Hail Caesar - Danny's Review

This was my first trip to the cinema in a few months and I left a little disappointed. I know that Coen Brothers films are normally made up different stories and characters but Hail Caesar! has too many unconnected parts, and too many pointless celebrity cameos. Scarlett Johannsen added nothing except a pretty face for the trailer. The main story involving George Clooney is the best one, and I would have been happy with just that. I wanted a bit of escapism, but the constant switches and irritating narration by Michael Gambon. Ralph Fiennes was of course excellent too, and I'd allow him to stay.

There is an attempt to create a mood of Hollywood's Golden Era, mixed with some film noir, as Josh Brolin acts exactly like he's in Sin City, but it's all a bit tongue in cheek and half hearted. The only scene I found funny was when the studio boss interviews the four religious leaders. In general the humour is very low key and I was surprised to hear the three other people in the cinema laughing out loud.

There are several extended scenes that take place on film sets, with lengthy musical numbers from different genres. While these are all quite entertaining they do nothing to move the story forward. In fact there isn't much story at all, which would be fine if there was a more consistent attempt to create an atmosphere. Instead I felt like it was jumping around with nothing building up. The denouement when Josh Brolin decides that actually he's going to stay in the crazy movie business is also rather flat. Frankly, I'd rather have watched Star Wars again.

Star Wars Episode VII - The Force Awakens - Danny's Review

This is the second most eagerly awaited film of my lifetime, behind The Phantom Menace. Although I'd say that one isn't as bad as you remember, it was still a disappointment. The Force Awakens however was enjoyable even on the first watch.

Despite waiting an embarrassing month since the release date until watching it I'd heard surprisingly few spoilers. All I knew that there were many references to the previous films. What I didn't realise in fact was that it's actually quite close to a remake of A New Hope. Both films begin with a droid containing a map being launched out on to a desert planet, and the plots continue to run in parallel. There's the surprise father-son combo, a hologram evil-lord and so on. There's even a new even-bigger Death Star, which is so obviously the same that Han Solo (he's back) makes a joke about it. Virtually every vehicle from the original trilogy reappears here, along with all the old cast members too.

So in that sense The Phantom Menace is a much more original film, and adds to the Star Wars mythology, rather than simply repeating it with a woman in Luke Skywalker's role. Daisy Ridley does play the role well though, and is a stand-out, alongside the decent John Bodega as a Stormtrooper turned good. His story arc reflects the major theme of the movie(s), rejecting or accepting your destiny. There's really no fighting it, and it seems you might as well accept what's coming to you and get on with it. Indeed when the rather weak sub-villain Kylo Ren is reminded that he's not all bad "You know I'm right" is almost a convincing enough argument.

This film is light on light-sabre battles, and that's no bad thing. The main battle at the end is more about establishing that Rey has got some skills, rather than just an out and out fight of the Darth Maul kind. In general the special effects are fairly toned down, which is a relief. The low point are the rubbish CGI monsters set loose on the Millenium Falcon. Comparing their colourful wavy tentacles with the excellent pet Rancor in Return of the Jedi makes me long for models.

There is quite a lot of humour, inevitably involving the comedy sidekick droids and Chewbacca. In general it's pretty good though, and so you can tell it wasn't written by George Lucas.

The whole appeal of a fantasy epic like this is to hint at a whole intricate universe, and there are certainly a few interesting unresolved issues for the next two films. Are there other Jedi's that have survived? Who is Rey's family that she was waiting for? Who is the 20 foot tall hologram man? Is the Star Wars Universe controlled by The Architect from the Matrix sequels and destined to loop round forever with repeated Death Stars, evil empires and Resistances?

Spectre - Danny's Review

After the success of Skyfall this is another strong Bond film. It combines big screen appeal with high quality actors. Even the action scenes were good. In the first big car chase through Rome's tiny streets Bond is also on the phone to Moneypenny back in London, which means if you're not that excited by fast cars you get some plot development too. It's all round entertainment, with a bit of comedy too, mostly through Ben Whishaw as Q.

