Film Reviews by GI

This is a thought provoking drama documentary structured in a way to give it a narrative bookend that follows an unnamed woman (Samantha Morton) who is scavenging in a post apocalyptic world in the year 2073 and who recalls the events of the past that have led to the destruction of society and possibly the world. This then leads to a serious documentary utilising interviews and news footage that studies the rise of totalitarianism, far right politics dominated by the tech' billionaires that have arisen in the last few years. It's an eye opening documentary that has sort of slipped under the radar and it is intellectually structured by director Asif Kapadia who made Amy (2015) and Senna (2010). It's chilling prediction of a stark future for humanity of authoritarian rule as the super rich rebuild the world for their own survival. Well worth checking out.

After Blade Runner (1982) and Total Recall (1990) adaptations of the stories and novels of Philip K. Dick became much sought after. Screamers is based on a short story by Dick and scripted by Dan O'Bannon whose other science fiction work can be seen throughout this film (you'll spot the influence of Alien and Aliens). It's a science fiction story set on a remote planet where humans have discovered a rare mineral that can be used to supply unlimited energy for mankind. But mining it produces massive releases of radiation and a ten year war has been raging between the controlling mine company and the miners, the Alliance, due to bad safety practices and the deaths of miners. The Alliance have developed an automated biomechanics weapon known as 'screamers' that hunts humans . These are small machines that burrow under the surface of the ground and hone in on anyone not wearing an electronic tag. Henrickson (Peter Weller), an Alliance soldier, is ordered to travel to the enemy's command centre to discuss a possible ceasefire. He finds some survivors on the way including Jessica (Jennifer Rubin) and a young child but also discovers that the screamers seem to be self evolving and unresponsive to his tag. Made just before the advances in CGI this has some cool special effects and uses stop motion although the budget has restricted some of the film's potential. But the recreation of the desolate far away planet and the film's climax are impressive. The film has some quite shocking surprises too. There have been a few films where machines have become self aware and a threat, the Terminator series and The Matrix (199) for example, and films that look at the issue of what makes us human (Blade Runner being the classic example). Screamers delves into both these aspects and provides a good solid piece of scifi action adventure as a result. This has recently been re-released on DVD & BluRay and if you like a good, adult themed sci-fi then check this out, it's great fun.

This is one of those charming British comedy films that give you a lovely, warm nostalgic feel for a simpler time. Eternally sunny and quiet and exemplifying the 'good' manners that these films perceived were the norm in England at the time. This is a delightfully funny film with a fantastic cast led by Ian Carmichael who made a career out of playing a bumbling and lovable toff and Terry-Thomas who was British cinema's arch-rotter. Carmichael is Henry, a mediocre businessman who has inherited his father's business which is dominated by the firms accountant. Henry, by chance, meets the beautiful April (Janette Scott) but finds his attempts to woo her are thwarted by the smooth cad, Delauney (Terry-Thomas) who seems to have everything going for him including a flash car. All Henry's attempts to get April's attention including buying his own car meet with failure due to his clumsy manners and tendency to apologise for everything. Then he enrols in Professor Potter's (the exceedingly wonderful Alistair Sim) Lifemanship College where he learns 'ploys' on how to get the girl. He then sets out with Potter's help to win April away from Delauney. The films is filled with wonderful comic characters played by a host of stalwart British actors including Dennis Price, Peter Jones, John Le Mesurier and Hattie Jacques. A comedy of manners and a thorough delight so if you love the Ealing Comedies and the early Carry Ons then this is another wonderful gem that is worth seeking out.

A powerful, even at times brutal, drama infused with a dark humour and dominated by a fantastic, uninhibited performance from Cillian Murphy in the title role. He is the head teacher of a reform school for troubled teenage boys in the mid 1990s. Steve has an alcohol and substance abuse problem following a traumatic incident in his past but he manages the fine line between friend to the boys and authority figure trying to teach them something. The boys are wild and unpredictable with the ever present threat of emotional aggression when their lives become too difficult to cope. The focus is on one particular boy, Shy (Jay Lycurgo) who on the day on which the film takes place receives a call from his mother telling him she no longer wants anything to do with him. This rejection juxtapositions with Steve who also receives the news that the school is to be closed without any discussion. Steve's violent reaction and his downward spiral is mirrored by the emotional plunge that Shy takes at being abandoned. This ferocious drama takes place on the day a film crew is making a documentary about the school and the pompous local MP (Roger Allam) also visits adding the Steve's already fragile state. The rest of the cast are superb including Tracey Ullman as Steve's deputy and Emily Watson as the school psychologist. It's a story of attempted redemption and the film's end maybe uplifting or it maybe extremely sad, it's left for the viewer to interpret. A drama that is well worth checking out.

