Film Review - The Boss Baby: Family Business (2021)

 The Boss Baby: Family Business is the sequel to the 2017 film that starred Alec Baldwin as a businessman who was also a management baby from Baby Corp but this time he is all grown up as is his more family oriented brother (James Marsden) who now has a daughter (Amy Sedaris) who recruits the brothers to help Baby Corp fight off an evil doctor (Jeff Goldblum) who wants to turn babies against their parents for good.

 

I really enjoyed the first Boss Baby, it had Alec Baldwin being his usual snarky self but in the body of a cute little baby and it put a big smile on my face a lot of the time and I particularly loved the idea of family babies and management babies in Baby Corp, this sequel however is okay but it falls very short of the first film for me.

 

And the main reason for that I feel is the storytelling, there are what feels like 2 or 3 separate sideplots going on (Tim wanting to connect with his young daughter, the evil doctor and his plan and Ted learning to not be so closed off) and it often feels like too much, don’t get me wrong it doesn’t feel messy in a sense that these storylines don’t gel they do just fine but they kind of make the film feel like baby food and one that doesn’t taste very nice either.

 

As for the vocal performances Baldwin continues to be great fun in this role and I hope his career isn’t badly affected by the awful situation on Rust, James Marsden is okay but I feel the Sonic film last year used him better than these films have, Jeff Goldblum is okay but there was a part of me that wished Taika Waititi was voicing this character instead as it really just felt like Gldblum playing himself which he’s had a bad habit of doing more and more nowadays.

 

And so that was the Boss Baby: Family Business and its okay but the first film was a lot better, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)

 Venom: Let There Be Carnage is the sequel to the 2018 Venom film and this time Smeagol himself Andy Serkis is in the directors chair but Tom Hardy is back as Eddie Brock/Venom and this time his story concerns Cletus Kasidy (Woody Harrelson) who is being executed for his crimes as a serial killer meanwhile his teenage love (Naomie Harris) sits in a top secret facility due to her ability to create sonic sound from her mouth but Cletus takes a bite out of Eddie’s hand and starts to change into the creature Carnage which he promises to bring once he’s released.

 

Venom 2 is fine, it’s a movie I don’t hate but its also one I didn’t really love all that much either but there are some good positives to be found here, the first of which is Tom Hardy as Eddie and Venom, their bickering every time it came on screen had me laughing a lot in the cinema and it rarely got boring and given how much I’ve come to loathe humour in modern movies nowadays this movie is an example of it done very very well.

 

The second is Woody Harrelson, the more I watched of him in this film I thought to myself “Is he doing a parody of his character from Natural Born Killers?” and he doesn’t so much as do a parody but more of a cartoon version of his character from that film and to his credit and my surprise it kinda works for the most part, as for Naomie Harris she’s fine and you can see she is having fun but she wasn’t all that memorable either.

 

And lastly Andy Serkis does a far better job directing this movie than Ruben Fleischer did directing the first film, his long experience with motion capture and visual effects character creation serves him well here in creating the dynamic between Eddie and Venom and Cletus and Carnage and their fight scenes don’t look anywhere near as gooey or rubbery as they did in the first film and also Serkis choosing to use the 1.85 to 1 aspect ratio has proven to be a good choice as opposed to using the 2.35 to 1 ratio the first film and many other Comic Book movies use and hopefully more directors will go back to 1.85 if they feel they can’t make good use of 2.35 to 1.

 

And so that was Venom: Let There Be Carnage and its fine, its not bad but its also not anything you will remember either, it’s just there as a fun distracting watch, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Last Night in Soho (2021)

Last Night in Soho is the new film by Edgar Wright and he co-wrote this with 1917 co-writer Krysty-Wilson Cairns and this one concerns Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) who dreams of being a fashion designer so she moves to London to fufill her dream but one night when she goes to sleep she finds herself in 1965 London which is also a time period she loves and there she sees a wannabe singer named Sandee (Anya-Taylor Joy) and things begin to spiral out of control from there.

 

Edgar Wright is probably my favourite filmmaker working today but that love mainly extends to the Cornetto series of films (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and the Worlds End) as the movies he’s made without Simon Pegg as his co-writer and point man (Scott Pilgrim Vs The World and Baby Driver) were not ones I cared about even though they are very well made and going into Soho I had that fear front of mind even though I was very keen for the film.

 

Happily I really really enjoyed this movie a lot, it’s the first movie I’ve seen this year that I have immediately wanted to see again knowing how it all plays out and firstly Wright and Cairns have crafted a very good script that makes this movie in a lot of ways feel like a great companion piece to the Cornetto trilogy combining the serious horror elements of Shaun with the mystery thread of Hot Fuzz and the dangers of looking back nostalgically on the past from the Worlds End and the Worlds End in particular is the closest comparison I would make to this movie.

 

And that comparison is that you have a lead character that looks back nostalgically at an earlier period of time be it in the past or in their own life only for the dangers of such thinking to rear their ugly heads and both movies also showed that Edgar Wright was capable of delivering something more meaningful and mature as opposed to fun and frothy romps he normally delivers albeit very well for the most part.

 

Also Wright’s camerawork and the films sound design do a terrific job of getting you into Eloise’s head and her headspace and it helps you to understand her as a character and how she interacts with the world around her and McKenzie is so so good here, I cannot praise her enough she effortlessly anchors this movie and all the crazy curveballs the movie throws her way and when I heard her accent in the trailer I got very nervous but I shouldn’t have been worried at all and between this, Old and Jojo Rabbit she just seems to get better and better with each film I’ve seen her in.

 

As for the rest of the performances they are also very good as well, Terence Stamp has a small role but I loved seeing him here even if I kept saying to myself “Kneel Before Zod” every time he was on screen, Matt Smith from Doctor Who is also good in his small role with Anya-Taylor Joy is terrific once again and adds being a good singer to her impressive talent list while the late great Diana Rigg in her final film role is really good here as well and it makes for a fitting farewell for a great Dame of stage and screen.

 

And so that was Last Night in Soho and I really really enjoyed it and I can’t wait to watch it again, 4 and a half out of 5.