Film Reviews by CM

This could have made a decent thriller or comedy, or both, but slow pacing stretches it too thin before the action starts. The comic moments are there, but buried under heavy-handed direction.

Forman's pruned cine-version of EL Doctorow's excellent book is well-played, brilliant, & sensitively executed, but we missed a lot, since the poor video & audio quality ruin it. Time for a digital re-master if there isn't one yet.

Gripping drama, excellently played, the contrasts of wealth & poverty, economic & social security vs lack of any haven, & the vagaries of fortune affecting the residents of a small corner of London & their wider families kept us engrossed almost to the end. Unfortunately, the underlying concept hadn't the strength to carry the burden of the various stories, & needed at least tweaking for more credibility.

There was a good deal of info that was new to me, but at 90 mins, a good deal more facts could have been presented, & fewer/shorter reconstructions included. A huge fault lay in the barrage of criticisms of Monika Dänemann, Hendrix's German girlfriend at the time of his death, who is now dead herself, & unable to comment. There was no friend or quote to put any case for her, leaving former girlfriend Kathy Etchingham, who tbf, put in a lot of research, to have the last word. I'd have given 2.5 stars, but at present CP only offers the cruder system of 2 for Didn't Like & 3 for Liked It.

Above average - David Mamet screenplay - thriller which leaves the viewer to puzzle out a few things for themself, with stunning scenery, great action takes, & a near-fatal oversight by the survivors of a plane crash in the frozen North of Canada which wastes precious time & leaves them vulnerable to attack by a hungry Kodiak bear. There's one tedious & unfortunate film cliché that a lot of viewers are likely to anticipate. Brain vs brawn, expediency vs thrift, solidarity against danger vs personal desire while time is running out to get back to safety.

Based on historical events (more closely than many films), this story of US pioneers in the first half of the 19th century guided by a leader initially too confident of his own knowledge & abilities is beautiful & gripping. As with many 'based on a true story', it was worth looking up the persons & events depicted. Character-driven, with the scenery of the Oregon Trail always a harsh background that threatens to take the pioneers' bones to itself. Excellent actors; another winner from Kelly Reichardt (First Cow, Certain Women).

Jojo Rabbit: A bit hit-&-miss, misses esp. on the 'funny Hitler' schtick, & the failure to show how Germany was struggling for food, etc., by the end of WW2, but effective at reminding us that Germany had its martyrs of resistance to Nazism, heroes who saved Jews & other 'enemies' of the fash state. The kids are good, too.

...but limp direction, poor camera-work, lack of characterisation, sluggish pace, & stretching out a plot like an episode of Tales Of The (not so) Unexpected do no-one any good.

Good acting, marvellous scenery & atmosphere, a sense of place, yet TKI is overstuffed with mysteries, & some scenes give the sense of being written by the yard to fill the episode. After one disc, I felt no enthusiasm for investing the time to watch two more, & opted for an online synopsis. I didn't help that I was expecting a normal cops & civilians mystery.

Not a comedy stuffed with gags, this is a charming coming of age comedy/drama which showcases Bloomington, Indiana - the scenes in & around one town give an impression of authenticity. Growing up in changing times, family, friendships, aspirations, & romance are all handled with a sweet touch which avoids gooey sentiment.

The story starts out full of promise, & suggesting interesting questions, eg, what do marriage vows mean when one partner changes entirely & suddenly, who are we without our memories? By the second half, it loses its nerve, & spins out into candyfloss romantic fare, avoiding any questions of money problems or practical hardships, as so often with US films.

Too many ingredients with too little depth, so it wasn't as interesting as it should have been, & the images, albeit beautiful, were too briefly shown, often cropped. I watched it all through, but the effect was too much like flicking through an album which needed to be perused.

Terrible, but fun. It might have been better with the leading men's roles reversed so that the villain had the baby face, & a tad more inventive comedy injected, but the nonsensical tone is consistent throughout, & the plot is stuffed with cinema clichés: the scatty/idiotic genius, the career woman who needs a little boy lost for a boyfriend, the villain full of irrational evil, the sceptical cops, the fabulous invention with knobs on & trashy décor.

A really interesting story - look out for Jackie Paris on You Tube, etc., - but I missed a lot of the narrative, because it was ruined by having loud music played most of the time over the commentary, & no subtitles.

If you're a Pratchett fan, you may be taken by the spectacle, but I found it tedious & laboured. Ludicrous plot - & I'm not averse to fantasy tales - which groans under the weight of its own conceit.