Once Upon a Hollywood Player: A Tale of 2 Filmmakers

Well recently I picked up Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in 4K and I had heard good things about the 4K disc so I wanted to see it for myself and to my surprise and delight I really enjoyed it, the film plays really well in the home environment maybe better than it did in the cinema environment as watching it on my TV allowed to take in much more the dialogue setpiece/short story structure that is similar to Pulp Fiction while also throwing in a dash of Inglorious Basterds as well.

But while I was rewatching it another movie that is similar but different to it started to come to mind and that film was the Player from 1992 by Robert Altman and I began to think that they would make an interesting double bill at a specialist cinema one day, but why did that feeling come to mind.

Well both movies came at an interesting point in each of their respective directors careers, firstly with the Player Mr Altman was at a point in his career where it had stalled to some extent having had some success in the 1970s and then Popeye in 1980 really setting back his ability to work within the changing studio environment and while he did do some smaller scale work during the 80s the Player was his grand return to mainstream success and that then allowed him to make the movie he tried to make before the Player called Short Cuts.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood meanwhile was Quentin Tarantino for the first time since Reservoir Dogs working without the Hutt esque Weinstein brothers though going back to one of previous studio homes Sony/Columbia who had distributed Django Unchained in 2013 and when watching this movie the freedom flows through each scene as it really feels like Tarantino is able to do his thing while also having a studio that will finally push back to some extent on some of his decisions.

And also both the Player and Once Upon a Time craft something of a fictional narrative within their Hollywood narratives, the Player first and foremost while based off of a novel that Mr Altman helped adapt to the big screen there is a very fun murder mystery at the centre of that story that also allows for a whole lot of great cameos as well as poking fun at the studio executives that populate that story.

The Tarantino film has its element of fiction with its 2 leads Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth played in career best form by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt as they try to navigate a changing Hollywood landscape while also telling the story of Sharon Tate a real life person played by Margot Robbie very well which is done in a very interesting direction.

And so that was that column, it was an idea that came to my mind and I decided to write it down in a blog post for everyone and maybe that double bill might happen one day, it would certainly create some interesting discussion if it goes down well enough.

Reflections in the Force of the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy

With Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker now out in cinemas, I have been thinking about not only that film on its own but the overall sequel trilogy which consisted of this movie, The Last Jedi and the Force Awakens as a whole and how I feel about it now that the pieces of the puzzle are now in place and we can now see the story in 3 parts instead of just 2.

The Rise of Skywalker on its own was a very disappointing movie and the taste of it felt very bitter when it was over and as it got towards the end I just began to feel sad that this whole trilogy was going to end this way instead of the magnificent ending the original trilogy got with Return of the Jedi in 1983 and the good ending the prequel trilogy got with Revenge of the Sith in 2005.

And as many discuss Rise of Skywalker in the Twittum Realm and the Real World alike, I have increasingly turned my thoughts to the sequel trilogy as a whole and the Force is not with me this time.

For increasingly I feel now that the story of this trilogy has been fully told that Kathleen Kennedy and those in charge at Lucasfilm really had no idea what to do with this trilogy when she was anointed by George Lucas himself in 2012 when George sold Lucasfilm to Disney and Ms Kennedy was chosen to be his successor.

And look I can understand the decision by Disney not to use the treatments for 7, 8 and 9 that George gave them in that sale as I’m certain many had the feeling that the Prequel Trilogy was unpopular, George was very much hated by the fans for those Prequel films and his constant tinkering with the original trilogy while also denying fans a properly restored unaltered original trilogy to go with the revised versions which when adding in his stubborn and inflexible attitude can lead you to why Disney went the direction they did.

But herein lies the problem George for all of his faults and for all of the many faults of the Prequel Trilogy at the very least sat down and had a clear idea of where that trilogy was going and the story those 3 films were going to tell which was essentially the backstory of the original films which Sir Alec Guiness told us all about so memorably in the original Star Wars film.

Same with the original trilogy, George had this crazy idea in his head for a 1930s/40s style Republic Serial movie that thanks to those like Steven Spielberg and Alan Ladd Jr who was running 20th Century Fox when the original film was being made stuck it through and created at that time the biggest movie in history that was ahead of its time and when you got to Empire and Jedi and others came in like Irvin Kershner, Richard Marquand and Lawrence Kasdan to take over directing and writing duties there was still a strong sense of cohesion and continuity that makes that trilogy feel like a one big movie told in 3 parts as well as those 2 films now becoming the standard those like it at the time had to reach and that wasn’t easy.

Disney meanwhile just didn’t do that work at all and reflecting back it increasingly feels like they had an idea for one movie (The Force Awakens) and then another movie (The Last Jedi) and then were left with really nothing to think of for the third film (Colin Trevorrow of Jurassic World was going to do it but he ended up being fired and his script was thrown in the bin which left JJ having to start from complete scratch and put a movie out in 2 years.)

Now let’s go back to those previous 2 films as on their own they actually work pretty well, The Force Awakens sets a tone of fun adventure in the style of the original film and borrows very heavily from it while the Last Jedi changes that tone for a more realistic style where good and bad feel much more a shade of grey and goes for some very big and unexpected story and character choices that when melded together as a complete script sadly don’t show the clockwork precision of the writing in Looper and Knives Out.

And when you put the puzzle together it creates this image of a trilogy that was in constant search of a consistent story, idea, tone, vision and characters and their arcs; JJ had his version, Rian had his version and they just to me didn’t fit together at all and just act in reactive panic to each other:

- The Force Awakens going back to the structure and tone of the original Star Wars film to react against the Prequels

- The Force Awakens gets a lot of complaints for doing just that so here’s a new director in Rian Johnson who with the Last Jedi will go his own way with his own style and tone and vision that will subvert all expectations

- The Last Jedi’s subversion of expectations and the more real world tone divides and fractures the fan base so JJ now has to come back and do the same job he did with the Force Awakens all over again

And when you look at it that way you just see this jumping at shadows style of movie making that just does not work and could so easily have been avoided if Ms Kennedy had given the directive to JJ, Kasdan and Michael Arndt who wrote the first script for Force Awakens to come up with a blueprint plan for 7, 8 and 9 much like George had before he sold it off.

And this approach is known to work as the very same studio Walt Disney Pictures put out Avengers: Endgame this year and Avengers: Infinity War the year before, 2 movies that wrapped up 7 years of storytelling by bringing Thanos into the limelight, having all the heroes step up to try and stop him and then end the Infinity Saga in a way that leaves critics and fans satisfied and they fucking well did just that as Kevin Feige had a plan, a vision, a consistent tone all in his head and he hired the people he felt he could work with and trust with his children and who could execute his vision and barring a few missteps along the way they did that very thing.

Sorry to get a bit rambling and long winded with this column but it just felt like the way of the Force to sit down like this and confess into it but before I do wrap up this column fully we have to look forward which as Master Yoda says in Empire is difficult to see as always in motion is the future but I feel there are 2 big things Disney and Lucasfilm must do going forward.

First and foremost is that those in charge if they decide to commit to a new series of films after this have to sit down, come up with a treatment plan for 3 films and commit to that vision and stick with it otherwise we will just end up back where we started where we got a series of reactionary movies that really end up satisfying very few and causing the faith to be tested.

Second and last, I think Disney and Lucasfilm have to commit to doing a 4K restoration of the unaltered original trilogy which I know will be not an easy task given how adamant Lucas was that they never see the light of day again but I feel it has to be done as the fanbase is divided between those who only love the original films and those who love the broader saga and both versions being available will buy peace and bring balance to the Force, it sounds silly I know but this is how I feel.

It's That Time Again: 2019 in Film Part 2

Well here we are again, the 5 films that I found to be my absolute favorites of this year and now that we’ve cooked the turkeys its now time to feast on them by enjoying the favorites so let’s get underway with number 5 and boy was this the hardest spot to fill on this list, the top 4 were pretty much locked into place but 5th place was tough.

But once it was locked in I began to think about the list overall and what I wanted to accomplish with it and what I wanted to do with it was have it reflect as much as possible my own tastes so to speak, what I want out of the movie going experience and have it be a list where people could look at it and go “Oh that’s Simon as close as possible in movie tastes.”

With that disclaimer here is number 5 and it’s:

Ready or Not: Boy was this movie a surprise for while I had enjoyed the trailer for it, I wasn’t sure if I would give it a chance or not but after some strong recommendations and a bit of good timing I was able to give it a watch and boy did I enjoy myself.

Firstly it had a great idea for a horror movie, this rich family that made their name through playing these games and carrying that tradition into whoever marries into their family, secondly it had some terrific MA15 bloody violence that really made me feel all tasty inside as it felt properly gooey and icky in all the best ways and thirdly the look of the film and the use of night photography really added to the mood and tension of the story being told.

And lastly I can’t not mention this movie and not talk about the lead performance by Ms Samara Weaving, she is truly great in this movie as the innocent bride marrying a man she loves only for it all to change over the course of what should be the happiest night of her life her wedding night and she truly rises to the challenge much like Sigourney Weaver did in the first Alien film and she also has a pair of lungs in here as her screams are fantastic, I can’t wait to see more of her in these lead roles in the future.

4. Rocketman: Though Dexter Fletcher had the unhappy task of finishing Bryan Singer’s Bohemian Rhapsody (a job Singer should have finished himself instead of throwing his actors and crew under the Bus for the sake of his personal ego) Rocketman is his movie through and through and like BoRhap it was for me a terrific time at the movies.

Firstly I loved the way he stages the music in the film, yes the film uses Elton’s songs but they are done in a way that reflect the mood of those songs from the big song and dance routine of Wednesday-sorry-Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting to the soulful slowness of Your Song and Tiny Dancer to the manicness of the Crocodile Rock where the crowd becomes the chorus in that song, it was all done so well where I was singing with my pretend microphone-sorry-Water Bottle in my cinema seat.

