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Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool (Blu-ray Review)

23rd March 2018 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: Jamie Bell, Annette Bening, Stephen Graham, Julie Walters, Kenneth Cranham
Directed By: Paul McGuigan
Running Time: 105 mins
BBFC Certificate: 15
UK Release Date: March 19th 2018 (UK)

Our Score

In the late 1940s and 1950s Gloria Grahame was a big name Hollywood actress, known for the likes of The Big Heat (1953) and Oklahoma! (1955), as well as winning an Oscar for The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). However, her star power soon faltered.

Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool picks up her story in the 1970s, by which time Grahame (Annette Bening) is appearing in theatre in Britain. The older star meets the much younger Peter Turner (Jamie Bell), with a May-December romance developing. Grahame is flattered by the attentions of the younger man, while Turner is impressed by his beau’s celebrity – something that’s beguiling and exotic for a working-class Liverpudlian lad. [Read more…]

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:
ACTORS: Jamie Bell, Annette Bening, Stephen Graham, Julie Walters, Kenneth Cranham  DIRECTORS: Paul McGuigan  

Paddington 2 (Blu-ray Review)

11th March 2018 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Hugh Grant, Brendan Gleeson
Directed By: Paul King
Running Time: 104 mins
BBFC Certificate: PG
UK Release Date: March 12th 2018 (UK)

Our Score

Before the first Paddington movie, a lot of people were convinced Michael Bond’s classic character couldn’t work as a live-action film. Not only was it a major success, but the sequel was even better received, with Paddington 2 becoming the first film ever to get more than 190 ‘Fresh’ reviews on RottenTomatoes, without a single negative notice. That doesn’t mean it’s the best film ever made, but it does mean it’s one that’s very difficult not to be charmed by.

Paddington (Ben Whishaw) is happily living in London with the Brown family. He wants to get his beloved Aunt Lucy a special 90th Birthday present, and sets his sights on a unique pop-up book. Just when he’s nearly got enough cash, the book is stolen and the police think the small bear is the one who took it. As a result, Paddington ends up in prison, at the mercy of a scary brute known as Knuckles (Brendan Gleeson).

Meanwhile the Browns, led by mother Mary (Sally Hawkins), know that Paddington must be innocent and so set out to prove it, even if father Henry (Hugh Bonneville) is initially a little preoccupied with his midlife crisis. The real villain is snooty actor Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant), who’s convinced the pop-up book is his ticket to riches and doesn’t care if he destroys Paddington to get them.

The best family films manage to be fun and exciting while exuding a real warmth and optimism, and that’s exactly what Paddington 2 does. From the opening moments it sets out to put a smile of the viewer’s face and keep it there. It presents us with a fantasy version of London that’s all bright colours and with one foot still in the Victorian era, and where pretty much everyone has the face of a well-known British actor – from Peter Capaldi and Ben Miller to Jim Broadbent and Richard Ayoade.

It’s all done with a wink and both sets and acting that is deliberately pushed just a little bigger than reality, with the result that the CGI bear at the centre of the film is the most down-to-earth and normal character in the movie. It’s a deliberate reversal that works extremely well, helped by Ben Whishaw’s earnest vocals and strong comic timing. Hugh Grant is also a great addition, as he revels in playing what is in essence an over-the-top panto villain.

Ultimately the whole thing is a giant wad of warm and fuzzy fluff, underpinned by the expected platitudes about being positive and accepting others, but it’s extremely well done. If you just want to smile for 100 minutes, Paddington 2 is the movie for you.

Overall Verdict: A real charmer that just wants audiences of all ages to have a good time, and which succeeds admirably.

Reviewer: Tim Isaac

Special Features:
Director’s commentary
‘Rain on the Roof’ with Phoenix Buchanan (Full Screen)
Paddington 2: The Challenges of Making the Film
BAFTA Q&A with David Heyman, Paul King, Simon Farnaby, Hugh Grant and Pablo Grillo

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:
ACTORS: Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Hugh Grant, Brendan Gleeson  DIRECTORS: Paul King  

Only The Brave (Blu-ray Review)

11th March 2018 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: Josh Brolin, Miles Teller, Taylor Kitsch, Jeff Bridges, Jennifer Connelly
Directed By: Joseph Kosinski
Running Time: 134 mins
BBFC Certificate: 12
UK Release Date: March 12th 2017 (UK)

Our Score

Eric Marsh (Josh Brolin) of the Prescott, Arizona Fire Department is an expert at fighting forest fires, but he and his team have to take a backseat when ‘hotshot’ Type 1 front line firefighters, even if they don’t know as much as he does. He plans to become the head of the first municipal firefighting team to achieve Type 1 status.

Marsh’s Granite Mountain Hotshots are amongst the best there is. However, they also have their own issues to deal with, such as Eric’s dedication to fighting fires interfering with his marriage to Amanda (Jennifer Connelly). There’s also Brendan McDonough (Miles Teller), a young wastrel who uses drugs, sleeps around and has been in trouble with the law – but with an accidental child on the way, he decides it’s time to shape up and join the team. [Read more…]

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Blade Runner 2049 (Blu-ray Review)

6th February 2018 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas, Robin Wright, Jared Leto
Directed By: Denis Villeneuve
Running Time: 164 mins
BBFC Certificate: 15
UK Release Date: February 5th 2018 (UK)

Our Score

When it was first announced that a sequel to Blade Runner was in the works, it seemed like a bad idea. Ridley Scott and Harrison Ford are on a bit of a roll revisiting their greatest hits, following Scott’s Alien Prequels and Ford’s return to Indiana Jones and Star Wars. However, Blade Runner was such a singular movie – and one so far removed from the modern blockbuster – that it seemed a wholly bizarre idea to now be making a sequel.

