Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi - quick review (spoiler free)...

What's it about?
After destroying the Star Killer base in the previous episode, the remnants of the Resistance are on the run with the New Order pursuing them, their total destruction within Supreme Leader Snoke's evil grasp. Meanwhile, Rey meets the mythical Luke Skywalker and gains new experience with The Force as Poe Dameron's rogue sense of rashness is challenged by General Leia Organa.
Who would I recognise in it?
Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Laura Dern, Benicio Del Toro, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyongo', Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, and more.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Episode VII blew the doors off the box office, but was criticised for hewing too closely to Episode IV in terms of story and structure, and the death of an iconic character ruffled a few feathers. Episode VIII, meanwhile, treads more of its own path and enacts a few bold choices that are surprising for a franchise this old and financially important ... and, of course, the most ardent complainers of the social media world are still whining...

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Fast & Furious 8 - quick review...

What's it about?
Dom's gone rogue! Yeah, right - but there's a very good reason for his apparent switching of sides, as the word "family" continues to be flung about with gleeful abandon. A cyber terrorist hatches a plan to take control of the world's nuclear weapons, and only our favourite family of gear heads can stop them - in a series of flashy cars and insane action set pieces!
Who would I recognise in it?
Vin Diesel, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Kurt Russell, Charlize Theron, Scott Eastwood, Nathalie Emmanuel, Helen Mirren, and several more.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
The formula of family and vehicular excess is beginning to show signs of MOT failure, but there's plenty of life in the old girl yet...

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Wonder Woman - in review...

What's it about?
The original superheroine finally gets her day in the realm of big budget blockbusters. This is the origin story of Diana, Princess of the Amazons, the warrior birthed of the Gods, who encounters mankind for the first time against the horrifying backdrop of World War I as she seeks to put an end to Ares, the God of War.
Who would I recognise in it?
Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, David Thewlis, Connie Nielson, Lucy Davis, Ewen Bremner, and others.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
It triumphed at the box office and was a critical success story (almost predictably so after the orchestrated clickbait bullying that Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad both received, pitched like some kind of Damascene conversion for DC) - but how does Wonder Woman sit outside all of the initial media interest and flash-in-the-pan obsession with box office numbers? The answer to gaining more female superheros in the genre is to create new, female superheros, not to lazily do an arbitrary bit of stunt writing to ask "what if this guy was a gal?" - because, if you really think about it, how insulting is that to everyone?

Newcomers to comics are disappointed to find that new releases aren't reflective of the hugely popular Marvel movies, while swapping the sex of an established character is a slap in the face to everyone. Not only is it a lazy move on the part of the writers and head honchos of the franchises, it also makes the suggestion that women aren't worthy of having their own custom-made superheroes. Furthermore, the binary sex-swap makes the insulting suggestion that women are incapable of enjoying male superheroes and that men are incapable of enjoying female superheroes, and that both can't find role models in the opposite sex - quite simply, that is utter bullshit.

Wonder Woman's history is a long one that pre-dates a vast swathe of rival Marvel's line-up of household names. Gal Gadot wowed in Batman v Superman (with a spine-tingling soundtrack riff to accompany her), and with DC getting a handle on their 'Expanded Universe', it was likely that Diana Prince's solo flick would turn out to be a cracker - and it certainly is. The film finds the perfect balance between DC's ability to 'go dark' (the merciless slaughter of World War I) and a sense of humour, warmth, and compassion...

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Alien Covenant - a quick review...

What's it about?
The crew of a colony ship bound for a new world are woken from their hypersleep early and follow a mysterious, scrambled message to a planet that was once home to an ancient civilisation. Naturally, they encounter biological beasties galore.
Who would I recognise in it?
Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demian Bichir, Guy Pearce.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Prometheus had a few flaws and divided audience opinion. Some loved it, some hated it (I'm in the former camp). Its weighty ideas of mankind's origin and the earliest ancestors of the infamous xenomorph made for grand scale, intelligent sci-fi. With Alien: Covenant, however, Ridley Scott & Co have listened too much to their Prometheus detractors and scurried back to xenomorph territory - despite Scott having previously been quoted as saying that said beastie had been seen enough on the silver screen!

A familiar story unfolds before the viewer as a group of unlucky space explorers encounter grisly ends, but at least Scott hasn't abandoned all his higher-minded ideas. A rich theme of creator/creation antagonism runs throughout (dovetailing with the Engineer/Human relationship in the previous film), even if it skews into 'simply confusing' instead of 'well explained' territory on occasion...

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The Purge: Election Year - a quick review...

What's it about?
Third entry in the dystopian near-future franchise in which America 'purges' its apparent sins by staging twelve hours of unfettered lawlessness once a year. Social divisions are stronger than ever before and there is a rising resentment for 'The Purge' itself, and with a strong contender for the White House vocally opposed to the whole event, the architects of the annual orgy of violence attempt to silence their loudest critic once and for all.
Who would I recognise in it?
Frank Grillo, Elizabeth Mitchell, Mykelti Williamson, and others.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
There are certain gaps in the internal logic of the entire 'Purge' idea that have been there since the beginning, and the previous two films (The Purge, and The Purge: Anarchy) have demonstrated some dunderheaded plotting at times, but after some improvements in the second film it's good to see that the third shows another upwards leap in quality. Not only does the film explore some of the side effects of the annual Purge (murder tourists, roaming body disposal etc), it also proves to be a surprisingly relevant and potent film...

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Only God Forgives: quick review...