Secondly Taron Egerton is fantastic as Sir Elton, the moment you first see him which is during the Saturday Night musical sequence he gives you none of that aggravation and he’s had with that discipline he captures the vocal tone of Sir Elton very well and he in some cases improves upon it where it’s a little bit funny, this feeling inside and its not one of those you can easily hide blue jean Baby, LA Lady seamstress of the band in the case of Your Song and Tiny Dancer and though some of the drugs scenes bothered me he sells the pain very well.

And lastly Fletcher’s direction and editing I feel fixed the primary problem I had with Bohemian Rhapsody which as great the performances and concert scenes were (and they were genuinely great) that film suffered from Singer’s firing before filming wrapped as it showed he wasn’t there to properly edit the film in post production and find the right tempo between the drama scenes and the concert scenes but here Mr Fletcher was there all the way through and he did find that balance and strikes it very very well.

3. Dolemite is My Name: The only non cinema release on this list is the Netflix film Dolemite is My Name which starred Eddie Murphy as Rudy Ray Moore who created the character of Dolemite in the hope of advancing his own career only to create a great character that his own community really responds to despite big opposition in his way.

Boy did I love watching this movie and firstly I have to talk about Eddie, as a longtime fan of his going back to my first showing of Beverly Hills Cop 1 and 2 in my early 20s the moment I saw him on screen I said to myself “He’s Back” it was just this feeling that came over me he was back, back to his best form and it feels like it has been an eternity since he was this good in a movie (a lot of this due to his own ego getting the better of him) and I just ate up every moment of it.

And secondly I loved the message of this story regarding following a dream and a desire to make that happen and gathering the people around you in pursuit of that goal and yes things can get tense and people don’t always see eye to eye but if the drive and the desire are there then sometimes these things work out and for that community to see something of themselves on a big cinema screen done in a way that felt right to them it was just wonderful to see.

And when it was all over I said to myself “Coming to America 2 is in great hands” as Eddie has got this team making that sequel due late next year and I am very confident that they will deliver the goods.

Now comes my top 2 and it became no question what these 2 films would be and though they briefly went back and forth for a time I have no hesitation in having a clear delineation in second and first place.

2. Ford V Ferrari: Like Dolemite, this was a very late entry that was directed by James Mangold and starred Matt Damon and Christian Bale as designer engineers for Ford who want to build a race car to beat Ferrari at the 24 hours of Le Mans in the 1960s.

And boy did I love this movie when I saw it each of the 3 times I did in the cinema, Mr Mangold has crafted for me a near perfect 2 and a half hour movie that firstly shows the best of people coming together to come up with a challenge and a product that will deliver on its promise and the drama in the film was as riveting to watch as the racing scenes were as like Ron Howard’s criminally underseen and overlooked 2013 film Rush its built on a great rivalry both personally and company wise this time around and its terrific to watch.

Secondly Mangold and his team in those Drama moments are having a bit of fun with the Ford executives characters especially those played by Tracy Letts (who would make a great Gough Whitlam in a biopic about his government one day) and Josh Lucas who come across as versions of the various studio executives Mangold has come across over the years (and he made Cop Land for Miramax during the time of the Weinsteins) and some of the conflicts on show reflect I think to him what its like to make a big movie for a big company and the meddling that can happen for good and for bad.

And lastly it has really made me miss 20th Century Fox as one of the big 6 movie studios that governed the movie industry for most of its lifetime as they were a studio that weren’t afraid to take some big risks in their lifespan be it Star Wars, X-Men, The Abyss, Alien you name it now granted a good chunk of their risk taking didn’t quite work out but they built some of this most iconic brands of the business through that risk taking and crafted such a rich history of movie making over the decades that to see them now just another folder in the spreadsheet of Walt Disney Pictures is heartbreaking to me and I miss them deeply.

But now we end at number 1 the top of the pile, the king of the mountain and for most of the year like in 2018 this has never been in question in my mind and that movie is:

Dragon Ball Super – Broly: Yes this was the one movie I was most looking forward to this year and it was the one movie above all else that I got the most out of.

For while I had some minor complaints that really only reflect critiscisms I’ve had of the Dragon Ball franchise post the Freeza Arc what this movie got right it got so very right.

The fanservice, the animation, the voice acting, the music, the story telling, the way it truly developed Broly into an actual character and not just a one dimensional punching bag, the fight scenes all of it was just operating at the highest levels rarely seen in the franchise in a long long time, you could really tell that this movie was a movie the Dragon Ball team really believed in and they wanted to craft something truly special.

And lastly it has given me a new appreciation for the overall leadership of this franchise since Funimation took direct control of its direction in 1999 working with Toei Animation in Japan, this blend of East and West working together has created a sense of leadership that has been steady, stable and patient in crafting the direction, knowing what stories to tell and then later on dubbing it for Western audiences in a way that feels true to its Japanese source.

And given what a mess most Western franchises have found themselves be it Star Wars, the Wizarding World, DC to name as examples where there has been this ungodly mess with no sense of direction, going from one movie to the next, throwing ideas against the wall in the hope that something will stick and giving huge power to a creator who can’t write a goddamn screenplay the fact that Dragon Ball has been steady and stable for the most part save for a recent hiccup is something I am coming to appreciate more and more.

And that’s it for this year but not the decade and in the third part of this decade I’ll look back at my favourites of this decade.

Film Review - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is the third and final film in this sequel trilogy that began with The Force Awakens in 2015 and continued on with The Last Jedi in 2017 and concerns Rey (Daisy Ridley) continuing her Jedi training while the Resistance deals with the return of former Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) who is vowing a new vengeance on the galaxy he once ruled.

The Rise of Skywalker was a movie I held out hope for despite my mixed feelings on the Last Jedi and my meh feeling on the Force Awakens because the trailers had kindled that hope that somehow, someway despite the involvement of Batman V Superman screenwriter Chris Terrio, JJ Abrams’s return would deliver a strong finale like Richard Marquand did with Return of the Jedi in 1983.

But alas Mr Abrams does not deliver a good finale in fact he delivers not only the worst movie in this sequel trilogy but the worst movie since the prequel trilogy for 2 very big reasons:

- The first is sadly that very same screenplay co written by Mr Terrio (he also wrote Argo to be fair but Ben Affleck’s confident and assured direction really saved that film from being a tonal disaster) and much like Batman V Superman, it has such a messy structure to it in terms of its story ideas and comes across as so dour and sullen in its dialogue that no one really seems to be able to shine above it or make this story and dialogue work at all.

And it throws so much at the viewer in such a hurried way that you don’t get the time to really take anything in as it just wants to rush you to the next action sequence so you don’t get bored sitting there in your seat though that only works for so long and also like M Night Shymalan and Glass back in January it never feels like a cohesive script, just a bullet point list of ideas that get thrown against a wall in the hope that something, anything will stick and work and again none of it really does and it made me sad sitting there watching it.

- And secondly the return of the Emperor which has been heavily featured in the trailers and posters for this movie and it really makes little sense right from the opening crawl as I just sat there multiple times going “What the Fuck” and I had suspected that the only real reason he came back was because Supreme Leader Snoke was killed off stupidly in the Last Jedi and watching Palpatine in this movie just made me search my feelings and know it to be true after all and again this just feels like a sad sad and bitter disappointment.

I have had this feeling for some time that Star Wars was doomed to go down the same path as its sister brands from the 70s and 80s like Alien, Predator, Rambo and the Terminator which each had groundbreaking early movies that then gave way to mediocre follow ups and wore out the series welcome and watching the Rise of Skywalker again I ended up searching my feelings and knowing it to be true and bitterness like anger, fear, aggression and hate lead to the Dark Side and I will never turn to the Dark Side but I cannot give this movie a good review or recommendation, 1 out of 5.

Its That Time Again: 2019 in Film Part 1

And thus it was on every December film pundits the world over begin to write up about the year that was in film.

The favorites they watched and the Turkeys they watched, the latter having them wish that they could be cooked like a Turkey for the Christmas Table at least then they could get some enjoyment out of it but alas they just mention 5 of them one last time as they took a combined 12 to 13 hours out of their life that they’ll regret throwing away as their dying.

Speaking of Turkeys its time to talk about those first as they need a well deserved cooking in the oven before I feast on them in the favourites section which will be the focus of Part 2.

With that out of the way coming in as Turkey Number 4 is:

The Lion King: Yes Jon Favreau’s semi live action/animation remake of the classic 1994 animated film is fifth on this list.

But why you ask well like so many of Disney’s live action remakes of their animated classics it has so little understanding of why that animated film was so good and holds up so strongly to this day as like 2016’s the Jungle Book Mr Favreau opts for a more realistic look and feel to the animals and the environments that they live in.

And for the opening of Circle of Life it kinda works but one scene makes not a movie and the rest of the movie that comes afterwards the animals have to actually emote and express themselves and it instantly pulls you out of the film as you just keep replaying the original in your head which had wonderfully expressive eyes and faces on the animals which helped to land the emotional resonance of the story whereas here everything just starts to look dull, lifeless, brown and scorched after a while and I almost got up and walked out.

But that’s only the first sin this King makes, the second is failing utterly in its attempt to recreate key emotional moments from the original and that is most noticeable when it comes to the handling of Mufasa, yes James Earl Jones came back to reprise the role but like in Rogue One his voice sounds very frail and very weak and the filmmakers don’t commit enough to his characters death or ghost scene.

The former is done in a lot of wide shots and without the look Scar gives him before he sends Mufasa to his death which every time I watch it in the original film gives me chills and a big smile on my face whereas the Ghost scene doesn’t “Remember” how the original scene played out and instead “Remembers” how the Simpsons spoof played out between Bleeding Gums Murphy and Lisa and during the redo of this scene I half expected the James Earl Jones heads from the Lisa version to appear.

