Guy Ritchie directs Jason Statham, Holt McCallany and Jeffery Donovan in this heist thriller where a mysterious but highly capable man joins an armored car security division with a secret agenda.
Easily the best thing Ritchie and / or Statham have done in a long old time and criminally didn’t even get a cinema release on their home turf. There’s a lot of cool restraint here but still plenty of bruising action, sweaty swagger and pulp crime posturing. Unlike their mockney back catalogue this feels genuinely dangerous. Has vibes of Killing Them Softly and… whisper it… Revolver. Even if this violent and moody mix puts you off then the Stath’s off-shift collection of chunky knitted cardigans are immaculate. Perfect cast of grizzled testosterone faces to boot. More like this one please.
Juan Carlos Medina directs Olivia Cooke, Bill Nighy and Douglas Booth in this Victorian-era sleuther where an outsider detective tries to find an elusive killer who may be a famous man of his times.
I went to the cinema to see this at the cinema on release, dozed on-and-off through the first act then left for my bed and wrote it off. That was a mistake as there is clearly a lot to appreciate here. Almost too much. This adaptation is as indebted to Alan Moore’s unwieldy From Hell as it is Peter Ackroyd’s source material novel. It shares the haphazard overkill of both works. Media drowning in footnotes and distracting stubs. Olivia Cooke and Douglas Booth are both noteworthy as shady but vulnerable theatre types. If anything their musical hall meets Grand Guignol performances are the juiciest sections. The very bad murder stuff pushes the gore envelope. Who doesn’t want to see a mangled penis at the start of your Christmas stay at Mum and Dad’s house?
Michael Mann directs Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeline Stowe and Wes Studi in this historical romance epic set in 1757 during the French and Indian War.
Rousing adventure. Immersive world building. Hot romance. History lesson. Pretty much the full cup. Mann’s adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper’s Natty Bumpo classic is impeccably crafted. A bouquet of set-pieces that play out like quality, high-end drama. Militia attacks, fort sieges, sniper-assisted runs, terrain tracking, declarations of love, sacrifice. Oof! It plays every button on your keyboard with the exception of comedy. Maybe the only reason Braveheart is the slightly better spin on this recipe is the fact Mel’s epic finds time for a few more laughs.
There are three fantastic performances. Day-Lewis is a given. This might be his least abrasive, most accessible turn. He completely convinces in the dashing about / hand-to-hand combat cliffhangers. Stowe brings a sensual intensity, her chemistry with our hero is tangible in every interaction. This is a romance that needs minimal dialogue to express its power. Wes Studi’s villainous Magua is the deepest character. His taciturn speech and face manages to sell the nuances and emotions of the character in small minor tremors. He is a formidable antagonist but one whose fanaticism and resolve is never undersold or entirely unsympathetic. When Magua is onscreen bad things happen, not unjustifiably.
Period drama feels a little outside of Michael Mann’s wheelhouse. Sure, the men here often live by strict codes and have preternatural abilities but usually when we watch Mann he is urban and on the edge of the future. Strange that his second finest film feels like such an outlier. Dante Spinotti’s cinematography does an excellent job of selling us the past without ever betraying the artificiality of the construct. Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman’s swooning, diddly-dee-ing score might just be one of the finest ever committed to cinema. Wolf Kroeger’s authentic production design is career best work – and that man built the Popeye village! Just perfect, something for everyone, blockbuster cinema.
Marie Kreutzer directed Vicky Krieps, Florian Teichtmeister and Colin Morgan in this period drama exploring an imagined chapter in famous Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, Elisabeth of Bavaria’s later life.
You know exactly what she is feeling but are never sure what she is thinking. Except when she flips the finger to a family banquet on exit. Excellent lead performance from Krieps with strong support all round. The imagined alternate history and anachronistic elements never seem fey or overdone. Or if it was about a completely fictional royal, the central story of repression and redundancy would still be compelling, believable. The modern spikiness of Krieps’ portrayal stops this from feeling like a mere pensioner’s special prestige piece, I wanted more of that in particular, but realise this might have limited it for the intended audience.
