What I've Just Watched Part 4: There And Back Again

Logan Lucky (2017), the return of Steven Soderbergh, many people thought he'd quit directing films in favour of doing TV, but as it turns out, it was all an elaborate bluff. Soderbergh was merely regrouping and refocusing his energies, and taking advantage of the rise of streaming media to make his new one. Which is a hillbilly reimagining of Soderbergh's own Ocean's Eleven (2001), indeed there's a lot of mystery surrounding how this one came about, but one things for sure, it's a lot of fun with a game cast. North Carolina, and construction worker Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) is laid off from his job at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, and his ex-wife Bobbie Jo (Katie Holmes) is planning to move with their daughter Sadie (Farrah Mackenzie) to Lynchburg, Virginia. Jimmy wants to do good for his daughter, and after a night of heavy drinking with his brother Clyde (Adam Driver), they come up with a plan to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway, as the place has pneumatic tubes were money gets sent to a counting room. They call upon incarcerated safecracker Joe Bang (Daniel Craig) to rob the place, the plan involves breaking Joe out of prison with Clyde as an inside man and breaking into the tube mechanism to redirect the flow of money. It's a fast and furious action film, with some good set pieces. Craig is having the time of his life as the insane Joe Bang, it's good to have Soderbergh back directing too, and he seems to be re-engerised, let's hope this isn't a one off return, as this is one of the most entertaining films of the year. 4/5



Popeye (1980), Robert Altman's riskiest film, after years of critically acclaimed character pieces, he tried his hand at a family film, which came about after producer Robert Evans was outbid on getting the film rights to the musical Annie, so he pitched another musical idea to Paramount, which they went with. Popeye remained faithful to E.C. Segar's original comic strips, and it's a very entertaining and epic musical. Set in the coastal town of Sweethaven, the sailor Popeye (Robin Williams) arrives in town by dinghy to look for his long lost father Poopdeck Pappy (Ray Walston), he finds lodgings at the Oyl's boarding house, where he he meets their daughter Olive Oyl (Shelley Duvall), who is engaged to be married to the bullying Captain Bluto (Paul L. Smith). Popeye adjusts to life in the town of Sweethaven, even competing in a boxing match to win money for the Oyl's after a misunderstanding with Bluto, after Popeye and Olive find an abandoned baby they name Swee'Pea (Wesley Ivan Hurt). After discovering that Swee'Pea has a brilliant knack for choosing the winners on the local mechanical horse games, Bluto tricks local con-man and gambler Wimpy (Paul Dooley) into kidnapping Swee'Pea and taking him to the mysterious Commodore of Sweethaven. Normally, live action films of cartoons don't work, but as this is going back to Segar's strips rather than the old animated cartoons from the 1930's onwards, this is a real visual feast, Sweethaven was built for real and still stands to this day in Malta, it has beautiful cinematography by Guiseppe Rotunno and beautiful songs by Harry Nilsson, it's a film well worth a look as it's great fun. 4/5

American Made (2017), directed by Doug Liman, (Swingers (1996), The Bourne Identity (2002) and Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)), this is an unbelievable true story, based on the exploits of Barry Seal, the script by Gary Spinelli (Stash House (2012) had done the rounds for a few years before it made the 2014 Black List of the most liked unproduced film scripts. It was only then that it got the attention of producer Brian Grazer, director Liman and Tom Cruise, it's a very good crime thriller with a good lead performance by Cruise. In 1978, TWA pilot Barry Seal (Cruise) is approached by CIA case officer Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson) to do clandestine reconnaissance missions for the CIA, photographing certain areas over South America, later on Seal is asked by Schafer to act as a courier between the CIA and General Noriega in Panama. However, on one of those flights, Seal is introduced to Pablo Escobar (Mauicio Mejia), and he's asked to smuggle cocaine into America behind the CIA's back. Knowing the risks, Seal agrees, but it means him having to move his family from New Orleans to rural Arkansas to keep the DEA off his back. However, the more money Seal makes, the more suspicious the local authorities get, and it all goes off the rails when the CIA shut down the operation. It's a daft thriller, which has a few light moments through the dark, murkiness of the plot. Liman and Cruise have fun with the material, but it makes you wonder how much was fabricated for the film and how much really happened. We'll never know. 4/5



Detroit (2017), directed by Kathryn Bigelow, (The Hurt Locker (2009) and Zero Dark Thirty (2012)), this is a dark true story about one of the darkest chapters in America's history and one which tends to have been overlooked by most modern history books. A piece of racial tension that occurred during the Detroit riots of July 1967. It's shocking that this was allowed to happen, and the fact it was swept under the carpet at the time, is even more shocking. Detroit, 1967, and what began as a police raid on an unlicensed club celebrating the return of black veterans from Vietnam, turns into an all out riot, and with the police and other emergency services unable to contain any of the violence, the National Guard along with the Army paratroopers also called in to help. While on a bus, a local soul group get separated by the violence and two of them Larry Reed (Algee Smith) and his friend Fred Temple (Jacob Latimore) take refuge at the Algiers Motel. After a prank with a starter pistol, the police are called in led by the racist Philip Krauss (Will Poulter), who rounds up all those in the motel building and racially intimidates them, while local private security officer Melvin Dismukes (John Boyega) watches on helplessly, horrified by Krauss' actions but unable to anything. It's shocking that this wasn't more widely reported at the time, but while most people know of the Detroit Riots, little know about what happened at the Algiers Motel. It's done like a documentary, and they intersperse footage from the actual riots at various points you won't be able to tell the difference, but it's a gut-punch of a film. 4/5

mother! (2017), written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, his first film since the biblical reimagining of Noah (2014), this is one of the most disturbing, provocative and controversial films to be unleashed by a big studio in years. There is nothing like mother! and there probably never will be again, it has to be seen to be believed, it's shocking, horrifying, unwatchable, uncomfortable, disturbing and quite brilliant. Don't listen to the critics about it, this a true one off film, how this got made is anyone's guess, but thank God it did! In a burned out house, an author known as Him (Javier Bardem) brings life back into the house, and mother (Jennifer Lawrence) wakes up wondering where Him is. While mother looks for Him, the house disturbs her, and she envisions it with a beating heart. While mother and Him lead a peaceful, idyllic life in the house, the peace is disturbed when a man (Ed Harris) turns up, asking for a room, and Him agrees to take the man in, much to mother's ire, as she can't believe Him has let a random stranger come into the house and stay there, soon Woman (Michelle Pfeiffer), Man's wife, turns up, and also comes to stay. When the two sons (Domhnall Gleeson and Brian Gleeson) come to stay, all hell breaks loose, and it brings mother to the point of madness, especially when more people turn up. If you haven't already guessed from the plot, yes, it's a religious allegory, but a truly dark and disturbing one, but one that won't get the religious groups all up in arms, it has some brilliant performances throughout, and you have to admire Aronofsky's balls for being able to get this sort of film made, but it's about time we had more original films like this. 5/5



Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017), after the success of Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014), a sequel was inevitable, and director/writer Matthew Vaughn and co-writer Jane Goldman went to work on it, while it still retains the bonkers action set pieces from the first film, something is lost, maybe because we saw it all first time around, and it's overlong, HOWEVER there are a few surprises to be had throughout, and it's still good fun. A year after becoming a Kingsman, Eggsy Unwin (Taron Egerton) is still a secret agent and lives with Princess Tilde of Sweden (Hanna Alström), but when the Kingsman agents and the headquarters on Savile Row are blown up, only Eggsy and Merlin (Mark Strong) survive. They activate the Doomsday protocol, which leads them to the Statesman, the American equivalent of Kingsman, based in a Bourbon whiskey distillery in Kentucky. They're introduced to their leader Champagne (Jeff Bridges), agents Tequila (Channing Tatum), Jack Daniels (Pedro Pascal) and Ginger Ale (Halle Berry). There's another big shock when they discover Harry Hart (Colin Firth) survived a bullet to the head, they find the mastermind behind the Kingsman attack was Poppy Adams (Julianne Moore), who runs the world's biggest drug cartel, holds the world to blackmail with a deadly toxin in every drug imaginable. It's a daft plot, but it's good to have the gang back together, but it could have done with a nip and tuck on the script and the running time, but it has some good set pieces and some very funny moments as well. It's hard to say if there'll be a third film, but they might have think of a new approach to stop it going stale. 4/5

Diamonds are Forever (1971), after George Lazenby's one-off with On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), it was decided to back with Sean Connery for this installment, which tries to airbrush the previous film out of existance. They went back into fantasy mode with this and the Ken Adam sets, but it has it's fair share of flaws. This adventure has Bond (Connery) investigating the world of diamond smuggling from South Africa to Holland. He teams up with jewel smuggler Tiffany Case (Jill St. John), and the diamond smuggling then goes across the pond to Las Vegas. Where are the diamonds going and what are they being used for?? All Bond knows is that they're disappearing to an underground lab owned by billionaire industrialist Willard Whyte (Jimmy Dean), but Whyte is being held captive, and in his place is Blofeld (Charles Gray) who Bond thought he'd killed. Blofeld is using the diamonds to power a laser powered satellite which he's controlling from an oil rig off the coast of Baja, California. This is enjoyable while it lasts, but it does reek of haste, (it was made in a hurry and it shows), and most of the time, Connery plays Bond on auto-pilot, (he only did it for the money, all $1.25 million of it.) But, it the good moments outweigh the film's short-comings, but only just. Roger Moore would have been better doing this. 3.5/5




From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), After winning a Best Screenplay Oscar for Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino teamed up with his new best friend Robert Rodriguez, whose double whammy of El Mariachi and Desperado made him the next big thing in Hollywood, to make a film straddling two genres. It's great fun entertainment, and it's got a brilliant script and good performances. It begins with two violent crooks, the Gecko brothers, Seth (George Clooney) and Richie (QT), who go across Texas, evading the police. At a motel, they take hostage the Fuller family, ex-preacher Jacob (Harvey Keitel), Chinese American stepson Scott (Ernest Liu), and daughter Kate (Juliette Lewis). The Gecko's get the Fuller's to smuggle them into Mexico in the family RV, where they go to a rendezvous called The Titty Twister, a sleazy strip/bikers/truckers club, where the Gecko's are to meet their contact Carlos (Cheech Marin) at dawn, which means they have to wait there. But, it's patrons are not of this world, and it becomes a tale of survival. It's a very entertaining and exciting film, Clooney and QT make a good double act, but it's the cameos at the Titty Twister, including Marin, Danny Trejo, Fred Williamson and Tom Savini, that are the most entertaining. And the creatures in the Titty Twister are well designed. 4/5

Shock Treatment (1981), After the success of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), creator Richard O'Brien reunited with co-writer Jim Sharman to do a follow-up, rather than making a sequel, they made an 'equal'. It was a troubled production, when the Screen Actors Guild went on strike, the production was downscaled and moved from America to London, and confined to a soundstage, which gives it an edge. Set in Denton, USA. Married couple Brad and Janet Majors (Cliff De Young and Jessica Harper) are invited to take part on Denton TV's new game show Marriage Maze, hosted by blind Viennese psychopath Bert Schnick (Barry Humphries). Brad is committed to Dentonvale, an insane asylum ran by Cosmo and Nation McKinley (Richard O'Brien and Patricia Quinn). Janet is groomed for stardom and world domination, while Brad is locked in a cell. Meanwhile, Denton Dossier hosts Betty Hapschatt (Ruby Wax) and Judge Oliver Wright (Charles Gray) investigate who the McKinley's really are, and who has orchestrated this whole wicked scheme. On a visual level, it looks brilliant and the sets are absolutely vivid, and the songs are top notch too. But, it's absolutely insane, and half the time you really don't know what on earth's going on, but that doesn't seem to matter. It's a mad satire on American culture and TV shows. Plus, look out for a young Rik Mayall as Rest Home Ricky. 4/5



Goodfellas (1990), directed by Martin Scorsese, who had spent the 1980's making some visually stunning but commercially challenging films, adapted from the 1986 book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Scorsese. This film helped put Scorsese back on top and re-established his reputation as a great director, above all, Goodfellas was a great story with great actors and told brilliantly. It begins in 1955, when Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) becomes a gangster, and it follows his various exploits with Brooklyn gangsters including Paul "Paulie" Cicero (Paul Sorvino) and his associates James Conway (Robert De Niro) and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci). Hill along with Conway commit the 1967 Air France robbery, and Hill later marries Karen (Lorraine Bracco) who is attracted to Hill's wealth and glamourous lifestyle. But, in 1970, disaster strikes when Tommy murders Billy Batts (Frank Vincent), a made man in a rival crime family, and from here, things start to spiral out of control, as Hill gets into drug dealing, which Paulie has always been against, but Hill goes right ahead with it, and soon all the money, power and paranoia soon spiral out of hand. This is a brilliant gangster film, and Scorsese knows this world well having explored it in Mean Streets, and again in Casino and The Departed. It's well made and has many iconic and memorable scenes throughout with a killer soundtrack. 5/5

Tromeo and Juliet (1996), directed by Lloyd Kaufman (The Toxic Avenger (1984) and Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986)), this was adapted from Shakespeare's play, but adapted by Kaufman and James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)). This is Shakespeare reinterpreted through the schlocky haze of Team Troma, going from a romantic tragedy into a romantic horror-comedy, you need to be in the right mindset to enjoy this. In New York City, and narrated by Lemmy of Motörhead, this has two families, the Capulets and the Ques. Tromeo Que (Will Keenan) lives with his father Monty Que (Earl McKoy) and works in a tattoo parlour with his cousin Benny (Stephen Blackehart) and friend Murray (Valentine Miele). Meanwhile, the Capulets are very rich, Juliet (Jane Jensen) is kept in their mansion by her evil father Cappy (Maximillian Shaun), passive mother Ingrid (Wendy Adams) and overprotective cousin Tyrone (Patrick Connor). When Tromeo and Juliet meet at a party being held at the Capulet residence, it's love at first sight, but when Cappy learns about it, he punishes Juliet by locking her in a plastic cage in a sex dungeon, but Tromeo plans a rescue mission. It's an incredibly sickening and shocking film, but in a good way. No-one does it like Troma, they set out to offend and provoke audiences, and they succeeded with this one. It was done on a shoestring budget of $350,000, but they make good use of it. God knows what Shakespeare would have made of this... 3.5/5