And if Disney is going to have all of this power and muscle within the industry it has to damn well earn it first and foremost and how its handled the 20th Century Fox library is a disgrace to every movie lover around the world and it has to also justify it by giving audiences quality products which it has done with many of its core brands but these remakes just deserve to be thrown off the proverbial cliff and never be heard or seen again.

2. Mary Queen of Scots: Way way back in late January and early February came this movie with Saiorise Ronan and Margot Robbie as the queens of Scotland and England as the 2 nations tried to come to an arrangement of power.

And if I haven’t said much about the story well its because this movie stunk from top to bottom and it had so much going for it, a story of powerful women played by 2 great actresses, the Scottish Fucking Highlands the home of Connor Macleod of the Clan Macleod, women front and centre making this movie and all the sex, romance and intrigue this type of story lends itself.

And it manages all of these elements very very badly and the more I sat there watching the fucking thing the more I got bored of the film being projected in front of me and the key reason this fell off its throne like a drunk jester is that it has no clue what story to even tell.

Did it want to be a sex and violence power play like Game of Thrones, did it want to be a Costume Drama or did it want to be a “They May Take our Lives BUT THEY’LL NEVER TAKE OUR FREEEDOM!!!!” movie like Braveheart, well dear reader it decided “Ah fuck it let’s just do all 3” and none of them came together in any cohesive or satisfying way as they just got thrown onto a goddamn wall to see what if anything would stick and none of it did.

And now we come to the truly bottom of the barrel when it comes to 2019 in film and well there wasn’t just one major turkey that gave me the same taste of bitter that seeing my mighty West Coast Eagles the reigning premiers finish 5th but they all tie together as my 3 big Turkeys of this year and we start with in 1c:

Glass: M Night Shymalan went back once more to the world of his 2000 film Unbreakable and its 2017 sequel Split and this was my second most anticipated film of this entire year as everyone was back, the trailers were great and the tagline of “You Cannot Contain What You Are” was one that had me very intrigued to know more in the movie itself.

But instead this movie was an awful mess of what felt 3 or 4 separate story ideas for both an Unbreakable and Split sequel and instead of taking the time to pair them down M Night decided to just do all of them through a fucking storytelling blender and what you end up watching is a mess and a half of a film that starts off well and then just grinds to a fucking halt in the mental hospital with Sarah Paulson of all people being handed these mouthfuls of dialogue that just lumber out of her nasily voice like she’s pushing this huge weight up a mountain and I love love love this woman in movies and it still saddens me to say all of this but it has to be done though I take no pleasure at all in doing it.

As for Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson well the former gets a couple of good scenes before being locked in a cage for most of the second act and getting a crummy fight scene at the end while the latter for a movie called Glass barely does anything and for half of his screen time he sits there silent, silent I mean this movie is meant to be about the existence of heroes and the one person to naturally counteract the Dr character doesn’t get to do so and it robs the story of any kind of proper resonance, what a horrible horrible waste of it all.

1b. X-Men Dark Phoenix: Now to be fair many of us well those of us to be precise didn’t really expect much from this movie, we just held out hope, maintained it and kept to that continuing search for hope before seeing this movie well I did at least as this franchise which would’ve turned 20 years old next year has been so instrumental in the evolution of this genre that we wanted to walk out with hope kindled that we hadn’t wasted our time.

Well sadly we did and this is just a nothing movie if there ever was one, Simon Kinberg a man who hadn’t even directed a short movie gets handballed this huge movie and makes every single rookie mistake in the book, he doesn’t know how to handle his villains properly as those scenes could have easily been removed without affecting the movie in any way shape or form, he doesn’t know how to pace the action and character moments and he doesn’t know how to show off these mutant powers in an exciting way like Bryan Singer, Matthew Vaughn, Tim Miller and James Mangold have done in their X-Men movies.

Now again James McAvoy like in Glass is the true saving grace if there ever was one along with Michael Fassbender and I would watch them do anything together on film as they have such magical chemistry but like X-Men Apocalypse the movie pushes them apart for no reason when this greater threat should have brought them together as allies which at the very least Apocalypse did albeit all too briefly.

And lastly this movie just wasn’t about anything regarding the human condition here on Earth, the best X-Men movies (X1, X2, Days of Future Past and Logan) had something to say about that very thing, about racism, bigotry, coming out to your family, the hope for a better tomorrow, the hope that those you love will learn the error of their ways, the hope for humanity to put its pettiness aside for a greater good, death, dying, what you leave behind.

These things were at the core of those films I mentioned above and 3 of those were produced by Lauren Shuler Donner whose extraordinary tweet the weekend this movie opened where she disowned it and Apocalypse said volumes to me, that she the lady who not only got this up and running but engineered the comeback after X3 and Origins: Wolverine scorched it almost beyond repair gets pushed out or leaves and the buffoons of Kinberg and Parker firstly can’t keep Singer in line on Apocalypse and secondly throw the heart away for one made of rusty tin that means nothing, hopefully Marvel Studios can bring it back to life again but we wait we see.

And lastly, we come to 1a:

Rambo Last Blood: Yes Sylvester Stallone not content with reviving Rocky with the 2 Creed films decides to bring back John Rambo for one last adventure that preview wise looked exciting, a Logan/Unforgiven esque film showcasing this Vietnam vet going on one last adventure.

But sadly this movie like Dark Phoenix just had nothing new going for it, it had nothing new in terms of action scenes it just repeats the R18+ rated violence that Rambo 4 from 2008 did first and while some of it was fun it too just got tiresome after a while.

And also it had nothing new to say with this character, the first 2 Rambo movies were born out of the very politically charged environment of the Vietnam War and how the attitude to that conflict in the minds of the American public shifted first with the sobering reality that was portrayed in First Blood and then the Reagan era fantasy of “We Get to Win This Time” that Rambo 2 portrayed whereas here the lead Mexican villain may as well as have been Dick Dastardly as he looked so much like him.

And the story felt so fucking old hat it just came across as Sly dusting off an old Taken esque script written after the surprise success of that film and tweaked it to make it a Rambo movie and kablamo you have a cheap Rambo sequel that feels very cheap in terms of its filmmaking, storytelling and treatment of its fans and this along with Creed 2 last year have me thinking that as reliable as Sly is as a screen presence it was high time he either rode off into the sunset for good or only come back when he has something worthwhile to give to his fans.

Boy did that feel good especially venting about that 3 way Turkey tie but their all cooked now and in Part 2 we can feast on them at the Christmas table and talk about my favourite films of 2019.

See you then.

Film Review - Knives Out (2019)

Knives Out is written and directed by Rian Johnson and stars Daniel Craig as Private Inspector Benoit Blanc who is hired to investigate the supposed suicide of famous author Harlan Thromby (Christopher Plummer) and his family (Toni Collette, Don Johnson, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Katherine Langford, Michael Shannon among others) and his nurse (Ana De Armas) are I say I say possible suspects for he suspects fowl play and the game’s afoot boy.

Knives Out is for me a very welcome return to form for Mr Johnson for while his Star Wars film The Last Jedi had its moments it was for me a big mess script wise and increasingly I feel that he should not have directed that film as here he gets to properly do his own thing as a filmmaker and like Looper in 2012 the results are highly enjoyable and I had a great time watching this movie.

And like Looper this movie gets to show what a clever storyteller he can be when left to his own devices and not be handed the one character above all others in modern culture who represents the heroes journey and like any great whodunnit murder mystery you watch for the suspects to come into focus, give their statements and then the detective I say again boy try to solve the case and everyone has a motive boy be it the spoilt brat, the heir to the publishing empire or the adopted daughter cause well I say again the game’s afoot son.

And speaking of Mr Craig he is so much fun to watch here as the quirky investigator who talks like Foghorn Leghorn from the Looney Tunes and I’ve found myself imitating that voice ever since as well as laughing afterwards as this movie is also filled with terrific comedy moments that had me and the audience I saw it with laughing quite a bit, I’m very torn on humour in movies nowadays but this one makes it work very well.

And also to go back to the overall storytelling for a moment this feels like it was written by someone who really understands how these types of stories work, you have your detective, your suspects, possible motives and the situation for the murder and then you turn all of those elements loose and when they work well like it does here your sitting there watching or reading what happens next and you might have your suspicions but you also don’t want to go too far ahead of the game as to ruin the surprises that might come your way and there are plenty to be found in this movie.

As for the rest of the cast well Mr Evans finally gets to cut loose with a less wholesome role and is clearly having a blast swearing his head off in one scene as well as in the rest of the film, Ms Curtis and Ms Langford were pretty good while Mr Johnson and Mr Shannon do what they can with their roles though they don’t have a big amount of screen time while Ms Collette sadly didn’t do a lot for me as the lifestyle guru her voice bothered me like a little bit after a while.

But lastly I have to talk about Ms De Armas in this movie for while she didn’t do much in Blade Runner 2049 she gets a meaty role to work with here and she is very good and shows a lot of promise as an actress going forward, I hope she will also be as good in No Time to Die next year.

And so that was Knives Out and like Edgar Wright I just want Rian Johnson to do his own thing movie wise from now on as his voice and vision are so much him and his own that when someone like that makes a big franchise film that voice can feel muddied a little and our movie going consciousness would be better for it as we get movies like this and Looper that are so good and so well made that you want to recommend them far and wide, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Frozen 2 (2019)

Frozen 2 is the sequel to the hit 2013 animated film Frozen and this time Anna and Elsa (Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel) find themselves heading to an enchanted forest after Elsa hears a strange voice in the wind calling her so they, Olaf, Christophe and Sven head off on a new adventure to save their kingdom of Arendale.

Frozen 2 thankfully doesn’t try to repeat the Disney Princess Fairytale story of the first film and thankfully this has much more of the feeling of an adventure film where the heroes go on a noble quest to save their kingdom from doom and this adventure feel is one of the best things about this sequel as it stops the series from becoming repetitive too quickly and it is a great quest to watch unfold.

