Film Reviews by Alphaville

An impressionistic, mostly wordless, drama about the Allied retreat from Dunkirk in 1940. There’s little new in its depiction of aerial dog-fights, sinking boats and evacuation logistics, nor any one lead character to root for, yet it works.

An initially confusing time conceit soon works beautifully to interleave events in the air (covering one hour), at sea (one day) and on the beach (one week). The main criticism is that there’s too much intercutting between different story lines. Letting a scene play out in its own time would have better enabled our involvement in it to grow.

Unlike in Saving Private Ryan, scenes of heroism and tragedy are shown in an understated way, given dramatic force by their matter-of-factness, allowing the viewer to supply the emotion. This gives space for the incredible story to speak for itself, aided by a rousingly strident Hanz Zimmer score that avoids his usual pomposity. The movie isn’t a classic but, in the hands of imaginative writer/director Christopher Nolan, it’s a stirring watch.

Godzilla ravages Tokyo while the authorities discuss what to do. Unfortunately they talk and talk. And talk. To call the film dialogue-heavy would be an understatement. It’s more concerned with bureaucracy and politics than with action and thrills. Shots of Godzilla are few, brief and repetitive. There’s no hero or heroine in peril to root for. The ropey monster effects hark back fondly to the heyday of Godzilla films, but this is a hopelessly bungled opportunity to bring the excitement of then to the audiences of now.

What do you want from a Gerard Butler disaster film? Well, a disaster for a start. The title promises such but it never arrives. How about action? Well, there’s precious little of that too. A global warming control system is malfunctioning and Gerard spends the whole movie trying to find out why. He’s also saddled with parenting issues (yawn) and sibling rivalry with his brother (yawn, yawn).

What we end up with is an underpowered plot, clichéd dialogue and prosaic direction by woeful writer/director Dean Devlin. There are a few flash-bangs in the final half-hour, but none are exciting or surprising. An attempt to up the tension with a countdown-to-geostorm finale merely highlights the lack of imagination on show here. Will Gerard save the world? Will the family be reconciled? Will there be cheering? Will you feel nauseous?

This indie film, about light and dark forces battling inside our unconscious, has imagination to spare, but it’s a tough watch. It’s like an experimental student film, overly keen to play with the mechanics at its disposal – light, colour, texture, frenzied hand-held camera, freeze-frame etc. Little of this is to any purpose. Instead of letting narrative drive take over, the film presents a complete mish-mash of pointless image manipulation. The narrative fails to grip and the acting fails to convince. There’s plenty of cinematic imagination here, but if only it had been harnessed to better effect.

The original Skyline was a terrific underrated alien invasion extravaganza of 2010 directed by a couple of cgi wizards. Critics unaccountably preferred this ragbag sequel. With a different director, it continues the fight against the aliens on the Underground, in their spaceship and in the Indonesian jungle of all places. There’s little in the way of plot to connect the three, especially the jungle setting, which introduces a late irrelevant subplot and seems to belong to a different film. The characters are so sketchily drawn that we never really care what happens to them anyway.

What remains of interest are the special effects, and it has to be said there’s some imaginative visual imagery on display here. At times the screen is a kaleidoscope of colour and movement. This can’t be called a successful film, but there’s certainly enough here to keep hard sci-fi fans engaged.

The ultimate high-concept movie. Just as you can’t dislike real-life ski-jumper Eddie himself, you can’t dislike this film. There’s a feel-good story, Taron Egerton strikes the right affectionate note as Eddie, coach Hugh Jackman adds a mismatched buddy-movie vibe, the dialogue sparkles, the ski-jumping is exciting and the scenery is picturesque. You’d have to have a heart of stone not to cheer when Eddie tackles the climactic jump.

What could have been another boring slice-of-life bio becomes in director Dexter Fletcher’s hands a lively and irresistible film. There’s not a dull moment in it. Even if you think you won’t like this film, it will win you over. It’s an antidote to cynicism.

Equally inspiring and watchable are the three Making Of features on the DVD. One shows legendary action director Vic Armstrong’s thrilling work on the ski jumps, which includes him sending two skiers with bodycams down the jumps at the same time.

Our man goes back a day in time and confronts his past self. Plus he’s on the run from a killer. It’s a neat beginning for a time-travel conundrum of a film, but the middle-aged man is sooo boring and a lack of realism makes it hard to take the fantastical elements as anything but a screenwriter’s game. Our man doesn’t even RUN from the killer and never seems worried at all. Maybe that’s why there’s some gratuitous nudity thrown into the mix to spice things up. Write/director Nacho Vigalondo, who here plays the time-travel machine scientist, would go on to better things with Colossal.

Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean there’s not some enjoyment to be had here. To maintain the viewer’s interest the plot needs to keep moving.. and it does so, with one twist after another. After a sticky middle act it picks up again and you’ll want to stay with it to see where it’s going. The whole adds up to a reasonably diverting 88 minutes. If only the characters were more realistic and engaging.

