SOUTHPAW

If all this looks quite familiar, if it seems like we’ve been here before - a boxer who has it all, falling from grace and having family troubles etc then you might just have seen a boxing movie at some point in your life. It’s sad to see a film with such impressive performances squander them by showing lack of effort.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance as Billy Hope is impressive (although perhaps not quite as impressive as the actor’s physical transformation) as is that of Forest Whitaker (who sadly does not bulk up) and the two spark off each other well with Gyllenhall’s drunken, embittered fighter against Whitaker's calmer, sober trainer.

The acting, sadly, is not all above board; Curtis Jackson (aka Fifty Cent) gives a bland performance as fighter promoter Jordan Mains. To be fair to Mister Cent this is not entirely his fault as the character is pretty bland and pointless to the overall story and really just feels like a second rate Don King. The real overarching problem with Southpaw is that it feels like a patchwork of clichés stitched together into a story. Now clichés are not in themselves all bad and the film uses the material that it has effectively with the final fight being very well shot and not coming off as a copy of Rocky or Raging Bull.

It’s just that given the aforementioned performances I wish they could have done something a bit more original; give the actors something to really get their teeth into (with the exception of Fifty). At the end of the day Southpaw is a solid entertaining film that holds your attention and gets you invested in the character, it just feels like it had the potential to be more

FINAL VERDICT 6/10 it goes to points rather than being a knockout but it’s still standing at the bell

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TERMINATOR GENISYS

The Terminator is one of the most iconic characters in cinema, in both of his manifestations as cold killer and protector he remains easily on the most recognisable character to pay homage to and parody. And sadly it is parody that this latest offering seems closest to, with a Terminator nicknamed ‘Pops’ (even Arnie can’t make a nickname like that anything but laughable). Things actually start out rather promisingly with Kyle Resse (Jai Courtney) fighting the machines in the future along with saviour of humanity John Conner (Jason Clarke). The film then does something interesting by going into the past and re-enacting some of the famous scenes from the original classics, these are some of the film’s best and most innovate scenes, although, as we shall see, reminding people of the original classics might not be the best idea. The overriding problem with this film is that the plot is a total mess, plotlines go nowhere and others - that frankly no one could care less about - are given bizarrely large amounts of attention. First among these is a dull and plodding romance between Kyle and Sarah Conner (Emilia Clarke) - since when did the Terminator movies need to be so convoluted? Aren’t these supposed to be action movies? Now this is not to say that there are not some good action scenes, one car chase involving a school bus in particular is quite good. Overall though for an action film there is far too much talking and brooding and not nearly enough well……action! There are two more films planned in this new revamped series so time will tell if the true Terminator ….will be back (sorry couldn’t resist) FINAL VERDICT 4/10 A lacklustre use of an iconic character.

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JURASSIC WORLD

Jurassic Park is one of the first films I can remember seeing in the cinema and, as such, holds a special place in my movie memories. This was not an excitement that the sequels Lost world and Jurassic Park 3 ever came close to capturing. Lost World had its moments certainly but the ending, with the suburban T-rex, did a lot to ruin that. 3 came closer to capturing the feel of the original but still fell short. So I approached the fourth film in the series, after a long, long gap, with no small amount of trepidation. Early stories of dino-human hybrids and tame velociraptors did little to ease this apprehension. Thankfully there is no human–dinosaur hybrid (although I’m sure some embarrassing concept drawings will emerge at some point) and the tamed raptors are far from domestic pets (and actually come across as weirdly plausible in the universe of the film). Jurassic World is a film which lives and breathes on pure nostalgia; there are innumerable call backs to the original films from Tim’s night vision goggles to cues in the music score from both the first and second films. None of this is more evident than the film’s climax which still manages to be extremely entertaining despite the nagging suspicion that it was thought up by an excited five year old. A good dose of level-headed humour helps this - Chris Pratt’s Owen plays a big part in this with verbal sparring with Byrce Dallas Howard’s Claire (the two are complete opposites … and you know what that means.) Of course heroes are useless without a villain and this film’s villain, the Indominous Rex (or Frankensarus Rex as I like to think of him) a hybrid creation which, whenever it looks like the good guys have it cornered, keeps pulling new tricks out of its scaly sleeves. The design for the Indominus Rex is very good and makes it look, well not natural because it isn’t, but realistic in the world it inhabits. This could easily have gone wrong in development so let’s just be grateful we don’t have a fifty foot Godzilla sized implausibility. One slight gripe on the dino front is with Owen’s raptor pack, given they all have names (albeit military style code names) it would have been nice if they had a bit more individual characteristics -after all the dino’s are the real stars of the show surely . FINAL VERDICT 7/10 this is a very enjoyable film which makes the wait well worth it and lets us know that the franchise has survived

