Film Review: Us

"They Look Exactly Like Us. They Think Like Us. They Know Where We Are. We Need To Move And Keep Moving. They Won't Stop Until They Kill Us..."

With the past two years boosting Jordan Peele into the cinematic stratosphere, the success of his 2017 excellent directorial debut, Get Out, a subsequent Academy Award win, and having a major hand in Spike Lee's equally superb, BlackKklansman, last year means that the American is on what's commonly referred to as a freakin' good roll. With a reinvention of The Twilight Zone set to arrive on the small screen at the beginning of April, first comes Us, Peele's second venture into the world of horror which very much like his critically acclaimed debut, takes the bold decision to weave in and out of varying genres, this time ranging from home invasion thrillers to paranoid conspiracies with a touch of the dark humour which made Get Out so frivolously entertaining. Reuniting both Lupita Nyong'o and Winston Duke after their success together on Ryan Coogler's Black Panther, Peele's movie sees the Wilson family head to a secluded beach house on the coastline of Santa Cruz, California, a trip which brings back haunting memories to Nyong'o's Adelaide after a horrifying incident during her youth. With Adelaide making her concerns known to Duke's Gabriel during the first night of their stay, the family suddenly fall under siege by four intruders who, in typical horror movie fashion, seem to have more in common with them then first meets the eye, and after discovering the life and death situation they now find themselves in, the Wilson family spend the rest of their interrupted holiday attempting to make it out alive. 

With Peele undoubtedly both healthily cineliterate and more importantly, a gigantic horror movie geek, the many successes of Us depend on you actively registering yourself accordingly into the film's tone, one which sort of crosses the boundary between horror and thriller but in a similar vein to Get Out, isn't terrifying in the way of say, Hereditary or The Witch, and instead is more an actively action packed popcorn movie in the same way that A Quiet Place falls more into the monster movie bracket than a straightforward horror. With this in mind, once the relatively straightforward set-up in which the background, key characters and beautiful setting are all aligned into place, the moment we are introduced to the overly ripe doppelgänger version of the Wilson family is when the action truly heats up, providing the audience with a home invasion set piece which rides a fine line between absurdist silliness and creepy psychological horror like a jumped-up hybrid of The Strangers and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, with the latter clearly being referenced due to the uncanny resemblance between the screams made within Peele's movie and the alien duplicates from Philip Kaufman's 1978 remake starring Donald Sutherland. With Peele not afraid in any shape or form whatsoever to bludgeon the audience with overly graphic levels of violence, Us also benefits from the slasher type, B-movie esque traditions of people being killed in very nasty ways indeed, and with a middle act full with clear nods to The Shining and a hint of Adam Wingard's You're Next, the opening hour is undoubtedly a horror movie fan's wet dream. 

With the doppelgänger equivalents of the main cast offering the chance for everyone to have oodles of fun as they attempt to outshine each other in the kooky department, it's fair to say that each of the core members of the Wilson family all have moments to show off their talents, resulting in side characters such as Elizabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale) sort of being left aside for the role of easily pruned cannon fodder without any real element of depth. With Nyong'o given the most work to as she walks away winning the award for the year's best hair, her completely twisted performance is superbly entertaining, where even with a rather jarring choice to play her doppelgänger equivalent with a similar oxygen starved tone to that of Eddie Redmayne in Jupiter Ascending, still manages to convince you entirely that although both characters may indeed look the same, they are different entities entirely. Supported by a soon-to-be iconic horror genre score by long term Peele partner, Michael Abels, the soundtrack blends jukebox hits with strange, hypnotic remixes including a hauntingly effective version of "I Got 5 on It" by American hip hop duo, Luniz, and whilst at times the central narrative seems to be putting together almost too many ideas and themes regarding race, religion and identity, Peele's latest is a movie which is still rattling around my brain, and for a movie which is made with this much perfection and care, it's fair to say that Jordan Peele is quickly becoming the most interesting horror auteur of the modern age. 

 Overall Score: 8/10

Film Review: The Prodigy

"Miles Isn’t Like Other Kids. His Intelligence Is Off The Charts. I Don’t Have An Exact Score, But It’ll Be Very High..."