Also the film does a very nice job making sure that the bond between Anna and Elsa is not lost amidst the adventure and the songs and the comedy, it was one of the things I liked most about the first film and it’s also the case here as you really feel the closeness between the 2 of them and the sense in the case of Anna that she simply cannot lose her once more as she’s the only real family she has left even though Olaf, Christophe and Sven are also there in her life even though nothing could compare to the bond between Sisters.

But alas this sequel is sadly something of a mixed bag for me despite those big positives and there are 2 big negatives I have with this movie:

- First of those is most of the songs themselves, the songs worked in the first movie for me because the movie being made then was a more old fashioned Disney movie like Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast or Aladdin where the songs were fundamental to the spine of those stories whereas here because the storytelling is taking on much more of that adventure quest feel the songs for the most part I felt got in the way of the quest story and with one exception ground it to a halt.

That one exception is Lost in the Woods which Mr Jonathan Groff who voices Christophe sings and it is very very good especially the visuals that back up the song and I had a big smile on my face during that song.

- And secondly the films comedy moments just fell flat for me and again those moments worked for me in the first movie because Olaf was that films equivalent of characters like Sebastian in Little Mermaid or Cogsworth and Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast and Abu and Iago in Aladdin where you have those humorous sidekicks that provide that comic relief for the kids in the audience whereas here I felt the humour fell flat very quickly and after a while I got a bit sick of Olaf playing the fool.

And so that was Frozen 2 and it’s a real mixed bag for me, I loved the adventure story and the focus on the bond between the Sisters but the songs and the humour fell flat for me, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - The Irishman (2019)

The Irishman is the new movie by both Netflix and Martin Scorsese and concerns the life of Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) a man who was driving meat trucks and later finds himself doing business with the legendary Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), business that isn’t always within the letter of the law.

The Irishman firstly is very well made, Marty might be in his 80s now but he hasn’t lost his ability to craft a movie that is never boring to look at, the way that the costume design, production design and cinematography reflect the changing decades is very very good and the deaging technology is used very very well here and the High Dynamic Range on the Netflix 4K stream does a very good job in hiding whatever defects you might go looking for and I went looking and couldn’t find any.

As for the performances well Mr De Niro is truly great and it feels like it has been a very very very long time since he has been this good in a movie, if he was to win Best Actor at the Academy Awards next year for this performance I wouldn’t mind one bit, it was also nice to see Mr Joe Pesci in a movie again even though he doesn’t have the biggest role in this movie.

But alas I have to say that at 3 and a half hours, this movie’s storytelling which is well done by Mr Steve Zaillian after about 2 hours and 40 minutes it started to feel like it was being stretched very thin and it also became a little predictable to me but I’m someone who has seen the 1992 Hoffa movie with Jack Nicholson and Danny Devito and knows to some extent how the Hoffa story plays out.

And speaking of Hoffa well Mr Pacino I was nervous about him in that role because I thought Mr Nicholson was so good in his movie and again after a while I began to tire of Mr Pacino’s voice, now don’t get me wrong its nice to see him playing a straight role in a movie rather than a parody but after a while I got a little tired of his shrill and nasily voice and again I just didn’t think he measured up to the bravado and gusto that Mr Nicholson brought to the role of Hoffa in his movie.

And so that was the Irishman and look its not a bad movie not at all but it was one that didn’t do an awful lot for me in the long run as I felt it got a bit thin story wise with the 3.5 hour runtime and Pacino’s Hoffa got on my nerves after a while, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Last Christmas (2019)

Last Christmas is co-written by Ms Emma Thompson, is directed by Paul Feig and stars Emilia Clarke as Cate or Katarina for short who works in a specialty Christmas store but has been very sick, one night after work she meets Tom (Henry Golding) who opens her eyes to a world where she rarely looks up.

Last Christmas asks for your heart but in 2 short hours it takes it away (takes it away) but the 2 leads Clarke and Golding save it from being a lump of Coal in the family Christmas stocking, Ms Clarke in particular is really good here and shows a lot of potential as a romantic lead in movies going ahead, she has a lot of charm, has big expressive eyes that say a lot and you really get on her side and its nice to see this side of her outside of being Daenerys Taegeren Mother of Dragons and the Rushed Character Arc.

As for Mr Golding again he shows what a great star he is turning into in a short amount of time, he’s charming, charismatic and shows a warmth and caring side that is very refreshing in a romantic movie and his chemistry with Ms Clarke is the best thing about the film.

As for the rest of the film well sadly it is not the best and the big culprit is the screenplay by Ms Thompson as well as Greg Wise and Briony Kimmings and it above all else has some serious tonal issues that it doesn’t really make gel very well as on the one hand it wants to be this fun, lighthearted and romantic Christmas movie (though Die Hard is the greatest Christmas movie known to all mankind just saying) but on the other hand its lead character has a serious condition that for me made me go “Nup I’m sorry your not doing this right now” and there’s a Brexit sideplot that really has nothing to do with the rest of the movie at all and both could have easily been excised from the script without hurting the film too much.

And so that was Last Christmas and look its okay but really without its 2 charming leads this Christmas movie is little better than a lump of Coal in the Christmas Stocking, 1.5 out of 5.

Film Review - Ford V Ferrari (2019)

Ford V Ferrari is directed by James Mangold and stars Matt Damon as Carroll Shelby (and performance is his business) and Christian Bale as Ken Miles and its 1966 and Henry Ford the second (Tracy Letts) wants to rejeuvenate his ailing family company so they decide to build a race car to win the 24 hour race of Le Mans but building such a car and then getting the right driver to race it will not be easy.

Ford V Ferrari was the one film I was looking forward to the most for the second half of this year as I love a good racing movie (2013’s Rush by Ron Howard is criminally underrated), the trailers were terrific and I love both Mr Damon and Mr Bale but could it race across the finish or would it burn out after the starting gun.

Happily very very happily this is the case of the former as I really loved this movie and genuinely think it is terrific for multiple reasons:

- Firstly Mr Magold’s direction is finely honed like a driver racing a car built for the fast lane, the way he paces both the quieter moments and the big racing moments is fabulous and the racing scenes in particular are fan-fucking-tastic from the low angles he shoots the cars from behind that reminded me a little of the Mad Max movies at their best and the way their edited gave me a sense of exhilaration as well as having me on the edge of my seat wondering how that final race would play out.

- Secondly the performances here across the board are great, both Mr Damon and Mr Bale anchor the film effortlessly, the former doing a great Tommy Lee Jones impression and the latter pretty much doing the whole performance in his natural British accent and one octive below his infamous Terminator set rant from 10 years ago (in fact during the film part of me was waiting for him to do a similar rant) while Mr Letts is really good as Henry Ford and has some of the films most memorable scenes.

- And lastly I have to give a special shout out to Mr Josh Lucas who plays one of the Ford executives but is so good you can just see Mr Mangold and his screenwriters seeing him as every slimy, I want full control studio executive they’ve had to deal with in their careers (and Mr Mangold had to deal with Miramax when making Cop Land) and that toothy grin, cynical smile and constant talk about being a brand man just works so well and I would love to see him get a Best Supporting Actor nomination.

Sadly I have to say however that this movie as much as I love it and I do very much it is a little long and there are times like a car doing a long race where you can feel the length a little bit and it could’ve lost 5 minutes or so without disrupting the film too much.

And so that was Ford V Ferrari and I loved this movie to death, direction/performances/sound/editing this is a finely crafted film and its one of my absolute favourites of 2019, 4 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Charlies Angels (2019)

harlies Angels stars, is co-written and directed by Elizabeth Banks and also stars Sir Patrick Stewart, Sam Claflin, Kristen Stewart, Ella Balinski and Naomi Scott the latter 3 being the new Angels who have to stop a deadly EMP weapon from being detonated around the world killing millions of people.

Charlies Angels surprisingly is actually pretty good fun and I definitely had a good time watching this in a cinema and a big part of that is due to Ms Banks’s work as a director and writer, she definitely shows signs of improvement in the directors chair after Pitch Perfect 2 in 2015 and she does a nice job directing the action scenes and not over cutting them in the editing room.

Also the 3 Angels have very good chemistry and any doubts I had going into the film as to whether they would deliver the goods very quickly evaporated after the opening scene as they have great chemistry, perform the physical action very well and really emerge as stars on the rise especially Ms Scott who radiates off the screen, is very charismatic and a good actress as well.

And lastly I enjoyed seeing Sir Patrick Stewart and Mr Claflin again in slightly more substantial roles than they might have gotten in the past though everytime Mr Claflin came on screen all I could think was “Finnick.”

And so that was Charlies Angels and its not the best movie I’ve seen this year but it was a film I had fun with, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Dolemite is My Name (2019)

Dolemite is my Name is a new Netflix film starring Eddie Murphy as Rudy Ray Moore, a struggling performance artist who invents a character named Dolemite in order to make himself known on the stand up stage, sooner or later he produces some very successful comedy albums and soon he sets his sights on making movies.

Dolemite is so much fun and I had a big big smile on my face while watching it and first I just have to start with Mr Eddie Murphy, the moment I first heard him talk on this movie I just thought to myself “He’s Back” and it was just this feeling I had throughout the whole film He’s Back, that trademark smile, that ability to think quickly on his feet during a scene, knowing how to time a comedy laugh and being able to show great dramatic potential and be charismatic its all there and this man has had a very bad habit over the years of blowing up his own career due to his own ego but watching him in this movie there’s none of that this is vintage Eddie again and it feels so fucking good.

Also great in the film is Mr Wesley Snipes and like Eddie his career has had some huge bumps along the way but he too delivers some great work here and again like Eddie he delivers some great laughs as well as some good dramatic moments and its so good to see him back on form as well.

Also this film has some beautiful craftsmanship on show here, firstly the production design is great especially with the old 1970s cinemas that look so big and seat so many that went away as multiplexes took hold and carved their way through those old cinemas and also the costume design by Ms Ruth Carter is terrific, it so captures that 1970s era so well with the colourful jackets, the canes, the hats and the dresses which she also did so well on Black Panther in 2018.

