Tag: review

Get Out 

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Daniel Kaluuya (who so brilliantly played Tea Leaf in Psychoville) is Chris, an African American boyfriend to white girl Rose, played by Allison Williams. She is taking Chris home to finally meet the parents and Chris is worried that the whole black white thing may crop up. But on the surface it seems not at all. Except the two black home helps seem out of it somehow, weirdly docile and if anything, acting like upper class white folks. 
I routed for Chris all the way and when the families true intent is uncovered, the proverbial hit the fan. There’s a great tension building and it’s just a matter of when the cork is going to pop. It’s not horror as such but it’s dramatic tension may have you gripping the arm rest. I was really impressed with the conclusion which attempted something less straight forward and yet still simple. 

This is an effective little film which is a thrill ride with laughs. 

Power Rangers (12a)

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Bryan Cranston, Charlize Theron and Bill Hader are highly skilled actors which bring a huge weight of talent to something you probably think of as throw away fluff. 

Don’t think of Power Rangers as some cheap plastic toy of a movie- that’s the TV series.
Here is a Transformers soaked telling which starts off with a n** gag surprisingly and even had a close up of said manhood. 

There’s even swearing ! This is strictly a 12a movie and even I was left a little red faced with my 8 year old. 

‘Have you ever Morphed?’

‘Only in the shower!’ 
It’s a high budgeted take of five tough late teens who all come together to discover they are the new chosen galaxy protectors whether the feel it or not. 

Evil queen Rita Repulsa has risen again to destroy the world and our new heroes have to hand together quickly if the Earth is to be saved. 

The effects are top notch to be fair although it does take ages for them to get in their Zords. 

The huge boss Goldar is beautifully created in its molten gold form and I had a blast watching it stomp around the city. 
It’s just a great version of what is obviously a great idea but sadly done in many a tacky way for tv. 
But I say again- this isn’t really suitable for young kids unless it goes over their heads. 
Just remember it’s 12a which kinda means 12 unless your kid is desensitised. 

Beauty And The Beast 

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A curse is out on the self important prince who has to win the heart of a lover before the final petal or a rose falls or the inhabitants of the castle will stay in their cursed form. You know the score. All your favourite songs and characters are lifted straight from the cartoon classic and given a real life makeover. Emma Watson shines as the beautiful rose Belle, filmed in such a degree of HD I could see a pimple on her chin. She has a great singing voice too. 

Dan Stevens plays the beast in the castle and I had a touch of a problem with the CGI of the beast’s face. I thought it looked less photo real and more cartoon animated in parts. 

I’m not a huge fan of the cartoon to be fair but I can see that this is a great conversion to live action. It felt to me that there were new songs added but I could be mistaken. I always enjoy Be My Guest, maybe because it reminds me of The Simpsons parody See My Vest.  

Plenty of singing and good actors giving their all in a good reworking that may have you shed a tear even though you know the outcome. Some wonderful animation and voice work of the animated ornaments which carry much of the movie and help out with some amusing comments. Luke Evans as Gaston and Josh Gad as LeFou are good fun as the bromantic couple who aim to get Belle’s attention. Didn’t rock my world but was perfectly executed for those who will hope to love it. 

A Cure For Wellness

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As I watched this movie with its young male lead entering a creepy institution up on a hillside, I thought of Shutter Island. Dane Dehaan is a b list leonardo de caprio in many ways and this film is a b rate Shutter Island from start to finish. But I adore Shutter Island so the fact that I merely loved this is still high praise. 

Jason Isaacs is the main runner of the institution and he has Celia Imrie and Mia Goth among his customers who are dosed up on the water which comes down from the Alps themselves, cleansing the body and mind. 

Dehaan has an accident which is filmed in a glorious way by Gore Verbinski and that’s when our lead finds himself holed up at the institution and drinking this mysterious elixer. As the film title suggests, maybe the water is one thing to be avoided. Cue drug like hallucinations (or are they real?) scenes where our hero searches behind the scenes in order to seek out the truth. 

It’s a long film and I was on board right up until late in the running time when a white hooded coven scene began and I thought all was lost but I was wrong. I’ve seen a handful of films which don’t know how to wrap things up and always seem to go to the crowd of people in robes holding candles. It could be accused of going a bit far in its closing moments but I just about held on enough to stay with it. 

Not wholly original then but something to seek out if you did enjoy Shutter Island. And I certainly did enjoy both. 

Hidden Figures 

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During NASA’s space race with Russia, this tale of the African American women who used their brilliant minds to do the hard undiscovered maths to plot the trajectories for space travel is little known, until now. Katherine G. Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae) play the lead trio of brilliant minds in a time of segregation. The ‘coloured only’ bathrooms and even coffee pots only for people who aren’t white show a sickening approach to society even amongst the Intelligent.  

Al Harrison (Kevin Costner) is the boss who makes a stand against the stupidity of segregation and Kirsten Dunst plays Vivian Mitchell who is an intelligent white lady amongst men who gets treated differently. 