Following on from The Hole in the Ground this month by being yet another horror movie fascinated with the eeriness of creepy children, The Prodigy, is the third big screen release from American filmmaker, Nicholas McCarthy, who returns to cinemas after the horror one-two of The Pact and At the Devil's Door. Featuring a screenplay from Jeff Buhler, a writer behind both the upcoming Pet Sematary and Nicolas Pesce's remake of The Grudge due to be released in 2020, The Prodigy sees Taylor Schilling (Orange is the New Black) as Sarah Blume, a middle class wife and mother to Jackson Robert Scott's (It - Chapter One) Miles, a talented and extraordinarily smart eight year old boy who soon begins to show violent tendencies and strange desires, resulting in Sarah attempting to find a cure or a reason for her son's sudden change in temperament and spirit which may or may not have anything to do with the death of a local deranged serial killer. Blending a narrative mix of The Omen and Lynne Ramsay's excellent, We Need To Talk About Kevin, The Prodigy is a film which has an awful amount of interesting ideas but slightly fails as a whole due to cliche after cliche and an overarching sense that we've definitely seen this all before. 

Beginning in a very interesting fashion as we open up with a The Texas Chainsaw Massacre-esque prisoner escape as we cut back and forth between the discovery and subsequent death of Paul Fauteux's Ted Bundy inspired mass murderer and the birth of Miles, the opening act shifts through eight years of early life development as we see the heterochromia laden offspring of Schilling's Sarah progress from eerily silent baby to first school genius. With Scott making waves as the softly spoken Georgie in Andy Muschietti's outstanding It from 2017, McCarthy clearly sees The Prodigy as his own re-imagining of The Omen, with Scott's bowl shaped haircut and sudden behavioural changes making me sort of hoping someone would have checked the back of his neck to see if both the numbers 666 and a copyright symbol were burned into it. Whilst the film lacks in abundance any sort of originality, the tonal shifts between knowing horror and cattle-prod jump scares are actually rather well done, with one dream sequence in particular managing to make me shout a rather expletive heavy sentence loud enough for the entire cinema to hear, and whilst McCarthy's latest is neither terrifying or memorable, for the time it was on, it did the job and left without harming anyone whatsoever. 

Overall Score: 5/10

Film Review: Fisherman's Friends

"You've Got A Unique Sound And We Believe We Can Help You Get It Released By A Major Label..."

Whilst not at all a film about the origins of the infamous menthol lozenges which just happen to share a similar title, Fisherman's Friends instead brings to the big screen the miraculous rise to fame of the Port Isaac Fisherman's Friends, the ale-loving, overly traditionalist band of male singers who broke into the UK music charts back in 2010. Directed by British filmmaker, Chris Foggin, in his second big screen release after 2016's Kids in Love starring Will Poulter, Fisherman's Friends takes a rather BBC Two approach to a story which airs on the side of cheesy as we see Daniel Mays (The Limehouse Golem) as Danny, an influential and respected music mogul who after venturing on a stag do down to sunny Cornwall with his friends and seedy boss, Troy, as played by Doctor Who legend, Noel Clarke, is asked to sign to his label the local singing group led by the gruff figure of James Purefoy's (Altered Carbon) Jim. Falling somewhere between the annoying flatness of The Aftermath and the well executed splendour of Colette, Fisherman's Friends is the type of film which feels nicely planted in the background of an afternoon tea, and whilst films of similar ilk aren't necessarily entirely bad, they do beg the question why the feel the need to be up on the big screen in the first place.   

Shot with the same kind of televisual aesthetic you'd get from an episode of Countryfile, Fisherman's Friends ticks all the boxes you sort of expect when heading into a movie based on what pretty much is Cornwall's answer to Led Zeppelin, and with a cheerful, ludicrously mood-inducing soundtrack which wouldn't seem amiss on a jukebox for the near-dead, Foggin's movie absolutely reeks of cliche and gag-inducing corniess from the offset. With Mays offering the sort of semi-likeable, leather jacket toting lead performance as he blunders his way through the smell of salt water and seagulls, the real standout of the piece is undoubtedly Purefoy, who superbly radiates a sense of internal conflict as he balances new found fame with the responsibilities of a life both inland and on the fair seas, and with the interactions between the group in general pretty well handled, it's sort of a shame that all of the top-end jokes were spoiled in the trailers, resulting in a resounding silence as everyone else laughed in the cinema apart from me when they inevitably arrived. Topping up just under two hours, it's no surprise that the movie does become an absolute drag as it finally arrives at its destination without harming anyone at all in the process, Fisherman's Friends isn't exactly bad, it's just A Star is Born for the Cornish minus all the good parts and a film more than suitable for your bed-ridden aunt. Bring the tea and biscuits. 

 Overall Score: 5/10

Film Review: Border

"If You're Different Than Others It Means You Are Better Than Them..."

