Film Reviews by GI

Whilst the overall story is nothing new, ie Dances With Wolves (1990) or The Last Samurai (2003), this is a really entertaining epic ecological science fiction film and director James Cameron's passion piece. His themes are rich and entertaining from anti-colonialism to environmentalism but ultimately this is an adventure film, with action, romance and jaw dropping special effects. It's set in the future on a distant jungle planet where humans have arrived to mine a valuable ore. But the local tribespeople, the Na'Vi, are seen as a problem by the military, led by tough megalomaniac Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and company man Parker (Giovanni Ribisi), although grumpy scientist Grace (Sigourney Weaver) is trying to win them over by integration and education. She has devised a way for humans to transfer their consciousness into a Na'Vi body, called an avatar, and to befriend them. Jake (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic ex soldier, joins her team and he soon finds that his Na'Vi body is preferable to his own and he comes to love the Na'Vi way of life. But Quaritch is planning to massacre them all to clear the way for a new mine. This sets up the story for some stunning action set pieces and Cameron utilises aspects from his own Aliens (1986) and steals shamelessly from the Star Wars franchise (the Force is alive and well on this planet) to create a really stunning world. Lang is superb as the psychopathic soldier ready to kill everyone and Zoë Saldana co-stars as the Na'Vi warrior who tempts the hero. It's only Worthington who doesn't quite have the leading man chops to carry this all off so it's a bonus he's mostly camouflaged by the CGi. But nothing can be taken away from the sheer spectacle of this film, it's exciting, fun and worth a revisit (try and catch the extended edition it has some interesting backstory for the Jake character) and if you've never seen it then it's a great family film too so worth an evenings viewing especially as sequels are on their way and likely to be big box office.

A controversial horror film that is a major influence on the 'torture porn' horrors of the Eli Roth and others. It's certainly a creepy story and quite shocking too. You have to be a fan of this sort of thing to really appreciate it and it has its big fans not least Quentin Tarantino who described it as a masterpiece. I wouldn't describe it as anywhere near that although its influence cannot be underestimated. The problem with this and any film like it is that it's only memorable because of the controversial scenes and the remainder is often ignored or forgotten. Whilst this boasts a quite nasty torture scene it's in the earlier half of the film that you get the slow build up of tension and creepy horror. If the infamous torture episode was absent this could've been a more interesting film. It's a story of misogyny with a widowed man seven years after his wife's untimely death begins to think about remarrying. But no longer understanding the dating scene he and his friend set up an audition for a leading actress for a film but really for him to check out a future wife. He settles on Asami, a quiet, shy younger woman and he begins to woo her but predictably she has her own agenda fuelled by a sinister past. The film obviously has some resonance today after the revelations of the Weinstein crimes but it's not really a narrative that can be viewed as a feminist or #MeToo one as this is more about a disturbed psychopath. Whichever way this can be textually read it's always going to be renowned for the 15 minute gross out stuff which is a shame.

A rather bleak and maudlin melodrama and a fictionalised story about real life horror writer Shirley Jackson played here by Elisabeth Moss. It's not a biopic but really a story about emotional control, abuse and selfishness. Jackson is a cantankerous and anti social author stuck in writer's block and constantly sparring with her shallow and philandering husband played by Michael Stuhlbarg. They take in a young couple Rose (Odessa Young) and Fred (Logan Lerman) who see the older pair as an exciting and interesting pair of mentors. In reality Shirley and her husband use them for their own ends in cruel emotional put downs. Whilst the performances are sincere the narrative here lacks its own convictions. It sets itself up as a film about empowerment with some real menace but sort of feebly jogs along to no real confrontation or conclusion. Ultimately the film fizzles out and lacks any real gumption.