Sicario (2015), directed by Denis Villeneuve, (Prisoners (2013), Arrival (2016) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017)), and written by Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water (2016)), this is a gritty and dark thriller focusing on the ongoing battle between the FBI and the Mexican drug cartels, and the effects it has on those trying to bring about justice. Villeneuve keeps the mood taut, and keeps the story focused and to the point. After a raid in Arizona, which leads to the death of 2 FBI agents and the discovery of decaying corpses, Agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) is assigned to team up with Department of Justice special joint task force, overseen by Matt Graver (Josh Brolin). The mission is to apprehend Cartel lieutenant Manuel Díaz (Bernardo Saracino), accompanying them on the mission is the mysterious Alejandro Gillick (Benicio del Toro), who is Graver's partner. When the team go into Mexico to apprehend Díaz's brother and henchman Guillermo (Edgar Arreola), Alejandro ends up brutally beating Guillermo up to get information about drugs smuggling, which makes Kate wonder which side Alejandro is really on. It's a very well made thriller, the biggest weapon in it's arsenal being the hypnotic cinematography by Roger Deakins, it's well acted and it is very thought provoking as well about the dangers of taking on the Mexican cartel, and the loyalties that those high up have, there's a sequel on the way entitled Soldado. 4/5

Blade Runner (1982), The Final Cut of director Ridley Scott's look into the future, based upon Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Despite it being an absolute nightmare to shoot and battling studio politics which has resulted in several different versions now being available. This is the best one, it looks so much more richer. From seeing it again, it shows Scott at his best with a great visual eye. Set in Los Angeles in November 2019, this has cop Rick Deckard, (Harrison Ford), a 'Blade Runner' hunting down 4 Replicants, led by Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), Replicants are human-like robots manufactured by the Tyrell Corporation, illegal on Earth, but used in outer-space as slaves. But, Deckard soon falls for femme fatale replicant Rachael (Sean Young), who is state of the art, and doesn't die like other replicants, but soon Deckard begins questioning his own existence. A beautiful visual feast, with Dick's world brought to life, director Scott has the perfect eye for visuals, and the world of 2019 is slowly coming true as well, apart from the Replicants and the Spinners, but just about everything else is coming true, which is quite scary. But, it's got a great cast, and the special effects are exquisite, and it makes you pine for the old school style. 5/5



Blade Runner 2049 (2017), it's taken 35 years, but finally Blade Runner has been given a sequel, with Ridley Scott now acting as executive producer, the job of directing has been handed to Denis Villeneuve, (Prisoners (2013), Sicario (2015) and Arrival (2016)), it's a sumptuous visual feast that does the original justice and it has an engaging and surprising plot that works well. In 2049, replicants have now been integrated into society as servants and slaves, one such replicant K (Ryan Gosling), now works for the LAPD as a Blade Runner tracking down rogue replicants. After retiring Sapper Morton (Dave Bautista), K finds a box on Morton's farm containing human remains. After analysing the remains, they're discovered to be that of a replicant who died in childbirth. K goes to the Wallace Organisation, run by Niander Wallace (Jared Leto) who took over the Tyrell Corp years earlier, and they find the replicant was Rachael (Sean Young). After Wallace learns that Rachael was a prototype, he wants to find out more on how to do it for other replicants, K eventually goes in search of Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford). This is a beautifully made film, and it has some jaw-dropping visuals, kudos to cinematographer Roger Deakins, it's a film which deepens the mythology of the original film. It asks more questions, and while following it up was always going to be a hard task, it's original and while it requires patience, it pays off. 5/5

I hate Blade Runner but absolutely loved 2049.

What We Do In The Shadows (2014), written and directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, this started life as a short film made by Clement and Waititi in 2006, but after Waititi made Boy (2010). It was made for $1.6 million, it's a knockabout mockumentary which puts an original twist on the vampire mythology and there's some great gags in it and it's well made for a low budget. This has a documentary following four vampires who share a house in Wellington, New Zealand. There's Viago (Waititi) who is very uptight and houseproud, Vladislav (Clement) who is very tyrannical, Deacon (Jonathan Brugh), the young hip Vampire of the group, and there's the 8000 year old Petyr (Ben Fransham) who mostly spends his time in a stone coffin in the basement of the house. At night, Viago, Vladislav and Deacon go out on the streets of Wellington, looking for fresh blood to survive, but they have to spend all day in the house for fear of being killed by daylight. However, they struggle to adapt to 21st Century life, until they meet Stu (Stu Rutherford) a techie who introduces them to modern technology like YouTube and social media. It's a very daft and enjoyable film, and the vampires have a good camaraderie between them and it shows on screen, this helped up Waititi on the map as a director to watch out for, and it manages to show there's still a fresh vein to be tapped when it comes to vampire films. 4/5



Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), written and directed by Taika Waititi, (Boy (2010 and What We Do in the Shadows (2014)), this adventure comedy-drama was based on the 1986 book Wild Pork and Watercress by Barry Crump. This is a heartfelt adventure with more emotion, heart and laughs than most Hollywood films can muster up in a year, it's both offbeat and poignant in equal measure. In New Zealand, 13 year old delinquent Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) has been sent to live by child welfare services officer Paula (Rachel House) to live on a remote farm with foster mother Bella (Rima Te Wiata) and her husband Hec (Sam Neill), who is a remote old curmudgeon. Ricly is a tough nut to crack, but Bella manages to break through and make a better person of Ricky, and then Bella dies suddenly. Not wanting to leave his new life for a new foster home, Ricky fakes a suicide and runs off into the surrounding woods, he gets completely lost but Hec finds him, even though Hec wants nothing to do with Ricky, they both end up on the run from the police and put surviving in the wilderness to their advantage. This is a unbelievably loveable and entertaining film, it's so enjoyable and it has an engaging quality to it too. Waititi has great fun with the material, and he gets the best out of his actors as well, it's a pure joy to watch. 5/5

The Smallest Show On Earth (1957), directed by Basil Dearden (The League of Gentlemen (1960), The Assassination Bureau (1969) and The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970)) and written by William Rose (The Ladykillers (1955) and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)), this is a very likeable British comedy with a brilliant cast and well written script, and it also highlights the pros and cons of smaller cinemas vs. bigger cinemas. Matt Spenser (Bill Travers) and his wife Jean (Virginia McKenna) are a young couple who want to travel the world, but Matt receives news that he's inherited his great uncle's cinema. When they travel to visit it, they mistake the nearby Grand for it, but their joy is short-lived when solicitor Robin Carter (Leslie Phillips) tells them what they've inherited is the Bijou Kinema, a rundown old fleapit stuck between two railway lines. The Grand's owner Albert Hardcastle (Francis de Wolff) offers them a paltry £500 for the cinema, so he can demolish it to make a car park. But, the Spensers, with the Bijou's staff, Mrs. Fazackalee (Margaret Rutherford), Mr. Quill (Peter Sellers) and Old Tom (Bernard Miles) reopen the Bijou to put up a fight to the Grand. It's a film cut from similar cloth to Ealing, even though they'd stopped producing films a couple of films before, but this is in the spirit of those films. It has a brilliant cast in it, Sellers and Rutherford are a hoot, and it still stands the test of time now. 4/5



Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Thor rides again, and after the first film and The Dark World, Marvel decided to keep it fresh by going for a completely different angle for this film, and went to New Zealand director Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows (2014) and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)), to do this one, and the result is a mad comedy which just happens to be a superhero film as well, and the injection of comedy works wonders! Thor (Chris Hemsworth) returns to Asgard to find his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in charge, but his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) is on Earth dying, and he said his first born child Hela (Cate Blanchett) will take power. That happens, and Thor finds himself lost on garbage planet Sakaar, where he's taken in by Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) to the Grand Master (Jeff Goldblum), who puts him up in a battle against the Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), who has been missing for 2 years. Loki turns up too, and the 4 eventually decide to get together to take down Hela, but she's even more powerful than Thor, and she's destroyed his hammer as well. This is a very entertaining film, and it adds a touch of 80's nostalgia to the proceedings as well, and it's very funny as well. Waititi has great fun with a big budget superhero blockbuster, and he has plenty of room to add his own personal offbeat touch to it, it'll be exciting to see where Thor and indeed director Waititi goes next! 4.5/5

The Death of Stalin (2017), written and directed by Armando Iannucci (The Day Today, The Thick of It and In the Loop (2009)), and adapted from the French comic book of the same name by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin, this is a pitch black satire about Russian politics after the titular event happens, it uses the same documentary feel that The Thick of It had, and it works wonders here. When Joseph Stalin (Adrian Mcloughlin) suffers a cerebral haemorrhage and then dies, the first to arrive at the scene are NKVD head Lavrentiy Beria (Simon Russell Beale), and Deputy General Secretary Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor), soon followed by Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi). They have to put their heads together on what to do, as a lot of Stalin's plans are now up in the air, but Beria puts forwards Malenkov as a leader, but only as a puppet while Beria does the real action behind the scenes. Beria even closes off Moscow completely, while Khrushchev confers with Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov (Michael Palin) and Red Army leader Georgy Zhukov (Jason Isaacs) about what to do next. It's a film which highlights the absurdity and madness of politics, and it's especially relevant now with Brexit and American politics going to hell. But, this is buoyed by a strong, game cast, (Buscemi and Tambor are standouts, while Isaacs as a Yorkshire General steals the film.) It's dark, depressing and hilarious in equal measure. 4/5



Murder on the Orient Express (2017), based on Agatha Christie's legendary 1934 novel, which has been adapted several times including the 1974 version and the TV one featuring David Suchet. Now, it's fallen to Kenneth Branagh to reimagine Poirot, Branagh steps into his shoes with a magnificent moustache and also directs it with an all star cast, it's a good film, but we've seen it all before even though it's done well. Hercule Poirot (Branagh) is returning to England from Jerusalem via Istanbul, and he takes the Orient Express back, sharing the train with Caroline Hubbard (Michelle Pfeiffer), businessman Samuel Ratchett (Johnny Depp), his secretary Hector McQueen (Josh Gad) and English manservant Edward Henry Masterman (Derek Jacobi), Russian Princess Dragomiroff (Judi Dench), teacher Mary Debenham (Daisy Ridley), Professor Gerhard Hardman (Willem Dafoe) and missionary Pilar Estravados (Penélope Cruz). Before long, the titular event happens and it's up to Poirot to work his little grey cells and work out who committed this atrocity. It's very well made, photographed in 70mm, and there's a great cast all giving powerful performances, even if some actors are underused compared to others, but it puts the story to good use, and Branagh is going to do Death on the Nile next. 4/5

The Magic Christian (1969), based on Terry Southern's 1959 novel of the same name, this was brought to the screen courtesy of director Joseph McGrath (Casino Royale (1967) and Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World (1973)), the book was set in New York, but it was relocated to London, (almost a first), and while it took liberties with the source material, it was updated (for then) to reflect the hippy movement. Sir Guy Grand (Peter Sellers) is an eccentric billionaire, who on a whim, decides to adopt an heir to his fortune. The homeless hobo Youngman Grand (Ringo Starr). They then play elaborate pranks involving large sums of money with the public, just to show how far people are willing to go for a bit of money. One involves bribing a Shakespearian actor (Laurence Harvey) to do a striptease during a rendition of Hamlet, or convincing a traffic warden (Spike Milligan) to take back a parking ticket and eat it. The pranks get larger and more elaborate, and it accumulates on the maiden voyage of a ship called The Magic Christian, which all goes horribly awry. It's a very daft film, and it is quite dated by todays standards, but there's some good fun and imagery to be had throughout, and there's cameos from the likes of Richard Attenborough, Yul Brynner, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Roman Polanski, Raquel Welch and Christopher Lee. 3.5/5



Paddington 2 (2017), after Paddington came to the big screen in 2014 and became a big blockbuster hit, a sequel was already in development. Paul King who did such a great job with the first film was back to direct it, but there was already pressure on to make it as good as the first film, always a tough job, Paddington 2 achieves that without breaking a sweat, retaining the quirky, eccentric style of the first film. Paddington Bear (Ben Whishaw) has become something a local celebrity in Windsor Gardens, living with the Brown family. When Paddington spots an antique pop-up book in Mr. Gruber's (Jim Broadbent) shop, Paddington decides to get a job in order to buy it for his aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton), and becomes a window cleaner to buy it. When the book is stolen, Paddington is framed by Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant), a hammy Shakespearian actor who wants the book for his own gain, Paddington is thrown in jail, but Henry Brown (Hugh Bonneville) and wife Mary (Sally Hawkins) decide to prove Paddington's innocence, while Paddington plans an escape with fellow prisoner Knuckles McGinty (Brendan Gleeson). It's a beautifully entertaining film, a film with heart and lots of good humour. It's colourful and a good story as well, (Michael Bond would be proud), and it keeps the spirit of the first film going as well. On the basis of this, it's easy to say Paddington 3 is a go. 5/5

Justice League (2017), it was inevitable, this is what it was all building up to. First Man of Steel (2013), then Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), now Justice League, this was to be the big one. Except, behind the scenes, it nearly fell apart. Director Zack Snyder had to leave the production due to a family tragedy, and it fell to Joss Whedon to save the film. The finished product is problematic indeed. After the death of Superman (Henry Cavill), Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck) decides to form a team to ensure Earth's safety, he recruits Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Barry Allen/The Flash (Ezra Miller), Victor Stone/Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Jason Momoa), to form the Justice League. Meanwhile, Superman's death as brought about the return of Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds), in which he's looking for 3 boxes that were left on Earth. Diana's people the Amazonian's had one, until it was stolen by Steppenwolf, as did Aquaman's race in the underwater city of Atlantis. With Steppenwolf such a difficult foe, there's only one option, to try and resurrect Superman using the last box. It's such a difficult, complicated plot, you'd have thought Snyder would have learnt his lesson after Batman V Superman. Nope, he had a vision, and he carried on with his dark vision. The finished product is such a Frankenstein's monster of a film, it's no-one's film, it's a film finished by committee. When this makes you pine for Snyder's original vision, you know something's gone horribly wrong. 2/5



Battle of the Sexes (2017), directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine (2006) and Ruby Sparks (2012)), written by Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty (1997) and Slumdog Millionaire (2008)) and produced by Danny Boyle. This tells the true story of a legendary tennis match that sent shockwaves amongst the profession of tennis, and it was also a milestone for women's rights as well. In 1973. tennis player Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) learns that the top prizes for women's tennis is only an 8th of what male professionals win. King and other female tennis players are expelled from the Lawn Tennis Association, but they form their own tennis association, buoyed by sponsorship by Virginia Slims cigarettes. Meanwhile, former tennis champion Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell) has a serious gambling addiction that's jeopardising his marriage to Priscilla Wheelan (Elisabeth Shue). To get more money, he sets up challenge matches against the top woman players. Riggs easily defeats Margaret Court (Jessica McNamee), but Riggs wants to go up against King, but she's reluctant. It's a good biopic, with some really good performances in it, and it captures the era well, back when it was a very blokey world, where chauvinistic attitudes and ideals still ruled the roost, and women knew their place. Thanks to people like King, chance was coming. It also looks and feels like it came from the 1970's as well. 4/5

