Brett Ratner directs Jackie Chan , Chris Tucker and Tzi Ma in this rote buddy cop comedy where mismatched police officers are assigned to rescue a Chinese diplomat’s abducted daughter.
“I didn’t like the movie. I still don’t like the movie. I don’t like the way I speak English, and I don’t know what Chris Tucker is saying. If you see my Hong Kong movies, you know what happens: Bam bam bam, always Jackie Chan-style, me, 10 minutes of fighting.” – Jackie Chan
Love Jackie. Hate Tucker. Why is it even called Rush Hour? Because of the one throwaway line by a henchman?!
Renny Harlin directs Saffron Burrows, Thomas Jane and Samuel L. Jackson in this shark actioner where smart predators flood and take over a scientific installation.
Everyone remembers this for Samuel L Jackson’s speech. Premium in-flight entertainment centre trash. Saffron Burrows’ “scientist” is just a pretty body to ogle but Jane and Jackson are both top value. It is essentially a soaking wet Jurassic Park in terms of formula. The kills make their way down the credits with few surprises. At the start of most scenes you can tell exactly whose turn it is to become shark lunch next. Almost like the spotlight resets onto them ominously. LL Cool J’s chef has own little bonus movie away from the doomed ensemble and that is even dumber. Burger King cinema. Everyone else does it better but once in a while you just need to check in for yourself that the Whopper still exists.
Soi Cheang directs Louis Koo, Sammo Hung and Richie Jen in this Hong Kong martial arts epic where an immigrant tries to survive the gangs of lawless Kowloon in the Eighties.
A throwback to A Better Tomorrow but at triple speed and with gaudy stylings. The fights and wire work are impressive, graceful yet chaotic. The dedication in recreating the high rise slums of Kowloon with sets and CGI is laudable. And just so motherfuckers can be dropkicking each other about it too! This has oodles of plot, back story, sidebars and revelations. It can be way too dense at times. Just let the story wash over you. Philip Ng is on fire as the ambitious evil henchman and we are always going to want to see Sammo.
John Stockwell directs Kate Bosworth, Michelle Rodriguez and Sanoe Lake in this gritty surfing flick.
It comes as no shock that actor turned director Stockwell made his bones in Top Gun. That movies’ narrative arc and Tony Scott eye for sexy visual sun warp are a touchstone here. This has aged rather well. A character study with a hard earned empowerment message. The sports movie stuff is formulaic but the life detail the envelops it are fought for and true. I can take or leave Bosworth (though physically she does bring it in all but “the world’s best surfer” impossible shots). Rodriquez and Lake are indelible, believable presences though. I have seen far worse teen flicks grow into cult gems.
John Irvin directs Patrick Bergin, Uma Thurman and Jürgen Prochnow in this historical adventure retelling the Robin Hood legend with an emphasis on Norman / Saxon tensions post-invasion.
Muddy. Closer to the stories I read as a kid but nowhere near as slick or as fun. Bergin lacks that movie star magic but turns in a serviceable lead performance. Uma feels too young here to be his love interest. The anti Europe messaging is baked in deep. Not terrible, just redundant.
Steven Soderbergh directs Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan and Callina Liang in this supernatural thriller where a ghost observes a family at risk who move into a new house.
The awesome David Koepp wrote this (his second collaboration this year with Soderbergh) and it has strong Panic Room vibes. It is a one-watcher and the characters are often very unlikable but it works. Becomes very intense before the twist and feels like it is saying more about human toxicity than many a drama that explicitly sets out to do such a thing. Soderbergh also cheekily winks at us the viewer, our POV and our ability to do nothing but watch as a tragedy unfurls. Sounds pretty good, hey!? But, like I say, a classy five finger exercise that would appear to be rewarding only the once.
Greg Kwedar directs Colman Domingo, Clarence Maclin and Sean San José in this prison drama following the rehearsals for a new play with the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program.