This new adaptation of the popular children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett is no doubt a big production and the CGI use is extensive but the story has been played around with too much and the essence of it lost. It also does some very weird things that make no sense even when the fantastical elements have been ramped up considerably. For reasons that I cannot fathom the setting has been moved from Edwardian England to the late 1940s where spoilt 10 year old Mary (Dixie Egerickx) is living in India. Her parents die and she is sent to live with her grumpy Uncle (Colin Firth) in a gigantic mansion on the Yorkshire moors. Under the control of the strict housekeeper Mrs Medlock (Julie Walters - very underused) she explores the house and grounds finding a walled off garden, a sick cousin, a dog and a sudden flash of niceness! Bringing these all together to bring happiness to the maudlin household. Now here's the problem, the titular garden is a veritable Amazon jungle and huge. It's like Mary finds herself in a Jumanji film. The sickly cousin Colin (Edan Hayhurst) is too much a horrible kid and redemption seems wasted on him. The film has upped the magical elements of the story to the extent you're never sure if you're watching a fantasy film, a drama or a hybrid. You can never quite believe that somewhere near to the bleak, windswept house you see early on there's a veritable paradise, I was expecting lions etc to be living in it! A rather pointless new version that doesn't work, takes forever to get going and then is way over the top. Stick to the 1993 version it was much better.

China's first big budget effects movie, a disaster film with a childish script, flatly drawn characters and effects that are somewhat lacklustre. In the UK the British Board of Film Classification set this at a 12 certificate and for this film you need to be under that age for this to mean anything. Meng Li (Hannah Quinliven) is a young volcanologist based on an island with an active volcano that erupted years before killing her mother. For reasons that cannot be fathomed a smarmy entrepreneur has been allowed to build a resort on the island and gives tours into the volcano to rich tourists. He's played by Jason Isaacs with a dodgy South African accent (maybe they thought this would make him even more sleazy) who ignores warnings that an eruption is imminent. The film doesn't wait around to build up much tension because it erupts fairly quickly and then its a simple case of lots of running away and nearly dying for the main characters and death to all the extras. Quinliven makes for a decent action hero but her character is a sort of Alicia Vikander Lara Croft rip off. There's lots of quite daft set pieces and overall it'll make you groan and chortle in equal measure.

A fast, sexy, gritty and action packed Cold War thriller adapted from a graphic novel and with a bright, neon colour palette and driving soundtrack that gives it a rock video vibe. And it's great fun too. Charlize Theron doubles up on her action star credentials as top MI6 agent, Lorraine Broughton, sent to Berlin to investigate the death of a fellow agent and recover a missing list of covert operatives (searching for missing agent lists seems to have taxed most screen spies lately - 007, Jason Bourne, Ethan Hunt have all been on the look out for one at some point!). She is assisted by James McAvoy as a Berlin based spy with a drug problem. There's also a double agent somewhere amongst all the various factions at odds with one another and ultimately identifying this agent is the priority of MI6. Impressive support cast includes Toby Jones as Lorraine's boss, John Goodman as the CIA man, Eddie Marsan as a defecting East German spy and Sofia Boutella as a French agent. Most memorably are the very tough fight set pieces which are brutal and bloody and very, very exciting. There's car chases, double crosses, twists and turns of plot, gunfights and lots of surprises. It's highly entertaining and well worth checking out if you've never seen it.

A film based on a self help book and turned into a narrative romance is a strange concept but here we have one. It's a gushy, predictable story centred around the concept that if you wish hard enough for something you'll end up getting it. Pizza seems to be the main success of this theory here! Katie Holmes plays Miranda, a widowed mother of three struggling to make ends meet. Her former mother in law (Celia Weston) interferes and wants her to get together with local businessman Tucker (Jerry O'Connell) but then a handsome stranger, Bray (Josh Lucas) shows up. He has a some secret that involves Miranda but she is unaware of this as attraction between them grows. The trouble is that for a dreamy romance Lucas' Bray is unintentionally a bit creepy, full of wisdoms he keeps imparting and no one calls him out on them. There's a slight and pointless drift into religion at one point no doubt to please the bible thumping Americans who won't buy into the film's philosophies otherwise. It's all a bit too slushy for it's own good and by the end will elicit a groan from the discerning film viewer.