And lastly the script tells a great story of an artist who refused to take no for an answer and fought tooth and nail to get his vision on stage, record and screen and its very good to watch and it’s a role that just fits Eddie so well.

If you couldn’t tell already I really loved Dolemite is my Name mainly because Eddie Murphy one of my favourite stars because of Beverly Hills Cop 1 and 2 is back on top and when this movie ended I thought to myself “Coming to America 2 is in great hands” as this team is making that sequel and I am very confident they will deliver the goods once again, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Judy (2019)

Judy stars Renee Zellweger as Judy Garland in the final year or so of her life in 1968/69 as she struggles to get her life back in order to spend time with her children, sooner or later a chance to perform in London comes up and this could be a way to get it all back.

Judy is mainly worthwhile for the great performance by Ms Zellweger as Ms Garland, she is in virtually every scene of this film and she is never boring to watch from the body language to the semi gone voice that can still captivate a crowd and there are some great concert moments scattered throughout the film.

Outside of her however the film itself is a pretty much straight up and down biopic where you learn about some her childhood with MGM, her various marriages and the tries to get into more of her children’s lives and its all really framed around that last 12 months and after a while I began to get a bit bored of it all and was checking my watch on a couple of occasions.

What was interesting and I wish more of the movie had explored this side more is her treatment by MGM studios and Ms Darci Shaw is a great likeness for the young Ms Garland and is clearly capable of helping to carry the film and those scenes with her and the MGM studio bosses were very interesting to me given the constant diet of pills and strict guidelines she had to deal with that would have devastating consequences later on in life but sadly they are only a few scenes of the film and I wish it had been explored a little more especially given the Weinstein revelations of 2 years ago.

And so that was Judy and its perfectly fine but really only worth a watch for Ms Zellweger’s great performance, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Ready or Not (2019)

Ready or Not stars Samara Weaving as Grace, a young woman who marries into a rich family that made its fortune through games and she has to pick a card for the game inside the house of her now in laws and she gets Hide and Seek but what her in laws Seek is her and she has to Hide until Dawn to survive.

Ready or Not is going to be very high up in my favourite films of the year list as this was a terrific horror movie in many areas:

- Firstly this is just such a great idea for a horror film this rich family that plays these sick and twisted games on those who enter the family through marriage and the race to survive is on and it made me think sitting there in my seat “How would I react in this situation if it was my wife” or “How would I feel if my family had this kind of reaction to her or vice versa, would her family accept me” that kind of thing though not taken to the kind of extreme that this movie takes it but it generated that kind of questioning in me.

- Secondly the production design of the house and the night photography really adds to the mood and the tension of the film and it looks fantastic on a cinema screen, the use of the blacks and the chandeliers and the wooden halls and giant rooms makes for a very effective horror setting as you become familiar with each room and what’s inside to help Grace survive the night and it just helps to add to the effectiveness of the horror your watching projected in front of you.

- Third this movie has some fantastic bloody violence that more than justifies its MA15 rating and the use of blood in this movie I just loved every minute of it, the kills feel great and gory and the blood is the life to quote Coppola’s Dracula and all of those moments just felt tasty like I wanted to lick my lips when the blood flowed on the screen and gave life to the Earth.

- And lastly Ms Weaving (Niece of Hugo) is a terrific scream queen, she has got a serious pair of lungs in her and she more than holds her own on screen in both trying to survive the sick game being played against her but also learning to fight back much like Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton in the first Alien and Terminator movie respectively, I hope she gets to more gutsy roles like this one in the future.

And so that was Ready or Not and yeah I loved this movie big time and very very highly recommend it if your not squeamish in any way at the sight of blood, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

Terminator: Dark Fate is the newest entry in the Terminator franchise and sees the return of both James Cameron as a story writer and producer and Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor who must help a new heroine Dani (Natalia Reyes) and her protector Grace (Mackenzie Davis) fight a new Terminator called the Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna) before it can complete its mission and Arnold is also back for the ride.

Terminator: Dark Fate is not a bad movie not at all and we’ve certainly had those with 2015’s Terminator: Genisys which tried to do a Days of Future Past on the series but failed miserably and 2009’s Salvation directed by McG which was set in the Future War but didn’t make much of an impact whereas here director Tim Miller who made the first Deadpool movie does a good enough job directing the film to the point where you don’t sit there too bored with it all.

Though he is greatly helped by Ms Hamilton and Ms Davis who do an awful lot of the heavy lifting here, Ms Davis reminded me a little of Michael Biehn from the first Terminator movie and does a very good job in the protector role while Ms Hamilton plays Sarah Connor as if she never left and everytime she was on screen I was enthralled by her presence and her performance.

But sadly much like the other sequels that came after 1991’s Terminator 2 this new film despite Cameron coming back to guide the story struggles to justify its own existence as once again it has to skirt around the events of T2 in order to really exist as a story and the film opens with the tape of Sarah in the hospital from T2 and that scene is so good that it makes the rest of the film that comes after it on a story level feel mediocre as again you sit there thinking:

“So are the Terminators just like the Decepticons from Transformers now there’s just groups of them that come to Earth every once in a while, as this is making no sense.”

And as for the new Rev-9 played by Mr Luna I’m awfully sorry but he is miscast in this role and its really down to him having a nice face, he comes across as a sweet man that I found it hard to believe him as this unstoppable killing machine whereas in the first 2 Arnold and Robert Patrick had angular faces that could turn off their emotions at the drop of a hat and Arnold himself was so muscular that you instantly believe he was unstoppable and after a while seeing very rubbery CG battle scenes got a bit long in the tooth.

And so that was Terminator: Dark Fate and look its not a bad movie but with this, Star Wars, Jurassic, Predator, Rambo, Alien and for me personally Mad Max to see these revivals fail to measure up just isn’t good enough and just stick to Terminator 1 and 2 from now on you don’t need to see any of the others after those their just not worthy, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Booksmart (2019)

Booksmart is directed by Olivia Wilde and stars Kaitlin Dever and Beannie Feldstein as Amy and Molly, 2 high school girls who come to realise the day before graduation that they’ve never had any fun whilst being in school especially when they learn much of their class has also gone on to good colleges despite seeming to only want to party all the time so they decide its time to have some fun for themselves.

Booksmart is a lot of fun and I enjoyed myself quite a bit and the first big reason for that is Ms Dever and Ms Feldstein, the 2 young ladies have great chemistry and play off of each other very well and though they sometimes go over the top but they always have fun and I was fully on board for their journey as characters.

Secondly Ms Wilde does a great job in the directors chair and shows a lot of promise in this field which I hope she gets the chance to pursue more of in the future, she paces the film very well knowing when to let scenes breathe, how to time gags in the editing and when to take the editorial scissors to any improv moments which too often stop modern comedies dead in their tracks, the film has some terrific night photography that would’ve looked great on a big cinema screen but certainly delivered in that way when upscaled to 4K.

Also Ms Billie Lourd deserves some special recognition for her performance here as she steals every scene she is in and generates a lot of the films best laughs with not only her comic timing but also her physical comedy and watching her in this movie I was reminded of the kind of comic performance someone like Goldie Hawn gave in her heyday (Death Becomes Her being one example) and again I hope she goes on to great things in the future.

If I have some issues with the film it is at times the language does go a little over the top or at least it sounds over the top and a little loud in those times and also there are moments where it gets a bit predictable in terms of “Oh this will happen” and sure enough it did but those issues aren’t big enough to dent my overall enjoyment of the film.

And so that was Booksmart a film I had to wait a fair while to see but now that I have it was well worth the wait and along with Joker, Endgame, Rocketman and Broly is among my 5 favorites of the year, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Hustlers (2019)

Hustlers is written and directed by Ms Lorene Scarfaria and stars Constance Wu as Dorothy a young girl who takes a job at a Strip Club and meets Ramona (Jennifer Lopez) who shows her the ropes and teaches her the moves but when the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 hits the two of them team up with 2 other strippers from the club to try and fleece their high profile Wall Street customers and live It up for themselves.

Hustlers for me is a movie that was a bit of a mixed bag, don’t get me wrong I don’t think it’s a bad movie not at all but it was one that really wasn’t for me the more I think about it.

To start with the positives Ms Lopez is great here, the best she has been in a pretty long time and watching her play Ramona really took me back to watching Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street where you have this veteran actor sinking their teeth into a great character and every time they appear on screen you just can’t take your eyes off them, I hope she will enter the Oscar race but again given the subject nature of the film I’m not 100% certain she will get the nod but I’ll be happy if she does.

And also I like the portrait of this group of women that Ms Scarfaria paints, they come across as a close knit group of sisters who are doing things for themselves while also building a bond between each of them and I really liked those moments in the film as well though I was a little disappointed in the 2007 moments that no one was wearing a Kevin Rudd T-Shirt given that story about him that year.

But alas there is a big weak link in this movie for me and its sadly Ms Constance Wu who after enjoying her work in Crazy Rich Asians last year is not very good in this role I’m afraid, a lot of the time she just came across as being a little out of her depth and I never really bought the emotional journey her character goes through and again to go back to the Wall Street comparison her role is comparable to the Bud Fox role Charlie Sheen played in that film, the green horn who joins the mentor on the wild ride and then comes to question it and say “How much is Enough?” and whereas Mr Sheen could keep up with Mr Douglas this just feels like someone else is playing that role and the Michael Douglas equivalent is just walking all over them and as a result I didn’t feel as invested in the story as I wanted to be.

And so that was Hustlers and it’s a perfectly fine film that has some great writing and performances especially by Ms Lopez but Ms Wu didn’t do much for me performance wise and while many of the women in my session were enjoying themselves yesterday I was not one of them but hey these things happen, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Gemini Man (2019)

Gemini Man is directed by Ang Lee and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and stars Will Smith as a professional assassin who after performing a hit on a man on a train decides to go into retirement but a mysterious organisation called Gemini headed up by a government agent played by Clive Owen thinks otherwise and sends the perfect weapon after him to kill him.