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SPY

The spy genre is one that is rife for, and has been, effective parodying, and for the first few minutes it looks likes Spy might be following this vein. Jude Law’s suave Agent Fine (yes that’s his name) bungles a mission due to a mistimed sneeze (brought on by a hay fever allergy) it looks promising. Sadly the film soon drops this promising line for more crude humour. Now that is not to say that Spy’s jokes all fall flat, it’s just that there are glimmers here and there of cleverer jokes that show the potential for better. The best of these is the clever riff on Jason Statham’s roles in the transporter and other action movies with the character of agent Ford, an inept blowhard who is constantly going on about his many varied, and highly improbably exploits, but who when his big moment comes gets his coat caught in a door. Another thing about Spy is the constant swearing, now I’m no prude but it gets rather wearying when every second word is a curse word. With comedies I tend to see this as a sign of insecurity -were not sure our jokes are funny enough so we’ll just chuck in lots of swearing. It’s not as if the film’s central heroine Susan Cooper (Melissa Mcarthy) is the really the kind of character that constant cussing suits. On the whole Spy is an enjoyable comedy that, although it misses some opportunities for greater satire, does accomplish its mission of entertaining its audience. FINAL VERDICT 6/10

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Unknown 17:45  No comment

DANNY COLLINS

When we first see the titular Danny Collins he is crooning out sub-standard songs to an audience of crazed elderly women (there’s a Rod Stewart joke in here somewhere). A posthumous letter from John Lennon (in response to a an interview he gave as a young musician) prompts him to revaluate his life Danny Collins is a film that certainly benefits from star power, Al Pacino injects equal parts wiry humour and emotional vulnerability into the central character lending to the film’s emotional weights. Of course it would be wrong to give Pacino all the credit in the performance department, Bobby Cannavale gives an emotional performance as Danny’s illegitimate son Tom, resentful of the father who has just waltzed back into his life and yet concealing a pain of his own. Annette Benning has very good chemistry with Pacino as Mary, the hotel manager, who feels an emotional connection with him. These performances work in the film’s favour to paper over some of the more clichéd elements of the plot. The ‘dissatisfied musician off to find new inspiration’ isn’t exactly a new one, nor is the ‘family he has been neglecting’. Danny Collin’s uses its characters effectively to give a familiar story some much needed emotional weight and give the audience more from a story that, in less capable hands, could definitely have been less. It also helps that the film’s abrupt ending (something I’m not usually a fan of) picks just the right time for the curtain call. One aside I would like to note is the speculation as to what kind of film we would have gotten if Steve Carrell, who was originally cast as Tom, had given. Before seeing his performance in Foxcatcher (2014) I would have said that the film had a lucky escape, but now I am forced to wonder what the film would have been like with Carrell. FINAL VERDICT 6/10 it might not hit all the right notes but it still manages to make a song and dance of it.

