Leo McCarey directs Deborah Kerr, Cary Grant and Cathleen Nesbitt in this classic romance weepie about a playboy and a nightclub singer who fall for each other on a cruise ship that happens to be bringing them both back to their respective betrothed. 

I finally figured Jeff Goldblum’s universal appeal out while watching Cary Grant in this golden classic. When Goldblum’s first started headlining movies he seemed like some unheralded, never seen before personality. But in actuality him and Grant are a DNA match. Gangly, mahogany skinned charmers, exuding suave, intelligence and arrogance, reading lines with a wink and a wince as if they cannot believe uttering such contrivances are their well paid jobs… and with the constant underlying current that something decadent and debauched will be going on in their hotel suite that night and you’d be invited if only you were cool enough. Grant has his perfect foil here in the definitively elegant and worldly Deborah Kerr. She is quite simply perfection in everything I’ve seen her in. As the white telephone machinations of the plot play out you get the feeling this is far from an innocent souffle. The characters and incidents skirt as close to adult and permissive as a big Hollywood confection could in 1957. For all the witty repartee and classy innuendo, the singing orphans and tragic gloss this is quite a progressive romance… pure as the driven snow compared to what was being made a decade later but equally quite unashamedly aroused compared to anything from even a year before. A shimmering magic pervades every moment, none more so than the subtle sequence of foreshadowing when the pair take an early ten minute time out from flirting to visit Grant’s grandmother. Clearly all the characters know this is the last time they’ll see her and it is never spoken aloud, just silently acknowledged and luxuriated in. The iconic moments involving Empire State Building rendezvous and sofa ridden reunions revived by Sleepless in Seattle are brilliant but that ten minutes of heartfelt interaction, nostalgia and mournful joy… Wow! About as good as the fil-lums get.

10

Terry George directs Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon and Christian Bale in this epic romance set around the Armenian massacre.

Worthy intentions, a strong cast and a Leanian epic sweep cannot help the overriding sensation that is purposefully aiming for solid rather than special. George’s earlier Hotel Rwanda had a real urgent, desperate energy distinctly missing here. Many of the soapy convulsions that bubble up are resolved by the very next scene, meaning the romance and tragedy never sustain themselves.

5

James Cameron directs Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Michael Biehn in this submarines make contact with aliens action romance. 

Cameron’s most mature spectacle. It still delivers all the tech heavy effects work, Man versus Machine adventure, roughneck dialogue,  save the world hippy dippyness you’d expect from the King of the World. But it also amps up the adult romance to a satisfying degree so that Harris and Mastrantonio go from Grant / Hepburn Hawksian barbed banter to moments of heart wrenching sacrifice on a par with THAT famous scene from The Last of the Mohicans. The titular Abyss refers as much to these two crossing their gulf of anger at each other and reuniting as partners as it does about aliens hidden down ocean trenches. Nukes, submersible battles, flooding gangways and galactic tsunamis aside, Cameron’s least popular epic has a uniquely captivating adult drama at its very core. It is kick-ass intense too.

10

James Gunn directs Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and Dave Bautista in this sequel to the tongue in cheek a-holes save the universe smash.

Remember when we got two or three blockbusters a year? Now I just look forward to a rare week off. Maybe this review is tainted a little by mega-spectacle product fatigue as whatever negatives I am about to write the underlying point is GotGV2 is tons of daft fun. I was sold by the Lethal Weapon 2/3 inspired teaser where characters banter over a very dangerous bomb, Gunn’s riff on that old ruse proved to be a great advertisement yet again. And for the first hour Gurdians delivers exactly the same orgasmic rush as a Lethal Weapon sequel; an ensemble you already love, with a well established chemistry, bantering in a series of episodic adventure sequences. This first hour is a gooey, colourful buzz of entertainment. Everyone rocks… Bautista, Baby Groot and Michael Rooker’s Yondu especially. It is in the final half the party lurchingly flags. An overlong spaceship dominated finale, heroes Pratt and Saldana seem sidelined, bonus Kurt Russell loses his human form (big mistake as he’s perfect when he is actually on screen). It is not terrible but it noticeably is not on a par with its predecessor nor the preceding hour of hoot and heehaw. To look at another famous sequel, franchise shepherds often refer to Empire Strikes Back as the pinnacle of follow ups. That the fact it not only gave us more but went darker shows us the right way to expand a beloved hit. But look again at Empire Strikes Back. It has no plot. Hereoes get split up, go on seperate jaunts, reunite a little changed and matured. There’s no MacGuffin, no new threat, no finish line to race towards. The subplots are a means to an end to spend more time with the characters you love in a universe you want to explore. The first half of Guardians 2 embraces this ideal, the second half rejects it to tie the most elaborate knot to bind it all together and make it feel like an intentionally wholemeal tale. Knot tying is not fun.  Silly, as it could have gotten away with just being a mixtape of cool, self evicerating, visually trippy moments. Like for example that glorious credit sequence of Baby Groot dancing while chaos unfurls around him. Or the five brilliant credit post credit stings… scenes that have little bearing on any grand narrative but serve as great irreverent punchlines. That’s how Guardians works best, giving the whole thing arcs and conclusions gets in the way of the fun. Just let em be the ragtag bunch of space pirates everyone ridicules, everyone needs.

7

Warren Beatty directs himself, Lily Collins and Alden Ehrenreich in this period romance that explores the Howard Hughes myth. 