The film begins haphazardly, with the plot all over the place, the camera matching it and a soundtrack that belongs to a different film. Once it settles down and star Donnie Yen appears things improve. It’s not a patch on director Wilson Yip’s subsequent film with Donnie – the wonderful Dragon Tiger Gate, but it becomes increasingly watchable. Donnie gets to show off some of his martial arts moves and has climactic fights with a charismatic punk hit man (Wu Jing) and the legendary (though portly, ageing and injured) Sammo Yung. There’s also a surprisingly heavy ending you won’t see coming.

Overall, there’s nothing new here and it will make no new converts to Honk Kong crime thrillers, but it’s a visceral and watchable piece of cinema. The DVD also contains a good commentary as well as an analysis of the main fight scenes by Donnie himself.

An intriguing premise drives the film irresistibly forward. We follow the daily trials of ditsy Anne Hathaway in small-town America while a monster ravages Seoul in South Korea. Somehow she’s connected to it. It begins to mimic her actions. That much is on the film poster. Then things start to get out of hand. To say any more would be a spoiler, but it’s constantly fascinating and builds to a crowd-pleasing climax. Writer/director Nacho Vigalondo keeps a steady hand on matters and shoots with a keen eye for composition. Shame the DVD has no extras.

Giant bipedal drones invade the earth in this low-budget War of the Worlds. The special effects are simple but effective and the African setting provides an original backdrop to the action. We follow our hero, an amnesiac soldier, and his female aid-worker companion as they drive, walk and fight their way through the ‘Kenyan’ backcountry (filmed in South Africa) to an American base. With excellent production values, it’s beautifully filmed by writer/director Joe Miale (his first feature). With an apocalyptic feel and a mean running time of 83 minutes, the pace never lets up and it’s far superior to other budget attempts at grand-scale sci-fi (eg Monsters). The DVD also contains an interesting Making Of featurette.

After seeing his partner gunned down by terrorists our hero joins the CIA and gets trained for black ops. There’s nothing new here but ex-Homeland director Michael Cuesta directs with good pace and captures the action with a smooth prowling camera. There’s a country-hopping plot, a worthy baddie (ex-CIA agent ‘Ghost’) and a satisfyingly silly and exciting Bond-like set-piece climax. The Cinema Paradiso review reverts to an unmerited politicised criticism, but if you like action films in the Taken mode this hits the spot.

The film opens with an exciting car chase that’s so well conceived and shot it’s almost in the same league as the one in The Villainess. But it’s downhill from thereon. The boring drugs plot meanders and loses focus. Our hero Eggsy is just as bland and difficult to engage with as before. Colin Firth’s character is resurrected from the original film but is only a shadow of his former self. Chief baddie Julianne Moore has virtually nothing to do. The dialogue is for adolescents who think swearing a lot is cool. You know the barrel is being scraped when an excruciating Elton John has a sweary bit part as himself doing kung fu kicks.

After the exciting opening the rest is played for failed sub-Bond humour. It’s almost a parody of the much better original. There’s a well-choreographed fight sequence at the end that brings back fond memories of the church sequence in the original, but it’s far too late to save the film. Two stars plus one for the beginning and end sequences as well as a ‘Making Of’ DVD extra that shows how the car chase was constructed.

If you’re into this repetitive franchise, it’s beyond criticism. If you’re not, you’ll be gobsmacked at how anyone could be. With its farcical premise, incoherent plotting, clichéd characters and ludicrous dialogue, it’s an object lesson in the dumbing down of action films.

See cars change into robots! Again! See explosions! Again! See a cgi fight between Optimus Prime and Megatron! Again! See humans on the run cry ‘Go go go’! Again!

Director Michael Bay’s back catalogue clearly shows he has the visual imagination to shoot stylish films. If only he’d put it to better use, but when the franchise makes so much money from lobotomised filmgoers, why bother? He’s gone down the George Lucas route. Makes you weep for the future of blockbuster cinema.

Star-crossed lovers play will-they/won’t-they against the backdrop of Armenian genocide in Turkey during WW1. The aching score sets the mood and there are moments both poignant and exciting. However, the film wears its earnestness on its sleeve and in places becomes burdened with its message. It aims for an epic quality but is perhaps best judged on its parts rather than the sum of them. If you’re in the mood for a good wallow, it’s a smoothly filmed piece of entertainment with a message worth airing (Turkey denies the outrage to this day).

To get anything other than initial laughter and growing boredom out of this film, you have to be able to take these motion-captured cgi apes seriously. Unfortunately that means you’d have to have a lobotomy. Top Ape Caesar is angry because Top Human Woody Harrelson, here slumming it, has killed his wife. Since when did the apes adopt human marriage rituals? Which marriage rituals? Who were the bridesmaids? Did the best ape give a speech? Who baked the cake? Where’s Top Cat when you need him?

Andy Serkis voices Caesar as though delivering a funeral oration, pronouncing every word so slowly and with such import that it’s best to fast forward his speeches to give them some approximation of realism. Indeed, after 10 minutes of this rubbish you might want to fast forward the whole film because there’s little plot and no surprises. The fact that most if it takes place in darkness further adds to the ennui. With so much cgi on view, do you think there’d be explosions at the climax? Tick.

Pity director Matt Reeves. To think he once made the innovative Cloverfield before getting embroiled in this embarrassing franchise. Most critics who like the film do so because the apes look real. Is that all it takes? Okay, we’ll give it one star for animated ape hair.