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Unknown 08:23  No comment

TOMORROWLAND A WORLD BEYOND

I have to confess that going into this one I was not particularly optimistic given that I was not a particular fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean series (I liked the first one well enough though the rest were mediocre) which was based on a theme park ride . The idea of a film based vaguely on one of the themed areas at Disneyland (the titular Tomorrowland) did not exactly fill me with confidence. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find that this was not the all-out commercial that I feared it might be. Much of this is because the film keeps itself focused on its characters and their goals (at least for the first half, but we’ll get to that). We get to see the mystery unfold through the central character Casey (Britt Robertson) who once she finds out about Tomorrowland’s existence is determined to go there. It also helps that the script has a good vein of humour running through it, the most effective examples coming from the verbal sparring between Frank (George Clooney) and Athena (Raffey Cassidy). This stops the movie from taking itself too seriously and ensures that when it does try for some tugging on the heart strings it does not come across as too forced. The main problem with Tomorrland is that it seems to lose the thread of its story just as it’s getting towards the climax. The ending feels very rushed and the main antagonist’s motivation (Hugh Laurie) doesn’t really make a great deal of sense. This is a shame because there is one very emotional scene in this part of the film that works very well and had it been part of a better-rounded finale could have ended things on a real high note. FINAL VERDICT 5/10 there is a good deal to enjoy in this film but the ending does a great deal to halt the momentum it has built up

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SAN ANDREAS

The disaster movie genre is one that has long fallen into something of a rut ,not that that they can’t still be fun, but once you’ve seen one you can safely say you’ve seen them all. As an example of this let’s see if San Andreas ticks some of the common boxes. Let’s see, we have Dwayne Johnson as a single dad – check. A cowardly stepfather who fails to step up at the moment of crisis – check. An expert (Paul Giamatti) who is there to stare into the camera while making dramatic statement – check. A family who reconnect through a natural disaster -check. This is not to say of course that the film isn’t enjoyable, the effects are very nicely done and there is genuine ingenuity in gradually turning San Francisco into a warped jigsaw puzzle (one of my particular favourites is a Navy warship wedged bridge-like between two buildings) and the tsunami set piece is very well done. Nor are the clichés themselves wholly without merit- although that merit may not be what the filmmakers intended. It’s difficult not to laugh (and quite a few of the audience viewed the movie did) at dialogue delivered with such patent sincerity with such ‘oh so serious’ expressions. Some of the highlights have to be Blake (Alexandra Daddario) and Ben (Hugo Johnston-Burt) sharing an out-of-nowhere, and yet still somehow completely predicable kiss. And Ray (Dwayne Johnson) and Emma (Carla Gugino) stopping in the middle of the chaos to analyse why their marriage fell apart. I suppose my main problem with San Andreas is that it takes itself far too seriously, there are moments of dry humour and cheesy puns that it really feels the film could have used more of. Final Verdict 5/10 enjoyable but it doesn’t do anything to shake up the disaster movie genre.

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Unknown 15:18  No comment

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

SYNOPSIS Haunted by his past Max (Tom Hardy) tries to survive in a brutal world of warlords and scavengers. I’ve long thought of the apocalyptic genre as one of the most boring, “oh look, another dry wasteland, haven’t seen that one before”. So going into Mad Max: Fury Road, having not seen the original Mad Max, I admit my expectations were not particularly high. One thing Fury Road, however, cannot be accused of is being visually dull. Whether it’s the villain going into battle with full drum and electric guitar compliment or his henchmen swinging acrobatically from poles like some evil cirque du solei. At no point is nothing interesting happening in this film. As with Kingsmen something that works in Fury Road’s favour is the cast taking things entirely seriously; Tom Hardy (Mad Max ) and Charlize Theron (Imperator Furiosa …try saying that three times fast) both treat every over the top scenario as deadly serious , as such, their performances stand out much more than they would otherwise. The villain they’re up against Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne who starred in the original Mad Max) manages to convey real menace despite looking like a rock star whose years of drink and drugs has caught up to him (think Keith Richards with white hair). Everything about this film can best described as high octane, the action scenes take things up to eleven and the use of practical stunt work, rather than CGI, makes the film stand out from the usual CGI ridden fair and gives the action scenes a more raw exciting feeling. Given that many of these stunts involve people hanging precariously from cars and trucks (one reason you know Max is Mad is that at no point in this film does he wear a seat belt) this is actually quite a bold decision by the film makers and one that has paid off. FINAL VERDICT 8/10 given the spate of bland remakes in recent years it’s nice to see a film which pays homage to the original while standing out in its own right.