A very disappointing potboiler and B movie western that is thoroughly daft, a bit incoherent in it's attempt at a convoluted plot and unexciting in its shoot outs. It seems sometimes that a lot of film actors at some time or another want to play at cowboys and be in a western. Here we have Pierce Brosnan enjoying himself in this forgettable and cliched western where even the town prostitutes are very beautiful! He plays the sheriff in the Montana town of Trinity who encounters the young and naive Henry (Brandon Lessard) who has arrived looking to kill the lawman who framed his father and sent him to the gallows. It turns out that the said lawman is dead but it matters not because the two of them soon become embroiled in a mystery involving some hidden gold where Samuel L. Jackson, having a great time, is playing everyone off against themselves to get his hands on it. All nonsense, all typical and full of cliches, it's a film hardly worth your time.

An interesting relationship drama with some added humour that epitomises the loneliness of a modern life directed towards career success at all costs. George Clooney excels at roles in films like this and here he's all charm and cool although inevitably revealed as naive when it comes to love. He plays Ryan, a corporate troubleshooter for a big firm led by Jason Bateman's unfeeling CEO. Ryan spends his time flying between cities where he fires employees who are no longer required by the company. He has developed a skill at handling the emotions of the sacked people with a somewhat cold and cynical patter he has perfected. He loves the lifestyle and shuns connections including a home. He is therefore much angered when his boss brings in a bright young executive, Natalie (Anna Kendrick), who intends to save the company money by having the firing done via internet meetings rather than face to face. Ryan is given a chance to prove her system is doomed by taking her on one of his trips to show here why face to face is key and to save his precious way of life. But Ryan is also beginning to fall for Alex (Vera farming), a woman he meets on his trips and attendance at his sister's wedding makes him start to rethink his life choices. A well scripted film with some lovely moments and a typical American comedy/drama that shatters the dream of the luxury lifestyle beating hearth and home. Worth checking out if you've never seen it.

Even after numerous viewings this still packs an emotional punch. It's a film designed to shock and tug massively on the heart strings and in that sense it obviously works very well indeed. Director Steven Spielberg doesn't let the viewer off the hook with what he shows here but this is still a piece of cinema and it's a particularly good one and can be very much admired. Based on a true story (although don't be fooled into thinking you are watching events as they actually happened or that the characters are as they were, and it is tempting to do so especially after seeing the film's coda) it begins in Krakow, Poland immediately after the German invasion in 1939. Failed German industrialist Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) sees an opportunity offered by the war to enrich himself with military contracts. Being broke he exploits the local Jews now under the Nazi controls and uses them as cheap labour to make his fortune using an accountant, Itzhak (Ben Kingsley), as his link to the jewish community. As the war progresses and the Nazi 'final solution' progrom begins he is forced to make illegal deals with the commander of the nearby labour camp, Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes) to continue his business. But gradually the Jewish people see that there is safety in securing a job in Schindler's factory away from the daily, casual murder in the camp. As the war nears its end Schindler is faced with the emotional reality that he has grown fond of his workers and sets out to try and save them from extermination. Spielberg decided to film in black & white giving the film a documentary feel and enhancing the darkness of the events that unfold. His use of deep shadows is especially good at capturing the contrast in character morality and motivation. He also recreates scenes from archive photographs giving the film a very intense sense that we are watching actual footage. There is some extremely disturbing scenes of violence and the effects of executions for example are portrayed in frightening detail. Fiennes is the essence of evil as the psychopathic Goeth who casually kills jews on nothing more than whims. There is a, now, famous sequence where Spielberg uses a small amount of colour to highlight the traumatic events of the clearing of the Krakow Ghetto and I challenge anyone not to be moved and affected by it. Indeed the film is littered with difficult scenes and events and by the end you are emotionally drained. But like all films, despite it's power and production there are flaws and Spielberg's tendency to add some unneeded sentimentality is a main one. But that aside this is a film that deserves everyone to see it at least once so if you haven't then I urge you to do so even though it will shock with it's realistic depictions of the Holocaust.

Very loosely based on the 1932 Howard Hawks film of the same name this has become an influential gangster film. Unfairly controversial due to battles with the American censor it's actually not as gratuitously violent as many claim or remember and much of the issues of the film are around it's depiction of the glamour in the drug trafficking world and, at the time of its release, the high level of swearing. Written by Oliver Stone and directed by Brian DePalma Scarface is a classic story of the rise and fall of a gangster, in this case set within the bright clubland world of South Florida in the 1980s, the time of Miami Vice and similar cop shows. There's a huge resonance to those times including the vibrant soundtrack by Georgio Moroder but Scarface has no redeeming characters, everyone is corrupt, violent, greedy and immoral prepared to murder and maim for a slice of the pie. Al Pacino, in a really intense and quite compelling performance, is Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee who rises up through the ranks of the drug world smuggling cocaine for a Bolivian cartel. He's a man/child figure, emotionally puerile and an unpredictable psychopath. He has more connection with children and scenes of him relating to kids are spread throughout the film and indeed it's over a decision involving children that kicks off events leading to his downfall. He also has a pseudo incestuous longing for his younger sister (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) which eventually destroys him. This is an impressive crime film, a tough watch at times and yes it has violence, some of it quite nasty but it's also a clever and insightful study of the machinations of the drug world and its attractions including government hypocrisy. It's definitely a must see film if you've never seen this and worth digging back out for a rewatch if its been awhile.

