Film Shapes

Rightio, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 at Reading Belmont   with older sister and younger boyfriend (hers, not mine). I was quite calm going in as I KNEW this wouldn't be as good as the original and was therefore only expecting an enjoyable viewing experience. And that's what I got. And not a lot more. The 'cinematic law of diminishing returns' may explain this feeling but I may also be talking out of my arse. It has been known to happen. Anyway, this is, for the most part, a fine follow-up to a surprising hit. The tease of Quill's fatherage (apparently not a word) is revealed and is the tent pole issue of several other relationship explorations throughout the film. The Gamora/Nebula battling sisters sub-plot is interesting (though pretty much emanating from another Daddy issue - Thanos). Drax and Mantis have a nice little dysfunctional friendship blossoming. Rocket and Yondu find similarities in character and even Groot has his growing pains. Yet these are a...

Well, how's this for a comic book movie? It's like Peckinpah re-animated. Taking a cue from the altogether different,  Deadpool  of last year,  Logan  has been made with the letter  R  virtually flashing in the corner of the frame. They've gone as far away from the X franchise as possible, even dropping the name Wolverine from the title and suggesting the comics are mostly bullshit. It's a morosely fatalistic film, with a few of the characters seemingly aware of the reaper behind them and slowing down for him to catch up. Oh, and I think it's a peach. There's a great intro for the third point in the Logan-Xavier triangle, Laura (or X-23). The director, James Mangold, keeps all the initial action hidden, aside from the noise. When we do get to see her in full flow, it's Wolverine on speed - with more blood and gore than previous Marvel films. Pretty ballsy to have a 10 year-old kid deliver a severed head like a bowling ball to the feet of her torment...

My sister and I went to the Luna cinema in Leederville to see  T2 , about 21 years after seeing the first  Trainspotting  at the very same venue. A quick scan of the punters showed a similar demographic - middle aged, probably fans of the first. No surprises really. For me,  Trainspotting  is one of two films (along with  Pulp Fiction ) that epitomise the 1990s, so there was always going to be an audience. Danny Boyle, Andrew McDonald, John Hodge and the principal cast all return and there's a buzz seeing the characters again, in much the same way that people of my generation punched the air when Han Solo appeared in  The Force Awakens . T2  is funny and sad in equal measure (my sister thinks it's funnier than the first but I remember a few chuckles back then too). The 'reunion' scenes are mint - especially Renton and Begbie - and there are loads of Boyle-ish visual flourishes that show how good he can be when he's not making soap. There's o...

A mid-week trip to Busselton allowed us to leave the mini-humans with the ancient ones and take in  Passengers  at the Orana Cinema. And a few days later, I'm still not sure what I thought of this film. It's cheesy, certainly. It's also sweet. It's minimalist and also fairly bloody grandiose. It poses a couple of existential questions and also has a great big misogynistic hurdle to jump. I usually wince when I hear "You'll either love it or hate it", but I reckon I like and dislike  Passengers  in equal measure. It's kind of a Jekyll and Hyde film, actually, in that I enjoyed it while watching but then it's hideous alter ego crept up and dribbled hot spit down my back. The sets up a pretty sweet poser - "Would you choose to 'wake' another human to share your isolation, even if you knew it would be condemning them to death?" I'm guessing most people would say they wouldn't......until they actually experience the situat...

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...

A nice little day out a couple of weeks back. Belmont's Reading cinemas followed by lunch at Jamie's Italian in the city. The film was Arrival, helmed by a fella who is fast becoming one of my favourite directors, Denis Villeneuve. This is a film that can be seen through a few different prisms. The socio-political angle of multi-lateralism and rapprochement is summed up nicely by this exchange: "If I only gave you a hammer...." "...Everything's a nail." Contrast this with the personal angle of love, memory and loss, especially relating to motherhood (or even parenthood). Mix with a little non-linear time and squirt a thick layer of language as communication and meaning. That's a tasty cake you've got there. Though on the face of it, this film is about the need for calm communication to solve worldly problems (a soft kick in the nuts to the Trumpacide about to occur), I think it's actually more about the character of Louise and the import...