John Martin Film

2021 in Entertainment, the Best and the Worst Movies and TV

2022-01-01T16:09:00.002+02:00

This year there is a new category from last year’s three: TV’s Best and Worst. What follows is not necessarily Top and Bottom 10 lists, but rather lists of movies and TV I truly enjoyed or truly didn’t enjoy. Here we go:

My 5 Best New Movies

# 1 and # 2 are interchangeable, no clear winner, both 4/4*

A Quiet Place, Part II: What may have been seen as an unnecessary sequel to one of my definitive favourites of the last 15 years, A Quiet Place II delivers more of the same honest and exhilarating sci-fi thriller feel that made me adore the first movie so much, fully justifying its existence and even making me anxious for some more. An excellent movie in every way.

Dune: Part One: Incredible movie. Made even better by the realisation that Part Two has been greenlit, seeing that this one does not complete the story. Visually, it is absolutely gorgeous, with none of the tacky acting or strange visual effects of any of the earlier versions, Dune: Part One is what Dune was always supposed to be, what Herbert's novel deserves.

Three Movies rated at 3.5/4*

Zack Snyder’s Justice League: The original, while not a complete failure, was rushed and incomplete. With reshoots and going full-on uncut, this feels like a mini-series, it works near-perfectly, and is superior in every way: clearer story and character motivations, improved VFX, it holds up better. The 4-hr running time is not a slog but streamlining some slow-motion elements may make it even better.

Godzilla vs. Kong: Godzilla vs Kong is a lot of fun from a franchise growing in confidence and not shying away from the ridiculous. And why wouldn't it be ridiculous after Godzilla: King of the Monsters? This time there is tension between Godzilla and Kong (obviously), which will take a wholly different threat to resolve. Visually spectacular while feeling like a homage to old-school big-monster movies, Godzilla vs Kong successfully continues the ridiculousness.

No Time to Die: The final Daniel Craig Bond movie is not the best Bond of this modern era, but also not the worst. Daniel Craig's Bond movies stand, in my opinion, head and shoulders above especially those of Pierce Brosnan, but also above any of the others - in that they're rooted in a sense of realism while delivering excellent action alongside a deeper story. Here's hoping the next Bond can deliver to a similar or higher standard.

My 2 Worst New Movies

These weren’t really bad movies, they both just left me indifferent, and therefore as I could choose and was lucky to not choose any real clunkers, these two rated lowest at 2.5/4*.

Finch: No Tom Hanks movie is ever really bad, as he is infinitely entertaining and always easy to get behind, and while Finch is not bad at all, it just isn't really all that good either. The emotions are there and make this movie ultimately worth the watch, but it won't win any awards for breaking new ground.

The Vault: The Vault is a serviceable heist movie with a few recognisable faces making for a reliably entertaining 2 hours. The tension builds quite acceptably towards an eventually somewhat non-climactic end, with one or two clever plot twists that lifts it just above being a waste of time.

My 5 Best Late Catch-up Movies

I only got to see these movies from earlier years in 2021, and they all rate 3.5/4*.

Love and Monsters (2020): Love and Monsters is such a cool throwback movie - it feels like a modern-day reimagining of the creature movies we watched and enjoyed as kids, with actual special effects and a semi-sweet love story. Really fun - one to re-watch periodically.

Palm Springs (2020): A somewhat foul-mouthed time-loop romantic comedy with Andy Sandberg, this is a surprisingly feel-good and affecting story about a slacker stuck in a time-loop at a dessert wedding, with a few people stuck with him. Hilarious and heartfelt, it's more than just a diversion, it will always be a good memory.

Patriot’s Day (2016): Very good, made even better by linking it all to real people. Following the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings and investigations that lead to the capture of the guilty and focussing on some of the injured. The close-to-true telling almost makes it seem like a comedy of errors at times, considering how small-town cops handled it, but the survivors' message lifts this to another level.

Another Round (2020): Four high school teachers start a social experiment aimed at finding a level of constant inebriation optimal to a "better" life. As the movie progresses, the group increases their day-drinking to darkly comic yet also sadly disastrous levels. A fantastic and highly entertaining movie that is also an honest cautionary tale.

The Mustang (2019): A fantastic yet quiet story of a hardened criminal getting involved in an inmate rehabilitation program that has inmates working at taming wild horses to be auctioned off to law enforcement agencies - a beautiful story of forgiveness and acceptance.

My 6 Worst Late Catch-Up Movies

Except for one movie on this list (indicated), all of these are rated 2.5/4*, which is more of an indifferent rating than a bad one, but they rate worst from what I’ve seen.

Zombieland: Double Tap (2019): I held off on this sequel for a long time, being afraid of the usual quality drop - turns out I was right. Where the original played off its freshness and oddly different approach (for which I loved it), this doesn't do much other than riding on the first movie. While entertaining, it's just not as memorable.

Baywatch (2017): Yes, Baywatch. It's bad, but also low-key enjoyable. As an action-comedy, it doesn't work great, as both the action and the comedy are merely OK. What I enjoyed was that somehow, even though it's so obviously bogus, the characters feel real (apart from the awful villain), and what tipped it over 2 stars was one character, Ronnie (John Bass) - absolutely hilarious.

JEXI (2019): A sweet-ish romantic comedy disguised as a vile-ish Hollywood production. I'll never understand Hollywood's need to take something good and gross it up like this. I enjoyed moments, but the overall feeling is a pure disappointment.

Central Intelligence (2016): Paint-by-numbers action comedy that has some funny moments but is not as funny as it seems to think it is. Hart and Johnson are both huge in their own spheres of the entertainment industry, and it's disappointing to see what they've come up with here, less than the sum of its parts.

Gemini Man (2019): Any Will Smith movie is supposed to be better than this - some cool action sequences are overshadowed by lacking CGI firmly entrenched in the uncanny valley - a bit of a waste of time to be honest.

Wonder Woman ’84 (2020) (1.5/4*): After 2017's Wonder Woman being such a pleasant surprise, one could have hoped for more of the same, but it's only there in small parts in some entertaining action sequences. This is garbage - the final showdown once again a VFX mess, the story wishful thinking, and the aftertaste nothing but regret.

My 11 Best Movie Re-Watches

Three 4* Movies on the Re-Watch List

Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation (2015): Tom Cruise is completely in stride, this is an even more kick-ass instalment in the Mission: Impossible series - Part Two of the "second" trilogy.

Mission: Impossible Fallout (2018): Tom Cruise is completely in stride, this is the most kick-ass instalment in the Mission: Impossible series - Part Three of the "second" trilogy.

Kill Bill Volume 1 (2003): A purely visceral experience, Kill Bill Volume 1 was as entertaining now as it was 18 years ago - partially shockingly violent, partially vicarious revenge tale, completely fun and irreverent joy to watch.

Eight 3.5* Movies on the Re-Watch List

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition (2016): The added 30 minutes is a phenomenal improvement. It seamlessly expands and clarifies the motivations of almost all major role players to such an extent that the movie feels like less of a slog than the shorter original theatrical version. See this version, it's a step in the right direction - I can't wait to see Snyder's Justice League later in 2021

Captain Phillips (2013): This is the somewhat disputed retelling of the pirate hijacking of the Maersk Alabama (it was later found Captain Phillips was not as heroic). But the movie is excellent. Tom Hanks is marvellous as an everyman who goes further than expected to save lives during a harrowing experience, with the other stand-out actor here being Barkhad Abdi, the Somali Pirate gang's leader.

United 93 (2006): 15 years later, and while I did remember it quite well, one thing that struck me even harder this time was the emotional impact of realising this was actual events pieced together from phone calls and other communications, portraying everyday heroes sacrificing their lives to save others. A brilliant movie and a harrowing telling of heavy events.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981): Not much can be said about Raiders of the Lost Ark that hasn't been said before. An absolute classic that's as good today as it was 40 years ago (before I was able to appreciate it at age 1). Harrison Ford is simply perfect as the scoundrel archaeologist Indiana Jones.

Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol (2011): Tom Cruise is completely in stride, this is a kick-ass instalment in the Mission: Impossible series - Part One of the "second" trilogy.

Skyfall (2012): Perhaps the most stylish, yet small-scale Bond movie, Skyfall turns things inward for both Bond and M, with tragic consequences. Grand visuals in an early cityscape sequence almost invoke Blade Runner, while stark contrasts during the last half of the movie turn this Bond series on a darker and more personal path.

Kill Bill Volume 2 (2004): Continuing the Kill Bill saga, Volume 2 slows things down a bit from the martial arts extravaganza of Volume 1 to a more talkative Spaghetti Western. Slightly less entertaining than the blast that was Volume 1, yet still a lot of fun to watch again.

Spectre (2015): Spectre is the advancement of Bond's story following on the more personal elements of Skyfall into the bigger world of the evil corporation trying to ruin not only Bond's life but also to take over the world (though Bond gets their special attention). A truly good-looking Bond movie dragging you tensely along.

My 4 Worst Movie Re-Watches

Sometimes watching a movie again years later just doesn’t gel with the original experience, or the movie does not age well, these are those movies for 2021.

Two movies at the indifferent 2.5* rating

The Mechanic (2011): The Mechanic is less fun than remembered, as it feels a little too gritty/dirty for easy entertainment. Statham is still his usual action movie self, the only difference being that he's more of an anti-hero dark assassin this time 'round.

Quantum of Solace (2008): The least impressive Bond movie of the Daniel Craig era, Quantum of Solace has some good ideas squandered on an anticlimactic end sequence without much of an apparent point - some advancements are made towards unveiling Spectre, but not much.

Two movies at the below-average 2* rating

The Other Guys (2010): The Other Guys is from a time when Will Ferrell’s antics was still relatively entertaining and occasionally hilarious and being teamed up with Mark Wahlberg is a stroke of almost genius. Entertaining movie, a bit crasser than I remembered, but still pretty fun.

Mission: Impossible (1996): I had good memories and should have kept it that way. This was painful to watch again 25 years later, as apart from two really cool action sequences, this felt like a home movie made by absolute amateurs. I will always be thankful for this movie though, as it led to the "second" trilogy of Mission: Impossible movies, which are absolutely incredible.

My 12 Best TV Series Watched During 2021

The Best One, rated at 4*

The Mandalorian, Season 2: While I think I enjoyed the first season of The Mandalorian slightly better than Season 2, this is, in my opinion, still one the greatest things to ever happen to TV. Massively entertaining, fantastically well-produced, and perfectly atmospheric, The Mandalorian is peak Star Wars.

12 more, rated at 3.5*

Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Season 8: Hands down one of the best sitcoms ever produced, Brooklyn Nine-Nine was even better for allowing audiences to choose what to laugh at (no laugh tracks). Season 8 was not up there with the rest, having a particularly weak start, but it picked up nicely before a beautifully bittersweet finale.

Foundation, Season 1: Apple TV+'s effort at bringing Isaac Asimov’s Foundation to life on the silver screen may have started out relatively slow, but it explodes into something fantastic during the last three episodes. The first seven episodes are not wasted, however, as they feature strong acting from some familiar faces and many unfamiliar faces alike, and stunningly gorgeous world-building.

Line of Duty, Season 1: Fantastic slow-burn British crime drama - only 5 episodes allow for a story to be told without annoying delays and detours in getting to the point. Excited to get to the next 5 (or more?) seasons.

Resident Alien, Season 1: Alan Tudyk is perfectly cast as a human "inhabited" by an Alien in this hilarious comedy about an alien hell-bent on finishing his mission (destroying humanity) while hiding in plain sight. Excellent stuff and can't wait for season 2.

Seal Team, Season 4: Seal Team remains one of the better TV Series out there. In the vein of The Unit, Seal Team focuses on (you guessed it) an American Navy Seal Team, their missions abroad, and their personal lives and interactions. Super solid series, always a pleasure to watch.

Star Trek: Picard, Season 1: Unlike Discovery, Picard is awesome science fiction that also comments on contemporary issues without becoming an oppressive social justice pulpit. Patrick Stewart is his usual great self, anchoring this fantastic series in realism amid all the (perhaps continuously less far-fetched) science fiction.

Ted Lasso, Seasons 1 & 2: This is no doubt one of my favourites from the last decade - one of the best feel-good series ever. Jason Sudeikis is fantastic as the titular character, an out-of-place coach great at human interaction, less so with the sport he has to coach. The supporting cast is as perfect. Just one thing blocking me from an unequivocal recommendation: occasional moments of (very) crass humour and consistent use of the Lord's Name in vain will not be for everyone.

The Expanse, Season 5: This one is one of the better Science Fiction series I've seen. A cold war where the parties are Earth, Mars, and the Solar System's Asteroid Belt is navigated by the crew of the Rocinante, politicians, and many more threatens our solar system - and drastic action is required to avert disaster.

The Flight Attendant, Season 1: Accurately described on Wikipedia as a Comedy-Drama-Mystery-Thriller, The Flight Attendant is a very entertaining pulp novel vividly brought to life with Kaley Cuoco delivering a performance making you forget she's most famous for being Penny from The Big Bang Theory. A lot of fun.

The Mosquito Coast, Season 1: While The Mosquito Coast is definitely not for everyone - it is very slow-paced and the end does not feel like an ending at all, just a moment of reprieve, it is beautifully produced and marvellously acted. Be sure to stay until after the credits with each episode for a small behind the scenes look that adds to the production.

The Rookie, Season 3: The Rookie remains one of my favourite series - Nathan Fillion is fantastic as a 45(ish) year old LAPD Rookie in a great Police Drama series, recommend highly.

The Unicorn, Season 2: The Unicorn is a truly beautiful little comedy series, bittersweet, heartfelt, funny, and romantic in short 20-minute doses. Walton Goggins is as good at playing Wade here as he was playing Boyd Crowder in Justified - two series that are about as far from each other as is possible. I'm quite sad to hear the show's been cancelled.

My 5 Worst TV Series Watched During 2021

While most of the entries on the Worst lists for the movies didn’t really include anything truly bad, this list does. These struck me as nothing but a waste of time, whether I was lucky enough to realise this early on, or whether the annoyance only struck me later on and subsequently ruined everything that preceded this realisation.

Walker, Season 1 to Season 2, Episode 4: Walker started out as a relatively fun distraction, featuring Jared Padalecki from Supernatural fame (which is why I gave Walker a chance to begin with) as the new Walker. This is however not Chuck Norris' Walker, and after a bit of promise early in season 1, Walker has devolved into downright Soap Opera territory - forcing me to abandon it.

