Film Shapes

Here we go with the dregs. Actually, that's a bit harsh. Some of these aren't as rubs as recent years. 1. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) A boring, muddled mess with too much going on and a typically over-egged, twitchy performance from Jesse Eisenberg. What a cock he is. 2. Grimsby (2016) One giggle and lots of eye rolls. More expected from Sacha Baron Cohen. He can do, and has done, better. 3. Suicide Squad (2016) Like many of the films in this list, it could have been better. Star power in Will Smith, sauce in Margot Robbie, interesting (though dated) concept. But it fell on its arse. 4. Dragon Blade (2015) Bollocks nonsense from Jackie Chan, attempting to be earnest again. In its favour, it has Adrien Brody heavy-hamming through his make-up. To its detriment, it has John Cusack playing straight through his. 5. Man of Steel (2013) Back of the net! That's a hat-trick for DC films. A hat-trick of shite. Admittedly, for me, this is slightly bette...

Once again, time for the ten best films I saw, for the first time, in 2016. Not the best selection, to be fair, but I'm sure I missed some belters. 1. Slow West (2015) As the title says, slow. But somehow, immensely watchable with some great images and memorable characters. 2. A Bigger Splash (2015) Ralph Fiennes and Tilda Swinton are near-perfect in this. I haven't seen Fiennes give a better performance. This is an odd film that kept popping back into my mind months after I'd seen it. 3. Suburra (2015) Glistening, strobing, throbbing. And that's only one scene. Italian mafia tale with added gloss and raunch. 4. High-Rise (2015) Bonkers stab at social strata with Hiddleston in a role suited to his talents. 5. The Revenant (2015) Gruelling and old-fashioned revenge western. Di Caprio earned his biscuits here. 6. Marshland (2014) Spanish murder mystery set in the swamps of Andalucia. A tense and well-paced little gem. 7. Arrival (2016) Smart, th...

SPOILER ALERT!!! Jan 1st 2017.  Rogue One . First film of the new year. This was great fun but very morbid. Shakespeare would have been happy with the litany of corpses thrown up here. It made me think of this from Hamlet: O proud death, What feast is toward in thine eternal cell, That thou so many princes at a shot So bloodily hast, struck? Yeah, OK, fair enough - I looked it up on t'internet but I think it applies.  The new band of 'misfits' was excellent casting, especially Riz Ahmed and Donnie Yen (below, channeling Zatoichi). Forest Whitaker had a slight whiff of ham about him, though. The oddest 'performances' were from the CGI characters, Moff Tarkin and Princess Leia. The VFX tech isn't quite out of the Uncanny Valley yet. The droid, K-2S0, had all the best lines, many apparently ad-libbed by the man under the suit, Alan Tudyk (him outa  Firefly ). The writers nicely sidestepped most links to the main Star Wars series, even going s...