Film Reviews by GI

Playing a fictionalised version of himself Paul Hogan is fed up with always being called Mr Dundee and badgered by movie executives to make another Crocodile Dundee film. Living in Los Angeles this comedy has Hogan content to live quietly but unable to escape the film legacy for which he's most known and offered a knighthood by the Queen is told by his agent to stay out of trouble. This obviously cues him getting into lots of trouble and some of the incidences are funny and others fall resoundingly flat. Essentially the joke is that Hogan is an old man unable to understand the modern world, but its when the film veers into political issues that it fails miserably including where he rejects the suggestion of Will Smith playing his son in a new Dundee film stating "because he's black"! He's then berated for saying that. The attempt to highlight a world of woke around the racism issue is a glaring error. There's a few celebs cameo including John Cleese, Chevy Chase and Olivia Newton John who are either big mates with Hogan or needed the money, probably both. There are others that pop up too but mostly the film is one of those old person struggling with life comedies that isn't that funny. This is a silly film that has the odd moment but overall it's one to avoid.

An interesting British drama about passion and jealousy marked by the two outstanding lead actors. John Mills plays lonely and miserly Parker, a widowed farmer who likes his drink a little too much and lives in borderline squalor on his large but rundown farm in the West Country of England. Carol White plays local girl, Dulcima, who takes pity on Parker one day and helps him to clean his house. She's the eldest of a large family and put upon by her parents and she dreams of a better life. When she discovers Parker has hordes of cash she begins to manipulate him including with sex to get her hands on it. But she's unprepared for the deep passions she awakens in the elderly farmer. White is a first class actor, often forgotten nowadays, as her career was short due to her own personal problems that resulted in an early death, partnered here along with the great John Mills lifts this drama into a story of passions that threaten to engulf all around them. The film captures the age where England still struggled with the shadow of the Second World War right into the 60s and 70s especially in remote rural communities where a patriarchal lifestyle was the norm. Dulcima represents the awakening of women to a better life than one of drudgery as wife and housekeeper. In the film Dulcima resists the marriage proposal of Parker but not totally, she's torn between the safety of his wealth and the dream of escape to a better life. She comes to life when she buys new clothes for herself almost reaching the mystical world of which she dreams. In that sense this is a most interesting social study and a film that has been mostly forgotten. It's well worth seeking out.

Director Ridley Scott's film debut and a remarkable, astonishingly beautiful one too. Famed, even possibly notorious, for his dedication to the visual presentation of his films this is a film highly detailed in every scene and the soft focus hues create a landscape of autumnal beauty that is rarely matched. The mise en scene throughout is fantastic with every scene carefully and meticulously constructed like a classical painting. Set in the early 19th century this tells the tale of two officers in Napoleon's army, D'Hubert (Keith Carradine) and Feraud (Harvey Keitel). When the fiery Feraud takes offence at D'Hubert for delivering a message from their superior he insists they fight a duel. This starts a lifelong animosity between them which is realised through a series of duels. Each becomes more intense and violent as the years go by until Napoleon is eventually deposed and D'Hubert retires to a quiet life in the country but Feraud soon returns. As a period drama this is a film that exudes a romantic time tinged with constant war, a story of honour, obsession and love. It marked Scott as a filmmaker of great skill and unique style and in many ways it's a film that paved the way for his later classic films, especially in the amazing detail applied. The support cast are excellent and include Albert Finney, Edward Fix, Diana Quick and Cristina Raines. Highly original, great story and wonderfully directed this is a masterpiece.

Director Walter Hill made a series of very cool films in the 70s and 80s, many have reached cult status and viewed today they exude a European arthouse vibe even though they're deeply rooted in traditional American genres. Once described by Quentin Tarantino as one of the coolest movies ever made The Driver is a superb example of Hill's film style. Sharply edited, low on exposition, little if any character background, fast paced action and a tight plot. Written by Hill with Steve McQueen in mind (he turned it down) this stars Ryan O'Neal, not an actor normally associated with tough action cinema, as the titular Driver (all the characters are unnamed in the film and referred in the credits by their role), a professional getaway driver for hire. He has a fixed fee, only works with top level criminals and accepts no mistakes. He's also the obsession of Bruce Dern's Detective, who will do anything to catch his man even setting up a bank job and ensuring the Driver is hired. It's a cat and mouse game with the story concerned with who is the cleverest. Great chases, gutsy action and well directed this is a fantastic 70s crime film, one of Hill's smaller but better for it films and worth seeking out if you've never seen it. Dern is great as the very unpleasant cop and it's the first American film role of Isabelle Adjani, who later regretted her involvement. A major influence on Drive (2011).

First class crime thriller, gritty, stylish and really quite astonishing as it takes the genre into unexpected directions. Ryan Gosling, in one of his finest performances, is the Driver (he has no character name in the film). By day he's a stunt driver on film productions and a mechanic for Shannon (Bryan Cranston) who is also an arranger for the Driver's work at night where he is a coolly professional getaway driver for hire. Despite being taciturn and cautious he befriends his neighbour Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her little boy and their feelings for one another slowly begin to grow until her husband (Oscar Isaac) returns home from prison. He is in debt to some very nasty bad guys and is ordered to commit a robbery for them. The Driver agrees to help him but it all goes awry forcing the Driver to take action. The film has all the hallmarks of a Michael Mann film, ultra cool nighttime scenes of LA, close up camera angles and quick and realistic violence. The support cast are impeccable and include Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman and Albert Brooks. Russ Tamblyn has a cameo too. As the baby faced yet frighteningly tough Driver Gosling is a fresh take on the American anti-hero that litters the crime and western genres, and in many ways he reminded me of the stranger in High Plains Drifter (1973) and I'm sure the influence of Ryan O'Neal's character in The Driver (1978) is behind this film. The set pieces are exciting and realistic including a car chase sequence. This is a superb film and Gosling is spot on casting. A must see film.

Big budget, hi octane and full on action doesn't always make for a satisfying experience. Here the Russo Brothers attach their Avengers credentials to a Mission Impossible/Michael Bay style action fest that ultimately feels very silly. Ryan Gosling plays a CIA assassin recruited from prison by Billy Bob Thornton who becomes his surrogate father and becomes an anonymous agent. Known only as Sierra Six he globe trots killing for the CIA until he discovers there's some rogue management in the agency and he has the evidence in a microchip which acts as the film's MacGuffin. He then finds himself hunted by psychopath agent and torture expert Lloyd, played with obvious relish by Chris Evans. This cues set piece after set piece of chases, fights, shooting as Gosling channels his JohnWick/Ethan Hunt/Jason Bourne/James Bond hybrid personality. The trouble is it all feels a little flat and uninspiring and everything has been done before and I have to say better. Ana de Armas struggles with the limited role she's given, a shame as she showed what she's capable of in No Time To Die (2021) in a much smaller role. You'll end up laughing at much of it and the very clichéd ending as Evans and Gosling go mano a mano is a damp squib and a tired way to end a film like this. It's difficult to see where this is pitched, it's probably a teenage film as its too violent for kids and too daft for adults. Disappointing it certainly is and I'm guessing a franchise is in the offing.

Hammer Films third in its Dracula series yet the second to star Christopher Lee as the titular Count (the second film Brides of Dracula made in 1960 didn't feature Dracula himself). It's a typical Hammer horror release renowned for it's blood and cleavages all of which are in abundance here although apparently the British censor insisted on cuts. Tame by todays standards and very studio set bound although this has some outside scenes. Whilst essentially a gothic tale it's a quite bright and colourful film and Dracula runs about with his swirling black and red cape. The camera turns away from anything too gory or salacious making the whole thing almost funny. Lee, a great actor, has little to do, he doesn't appear for at least 45 minutes and has no lines apart from the odd hiss and his eventual demise is anti climactic. It's strictly B movie stuff and all very dated but the Hammer horror film cycle is of interest if only from a film history perspective and this film features Peter Cushing in a prologue and a solid British cast including Andrew Keir and Barbara Shelley.

A well paced action thriller with a good solid story and very entertaining. Angelina Jolie, in a surprising casting choice, plays angry Montana firefighter Hannah, she is a specialist in fighting forest wildfires. She has some PTSD from an incident that is shown in flashback a couple of times. On duty in a watch tower deep in the forest her comms are knocked out by a lightening storm and she finds a young boy, Connor (Finn Little) wandering alone. He's actually fleeing two ruthless hitmen (Aiden Gillen & Nicholas Hoult) so Hannah has to help him and a huge wildfire is coming down on them at the same time. There's some flaws in the plot but these can be excused because it's a bit of a thrill ride and Gillen and Hoult are superb as the cold ruthless killers, whenever they're on screen there's an intensity as they calculate their plans for murder which they carry out with cold efficiency. Jolie does her part well and carries off the tough firefighter part well. Assisted by Jon Bernthal as a local cop this is a gutsy thriller that is well worth your time.

Based on the character from the long running British comic series 2000AD this is a violent action thriller set in a dystopian future where the world is a vast desert and people live in gigantic cities overrun with crime. The law is represented by the 'Judges', tough police officers who have the power to act as judge, jury and executioner. After arresting a murder suspect the uncompromising Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) and his trainee, Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) become trapped inside a massive skyscraper run by the criminal warlord Ma-Ma (Len Headey) who is desperate to to get her man back before he talks and reveals her drug manufacturing operation. This cues plenty of shooting! It's certainly exciting stuff and originally released as a 3D film it has the telltale scenes designed to heighten that experience but viewed today it is still a highly entertaining and bloody action fest that really rocks. Clearly influenced by Blade Runner (1982) Robocop (1987) and Death Race 2000 (1975) it paints a picture of a neo-facist future where state violence is the order of the day to suppress uncontrolled crime and life is little valued. Urban is great in the role, all mood and serious grimaces and he's clearly doing a solid Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry impression. The film doesn't offer much in the way of visuals of this future as the narrative is mostly confined to inside the skyscraper where the very bloody battle takes place but it doesn't really matter because this is a shoot em up on a grand scale with gut wrenching slow motion violence. It's a real treat actually and I'm surprised there's not been a sequel. Interestingly this was written and edited by Alex Garland and rumoured to have been mostly directed by him although Pete Travis is credited.

Presented as a dark, gothic love story this adaptation is probably the most faithful to Bram Stoker's celebrated novel although it does deviate from the book in many ways including the prologue which links the fictional Count with the historical figure of Vlad The Impaler. This is however a seductive, almost ravishing, tale of lost love that drives a warrior to renounce the God he serves to live beyond the grave constantly in search of redemption but increasingly becoming a monster. Director Francis Ford Coppola shuns the use of special effects (other in one instance) to use 'old style' in camera effects that give the film a sense of nostalgia for cinema itself. He concentrates on the power of obsessive love as the focus for the characters, it being so powerful that it pushes them into the realm of darkness. Gary Oldman is inspired here as Dracula, changing from old to young, man to monster and has all the best lines, his support cast are interesting to say the least with Anthony Hopkins on top form playing the slightly manic Van Helsing, assisted by Winona Ryder, Sadie Frost, Richard E. Grant and Keanu Reeves. Much has been made of Reeves casting yet his performance isn't that bad, slightly wooden though it is due to the forced English accent, and there were probably better choices available for the role but it doesn't detract from the sheer beauty of the film. The usual 'Hammer' type tropes of the vampire movie are either dispensed with here or utilised in a refreshing way. Overall this is a sexually charged, mystical retelling of a familiar cinematic story and a version that stands as one of the best. Worth checking out again if you were not convinced previously.

This sequel to the previous years Dr Who & The Daleks benefits from the bigger budget with better sets, more outside location filming, a bigger cast and some pretty good model work and effects. Peter Cushing returns as the bumbling inventor of the TARDIS time machine joined this time by Bernard Cribbins and Jill Curzon as Roy Castle and Jennie Linden from the earlier film were unavailable. Police Constable Tom (Cribbins) unable to stop a burglary stumbles into the TARDIS thinking it to be a police box and finds himself whisked off to London in the year 2150 by the Doctor, his niece (Curzon) and granddaughter (Roberta Tovey). There they find the Daleks have invaded and the plucky time travellers join the rebellion. For a children's matinée film this is entertaining, if a little dated by today's standards, and is well worth modern Dr Who fans checking it out even though the two films aren't included in the Dr Who canon. There's lots of continuity errors and loads of rough edges, and the sci-fi sets are still a bit ropey, all flashing lights and bleeps but the model spaceship is great even if you can spot the wires! Andrew Keir supports as an angry rebel leader and there's a few famous British TV actors littered throughout the cast. The biggest laugh is that the Daleks have invaded the Earth and the reason lies in leafy Bedfordshire, unlucky for them because the plucky English are soon rallied to fight even if they need a scientist from 90 years earlier to tell them how.

Despite the excellent acting of the cast especially the two leads of Hugh Bonneville and Keeley Hawes this true story melodrama errs on the side of good taste and warm redemption almost trying to protect its audience rather than push the impact of grief after the death of a child. This is a fictionalised account of the marriage between author Roald Dahl and Hollywood actress Patricia Neal centred around the death of their daughter Olivia, who dies of a measles related condition. Dahl, here played with a tenderness and emotional power that the real Dahl lacked, descends into outer misery and drinking which threatens his career and marriage, whilst Neal, content to live in a rambling English country house, has to face a practical future. The film will have you believe that the tragedy pushed her to her Oscar winning role in Hud (1963) and Dahl to write his seminal book Charlie & The Chocolate Factory and I'm not sure this is accurate. For the film this is all fine if a little overly neat and sentimental. There are though some excellent scenes to enjoy, one with the late Geoffrey Palmer as Dahl's old headmaster (Palmer died before the film's release) and one where Neal meets her Hud costar Paul Newman (Sam Heughan) who refuses to engage in clichéd condolences. This is a watchable and at times interesting family drama but it doesn't really grasp the impact of a child death on unprepared parents.

Despite a lot of accolades director Robert Eggers latest violent revenge adventure is a bleak, enigmatic and morose film that failed to enthralled me. Set in the 10th century it's based on an ancient viking story which in turn is the tale Shakespeare used as the basis for Hamlet. Alexander Skarsgård plays Amleth who has a child witnesses the murder of his father, a king (Ethan Hawke), by his uncle (Claes Bang), who also carries off his mother (Nicole Kidman). Amleth manages to escape and vows revenge. He grows up into a pumped up warrior and eventually finds an opportunity for vengeance. As a sword & sorcery film it has elements of fantasy, plenty of gut wrenching violence and some sex but it takes itself so seriously that the film doesn't really entertain. Basically a quest narrative in which the flawed 'hero' gets to fall in love as well as kill a fair few enemies. There's an awful lot of growling and dancing around camp fires with mysticism and heavy accents that are sometimes difficult to understand. A brutal, nihilistic story that is too deep to really grab you with characters that are all mood and not ones to root for. Kidman is good and gets a couple of very good scenes, Willem Dafoe and Bjork cameo and Anya Taylor-Joy is the love interest. I preferred the more mythical The Green Knight (2021) than this.

This more or less reboot of the lacklustre Suicide Squad (2016) is effectively director James Gunn transferring his successful Guardians of the Galaxy format from MCU to DC. The DC Universe has always had the potential for more adult themed, darker stories rather than the family friendly Marvel heroes and here we have a superhero film that goes for gutsy violence, gore and adult laughs. The decision to tap into the villains has great potential and while the 2016 film played it too safe here Gunn lets go giving a very entertaining superhero film as a result. A new crew of misfits are put together by Viola Davis' chillingly manipulative security boss which is led by Bloodsport (Idris Elba), who is being blackmailed to participate. He's aided by the ever brilliant Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) who clearly loves this part and is just as superb as she was in two previous outings. There's plenty of banter and arguments as this team of egos has to infiltrate a South American island to destroy a giant alien. It doesn't always work but it boasts Sylvester Stallone as the voice of King Shark, an underused Peter Capaldi and a cameo from Taika Waititi. Good fun even for me who has grown a little tired of superhero films.

Based on the highly popular BBC Children's sci-fi series which at the time of this film's release had only been made in black & white so this technicolor film was therefore a big hit with it's fans. William Hartnell, the then TV Doctor, was disappointed not to be given the role for the film which went to Peter Cushing who was more well known for US audiences. As fans will know the later TV scripts for the series have the Doctor as a time travelling alien but in the original and first series and this film he's a sort of bumbling Edwardian inventor who has cobbled together his time machine, called TARDIS. On TV he's always referred to as just The Doctor but in this screen version he is actually called Dr Who, which does jar a little if you have been bought up watching the series. That aside here we have Roy Castle playing the hapless boyfriend Ian of the Doctor's granddaughter, Barbara (Jennie Linden). He's the comedy element of the film and whilst being given a tour of the TARDIS he trips on the controls sending them all, including younger granddaughter Susan (Roberta Tovey), off to a desolate planet where they have to help peaceful Ziggy Stardust lookalike humanoids deal with the evil metal encased Daleks. The budget was clearly small and the sets are all tissue paper and string and the story has holes galore but this is clearly designed for children with much of the action and horror elements toned down to please the censor. It's all good fun and worth seeking out if you're a fan of the newer TV incarnations of the Doctor. It's recently been restored for BluRay and 4k UHD so is available if you have fond memories and want a a little nostalgia for your early years remembering how much the Daleks were very scary at the time.