Film Reviews by GI

This is an absolutely riveting British crime drama that has a cult following although is often forgotten when speaking of great British crime films. It's a real gem of a film, tough, gritty and typical in style to the best British crime films like Get Carter (1971) and The Long Good Friday (1980) so if you loved those then this will not disappoint. Sean Bean, in one of his very earliest film roles, is Brendan, a music loving young man who gets a job in a Newcastle Jazz Club run by Finney (Sting, proving here what a very accomplished actor he is). It's 'America' week in Newcastle and a big American investor, Cosmo (Tommy Lee Jones) is in town meeting with local dignitaries and planning to invest heavily in a regeneration of the city. But Cosmo is a corrupt businessman and his plans include buying Finney's club, who is refusing to sell. When Brendan meets and begins a relationship with the beautiful Kate (Melanie Griffith), who happens to work for Cosmo, he finds himself caught up in a violent dispute between Finney and Cosmo. Noirish in style and capturing the rundown look of North-East England this is a cleverly written and directed film about corruption, bribery and power hungry millionairs with a plot that works on coincidences but does so in a way that really works. It's a tough story, with some very realistic violence although it never slips into gratuitousness. Like other great British crime films the characters seem very real indeed. Check this out if you've never seen it it's a fantastic little film and deserves to be rediscovered.

Winner of seven Oscars including Best Picture this is a hugely entertaining crime drama with comedy undertones due to the superb pairing of Robert Redford and Paul Newman. Brilliantly structured, scripted and edited it's one of the best American films of the 70s and is one of those that everyone should make sure they see at least once. Set in 1936 during the Great Depression Hooker (Redford) is a small time street con man but he's very good at it. When he and his partner steal from big time gangster, Lonnegan (Robert Shaw) they become hunted men. When Lonnegan has Hooker's friend murdered he wants revenge and goes to Henry Gondorff (Newman) who is reputedly the master of the Big Con. Together they plan to take Donnegan down but can they trust each other? This is riveting to watch as nothing is ever what it seems and you never know who is on whose side so it plays out like a 'whodunnit' style narrative. It's definitely one of the best 'caper' movies you'll ever see and it's yet to be bettered in that genre. The Chicago of the 1930s is wonderfully and authentically constructed for the film using mostly studio sets with a nostalgic feel even down to using the old Universal Studio logo at the beginning. This is one of those really entertaining films with two major stars at the height of their fame, in a cleverly plotted film that everyone will enjoy I guarantee.

This 80s thriller adapted from a bestselling novel was a reasonably successful film on its initial release boasting a strong cast including Lee Marvin but viewed today it's all a little tedious and the little action and fight scenes are very tame and lame. The story is set in Moscow, which does lend the film some uniqueness, and follows a murder investigation led by Moscow police investigator Arkady (William Hurt) after three bodies are found in the city's Gorky Park. The bodies have had their faces removed to hide their identities. Arkady becomes suspicious when the KGB take a very early interest in the case and he suspects that there is a bigger conspiracy going on than it at first appears. And he's right as he soon encounters State interference, a dodgy American businessman (Marvin), a beautiful woman (Joanna Pacula) and a New York Cop (Brian Dennehy) are all linked to the murders. There's some violence and the predictable and inevitable sex scene but overall the story lacks a real tension or grittiness. Hurt is very good here and it's a film perhaps worth a look but it's a little disappointing.

With it's return to the look and feel of the 1954 original this is an entertaining 'Godzilla' film from director Takashi Yamazaki and it's interesting in it's allegorical look at the monster as the symbol of a Japan devastated by war and it's people faced with the new threats of domination and nuclear war. Set in the aftermath of the Second World War the plot follows a young kamikaze pilot who has survival guilt after he aborted his final mission and then faced the monster and froze in terror resulting in the deaths of some comrades. Later in a war destroyed Tokyo he sets up a pseudo family with a young woman and a baby rescued from the rubble. But a new and more deadly Godzilla returns from the ocean depths having been re-energised by US nuclear testing to attack Tokyo. A few citizens alone including the pilot have to come up with a plan to kill it. The use of the monster as a metaphor for the anguish, trauma and guilt of the Japanese is clever and makes this arguably the best Godzilla film since Gareth Edwards 2014 version. This is a well written and quite sentimental film that is very entertaining and I'm guessing may well be the first of a short series.

This is a gutsy gangster film about Irish mobsters in New York. Ed Harris is Frankie, the boss, who is desperately trying to become the No. 1 mobster in the 'Hell's Kitchen' quarter of NY aided by his emotionally unstable brother Jackie (Gary Oldman). To do so he is trying to form an alliance with the mafia and has to prove to them his organisation can function properly but he's having problems controlling Jackie. Then Terry (Sean Penn) arrives back in the neighbourhood after being away for years. He and Jackie were once best friends and soon Terry is part of the gang. But he has a secret that will unravel all of Frankie's plans. A story of friendship and loyalty all wrapped up in a gritty and violent crime story and is superbly played throughout aided by Robin Wright, John C. Reilly and John Turturro. With the added bonus of a score by Ennio Morricone you have a first rate American gangster film that really rocks and it has a great slow motion and bloody gunfight climax so well worth checking out if you've never seen it.

Hilarious British comedy about the members of a fictitious 1970s rock group who, once famous, broke up acrimoniously and are then persuaded to reform years later. This is really a laugh out loud riot whilst at the same time a melancholic look at what it means to get older and all the emotional issues that come with it. The cast are all on top form with Bill Nighy as the singer who thinks he's still famous, Jimmy Nail as the grumpy band member who only reluctantly agrees to give it another go, Timothy Spall as the crude drummer 'Beano, and Billy Connolly as the band's cynical roadie. As a comedy set in the world of rock 'n' roll this doesn't have the sharp satirical edge of a film like This Is Spinal Tap (1984), it's more of a gentle, heart warming study of a world where age becomes a big problem. There's romance, sadness and really funny moments in this delight of a film. The story follows the band members of 'Strange Fruit' who had a chance of international fame in the 70s but blew it. Years later they are all in dead end jobs but a chance meeting inspires them to get back on the road but old animosities are still rife and their 'genius' songwriter and guitarist is reported to have died years ago. Can they get past the past? It takes some adventures on a European tour to find out. Hilarious, warm and quintessentially British humour from writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. Highly recommended if you've never seen this.

Funny and charming this is a British romantic comedy of manners with James McAvoy as Brian, a working class Essex lad who has a thirst for knowledge and earns himself a place at Bristol University. But he is socially clumsy and always trying a little too hard to impress and he loses it completely when he becomes smitten by the beautiful Alice (Alice Eve) when they both join the University Challenge quiz team. This has a fairly routine plot and Brian just goes from one personal crisis to the next failing along the way to see who does actually care for him but it's a heartwarming and really funny film. The cast are fantastic with Rebecca Hall, Dominic Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch (as the pompous and hilarious quiz captain), Mark Gatiss (as Bamber Gascoigne), Catherine Tate and James Corden, Charles Dance & Lindsay Duncan all have cameos. This is a film about friendship, love and finding your place in the world. If you love these gentle British romcoms then this is well worth checking out.

Thematically aligned with director Paul Vehoeven's earlier film, Robocop (1987), this is his most extreme condemnation of fascism, racism and bigotry highlighting the easy indoctrination of the young by the State to achieve its aims. Set in a future where democracy has been abandoned and the rich still hold privileged positions in society but where gaining citizenship by doing 'service' is heralded as the right thing for young people to do. Humans have conquered spaceflight but in their drive to control the galaxy have started a war with a far distant planet inhabited by large, intelligent insects. These are seen as a less worthy form of life and to be destroyed. The story follows a group of college friends who are caught up in the ideology of the State and go to war against an enemy they are taught is undeserving of life but who prove to be more intelligent than they were told. Verhoeven uses extreme violence and gore to satirise his themes, and oh boy is this a bloody film, so be prepared if you've not seen it. But despite its science fiction and war genre story this is a film with some stark warnings about attitudes to difference, to others and the role of violence in society. To an average viewer this may seem just a full on action sci-fi film that really rocks but scratch the surface and you have an intricate look at modern society and the dangers of populism. This is arguably Verhoeven's cleverest American film, a massive cult favourite and definitely one you should check out if you've never seen it.

This is a thrill ride sequel of the 2022 Finnish hit and whilst you can argue it's more of the same you can't argue that it is pure adrenaline fuelled With its clear influences of Mad Max, Indiana Jones, and The Terminator this is just one big chase movie with gutfuls of cartoon violence and buckets of blood. It's 1946 and the old Finnish commando, Aatami (Jorma Tommila) travels into now Soviet held part of Finland where he dismantles his old home and the site of the murder of his family by the Russians during the war and heads back towards Finland to rebuild it and live in peace. But the Soviets haven't forgiven him for the death toll he inflicted on their troops and send after him Dragunov (Stephen Lang), the killer of Aatami's family, to finally kill him. Aatami, as expected, defies all attempts to do so! Lang channels his bad ass character Colonel Quaritch from the Avatar series and is a worthy opponent here. The action is fast and gutsy as the film rattles along at breakneck speed. Of course it's all ridiculous but is so much fun to watch.

If you are a fan of The Princess Bride (1987) then you've gotta love Stardust. This is a magical, adult fairy story which is also hilariously funny and has a cast to die for. Adapted from a popular novel by Neil Gaiman this is a classically structured story about a mythical land that lies just beyond the borders of a quaint English village. It's a tale that bases itself on a folklore type narrative and it's heavily influenced by the Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of The Rings and indeed the Harry Potter books & films. Like all of those stories it's a romance with swords, dark magic and strange characters and creatures. Tristan (Charlie Cox) is a young man besotted with the prettiest girl in his village (Sienna Miller). When they see a falling star she promises to marry him if he'll bring it to her. So Tristan crosses an ancient wall that the villagers believe is a boundary to the magical land of Stormhold to find the star, which turns out to be a beautiful girl (Claire Danes). On the other side he has a rather unique adventure involving three evil witch sisters who also covet the star, some pirates and some brothers out to gain the throne of Stormhold. It's a fantastically entertaining story and played for laughs so it is genuinely really funny and you get Robert De Niro as a cross dressing pirate, what more do you need? The support cast includes Michelle Pfeiffer, Ricky Gervais, Sienna Miller, Henry Cavill, Mark Strong, Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher and Peter O'Toole, it's also narrated by Ian McKellen. A wonderful film that really entertains. If you've never seen this then it is a real treat.