The film has a light breezy tone and score which makes it an easy watch. Getting a man into space is no easy task and the intermingling or real footage and filmed works well. All the cast are excellent and I’m so glad this story is finally out there. 

Fifty Shades Duller 

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Fifty Shades Darker presents itself or more accurately Christian Grey as ‘kinky’. This film is simply neither kinky nor anything other than vanilla, which is what Ana wants from their relationship. Or so she says. One minute she’s saying she wants a nice relationship with him putting ‘all that’ behind him and yet she’s the one asking to have him do his kinky stuff. 

But putting on wrist cuffs for less than 60 seconds and then taking them off for normal sex isn’t the stuff I’d label kinky. 

If you find a couple of spanks or baby oil edgy then I’ve got news for you, it isn’t. It’s like saying having a cuddle while wearing wellies is kinky. 

This movie meanders through scenes finding a couple of women from Grey’s past crossing paths with Ana to

Show him for the horrid possessive spoilt brat he is. 

But still she looks at him with loving eyes moments later. 

This film isn’t particularly interesting and simply serves to slightly flesh out one small step further in their relationship. I find both lead characters to be unlikable and the new boss who makes a pass at Ana was like something out if a bad soa Opera. 

Just totally vanilla. 

Being rich must be cool though I admit but both Grey himself and Ana both treat that as boring. 

Under The Shadow 

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A mother and daughter in Tehran are pestered by a djinn which is kind of like a genie in eastern folklore but often gets characterised as a demon. 

Either way, the mother of her young girl is left believing the things her daughter says are happening. 

It’s always refreshing to see a foreign country’s version of the supernatural because you’re not used to the ‘beats’ which you’ve seen time and time again in Hollywood horror. 

The film caught me off guard a couple of times and I’m grateful for that after becoming immune to the standard techniques.
Low key often works the best. 

The Lego Batman Movie 

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Too good for adults and too good for kids- is what I thought at the opening of this movie. The Lego Movie was also top class for any age. Batman was arguably the best character in that movie and so him getting his own film was a no brainer. 

Lord and Miller seem to have the golden touch with their releases and as I expressed, this Batman outing is first class. 
Sooo many Injokes and background visual gags that one viewing only scratches the surface. Oh the humour at batman’s gloominess and lonely existence in his billionaires cave is hilarious. There is a wealth of extra characters from other franchises too which take a ribbing. It’s a visual feast which is almost too much as is the slightly long running time, especially for the little ones. But it’s such fun. And yes there’s a catchy earworm of a song at the end. 

The Midas touch has worked again. 

La La Land

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I don’t like musicals. But I like Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone so I had to witness La La Land for myself. Gosling plays the jazz piano player hoping to open his own jazz club and Stone plays aspiring actress list in the audition process and cafe work.  

The movie features all the stuff about musicals which make my skin crawl, such as sudden singing and dancing, swinging round lampposts and synchronised footwork whilst sitting in a bench. 

And yet, I found this film so warm and charming that none of it bothers me. Like sitting in a warm bath of emotion. 

Stone shows her remarkable acting abilities as she auditions, turning from happy to upset in a fraction of moments. Gosling simmers with charisma as he follows his dream. 

The two don’t necessarily convince me as a couple to look at but again, none of that spoilt my enjoyment. Many of the scenes backdrops are picture postcard worthy and even the music actually had me getting swept along with them. 
I loved the ending too, although some audience members seemed perplexed. 

Life doesn’t always wrap up neatly and neither should movies. 
A success on my eyes.   

C Whitehouse 2017

A Monster Calls (2017)

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Watching J A Bayona’s directing of A Moneter Calls had me thinking I must’ve known his work from The Babadook since the two films both centre around a single mum, a boy and illustrations. But in fact Bayona is responsible for The Orphanage not The Babadook. 

Here we find Conor (Lewis MacDougall) who is differing from a recurring nightmare of losing his mother. Sadly when he wakes up, he remembers that he really is losing his mother to a terminal illness for which the various treatments aren’t working and time is running out. Sigourney Weaver plays the grandma of the boy who is the possible future of Conor if his mother does slip away. 

Weaver plays her almost like some wicked witch and adds to Conor’s issues. As if that’s not enough he’s getting bullied at school every day. 
Whether the approaching tree giant played by Liam Neeson is an embodiment of a mental breakdown or not is unclear but the tree man says he will visit Conor four times. The first three, to tell three stories and the forth time will be for Conor to tell the truth about his nightmare. 

On first glance this looks like the BFG done for young teens as a tale of coping with cancer. 

But it’s too upsetting for children – and adults really. Felicity Jones has the role of mum in an ever diminishing image of a dying mother. 

The visuals are fantastical enough before the tales told by The Monster are illustrated in a wash of imaginative watercolours. Live action meets cgi meets animation. It’s a work of art in many ways. 

The emotional punch is something you’re constantly trying to avoid as you watch but when the end of the movie comes it’s difficult to keep your emotions in check for much longer. This film is for the child in us all as adults. The one that screams inside for their parents when times get hard. 

Impressive but tough.