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SPOOKS THE GREATER GOOD

SYNOPSIS –After a dangerous terrorist escapes Mi15 Custody a former agent is contacted by his mentor to find a traitor lurking within their midst It is a rare thing for a television series to make the leap to the big screen. This does not mean, of course, that is unheard of, the Mission Impossible franchise has proved to be more successful than its makers thought. On this side of the pond things are rather less exciting with the Avengers (no not that one) flopping badly (and no wonder!). On the one hand it’s easy to see why Spooks is a good choice for the big screen adaptation; the TV series, which ran from May 2002 till October 2011 on the BBC, told an exciting story of MI5 agents /spies which, in the current climate can certainly be said to hold resonance. Having not watched the tv show I was naturally curious to see whether I would be able to get interested in the story and characters or become hopelessly lost. I wasn’t lost; the film is accessible to a new audience although some backstories could have been fleshed out. The problem with Spooks is that it tries far too hard to prove its film credentials and, in the process, veers into the silly zone at some critical points. Indeed the ending seems so rushed and frantic that it looks like a misguided attempt to imitate that other tv series, 24, which does not match the tone of the rest of the film in the slightest. This is a pity because for much of the film the restrained tone, with a few action scenes here and there, works to the film’s advantage. The cloak and dagger intrigue is much more interesting than a clichéd gun battle (although we do get the constantly recycled plotline of a hunt for a mole inside the organisation). What we get then is a mostly effective spy thriller that sadly goes off the rails slightly towards the end, although to be fair the action scenes are still effectively shot. An open ending leaves it interesting to see if a future sequel might correct the missteps of this original attempt. FINAL VERDICT 7/10 a good thriller that successfully translates the world of the TV shows to the big screen.

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CHILD 44 (Daniel Espinosa)

Synopsis In 1950’s soviet a Russia a disgraced MGB agent hunts for a vicious serial killer. Book adaptations are tricky things to get right, for every Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings there’s a Golden Compass or Bonfire of the Vanities. The key to success is to know what to cut and what to keep and this, sadly, is a lesson that the makers of Child 44 seem not to have taken on board. Set in 1950’s Soviet Russia the film mostly deals with the efforts to bring a vicious child murderer (based on Andrei Chikatilo, the Rostov Ripper) to justice and how the investigation is hampered by the Soviet authorities. I say it’s mostly about that because a great deal of the film seems to preoccupy itself with a dozen other plot threads; from agent Leo Demidov’s (Tom Hardy ) troubled relationship with wife Raisa (Noomi Rapace) to his rivalry with an ambitious fellow agent (Joel Kinnaman). These plot threads dominate the first half hour of the film so much that when the murder investigation does start it feels like we’ve jumped into an entirely different film. Nor to be honest, and despite the best efforts of all the principal players, are these plots all that interesting , perhaps as the driving plots of films of their own they could carry a narrative ,but not here. This is a great shame because when the murder investigation does start the film finally starts to pick up pac ,the murderer himself (despite a faintly ridiculous backstory) is truly sinister as we see him stalk his victims as the audience longs for Hardy, aided by an underused Gary Oldman, to bring him to justice. The book Child 44 got very positive reviews, though I have not personally read it, but what works from the page is not the same as what works for the screen. A lesson that the film’s writers seem to have sadly forgotten. Final Verdict 5/10 An interesting setting, good performances are dragged down by a bloated plot.

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