts that film succeeded well in this one does too:
- The first of those is the location, whereas the first film had this dry desert frontier town feel to it where showers were a luxury and you felt the browns of the drought stricken land and the reds of the nearby fires and clear skied sunsets, this one is full of flowing waterfalls and riverbeds and dense green grassland where it can be easy to get lost and one small mistake can see you going down a mountain to almost certain death and the film makes great use of the high country landscape to full effect and it really shows on a big cinema screen.
- And the second of these is the casting, Bana is as good as ever second time around as Falk but here he has a co-detective to bounce off of in Jacqueline McKenzie and the two play off each other pretty well even though there were times I wished Bana was alone trying to solve the case, Lee-Furness (who previously made a movie set in the High Country called Cool Change with Jon Blake and Lisa Armitage in 1986) is very good here while Richard Roxburgh is good as well in a small role.
Also good are the other returning members of the corporate retreat McLeavy, Stringer and Ansell while Anna Torv who has rapidly emerged as one of my favourite actresses working today delivers her usual very good work as Alice, I can’t wait to see her again in the 3rd Season of the Newsreader later this year.
But there is one area where this movie isn’t as good as the Dry and that is in its central mystery, in the Dry it was easy to follow whereas here it’s firstly not as interesting and secondly at times it feels a little too twisty turny for its own good but that said this movie does NOT In any way fall into the same trap that both Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile or Rian Johnson’s Knives Out sequel Glass Onion fell into where they were just inferior films full stop when compared to their predecessors.
And so that was Force of Nature: The Dry 2 and this is a sequel that is as good as the first film and I will be keen to see this again when it starts its national run on February 8th, 3 weeks before Dune Part 2: Long Live the Fighters Will finally come out and what a glorious day that will be, 4 out of 5.
Film Review - The Color Purple (2024)
The Color Purple is not a remake of Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film but instead based on the Broadway Musical of the same name (though Spielberg and Amblin are producers on it as is Oprah Winfrey who along with Whoopi Goldberg came to prominence with the original film) and this time Fantasia Barrio stars as Celie who is forced to marry the abusive and hard driving Mr (Colman Domingo) but one day she meets the Blues singer Shug (Taraji P Henson) and Celie starts to think of better days ahead as well as possibly seeing her Sister Nettie (Halle Bailey) again.
This new version of Color Purple is a good film but its not without problems but before I delve into those I want to talk about what I do like:
- Firstly I did like the films musical numbers, they are well shot and edited and have a real verve to them and when they came on in the cinema I was tapping my feet to them for the most part though as the film goes on they do start to get in the way of the storytelling a little bit.
- And secondly I think this is a solid cast, Barrio steps into some big shoes taking over Goldberg in this role but she does very well here (even if at times she looked a little too much like Goldberg) as does Danielle Brooks who is very good as Sophia and again taking over another icon in Oprah Winfrey who could not be easy but she does very well, Corey Hawkins and Hally Bailey are good in their roles and also the films production design especially of the swamp house is good as well.
But there are two big issues that I had with this movie:
- The first of these is the films length, it goes for 141 minutes but it felt more like 161 minutes at times especially towards the end where you just want the film to not have another song and dance ballad but instead to wrap up its story so I can exercise my bottom and stop it from going numb sitting in my seat and long musicals are hit and miss for me as well, sometimes like Spielberg’s West Side Story which had a 156 minute length worked wonderfully for me but here I was bothered by the length more.
- And secondly the films more serious storytelling moments and the films vibrant musical numbers clashed for me in terms of the overall tone and more than once I kept thinking to myself “I wish I was watching the original instead” and this feeling is heightened by Colman’s performance as Mr because at times especially in the second half I kept thinking he was doing an imitation of Danny Glover who played Mr in the original film (and was cast as Roger Murtaugh in Lethal Weapon afterwards) and Glover has a distinctive voice that it sounded like Colman was doing that instead of making the part more his own and that bothered me as well.
All that aside however the Color Purple is not a bad film at all it’s a good watch if tough at times but I would watch the Spielberg original instead if your not hugely into musicals as this is a musical through and through and it worked well enough for me that I enjoyed myself watching it, 3 out of 5.
Film Review - The Beekeeper (2024)
The Beekeeper is directed by David Ayer who you may remember from such films as Fury in 2014 and the original Suicide Squad film in 2016 and stars Jason Statham as Adam Clay a beekeeper on a nearby farm who notices the farms owner has committed suicide after falling victim to a phising scam on her computer but Andy is more than any ordinary beekeeper and is determined to find the member of the hive responsible and drain them of their honey.
The Beekeeper is terrific fun and multiple times while watching it I had a big smile on my face and at times I event went “Yaaaayyyy” as Jason does his Stath thing and kills a whole bunch of people but thankfully this time the action is fun to watch and not borderline boring which it has been in some of the Stath’s recent films like Operation Fortune and Expendables 4 though at times Ayer cuts the action scenes a little too tightly and it takes you out of the film at times.
