Film Review - Fantastic Beasts and the Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)

Fantastic Beasts and the Crimes of Grindelwald is again written by JK Rowling and directed by David Yates and continues the tale of Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) who is secretly assigned by Professor Dumbledore (Jude Law) to spy on the powerful wizard Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) who is wanting to make the wizarding world the dominant one even going to evil means to make that a reality.

As someone who is not a Potterhead I thought this film was okay and I want to start with the positives firstly Mr Redmayne continues to be good as Newt Scamander and times his line deliveries very well in terms of when to be funny, when to be sweet and when to show his fascination with the creatures he collects and nutures and also Jude Law is very good as the young Dumbledore though sadly he is given very little to do in the film.

And this leads me to the 2 main problems I have with this movie:

- Firstly Ms Rowling’s screenplay is very fragmented in its structure and while watching I felt like I was watching the draft of a book on film instead of a script, one section in particular which was quite good feels like the chapter of a book where the story stops to develop a few things outside of it that in a book where you have no time limits and restrictions work great but as a screenplay the clock is ticking and anything that feels like a distraction just has to go.

And also there are times where the script struggles to give any meaningful screen time to its large cast of characters, the majority of the characters introduced in the first Fantastic Beasts film find their screen time diminished, some of the new characters don’t feel as developed as they should and Dumbledore just feels like a glorified cameo and doesn’t have anywhere near as much screen time as he should have.

- Secondly Grindelwald is a fucking boring character and it isn’t helped that Depp is just doing the same bloody performance he’s been doing for the past 5 to 10 years where he has the makeup on, he’s got the Jack Sparrow esque voice and he sounds like he’s just goddamn sleep walking through the whole thing until he gets the pay cheque.

And look I know I shouldn’t judge but Grindelwald is the title character and he should be a compelling and menacing villain who wants to shake the order of the world asunder by preying on wizard’s weaknesses and then compelling them to spread his message across the world even if it means resorting to violence but there is none of that because its stuck in this boring performance that has outstayed its welcome, it’s a real shame that Colin Farrell wasn’t able to be the villain for this new Wizarding World series as he would’ve been a much better villain and a good contrast to both Mr Redmayne and Mr Law.

And so that was Fantastic Beasts and the Crimes of Grindelwald and look as someone who isn’t a Potterhead I didn’t hate the film but it also did very little for me as its script feels more like a book that’s disjointed and its lead villain is stuck with a boring performance, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - The Girl in the Spiders Web (2018)

The Girl in the Spiders Web is not based off of the late Steig Larsson Millenium books but is based off of the book written after his death and this time Claire Foy replaces Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander who is asked to investigate the disappearance of Project Freefire which could give one person complete control of the US Nuclear Arsenal though as she investigates the case demons from her past also emerge.

The Girl in the Spiders Web is very much familiar to me in that I feel about this movie the same way I felt about Pacific Rim: Uprising back in March in that this film is not terrible or awful in any way but really suffers from the long shadow the 2011 film David Fincher made based off of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo book which I absolutely loved.

Ms Foy does a good job as Lisbeth but a lot of the time it feels like she is playing Catwoman/Selina Kyle as a lot of the film just feels very clean for the most part like its only a low ranking MA15+ film when it could so easily have been a high M rated film with some minor tweaking whereas the Fincher movie really felt like a great fit for him as a director it was a dark, nasty crime procedural that also peeked at some of the underbelly of human society something Fincher in films like Fight Club and Seven was no stranger to.

Here it feels like a Catwoman solo film in any other name where something gets stolen and Lisbeth has to get it back but that is only the films first big problem the second is the Blomkvist who was the co lead in the Fincher film and in the Larsson books is very very badly handled here he kind of just drifts into the story, does very little, means very little and then leaves that’s about it and it feels like he was inserted into the story during a script rewrite of an earlier draft that did not feature him in much capacity and yeah that’s that.

Look the Girl in the Spiders Web is not a bad film but its also a very pale shadow of the David Fincher film and like when I saw Pacific Rim: Uprising I just couldn’t help but think of the earlier film it followed which got me into the books after I saw it but the underuse of Blomkvist and it feeling more like a Catwoman film than a Dragon Tattoo story really bothered me, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

Bohemian Rhapsody was directed by Bryan Singer (though Dexter Fletcher did finish the final 2 weeks of the shoot) and stars Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury the front man for Queen and the movie chronicles their rise to fame and culminates with their thunderous performance at the Live Aid concert in 1985.

I was very excited to see this movie due to my love of Queen’s music, Bryan Singer’s 4 X-Men films and those amazing trailers for this movie which felt like mini pop videos in their own right but some of the early response also had me nervous about it, would it be another film from this year to bite the dust or would it be one that rocks me.

