Film Review: King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

"I'm Not Getting Drawn Into This Mess! There's An Army Of You, There's Only One Of Me..!" 

Oh, Guy Ritchie. With a career which began with the promising flourish of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, the independently made British gangster flick which not only launched the career of everyone's favourite action star, Jason Statham, but was too a brilliantly audacious black comedy which included The Stone Roses on the soundtrack and Vinnie Jones as, well, Vinnie Jones, it seemed that ever since his much publicised mess of a marriage to Madonna, the "saviour" of all things cockney geezer went on an outstanding run of woeful cinematic failures, with the likes of Swept Away and Revolver being the two much maligned examples of Ritchie's failed promise. One divorce later and middling return to success with the Robert Downey Jr. led Sherlock Holmes movies, of which I can state to not being a massive fan of due to the success of the BBC led series at the time, Guy Ritchie returns once again to the limelight with yet another big-screen adaptation of the legend of King Arthur, utilising the skills of Sons of Anarchy and The Lost City of Z star, Charlie Hunnam, in the titular leading role in a movie which is as barmy and OTT as it is messy and overblown. Some would call it Snatch in kilts; who I am I to disagree?

After the death of both father and mother at the hands of Jude Law's power-hungry, megalomaniacal King Vortigern, Charlie Hunnam's Arthur Pendragon is raised from child to man in the heart of a slumber town brothel, taking ques from the criminal fraternity around him in order to build a reputation and presence of power with an ultimate goal of leaving for a better and more prosperous life. A touch of a sword and an god-awful David Beckham cameo later, the long lost King of Camelot is finally arisen, bringing with it ear-grating dialogue, stupidly dull action sequences and a swarm of yawn-inducing special effects which turns the latter half of the movie into some form of lifeless video game. Among these many issues, Ritchie's tenderness for the cockney geezer camaraderie is quite easily the worst element of the movie, with one scene in particular near the start of the movie in which our hero is forced to remember the day's events via flashback coming across as a somewhat Lock, Stock/Snatch parody sketch which literally left me draw-dropped at how misjudged and awfully ludicrous it seemed. Even with all these obvious issues, Legend of the Sword is the type of movie which although at times is trying to say the least, does offer a sense of "so bad its' good" in its' wacky sensibility which works in tandem with the campy hiss, boo performance of Jude Law as the film's main antagonist. Messy and narratively twisted, Ritchie's interpretation of the mighty King himself is a cinematic raspberry, but when put up against the likes of Unlocked and Sleepless recently, is a slightly enjoyable raspberry.

Overall Score: 5/10

Film Review: Fist Fight

"We're Gonna Handle Our Differences Like Real Men..."

When reviewing a film such as Fist Fight, the first thing you have to realise is that the Ice Cube which is top-billed on such a movie is indeed the same Ice Cube famous for being the great wordsmith which invigorated the gangsta rap scene in the late 1980's with N.W.A and indeed the same Ice Cube whose latter-day career choices include seemingly blundering into a continuous array of comedy-based cinematic projects, with only a few actually being of some notable success such as 21 Jump Street and erm, 22 Jump Street. It comes as no real shock therefore that Fist Fight is nothing more than a lazy, thoughtless and cringe-worthy attempt of a comedy, with awful dialogue, a dwindling, lacklustre narrative, and one of the most pain-inducing performances I have ever seen from Charlie Day in a leading role which consists of a character who is slated for being friendly and kind and instead finds redemption and a sense of purpose by resorting to drug dealing, swearing at minors and unreasonable levels of violence. You know, all those things which make you "cool" nowadays. 

Although running for a reasonable length of 90 minutes, Fist Fight is one of those movies in which you absolutely feel every single second drag past until you reach a conclusion and final act which not only is generically mediocre, but smiles at you whilst it crackles at the thought of the money the audience has paid to watch such a dire attempt of a comedy. Although the blame doesn't entirely lie at the feet of Ice Cube, it just baffles me why this is the kind of film in which he has settled for after a strong start to an acting career which started with the likes of Boyz in the Hood and the culty favourite Friday, yet the real loser of the show is indeed Charlie Day who screams his way into a leading role which laughs at the state of modern-day education, resulting in the first case of a fictional character this year who has actively driven me to a straightforward high level of hatred. Saddled with jokes about underage sex, statutory rape, drug use, casual racism and a clanger of a mis-step in the form of a incredibly young child relaying lyrics from Big Sean to an audience of similarly aged children, Fist Fight is just poop from beginning to end. That's right, poop. I can be a child sometimes too. 

Overall Score: 3/10

Film Review: Sully: Miracle on the Hudson

"No One Warned Us. No One Said "You're Going To Lose Both Engines At A Lower Altitude Than Any Jet In History"..."

No guys, Clint Eastwood's latest isn't a continuation of the Monsters Inc. character but instead a biographical drama based upon the extraordinary events that took place on 15th January 2009 when US Airways Flight 1549 was miraculously landed upon the Hudson River by pilots Chelsey Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles after a bird strike had completely destroyed both the left and right engines, leaving them in the air with no thrust and little chance to return to ground safely. Such a remarkable and historical achievement was inevitably set to hit the big screens sooner rather than later and what Eastwood has accomplished with Sully is creating a gripping and intelligently played drama which tackles not only the experience of Captain Sully's landing but the repercussions of it too. With Tom Hanks performing effortlessly in the lead role as the titular Sully, Eastwood's latest is indeed a hit, albeit suffering from some minor issues which prevent it from being up there with his best work as a director. 

Inevitably, the fundamental narrative that fluctuates throughout Sully is a gripping enough plot in itself to catch the eye of even the least cinematically viable audience with a good, uplifting heroic story being the mark of a bankable picture, particularly when you have the reliable hands of Hanks as your movies' star, and whilst the movie skips between the past and the present of our titular hero, the most effective parts of the movie take place during the films' big set pieces, primarily the landing itself as well as the discussions that take place afterwards where although the narrative is hyped up completely to function as the drama, still manages to work, even if Eastwood manages to make every single journalist and white collar worker look like the villains of the piece. What the film didn't need however was the cringey CGI crash scenes which took place inside the traumatised mind of our hero which completely reverses the effect of the movie and removes it from the subtle and understated nature of a film like Spotlight and instead becomes more of a popcorn movie as a result. Of course, popcorn movie goodness is not entirely a bad thing and whilst Sully does manage to come away as an effective telling of an incredible achievement within recent history, it isn't really anything more than that, but, as with anything with Tom Hanks in, Sully is still an enjoyable and well made drama. 

Overall Score: 7/10