Scott then handed the directing reigns across to Denis Villeneuve, which gave some guarded optimism following Sicario and Arrival, but it still seemed ill judged. [Read more…]

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:
ACTORS: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana De Armas, Robin Wright, Jared Leto  DIRECTORS: Denis Villeneuve  FILMS: Blade Runner 2049  

American Assassin (Blu-ray Review)

14th January 2018 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: Dylan O’Brien, Michael Keaton, Taylor Kitsch, Sanaa Lathan
Directed By: Michael Cuesta
Running Time: 111 mins
BBFC Certificate: 18
UK Release Date: January 15th 2018 (UK)

Our Score

Mitch Rapp (Dylan O’Brien) is just a normal guy until his world is turned upside down when terrorists storm a beach he’s on, shooting him and kill his fiancée. After that he becomes obsessed with hunting down the bad guys and making them pay. Initially he tries to do this by himself, until he’s pulled into a CIA programme and trained by Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton) to be able to go into the field and take the terrorists down.

He gets pulled into something deeper and potentially even deadly when an investigation into some seemingly random attacks leads them to a mysterious operative. Even worse, that operative may have a nuclear bomb. [Read more…]

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:
ACTORS: Dylan O’Brien, Michael Keaton, Taylor Kitsch, Sanaa Lathan  DIRECTORS: Michael Cuesta  FILMS: American Assassin  

Logan Lucky (Blu-ray Review)

29th December 2017 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Riley Keough, Daniel Craig, Katie Holmes
Directed By: Steven Soderbergh
Running Time: 116 mins
BBFC Certificate: 12
UK Release Date: December 26th 2017

Our Score

Director Steven Soderbergh hasn’t done very well at retiring. After a career that’s ranged from Sex Lies & Videotape, Erin Brockovich and Traffic to the Ocean’s 11 trilogy, Out Of Sight and Magic Mike, he announced that his last feature film as a director would be 2013’s Liberace biopic, Behind The Candelabra. However, just four years later he’s back with Logan Lucky.

What appears to have brought him back wasn’t just the story and script, but that they managed to find a way to essentially cut out the usual mainstream film machine by pre-selling foreign distribution and TV/streaming rights and then releasing the movie in the US himself.

You also have to wonder whether he was intrigued by the premise of the movie. Soderbergh’s most successful films are the Ocean’s movie, where everything is impossibly glossy, the people – both the criminals and the marks – are suave, sophisticated and wealthy. With Logan Lucky he returns to the world of the heist, but here the criminals are blue collar Southerners, the type of people the movies usually dismiss and wouldn’t treat as being smart enough to pull off this type of thing.

The film centres around Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum), who gets laid off from his construction job at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, just as he discovers his ex-wife (Katie Holmes) wants to move out of state with him daughter. To help pay for the court case, Jimmy enlists his Iraq War veteran brother, Clyde (Adam Driver), to help him rob the Speedway track during a major NASCAR event, using their knowledge of the systems to help them pull it off.

They need some help though, including their sister Mellie (Riley Keough), and the Bang brothers, the dim-witted Sam and Fish (Brian Gleeson and Jack Quaid), and the smarter and more useful, Joe (Daniel Craig). There’s a problem with that though, as Joe is already in prison, so they’ll need to get him out before they can use his skills, and hopefully get him back in again before anyone notices. However, some people think the Logan family is cursed – a curse that has already cost Jimmy his promising football career and Clyde one of his arms in Iraq – which isn’t exactly something you want hanging over you when you’re planning a high stakes heist.

Despite its very different setting, the movie has more in common with the Ocean’s movies than it might first appear. It’s a film that’s fun, very slickly made, move at a quick pace and is often pretty funny, but ultimately it doesn’t really add up to an awful lot. There’s nothing wrong with a movie that’s just a fun diversion, but there are times when Logan Lucky appears to be striving and failing to achieve more.

Also similar to Ocean’s, it’s aided by a cast that appears to be having a really good time. Channing Tatum may wear more clothes than he did last time he worked with Soderbergh on Magic Mike, but he relishes the role of Jimmy, bringing a flare for understated comedy and a great ability to act as a central pivot around which the other characters rotate. Similarly, Adam Driver shows a lighter side than many will have seen from him before, although it’s Daniel Craig who makes the biggest impact as the bleach-blond, unpredictable and very entertaining Joe Bang. They all help keep things rolling along in entertaining fashion.

There are moments when the film gets very close to seeming like it’s making fun of its uneducated, hillbilly characters, and indeed with different actors and another director the whole thing could have been horrifically insulting. Tatum and co. ensure that even at moments when it’s close to stereotyping, the characters retain a sense of dignity and, despite their criminal dealings, a sense of decency.

By the end you’ll have had a good time, but that’s about it. Sometimes though, that’s all you need.

Overall Verdict: A fun and very entertaining heist movie, that may not have much point to it, but entertains thanks to a good cast and smart direction.

Reviewer: Tim Isaac

Special Features:
Deleted Scenes

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:
ACTORS: Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Riley Keough, Daniel Craig, Katie Holmes  DIRECTORS: Steve Soderbergh  
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