Undoubtedly taking the award for one of the strangest foreign language films I have seen in a good while, Iranian-Swedish filmmaker, Ali Abbasi, writes and directs his second big screen feature, Border, a strange blend of mystery, horror and fantastical mythos based on a short story from Let the Right One In writer, John Ajvide Lindqvist, from his collection of short stories, Let the Old Dreams Die, published in 2011. Featuring Swedish actress, Eva Melander, in the leading role, Abbasi's movie sees Melander as Tina, a customs officer whose facial and genetic deformities allow her to have a heightened sense of smell regarding guilty parties who venture into the country. Spending her spare time isolated in the middle of the woods alongside her dog obsessed on-off lover, Tina soon becomes heavily embroiled in the discovery of a child pornography ring on behalf of the local police force and simultaneously fascinated with the arrival of Eero Milonoff's similarly disfigured, Vore, a insect loving figure of ambiguity who soon sees himself become a close companion to that of Tina who seeks to understand her true identity and the reason behind her natural yet horrifying deformities. 

When looking back and admiring the horrific beauty of Tomas Alfredson's adaptation of Let the Right One In, it's easy to fall into the trap of heading in to Border believing that the movie may be on similar narrative ground, and whilst Abbasi's movie does indeed flirt with ideas of folklore and particularly ambiguous mystical elements which are shared with Alfredson's best movie to date, it's fair to say that Border is a completely different beast entirely as it twists and turns its way through a rafter of genres resulting in a very rare case of being particularly hard to sell or even describe without giving away too many spoilers. What can be said however is for all the film's positives, including a superb central performance from Milonoff, beautiful cinematography from Nadim Carlsen and particular set pieces which leave you absolutely jaw-dropped, Border is ultimately too bizarre to be worthy of a repeat viewing, and thanks to a strange discomforting sensation which ran through the entire film's runtime, is a film which seems to fall into a category shared with Funny Games by being I film I truly admire but would be undeniably torturous to actually sit through again. Do I recommend it? Yes. Is it great? Yes. But boy, is it truly surreal.  

Overall Score: 7/10

Film Review: What Men Want

"The Only Voices I Heard Were Joan Rivers And Tupac. And They Did Not Get Along..."

Acting as a wholly unnecessary and unwarranted "loose" remake of the Mel Gibson led What Women Want from 2000, Hairspray and Rock of Ages director, Adam Shankman, directs What Men Want, a terribly handled and woefully inept attempt at some form of comedy which sees Taraji P. Henson (Hidden Figures) take the lead role as Alison Davis, a successful sports agents who is left by the wayside after failing to be accepted for a work promotion in favour of her annoying, mostly white, big-headed colleagues. On the subsequent night out used to rid herself of her man-hating anger, she soon takes cues from Amy Schumer in I Feel Pretty by being the subject of an accidental injury which after a swift overnight recovery, leaves her with the ability to read the mind of every male she comes into contact with. Whilst I'm all for trashy comedies which regardless of their overall quality actually manage to make me laugh in the ilk of Bad Moms, Shankman's latest is unsurprisingly a woefully inept, painfully unfunny two hours, one made worse with obvious notions of grandeur which attempt to tap into the #MeToo generation and ends up landing face down in a burning bit of awfulness as it crawls its' way to the credits and offers you salvation away from what is one of the worst remakes there is and ever will be. 

With a fundamental false step from the outset as the movie attempts to introduce Henson's supposedly charming, lead character, the fact that I nearly left the cinema after being in her company for only twenty minutes didn't exactly bode well heading forward. Whilst I appreciate a movie led by a female in a position of power, for some unknown and bizarre reason, Shankman's direction allows Henson to become a screaming, irritating black hole of annoyance in the ilk of Lucas Cruikshank in Fred: The Movie as she literally bellows her dialogue from the far reaches of her annoying mouth for pretty much the entirety of the film's opening act. As the movie moves more into the mystical aspect, the word cliche doesn't even cover it, and as we stumble through the inevitable hook-ups and notions of deception cooked up by Hanson's Davis, her character becomes even more despicable after she takes advantage of the one saving grace in the movie in the form of Aldis Hodge's (Hidden Figures) Will, a thoughtful, calmly spoken single father who for some reason finds Davis absolutely irresistible. Whilst I am aware that What Men Want doesn't exactly have myself in mind when it comes to the desired target audience, with (massive stereotype incoming) the film primarily designed for drunken female sleepovers and bachelor parties, such a point doesn't shy away from the fact that Shankman's movie was an utter drag from start to finish. Woeful. 

