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Isle of Dogs (DVD Review)

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Starring: Bryan Cranston, Ed Norton, Liev Schreiber, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Kotu Rankin, Scarlett Johansson
Directed by: Wes Anderson
BBFC Certificate: PG
Running time: 102 mins
UK Release Date: Out Now

Our Score

Wes Anderson can be an infuriating director sometimes – far too arch and quirky for the sake of it. However here, in this stop motion tale, he decides to use his imagination but reign in the gaucheness. The result is a film that radiates warmth, charm and a gentle humour, without trying too hard.

It’s an intriguing set up. In a corporate, greedy Japan of the future, the country has decided to get rid of its garbage on a tiny island. There too they put their dogs, after they discover the mutts all have dog flu and snout disease. The poor mutts scrape out a miserable existence, feeding on scraps and trying to stay alive.

However, the adopted son of the emperor finds his own pooch has been shipped onto the island, and so flies out to try and find Spots. He crash lands and befriends a gang of dogs, including stray Cranston, Norton, Murray, Goldblum and Johansson, who all join in a doggie version of Saving Private Ryan.

And what an adventure they have. There are all sorts of visual gags as the gang make their way across the polluted, ruined island which was inhabited by humans before a tsunami emptied it. My own favourite moment was the old golf course and country club, which now has “no members”. The attention to detail is fantastic, the dog shelter is made of recycled sake bottles, and the boy’s plane is a knackered piece of wonder.

There is clearly a message here about recycling and cleaning up our fragile planet, as well as the love of humans for dogs – say the title of the film quickly and you’ll see what I mean – but it’s never heavy handed.

Half of the fun is trying to place the voices to the actors, and Cranston is particularly good as the stray who has never felt the love of a human, or even the joy of a doggie snack.

Overall verdict: If you don’t go out and get a dog immediately after watching this joy you’re not, well, human. Wes Anderson has produced a gem. It’s one of his best films ever. Or the best, even?

Reviewer: Mike Martin

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Tomb Raider (Blu-ray Review)

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Starring: Alicia Vikander, Daniel Vu, Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Kristin Scott Thomas
Directed By: Roar Uthaug
Running Time: 118 mins
BBFC Certificate: 12
UK Release Date: July 16th 2018

Our Score

Many people were surprised when it was announced there was going to be a Tomb Raider movie reboot, especially considering the Angelina Jolie movies of the early 2000s aren’t exactly well remembered. However, as with so many other videogames, there’s no intrinsic reason it couldn’t be turned into a good movie. Although for some reason, Hollywood has great difficulty turning games into serviceable film.

This time around Jolie has been replaced by Alicia Vikander, who like her predecessor stepped into Lara Croft’s shoes shortly after winning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar (Jolie for Girl Interrupted and Vikander for The Danish Girl). Her Lara is a young woman who’s fiercely intelligent and smart, but whose life shifted sideways when her adventurer father went missing, presumed dead, when she was a child. [Read more…]

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The Bridge 4 (DVD Review)

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Starring: Sofia Helin, Thure Lindhardt
Certificate: 15
Running time: 480 minutes
Release date: July 2nd 2018
Language: Danish/Swedish (English subtitles)
DVD/Blu-Ray also available with Seasons 1-3 as box set

Our Score

Arguably the biggest shift in TV drama over the last years has been the rise of the Scandi noir. We Brits always love a murder mystery, but then The Killing came along it changed the TV landscape. We fell in love with the Scandi gloom, the atmosphere, the excellent acting and brilliant script. After The Killing came a flood of dramas, including Wallander, The Legacy, an Anglo-French version of The Bridge called The Tunnel, and of course, The Bridge. [Read more…]

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Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (DVD Review)

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Starring: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Caleb Landry Jones, Lucas Hedges
Directed By: Martin McDonagh
Running Time: 110 mins
BBFC Certificate: 15
UK Release Date: Out Now

Our Score

For many Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri seemed to be the smart bet to win the Best Picture Oscar. While The Shape Of Water had made the early running, Three Billboards gained momentum through the Award season and seemed like it might cruise to a victory. In the end it didn’t get the big gong, although it did win for the exceptionally strong performance of Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell. Many were also surprised it lost for writer/director Martin McDonagh’s screenplay, although it is a couple of issues with that screenplay that may be the reason it didn’t win the biggest award.

McDormand plays the hard-bitten Mildred, a woman filled with anger at the local police’s inability to catch whoever was responsible for the rape and murder of her daughter. To try and force the authorities into action she hires three billboards on a rural road, putting up massive posters asking why there have been no arrests and specifically calling out police chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson). [Read more…]

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The Post (Blu-ray Review)

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Starring: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks
Directed By: Steven Spielberg
Running Time: 111 mins
BBFC Certificate: 12
UK Release Date: May 21st 2018

Our Score

He may be in his 70s but Steven Spielberg shows no signs of slowing down. He managed to slot in The Post while simultaneously making Ready Player One, something most directors half his age wouldn’t even contemplate let alone succeed at.

The Post is a bit of an old school flick, set in the 1970s and telling the story of the Pentagon Papers, a leaked set of documents that revealed that while in public the military and government was still positive about the war in Vietnam, privately many felt that it was unwinnable and that official finding bore this out. The authorities from President Richard Nixon downwards unsurprisingly did’t want this made public, while the press felt it was imperative to publish it. [Read more…]

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Batman Ninja (Blu-ray Review)

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Starring: Roger Craig Smith, Grey Griffin, Tony Hale, Tara Strong, Adam Croasdell
Directed By: Junpei Mizusaki
Running Time: 85 mins
BBFC Certificate: 12
UK Release Date: May 14th 2018

Our Score

‘Batman Ninja’ is a title that sounds like the fever dream of a six-year-old, but it’s not inaccurate for this latest DC animated movie. The film takes the Caped Crusader to Japan and into full-on anime mode, as this was produced and animated in the Land Of The Rising Sun. As the Japanese production company behind the film says in the special features, they were allowed to make a movie where Batman was essentially a guest in their country and had to adapt to their way of doing things, rather than the other way around. As a result this is a Japanese film with Batman in it, rather a Batman film set in Japan.

In the film, after an incredibly quick setup Batman is mysteriously thrown back in time after something goes wrong with the villainous Gorilla Grodd’s time displacement machine. The Caped Crusader finds himself in medieval Japan, but one that’s got a few problems as the time machine also sent a Rogues Gallery of Gotham’s bad guys into the past. Those villains arrived two years before Batman, which has given the likes of Joker, Poison Ivy, Bane and Penguin time to start gaining control of Japan, using their futuristic knowledge and evil skulduggery to control the locals.

Batman sets out to stop them, quickly realising that the Joker and girlfriend Harley Quinn are likely to be his biggest problem, as they want to seize control of the whole of Japan. However, the other villains aren’t to be underestimated either, especially as fighting them means Batman quickly starts running low on the arsenal of futuristic gadgets and technology that help him be a superhero. He’s going to need help to get this sorted, especially when it’s time to start fighting giant robots! [Read more…]

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