Also the film has a fun story of tech bros as the villains which Josh Hutcherson (he of Peeta Mallark from the Hunger Games) does pretty well and I enjoyed seeing Jeremy Irons and Minnie Driver in small roles and the film clips along at a nice brisk pace and even has some story turns I didn’t expect and were nicely surprising.
And so that was the Beekeeper and its fun to watch and definitely a welcome step up in quality for the Stath who I often found myself wishing was making better films and now he has hopefully this continues, 3 and a half out of 5.
Sunday, January 7, 2024
Film Review - Ferrari (2024)
Ferrari is the new film by Michael Mann and stars Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari who in 1957 is facing a crisis within his company Ferrari and in his personal life as his now ex-wife Laura (Penelope Cruz) still maintains an interest in the company while his mistress Lina (Shailene Woodley) looks after their young son Piero (Giuseppe Festinese) but when a dangerous 1,000 mile race comes on the horizon Enzo decides to bet it all on winning that race.
Ferrari is very much a middle of the road Michael Mann film for me, it is not a dumpster fire like 2009’s Public Enemies or 2015’s Blackhat were for me but nor is it up there with his best films like 1986’s Manhunter or 1993’s The Last of the Mohicans.
For starters both Driver and Cruz are good in this movie both in their individual scenes and especially in their scenes together and it was those scenes that I felt the film really come alive as it felt like Mann had 2 great actors ready to go at each other and he was waiting to press record and get it on film and their chemistry works really well, Cruz in particular was my favourite part of this film from her sadness to anger and ultimately heartbreak at what has happened to Enzo and her life with him now that they are no longer together and sometimes Cruz says this with her eyes and its great to see.
Plus the films racing scenes are pretty good even if at times its all too obvious that CGI has been used in some of the films car crash scenes as it looked a bit janky in spots.
But this movie has 2 big problems:
- The first of those is that this movie lacks a good race car driver character like we got with Christian Bale’s Ken Miles in Ford V Ferrari which James Mangold directed and Mann executive produced and not only was Bale great in that film with his accent and yelling at everyone and swearing his head off but he also served as a pivotal anchor point to that films car racing scenes in terms of giving you a character to really get behind and hope that they win.
Here that is absent and although Patrick Dempsey and his silver hair try their best he’s in too little of the film to really make that key difference that Bale did in FvF.
- And second Shailene Woodley is really bad in this film and her casting is almost as misplaced as Chris Hemsworth’s was in Blackhat where that film has the government people going “we need a great computer person” and then it cuts to Chris in prison doing what looks like his workout for Thor: Ragnarok and that film was fatally undermined by his casting and Woodley’s casting almost does similar damage as she just comes across as dull, lifeless, flat and boring in her scenes and she has not only no real chemistry with Driver but I just do not believe Driver’s character would leave someone as beautiful as Cruz’s Laura for someone like her and also at times she just looks bored to be there and that also bothered me.
All that said however Ferrari is a good enough film that’s worth a watch down the line mainly for Driver and Cruz, 3 out of 5.
Film Review - Next Goal Wins (2024)
Next Goal Wins is the new film by Taika Waititi and is based off of the American Samoa Soccer Team who in 2001 suffered a humiliating 31-0 defeat at the hands of the Socceroos, now 10 years later Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender) is sent there after losing his job to help whip this team into shape before the World Cup Qualifiers but it will not be easy.
Next Goal Wins is not a bad movie from Waititi (those would be Thor: Love and Thunder which got far too silly and Jojo Rabbit which made me so disgusted with its frivolousness in the beginning of that film I nearly walked out of the cinema) but it is not one of his better films either (those would be Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Thor: Ragnarok.)
The main reason it didn’t really do it for me is that I’m starting to get a little bit over Waititi’s style of comedy, it was a lot of fun in Wilderpeople and even in Ragnarok at times but here I didn’t really find myself laughing all that much (though I did chuckle a few times) and I also felt that its attempts at comedy felt like everyone involved was trying too hard to generate those big cinema crowd laughs and when that doesn’t happen I feel a little embarrassed for all involved.
But that said there is some good to be had here, Fassbender is good as Rongen even though I liked him more in David Fincher’s The Killer last year and a lot of the pacific island actors are good as well, I particularly liked Oscar Kightley the head of the American Samoa Football Club and Kaimana as Jaiyah a trans soccer player plus Rachel House fresh from Foundation Season 2, Will Arnett, Angus Sampson and Luke Hemsworth have fun small roles as well plus when the film plays itself as more sincere it did make me smile.
But alas Waititi is starting to become one of those filmmakers like George Lucas or M Night Shyamalan where they can become their own worst enemy and they have to play things a certain way when they sometimes need to just let a good story play out on its own and not feel the need to inject themselves so much into it and that happens here sadly, I hope Waititi changes course soon as I do feel he is a talented guy who is letting his ego run rampant.
And so that was Next Goal Wins and its fun for the most part but it didn’t really work all that well for me as I felt its laughs were too forced and I’m a little over Waititi and his style at the moment, 2 out of 5.