Gemini Man is very much a throwback to the kind of action films that made Mr Bruckheimer’s name as a producer, movies like Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, Bad Boys, The Rock and Con Air among others; these big action films with high concept ideas at the centre of them and Gemini Man is very much along those lines and I had fun with the film as a result as a silly action film.

Also performance wise it was pretty solid, Mr Smith seems to finally be giving a damn being in movies again with this and Aladdin this year and its certainly nice to see him go back to his mid to late 90s prime of Independence Day and Men in Black, Ms Mary Elizabeth Winstead was someone I enjoyed seeing again while also wishing she had a better career in front of her while Mr Benedict Wong is good fun as one of Smith’s former partners.

As for Mr Clive Owen well he’s just taking what he can at this stage sad to say but he was fine enough in the film also as for the younger Will Smith it’s probably the best use of de-aging technology I’ve seen in a movie yet as rarely did I think I was looking at a computer generated face, there was some good expression and emotion at times and there was one shot of the younger Will where he literally looked like he had just walked off the set of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

If I do have an issue with the movie its sadly the ending as the climax pretty much takes place in what looks like a Home Hardware Dogalogue store and it got a bit too silly for my liking though thankfully it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as the Equalizer where Denzel basically lured all the bad guys to Bunnings Warehouse and killed them there and Mitre 10 getting a new log line “Come in here if you want to live.”

And so that was Gemini Man and it’s a fun silly high concept Bruckheimer action film that I enjoyed watching, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Joker (2019)

Joker is directed by Todd Phillips and stars Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, a man living with mental illness in 1981 Gotham City while that City deals with a Garbage Strike stinking up the city circumstances it seems keep piling up and up and up on Arthur and there’s only so much a person can take before they snap.

Joker is an interesting movie and it’s one that actually I enjoyed quite a bit for these reasons:

- Firstly Mr Phoenix’s performance is as good as I had heard it was, the way he distorts his body, his physical body language, the way he distorts his face and the way he uses his eyes to convey emotion are all terrific to watch and you never get bored watching him act in this movie and like with Mr Pitt in Ad Astra I hope he has a Best Actor nomination coming his way.

Another performance I enjoyed in this movie is by Mr Robert De Niro as a late night talk show host and while his casting was most likely a nod to Martin Scorsese’s 1982 film the King of Comedy I was actually reminded of a former Australian radio host Derryn Hinch and the more I think about De Niro’s performance I could easily have seen someone like Mr Hinch in that part.

- Secondly the film has some great craftsmanship on show and I want to start with the cinematography by Mr Lawrence Sher, there are some great high camera angles, use of space with the large buildings like the old theatre showing Modern Times and the way the overall framing is done it made me think of an old Warner Home Video release of the film if such a thing ever existed plus there is a great musical score by Ms Hildur Guðnadóttir which like the Dark Knight in 2008 uses a lot of strings and its really effective with some great cues.

- And lastly I loved the portrayal of Gotham City in this movie as it really feels like what Christopher Nolan was building in Batman Begins the idea of Gotham as this corrupt, downtrodden, rotten cesspool of a city that was not only losing its way but also going downhill very fast unless someone like the Batman came along to clean it up and while the film has some ties to the Batman universe they are very subtle and I thought well done.

If I do have an issue with the film it’s that the Arthur material and the Joker material don’t quite mesh together the way that I wish it had, the more I think about the film and those 2 sides of it they have a different feel to it and they don’t quite go from one to the other in a way that is seamless they feel like here’s Arthur and here’s the Joker and that transition could have been better I feel.

And so that was Joker and its an interesting film that I enjoyed quite a bit but I can also see why others will not respond to it, this is a dark movie rated MA15+ for a reason and while those like myself really liked that about it I can see why for some it will make them uncomfortable and they won’t like it and I fully understand that, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Angry Birds 2 (2019)

Angry Birds 2 is the second in the series and this time Bird Island and Pig Island are constantly pranking each other after the events of the first film but then word of a third island, Eagle Island comes, Bird and Pig must work together to save their Islands from extinction.

Angry Birds 2 does pretty much what it says on the box, it’s a perfectly fine animated feature that will entertain and make you laugh which it did me and I did enjoy the Birds and Pigs prank each other as well as the pretty neat way that the Birds get around by using slingshot transportation and springy landing pads plus Peter Dinklage remains good fun as the Mighty Eagle.

As for the story and animation again they aren’t too bad but feel very typical of the genre nowadays, the story at times cuts to using pop songs to elevate their emotional moments and it didn’t quite work for me while the animation was okay but nothing overly fantastic.

And so that was Angry Birds 2 and I had fun with the film even if its nothing I’ll head to the rooftops to scream about, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Ad Astra (2019)

Ad Astra is directed by James Gray who made the Lost City of Z a couple of years ago and stars Brad Pitt as Roy McBride, an astronaut in the near future where Earth is suffering from catastrophic electrical surges that may have been caused by a project his father (Tommy Lee Jones) is working on and now the son must search for the father to find out what’s going on and if the surges can be stopped.

Ad Astra is a real mixed bag of a film with some big positives first of those is the sheer spectacle of the film itself, the production design, visual effects and cinematography are all first rate and really make this movie worth watching on a large cinema screen and there were numerous times where I sat there thinking “Wow this is pretty” and the 4K release of this movie will be very nice.

Secondly Mr Pitt is superb here and I would love to see him get a Best Actor nomination for his work here, he carries this movie effortlessly and makes it look easy when compared to most actors and it has been easy to forget how good of an actor he can really be as he’s mainly been remembered for his handsome leading man routine which is a disservice to his broader talents, Tommy Lee Jones and Donald Sutherland I enjoyed seeing in this movie while sadly Ms Liv Tyler and Ms Ruth Negga got really very little to do save for a few scenes here and there.

Sadly however this movie’s script is its biggest weakness, the film tries to balance the high stakes of the electrical surges and possible corporate secrets with the personal search of a son for his father in space and it never feels like the two sides really come together in a way that adds to both stories and makes them feel complementary to each other and at one point there’s monkeys floating in Space and all I could think was the Saiyans from Dragon Ball which were ape like in their appearance and turned into giant ones at the sight of a full moon and I had some other thoughts but that would be telling as it ties into the climax.

And so that was Ad Astra and as a spectacle it looks great and warrants a big screen watch but as a script I wasn’t as fond of it, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Rambo: Last Blood (2019)

Rambo: Last Blood is the fifth and final film in the Rambo franchise and once more sees John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) living on his ranch in America and helping raise a young Mexican girl who heads home when she learns of her real father, when she disappears on that trip Rambo gets angry and goes looking for her but will never draw First Blood he’ll only fight back.

I was very excited for Rambo: Last Blood mainly because of the films trailers which looked very promising and my love of 1982’s First Blood and 1985’s Rambo: First Blood Part 2 which are iconic slices of 80s Americana to this day but 1988’s Rambo 3 was pathetic and silly and 2008’s Rambo was okay could Last Blood be a fitting finale or more proof that Rambo should’ve walked off into the Sunset long ago.

Well Rambo: Last Blood is not a bad movie not at all, Sly is as reliable a screen presence as he’s ever been and at 73 he proves in this movie that he can still carry a film when he tries to and doesn’t phone it in like he has done in some of his past films, the violence in the film more than justifies the R18+ rating the film has here in Australia and sadly its uneven when it works it works very well but when it doesn’t it feels like its right out of the most recent Mortal Kombat games in terms of its visual look.

Plus there is a great opening scene of Rambo rescuing some Hikers trapped in Floodwaters that feels right out of the first 2 films and when it was over I thought It’s A Long Road by Dan Hill which was the song that played over the end credits of First Blood.

Sadly however much like the 2008 Rambo which was also R18+ violent this new movie doesn’t have a good story, sure he goes to Mexico but it doesn’t play out in an interesting way and it feels more like Millennium Studios which was born out of the Cannon group from the 1980s had a script for a Taken like action film sitting in a draw and Sly came to them wanting to make a final Rambo film and they dusted off that script and just shot that and it really feels not only old hat but the chief villains are cartoonish in a bad way.

But maybe this was inevitable given how much Rambo 1 and 2 represented America in the 1980s and their response to the Vietnam War starting off with the sombre reality of that conflict and those who came home being shunned from society and living day to day, moving from place to place and taking what odd jobs they can to survive in First Blood and then the Reagan era fantasy of “We’re Gonna Win This Time” that permeates through Rambo 2 it really made those movies and this character feel iconic and to have a story that feels like its 5-10 years old be the end isn’t good enough and this has happened time and again with franchises and brands we come to love and I wish it would stop.

So that was Rambo: Last Blood and its not awful not at all but given the meaning of Rambo 1 and 2 this movie just isn’t good enough and fans deserved far better, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Angel Has Fallen (2019)

Angel has Fallen is the third in the Fallen series and once more stars Gerard Butler as Mike Banning who is guarding the President (Morgan Freeman) when a Drone attack comes and the President is in a Coma and Mike is framed for the attack and though he says the One Armed Man did it-sorry-He didn’t kill the President, the Authorities response is I Don’t Care and he has to now clear his name.

Angel has Fallen has got to be one of the big surprise movies of the year for me as I expected very little going into seeing it and I had a great time watching it as this is a fun, top of the line B movie that delivers on exactly what it promises on the box, Mr Butler is a lot of fun as Agent Banning as he fights everyone around him to clear his name and sure the plot has some similarities to the Fugitive but I had fun with that and even imagined Gerard “THERE WAS A MAN IN MY HOUSE.”

Danny Huston is also really good in the film and though his plot line is very predictable I still enjoyed it as is Mr Freeman though the one person I enjoyed seeing the most is Mr Nick Nolte who looks very frail and he was shaking a lot in his scenes but he’s still as grouchy as he’s ever been and I had a lot of fun watching him and Gerard growl at each other in their scenes.