Well it is actually the latter as I really, really enjoyed this movie and I have to start with Mr Malek as Freddie as he simply IS Mr Mercury on screen, he embodies every aspect of the man so well that he should storm home with the best actor Academy Award early next year as this is the type of performance that that Oscar should embody, a performance that commands the screen, takes the film and runs with it and carries the whole thing on their shoulders.

He effortlessly captures the loneliness, the sense of wanting to belong, the isolation and the temperament of the man as well as the iconic showman that you just cannot take your eyes off him whenever he is on screen and when he is doing the Live Aid recreation it is simply electric and I was definitely buzzing after the film ended.

Speaking of those concert sequences they are terrific fun and look and sound great on a big cinema screen and during those scenes I couldn’t help but want to grab my empty bottle of water and pretend it was a microphone as they have such energy to them that it feels like your in that audience and the Live Aid recreation in particular really shines and I did get a little emotional during that climatic sequence.

But aside from Mr Malek, a lot of the films other performances work as well, Tom Hollander was good as Jim Beach the long time lawyer/manager of the group and a producer on this movie though at times I did think he felt like a stand in for Michael Fassbender who Singer worked with on Days of Future Past and Apocalypse, Lucy Bonython from Sing Street is also really good as Mary Austin Freddie’s long time friend and companion and Ben Hardy, Gwynlym Lee and Joseph Mazzello (the little boy from Jurassic Park) are also quite good as the other band members.

Now comes sadly the issues though these are minor issues for me and that is the script by Anthony McCarten which takes a lot of liberties in terms of the timeline of events as shown in the film as it crams in a lot within a 134 minute runtime and for me it worked well enough but I did think that at times the film dragged on with those events and shuffled around a little too much prior to the 1985 segments but there is one scene in particular and I don’t want to say much more that really got to my heartstrings.

And so that was my review of Bohemian Rhapsody and I really enjoyed this movie despite some issues with the timeline shuffling in the script but musical biopics are tough to make when their based on real life musicians as the real people will have to be involved to get the clearance for the songs and that means sacrifices have to be made unless you do an Eddie and the Cruisers type film but all that aside I do highly recommend this movie, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Halloween (2018)

Halloween is produced by Jason Blum and John Carpenter returns as executive producer and composes part of the score for this movie and 40 years have passed since the events of the original Halloween film from 1978 but Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) still hasn’t forgotten that night but when Michael Myers escapes from state custody Laurie vows to kill him once and for all.

Halloween is a great continuation of the series and smartly it only follows on from the 1978 original and ignores all of the other sequels that were made over the years so you only have to watch that film and your all set for this new one and there are multiple reasons I feel this new sequel works really well.

- Firstly it is great to hear that proper music for Halloween, Carpenter and his son Cody along with Daniel Davies do a great job of putting new themes while also playing the iconic themes from the original film and when those themes play in the movie it raises you in your seat and really adds to the suspense and tension of the scenes it plays under and I was watching more awarely and tapping my fingers.

- Secondly Michael Myers is menacing again, his shape of pure evil the tale of the Boogeyman personified (though John Wick could’ve killed him as he is the man you send to kill the fucking boogeyman and I did think of that during the film) is so so wonderful to watch as like in the original he feels like an elemental force of pure evil that cannot be bargained with, reasoned with and doesn’t feel pity or remorse or fear when he comes for you be afraid, be very afraid.

- And lastly Jamie Lee Curtis is fantastic again as Laurie and though the hand of the late Debra Hill isn’t felt with the writing of her character as it was in the original director David Gordon Green and his co-writers Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley do a good job of honouring the character from the first film and building upon it for this new film but 2 others deserve special mention as well.

And they are Judy Greer and Andi Matichak they really hold their own with Jamie Lee in this movie and it was terrific to see the 3 generations of Strode women fight off Michael Myers.

And also before I finish up there is some great MA15 horror violence in this movie and if you are squeamish I would want to either avoid this movie and take someone with you as there are some brutal deaths on show which I loved every moment of.

And so that was Halloween and it was a really fun movie for me that is also one of my favourites of the year so far, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - A Star is Born (2018)

This is the 4th version of A Star is Born to be made the last one being in 1976 with Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson this time Bradley Cooper stars and directs and co-writes and produces this version and plays Jackson Maine an alcoholic country singer who meets Ally (Lady Gaga) in a bar and discovers her talent for singing and decides to help her launch a career in the music industry.

I have been very torn on this movie since I saw it but after thinking about it a little bit I think that in all honesty it is okay nothing great but nothing overly horrible either and a lot of that comes down to Lady Gaga’s performance she is a genuine star here and owns every scene she’s in and when watching her in this movie it feels like playing this character just comes as easy to her as putting on one of her personas that she developed early on in her career and I hope she does more movie roles in the future.

