Clare Beavan directs Joan Collins, Anthony Newley and Maxwell Reed in the celebration of the B-movie and soap star narrated by the subject herself.
A puff piece. Glamorous but uninsightful. The recent and not much better Jackie Collins doc at least covers both sisters with a slither more integrity.
Tim Burton directs Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman in this horror musical about a vengeance fuelled barber who returns to London with only murder on his mind and access to a pie shop to handily dispose his bodies in.
“There’s a hole in the world like a great black pit, And the vermin of the world inhabit it, And its morals aren’t worth what a pig could spit, And it goes by the name of London.” What a joy this is… at times! Includes all my favourite post-Sleepy Hollow Tim Burton moments. The Pretty Women duet is a glorious 5 star number – it gives me tingles. Helena Bonham Carter’s By The Sea fantasy oscillates between jolly celebration and grumpy self parody of Tim Burton’s long established and unwavering house style. The usually bloodless director handles the Grand Guignol violence orgiastically. Paint red sprays, sluices and drip in big delicious and malicious globlules. As an actual musical, it is a tad too trapped and minor. The plot moves at a snail’s pace and hits a standstill too often, then it just ends on a clunk, with a few character threads untied. It almost gives up. So a wobbly experience overall but I utterly love me some of those scenes. And I’m struggling to think of a better Depp performance since Curse Of the Black Pearl. He’s all internal and malevolent and single minded. You can’t think of anyone else who could play this role. Which is the best kind of star vehicle. Writing this review makes me want to watch it again right now despite its glaring structural issues.
Fran Rubel Kuzui directs Kristy Swanson, Donald Sutherland and Paul Reubens in this teen horror comedy where a mallrat cheerleader discovers she is “the chosen one” – a super powered defender against a scourge of vampires.
Colourful and throwaway. It is difficult to see how this formed the basis of one of the finest TV shows ever but at least Swanson and Reubens give it their all. Works better as a Bill & Ted rip-off than a prototype.
Mervyn LeRoy directs Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack and Henry Jones in this psychological thriller where a mother begins to suspect her angelic daughter of murder.
Dated and unimaginative filming of a stage play. Some of the reams of cod psychology spouted off resemble that penultimate scene in Psycho on a loop. The acting styles are all over the shop, ranging from shouting ham to mannered mania. The sickly sweet killer kid is at least deployed well but this only really works now as a camp artefact.
Reginald Hudlin directs Samuel L. Jackson, Damon Wayans and Jeff Goldblum in this boxing satire where a promoter and a journalist conspire to create a white heavyweight contender.
Tediously unfunny sports comedy. Samuel L. Jackson puts in full effort as the Don King pastiche but the punchlines just aren’t there. Scenes run aimlessly past their poorly elaborated point. The butchered script tries to aim for an Elmore Leoonard ensemble caper mode but isn’t even in the same weight division. Can’t believe I’ve watched this twice.
Spike Lee directs Denzel Washington, Ray Allen and Rosario Dawson in this basketball movie where a convict is given a week out of prison to persuade his estranged son to sign up to a certain college’s team.
A seemingly forgotten movie which is a true shame as it sees Denzel and Spike doing some of their best work in the moments. It is a celebration of basketball. Untethered to plot and reality at points but always transfixing. Some experiments work better than others; the mix of Public Enemy and orchestral work by Aaron Copeland means the soundtrack is never hidden away in the background. The finale embraces the mythic and the epic in a way that is truly affecting. Only Milla Jovovich’s subplot as a sad hooker ruins the flavour. She cannot match the calibre of Denzel’s powerhouse and their scenes together drag. I think Spike included her to offer some redemption to his lead’s crime against his wife but it just doesn’t click and would have benefited from being hacked out. Minor gripe as most of this is powerful stuff and a love letter to the young athletes who make the sport.
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett direct Melissa Barrera, Jack Quaid and Jenna Ortega in this late sequel to the self aware slasher phenomenon where a new series of murders pull characters new and old back to Woodsboro.
I like scary movies and I love Scream movies. This scratched a slasher itch in a way little has over the last decade. The new director team really understand the slow menacing physicality of Ghostface, the sad power that impassive plastic face has when it is inches from you, being the last thing you see before the final knife stabs in. The whodunnit aspect was solid, it certainly looked like a Scream movie and I chuckled at the self referential stuff. Nothing too unpredictable happens and the set pieces lacked Wes Craven’s mastery of the form but they were impish rehashes of what we need from this series. It would be unfair to accuse a Scream episode of being too self aware but the winks to the originals play better with the fanbase than the slightly clunky “re-quel” commentary. It is admirable how effortlessly this tries to reset the format back to what worked in 1996 when the rule book was celebrated and canonised. If this is your first visit to the cinema to watch a Scream I reckon you’ll have almost as big a blast as I did when I was teenager. The returning players are cleverly rationed carefully throughout the later sequences, giving the newcomers a chance to shine early on. David Arquette’s Dewey proves MVP again with a decent amount of meaningful screentime. The killers are probably the highlights of the new cast but I’d happily see the survivors try and carry Number 6 on their own and let those old hands get on with their lives. Or at least have one spree off before being drafted back in.
Lana Wachowski directs Keanu Reeves, Jessica Henwick and Carrie-Anne Moss is this meta legacy sequel to the dystopian sci-fi trilogy where Thomas Anderson is a game designer forced to revisit The Matrix universe where he made his name.
Who’d have thunk the most coherent Matrix entry would be the most fun? I’m not going to lie and say I wasn’t a tad bored in the middle, which still has that unsanitary blend of spectacle smothered in endless exposition, but the finale was slambang big screen entertainment. A remix of the original key kinetics with a lot more sheen and oomph. And even when the cyphers are prattling endlessly on at least nobody this time sounds like they’ve swallowed a thesaurus. Keanu and Carrie-Ann look fantastic for their age but Jonathan Groff, Neil Patrick Harris and even Jessica Henwick also manage to make a positive impression. Not being an ardent fan of this cycle of movies I’m not sure whether me saying “it was alright” really matters but… it was alright.
Paolo Sorrentino directs Toni Servillo, Anna Bonaiuto and Giulio Bosetti in this character study of corrupt Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti.
Cold and compelling central performance from Servillo. I don’t really know enough about Italian politics to follow all the characters we are introduced to but their abundance and grim fates at least let’s us know just how vast this corruption was. Information overload but how else do you tell a tale where one man’s grasp on every corner of the Italian system was so total. As you’d expect from Sorrentino, the movie looks like great art, there are moments of magical realism that really shake you. The soundtrack is particularly devilish, the montage where we are introduced to Andreotti’s inner circle is scored to a distant whistle and sounds ominous as fuck.
Steve Miner direct Bridget Fonda, Oliver Platt and Brendan Gleeson in this monster movie where a massive alligator terrorises some middle aged nerds.
The kinda monster movie where nobody wants to kill the predator. Operating just a quaver above what it can get away with. The script is just a smidge smarter than it needs to be, the cast just a smidge more established than is the norm, the jumps just a smidge more unexpected. It is not perfect and certainly never breaks form but you can have forgettable fun here.
Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 