The plot is similar to Skyfall. There is a super-villain from Bond's past, who has secretly been behind everything that's going on even though we've never heard from him before. The mechanism of evil is technological; in this case persuading several intelligence agencies to combine all of their spy satellites so everyone can be monitored all the time. They also mention drones, which may be prescient but may backfire and date this film in the same way that the Parkour of Casino Royale clearly dates it to the mid 2000s. The traditional plot element of trying to conquer the world, is absent. Instead this film sets up a nemesis who may appear in future films. Without giving it away, it's a re-imagining of equivalent scale to Khan in Star Trek into Darkness (but not as rubbish).

The Austrian villain is nicely played by Christoph Waltz, who acts calm but with an edge of madness. Sometimes you actually feel sorry for him, as he's clearly a bit of an outcast and has become progressively more annoyed with Bond always getting the better of him, looking flash and getting the women. He is introduced with a lot of gravitas through a very unusual board meeting, unlike anything I've ever experienced, where a candidate for a vacant board position demonstrates his credentials by gouging out his rival's eyes. This muscleman turns into an effective henchman. I looked him up, he's former WCW Wrestler Dave Bautista, and he wisely has been given a non-speaking role.

Waltz plays a very well organised villain, who has all sorts of protocols in place. For example, at one point in his lair he presses a button and all the ranks of spy-hackers behind him stop what they're doing and stand up. Do they practice things like that? He also lives a life of luxury, and when Bond willingly enters the lair a very smart servant pops up with champagne. Bond plays into this life of sophistication, and is dressed to kill wherever he goes. It's another world he lives in. At one point he's on a train with Bond Girl Léa Seydoux (a french Kate Moss, but better actor). He passes his suit to a butler with instructions to "press this" - you wouldn't get that on Virgin Trains.

Behind the front line and waging a political war are veteran spy-director Ralph Fiennes, and flashy new kid Andrew Scott, who you will probably recognise as evil as he played Moriarty in Sherlock. Needless to say it turns out there's still very much a place in the world for Bond's approach, and you can't trust computer's to do a man's work. There's also a few tie-ins to the previous Daniel Craig Bond films, and that makes me want to watch them all again, even perhaps Quantum of Solace.

This is the longest Bond film yet (148 minutes), and it is sometimes a little slow. Highlights for me are the opening scenes in Mexico, and the villain Christoph Waltz. I think it's going to be a massive hit, I went on Tuesday at 3pm and the cinema was packed.

Suffragette - Danny's Review

This was on my list of 20 films to see this year so I was delighted to go and watch it at the local Grosvenor Cinema in Glasgow (currently I've made it to about half the list). I was not disappointed.

The film follows one branch of the suffragette movement, who represent a cross-section of the women in society. At the bottom is Carey Mulligan, who works all day as a washerwoman with an abusive boss and has a small boy and husband to look after. She can't afford to risk being outcast for her political views, but gets accidentally sucked into the movement and pays a heavy price for it. Although the film is presented as an everywoman's story to add to the historical gravitas Mulligan brushes with the movement's leader Emmeline Pankhurst, gets interviewed by mustachioed Prime Minister Lloyd George and the finale of the film is with the King at Derby Day.

Although the big picture is Votes for Women, what the women really want is equal pay and conditions, such as in Made in Dagenham. However, since the protagonists are so clearly right it doesn't matter too much. They are treated badly, and deserve better. If it wasn't for the fact that it really happened, it would be slightly hard to believe. The film does not present any clear villain for the audience to rail against, just rows of smartly dressed uncaring politicians, and local men and housewives who scold those women who stand up for their rights. The chief policeman, Brendan Gleeson, is portrayed as quite sympathetically following the law even though he knows it's wrong.

You get the sense of how helpless the women are when Carey Mulligan comes back from a week in jail and asks her husband (Ben Whishaw) if their boy has been eating well. He replies that the woman across the road did her best, as it didn't even occur to him to cook himself. "I'll make some tea" she replies.

There is a parallel to the ANC movement in South Africa, where Nelson Mandela gives up on peaceful protest and becomes and terrorist leader. Just as Mandela eloquently defends this view as necessary when all else has failed, so does Helena Bonham Carter as a veteran suffragette militant.

Overall this film gives a nice insight into the suffragette movement, and even when nothing's happening it's interesting to see London life one hundred years ago. My wife enjoyed it too, and declared it a must-see.

