Film Review - Candyman (2021)

 Candyman is co-written and produced by Jordan Peele and co-written and directed by Nia DiCosta and stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Anthony McCoy a local Chicago artist who is looking for inspiration for his next project so he decides to look up an old Chicago housing district called Cabrini-Green which is said to be haunted by the ghost of the Candyman who is said to appear if you say his name 5 times in a mirror but some ghosts never really rest when the living starts to look them up.

 

Candyman is a movie that in the end did very little for me, don’t get me wrong this is not a bad movie but it was just one that when it was over didn’t really grab me in the same way that Malignant did.

 

But there are some strong positives first of all I can see what Peele and DiCosta are going for in terms of crafting this new version of the story (there was a previous movie in 1992 which starred Tony Todd and Virginia Madsen which is also referenced here) and they really try to frame this new version around the history of racial violence in the United States and how those cycles continue on over the centuries in different ways be it outright beatings or lynchings or how housing projects that home mainly communities of colour are swept aside in high rise developments and left to rot and all of that I thought was interesting.

 

As is how the Police are framed here through DiCosta’s eye, the blue lights flashing back and forth and the use of their shadows is an interesting idea presenting them less like officers doing their job but a Borg like hive where Resistance is Futile and you will be dealt with even if you do what they ask you to do and even some of the casting of the officers was interesting in terms of their large physiques and almost blank faces that show little emotion.

 

Also the film has a good cast, Mateen II is proving to be one of the most interesting actors working today and he is a great anchor point in this film but he is doing something different in each performance I’ve seen him do and it makes me all the more interested to see him in the Matrix Resurrections at the end of the year, Vanessa Williams (part of the Simpsons sign of evil countdown) has a small role here while Teyonah Parris was good as Anthony’s girlfriend as well.

 

And lastly there are some fun horror kills here firstly with the blend of art galleries and bloody violence that was done in a way that I sorely wish 2019’s Velvet Buzzsaw had done as I actually was interested here whereas that film did it in a way that bored me senseless and later on in a bathroom.

 

And yet despite all of those positives this film when it was over and I think about as a whole didn’t really grab me and I feel that this on the whole despite those individual positives all of those elements just didn’t come together into a satisfying whole for me, maybe I would’ve enjoyed this more if I had gotten to see this in a dark cinema space instead of at home in the afternoon in broad daylight but it is what it is.

 

And so that was Candyman and there are some good things here that I liked but on the whole it didn’t come together for me to really love it, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - No Time to Die (2021)

 No Time to Die is the final James Bond film that will star Daniel Craig and this time he has been in retirement with Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux) since the end of 2015’s Spectre but the disappearance of a Russian scientist with ties to the mysterious Safin (Rami Malek) sees Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) recruit Bond to go and save him but he will also have to deal with a new 007 (Lashana Lynch) and the return of Blofeld (Christoph Waltz.)

 

No Time to Die was not only my most anticipated film of 2021 but also the very first film to delay its release date due to the pandemic and this delay hurt me the most as I’m a huge James Bond fan (Timothy Dalton is my personal favourite 007 and it still pains me that the antics of Qintex and Christopher Skase cost him his early 90s films) but could this film deliver the goods or be another long delayed film that smells of shelf stink.

 

Most thankfully this movie is terrific and easily my favourite Daniel Craig film after Casino Royale, Cari Joji Fukunaga who took over this movie when Danny Boyle left the project does a fantastic job directing this film and first I have to start with the opening on the Ice with Rami’s villain and that face mask it has this It/Halloween vibe to it that not only was far scarier than anything in Halloween Kills but also made me wish Fukunaga had directed IT Chapter One as originally planned.

 

In fact parts of this film have a real horror vibe to them and it works very well as do the action sequences which are some of the best I’ve seen in a long time, the opening car chase with the DB5 is so so good and like a good Star Wars battle scene there is nothing quite like a good James Bond car chase and speaking of cars seeing the Aston Martin Volante from the Living Daylights was quite the thrill and I was flipping out inside my head in my cinema seat.

 

Also the films production design is really good, the island lair of Safin in particular has that vintage Ken Adam bigness to it but left to rust for 40 or 50 odd years out at sea and it looked fantastic on the big cinema screen and also the cast as a whole are really good.

 

Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw and Naomie Harris are always good value as the MI6 regulars and I hope they continue on in those roles when a new Bond is introduced, Lashana Lynch was good as the new 007 though Ana De Armas is the best newcomer here as Paloma a rookie agent and her chemistry with Craig from Knives Out hasn’t changed one bit, they’ve still got it.

 

As for Rami Malek I think he is good in the film but it feels like he gets the short end of the stick when it comes to characters in this script, he does his best and has some memorable moments but it feels like a lot of his stuff was cut from the final film perhaps to defuse the endless “He’s really playing Dr No” fan theories that went on and on before the film was endlessly delayed.

 

But there is one big problem I have with this (well 2 problems mainly) but this first one is a biggy and its Madeleine Swann, again; Now don’t get me wrong Lea Seydoux is a wonderful actress but here not only does she have little to no chemistry with Craig but everytime she came on screen I didn’t care about her at all I just wanted her to leave and given that the emotional core of this film hinges so much on that relationship it drags the film as a whole down from being a grand slam home run for me.

 

The other problem is how Spectre is handled, this organisation is a cornerstone of the Bond franchise and lengthy legal battles have been waged over the years regarding the rights to this group and its leader Blofeld and to see both this movie and the last one use them both so poorly is a personal disappointment for me especially as they were where both Dr. Claw and MAD from Inspector Gadget came from.

 

And so that was No Time to Die and it’s a great end to a polarising run in Daniel Craig’s time as James Bond but he went out his way and on his terms and happily he went out on a high note despite some missteps, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - The Many Saints of Newark (2021)

 The Many Saints of Newark is the prequel film to the hit TV series the Sopranos which starred the late James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano though this movie takes place in the late 60s and early 70s and sees his son Michael play the young Tony as he navigates his way through life in Newark, New Jersey and all of the mafia and racial tensions that neighbourhood and time period brings.

 

The Many Saints of Newark is quite possibly one of if not the worst film I have seen so far this year and this movie has the same problem that I felt befell Halloween Kills.

 

And that is the script for this movie much like Halloween Kills has too much focus on other stories and characters and not enough focus on where it should be and this movie has way too much focus on other characters played by people like Ray Liotta, Jon Bernthal, Alessandro Nivola, Vera Farmiga, Leslie Odom Jr among others and their story and characters aren’t that interesting and they take up so much of the screen time that by the time you get to the young Tony Soprano it feels like too little and too late.

 

And also the way this film is edited and paced feels very off with the first half of the film for the most part feeling very long and drawn out and full of fires and shootouts and family dinners and squabbling that is boring to watch and not all that interesting because it all feels like a distraction to what Sopranos fans (and I’ve only seen a little bit of the TV series) have come for.

 

And that is young Michael Gandolfini channel his late father which he does do very well and he’s easily the best thing about this film but by the time he comes into the film which feels like only in the last hour or so the film has lost you as a viewer and Gandolfini isn’t in a lot of this film when he should have been the core focus and centre of this movie instead of all these other people who you just sit there watching and waiting for them to die from a gunshot off camera and it all feels like a horrible waste.

 

And so that was the Many Saints of Newark and there are few Saints here for fans of the Sopranos or indeed a good gangster film as this fails miserably at both of those tasks with poor unfocused storytelling and boring characters save for Gandolfini who deserved far far better than this, 1 out of 5.