Strong, sensitive drama. The acting is deeply involving and only a fool would disagree with the messaging. It did exactly what it said on the tin and in that respect, considering the hype, I was a little underwhelmed.
Drew Goddard directs Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth and Fran Kranz in this self-aware horror flick where five co-eds go for a weekend in a creepy forest only for their actions to be observed and controlled for some greater evil.
To my mind the last great meta slasher movie of the cycle. In that it is a horror inspired by The Evil Dead / Friday The 13th where the logic behind the massacre means the tropes have to happen. The cliched become ritual with a live commentary track from the manipulators / production crew. But here’s the pudding… beyond all this smart alec multilayered stuff, there’s still a very strong horror movie to follow. One that goes all out zany, mega kill, freakshow-alooza for the last act. Like a sanitised, multiplex friendly House Of A Thousand Corpses. This is the closest cinema has ever got to a good couple of episodes of Buffy (hey, check out those creatives…). Kristen Connolly has definite sex appeal as our final girl but you can’t wait to get back to the snippets of snark and conspiracy from underground Mission Control. Run by the always welcome working stiffs Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins. They rock in this.
Christopher McQuarrie directs Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell and Pom Klementieff in this concluding chapter of the espionage franchise where Ethan Hunt and his team are humanity’s last hope against The Entity.
I am possibly too partisan to write sensibly about the final chapter of a franchise that has dominated my adult movie going life. When the opening montage of greatest moments and Hunt glorification fired up I had literal tears in my eyes within seconds. The sole big problem with Final Reckoning is it is too long and the excess is not just in the action but also in reminding us what has happened before, still needs to happen and just how amazing Tom Cruise is. I do not disagree with the self worship (he’s earned it) but it does create slack. We get two massive spectacle sequences. A near wordless underwater submarine assault course is breathtaking, while the ticking clock biplane dogfight countdown finale is simply some of the riskiest stunt work an A-List star has ever put themselves through for our popcorn munching pleasure. They are both as mind blowing and pulse raising as any beloved OTT ‘Tom’ moment in the series entire. Only on a gargantuan scale. McQuarrie knows how to sustain tension on a colossal canvas. And his now honed take on the IMF world has unlikely teams and omnipresent masterminds. Bringing us right back to his classic, gold standard script for The Usual Suspects. Only here plutonium yields replace silencers. He is in his element. Angela Bassett is back now as ‘the prez’ in a sideshow remake of Fail Safe. Klementieff steals focus constantly as the deranged killer turned good guy. It is a giddy big screen confection. Maybe one step down from the near consistent highs of the series entire but a more than satisfying full stop. Choose to accept it.
The Coen Brothers direct Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand and Michael Badalucco in this film noir where a quiet barber plots an escape from his empty existence.
For OG Joel and Ethan fans this feels like the end of an era. From Blood Simple through to this everything they made together was Golden Age. You may have your favourites, we all have our preferences, but each and every one was of a quality so high, from a perspective so unmatchable, with nary a stinker within. Afterwards the record gets a bit more spotty. There would still be 5 star masterpieces (No Country For Old Men, True Grit) but there is a growing unease that they started making films because they thought they should rather than they had a long gestating script with a burning destiny to be put into production. A lesser film perhaps but still a no less enjoyable film from Joel and Ethan. Here they share their passion for James M Cain’s writing and classic noir visuals. It is grimmer, bleaker and more nihilistic than anything the brothers have ever done before or after, and the conclusion is an unsatisfying punchline, yet this is a mystery you watch for its quintessential Coens casting. Everyone is perfectly housed in a fine part – Billy Bob Thornton’s best dramatic performance here is not entirely dissimilar to his best comedy role (The Barber is a repressed, neater ancestor of his Bad Santa). Quality work if not all that crowd pleasing. The crisper than crisp B&W cinematography from Roger Deakins matches the empty, hopeless machinations.
Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 