Overall Score: 3/10

Film Review: Triple Frontier

"You've Been Shot Five Times For Your Country And You Can't Even Afford A New Truck..."

Hot off the heels of winning the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in the form of the excellent and beautiful Roma, Netflix returns to the land of small screen blockbusters with Triple Frontier, a dramatic blend of action and heist movie with a top notch, a-list cast and helmed by A Most Violent Year and Margin Call director, J. C. Chandor. Featuring a screenplay from both Chandor and Mark Boal, the acclaimed writer behind The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, Triple Frontier sees Oscar Isaac (The Last Jedi) as Santiago Garcia, a private military advisor who after being tipped off about the location of a paranoid, cash-rich drug lord, forms a band of merry mercenaries and ventures into the jungle in order to steal what he believes is rightfully his after years of service to war without any just reward. With Chandor previously showcasing his realist cinematic sensibility with A Most Violent Year, Triple Frontier continues the director's hard-edged approach to filmmaking with a release which attempts to be much more than just a sub-standard testosterone-fuelled action flick, and whilst there is an underlying interesting notion regarding greed and the psychological cost of combat, Chandor's latest is still a rather generic and slightly overlong cliche which just happens to have a superb cast to push it along nicely.  

Glossed with a primary aesthetic which comes across as a hybrid between the dusty, anti-Western feel of Sicario and the militaristic sheen of Michael Mann, Triple Frontier begins with an Ocean's 11 style team-up as we see Isaac's Pope journey back into the lives of his previous Army colleagues as he attempts to woo them with an endless supply of cash which is there for the taking from the hands of Reynaldo Gallegos's drug lord, Lorea. Cue a rather enjoyable opening act in which we are treated to laddish interactions between Pope, Ben Affleck's (Gone Girl) Redfly, Charlie Hunnam's (Pacific Rim) Ironhead and Pedro Pascal's (Narcos) Catfish, as they finally agree to work together, The Expendables style, in order to carry out their unethical and highly illegal mission. Whilst there is no spoilers in saying the initial part of the heist goes without any major issues, Chandor's primary point of the movie comes into fruition just past the hour mark as we witness our leading band of war-torn killers turn on each other, and whilst I appreciate any movie which attempts to rise above its' generic conventions, Triple Frontier just becomes way too plodding as we strive through an hour of fairly repetitive set pieces as we witness the group attempt to make their escape. With a full-on level of dedication from the cast however and the likes of Isaac and strangely enough, Hunnam, on top acting form, Chandor's movie falls into the category of interesting, yet flawed, but does ultimately go down as another success for Netflix. Oh, and Chandor must love Metallica which is always a good note in my book. 

Overall Score: 6/10

Film Review: The Hole in the Ground

"There's Something Not Right With Him Lately. I Can't Put My Finger On It..."

Directed and co-written by Irish filmmaker, Lee Cronin, The Hole in the Ground is the latest rather well made, independent horror which may take that extra effort in order to seek out in cinemas. Co-written by first time film screenwriter, Stephen Shields, Cronin's movie follows a very familiar genre set up as we follow Seána Kerslake's Sarah O'Neill into the heart of the Irish countryside with her son, James Quinn Markey's Chris, in order to escape a slightly ambiguous previous violent relationship. On arrival to her newly purchased and slightly grotty open-air house however, Sarah nearly collides with the elderly figure of the infamous local crackpot, Kati Outinen's Noreen Brady, who begins a sudden and strange fascination with Chris, whilst the discovery of a gigantic and rather hypnotic ever-moving sinkhole in the heart of the neighbouring woods results in Sarah soon seeing sudden changes in the behaviour of her son whose move to the countryside seems to have made him a completely different person. 

Whilst the movie begins with an a-typical horror narrative, Cronin's movie manages to sustain from the offset a brooding sense of melancholia and smouldering darkness, personified nicely by the swaying, isolated wilderness of the woods which reside next to Sarah's new home. Whilst my own personal xylophobia means that every film which ventures into wooded area is guaranteed to creep me out, the best parts of The Hole in the Ground is when the movie embraces its' inner The Blair Witch Project or The Witch, particularly one set piece in which the camera decides to show a midnight stroll through the eyes of Sarah, with the only source of light coming from her low powered torch. As the movie moves into a third act in which seems to take nods from the likes of The Omen and other paedophobia heavy horrors, the drama does unfortunately become slightly silly, with ambiguity being thrown completely out the window and the narrative instead choosing to go down a more fantastical, mythical route as it reaches a nicely wrapped up conclusion. Whilst not memorable in the slightest or a movie which can safely stand up and say that it offers anything which can be classed as new or original, Cronin's movie is a fairly enjoyable, low-budget horror which makes the most of a talented cast who embrace the material with open arms, and with a couple of set pieces which made me watch the film through the slits of my fingers, is a movie which is worth seeking out, particular for horror completists. 