Star Trek: Discovery, Season 3, Episodes 1 to 7: I enjoyed seasons 1 and 2 of Discovery, the visuals are incredible, and the storytelling was effective. From Season 3 however, there seemed to be less of a focus on the cool science fiction and more on the depressing and over-emotional drama - and an over-emphasis on unnecessary, real-world issues. It's supposed to be escapism, not just a social justice pulpit.

Modern Family, Season 8, Episodes 6 and 7: Stopped Modern Family years ago after getting REALLY annoyed with the episode structure for EVERY episode. Tried it again and made it through 2 episodes before abandoning it - this time for good. (The structure: an extended family member does something selfish/wrong, proceeds to share it with everyone but his/her partner, who they try to hide it from, only for that person to eventually accept the snafu in some way, with a "life lesson" and an attempt at a "warm-and-fuzzy" ending. Oh, and Phil being stupid about something.)

Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Season 1, Episodes 1 to 3: Having loved Star Wars Rebels and Clone Wars, I was cautiously excited about The Bad Batch (but not completely, as the backdoor pilot for The Bad Batch in Clone Wars also made me cringe a little). I could make it through 2.5 episodes before abandoning it, it's just not worth it. The humour falls flat, the storytelling is formulaic, and the overall feel just bland.

The Good Doctor, Season 1 to Season 3, Episode 11: The Good Doctor started out good but turned annoying pretty quickly during season 2. It got so bad in season 3, in conjunction with a loss of focus on interesting medical cases and that focus being replaced by melodramatic soap opera drama, that we abandoned it halfway through Season 3. Eventually, this was a monumental waste of time.

2020 Movies Summary

2021-02-03T17:41:00.008+02:00

Top Movies

The following lists the best new releases I saw during 2020. In 2020 it was different getting my hands on new movies, due to the whole pandemic thing, so the channel of getting the movies started migrating this year. As I type this in Feb 2020, South Africa’s best cinema chain is entering business rescue, so I get a feeling 2021 will be somewhat empty as I wait for the big ones to release on legitimate channels in South Africa. This year I’m doing a Top 6 only, as I only saw 14 new releases in 2020, and listing any more will include undeserving titles. Still, it's awesome to discover great movies.

1917 (4/4 stars)

1917 is an incredible achievement drawing the viewer into two World War I soldiers' given mission. The camera follows them in near real-time (with only two breaks advancing the time, as far as I could tell), as they navigate war-torn Europe in the hopes of reaching another Army Battalion in time to call off a planned attack that will end in tragedy. I've never seen anything like it.

Tenet (3,5/4 stars)

Christopher Nolan continues to bend minds, but none of his previous movies have been this ambitious and complex. As Nolan stated beforehand, the movie does not feature time-travel - not specifically - but what it does feature is even more complex. It's also insanely cool to experience, and I'd love to watch it again for three reasons, 1) to simply experience it again, 2) to take in more of the twisty story, and my only criticism, 3) to have subtitles available so I can actually follow all the dialogue, as some of it gets obscured by the movie's sound and music to a sadly distracting degree. Tenet is incredible, but falls just short of Interstellar, Inception, and Memento.

Ford v Ferrari (3,5/4 stars)

Ford v Ferrari is a fantastic drama telling the story of the Ford Motor Company's efforts to compete with and eventually defeat Ferrari in the Le Mans endurance race in 1966. Matt Damon and Christian Bale lead a fine cast in telling a wonderful story.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (3,5/4 stars)

Aaron Sorkin brings his signature high-octane writing (but more tempered than it was in The Social Network), to an intriguing and rousing telling of the sham of a case that was brought against 8 people who were charged as the leaders of the Vietnam War protesting leftists at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which led to violent riots. It was all about visuals, as the eighth defendant was not even part of the riots - he was merely added to the docket because of his skin colour and his ties to the Black Panthers in order to make the actual seven seem more "criminal" to the jury. It seems not much has changed since then.

The King of Staten Island (3,5/4 stars)

I really enjoyed this understated but still foul-mouthed dramedy a lot. The King of Staten Island is a semi-autobiographical telling of comedian Pete Davidsons's life story, starring Pete Davidson as himself, but not with his name - he goes by Scott Carlin (after his father Scott Davidson and the comedian George Carlin). The movie is endearing and engaging, and I doubt many people will not enjoy it.

The Report (3,5/4 stars)

The Report won't be for everyone, as it's almost a documentary style telling (sans interviews) of the Senate investigations into the CIA's Enhanced Interrogation Techniques after 9/11. It's a very good movie with actors disappearing into their roles, and the intrigue is not in any way diminished by the slow pace or the "supposed" factual nature of the movie - it's not credited as being based on true events, but rather based on the heavily redacted Torture Report.

Worst Movies

In every batch of movies there will be great movies, which I've listed above, average movies, which just float by into yesterday, and these: the ones that felt like time and money wasted. The ones that make you afraid to see new movies and may sway you towards rather re-watching old classics. These are the movies, new or only seen now, from 2020 that I would like to unsee, that I won't ever recommend.

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016) (0,5/4 stars)

I'm giving this movie a half star, only because it technically classifies as a movie. Apart from that, it's crass and stupid. I thought I was a big Andy Samberg fan - turns out I'm a fan of a somewhat controlled, a less vulgar Andy Samberg. Oh, I also abandoned this one after about 25 minutes.

The Burnt Orange Heresy (1,5/4 stars)

The Burnt Orange Heresy, which turns out to be the title of an artwork with dubious origins, is mostly a boring establishment of the main character, art critic James Figueras (Claes Bang), as a smooth talker with not-so-honourable intentions, and of the old artist Jerome Debney (Donald Sutherland) as a famous hermit. Along for the slow yarn is a nearly innocent girl (Debicki) and an eccentric millionaire (Mick Jagger), both victims of Figueras' ambition.

Assassin’s Creed (2016) (2/4 stars)

Assassin's Creed feels like someone was tasked to write a script based on the game in a rush - on which he did a half-decent job. But the half decent script would have resulted in a 6-hour movie, so he was instructed to cut almost all exposition and anything not flashy enough to get it to under 2 hours, and by this time the budget for proper special effects was depleted - and to hide this fact the movie was shot through a smoke haze. Yeah, it's that bad - and the references to the game are extremely forced. *[gasp], Leap of Faith!"

Project Power (2/4 stars)

Project Power is another of Netflix's shiny new action vehicles with cool visuals and an interesting premise, but with a less than ideal result. While the premise of taking a drug or power pill to unleash a superpower for 5 minutes is interesting; the meat of the movie seems hollow - as if it was developed with only loose connections to any true underlying humanity. The father's desperation to find his daughter doesn't have depth, the movie merely assumes it; when a protagonist enters the fray, he swallows a power pill, and the result is more predictable than surprising; and the last protagonist to swallow the power pill has the greatest reveal before a last twist and a Deus Ex Machina happy ending. I don't recommend Project Power.

The New Mutants (2/4 stars)

Not writing this mini review in the week after watching the movie seems to have been a mistake - it's not a very memorable movie to be quite honest. There are the usual mutants trying to figure out whether their powers are good or bad, the inevitable villain trying to tell them it's bad, and the revelation that their powers are good. This time it's told via a horror movie of sorts, but the entire thing is just diluted, not all that much fun to watch. It's time for the X-Men to also properly join the MCU.

Old Guard (2/4 stars)

The Old Guard is a concept movie and not much more. What if there are a few immortal individuals who've been, over hundreds or even thousands of years, fighting for what they believed at the time to be right? And then some cartoonishly greedy and villainous Martin Shkreli-type hears about them and tries to capture them "for research for the good of humanity". Some cool fight scenes with oddly quiet interludes and cliche dialogue (the words "Go big or go home" are used, verbatim) left me a little more disappointed at having watched it than happy to have done so.

Bloodshot (2/4 stars)

Bloodshot is a visually attractive movie with a bare bones story which serves more as a set up for a potential trilogy/franchise than truly having a proper complete story of its own. Vin Diesel basically plays himself (or Dom Toretto from the later Fast & Furious movies) - with a ridiculous enhancement: he's basically a near-immortal nano-bot machine on a quest for vengeance, which in turn is based on manufactured emotion. His "creator" places memories in his nanobot mind to further his own agenda, and of course it's all revealed to the hero, who fights to change the status quo, get the girl, and his freedom - and they literally ride of together into the sunset.

Dolittle (2/4 stars)

Dolittle attempts to be magical and humorous and profound, but fails at all of these. With one funny moment and an annoyingly for-children-only approach, Dolittle falls flat on its face.

Midsommar (2/4 stars)

Midsommar is not for everyone. It drew critical acclaim and while it is well-made, it's not for me. It's a high-concept horror movie that doesn't rely on blood and guts or jump-scares (even though there are some), but rather a growing dread and consistent feeling of confusion over the completely bonkers motivations of a remotely located, self-justified, Swedish sect. Like nothing you've seen before.

Good Older Movies Only Seen in 2020

Of course no one can watch all the new releases every year without fail. There are movies that slip through the cracks, that you feel the need to catch up on, for better or worse...

Serenity (2005) (3,5/4 stars)

After the cancellation of the cult favourite TV series Firefly, the fans' outcry for some story closure led to Serenity. The full crew returns, and the major questions the prematurely cancelled series left behind are addressed while keeping the highly entertaining nature of Firefly alive.

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016) (3,5/4 stars)

In retelling the story of The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, Michael Bay has managed to make a tense military survival movie with his signature directorial style - this looks and feels like a Michael Bay movie, but what saves it from becoming another 6 Underground (which was awful) is the constraints of it being a true story - there is limited writer's freedom. Thank goodness for that, as 13 Hours is immensely entertaining.

Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) (3/4 stars)

Out of the 4 Terminator movies to come after the incredible T2: Judgment Day, this is the one that comes closest to the feeling of excitement and flat-out action entertainment that the original two movies brought so many years ago. It may not be perfect, but the return of Linda Hamilton and Arnol Schwarzenegger is great, the action scenes are big and brash, and the special effects are pretty cool.

Doctor Sleep (2019) (3/4 stars)

Doctor Sleep is the sequel to The Shining (1980). Stephen King, the writer of both novels, 36 years apart, famously didn't approve of Stanley Kubrick's movie based on his original book, as it changed quite a few details to King's chagrin. Doctor Sleep is made as both a sequel to the original movie and an almost faithful rendition of the new book, with Stephen King's buy-in. It is also a pretty good thriller-horror movie with some very dark, Kinglike elements. You don't need to have seen The Shining to enjoy this, but I think it may help a little.

Free Fire (2016) (3/4 stars)

Free Fire is a high-octane movie that is almost completely one protracted shootout in an abandoned warehouse in the 70's between arms-dealers, the buyers, and a few third party mercenaries. The movie is brutal, but presented in a comical way with lots of quips, foul language, and sudden blood spatter all the way through. The entire cast spends almost the whole movie crawling around behind cover in an attempt to survive and get the money in a sweet and short and relatively fun, but very violent movie.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) (3/4 stars)

On a whim I decided to catch up on this old-timer, and what a pleasant surprise it turned out to be. A young Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter star as two high school slackers who are presented with a unique time-travelling research opportunity to pass history or, in Ted's case, be sent to Military School. The movie is a sincere and goofball comedy with two extremely likeable characters who only want to be great musicians - and who are actually revered in a strange future for their planet-saving music. And the moral of the story simply seems to be: "Be excellent to each other, and party on!"

21 Bridges (2019) (3/4 stars)

21 Bridges is a tight thriller featuring the king of Wakanda, Chadwick Boseman, as an outsider NYPD Detective after the killers of a group of police officers when a drug deal goes really bad. While I can't really say why the movie's title is 21 Bridges, it is an enjoyable fast moving moving that's over far too soon.

Revisits

What is any year in movies without revisiting some old favourites? You may find that your tastes have changed or that you have simply grown out of some movies, and these are the most notable ones.

A Very Long Engagement (2004) (4/4 stars)

To get a romance to resonate with such a somber backdrop is quite an achievement. To not only get it to resonate but be a resoundingly rousing feel-good movie is incredible. A Very Long Engagement will forever remain one of my favourite movies ever, beautiful and heartwarming and haunting.

Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow (2014) (4/4 stars)

This has to be one of the most exhilarating science fiction action movies ever made, and that puts it firmly on my all-time favourites list. Tom Cruise seems to have capitalised on the public dislike by making a movie where he keeps dying, and in the process he makes (with Doug Liman) a terrific actioner that is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. Awesome movie.

Snatch (2000) (4/4 stars)

Yup, Snatch is still a fantastic plot weaved out of craziness and fun, with a lot of big name actors all having a blast. Brad Pitt steals the show as an English-Irish Pikey/Gypsy bare-knuckle boxing champion in a movie loaded with memorable performances and infinitely quotable quotes.

Sicario (2015) (4/4 stars)

Sicario remains an absolutely brilliant, though cynical take on the war on drugs. Unfortunately this take does make sense, as addicts will create a demand, which will drive the market. Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Too, and Emily Blunt are excellent in this sometimes violent, sometimes thoughtful interrogation of a different angle of dealing with the larger drug issue. I will watch this again any time.

Tenet (2020) (4/4 stars)

The second time watching Tenet was a better experience than the first, as this time I had the advantage of subtitles, and I was also a bit more prepared for the complexity of the story. It is amazing how, when dialogue is garbled, one can feel like you're missing parts of the movie, but if that dialogue is on a second viewing revealed to have been intentionally garbled (due to plot complexities), the story somehow makes more sense. Tenet is an amazing movie, and repeated viewings only cements the feeling.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018) (3,5/4 stars)

The first half of the evental culmination on a cinematic universe spanning 10 years and 18 movies, Avengers: Infinity War is enormous and loads of fun. It brings it all together but doesn't yet conclude it all. It opts rather to not try and squash everything into one movie, and leaves viewers with a crushing "snap" ending, the Avengers shattered, and hope only hinging on the eventual climactic movie of the first three phases, Avengers; Endgame - to come in 1 year's time.

Avengers: Endgame (2019) (3,5/4 stars)

The final culmination of Marvel's Cinematic Universe's third phase (barring an epilogue in Spider-Man: Far From Home) is even bigger and bolder than Infinity War, it's still immensely entertaining, and it comes in a tiny little step above Infinity War when the credits roll. It's overwhelming, but also funny, pulse-pounding, and emotional, ending again with a "snap" but this time it has a satisfying feel of rounding out the story the first three phases set out to tell. These movies are nothing other than a Marvel, still having this much power, and growing, after 21 movies.