A strange and uneven experience this… but one I personally found quite appealing. It shifts uncomfortably between farce, straightfaced romance, character study, business drama and a treatise on breaking free of societal constraints. The opening half hour moves at a tremendous clip. 20 seconds scenes knock into each other conveying whatever piece of plot information, character establishing or punchline they need to then moving swiftly away. And when the much talked about yet so far unseen Howard Hughes finally arrives (much like Rick in Casablanca – older masculine irrestible American ideal meets a sort of capitalist fairy godmother) we slow the ride right down to spend as much time luxuriating in the star turn from Beatty. Indulgent? Yes. Worth the wait? Even more so. It is a fantastically pleasing bit from the aging charmer, managing to keep Hughes’ motivation in the shadows while exposing his well documented eccentricities to harsh light. So the star crossed kids are a bit underdeveloped, they still chime with each other and look nice. So some of the plot points are muddled so you have to go on Wikipedia after to figure out how certain inconsequential characters had major bearings on the final outcome. So it probably needed one editor and one producer rather than twenty to reign it all in. You get a glimmering look at the final days of the golden age studio system, you get a nice song scene just like a movie from that period would always serve up and you get to play spot the major star in a one line role every other scene. You even, after all that pace and content, get a montage of people enjoying their packed lunches – like a little rest area in the middle. Rules Don’t Apply… never has a film been more appropriately, and if you are generous like I am about to be, admirably titled.

7

 

Michael Curtiz directs Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, and Olivia de Havilland in this historical romance between a dutiful Queen and a proud Earl who privately adore each other but publically seem heading towards lethal loggerheads. 

A lovely bit of glorious technicolor this. Bette Davis scorpion kicks the ball in the net with a queen that is stroppy, spiteful, paranoid, romantic, shrewd and vulnerable. It is an absolute powerhouse of screen acting, so much so that whenever we leave her chambers for battles or the machinations of ambitious courtiers the movie noticeably flags. Flynn cuts a dashing, charming romantic interest but he is often left treading water in Bette’s churning wake.

6

Richard Donner directs Sylvester Stallone, Antonio Banderas and Julianne Moore in this action thriller where rival hitmen square off, based around a spec script from the Wachowskis. 

A horrendously disjointed actioner where four small scale claustrophobic sequences (concieved no doubt to be low budget hair raisers) are given big glossy treatment and therefore come across as flat as month old Pepsi.  Meanwhile the three stars all put in discordant, unlikeable turns, they grate off each other like concrete on chalk. Either the script needed to be opened out even further or focussed in on what made the elongated set pieces work as concieved… but this mid level fudge comes across as boring, confused and a waste of a lot of assembled talent. Everyone is at fault. Duller than a silencer aimed at wet cotton wool. The finale involves a character trapped between floors in a dusty, rotten hole… appropriate.

3

F. Gary Gray directs Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson and Charlize Theron in the eighth installment of The Fast and the Furious’ ludicrous car thieves turned espionage disrupters action franchise. 

Nowhere near as much ridiculous fun as the previous OTT sequels – the purpose to the action just isn’t there, while what little plot there is is emotionally uninvolving. When not going through its shouty, destructive motions the brightest stars shine despite a staleness in the endeavour entire. The Rock and Jason Statham have good business when paired off together and also with their separate (unusually) kid orientated sequences too. Kurt Russell sparkles while popping in to pick up his paycheck as the coolest M that ever got to deliver a bit of mission exposition. Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriquez get lumbered with the excuse of a story this time, and it is not a difficult one to unpack so little credit for them. While Charlize is far superior than the cornrowed Dr No part she is saddled with. Too much screaming at desktops and into Walkie Talkies as expensive things smash into each other for her in particular and everyone in the main, not enough calculated peril and pop. A step backwards for the normally cheekily satisfying brainless blockbuster brand.

5

Rob Reiner directs Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore in this top end military courtroom drama from an early screenplay by Aaron Sorkin.

The glorious full stop to Reiner’s unmatched 7 movie uninterrupted ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ golden run as a director; one of the very finest courtroom dramas. His gift for combining accessible and warm, starry Americana with hard edged themes continues here with his helming of Sorkin’s verbally showy debut. All the hyper knowledgable walking and talking repartee and elegant character work you’d expect from Mr West Wing is boldly here. A Few Good Men boasts one of those fantasy cast lists that you find yourself seeing uncredited headliners in one scenes roles but it all really boils down to two brilliant performances in the end. Cruiser delivers his last boyish turn here, his journey subtly lampooning the star persona his mega success was built around. After a decade of playing “the best at what he does” here it is actually his cockiness, need to win and easily acquired talent that is used as a trap against him. He has been specifically chosen to represent this case because he is a Maverick and a Top Gun, someone used to making the easy deal rather than risking his rep to fight a losing case. Such a “winner” as that gets the antagonists closer to getting away with murder and corruption rather than giving him the edge. And antagonists don’t come any more snarlingly seductive as Jack’s Colonel Nathan R. Jessup, a true movie monster. A fanatic who swings between speaking in long winded sarcastic wind-ups or barking aggressive sound bites. A terrifying man essayed in four perfect scenes with all of Jack’s unique confidence. “There is nothing on this earth sexier, believe me, gentlemen, than a woman you have to salute in the morning. Promote ’em all, I say, ’cause this is true: if you haven’t gotten a blowjob from a superior officer, well, you’re just letting the best in life pass you by.”

9

Park Chan-wook directs Kim Min-hee, Kim Tae-ri and Ha Jung-woo in this erotic thriller that transplants the plot of Sarah Waters’ Victorian  lesbian servant noir,  Fingersmith, to Japanese occupied Korea. 

The Oldboy director blends his masterfully crafted cinematic vision and his cheeky sense of farce to create his warmest work yet. The twisting plot knots in and out of itself with athletic grace. The brilliant sex scenes, both metaphorical and explicit, are loaded with charm, power and narrative drive. And the two female leads naturally befriend you while never proving utterly trustworthy. A big, dirty, intelligent, gorgeous romp.

8