Director Sarah Gavron, writer Abi Morgan and stars Carey Mulligan and Meryl Streep

Macbeth - Danny's Review

Since this could be the last time I go to the cinema for a long while I wanted to finish with a bang. Something big and dramatic. This new Macbeth fits the bill. The opening battle, set in a cold and rugged Scotland, is epic in nature but also dirty and brutal. There's occasional slow motions on Michael Fassbender as Macbeth, grimly slaying his enemies, with not a word spoken.

For me the problems started when they began talking. They've not updated the original Shakespeare, and it's quite hard to follow. I imagine if you saw the text written down you could work it out, but it's often quite hard to process in real time, especially as a lot of the dialogue is delivered as voice over or through a scraggly beard. It's a bit like having English as your second language - you can understand what they're saying, but only if you concentrate. Sometimes you'll miss most of a sentence and rely on understanding one or two key words only. At one point I started daydreaming and realised I hadn't understood anything for the last minute, and was just watching Fassbender crawl across the floor grinning maniacally.

Thankfully the plot is fairly straightforward. Macbeth kills the old king, becomes king himself, then feels guilty about it. What is trickier, and I didn't actually get this until reading another review, is that director Justin Kurzel (soon to release Assassin's Creed) has added a twist, and Macbeth's children now feature. So that explains the child with stones in his eyes at the start.

Although I enjoyed the story, because of the effort required to focus I've never felt closer to falling asleep in a movie. Some of it is OK, such as when Macbeth seeks out the three witches he then meets someone else on the road: "Saw you not the Weird Sisters?" he asks. You can understand that and get a nice sense of olde-worldiness. But some of the rest of it, which I can't give an example of because I don't know what they were saying, didn't make sense to me.

The production had a very authentic feel. When Macbeth's reinforcements arrive at the start, they really are only children, including possibly another Macbeth son, though I'm not sure. This alleged son also speaks with a genuine Glasgow accent, which you don't hear often.

Once he becomes King Macbeth foolishly believes he's safe, because he can't be killed by man of woman born. He doesn't realise that MacDuff (Sean Harris) was untimely ripped from my mother's womb so doesn't count. Macbeth also knows he'll be safe until Birnham Wood comes to Dunsinane castle. In the play the wood comes to the castle (sort of) as the attacking soldiers strap twigs to themselves for camouflage; in the film this is adapted so instead the wood is burnt and the smoke comes to the castle. Macbeth recognises what's happening when the smoke arrives, and senses his impending doom.

In fact, almost from the moment he kills old King Duncan (David Thewlis) Macbeth is morose. He knows it's not going to work out well. There's a memorable scene when he and Lady Macbeth host a terrible dinner party, ruined by Macbeth's insistence he can see the ghost of Banquo, who he also murdered. Lady Macbeth is played by Marion Cotillard, who is a more calm and scheming counterpart to Fassbender's very expressive Macbeth.

Overall a grand film, which I think I will enjoy next time at home with the subtitles on.

The Martian - Danny's Review

Contains spoilers!

Following Alien, Bladerunner, and the under-rated Prometheus (I loved it) this is director Ridley Scott's fourth trip into space. The Martian is based on a book by Andy Weir, and follows it pretty closely. The major difference is that whereas the book focuses almost exclusively on the abandonned astronaut (particularly for the first three quarters, after which it gets rubbish) the film introduces the rest of his crew straight away, and spends much more time with the rescue attempt back on Earth. This is a shame, as what makes The Martian unusual is the loneliness and ingenuity of Mark Watney, the lost man on Mars. And he's not fighting aliens or anything like that, just growing potatoes and trying to survive.

The psychological aspect of Watney's lengthy exodus are not really explored, we just see him getting really thin and growing a beard. But Matt Damon is quite watchable and easy to empathize with. The jokes that he makes (constantly saying he doesn't like disco, and swearing) are fairly funny, which is not what you expect from a man with no one to talk to for a year. But then Watney is a remarkable character, and although his message of 'one problem at a time' could be useful to anyone he applies it particularly well himself. I hope if for some unlikely reason I found myself marooned on Mars I'd display the same ingenuity and resilience. The best parts of the film are when he deals with the everyday planning of life as the sole coloniser of Mars, either in montage form (growing potatoes) or in real time (running out of ketchup for his potatoes).