The Kingdom (2007) (3,5/4 stars)

This is one of my favourite movies in the military/Middle East subgenre. The story is simple: an FBI team heads to Saudi Arabia to investigate a terrorist bombing at an American compound and things spiral out of control when one of the team members is kidnapped. The movie is brutal and the tension is racked up to almost unbearable levels as the team fights through an army of terrorists on the streets of Riyadh.

Lone Survivor (2013) (3,5/4 stars)

Lone Survivor is a relentless and high octane retelling of the ridiculous choice a team of operators were forced to make and the immediate consequences of it crashing onto them in the form of a small war between 4 Seals and an army of Taliban fighters in the mountains of Afghanistan. Breathless action and honest feeling of the horrors of war - Lone Survivor is a real good watch.

Demolition Man (1993) (2,5/4 stars)

Demolition Man is an over-the-top action movie from the golden era of action movies. The dialogue and characters are somewhat juvenile and the concept of the future not quite thought-through (I can't believe that this much of 1996-life will be forgotten by 2032), but the movie remains a fun way to spend two hours.

Mission Impossible 2 (2000) (1/4 stars)

I did not have fond memories of MI2. In fact, I was so convinced of how poor a movie this was that I thought I must be remembering it wrong and I decided to watch it again, 20 years later. It's so, so, so much worse, I was dumbstruck by how terrible it is. It must be the worst action blockbuster in history, and I am so thankful the franchise survived this to give us any Mission Impossible movie after this one. But I am not thankful for this one. Never.

2019 Movies Summary

2020-01-21T19:41:00.003+02:00

Top Movies

In this list I note the 10 best new releases I saw during 2019. This is why I still take the time and trouble to go see a movie now and then, this is why I will always be on the lookout for another good movie - it's awesome to discover great movies.

Knives Out (4/4 stars)

Rian Johnson has scaled back from Star Wars to make another marvellous mystery movie reminiscent of his 2005 effort Brick, and as fantastically plotted as his 2012 sci-fi hit Looper, this time with a stellar cast to boot. Daniel Craig is a Piorot type detective consulting on the investigation around the death of the patriarch of a devious family. The story runs deeper that just the investigation though, and is at its beating heart about kindness to those who need it most, all this while also being immense fun.

Parasite (4/4 stars)

There wasn’t much between Knives Out and Parasite, and I still feel they are more of a combined number 1 movie for 2019. Korean director Bong Joon-ho shows up all of Hollywood with a movie where even the title goes through levels of Inception as the story keeps surprising and shocking and mesmerising the viewer. Definitely one of the more entertaining movies I’ve seen in many years.

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (4/4 stars)

This is my favourite animated trilogy, Toy Story included. I’ve enjoyed every instalment as much as the previous one, and the heart presented on screen is simply magical each time. Nothing feels diluted, nothing feels artificial, and nothing feels forced - quite a mean feat considering this movie is about Vikings and Dragons co-existing.

Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (3,5/4 stars)

Quentin Tarantino can spin an entertaining yarn, and he is back on top form with Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. Seeing Leonardo Dicaprio and Brad Pitt play off each other as they do here, combined with the creative license taking in the “retelling” of historical events a la Inglourious Basterds, is a blast. You don’t even realise the movie is almost 3 hours long, as everything keeps you one hundred percent focussed.

Avengers: Endgame (3,5/4 stars)

Avengers: Endgame is probably one of the BIGGEST movies ever made: bringing together such an enormous cast of heroes, giving each at least some time to shine, while also bringing the third phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to a satisfactory close. Big departures done surprisingly well also carries some emotional punch, even while the battle rages spectacularly. And a cherry on top for me is also the time-travel story that does make sense and isn’t instantly a plot-hole engine.

Toy Story 4 (3,5/4 stars)

After the absolutely perfect ending of Toy Story 3 (my second-favourite Animated trilogy), you could be forgiven for thinking that a fourth movie might be a little excessive. In fact, I was fighting exactly this feeling during the first 30 minutes or so, but Pixar got me around to rooting for Woody and Buzz yet again. Toy Story 4 may not be entirely as good as #3, but it comes pretty close to it, and it’s pretty entertaining all the way - special mention goes to Duke Caboom, voiced by Keanu Reeves, a very entertaining Evel Knievel type stuntman.

Ad Astra (3,5/4 stars)

Ad Astra is a visual treat, and even though it is relatively slow (my wife couldn’t stand the slow pace), the slow burn story together with the beautiful cinematography kept me glued to the screen. Brad Pitt’s understated acting is fantastic, and he carries the movie with his portrayal of the incredibly stable Major Roy McBride, tasked with finding out what is the cause of catastrophic power surges from space endangering humanity and with potentially finding his long-gone father in outer space. While the movie’s pace may turn some down, the moon surface chase sequence on its own is worth the price of admission to me.

The Irishman (3,5/4 stars)

If you are hoping for another The Departed from Martin Scorsese in The Irishman, you should know that’s not what The Irishman is. It is however a beautifully crafted semi-historical mobster drama telling a somewhat dramatised story of true life events from the perspective of mob hitman and fixer Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro). At 3.5 hours, there is ample opportunity to tell the story of a lifetime, and it does, from a de-aged De Niro involvement in WWII, to an elderly, wheelchair-bound Sheeran remembering his life story. Slow paced but expertly presented, The Irishman is another home run from Scorsese.

Angel Has Fallen (3,5/4 stars)

Yes, this movie is not the typical kind of movie you usually find on Top 10 lists, but as a guilty pleasure I can’t exclude it from this list. Gerard Butler is beginning to get typecast in this kind of role, but it is for a reason. The action was great fun and a pretty cool continuation from the previous two instalments. This is one sort of action I enjoy, and I so wish Hollywood can make a few more like this every year.

Roma (3/4 stars)

Filmed in Black and White, with dialogue in Spanish and Mixtec, Roma is a heartbreaking and personal account of a slice of life of a domestic worker in Mexico City. The cinematography is crisp and beautiful, and the honest acting by a group of mostly unknown actors truly pulls the viewer into the simply story of everyday events with personal impact for Cleo the main character, played by Yalitza Aparicio, making her acting debut in this film.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (3/4 stars)

I both enjoyed and was disappointed by the the final entry in the Skywalker Saga. Despite the fact that JJ Abrams effectively reversed the very interesting and refreshing direction Rian Johnson took the saga in with The Last Jedi (according to me, the best of all Star Wars movies) to pander to the worst kind of internet “fans”, the movie was still a truly enjoyable blockbuster with marvellous visuals and great action and adventure sequences.

Worst Movies

In every batch of movies there will be great movies, which I've listed above, average movies, which just float by into yesterday, and these: the ones that felt like time and money wasted. The ones that make you afraid to see new movies and may sway you towards rather re-watching old classics. These are the 7 movies from 2019 that I would like to unsee, that I won't ever recommend.

The Great Hack (2/4 stars)

Even though the subject matter of this Netflix documentary is scary to say the least - it tells of Cambridge Analytica’s irresponsible and devious use of Facebook users’ personal data - everything else about this documentary is simply bad. Every person involved seems incompetent, from the perpetrators to the investigators to the snitches to the filmmakers. The feeling I got was that if even one person in all of this was more competent, everyone else would have been done for. This is an important documentary, but unfortunately those involved just make it painful to watch.

Earthquake Bird (2/4 stars)

This part English, part Japanese movie, set in Japan and following a strange love story/love triangle, is just boring. And it has no point. It simply felt like a waste of time.

6 Underground (2/4 stars)

Now this was a waste of time. It’s almost as if Michael Bay has gone full retard. He has made some pretty entertaining movies over the years, but this was just excess for the sake of excess in every possible way. I like some of the actors involved in this abomination from somewhere else, but I just don’t get the point of this movie - and I’m baffled with all the online praise I’ve seen for it. Just plain nonsense.

The Wandering Earth (1,5/4 stars)

A Chinese version of Armageddon, just more ridiculous. The sun is busy dying (I’d rather watch Sunshine again 1,000 times), so the earth’s scientists install engines all over the planet to fly earth (yes, the entire planet) to a different solar system where a relatively young sun awaits a new beginning. While some of the visuals are impressive, I simply can’t handle the way the story is told, as if a concerted effort was made for a general feel of slapstick comedy, even during more serious parts, and the acting feels similar to that of an episode of Barney the Dinosaur’s. This is China’s third highest grossing movie of all time, and I can’t understand why.

Glass (1,5/4 stars)

I absolutely loved Unbreakable, and then Split sort of had me on the fence - leaning towards liking it - with the ending connecting it to Unbreakable. Unfortunately Glass couldn’t really pull it off, being merely a bland continuance of both Unbreakable and Split, leading into an anti-climactic end that undoes the entire trilogy. I’ll hold on to Unbreakable and forget the rest for future reference.

Unicorn Store (1/4 stars)

Brie Larson, Captain Marvel herself, wrote and directed Unicorn Store, a light-hearted little tale about a childlike adult woman who just doesn’t want to grow up. Oh, and she gets the opportunity to buy a Unicorn (yep), but first she must prepare for its arrival. I can’t really remember this movie very well, it was a bit strange and boring and not very magical at all.

Rim of the World (1/4 stars)

I don’t know what the market is for this movie. Is it a kids’ movie, as the main characters who save the world from alien invasion are all children? Surely not, as the movie simply contains too much foul language and semi-adult situations and references. An adult movie then? Nope, too juvenile. It’s for no one, unless it’s used as punishment.

Only seen now

Of course no one can watch all the new releases every year without fail. There are movies that slip through the cracks, that you feel the need to catch up on, for better or worse...

Micmacs (2009, 4/4 stars)

Jean-Pierre Jeunet seems to have a way of entertaining me, and Micmacs is no exception to this rule. I adore two of his other movies: Amelie, and A Very Long Engagement and list them as some of my all time favourites. The same now goes for Micmacs, which I rate as the best movie I saw during 2019, ten years after its original release. It's in French, it has subtitles, it's whimsical, and it's very entertaining - I love it.

Eye in the Sky (2015, 4/4 stars)

pThis is such a great movie, capturing the tension, the tragedy, and the absolutely ridiculous banalities of drone warfare perfectly. If you can catch this anywhere I highly recommend you see it, anyone will enjoy this tight thriller, it is highly enjoyable.

The Usual Suspects (1995, 3,5/4 stars)

Yes, I admit it, it's taken me 24 years to see this. Since 1995 the only thing I knew about this movie was the details of the final twist reveal, and maybe I was jaded a bit, thinking the movie had been spoiled because the surprise would have been lost on me. Well, I finally decided to just watch it, and even though it has perhaps not aged well, it is brilliantly told, and I wish I could have seen it without knowing the ending beforehand.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016, 3,5/4 stars)

Every now and then a movie comes along that you hear about on Twitter and other internet chat platforms, that people can't seem to really forget about, that has a sort of a cult following, and when Hunt for the Wilderpeople was released on Netflix, I immediately watched to see whether the rumours where justified, and believe me, they were.

American Made (2017, 3,5/4 stars)

Tom Cruise simply manages to find ways to entertain with a higher frequency than most other actors (he however still has his duds, see The Mummy for a bad one). American Made is fun, and the energy of the movie is infectious, even more so when reminded that this is based on real events!

The Big Short (2015, 3,5/4 stars)

Another movie based on real events which seem so outlandish that even a simply the retelling of would be entertaining. The way Adam McKay puts this movie together with all-round excellent acting from big name actors takes it up several levels above merely entertaining.

The Edge of Seventeen (2016, 3,5/4 stars)

Anyone can enjoy this movie, whether you are at the age of the main character, brilliantly played by Hailee Steinfeld, and can identify with the struggles, or whether you're older (any older age) and can reminisce on some level. A funny and relatable view of social awkwardness.

Human (2015, 3,5/4 stars)

This is an astonishing documentary, with a very simple premise. Documentary Filmmaker Yann Arthus-Bertrand mixes beautiful landscapes with one-on-one interviews with a diverse group of individuals on being human. This documentary is incredible.

Rush (2013, 3,5/4 stars)

Rush is a magnificent sports movie focussing on the world of Formula One racing in 1976, in particular focussing on the rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda for the championship title. The characters are larger than life and the races are marvellously recreated. Anyone with even a passing interest in racing can definitely give this one a go.

La La Land (2016, 3,5/4 stars)

I am very apprehensive when it comes to musicals, as I'm usually on the negative side of the review column (I did not care for Chicago one bit, which is how I feel about most musicals, but Moulin Rouge will always remain a firm favourite). La La Land had me wondering whether I should continue during the first two minutes' overpass song and dance sequence, but it was so vibrant and joyful that it quickly convinced me to stay on. And I'm glad I did.

The Dark Tower (2017, 1,5/4 stars)

This is the one movie I caught up on during 2019 that I should rather have just let go. I've read all the books, devoured them to be precise, and this is no Dark Tower story. It's a weak imitation of a hacked reboot of the story. Just let it die.

Revisits

What is any year in movies without revisiting some old favourites? You may find that your tastes have changed or that you have simply grown out of some movies, but there are some others...

Inglourious Basterds (2009, 4/4 stars)

In my humble opinion, Ingluorious Basterds remains Quentin Tarantino's masterpiece - he even said so right at the end of the movie via Lt. Aldo Raine. The tension when Shoshanna meets Hans Landa will forever remain as one of the tightest scenes I've ever experienced in cinema, and that is but one scene in a movie chock-full of fantastic scenes. Oui Shoshanna...

The Fifth Element (1997, 4/4 stars)

The Fifth Element may be my most-watched movie. I've watched it close to annually since it's release, and I simply don't tire of it. It is an absolutely perfect sci-fi action adventure comedy.

The Rock (1996, 4/4 stars)

The Rock is Michael Bay’s only truly great action movie. Perhaps because it is strongly rooted in realism, perhaps because Nicholas Cage, and Sean Connery, and Ed Harris simply dominate the screen. For many years this was my one answer when asked about an all-time favourite movie, and while there is now not just one at the top, The Rock is still in the vicinity - always will be.

Die Hard (1988, 4/4 stars)

Die Hard may be the best Christmas movie of all time, and it definitely is the best Christmas action movie of all time. Bruce Willis' John McClane is a simply sublime character, one that’s been returned to four times since. Nakatomi Plaza (Fox Plaza) is instantly recognisable even now, over 30 years later, simply because of how fantastic Die Hard is.

Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995, 4/4 stars)

This was a golden age for action movies, all the best ones were released between the late 80's and late 90's (later well-received action movies were never really the same type of action movies as these ones, there was something definitively different to action movies since around 2000). Die Hard with a Vengeance introduces us to another Gruber brother as the villain, and it seems that these villainous brothers bring out the best in the Die Hard movies. Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson play off each other brilliantly.

Super 8 (2011, 3,5/4 stars)

JJ Abrams does know how to make an entertaining movie, and Super 8 is no exception. I think the makers of Rim of the World (worst of 2019, above) was aiming (but terribly missed) for something like Super 8, a completely engrossing alien attack movie with stunning visual effects supporting an engrossing story.

Fight Club (1999, 3,5/4 stars)

After having The Rock as my sole all-time favourite, Fight Club held that position for many years. Watching it again has revealed to me that I have started to outgrow it though. While I still loved the movie and probably always will, my 2019-specific rating for the movie has now fallen by half a star. I enjoyed many other movies I saw during 2019 more than my 2019 viewing of Fight Club. I still hold a place for it among my lifetime favourites though, and always will.

Bad Boys (1995, 2,5/4 stars)

Part of the golden age of action movies, Bad Boys was Michael Bay's first movie. It was a lot of fun at the time, and while I still enjoyed it this time, it has aged badly. This was the last time I'll watch Bad Boys, as I wasn't expecting it to be so much more... average this time 'round. It is unfortunate that we outgrow our old favourites…

Bad Boys 2 (2003, 2/4 stars)

At the time in 2003, I thought Bad Boys 2 was an improvement on Bad Boys. How wrong a little age has proven me. This movie is crass and excessive, much like Michael Bay's latest effort, 6 Underground. It is definitely unfortunate to outgrow old favourites.

Ant-Man (***)

2015-09-01T11:28:00.000+02:00

Directed by: Peyton Reed

Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Michael Douglas, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Peña, Anthony Mackie, Judy Greer

Seen: August 1^st 2015

*** Out of ****

After the massive almost-excess of the Avengers movies and the build-up to those movies with the other Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies, Ant-Man does a commendable and entertaining job of miniaturising things. Ant-Man has an added layer of comedy and old-school comic book movie camp factor that, in conjunction with the new Marvel seriousness and large-scale story, somehow works to deliver a tiny punch carrying a lot of power. While Ant-Man in some ways feels like part of the old batch of superhero movies before DC and MCU’s re-tooling of the genre with the Dark Knight Trilogy and the MCU blockbusters, it also shows up those old movies as the (mostly) imposters they were.

Ant-Man is a self-contained story bookended by and injected with connection points to the larger MCU. It features an entertaining fight between Ant-Man and a “lesser” Avengers/Captain America character at a familiar venue, and the after credits sting promises Ant-Man’s inclusion in Captain America: Civil War in 2016 with the obvious potential of him also joining the Avengers for the Infinity Wars duo of movies due out in 2018 and 2019. The action scenes are great fun, with one fight in particular a small scale fight presented from two perspectives; one feeling big and urgent, the other seeming ridiculously underpowered and small.

Ant-Man works because of the humour added by Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man and Michael Peña as Luis, Lang’s former prison cell-mate. Peña is hilarious and he easily but graciously steals scenes in his relatively limited screen-time. While the story is told tongue-in-cheek, Corey Stoll as Darren Cross/Yellowjacket, and to a slightly lesser extent Evangeline Lily as Hope van Dyne, the daughter of Hank Pym, play it straight. Stoll especially is a clear-cut corporate type who becomes the villain, and he has no time for shenanigans, no time… (Thank you Will Farrell). Michael Douglas enjoys the tag-along ride as one of the early Avengers now completely on his own trying to hide dangerous technology from a greedy world.

Ant-Man is a lot of fun, much more than I expected it to be, and I welcome Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lily to the MCU. The movie successfully injects a few new characters, stories, and ideas into the MCU, and I’m curious to see where they take things from here.

Inside Out (****)

2015-07-07T12:50:00.001+02:00

Directed by: Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen

Starring (Voices): Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Richard Kind, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Kaitlyn Dias, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan,

Seen: July 5^th 2015

**** Out of ****

Pixar simply keeps delivering great movies. There was that bit of a slump with Cars 2 (it felt like a big budget but straight to video animated movie) and Brave (according to critics, I’ve yet to see it), but I’m a massive fan. I thought about giving specific praise to some of my favourite Pixar movies over the years, but realised that I would name all of them except for Cars 2 and Brave (which may still make my list one day)! The other animation studios have certainly made some stunning movies themselves; consider the two incredible How to Train Your Dragon Movies; but Pixar’s (very almost) entire portfolio outshines the portfolio of any other studio with ease.

Inside Out delivers very close to the same emotional punch that Toy Story 3 did, and Toy Story 3 had the distinct advantage of the full setup and emotional growth coming through its two brilliant predecessors. I loved every minute of Inside Out, as it takes a very small but impactful story and delves into its emotional core to make it far more than it seems to be. This simple story of a small family moving and the move’s effect on the 11 year old only child Riley (Dias), is given a deeply introspective angle through anthropomorphized core emotions Joy (Poehler), Sadness (Smith), Disgust (Kaling), Fear (Hader), and Anger (Black); with the majority portion of the movie playing out inside Riley’s head. The happenings behind certain events in Riley’s life are enlivened through what the emotions experience in headquarters and on core memory islands in Riley’s mind, and the inventive approach is absolutely beautiful.

Inside Out is one of the best movies in recent years, animated or not, with interesting ideas visualised in ways that are both inventive and interestingly representational. The movie is touching as it makes a big and beautiful deal of a family and the bonds they share, while also being hilarious in parts where the emotions of other characters are concerned. Inside Out ranks very highly on my Pixar favourites list, which as a whole ranks very highly on my all-time favourite list. These guys definitely know how to make a touching and funny and lovely and entertaining and simply great movie, with Inside Out being yet another one.

Jurassic World (***)

2015-06-17T12:03:00.001+02:00

Directed by: Colin Trevorrow

Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Nick Robinson, Ty Simpkins, Vincent D’Onofrio, Irrfan Khan, Omar Sy, B.D. Wong, Jake Johnson

Seen: June 12^th 2015

*** Out of ****

By now Jurassic World has broken several Box Office records, chief among them the opening weekend – beating out both Marvel’s Avengers movies. The trailers gave away just enough to entice two generations into cinemas without going into spoiler territory, and I believe the movie has done more than enough to warrant its success. Jurassic World is great fun, it looks great, and it doesn’t simply rest on its laurels to make money. It is a self-contained story that, rather heavily, uses elements from its predecessors, incorporating them into a story that thrills and entertains almost as much as the original Jurassic Park did 22 years ago.

Jurassic Park is still the best, but Jurassic World takes its place as the only one of the three sequels that I would watch again without any reservations. The second movie happened to, in my opinion, contain the best partial Jurassic movie of all four, but latching on a Godzilla ending ruined it for me at the young age of 17 in 1997. Also, I read Michael Crichton’s The Lost World before seeing the movie, and that may also have added to my disappointment and disillusionment, as the movie did not utilize some of the coolest sequences (or the story for that matter) from the book, which were ripe for the picking. This is in part remedied in Jurassic World though, as at least two of those lost The Lost World sequences are present now – and they are awesome. I can honestly not remember much of the third movie, only that I was disappointed and that it felt like a B-grade attempt to make money off the success of the brand.

The one thing that did amaze me though, and keep in mind that I haven’t recently watched Jurassic Park again, was that visually this movie did not feel at all ahead of its 22 year old ancestor. That’s not to say Jurassic World looked bad, in fact it really looked rather good; but it did leave me in renewed awe at the supremacy of the masterpiece Steven Spielberg unleashed upon the world in 1993. The dinosaurs didn’t for one second seem unreal then, and neither do they now, making immersion into the story that much more of a foregone conclusion.

Chris Pratt is without a doubt a certified star. His presence and playful attitude are integral to the movie, and without him Jurassic World might not have been half as fun or entertaining. Bryce Dallas Howard undergoes quite a transformation from a corporate slave to a Jane for Chris Pratt’s Tarzan (sans swinging from trees that is). Vincent D’Onofrio is a chameleon, disappearing into his role as the park’s security expert, among other things, and he couldn’t resemble his character Wilson Fisk in Marvel’s Daredevil less. The movie doesn’t however give him much more to do than to be one of the decision makers among many who do not realize that what they are busy with is bigger than they could possibly fathom.

Jurassic World is a thrilling continuation of the franchise, and I for one am glad it wasn’t another dud like Jurassic Park III. The story is simple: things go wrong as greed and stupidity run amok, and the heroes need to find a way to survive while destruction reigns supreme. Jurassic World realizes its limitations, and doesn’t try to outdo other movies by going ridiculously over-the-top. The references to Jurassic Park are plentiful and great fun to spot, and while Jurassic World might not be as well-remembered in 22 years as Jurassic Park is now, it’s definitely worth your while to catch this on the biggest screen available. The dinosaurs are dead, long live the dinosaurs!

Tomorrowland (**½)

2015-06-15T14:07:00.002+02:00

Directed by: Brad Bird

Starring: George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy, Tim McGraw, Kathryn Hahn, Keegan-Michael Key, Thomas Robinson

Seen: June 3^rd 2015

**½ Out of ****

Tomorrowland is part of a breed of movies that, truly unfortunately, are soon forgotten with somewhat conflicting memories. The conflict comes from the movie promising so much in trailers and delivering so much less. I am in some way still sort of excited about Tomorrowland because the basic premise is so cool: the existence of a parallel universe – created with only the best of intentions – that some kid, apparently from nowhere, discovers a “door” into.

The trailer for Tomorrowland promised a visual feast, and while the movie delivers on that promise, it delivers only marginally more than what the trailers already did. Tomorrowland also tries very hard to deliver on the monstrous expectation it did create in a trailer with pretty much zero story spoilers and a heavy sense of anticipation, but it fails. The movie seems to not really know what to do with its own premise, and while a resolution is reached, it feels shoddy and slightly nonsensical, as if the writers themselves had a really hard time thinking further than their base concept for the movie – a world where everything is simply wonderfully functional and fantastic being endangered in some way.

George Clooney is such a charming actor that even here, playing the gruff and hopeless Frank Walker, the viewer can’t help but root for him immediately. I don’t know if this immediate fondness for Frank was intentional though, as I believe Britt Robertson’s Casey Newton, the lead character who has dreams of a better world, was supposed to bring his mostly broken character back from despair and to rekindle his passion instead of simply and broadly convincing him to help her. Clooney can almost not play an unlikeable character, and this might be why he doesn’t seem to go through a believable or substantial catharsis. Hugh Laurie is presented as a killjoy very early on, and he only gets worse, he can play unlikeable, and he can play it very well.

Tomorrowland looks good, but it delivers a little under two hours of promise which is then let down by a final 20 minutes of bumbling uncertainty about how to end it. I wanted it to be so much more, but it simply isn’t.

Mad Max: Fury Road (***½)

2015-06-15T13:28:00.000+02:00

Directed by: George Miller

Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoë Kravitz

Seen: May 16^th 2015

***½ Out of ****

Mad Max: Fury Road embraces its particular brand of post-apocalyptic insanity with an intensely hyperactive glee. Where else would the main villain have in his entourage his own grunge soundtrack in the form of a truck carrying a huge soundstage with a chain-and-spring suspended guitarist - who also happens to be the only character in the movie dressed in red? This is the kind of imagery you’ll be confronted with in Mad Max Fury Road, front to back and completely in your face.

I can’t speak for how Mad Max Fury Road rekindles old Mad Max fans’ feelings or memories though, as this is the first Mad Max movie I’ve ever seen, but what I can say is that this was a great action movie that told an energizing and engaging story with little dialogue in a way that many movies nowadays can’t. It’s also spectacular without being absolutely eleven levels over the top – I’m looking at you, Furious 7…

I’d say this is one of my favourite action movies in a long time. The actors seem to seriously be having fun, which I believe was definitely the case for Nicholas Hoult, playing Nux, who eventually also gets a beautifully redemptive story arc. Tom Hardy is great and understated as Max, who is only introduced by name around the halfway mark, if not later. He does quite a lot of his work with only facial expressions, as his mouth is barred for a large part of the movie, but yet in his silence he screams as apocalyptic action erupts around him. Charlize Theron blazes through the movie as Imperator Furiousa, and with Tom Hardy she leads one of the strongest female casts since close on forever – Mad Max Fury Road is not scared of giving the ladies a hard time or letting them dish out the hard times.

Mad Max Fury Road will not be for everyone, but once you decide to go for it, it will definitely knock your socks off. This is post-apocalyptic glee wrapped up in sombre earthy hues with rare splashes of colour and driven by strong performances from all involved, and it was great fun.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (***½)

2015-05-15T13:31:00.002+02:00

Directed by: Joss Whedon

Starring: Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, James Spader, Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Paul Bettany, Samuel L. Jackson, Don Cheadle, Andy Serkis, Cobie Smulders, Anthony Mackie, Hayley Atwell, Idris Elba, Stellan Skarsgård, Thomas Kretschmann

Seen: April 25^th 2015

***½ Out of ****

The Avengers was something new in superhero storytelling, breaking out the trend of multiple hero movies done well after a series of mediocre to good single character Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. With The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Marvel successfully continues this trend after other multiple hero movies, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy, also did very well. I enjoyed both the Avengers movies equally, with only Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy being better movies in my humble opinion. In terms of spectacle though, I’d have to go with the two Avengers movies, with Age of Ultron just barely eclipsing 2012’s The Avengers for sheer spectacular entertainment value – the big screen (and IMAX) is made for this type of movie, as everything is enormous, simply everything.

Slotting into the Marvel Cinematic universe after the 19^th episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (even though you can watch the movie without the series and still follow the story), the Avengers attack Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker’s (Kretschmann) castle in Sokovia in Eastern Europe. He’s been experimenting on gifted individuals, human and alien (the Kree from Guardians of the Galaxy), and he also holds Loki’s sceptre. In the attack the team come across two gifted individuals as enhanced by Von Strucker, the twins Pietro (Taylor-Johnson) and Wanda Maximoff (Olsen), in the Marvel Universe known as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. The twins get away, but Von Strucker and Loki’s sceptre are captured.

