Movie Muser

Have your say about cinema

Black Mass (Blu-ray Review)

By

black-mass-slideStarring: Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson, Jesse Plemons
Directed By: Scott Cooper
Running Time: 123 mins
BBFC Certificate: 15
UK Release Date: March 21st 2016 (UK)

Our Score

At the beginning of Black Mass I was worried that the whole thing was going to be spoiled by Johnny Depp’s makeup, or more particularly the ridiculously blue contact lenses he wears as part of his efforts to make himself look like the real James ‘Whitey’ Bulger. Thankfully, relatively quickly you get used to it, helped by the fact this is the best performance Depp has given in years.

The movie tells the real-life tale of Bulger, who grew up on the tough streets of South Boston before becoming a gangster and the leader of the vicious Winter Hill Gang. His childhood friend, John Connolly (Joes Edgerton), is now an FBI agent, who comes up with a plan he thinks can help the feds take down the Mafia and other parts of Boston’s organised crime. He wants to get Bulger to turn informant, in return for the FBI turning a blind eye to his gang’s activities. [Read more…]

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:

Steve Jobs (DVD Review)

By

steve-jobs-dvd-slideStarring: Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Michael Stuhlbarg, Katherine Waterston
Directed By: Danny Boyle
Running Time: 122 mins
BBFC Certificate: 15
UK Release Date: March 21st 2016 (UK)

Our Score

I’m starting to think that screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has decided he’s a complete prick, and so has set out to write things that suggest that being the best and being an ass go hand-in-hand. The likes of The Social Network, Steve Jobs and, to some extent, The Newsroom and Studio 60 On Sunset Strip have all forwarded this agenda. Rumours suggest Sorkin can be incredibly demanding and difficult to work with (stories of how tough it was in the writer’s room of The West Wing and how little he listened to other peoples’ ideas are legendary), and it’s oddly interesting how so many of his projects seem to be about his own issues with this.

What he never quite addresses though is something he puts in the mouth of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in Steven Jobs, who tells the demanding and difficult Steve that being talented and being a decent person are not mutually exclusive. However, in the world of Aaron Sorkin, it often feels like they are. [Read more…]

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:

High-Rise (Cinema Review)

By

high-rise-slideStarring: Tom Hiddleston, Sienna Miller, Jeremy Irons, Elizabeth Moss, Keeley Hawes, Reece Shearsmith, Luke Evans
Directed by: Ben Wheatley
Running time: 119 mins
BBFC Certificate: 15
Release Date: March 18th 2016 (UK)

Our Score

When JG Ballard’s novel came out in 1975 it was seen as a savage, and timely, reminder of the failures of modernism. In the 1970s – ask your dad – Britain was indeed a grey, litter-strewn mess of a place, with constant power cuts, a poor standard of living and a housing shortage. The glorious future that was promised by modernist architects, of high-rise apartment blocks with heating, hot water and – joy of joys – indoor toilets (believe it or not readers, I had an outside toilet up until 1982) – had gone horribly wrong. Within a few short years new post-war housing was graffiti-strewn, broken, leaking and in some cases completely abandoned – and it was all the architects’ fault.

The trouble with the film of Ballard’s book – well, the main problem – is its timing. In 1975 tower blocks were indeed misfunctioning nightmares, the lifts broke down, the windows didn’t fit, the flat rooves leaked. Modernism had failed. Now though, technology has caught up, and the basics of Modernism – fresh air, light, space, good lighting – have been proved right. Windows are triple-glazed, rooves don’t leak, floors are scrubbed, bathrooms are white. We’re all modernists now. [Read more…]

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:
ACTORS: , , , , , ,   DIRECTORS:   FILMS:   

10 Cloverfield Lane (Cinema Review)

By

10-cloverfield-lane-slideStarring: John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Gallagher Jr.
Directed By: Dan Trachtenberg
Running Time: 103 Minutes
UK Release Date: 18th March 2016
BBFC Certificate: 12A

Our Score

This was a hard film to review and grade as I want to tell you if this film is worth seeing without giving too much away. That said, I do wish I had known one thing before seeing it. As such there is a spoiler alert, but to be fair other reviews that are online don’t hold back and reveal everything, which spoils the fun of this movie and your anticipation of it.

JJ Abrams and his team are notorious for teasing audiences and building up their appetites, whether it is Lost (2004-2010), Fringe (2008-2013) or Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015). He gets people talking and is a brand upon himself, utilising various tricks of the trade including misdirection. The fun of guessing what’s going to happen in his productions is great and best done as a shared experience. How many of you watched Lost and were on the forums, trying to get the answers from various fan theories? [Read more…]

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:
ACTORS: , ,   DIRECTORS:   

Mississippi Grind (DVD Review)

By

mississippi-grind-slideStarring: Ben Mendelsohn, Ryan Reynolds, Sienna Miller, Yvonne Landry, Alfre Woodard
Directed By: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Running Time: 108 mins
BBFC Certificate: 108 mins
UK Release Date: March 7th 2016 (UK)

Our Score
 

There are undoubtedly some people who will watch Mississippi Grind and wonder what the point of it is, as not a vast amount happens other than two guys drifting around and gambling on various things. However, others will appreciate this look at two men leading lives on the periphery of society, who lack connection but may have found some sort of direction in each other.

Gerry (Ben Mendelsohn) is an inveterate gambler who’s lost his wife and child, he’s massively in debt and has run out of time to pay it off. Then he meets Curtis (Ryan Reynolds), who also loves to bet, but still has life and verve – something Gerry is severely lacking. While he’s a drifter, he couches it in terms of being a free spirit who goes where life takes him. [Read more…]

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:

Brooklyn (Blu-ray Review)

By

brooklyn-review-slideStarring: Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Jim Broadbent, Domhnall Gleeson, Julie Walters
Directed By: John Crowley
Running Time: 111 mins
BBFC Certificate: 12
UK Release Date: February 29th 2016

Our Score

If you want Oscar nominations, you need to put Domhnall Gleeson in your movie. He was in four films released in 2015 that got multiple nominations. Brooklyn was one of those movies (alongside Star Wars, The Revenant and Ex Machina), although he doesn’t show up until the second half.

Based on Colm Toibin’s book, Brooklyn is about young Irish woman Eilis (Saoirse Ronan), whose sister Rose and a priest have organised for her to have a new life in New York, where they believe she will have more opportunities. After a difficult crossing, Eilis starts a new job at a department store while living at a boarding house in Brooklyn, and begins training to be a bookkeeper. [Read more…]

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:
ACTORS: , , , ,   DIRECTORS:   FILMS: