Film Reviews by GI

It's easy to see why director Mel Gibson was drawn to this story which is somewhat of a flag waver and the main character being a devout christian following Gibson's own fundamental religious obsessions. The film has an epic structure and whilst it's based on a true story many facts and incidents are changed or fictionilised. This is a Second World War combat film that tells the story of Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield), a devout bible following christian, who is moved to sign up after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, despite his religious beliefs making him a conscientious objector. He hopes to train as a medic but ends up in a rifle company where he faces bullying and discrimination for his refusal to handle any sort of weapon. But eventually he gets his way and end up as a medic in the battle of Okinawa against fierce Japanese resistance and saves multiple lives earning him the respect of his comrades. Indeed he was the first conscientious objector to be awarded the Medal of Honour. As a war film this has a pastel, 'garden of eden' vibe for the scenes set in Doss' home town where he woos a nurse and they fall in love. The training camp scenes follow with Vince Vaughn as the shouty Sergeant and Sam Worthington as a smarmy officer in charge. And then finally the bloodbath combat scenes which feature copious explosions and torn corpses. It's an entertaining film and the gritty and realistic battle scenes are well done but perhaps just more of what we've come to expect of a war film nowadays. This is more similar in style to the TV series Band Of Brothers than other war films of late as it rushes along in order for Doss to receive the remorse of his fellow soldiers who bullied and harassed him earlier after he's revealed as a hero, which is clearly the predictable agenda of the narrative. The need to overly play the christian card here spoils the film at times but it's watchable but needed the restraint in storytelling and style of similar films such as Clint Eastwood's Flags Of Our Fathers (2006).

A social and family drama that brings director Mike Leigh back into familiar territory. This is a sad, humorous and though provoking story of a family in crisis and one that denies us a satisfactory resolution perhaps mirroring real life where there are often no real answers. The film is dominated by the central performance of Marianne Jean-Baptiste who is marvellous here. She plays Pansy, mother and wife, but she's suffering from acute depression for which she clearly needs professional help but no doubt would reject it out of hand. She's a hypochondriac and perpetually raging against her taciturn husband and morose son, who is withdrawn probably due to her incessant criticism of him. Pansy berates all she comes across often to her own detriment and has a morbid fear of dirt, insects, animals etc. Only her sister Chantelle (Michele Austin) tolerates her and their relationship is revealed on a visit to their mother's graveside. Chantelle is the polar opposite of Pansy and while Pansy verbally resents what she sees in Chantelle's happy family and work life she also recognises her own inability to have it. Her family is slowly and sadly collapsing. Leigh offers us a depressing view of this family with no catharsis that you might want and expect but as a modern drama of depression and fear this is a remarkable film.

Director Danny Boyle's existential science fiction epic is often a forgotten gem. With huge nods to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Event Horizon (1997) and some homage to Ridley Scott's deserted corridor shots in Alien (1979) this isn't a film with aliens or space battles but a thought provoking story of a mission to save mankind with a mystery and horror elements thrown in for good measure. In the very near future the Sun has begun to lose its power putting the world into an ice age and humanity on the road to extinction. A huge spacecraft, The Icarus 2, protected by a gigantic heat shield is heading towards the Sun where it will launch a huge device to restart the Sun's waning power. This is the second attempted mission with the Icarus 1 having been lost seven years earlier for unknown reasons. As they approach the Sun Icarus 2 finds the Icarus 1 the decision to divert course to check for survivors proves a fateful decision. It could be argued that narratively the film doesn't offer a fulfilling story but it is still an extremely interesting one attempting to cover themes of the meaning of life, God and the Universe. As things begin to go wrong it is certainly a thrilling story and the visuals are particularly exciting. Written by Alex Garland it has his trademark complexities of plot and theme and the cast are exceptional including Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Rose Byrne, Mark Strong and Michelle Yeoh. If you like a good, solid sci-fi film that makes you think a bit then this is well worth a revisit if you had doubts before and definitely worth checking out if you've never seen it.

Described as "A Rock and Roll Fable" this is a fantasy film set in a 1950s style meta world city of rainy streets, neon and great music. Director Walter Hill has incorporated here all the great moments of cinema that he loves from kissing in the rain, to motorcycles at night, rock music and gritty fights. In many ways this is very similar to his earlier film The Warriors (1979), comic book in style with a story that is basically a group making their way across a hostile city at night pursued by a dark menacing enemy. There's the influence of The Searchers (1956) and the ending mirrors Casablanca (1942) It's absolutely great fun throughout with a fantastic soundtrack from Ry Cooder and songs written just for the film from the likes of Jim Steinman. 'In another time, another place' a rock star Ellen Aim (Diane Lane) is kidnapped during a benefit concert in her hometown by Raven (Willem Dafoe) and his motorcycle gang The Bombers. Her old flame and ex-soldier Tom Cody (Michael Paré) comes home to rescue her aided by a sidekick McCoy (Amy Madigan). The story follows a Helen of Troy type narrative and utilises western genre tropes in an exciting road movie with some great action set pieces, showdowns, a lovely romance at its heart and a great baddie. Rick Moranis co-stars and Bill Paxton has a small part as a barman. If you've never seen this then I highly recommend it, it's movie magic, one of my all time favourites.