And lastly the film has a lot of great action scenes with what look like proper blood effects.

And so that was Angel has Fallen and its terrific fun for old school action film fans like myself, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - IT Chapter 2 (2019)

It: Chapter 2 is the second part of the IT adaptation and this time the Losers are now Adults (James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, James Ransone and Jay Ryan) who return to Derry, Maine when word of Pennywise the Clown (Bill Skarsgard) comes back to haunt the town once again.

It 2 is okay overall, its not a bad movie in any sense of the word but its not a film that really to be honest justifies its existence but before I delve into those elements I want to talk about the good and there is some quite good stuff here.

Firstly the Horror element works much better than it did in the first film as its much less of the jump scare/quick cut/loud noise variety and more of the rollercoaster of darkness variety where all kinds of crazy stuff happens to scare the smeg out of the audience and I really liked a lot of those scenes as they justified the MA15 rating.

Secondly Mr Hader is really good here balancing the drama and the comedy really well and the film itself does have some good ideas in it regarding childhood trauma and how it can manifest itself in adulthood through conditions like Anxiety and Depression and Mental Illness.

But sadly this film has some major problems in it as I mentioned above briefly well here they are in more detail:

- First the use of Comedy in this movie really didn’t work too well for me and I am someone who can be very mixed on the use of Comedy in a movie as it feels like most of the time it’s the actors trying to get a laugh out of a packed crowd in a cinema and when that works it works very well but here it feels too overplayed as it comes after virtually every horror moment and as a result its attempt to give the film some levity fell flat, if this is going to be a Horror film make it one and don’t throw a Fucking Fuck bomb into every Fucking moment so people might laugh it didn’t Fucking work.

- Secondly there are far too many callbacks to IT Chapter 1 in this movie, almost every major part of the film does this flashback to the younger actors who were wonderful in that first film and really did a lot to lift up that film for me that it highlights how weak the older cast outside of Mr Hader are and they have some good moments but they just do not hold a candle to the kids from IT 1 and again if your going to make this from the point of view of the adults then Fucking Do IT! Okay don’t try to cut back and forth as like the comedy it doesn’t bloody work.

- And lastly the ending is very anticlimactic and when it was going on I just sat there thinking “Is that It, is this what we really built up to all this time?” and when I think on this ending I keep thinking that you could in all honesty put it onto the end of the first film and that would be totally fine as what it does it make this story of the Adults fighting Pennywise feel almost pointless and given its 169 minute running time it is not the feeling you want to have after that long in a cinema seat and you walk out of it.

And so that was IT Chapter 2 and its not a bad movie but its also one that really isn’t anything much either but fans will go and see it and I hope they like it more than I did, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - The Kitchen (2019)

The Kitchen is based off of the DC/Vertigo and stars Elizabeth Moss, Tiffany Haddish and Melissa McCarthy as 3 women who’s husbands end up in prison after a bust so they decide in order to avoid starvation to take over their husbands work with runs them afowl of the Mob.

The Kitchen is not a very good movie really at all and its for these key reasons:

- Firstly the films tone is all over the place, some scenes are very serious while a lot of the others just feel like your watching a cartoon and that cartoonish feel is all over this movie, so much so that for a lot of it I thought to myself “I am struggling to take this movie seriously” because instead of watching a movie you just feel like your watching an Adult Swim adaptation of this story and it really got me bored with the whole thing after a while.

- Secondly Ms Haddish and Ms McCarthy are woefully miscast in this movie, every time they opened their mouths to talk I was reminded of the cartoonish tone the movie had as their comedy instincts became more and more apparent every time they were on screen and I am a fan of Ms McCarthy I am but between this and the Happytime Murders from last year I am really starting to see that fandom of mine tested in a big way.

As for Ms Haddish every time she was on screen I kept wishing that Jada Pinkett Smith was playing her role as she would’ve brought much more of a dramatic weight to that role and it would’ve made for a better movie I feel.

- And lastly Ms Elizabeth Moss is wasted in this movie, this lady is more than capable of carrying any movie or TV show you give her to do and she does have the most compelling character arc of the film but the sad eye performance she gives kind of takes away from that and again after a while I didn’t really care all that much.

And so that was the Kitchen and it has reaffirmed in my mind what a disappointing year 2019 has been on the movie scene, hopefully the last quarter will turn things around but I don’t have high hopes for that, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - Palm Beach (2019)

Palm Beach is written and directed by Rachel Ward and stars her husband Bryan Brown and their daughter Matilda as well as Sam Neill, Richard E Grant, Greta Scacchi and Jacqueline McKenzie among others who come to Palm Beach on the Northern Shore of Sydney to celebrate Richard (Bryan Brown) and his Birthday but in these kinds of celebrations all sorts of secrets can come tumbling out.

Plam Beach reeks of that family (Bryan, Rachel and Matilda) having an idea for a movie, casting a lot of their mates and then filming their good time for what they hope will be our amusement and well it isn’t any of our fucking amusement as I just sat there goddamned bored almost the entire time it was being played in front of me.

And the main reason I was so damn bored is that I just didn’t really care about any of the characters this wonderful cast of actors some of which have starred in huge favorites of mine and their struggles and some of the struggles they do talk about (Loss, Regret, Failure among others) are very human traits that people feel in their daily life especially as they get older but amongst this picturesque setting of what really feels like an Island off the coast of Sydney its hard to care as a lot of the drama just feels so fucking monotonous.

And when you think about the best of Australian Cinema it works because those who really get something out of it have that feeling because they feel like something of themselves and their life is being reflected in front of them on that big cinema screen and even Danger Close about brave ANZAC soldiers fighting insurmountable odds makes sense as does movies like Mad Max, Muriel’s Wedding, Priscilla, Strictly Ballroom and even Romper Stomper.

Those movies to name as a few examples were either action films that tapped into Car Culture, movies that tapped into the working class at a time of a deep recession or where the perception of Homosexuality in the community was starting to shift more positive and it makes this movie feel like a step back in a big way as Palm Beach is so isolated from the rest of Australia its hard to sit in somewhere like Country South Australia where I saw it and come to care all that much.

And so that was Palm Beach a movie that just bored me no end and I don’t want to talk about anymore, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan (2019)

Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan takes place in South Vietnam in 1966 where an Australian regiment of soldiers took on a huge force of over 2,000 Vietnamese soldiers as they look to surround a nearby Australian base but those soldiers will not go down without a fight.

Danger Close for most of the time is trying to replicate the “You are there” feeling of Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk from 2017 where you mainly follow this group of soldiers stuck behind enemy lines with time and supplies running short while home tries to mount a desperate rescue and for the most part it works fine enough and has some good action scenes but it doesn’t quite pack that same punch that Dunkirk had.

And that’s really due to the filmmaking on show (and its handled by good people in Kriv Stenders the director and his screenwriter Stuart Beattie) not being up to par and look its hard to match Mr Nolan who is a real master of his craft and made Dunkirk really special but here the pace at times drags out and the character moments become a bit predictable where those who talk about their lives at home may as well have a bullseye painted on them the entire rest of the film.

That said there are some good performances by people like Luke Bracey, Richard Roxburgh among others but their just fine and as Mr Nolan showed so well in Dunkirk sometime its better for people not to talk and just pass notes around and lastly the jungles of Vietnam probably isn’t best to be shot in Queensland as the Wetlands are pretty obvious in some shots.

And that was Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan and its fine it has some good action and a nice enough war story but watch Dunkirk instead, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is the new film by Quinten Tarantino and takes place in Hollywood 1969 and concerns Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his best friend/stunt man Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) who drive around sunny LA, Rick struggles with a career transition from Television to the Movies and meanwhile Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) is also enjoying life in LA during this time.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is for me a very fun movie and a lot of that fun comes from the chemistry and performances of Mr DiCaprio and Mr Pitt the two of them here are extremely good and have great chemistry and when they are doing their thing they are fantastic to watch and you can’t take your eyes off them.

I also really liked all of the scenes on the movie lot and seeing the day to day life of all the actors and the crew and there are like a lot of Tarantino films a slew of great performances such as the late great Sideshow Luke Perry, Al Pacino, Dakota Fanning and Timothy Olyphant among others and the production design and cinematography are also superb.

Sadly however Ms Margot Robbie is wasted as the late Ms Tate and a lot of the time her scenes in a deeply regrettable way feel disjointed from the main storyline of Rick and Cliff and for a good hour and a quarter Ms Robbie has no lines of dialogue at all virtually and it just feels like a waste as Margot radiates screen presence and reminded me of why I thought to myself “She will be Big” after Wolf of Wall Street and given the very sad real life circumstances of the woman she is playing there is a part of me that wishes this had either been a much bigger side plot in the movie or its own movie outright but that’s Tarantino for you.

And so that was Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and it’s a fun movie that encapsulates both the best and the frustrating of Tarantino’s work and while it’s a more fun movie than either Hateful Eight or Django Unchained it still doesn’t quite reach his 90s and 2000s heights of Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill or Inglorious Basterds, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw (2019)

Hobbs and Shaw is the new spin off movie in the Fast and Furious franchise and sees Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) teaming up albeit reluctantly against a mad industrialist (Idris Elba) who plans to use a lethal virus embedded in the DNA of Shaw’s sister (Vanessa Kirby) to cull the world’s population.

Hobbs and Shaw for the most part is good fun that really falls on the chemistry between Mr Johnson and Mr Statham to carry the film and they carry the film well as their chemistry for the most part works, the 2 have some great lines, gags and attempts to one up each other that for the most part made me smile and made me laugh which is more than I can say for a lot of other big movies released so far this year.