Ridley Scott's epic gangster film is one of the best crime films since The Godfather (1972). It's a rise and fall story as well as a police procedural and loosely based on true events it's marked by two top performances from Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. It's really a simple story and oft told in crime cinema of a ruthless criminal and the dedicated detective who hunts him down. In Scott's hands it's a richly detailed and a visual delight recreating New York in the early 1970s, essentially a character study, interspersed with violence and an array of really interesting personalities and performances. Washington plays Frank Lucas a black criminal who rises through the ranks of the New York heroin trade by buying direct from South East Asia, using corrupt soldiers in Vietnam to ship it to the US and selling at a higher purity to push out his rivals including the mafia. His nemesis is Richie (Crowe), a detective who hates the endemic corruption in the police who, using good old fashioned street techniques, brings him down. Along the way he has to deal with his bent colleagues portrayed here by Josh Brolin. The cast is impeccable and includes Chitwel Ejiofor, John Hawkes, Idris Elba and Cuba Gooding Jr. This is a big story, superbly well told and whilst it plays fast and loose with the actual events it is a riveting crime drama of greed, corruption, racism and dedication and deserves to be in the ranks of the great gangster films of the last 25 years.

A typical addition to the Marvel Comic oeuvre culminating in the usual big battle destruction of famous landmarks. Tom Holland has a neat charm in the character but this film lacks the spark that previous MCU films have in abundance. Here we have a new baddie, a teen romance, oodles of CGI and not much else really. Peter Parker (Holland) heads off to Europe on a school trip pining over his love MJ (Zendaya) but the irrepressible Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) needs Spider-Man as all the other heroes are either dead or unavailable to deal with some other worldly monsters that keep turning up. It all turns out that Jake Gyllenhaal is behind it all and has to be put down. There's the usual end credits sequence to set up for the next instalment so let's hope there's an injection of something new. Or at least bring back Tony Stark!!

Heavily influenced by Sergio Leone and clearly homaging both Rio Bravo (1959) and Night of the Living Dead (1968) this crime thriller has become a cult favourite and it's one of director John Carpenter's best and most famous films. Stylish, great fun and with so many iconic scenes and lines this has an unknown cast (only Henry Brandon who was Scar in John Ford's classic The Searchers is recognisable), a great story and is full of unique action. The story is essentially a siege narrative. Set on a balmy summer evening in a Los Angeles ghetto just after the police have ambushed and killed a group of gang members. Swearing revenge the gangs converge on a small, isolated police station commanded by new police Lieutenant Bishop (Austin Stoker) and besiege it. Bishop is only helped by a secretary (Laurie Zimmer) and notorious convict Napoleon Wilson (Darwin Joston). This is a great action film and for a low budget one it's packed with detail and utilises a sparse script that still manages to tell a tense story and draw great characters. The main attack on the station by the gang armed with silenced automatic weapons is fantastic with the building being decimated by silent gunfire. It's a memorable set piece and the film also boasts a highly shocking moment that will make you gasp! This film was unnecessarily remade in 2005 but this first one is a real classic of 70s cinema and it's one of those films everyone should see at least once.

This spy thriller is very convoluted to the point of it being incomprehensible. It's a clear attempt at making a John Le Carré style story but without using the source material. That was a risk and it doesn't pay off because even though Ben Kingsley, channelling a George Smiley vibe, tries to add some gravitas here this is so confusing and unnecessarily so. Much of the twist and turns and double crosses can be worked out beforehand and by the end leaves you feeling there was no point to it all. Kingsley is the ageing, ill yet experienced Mossad agent, Adereth, based in Belgium where he's looking into a chemical company selling dangerous chemicals to Syria who make biological weapons out of them. Mossad are wary so send young agent Daniel (Itay Tiran), who happens to be the son of Adereth's late best friend, to watch over the older man. Meanwhile Adereth begins a relationship with a beautiful doctor (Monica Bellucci), a committed environmentalist, and who, despite his declared love he decides to use to help him. Of course no one is who they appear to be and no one trusts anyone. It's all very implausible and although allegedly based on a true story, the story never really grips. A shame really as there's arguably a good story in here trying to get out but it's far too murky to be enjoyable, it lacks action and excitement and overall is a tad boring.