Overall Score: 6/10

Film Review: Piercing

"The First Step Is To Get Her Tied Up And Gagged. She'll Probably Try To Run..."

Presenting itself as one of the more difficult releases this month to try and seek out amidst flying, glowing superheroes and wide-eared elephants, Nicolas Pesce, director of both The Eyes of My Mother and the upcoming remake of The Grudge, returns for his second big screen feature in the form of Piercing, a scathingly dark adaptation of the 1994 novel of the same name from Ryū Murakami, the Japanese author most famous in the world of cinema for his 1997 novel, Audition, which formed the basis for the unforgettable Takashi Miike directed horror of the same name from 1999. Featuring a joint leading role between Christopher Abbott (First Man) and Mia Wasikowska (Crimson Peak), Piercing sees Abbott take on the role of Reed, a seemingly successful white collar family man with a newborn baby to boot, who after feeling a sudden urge to inflict pain on his ever-crying child with an ice pick, decides to take his murderous impulses elsewhere away from the family home. Cue the introduction of the blonde infused Wasikowska as Jackie, an anxiety ridden but sure footed prostitute who quickly takes up the opportunity for work and makes her way over to the stylish high rise in which Reed awaits for a night with messy consequences. 

Whilst any story stamped with the Murakami name upon it is guaranteed from the offset to get you ready for a narrative which won't exactly be for everyone, let alone mainstream audiences, Pesce's movie at least attempts to startle and amaze in all its' B-movie charm as it works its' way through a splendid eighty minute runtime in which a high proportion of the action is simply Reed and Jackie together in various hotel suites. With strange animated backdrops which look like outtakes from the Anime section in Tarantino's Kill Bill: Volume 1 and a wicked blend of jet black humour and stomach twisting violence, Piercing is indeed effectively flashy and features an abundance of art-deco inspired style but is also a movie which strangely suffers primarily from being hesitant in its' depiction of exploitation, resulting in a endpoint which doesn't seem to go far enough. Whilst there is no denying that the movie features an underlying and unnerving sensibility as you watch two people of similar strangeness come together, the final credits certainly left me gasping for more of a killer, no pun intended, instinct, but with two superb central performances which manage to effectively balance the gap between comedy and horror, Piercing is good enough but by no means on a par with previous adaptations of Murakami. 

Overall Score: 6/10

Film Review: The Aftermath

"There May Not Be An Outward Show Of Hatred, But It’s There Below The Surface..."

Returning to the cinematic good books after her superb and woefully unappreciated performance in Colette earlier this year, Keira Knightley leaps onto the big screen once again in The Aftermath, a wartime romantic drama which suffers from the strange cinematic disease of having a trailer which not only is much shorter and sweeter than the final body of work, but is entirely much more engaging and interesting. Directed by James Kent and based on Rhidian Brook's 2013 novel of the same name, Knightley's latest sees her take the lead role of Rachael Morgan, a wartime wife who is forced to move to the remains of a now defeated 1946 Hamburg, Germany in order to finally reconvene with her husband, Jason Clarke's (First Man) Colonel Lewis Morgan, after years of separation due to the strenuous wartime effort. After arriving in the wintery and heavily damaged landscapes of the previously Nazi infested enemy territory, Rachael and her husband are quickly moved into the grand and overly modern residence of Alexander Skarsgård's (Big Little Lies) Stefan Lubert, a grieving German architect, resulting in a relationship which begins resentful but soon turns into a spiral of romance and passion.

With acting pedigree this superb and a tantalising trailer which I can admit to it adequately catching my eye, the truth of the matter is that The Aftermath should undoubtedly be a much better and more interesting piece than it actually is. With a pace which would damage the reputation of a snail if comparisons were made, Kent's movie wanders aimlessly through non-existent levels of drama as it attempts to paint a picture of post-war trauma and resentment between the tea-drinking Brits and the Germans, with the central relationship between Lubert and Morgan sort of acting as a lightweight personification as they soon fall in love behind the back of the war obsessed Colonel Morgan. With Knightley doing the best with what she is given from the script, her performance by no means matches the bipolar nature of her strangely annoying character, one who lacks any semblance of charm or likability and one who also contradicts every action and feeling every five seconds to an extent it would have probably been easier if she hadn't made it through the war in the first place. With a couple of half decent set pieces. including a rather well played piano section, and a superb supporting performance from Skarsgård, The Aftermath is no means terrible, it just doesn't seem to have a pulse, and for a movie which verges on the two hour mark, Kent's movie ultimately is blandness personified. Shame

Overall Score: 4/10

Film Review: Captain Marvel

"Superhero, Space Invasion, Big Car Chase... Truth Be Told, I Was Ready To Hang It Up. 'Till I Met You Today..."