What's it about?
An American drug dealer living in Bangkok is sent into the criminal underworld by his domineering mother to seek revenge for the murder of his brother. Bloody, stylish, straight-faced chaos ensues.
Who would I recognise in it?
Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vithaya Pansringarm, Tom Burke.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
I recently posted my thoughts on Nicolas Winding Refn's latest film - The Neon Demon - and found it to be extraordinarily stylish and obsessed with obtuse symbolism, but I was disappointed by how it sought to dispense with as much plot, story, characterisation, and redemption as possible (and it was decidedly over-long at an indulgent two hours). So I figured it was time I caught up with Only God Forgives, the film that sits between TND and Refn's 2011 film Drive (a richly textured, yearning, ultra cool modern classic). Where, I wondered, would it fall on the scale between those two films...

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Captain America: Civil War - Marvel Goes DC?

What's it about?
Following on from the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Avengers: Age of Ultron, our gang of superheroes find themselves set against each other as 117 countries propose The Sokovia Accords to bring The Avengers under United Nations control as a result of civilian deaths and collateral damage in recent battles. Iron Man, riven with guilt, wants to sign up ... Captain America, suspicious of organised oversight in the wake of Hydra's infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D., wants to remain free to protect and serve. Which side will the rest of them choose?
Who would I recognise in it?
Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Daniel Bruhl, Paul Rudd, Emily Vancamp, Tom Holland, Frank Grillo, William Hurt, and more.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been hugely successful with critics and audiences alike, coining in the cash with gleeful abandon. They're bright, sparky, immensely fun, and the ever-widening world in which they take place is ripe with stories to tell. However, for all their successes, the Marvel movies have sometimes hewn close to pantomime villains and playing it safe with key characters. The third Captain America film, though, takes the moral greys and millennial murkiness of The Winter Soldier to new depths...

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The Revenant - quick review: film vs book...

What's it about?
Based on the real-life story of Hugh Glass, a tracker for the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in 1820s America, who was savagely attacked by a bear and left for dead by his fellow men. But when he survives, he vows to navigate the hostile landscape and get his revenge.
Who would I recognise in it?
Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Scooping up three Oscars - Cinematography, Director, and Actor (a long-in-the-wait golden baldie statue for Leo) - The Revenant was nonetheless pipped at the podium by Spotlight for Best Film. Much has been said about the glorious photography - meticulously shot during 'the magic hour' to make the most of that beautiful natural light that descends for an hour each day - and the struggle of the production (harsh temperatures, chowing down on raw Bison liver, and so on, all drawn out over months of production), but it's interesting to note - as mentioned in the credits - that the film is only 'based in part' on Michael Punke's book...

Click "READ MORE" below to see how the film differs from the book **SPOILERS AHEAD**...

Double Bill Mini Musings: Trolls and Doppelgangers...

The Boxtrolls:
What's it about?
From stop motion animation studio Laika (Coraline, ParaNorman), this latest outing revolves around the titular box trolls - essentially scruffy little goblin handymen that live inside cardboard boxes - and the human populace of the world above who believe them to be vicious, man-eating ghouls after a small child is apparently kidnapped.
Who would I recognise in it?
Ben Kingsley, Jared Harris, Richard Ayoade, Tracy Morgan, Elle Fanning, Maurice LaMarche, Nick Frost (voices).
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
As per usual, Laika's visual style is superb - the setting here being a rickety Victorian-esque coastal town that rises up on a large hill - and the story doesn't seek to safely illuminate its darker recesses. The Boxtrolls themselves appear both demonic and lovable, depending on the perspective, with a similar mix applied to the human characters - particularly the main antagonist and his goons. The former is a class-obsessed Boxtroll chaser called Snatcher, weighed down by the weight of the chip on his shoulder and his obsession with cheese (a delicacy reserved for the rich 'white hat' folk). His goons, meanwhile, vary between monosyllabic creepiness and complex introspective musings on whether or not they truly are the 'good guys' (as they have been told by their increasingly sadistic boss). If ParaNorman didn't quite hit the high watermark of Coraline, The Boxtrolls certainly manages to attain the same level of intelligence, wit, fairytale whimsy, and darkness. Good.

Click "READ MORE" below for a double dose of Jake Gyllenhaal...

Triple Bill Mini Musings: Gaunt Gyllenhaal, Gone Godzilla, and Gross Gags...

Nightcrawler:
What's it about?
Lou Bloom, a jobless petty thief with a strict learning/work ethic, finds his strange calling when he witnesses a team of 'stringers' (guys with video cameras who record crime scenes etc for news broadcast) doing their work. Muscling his way into the business and learning as he goes, Lou finds an ally with news director Nina who takes a shine to his abilities. However, chasing the perfect footage - before anyone else gets it - leads him down a dangerous path.
Who would I recognise in it?
Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton, Riz Ahmed.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Gaunt and wide-eyed, Gyllenhaal plays Lou Bloom with such determination that he disappears inside the character; no wonder there were many rumblings when he didn't get nominated for an Oscar. The film sinks us into a bizarre world that takes us behind the scenes of grizzly - even thrilling - crime/accident scene news footage, and does so with such a sense of style and drive that you begin to question the malleability of your own morality. The director put it best when he said that the movie was about a talented man being rewarded for his skills by a society that should really be punishing him for those same skills. This is a world that is at the same time familiar and alien, presented in such a way that is both troubling and exhilarating. Despite all of Lou's faults you can't help but admire his clearly focused sense of drive and ability to achieve his goals. Great.

Click "READ MORE" below for Godzilla 2014, and A Million Ways To Die In The West...