The Room (2003), one of the most notorious underground films of the 2000's. Made by the mysterious, eccentric Tommy Wiseau, he wanted to make a character drama cut from the cloth of Tennessee Williams, what we got was a badly written experimental film which comes across more like a bad episode of a long running American soap. It's bad in an entertaining way, and you can see why it's gained cult status. In San Francisco, banker Johnny (Wiseau) lives in a townhouse with his fiancé Lisa (Juliette Danielle), whom he loves dearly and buys expensive gifts for. However, Lisa is bored with the relationship, and she's having an affair with Johnny's best friend Mark (Greg Sestero). Before long, Lisa starts making up allegations about Johnny, claiming he's abusive. But, she alternates that claiming he's a caring and kind person. But, when Johnny overhears Lisa talking to her mother Claudette (Carolyn Minnott) about her infidelities, it makes Johnny suspicious, so he bugs the telephone, and he soon comes to distrust his closest friends, thinking they all have it in for him. Wiseau wrote, directed, produced and starred in this film, and he can't do any of them. It's like watching a car crash in slow motion, all in grisly detail. But, he's put his heart and soul into this film, and there's a lot to be said for following your dreams and never giving up. The fact that it's become a social phenomenon and had a film made about it's production shows that Wiseau did something right after all. 2/5



Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (2017), directed by Paul McGuigan, (The Acid House (1998), Gangster No. 1 (2000) and Victor Frankenstein (2015)), and based on the memoir by Peter Turner. This was brought to the screen by Bond producer Barbara Broccoli, who saw great potential for a film. The result is an old-school weepie, but it benefits from having a good cast, and quite a good story to boot as well. This tells the story of Oscar winning actress Gloria Grahame (Annette Benning) whose star has faded since her 1952 Oscar win, and she's since returned to the stage, and in 1979, that's where she meets Peter Turner (Jamie Bell), a jobbing actor who lives in the same boarding house in London as Gloria. The two strike up a friendship which soon evolves into a relationship and move to America. But, when Gloria receives bad news and disappears for hours and days, Peter and Gloria split up. A few months later, Gloria is doing a play in Lancaster when she takes ill, and she finds refuge in the house of Peter's family in Liverpool, where mother Bella (Julie Walters) takes care of her. It's quite unbelievable that Gloria Grahame spent her last few days in a terraced house in Liverpool, but it happened. While it does resort to some predictable clichés, Annette Benning is brilliant as Grahame, and shines through in this film. There are some bits where the low budget shows, but in all, it's a good watch 3.5/5

Yield to the Night (1956), directed by J. Lee Thompson (Ice Cold in Alex (1958), The Guns of Navarone (1961) and Cape Fear (1962)), this crime drama was based on a 1954 novel by Joan Henry, (who co-wrote the screenplay), but many who saw the film said it bore a strong resemblance to the then recent case of Ruth Ellis, who inexplicably murdered her boyfriend. But, whatever the parallels, it makes for a great, powerful drama. The film tells of the last days of Mary Hilton (Diana Dors), a department store clerk who guns down rich socialite Lucy Carpenter (Mercia Shaw), several months later, Mary is in a women's prison, slowly waiting her appointment with the noose, but also hoping for a reprieve. A team of prison officers take it in turns to watch her, including the sympathetic Hilda MacFarlane (Yvonne Mitchell). In a series of flashbacks, we learn what drove her to committing this murder. Mary was in an unhappy relationship with Fred (Harry Locke), but when she meets the charming Jim Lancaster (Michael Craig), they strike up a passionate relationship. But, Jim has a reputation as a womaniser, which Mary learns about. It's a dark, sparse film, beautifully shot by Gilbert Taylor and showcasing Dors' abilities as an actress. It does make a statement about the death penalty, which at the time was on it's way out in the UK, and it leaves it's view with something to think about. 4/5



The Disaster Artist (2017), based on Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell's 2013 book of the same name, and brought to the screen by James Franco, who stars in it, produced and directed it, this is a brilliant story so unbelievable and it's all true. It's poignant, moving and down right hilarious all in equal measure, and against all the odds, it's also very sympathetic towards it's main subject, even if he is a clueless control freak. San Francisco, 1998, Greg Sestero (Dave Franco) meets Tommy Wiseau (James Franco) at an acting class, and they instantly become friends, they both dream of making it big, and move to Los Angeles to pursue their dream. Greg gets bit parts hear and there, while Tommy has no luck whatsoever. Over the next 3 years, Tommy decides he's going to make his own film, and begins writing a magnum opus, inspired by Tennessee Williams. The film is called The Room, and it's intended to be a small, independent production, a simple character drama. However, Tommy can't act, write or direct for toffee, and the production becomes a labour of Hercules. This is a passionate and heartfelt film about never giving up on your dream, regardless of whether you're talented or not, Franco brings Tommy Wiseau to life, short of getting the real man to play himself, and some of it is jaw dropping in how they got the wretched film made, but there's a lot to be said for following your dreams. 5/5

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), Episode 8. Here written and directed by Rian Johnson, (Brick (2005), The Brothers Bloom (2008) and Looper (2012)), he picks up from where J.J. Abrams left off with The Force Awakens, but puts his own spin on proceedings. It's the longest Star Wars film of the saga, but it chooses to focus on it's characters and a good interweaving plot as well. It picks up from where The Force Awakens left off, where the Resistance led by led by General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) fight against the First Order. They escape from them using light speed, but Leia is badly hurt and in a coma. Her place is taken by Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo (Laura Dern), but the First Order are able to follow them through light speed, which leads to Finn (John Boyega) and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) to find a tracker to bring down the First Order's fleet. Meanwhile, Rey (Daisy Ridley) has found Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), in an exile after an incident which caused Leia's son Ben Solo/Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) to turn to the Dark Side and the First Order, but Rey finds herself having telepathic visions with Kylo Ren. It's a very good addition to the Star Wars franchise, although it's easy to see why it's polarised some fans, but then again, The Empire Strikes Back did the same thing. But, Johnson has fun with the material, and he gets the best from his cast and crew, it looks good and it's told well. Oh, and look out for Adrian Edmondson. 4/5



The Greatest Showman (2017), a passion project for Hugh Jackman, one he's been attached to since 2009, and a chance to show off his theatrical talents for singing and dancing. First time director Michael Gracey exudes confidence in telling this beautiful looking and well choreographed musical biopic. It might gloss over parts of it's subjects life, but it's still well made. Phineas Taylor Barnum (Jackman) started life as a tailor, then he became a clerk at a shipping company. He married his childhood sweetheart Charity (Michelle Williams) and they had two daughters. After the shipping company goes bankrupt, Barnum tricks a bank into taking a large loan using his former employer's lost ships as collateral, which he then uses to open Barnum's American Museum in downtown Manhattan. Initially, they only display wax models, but hoping to increase visitors to the museum, Barnum decides to branch out and use "freaks" to serve as performers. While this wins him large audiences, it isn't very well received. But, Barnum perseveres, he gets help from Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron), and Barnum then meets Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson) who he brings to America. It's a very entertaining musical, with some brilliant musical numbers and some well choreographed scenes as well, and Jackman relishes the role with zest. It doesn't dig deep into Barnum's life, this is a musical in the tradition of old film musicals. 3.5/5