Where this falls over for me is Bradley Cooper both in his direction and his performance and I’ll start first with the performance side and it really felt like to me that he was emulating Kris Kristofferson from that 1976 version as he has the scruffy beard, the chest hair and the slightly midwestern twinge in his voice and after a while I kinda got sick of watching him drink every kind of alcohol, clash with people on his tour and sing a bunch of songs now this is the material from what I’ve read I haven’t seen the other versions but it kind of wore out its welcome for me after a while.

As for his direction it was okay but there are an awful lot of close ups some of them very close up indeed and some of them of Lady Gaga made me a little uncomfortable to watch especially during some of the romance scenes where Cooper is touching Ms Gaga an awful lot now I’m not prudish in any way but I sat there thinking “Okay can we call cut and not go so close in, it’s a little uncomfortable to watch like this.”

Lastly the script as it focuses more and more on Jackson’s decline it sends the overall film into a decline in its back half and for me I really began to lose interest and I was checking my watch on a few occasions which is a bit of a shame but these things happen.

And so that was A Star is Born and its okay and that’s really due to Lady Gaga’s performance the rest of it really did very little for me I’m afraid, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

Bad Times at the El Royale is written and directed by Drew Goddard and concerns a lounge singer (Cynthia Ervio), a priest (Jeff Bridges), two young women (Dakota Johnson and Cailee Spaeny) and a vacuum salesman (Jon Hamm) all come to the El Royale hotel which is a Bi State hotel between Nevada and California but all is not quite what it seems.

I did not like this movie very much I’m afraid and have likened to calling it “Diet Tarantino” as a nod to Diet Coke for this movie so desperately wants to be a Hateful Eight type of movie where a group of strangers come to a secluded place, their stuck there and things get very twisty and turny about why their there and what they want to do.

And Quentin can pull off that kind of film as he is a great screenwriter that can blend jukebox soundtracks, extreme violence and snappy dialogue that balances the tones of being fun and serious and direct those actors in a way that really seems to bring out the best in them in his films Mr Goddard is not that kind of director and it really shows in this film as the extreme violence moments come out of nowhere and land with a thud (and I love MA15 violence) and the jukebox soundtrack and snazzy dialogue just feel very out of place.

And I loved the Martian in 2015 which Mr Goddard wrote but this feels like a major step back, now as for the performances Ms Ervio and Ms Johnson really shine best here as both of them get a lot of meaty screen time and develop their characters well as for Mr Bridges well he kinda just does the Jeff Bridges thing same with Jon Hamm but the biggest waste is Chris Hemsworth now I love this man and wish he would get some of the opportunities Mel Gibson got at the height of his stardom (Hamlet, Maverick, Air America for example) but I thought he was terrible here as this flower child hippie type of character who shows off his abs and I didn’t like him here.

And so that was Bad Times at the El Royale aka Diet Tarantino and in all honesty wait for the Classic Tarantino to come out next year with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - First Man (2018)

First Man is directed by Damien Chazelle and stars Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong the astronaut who would make history by being the first man on the Moon in July 1969 well this movie tells the tale of how he got to be on that Apollo mission and finally that history making Moonwalk.

First Man is a movie I very much enjoyed mainly due to Mr Chazelle’s craftsmanship which has come a very long way from La La Land last year which I merely thought was okay there is some beautiful visuals here by Linus Sandgren where he combines an old fashioned film feel with deep blacks in space and tight angles when the astronauts are in the various space rockets and capsules and the way he also uses the blacks, reds, yellows and blues in particular was very eye catching.

And also there is some truly brilliant sound design on show here so good that I want this movie to win the Best Sound Design Oscar next year (A Quiet Place should get the other Sound Oscars) there is some great uses of silence when the rockets and capsules are in space and some great rumbling on the mix when the rockets take off or when something goes wrong.

Both of these elements made this very worthwhile in the cinema and will really shine on the new 4K Ultra HD format.

As for the performances well Mr Gosling was fine but he was pretty much his usual self he does a good job for sure but dialogue for me isn’t his strong suit particularly when it comes across as a little clunky at times, Claire Foy is great as Janet Armstrong who is trying to have something of a normal life and raise her family while also having to bear the burden of someone who could become a widow at any time not to mention live with having already lost a loved one and her grace and dignity out front that conceals a private fever, rage and feeling of powerlessness is fantastic to watch.

It gives me hope that she can overcome my doubts about her as Lisbeth Salander in the Girl in the Spiders Web next month and also I enjoyed seeing Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler and Ciaran Hinds in their small roles.

But lastly if I have a complaint and I do its that this movie is too long, at 141 minutes there are times where this movie drags with some sections of the story going on longer than it feels like it does and during those moments I was checking my watch and with a trimming of 5 to 10 minutes it would’ve made for a great film.

And so that was my review of First Man, a film I really liked despite being a little long, 3 and a half out of 5.