What appears to be a cumbersome title actually reflects the type of title that the dime novels of the American 1880s often used and identifies how this film is to be seen. The name Jesse James will conjure up recollections of outlaw westerns whereas this film is more accurately a historical drama more like a period film. It is a real masterpiece. Filmed and constructed like an epic poem it is both visually beautiful and a striking character study with two flawless central performances from Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck. It tells the story starting with the infamous Blue Cut train robbery in Missouri carried out by Jesse James (Pitt) and his older brother Frank (Sam Shepard) who have gathered a motley bunch of relations and local drifters into a gang including Bob Ford (Affleck), who idolises Jesse, and his brother Charlie (Sam Rockwell). After the crime the gang is dispersed but Jesse, increasingly paranoid, begins to visit each of them to see who has remained loyal. Affleck plays Ford as a snivelling wannabe and Pitt is menacing, enigmatic and riveting as the sociopathic Jesse. Director Andrew Dominik films this as a mix of myth, legend and history often depicting scenes through blurry windows to simulate vagueness almost like a dreamworld. There is sudden and realistic violence too but this is a film about a time, about a story and how it becomes confused and mysterious. It's also a story of friendship, disloyalty and hero worship. It maybe a little slow for anyone who just wants action but this is a remarkable piece of cinema and deserves to be seen for what it is. A genuinely clever, stylish and quite compelling drama. The support cast are all on top form and include Jeremy Renner, Mary Louise Parker and Zooey Deschanel and the soundtrack is by Nick Cave. This is a really special film and well worth your time if you've never seen it.

Watchable and at times very entertaining romcom about a young man and his difficult relationship with his father all made good by love in the sun with a beautiful woman. Micheál Richardson plays Jack, in the throes of an uncomfortable divorce and shocked when his ex informs him she's selling the London art gallery that Jack manages. Desperate to buy it Jack convinces his curmudgeonly artist father, Robert (played by Richardson's real life dad Liam Neeson) to sell the Tuscan villa inherited by them when Robert's wife & Jack's mother died years ago in a car accident. This cues a family crisis as the two have to travel together to the rundown villa, repair it and generally try to heal the rifts between them. Of course disillusioned Jack finds love in the beautiful landscape and all ends well for everyone. The trouble with this film is the clumsy script and the character arcs that are all predictable and unrealistic. Neeson's Robert goes from womanising bohemian to guilt ridden father and grief stricken husband in a flash. You know its coming but its all too hurried and unsatisfying. Some characters are underwritten and drift into the narrative but then quickly disappear. There's plenty to like here though and the film is very much like A Good Year (2006), but it has laughs and frustrations in equal measure. By the end you're desperate for a full on happy ending but you don't quite get it which leaves the film feeling a little underdone.

A ridiculous, clichéd time travel thriller that is slow, laborious, utterly daft and a waste of your time. Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan play two street tired paramedics who identify that a new synthetic drug hitting the streets of Ne Orleans is causing horrific deaths and injuries with those silly enough to take it. Dying of cancer Mackie discovers the drug takes you back in time for seven minutes and when Dornan's daughter goes missing after a try of the drug good ol' Anthony, after several attempts, heads back to find her. Yes it's as silly as it sounds. A waste of talent and time. I've given up the 100 or so minutes of my life here so you don't have to!

This is an enigmatic, intellectual science fiction drama that has a complicated structure and story but is a thoroughly rewarding film even though it may take you awhile to unravel what has taken place. In many ways this can be viewed as a companion piece to Christopher Nolan's Interstellar (2014) where the issue of time and our perception of it as linear is questioned. Where Nolan's film focused on gravity Arrival is concerned with language and the theory that our perception of the world and reality is influenced heavily by language. Amy Adams plays Louise, a linguist expert, who is tasked with trying to translate the language of an alien species that has arrived on Earth at twelve key locations around the world. Louise discovers that the aliens, which are a sort of huge octopus type creature, have a language that is circular in structure and that they have arrived to give humanity a gift that will be needed to help the aliens thousands of years in the future. The film is structured with different timelines taking place simultaneously and this is essential to the film's narrative and the ability to understand it. Director Denis Villeneuve has crafted a really intriguing and thought provoking film here, a film that demands discourse and debate. Villeneuve is also a master at creating atmosphere and his use of bleak tones, wintry and dank landscape with an ominous music score really makes the film very impactive. This is adult cinema at it's very best, a film I cannot recommend high enough.