This is a feel good, sweet American comedy basically about old age and with a lovely central performance from June Squibb better known for her scene stealing smaller roles in numerous films. She plays the 94 year old widow of the title who dotes on her loving but slacker grandson Daniel (Fred Hechinger). Constantly worried about Thelma Daniel and his parents are often plotting about getting her into a retirement home but she is fiercely independent. No more so than when an internet scammer defrauds her of some cash and Thelma decides to hunt him down aided by her friend Ben (Richard Rowntree in his final performance). These two set off across Los Angeles on Ben's motobility scooter eventually facing off against the scammers. The film is fun and well scripted cleverly interweaving an analogy with Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible running at full pelt scenes. A sort of side plot about Daniel's uselessness is a little underdone but overall the film is a clever look at getting old and the attitudes it brings from family and friends. Malcolm McDowell costars too. Worth an evening's viewing.

There is no doubt the idea behind this was ambitious and perhaps appeared interesting on the page but the end result is a lacklustre affair with awful dialogue, a story that makes little sense and overall it's not very exciting for an action science fiction film made to look epic. It is certainly overlong and the first hour becomes very tiresome and is not much improved in the final segments. The story is that an ancient Egyptian artefact discovered on an archaeological dig in 1928 (early scenes of it's discovery are all pointless) turns out to be a portal allowing travel across the Universe and it's now in the hands of the American military....of course it is! Young but genius Egyptologist Daniel (James Spader) is hired to interpret the symbols that get the device working so that a team of gung ho marines led by Kurt Russell's Colonel O'Neill can go see what's on the other side. It turns out it's basically ancient Egypt on another planet ruled by a nasty alien masquerading as Jaye Davidson. It's all totally daft and a bit boring and Kurt Russell sports the worst military haircut ever seen in any film and that's saying something. The ancient tribes people soon learn to use modern sub machine guns though so there's a bit of shooting. In short it hasn't aged well and is probably best consigned to those films that were a good idea but utterly failed.

There's been so much said and written about this film it's difficult to offer anything new to it. From the visceral and emotionally challenging opening scenes of D-Day through to the climactic battle for the bridge this is a film that is very powerful. But it's easy to focus on the realistic battles scenes and forget that this is ultimately a piece of cinema and cleverly telling a story with a sometimes intricate plot and it's often in the quieter and more reflective scenes that the themes of the film can be properly seen. This includes the film's introduction in the cemetery where we see a distraught old man and his family, if you've seen the film you'll know who this man is but this is left unclear until the film's end and the cross over shot from the cemetery headstones to the beach obstacles is remarkable and signposts the film's move to 1944 and the D-Day beaches of Normandy. The film has many wonderful edits and the use of sound is especially impressive - the rain fall and gunfire mingling together, the constant long distance sounds of artillery fire etc. There is no doubt war films and in particular cinematic representations of combat were totally changed after this was released and they are gritty and at times shocking and even though Steven Spielberg can't help include his trademark sentimentality into the narrative it sort of fits with the film possibly because the violence creates a contrast that works. Tom Hanks plays Captain Miller. Having survived the hellfire of D-Day he is ordered to take a few of his men and try to locate Private Ryan (Matt Damon) who's three brothers have all been killed in combat and to get him to safety. They resent the mission feeling that their lives are deemed less worthy than Ryan's. Along the way their loyalties, patriotism and morality is all tested until they have to face a final battle for their lives and their own sanity. Good, solid support cast including Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Ted Danson and others. This is definitely a film everyone should see even if war films aren't your thing. It's an important film and certainly a highly impressive one.