Back in New York, Stark (Downey, Jr.) and Banner (Ruffalo) find that Loki’s Sceptre contains an advanced artificial intelligence, and they use this to complete their Ultron program, Stark’s dream of “placing a suit of armour around earth” to protect it from any threats. The sentient program that emerges from this experiment, Ultron (Spader), immediately sees humanity as earth’s biggest threat, and decides to eradicate all humans. He goes to Sokovia and recruits the Maximoff twins before heading to the African nation of Wakanda, the only place Vibranium (the same material forming Captain America’s unbreakable shield) can be found. The Avengers attack, and Wanda Maximoff plants dark visions in their heads, eventually sending a rampaging Hulk into the city, where the Hulkbuster Ironman armour is called on to stop the Hulk. The team retreat into hiding after the destruction, but an old face shows up to motivate them to join the fight again, to oppose Ultron and save the world.

The movie is spectacular, with multiple action sequences completely blowing me away, whether on a larger or smaller scale. They fight together with an almost single-minded focus, and each member has his own moment to shine, both those we know and those newly created or featured. The team’s banter is highly entertaining, with the best gags taking advantage of Captain America as someone from an earlier time, and Thor’s hammer’s magical capabilities. These actors are now the characters, and it’s sad to see the imminent decline of the team as it currently exists, a new team is already introduced at the end of the movie.

Liked The Avengers? You’ll definitely like Avengers: Age of Ultron too. It’s a monumental movie that manages to incorporate multiple characters inside local and larger story arcs while keeping you on the edge of your seat. I walked out of the cinema with great expectation for the next few years’ Marvel movies, and also immediately wanting to walk right back in again and see it again.

Furious 7 (**½)

2015-05-14T14:37:00.000+02:00

Directed by: James Wan

Starring: Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris Bridges, Kurt Russell, Jason Statham, Nathalie Emmanuel, Djimon Hounsou, Tony Jaa, Ronda Rousey, Lucas Black, Elsa Pataky,

Seen: April 2^nd 2015

**½ Out of ****

I really enjoyed the Fast and Furious movies. #2 and #3 was a bit below par, but still enjoyable enough. #1 was great and is already a classic, while #5 and #6 reinvented the franchise. #7 takes the action and vehicular carnage up several notches, which in my opinion is several notches too far. Now the previous two movies did feature some absolutely ridiculous disavowal of physical laws, but the one thing they still got right was getting the viewer to care about what happens, to jerk a knee or flinch on behalf of the characters. Furious 7 takes things beyond far, beyond ridicule, and, as was bound to happen, beyond entertaining (in a not-so-good way). Furious 7 seems to want to keep up with superhero movies and the like, but what we are left with is action that is so loud, so dialled-past-eleven, you lose interest and start watching the clock about half-way through. It’s boring if two characters slug it out for what seems like hours of movie time without even a bruise to show for it.

In Furious 6, the team eventually took down Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) after some delicious mass destruction. Deckard Shaw (Statham), Owen’s bigger, “badder”, and all-round more evil brother, visits Owen in hospital (if you can call the carnage a visit), and very nearly kills Hobbs (Johnson) at his offices. After events in London in Furious 6, the team is back in the United States, living the family life, when out of nowhere they are brutally attacked, Dom’s home blown up after a call, from Deckard Shaw in Japan (the call placed after the credits in Furious 6). He’s a relentless force of murder, mayhem, destruction, and revenge, on the team’s track to avenge his brother. He used to be a Special Forces operative, but he went rogue after his government turned on him. Dom (Diesel) visits Hobbs in hospital to find out more about Shaw, before heading to Tokyo to collect Han’s body. He meets up with Sean Boswell (Black, from The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift), who gives him Han’s items found at the crash site where Shaw killed Han. Dom continues chasing Shaw, and when he finds him, he’s interrupted by Frank Petty (Russell), who asks Dom to help them stop mercenary Mose Jakande (Hounsou) from obtaining some seriously powerful surveillance software, in turn for allowing them use of this software to find Shaw.

Furious 7 is, like the previous two movies in the franchise, completely over-the-top. The problem here is that it is so far over the top as to almost qualify the movie as science fiction. The “stunts” (digital recreations of vehicular acrobatics) are five notches up from the already ridiculous “stunts” in the previous movies, to a point where the movie’s only aim seems to be to bludgeon the viewer into acquiescence that this is the best and biggest Fast and Furious movie to date. The movie features one-liners that are inappropriate before they can be perceived to be remotely funny for even a moment (I’m going to put a hurting on him so bad, he's gonna wish his mama kept her legs closed…), and a plot that’s thinner than orphanage soup – really, does the villain wait for them to arrive in exotic new locations before continuing the mayhem or what? The trailer featured a car being driven out of a building and into the next, but the movie goes one “better”, the car drives through that building and in an instant replay of what happened 10 seconds earlier, it jumps to yet another building, before crashing out of that building too. That’s the way this movie was made, dial everything up to 11, ignore that you’re already past 10, and keep going as far as is imaginatively possible. And them some more…

I am a big fan of the two movies preceding this one (#5 and #6), but in all honesty I started checking my watch about halfway through this one. At 140 minutes it is massive for an action movie, and with so little time spent on actual story/drama, the action and carnage become little more than constant noise. Paul Walker is properly sent off though, and in these few moments this movie achieves some sort of redemption, as, even in my boredom, I was suddenly engaged for a while. See Furious 7 for the Paul Walker farewell, but know that the rest of the movie pales in comparison to its predecessors.

Ballade vir ‘n Enkeling [Ballad for a Loner] (***)

2015-05-14T11:58:00.001+02:00

Directed by: Quentin Krog

Starring: Donnalee Roberts, Armand Aucamp, Rolanda Marais, Jacques Bessenger, Cindy Swanepoel, Edwin van der Walt, Christia Visser, Luan Jacobs, Helene Lombard, Dorette Potgieter, Drikus Volschenk, Zak Hendrikz, Miles Petzer

Seen: March 28^th 2015

*** Out of ****

Ballade vir ‘n Enkeling is a bit of a gamble, a movie remake of/homage to an almost 30 year old South African TV series. In our South African movie market it has limited nostalgic value (the main movie demographic, younger viewers, don’t know about the series), and from what I’ve seen over the years (working in a video store) the majority of our public moviegoers are somewhat drama-shy. I think it works though; it’s a good movie, it’s well-produced (extremely well-produced by South African standards, I’d say), and the cast carries the weight, inhabiting characters who are classics in the South African entertainment industry. The almost legendary South African writer and film critic Leon van Nierop wrote the original series, and now he has written a novel of the same name to delve deeper into the story. It’s semi-autobiographical – inspired by Van Nierop’s early years living close to the train tracks, but also fictional – a what if story; what if Van Nierop’s parents had not been as wonderful in real life, but turned out like Klaus (Volschenk) and Liebet (Lombard), parents of the main character Jacques Rynhard (played by Edwin van der Walt as teenager and Armand Aucamp as adult).

Jacques Rynhard is a new giant in Afrikaans literature, and on the evening of being awarded the Basson prize for literature, he disappears. Carina Human (Roberts), a somewhat failed, somewhat junior reporter at a gossip magazine called Montage (located mere floors below the offices of the reputable Rapport), is given an assignment by her boss Gavin Greeff (Hendrikz): find the filth and expose Jacques Rynhard as a fraud, make his disappearance nothing more than an attention grab for publicity. Carina starts investigating, and as she delves deeper into Jacques’ life and meets his friends and family, she uncovers a darker story of betrayal and lost love and some very unfortunate and horrible events. She finds Jacques’ best friends from school, his girlfriend Lena (Marais, Visser in flashbacks) and best friend Jan-Paul (Bessenger, Jacobs in flashbacks), who both have only the highest praise for him. Soon enough she is on a mission to uncover the truth as a journalist with integrity rather than simply writing a hatchet-job-sensation-seeker article for Montage, and the truth goes deeper and in different directions than could be expected or predicted (provided you didn’t watch the 80’s TV series).

I found the movie to be well-paced with a structure greatly aiding the storytelling. Stunningly filmed, it looked better than most South African productions, and I’d love it if we can make more movies like this. The story is engaging and interesting, with an authentic South African flavour. If one thing bothered me a bit it was the supposedly honour-bound Carina Human threatening a few too many people with Montage’s reputation for writing smut in attempts to get interviews, but it does drive the story towards its well-deserved conclusion.

Ballade vir ‘n Enkeling is a refreshing mainstream South African movie to watch in a time where it seems as if, for a while, the only thing we were capable of making were romantic comedies (some terrible, some passable, some actually good – see Pad Na Jou Hart) or teenage comedies (mostly movies I try to avoid if I can). This one is a good movie, and I’m glad to have seen it.

The Divergent Series: Insurgent (***)

2015-05-08T10:58:00.000+02:00

Directed by: Robert Schwentke

Starring: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Kate Wisnlet, Mekhi Phifer, Octavia Spencer, Daniel Dae Kim, Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, Ashley Judd, Zoë Kravitz, Maggie Q, Naomi Watts

Seen: March 21^st 2015

*** Out of ****

While the Divergent Series is good on its own, one cannot help but compare it to the Hunger Games. Both feature a strong young female character becoming the hope of many to redeem a totalitarian future society, with a strong opposition character managing to get under the viewer’s skin (I assume the reader too, but I’ve only read the Hunger Games novels). The first book of the Divergent Series was published 8 months after the last book of The Hunger Games, which I find to be quite the coincidence. The two stories contrast enough for each to stand on their own, but they also share similarities that are hard to ignore. That said, there is more than enough space for both of these series to exist in the same world, and while I do enjoy the Hunger Games series more, I find the Divergent series entertaining enough. Hunger Games has sectors representing industries of that world, where Divergent has factions, where members are allocated based on personality – Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the peaceful), Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave), and Erudite (the intelligent).

Insurgent directly follows Divergent, a mere three days since Erudite leader Jeanine (Winslet) tried wiping out the entire Abnegation faction using a mind controlled Dauntless faction Army. Eric (Courtney) finds a box imprinted with the symbols of all the factions in the rubble of Abnegation’s homes, and Jeanine claims the box is their means to end the Divergent problem. Only a Divergent (those who fit all factions, to differing degrees) can open the box however, and Jeanine initiates the hunt. As Divergents are captured, they’re scanned, and a percentage Divergence is displayed. Wonder above wonder, there’s only one who is 100% divergent – Tris (Woodley). The process of opening the box seems to kill anyone who isn’t completely divergent, as it takes the subject through all the faction tests in sequence.

The visual effects are rather impressive, as Tris is pulled into a bundle of virtual reality worlds where things don’t necessarily adhere to our physical laws. Shailene Woodley plays a very paranoid and damaged Tris, suffering because of things she’s been forced into, and it can get a little too much if whining is something that upsets you (I fought through, and it gets better). Kate Winslet seems like she’s either having a little too much fun as the manipulative and evil Jeanine, or not really enjoying being here at all, I can’t really decide which. Miles Teller delivers a snarky Peter in his usual great way. The cast fills out the story quite well, and I felt that everyone’s portrayal served the story.

The story here makes this movie essentially a pause in the series – a go-between to link Divergent and Allegiant (the next book, to be released as two movies) – as essentially only a little bit of story is dealt out in the bigger scheme of things – a box needs to be opened to direct events to what follows. The process of opening the box is entertaining though, and the viewer can easily forget that this movie is little more than a story stepping stone. Insurgent does little to advance the story of the Divergent Series, but what little it does, it does relatively well.

CHAPPiE (*½)

2015-05-07T14:35:00.000+02:00

Directed by: Neill Blomkamp

Starring: Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Ninja, Yolandi Visser, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Sigourney Weaver, Hugh Jackman, Brandon Auret

Seen: March 14^th 2015

*½ Out of ****

CHAPPiE, marketed as from the director of District 9, has elements of what made District 9 so inventive and surprising, but it couldn’t be much further from it in quality. Where District 9 was scathing social commentary dressed up as an extremely well-produced science fiction movie, CHAPPiE is a decently produced science fiction movie parading as having a deeper message around the idea of artificial intelligence and sentience of a created being next to its creator, and it falls desperately short as extremely annoying characters, individually each enough to make the movie a tough watch, come together in a terrible synergy. The two main members of the very controversial South African rap act Die Antwoord (Afrikaans for The Answer), Ninja and Yolandi Visser, portray themselves as gangsters in this movie, and it may just be that their excessive brand of awful is matched by Brandon Auret as Hippo, one of the villains in this highly offensive movie.

CHAPPiE transpires in Johannesburg, South Africa, as a violent crime wave scourges the city. The police force have purchased a squadron of armoured robots who, through basic A.I., assist in the crime fighting efforts. The designer of these robots, Deon Wilson (Patel), dreams of moving towards true A.I. and nurtures the pet project at home, as his boss, Michelle Bradley (Weaver), is not interested in the moral implications of a sentient robot police force.

Ninja and Yolandi are two gangsters far too deep into a life of crime who pick up trouble with a local crime boss, Hippo. Hippo exploits their fear of him and threatens them with violent death unless they pay him an exorbitant sum of money, which makes them come up with an absolutely hare-brained scheme. They plan to kidnap Deon Wilson, so he can program a police robot to fight for them. When they do kidnap him, Deon has a damaged robot in his car that he stole from his employer, Tetravaal, to test out his A.I. at home. Now they suddenly have not only the designer, but also the robot they plan to use for their nefarious acts.

Deon activates the robot, and Yolandi baptises him CHAPPiE (Copley) after he awakes with a fright, seemingly with the timid nature of a scared animal. Deon doesn’t want Ninja and Yolandi using CHAPPiE, but they soon take on parental roles in CHAPPiE’s existence. Deon is forced out by the overpowering Ninja and now CHAPPiE must come to grips with the world, his position in it, and his morality in response to it. This while all kinds of forces, including Hugh Jackman as Vincent Moore, an extremely jealous co-worker, conspire to destroy CHAPPiE and Deon.

Copley does good work as a motion-capture actor, and CHAPPiE really seems fully alive. Ninja and Brandon Auret are excessive past any point of annoyance, and their overly insane portrayals of two bad gangsters leaves the viewer with a bad taste in the mouth. Yolandi comes across as more of a nurturing mother, and she fulfils her purpose in CHAPPiE. Dev Patel as a normal human being almost disappears in CHAPPiE, as everything else is simply dialled up way past 11.

CHAPPiE is pervasively crass, with bad language in abundance. The problem is that this bad language is not just s--- and f---, but the Afrikaans word p---, (equivalent to the English c---). The word is also not just used once or twice, but continually, and is also painted on various walls in Ninja and Yolandi’s gangster hide-out. This and the glorification of such a gangster lifestyle drags the movie down to depths it shouldn’t be retrieved from, and I would recommend that anyone with a conscience and a decent moral construct stay away from CHAPPiE.

Nightcrawler (***½)

2015-05-05T14:14:00.001+02:00

Directed by: Dan Gilroy

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed, Bill Paxton, Ann Cusack, Kevin Rahm

Seen: March 14^th 2015

***½ Out of ****

Nightcrawler is Dan Gilroy’s directorial debut, and his second sole writing credit after 2005’s Two for the Money, starring his wife Rene Russo. He has co-written a few movies, most notably Real Steel (2011) and The Bourne Legacy (2012). On Nightcrawler Gilroy traverses a much darker road than with these previous efforts, moving away from pop entertainment into a field of sombre social commentary. Nightcrawler is chilling because it’s entirely plausible. It would in fact not surprise me to know that this exact type of thing is already playing out in the world we live in.

Lou Bloom (Gyllenhaal) has difficulty finding a job appropriate to his skill set. Nightcrawler starts out with him stealing from a construction site and assaulting the security guard confronting him. Bloom sells the stolen materials to a scrap yard while also trying to sell himself to the scrap yard, but the owner sensibly tells him he won’t hire a thief. Driving home Bloom passes a fiery car wreck with emergency responders on the scene and he pulls over to watch, not help. Joe Loder (Paxton) is filming the carnage, and when Bloom spots the footage on TV, he illicitly obtains a video camera and a police scanner to get in the game. He gets lucky when he films an accident scene in more detail than Loder and his work is bought by Nina Romina (Russo), the late night news director at a small TV station. She encourages him to get better equipment, and tells him that violent case material out of wealthy neighbourhoods gets better ratings, which would net him better pay. Bloom goes searching the Los Angeles nights for these events, hiring an assistant Rick (Ahmed) to, among other things, navigate them as events are reported on police bands. Since Bloom had relatively questionable morals to start off with, he doesn’t bother following the law or an ethical code in obtaining the best shot. He starts growing in stature, becoming more and more arrogant and brazen in his approach. Eventually he not only stands back from preventing harm, but directly causes harm in his pursuit of controversial footage.

Nightcrawler is hard to watch. Gyllenhaal disappears into a creepy and amoral character. He lost 20 pounds for the movie, leaving him gaunt and hollow with eyes sunken in their sockets – perfect for the emotionless recorder of terrible events he portrays. Bloom is a very interesting character for the quasi-optimistic angle he puts on things like a job interview, both to gain employment and for a potential employee, and his odd managerial style towards said employee later on – and Gyllenhaal brings that to life with utter credibility in every scene. While the supporting cast do not stand out like this, they’re all really good and make you forget about their personas as Hollywood actors – Rene Russo is both powerful and pathetic, Bill Paxton channels some of his craziness that seems to have become his type lately (maybe he really enjoys it), and Riz Ahmed delivers an effectively understated performance as the only semblance of a conscience.

Nightcrawler is very good, but it’s for limited target audience. It’s not popcorn entertainment and not many people will find it enjoyable. Gyllenhaal thoroughly deserved the plethora of awards and nominations doled out, and director Dan Gilroy has set himself a hard task for his next movie. I found the commentary on the state of our news industry scathing and brilliant, and for this I can recommend Nightcrawler as a cautionary tale that will leave you chilled to the bone.

Blackhat (**)

2015-03-20T15:29:00.000+02:00

Directed by: Michael Mann

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tang Wei, Viola Davis Ritchie Coster, Holt McCallany, Yorick van Wageningen, Leehom Wang

Seen: March 9^th 2015

** Out of ****

Blackhat is a technological thriller from the director who brought us such fantastic movies as The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, and Collateral. In Blackhat though, we see only momentary glimpses of the greatness behind those movies, which are easy to miss as the movie is so slow-moving that their punctual nature are more likely to surprize you out of a lull in concentration than they are to energize you. The movie is boring and it’s too late in coming to the hacker-creating-global-havoc party. It doesn’t have much more to say either, the hacker plot is all of it, and it carries nothing like Collateral’s message of disconnect from those around us or Heat’s message of love overcoming a self-imposed rule of non-attachment. Along with that, Blackhat is only marginally successful as a techno-thriller, as its visual impact, however modern, is wasted on all but the most knowledgeable – few will know what current technology looks like when zoomed in on and few will care about lines of code running across a screen as actors stare at it intently.

Blackhat starts with a nuclear reactor in Hong Kong overheating and exploding, leaving in its wake death and destruction. It is revealed that the plant was hacked and the only one to figure out how is Captain Chen Dawai (Wang), a member of a Chinese Cyber Warfare Unit, who recognises some of the code in the remote access tool (RAT) used for the attack. He gets an interview with FBI Agent Carol Barrett (Davis) and informs her that he, together with American prisoner Nick Hathaway (Hemsworth), developed the RAT when they were college roommates. Hatahway is granted a furlough to assist with the case, and soon enough Hathaway, Dawai, and Dawai’s sister Chen Lein (Wei), together with FBI Agent Barrett are tracking the seemingly random hacking attacks, trying to figure out the next target while eluding The Boss’ (van Wageningen) ruthless mercenary, Kassar (Coster).

A few exhilarating and succinct yet volatile shootouts serve as visual reminder that Mann directed Heat while some quick chases and ferociously effective hand-to-hand fights vaguely remind of Collateral, and in these short scenes I found myself brutally entertained, even if it was for a combined total of only about five minutes of the movie’s entire running time. Some action scenes are filmed in shaky-cam, and while luckily not nearly enough to bring on nausea, they do nothing to enhance the urgency and are somewhat distracting.

Chris Hemsworth is a dashing hero, and does what he can with the material; meaning we see a lot of him looking at a screen trying to figure out how to stop the villain or gazing into the distance guessing at a motive. When he is required to fight or move he is believable as a violently effective combatant, and with Ritchie Koster’s viscious Kassar it’s definitely required now and then.

Blackhat is only for those who are well-rested and prepared for a movie that’s far slower than could reasonably be expected from trailers and advertising. Even then it would be a stretch though, as the movie could easily have been cut by over 30 minutes into a more streamlined telling of, despite plot complications, a relatively straight-forward story. I expected a much better thriller than Blackhat delivered, and I only hope no-one else falls for its marketing.

Spongebob Squarepants: Sponge Out of Water (**½)

2015-03-20T07:49:00.000+02:00

Directed by: Paul Tibbitt

Starring: Antonio Banderas, and the voices of Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, Clancy Brown, Carolyn Lawrence, Mr. Lawrence, Paul Tibbitt, Matt Berry

Seen: February 28^th 2015

**½ Out of ****

If you’re a fan of Spongebob Squarepants, you will most probably enjoy Sponge Out of Water, as it is full of the same kind of humour and ridiculous plot ideas as the series’ short episodes. While it’s unquestionably true to the source material and remains faithful to the characters, it’s a bit of a stretch to expand a Spongebob Squarepants story to 92 minutes, as the usual segments are between 7 and 12 minutes in length, with even full episodes mostly consisting of two to three segments at a time. Thus it should come as no surprise that, while the movie is entertaining, it does not maintain the high levels of hilarity and excitement of the short episodes, and it also contains more than enough material that’s actually too silly or slapstick for a Spongebob Squarepants story (yes, that is the aim of Spongebob Squarepants, but this really scrapes the bottom of the barrel at times), especially some live action sequences with Antonio Banderas. While the jokes are pitched at a level anywhere between young adolescents and adults, the mannerisms and physical humour (in live action scenes) cater more for toddlers and pre-teens.

The movie takes a while to sputter to life as the pirate Burger-Beard (Banderas) travels on his ridiculously strangely scaled ship with a flock of talking seagulls (voiced by Director Paul Tibbitt, among others) to an island where he searches for a magic book. The book, it turns out, tells of Spongebob (Kenny), once again trying to protect the secret Krabby Patty formula, sold exclusively at Mr. Krabs’ (Brown) restaurant, the Krusty Krab. He protects it from Plankton (Mr. Lawrence), owner of the Chum Bucket; the dead-quiet, zero-customer dump across the street. Plankton deceives them in surrendering after a relatively hilarious war, and comes the closest he’s ever been to actually stealing the formula, getting his hands on it. Spongebob stops him at the last minute, but as they fight, the formula disappears. Excepting Spongebob, everyone blames Plankton (he was trying to steal it) for the formula’s disappearance and the subsequent and near-immediate shortage of Krabby Patties.

Spongebob helps Plankton to escape to help him find the true culprit, and Bikini Bottom becomes a post-apocalyptic wasteland in a matter of minutes. It’s up to Spongebob and Plankton to get the formula back and save Bikini Bottom, and it will take a whole heap of oddness to get there. Into play comes, among others, a time machine, a wise and old dolphin charged with protecting the galaxy called Bubbles (Berry), Bubbles giving our heroes the ability to breathe above the surface, and our heroes getting transformed into superheroes: Spongebob is The Invincibubble, Patrick (Fagerbakke) is Mr. Superawesomeness, Squidward (Bumpass) is Sour Note, Mr. Krabs is Sir Pinch-a-Lot, Sandy is The Rodent, and Plankton is Plank-Ton. They have to work together to defeat Burger-Beard (yes, the story-teller becomes the villain) in the “real” world in an effort to return things to normal.

The out-of-water sequences are thankfully not too protracted, as they are probably the weakest sequences in the movie – it does best when it’s at home in the animated world of Bikini Bottom. This is where it’s at its funniest and most entertaining, and this is where the Spongebob Squarepants formula works.

While I enjoyed Spongebob Squarepants: Sponge Out of Water, I would probably rather have re-watched some old episodes or segments of the animated series, as it would have been mostly equally funny but with far less unnecessary bloat.

American Sniper (***½)

2015-03-17T07:17:00.000+02:00

Directed by: Clint Eastwood

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Max Charles, Luke Grimes, Kyle Gallner, Sam Jaeger, Jake McDorman, Cory Hardrict, Navid Negahban, Sammy Sheik, Mido Hamada

Seen: February 23^rd 2015

***½ Out of ****

American Sniper is an engaging telling of the true story of the military life of Chris Kyle, known as the most lethal sniper in US Military history. It follows Kyle’s life from just before enlisting for SEAL training in 1999, through four tours of the Middle East up to 2009, up to his tragic and untimely death, at the age of 38, at the hands of a veteran suffering from PTSD in February 2013. It’s a larger than life story of a man who managed more in his short life than many do in twice as long. Clint Eastwood deftly directs a war movie that drags the viewer into the action and the drama, as the story not only focusses of Kyle’s exploits in Iraq, but even more so on the impact it had on his home life as he was institutionalised to war, and it took a major catharsis for him to move on to normal life again. While events in the movie are modified from what they were in real life, Chris Kyle’s wife walked away from the movie in awe, thinking that it was like watching her husband in many, many ways…

American Sniper begins with a young boy hunting with his father. After this opening Chris Kyle (Cooper) is shown as a young man of about 24, now a rodeo cowboy. He heads home with his brother and finds his girlfriend in bed with another man. While chasing them away he sees the aftermath of the 1998 US Embassy bombings on television and decides to enlist in the Navy, eventually becoming a SEAL sniper. Before his first tour in Iraq, right after the September 11^th attacks, he meets Taya Renae (Miller) in a bar, and they get married. On his first tour he starts growing in infamy, on both sides of the war, with the al-Qaeda insurgents issuing a bounty for his life. When he returns home it is to some trouble as he is distracted by memories of the war and it starts to intrude upon his marriage. The movie goes on to show Kyle’s many heroic feats in Iraq interspersed with difficulty back home as he finds it increasingly difficult to relate to his wife. Every tour drives a bit more of a wedge between Kyle and Taya, with only the aforementioned catharsis during his fourth tour proving enough to finally get him to uproot from the Middle East and head home for good. Back home his life returns to normal and he even starts having great impact among local veterans suffering with reintegration after war, but only until that horrible day in February 2013.

Bradley Cooper plays Chris Kyle in what is up to now probably the role of his lifetime. He becomes Chris Kyle, completely unrecognisable from characters he has thus far portrayed. Gone is the overconfident Phil from the Hangover movies, the charming Will Tippin from Alias, or even Faceman from the 2010 A-Team movie; here Cooper becomes someone else, completely shedding his own persona and likeness – he is absolutely brilliant.

American Sniper is both a great war drama and a very good war thriller. Clint Eastwood understands storytelling and it is only a few members of the general public who will not find this movie both entertaining and moving. The combat depicted is visceral and tense, Taya’s heartbreak is genuine, and Kyle’s confusion with his emotions and refusal to properly deal with it is very real. American Sniper is a very good and very memorable war movie honouring an American hero that was taken way before his time.

Kingsman: The Secret Service (***½)

2015-03-11T14:35:00.000+02:00

Directed by: Matthew Vaughn

Starring: Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Strong, Michael Caine, Sophie Cookson, Sofia Boutella, Mark Hamill, Jack Davenport

Seen: February 14^th 2015

***½ Out of ****

If you’re a fan of spy movies and enjoyed the decidedly violent and less-than-polite vibe of director Matthew Vaughn’s take on the superhero genre in Kick-Ass, then you’re sure to enjoy Kingsman: The Secret Service. It’s violent and features pervasive “colourful” language and is definitely not for the young ones. But it is heaps of fun, and tells a high-stakes story in a sufficiently self-deprecating manner to make the over-the-top classic Bond-type plot perfectly fit into the world Matthew Vaughn has created for the Kingsman secret organisation. What Kick-Ass did as a superhero movie, Kingsman does as a spy movie, with slightly less visceral violence and also not quite as much foul language. Not everyone will enjoy it, that’s for sure, but I enjoyed it a lot.

The Kingsman corps is headed up by Arthur (Caine), and sports well-tailored and modern knights of the round (rectangular, in this case) table, fighting behind the scenes, but on a global scale, for justice and the good of mankind. The movie starts with a bit of history, as Galahad (Firth) and a colleague, together with two probationary agents, are on a raid in the Middle East. Galahad’s trainee sacrifices himself to save the team, and Galahad offers a promise to the agent’s family, if they ever need help, just call. Seventeen years later, when that agent’s son finds himself in trouble with the law and the local criminals, he calls the number. Galahad comes to Eggsy’s rescue at just about the same time the Kingsman corps lose Lancelot to the machinations of the movie’s villain Richmond Valentine (Jackson), and Galahad offers Eggsy a chance to become what his father was so close to becoming so long ago. Eggsy enters into Kingsman training, led by Merlin (Strong), and could eventually perhaps get a chance to stop the threat posed by Valentine and his blade-legged hench-woman, Gazelle (Boutella).