City of the Dead (1960), directed by John Llewellyn Moxey (Circus of Fear (1966)), this creepy horror film was the first production by Amicus Productions, but they weren't called that yet. This is a weirdly atmospheric film, filmed at Shepperton Studios but set in America, it's short as well, and it doesn't outstay it's welcome either, it's to the point. Set in Massachusetts, it has student Nan Barlow (Venetia Stevenson) studying witchcraft and she's advised by her teacher Dr. Alan Driscoll (Christopher Lee) to visit the town of Whitewood, where a lot of witch burnings took place, including that of Elizabeth Selwyn (Patricia Jessel), who made a deal with the devil before she died so her soul would live on forever. Nan gets to Whitewood, and it's an old fashioned town where people don't talk much, but she's aided in her studies by Patricia Russell (Betta St. John), possibly the only normal resident in Whitewood. Then Nan mysteriously vanishes, 2 weeks later, Nan's brother Richard (Dennis Lotis) goes to Whitewood to search for Nan, only to find that Whitewood doesn't exist in any directory, but there's a darker secret. It's a good low budget film, and it manages to be very atmospheric, and despite the sparse sets and dry ice, it manages to be engaging and clever. It's effectively a B-Movie, but it's one of the better ones from that period. 4/5



Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), directed by Robert Aldrich (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and The Dirty Dozen (1967)), this was intended as a follow-up to Baby Jane, reuniting the director and the stars. Fate had other ideas, but the final result turned out to be a great piece of suspense, a tense, electrifying psychological thriller which still stands. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, spinster Charlotte Hollis (Bette Davis) still lives on her family plantation where, 37 years before, her lover John Mayhew (Bruce Dern) was butchered to death with an axe and many believed Charlotte did it, although it was covered up at the time. The Louisiana Highway Commission plan to knock down her house and put a freeway through it, but Charlotte puts up a fight. With the freeway plans on hold, Charlotte calls upon her cousin from New York, Miriam (Olivia de Havilland) to help her out. Charlotte doesn't have any money, all she has is the house and land, which is what's valuable. Charlotte's state of mind when Miriam moves in gets worse, and she thinks someone is trying to drive her out of the house. This is a wonderfully tense and bitchy film, Davis is on fine form and De Havilland is a match for her too, (although one wonders what original choice Joan Crawford would have been like), but it's gripping and exciting in equal measure and very atmospheric. 5/5

The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse (2005), it was bound to happen, The League of Gentlemen had ran for 3 series on BBC 2, and they had a few stage shows as well. Now it was time to do a film version, but Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith and Jeremy Dyson weren't going to do a normal TV to film adaptation, Oh no! This was much weirder! In the town of Royston Vasey, the signs of the apocalypse are happening. The Reverend Bearnice Woodall, tells fellow residents Pauline Campbell-Jones and Mr. Chinnery that the apocalypse is coming, and they need to save their world, but before they can go through the portal, a chain of circumstances has Geoff Tipps, Herr Lipp and Hilary Briss going through the portal, and ending up in Hadfield. They're briefed by Papa Lazarou and the Tattsyrups that they need to go to London and ask the real League of Gentlemen, (Shearsmith, Pemberton and Gatiss) to go back writing more League of Gentlemen. But, it doesn't quite go to plan at all, Shearsmith, Pemberton and Gatiss are planning a new project, which Tipps ends up writing himself into. It's a daft film, but with a lot of good laughs and clever references throughout, and a lot of fun cameos as well from the like of Simon Pegg, Peter Kay and David Warner. It's not a conventional TV spin off, and that's a good thing, this showed back then that the universe of Royston Vasey was open to interpretation and fun. 4/5



Boy (2010), written and directed by Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows (2014)Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) and Thor: Ragnarok (2017)), this is a sweet and charming coming of age film, which was Waititi's first feature length debut, and it put him on the road to greater things to come, and it was a small hit upon release in it's native New Zealand. It begins in 1984, and 11 year old Alamein, known as Boy (James Rolleston), lives in the Bay of Plenty in the North Island of New Zealand, Boy is a massive Michael Jackson fan. He hangs out with his friends Dallas (Haze Reweti) and Dynasty (Moerangi Tihore), and Boy also tries to impress Chardonnay (RickyLee Waipuka-Russell) who he has a crush on. One day, Boy's estranged father Alamein (Waititi) comes home to the Bay of Plenty after a long time away to find a stash of money he buried. While Boy is delighted to see his father again, Boy's brother Rocky (Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whitu) is dubious. When Alamein goes looking for the money, Boy wants to be part of his father's gang, the Crazy Horses, which Alamein reluctantly agrees to. It's a very engaging film with parts that mirror the coming of age themes that Waititi tackled in The Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and he gets the best out of his cast of relative unknowns, and Waititi makes the best out of this quirky shaggy dog story, doing a lot with very little. 4/5

All The Money In The World (2017), directed by Ridley Scott and adapted from John Pearson's 1995 book Painfully Rich. This is a taut, tense thriller which got noticeable coverage for all the wrong reasons, but the fact Scott was able to fix the film with only weeks to spare demonstrates top-class directing in the worst possible circumstances, and it's a very good film too. Rome 1973, and John Paul Getty III (Charlie Plummer) is kidnapped by a crime syndicate, Getty is the grandson of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty (Christopher Plummer), the richest man in the world. The kidnappers want $17 million in exchange for John Paul, his mother Abigail Harris (Michelle Williams) doesn't have the money, and the elder Getty refuses to pay the ransom, figuring that if he paid, and if any of his other grandchildren were kidnapped, he'd have to pay more. However, Getty asks his top negotiator and former CIA agent Fletcher Chase (Mark Wahlberg) to negotiate John Paul's release. But, with the elder Getty standing his ground, the kidnappers start getting more and more frustrated, all the while John Paul's life hangs in the balance. You'll have heard how this was originally filmed with Kevin Spacey in make-up as Getty, but when numerous allegations have finished his career, Scott recast with Plummer and reshot all the scenes in 9 days in time for Christmas. It's a brilliant move, and it's a better film with Plummer, and he ends up stealing the film as well, who'd have guessed? 4/5



Molly's Game (2017), the directorial debut of screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network (2010) and Steve Jobs (2015)), this tells the unbelievable true story of former world class skier Molly Bloom, and what she turned to after an injury made her rethink her career. It's a very compelling story which benefits from Sorkin's dialogue and a brilliant lead performance. After Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) is critically injured when competing for a place in the 2002 Winter Olympics, her aspirations as a skier are over, and she ends up getting a job with real estate developer Dean Keith (Jeremy Strong), who runs underground poker games, which attracts the rich and famous. Molly knows nothing about poker, but she soon learns about it, and with help from Player X (Michael Cera) soon attracts top talent, and she ends up running her own poker games. Which soon move from LA to New York, attracting all kinds of rich clients. But, when the Russian Mafia end up getting involved, Molly gets into trouble, and she turns to the reluctant but sympathetic lawyer Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba) for help. It's very compelling, and even if you know nothing about poker and how it's played, you'll still understand this. It's well made and it has a confident lead performance from Chastain, who is electrifying as Bloom, but Sorkin proves to be as good a director as he is writer, and with a bit of luck, this won't be his last film as director either. 4/5