One of the reasons a cinephile watches so many films is the eternal hope that everyone is a masterpiece like this one. Director Paul Thomas Anderson has given us a modern action thriller, thematically layered, comic, surreal almost, and an accurate condemnation of the Trump era America. This is a film that delves into the counter-culture and paranoid extremes of American politics (and arguably the world situation too!) with the farcical aspects of modern life thrown in making it have the edge of a screwball yet deadly serious drama. Leonardo DiCaprio in probably his best role to date plays Bob, who is a member of an American revolutionary group who launch attacks on migrant detention camps freeing the migrants, as well as setting off bombs in the buildings of the wealthy right wing establishment. He is in love with Perfidia (Teyana Taylor), the committed leader of their group. She becomes the obsession of the racist, ramrod, chin strutting soldier Colonel Lockjaw, who wants to hunt her down but also is uncomfortably sexually aroused by her. When a bank robbery goes wrong the group has to go into hiding and Perfidia disappears leaving her baby with Bob. The narrative jumps fifteen years and Bob is now a drug fuelled alcoholic but devoted to his daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti). But when Lockjaw closes in on them fuelled by his desire to join a far right secretive ruling class club that gives him his orders and that wants Bob and all his old comrades eliminated poor old befuddled Bob has to go on the run and rescue his daughter (aided by Benicio Del Toro, in a great and funny performance) who Lockjaw has a murderous plan for. The film is a thrilling mix of serious and unserious that captures the sheer whimsical yet frightening nature of modern society especially in the USA. The film is really about the unending culture war that rages picking up modern themes around parent/child relationships (and very neatly connecting us to the vile separation of parents from their children by the Trump Administration attempting to deal with the Mexican border migration issues). This is a film about dissent and about being almost powerless to react with so many modern distractions. It's also about the use of violence and military power to control. In short it's a fantastic film that may divide audiences but it's powerful, clever and thoroughly entertaining throughout.

Smart, witty, sad, funny and a thorough delight. Wonderfully directed and superbly edited this tells the story of Walt Disney's quest to woo Mary Poppins author, P.L. Travers, to give him the rights to her books. It's based on real events but the film delves further into the motivation of Travers in withholding the rights and her real fears about what might happen to the characters that she has created and their very personal origins. Tom Hanks plays Disney. Walt has tried to secure the rights to the Mary Poppins books for twenty years but is constantly thwarted by Mrs Travers (Emma Thompson), an austere and prim British woman who hates flimsy and above all, cartoons! But struggling for money she is forced to agree to go to Los Angeles and work with Disney and his team on developing a film. She is obstructive from the outset! Interlinked into the story is the background to her stubbornness in which memories of her childhood in Australia and her father (Colin Farrell), an optimistic, loving man but who is also a depressive alcoholic. The flashback sequences are wonderful and actually form the roots of the narrative and explain the film's title. If you are a lover of Mary Poppins (1964) and/or the original books you will find nothing but sheer joy in watching this film. There's a deep sadness at it's heart but its presented in such a wonderful way with great performances and a heartwarming feel. What's not to love?

Similarities to the Alien series are obvious here not least as the creature was designed by H.R. Giger and scenes are very reminiscent of Alien ones especially the use of hand held flamethrowers and the climax inside the tunnels of a city sewer that are similar to the labyrinthine sets of the first three Alien films. This is a science fiction horror film about the hunt for an alien creature that is the result of a secret experiment led by Fitch (Ben Kingsley) who has crossed alien and human DNA creating a female hybrid. When she escapes from the research lab and quickly metamorphoses into an adult (Natasha Henstridge) Fitch calls in a specialist team to hunt her down before she can mate with another human and spread her species. Michael Madsen is the manhunter and Forest Whitaker an 'empath' who can sort of feel her thoughts (conveniently!) are part of this crew in a film that is essentially one long chase where the alien leaves a trail of bodies as she kills all in her way. The final confrontation reveals the alien in all her 'Alien' lookalike glory. It's an entertaining enough film and Henstridge gets to walk about mostly topless and Madsen gets to play a good guy for a change. It spawned a short series none of the sequels getting anything as entertaining as this one. Worth checking out if you've never seen it but mostly routine stuff.

Basically a remake of the classic psychological western of the same name made in 1957 and adapted from a 1953 short story. This newer version follows the general trend of modern westerns in that it ups the action and brutal violence to appeal to a modern day audience. It's tempting to make a comparison to the '57 film which was kept rigidly to the standard western character trope of honour and stoic manhood and is a classic of the genre and eschews too much gunplay for a more subtle comparison of two men on opposite sides of a moral divide. Director James Mangold brings a revisionist edge to his newer film that is more about the redemption for the outlaw that never quite takes place, leaving him as basically selfish to the end despite his apparent protection of his captor. The two lead stars, Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, are nevertheless fully committed in their characters with Crowe getting the best lines and the more riveting presence but overall, even without recalling the 1957 film, this is a routine, violent western that has some entertainment value but offers little else. The story follows farmer Dan (Bale), crippled in the Civil War and now struggling with debts and an aggressive landlord, but is devoted to his wife and two sons. The eldest (Logan Lerman) is a headstrong, stubborn boy who is eternally disappointed in his father. Opportunity comes when a notorious outlaw, Wade (Crowe) is arrested and Dan agrees to take him to the train station in the next town for a reward that will free him of debt. On the journey he has to battle Indians, a mining gang and Wade's own men. This cues bloody shoot outs and fast action. The film lacks the slow build up of tension in the wait for the train that marks the original as a great western. It's all ok but offers little that's new.