They are also nicely backed up by Mr Elba who is a lot of fun as the villain and when he gets the chance to shine on screen his own natural charisma comes across well and should he get the chance to succeed Daniel Craig as James Bond after he leaves the role I feel he will do a very good job in that part and become embraced in that role meanwhile Ms Kirby who you might remember as the White Widow from last year’s Mission Impossible: Fallout is pretty good here but she is mainly a walking plot device outside of a few good fight scenes.

Sadly however this movie is simply far too long for its own good and as a result of that I began to not only get a bit bored with the film but also feel that it was going to be a predictable outcome, the film runs about 2 and a quarter hours and it felt more like 2 and a half hours at times and movies like this one or Shazam or even Captain Marvel from earlier this year which I thought was pretty good if nothing overly fantastic they so want to capture that Top Gun/Lethal Weapon/Big and Tango and Cash vibe from decades past.

But those movies were not these 2 hour plus behemoths they were for the most part 90 to 115 minutes and as a result they were much stronger in terms of their balance as movies because they had a tighter runtime to play around with now it feels like that tightness is gone and whatever goes if the actors are sitting/standing around on set and improvising and I’m sorry but I don’t like my movies as a fucking comedy club for the most part sometimes it works but most times it doesn’t and I just want a goddamn editing machine to cut the damn thing down cod sarn it.

And so that was Hobbs and Shaw and it’s a fun movie with a good villain and fun leads but its 2 hour plus runtime saw it overstay its welcome for me, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - The Lion King (2019)

The Lion King is another remake of a Disney animated classic this time 1994’s The Lion King gets this treatment and this time Jon Favreau takes the directors chair with a style similar to his 2016 version of the Jungle Book, the story however remains the same Simba (JD McReary and Donald Glover) is destined to be king but his evil uncle Scar (Chiewetel Ejiofor) plots to take the throne which sends Simba into exile but the once and future king cannot ignore his destiny forever.

This new version of the Lion King starts off very well and I mean very well with a recreation of the famous opening the Circle of Life that will get even the most hardened cynic of this version on board with it as it looks stunning with realistic animal animation and no dialogue and part of me did get very emotional during that opening recreation.

But as for the rest of the movie well here is where the problems begin as outside of that opening where the animals aren’t asked to emote in any way the rest of the movie requires this and you go from a stunning recreation to a miserable failure as in going for this very realistic style of animal animation it limits their ability to have expressive human like faces where they can properly emote like they can in the animated film and as a result you end up feeling very little while watching this movie.

And emotion was the name of the game when it comes to the 1994 original be it the songs like I Just Can’t Wait to Be King, Be Prepared or Can You Feel the Love Tonight? To the famous Wilderbeest Stampede to the Mufasa Cloud scene, one scene after another where you really feel this strong connection to these animals on the Savannah that is almost completely gone as there is zero expression on the faces and the voice actors have to do that much more work with their vocals.

And there is where I want to go next firstly James Earl Jones sounds flat this time as Mufasa and I hope he is in good health (He’s currently 88) but much like in Rogue One he was sounding also a little frail, Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner are okay as Timon and Pumbaa but they really just end up imitating Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella while Donald Glover is terrible as the older Simba just sounding bored the whole bloody time as if he’s above this voice over crap.

As for Ms Beyonce well I felt she was wasted as Nala, her role is barely expanded upon from the original film and again sounds flat while her song Spirit feels very out of place on the soundtrack and one of my big big concerns for this new version Mr Ejiofor as the new Scar is actually okay and certainly equips himself much better than Mr Kenzari did as the new Jafar in the recent Aladdin but also like Mr Kenzari he just cannot hold a candle to Jeremy Irons from the original.

And look this new version of the Lion King much like May’s Aladdin and the 2017 version of Beauty and the Beast are not bad movies but their also just very very very bland each and every one of them and look if you’re a fan your going to go and see this new version regardless and I won’t step in the way but its also just nowhere the original film and I hope neither of these live action remakes become the default versions, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Stuber (2019)

Stuber stars Kumail Nanjiani as Stu, an Uber driver by night who also works at a Sporting Goods store, he likes to get 5 star ratings mainly to keep his driving job but one day he picks up Vic (Dave Bautista) who is on the trail of a Drug trafficker in LA but Stu gets caught up in the action and the chase is on.

Stuber is a fun movie, I had a good time while I was watching it and I did laugh a fair amount, firstly Mr Bautista and Mr Nanjiani have good chemistry and play off each other very well not only in terms of their comedy timing but also how they represent the various sides of manhood and how its expressed which I thought was a pretty interesting idea.

And also I really enjoyed seeing Ms Karen Gillan appear briefly in this movie but sadly it is all too brief and it’s a real shame as I love her as Nebula in the Marvel Studios movies and she deserves to have a large role in a movie outside of the makeup she wears as Nebula and also she does a great American accent.

But there are also times where the action and comedy elements don’t quite gel together, firstly the action at times is way too overedited to the point where it is hard to follow who is fighting who in the scenes and its disappointing because you want to see Dave fight in those scenes.

And secondly one of the jokes regarding his character doesn’t really work very well, it’s fun for about a scene or two but after multiple scenes I got a bit tired of it.

But that aside Stuber is a fun ride that’s worth taking and that’s my 3 star rating.

Film Review - Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Spider-Man: Far From Home is the newest Marvel Studios production this time with Columbia Pictures instead of Walt Disney Pictures and is also the first movie to come after Avengers: Endgame where Peter Parker (Tom Holland) simply wants a nice Vacation after the events of the Thanos 2 parter where he can have fun, be with his chums and tell MJ (Zendaya) how he really feels about her, but when Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) calls on his help in regards to Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal) he has to don the Spidey suit once again.

Far From Home is an okay movie for me, it’s one of those where I feel that it certainly isn’t bad but it’s also one where I’m not wanting to go out and rave about it like I did Endgame or Dragon Ball Super: Broly or Rocketman which are my top 3 of the year so far, no this one just swings the webs along nice enough and I was happy for the most part.

And a large part of that is down to Mr Gyllenhaal as Mysterio, this character is one of my favorite villains from the Spider-Man comics and the animated series from the 1990s and my dream casting for this role has been Bryan Brown mainly due to the 1986 movie FX Murder by Illusion where he played Rollie Tyler a Special Effects expert who goes on the run after a suspected murder goes bad but Jake does good justice to the character and a lot of the action sequences involving him were a lot of fun.

Also Mr Holland is now very comfortable playing Peter and Spider-Man and does a great job with both roles after his somewhat finding his feet on the cobweb performance he showed at times in Homecoming back in 2017, I enjoyed seeing Ms Angourie Rice who was very good in Ladies in Black an underrated movie from last year get a bigger role while Zendaya is much better this time around as MJ with some nice hints to her backstory from previous movies and the animated series.

But alas this movie has 2 big drawbacks for me:

- Firstly the film is simply too long, its about 2 hours and 10 minutes and there were times where the film dragged at that length for me, I think if it lost a good 10 to 15 minutes I probably would’ve enjoyed the film a fair bit more.

- And Secondly I really didn’t like a lot of the films humour, a lot of the timing just fell face first in the mud for me and the way the jokes play out in an editorial sense it just felt like they dragged on those gags for too long and it stopped being funny and I can tell to a certain extent when comedy doesn’t work very well for me and here it didn’t after a while and I got a bit sick of it at the end.

Lastly the 3rd act climax is pretty underwhelming now I won’t elaborate on that too much but I will say that it could’ve been a whole lot better and more visually inspiring.

And so that was Spider-Man: Far From Home and its okay, it’s a fun time but if it wasn’t for Mysterio being done really well I don’t think I would’ve liked it all that much in all honesty, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Men in Black: International (2019)

Men in Black: International is the newest entry in the MIB franchise and the first without Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in the film, this time Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson are the new MIB agents in London who are tasked to track down a powerful weapon that could destroy the World courtesy of the Hive but their boss played by Liam Neeson could complicate matters.

Men in Black: International is boring to sit through, in fact it is the most boring movie I have sat through in cinemas so far this year and while I was sitting there watching it being projected in front of me I just got bored of the whole damn thing as so much of it just lands with this giant thud on screen.

Firstly Chris Hemsworth a man who is supremely talented, is charismatic as all hell and is a gifted comedy actor (his comedic timing is amongst the best in the business right now) and yet, and yet he is AWFUL in this, his comedy timing falls flat on its face, he constantly talks in an annoying way and his line readings just drag on and on and on some more and this is a man who can be great in movies be it Ron Howard’s criminally underrated Rush from 2013 or Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame and Thor: Ragnarok even, its just such a fucking waste of a magnetic talent.

Secondly Ms Thompson who also is very very charismatic actress is trying to do her best and seems to actually want to try unlike Chris who pretty much either gave up, couldn’t give it his all or just didn’t care enough well Ms Thompson does try and some of her charisma does shine through at times but for the most part it just feels like she’s in a fucking straight jacket instead of an MIB jacket for most of the movie and I just sat there thinking “Just let her out of the fucking straight jacket and then she can take over this goddamn movie” again just an awful waste of a promising future talent.

Thirdly the story here is very very weak, the Aliens which have been a real highlight of the previous 3 films in terms of what cool designs are we going to see on screen barely feature in this movie at all, there are hardly any Aliens in a goddamn Men in Black movie only the one new one Prawny voiced by Mr Kumail Nanjiani and he is fun in spots but he wasn’t enough there should have been more Aliens in this movie and as for the overall story again its so weak, it just plods along with little energy or comic invention and just plays out like an action film with a few laughs treated as a bloody afterthought.

And look I like F. Gary Gray fine enough as a filmmaker, Straight Outta Compton in 2015 was a terrific film but he was wrong, wrong, wrong and dead wrong even to direct this movie, where was someone who could direct comedy and handle the visual effects requirements in a way that doesn’t make you audience just think their watching someone on a bloody green screen stage with the effects work pasted on in post, they weren’t here and it shows.

And so that was Men in Black: International a movie that just bored me to no fucking end and it is easily one of my least favorite films of 2019 so far, .5 out of 5.