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), written and directed by Martin McDonagh (In Bruges (2008) and Seven Psychopaths (2012)), this darkly comic crime thriller was inspired by actual billboards McDonagh had seen in America's Deep South, and that provided this basis for this truly electrifying and very engaging character piece with a great cast. In Ebbing, Missouri, Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) rents three abandoned billboards near her home, which read, "RAPED WHILE DYING", "AND STILL NO ARRESTS?", and "HOW COME, CHIEF WILLOUGHBY?", as it's been 7 months since Mildred's daughter Angela was murdered, and the case has gone cold. The town's chief of police Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) isn't happy about them, but he understands Mildred's frustration. On the other hand, Willoughby's racist deputy Officer Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell) is furious by it, and he goes on a vendetta, threatening local ad man Red Welby (Caleb Landry Jones) who hired out the billboards. Even Mildred get's abuse, but she fights back, much to the chagrin of her beleaguered son Robbie (Lucas Hedges). It's both very serious and very funny, and it manages to balance the two brilliantly, thanks to McDonagh's brilliant dialogue and brilliant performances, especially McDormand and Rockwell. But, it looks and feels like a Coen Brothers film without the weird quirkiness, it has an emotional gut punch, but it's very well made. 4.5/5



Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2017), directed by Jake Kasdan (Orange County (2002) and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)), this is an adventure that acts both as a sequel to the original Jumanji (1995), and as a great standalone film in it's own right. It's very imaginative, and it has a good, game cast as well providing some great humour too. Brantford High School, present day, and 4 students, Spencer Gilpin (Alex Wolff), Anthony "Fridge" Johnson (Ser'Darius Blain), Bethany Walker (Madison Iseman) and Martha Kaply (Morgan Turner) all find themselves in detention having to clean out an old storeroom. They find an old computer game called Jumanji with an old console, they get it working and end up being sucked into the world of the computer game. Spencer becomes Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson), Fridge becomes Franklin "Mouse" Finbar (Kevin Hart), Bethany has become Professor Sheldon "Shelly" Oberon (Jack Black) and Martha has become Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan), now they have to survive the jungle, and return a jewel to the heart of the jungle. It's a very funny film, and it manages to be very enjoyable and make a lot of fun observational humour about video games, the cast are all good sports as well, including Black, having great fun with the mentality of a popular highschool girl. It's well worth seeing and it honours the original well too. 4/5

Darkest Hour (2017), directed by Joe Wright, (Pride & Prejudice (2005) and Atonement (2007)) and written by Anthony McCarten (The Theory of Everything (2014)), this tells the story of how one man took over as Prime Minister at very short notice and managed to stand firm in the face of impossible odds. The film's narrative might be wobbly, but it's lead certainly isn't. May 1940, and Neville Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup) is facing calls from the Labour Party to resign over his handling of the Nazi threat and declaring war on Germany the year before. Chamberlain wants Lord Halifax (Stephen Dillane) as his successor, but Halifax is reluctant. There's only one choice the opposition will approve, the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman). His appointment causes an uproar in the Conservative Party, and from George VI (Ben Mendelsohn), as Churchill has controversial views on India and a poor war record, but he soon settles into the job. Churchill refuses to negotiate with Germany for Peace, believing them to be untrustworthy, and Chamberlain and Halifax plan to resign from Government if Churchill doesn't negotiate, but Churchill stands his ground. While it might be something of a simplistic outline of what happened, (what really happened was a lot more complicated), it's aided by a great lead performance by Oldman, who disappears into the role of Churchill under a ton of make-up, and it works, sort of. 3.5/5



Suburbicon (2017), directed by George Clooney, which was taken from a script written by the Coen Brothers back in 1986, which was shelved for over 20 years before they gave it to Clooney to direct. However, Clooney and his co-writer/co-producer Grant Heslov rewrote it and added a subplot which has no connection to the main plot. The result is an horrific car crash. 1959 and Suburbicon is a peaceful, all-American town, but everything there is shaken up by the arrival of the African-American Mayers family (Karimah Westbrook and Leith Burke), next door, family man Gardner Lodge (Matt Damon) has a domestic disturbance when two burglars, (Alex Hassell and Glenn Fleshler) break into his house and kill his wife Rose (Julianne Moore). Rose's identical twin sister Margaret (Moore again) moves in with them. But, it turns out Gardner and Margaret had Rose killed so they could cash in on a very large life insurance claim. The burglars aren't happy as Lodge's son Nicky (Noah Jupe) saw them at a police line-up, and they haven't been paid yet. Plus, Lodge is now being investigated by insurance investigator Bud Cooper (Oscar Isaac). Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! This SHOULD have been a good film, but Clooney screws it up by adding the racial tension subplot, then ignoring it in favour of the Lodge's dilemma. It should have been one thing or the other, not both. Even the Coen's should have known better than to let Clooney rewrite their work. 1/5

The Wages of Fear (1953), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot (Les Diaboliques (1955)), and adapted from the 1950 French novel Le salaire de la peur by Georges Arnaud. This is a taut suspense film whose influence continues to be felt to this day, and it's still well made to this day, and technically it's brilliant and it has good performances and it keeps the tense mood up. In the desert country of Las Piedras, 2 Frenchmen Mario (Yves Montard) and Jo (Charles Vanel), Italian Luigi (Folco Lulli) and German Bimbo (Folco Lulli) are stuck in this country due to various crimes and misdemeanours. There's not much employment in the region with the only jobs coming from an American oil company based in the country, the Southern Oil Company, but they have a poor safety record. When an explosion at the well causes a well fire, the only way to cap the well is to transport jerrycans of highly volatile nitroglycerin over 300 miles to the well fire, but when non of the employed, unionised drivers from the company will drive it. The job falls to the 4 strangers in town, and it's a job that means they can leave Las Piedras and get a second chance at life. This was remade as Sorcerer (1977), and that was a better film, but Clouzot's original is it's own beast, and it's when the journey gets underway that the tenseness kicks in, and it has some truly gripping set pieces, and for it's day, there'd been nothing like this put to screen, and even now, it's still beautifully made with a good eye for detail. 4/5



Les Diaboliques (1955), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, then hot off the international success of The Wages of Fear (1953), for his next film, he opted for an adaptation of the 1952 French novel Celle qui n'était plus (She Who Was No More) by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. The result is a truly haunting and unsettling film with a killer twist. On the outskirts of Paris, there's a boarding school whose headmaster is Michel Delassalle (Paul Meurisse), who is a truly nasty piece of work, but the school is owned by Delassalle's wife Christina (Vera Clouzot), who is frail from a weak heart. But Delassalle has been having an affair with another teacher at the school Nicole Horner (Simone Signoret), who has a close friendship with Christina. However, Delassalle is abusive to both women and the boys in the school. One night, Nicole and Christina lure Delassalle to Nicole's apartment, sedate him and drown him in the bathtub. They dump him in the school's swimming pool, but when the pool is later drained, the body is nowhere to be seen, then the boys say they've seen Delasselle in the school. There's a killer twist in this, but you'll have to see it, but the build up to it is what makes the film, Clouzot relishes the source material, (he even beat Hitchcock into optioning it.) It's tense, but a different kind of tense compared to what Clouzot had done in The Wages of Fear, it's a shame Clouzot's career didn't go on to better things. 4/5

