Film Reviews by PB

This is a truly odd movie. Shot with a mixture of shaky cam live action and very crude low frame rate stop motion animation this is the story of a talking shell who wears shoes. The shell, named Marcel is voiced with a irritating squeaky, nasal voice and quotes cod psychology and general observance on life in his house. There's a sub plot about him finding a moment of fame on YouTube and attempting to find his family of other talking shells, but mostly this is a plot free, interest free, very, very odd movie which was a struggle to sit through. 

If you like experimental animation and aren't too concerned about plot then maybe give this a go. Everyone else can safely skip it. 

After the disappointing mess that was The French Dispatch I was genuinely hoping for a return to form with this. Something more of the quality of Grand Budapest or Moonrise Kingdon. Sadly this isn't the movie I was hoping for. Of course it looks great, and very, very Wes Anderson. The cast is great too but so massive that most get a handful of lines at best. The problem is that rather like The French Dispatch, Wes forgot to include a plot. Characters make small talk and there is one potentially interesting event about half way through the movie, but it never goes anywhere.

Ultimately this is sadly all style and no substance. Fortunately Wes did manage to get his groove back with The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, perhaps because he returned to adapting a Roald Dahl book instead of working from scratch.

The original Evil Dead trilogy did something pretty unique, successfully marrying 80s splatter with slapstick comedy, and it pulled off this feat with one of the most charismatic and likeable leading men in Hollywood history in Bruce Campbell. Evil Dead Rise has none of those qualities.  

Of course there are some nods to the originals in Rise, but ostensibly this is a modern horror replete with the standard issue cast of thoroughly unlikeable and personality free characters,  the story is as by the numbers as it's possible to get, and it all feels so generic and soul-less I have to wonder why this movie even exists. It has absolutely none of the fun of the originals, none of the comedy, none of the charisma, none of the originality, and frankly there's no reason to watch it. 

My advice, watch the original trilogy again. You'll have a big smile on your face from the get go, which is something which certainly won't happen with Rise.  

I think the idea of this movie at some point was to make an Indiana Jones knock off with a very young Michelle Yeoh in the lead, and there are parts of that original concept still in Magnificent Warriors. Sadly though the film ultimately turns into something very different, basically a war movie in a single location with a large cast and the fun is lost. It's really too bad, as Michelle Yeoh is fantastic when she's on screen and could easily have carried the movie in the way Harrison Ford did in Raiders.

This is very much in the style of Evil Dead 2, plenty of glorious 80s splatter and all done with tongue firmly planted in the cheek. The cast were clearly having a great time and it shows. 

This is perfect Friday night movie fodder. 

Apparently this was supposed to be a satire of the appalling behaviour of the rich, and on that front I guess it succeeds. For us as viewers however this means two and a half hours of watching the deeply unpleasant wealthy sociopaths being awful, and this isn't presented ironically or in a humourous way (this really isn't a comedy), it's just obnoxious and incredibly tedious.

The movie is split into three distinct acts and to be fair it does become fractionally more interesting as it progresses. The first is one of the dullest first acts I've ever seen in a movie where almost nothing happens. The second is so bizarre it could be in a Monty Python movie, minus the laughs. And the third was mildly interesting occasionally, but still completely skippable.

I read that this movie was an interesting companion piece to The Menu. It really isn't. That movie actually has a story and a compelling antagonist in Ralph Fiennes, and an editor too who keeps things moving along. Triange of Sadness has none of those, it's just dull, annoying, and completely pointless. Save yourself two and a half hours and skip this mess.

If you've seen Alex Garland's other features (Ex Machina and Annihilation) you'll know Garland's ability to subvert genre and create unnerving scenes, and to be hugely original. This is on another level. 

The first hour or so is a slow build as the central character encounters the creepy locals in a tiny Cotswold's village. Everything is a little off, every line of dialogue laced with a hint of menace, and backed up by a suitably strange off kilter soundtrack. Then the locals start to ramp things up. You may think you know where this will end, but you really don't and the final sequence is jaw dropping. 

If you're a horror fan who's seen it all, I can't recommend this highly enough. It's quite something.  And you'll be dissecting all the allegory and meaning long after the credits have rolled.    

Given that this is an 80s movie staring Mel Gibson and Kurt Russel about a drug dealer and a cop, I expected this to be somewhere along the lines of Lethal Weapon or Tango and Cash. Not so. This is in fact a movie which is almost completely devoid of action. That wouldn't be a bad thing if the dialogue was snappy and the plot interesting, but Tequila Sunrise is in reality very slow and takes a long time to do anything vaguely captivating.

The cast is excellent of course, especially Michelle Pfeiffer. but as a movie I found this rather dull. The most memorable aspect, in all honesty, was the Dave Grusin score.

Paul Thomas Anderson is one of modern cinema's great auteurs, however I felt that his last few movies (The Master, and Inherent Vice) were rambling, directionless and frankly pretentious, and had lost the charm and flair of his earlier films. Phantom Thread fortunately represents a return to form for PTA, and an impressive final performance from Daniel Day Lewis.

The storyline is essentially a sort of twisted romance set amongst the world of 1950s fashion, and this is a world away from the sort of light, fluffy romances Hollywood produces. This is PTA playing with the genre and creating something dark and wonderful.

The score is very much worth mentioning too. Modern film score is largely just noise these days, but Jonny Greenwood manages to bring an old fashioned beauty and charm to the music. The film has a surprising amount of score in it, which adds a lot to the feel and atmosphere.

This isn't up there with PTA's greats - There Will Be Blood, Boogie Nights, and Magnolia, but it's still a cut well above most other movies and well worth a watch.

The central premise of this - parents turn on their children - could have been interesting, but the opportunity is wasted here. All we get is an hour or so of very generic slasher type stuff. There are no shocks, there is no originality, and to be frank, there's nothing here to hold the interest. Not even Cage can rescue this one.

With such a strong track record I expected a lot from this, but it's sadly rather lacking. The animation is as wonderful as you would expect, and there are some good jokes here and there. The problem lies with the plot, which can be summed up with one word - football. That's really all this movie is about, and the stone age setting is entirely superfluous and wasted. If you're not into football (I'm not), then there's little to hold the interest unfortunately.

This is unlike any Western I've ever seen, and it's all the better for it. Told non chronologically the story follows the life of a young woman (Elle Fanning) and a sadistic preacher (Guy Pearce) and is split into four distinct chapters. The structure works wonderfully and builds the suspense masterfully, earning entirely the two and a half hour running time.

Both Fanning and Pearce are truly superb, making this an absolute must watch for fans of the genre. Be warned though, it earns is 18 rating.

This is a prison movie unlike any other! Vaughn is excellent and really holds his own in what is at times an extremely hard hitting, brutally violent movie. The story takes interesting twists and turns too and never slows down. This is easy one to recommend for fans of the genre.