Michael Bay directs Ryan Reynolds, Mélanie Laurent and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in this espionage action comedy where a set of anonymous experts fake their deaths and try to right the world’s wrongs.
Bright, brash and smug. The incoherent time structure strings together three big and not unenjoyable set-pieces. The stuff inbetween is pretty repetitive and predictable. Reynolds gets to have a few crowbarred scenes in where he sasses an authority figure and gets the girl. Very paint by numbers, but hits the dumb pleasure target if not the exact spot.
Luc Besson directs Pierre Jolivet, Jean Bouise and Jean Reno in this post-apocalyptic adventure where a pilot and a doctor find themselves besieged by a brute.
A future without dialogue – images of survival in abandoned office blocks and fallout zones. Armour made of sporting goods and weapons of simple ingenuity. It looks great, the sexual politics stink and the arty take on nu-medieval desolation is convincing. The jaunty synth score by Eric Serra is simultaneously the best thing about the whole production and the one element that really doesn’t chime with everything else. As debuts go Besson made a fine first attempt.
Michael Almereyda directs Peter Sarsgaard, Winona Ryder and Jim Gaffigan in this biopic of social psychologist Stanley Milgram, the genius behind some of the most infamous experiments around human interaction of the 20th Century.
A dark horse in that it takes the currently stale life story subgenre and breathes some fucking life into it. It helps that Milgram’s work is so fascinating and the ethics of his methods leaves unresolved ground for conflict. It helps that Sarsgaard brings his inherent quirk and untrustworthiness (a creepiness that Hollywood has mined for multiple dozen villains over the years) and repurposes it into an intelligent, flawed outsider. It helps that Almerayda’s stark visual choices first seem obtuse and synthetic but slowly make sense given its subject’s take on reality and obedience to normative behaviour. And the always compelling Ryder shines in the “underwritten” wife role. A bottom shelf, behind the display spinner gem well worth getting down on your haunches and finding in your video rental shop of choice.
Josh Safdie directs Eleonore Hendricks, himself and Jordan Zaldez in this mumblecore crime drama about a New York pickpocket on a kleptomaniac spree.
Never has a film reminded me so much of the music video for Daft Punk’s Da Funk. We wander around aimlessly, lonely, witnessing cute Eleonore commit her small crimes. It all adds up to nothing. We shift into a joyride of unrequited romance and then low rent fantasy. She eventually nicks a copy of The Taking of Pelham 123. You enjoy that Eleonore. It is a good ‘un. Big up Manhattan guerilla location shoots.
Yeon Sang-ho directs Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi and Ma Dong-seok in this zombie actioner where a group of mismatched commuters are stuck on a train during a pandemic where the infected are on board and at every stop.
Really involving for the first 90 minutes but then gets a little too repetitive. Ma Dong-seok makes a lasting impression as the working class man of action stuck with more selfish, useless protagonists. Fast moving carnage, neat gore.
William A. Fraker directs Lee Marvin, Jeanne Moreau and Jack Palance in this Western drama where a wild but likeable cowboy sees the world changing faster than he can figure out what to do with himself.
A very amiable, ambling swansong to the frontier… much like Lonely Are the Brave but less didactic or The Wild Bunch but action-light. There is rowdy knockaround and a final drawn out shoot-out that resembles the ending of The Man With Golden Gun but within a cattle plant rather than an island lair. In the main though, Monte Walsh is deftly character orientated, essaying how Marvin’s unrefined outsider considers romance and civilisation and obsoletion over adventure, larks and freedom. Told with nice humour and humanity… hell, even Jack Palance plays a good guy in this.
Steven Spielberg directs Goldie Hawn, William Atherton and Ben Johnson in this police chase drama where a young mother breaks her beau out of jail to rescue their son from the Texas foster system.