There is a strong support cast. Jeff Daniels is good as the mission boss. He's capable of making the hard decisions. Others are not so steely, in particular Jessica Chastain as the head of Watney's mission, who risks her own life (and therefore indirectly those who depend on her) by continuing to search for Watney when he is first lost, and again at the end. Watney has spent hundreds of days doggedly slogging along to protect his life, whereas others seem quite happy to recklessly throw theirs away. And NASA astronauts would never mutiny, it's ridiculous. It made me angry, nearly as angry as during Air Force One where they jeopardize everyone to try and save the president. Finally, Sean Bean looks and sounds like he's in a totally different film (a very boring one). Look out for the bit where he is given a tiny cup of tea and doesn't know what to do with it.

I found all of the excitement at the end during the rescue a bit of a distraction, that's not what the film is about. If you want to watch people spinning around in space, watch Gravity again. One thing I did like was the PR aspect of NASA back on Earth, and the scenes reminiscent of Apollo 13 where the engineers on Earth try and replicate what Watney is doing on Mars. It was a shame that of all the problems Watney solves they spent lots of time on the communication aspect, as his solution to that (using a two-digit code for each letter) is not an elegant one. Other that that of course I loved all of the use of Science and Maths. It's great to have a hero who's a Botanist and Engineer.

Overall, it was a slick production. The story moves along well and looks good. One advantage of using CGI to represent zero gravity is that since no one knows what it's supposed to look like, so it always looks fine. While I was really hoping for Castaway set in space I still found this very enjoyable. A final minor plus point is the use of picture credits at the end, normally reserved only for Army films but welcome here too.

No Escape - Danny's Review

There was a cracking film in the 90s called No Escape, starring Ray Liota. This is the description from IMDB:

A soldier convicted for murdering his commanding officer is dumped and left to die on a prison island inhabited by two camps of convicts.

What a great plot. Unfortunately the new film called No Escape is not a remake, and features no prison islands. But it does have the same tension and claustrophobia, and of course difficulty of escaping. This is no surprise, given that it's directed by John Erick Dowdle, who seems to specialise in horror in confined spaces. His last three films were about: demons in the catacombs under Paris (So Above, So Below); getting stuck in a lift with Satan (Devil); and a film crew trapped in a building with a zombie apocalypse outside (Quarantine).

Although there are no supernatural elements in No Escape, it still feels like a horror film. But this is horror for adults, where the greatest fears are losing control of the situation, and losing your children. Owen Wilson and his wife and two small girls are off to live in some un-named Asian country (Cambodia?) because of his job for a shady multinational company. Once they arrive things don't seem quite right, the TV and internet don't work and there's no newspapers. At first they casually put this down to it being "Just Asia" before things escalate rapidly, and soon they're in the middle of it desperately trying to get out.

The film nicely captures the fear of being in a foreign land. They can't speak the language. They don't know where anything is. They stand out everywhere they go, particularly Owen Wilson with his floppy blond hair. And there's hordes of machete-wielding locals after their blood.

Pierce Brosnan plays the veteran tourist, who helps out the naive family. It's a good role for him and I'm not sure if it's deliberate but I like his wandering accent. He's a well-travelled man. There's one point where he delivers a political speech and attempts to reverse our sympathies, but it doesn't work too well, as the movie is shot almost like a zombie film, with hordes of nameless baddies.

It also plays with a few of the classic moments in thrillers, such as when the youngest daughter drops her favourite toy and wants to go back, and when Owen drops his map and we think he's lost. The tension really gets cranked up, so much so that for the last 30 minutes I was sitting on my hands and didn't realise they'd become completely numb. The first invasion of the hotel and the rooftop scene are particularly good. Owen Wilson is believable as the reluctant hero; he's scared himself but has to keep his family moving. His wife is a bit annoying in panicking under pressure, but I suppose that's her role. At least the little girls are quite stoic, including quietly peeing themselves when they are hiding to avoid having to break cover.

Overall, this is a solid thriller, with some very thrilling moments.