Teased ever so delightfully during the post credits scene of the universally accepted brilliance of Avengers: Infinity War last year, Captain Marvel acts as the final chapter in its' respective franchise before the hotly anticipated, Avengers: Endgame, as it attempts to offer up a slice of background and characterisation to a figure before dropping her amidst our grieving survivors suffering from the murderous snap of Josh Brolin's Thanos. Acting as the twenty first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and helmed by the American directing duo of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Mississippi Grind), filmmakers who adequately fit the recent Marvel mould by being independent filmmakers given a chance to expand their horizons with a much larger budget, Captain Marvel finally brings forth the first female led chapter in the franchise, with the Academy Award winning Brie Larson (Room) taking the role as the titular heroine who attempts to both save Earth from the threat of Alien invasion after crash landing after a space battle gone awry, as well as digging deep into her own ambiguous and murky past which is haunted of visions of a yet undetermined previous life. Whilst not as groundbreaking or epic as the likes of Infinity War, a particular big screen feat which has now set a very high bar for every Marvel feature which follows, Captain Marvel is a thoroughly entertaining and fan-pleasing origins story which above all else, reaffirms the notion that Thanos is in deep, deep trouble indeed. 

As per the likes of Black Panther, Captain Marvel begins in surprisingly jarring fashion, introducing Laron's annoyingly named, Vers, on her Kree inhabited planet as we see her dream of the mysterious figure of Annette Benning (American Beauty) whilst being trained by the steely-eyed demeanour of her mentor, Yon-Rogg, as played in superb fashion by Jude Law (The Crimes of Grindelwald). With her powers and abilities already established in the opening act, the narrative plays with the audience from the offset as it gently lifts the lid of Ver's mysterious youth and young adulthood as we progress through the story, and whilst the opening act features a very familiar Guardians of the Galaxy-esque sensibility, due in part to the return of Lee Pace and Djimon Hounsou, the film doesn't really heat up until the story diverts to Earth, where Vers soon begins a blossoming relationship with Samuel L. Jackson's trim looking Nick Fury in an attempt to thwart the plans of the simply brilliant Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One) as Talos, a shift shaping terrorist with a knack for taking deception cues from the likes of X-Men's Mystique. With more laugh out loud humour than one might expect amidst a lovely, 90's setting revolving gag which features Blockbuster and a continuous anxiety regarding the loading speed of the internet, Captain Marvel may indeed fit the mould of the a-typical superhero origin story, but with superb performances all around from both the movie's leads and supporting acts, a genuinely interesting and surprisingly twisting script, and of course, a cute ginger cat named Goose, the latest Marvel flick may be just another side-note in the buildup to Endgame next month but when the side-note is this damn enjoyable, you can't help but admire the sheer entertainment factor such a movie evokes. Team Captain Marvel all the way. 

Overall Score: 8/10

Film Review: Serenity

"Say Fate Gave You The Choice: You Can Get The Lady, Or You Could Catch That Tuna That's In Your Head. Which One Would You Choose..?"

On the one hand, Serenity is thankfully not an attempt to reboot the Firefly live-action spin-off of the same name from 2005, and instead is a movie which this week manages to pull off the contemporary trend of being released both on the big and small screens in a supposed attempt in order to gather an excessive amount of viewers on its' opening weekend. Backed by the behemoth that is Sky Movies, whose previous endeavors, including the likes of Anon and Final Score, haven't exactly set the critical underworld alike, Serenity is the latest from Peaky Blinders creator and Locke director, Steven Knight, who returns to the big screen with an absolutely bonkers and unbelievably stupid neo-noir thriller which has already been tipped as the front-runner heading into the next Razzies ceremony. Led by the usually respectable figure of Matthew McConaughey, (Interstellar) Knight's movie sees the Oscar winning American as Baker Dill, an alcohol ridden, musky small-time fisherman whose quiet life on the island of Plymouth is soon interrupted by the re-emergence of ex-wife, Karen, played in equally over-the-top form by Anne Hathaway, who reunites with McConaughey after their work together on the masterful Interstellar. 