The movie is well produced from start to finish and in this really fun and entertaining movie two sequences definitely stand out. The first is a scene so utterly absurd that it starts out as offensive, as members of a (far-right) congregation brutally murder one another with extreme prejudice, with a plot explanation for this only offered once every drop of blood has been spilt. Once you realise the point of it though, the scene makes sense in context of the bigger movie. It also serves as a biting bit of criticism from outside the church as to how members of the church can sometimes treat one another, and whether intentionally so or not, it is scathing. The other scene that stays with you is set to Elgar’s famous Pomp & Circumstance, as the movie builds to its climax a short while after this familiar piece has faded: it has to be seen to be believed, but it is, in a sense, mind-blowing…

Colin Firth is worlds removed from his usual dramatic roles, but equally fantastic, as Harry Hart, or super-spy Galahad. He is trying to get Eggsy Unwin, played brilliantly by relative newcomer Taron Egerton, up to espionage-speed before global tragedy is initiated by the megalomaniacal Richmond Valentine, played with relish by Samuel L. Jackson.

Kingsman: The Secret Service is loads of fun and is yet another movie that I will definitely not hesitate to add to my personal collection once it becomes available. This is an excellent send-up of spy movies and a great and tense spy movie by itself, all in one.

Fury (****)

2015-02-04T13:08:00.000+02:00

Directed by: David Ayer

Starring: Brad Pitt, Logan Lerman, Shia Labeouf, Michael Peña, Jon Bernthal, Jason Isaacs, Scott Eastwood, Brad William Henke, Xavier Samuel, Anamaria Marinca, Alicia von Rittberg

Seen: January 31^st 2015

**** Out of ****

It feels like a really long time since an all-out battle specific war-movie grace our screens. In recent years war movies have been more focussed on recent conflicts (Lone Survivor, Zero Dark Thirty), science fiction battles (Edge of Tomorrow, Ender’s Game), or the stories around the fringes of WWII (Emperor, The Monuments Men). Fury is all-out middle-of-the-conflict war; towns are bombed around the heroes, the heroes shoot and are shot at, and survival is only achieved through merciless grind. The hopelessness, the dehumanising effect, and the vilifying effect of war are all investigated in-depth in Fury, and it’s a fantastic ride. Even though it deals with heavy fare, Fury is exhilarating, shocking, entertaining, and touching in almost equal parts. War never ends quietly, but rather with a bang and a whimper.

It’s April 1945, World War II is ending, and one tank crew has won infamy for their survival ability. Their American Sherman tanks are inferior to the German Tiger tanks and they’ve been in the battle in Northern Africa, France, and Germany with one constant, they’re fighting Germans. Staff Sergeant Collier, Wardaddy (Pitt), manages to keep his crew alive past reasonable expectations. The movie starts with the tight-knit team having lost their bow gunner Red. Technician Swan, “Bible” (LaBeouf), Corporal Garcia, “Gordo” (Peña), and Private Travis, “Coon-Ass” (Bernthal) don’t take too kindly to the young army typist assigned in Red’s place, Norman Ellison (Lerman), who has to earn his place. It’s too much for him to start with, as he has to witness and be forced into the terrible nature of war to come to terms with his responsibilities as a gunner and part of the crew – if not he endangers the crew, something that creates high tension to start with. The crew faces terrible odds and tough events that make the movie so engaging that you only realise with the closing shot that this movie is really just about a tank, a tank named Fury.

Fury features truly spectacular tank warfare, and the tension is racked up to high levels before short reprieves focusing on either continuing the story or, in short bursts, revealing to us the horrors and inhumanity of war. Bodies are bulldozed into mass graves and random selections of German citizens are seen walking to American camps in surrender, among them even a woman in her wedding dress. War affects everyone and every part of society, and Fury does not shy away from this reality. The characters are real and fully fleshed, each one presenting not just a caricature of some personality, but someone with a back story. Director David Ayer also wrote and directed the terrible Sabotage, where every character also had a nickname. Where Sabotage lamely utilized nicknames to establish and develop characters, the nicknames in Fury are simply small elements to further establish characters, a much better and more subtle way to tell a story.

Brad Pitt is brilliant as tough-as-nails Wardaddy, a character who takes private moments to cope with the war’s effects on him. Logan Lerman is fantastic as the innocent young man who slowly turns into yet another war machine while navigating a roller-coaster of lessons and events sure to leave lasting scars. Shia LaBeouf is impressive as the crew’s resident Christian, having to defend his beliefs now and then from the crass (and well-played by Bernthal) Coon-Ass while Peña’s Gordo also chips in.

Fury is one of the most impressive war movies I’ve ever seen. I place it alongside Saving Private Ryan in terms of the visceral impact it had on me. If you like war movies, do not miss this one!

Big Hero 6 (***½)

2015-02-03T08:37:00.000+02:00

Directed by: Don Hall & Chris Williams

Starring (voices): Ryan Potter, Scott Adsit, T.J. Miller, Jamie Chung, Damon Wayans, Jr., Génesis Rodríguez, Maya Rudolph, James Cromwell, Daniel Henney, Alan Tudyk, Stan Lee, Katie Lowes

Seen: January 17^th 2015

***½ Out of ****

In an age where it feels as if Hollywood is losing the plot in consistently making good and entertaining movies, it also seems that the animation studios have us covered. Big Hero 6 is another highly entertaining and magnificently realised animated feature that produces not a sequel or a reboot or a remake, but a bit of originality. It rides the current wave of superhero movie hype, this one being Disney’s entry into the genre. It’s both a great standalone story and the start of a new series (it’s based on a Marvel comics superhero team); a fun and energetic story well told while culminating in the promise of more to come. Oh, and a post-credits character is voiced by Stan Lee who, for the uninitiated, is pretty much the original comic book writer. He is credited as the co-creator of Spider-Man, Hulk, The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, The X-Men, and many more. He also has a cameo appearance in just about every Marvel movie to date.

Big Hero 6 ends with the relevance of its title fully revealed. It starts far from it, with a fantastically entertaining journey in-between. Hiro Hamada (Potter) lives in the fictional San Fransokyo with his older brother Tadashi. While Tadashi excels at the university’s robotics lab, Hiro hasn’t yet seen the bigger picture and wastes his time with illegal back-alley robot-fights. He’s also a bit of a hustler, as is evidenced in the movie’s opening minutes when Hiro first loses to, then destroys the robot of a much feared street-king. Tadashi saves Hiro in the ensuing madness, and en route to the next robot fight Hiro hopes to hustle, Tadashi takes him to his university lab. Here Hiro sees a glimpse of a better future for himself, and a dream is ignited in him that sees him forego the allure of the robot fights to pursue a career in advanced robotics. Hiro develops very capable micro-bots in his quest to enrol at the university, and on the big night his demonstration is impressive enough to convince the faculty head, Professor Callaghan (Cromwell), to invite him to join them. Things go awfully wrong however, as an explosion claims Tadashi and the Professor.

Hiro goes into a depressed slump, and seems to not be so keen on joining the robotics program anymore. The other faculty students rally around Hiro, but can’t convince him. It’s only when Hiro discovers his brother’s big project, Baymax (Adsit), that the spark is ignited again. Tadashi developed Baymax as a medical assistant, and in their interaction surrounding Hiro’s micro-bots Baymax leads Hiro to an abandoned warehouse, where they discover that Hiro’s micro-bots have been stolen and mass produced before they barely escape with their lives. Hiro starts upgrading Baymax as a war-machine of sorts, and enlists the help of Tadashi’s friends in his quest to defeat the very menacing man in the Kabuki mask.

Big Hero 6 is a visual treat, with the combination of San Francisco and Tokyo beautifully realised as the backdrop for action and adventure and some really touching drama. The action sequences rival some of the best yet seen in animation, and in scale and impact I was reminded of The Incredibles. Even though this movie is, in my humble opinion not entirely as good as The LEGO Movie (which didn’t receive an Academy Award nomination in the Animated Feature category, while Big Hero 6 is nominated), I believe the nomination to be wholly deserved. Big Hero 6 is a fantastic little movie and I thoroughly enjoyed every inventive minute of it.

TAK3N (**½)

2015-01-28T07:16:00.000+02:00

Directed by: Olivier Megaton

Starring: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Dougray Scott, Sam Spruell

Seen: January 16^th 2015

**½ Out of ****

The Taken movies, in substance and style, are copies. Sadly, each subsequent movie is a copy of a copy. The first was a great surprise, the second less so, and this third one even less. That’s not to say this one is void of entertainment value, it’s just nowhere near where the series started off. The action is decent and somewhat tense, but the dramatic elements are showing wear and tear, particularly in an early scene between Liam Neeson and Famke Janssen – the dialogue is lazy and extremely unimaginative. The story is slightly more inventive, but some of the casting choices should warn some viewers of what’s coming (I will say nothing more, to avoid spoilers).

TAK3N starts with Bryan Mills (Neeson) visiting his daughter Kim (Grace) just after she finds out that she is pregnant, which she hides from Mills. He returns home where his ex-wife and Kim’s mother Lenore (Janssen) tells him of her marital problems with Stuart (Scott), and her thoughts of rekindling their relationship (the truly weak scene I referred to earlier). The next day, after a visit from Stuart to ask Mills to stay away from Lenore, she sends Bryan a message asking for them to meet. Bryan goes out to purchase bagels, but on returning home he finds Lenore dead in his room. The police are there in moments, the frame complete, and Mills resorts to brutal but non-lethal violence to escape. He goes on the run from LAPD Inspector Frank Dotzler (Whitaker) and his team, simultaneously investigating any leads he can to figure out the truth of the matter. The evidence leads Bryan to Oleg Malankov (Spruell), an ex-KGB Afghan war veteran with a terrible resume, whom Stuart owed money to, who becomes a key driver in unravelling the full story.

The movie features some cool action, with some fist fights and brutally short gunfights, but this is almost a drama compared to the first Taken. Mills reverses a car into an elevator shaft to escape one chase, which is, even in the Taken universe, a bridge too far. It’s mentioned somewhere near the beginning of the movie that Mills is a trained sniper: I want to know - is this a new skill to the series, or am I forgetting something from the first two movies? It doesn’t matter though, as he doesn’t snipe anyone or anything.

Liam Neeson has previously stated that there will not be a third Taken movie, and it looks as though he’s just going through the motions of making this movie – as if he isn’t as invested in it as he was previously. For that matter, no one stood out as looking as though they’re trying very hard, as if all those involved couldn’t really be bothered to deliver a good movie. On its own TAK3N might have seemed slightly better, but it’s standing in the shadow of its prequels, one of which on its own, was also not that great. I don’t regret seeing TAK3N, but I will also not really remember it for long. My home movie collection will only ever feature the first Taken movie.

The Judge (***)

2015-01-27T08:11:00.002+02:00

Directed by: David Dobkin

Starring: Robert Downey, Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Vincent D’Onofrio, Jeremy Strong, Billy Bob Thornton, David Krumholtz, Leighton Meester, Dax Shepard

Seen: January 12^th 2015

*** Out of ****

The Judge is an affecting movie about the hatred shared between a father and son, and is sure to feature something anyone can enjoy or appreciate. It’s almost strange to see Downey, Jr. in a “normal” role after all his recent larger-than-life roles (Tony Stark/Iron Man in four movies, with a fifth on the way and Sherlock Holmes in two more movies), but the man can act, and it didn’t take long for him to become Hank Palmer, a successful and ruthless defence attorney from Chicago who returns home to a small Indiana town (Carlinville) for his mother’s funeral. The Judge reminded me of Zach Braff’s Garden State (2004), one of my personal favourites, which also featured a city big-shot heading home for his mom’s funeral, who also clashes with his father, and who also experiences romantic complications. Garden State, while still dealing with serious subject matter, was a far more comedic and “indie pop” venture than the more stoic The Judge.

Hank Palmer (Downey, Jr.) is on a case in Chicago when his brother Glen (D’Onofrio) calls with the news that their mother has passed away. He gets a continuance and leaves his daughter and cheating wife at home to go to Carlinville, Indiana, to join Glen and his mentally handicapped brother Dale (Strong) for the funeral. Hank visits the courtroom where his father, Judge Joseph Palmer (Duvall) resides, unbeknownst to The Judge. At the funeral The Judge hugs friends and family members, thanking them for attending, but he merely shakes Hank’s hand and moves on.

As Hank prepares to leave the next day he notices damage to his father’s car, and soon enough he decides to stay as The Judge is taken into custody for vehicular manslaughter. The victim: a man The Judge let off very light 20 years back only to convict him for a murder he committed the day he was released from his light 30 day sentence. Everything points towards The Judge’s guilt, to an attempt to fix his mistake of years earlier, and thus Hank steps up to defend his father, whether he likes him or not. There are complications in the case however, as The Judge decides to obtain the legal services of another lawyer, the absolute novice C.P. Kennedy (Shepard), and Hank barges along where he can.

Downey, Jr. and Duvall share a fiery on-screen battle, and they really sell the gruelling father-and-son duel. I found the two leads somewhat difficult to fully support however, as Hank is a slimy defence lawyer who doesn’t care whether his clients are guilty or not, and The Judge is an overly proud and obnoxious man who really does not exhibit any endearing traits. But emotion is effectively created and maintained by the story’s inclusion of Hank’s two brothers and his high school girlfriend. Vincent D’Onofrio and Jeremey Strong bring out the humanity in the movie and in the two headstrong and difficult lead characters, with Vera Farmiga providing a romantic foil to Hank in her Sam Powell, a small town-single mom running the local tavern.

The Judge is, apart from some overly familiar story elements, a very effective drama that anyone can enjoy and find something of value in. There is some sweet humour and some element of mystery in the court case, and while the movie is not brilliant, I really enjoyed it and can recommend it to anyone who is looking for a touching father-and-son story.

2014 Bottom and Top 10

2015-01-09T08:32:00.000+02:00

Every year many people make up personally objective lists of bests and worsts. This is mine, and I write it with the full realisation that there are movies I’ve missed that may have made it onto the best list, and that I have avoided movies that would definitely have been on the worst list. Out of the 60 movies I have seen in 2014, these are my best and worst ones.

My Bottom 10 for 2014:

10. Noah

Noah is only sort-of well-made. What gets it on this list is the fact that it got the Biblical truth wrong so badly. For more information, see this review by Dr. Brian Mattson to shed some light on my reasoning behind this (http://drbrianmattson.com/journal/2014/4/1/just-once-more?rq=noah) .