Goldie Hawn is superb in this – oscillating from flighty mania to determined focus. It is a sharp, natural and attractive lead turn that slowly gets overpowered by car chases and shoot-outs. Spielberg finds himself a little lost in the set-pieces here… happier to remake an Americana, down home, fried chicken It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and leave his key pair (Hawn and an intense, young Atherton) in the back seat once they are put in motion. When he does touch base back with them and their naive Highway Patrol hostage, his character work is nimble and nice… But you can tell his heart is out there in the wide shots and action sequences. He doesn’t quite trust the humans in his toy box just yet. Like Duel and Jaws, this is a film of constant movement… like a shark or a truck. This one changes lanes quite often… sometimes cruising towards a sweet silliness, other times hurtling towards impending tragedy. By the midway point we stay in that adverse direction too rigidly… someone has definitely seen Bonnie & Clyde and taken copious notes. The unavoidable downer on the horizon sucks the small pleasures out of the ride. Marvellously shot by Vilmos Zsigmond (magic light, permanent sunset) this is a fine little film but, again like Duel, judged among the Spielbergian oeuvre it is mere scratch work before the masterpieces to come.
Chris Columbus directs Adam Sandler, Michelle Monaghan and Kevin James in this sci-fi comedy where a team of middle aged dorks take on an alien invasion of Earth that has modelled itself after the icons of 1980’s arcading.
Mix high concept with a team of mismatched comedy performers, garnish with special FX. Joins Men in Black and Evolution as a formulaic attempt to recreate Ghostbusters. Obviously Men in Black made proper dollar but I’m surprised there’s never been a better than average attempt to catch this elusive lightning in the bottle… discounting Ghostbusters II, of course! This is the epitome of watchable and undemanding. Yet Sandler’s brand of nostalgia, brashness and ensemble bluntness doesn’t really need blockbuster CGI sequences to drape its gilets, polo shirts and shellsuits over. Kevin James does nice work as the least likely actor to ever play the POTUS.
The Safdie Brothers direct Adam Sandler, Julia Fox and Eric Bogosian in this comedy thriller where a sleazy diamond dealer starts placing wild bets using his and everyone else’s property as collateral.
Watch seedy Happy Gilmore (all that rage, all that glorious, toxic masculine rage) throw his life away one terrible decision at a time. Watch Julia Fox in a star making turn – sexy, vulnerable, matching her comedy mega star line-for-line, thrash-for-thrash. Watch those credits… there’s something about an on-location Manhattan shoot and the particular font chosen that pleasingly harks back to Wall Street or Fatal Attraction or any number of adult entertainments from the 1980s. Watch the shuddering pace of the comedy set pieces… Sandler’s desperate pleaser unable to get a security door open is five minute comedy masterclass, accentuated by the fact that the punchline might be his ruin or death rather than a mere pratfall. The closest existent movie I could compare it to is Locke. A thriller where we are stuck with a constantly moving man scrabbling in existential quicksand. The difference is while Hardy’s construction expert tried his best to solve his multitude problems on his phone, Sandler’s Howard Ratner seems content shovelling more and more weight on to himself. The Safdie Brothers immersive, kinetic direction and editing make you hold his hand, look him straight in the eye as he continually burns bridges and breaks bad. This is powerhouse stuff… Sandler deserve full credit for owning the screen the entire journey and taking us to hell and back and then turning it around and going further than hell itself. Intense Saturday night brilliance.
Cathy Yan directs Margot Robbie, Ewan McGregor and Rosie Perez in this spin-off from Suicide Squad were the Joker’s girlfriend breaks out on her own – leaving her vulnerable, directionless and embroiled in a plot to murder a teen pickpocket.
A hot mess but not an unlikable hot mess. Think Hudson Hawk and you aren’t a million miles off… The Birds of Prey concept is totally lost in the mix, this is Harley Quinn’s spotlight and the rare moments where she leaves it to others, you experience drag. Rosie Perez and Mary Elizabeth Winstead are great performers stuck in background roles. Only Ewan McGregor’s camp, villainous Black Mask matches the vibe, energy and duality of the production and its star. This feels like the most evil fun he’s had since Shallow Grave. A lot of the action appears gracelessly bolted on, though the more reshot it looks the better it is. There’s is a final lap funhouse rumble tumble that feels so sloppy I suspect it is the reason Chad Stahelski got speed dialled in by Warners to add some John Wick style pop. If you want meta, glitter, daftness, knockabout and neon the rest is very watchable. If you want slick, predictable seamless product then Captain Marvel is available on demand. There’s nothing wrong with a two thirds successful, one third coherent punk anarchy blockbuster every now and again… unless you are the studio basing your first quarter’s profits on it. I’m all about an interesting failure over a factory processed adequate. This will find its following in later life.
Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 