With an opening camera swoop which feels like a sub-90's porno flick as we are swiftly introduced to the glowing sands and seas of the film's idyllic locale, the tone of the movie is laid faced down almost immediately, with gobsmackingly awful dialogue and monologues about life-chasing tuna one of the many highlights of a piece which you can't help but stare at in complete shock as you try and piece together how on earth such a raspberry pudding of a movie came to be. With a central narrative which blends together fantastical romance with some sort of supernatural mystery, the opening hour is stuffed with unintentional hilarity as we become subject to some of the most awful, ham-fisted acting performances I have seen for a very long time, typified by McConaughey himself who seems to have taken the material as serious as his work on Dallas Buyers Club and just ends up making a complete and utter turkey of himself as he drunkenly stumbles and screams his way through a performance which gives The Room's Tommy Wiseau a run for his money. Awful editing and effects aside, the real talking point of the movie is undoubtedly the final thirty minutes of the piece in which Knight goes full on M. Night Shyamalan with an already infamous and thunderously stupid jack-in-the-box twist, and whilst it's obvious to class Serenity as a work of complete and utter nonsense, I cannot shy away from the fact that it made me laugh more times than most American comedies, and whilst such comedy is clearly unintentional and stems from Knight's soon to be sectioned and ludicrous mind, the fact that certain points were actually quite enjoyable means that Serenity isn't the worst film I've ever sat through, but it may indeed just be the silliest. So bad, it's almost good. 

Overall Score: 4/10

Film Review: Ringu

"This Kind Of Thing... It Doesn't Start By One Person Telling A Story. It's More Like Everyone's Fear Just Takes On A Life Of Its Own..."

Before the mighty highbrows of Hollywood decided to make a quick and easy buck by exploiting the majestic minds of foreign filmmakers with trashy English-speaking reincarnations of particular works, there was a time in which both the Japanese and South Korean horror genres produced some of the most impressive examples of the genre including Dark Water, A Tale of Two Sisters and perhaps most famously, Ringu, the Hideo Nakata directed adaptation of Koji Suzuki 1991 novel of the same name. Brought back to the big screen this week for a special 4K restoration, Nakata's iconic 1998 horror thriller remains to this day a work of chilling paranoia, one which on repeat viewings continues to bewilder and terrify, and a movie which thanks to a superbly crafted digital fix up, looks absolutely brilliant back up on the biggest of cinematic screens. Whilst many will be already aware of the basic set up thanks to the Gore Verbinksi 2002 American remake, Ringu follows Nanako Matsushima's Reiko Asakawa, a small-time journalist who investigates the sudden death of her niece and leads her onto a path regarding a local mystery surrounding a cursed videotape which when watched, gives the watcher seven days to live. 

With it being twenty one years since the film's initial release, in some roundabout way, it is easy to have much more of a fun time admiring the creepy elements at the heart of Nakata's most impressive horror piece after multiple viewings on the small screen, and whilst big screen re-issues always fail to evoke the same sort of impact you gather from the first time a particular piece is lived through, the cinema environment always allows complete investment as you squirm your way through particular iconic set pieces which although you know are coming, are still damn effecting and unbelievably creepy. Whilst Nakata's movie could easily be seen as eighty minutes of backstory as it insidiously sneaks its' way up to a final act in which one of horror's most iconic images is born, the almost complete absence of background music and humour results in an excruciatingly oppressive atmosphere as we follow Reiko through her discovery of the famous video tape and the supernatural terror of Rie Inō's Sadako Yamamura, the Japanese equivalent of Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees, just slightly more terrifying and definitely in need of a good old haircut. Whether you appreciate the tenderness of the execution from the Japanese original or the more Westernised, mainstream approach of Verbinski's take, a remake of which is actually rather well done, Ringu remains one of the most interesting and original horror movies of recent times, one which forces you to check your TV twice before switching off the lights and one which supplies you with a fundamental fear of any female with a white dress and long dark hair. 

Overall Score: 9/10 

Film Review: On the Basis of Sex

"The Law Says Women Stay Home, Men Go To Work, But All People Must Be Treated Equally..."