Tom George directs Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan and Ruth Wilson in this Agatha Christie spoof murder mystery where two mismatched cops investigate a killing in London’s theatreworld.
Cosy crime with a strangely subdued Sam Rockwell. And who wants that? Saoirse sparkles but everything else is diluted Marple made to look like cheap Wes Anderson. Anyone want to explain the stylistic choice of the pointless split screens other than boredom in the editing suite? Get the feeling this has every element it would need to work but needed a far surer hand at the helm. Almost dozed off a few times.
Phil Karlson directs Broderick Crawford, Donna Reed and John Derek in this tabloid journalism noir based on a novel by future director Sam Fuller.
One could easily see a remake with Bob Odenkirk, Bryan Cranston, John Hamm or (God rest his soul) James Gandolfini. Fans of modern premium television might very well enjoy this in its nascent form. There are obstensible heroes but we align with the villain of the piece. The alpha male editor also happens to be a murderer with a secret past. As his crimes become headline news he can’t help himself but keep his eager beaver reporters on the story as each revelation that inches towards his unmasking sells more copies. This has everything you want from a noir; urban decay, snappy dialogue, hardboiled sleazes and ultra-efficient good girls. All wrapped up in a bleak fatalist’s little bow.
Jim and Ken Wheat direct Warwick Davies, Wilford Brimley and Aubree Miller in this Star Wars universe spin-off for kids.
Lurch from the Addams Family movies and a Doctor Who spacewitch hunt for the annoying moppet from Caravan Of Courage. Better effects and a lot more battle action. But still some weak ass TV movie fudge with a whiny child protagonist.
William Wyler directs Fredric March, Dana Andrews and Teresa Wright in the post-war drama following three demobbed heroes as they try to settles back into civilian life after WWII.
The first night back home where hard drinking supercedes intimacy with missed loved ones. The crashing reality that all your achievements in battle mean little to department store managers looking to hire cheap or loan approvers. A fiancee is shown the nightly routine it takes to get a man with no hands into bed, this is her chance to back out of her wedding to a childhood sweetheart. A deserved Best Picture winner. Sure it is an unashamed issues movie, and can be just as cackhanded as the worst examples of such a flick at times but it is candid and seemingly untethered by the Hays Code. Alcoholism, bad marriages, prejudice towards disability, PTSD, affairs, even boom time economics are given a judicial kicking. And because you care about the three leads and their extended families, the three hours of running time fly by. It is too hard hitting to be a soap but it pushes those romantic and domestic buttons keenly. It is too slick to be depressing. Handless, non-actor veteran Harold Russell more than makes his mark among the starry cast. His arc is particularly well delivered. To see this kinda preachy narrative be so keenly written and managing to make such flawed characters so emphatic… it is a rarity. I like them all so much I’d wager on rewatch I might score this even higher.
Peter Howitt directs Gwyneth Paltrow, John Hannah and John Lynch in this parallel lives romantic drama where we follow a woman’s year if she caught a tube and also if she didn’t.
Far more grim and morose than its light romcom reputation suggests. I’m not really a fan of any of these leads. It is a decent enough concept given a braver spin than it needs to have but there’s very little warmth or joy here. The one thing Sliding Doors gets accurate is just how much Londoners drink in a working week.
Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske and Wilfred Jackson direct Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Beaumont and Hans Conried in this Walt Disney animated classic adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s play about adventure and imagination.
Captain Hook is a fantastic villain. Even though he is a puffed up buffoon, he seems more sympathetic a character than the little eponymous sociopath we are supposed to root for. Then again Tinkerbell really is a pin-sized psycho sexpot too. I guess that’s what makes this Disney cartoon so exciting. The lack of morality, the sense of danger. The busy plot and all the wonder. Yeah, some elements are now offensive… it is an unashamed product Victorian imperialism… And I’m not about making excuses for how times have changed for the better. I’m pretty sure British literature and Hollywood myth makings ideas about the real Native Americans weren’t set by the tick tock of Peter Pan’s clock. Let’s lose our shadows, fly over London and just enjoy a madcap fantasy for what it is. This is what child’s play and juvenile make believe are all about. “Turn us loose? You mean this is only a game?”
Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 