Something of a cult favourite like many of John Carpenter's films but this one hasn't aged well and suffered from the need to add scenes to lengthen the film and too make it more 'scary'. The prologue with the great John Houseman is a one such scene that is arguably the best scene of the entire film. A hospital scene where a corpse rises from the dead is a damp squib and Jamie Lee Curtis hardly reacts especially as it just falls over and that's that! This is a ghost story with the titular fog meant to represent the harbinger of evil - "There's something in the fog" cries Adrienne Barbeau's warning over the airwaves of her frankly awful radio show. We'd have to wait a few years for "There's something in the mist" to get a more interesting film about tis sort of thing in The Mist (2007). Here we have small town America celebrating its centennial when a strange fog drifts in from the sea. This has bought with it ghosts of a ship's crew from 100 years ago that were killed by the townsfolk for their treasure and these spirits now want revenge on the ancestors of six people who were responsible. The ghosts have nasty hooks and swords and cause a few gory deaths but the film ultimately lacks any real sense of tension or terror. Carpenter adds a little mystery to the narrative but it's wasted because we've already seen the ghostly apparitions very early on. The structure here being a bit ill thought out making for a film that fails to really become gripping.

The weakest of the original trilogy but an acceptable conclusion to the story and really it effectively makes the latest trilogy all somewhat redundant. There are some great sequences including the rescue of Han Solo (Harrison Ford) from Jabba The Hut and, at last, Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) gets a decent costume! The final space battle, the combat scenes in the forest and the introduction of the evil Emperor with Ian McDiarmid's performance being the the best thing about the whole film. This is the most children focused of the three films and the early warning signs of George Lucas' misplaced imagination are here to see especially with the teddy bear like Ewoks. I have no doubt they are great for kids but they push the film away from the darker edge that the previous two films managed to retain. Even the title change from 'Revenge' to 'Return' is indicative of this, Revenge would have been more appropriate. However as the concluding film it wraps everything up nice and neatly and for the most part its a satisfying experience with it's monsters and laser shooting etc etc. If you love this trilogy then this does the job and it's nice to rewatch it and remember the excitement of waiting for the conclusion of the story to be released.

If you watch this documentary expecting a full analytical look at this lovable actor's films you'll be disappointed. It's more of a run through his private life centred on his relationships and, of course, his casting as James Bond. Narrated by Steve Coogan, doing a Moore impression, this has some interesting moments and adds to the already great esteem with which Moore is held by fans. It does show how he constructed an image that bled from his roles into his real life. There's the usual array of talking head interviews from friends and colleagues including Pierce Brosnan, Joan Collins and Christopher Walken. Sadly though there's no real look at his roles in films beyond his early TV and 007 ones which is a shame because Moore made some other great films some of which were very good performances from him, for example The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970). That's a shame but otherwise a film that captures Moore's great personality and is worth watching.

Adapted from a stage play this is a robustly performed film although not particularly profound but interesting all the same. This is a fictional What If? scenario that dramatises a meeting between a dying Sigmund Freud (Anthony Hopkins) and C.S. Lewis (Matthew Goode) where they debate each other mainly over the existence or not of God. Freud is an exile in London having fled the Nazi takeover of Austria and the film is set on the eve of the Second World War. It's an old fashioned drama with Freud depicted as cantankerous and somewhat childish old man who gets quite angry over challenges to his ideas and Lewis is a supercilious academic suffering from PTSD after his experiences in the First World War. There's a series of flashbacks and dream sequences that extend the film and render it watchable provided you are committed to the subject matter. The heart of the film is in Freud's relationship with his gifted daughter Anna (Live Lisa Fries) who is at his beck and call but is her own person. Not a particularly memorable film but elaborately and seriously presented.

A diverting, entertaining albeit silly and very unrealistic suspense thriller directed by Mel Gibson. The plot is set mostly on board a rickety small prop plane and consequently it becomes limited in what it can do and although Mark Wahlberg is advertised as the lead he actually plays second fiddle to Michelle Dockery. She plays Madolyn, a US Marshall with a chequered history, who is escorting Mob accountant Winston (Topher Grace) who has been in hiding out in Alaska and has agreed to be a witness against the mafia. They have to travel across the wilderness in this small prop plane piloted by Daryl (Wahlberg). En route the various characters have conflicted roles in the narrative and there are twists and turns as Madolyn is desperate to get her man into custody safely. The limitations of the action taking place in this small plane eventually become a little too difficult to maintain the tension as Madolyn ends having to pilot the plane and much of the plot is unwound via telephone conversations. Wahlberg plays against type and is doing a sort of Jack Nicholson impression. But the three actors manage to keep this entertaining although there are some very obvious daft scenarios. But as a piece of forgettable entertainment this does the trick quite well.