Based on the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Brooklyn born and highly inspirational lawyer who during the late twentieth century spent a considerable amount of her career advocating the advancement of women's rights and gender equality, On the Basis of Sex sees the return of Mimi Leder (The Peacemaker, Deep Impact) to the big screen after her success on television through the likes of The Leftovers. Featuring a screenplay from screenwriting debutante, Daniel Stiepleman, Leder's movie sees Felicity Jones (Rogue One) take the leading role as the highly intellectual, if slightly sanctimonious Ginsburg, as we see her venture through the masculine dominated society of the late 1950's and well into the radically different and more open-minded 1970's, all the time supported by her loving husband, Martin Ginsburg, as played by the safe pair of cinematic hands which is Armie Hammer (Sorry to Bother You). With an abundance of important statements at the heart of the drama, Leder's latest is an enjoyable and interesting gentle breeze through the politics of the era in which the narrative is set, and whilst On the Basis of Sex does indeed benefit from a excellent central performance, the substance and depth you would expect from a film tackling so many issues is inherently lacking, resulting in a popcorn piece which although is enjoyable enough, fails to hit as hard as the central character's effect on the world today. 

Beginning with an almost The Social Network sensibility as we witness Jones' Ginsburg become enrolled in the male dominated halls of the Harvard Law School, we immediately cotton on to her stubbornness to conform to the sexist mannerisms of the school's hierarchy, all the while attempting to balance her education with her home life as the stresses of a newborn baby and her husband's recent cancer diagnosis threaten to derail her completely. With the opening act of the film managing to develop Ginsburg with a likeable degree of depth, the narrative then steams ahead to the 1970's as we now see a fully rounded family unit featuring the added inclusion of the outspoken, idealist figure of Cailee Spaeny (Bad Times at the El Royale) as Jane Ginsburg, who comes across as the ideal inspiration to her mother to finally battle against a fundamental sexist brand of political ideals. With the first ninety minutes of the movie essentially semi-effective characterisation with a side plate of knowing build-up to the final act, the concluding thirty minute court drama set pieces is actually rather well handled, even with a degree of dramatic licensing which makes Jones' standout acting moment more pantomime than To Kill a Mockingbird, a story of which is crucially mentioned at one point in the drama. As a whole therefore, On the Basis of Sex is too low-key and safely played to be classed as a true representation to match the importance of its' central figure, but with committed central performances and a likeable central feel to it, Leder's return to the big screen is more than satisfactory. 

Overall Score: 6/10

Film Review: Fighting with My Family

"Good Morning, Wrestling Nerds. This Is Where We See Whether Or Not You Get To Go On The WWE..."

With an absolute absence of knowledge pertaining to anything slightly resembling the world of wrestling, with my own views regarding the slightly absurd money making machine something of which I might just keep restrained for this particular review, it's fair to say that Fighting With My Family is the type of rags-to-riches true story which from an outsiders point of view, would have to spoon feed me the rise of Saraya "Paige" Bevis, the Norwich born, heavy metal loving hard-ass who became the youngest wrestling champion ever at the age of twenty one. Written and directed by the immediately recognisable figure of Stephen Merchant (The Office, Logan) and backed financially by WWE Studios, whos previous endeavours include erm, The Scorpion King and Leprechaun: Origins to name a few, Fighting With My Family takes the cliched, formulaic approach to bringing the story of Paige to the big screen, and whilst such genre conventions force the underlying narrative to be more than overly predictable, even for someone without knowing the wrestling back story heading in, Merchant's movie succeeds due to other elements elsewhere, with warm, interesting characters and a charming, likeable sensibility pushing his movie into what can only be regarded as just a damn fine, if overly cheesy, time at the flicks. 

With the superbly talented Florence Pugh (Lady Macbeth) taking the leading role as Paige, her iconic accent and emo-inflicted personality immediately offers an element of depth thanks to a central performance which manages to completely immerse you in the journey she undertakes from the rocky roads of Norfolk to the absurdity of the big stage in the sun soaked shores of America. Whilst the film revels in portraying the ills of a Rocky style training camp and the drill sergeant-esque manner from a rather finely tuned supporting performance from Vince Vaughn (Brawl in Cell Block 99) as Paige's talent scout and mentor, Merchant never seems to forget the core family unit which Paige leaves behind back home, and whilst Pugh is undoubtedly the leading star, the screenplay also balances the effect her newly found fame has on her brother, Zak, as portrayed by Jack Lowden (Dunkirk) whose dreams of capturing the world's imagination on the biggest platform available are soon crushed as he watches his younger sibling take the road to stardom instead. With scene stealing supporting comedic roles from the always reliable Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz) and Lena Headey (Game of Thrones), Fighting With My Family of course oozes saccharin sweetness and cheesy sentimentality, but when a film is made with enough heart and soul to bypass such flaws, the end result is and hour and forty minutes of good old fashioned lovey-dovey entertainment, even with some rather egoistic cameos from Dwayne Johnson. 

Overall Score: 7/10