Film Review - Strays (2023)

Strays is a new comedy starring Will Ferrell as the voice of Reggie a dog who is hated by his owner (Will Forte) and one day he is abandoned and comes across Bug (Jamie Foxx) who teaches him what it means to be a Stray dog but Reggie is determined to get his revenge on his owner by biting off his most beloved part of his body.

Strays was a movie I was really looking forward to mainly because the preview for it was one of my favourites in the last while, it sold me on the film and made me laugh.

And happily the film did not disappoint, this is a very fun movie especially with a decent sized cinema crowd and firstly the laughs come hard and fast and I found myself quite a bit behind my mask in the cinema, Ferrell is much better here than he was in Barbie and that’s really because he’s the centre of the film instead of an afterthought, Foxx is also good fun as the street wise Bug while Isla Fisher and Randall Park are also good fun as 2 other dogs who join Reggie and Bug.

Also the film has a surprising amount of heart to it, much more than I thought it would though when you see multiple close ups of Reggie and think “aww he’s a cute doggie” you’ll find yourself wanting him to achieve his goal and the story regarding Bug worked for me as well.

But if there is a scene stealer it is Forte as Doug who is a horrible owner and he plays that very well and is a better villain than most I’ve seen in a while and I want that to be fixed please.

And so that was Strays, its very funny has some heart and closeups of cute doggos and a great villain, I had a lot of fun with this one, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter (2023)

Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter is based off of the log of the wooden ship Demeter from Bram Stokers Dracula novel and stars Corey Hawkins as a doctor who gets a job on the Demeter which is transporting some private cargo from Carpathia to London but one of those crates has the mark of the Dragon on it and it could lead to a dark time on this voyage.

Voyage of the Demeter isn’t the best horror film you’ll see but its also pretty solid and much of that is due to Andre Ordeval’s direction, he doesn’t rely on loud noises/quick cuts or jump scares as much as others do but instead he is actually willing to let the scenes breathe a little and build tension with the crew on the ship and the Demeter makes for an effective location as its out to sea with no sign of land and no other ships to come to its aid.

Also what works is the cast, though Hawkins at times sounds a little out of place with his accent he makes for a good doctor on board as does David Dastmalchian as the ships first officer, Liam Cunningham is also very good as the ships captain and Aisling Franciosi is good as Anna who has found her way on board and may have a strange connection with the beast Dragul played here by Javier Botet and he too is good in his role.

And so that was Dracula Voyage of the Demeter and it’s a good solid horror film that should satisfy fans enough for them to enjoy it, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Gran Turismo (2023)

Gran Turismo is directed and co-written by Neil Blomkamp who came to prominence with 2009’s District 9 and is based off of the long running Playstation game series and stars Archie Madekwe as Jann Cunningham an avid Gran Turismo player who qualifies for the GT Academy where he will have the chance to become a proper racing car driver and is being spearheaded by Nissan executive Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom) but coaching them is former driver Jack Slater (David Harbour.)

Gran Turismo is far better than it has any right to be and a lot of that comes down to Blomkamp’s work on this movie, yes this is a classic underdog story but he finds a way to make it work for people who are familiar with playing Gran Turismo and people who haven’t, he also does some very interesting stuff with the films car race moments where at times you see the place indicator like you would in the game while at times the camera is positioned like the view on the track in the game.

What also helps is the cast, Madekwe makes for an appealing lead for the most part even if at times his deep voice makes his line readings sound a little stiff, Djimon Hounsou and Geri Halliwell are solid as his parents but the standouts in this movie are Bloom and Harbour who play off each other very well and have good scenes on their own, Harbour in particular is a lot of fun as the grizzled veteran ala Robert Duvall in Days of Thunder.

And so that was Gran Turismo and it’s a fun solid movie that does its job and doesn’t skid off the track, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - The Meg 2: The Trench (2023)

The Meg 2: The Trench sees Jason Statham return as Jonas from 2018’s The Meg and this time he and his team are planning to dive into the Trench, a previously unexplored area of the ocean floor but after an illegal mining operation detonates a thermal breach, Megalodon Sharks start swimming through and its up to Jonas and Co to save the day from the giant Sharks.