9. Robocop

Robocop is stupidity dressed up as a slick action movie with laughable attempts at social commentary. The “evil” corporation is even called OmniCorp, the movie is that unsubtle. Every time RoboCop moved the movie had to remind us that he’s a robot with annoying mechanical whirring.

8. Sabotage

When your movie’s only form of character development is giving your characters nick names you’re in trouble. Sabotage delivers a slight bit of story for a single character, tacked on as a driving force for a twist reveal while the script is written around a variation of the following recipe: “[What/Why/Shut] the f*** [?/up!]”. A useless, irredeemable movie.

7. I, Frankenstein

Adam is Frankenstein’s monster, centuries later, caught in a battle between, essentially, angels and demons. This movie starts out okay but simply degrades to a disappointing ending. It doesn’t really work on any level, and is more unsatisfactory because of the promise displayed in its trailer. Perhaps because the story would have been better told in 2 and a half minutes.

6. Transformers: Age of Extinction

After movies #2 & #3 got dumber and dumber, I was hoping for a reboot of sorts with the new cast in this 4^th Transformers movie. Somehow though, Michael Bay managed to plumb depths that he hasn’t previously reached, as Age of Extinction features by far the worst and most cringe-worthy dialogue and definitely the least smart script. The age for large special effects being the only thing lifting a movie up is long gone, this is basically a shiny turd.

5. Pompeii

For a movie named Pompeii, there‘s shockingly little Pompeii in it, and an alarming amount of direct rip-offs from recent classics. Gladiator’s plot and almost its character names are shamelessly copied, while far too little time is spent on the volcanic eruption of Pompeii. A complete waste of time as the only surprise here is the sudden eruption of a weak love story which should have been left behind.

4. Need for Speed

The only thing believable in Need for Speed is the stunt racing with exotic cars at high speeds. The acting is terrible, and the story is even worse than the story of any of the Need for Speed games. An apt one-liner review for the movie from Funny or Die read as follows: “Aaron Paul drives a souped-up street racer in the exact opposite direction of his Breaking Bad credibility.”

3. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

For a sequel to such a brilliant movie as 2005’s Sin City, to be this bad is a massive achievement. Nine years on and this one looks like it was filmed at the same time as the original. Back then the focus was squarely on the often violent, often shocking story. This time I am sure it was on getting Eva Green to take off her clothes again. Sin City was fantastic, this movie lost my interest in a cesspool of overwhelmingly terrible morals and victory for the bad guys.

2. A Most Wanted Man

This movie has one thing going for it. A performance by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman that reminds of his brilliance. Unfortunately it is in the most boring movie I can remember for many years. The “twist” end is also telegraphed in from a dizzy height, and nothing is surprising, except perhaps that the actors probably hoped director Anton Corbijn could have done for them here what he did for George Clooney in The American. Did they read the script?

1. Born To Win

This movie is offensive to Christians. And it’s a Christian movie. It’s not offensive because of its bland and forgettable message, and not even because the message is sacrilegious, but because it’s terribly acted, filmed, and produced. It’s offensive to Christians because it makes practitioners of the faith look one dimensional in its story and completely accepting of bad quality in its execution. This is the movie I most regret seeing in 2014, the one I most regret spending any money on.

My Top 10 for 2014:

Now that I’ve named and shamed in an industry I don’t work in (J), let’s get to the movies that awed me in 2014. These movies are what I go to the movies for, especially my #1. These movies embody what I hope for when I walk into the cinema, and I want to watch each one of them again and again.

10. Lone Survivor

This is an incredibly tense and realistic depiction of guerrilla warfare in the Middle East. It tells the true story of 4 Navy Seals locked in a desperate fight for survival with scores of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, and it does so brilliantly, relentlessly, and with barely a pause to catch breath. Peter Berg has made a fantastic war movie.

9. Chef

From one extreme to another, Chef is a passion project for director Jon Favreau. It’s absolutely delicious to watch this culinary gem about a disgraced chef changing direction and getting a food truck. It’s infectious in its charm and in the joy it exudes. In scope, this is the smallest movie on this list, but in heart, it might just be the biggest.

8. The Grand Budapest Hotel

This is the action blockbuster via Wes Anderson, the director everyone imitates online with “[insert movie here] if it were made by Wes Anderson”. This is the quirkiest, most fun take I’ve seen in the genre, as Anderson remains true to his filmmaking identity with a more interesting and engaging story than expected. Ralph Fiennes gives the best and most entertaining performance of the year, making this a must see, and one I’ll own shortly.

7. The Lego Movie

The LEGO Movie is the most fun I’ve had in an animated movie in many years, with many LEGO references and Easter eggs and small memories that made this a heap of discovery, enjoyment, and hilarity. What makes it even better is the fact that it has an important lesson for children, subtly and beautifully integrated into a fun and frantic story, and it celebrates imagination and structure as sometimes opposing forces in inventive ways.

6. X-Men: Days of Future Past

Bryan Singer’s return to the X-Men universe is most fortunate. After his first two X-Men movies, none of the related movies were really good or memorable. There were some interesting moments, but disparate storylines started creeping in and the massively entertaining and visually splendid Days of Future Past not only entertained and amazed me, it also pulled everything back together again – let’s hope this bodes well for next year’s (2016) X-Men: Apocalypse.

5. Edge of Tomorrow

Edge of Tomorrow, based on the graphic novel “All you Need is Kill”, is an extremely entertaining and well written military science fiction thriller that had me on the edge of my seat all through. It features great visual effects in service of a relatively simple but brutally well-told story taking the Groundhog Day concept to new heights. “Come find me when you wake up”, one character says. Please do, I want to see this again.

4. Guardians of the Galaxy

In any other year, The LEGO Movie would be the most surprizing, fun, and blazingly entertaining movie of the year, but this one simply blew me out of the water. It’s a well-produced, seriously surprizing, truly funny, and all-round entertaining movie. Marvel has a gem in their hands here; on what was a massive gamble to start with. Guardians of the Galaxy is already a cult classic in my mind.

3. How to Train Your Dragon 2

How to Train Your Dragon 2 is great animation. It’s my personal favourite animated movie, overflowing with heart, adventure, family, and friendship while being visually dazzling and improving on its prequel in every way. This is shaping up to be the non-Pixar trilogy to rival Toy Story, maybe even surpass it.

2. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

The first movie I saw in 2014, I thought it would be unlikely for me to see anything I enjoyed more for the rest of the year. Now at the end of the year, that has almost been fulfilled. Almost. This is a triumphant celebration of choosing to really take the swing and live your life to its fullest; with its beautiful story progressing from daydreams to real life. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is already part of my collection, and I intend to re-watch it often.

1. Interstellar

All the movies on this list are what I go to the movies for, what I hope for every time I buy a ticket. Yet none of them comes close to Interstellar, which was a phenomenal experience. This is not just a year’s best movie, but one of those that will always stick with me. Christopher Nolan has made an epic science fiction movie that incorporates issues around love and life, and in my mind he has succeeded resoundingly. Interstellar is an incredible experience.

John Wick (***½)

2015-01-09T08:30:00.000+02:00

Directed by: Chad Stahelski & David Leitch (uncredited)

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Willem Dafoe, Alfie Allen, Adrianne Palicki, Bridget Moynahan, Dean Winters, Ian McShane, John Leguizamo, Lance Reddick

Seen: December 26^th 2014

***½ Out of ****

John Wick is one of the most surprisingly entertaining action movies I have ever seen. Directed by debutants Stahelski and Leitch, the movie oozes action confidence, which should come as no surprise, since the two directors have over 40 years of combined stunt coordination experience. They have both been Keanu Reeves’ stunt double previously, in Point Break and The Matrix among others. John Wick features extremely cool raw action, and coupled with an effective story it makes for a very enjoyable 101 minutes of relaxation.

John Wick (Reeves) has just lost his wife to illness, and as part of her last will he receives a gift from her. Knowing he will have a hard time, she bought him a puppy, challenging him to start there with rebuilding his life, to have something to love other than his car, a ’69 Mustang. At a local gas station Wick is confronted by a low-life who obnoxiously offers to buy his car, but Wick simply tells him it’s not for sale. The low-life is Iosef (Allen), the out-of-control son of the mafia boss Viggo Tarasov (Nyqvist), and Iosef and two colleagues follow John Wick home. They assault him and kill his puppy before taking the car. They take it to local chop-shop owner Aurelio (Leguizamo) for modifications, but Aurelio refuses and punches Iosef. The low-life runs to his dad, who calls Aurelio to enquire as to why Aurelio hit his son. When Aurelio tells him that Iosef stole John Wick’s car, Viggo’s response is a short “Oh”, before he ends the call, and starts to batten down the hatches; Viggo knows what John Wick used to be before his marriage, and he will need all the help he can get if he is going to survive the coming onslaught. John Wick is shown with a sledge hammer, digging up a box of weapons and other items, and the scene is set for a violent and engaging action movie.

John Wick features some of the most level-headed and brutal action I’ve seen in quite a while. The gun-fu sequences reminded of Christian Bale’s Equilibrium (2002), but here the violence is not sanitised or visually glorified as much as in Equilibrium; it is curt, bloody, and ruthless. Keanu Reeves has more good acting in him than many would think (see The Gift if you’re not convinced), and in-between the mass of violence and mayhem he inflicts he also delivers a believable and broken man after losing the love of his life.

Even though the movie is relatively dark (a large portion of the movie takes place at night) the movie is visually striking and fantastically choreographed and filmed. The action is solidly presented by artists who do not need shaky camera techniques and other cheap tricks to imbue their movie with urgency and thrills. John Wick is no super-hero (or super-vigilante), but he is very good at what he does. He is not infallible, and the bad guys don’t miss because he is the lead character, which raises the stakes as John Wick works his way through security guards, personal guards, and mob hard-men.

I thoroughly enjoyed John Wick, as it is a great throw-back to the kind of action movies I grew up with that has become very rare in the last 15 or so years. This is definitely one for the ages, one that will become a cult favourite, and one that I will own soon.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (***)

2014-12-17T09:28:00.000+02:00

Directed by: Peter Jackson

Starring: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Benedict Cumberbatch, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lily, Luke Evans, Lee Pace, Graham McTavish, Ken Stott, Aidan Turner, Dean O’Gorman, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Christopher Lee, Sylvester McCoy, Manu Bennett, John Tui, Billy Connolly, Stephen Fry, Ryan Gage

Seen: December 13^th 2014

*** Out of ****

To me The Desolation of Smaug, my favourite of the Hobbit trilogy, was a bit better than The Two Towers, my least favourite (but still fantastic) of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. To me the Battle of the Five Armies is only better than the first Hobbit movie in the six picture saga, with Return of the King the best, by far. One area where The Battle of the Five Armies does better than The Desolation of Smaug is in visuals. Where the second Hobbit movie felt slightly unprepared for the detail brought forward when filming in high frame rate (some sets looked decidedly fake, among other things), this last one is visually spectacular, every detail is attended to – everything looks absolutely real (apart from one small thing, which I’ll get to later). This movie is the third in a trilogy initially planned as two movies, based on a book that in its entirety is far “thinner” than any of the single books the original Lord of the Rings trilogy was based on. This shows in countless realisations that what you’re currently seeing is filler, there only to flesh out the running time to what in the end makes this the shortest of all six the Middle Earth movies.

Bilbo (Freeman), together with Thorin (Armitage) and his fellow dwarves, are just exiting Lonely Mountain, where the previous movie ended. Smaug has flown out and is devastating Laketown, Bard’s (Evans) home. Bard is in prison, but after escaping in the chaos of Smaug’s attack, he manages to defeat Smaug with a black arrow. Laketown is completely destroyed, and Bard is unanimously chosen as their new leader as they head out to find shelter in Dale, the city by the mountain. Among the humans setting out for Dale, Dwarf Kili (Turner) and Elf Tauriel (Lily) have a tender moment as they are to separate when Legolas (Bloom) calls on Tauriel. From Dale the humans intend to go to the mountain and ask Thorin to honour his agreement to give them their due. Kili finds Thorin driven mad by Smaug’s enormous treasure, and, driving his band of dwarves to find the Arkenstone, he commands the mountain to be barricaded to all who’d approach.

Gandalf (McKellen) is a prisoner in Dol Guldur, and Galadriel comes to free him. She hands Gandalf to Radagast the Brown (McCoy) as the Nazgûl attack. Elrond (Weaving) and Saruman (Lee) join a spectacular fight against them, and Galadriel banishes Sauron to Mordor. This fight reminded of Fellowship’s Weathertop, and it’s fantastic. With the Dwarves awaiting their own army, the rag-tag human army is joined in Dale by Thranduil’s (Pace) elves, with an Orc army also marching on the mountain. The Elves plan to attack the barricaded mountain when the dwarven army of Dáin (Connolly) arrives, but just as the two armies engage in battle, Azog’s (Bennett) orcs attack them, spreading their forces thin. With Bilbo’s battle to regain Thorin for the cause so he can join the battle against Azog and his forces, everything is on a knife’s edge until the eventual arrival of the fifth army the title alludes to, a bit of a Deus Ex Machina if you ask me.

The big battle doesn’t come close to those of Helm’s Deep and The Battle for Minas Tirith in the original trilogy, but it’s an impressive battle greatly choreographed by Peter Jackson in this sixth movie from J.R.R. Tolkien’s books. Talking of choreographed however, the movie largely feels choreographed and not really engaging. It’s well choreographed, but the amount of what I strongly felt to be filler footage to pad the running time as well as corny dialogue limited me from getting as immersed in this as in the Rings trilogy as well as The Desolation of Smaug. The one thing I mentioned earlier that didn’t seem real? Billy Connolly’s Dáin; he doesn’t look like Connolly was ever physically there. He looks wholly like a CGI creation with the quasi-appearance of Connolly, but merely sounding like him – I recognized him by his voice, not visually. This is bizarre in 2014, and doubly so with the rest of the movie looking as good as it does. One absolutely jarring character is Ryan Gage’s Alfrid, a caricature of proportions suited to Monty Python, but nowhere near good enough to actually feature in any Monty Python production.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is a fitting yet inferior way to conclude the Hobbit trilogy, and it has, at least in my mind, reduced what Peter Jackson did from 2001 to 2003 with the original trilogy. Not by much though, but enough to notice and disappoint. It was however entertaining and pleasant to watch, and Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy only feels that much less because it is associated with that much more: his Lord of the Rings trilogy.