Willard (1971), directed by Daniel Mann (BUtterfield 8 (1960) and Our Man Flint (1966)), and funded by Bing Crosby, this is a low-budget horror film which was based on a 1969 short story called Ratman's Notebooks by Stephen Gilbert. The result is a slow burning horror which builds up the tension bit by bit, and you won't look at rats in the same way ever again either. In Los Angeles, Willard Stiles (Bruce Davison) is a meek social outcast who is put upon by his bullying boss Al Martin (Ernest Borgnine), his mother Henrietta (Elsa Lanchester) is overbearing and tends to humiliate him. On Willard's 27th Birthday, he finds a rat in his garden, who he befriends, and more rats appear over time. Henrietta wants Willard to kill the rats, but he refuses, and hides them in the basement and trains them to do tricks and obey him, the two rats he's closest to are Socrates and Ben. But, things start going wrong for Willard, Al Martin starts bullying him more at work, and Henrietta dies suddenly, leaving Willard a heavily mortgaged house, which he's pressured into selling. Willard snaps, and he gets his rats to rise up. In anyone else's hands, it would have been a schlocky, grisly horror film, but this comes across as a nuanced character piece, well made as well. It ended up becoming quite a successful sleeper hit, and it was referenced for years, and it spawned a sequel and a remake. Bit of a rarity these days though. 4/5



Ben (1972), after Willard proved to be a small hit, a sequel was inevitable. The job of directing it fell to Phil Karlson (Walking Tall (1973)), the result is quite strange, Ben is neither a horror or thriller, but more of a tragic melodrama. Choosing to tug at the heartstrings than go for hard scares like Willard did, but oddly, it works. Only just staying on the right side of schmaltz. This follows a lonely young boy called Danny (Lee Harcourt Montgomery), who comes across Ben, one of the rats who belonged to Willard Stiles. Danny has a heart condition, and he's not able to play with other kids as a result, and he usually gets bullied. But, with Ben, Danny finds a kindred spirit. Ben protects Danny from bullies and Danny makes toys and props for Ben, which lifts Danny's spirits up. But, Ben's colony that once belonged to Willard Stiles start getting violent, especially when they raise a supermarket and cause upset to the public. So all the rats, Ben included, retreat underground, Danny follows them, but the army also follow them down there, for one final showdown in the sewers. For reference, yes this is the one with the Michael Jackson title song Ben. It's a different beast of a film to Willard, and it's actually a very sad film, especially at the end. But, it's quite endearing and worth a look. 3.5/5

Psychomania (1973, directed by Don Sharp, (The Kiss of the Vampire (1963) and Rasputin the Mad Monk (1966)), and written by Arnaud d'Usseau and Julian Zimet (Horror Express (1972)), this cult British film wants to be a biker film and an occult horror film at the same time, and it succeeds, sort of. It's quite cheesy and dated, but it has a good cast to boot. Tom Latham (Nicky Henson) is a psychopathic leader of a sadistic biker gang, who go around causing havoc. His mother (Beryl Reid) and their butler Shadwell (George Sanders) get their kicks from holding séances, and practicing black magic. Tom's gang also dabble in black magic, hence the name of the gang, "The Living Dead". Tom commits suicide, and with help from his mother and Shadwell, comes back to life, and is impervious to death, and it's not long before the rest of his gang, including Bertram (Roy Holder), Gash (Peter Whitting) and Hinky (Rocky Taylor) all commit suicide to beat death and wreck havoc. But Tom's girlfriend Abby (Mary Larkin) has second thoughts about dying to live again, and comes up with a plan with Chief Inspector Hesseltine (Robert Hardy). It's a daft piece of filler, the sort of thing that would have passed for muster as a B-movie back in the day, but this benefits from looking decent enough, thanks to good talent behind the camera, and it has some good moments in it, even though it was done on the cheap. 3.5/5



The Post (2017), while in post-production on Ready Player One (2018), Steven Spielberg started production on this gripping historical drama, written by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer (Spotlight (2015)), Spielberg had to go forwards on this one now, realising the significant relevance it had, especially with "Fake news" everywhere. It's a well made film with a great cast. Washington 1971, and Washington Post heiress Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep) struggles to juggle her personal life with the dubious shareholders of the newspaper, while the Post's editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) always strives to unearth the truth, and wants the Post to take on the likes of The New York Times with big scoops. They get their change when the New York Times publishes extracts from the Pentagon Papers, which details secrets about the Vietnam War. When the New York Times are legally barred from publishing anymore, Bradlee sends assistant editor Ben Bagdikian (Bob Odenkirk) to find the papers, and he finds Daniel Ellsberg (Matthew Rhys), who spirited them out of the Pentagon, and Graham and Bradlee have to decide whether to publish them. It's a tense film, which is a great character piece as well, Streep, Hanks and Odenkirk give out the best performances, and it's well written and very focused, and it hammers home that in times like these, there are some good people who strive to find the truth and expose it. This shows Spielberg is a great director of actors, and he gets the best from them. 4/5

Early Man (2018), from Aardman Animations, and directed by Nick Park (Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run (2000)), this is a prehistoric caper which is closer in tone and structure to Chicken Run, with a group of underdogs wanting to fight for their honour. It's great fun and it sends up the game of football, as well as other underdog sports films and beyond as well. Set during the Stone Age in a lush, green valley, a tribe led by Bobnar (Timothy Spall) lead a quiet life, hunting rabbits and the like. Young tribesman Dug (Eddie Redmayne) tries to convince Bobnar that they should hunt bigger animals like woolly mammoths, but Bobnar scorns that. But, their peaceful lives are shattered when their valley is taken over by Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston) who banishes the tribe from the valley, Dug manages to get to Nooth's city, where the population comes together for football. Dug challenges Nooth to a match, with the valley and his tribe at stake, Nooth accepts, expecting them to lose. But Dug gets help from football fan Goona (Maisie Williams), who agrees to coach Dug and his tribe, even though they're useless. It's very daft, and it plays like a VERY English take on The Flintstones, and there's some brilliant gags throughout with a great attention to detail. You can never go wrong with Aardman, and their films always put a smile on faces. 4/5



Never Let Go (1960), directed by John Guillermin (The Towering Inferno (1974) and Death on the Nile (1978)), this is a dark British thriller that was used to showcase Peter Sellers' ability as a serious actor. While he's absolutely terrifying and gripping, the rest of the film is very jittery and predictable, which is a shame when you consider what could have been. In London, Lionel Meadows (Peter Sellers) is a shady garage owner who has a sideline in stealing cars, respraying them and selling them on. He gets a local biker gang led by petty thief Tommy Towers (Adam Faith). One day they steal a Ford Anglia that belongs to salesman John Cummings (Richard Todd), who needs his car to get around in his job. So, Cummings decides to go to great lengths to find out what happened to his car and get it back, he gets information from newspaper vendor Alfie (Mervyn Johns) who witnessed it being stolen. But, after getting information, Alfie is threatened by Meadows and his heavies, leading Alfie to commit suicide. Against the advice of the police and wife Anne (Elizabeth Sellars, Cummings takes on Meadows. Sellers is an absolute revelation in this film, and it's a shame he didn't do more, but this drags for most of the time, and it's hard to sympathise with the protagonist in this, as the silly idiot didn't insure his car in the first place! If it focused on Sellers more and his wheeler dealing, (sort of like Del Boy's evil twin), it would have been a much better film. 3.5/5



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