The Meg 2 is a bit of a mixed bag movie wise, I didn’t hate it per se but I also had issues with it but before I delve into those I will mention what I did like and that is mainly the films action sequences with the various creatures, they are fun to watch and have a snappy pace to them and I was rarely bored while watching the Stath fight the Sharks.

But what did bore me to some extent was the films script which desperately wants to be the new Aliens for a new generation in that you have returning characters, a bigger scope to events, a derelict station and a team struggling to survive before fighting it out in the last act but instead it feels more like the recent Jurassic World movies where those films became so bogged down in near pointless corporate intrigue sideplots that you didn’t have any interest in them at all.

And instead you just wanted a fun 90 to 100 minute The Stath vs The Giant Shark movie where the Giant Sharks run amok and the Stath has to fight them and save the day and countless sea goers from being gobbled up and those moments here are fun but don’t work as well as they should.

And so that was The Meg 2: The Trench and its fun in places and boring in others, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Oppenheimer (2023)

Oppenheimer is the new movie by Christopher Nolan and stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer who invented the Atomic Bomb and was later accused of being a Communist.

Oppenheimer was one of my most anticipated of the year mainly due to Christopher Nolan who’s last 2 films Dunkirk and Tenet are not only my favourite films he’s made but also topped my favourites lists of their respective release years but could be build on those and get that 3 peat favourites win or was this bomb to be a dud like Sideshow Bob’s when he went for that retro 50s charm.

Well so far Oppenheimer is my movie of the year but this year is far from over movie wise and Dune Part 2: Long Live the Fighters is still to come but this movie is a terrific one by Nolan and he manages to take a very familiar story especially if you’ve seen the Hunt for Red October and make something gripping and terrifying out of it.

Firstly I have to talk about the use of sound design in this movie the times where the bomb is shown and referenced you feel in your bones and at one point I was literally on the edge of my seat and then wanting to duck and cover under it as I felt this terror envelope me from head to toe and this feeling of absolute dread of “What have we done” rattle in my brain.

And its gripping in the sense that you feel both the personal and global stakes of this race to acquire this deadly weapon and what it could do to those who made it as well as the human race as a whole and Cillian Murphy finally gets to lead a Nolan film and he doesn’t disappoint playing the man as someone who was a radical and a genius and then a haunted soul living with the consequences of his invention as well as the treatment his country gave him as thanks.

Also extremely good is Robert Downey Jr and it is as much his movie as it is Murphy’s and these 2 men and their performances highlight what I feel Nolan does so well with this movie and that is that this is as much about humanity as it is about history (and it does that very well also) and what we can do to ourselves both on a global nuclear scale as well as personally where we can rub someone the wrong way or feel that for whatever reason we don’t like them or are somewhat jealous of what they’ve achieved either in their own life or in service to their country.

If I have one criticism of this movie it’s that it’s a little long at 3 hours and towards the end I was checking my watch on a few occasions and getting the message from my bottom that its sat in this cinema seat long enough.

And so that was Oppenheimer and it’s a terrific film by Christopher Nolan who continues his post Interstellar winning streak and hopefully next time he’ll base his next movie on the Red Dwarf episode White Hole much like Tenet did the Backwards world like the Boys from the Dwarf did, 4 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Barbie (2023)

Barbie is based off of the Mattel toy and is directed by Greta Gerwig and co-written by her and Noah Baumbach and stars Margot Robbie as what she calls Stereotypical Barbie who lives in her dream house, has big parties and is the focus of attention of Ken (Ryan Gosling) but when thoughts of Death come into her mind she is told by Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) to go into the Real World and find the person who plays with her and fix it.

Barbie was a movie I was curious about mainly because I love Gerwig as a director, I loved 2017’s Lady Bird and adored 2019’s Little Women but the previews for this movie were all over the place and I thought to myself This will either be terrific fun and Gerwig has done it again or it would be a near total disaster like Lightyear was last year where I sat there and thought “Who is this For?”

Well it is neither of those sadly but it is still good enough and I enjoyed myself enough to feel positive about this movie for the most part, Robbie is the best she’s been in what feels like a very long time here after 3 very high profile misfires in Birds of Prey (which she also produced as well as this movie), Amsterdam and Babylon the latter 2 of which I felt had interesting elements to them but on the whole weren’t great but here she’s lively, energetic, warm, funny as well as emotional and all of it works very well.

And I actually enjoyed Ryan Gosling for once in a movie and he is someone I have barely liked in movies save for 2016’s The Nice Guys but here like with Laura Dern and Emma Watson in Little Women Gerwig actually directs him like a human being instead of a human equivalent of the Living Statue where in so many roles he just either sat there or stood there and stared into the camera or stared off into space and I got so sick of it even in movies like First Man which I really liked he did it there but here he’s very charismatic and lively and has a lot of great moments as does Simu Liu my favourite Ken plus Michael Cera and America Ferrara who is very good as a Mattel executive with a moody daughter of her own.

But this movie as fun as it is doesn’t quite come together I feel to make it as satisfying in terms of its focus and storytelling that I felt Lady Bird and Little Women had and a lot of this comes down to the ending which I didn’t love now I did love seeing that person again in a movie but their scenes didn’t quite work for me and they felt a little jarring with the “come on Barbie let’s go party” feel the film was going for at times.

And also Will Ferrell as the head of Mattel was okay but really deep down was only doing a riff on his much better Lord/President Business character from the Lego Movie in 2014 as well as not really having an awful lot to do apart from run around comedically and react to the strange goings on around him.

And so that was Barbie and its fun enough that I recommend it but I don’t feel it sticks the landing well but Gerwig has yet to make a bad film and I hope she continues for a long time to come as I’ll be there every time, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning: Part One (2023)

Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One is the newest MI film and once again Christopher McQuarrie returns to direct and co-write the script, this time the IMF is up again a mysterious program known as The Entity, an AI program that has become rogue and various groups want to control it as it has the power to control anything it touches but Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team (Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson and Ving Rhames) want to find it so they can destroy it.

Dead Reckoning Part One is my favourite MI film after 2015’s Rogue Nation which is still my favourite of this series and the reason I feel this is the case is that this movie has a much better sense of storytelling than 2018’s entry Fallout did where I felt half of the script was the characters saying “I’m Working On It” or a variation of that theme whereas here this has much more of the danger and intrigue that Rogue Nation had and while this is only Part One this felt satisfying and not too long despite its 163 minute runtime.

Also this movie has some fun action sequences the highlight being the climax on board the Orient Express which is tense and exciting and full of surprises as it plays out, there are also some very good hand to hand fights with knives and fists that are also exciting to watch and McQuarrie has gotten better at directing action since Rogue Nation where he hadn’t quite gotten a handle on that kind of thing yet but hey these things take time to learn.

And lastly the film has 2 excellent newcomers to the cast in Hayley Atwell and Pom Klementieff and they bring a real breath of fresh air to a series that now risks becoming stale despite its excellent quality film wise (only 2000’s Mission Impossible 2 is a dud here), Atwell is very charming as this thief character Grace and she displays a lightness of touch that is good to watch while Klementieff as a cold assassin makes the most of her limited role and is a big part of the hand to hand fight scenes and why their so memorable.

But I’m now starting to feel that after Part 2 of Dead Reckoning opens next year that it might be time for Christopher McQuarrie to vacate the directors chair for a film or 2 don’t get me wrong his partnership with Cruise which began with Bryan Singer’s 2008 film Valkyrie has been hugely beneficial for both men but he’s done 4 of these films by the time the Dead Reckoning story is fully finished and after seeing what Joseph Kosinski did with Top Gun Maverick last year I’d like to see him get a chance to direct an MI film.

And so that was Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One and it’s a very fun time at the cinema even if the series as a whole could do with some new blood once Part 2 is finished, 3 and a half out of 5.