Film Review - Megan (2023)

 Megan is the new film by James Wan and Aleka Cooper who co-wrote Malignant together in 2021 and is directed by Gerald Johnstone and actually stands for Model 3 Generative Android and her creator (Alison Williams) decides to create her in the hopes it will help take care of her niece Cady (Violet McGraw) who has lost her parents in a car accident and for a while things go well but Megan is sworn to protect Cady at all costs even if it means killing those who get in her way.

 

Megan is good fun and while it dials back its horror kills it does have some interesting things to say regarding potential outsourcing of parenting and childcare responsibilities to a doll lookalike even though it is an Artificial Human or Android but Gemma (Alison’s character) clearly sees the good at first due to the improvements in Cady after taking her in but the film also has some interesting points to make about the need for kids to eventually grow up and build connections in the real world and I liked that about this movie.

 

Also Megan is a really fun character and while the horror moments would’ve benefited from an MA15+ rating they do work well enough and the character has some great moments and the combination of effects work and young actresses in the role make her very memorable to watch, I also really liked Alison Williams as Gemma this driven young woman who wants to build things and make a difference in the toy company she works for only for it to not go as she had hoped and how she eventually has to step in and be a parental figure to Cady on her own.

 

And so that was Megan and horror fans will enjoy this film as did I, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

 The Banshees of Inisherin is the new film by Martin McDonagh who made In Bruges and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and takes place in 1920’s Ireland and stars Colin Farrell as Padraic and Brendan Gleeson as Colm two friends who one day aren’t friends anymore because Colm decides he doesn’t like Padraic anymore and Padraic can’t understand why and tries his best to get him to change his mind.

 

The Banshees of Inisherin is pretty good and I had a good time for the most part watching this film, firstly the scenery of the Irish coast is lovely to look at with its green hills, cloudy skies, beachside settings and old houses it makes this country look and feel like a place you really want to visit and also McDonagh’s script is pretty good for the most part I particularly like the use of the word Feck it reminded me a lot of Red Dwarf and its use of Smeg and Smeghead.

 

Secondly the performances here are very good, Farrell and Gleeson play off each other very well and have great chemistry together and it makes you wish that they would put their differences aside and be friends again so you can just watch them trade lines as they drink pints and Colm plays the fiddle in the pub, Barry Keoghan is also very good as a young man who is often seen as a town pest while Kerry Condon is good as well as Padraic’s sister and she has some good scenes of her own.

 

If I have one complaint about the film its that the comedy at times is very black and I am not against dark movies at all but here the black humour kind of bothered me a little bit and it didn’t really make me laugh all that much either and maybe this is a result of the dark times the world has been through since March of 2020 but my bleak-o-meter has taken a cut for the most part and I’ve found myself wanting happier and/or more escapist fare of late.

 

And so that was the Banshees of Inisherin and while its black and at times bleak comedy didn’t work for me this is a good drama anchored by great performances, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Operation Fortune (2023)

Operation Fortune is the new film by Guy Ritchie and stars Jason Statham as Orson Fortune, an operative for British Intelligence who is tasked by his boss (Cary Elwes) to track down a briefcase called The Handle before it falls into the wrong hands but to complete his mission he will need a crack team (Aubrey Plaza and Bugzy Malone) as well as movie star Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett) who notorious arms dealer Greg Simmonds (Hugh Grant) loves.

 

Operation Fortune is fine, its nothing horrible but nothing special either and if you are a fan of the Stath then I think you will have a good time, there’s some good action scenes especially a car and helicopter chase in the third act and plenty of twists and turns which Guy Ritchie likes to do in a lot of his movies to keep you interested in what is going on.

 

As for the Stath well he is fine but nothing he hasn’t done before while Grant, Elwes and Eddie Marsan are good fun in their roles though whenever Josh Hartnett was on screen I couldn’t help but think that his role was clearly intended to be Channing Tatum and when he couldn’t be case or turned the role down (I don’t know any of this for certain) Hartnett took the role and to be fair he is fine and gets some good moments especially in the third act.

 

But my favourite person in this movie is Aubrey Plaza who is clearly having a great time here playing essentially a grown up Penny from Inspector Gadget but I didn’t care I loved her in this movie and she seems to get the movie she’s in from knowing when to play dumb and knowing when to be smart all while having a big smile on her face as he works her technical skills and I hope between this and Emily the Criminal from last year that better days are ahead for her because she deserves them.

 

And so that was Operation Fortune and its okay, nothing horrible but fans of the Stath will have a good time, 2 out of 5.

 

Film Review - The Fabelmans (2023)

The Fabelmans is the new film directed by Steven Spielberg and is co-written by him and Tony Kushner and concerns the young Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle) who when he sees the Greatest Show on Earth in a cinema becomes consumed by a desire to make movies for a living making many short films as he can when he gets the chance but while his mother (Michelle Williams) approves his father (Paul Dano) doesn’t and getting to make movies for a living is not easy but Sammy is determined to do so.

 

I was very much looking forward to this movie as I am a big Spielberg fan especially after seeing the Post and West Side Story which proved that he still has that masterful touch on occasion and this movie feels like a long time coming given that this movie is based on his own upbringing for the most part and the divorce of his parents something that has been in the works since ET but could this deliver a great film or feel somewhat too close to home.

 

Well sadly I must say that this movie is very disappointing for me and it bums me out to say this given how much I was looking forward to seeing it but before I delve more into why I want to touch on the positives firstly it is very well acted for the most part, LaBelle/Dano/Williams are all very good and anchor their scenes very well, Williams at times feels like she is in a different film as the free spirited mother but it didn’t feel like I was watching a performance from a different film, Dano is very good as the button downed Dad who at times is very cold and distant while LaBelle is very good as the young Sammy who looks like a mix between the young Spielberg and JJ Abrams.

 

My favourite performance however is by Judd Hirsch as Uncle Boris, he only has one scene but he damn near steals the movie as he talks about the need to do what you love even if it will break your heart and feel like a slog at times, it’s the one part of the film where I felt it really find a beating heart.

 

But the rest of the film sad to say mainly left me cold and unmoved and the main reason I feel this way is because for most of his career Spielberg has already touched on a lot of these elements and done them far better than he does here:

 

- The divorced parents he did in ET in fact that was the first conception of that film in Spielberg’s mind before he brought in the Alien element

 

- The cold and somewhat distant father who comes around in the end he did in Close Encounters and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade which did this storyline note perfect

 

- The young kids off on an adventure well that was the Goonies and it isn’t a big part of this film but I felt it

 

- And lastly the young man determined to go and make his mark on the world as he comes of age well Back to the Future which Amblin produced (Spielberg was the one person who believed in that film when no one else did) did that better as well as did Joe Dante’s Gremlins

 

And in all of those movies these story beats did make me feel something and in the case of Last Crusade really got me emotionally whereas here I was left bored, unmoved by it all for the most part and checking my watch on a few occasions as at 151 minutes I felt that runtime especially towards the end of the film.

 

And so that was the Fablemans and it was not a moving Fable for me just a long recycled set of story points that Spielberg has touched on before and done a lot better and sometimes some stories filmmakers have are best left untold and this is not something I take any remote pleasure in saying especially as I was so keen for this movie but as they say in the classics you win some, you lose some, 1.5 out of 5.