A really entertaining and gutsy cop thriller with a great story albeit a little obvious and some fantastic action sequences. Keanu Reeves is unorthodox vice cop Tom Ludlow, he drinks too much, grieves for his deceased wife and is not averse to shooting the bad guys and covering up the crime scene. His boss, Captain Wander (Forest Whitaker) is only too pleased to have Tom on his team and keeps the bosses off his back. But after a cop threatening to expose corruption in Wander's team is killed Captain Briggs (Hugh Laurie) from Internal Affairs begins to focus his attention on Tom. When Tom starts to look into the killing he finds that not everyone he thought of as a friend in fact is. The action scenes are exciting, violent and bloody. The plot has some neat twists and turns and Reeves does all his own stunts. With a great cast that also includes Chris Evans and Naomi Harris you have a rather neat thriller that keeps you hooked throughout. Well worth checking out.

A picture postcard view of Ireland there is no doubt here and the actors give this their all but ultimately this is a somewhat absurd, overly melodramatic romantic drama that pushes the boundaries of reality a little too far. But one could argue this is also a spiritual, magical look at destiny in love. Either way it's a watchable film, that looks great and has a feel good ending. It's the story of two young people, Nicholas (Fionn O'Shea) and Isobel (AnneSkelly) who are destined for love with each other and the film charts their journey towards their ultimate happiness. Nicholas lives with his bohemian artist father (Pierce Brosnan), they have a troubled relationship but Nicholas gradually comes to see his father may have some wisdom of foresight that will be important to his life and this is focused in a painting his father gives away and which Nicholas eventually feels compelled to find. Meanwhile Isobel lives on the coast with her loving parents (Helena Bonham-Carter, Gabriel Byrne). After being expelled from her Catholic school she marries in haste a local man, but the arrival of Nicholas searching for his father's painting begins a chain of emotional events for them both. There's religious undertones here and the film attempts a poetic and almost period feel to its romantic view of life (it is set in the 1970s though). The top notch cast certainly give the film some gravitas but the overly played theme of cosmic forces at work to ensure love reigns supreme is a little syrupy at times.

Following similar themes to Taxi Driver (1976) which Paul Schrader also wrote but which Martin Scorsese turned into a masterpiece of urban drama, here Schrader clumsily directs a meandering plot that has unconvincing developments and a poor yet predictable ending. George C. Scott stars as a midwest businessman and devout Christian whose teenage daughter goes missing in California while on a church outing. Hiring a private investigator (Peter Boyle) it's discovered that the daughter is now making porn films in LA and so dad heads off to find her. This basically involves him visiting a string of sex clubs, porn shops and having to watch snuff movies. He's aided on the way by a young woman who is involved in the sex trade (Season Hubley) and eventually tracks his daughter down only for her to be happier in her new life than with his religious conformity and hence boring existence. A sloppy film really with a jarring and horrendous soundtrack, clichéd characters and a lead actor who looks bored throughout and is wasted here.

This was director Sam Peckinpah's first film outside the western genre and it remains a strange and interesting addition to his work. It's also one of the key films of the 70s and one that has carried the taint of controversy ever since it was refused a home classification for video by the British Board of Film Classification until 2002. Whilst it's a dark crime drama there are the hallmarks of a paganist horror to it and Peckinpah creates a vision of Cornwall that is completely at odds with the beautiful holiday county that most people know. Dustin Hoffman and Susan George (in her first major role) are married couple David and Amy. He is a maths professor and they have come to Cornwall from the US so David can conduct his research for a thesis. They live at Amy's former family home near a quaint village where the villagers view David as bizarre and mock him at every opportunity. Some of the local men including one of Amy's former boyfriends take an unhealthy interest in her and when a girl goes missing and a local man is suspected events take an ugly turn. When David decides to help the suspected man Henry (David Warner) he and Amy find their home besieged by the local menfolk and David decides to make a stand. This film is often very misunderstood. Whilst this is a study of violence it is often thought to be one where a gentle man is pushed to his limits whereas it's more about the awakening of suppressed violence harboured by Hoffman's character, in that sense he's really the bad guy here. There's a controversial double rape scene that's used to highlight this but the point is often lost due to the emotional impact of how the rape scene plays out. In hindsight Peckinpah perhaps pushed his point too far although as screen violence goes this film isn't anywhere as graphic as other films since but it remains a powerful and nuanced study of a man unleashed into terrible violence and a relationship that balances on the edge of crisis. From the start you get the impression that David is fighting to keep his dark violence at bay. This is an important film, much respected today and definitely one I recommend if you've never seen it.

Adapted from a string of computer games which will sort of give you an idea of what this 'horror' film is like. It's also a Blumhouse production and that too will tell you that it's tonally all over the place, not at all scary and plays like a demented kids film. The plot is almost identical to Willy's Wonderland (2021) and you could argue it's just a rip of Westworld (1973), both of which had more originality and style. Here Josh Hutcherson is Mike, a bit of a loser who cares for his much younger sister. He takes a dead end job as a night security man at a dilapidated and abandoned pizzeria and amusement arcade called Freddy's. When he has to take baby sister to work with him she befriends the large sized animatronic animals that come to life and play with her, basically because they're possessed by the ghosts of murdered children. Mike buys into this pretty quickly and eventually has to battle these robots and the man who murdered the kids in the first place. It's all silly stuff, a damp squib of a film really and no doubt has proved popular with the game fanbase to the extent that there's a sequel and a third on the way. It's all far too tame and hurried with a narrative that tries to step into issues of childhood trauma all the while really wanting to exhibit its weird murderous robot things that are the focus of the film!

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.